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Nanothermites and high-energy explosives have significantly improved the performance of high-energy composites and have broad application prospects. Therefore, in this study, RDX/F2311/Fe2O3/Al composite hollow microspheres were successfully prepared utilizing the electrospray method using F2311 as a binder between components. The results show that the combustion time of the composite hollow microspheres is shortened from 2400 ms to 950 ms, the combustion process is more stable, and the energy release is more concentrated. The H50 of the composite hollow microspheres increased from 14.49 cm to 24.57 cm, the explosion percentage decreased from 84% to 72%, and the sensitivity of the composite samples decreased significantly. This is mainly the result of the combination of homogeneous composition and synergistic reactions. The combustion results show that F2311 as a binder affects the tightness of the contact between the components. By adjusting its content, the combustion time and the intensity of the combustion of the composite microspheres can be adjusted, which provides a feasible direction for its practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The B complex is a key intermediate stage of spliceosome assembly. To improve the structural resolution of monomeric, human spliceosomal B (hB) complexes and thereby generate a more comprehensive hB molecular model, we determined the cryo-EM structure of B complex dimers formed in the presence of ATP γ S. The enhanced resolution of these complexes allows a finer molecular dissection of how the 5′ splice site (5′ss) is recognized in hB, and new insights into molecular interactions of FBP21, SNU23 and PRP38 with the U6/5′ss helix and with each other. It also reveals that SMU1 and RED are present as a heterotetrameric complex and are located at the interface of the B dimer protomers. We further show that MFAP1 and UBL5 form a 5′ exon binding channel in hB, and elucidate the molecular contacts stabilizing the 5′ exon at this stage. Our studies thus yield more accurate models of protein and RNA components of hB complexes. They further allow the localization of additional proteins and protein domains (such as SF3B6, BUD31 and TCERG1) whose position was not previously known, thereby uncovering new functions for B-specific and other hB proteins during pre-mRNA splicing. Synopsis: The B complex is a key spliceosome assembly intermediate. Here, cryo-EM structures of dimerized human B (hB) complexes allow precise localization of proteins and protein domains and generation of a comprehensive molecular model of its RNP architecture. Cryo-EM of dimerized hB complexes enhances resolution compared to monomer structures, deepening molecular insights into 5'-splice site recognition at the B complex stage. Dimeric hB complex cryo-EM structures clarify molecular interactions of the B-specific proteins FBP21, SNU23 and PRP38 with the U6/5′ss helix and with each other. The B-specific protein MFAP1 bridges numerous B complex proteins and, together with UBL5, forms a 5' exon channel. BUD31 and TCERG1 are recruited already at the B complex stage, and the B-specific proteins SMU1 and RED are present as a tetrameric complex. Improved models of protein and RNA components in human spliceosomal hB complexes shed light on the functions of B-specific and other hB proteins during pre-mRNA splicing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible-light-driven hydrogen evolution from water represents a green and sustainable technology to convert solar energy into chemical energy. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are the most competitive platforms among the variety of photocatalysts. Herein, a novel benzotrifuran-based donor–acceptor material (COF-JLU42) was constructed using a Schiff base polycondensation reaction by introducing electron-rich benzotrifuran and deficient triazine moieties into the framework. The new COF features high crystallinity and permanent porosity with a large surface area and proves to be a photoactive semiconductor with efficient visible-light harvesting capacity. Importantly, COF-JLU42 exhibits a superior photocatalytic activity with a hydrogen evolution rate of over 40 000 μmol g−1 h−1 under visible-light illumination, which is 2.5 times higher than that of the isomorphic benzotrithiophene-based COFs under the same conditions. These findings suggest the huge application prospect of benzotrifuran-based framework materials as metal-free and solid photocatalysts in solar-energy conversion and storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-service long-distance pipelines are a practical approach to implementing large-scale hydrogen transportation under the context of energy transition. However, the hydrogen-induced damage (HID) and corrosion would deteriorate the material properties and load-bearing capacity of the pipelines. In the present study, the coupling effect of HID and corrosion are probabilistically incorporated into the mechanical characterization models for low-, mid- and high-strength pipelines. Spatiotemporal stochastic growth is modeled using the stochastic gamma processes with significantly affected defect geometric parameters to facilitate the uncertain performance status of pipelines. All unknown parameters of the proposed method can be inferred by inducing in-line inspection (ILI) data. The computational framework for importance sampling (IS) has been developed to estimate the system failure probability of corroded natural gas pipelines considering HID. Apply several programs to conduct probability analysis to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that HID affects the failure behavior and safety probability state of pipelines containing corrosion defects. The performances of various strength pipelines have significant differences in deterioration paths due to HID, causing additional maintenance or potentially disastrous consequences. The proposed method has been proven to capture the potential uncertainties of HID and corrosion on different-strength steel pipelines, which is beneficial for the lifecycle management of blended hydrogen natural gas pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatially continuous surface air temperature (SAT) is of great significance for various research areas in geospatial communities, and it can be reconstructed by the SAT estimation models that integrate accurate point measurements of SAT at ground sites with wall-to-wall datasets derived from remotely sensed observations of spaceborne instruments. As land surface temperature (LST) strongly correlates with SAT, estimation models are typically developed with LST as a primary input. Geostationary satellites are capable of observing the Earth's surface across large-scale areas at very high frequencies. Compared to the substantial efforts to estimate SAT at daily or monthly scales using LST derived from MODIS, very limited studies have been performed to estimate SAT at high-temporal scales based on LST from geostationary satellites. Estimation models for hourly SAT based on the LST derived from FY-4A, the first geostationary satellite in China's new-generation meteorological observation mission, were developed for the first time in this study. The models were fully cross-validated for a very large-scale region with diverse geographic settings using random forest, and specified differently to explore the influence of time and location variables on model performance. Overall predictive performance of the models is about 1.65–2.08 K for sample-based cross-validation, and 2.22–2.70 K for site-based cross-validation. Incorporating time or location variables into the hourly models significantly improves predictive performance, which is also confirmed by the analysis of predictive errors at temporal scales and across sites. The best-performing model with an average RMSE of 2.22 K was utilized for reconstructing maps of SAT for each hour. The hourly models developed in this study have general implications for future studies on large-scale estimating of hourly SAT based on geostationary LST datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate acquisition of the complex refractive index of materials is of great significance to understand their physical properties. Based on a single time-domain transmission model in $Y$ -band, here, we develop a free-space nondestructive testing method combined with parameter extraction of flat plate materials. This method overcomes the limitation of the narrow frequency band of S-parameters of vector network analyzer (VNA), truncates multiple echo interferences in time-domain signals inside sample after the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT), and eliminates the crimping effect of the calculation results. In order to ensure the good signal integrity of the model, an empirical formula is proposed to calculate the minimum thickness of the sample corresponding to unit bandwidth. An $8f$ quasi-optical system is designed and optimized to provide a measuring condition of terahertz (THz) plane wave with high energy density. Compared with the values calculated by the conventional methods, the refractive index deviation is less than 0.004 (0.2%), which verifies the effectiveness and applicability of our proposed method. The adaptability of different processes to the corresponding physical transmission model is further analyzed, and the reasons for the calculation deviation are explained. This work reduces the complexity and difficulty of the material measurement in the $Y$ -band, as well as the requirements of system calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on PTFE-based reactive materials (RMs) mostly focuses on Al/PTFE RMs. To explore further possibilities of formulation, the reactive metal components in the RMs can be replaced. In this paper, Zr/PTFE and Ti/PTFE RMs were prepared by cold isostatic pressing and vacuum sintering. The static and dynamic compressive mechanical properties of Zr/PTFE and Ti/PTFE RMs were investigated at different strain rates. The results show that the introduction of zirconium powder and titanium powder can increase the strength of the material under dynamic loading. Meanwhile, a modified J-C model considering strain and strain rate coupling was proposed. The parameters of the modified J-C model of Zr/PTFE and Ti/PTFE RMs were determined, which can describe and predict plastic flow stress. To characterize the impact-induced reaction behavior of Zr/PTFE and Ti/PTFE RMs, a quasi-sealed test chamber was used to measure the over-pressure induced by the exothermic reaction. The energy release characteristics of both materials were more intense under the higher impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Weaning is a stressful event as it is an abrupt separation of donkey foals from their mothers. Donkeys experience a variety of changes and stresses, such as physiological, environmental and diet challenges. The oral cavity is the gateway to total body wellness, and the oral microbiome is important in maintaining oral as well as systemic health. However, little is known on the effect of weaning on the oral microbiome of donkeys. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between weaning and oral microbial changes using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that significant changes in the oral microbiome occurred during the weaning transition period. In addition, the functions related to carbohydrate metabolic pathways were obviously enriched in the oral microbiome in postweaning donkeys compared with preweaning donkeys. The current study provides a deeper insight into the oral microbiota changes during the weaning period and helps to increase awareness of feed changes in donkey foals. As the initiation point of digestion, the oral microbiome is important in maintaining oral and systemic health. However, the composition of oral microbial communities and the influence of weaning on the oral microbiota of donkey foals remains poorly characterized. The present study used buccal swab samples to determine the changes in oral microbial communities occurring at the time of weaning. A total of 20 oral swab samples were collected from two groups: preweaning donkey foals (PreW group, n = 10) and postweaning donkey foals (PostW group, n = 10). The donkey oral microbiome was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing using Illumina MiSeq. This study is the first report of the donkey oral microbiome in association with weaning. Compared to the preweaning donkeys, the oral bacteria diversity in the postweaning donkeys was increased, with a higher Simpson index. Changes in the composition of the oral microbiota between the PreW and PostW groups were observed in the present study. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Myxococcota was significantly greater in the PostW than in the PreW group. At the genus level, the Gemella, unclassified_o__Lactobacillales, and Lactobacillus were increased in the postweaning donkeys. The donkeys' oral microbial functions were predicted using PICRUSt, and the functions related to carbohydrate metabolic pathways were significantly enriched in the oral microbiome in the PostW donkeys. In summary, the current study provides a deeper insight into the oral microbiota changes during the weaning period, and the influence of weaning together with the documented changes in diversity and composition will help us to obtain a better understanding of their long-term health impact within the oral cavities of donkey foals. However, a major limitation of the present study was that the samples were obtained from different animals in the PreW and PostW groups, which may have resulted in variability among the different individuals. Further investigation is needed to monitor the shift in oral microbes in the same individuals during the weaning period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated navigation algorithm based on a multiple fading factors Kalman filter (MFKF) is proposed to solve the problems that the Kalman filtering (KF) algorithm easily brings about diffusion when the model becomes a mismatched or noisy, and the MFKF accuracy is reduced when the fading factor is overused. Based on the innovation covariance theory, the algorithm designs an improved basis for judging filtering anomalies and makes the timing of the introduction of the fading factor more reasonable by switching the filtering state. Different from the traditional basis of filter abnormality judgment, the improved judgment basis adopts a recursive way to continuously update the estimated value of the innovation covariance to improve the estimation accuracy of the innovation covariance, and an empirical reserve factor for the judgment basis is introduced to adapt to practical engineering applications. By establishing an inertial navigation system (INS)/global navigation satellite system (GNSS) integrated navigation model, the results show that the average positioning accuracy of the proposed algorithm is improved by 26.52% and 7.48%, respectively, compared with the KF and MFKF, and shows better robustness and self-adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a model predictive control (MPC) based multitime scale co-optimized dispatch for integrated electricity and natural gas system (IEGS) considering the bidirectional interactions and renewable uncertainties. In the proposed model, optimal dispatch is extended into three substages optimization problems of day-ahead, intraday, and real-time to coordinate the economy and accuracy of operations. The different optimization strategy is designed in each dispatching stage according to the operating characteristics of multienergy coupled units and high-penetration intermittent wind power. In the day-ahead stage, the unit commitment is tackled to arrange the start-stop plan of slow-response units, maintained in intraday and real-time stages to ensure full-term optimal economic operation. In the intraday stage, MPC-based rolling optimization is implemented to obtain the unit output scheme with the lowest operating cost target. Furthermore, the output scheme is rolling adjusted in the real-time stage based on the ultrashort-term forecast value, and a closed-loop feedback mechanism is introduced to achieve accurate power balance. In each stage, stochastic decision-making is executed based on the stochastic scenario method, efficiently capturing the uncertainty in IEGS. Besides, the proposed nonlinear model is transformed into a mixed-integer second-order cone programming problem using McCormick relaxation, which can be efficiently solved by commercial solvers. Simulation results on IEEE39-Gas20 and IEEE118-GAS40 test systems demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method in operational economy and wind power utilization, and also verify the effectiveness of the method to accurately track random fluctuations without obvious computational burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional energy sharing is a promising way to alleviate the imbalance in energy distribution. However, there is a risk that the uncertain fluctuations of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) could be transmitted across regional transmissions, resulting in large-scale system economic inefficiency and security concerns. To this end, a unified spatial-temporal cooperative framework for the integrated energy system, which considers the coordination between intra-regional multi-energy coupling and cross-regional multi-agent-system energy sharing, is proposed in this paper. First, in the temporal dimension, a multi-time-scale stochastic decision-making model is established based on stochastic model predictive control (SMPC). Thus, slow-response units are arranged to gain economic goals in day-ahead stage and the closed-loop rolling adjustment is implemented on fast-response units to achieve accuracy supply-demand balance in real-time stage. Second, in the spatial dimension, a fully distributed dispatch approach is adopted to address the information sharing barriers, which only requires neighboring information and considers consistency of boundary control variables on border lines. Finally, to improve the computational efficiency, the established complex time sequential model is decomposed into a set of time-discrete parallel sub-problems, using the optimal condition decomposition (OCD) technique. Simulation results on a cross-regional test system demonstrate that proposed framework can increase the wind power consumption capacity and reduce operation cost through cross-regional cooperation, while the parallel decomposition can save 67.25 % of the computation time relative to the serial computation. • A novel unified spatial-temporal cooperative dispatching framework is proposed for the cross-regional IES. • A multi-time-scale rolling stochastic decision-making model is established to handle RES uncertainties. • The ADMM is implemented to achieve cross-regional rapid interactions iteration with only neighboring information. • The OCD is applied to decompose the complex spatial-temporal problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabidopsis roots grown on inclined agar surfaces exhibit unusual sinusoidal patterns known as root-waving. The origin of these patterns has been ascribed to both genetic and environmental factors. Here we propose a mechano-sensing model for root-waving, based on a combination of friction induced by gravitropism, the elasticity of the root and the anchoring of the root to the agar by thin hairs, and demonstrate its relevance to previously obtained experimental results. We further test the applicability of this model by performing experiments in which we measure the effect of gradually changing the inclination angles of the agar surfaces on the wavelength and other properties of the growing roots. We find that the observed dynamics is different than the dynamics reported in previous works, but that it can still be explained using the same mechano-sensing considerations. This is supported by the fact that a scaling relation derived from the model describes the observed dependence of the wavelength on the tilt angle for a large range of angles. We also compare the prevalence of waving in different plant species and show that it depends on root thickness as predicted by the model. The results indicate that waving can be explained using mechanics and gravitropism alone and that mechanics may play a greater role in root growth and form than was previously considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as a new class of crystalline, porous materials have attracted extensive attention in the fields of photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications. Generally, donor–acceptor (DA) structures play an important role in the charge separation efficiency of solar cells. In this study, two DA‐COFs with high crystallinity, good porosity, and excellent stability are incorporated into the FAPbI3 layer of perovskite solar cells. This addition of DA‐COFs reduces the defect concentration and shallows the defect state. The donor–acceptor system in COFs also possesses strong charge‐transfer pathway, which strongly prevents charge recombination to afford more efficient charge separation efficiency. The highest power‐conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells constructed with DA‐COFs is 23.19% with excellent humidity stability of the solar cells. Therefore, this work provides a pathway for using DA‐COFs to fabricate perovskite solar cells with higher efficiency and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, we used collar-mounted sensors to determine the home range size of free-ranging cats on a Chinese university campus. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked via attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. Throughout the study, home range sizes ranged from 0.56 to 19.83 ha at 95% KDE for all cats. The home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex; for example, male cats tend to have a larger home range size in the breeding season than in the non-breeding season, and in the breeding season, male cats generally have a larger home range than females. In the study of activity patterns, we provided the activity steps of free-ranging cats at different times of the day, and the mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. The results show that free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities. Human activities and the available resources influence the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats. Our objective in this study was to determine sex and breeding season vs. non-breeding season home range size, as well as activity patterns for unowned free-ranging cats at a university campus in China. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked with attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. We considered the effects of sex and breeding status on the home range size of free-ranging cats. Male cats had larger home ranges (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha) than female cats (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha) in the breeding season. There was a seasonal effect on the home range size of male cats; for example, during the non-breeding season, the home range (95% KDE: 6.68 ± 1.22 ha) was smaller than that during the breeding season (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha), while female cats tended to have larger home ranges in the non-breeding season (95% KDE: 7.73 ± 2.77 ha) than in the breeding season (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha). We used the number of activity steps to measure the activity intensity of cats to explore their activity patterns. The mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. There were two peak periods of activity in a day, 6:00–10:00 and 17:00–21:00. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and the results show that the home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex, and free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. The results provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The bacteria residing in donkey hindgut are clearly divided into two distinct ecological sites: liquid phase (Lq) and adherent fraction (Ad). Though both the Lq and Ad bacteria play an important role in feed digestion, the Ad bacteria have not previously been specifically sampled or directly compared with the Lq bacteria. The present study was conducted to comparatively analyze the bacterial community composition between the Lq and Ad fraction within the donkey caeco-colic ecosystem. The results showed that the relative abundance of Bacteroidota, Spirochaetota, Fibrobacterota and Patescibacteria in the Ad fraction was greater than the Lq fraction, indicating that bacteria associated with plant biomass are mainly responsible for plant fiber degradation. Regarding the genus level, the liquid phase presented higher abundance in Lactobacillus compared to Ad fraction. The activities of enzymes related to fiber degradation were predicted by PICRUSt, and they were also higher in Ad bacteria than Lq. In addition, the bacterial community composition was also distinct within the donkey caecum, ventral colon and dorsal colon. The present study provides evidence that bacteria adherent to feed particles may be better at plant fiber degradation than Lq bacteria due to the greater cellulolytic populations and activities. Donkey hindgut is an enlarged fermentative chamber that harbors a highly complex and extremely abundant community of anaerobic bacteria. It can be divided into two different ecological sites: liquid (Lq) phase and adherent fraction (Ad) colonized by bacteria. However, the Ad bacteria have not previously been specifically collected or directly compared with the Lq bacteria. In the present study, the digesta collected from the caecum, ventral colon and dorsal colon of nine Dezhou donkeys was separated into Lq and Ad fractions. The bacterial community structure was comparatively determined using 16S rRNA gene sequences by Illumina MiSeq. The Ad bacteria had a higher bacterial diversity than Lq bacteria due to the higher Chao and ACE index (p < 0.05). The predominant bacteria at the phylum level were Firmicutes (55.4~74.3%) and Bacteroidota (13.7~32.2%) for both the Lq and Ad fraction. The relative abundance of Bacteroidota, Spirochaetota, Fibrobacterota and Patescibacteria in the Ad fraction was greater than Lq (p < 0.05), suggesting that bacteria associated with feed particles were mainly responsible for plant fiber degradation. At the genus level, the abundance of Lactobacillus in Lq was greater than that in the Ad fraction (p < 0.05), indicating that the bacteria in the Lq fraction were better at hydrolyzing readily fermentable carbohydrates. PICRUSt showed that the activities of enzymes related to fiber degradation in the Ad fraction were also greater than Lq. In addition, the hindgut region also had a significant effect on the bacterial community composition. The relative abundance of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Christensenellaceae_R-7_group and norank_Bacteroidales_BS11_gut_group was increased (p < 0.05) along the donkey hindgut. In summary, the present study provides evidence that bacteria adherent to plant biomass were different to those in the liquid phase within the donkey caeco-colic digesta, and bacteria associated with feed particles may mainly be responsible for plant fiber degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new generation of porous materials, porous organic polymers (POPs), have recently emerged as a powerful platform of heterogeneous photocatalysis. POPs are constructed using extensive organic synthesis methodologies, with various functional organic units being connected via high-energy covalent bonds. This review systematically presents the recent advances in POPs for visible-light driven organic transformations. Herein, we firstly summarize the common construction strategies for POP-based photocatalysts based on two major approaches: pre-design and post-modification; secondly, we categorize and summarize the synthesis methods and organic reaction types for constructing various types of POPs. We then classify and introduce the specific reactions of current light-driven POP-mediated organic transformations. Finally, we outline the current state of development and the problems faced in light-driven organic transformations by POPs, and we present some perspectives to motivate the reader to explore solutions to these problems and confront the present challenges in the development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the problems that most existing emotion analysis models ignore the relationship between emotions and are not suitable for students, an emotion analysis model of teaching evaluation text based on deep learning is proposed. Firstly, combining the advantages of CNN extracting phrase features and BLSTM extracting sequence features, the CNN-BLSTM model is constructed to effectively enhance the extraction ability of text information. Then, the attention mechanism is used to adaptively perceive the context information, extract the text features that affect students' emotion, and construct the CNN-BLSTM-AT model. Finally, the CNN-BLSTM-AT model is used to analyze the students' emotion types in the dataset, and the mini-batch gradient descent method is used for model training. The experiment uses the weibo_senti_100k dataset to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model. The results show that adding the attention mechanism can improve the accuracy of the model by about 0.23. Also, its recall rate is not less than 0.57 and the minimum value of F1 is 0.748, which is better than other comparison models, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatio-temporally continuous surface air temperature (SAT) is a valuable input for many research fields such as environmental studies and hydrological models. Substantial efforts have been focused on mapping daily SAT using land surface temperature (LST) derived from polar-orbiting satellites such as NASA's Terra and Aqua. However, reconstruction of SAT at very high temporal scales such as sub-daily or hourly was carried out in very few studies, most of which are based on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites for small-scale areas with limited stations. In this study, we developed estimation schemes based on random forest for mapping hourly SAT over a large-scale region (CONUS) by blending LST datasets from the two-satellite system of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R) Series with the aim of reconstructing the hourly SAT maps with spatially uniform resolutions of about 2 km over CONUS. Estimation schemes with different variables were compared to evaluate the contributions of reanalysis variables and the hour of day (HOD) variable to model predicative performance, and the impacts of station density on model performance were also explored. We found that the model scheme with reanalysis variables and the scheme with HOD achieved higher predicative performance with the mean RMSE of 2.0 K and 2.5 K, respectively. Systematic predictive errors across the synoptic hours of a diurnal cycle are significantly reduced when considering HOD in the modeling of hourly SAT. The model scheme considering both reanalysis variables and HOD achieved the highest performance with a mean RMSE of 1.9 K. We observed that the influence of station density on model performance is related to types of cross-validation and model schemes, and that the uncertainty levels associated with the evaluation of predicative performance for the model schemes decrease with station density, which increases our confidence in the evaluation results for the schemes. Therefore, the mapping accuracy of hourly SAT over the large-scale area CONUS could be conservatively estimated to be 1.9–2.5 K using site-based cross-validation. We expect that this study will facilitate the further mapping of SAT at high-temporal scales over large-scale areas based on abundant and sustained observations from global systems of meteorological geostationary satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot deformation behavior of S34MnV steel was studied by isothermal compression tests. According to the experimental results, the influence of strain rate and deformation temperature on flow stress is analyzed. The results indicate that for S34MnV steel with same deformation, the flow stress decreases with the increase in deformation temperature when the strain rate is constant, and increases with the increase in strain rate when the temperature is fixed. It established that a five‐order polynomial Arrhenius‐type constitutive equation which based on strain compensation. The correlation coefficient R between the predicted value and the experimental value is 0.9943, and the average absolute relative error (AARE) (%) value is calculated to be 3.9749%. The dynamic material model (DMM) diagram of thermal processing map is also drawn to investigate the workability of S34MnV steel, and it suggests that the best thermal processing conditions for S34MnV steel are predicated to be within the strain rate range of 0.03–0.6 s−1 and deformation temperature range of 1030–1150 °C. In the suggested domains, the peak value of the power dissipation efficiency is between 34% and 39%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intense neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) before radical prostatectomy (RP) is an investigational approach to reduce recurrence rates in men with high-risk localized prostate cancer (PCa). The impact of germline DNA damage repair (gDDR) gene alterations on response to intense neoadjuvant ADT is not known. To evaluate the prevalence of gDDR alterations among men with localized PCa at high risk of recurrence and evaluate their impact on response to intense neoadjuvant ADT. We performed germline panel sequencing for 201 men with intermediate- and high-risk localized PCa from five randomized multicenter clinical trials of intense neoadjuvant ADT before RP. Intense neoadjuvant ADT followed by RP. The prevalence of pathogenic gDDR alterations and their association with exceptional pathologic response (complete response or minimal residual disease, defined as residual tumor with the largest cross-section dimension ≤5 mm) to intense neoadjuvant ADT and rates of post-RP biochemical recurrence. Pathogenic gDDR alterations were detected in 19 (9.5%) of the 201 PCa patients. The most frequently altered genes were BRCA2 (n = 6; 3.0%) and ATM (n = 4; 2.0%). Patients with gDDR alterations exhibited similar rates of exceptional pathologic response (26% vs 22%), pT3 disease (42% vs 53%), lymph node involvement (5.3% vs 10%), extraprostatic extension (35% vs 54%), and positive margins (5.3% vs 13%) to patients without gDDR alterations (all p > 0.05). The 3-yr biochemical recurrence–free survival was also similar at 45% (95% confidence interval 7.9–78%) for men with gDDR alterations and 55% (95% confidence interval 44–64%) for men without gDDR alterations. gDDR alterations are common among men with intermediate- and high-risk localized PCa. Men with gDDR alterations appear to have a comparable response to intense neoadjuvant ADT to that among men without gDDR alterations and should not be excluded from consideration for this treatment approach. Intense therapy to inhibit the production of androgen hormones (eg, testosterone) before surgery may minimize the risk of cancer recurrence for men with high-risk localized prostate cancer. Inherited mutations in certain DNA repair genes are associated with particularly high rates of recurrence. We found that men with these mutations respond equally well to this intense androgen inhibition before surgery as men without the mutations. We identified pathogenic germline DNA damage repair (gDDR) alterations in 10% of men with localized high-risk prostate cancer. Despite their association with aggressive disease, we observed comparable pathologic response rates to intense neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy before prostatectomy for men with versus without gDDR alterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of renewable energy resources are integrated into the integrated energy system (IES), which complicates the IES dispatching, especially for accommodating anti-peak-regulation of wind power. To cope with that, a day-ahead IES optimal dispatching method considering power to gas (P2G) units and dynamic pipeline networks is proposed in this article. First, by introducing P2G, an IES structure based on energy hub is established to implement bidirectional flow between power and natural gas systems. Second, the dynamic characteristic of gas pipelines is modeled with energy storage capability, which can improve the flexibility of the natural gas system by regulating the pressure level of pipeline networks. Furthermore, a cooperative dispatching strategy for P2G and pipeline storage capability is presented to catch the flexibility of IES, in which the unbalanced wind power is converted into natural gas and stored in pipeline networks. Finally, case study is verified on the modified IEEE39-NGS20-HS20 and IEEE118-NGS40-HS20 IES systems with different typical wind power scenarios. The proposed cooperative dispatching strategy can effectively increase wind power consumption and reduce operating cost of the whole system without high computation burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Assess pipe condition with hydrogen damage, internal pressure and axial compression. • Model stress filed distribution at corrosion defect on pipe with various conditions. • Find competition of hydrogen damage and metal loss in determining failure pressure. In this work, a 3D finite element (FE) based model was developed to assess the condition of an underground hydrogen transmission pipeline containing a corrosion defect under combined internal pressure and soil movement-induced axial compression. The use of mechanical properties of X100 pipeline steel under different hydrogen charging time models the degree of hydrogen damage in pipelines. Parameter effects, i.e., axial compressive stress, hydrogen damage, defect geometries, and pipeline diameter-to-thickness ratio, were determined. The results demonstrated that the synergistic effect of axial compression, internal pressure, corrosion, and hydrogen damage can lead to a significant decrease in the failure pressure of pipelines. The failure pressure decreased with the wall thickness reduction and increased hydrogen damage, axial compressive stress, defect length, defect depth, and pipe diameter. The competitive effect was observed between the degree of metal loss and hydrogen damage in determining the burst capacity of pipelines. In situations where the pipeline integrity was severely compromised, the failure pressure exhibited minimal reduction despite the increasing severity of hydrogen damage. The stress distribution at the defect zone was influenced by axial compressive stress but remained unaffected by hydrogen damage under normal operating conditions (i.e., an internal pressure of 10 MPa). This work is expected to help operators understand the applicability of elder and in-service pipelines for hydrogen transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fully-digital background timing mismatch calibration method for four-channel time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TIADC). Based on three improved dual-channel perfect reconstruction filter banks (PRFBs), the proposed method for correcting timing mismatch adopts the tree-structured four-channel PRFB. Unlike the direct four-channel PRFB, the improved structure utilizes fewer filter taps to achieve higher filter performance, making it suitable for real-time background calibration. Furthermore, timing mismatch is estimated by performing correlation calculations on the outputs of sub-channels with the variable step-size least mean squares (LMS) algorithm, being approximately eight times faster than the fixed step-size LMS algorithm. Our method verified by a 12-bit 3 GS/s TIADC test platform indicates that the spurs caused by the timing mismatch for single-tone and multi-tone signals can be effectively suppressed, close to 35 and 40 dB, respectively. The evaluation results on the Xilinx Vertix-7 VC707 platform indicate that the proposed method reduces FPGA hardware resources consumption by nearly 40% compared to the foreground pre-calibration method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fully-digital background calibration method for calibrating timing mismatch in dual-channel time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TIADC). The proposed method estimates timing mismatch by performing correlation calculations on the outputs of sub-channels and corrects this mismatch using the improved perfect reconstruction filter bank (PRFB). The PRFB, which is improved by employing a polynomial fitting method, offers superior performance with fewer filter taps and extends the timing mismatch correction capability to almost the entire sampling clock cycle. The improved PRFB uses only one twentieth of the taps used in the original PRFB, and its dual-channel FIR filters have anti-symmetric taps. To enhance the real-time calibration capability of the system, this paper gives a fully-parallel hardware structure for calibrating offset, gain, bandwidth, and timing mismatches. The effectiveness of the proposed hardware structure is verified through a 10-bit 3GS/s dual-channel TIADC test platform. Simulation and measurement results show that the proposed calibration method significantly improves the signal-to-noise-and-distortion (SNDR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of both single-tone and multi-tone input signals, which makes the proposed method a viable solution for practical TIADC applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, 1-(3,5-dimethylphenyl)-6-methyl-1H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]pyridin-4 (5H)-one (DPMPP) was investigated as an antiproliferative agent for prostate cancer cells and the mechanism of its action was studied. Cell lines 22Rv1 and SGC‑7901 were used as in vitro models of prostate cancer. The DPMPP treatment inhibited proliferation of 22Rv1 and SGC‑7901 cells in dose-depended manner. The viability of 22Rv1 and SGC‑7901 cells was reduced to 21 and 19%, respectively after treatment with 32 µM DPMPP. In DPMPP treated (16 µM) 22Rv1 and SGC‑7901 cells apoptosis increased to 62.78 and 68.51%, respectively. Moreover, DPMPP treatment caused cell cycle arrest in S phase and inhibition of PI3K/AKT activation. In the same time ROS production showed elevation and MMP (Matrix MetalloProteinase) decreased in the cells. Apparently DPMPP induces cytotoxicity through induction of oxidative response and apoptosis in prostate cancer cells in vitro. The PI3K/Akt/ERK phosphorylation was inhibited, while p21 and p53, death receptor, expression was promoted by DPMPP treatment. Therefore, DPMPP has a potential to be used as a therapeutic agent for treatment of prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a combined first-principles calculation and molecular dynamics simulation study of an excess electron (EE) in condensed phase of a microhydrated protonated amino group in proteins in this work. The protonated amino group, -NH3+, is modeled by a CH3NH3+ and an amount of water molecules are included to form various microhydrated CH3NH3+ clusters, and the states and the dynamics of the trapped EE are analyzed. In addition to the localized and delocalized states observed, the N-H/O-H bond cleavage phenomena followed by escape of a H atom are also observed for some hydrated clusters in which the -NH3+ group exposes on the surface of the cluster and directly participates in binding an EE. The state-to-state conversion is controlled by thermal motion of molecules in the clusters, and the cleavage of the N-H or the O-H bond and the H escape are determined by the binding modes of the EE. The H-escape nature could be attributed to the dissociation of the N-H or O-H bond induced by the trapped EE which transfers to their antibonding orbitals. This work provides a microscopical picture of the EE trapping at a microhydrated hydrophilic group in proteins, long-range electron migration, and the H-evolving mechanisms relevant for the lesions or damages of proteins or DNA. This is the first step in considering increasingly larger peptide fragments for further investigation of the detailed lesion/damage or charge migration mechanisms. Further work about this topic is underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify candidate genes for inheritable dentin defects in three Chinese pedigrees and characterize the property of affected teeth. Clinical and radiological features were recorded for the affected individuals. Genomic DNA obtained from peripheral venous blood or saliva were analyzed by whole-exome sequencing. The density and microhardness of affected dentin was measured. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also performed to obtain the microstructure phenotype. 1) General appearance: the affected dentitions shared yellowish-brown or milky color. Radiographs showed that the pulp cavity and root canals were obliterated in varying degrees or exhibited a pulp aspect in the 'thistle tube'. Some patients exhibited periapical infections without pulpal exposure, and some affected individuals showed shortened, abnormally thin roots accompanied by severe alveolar bone loss. 2) Genomic analysis: three new frameshift mutations (NM_014208.3: c.2833delA, c.2852delGand c.3239delA) were identified in exon 5 of dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) gene, altering dentin phosphoprotein (DPP) as result. In vitro studies showed that the density and microhardness of affected dentin were decreased, the dentinal tubules were sparse and arranged disorderly, and the dentinal-enamel-junction (DEJ) was abnormal. In this study, we identified three novel frameshift mutations of dentin sialophosphoprotein gene related to inherited dentin defects. These mutations are speculated to cause abnormal coding of dentin phosphoprotein C-terminus, which affect dentin mineralization. These results expand the spectrum of dentin sialophosphoprotein gene mutations causing inheritable dentin defects and broaden our understanding of the biological mechanisms by which dentin forms. • Three novel frameshift mutations of dentin sialophosphoprotein gene were identified. • The density and the microhardness of affected dentin were lower. • The affected dentinal tubules were sparse and arranged disorderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the large-scale integration of distributed generators (DGs), the relationships between transmission network (TN) and distribution networks (DNs) are becoming more closely, especially in the aspects of reactive power and voltage. Optimal reactive power flow (ORPF) problems for TN and DNs are not suitable to be solved independently. Due to the fact that TN and DNs are operated by different control centers, a heterogeneous decomposition (HGD) based distributed ORPF method for global transmission and distribution (T&D) networks is presented in this paper. Considering the characteristics of the master–slave structure, the global T&D-ORPF problem can be decomposed into the TN-ORPF master sub-problem, the DN-ORPF slave sub-problems and the boundary consistency coordination sub-problem. Any of those optimization algorithms based on duality and gradient theory can be adopted to solve the TN-ORPF or DN-ORPF sub-problems. By incorporating a penalty function into optimization algorithm, the discrete control variables can successively discretized and therefore the augmented Lagrangian functions are differentiable. Boundary sensitivities constructed by the boundary dual multipliers are used to decouple the global ORPF problem of T&D networks. The same solution as the centralized optimization is achieved by transferring the boundary variables and sensitivities between the TN control center and DN control centers. The simulation results of IEEE 30-bus (TN) and modified IEEE 33-bus (DN) test systems containing multiple DGs show that the HGD algorithm is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) was employed to measure the absorption spectra for three types of dyestuff at the frequency range of 0.3–2.2 THz. The raw spectra data were implemented dimensionality reduction by using principal component analysis (PCA). Depending on the weak cluster trend determined by the score plot, different levels of Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothing combined with PCA processing was performed for elevating the recognition rate. The recognition effects were assessed by fuzzy c-means (FCM) and k-means clustering techniques, which consistently demonstrated the combination of polynomial order 1 and window size 5 for SG smoothing achieved the highest accuracy of 94.44%. For k-means and FCM clustering, the identification accuracies of raw spectra were 87.5% and 84.72% respectively, suggesting the elevation recognition rate by using SG smoothing with polynomial order 1 and window size 5. Our results suggested SG smoothing coupled with PCA was a potent method to cope with THz spectra recognition for dyestuffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) is one of the most devastating viruses infecting members of the family Cucurbitaceae. The assembly initiation site of CGMMV is located in the coding region of the coat protein, which is not only involved in virion assembly but is also a key factor determining the long-distance movement of the virus. To understand the effect of assembly initiation site and the adjacent region on CGMMV infectivity, we created a GTT deletion mutation in the GAGGTTG assembly initiation site of the infectious clone of CGMMV, which we termed V97 (deletion mutation at residue 97 of coat protein), followed by the construction of the V94A and T104A mutants. We observed that these three mutations caused mosaic after Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in Nicotiana benthamiana, albeit with a significant delay compared to the wild type clone. The mutants also had a common spontaneous E96K mutation in the coat protein. These results indicated that the initial assembly site and the sequence of the adjacent region affected the infectivity of the virus and that E96 might play an essential role in this process. We constructed two single point mutants--E96A and E96K--and three double mutants--V94A-E96K, V97-E96K and T104A-E96K--to further understand the role of E96 in CGMMV pathogenesis. After inoculation in N. benthamiana, E96A showed delayed systemic symptoms, but the E96K and three double mutants exhibited typical symptoms of mosaic at seven days post-infection. Then, sap from CGMMV-infected N. benthamiana leaves was mechanically inoculated on watermelon plants. We confirmed that E96 affected CGMMV infection using double antibody sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and sequencing, which further confirmed the successful infection of the related mutants, and that E96K can compensate the effect of the V94, V97, and T104 mutations on virus infectivity. In addition, Northern blotting showed that the accumulation of viral RNA corroborated the severity of the symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon was synthesized in a controlled manner by a modified deep eutectic solvent method using silica nanoparticles as templates. Various amounts of urea and glucose, which contain hydrogen acceptor and hydrogen bond donor groups were heated and stirred to form homogeneous liquid precursors like deep eutectic solvents, and nitrogen element was uniformly dispersed on an atom scale. Ni-Mo sulfides supported on mesoporous carbon with varying N dopping exhibit excellent hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalytic performance such as high conversion and good recycling stability in the HDS of dibenzenethiophene. Further investigation showed that a suitable N content in the carbon support enhance the HDS properties and the HDS conversion could reach up to 96%. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Triallylamine was discovered as a liquid etchant to revive the aged CsPbBr 3 QDs. • The etching removal of under-coordinated Pb ions from the aged QDs was characterized by XPS, ICP-OES, and SEM-EDS. • The aged CsPbBr 3 QDs were obtained near-unity PLQY after reviving. All-inorganic halide perovskite quantum dots are widely known to suffer luminescence degradation owing to their intrinsic instability in atmospheric circumstances. Their high surface energy and weak internal ionic bonding could result in quantum dot agglomeration and structural degradation. In this work, we demonstrate that triallylamine is an efficient recovery agent to reignite the luminescence emission of aged CsPbBr 3 quantum dots. The aged CsPbBr 3 quantum dots re-emit bright green light instantly after triallylamine etching. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate a noticeable decrease of surface under-coordinated Pb ions content, leading to surface re-healing and photoluminescence quantum yields increasing. The unique emission recovery could reveal the details of CsPbBr 3 quantum dot surface variety and facilitate the development of perovskite quantum dot display devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct activation of the pro-apoptotic protein BAX represents a potential therapeutic strategy to trigger apoptosis in cancer. Herein, structural optimization of the reported BAX trigger site activator BTSA1 turned out into a series of pyrazolone derivatives, where compound 6d exhibited significantly enhanced antiproliferative effects and apoptosis induction ability compared to BTSA1. Mechanism of action studies revealed that compound 6d could initiate the BAX activation cascade, promoting BAX insertion into mitochondrial membranes and activating MOMP, ultimately leading to the release of cytochrome c and apoptosis. Furthermore, 6d showed significantly improved in vitro stability and CYPs profile compared to BTSA1. This work may lay a foundation to develop potent BAX trigger site activators for the treatment of BAX-expressing malignancies. [Display omitted] • A series of pyrazolone derivatives were designed and synthesized by optimization of BAX activator BTSA1. • The most potent compound 6d showed enhanced antiproliferative effects and apoptosis-inducing ability compared to BTSA1. • Compound 6d induced conformation activation of BAX leading to BAX-mediated apoptosis similar to BTSA1 in A549 cells. • Compound 6d displayed improved in vitro stability and CYPs profile compared to BTSA1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Dezhou donkey is divided into two strains namely the Wutou and Sanfen. • Both the birth weight and body height of Wutou was greater than Sanfen. • The Brody model was selected as the best model for fitting the growth curve. • Stepwise regression equation was established for donkey body weight prediction. Dezhou donkey, divided into Wutou and Sanfen strains, is one of the largest local breeds in China, famous for its tall and muscular body. Information regarding the growth and development indicators in Dezhou donkeys is limited. The present study explored the growth and development pattern of body weight (BW) and body measurements in the growing Dezhou breed donkey. The linear and non-linear models fitted the growth curve for Dezhou donkeys, and the stepwise regression equations for estimating BW were also developed. Both the birth weight and body height (BH) of Wutou were greater than Sanfen donkey (P < 0.05). With the age and BW increasing, the body measurements, including BH, body length (BL), thoracic girth (TG) and cannon bone girth (CG), increased accordingly. The Brody model was selected as the best model for fitting the growth curve with the highest R2 (0.991) and lowest AIC (2418.7) and RMSE (5.12). The parameter ' k ' of the Sanfen donkey was lower in comparison with the Wutou donkey, suggesting that Wutou achieved asymptotic weight earlier than the Sanfen donkey. The stepwise regression analysis was conducted to obtain the best prediction equations for BW of Dezhou donkeys from body measurements: 1.34 × TG + 0.59 × BH + 0.45 × BL + 2.45 × CG –170.3 (R2 = 0.962, P < 0.01). In summary, the present study provided evidence that the growth rate of the Wutou donkey is faster than that of Sanfen, and both of them fitted the Brody growth curve from birth time to 18-month-old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a fully digital background calibration technique of timing mismatch in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADCs). The timing mismatch is estimated by the correlation function of adjacent channels' digital outputs. The proposed estimation method is suitable for an arbitrary number of channels. Compared with the traditional fixed step-size least mean square (LMS) algorithm, a variable step-size iteration algorithm is adopted to ensure accurate estimation parameters and fast convergence speed. A coarse-fine correction structure based on two-order Taylor series is proposed to satisfy the high-precision correction. Simulation results show that the proposed calibration technique increases the signal-to-noise-and-distortion (SNDR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) from 30.18 and 30.69 dB to 79.69 and 93.94 dB, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A series of Bcl-2/Mcl-1 dual inhibitors with indole scaffold were designed and synthesized. • The most potent compound 12f showed sub-micromolar binding affinities to Bcl-2/Mcl-1 without binding affinity to Bcl-X L. • Compound 12f exhibited anti-proliferative activity and dose-dependently triggered apoptosis in HL-60 cells. The Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins were widely overexpressed in diverse tumor cells, especially for Bcl-2 and Mcl-1, which regarding as important targets of apoptosis induction and resistance of chemotherapy. We identified novel Bcl-2/Mcl-1 dual inhibitors with indole scaffold by the optimization of hit 1. Structure modification against several moieties including hydrophobic fragment, side chain and benzoic acid fragment was conducted and the structure-activity relationship was analyzed. The representative compound 12f exhibited sub-micromolar binding affinities to Bcl-2/Mcl-1 without binding affinity to Bcl-X L. Mechanism of action studies suggested that compound 12f dose-dependently triggered apoptosis in HL-60 cells. Compound 12f represents a novel Bcl-2/Mcl-1 dual inhibitor which deserving further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR), produced and released by hepatocytes, has cytoprotective and immunoregulatory effects on liver injury, and has been used in many experimental applications. However, little attention has been paid to the effects of ALR on concanavalin A (Con A)-induced hepatitis. The purpose of this paper is to explore the protective effect of ALR on Con A-induced hepatitis and elucidate potential mechanisms. We found that the ALR pretreatment evidently reduced the amount of ALT and AST in serum. In addition, pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and iNOS were suppressed. ALR pretreatment also decreased CD4 + , CD8 + T cell infiltration in liver. Besides, we observed that ALR pretreatment was capable of suppressing the activation of several signaling pathways in Con A-induced hepatitis. These findings suggest that ALR can obviously weaken Con A-induced hepatitis and ALR has some certain immune regulation function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The donkey hindgut is a microbial-rich ecosystem in which caecum and colon fungi play an important role in dietary fiber degradation. In addition, the fibrolytic enzymes produced by hindgut microorganisms are key to the ability of equines to hydrolysis plant fiber. In the present study, the fibrolytic enzyme activities within donkey caecum and colon were firstly measured by spectrophotometry. The dorsal colon presented a higher fibrolytic enzyme activity in comparison with caecum. The fungal community composition along donkey caecum and colon was determined by sequencing an internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) using Illumina MiSeq. The predominant fungi at phylum level were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Neocallimastigomycota. The Aspergillus, Wallemia, Phanerochaete, Fusarium, and Penicillium were detected as the dominant genera, but their metabolic and functional significance in donkey cecum-colon ecosystem need further investigation. In terms of the anaerobic fungi Neocallimastigomycota, its abundance was greater in donkey colon than in caecum. The relative abundance of enzymes related to plant cell wall breakdown were also predicted by PICRUSt, and they were also greater in donkey colon than in caecum. The present study provided new information about fibrolytic enzyme profiles and fungal communities in donkey hindgut. The findings could therefore contribute to the further understanding of the fungal taxa and their dietary fiber degradation mechanisms in donkey hindgut ecosystem. The fibrolytic enzymes and the hindgut fungi in donkey cecum-colon ecosystem play an important role in dietary fiber digestion. A better understanding of the fibrolytic enzyme profiles and the fungal community along donkey caecum and colon is key for optimizing hindgut function. In the present study, the fibrolytic enzyme activities within donkey caecum and colon were firstly measured by spectrophotometry. Activities of carboxymethyl cellulase, avicelase, xylanase, and acetyl esterase were greater in donkey dorsal colon than in caecum, indicating that the colon microorganisms may be more efficient in producing fibrolytic enzymes compared to caecum microbes. The fungal community composition along donkey hindgut was determined by sequencing ITS region using Illumina MiSeq. Three fungal phyla were identified by sequence comparison: Ascomycota (66.8%–74.4%), Basidiomycota (21.6%–30.9%), and Neocallimastigomycota (0.9%–3.3%). The Aspergillus, Wallemia, Phanerochaete, Fusarium, and Penicillium were detected as the dominant genera, but their metabolic and functional significance in donkey cecum-colon ecosystem need further investigation. In terms of the anaerobic fungi Neocallimastigomycota, its abundance was greater in donkey colon than in caecum (p < 0.05), indicating that the donkey hindgut region was associated with differences in fungal community composition. Moreover, the relative abundance of enzymes related to plant cell wall degradation were predicted by PICRUSt, and they were also lower in caecum than in colon. The present study provided new information about fibrolytic enzyme profiles and fungal composition in donkey hindgut ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescent nucleobase analogs have attracted much attention in recent years due to their potential applications in nucleic acids research. In this work, four new size-expanded RNA base analogs were computationally designed and their structural, electronic, and optical properties are investigated by means of DFT calculations. The results indicate that these analogs can form stable Watson–Crick base pairs with natural counterparts and they have smaller ionization potentials and HOMO–LUMO gaps than natural ones. Particularly, the electronic absorption spectra and fluorescent emission spectra are calculated. The calculated excitation maxima are greatly red-shifted compared with their parental and natural bases, allowing them to be selectively excited. In gas phase, the fluorescence from them would be expected to occur around 526, 489, 510, and 462 nm, respectively. The influences of water solution and base pairing on the relevant absorption spectra of these base analogs are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are interested in developing oncolytic adenoviruses for the treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) bone metastases. A key limitation of Adenovirus 5 (Ad5) is that upon systemic administration, it produces major liver and systemic toxicities. To address this issue, a chimaeric Ad5/48 adenovirus mHAd.sTβRFc was created. Seven hypervariable regions of Ad5 hexon present in Ad5-based Ad.sTβRFc expressing soluble transforming growth factor beta receptorII-Fc fusion protein (sTGβRIIFc), were replaced by those of Ad48. mHAd.sTβRFc, like Ad.sTβRFc, was replication competent in the human PCa cells, and produced high levels of sTGβRIIFc expression. Compared to Ad.sTβRFc, the systemic delivery of mHAd.sTβRFc in nude mice resulted in much reduced systemic toxicity, and reduced liver sequestration. Ad.sTβRFc produced significant liver necrosis, and increases in alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-6 levels, while mHAd.sTβRFc produced much reduced responses of these markers. Intravenous delivery of Ad.sTβRFc or mHAd.sTβRFc (5 × 1010 viral particles/mouse) in nude mice bearing PC-3-luc PCa bone metastases produced inhibition of bone metastases. Moreover, a larger dose of the mHAd.sTβRFc (4 × 1011 viral particles /mouse) was also effective in inhibiting bone metastases. Thus, mHAd.sTβRFc could be developed for the treatment of PCa bone metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apoptosis is the major mode of programmed cell death, which conduces to maintain tissue homeostasis, clearance of abnormal cells and development of organisms. Over the past two decades, great progress and significant clinical benefits in cancer treatment have been made by targeting Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins. However, with the deep research of clinic, the therapeutic value of single target inhibitors is restricted due to the limited monotherapy activity, potential and complex drug resistance as well as monotherapy safety. This review focuses on recent advance in discovery of novel apoptosis inducers targeting Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins aiming to overcome existing therapeutic limitations, and introduce the strategies and advanced technologies in the drug design and optimization. [Display omitted] • Multiple novel modalities targeting Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins has emerged recently. • Diverse advanced technologies have been applied in this field for the drug discovery. • Improving the therapeutic value and overcome the drug resistance are the further trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] KIN is significantly upregulated in CRC cell lines and clinical specimens. [•] Upregulated KIN associates with metastatic status and poor prognosis of CRC patients. [•] Ectopic expression of KIN promotes chemoresistance of CRC cells. [•] Ectopic expression of KIN enhances stem cell-like properties of CRC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To discover candidate biomarkers for diagnosis and detection of human laryngeal carcinoma and explore possible mechanisms of this cancer carcinogenesis, two-dimensional strong cation-exchange/reversed-phase nano-scale liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis was used to identify differentially expressed proteins between the laryngeal carcinoma tissue and the adjacent normal tissue. As a result, 281 proteins with significant difference in expression were identified, and four differential proteins, Profilin-1 (PFN1), Nucleolin (NCL), Cytosolic non-specific dipeptidase (CNDP2) and Mimecan (OGN) with different subcellular localization were selectively validated. Semiquantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the expression of the four proteins employing a large collection of human laryngeal carcinoma tissues, and the results validated the differentially expressed proteins identified by the proteomics. Furthermore, we knocked down PFN1 in immortalized human laryngeal squamous cell line Hep-2 cells and then the proliferation and metastasis of these transfected cells were measured. The results showed that PFN1 silencing inhibited the proliferation and affected the migration ability of Hep-2 cells, providing some new insights into the pathogenesis of PFN1 in laryngeal carcinoma. Altogether, our present data first time show that PFN1, NCL, CNDP2 and OGN are novel potential biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic targets for laryngeal carcinoma, and PFN1 is involved in the metastasis of laryngeal carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hydrothermal method has been successfully used to synthesize a spheroidic zinc doped Li4Ti5O12 (Li3.95Zn0.05Ti5O12) with large specific surface area. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) are used to characterize the structure and morphology. The electrochemical properties are measured by the galvanostatic method and the results demonstrate that the Li4Ti3.95Zn0.05O12 has a large discharge capacity of 182.45mAh/g at 0.1C. With the favorable transport channel caused by the doped Zn2+, the Li3.95Zn0.05Ti5O12 exhibits an enhanced high rate capacity of 122.38mAh/g and better cyclic stability at 10C, which is promising for application in lithium ion batteries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Second, third and fourth cervical vertebrae edges are considered as important reference scales in dysphagia assessment. • The performance of a deep learning model is robust for the edge points' localization. • Model shows robust on unseen clinical data collected via different videofluoroscopic machines and shows high reliability compared to expert raters. [Display omitted] Judging swallowing kinematic impairments via videofluoroscopy represents the gold standard for the detection and evaluation of swallowing disorders. However, the efficiency and accuracy of such a biomechanical kinematic analysis vary significantly among human judges affected mainly by their training and experience. Here, we showed that a novel machine learning algorithm can with high accuracy automatically detect key anatomical points needed for a routine swallowing assessment in real-time. We trained a novel two-stage convolutional neural network to localize and measure the vertebral bodies using 1518 swallowing videofluoroscopies from 265 patients. Our network model yielded high accuracy as the mean distance between predicted points and annotations was 4.20 ± 5.54 pixels. In comparison, human inter-rater error was 4.35 ± 3.12 pixels. Furthermore, 93% of predicted points were less than five pixels from annotated pixels when tested on an independent dataset from 70 subjects. Our model offers more choices for speech language pathologists in their routine clinical swallowing assessments as it provides an efficient and accurate method for anatomic landmark localization in real-time, a task previously accomplished using an off-line time-sinking procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Lithium titanate (Li4Ti5O12) microsphere has been successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) are used to characterize the structure and morphology of the prepared Li4Ti5O12 crystallites. The results show that the as-synthesized powders exhibit outstanding rate capacities and excellent cycling performance. The first discharge capacity at 0.1C is 172.5mAhg−1, which is close to the theoretical capacity of 175mAh/g. After 50 cycles, the efficiency of the synthesized Li4Ti5O12 still retains up to 92.8% at 0.1C and 95.2% at 0.5C of its initial value, which present a promising applications as anode materials for lithium ion batteries in hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Spheroidic spinel Li4Ti5O12 has been synthesized by a facile method and following calcinations at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) are used to characterize the structure and morphology of the as-prepared products. Galvanostatic method is used to test the electrochemical properties, and the results show that the spheroidic Li4Ti5O12 calcinated at 600°C exhibits an outstanding capability of 175.45mAh/g at 0.1°C for the first cycle. The capacity retention after 40 cycles is 96.45%, indicating potential application for lithium ion batteries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a new generation of display technology, micro-LED demonstrates the advantages of high brightness, low energy consumption, long life, and self-luminous. However, the technical bottlenecks, such as difficulties in achieving highefficiency full-color displays, have hindered their industrialization processes and popularity. The full-color display is a crucial technology for the commercialization of micro-LED. However, with the high degree of integration and miniaturization of LED chips, the mass transfer of RGB chips to the same substrate for achieving full-color display has resulted in high costs and low yields. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover a simpler and more efficient method for full-color display. This paper provides an overview of micro-LED micro-display device fabrication technologies and several methods for achieving full-color displays, focusing on the quantum dots color conversion layer method, the RGB direct alignment method, the special structure method, and the optical lens method. The technical challenges and development trends of micro-LED micro-displays are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]