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Abstract Rosacea patients show facial hypersensitivity to stimulus factors (such as heat and capsaicin); however, the underlying mechanism of this hyperresponsiveness remains poorly defined. Here, we show capsaicin stimulation in mice induces exacerbated rosacea-like dermatitis but has no apparent effect on normal skin. Nociceptor ablation substantially reduces the hyperresponsiveness of rosacea-like dermatitis. Subsequently, we find that γδ T cells express Ramp1, the receptor of the neuropeptide CGRP, and are in close contact with these nociceptors in the skin. γδ T cells are significantly increased in rosacea skin lesions and can be further recruited and activated by neuron-secreted CGRP. Rosacea-like dermatitis is reduced in T cell receptor δ-deficient (Tcrd−/−) mice, and the nociceptor-mediated aggravation of rosacea-like dermatitis is also reduced in these mice. In vitro experiments show that CGRP induces IL17A secretion from γδ T cells by regulating inflammation-related and metabolism-related pathways. Finally, rimegepant, a CGRP receptor antagonist, shows efficacy in the treatment of rosacea-like dermatitis. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate a neuron-CGRP-γδT cell axis that contributes to the hyperresponsiveness of rosacea, thereby showing that targeting CGRP is a potentially effective therapeutic strategy for rosacea.

Abstract The first dose of COVID-19 vaccines led to an overall reduction in cardiovascular events, and in rare cases, cardiovascular complications. There is less information about the effect of second and booster doses on cardiovascular diseases. Using longitudinal health records from 45.7 million adults in England between December 2020 and January 2022, our study compared the incidence of thrombotic and cardiovascular complications up to 26 weeks after first, second and booster doses of brands and combinations of COVID-19 vaccines used during the UK vaccination program with the incidence before or without the corresponding vaccination. The incidence of common arterial thrombotic events (mainly acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke) was generally lower after each vaccine dose, brand and combination. Similarly, the incidence of common venous thrombotic events, (mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis) was lower after vaccination. There was a higher incidence of previously reported rare harms after vaccination: vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia after first ChAdOx1 vaccination, and myocarditis and pericarditis after first, second and transiently after booster mRNA vaccination (BNT-162b2 and mRNA-1273). These findings support the wide uptake of future COVID-19 vaccination programs.

Abstract Background Patients with multiple conditions present a growing challenge for healthcare provision. Measures of multimorbidity may support clinical management, healthcare resource allocation and accounting for the health of participants in purpose-designed cohorts. The recently developed Cambridge Multimorbidity scores (CMS) have the potential to achieve these aims using primary care records, however, they have not yet been validated outside of their development cohort. Methods The CMS, developed in the Clinical Research Practice Dataset (CPRD), were validated in UK Biobank participants whose data is not available in CPRD (the cohort used for CMS development) with available primary care records (n = 111,898). This required mapping of the 37 pre-existing conditions used in the CMS to the coding frameworks used by UK Biobank data providers. We used calibration plots and measures of discrimination to validate the CMS for two of the three outcomes used in the development study (death and primary care consultation rate) and explored variation by age and sex. We also examined the predictive ability of the CMS for the outcome of cancer diagnosis. The results were compared to an unweighted count score of the 37 pre-existing conditions. Results For all three outcomes considered, the CMS were poorly calibrated in UK Biobank. We observed a similar discriminative ability for the outcome of primary care consultation rate to that reported in the development study (C-index: 0.67 (95%CI:0.66–0.68) for both, 5-year follow-up); however, we report lower discrimination for the outcome of death than the development study (0.69 (0.68–0.70) and 0.89 (0.88–0.90) respectively). Discrimination for cancer diagnosis was adequate (0.64 (0.63–0.65)). The CMS performs favourably to the unweighted count score for death, but not for the outcomes of primary care consultation rate or cancer diagnosis. Conclusions In the UK Biobank, CMS discriminates reasonably for the outcomes of death, primary care consultation rate and cancer diagnosis and may be a valuable resource for clinicians, public health professionals and data scientists. However, recalibration will be required to make accurate predictions when cohort composition and risk levels differ substantially from the development cohort. The generated resources (including codelists for the conditions and code for CMS implementation in UK Biobank) are available online.

Abstract Challenge 3 of the 2022 NIST additive manufacturing benchmark (AM Bench) experiments asked modelers to submit predictions for solid cooling rate, liquid cooling rate, time above melt, and melt pool geometry for single and multiple track laser powder bed fusion process using moving lasers. An in-house developed Additive Manufacturing Computational Fluid Dynamics code (AM-CFD) combined with a cylindrical heat source is implemented to accurately predict these experiments. Heuristic heat source calibration is proposed relating volumetric energy density (ψ) based on experiments available in the literature. The parameters of the heat source of the computational model are initially calibrated based on a Higher Order Proper Generalized Decomposition- (HOPGD) based surrogate model. The prediction using the calibrated heat source agrees quantitatively with NIST measurements for different process conditions (laser spot diameter, laser power, and scan speed). A scaling law based on keyhole formation is also utilized in calibrating the parameters of the cylindrical heat source and predicting the challenge experiments. In addition, an improvement on the heat source model is proposed to relate the Volumetric Energy Density (VEDσ) to the melt pool aspect ratio. The model shows further improvement in the prediction of the experimental measurements for the melt pool, including cases at higher VEDσ. Overall, it is concluded that the appropriate selection of laser heat source parameterization scheme along with the heat source model is crucial in the accurate prediction of melt pool geometry and thermal measurements while bypassing the expensive computational simulations that consider increased physics equations.

To enhance the operability of the rat orthotopic left lung transplantation model, we implemented several improvements and meticulously detailed the procedure. One hundred and thirty-one healthy male Sprague Dawley rats, weighing between 250 and 300 g, were utilized, with 64 serving as donors, 64 as recipients, and 3 as sham controls. We employed a modified three-cuff technique for the orthotopic left lung transplantation. Notably, our modified perfusion method could prevent donor lung edema, while waist-shaped cuffs minimized suture slippage during anastomosis. Additionally, positioning the recipient rat in a slightly left-elevated supine position during anastomosis reduced tension on the lung hilum, thus mitigating the risk of vascular laceration. The introduction of a unique two-person anastomosis technique significantly reduced operation time and substantially improved success rates. Furthermore, maximizing inflation of donor lungs both during preservation and surgery minimized the occurrence of postoperative atelectasis. Various other procedural refinements contributed to the enhanced operability of our model. Sixty-four rat orthotopic left lung transplantations were performed with only one surgical failure observed. The acquisition time for donor lungs averaged (19 ± 4) minutes, while (11 ± 1) minutes were allocated for donor lung hilum anatomy and cuff installation. Recipient thoracotomy and left lung hilar anatomy before anastomosis required (24 ± 8) minutes, with anastomosis itself taking (31 ± 6) minutes. Remarkably, the survival rate at the 4-h postoperative mark stood at 96.7 %. Even six months post-operation, transplanted left rat lungs continued to exhibit proper inflation and contraction rhythms, displaying signs of chronic pathological changes. In summary, our modified rat model of orthotopic left lung transplantation demonstrates robust operability, significantly reducing surgical duration, improving operation success rates, and enhancing postoperative survival rates. Furthermore, its long-term survival capacity enables the simulation of acute and chronic disease processes following lung transplantation.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) based on nature experiences substantially contribute to public health and human well-being. However, CES’s supply-demand methodology remains scarcely explored on the coastal beach, and the demand relating to public preferences has not been sufficiently unveiled in spatial assessment. Here, we selected recreation services as a lens of CES and applied the knowledge of multi-source big data to better reflect public preferences. Point of Interests (POIs) refer to particularly valuable or interesting places. We proposed to integrate POIs and social media data (Weibo check-in) to quantify the demand for beach recreation services (BRS). We also used socio-ecological indicators to quantify the BRS’s supply. The supply-demand balance of BRS was further identified by quadrant analysis and coupling coordination degree. Our methodology was applied to a typical coastal zone, Shenzhen Dapeng New District, in the Greater Bay Area of China. Over 80% of the beaches in the study area exhibited an imbalanced or barely balanced supply-demand of recreation services. We found that POIs density had a significant influence on a balanced supply-demand of BRS. Multi-source big data (POIs and Weibo check-in) provided an efficient, low-cost, and across-scale approach for public preference mapping than traditional questionnaire surveys. The proposed CES’s supply-demand framework can identify coastal beaches with imbalanced recreation and support sustainable coastal management. Coastal beach management prioritizes not only waste prevention and sufficient safety signs but also proper infrastructure development that contribute sustainably to the human well-being of nature experiences.

Mangrove forests, as the most productive coastal ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions, provide essential ecosystem services to coastal communities. However, intensive coastal anthropogenic threats have resulted in a dramatic decline in mangrove coverage throughout many developing regions. Therefore, it is urgent to investigate the cumulative vulnerability of mangroves to these anthropogenic threats. Here, we used geospatial datasets and the “exposure–sensitivity–resilience” conceptual framework to evaluate spatial vulnerability of mangroves in mainland China in 2020. We found that nearly 68% of mangrove areas in mainland China were identified with medium to high vulnerability. Land-based pollution and coastal aquaculture expansion were the main threats leading to high vulnerability in the whole study area, but the principal drivers of mangrove vulnerability at local scale were various. The vulnerability hotspots induced by pollution and aquaculture were mostly located in Guangdong and Fujian Province, and those regions exposed to sea-level rise were concentrated in Hainan Province. Our study provides the first dataset of spatially explicit-based solution for reducing mangrove vulnerability to intensive coastal anthropogenic threats on a national scale. The spatial distribution of principal vulnerability drivers could provide a guideline for mangrove conservation and coastal-ecosystem-based management.

The properties of monolayer black phosphorus, B-doped black phosphorus and Si-doped black phosphorus under biaxial strain are studied by first-principles calculations. The computed bandgaps of black phosphorus and B-doped black phosphorus without strain are 0.92 eV and 0.61 eV, respectively. The bandgap of the monolayer black phosphorus increases to the maximum (1.09 eV) under the biaxial tensile strain of 2 %, and it decreases with the further increase of tensile strain. Under the biaxial compressive strain, the black phosphorus bandgap decreases all the time, and presents metallic characteristics when the compressive strain is −7%. For the B-doped monolayer black phosphorus, the bandgap increases to the maximum (0.71 eV) when the tensile strain is 4 %, but it decreases monotonically under the compressive strain. On the other hand, the Si-doped black phosphorus maintains metallic characteristics under tensile and compressive strains. The sub-bandgap absorption peaks of B-doped and Si-doped monolayer black phosphorus increase under biaxial compressive strain. For the B-doped monolayer black phosphorus, the sub-bandgap absorption range is extended to longer wavelength with the increase of compressive strain, and it can be extended to about 0.25 eV (4960 nm) under the −10 % compressive strain. The absorption range of Si-doped monolayer black phosphorus could be extended to far infrared under compressive strain. The research results have important guiding significance for the application of monolayer black phosphorus in photoelectric devices and nanomaterials.

A new inorganic flame retardant P/N-GO was prepared by chemically modifying graphene oxide (GO) with phosphorus trichloride (POCl3) and 4,4-diamino-diphenylmethane (DDM). The P/N-GO was covalently grafted into a phosphorus-containing aqueous polyurethane (PWPU) system to prepare a flame-retardant nanocomposite (P/N-GO/PWPU). Due to the uniform distribution of P/N-GO in the polymer matrix, a strong interfacial adhesion can be formed and the mechanical properties of the WPU can be significantly improved. The mechanical strength of the composites increased from 4.56 MPa to 9.16 MPa. The LOI value of WPU increased from 25.5% to 30.5%, indicating that its flame-retardant properties were improved and met the standards for flame-retardant materials. At the same time, the peak heat release rate (PHRR) was reduced from 184.374 kW/m2 to 116.730 kW/m2, which showed good flame retardant properties of P/N-GO/PWPU and was favourable for expanding the application scope and safe use of WPU.

ABSTRACT Integrative conjugative elements (ICEs) are important mobile elements that are associated with the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in Proteus. Recent studies demonstrated that the tigecycline resistance gene cluster tmexCD-toprJ has emerged in ICEs of Proteus. However, the prevalence of tmexCD-toprJ positive Proteus from animal sources is unclear. To cover the gap, a total of 762 Proteus spp. were isolated from animal source from six provinces of China to identify the tmexCD-toprJ positive isolates. Eight tmexCD-toprJ positive isolates were identified, with the tmexCD-toprJ positive rate of 1.05% against all Proteus spp. and 2.79% against ICE-bearing Proteus spp. The tmexCD-toprJ gene cluster in these Proteus spp. were tmexCD3-toprJ1b and all of them were carried by ICEs. Genetic structure analysis showed that tmexCD3-toprJ1b-bearing ICEs were complicated and plastic, but the tmexCD3-toprJ1b was specifically integrated into variable region III (VRIII) of ICEs with the help of integrases. Furthermore, we found that the umuC gene, which is presented in VRIII of ICEs and other genetic structures of many other bacterial genomes, was a hotspot for the integration of tmexCD-toprJ-bearing potential mobile elements. In summary, our results suggested that Proteus were important reservoirs for tmexCD-toprJ due to the high prevalence of ICEs. Therefore, continuous surveillance of ICEs-associated ARGs in Proteus is necessary and significant for controlling their future transmission. IMPORTANCE The emergence and spread of tmexCD-toprJ have greatly weakened the function of tigecycline. Although studies have demonstrated the significance of Proteus as carriers for tmexCD-toprJ, the epidemic mechanism and characteristics of tmexCD-toprJ in Proteus remain unclear. Herein, we deciphered that the umuC gene in VRIII of SXT/R391 ICEs was a hotspot for the integration of tmexCD3-toprJ1b-bearing mobile genetic elements by genomic analysis. The mobilization and dissemination of tmexCD3-toprJ1b in Proteus were mediated by highly prevalent ICEs. Furthermore, the co-occurrence of tmexCD3-toprJ1b-bearing ICEs with other chromosomally encoded multidrug resistance gene islands warned that the chromosomes of Proteus are significant reservoirs of ARGs. Overall, our results provide significant insights for the prevention and control of tmexCD3-toprJ1b in Proteus.

The coastal zone offers opportunities for the rapid economic development of the world, particularly in China. 70% of the metropolis with more than 10 million inhabitants are located near coastal zone estuaries. Coastal cities have the typical characteristics of land and sea interaction, and they have become the representative example of ecological civilization education because of their combination of urban and marine identity. This study considered ocean-city coupling as a cutting-edge starting point for fostering innovation in educational research, as well as teaching methods in the curriculum for coastal city ecological civilization. The novel methodological framework was produced by fusing the Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Ecological Civilization, complexity theory, and systematics theory. To bridge the gap between academic education, general education, and public scientific understanding of ecological civilization in coastal cities, a concise summary of the practical issues and requirements of ecological civilization development in coastal cities was provided through "disciplines coupling, land-sea coupling, and human-sea coupling." With the practical of ocean-city coupling course, students majoring in ecological civilization might grow their marine awareness, realizing the mutual benefit of education and scientific research, as well as the integration of scientific research and citizen science. With the coupling of ocean-city, we aimed to collaboratively advance the education and development of ecological civilization in coastal zone cities. The paper initiatived a novel teaching paradigm of ocean-city coupling, encouraged the interdisciplinary innovation of ecology, marine science and management, to cultivate high-quality ecological civilization talents in coastal cities, and contribute to the development of ecological civilization and the strategy of maritime power in China.

Ship detection with several military and civilian applications has drawn considerable attention in recent years. In remote sensing images, ships have the characteristics of arbitrary orientation. Based on the characteristics, many arbitrary-oriented ship detectors have been proposed. Most of these detectors preset many horizontal or rotated anchors and determine the positive and negative samples based on the intersection over union (IoU) between the anchor and ground-truth bounding box, in what is called the label assignment process. However, IoU performance is limited as it can only reflect the quality of the anchor to a certain extent. In addition, the manually fixed IoU threshold to separate the positive and negative limits the flexibility of the method, as different ships may have different optimal thresholds. Moreover, the equally weighted training samples cause a misalignment between the classification and regression heads. Therefore, we propose a dynamic soft label assignment method for arbitrary-oriented ship detection. First, we design a novel anchor quality score function that takes into account both prior and prediction information of the anchor and enables the model to participate in the label assignment process. Second, we propose a dynamic anchor quality score threshold instead of a fixed IoU threshold for dividing positive and negative samples. Third, in contrast to assigning equal weights, we propose a soft label assignment strategy to weigh the training samples in the loss function. The proposed method offers superior detection performances for arbitrary-oriented ships with only one horizontal preset anchor. Experimental results on HRSC2016, FGSD, and ShipRSImageNet datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed dynamic soft label assignment for arbitrary-oriented ship detection.

Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of pollen activation temperature, cultivation temperature, and ambient temperature on germination rates and fruit sets. Yet, the influence of the temperature (pre-germination temperature) at which the pollen suspension is prepared within the storage container (tank) remains unexplored. In this study, we initially established the optimal time for pollen activation. Subsequently, pollen suspensions at varying temperatures were prepared, and their germination rates were analyzed using microscopy. Pollen suspensions of different temperatures were then sprayed onto Fojianxi pear flowers, and parameters such as flower fruit set rate, inflorescence fruit set rate, fruit longitudinal dimension, fruit transverse dimension, and fruit shape index were evaluated. The findings revealed that the optimal pollen activation duration was 6 h. A pollen suspension temperature of 30 °C resulted in the highest germination rate (72.06 ± 6.87%). However, a suspension temperature of 25 °C achieved the highest flower fruit set rate (57.29 ± 5.58%) and inflorescence fruit set rate (87.50 ± 4.84%). The fruit longitudinal dimension (68.12 ± 3.94 mm), transverse dimension (73.77 ± 4.04 mm), and fruit shape index (108.42 ± 6.02%) were most favorable at a suspension temperature of 15 °C. Our study concludes that the pollen in lower pollen suspension temperatures (15~25 °C) has higher germination energy and have higher stigmatic capacity. Thus, we advocate for a pollen suspension temperature range of 15~25 °C when employing liquid spray pollination techniques with Xuehuali (Pyrus bretschneiderilia) pollen.

As minimally or non-invasive therapeutic modalities for cancer treatment, phototherapy and sonotherapy have become a new trend for biomedicine because these treatments can only target the cancer cells while leaving the normal tissue undamaged and intact. However, single phototherapy or sonotherapy can obtain effective clinical effects only when the dose of nanomaterials responding to light and ultrasound is high enough. Therefore, it is significant to develop or explore new multifunctional nanomaterials that can simultaneously respond to ultrasound and light to enhance synergistic sono-phototherapy in the clinical cancer treatment. In this review, we summarize the recent developments of multifunctional nanomaterials responding to ultrasound and light, including organic nanomaterials modified by porphyrin and its derivatives, indocyanine green, etc., and inorganic nanomaterials such as titanium dioxide and inorganic piezoelectric nanomaterials. We further elaborate the latest research progress about these multifunctional nanomaterials in the cancer treatment. Particularly, the inorganic piezoelectric nanomaterials can generate a built-in electric field under ultrasound to adjust the separation of photogenerated carriers, which has potential applications to construct multifunctional nanomaterials and enhance tumor therapeutic effects.

With the aim of solving the problems of high labor intensity, low operational efficiency, and poor deposition distribution uniformity in the mango canopy associated with traditional plant protection devices, an air-ground co-operation stereoscopic plant protection system consisting of an orchard caterpillar mist sprayer and a six-rotor plant protection UAV was designed to jointly undertake plant protection operations in mango orchards. We tested the spraying performance of the system on mango trees, compared with the single-machine operation, the air–ground co-operation system could significantly increase the droplet coverage on the upperside of mango leaves in each part of the canopy (a 14.7% increase for the mist sprayer and 12.9% for the UAV). This increased the active component deposition distribution uniformity in the mango canopy but could not significantly improve the deposition and coverage of droplets on the underside of leaves compared with the mist sprayer and plant protection UAV. Due to the characteristics of the mango canopy such as large leaf length and thickness and complex leaf inclination distribution, this led to poor deposition distribution uniformity of the two spray units, and the overall CV was over 150%. The pesticide active ingredients were almost uniformly distributed in the vertical direction when the application ratios (ground implements/plant protection drones) were 8/2 and 7/3, offering a promising protocol for reduced pesticide application in mango orchards. This study presents promising data that support the innovative integration of drones into crop protection programs for large canopy crops (e.g., mango) and provides guidance for the ACSPPS system in reduction and precision application research.

Silicon anodes with a high theoretical capacity possess great potential applications in power batteries for electric vehicles, while their volume expansion always leads to crystal pulverization and electrode polarization. An ideal solution to alleviate such pulverization and polarization of silicon crystals is to simultaneously use nano-sized silicon crystals and introduce high viscosity and elasticity polymer binders. This work has achieved the adjustable introduction of hydroxyl groups to silicon nanocrystals under the optimal reaction temperature (e.g., 80 °C) and appropriate piranha solution composition (e.g., H2SO4/H2O2 = 3:1 v/v), ultimately forming an amorphous coating layer of ~1.3 nm on the silicon surface. The optimized silicon anode exhibits superior electrochemical performance (with an initial Coulombic efficiency of 85.5%; 1121.4 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 200 cycles) and improved hydrophilicity. The introduced hydroxyl groups significantly enhance the hydrophilicity of silicon in the electrolyte and the electrochemical activity of the silicon anodes. The hydroxyl groups achieve stronger bonding between silicon and polymer binders, ultimately improving the mechanical strength and stability of the electrode. The introduction of hydrophily functional groups on the surface of silicon crystals can be explored as an active strategy to solve the above issues. This surface engineering method could be extended to more fields of infiltrating silicon-based functional materials.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-activated proinflammatory signals in keratinocytes play a crucial role in the immunoregulation of inflammatory skin diseases, including rosacea and psoriasis. Nav1.8 is a voltage-gated sodium ion channel, and its abnormal expression in the epidermal layer contributes to pain hypersensitivity in the skin. However, whether and how epidermal Nav1.8 is involved in skin immunoregulation remains unclear. This study was performed to identify the therapeutic role of Nav1.8 in inflammatory skin disorders. We found that Nav1.8 expression was significantly upregulated in the epidermis of rosacea and psoriasis skin lesions. Nav1.8 knockdown ameliorated skin inflammation in LL37-and imiquimod-induced inflammation mouse models. Transcriptome sequencing results indicated that Nav1.8 regulated the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators (IL1β and IL6) in keratinocytes, thereby contributing to immune infiltration in inflammatory skin disorders. In vitro, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), a cytokine that drives the development of various inflammatory skin disorders, increased Nav1.8 expression in keratinocytes. Knockdown of Nav1.8 eliminated excess ROS production, thereby attenuating the TNFα-induced production of inflammatory mediators; however, a Nav1.8 blocker did not have the same effect. Mechanistically, Nav1.8 reduced superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) activity by directly binding to SOD2 to prevent its deacetylation and mitochondrial localization, subsequently inducing ROS accumulation. Collectively, our study describes a central role for Nav1.8 in regulating pro-inflammatory responses in the skin and indicates a novel therapeutic strategy for rosacea and psoriasis.

Abstract As Earth's warming is driven by anthropogenic activities (e.g., urbanization), land and ocean warming significantly affect the net carbon uptake (NCU) of global ecosystems. However, the driving mechanism of coupled land‐sea warming on the NCU under rapid urbanization in coastal areas remains poorly understood. Here, we used long‐term remote sensing and meteorological observation data combined with spatial analysis and multivariate statistical methods to study the impact of coupled land‐sea warming and urbanization on land net primary productivity (LNPP, a proxy of the net land carbon uptake) in the Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), a rapidly urbanizing and climatically vulnerable area of South China. We found that the total LNPP decreased by 0.40 TgC from 1985 to 2015 and declined suddenly after 2003, driven by the reduced relative humidity and increased vapor pressure deficit (VPD). The increased VPD was caused by coupled land‐sea warming, and the indirect effect (γ = −0.51, p

The electronic and optical properties of B or Si single-doped phosphorene and ones of B and Si co-doped phosphorene are computed and compared by first-principles calculations. By B doping, the bandgap of phosphorene decreases from 0.92 to 0.65 eV, while Si doping directly changes the system from a direct bandgap semiconductor to metal. Compared with pristine phosphorene, the optical absorption of Si-doped phosphorene is red shifted. The optical absorption of black phosphorus can be regulated by changing the distance and position between B and Si. Therefore, bandgap engineering can be used to directly tune the optical absorption of the phosphorene system by the co-doping of B and Si.

Mangrove wetlands are rapidly being lost due to anthropogenic disturbances and natural processes, such as sea-level rise (SLR), but are also recovering as a result of conservation efforts. Accurate and contemporary mangrove maps to detect their distribution and changes are urgently needed to understand how mangroves respond to global change and develop effective conservation projects. Here, we developed a new change detection algorithm called temporal consistency checking combining annual classification and spectral time series (TCC-CS) for tracking mangrove losses and gains. Specifically, mangrove change events were determined by measuring the deviation of greenness and wetness of candidate change segments from automatically collected mangrove reference samples. By applying to the world’s largest mangrove patches, we monitored the 35-year mangrove trajectory in the Sundarbans from 1988 to 2022 using all available Landsat images on the Google Earth Engine platform. In the Sundarbans, 18,501.89 ha of mangroves have been gained, but these have been offset by losses of 27,009.79 ha, leading to a net mangrove loss of 1.42% (8507.9 ha) in the past 35 years. We further mapped the pixel-level change agents and found that SLR-induced erosion and degradation, instead of human activities, were the major drivers of losses in the Sundarbans. Trend analysis on loss agents indicates that mangrove losses caused by human activities, such as the expansion of croplands and aquaculture ponds, have declined, but SLR is still a persistent threat to mangrove wetlands in this iconic mangrove area. Our study provides a computationally efficient methodology for examining large-scale mangrove changes, and the resultant annual mangrove maps provide strong support for mangrove conservation in the Sundarbans.

Submerged spur dikes are widely applied in the channel regulation structures of plain sand-bed rivers such as the lower reaches of the Yangtze River; thus, the issue of local scour protection near regulating structures is especially important for structure design engineering. To further scientific research on the local scour of submerged spur dike heads, we investigated rulers describing the variance of the incoming flow dynamic, scale of the spur dike body, width of river bottom protection, etc., responding to the maximum local scouring depth of a submerged spur dike and the distance between the submerged spur dike and dam axis under the conditions of river bottom protection. According to principles of dimensional analysis, we established computational formulas for the maximum local scouring depth of a submerged spur dike and the distance between the submerged spur dike and dam axis, with consideration of bottom protection works for the remaining soft mattress. These research results not only enrich existing research on the calculation of local scour of channel-regulating structures, but they are also a relevant technical reference for the design of water conservancy and waterway engineering.

With the surge in the amount of data in the internal and external environment, the collection, analysis, processing, and storage of the increasing data sources and data volume, as well as the problems of big data management, are the current situation and dilemmas of data management faced by enterprises today. Cognitive science and big data technology can provide good auxiliary support for enterprise management decision-making. This study takes the business information management of cold chain logistics enterprises as an example, aiming at the characteristics of business intelligence data in real applications, based on cognitive science and big data technology, from low-cost and high-performance storage, security management, and big data analysis. This paper is mainly through the research of big data processing theory and key technologies. Based on analyzing the logistics industry’s data access rules and characteristics, this study proposes a hot data prediction model for multilayer hybrid storage systems. It is verified that the prediction model has good accuracy, robustness, and universality. For the application scenario of multitenant distributed data access, a data transparent security management model is proposed. Simulation experiments show that this method can realize data security management when the performance loss is controlled within an acceptable range. Based on the real-time computing technology of massive data, the label optimization scheme of collaborative filtering and reinforcement learning is used to realize the logistics distribution recommendation model and to solve the accuracy and real-time problems of logistics service distribution analysis.

The coastal area, with its fragile environment and the characteristics of both marine and terrestrial, is getting increasing attention globally, highlighting a critical need to form a systematic management framework. The objectives of this article are to illustrate the status quo of Chinese regional ecological civilization and land-sea integrated development, then combine resilience theory and sustainable development goals (SDGs) of United Nations together for selecting social-ecological indicators to build a resilience assessment matrix applying to the coastal urban area, further explore the core mechanisms of coastal resilience evolution. Accordingly, we suggest a new method of evaluation matrix with 12 indicators, representing the function of the target system in four phases (prepare, absorb, recover and adapt) and three domains (economic, natural resources and eco-environment) respectively, which focusing on the dynamic progress instead of the static situation of the typical and unique urbanizing area is exactly one of its improvements in comparison with other existing assessment tools. The key findings reveal the dificient resilience of Dapeng New District in dealing with the rapid urbanization stressor, as well as its asymmetrical performance among three subsystems within the temporal scope of 2014–2016. Another contribution reflected in the regime shifts of land-sea integration, which uncovers the states of critical functions in the target system, correspondingly outlines how to integrate the land use, water management, and biodiversity conservation into resilience-based management and sustainability for the coastal zone, namely the Land-Water-Biodiversity Nexus. Our scope is taking the typical coastal zone, Shenzhen Dapeng New District, Greater Bay Area of China, as an example, and to promote the research technology in other coastal urban regions.

Marine resources and industry have become one of the most important pillars in economic development all over the world. However, corrosion of materials is always the most serious problem to the infrastructure and equipment served in marine environment. Researchers have found that microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) and marine bio-fouling are two main mechanisms of marine corrosions due to the complicated marine environment and marine organisms. This article summarized the latest research progress about these two mechanisms and indicated that both MIC and marine bio-fouling are closely related to the biofilms on material surfaces formed by the marine microorganisms and their metabolites. As a result, to prevent the occurrence of MIC and bio-fouling, it is important to control the microorganisms in biofilms or prevent the adhesion and formation of biofilms. The traditional method of using chemical bactericide or antifoulant faces the problems of pollution and microorganism resistance. This article introduced four research approaches about the new tendency of applying new materials and technologies to cooperate with traditional chemicals to achieve better and longer effects with lower environment pollution through synergistic actions. Finally, some future research tendencies were proposed for whole marine anti-corrosion and anti-fouling areas. Keywords: Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Marine bio-fouling, Biofilms, Synergistic action, Anti-Corrosion

Rosacea is significantly associated with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the common underlying molecular mechanism connecting these two diseases remains limited. This study aimed to reveal the common molecular regulatory networks and identify the potential therapeutic drugs for rosacea and AD. There were 747 overlapped DEGs (ol-DEGs) that were detected in AD and rosacea, enriched in inflammation-, metabolism-, and apoptosis-related pathways. Using the TF regulatory network analysis, 37 common TFs and target genes were identified as hub genes. They were used to predict the therapeutic drugs for rosacea and AD using the DGIdb/CMap database. Among the 113 predicted drugs, melatonin (MLT) was co-associated with both RORA and IFN-γ in AD and rosacea. Subsequently, network pharmacology analysis identified 19 pharmacological targets of MLT and demonstrated that MLT could help in treating AD/rosacea partly by modulating inflammatory and vascular signaling pathways. Finally, we verified the therapeutic role and mechanism of MLT on rosacea in vivo and in vitro. We found that MLT treatment significantly improved rosacea-like skin lesion by reducing keratinocyte-mediated inflammatory cytokine secretion and repressing the migration of HUVEC cells. In conclusion, this study contributes to common pathologies shared by rosacea and AD and identified MLT as an effective treatment strategy for rosacea and AD via regulating inflammation and angiogenesis.

The performance and programming conditions of the triple shape memory of crosslinked trans-polyisoprene/poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (TPI/EVA) composites with different contents of dicumyl peroxide (DCP) were investigated. The effect of triple shape memory in the TPI/EVA composites was studied by tensile loading, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA). It was demonstrated that the content of DCP increased, the crystallization temperature of TPI decreased from 55.2 to 38.3 °C, and the crystallization temperature of EVA decreased slightly. The SEM results showed that DCP, as an initiator, could form a graft copolymer of TPI-g-EVA at the interface of the two phases, which could improve the adhesion of the two phases. The DMA showed that the higher the content of DCP, the higher the first-stage shape recovery ratio. Moreover, the composites exhibited favorable shape fixity ratio (Rf) and shape recovery ratio (Rr) with the incorporation of 0.4 phr DCP. At the same time, it was demonstrated that the TPI/EVA composites showed excellent mechanical strength, including tensile strength up to 24.3 MPa, as well as elongation at break reaching 508%.

Lung ischemia-reperfusion injury (LIRI) is associated with many diseases, including primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation, and has no specific and effective therapies. Necroptosis contributes to the pathogenesis of ischemia-reperfusion injury. Necrostatin-1 (Nec-1), the necroptosis inhibitor targeting RIPK1, has been reported to alleviate ischemia-reperfusion injury in various organs. However, the underlying mechanism of Nec-1 in LIRI remains unclear. In this paper, an in vivo LIRI model was built up by left lung hilar clamping in mice, and an in vitro cold ischemia-reperfusion (CI/R) model using BEAS-2B cells was applied to mimic the lung transplantation setting. We found Nec-1 significantly alleviated ischemia-reperfusion-induced lung injury, cytokine releasing, and necroptosis of epithelial cells in mouse lungs. In vitro, Nec-1 also mitigated CI/R-induced cell death and inflammatory responses in BEAS-2B cells, and these protective effects were achieved by simultaneously inhibiting the formation of necrosome and RIPK1-dependent apoptosis. However, Nec-1 decreased the necrosome number but increased the apoptosis level in lung tissues after ischemia reperfusion. We further clarified that Nec-1 could also attenuate lung injury by promoting neutrophil apoptosis from flow cytometry. In conclusion, Nec-1 alleviated lung ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting necroptosis and apoptosis of epithelial cells and promoting the apoptosis of neutrophils. Thus, Nec-1 could be a promising medication against primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.

Summary: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major global health problem. Living with diseases like CVD often requires long-term monitoring, for which flexible and conformable sensors are employed. The developments in materials, devices, integrated electronic systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), and edge computing enable real-time and convenient measurement and detection of signals. Herein, we review the latest developments in the surveillance of various physiological signals of flexible sensors for CVD. First, a variety of signals that can monitor CVD are summarized. Then, the different mechanisms and principles of monitoring pulse signals, as well as the flexible sensor monitoring of electrocardiogram (ECG), phonocardiogram (PCG), seismocardiogram/ballistocardiogram (SCG/BCG), and apexcardiogram (ACG) signals are discussed. Finally, future research directions are proposed based on the current research landscape.

This paper contributes to a new design of the three-dimensional printable robotic ball joints capable of creating the controllable stiffness linkage between two robot links through pneumatic actuation. The variable stiffness ball joint consists of a soft pneumatic elastomer actuator, a support platform, an inner ball and a socket. The ball joint structure, including the inner ball and the socket, is three-dimensionally printed using polyamide−12 (PA12) by selective laser sintering (SLS) technology as an integral mechanism without the requirement of assembly. The SLS technology can make the ball joint have the advantages of low weight, simple structure, easy to miniaturize and good MRI compatibility. The support platform is designed as a friction-based braking component to increase the stiffness of the ball joint while withstanding the external loads. The soft pneumatic elastomer actuator is responsible for providing the pushing force for the support platform, thereby modulating the frictional force between the inner ball, the socket and the support platform. The most remarkable feature of the proposed variable stiffness design is that the ball joint has ‘zero’ stiffness when no pressurized air is supplied. In the natural state, the inner ball can be freely rotated and twist inside the socket. The proposed ball joint can be quickly stiffened to lock the current position and orientation of the inner ball relative to the socket when the pressurized air is supplied to the soft pneumatic elastomer actuator. The relationship between the stiffness of the ball joint and the input air pressure is investigated in both rotating and twisting directions. The finite element analysis is conducted to optimize the design of the support platform. The stiffness tests are conducted, demonstrating that a significant stiffness enhancement, up to approximately 508.11 N·mm reaction torque in the rotational direction and 571.93 N·mm reaction torque in the twisting direction at the pressure of 400 kPa, can be obtained. Multiple ball joints can be easily assembled to form a variable stiffness structure, in which each ball joint has a relative position and an independent stiffness. Additionally, the degrees of freedom (DOF) of the ball joint can be readily restricted to build the single-DOF or two-DOFs variable stiffness joints for different robotic applications.

Patients with a skull defect are at risk of developing cerebrospinal fluid leakage and ascending bacterial meningitis at >10% per year. However, treatment with stem cells has brought great hope to large-area cranial defects. Having found that transforming growth factor (TGF)-β3 can promote the osteogenic differentiation of human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs), we designed a hybrid TGF-β3/recombinant human-like collagen recombinant human collagen/chitosan (CS) freeze-dried sponge (TRFS) loading hPDLSCs (TRFS-h) to repair skull defects in rats. CFS with 2% CS was selected based on the swelling degree, water absorption, and moisture retention. The CS freeze-dried sponge (CFS) formed a porous three-dimensional structure, as observed by scanning electron microscopy. In addition, cytotoxicity experiments and calcein-AM/PI staining showed that TRFS had a good cellular compatibility and could be degraded completely at 90 days in the implantation site. Furthermore, bone healing was evaluated using micro-computed tomography in rat skull defect models. The bone volume and bone volume fraction were higher in TRFS loaded with hPDLSCs (TRFS-h) group than in the controls (p < 0.01, vs. CFS or TRFS alone). The immunohistochemical results indicated that the expression of Runx2, BMP-2, and collagen-1 (COL Ⅰ) in cells surrounding bone defects in the experimental group was higher than those in the other groups (p < 0.01, vs. CFS or TRFS alone). Taken together, hPDLSCs could proliferate and undergo osteogenic differentiation in TRFS (p < 0.05), and TRFS-h accelerated bone repair in calvarial defect rats. Our research revealed that hPDLSCs could function as seeded cells for skull injury, and their osteogenic differentiation could be accelerated by TGF-β3. This represents an effective therapeutic strategy for restoring traumatic defects of the skull.

Abstract The resilience of coastal communities becomes a critical issue of the social‐ecological system adapting to impacts from hazards on coastal well‐being. This paper formulates a framework integrating typhoon destructive potential and social‐ecological system from a perspective of coastal resilience. Typhoon destructive potential is interpreted using the Power Dissipation Index as a metric. We use the distributional models in geographic information systems to identify the spatial hotspots of high Power Dissipation Index along the coast of Mainland China. Furthermore, we evaluate the community resilience in all identified hotspots with place‐based indicators within five potential dimensions (Social, Ecological, Institutional, Economic, and Safety). Though the results show no significant long‐term trends in the typhoon destructive potential, statistically significant interdecadal variations are identified in different hotspots during 1949–2014. The resilience assessment results reveal that ecological (predisaster defense) and safety resilience (postdisaster support) are critical issues in achieving coastal community resilience. We argue that improving the ecological stewardship (having great predisaster defense) and adopting integrated approaches contribute to resilience enhancement, providing opportunities to support all the dimensions of community resilience via improving the social‐economic‐ecological nexus. The integration of typhoon destructive potential and social‐ecological system helps to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 13 through risk‐informed decision‐making. The results from this study have important policy implications for local‐scale planning incorporating place‐based indicators.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is important for promoting skin repair and remodeling. Native collagen is also widely used as a scaffold for skin tissue engineering. The limitations of EGF include easy decomposition or inactivation, whereas native collagen is immunogenic and has poor solubility. Therefore, we constructed a freeze-dried dressing based on the recombinant human-like collagen (RHC) to act as a carrier for EGF (RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing) and promote skin wound closure. Here, the freeze-dried dressing that combined EGF and RHC significantly enhanced the proliferation, adhesion, and spreading of NIH/3T3 fibroblasts and migration of HaCaT keratinocytes at the wound site. The physicochemical characteristics of the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing investigated using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry revealed that it was a loose and porous cake that redissolved quickly. The molecular mechanisms involved in cell proliferation and angiogenesis were also assessed. The expression levels of the markers Ki-67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, vascular endothelial growth factor, and cluster of differentiation 31 were significantly increased after treatment with the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing (P < 0.01, vs. RHC or EGF alone). This increase indicated that the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing significantly accelerated wound closure, re-epithelialization, and the orderly arrangement and deposition of collagen in the Sprague–Dawley rats with full-thickness skin defects. This work describes a significant step toward the development of wound environments conducive to healing, and the RHC/EGF freeze-dried dressing is a potential therapeutic strategy in wound management.

Background: Rosacea is a facial chronic inflammatory skin disease with dysfunction of immune and vascular system. Artemisinin (ART), an anti-malaria drug, was reported to have several effects including anti-inflammation and anti-angiogenesis activities. However, the role of ART on rosacea remains unclear. Objectives: To investigate the effects and molecular mechanism of ART on rosacea. Method: In rosacea-like mouse model, the phenotype of rosacea lesions was evaluated by redness score, the inflammatory biomarkers were analyzed by qPCR, and the infiltration of inflammatory cells were assessed by IHC analysis and immunofluorescence. In vitro, LL37-induced expression of inflammatory factors in HaCaT cells was detected by qPCR, potential signaling pathways were detected by Western blotting or immunofluorescence. Migration ability of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was evaluated by cell scratch and transwell assays. Result: The skin erythema and histopathological alteration, as well as the elevated pro-inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL6, TNFα) and TLR2 were significantly ameliorated by ART treatment in LL37-induced rosacea-like mice. In addition, ART reduced the infiltration of CD4+ T cells, macrophages and neutrophils, and repressed the expression of immune cells related chemokines (CXCL10, CCL20, CCL2 and CXCL2) in mouse lesions. In HaCaT cells, ART significantly decreased the LL37-induced expression of inflammatory biomarkers. Moreover, we found that ART inhibited rosacea-like inflammation via NF-kB signaling pathways in HaCaT cells. Finally, for vascular dysregulation, ART repressed the angiogenesis in mouse model and inhibited the LL37-induced HUVECs migration in vitro. Conclusion: ART ameliorated rosacea-like dermatitis by regulating immune response and angiogenesis, indicating that it could represent an effective therapeutic option for patients with rosacea.

Several studies have shown that epitope vaccines exhibit substantial advantages over conventional vaccines. However, epitope vaccines are associated with limited immunity, which can be overcome by conjugating antigenic epitopes with built-in adjuvants (e.g., some carrier proteins or new biomaterials) with special properties, including immunologic specificity, good biosecurity and biocompatibility, and the ability to vastly improve the immune response of epitope vaccines. When designing epitope vaccines, the following types of built-in adjuvants are typically considered: (1) pattern recognition receptor ligands (i.e., toll-like receptors); (2) virus-like particle carrier platforms; (3) bacterial toxin proteins; and (4) novel potential delivery systems (e.g., self-assembled peptide nanoparticles, lipid core peptides, and polymeric or inorganic nanoparticles). This review primarily discusses the current and prospective applications of these built-in adjuvants (i.e., biological carriers) to provide some references for the future design of epitope-based vaccines.

Periodontal disease is the main reason for tooth loss in adults. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are advanced technologies used to manage soft and hard tissue defects caused by periodontal disease. We developed a transforming growth factor-β3/chitosan sponge (TGF-β3/CS) to repair periodontal soft and hard tissue defects. We investigated the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation behaviors of primary human periodontal ligament stem cells (hPDLSCs) to determine the bioactivity and potential application of TGF-β3 in periodontal disease. We employed calcein-AM/propidium iodide (PI) double labeling or cell membranes (CM)-Dil labeling coupled with fluorescence microscopy to trace the survival and function of cells after implantation in vitro and in vivo. The mineralization of osteogenically differentiated hPDLSCs was confirmed by measuring alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and calcium content. The levels of COL I, ALP, TGF-βRI, TGF-βRII, and Pp38/t-p38 were assessed by western blotting to explore the mechanism of bone repair prompted by TGF-β3. When hPDLSCs were implanted with various concentrations of TGF-β3/CS (62.5−500 ng/mL), ALP activity was the highest in the TGF-β3 (250 ng/mL) group after 7 d (p < 0.05 vs. control). The calcium content in each group was increased significantly after 21 and 28 d (p < 0.001 vs. control). The optimal result was achieved by the TGF-β3 (500 ng/mL) group. These results showed that TGF-β3/CS promotes osteogenic differentiation of hPDLSCs, which may involve the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. TGF-β3/CS has the potential for application in the repair of incomplete alveolar bone defects.

A collection of 28 hipparionine skull and mandible fossils with a dated age of approximately 7.4 Ma from Fugu, Shaanxi, northwestern China (belonging to Hipparion chiai and Hipparion cf. coelophyes) shows an age distribution in a successive development sequence. By observing the dentitions in these fossil materials, knowledge of dental ontogeny has been gained, such as the opening time of the posterior wall of post-fossettes, the displacement of the plis hypostyle, the morphologic changes of the protocone and hypocone, etc. Additionally, 4 isolated maxillary cheek teeth and 2 mandibular cheek teeth were cut into slices in the traditional manner for authentication. These discoveries indicate that both of the hipparionine species in the Lamagou fauna are Hipparion cf. chiai exactly and offer further insight into the morphologic changes that occur during dental wear in hipparionines, which may greatly promote the morphological and taxonomic study of hipparionine species.

The standing tree electric signal (STES), defined as the electric potential difference between standing trees and the surrounding soil, can be utilized to reflect the biological nature of the trees. This signal should be measured precisely because it can also be collected and used as the electric power energy. In this paper, the automatic measurement system of standing tree biological electric signal based on MSP430 MCU. First of all, the basic structure of the presented system is introduced and it includes three modules: amplification module of the standing tree electric signal, the acquisition and processing of the signal module and the serial communication module. Then, the performances of the built system are respectively validated by the Poplar, Planetree, and Platanus in Beijing Forestry University. The result indicated that the relative error of this system is less than 2 %. The presented system can be considered as the foundation of the subsequent study on the mechanism of the biological electric signal and the application of the biological electric energy on standing trees.