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Strain WZ-12, isolated from the rhizosphere soil of star anise trees, exhibits significant antifungal efficacy against a variety of fungi, including Colletotrichum horii, the pathogenic fungus responsible for anthracnose in star anise. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, the strain was identified as a member of the Streptomyces genus. The genome of WZ-12 comprises a linear chromosome of 9,169,400 bp and a plasmid of 378,325 bp, possessing a G + C content of 71.12%. Of note, the genome encompasses 8,172 protein-coding genes, 21 rRNA genes, 74 tRNA genes, and 89 other noncoding RNA genes. The COG, Swiss-Prot, GO, KEGG, and NR databases annotated up to 79.17, 50.50, 13.17, 37.51, and 90.43% of potential genes, respectively. Remarkably, the genome hosts 175 antimicrobial resistance genes and 33 secondary metabolite gene clusters that likely contribute to the biosynthesis of diverse bioactive compounds such as antibiotics and agents with antitumor, antioxidant, immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, or stress tolerance properties. These findings highlight the potential of WZ-12 as a promising source of novel bioactive molecules and suggest its significant value as a resource for developing innovative antimicrobial agents. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Abstract Near‐infrared (NIR)‐II fluorescence imaging‐guided photothermal therapy (PTT) has attracted great research interest, and constructing donor‐acceptor (D‐A) electronic configurations has become an established approach to lower bandgap and realize NIR‐II emission. However, very few π‐conjugated phototheranostic agents can realize efficient NIR‐II guided PTT using a clinically safe laser power density, implying that sufficient photothermal performance is still desired. In addition to the continuously refreshed photothermal conversion efficiency levels, the strategies that focus on enhancing light absorptivity have been rarely discussed and endow a new direction for enhancing PTT. Herein, a dimerization π‐extension strategy is raised to synthesize π‐conjugated dimers with A‐D‐A monomers. We observe that the light absorptivity (ε) of the dimers is strengthened three times owing to the enhanced electronic coupling effect as a result of the π‐conjugation extension, thereby surpassing the 2‐fold increase in chromophore numbers from the monomer to dimers. Thanks to the enhancement in light absorption, the dimers could generate much more photothermal heat than the monomer in in vivo PTT treatments. Therefore, an efficient anti‐tumor outcome has been fulfilled by using dimers under a low laser power (0.3 W/cm2). Moreover, the dimers with extended π‐conjugation structures become more favorable to the radiative excited state decay, thus exhibiting a distinguishing improvement in NIR‐II imaging compared with monomer. Collectively, due to the improved light absorptivity, the dimers can gain superior NIR‐II fluorescence brightness and photothermal performance over the recently reported material, which goes beyond the monomer in double doses for in vivo applications. All these results prove that dimerization is an effective strategy for designing high‐performance phototheranostic materials.

Abstract Deep NIR organic phototheranostic molecules generally have large π‐conjugation structures and show highly hydrophobic properties, thus, forming strong π–π stacking in the aqueous medium, which will affect the phototheranostic performance. Herein, an end‐group strategy is developed to lift the performance of NIR‐II emitting photosensitizers. Extensive characterizations reveal that the hydrogen‐bonding interactions of the hydroxyl end group can induce a more intense π–π electronic coupling than the chlorination‐mediated intermolecular forces. The results disclose that π–π stacking will lower fluorescence quantum yield but significantly benefit the photodynamic therapy (PDT) efficiency. Accordingly, an asymmetrically substituted derivative (BTIC‐δOH‐2Cl) is developed, which shows balanced phototheranostic properties with excellent PDT efficiency (14.6 folds of ICG) and high NIR‐II fluorescence yield (2.27%). It proves the validity of the end‐group strategy on controlling the π–π interactions and rational tuning the performance of NIR‐II organic phototheranostic agents.

The unique Tropical cyclone (TC) Fantala appeared in the central Indian Ocean (12.4°S, 73.5°E) at 00Z on April 11 in 2016 and moved northwestward along the northeast of Madagascar at 18 Z on April 15. Then, two incomprehensible turnbacks formed a unique TC track. The dynamic mechanisms of the three turnbacks were first studied based on remote sensing and multisource reanalysis data. The results reveal that the wind field with upper divergence and lower convergence promotes the development of Fantala. The anticyclone high pressure on the middle level atmosphere is an important factor for TC turnbacks. On 15 April, the TC made the first turnback to turn northwest due to the southward anticyclone weakened to moving northwest. On 18 April, the TC made the second turnback along the anticyclone edge due to the northern high-pressure and southern low-pressure trough. On 22 April, the TC made the third turnback because the anticyclonic high press center broke into two small independent anticyclonic centers in the southwest and northeast, which created a barrier band and pushed the northern TC to move to the northwest. Meanwhile, the vertical wind shear (VWS) also provides favorable conditions for TC turnbacks. On April 18, the middle atmosphere of the TC was affected by strong easterly shear and weak southerly shear, and the second turnback was completed. On April 22, the middle level environment was affected by strong westerly shear and weak north shear, and the third turnback was completed. Additionally, heat transport from the ocean to the atmosphere provides favorable conditions for TC development. On April 18, The maximum mean latent heat flux over northeastern Madagascar was 112.94 W/m2, Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential was 39.05 kJ/cm2, and the maximum wind speed at the center of the TC was 155 kts. On April 22, The heat transfer from the equator increased by 18.08 W/m2 compared with the latent heat on 21 April, the Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential was 33.30 kJ/cm2, the maximum wind speed in the TC center was 90 kts, the high PV centerspread down from 850 mb to 900 mb. This study deepens the understanding of track forecasting during the development of a TC.

Vietnam's agricultural exports to China have remained strong, with the country maintaining its position as the top destination for Agri-products. This article primarily utilizes the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Index, and Trade Complementarity (TC) index to examine the trade comparative advantage, and the complementary of twenty major agricultural products between China and Vietnam from 2012 to 2021. The study results showed that Vietnam and China frequently exchange agricultural products. Vietnam has more stronger competitiveness than China in terms of agricultural products. China's exports to Vietnam were highly complementary to Vietnam's imports in category 0 whiles Vietnam's exports to China showed strong complementarity with China's imports in category 2. This paper analyzes the complementarity and comparative advantages of agricultural trade between China and Vietnam, and proposes informed suggestions for policy-making to promote agricultural trade between the countries. The proposed suggestions aim to expand agricultural trade between the two countries, reduce the trade imbalance, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Abstract To restrain the chemical reaction at cathode interface of organic solar cells, two cathode interfacial materials are synthesized by connecting phenanthroline with carbolong unit. Consequently, the D18:L8-BO based organic solar cell with double-phenanthroline-carbolong achieve the highest efficiency of 18.2%. Double-phenanthroline-carbolong with larger steric hindrance and stronger electron-withdrawing property confirms to suppress the interfacial reaction with norfullerene acceptor, resulting the most stable device. Double-phenanthroline-carbolong based device can sustain 80% of its initial efficiency for 2170 h in dark N2 atmosphere, 96 h under 85 oC and keep 68% initial efficiency after been illuminated for 2200 h, which are significantly better than bathocuproin based devices. Moreover, superb interfacial stability of double-phenanthroline-carbolong cathode interface enables thermal posttreatment of organic sub-cell in perovskite/organic tandem solar cells and obtained a remarkable efficiency of 21.7% with excellent thermal stability, which indicates the potentially wide application of phenanthroline-carbolong materials for stable and efficient solar device fabrications.

The mitochondrial genome of Camellia nitidissima was sequenced by Illumina and Pacbio sequencing. The results of sequences showed that a total length was 949,915 bp, and the GC content was 45.7% in assembled mitochondrial genome of C. nitidissima. 71 unigenes had been found, including 36 coding proteins and 35 non-coding proteins. Subsequently, the phylogenetic tree was built on 24 plants with the maximum-likelihood method, which had high bootstrap value and fited to the angiosperm phylogeny group classification (APG IV). The study’s findings unravel the taxonomic status of C. nitidissima and benefit the evolution study.

In this work, a novel strand displacement polymerization strategy is designed with a single hairpin-structured DNA probe acting as both of primer and template. After target miRNA-induced structural transitions, extension and displacement reactions occur at the dimer with recycled target miRNA. The generated double-stranded products further activate CRISPR/Cas12a collateral cleavage of substrate DNA at the electrode surface, which can be reflected by the silver stripping peak variations. By analyzing the reduced peak intensity, the concentration of miRNA can be determined. This method combines the strand displacement amplification and CRISPR/Cas12a’s shearing capability. Thus a highly sensitive electrochemical biosensor is established with the limit of detection as low as 31 aM. It may also inspire new ideas of electrochemical platforms integrating CRISPR/Cas system for biological studies and clinical applications.

The discovery and application of antibiotics in animal feeds have boomed the development of intensive animal husbandry in the last century, until the emergence of antibiotics-resistant bacteria. To alleviate the risks aroused by antibiotics-resistant bacteria, effective antibiotic substitutes are urgently needed to replace antibiotics. Essential oils (EOs) derived from plants are illustrated as the promising antibiotic substitutes used in animal feeds, as same as their current views for poultry and livestock industries in the future. It has been widely demonstrated that the phytochemicals in EOs show multiple biofunctionability and are less likely to induce resistance in bacteria. The beneficial effects of EOs feed supplementation on the intestinal inflammation, intestinal flora, immunity, digestion, and growth performances have been already extensively examined. However, the cost-effectiveness, odor, volatility, instability and bioavailability are the challenges in effectively utilizing EOs in animal intestines. Based on previous researches, and these challenges can partially be resolved by microencapsulation and nanotechnology are promising techniques to deal with these challenges. This article presents the feasibility and foundation of EOs application as antibiotic substitutes in animal feeds, and illustrates the mechanisms, functional performances and superiority of EOs compared with antibiotics.

Abstract Objective To investigate the effect and clinical significance of different thoracic surgical approaches for patients with stage IIB–IVA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma on the survival and prognosis of postoperative radiotherapy patients. Methods One hundred thirty-two patients with stage IIB–IVA esophageal squamous cancer who received radiotherapy after surgery were screened for baseline characteristics and survival analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the survival curve for the follow-up data, and the log-rank test was used to compare the difference in survival rate between the two groups. The Cox regression model was used for multivariate survival analysis. Result For stage IIB–IVA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the results of multivariate analysis showed that different surgical methods and clinical staging were independent factors affecting the survival and prognosis of patients after radiotherapy. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of patients with advanced esophageal cancer through the left chest approach were 84.2%, 61.4%, and 36.8% respectively. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of patients with advanced esophageal cancer through the right chest approach were 73.3%, 40.0%, and 21.3% respectively. There was no significant difference in the 1-year survival rate (P = 0.135) between the two surgical procedures. The 3-year survival rate (P < 0.05) and the 5-year survival rate (P < 0.05) were significantly different. Conclusion For patients with stage IIB–IVA esophageal squamous cell carcinoma undergoing radiotherapy after surgery, the long-term survival prognosis of patients after the left thoracic approach is significantly higher than that of the right thoracic approach.

The rotation patterns of summer rice–winter oil seed rape and summer rice–winter fallow are the main planting regimes in the rice ecosystem in southern China. However, the impact of local rotation patterns and landscape factors on the overwintering conservation of predators in spider and epigaeic beetle assemblages remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the diversity and density of spiders and beetles over two consecutive winters (2019/2020 and 2020/2021), focusing on the impact of two rotation patterns (rice–fallow and rice–oilseed rape) and surrounding landscape compositions on predator diversity. The main findings of our research were that spiders were more abundant and had a higher activity density in the fallow rice fields (FRs) compared to the oilseed rape fields (OSRs), whereas ground beetles exhibited the opposite pattern. Specifically, fallow rice fields supported small and ballooning spiders (e.g., dominant spider: Ummeliata insecticeps), while OSRs supported larger ground beetles (e.g., dominant beetles: Agonum chalcomus and Pterostichus liodactylus). Moreover, the composition of spider assemblages were impacted by semi-natural habitats (SNHs) during overwintering, while ground beetle assemblages were influenced by overwinter planting patterns. Overall, our results suggest that different planting regimes and preserving semi-natural habitats are a strategic way to enhance species diversity and functional diversity of ground predators. It is, therefore, recommended that to conserve and improve predator diversity during overwintering, land managers and farmers should aim to maintain diverse planting regimes and conserve local semi-natural habitats.

The size, morphology and distribution of MnS inclusions in the sulfur bearing free-cutting steel are the key factors to determine the performance of the free-cutting steel. It is thus important to accurately characterize and control the morphology of the MnS inclusions in the steel. The morphology of MnS inclusions are complex during rolling due to their good plasticity. Additionally, the morphology of the MnS inclusions would change during heating due to the decomposition and mass transfer of the Mn and S in the steel matrix. The traditional metallographic for characterizing the MnS inclusions on the cross-sections only reveal the local characteristics of the inclusions and results in misunderstanding of the real morphologies. In this study, the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the MnS inclusions in the sulfur bearing free-cutting steels is characterized by using the X-ray Micro-CT in the beamline of BL13W1 at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The stereology and morphological evolution of the MnS inclusion during heating are characterized and analyzed based the 3D observation. The number of MnS inclusions increased more than twice, the length of the inclusion with sizes less than 9 μm increased from 25.79% to 71.28%. The anisotropy index was reduce from 2.30 to 1.04 due to the spheroidization of the MnS inclusions during heating. The mechanism of the morphological evolution of the MnS inclusions is discussed on basis of the local chemical potential of the MnS caused by the variation of the curvature on the surface of the inclusions.

Objective. Untreated protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB), a chronic wet cough prevalent in children, may lead to chronic suppurative lung disease. However, clinical diagnostic criteria are currently nonspecific; thus, PBB may be misdiagnosed. Thus, we assessed the diagnostic value of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) and the risk factors associated with PBB. Methods. Children with chronic cough at The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2015 to May 2020 were enrolled and allocated to a suspected PBB (n = 141) or a non-PBB (n = 206) group. All children underwent extensive laboratory, chest imaging, and allergen tests. Children with suspected PBB underwent FOB with bronchoalveolar lavage; lavage and sputum samples were cultured. Results. All 347 children had a chronic wet cough for approximately 2 months. Of 141 children with suspected PBB, 140 received FOB with bronchoalveolar lavage. Visible tracheal changes included pale mucosa, mucosal congestion, edema, swelling, and increased secretions attached to the wall. Sputum was visible primarily in the left main bronchus (78.7%), left lower lobe (59.6%), right upper lobe (62.4%), and right lower lobe (64.5%). Sputum properties and amounts significantly differed between children with vs. without PBB P

Picrasma quassioides is a member of the Simaroubaceae family and is widely used as a medicinal plant. In this study, we sequenced and assembled the complete chloroplast genome of P. quassioides. The chloroplast genome is 160,015 bp in length, with a large single-copy region of 87,136 bp, a small single-copy region of 18,069 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat regions of 27,405 bp. It contains a total of 110 unique genes, including 77 protein-coding genes, 29 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that P. quassioides clustered well with Simaroubaceae plants, Eurycoma longifolia, Leitneria floridana, and Ailanthus latissimus.

Yang, Liu, Zhu et al. analyzed a dataset of 3-year parasitoid-hyperparasitoid trophic networks from 25 different agro-landscapes. Using path analysis, they uncover how species diversity and food web structure shape ecosystem functionality.

Focusing on the issues of the effects of the high failure rate and poor maintenance on the ZPW-2000A track circuit during in-field operations, this paper proposes a multi-objective maintenance decision optimization method by considering the number of maintenance personnel. The developed method introduces not only the service age regression, increased failure rate, system's average reliability, maintenance costs, but also the availability calculation model in the case of multiple maintenance personnel. We solve the model using the integer coded BB-MOPSO algorithm, and obtain the Pareto front solution set, and then the optimal maintenance plan of the system is further established. In addition, the number of optimal maintenance personnel is analyzed in detail. Compared to the results of traditional maintenance strategies, the results obtained in this paper show that the proposed model can reduce the maintenance costs, under the same working conditions, by 13.29%, moreover, it can more comprehensively reflect the impact of maintenance activities on the system reliability, maintenance costs, and availability. Furthermore, the method can meet the needs of decision-makers for diversified solutions and can provide an effective decision support while on site.

Developing a new π-skeletal aromatic fused-ring for tuning material properties in organic electronics is still a challenge due to limited chemical approach. Here, the authors enrich the chemistry by synthesizing SiO-bridged ladder-type π-skeletons with enhanced planarity and deeper energy levels than CO-bridged counterpart.

Growth factors are vital to regulate cellular responses for wound healing process. Engineered microspheres provide a promising tool for developing effective growth factor-loaded matrix for regenerative medicine therapy. Here, we report a novel multifunctional chitosan microsphere that enables facile one-step capture and efficient growth factor delivery for enhanced wound repair. The microfluidic technique was used to fabricate magnetic chitosan (MCS) microspheres. By immobilization with Zn2+ ions, the biohybrid MCS allowed for the flexible operation to capture histidine-tagged vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) produced in Escherichia coli (E. coli). The VEGF-conjugated MCS were then applied onto the wounds to examine their capabilities in promoting wound healing. Zn2+ and chitosan in MCS exhibited a synergetic antibacterial effect towards both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Using a rat model, we further demonstrated that the microspheres significantly promoted wound healing process, as evidenced by rapid wound closure, induced epithelialization and angiogenesis, and reduced inflammation response. Together, our data indicated the presented MCS as a versatile tool for capturing and locally delivering growth factors, which can be applied to wound repair. Moreover, with the functional flexibility, this biohybrid MCS could be empolyed in a wide range of biomedical applications by conjugating proteins of interest.

Lewis’ dual economic structure theory holds that differences in labour productivity affect urban-rural integration development. Based on this theory, this paper analyses the spatial mechanism of labour productivity affecting the development of urban-rural integration. A multidimensional index system is constructed to estimate the degree of urban-rural integration development, and a spatial Durbin model is used to quantitatively analyse the spatial effect between the difference in labour productivity and the development of urban-rural integration. The results show that there is a significant positive spatial agglomeration phenomenon in urban-rural integration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The convergence of labour productivity will not only promote local urban-rural integration but also inhibit the urban-rural integration development of other administrative divisions, but it can still play a positive role in promoting the urban–rural integration development of the whole region. Finally, based on the above research conclusions, this paper puts forward three policy suggestions: optimizing the human capital structure, promoting rural industrial integration, and exploring the land reform system.

In this article, an N-rich covalent organic framework (COFTFPB-TZT) was successfully synthesized using 4,4′,4′-(1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyl) trianiline (TZT), and 4-[3,5-bis (4-formyl-phenyl) phenyl] benzaldehyde (TFPB). The as-prepared COFTFPB-TZT possesses irregular cotton wool patches with a large specific surface area. A novel selective electrode based on COFTFPB-TZT was used for the determination of Mercury ions. The abundance of N atoms in COFTFPB-TZT provides more coordination sites for Hg2+ adsorption, resulting in a change in the surface membrane potential of the electrode to selectively recognize Hg2+. Under optimal experimental conditions, the ion-selective electrode shows a good potential response to Hg2+, with a linear range of 1.0 × 10−9∼1.0 × 10−4, a Nernst response slope of 30.32 ± 0.2 mV/-PC at 25°C and a detection limit of 4.5 pM. At the same time, the mercury-ion electrode shows a fast response time of 10 s and good reproducibility and stability. The selectivity coefficients for Fe2+, Zn2+, As3+, Cr6+, Cu2+, Cr3+, Al3+, Pb2+, NH4+, Ag+, Ba2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+ are found to be small, indicating no interference in the detection system. The proposed method can be successfully applied to the determination of Hg2+ in 3 typical environmental water samples, with a recovery rate of 98.6–101.8%. In comparison with the spectrophotometric method utilizing dithizone, the proposed method is simple and fast and holds great potential application prospects in environmental water quality monitoring and other fields.

A large number of siderites have been found in the Lopingian (Late Permian) coal-bearing series in western Guizhou, which occurs in various microscopic morphologies and has potential insights into the sedimentary and diagenetic environments. An integrated set of analyses, such as microscopic observation; X-ray diffraction; whole-rock major and trace element, carbon, and oxygen isotope; and in situ major and trace element, has been carried out to unravel the genetic mechanism of the siderites and their environmental implications. According to the microscopic morphology, the siderites can be generally divided into three types and six subtypes, including gelatinous siderites (I), microcrystal-silty siderite [II; microlite siderites (II1), powder crystal siderites (II2)], and spheroidal siderite [III, petal-like siderite (III1), radiating fibrous siderite (III2) and concentric siderite (III3)]. Whole-rock geochemical results show that the iron source for the formation of the siderites was mainly from extensive weathering of the Emeishan high-titanium basalts in hot climate conditions. The carbon and oxygen isotopic results indicate that the origin of CO2 in type I siderites is derived from the dehydroxylation of organic matter. The CO2 in types II1 and II2 siderites is mainly derived from deposited organic matter and marine carbonate rocks, respectively. The CO2 source of type III siderites is sedimentary organic matter and marine carbonate rocks and is affected by different fluids during diagenesis. The whole-rock and in situ geochemical characteristics further point to that type I siderites were formed in the synsedimentary period most strongly affected by seawater. Redox proxies, such as V/Sc, V/(V+Ni), and δ Ce, constrained their formation in a stable and weakly reduced condition. Type II siderites could have been developed in saltwater. Among them, type II1 siderites were formed in the early diagenetic stage, whereas type II2 siderites originated from recrystallization of type II1 siderites and accompanied by metasomatism with calcites under diagenetic fluids of weak reduction to weak oxidation conditions. Type III siderites were formed under the influence of multistage diagenetic fluids. Among them, type III1 siderites formed by the growth of powder crystal siderites (II2) under diagenetic fluids with a weak reducing condition. Type III2 siderites formed by growth around microlite siderites under weak reducing diagenetic fluids. Type III3 siderites formed by concentric growth in diagenetic fluids with weak reduction to weak oxidation conditions and relatively active conditions.

Psychotria asiatica is a typical traditional medicinal plant. Herein, we acquired and characterized the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of P. asiatica to provide genomic resources for conservation genetics and phylogenetic studies of P. asiatica. The cp genome of P. asiatica is 154,652 bp in length and consists of a large single-copy (LSC) region with 85,106 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region with 17,960 bp, and two inverted repeat regions (IRs) with 25,793 bp. The cp genome of P. asiatica comprises 127 genes, including 82 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. The phylogenetic result confirmed that P. asiatica was closely related to Psychotria kirkii within the Rubiaceae.

Piper sarmentosum Roxb. (Piperaceae) is a traditional medicinal herb native to Southeast Asia. The complete genome of P. sarmentosum was sequenced and characterized in this study with the aim of providing genomic resources for the evolution and molecular breeding of P. sarmentosum. It has a typical quadripartite structure, with a large single-copy (LSC) region of 88,979 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,274 bp, and two copies of 27,068 bp inverted-repeat regions (IRa and IRb). A total of 130 genes were annotated, comprising 85 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. The phylogenetic tree showed that P. sarmentosum in the current study is closely related to Piper longum.

Clinically deployed deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease operates in an open loop with fixed stimulation parameters, and this may result in high energy consumption and suboptimal therapy. The objective of this manuscript is to establish, through simulation in a computational model, a closed-loop control system that can automatically adjust the stimulation parameters to recover normal activity in model neurons. Exaggerated beta band activity is recognized as a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease and beta band activity in model neurons of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) was used as the feedback signal to control DBS of the GPi. Traditional proportional controller and proportional-integral controller were not effective in eliminating the error between the target level of beta power and the beta power under Parkinsonian conditions. To overcome the difficulties in tuning the controller parameters and improve tracking performance in the case of changes in the plant, a supervisory control algorithm was implemented by introducing a Radial Basis Function (RBF) network to build the inverse model of the plant. Simulation results show the successful tracking of target beta power in the presence of changes in Parkinsonian state as well as during dynamic changes in the target level of beta power. Our computational study suggests the feasibility of the RBF network-driven supervisory control algorithm for real-time modulation of DBS parameters for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

PurposeIn recent years, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is increasingly used in adaptive radiation therapy (ART). However, compared with planning computed tomography (PCT), CBCT image has much more noise and imaging artifacts. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the image quality and HU accuracy of CBCT. In this study, we developed an unsupervised deep learning network (CycleGAN) model to calibrate CBCT images for the pelvis to extend potential clinical applications in CBCT-guided ART.MethodsTo train CycleGAN to generate synthetic PCT (sPCT), we used CBCT and PCT images as inputs from 49 patients with unpaired data. Additional deformed PCT (dPCT) images attained as CBCT after deformable registration are utilized as the ground truth before evaluation. The trained uncorrected CBCT images are converted into sPCT images, and the obtained sPCT images have the characteristics of PCT images while keeping the anatomical structure of CBCT images unchanged. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed CycleGAN, we use additional nine independent patients for testing.ResultsWe compared the sPCT with dPCT images as the ground truth. The average mean absolute error (MAE) of the whole image on testing data decreased from 49.96 ± 7.21HU to 14.6 ± 2.39HU, the average MAE of fat and muscle ROIs decreased from 60.23 ± 7.3HU to 16.94 ± 7.5HU, and from 53.16 ± 9.1HU to 13.03 ± 2.63HU respectively.ConclusionWe developed an unsupervised learning method to generate high-quality corrected CBCT images (sPCT). Through further evaluation and clinical implementation, it can replace CBCT in ART.

Protein remote homology detection is one of the most challenging problems in the field of protein sequence analysis, which is an important step for both theoretical research (such as the understanding of structures and functions of proteins) and drug design. Previous studies have shown that combining different ranking methods via learning to the rank algorithm is an effective strategy for remote protein homology detection, and the performance can be further improved by the protein similarity networks. In this paper, we improved the ProtDec-LTR1.0 and ProtDec-LTR2.0 predictors by incorporating three profile-based features (Top-1-gram, Top-2-gram, and ACC) into the framework of learning to rank via feature mapping strategies. The predictive performance was further refined by the pagerank (PR) algorithm and hyperlink-induced topic search (HITS) algorithm. Finally, a predictor called ProtDec-LTR3.0 was proposed. Rigorous tests on two widely used benchmark datasets showed that the ProtDec-LTR3.0 predictor outperformed both ProtDec-LTR1.0 and ProtDec-LTR2.0, and other nine existing state-of-the-art predictors, indicating that the ProtDec-LTR3.0 is an efficient method for protein remote homology detection, and will become a useful tool for protein sequence analysis. A user-friendly web server of the ProtDec-LTR3.0 predictor was established for the convenience of users, which can be accessed at http://bliulab.net/ProtDec-LTR3.0/.

Abstract The position of a chlorine atom in a charge carrier of polymer solar cells (PSCs) is important to boost their photovoltaic performance. Herein, two chlorinated D‐A conjugated polymers PBBD‐Cl‐α and PBBD‐Cl‐β are synthesized based on two new building blocks (TTO‐Cl‐α and TTO‐Cl‐β) respectively by introducing the chlorine atom into α or β position of the upper thiophene of the highly electron‐deficient benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐c′]dithiophene‐4,8‐dione moiety. Single‐crystal analysis demonstrates that the chlorine‐free TTO shows a π‐π stacking distance (dπ‐π) of 3.55 Å. When H atom at the α position of thiophene of TTO is replaced by Cl, both π‐π stacking distance (dπ‐π = 3.48 Å) and Cl···S distance (dCl‐S = 4.4 Å) are simultaneously reduced for TTO‐Cl‐α compared with TTO. TTO‐Cl‐β then showed the Cl···S non‐covalent interaction can further shorten the intermolecular π‐π stacking separation to 3.23 Å, much smaller than that of TTO‐Cl‐α and TTO. After blending with BTP‐eC9, PBBD‐Cl‐β:BTP‐eC9‐based PSCs achieved an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.20%, much higher than PBBD:BTP‐eC9 (10.06%) and PBBD‐Cl‐α:BTP‐eC9 (13.35%) based devices. These results provide an effective strategy for design and synthesis of highly efficient donor polymers by precise positioning of the chlorine substitution.

At present, liver ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury is still a great challenge for clinical liver partial resection and liver transplantation. The innate immunity regulated by liver macrophages orchestrates the cascade of IR inflammation and acts as a bridge. As a specific macrophage subunit of vacuolar ATPase, ATP6V0D2 (V-ATPase D2 subunit) has been shown to promote the formation of autophagolysosome in vitro. Our research fills a gap which has existed in the study of inflammatory stress about the V-ATPase subunit ATP6V0D2 in liver macrophages. We first found that the expression of specific ATP6V0D2 in liver macrophages was upregulated with the induction of inflammatory cascade after liver IR surgery, and knockdown of ATP6V0D2 resulted in increased secretion of proinflammatory factors and chemokines, which enhanced activation of NLRP3 and aggravation of liver injury. Further studies found that the exacerbated activation of NLRP3 was related to the autophagic flux regulated by ATP6V0D2. Knocking down ATP6V0D2 impaired the formation of autophagolysosome and aggravated liver IR injury through nonspecific V-ATPase activation independent of V-ATPase-Notchl-Hesl signal axis. In general, we illustrated that the expression of ATP6V0D2 in liver macrophages was upregulated after liver IR, and by gradually promoting the formation of autophagolysosomes to increase autophagy flux to limit the activation of liver inflammation, this regulation is independent of the Notch1-Hes1 signal axis.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), which is endangering human health worldwide, especially in Africa, Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of KSHV in Xinjiang. Three KSHV recombinant proteins (ORF65, ORF73, and K8.1) were used to detect KSHV infection. The serum samples to be tested were detected by an indirect ELISA method. The overall infection rate of KSHV in Xinjiang was 25.60%, with a higher infection rate in the Uygur population of 29.79%. After adjusting for possible confounders, Uygur (OR = 3.95, 95% CI 2.64–6.12, P

The Lanzhou-Xinjiang (Lan-Xin) high-speed railway is one of the principal sections of the railway network in western China, and signal equipment is of great importance in ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the high-speed railway. Over a long period, in the railway operation and maintenance process, the railway signaling and communications department has recorded a large amount of unstructured text information about equipment faults in the form of natural language. However, due to irregularities in the recording methods of these data, it is difficult to use directly. In this paper, a method based on natural language processing (NLP) was adopted to analyze and classify this information. First, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to extract the semantic features of the text, which were then expressed in the corresponding topic feature space. Next, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm was used to construct a signal equipment fault diagnostic model that reduced the impact of sample data imbalance on the classification accuracy. This was compared and analyzed with the traditional Naive Bayes (NB), Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithms. This study used signal equipment failure text data from the Lan-Xin high-speed railway to conduct experimental analysis and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experiments showed that the accuracy of the SVM classification algorithm could reach 0.84 after being combined with the LDA topic model, which verifies that the natural language processing method can effectively realize the fault diagnosis of signal equipment and has certain guiding significance for the maintenance of field signal equipment.

Abstract The concept of bromination for organic solar cells has received little attention. However, the electron withdrawing ability and noncovalent interactions of bromine are similar to those of fluorine and chlorine atoms. A tetra‐brominated non‐fullerene acceptor, designated as BTIC‐4Br, has been recently developed by introducing bromine atoms onto the end‐capping group of 2‐(3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐inden‐1‐ylidene) malononitrile and displayed a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12%. To further improve its photovoltaic performance, the acceptor is optimized either by introducing a longer alkyl chain to the core or by modulating the numbers of bromine substituents. After changing each end‐group to a single bromine, the BTIC‐2Br‐m‐based devices exhibit an outstanding PCE of 16.11% with an elevated open‐circuit voltage of Voc = 0.88 V, one of the highest PCEs reported among brominated non‐fullerene acceptors. This significant improvement can be attributed to the higher light harvesting efficiency, optimized morphology, and higher exciton quenching efficiencies of the di‐brominated acceptor. These results demonstrate that the substitution of bromine onto the terminal group of non‐fullerene acceptors results in high‐efficiency organic semiconductors, and promotes the use of the halogen‐substituted strategy for polymer solar cell applications.

Financial bankruptcy prediction is crucial for financial institutions in assessing the financial health of companies and individuals. Such work is necessary for financial institutions to establish effective prediction models to make appropriate lending decisions. In recent decades, various bankruptcy prediction models have been developed for academics and practitioners to predict the likelihood that a loan customer will go bankrupt. Among them, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been widely and effectively applied in bankruptcy prediction. Inspired by the mechanism of biological neurons, we propose an evolutionary pruning neural network (EPNN) model to conduct financial bankruptcy analysis. The EPNN possesses a dynamic dendritic structure that is trained by a global optimization learning algorithm: the Adaptive Differential Evolution algorithm with Optional External Archive (JADE). The EPNN can reduce the computational complexity by removing the superfluous and ineffective synapses and dendrites in the structure and is simultaneously able to achieve a competitive classification accuracy. After simplifying the structure, the EPNN can be entirely replaced by a logic circuit containing the comparators and the logic NOT, AND, and OR gates. This mechanism makes it feasible to apply the EPNN to bankruptcy analysis in hardware implementations. To verify the effectiveness of the EPNN, we adopt two benchmark datasets in our experiments. The experimental results reveal that the EPNN outperforms the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) model and our previously developed preliminary pruning neural network (PNN) model in terms of accuracy, convergence speed, and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC). In addition, the EPNN also provides competitive and satisfactory classification performances in contrast with other commonly used classification methods.

Urbanization and land use transformation are typical characteristics of China in recent decades. Studying the effects of urban land use transitions (ULUT) on the economic spatial spillovers of central cities (ESSCC) can provide a reference for China to optimize cities’ land space layout and promote their coordinated development. Based on the direct and indirect effects of ULUT in central cities on the production factors and economic growth in other cities, this paper reveals the mechanisms underlying the influence of ULUT on ESSCC. Then, we usethe expanded geographical distance-weighted spatial Durbin model with the panel data of 152 Chinese urban agglomeration cities from 2003 to 2016 to empirically test it. The results show that, since 2003, the rate of urban land expansions, the level of urban land intensive use (ULIU), the degree of land marketization, and the urban land prices in China have increased substantially; and the proportionate supplies of industrial land, commercial land, and residential land have decreased. Moreover, ULUT between cities have significant spatial autocorrelations. The current ULUT have positive but small effects on ESSCC. Among them, ULIU has the greatest promotion effects on ESSCC. The impacts of ULUT on ESSCC vary greatly among urban agglomerations. The ULUT in central cities indirectly enhance the ESSCC, which mainly depend on the positive effects of ULUT on enterprise investment, infrastructure investment, labor and technological efficiency and the spatial spread effects of these production factors. This is the main intermediate mechanism by which the ULUT in central cities enhance the ESSCC. Continuing to strengthen ULIU, promote the improvement of land marketization, and establish and improve the coordination mechanism for the economic development of urban agglomerations will help to strengthen the ESSCC in urban agglomerations. The results provide evidence for how the Chinese government can enhance the ESSCC and promote the coordinated development of cities through ULUT under new urbanization.

The golden camellia, Camellia nitidissima Chi., is a well-known ornamental plant that is known as “the queen of camellias” because of its golden yellow flowers. The principal pigments in the flowers are carotenoids and flavonol glycosides. Understanding the biosynthesis of the golden color and its regulation is important in camellia breeding. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of flower development in C. nitidissima, a number of cDNA libraries were independently constructed during flower development. Using the Illumina Hiseq2500 platform, approximately 71.8 million raw reads (about 10.8 gigabase pairs) were obtained and assembled into 583,194 transcripts and 466, 594 unigenes. A differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and co-expression network was constructed to identify unigenes correlated with flower color. The analysis of DEGs and co-expressed network involved in the carotenoid pathway indicated that the biosynthesis of carotenoids is regulated mainly at the transcript level and that phytoene synthase (PSY), β -carotene 3-hydroxylase (CrtZ), and capsanthin synthase (CCS1) exert synergistic effects in carotenoid biosynthesis. The analysis of DEGs and co-expressed network involved in the flavonoid pathway indicated that chalcone synthase (CHS), naringenin 3-dioxygenase (F3H), leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase(ANS), and flavonol synthase (FLS) play critical roles in regulating the formation of flavonols and anthocyanidin. Based on the gene expression analysis of the carotenoid and flavonoid pathways, and determinations of the pigments, we speculate that the high expression of PSY and CrtZ ensures the production of adequate levels of carotenoids, while the expression of CHS, FLS ensures the production of flavonols. The golden yellow color is then the result of the accumulation of carotenoids and flavonol glucosides in the petals. This study of the mechanism of color formation in golden camellia points the way to breeding strategies that exploit gene technology approaches to increase the content of carotenoids and flavonol glucosides and to decrease anthocyanidin synthesis.

The title compound, C19H20O5, was synthesized by the reaction of 1,3-cyclohexanedione and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde in the presence of PdCl2 and thiourea. The tetrahydropyran ring and the six-membered cyclohexene ring adopt envelope conformations, and the six-membered cyclohexane ring is in a chair conformation. The crystal packing is stabilized by classical intermolecular O—H...O hydrogen bonds and weak C—H...O interactions.

In the title compound, C19H19ClO4, the central fused ring and the attached cyclohexene ring adopt envelope conformations, while the cyclohexane ring adopts a chair conformation. The crystal packing is stabilized by O—H...O hydrogen bonds, which link the molecules into a chain along the b axis. Weak C—H...O bonds also occur.

The title compound, C20H20O5, was synthesized from the reaction between 3-methoxysalicaldehyde and 1,3–cyclohexanedione in the presence of palladium(II) chloride. The two fused xanthene rings and one of the six-membered cyclohexane rings adopt envelope conformations, while the other six-membered cyclohexane ring is in a chair conformation. The molecular packing is stabilized by weak intermolecular C—H...O interactions.

The title compound, C24H22N4O2·H2O, was synthesized by the trimethylchlorosilane-catalysed reaction between urea, benzaldehyde and acetophenone. The organic molecule comprises two fused tetrahydropyrimidinone rings with phenyl substituents at the 4- and 5-positions on the tetrahydropyrimidinone rings and a third phenyl substituent at the ring junction 8-position. The 4- and 5-substituted phenyl rings are inclined at a dihedral angle of 22.72 (11)° to one another and make angles of 47.95 (7) and 65.76 (7)° with the third phenyl substituent. In the crystal structure, intermolecular N—H...O contacts link pyrimido[4,5-d]pyrimidine molecules into centrosymmetric dimers. Additional N—H...O and O—H...O hydrogen bonds involving the water molecule generate a three-dimensional network.

The title compound, C18H19NO, was synthesized from the multi-component one-pot reaction between p-toluidine, benzaldehyde and 2,3-dihydrofuran in the presence of palladium dichloride. There are two molecules in the asymmetric unit. The crystal packing is stabilized by classical intermolecular N—H...O hydrogen bonds.

The title compound, C30H26Br2O4·C2H5OH, was synthesized from the reaction between 5-bromosalicybenzaldehyde and 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione. The crystal packing is stabilized by intermolecular O—H...O hydrogen bonds and C—H...O interactions.