Hongyu Wang

Myocyte loss in the ischemically injured mammalian heart often leads to irreversible deficits in cardiac function. To identify a source of stem cells capable of restoring damaged cardiac tissue, we transplanted highly enriched hematopoietic stem cells, the so-called side population (SP) cells, into lethally irradiated mice subsequently rendered ischemic by coronary artery occlusion for 60 minutes followed by reperfusion. The engrafted SP cells (CD34(-)/low, c-Kit(+), Sca-1(+)) or their progeny migrated into ischemic cardiac muscle and blood vessels, differentiated to cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells, and contributed to the formation of functional tissue. SP cells were purified from Rosa26 transgenic mice, which express lacZ widely. Donor-derived cardiomyocytes were found primarily in the peri-infarct region at a prevalence of around 0.02% and were identified by expression of lacZ and alpha-actinin, and lack of expression of CD45. Donor-derived endothelial cells were identified by expression of lacZ and Flt-1, an endothelial marker shown to be absent on SP cells. Endothelial engraftment was found at a prevalence of around 3.3%, primarily in small vessels adjacent to the infarct. Our results demonstrate the cardiomyogenic potential of hematopoietic stem cells and suggest a therapeutic strategy that eventually could benefit patients with myocardial infarction.

Summary Maize ARGOS 8 is a negative regulator of ethylene responses. A previous study has shown that transgenic plants constitutively overexpressing ARGOS 8 have reduced ethylene sensitivity and improved grain yield under drought stress conditions. To explore the targeted use of ARGOS 8 native expression variation in drought‐tolerant breeding, a diverse set of over 400 maize inbreds was examined for ARGOS 8 mRNA expression, but the expression levels in all lines were less than that created in the original ARGOS 8 transgenic events. We then employed a CRISPR ‐Cas‐enabled advanced breeding technology to generate novel variants of ARGOS 8 . The native maize GOS 2 promoter, which confers a moderate level of constitutive expression, was inserted into the 5′‐untranslated region of the native ARGOS 8 gene or was used to replace the native promoter of ARGOS 8. Precise genomic DNA modification at the ARGOS 8 locus was verified by PCR and sequencing. The ARGOS 8 variants had elevated levels of ARGOS 8 transcripts relative to the native allele and these transcripts were detectable in all the tissues tested, which was the expected results using the GOS 2 promoter. A field study showed that compared to the WT , the ARGOS 8 variants increased grain yield by five bushels per acre under flowering stress conditions and had no yield loss under well‐watered conditions. These results demonstrate the utility of the CRISPR ‐Cas9 system in generating novel allelic variation for breeding drought‐tolerant crops.

Abstract Single‐atom catalysts (SACs), as homogeneous catalysts, have been widely explored for chemical catalysis. However, few studies focus on the applications of SACs in enzymatic catalysis. Herein, we report that a zinc‐based zeolitic‐imidazolate‐framework (ZIF‐8)‐derived carbon nanomaterial containing atomically dispersed zinc atoms can serve as a highly efficient single‐atom peroxidase mimic. To reveal its structure–activity relationship, the structural evolution of the single‐atom nanozyme (SAzyme) was systematically investigated. Furthermore, the coordinatively unsaturated active zinc sites and catalytic mechanism of the SAzyme are disclosed using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The SAzyme, with high therapeutic effect and biosafety, shows great promises for wound antibacterial applications.

In mammalian cultured cells, the cystine/glutamate exchange transport mediated by system xc− is important to maintain intracellular GSH levels. System xc− consists of two protein components, xCT and the heavy chain of 4F2 antigen. The activity of system xc− is induced by various stimuli, including electrophilic agents like diethyl maleate. In the present study, we have investigated the mechanism of the transcriptional regulation of xCT mRNA by diethyl maleate. The xCT gene consisted of twelve exons and sequence analysis identified four electrophile response element (EpRE)-like sequences between −230 and −1 in the 5′-flanking region, designated EpRE-1 to EpRE-4. To identify sequences mediating the constitutive and induced expression of xCT, a series of 5′-deletion mutants created from the 5′-flanking region were cloned into a luciferase reproter vector and transfected into BHK21 cells. The 5′-deletion analysis revealed that the sequence between −116 and −82 is essential for the basal expression and the sequence between −226 and −116 containing EpRE-1 is essential in response to diethyl maleate. Mutational analysis demonstrated that EpRE-1 is critically involved in the response to diethyl maleate. Other stress agents like arsenite, cadmium, and hydroquinone seemed to induce system xc−activity via the same sequence. Furthermore, the experiments using the mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from the Nrf2-deficient mice revealed that the induction of xCT gene by electrophilic agents is mediated by Nrf2. EpRE occurs in a broad spectrum of genes for the proteins that are involved in the defense against xenobiotics and regulates their expression. The present results have demonstrated that xCT is a novel member of this protein family. In mammalian cultured cells, the cystine/glutamate exchange transport mediated by system xc− is important to maintain intracellular GSH levels. System xc− consists of two protein components, xCT and the heavy chain of 4F2 antigen. The activity of system xc− is induced by various stimuli, including electrophilic agents like diethyl maleate. In the present study, we have investigated the mechanism of the transcriptional regulation of xCT mRNA by diethyl maleate. The xCT gene consisted of twelve exons and sequence analysis identified four electrophile response element (EpRE)-like sequences between −230 and −1 in the 5′-flanking region, designated EpRE-1 to EpRE-4. To identify sequences mediating the constitutive and induced expression of xCT, a series of 5′-deletion mutants created from the 5′-flanking region were cloned into a luciferase reproter vector and transfected into BHK21 cells. The 5′-deletion analysis revealed that the sequence between −116 and −82 is essential for the basal expression and the sequence between −226 and −116 containing EpRE-1 is essential in response to diethyl maleate. Mutational analysis demonstrated that EpRE-1 is critically involved in the response to diethyl maleate. Other stress agents like arsenite, cadmium, and hydroquinone seemed to induce system xc−activity via the same sequence. Furthermore, the experiments using the mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from the Nrf2-deficient mice revealed that the induction of xCT gene by electrophilic agents is mediated by Nrf2. EpRE occurs in a broad spectrum of genes for the proteins that are involved in the defense against xenobiotics and regulates their expression. The present results have demonstrated that xCT is a novel member of this protein family. GSH plays a prominent role in a cellular defense against reactive oxygen species and electrophiles. In mammalian cultured cells, we have previously characterized an anionic amino acid transport system, designated system xc−, which mediates cystine influx coupled with the efflux of intracellular glutamate (1Bannai S. Kitamura E. J. Biol. Chem. 1980; 255: 2372-2376Google Scholar, 2Watanabe H. Bannai S. J. Exp. Med. 1987; 165: 628-640Google Scholar). The intracellular GSH levels rapidly decrease by inhibiting the transport of cystine or depleting cystine from the culture medium (3Cho Y. Bannai S. J. Neurochem. 1990; 55: 2091-2097Google Scholar). Therefore, this cystine/glutamate exchange transporter contributes to the maintenance of intracellular GSH levels (4Bannai S. Tateishi N. J. Membr. Biol. 1986; 89: 1-8Google Scholar). The activity of system xc− is significantly induced by various stimuli, including diethyl maleate (DEM), 1The abbreviations used are: DEM, diethyl maleate; 4F2hc, 4F2 heavy chain; EpRE, electrophile response element; Nrf2, NF-E2-related factor 2; BSO, buthionine sulfoximine; γ-GCS, γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography; RACE, rapid amplification of cDNA ends. arsenite, cadmium chloride, hydrogen peroxide, bacterial lipopolysaccharide, and TNF-α1 in mouse peritoneal macrophages (5Bannai S. Sato H. Ishii T. Sugita Y. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 1991; 1092: 175-179Google Scholar, 6Sato H. Fujiwara K. Sagara J. Bannai S. Biochem. J. 1995; 310: 547-551Google Scholar). Concomitantly, intracellular GSH levels are increased, suggesting that system xc− is fallen into the category of the stress proteins that are required for the metabolic response to oxidative stress. System xc− is composed of two proteins, xCT and the heavy chain of 4F2 cell surface antigen (4F2hc) (7Sato H. Tamba M. Ishii T. Bannai S. J. Biol. Chem. 1999; 274: 11455-11458Google Scholar). 4F2hc is predicted to have a single transmembrane domain and has been recently demonstrated to be the common component of some amino acid transporters such as systems L and y+L for the functional membrane expression of the counterpart protein components (8Verrey F. Meier C. Rossier G. Kühn L.C. Pflügers Arch. Eur. J. Physiol. 2000; 440: 503-512Google Scholar). xCT has 12 putative transmembrane domains, suggesting that xCT itself mediates the transport activity. There is a family of enzymes called phase II detoxifying enzymes, which function as intracellular detoxication systems for mutagens, carcinogens, and other toxic compounds. The genes of these enzymes contain the cis-acting element, designated as electrophile response element (EpRE), also referred as antioxidant responsive element, responsible for the induction by electrophilic agents (9Rushmore T.H. King R.G. Paulson K.E. Pickett C.R. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1990; 87: 3826-3830Google Scholar, 10Friling R.S. Bensimon A. Tichauer Y. Daniel V. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1990; 87: 6258-6262Google Scholar, 11Favreau L.V. Pickett C.B. J. Biol. Chem. 1991; 266: 4556-4561Google Scholar). Previous studies showed that the presence of a core sequence of 5′-RTGACnnnGC-3′ was necessary for an EpRE to be functional (12Rushmore T.H. Morton M.R. Pickeet C.B. J. Biol. Chem. 1991; 266: 11632-11639Google Scholar). Recently, Wasserman and Fahl (13Wasserman W.W. Fahl W.E. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1997; 94: 5361-5366Google Scholar) have identified the additional sequence necessary to define a sufficient and functional EpRE. The Nrf2 has been demonstrated to be an essential transcription factor for the expression of genes encoding the phase II enzymes, such as NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase and glutathioneS-transferase, by the electrophilic agents (14Itoh K. Chiba T. Takahashi S. Ishii T. Igarashi K. Katoh Y. Oyake T. Hayashi N. Satoh K. Hatayama I. Yamamoto M. Nabeshima Y. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1997; 236: 313-322Google Scholar). When cells are treated with electrophilic agents, Nrf2 translocates to the nucleus, binds to EpRE in the presence of small Maf, another transcription factor, and up-regulates EpRE-mediated transcription (15Itoh K. Wakabayashi N. Katoh Y. Ishii T. Igarashi K. Engel J.D. Yamamoto M. Gene Dev. 1999; 13: 76-86Google Scholar). Previously, we demonstrated that in the macrophages derived from Nrf2-deficient mice the activity of system xc− was not induced by the electrophilic and oxidative stress agents, although promoter sequences for xCT were not known at that time (16Ishii T. Itoh K. Takahashi S. Sato H. Yanagawa T. Katoh Y. Bannai S. Yamamoto M. J. Biol. Chem. 2000; 275: 16023-16029Google Scholar). It is highly likely that the induction of xCT mRNA by electrophilic agents is mediated via EpRE. In the present study, the gene for xCT has been isolated, and the function of 5′-flanking region of the gene has been analyzed. The data indicate that several EpRE-like sequences exist in the 5′-flanking region of xCT gene and that various electrophilic agents induce the expression of xCT mRNA via one of these sequences. l-[14C]Cystine was obtained from PerkinElmer Life Sciences. Monobromobimane was purchased from Molecular Probes, Inc. (Eugene, OR). The luciferase assay kit (luciferase assay system with reporter lysis buffer) was from Promega (Madison, WI). BHK21 cells originated from Syrian hamster kidney were cultured routinely in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 2.5% fetal bovine serum at 37 °C in 5% CO2 and 95% air. The mouse embryonic fibroblasts from wild type and Nrf2-deficient mice (14Itoh K. Chiba T. Takahashi S. Ishii T. Igarashi K. Katoh Y. Oyake T. Hayashi N. Satoh K. Hatayama I. Yamamoto M. Nabeshima Y. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1997; 236: 313-322Google Scholar) were prepared from 13.5 day embryos as described previously (17Tiemann F. Deppert W. Oncogene. 1994; 9: 1907-1915Google Scholar). The cells were cultured in Iscove's modified Dulbecco's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 10 ng/ml human recombinant epidermal growth factor, and 1 × insulin-transferrin-selenium-G supplement (Invitrogen) at 37 °C in 5% CO2 and 95% air. Cystine uptake was measured using techniques described previously (1Bannai S. Kitamura E. J. Biol. Chem. 1980; 255: 2372-2376Google Scholar). Cells were rinsed three times in warmed PBSG (10 mm phosphate-buffered saline (137 mm NaCl, 3 mm KCl), pH 7.4, containing 0.01% CaCl2, 0.01% MgCl2·6H2O and 0.1% glucose) and then incubated in 0.5 ml of the warmed uptake medium at 37 °C for specified time periods. The uptake medium was PBSG containing labeled cystine (0.1 μCi/0.5 ml). Uptake was terminated by rapidly rinsing the culture dishes three times with ice-cold PBS, and radioactivity associated with cell extracts was determined as described previously. Cystine uptake was determined under conditions approaching initial rates of uptake, i.e. measuring uptake for cystine at 120 s. The uptake of cystine increased linearly during this incubation interval. The cysteine content in the cells was determined by the method of Cotgreave and Moldéus (18Cotgreave I.A. Moldéus P. J. Biochem. Biophys. Methods. 1986; 13: 231-249Google Scholar) with a slight modification (19Sagara J. Miura K. Bannai S. J. Neurochem. 1993; 61: 1667-1671Google Scholar). The cells were rinsed three times with PBSG and incubated in the dark at room temperature for 10 min with 100 μl of 8 mmmonobromobimane in 50 mm N-ethylmorpholine, pH 8, and 100 μl of 50 mm phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.01% CaCl2, 0.01% MgCl2·6H2O, and 0.1% glucose. Then 10 μl of 100% trichloroacetic acid was added. The protein precipitate was removed by centrifugation at 3000 × g for 5 min, and aliquots were analyzed for cysteine-bimane adduct by HPLC. The HPLC separation was achieved on a steel column (4.6 × 100 mm) packed with 3-μm octadodecylsilica reversed-phase material. The fluorescence at 480 nm was monitored with the excitation at 394 nm. The elution was performed with 9% (v/v) acetonitrile in 0.25% (v/v) acetic acid, pH 3.7 for 8 min, and then with 75% (v/v) acetonitrile in water for 5 min. The flow rate was 1 ml/min throughout the process. Intracellular GSH was extracted with 5% trichloroacetic acid and then treated with ether to remove the acid. The GSH content in the aqueous layer was measured using an enzymatic method described previously (20Tietze F. Anal. Biochem. 1969; 27: 502-522Google Scholar), which is based on the catalytic action of GSH in the reduction of 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) by the GSH reductase system. The GSH extracted from the cells was mostly reduced GSH, and the content of the oxidized form, GSSG, was negligible throughout the experiments in this study. Mouse genomic library (Stratagene) was screened using mouse xCT cDNA as a probe. Twelve positive clones were isolated, and one of the clones, which contained exon 1 and 5′-flanking region of the gene, was subcloned into pBluescript. The length of each intron was deduced from the restriction map of the gene or from the length of PCR products using the primers containing the sequences of its 5′- and 3′-flanking exons. The transcription initiation site was determined using 5′-RACE System for Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends, version 2.0 (Invitrogen), and Primer Extension System (Promega) following the manufacturers' protocols, respectively. A 4.7-kbp fragment was produced from the clone containing the first exon of xCT gene and its 5′-flanking region by cutting out with SacII and NotI. A 0.7-kbp fragment was similarly produced with PstI. These fragments were subcloned into pBluescript and cut out with SacI for 4.7-kbp fragment and with XhoI and SacI for 0.7-kbp fragment, and subcloned into pGL3-Basic (Promega). For smaller fragments, the inserts were produced by PCR reaction using the primers containing mutations to generate appropriate restriction enzyme sites. The PCR products were cut out with the restriction enzymes and subcloned into pGL3-Basic. The constructs containing mutations in the EpRE-like sequence were produced using a QuikChangeTMsite-directed mutagenesis kit by following the manufacturer's protocol. The sequences of the final constructs were verified by dideoxynucleotide sequencing. BHK21 cells were transfected with the constructs using DEAE-dextran methods. Briefly, cells were plated at 2 × 106 cells/60-mm diameter dish. One day later, the culture medium was replaced with fresh one. After 4 h, the cells were washed twice with PBS and incubated at 37 °C for 4 h with 0.4 mg/ml DEAE-dextran solution containing 3.4 μg of pGL3-Basic or the constructs. To correct for transfection efficiency, 0.6 μg of the reporter plasmid pCMVβ (Clontech) containing thelacZ gene encoding β-galactosidase under the control of the human cytomegalovirus immediate-early promotor/enhancer was co-transfected with each constructs. Four hours after addition of DNA, cells were treated with the medium containing 0.15 mmchloroquine for 2 h and then maintained at 37 °C for an additional 12 h in complete medium. Then the medium was replaced with fresh one containing sodium arsenite, CdCl2, DEM, and hydroquinone. Twenty hours later, cells were harvested for determination of luciferase and β-galactosidase activity. The transfection of the constructs into the mouse embryonic fibroblasts was performed using the LipofectAMINE PLUS reagent by following the manufacturer's instruction. The cells were plated at 2 × 105 cells/35-mm diameter dish, incubated for 24 h, transfected with the constructs, and incubated for further 24 h. Then, the cells were incubated with DEM for 12 h, and the cystine transport activity or luciferase activity was measured, or the nuclear extract was prepared. The nuclear extract was prepared using Nu-ClearTM Extraction kit (Sigma) by following the manufacturer's instruction. For cell harvest, transfectants were washed twice with PBS and incubated at room temperature for 15 min in 160 μl of reporter lysis buffer (Promega). Cells were then scraped from the plates and the resulting lysates were vortexed, frozen in liquid nitrogen, thawed at room temperature, vortexed again, and centrifuged at 12,000 × g for 15 s at 4 °C. The supernatants were stored at −80 °C until measuring the activities of luciferase and β-galactosidase. Luciferase activity was measured using a luciferase assay system with reporter lysis buffer (Promega) following the manufacturer's protocol. β-Galactosidase activity was determined by the coloration assay usingo-nitrophenyl-β-d-galactopyranoside as a substrate. The relative luciferase activity was normalized for transfection efficiency on the basis of β-galactosidase activity and expressed as arbitrary units. The cDNA probes for mouse xCT, human 4F2hc, and mouse β-actin were labeled using [α-32P]dCTP and RediprimeTM II random prime labeling system (Amersham Biosciences). RNA was electrophoresed on a 1% agarose gel in the presence of 2.2 m formaldehyde, transferred to Hybond-N+ membrane (Amersham Biosciences), and hybridized in a solution containing 50% formamide for 16 h at 42 °C. The membranes were washed twice for 15 min at room temperature with 1 × SSC, 0.1% SDS and then washed twice for 15 min at 68 °C with 0.1 × SSC, 0.1% SDS. The nuclear extracts were lysed with SDS sample buffer (2% SDS, 10% glycerol, 50 mm Tris-HCl, pH 6.8, and 0.1 mm phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride. Sample total protein content was determined using the BCA protein assay reagents and 3% 2-mercaptoethanol was added. The samples containing equal concentration of protein were separated by 7.5% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and separated proteins were transferred to a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane and probed with polyclonal rabbit anti-mouse Nrf2 (16Ishii T. Itoh K. Takahashi S. Sato H. Yanagawa T. Katoh Y. Bannai S. Yamamoto M. J. Biol. Chem. 2000; 275: 16023-16029Google Scholar). A horseradish peroxidase conjugated with goat anti-rabbit secondary antibody was used in conjugation with enhanced chemiluninescence to visualize the Nrf2 bands on autoradiography film. Anti-lamin B antibody was purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. We investigated whether the activity of system xc− occurs in BHK21 cells and is induced by electrophilic agents. Untreated cells significantly took up cystine, and the activity of cystine transport was further increased by treating the cells with sodium arsenite, CdCl2, DEM, and hydroquinone (Fig. 1). These agents caused the maximum induction of the activity of cystine transport at the concentrations employed (data not shown). On the other hand, sodium arsenate and zinc chloride had no effects on the activity of system xc−. Although the activity of system xc− is induced by phorbol myristate acetate, lipopolysaccharide, and TNF-α in the mouse peritoneal macrophages (6Sato H. Fujiwara K. Sagara J. Bannai S. Biochem. J. 1995; 310: 547-551Google Scholar), these reagents had no effect on the activity of cystine transport in BHK21 cells. The cystine transport was strongly inhibited by glutamate and homocysteate but to a lesser extent by aspartate (Fig.2). Arginine and leucine were not inhibitory at all. In the cells treated with DEM, the pattern of the inhibition of the cystine transport was similar to that in untreated cells. From these results, we have concluded that the transport activity with the characteristics of system xc− is expressed in BHK21 cells and that the activity of system xc− is induced by DEM in these cells. Fig. 3 shows the expression of xCT and 4F2hc mRNAs in the cells cultured with DEM. The expression of xCT mRNA was strongly induced by DEM, whereas 4F2hc mRNA was relatively constant regardless of the presence of DEM. Intracellular cysteine levels were measured in these cells cultured with the stress agents. As shown in Fig.4 A, intracellular cysteine levels were increased concomitantly with the increase in the cystine transport activity in the cells treated with the stress agents. In these cells, intracellular GSH levels were also increased (Fig.4 B).Figure 2Effects of various amino acids on the uptake of cystine in BHK21 cells. Cells were incubated for 24 h after plating. Then, the cells were further incubated with or without 100 μm DEM for 12 h. The rate of uptake of 0.05 mm l-[14C]cystine was measured in the absence (Control) or presence of 2.5 mmamino acids indicated. Each point represents the means ‡ S.D. (n = 4) and is expressed as a percentage of the control uptake.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)Figure 3Expression of xCT and 4F2hc mRNAs in BHK21 cells cultured with diethyl maleate. Cells were incubated for 24 h after plating. Then, the cells were further incubated with or without 100 μm DEM for the time intervals indicated. Total RNA was isolated, and 10 μg each of the total RNA was loaded per lane. The hybridization was performed with32P-labeled cDNAs of mouse xCT, 4F2hc, and β-actin.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)Figure 4Intracellular cysteine and GSH levels in BHK21 cells incubated with various stress agents. Cells were incubated for 24 h after plating. Then, the cells were further incubated with 2.5 μm sodium arsenite (As), 10 μm CdCl2 (Cd), 100 μm DEM, and 25 μm hydroquinone (HQ) for 12 h, and intracellular cysteine and GSH levels were measured as described under “Experimental Procedures.” Each point represents the means ± S.D. (n = 4).View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT) To characterize the genomic organization of the xCT gene, we screened the 129 SVJ mouse genome library by using digoxigenin-labeled mouse xCT cDNA as a probe, and 12 clones were isolated. Their inserts were further analyzed by restriction mapping, subcloning, and sequencing. The exon/intron organization of the mouse xCT gene is shown in Fig. 5 A. The gene was encoded by 12 exons that were distributed over a region of more than 40 kbp of genomic DNA. The transcription initiation site was determined by 5′-RACE and the primer extension method (Fig. 5 B). Four EpRE-like sequences were found and designated EpRE-1 to -4 (21Erickson A.M. Nevarea Z. Gipp J.J. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 2002; 277: 30730-30737Google Scholar). Thus, a series of 5′-deletion mutant/luciferase reporter fusion genes were generated by cloning various length of restriction fragments or PCR products into the luciferase reporter vector, pGL3-Basic, to localize the regions controlling basal and DEM-inducible expression of the xCT gene (Fig. 5 B). These constructs were transiently transfected into BHK21 cells, and luciferase activity was determined in the presence and absence of DEM. The results of the 5′-deletion studies indicated that the sequence between −226 and −117 including EpRE-1 contained the regulatory element responsible for maximum DEM-inducible expression and the sequence between −116 and −82 regulated the basal expression (Fig. 6). To confirm that EpRE-1 influences response to DEM, the constructs containing mutations in this sequence were made and these constructs were transfected into BHK21 cells followed by treatment of DEM (Fig.7). Although the basal luciferase activity was detected in the cells transfected with the constructs containing the mutations, the effect of DEM was significantly decreased. The results indicate that EpRE-1 is mainly involved in the response to DEM. The effects of the EpREs on the induction of xCT by various stress agents were investigated. As shown in Fig.8, the luciferase activity was significantly increased in the cells trasnfected with the pGL3–0.7 followed by the treatment of arsenite, cadmium chloride, or hydroquinone.Figure 6Schematic illustration of xCT-luciferase chimeric genes and their luciferase activities in BHK21 cells. The size of the flanking insert in each 5′-deletion mutant is specified by the number of base pairs. Each construct was transfected with BHK21 cells, and the basal and DEM-inducible luciferase activities were determined as described under “Experimental Procedures.” Values represent the means ± S.D. (n = 4–6).View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)Figure 7Effect of the mutations in the EpRE-1 sequence on DEM-inducible luciferase activities. A, the mutations were introduced into the EpRE-1 sequence (−141 to −133) in the construct containing a 0.7-kbp fragment of the 5′-flanking region of the xCT gene. BHK21 cells were transfected with each construct, and the basal and DEM-inducible luciferase activities were determined as described under “Experimental Procedures.” Values represent the means ± S.D. (n = 4–6). B, the sequences of the constructs containing mutated EpRE-1 sequence are shown.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)Figure 8Induction of the luciferase activities in BHK21 cells transfected with the xCT/luciferase chimeric gene by various stress agents. BHK21 cells were transfected with the construct containing a 0.7-kbp fragment of the 5′-flanking region of the xCT gene. The cells were then incubated with 2.5 μmsodium arsenite (As), 10 μm CdCl2(Cd), 100 μm DEM, and 25 μmhydroquinone (HQ) for 12 h, and the luciferase activities were measured. Values represent the means ± S.D. (n = 4–6).View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT) The electrophiles like DEM are known as the substrate of glutathioneS-transferase and thus may cause GSH depletion. To investigate the effect of GSH depletion on the induction of system xc−, buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of γ-glutamyl cysteine synthetase (γ-GCS), was added to BHK21 cells. As shown in Fig.9 A, intracellular GSH level was drastically decreased in the cells treated with BSO. However, the activity of cystine transport remained unchanged compared with that in the control cell (Fig. 9 B). The luciferase activity also remained unchanged in the cells transfected with pGL3–0.7 followed by the treatment of BSO (Fig. 9 C). These results suggested that the decrease in the intracellular GSH does not cause the induction of the activity of cystine transport. We have investigated whether Nrf2 is involved in the up-regulation of xCT gene expression by DEM. As shown in Fig.10 A, system xc− activity was not induced at all by DEM in the embryonic fibroblasts derived from Nrf2-deficinet mice. Then the expression of the reporter gene in these cells was examined. The cells were transfected with pGL3–0.23, treated with DEM, and the luciferase activity was measured (Fig. 10 B). In the control cells (wild type), the luciferase activity was increased by DEM treatment in a dose-dependent manner, whereas the luciferase activity in the Nrf2-deficient cells remained unchanged by DEM treatment at the concentration of up to 50 μm. In the Nrf2-deficient cells, treatment of DEM at the concentration of higher than 100 μm caused profound cell damage. The effect of DEM on nuclear distribution of Nrf2 has been investigated in the wild type cells. As shown in Fig. 10 C, Nrf2 in the nucleus was significantly increased by treating the cells with DEM, suggesting that Nrf2 moved into the nucleus to increase the expression of xCT gene in these cells. Next, the wild type cells were co-transfected with the Nrf2 expression plasmid and the pGL3 reporter plasmids, and luciferase activity was measured. The luciferase activity in the cells transfected with the Nrf2 expression plasmid and pGL3–0.23 was increased in proportion to the dose of the Nrf2 expression plasmid despite absence of DEM (Fig. 10 D). On the other hand, in the cells transfected with the Nrf2 expression plasmid and pGL3–0.12 or pGL3–0.08, the luciferase activity did not increase regardless of the dose of the Nrf2 expression plasmid. It is highly likely that overexpression of Nrf2 causes the movement of Nrf2 into the nucleus without the electrophilic agent. These results suggest that the movement of Nrf2 into the nucleus is crucial to the induction of xCT gene. In the present study, we have found that the expression of xCT, but not 4F2hc, is strongly induced by DEM in BHK21 cells and that there are several EpRE-like sequences in the 5′-flanking region of xCT gene. We have demonstrated that the induction of xCT gene by DEM is mediated by these sequences. EpREs have been found in the promoter regions of various genes, e.g. those encoding glutathioneS-transferase, NADPH:quinone oxidoreductase, the heavy and light subunits of γ-GCS, ferritin L subunit, metallothionein-1, and thioredoxin (9Rushmore T.H. King R.G. Paulson K.E. Pickett C.R. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1990; 87: 3826-3830Google Scholar, 10Friling R.S. Bensimon A. Tichauer Y. Daniel V. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1990; 87: 6258-6262Google Scholar, 22Mulcahy R.T. Wartman M.A. Bailey H.H. Gipp J.J. J. Biol. Chem. 1997; 272: 7445-7454Google Scholar, 23Moinova H.R. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 1998; 273: 14683-14689Google Scholar, 24Campagne M.L. Thibodeaux H. Bruggen N. Cairns B. Lowe D.G. J. Neurosci. 2000; 20: 5200-5207Google Scholar, 25Kim Y.C. Masutani H. Yamaguchi Y. Itoh K. Yamamoto M. Yodoi J. J. Biol. Chem. 2001; 276: 18399-18406Google Scholar). The common function of these proteins is for cell defense against xenobiotics and oxidants. System xc− mediates transport of cystine into the cells, and as shown here in BHK21 cells and in other cells previously, the intracellular GSH levels are regulated by the activity of this transport system (4Bannai S. Tateishi N. J. Membr. Biol. 1986; 89: 1-8Google Scholar). Since GSH is a key substance in antioxidant defense, the protein component of system xc−, xCT, is deemed to be a member in the cell defense system. Therefore, it is reasonable that the expression of xCT is regulated through EpRE. Recently, Erickson et al. (21Erickson A.M. Nevarea Z. Gipp J.J. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 2002; 277: 30730-30737Google Scholar) have investigated the promoter of the human γ-GCS modifier subunit gene in detail and proposed that the consensus sequence for the EpRE should be revised to 5′-RTKAYnnnGCR-3′. EpRE-1 has a single nucleotide mismatch at −142, compared with the consensus EpRE proposed by them. The enhancement of the luciferase activity by DEM was significantly decreased in the cells transfected with pGL3–0.12, which does not contain EpRE-1 (Fig. 6). In addition, the luciferase activity in the cells transfected with the constructs containing mutations in EpRE-1 was significantly decreased (Fig. 7). EpRE-1 is completely conserved in the 5′-flanking region of the human xCT gene (26Sato H. Tamba M. Kuriyama-Matsumura Okuno S. Bannai S. Antioxid. Redox Signaling. 2000; 2: 665-671Google Scholar). Judging from these, the main region responsible for the DEM-inducible transcription is probably EpRE-1. EpRE-2 has two nucleotide mismatches at −120 and −116, compared with the consensus EpRE proposed by Erickson et al. (21Erickson A.M. Nevarea Z. Gipp J.J. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 2002; 277: 30730-30737Google Scholar). The luciferase activities in the cells transfected with the constructs containing the mutations in EpRE-1 were significantly decreased despite the treatment with DEM. In the 5′-flanking region of human xCT gene, EpRE-2 is deficient. It is unlikely that EpRE-2 contributes to DEM-inducible transcription of xCT gene by itself. EpRE-3 completely matches the consensus EpRE proposed by Erickson et al.(21Erickson A.M. Nevarea Z. Gipp J.J. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 2002; 277: 30730-30737Google Scholar), whereas EpRE-4 has two nucleotide mismatches. EpRE-3 is completely conserved in the 5′-flanking region of human xCT gene, whereas EpRE-4 is not completely conserved in the human xCT gene. However, the luciferase activity in the cells transfected with pGL3–0.08, which contains EpRE-3 and -4, was negligible irrespective of the treatment with DEM. Thus, EpRE-3 and -4 by themselves do not contribute to the DEM-inducible transcription of xCT gene. The luciferase activity in the cells transfected with the constructs containing the mutations in EpRE-1 increased slightly but significantly by treatment with DEM. These results suggest that other EpREs, particularly EpRE-3, may contirubute to the enhancement of the DEM-inducible transcription in cooperation with EpRE-1. Recently, Itoh et al. (15Itoh K. Wakabayashi N. Katoh Y. Ishii T. Igarashi K. Engel J.D. Yamamoto M. Gene Dev. 1999; 13: 76-86Google Scholar) have demonstrated that Keap 1, the cytosolic protein, interacts with Nrf2 to form a complex in the cytosol and that DEM causes the dissociation of the complex and then Nrf2 moves into the nucleus to enhance the EpRE-mediated transcription of the genes in cooperation with small Maf protein. In the present study, Nrf2 has been demonstrated to mediate the induction of the transcriptional activity of xCT gene by DEM via the EpRE. DEM probably plays a role in dissociation of Nrf2-Keap 1 complex, because the overexpression of Nrf2 enhances the transcription of xCT gene even in the absence of DEM (Fig.10 D). In the present study, we have demonstrated that the intracellular cysteine levels are increased in BHK21 cells when they are treated with the stress agents. Most probably this increase is accounted for by the induction of system xc− activity as shown previously in other cells (27Bannai S. Ishii T. J. Cell. Physiol. 1982; 112: 265-272Google Scholar). The concentration of the cysteine in the cells untreated and treated with DEM can be estimated to be ∼0.1 and 0.3 mm, respectively, assuming that 1 mg of cell protein is equivalent to 5 μl of cell water (28Sato H. Watanabe H. Ishii T. Bannai S. J. Biol. Chem. 1987; 262: 13015-13019Google Scholar). γ-GCS is known to catalyze the rate-limiting step in synthesis of GSH, and its apparentK m value for cysteine is reported to be 0.35 mm (29Richman P.G. Meister A. J. Biol. Chem. 1975; 250: 1422-1426Google Scholar). Thus, the rate of GSH synthesis in BHK21 cells treated with DEM is much higher than that in the control cells even if γ-GCS per se remains unchanged. Mulcahy et al.(22Mulcahy R.T. Wartman M.A. Bailey H.H. Gipp J.J. J. Biol. Chem. 1997; 272: 7445-7454Google Scholar, 23Moinova H.R. Mulcahy R.T. J. Biol. Chem. 1998; 273: 14683-14689Google Scholar) have demonstrated that the EpREs in the 5′-flanking regions of the genes encoding γ-GCS heavy and light subunits regulate the expression of these genes in the cells treated with β-naphtoflavone, an electrophilic agent, which induces phase II enzymes. In the cells treated with DEM, both the increase in intracellular cysteine levels caused by the induction of the activity of system xc− and the induction of γ-GCS seem to contribute to the increase in GSH synthesis.

In this work, a novel approach was developed to prepare an engineered biochar from KMnO4 treated hickory wood through slow pyrolysis (600°C). Characterization experiments with various tools showed that the engineered biochar surface was covered with MnOx ultrafine particles. In comparison to the pristine biochar, the engineered biochar also had more surface oxygen-containing functional groups and much larger surface area. Batch sorption experiments showed that the engineered biochar had strong sorption ability to Pb(II), Cu(II), and Cd(II) with maximum sorption capacities of 153.1, 34.2, and 28.1mg/g, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of the pristine biochar. Batch sorption experiments also showed that the dosage, initial solution pH, and ionic strength affected the removal of the heavy metals by the biochars. The removal of the metals by the engineered biochar was mainly through surface adsorption mechanisms involving both the surface MnOx particles and oxygen-containing groups.

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) can overcome the critical issue of depth-penetration barrier of photo-triggered therapeutic modalities. However, the discovery of sonosensitizers with high sonosensitization efficacy and good stability is still a significant challenge. In this study, the great potential of a metal-organic-framework (MOF)-derived carbon nanostructure that contains porphyrin-like metal centers (PMCS) to act as an excellent sonosensitizer is identified. Excitingly, the superior sonosensitization effect of PMCS is believed to be closely linked to the porphyrin-like macrocycle in MOF-derived nanostructure in comparison to amorphous carbon nanospheres, due to their large highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap for high reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The nanoparticle-assisted cavitation process, including the visualized formation of the cavitation bubbles and microjets, is also first captured by high-speed camera. High ROS production in PMCS under ultrasound is validated by electron spin resonance and dye measurement, followed by cellular destruction and high tumor inhibition efficiency (85%). This knowledge is important from the perspective of understanding the structure-dependent SDT enhancement of a MOF-derived carbon nanostructure.

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have delivered superior performance in many computer vision tasks. In this paper, we propose a novel deep fully convolutional network model for accurate salient object detection. The key contribution of this work is to learn deep uncertain convolutional features (UCF), which encourage the robustness and accuracy of saliency detection. We achieve this via introducing a reformulated dropout (R-dropout) after specific convolutional layers to construct an uncertain ensemble of internal feature units. In addition, we propose an effective hybrid upsampling method to reduce the checkerboard artifacts of deconvolution operators in our decoder network. The proposed methods can also be applied to other deep convolutional networks. Compared with existing saliency detection methods, the proposed UCF model is able to incorporate uncertainties for more accurate object boundary inference. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed saliency model performs favorably against state-of-the-art approaches. The uncertain feature learning mechanism as well as the upsampling method can significantly improve performance on other pixel-wise vision tasks.

Carbon-coated Si has been prepared by a thermal vapor decomposition method. Its electrochemical performance has been investigated by charge/discharge tests, cyclic voltammetric experiments, differential scanning calorimetry, and -nuclear magnetic resonance, etc. This kind of material demonstrates good electrochemical performance as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The improvement in the electrochemical performance of Si is mainly attributed to the effect of carbon coating. © 2002 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Iron mobilization responses are induced by low iron supply at transcriptional level. In tomato, the basic helix‐loop‐helix gene FER is required for induction of iron mobilization. Using molecular‐genetic techniques, we analyzed the function of BHLH029 , named FRU ( FER ‐like regulator of iron uptake), the Arabidopsis thaliana homolog of the tomato FER gene. The FRU gene was mainly expressed in roots in a cell‐specific pattern and induced by iron deficiency. FRU mutant plants were chlorotic, and the FRU gene was found necessary for induction of the essential iron mobilization genes FRO2 (ferric chelate reductase gene) and IRT1 (iron‐regulated transporter gene). Overexpression of FRU resulted in an increase of iron mobilization responses at low iron supply. Thus, the FRU gene is a mediator in induction of iron mobilization responses in Arabidopsis , indicating that regulation of iron uptake is conserved in dicot species.

ABSTRACTThe emerging new VOC B.1.1.529 (Omicron) variant has raised serious concerns due to multiple mutations, reported significant immune escape, and unprecedented rapid spreading speed. Currently, studies describing the neutralization ability of different homologous and heterologous booster vaccination against Omicron are still lacking. In this study, we explored the immunogenicity of COVID-19 breakthrough patients, BBIBP-CorV homologous booster group and BBIBP-CorV/ZF2001 heterologous booster group against SARS-CoV-2 pseudotypes corresponding to the prototype, Beta, Delta, and the emergent Omicron variant.Notably, at 14 days post two-dose inactivated vaccines, pVNT titre increased to 67.4 GMTs against prototype, 8.85 against Beta and 35.07 against Delta, while neutralization activity against Omicron was below the lower limit of quantitation in 80% of the samples. At day 14 post BBIBP-CorV homologous booster vaccination, GMTs of pVNT significantly increased to 285.6, 215.7, 250.8, 48.73 against prototype, Beta, Delta, and Omicron, while at day 14 post ZF2001 heterologous booster vaccination, GMTs of pVNT significantly increased to 1436.00, 789.6, 1501.00, 95.86, respectively. Post booster vaccination, 100% samples showed positive neutralization activity against Omicron, albeit illustrated a significant reduction (5.86- to 14.98-fold) of pVNT against Omicron compared to prototype at 14 days after the homologous or heterologous vaccine boosters.Overall, our study demonstrates that vaccine-induced immune protection might more likely be escaped by Omicron compared to prototypes and other VOCs. After two doses of inactivated whole-virion vaccines as the "priming" shot, a third heterologous protein subunit vaccine and a homologous inactivated vaccine booster could improve neutralization against Omicron.

Mesoporous spinel nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) nanostructures were synthesized via a facile chemical deposition method coupled with a simple post-annealing process. The physicochemical properties were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and nitrogen sorption measurements. The electrocatalytic performances were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. The obtained NiCo2O4 materials exhibit typical agglomerate mesoporous nanostructures with a large surface area (190.1 m2 g−1) and high mesopore volume (0.943 cm3 g−1). Remarkably, the NiCo2O4 shows much higher catalytic activity, lower overpotential, better stability and greater tolerance towards urea electro-oxidation compared to those of cobalt oxide (Co3O4) synthesized by the same procedure. The NiCo2O4 electrode delivers a current density of 136 mA cm−2 mg−1 at 0.7 V (vs. Hg/HgO) in 1 M KOH and 0.33 M urea electrolytes accompanied with a desirable stability. The impressive electrocatalytic activity is largely ascribed to the high intrinsic electronic conductivity, superior mesoporous nanostructures and rich surface Ni active species of the NiCo2O4 materials, which can largely boost the interfacial electroactive sites and charge transfer rates for urea electro-oxidation, indicating promising applications in future wastewater remediation, hydrogen production and fuel cells.

Highly porous nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) materials have been synthesized via a facile and scalable chemical synthesis route. The obtained NiCo2O4 material displays a typical secondary submicron/micron-sized (0.1–2 μm) agglomerate morphology, exhibiting large surface area (190.1 m2 g−1) and high porosity (1.136 cm3 g−1). The fabricated NiCo2O4 electrode shows high specific capacitance (351 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and high-rate capability (82.1% capacitance retention at 8 A g−1), which is superior to many reported NiCo2O4 materials. Further, the assembled AC-NiCo2O4 aqueous hybrid capacitor exhibits high power and energy densities (2805 W kg−1, 6.8 Wh kg−1 at 8 A g−1) and high cycling stability (15% loss after 5000 cycles at 1.5 A g−1). The high-performance of the NiCo2O4 materials is attributed to their large surface area and highly porous structure which contribute to rich surface electroactive sites and easy ions transport pathways for facile electrochemical reactions.

Abstract Nanozyme‐based tumor catalytic therapy has attracted widespread attention in recent years. However, its therapeutic outcomes are diminished by many factors in the tumor microenvironment (TME), such as insufficient endogenous hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) concentration, hypoxia, and immunosuppressive microenvironment. Herein, an immunomodulation‐enhanced nanozyme‐based tumor catalytic therapy strategy is first proposed to achieve the synergism between nanozymes and TME regulation. TGF‐β inhibitor (TI)‐loaded PEGylated iron manganese silicate nanoparticles (IMSN) (named as IMSN‐PEG‐TI) are constructed to trigger the therapeutic modality. The results show that IMSN nanozyme exhibits both intrinsic peroxidase‐like and catalase‐like activities under acidic TME, which can decompose H 2 O 2 into hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and oxygen (O 2 ), respectively. Besides, it is demonstrated that both IMSN and TI can regulate the tumor immune microenvironment, resulting in macrophage polarization from M2 to M1, and thus inducing the regeneration of H 2 O 2 , which can promote catalytic activities of IMSN nanozyme. The potent antitumor effect of IMSN‐PEG‐TI is proved by in vitro multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) and in vivo CT26‐tumor‐bearing mice models. It is believed that the immunomodulation‐enhanced nanozyme‐based tumor treatment strategy is a promising tool to kill cancer cells.

Abstract Heteroatom‐doped carbon (HDC) has attracted tremendous attention due to its promising application in energy conversion and storage. Herein, due to its abundance high rate of reproduction, the microorganism, Bacillus subtilis , is selected as a precursor. An effective ionothermal process is adopted to produce the HDCs. Using acid activation, the obtained sample exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity, long‐term stability, and excellent resistance to crossover effects in oxygen reduction. Additionally, the base‐treated sample exhibits superior performance in capacitors to most commercially available carbon materials. Even at a high current density, a relatively high capacitance is retained, indicating a great potential for direct application in energy storage.

The lithium-based energy storage technology is currently being considered for electric automotive industry and even electric grid storage. However, the hungry demand for vast energy sources in the modern society will conflict with the shortage of lithium resources on the earth. The first alternative choice may be sodium-related materials. Herein, we propose an electric energy storage system (sodium-ion capacitor) based on porous carbon and sodium titanate nanotubes (Na-TNT, Na(+)-insertion compounds) as positive and negative electrode materials, respectively, in conjunction with Na(+)-containing non-aqueous electrolytes. As a low-voltage (0.1-2 V) sodium insertion nanomaterial, Na-TNT was synthesized via a simple hydrothermal reaction. Compared with bulk sodium titanate, the predominance of Na-TNT is the excellent rate performance, which exactly caters to the need for electrochemical capacitors. The sodium-ion capacitors exhibited desirable energy density and power density (34 Wh kg(-1), 889 W kg(-1)). Furthermore, the sodium-ion capacitors had long cycling life (1000 cycles) and high coulombic efficiency (≈ 98 % after the second cycle). More importantly, the conception of sodium-ion capacitor has been put forward.

Abstract Bioenergy is a renewable energy that plays an indispensable role in meeting today's ever increasing energy needs. Unlike biofuels, microbial fuel cells ( MFCs ) convert energy harvested from redox reactions directly into bioelectricity. MFCs can utilize low‐grade organic carbons (fuels) in waste streams. The oxidation of the fuel molecules requires biofilm catalysis. In recent years, MFCs have also been used in the electrolysis mode to produce bioproducts in laboratory tests. MFCs research has intensified in the past decade and the maximum MFCs power density output has been increased greatly and many types of waste streams have been tested. However, new breakthroughs are needed for MFCs to be practical in wastewater treatment and power generation beyond powering small sensor devices. To reduce capital and operational costs, simple and robust membrane‐less MFCs reactors are desired, but these reactors require highly efficient biofilms. Newly discovered conductive cell aggregates, improved electron transport through hyperpilation via mutation or genetic recombination and other advances in biofilm engineering present opportunities. This review is an update on the recent advances on MFCs designs and operations. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Device-free wireless localization and activity recognition (DFLAR) is a new technique, which could estimate the location and activity of a target by analyzing its shadowing effect on surrounding wireless links. This technique neither requires the target to be equipped with any device nor involves privacy concerns, which makes it an attractive and promising technique for many emerging smart applications. The key question of DFLAR is how to characterize the influence of the target on wireless signals. Existing work generally utilizes statistical features extracted from wireless signals, such as mean and variance in the time domain and energy as well as entropy in the frequency domain, to characterize the influence of the target. However, a feature suitable for distinguishing some activities or gestures may perform poorly when it is used to recognize other activities or gestures. Therefore, one has to manually design handcraft features for a specific application. Inspired by its excellent performance in extracting universal and discriminative features, in this paper, we propose a deep learning approach for realizing DFLAR. Specifically, we design a sparse autoencoder network to automatically learn discriminative features from the wireless signals and merge the learned features into a softmax-regression-based machine learning framework to realize location, activity, and gesture recognition simultaneously. Extensive experiments performed in a clutter indoor laboratory and an apartment with eight wireless nodes demonstrate that the DFLAR system using the learned features could achieve 0.85 or higher accuracy, which is better than the systems utilizing traditional handcraft features.

Although foam has been widely used in petroleum industry, its instability is still a problem during its applications. Here, partially hydrophobic modified SiO2 nanoparticles were used with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to increase the foam stability. Surface tension, interfacial dilational viscoelasticity, and ζ potential of SiO2/SDS aqueous dispersion had been determined and correlated with foam stability and plugging ability in porous media. The experimental results showed that SiO2 nanoparticle had a synergetic effect on foam stability with SDS at proper concentrations, and more stable foam could be obtained from SiO2/SDS dispersion compared to SDS solution. It is deduced that SDS molecules help the nanoparticles to move to air–liquid interface at moderate concentration, and thus the dilational viscoelasticity increased consequently. SiO2/SDS foam showed a good plugging performance in the sandpack flooding experiment. Foam stability was enhanced with nanoparticles adsorbed on the surface of liquid film, so bubbles did not rupture easily in porous media. As a result, more gas was trapped in the sandpack to prevent gas breakthrough. These fundamental results may guide the application of nanoparticle-stabilized foams in oil field.

Abstract Novel biochar/pectin/alginate hydrogel beads (BPA) derived from grapefruit peel were synthesized and used for Cu(II) removal from aqueous solution. FTIR, SEM-EDS, XRD, TGA and XPS, etc. were applied for characterization analysis. The synergistic reinforcing effect of polymer matrix and biochar fillers improved the adsorptive, mechanical and thermostabilized performance of BPA. Factors like component contents of biochar and pectin, pH, contact time, Cu(II) concentration and coexisting inorganic salts or organic ligands were systematically investigated in batch mode. The adsorption isotherms were fitted well by the Freundlich model and the experimental maximum adsorption capacity of optimized BPA-9 beads (mass ratio of pectin to alginate = 10:1) with 0.25% biochar, was ∼80.6 mg/g at pH 6. Kinetic process was well described by the pseudo-second-order model and film diffusion primarily governed the overall adsorption rate, followed by intraparticle diffusion. Thermodynamics analysis suggested spontaneous feasibility and endothermic nature of adsorption behavior. Moreover, BPA also showed better environmental adaptability in the presence of NaCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, EDTA-2Na and CA as well as good adsorption potential for other heavy metal [e.g. Pb(III)]. Crucially, the BPA beads showed good regeneration ability after five cycles. All these results indicated the potential of BPA for removing heavy metal from water.

A novel triethylenetetramine (TEAE) modified chitosan microbeads with multicavity structure encapsulated in alginate backbone (named as HCTA) was fabricated for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution. Cr(VI) removal was investigated in batch and column modes. FTIR, SEM-EDS, XRD and XPS, etc. were utilized for characterization of the composites. Multiple mechanisms such as electrostatic interaction, reduction reaction, chelation and cation-exchange involved in the adsorption process. Binary combination of matrix and fillers contributed to highly efficient Cr(VI) removal in a wide pH range (2–10), whereas Na+, Ca2+, Al3+, Cl−, NO3− and SO42− had minimal effects on the removal performance. The experimental maximum adsorption capacity was ∼291.3 mg/g at the optimal pH 3.0, much higher than that of alginate beads (∼26.1 mg/g); a three-stage kinetics behavior was observed with ∼50% of the maximum Cr(VI) adsorption capacity within 60 min; the increase of temperature was favorable for adsorption. The experimental data were fitted well to the Freundlich model and the pseudo-second-order model in batch system. The Thomas model was fitted better than Bohart-Adams model with breakthrough curves under different influent flow rate in a column system. Moreover, HCTA beads showed good chemical and mechanical stability for alkali resistance even at high saline conditions. Crucially, excellent reusability of HCTA beads was observed after nine cycles. These results make the novel HCTA beads a promising candidate for Cr(VI) removal in certain practical wastewater.

Carbon nanomaterials have flourished for cancer therapy for decades. However, their practical applications on clinical bases still pose a challenge to address the dilemma of metabolism in vivo. In this study, an attempt is made to design a degradable carbon–silica nanocomposite (CSN) with immunoadjuvant property, which could undergo an enzyme-free degradation process into small particles (∼5 nm) and facilitate its clinical application. CSN harbors photothermal and photodynamic properties and as an immunoadjuvant would help to generate tumor-associated antigens and mature dendritic cells (DCs). Potent antitumor effects have been achieved in both 4T1 and patient-derived xenograft tumor models with tumor inhibition efficiencies of 93.2% and 92.5%, respectively. We believe that this strategy will benefit the possible clinical translation and carbon–silica-nanomaterial-based cancer therapy.

Novel porous alginate-based nanocomposite hydrogels were prepared by incorporating polyaniline-polypyrrole modified graphene oxide (GO@PAN-PPy) as reinforcing fillers into the alginate matrix (GO@PAN-PPy/SA) for Cr(VI) and Cu(II) removal from water. Different in-situ co-polymerization functionalized GO with Py-to-An mass ratios of monomers (from nil to 1:1) and contents of GO@PAN-PPy (from nil to 2.0%(w/v)) were embedded into the alginate backbone to improve the sorption performance. Key factors, such as pH, coexisting metal ions, and swelling states were investigated in batch adsorption modes. The synergistic effect combined from polymer backbone and fillers could lower the impact of the pH-dependent adsorption reaction. With an adsorption ability superior to that of plain SA and GO/SA, the optimized GO@PAN-PPy-2(1)/SA exhibited good experimental maximum adsorption capacities for Cr(VI) (~133.7 mg/g) and Cu(II) (~87.2 mg/g) at pH 3.0, which were better than those of many other similar sorbents. The sorbents possessed excellent adaptability for 0.2 M salt for Cr(VI) removal but poor for Cu(II) removal. Pre-swelling treatment and co-adsorption could enhance the adsorption performance. The excellent reusability of hydrogel was demonstrated after five cycles in single/binary system. Overall, this work reveals that the resultant hydrogel holds potential as candidate sorbent to remove anionic-cationic heavy metal ions from water.

Noncoding RNAs such as circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in the human body and influence the occurrence and development of various diseases. However, the biological functions of circRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC) are largely unknown.RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of circRNAs and mRNA in CRC cells and tissues. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to analyze the location of circSPARC. Function-based experiments were performed using circSPARC knockdown and overexpression cell lines in vitro and in vivo, including CCK8, colony formation, transwell and metastasis models. Mechanistically, luciferase reporter assay, western blots, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), Chromatin isolation by RNA purification (ChIRP) and immunohistochemical stainings were performed.CircSPARC was upregulated in both the tissues and plasma of CRC patients. High expression of circSPARC was associated with advanced TNM stage, lymph node metastases, and poor survival. Silencing circSPARC inhibited CRC cell migration and proliferation in vitro and vivo. Mechanistically, circSPARC sponged miR-485-3p to upregulate JAK2 expression and ultimately contribute to the accumulation of phosphorylated (p)-STAT3. Besides, circSPARC recruited FUS, which facilitated the nuclear translocation of p-STAT3.These findings suggest that circSPARC might serve as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for CRC treatment by regulating JAK2/STAT3 pathway.

Chest X-ray is the most common radiology examinations for the diagnosis of thoracic diseases. However, due to the complexity of pathological abnormalities and lack of detailed annotation of those abnormalities, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of thoracic diseases remains challenging. In this paper, we propose the triple-attention learning (A 3 Net) model for this CAD task. This model uses the pre-trained DenseNet-121 as the backbone network for feature extraction, and integrates three attention modules in a unified framework for channel-wise, element-wise, and scale-wise attention learning. Specifically, the channel-wise attention prompts the deep model to emphasize the discriminative channels of feature maps; the element-wise attention enables the deep model to focus on the regions of pathological abnormalities; the scale-wise attention facilitates the deep model to recalibrate the feature maps at different scales. The proposed model has been evaluated on 112,120images in the ChestX-ray14 dataset with the official patient-level data split. Compared to state-of-the-art deep learning models, our model achieves the highest per-class AUC in classifying 13 out of 14 thoracic diseases and the highest average per-class AUC of 0.826 over 14 thoracic diseases.

With the acceleration of the pace of work and life, people are facing more and more pressure, which increases the probability of suffering from depression. However, many patients may fail to get a timely diagnosis due to the serious imbalance in the doctor–patient ratio in the world. A promising development is that physiological and psychological studies have found some differences in speech and facial expression between patients with depression and healthy individuals. Consequently, to improve current medical care, Deep Learning (DL) has been used to extract a representation of depression cues from audio and video for automatic depression detection. To classify and summarize such research, we introduce the databases and describe objective markers for automatic depression estimation. We also review the DL methods for automatic detection of depression to extract a representation of depression from audio and video. Lastly, we discuss challenges and promising directions related to the automatic diagnoses of depression using DL.

Abstract Microneedles (MNs) have attracted widespread scientific and industrial interest in the past decade as an efficient, painless, low‐cost, and relatively safe transdermal drug delivery device. However, their drawbacks such as insufficient dose accuracy and limited penetration depth may limit the clinical applications. Here, a light‐controlled liquid band‐aid based on MNs is developed for antibacterial applications. Metal–organic framework‐derived peroxidase‐like nanozyme loaded in MNs can not only convert light energy into heat to enhance drug permeation but also decompose hydrogen peroxide into hydroxyl radicals for antibacteria. The heat generated by the nanozyme can facilitate MNs to melt and form a liquid band‐aid, which is beneficial to insulate the wound from the surrounding bacterial environment. These studies in a Staphylococcus aureus ‐infected mice model also prove that this laser‐triggered liquid band‐aid can efficiently reduce skin inflammation and promote wound healing. Together, these results demonstrate that the rational design of MNs can enhance antibacterial and wound healing efficiency.

A series of calix[4]pyrrole-based crosslinked polymer networks designed for iodine capture is reported. These materials were prepared by Sonogashira coupling of α,α,α,α-tetra(4-alkynylphenyl)calix[4]pyrrole with bishalide building blocks with different electronic properties and molecular sizes. Despite their low Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface areas, iodine vapor adsorption capacities of up to 3.38 g g-1 were seen, a finding ascribed to the presence of a large number of effective sorption sites including macrocyclic π-rich cavities, aryl units, and alkyne groups within the material. One particular system, C[4]P-BTP, was found to be highly effective at iodine capture from water (uptake capacity of 3.24 g g-1 from a concentrated aqueous KI/I2 solution at ambient temperature). Fast capture kinetics (kobs =7.814 g g-1 min-1 ) were seen. Flow-through adsorption experiments revealed that C[4]P-BTP is able to remove 93.2 % of iodine from an aqueous source phase at a flow rate of 1 mL min-1 .

Carbon-based nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity are new candidates in materials science. So far, various carbon-based nanozymes have been developed, such as fullerenes, graphene quantum dots and metal organic framework-derived carbon materials. Unlike natural enzymes, carbon-based nanozymes have abundant active sites, excellent stability, and good biological safety, showing great potential in biomedical applications. In particular, the unique optical, thermal and acoustic properties of carbon-based nanozymes have also been revealed, providing a multifunctional platform for its biomedical applications. This review discusses the recent research progress of carbon-based nanozymes and proposes their current challenges and perspectives.

Peritoneal recurrence is the predominant pattern of relapse after curative-intent surgery for gastric cancer and portends a dismal prognosis. Accurate individualised prediction of peritoneal recurrence is crucial to identify patients who might benefit from intensive treatment. We aimed to develop predictive models for peritoneal recurrence and prognosis in gastric cancer.In this retrospective multi-institution study of 2320 patients, we developed a multitask deep learning model for the simultaneous prediction of peritoneal recurrence and disease-free survival using preoperative CT images. Patients in the training cohort (n=510) and the internal validation cohort (n=767) were recruited from Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. Patients in the external validation cohort (n=1043) were recruited from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China. We evaluated the prognostic accuracy of the model as well as its association with chemotherapy response. Furthermore, we assessed whether the model could improve the ability of clinicians to predict peritoneal recurrence.The deep learning model had a consistently high accuracy in predicting peritoneal recurrence in the training cohort (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0·857; 95% CI 0·826-0·889), internal validation cohort (0·856; 0·829-0·882), and external validation cohort (0·843; 0·819-0·866). When informed by the artificial intelligence (AI) model, the sensitivity and inter-rater agreement of oncologists for predicting peritoneal recurrence was improved. The model was able to predict disease-free survival in the training cohort (C-index 0·654; 95% CI 0·616-0·691), internal validation cohort (0·668; 0·643-0·693), and external validation cohort (0·610; 0·583-0·636). In multivariable analysis, the model predicted peritoneal recurrence and disease-free survival independently of clinicopathological variables (p<0·0001 for all). For patients with a predicted high risk of peritoneal recurrence and low survival, adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved disease-free survival in both stage II disease (hazard ratio [HR] 0·543 [95% CI 0·362-0·815]; p=0·003) and stage III disease (0·531 [0·432-0·652]; p<0·0001). By contrast, chemotherapy had no impact on disease-free survival for patients with a predicted low risk of peritoneal recurrence and high survival. For the remaining patients, the benefit of chemotherapy depended on stage: only those with stage III disease derived benefit from chemotherapy (HR 0·637 [95% CI 0·484-0·838]; p=0·001).The deep learning model could allow accurate prediction of peritoneal recurrence and survival in patients with gastric cancer. Prospective studies are required to test the clinical utility of this model in guiding personalised treatment in combination with clinicopathological criteria.None.

Shanghai has been experiencing the Omicron wave since March 2022. Though several studies have evaluated the risk factors of severe infections, the analyses of BA.2 infection risk and protective factors among geriatric people were much limited. This multicentre cohort study described clinical characteristics, and assessed risk and protective factors for geriatric Omicron severe infections. A total of 1377 patients older than 60 were enrolled, with 75.96% having comorbidities. The median viral shedding time and hospitalization time were nine and eight days, respectively. Severe and critical were associated with longer virus clearance time (aOR [95%CI]:0.706 (0.533-0.935), P = .015), while fully vaccinated/booster and paxlovid use shortened viral shedding time (1.229 [1.076-1.402], P = .002; 1.140 [0.019-1.274], P = .022, respectively). Older age (>80), cerebrovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease were risk factors of severe/critical. Fully vaccination was a significant protective factor against severe infections (0.237 [0.071-0.793], P = .019). We found patients with more than two comorbidities were more likely to get serious outcomes. These findings demonstrated that in the elderly older than 60 years old, older age (aged over 80), cerebrovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease were risk factors for severe infection. Patients with more than two comorbidities were more likely to get serious outcomes. Fully vaccinated/booster patients were less likely to be severe and vaccinations could shorten viral shedding time. The limitation of lacking an overall spectrum of COVID-19 infections among elders could be compensated in other larger-scale studies in the future.

Replacement of cement with solid waste is an important method for conserving natural resources and reducing CO2 emissions. In this study, steel slag and lithium slag were used to replace cement to address the low activity of steel slag, which limits its large-scale utilization. The compressive strength, flow properties, dissolution characteristics, hydration products, and microstructure of composite cementitious materials containing steel slag and lithium slag were investigated by ICP-OES, XRD, TG, FTIR, SEM and MIP. The results showed that the addition of lithium slag into the cementitious material with steel slag improved the compressive strength. The lithium slag consumed a large amount of portlandite and promoted hydration of the steel slag to produce more C-(A)-S-H. Furthermore, the porosity and pore size distribution were optimized, the most probable pore size was reduced, and the pore complexity was increased. This research provides a solution for comprehensive use of steel slag, which contributes to high-value green utilization of solid waste.

Due to a threat to human life from heavy metal ions pollution, unprecedented interest has been gained in the development of water purification technologies. Here, we explore another new approach to exploit a prospective carbon material for removing copper ions from aqueous solution based on rapid and easy capacitive deionization (CDI). Reasonable carbon materials modification with ideal composition and improved morphological structure is essential to additionally optimize the capabilities of CDI. We prepared a nitrogen-rich hierarchically porous carbon composites (CoFe-NC) with uniform cobalt (Co) and iron (Fe) doped metal in carbon skeleton by a simple impregnation and pyrolysis method, derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-8, to use as highly effective CDI electrode for copper ions removal. The addition of Fe can facilitate the uniform dispersion of metals, and enable the formation of a stable carbon cage after pyrolysis. It can sufficiently expose active sites of the electrode materials and promote interfacial charge transfer, thus improving CDI electrosorption efficiency. CoFe-NC composites electrode can achieve outstanding deionization capacity (91.31 mg g−1) in 25 mg L−1 CuSO4 solution. The carbon cage structure of CoFe-NC not only prevents aggregation of metals and avoids destruction of rich multistage pore system by pyrolysis, but also induces a faster ions transport rate. In addition, density functional theory calculations demonstrated that the co-doping of Co and Fe can remarkably increase the adsorption energies of Cu2+ ions, leading to excellent selectivity, which indicates that CoFe-NC composites can be a desired CDI electrode material.

Fluorescence-based PCR and other amplification methods have been used for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics, however, it requires costly fluorescence detectors and probes limiting deploying large-scale screening. Here, a cut-price colorimetric method for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection by iron manganese silicate nanozyme (IMSN) is established. IMSN catalyzes the oxidation of chromogenic substrates by its peroxidase (POD)-like activity, which is effectively inhibited by pyrophosphate ions (PPi). Due to the large number of PPi generated by amplification processes, SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be detected by a colorimetric readout visible to the naked eye, with the detection limit of 240 copies mL-1 . This conceptually new method has been successfully applied to correctly distinguish positive and negative oropharyngeal swab samples of COVID-19. Colorimetric assay provides a low-cost and instrumental-free solution for nucleic acid detection, which holds great potential for facilitating virus surveillance.

Nowadays, eutrophication problem in surface waterbodies has attracted specific attention. Herein, we reported facile synthesis and application of La/Fe engineered bentonite (LFB) for efficient phosphate elimination. Results indicated that bimetallic modified LFB composite could achieve efficient phosphate removal at pH 2–6, and satisfactory selectivity was implied by stable phosphate capturing within the interference of competing species (Cl−, NO3−, HCO3−, SO42−, F− and HA). Pseudo-second-order model could satisfactorily depict the kinetic behavior at different initial concentrations, indicating chemisorption of phosphate on LFB surface. Isotherm study suggested that phosphate adsorption behavior could be fitted well with Sips isotherm equation, indicating that both homogeneous monolayer adsorption and heterogeneous multilayer coverage of phosphate on LFB surface occurred within the investigated conditions. Adsorption thermodynamics implied the spontaneous and endothermic feature of phosphate loading on LFB composite. Characterization analysis confirmed successful La and Fe loading on bentonite, and electrostatic attraction and ligand exchange were the main adsorption mechanism. The high adsorption capacity, cost-effective feature and strong affinity towards phosphate demonstrated certain potential of as-prepared LFB composite for phosphate separation from eutrophic water.

Carbon‐coated natural graphite has been prepared by thermal vapor decomposition treatment of natural graphite at 1000°C. Natural graphite coated with carbon showed much better electrochemical performance as an anode material in both propylene carbonate‐based and ethylene carbonate‐based electrolytes than "bare" natural graphite. The effect of carbon coating on the electrochemical performance was investigated by solid‐state in conjunction with standard electrochemical techniques. © 2000 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

We used data from 208 individuals who divorced during a 17‐year longitudinal study to examine factors that predict adjustment to marital disruption. Using stress and coping theory as a guide, we hypothesized that adjustment would be associated with variables reflecting stressors, resources, and people's definitions of the divorce. Contrary to expectations, we found little evidence that stressors (large declines in per capita income, losing friends, or moving) affected divorce adjustment, except among individuals who were not employed. Adjustment was positively associated with income, dating someone steadily, remarriage, having favorable attitudes toward marital dissolution prior to divorce, and being the partner who initiated the divorce. In addition, older individuals showed some evidence of poorer adjustment than did younger individuals.

Protein-protein interactions are known to be essential for specifying the transcriptional activities of homeoproteins.Here we show that representative members of the Msx and Dlx homeoprotein families form homoand heterodimeric complexes.We demonstrate that dimerization by Msx and Dlx proteins is mediated through their homeodomains and that the residues required for this interaction correspond to those necessary for DNA binding.Unlike most other known examples of homeoprotein interactions, association of Msx and Dlx proteins does not promote cooperative DNA binding; instead, dimerization and DNA binding are mutually exclusive activities.In particular, we show that Msx and Dlx proteins interact independently and noncooperatively with homeodomain DNA binding sites and that dimerization is specifically blocked by the presence of such DNA sites.We further demonstrate that the transcriptional properties of Msx and Dlx proteins display reciprocal inhibition.Specifically, Msx proteins act as transcriptional repressors and Dlx proteins act as activators, while in combination, Msx and Dlx proteins counteract each other's transcriptional activities.Finally, we show that the expression patterns of representative Msx and Dlx genes (Msx1, Msx2, Dlx2, and Dlx5) overlap in mouse embryogenesis during limb bud and craniofacial development, consistent with the potential for their protein products to interact in vivo.Based on these observations, we propose that functional antagonism through heterodimer formation provides a mechanism for regulating the transcriptional actions of Msx and Dlx homeoproteins in vivo.

Natural graphite is a promising candidate for the anode material in lithium-ion batteries. To enhance its electrochemical performance, raw natural graphite flakes have been rolled into spheres by impact milling and then coated with carbon by thermal vapor decomposition (TVD). The obtained spherical graphite samples show excellent performance in terms of high rate capacity, high reversible capacity, high coulombic efficiency and low irreversible capacity. The improvements in performance have been mainly correlated with the morphologies of carbon-coated spherical graphite.

Reduced phytic acid content in seeds is a desired goal for genetic improvement in several crops. Low-phytic acid mutants have been used in genetic breeding, but it is not known what genes are responsible for the low-phytic acid phenotype. Using a reverse genetics approach, we found that the maize (Zea mays) low-phytic acid lpa2 mutant is caused by mutation in an inositol phosphate kinase gene. The maize inositol phosphate kinase (ZmIpk) gene was identified through sequence comparison with human and Arabidopsis Ins(1,3,4)P(3) 5/6-kinase genes. The purified recombinant ZmIpk protein has kinase activity on several inositol polyphosphates, including Ins(1,3,4)P(3), Ins(3,5,6)P(3), Ins(3,4,5,6)P(4), and Ins(1,2,5,6)P(4). The ZmIpk mRNA is expressed in the embryo, the organ where phytic acid accumulates in maize seeds. The ZmIpk Mutator insertion mutants were identified from a Mutator F(2) family. In the ZmIpk Mu insertion mutants, seed phytic acid content is reduced approximately 30%, and inorganic phosphate is increased about 3-fold. The mutants also accumulate myo-inositol and inositol phosphates as in the lpa2 mutant. Allelic tests showed that the ZmIpk Mu insertion mutants are allelic to the lpa2. Southern-blot analysis, cloning, and sequencing of the ZmIpk gene from lpa2 revealed that the lpa2-1 allele is caused by the genomic sequence rearrangement in the ZmIpk locus and the lpa2-2 allele has a nucleotide mutation that generated a stop codon in the N-terminal region of the ZmIpk open reading frame. These results provide evidence that ZmIpk is one of the kinases responsible for phytic acid biosynthesis in developing maize seeds.

Background The contributions of collagen, elastin, and smooth muscle to arterial mechanical properties in the in vivo human artery are not known. Methods and Results We used a recently developed intravascular ultrasound technique to measure total brachial artery wall stress and incremental elastic modulus (E inc ) in seven normal human subjects at baseline and after intra-arterial norepinephrine (1.2 μg) and nitroglycerin (100 μg). Then we applied a modified Maxwell model to estimate the elastic modulus of elastin (E E ); the recruitment of collagen fibers supporting wall stress; and the differential contributions of collagen, elastin, and smooth muscle to wall stress and E inc over a wide range of pressure and smooth muscle tone. With this model, E E was 3×10 6 dynes/cm 2 . Collagen fibers were recruited increasingly as transmural arterial pressure increased and reached a value of ≈5% to 6% at 100 mm Hg under each of the conditions studied. Isobaric smooth muscle contraction resulted in a small decrease in total wall stress and no significant change in total E inc while shifting the predominant element contributing to these mechanical parameters from collagen in parallel with the smooth muscle to collagen in series with the smooth muscle. In contrast, isometric smooth muscle contraction produced large increases in total wall stress (from 0.11×10 6 dynes/cm 2 after nitroglycerin administration to 1.35×10 6 dynes/cm 2 after norepinephrine administration) and E inc (from 3.84×10 6 dynes/cm 2 after nitroglycerin administration to 57.8×10 6 dynes/cm 2 after norepinephrine administration) entirely as a result of the additional contribution of the smooth muscle and its associated series collagen. Conclusions This study describes a technique for determining arterial elastic properties and a model that can be used to estimate a number of mechanical parameters of the human brachial artery in vivo. This technique may be useful in studies of the arterial elastic properties of arteries in patients with vascular pathology.

Axonal regeneration is minimal after CNS injuries in adult mammals and medical treatments to recover neurological deficits caused by axon disconnection are extremely limited. The failure of axonal elongation is principally attributed to the nonpermissive environment and reduced intrinsic growth capacity. In this report, we studied the role of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) inactivation on neurite and axon growth from adult neurons via combined in vitro and in vivo approaches. We found that the major CNS inhibiting substrates including chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans could inactivate protein kinase B (Akt) and activate GSK-3beta signals in neurons. GSK-3 inactivation with pharmacologic inhibitors enhances neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglion neurons derived from adult mice or cerebellar granule neurons from postnatal rodents cultured on CNS inhibitors. Application of GSK-3 inhibitors stimulates axon formation and elongation of mature neurons whether in presence or absence of inhibitory substrates. Systemic application of the GSK-3 inhibitor lithium to spinal cord-lesioned rats suppresses the activity of this kinase around lesion. Treatments with GSK-3 inhibitors including a clinical dose of lithium to rats with thoracic spinal cord transection or contusion injuries induce significant descending corticospinal and serotonergic axon sprouting in caudal spinal cord and promote locomotor functional recovery. Our studies suggest that GSK-3 signal is an important therapeutic target for promoting functional recovery of adult CNS injuries and that administration of GSK-3 inhibitors may facilitate the development of an effective treatment to white matter injuries including spinal cord trauma given the wide use of lithium in humans.

Lithium-ion batteries are the most convenient form of electrical storage. But their natural-graphite anodes are not compatible with propylene carbonate-based electrolytes. The edge planes of the graphite are attacked by the electrolyte, whereas the basal planes remain inert. A technique can be applied to form spherical graphite particles, which maximize the basal-plane exposure while the edge planes remain hidden (see picture). Thus only a small amount of carbon coating is now needed to protect the graphite core from the electrolyte.

Recent discoveries have demonstrated the extraordinary plasticity of tissue-derived stem cells, raising fundamental questions about cell lineage relationships and suggesting the potential for novel cell-based therapies. We have examined this phenomenon in a potential reciprocal relationship between stem cells derived from the skeletal muscle and from the bone marrow. We have discovered that cells derived from the skeletal muscle of adult mice contain a remarkable capacity for hematopoietic differentiation. Cells prepared from muscle by enzymatic digestion and 5 day in vitro culture were harvested and introduced into each of six lethally irradiated recipients together with distinguishable whole bone marrow cells. Six and twelve weeks later, all recipients showed high-level engraftment of muscle-derived cells representing all major adult blood lineages. The mean total contribution of muscle cell progeny to peripheral blood was 56%, indicating that the cultured muscle cells generated approximately 10- to 14-fold more hematopoietic activity than whole bone marrow. Although the identity of the muscle-derived hematopoietic stem cells is still unknown, they may be identical to muscle satellite cells, some of which lack myogenic regulators and could respond to hematopoietic signals. We have also found that stem cells in the bone marrow can contribute to cardiac muscle repair and neovascularization after ischemic injury. We transplanted highly purified bone marrow stem cells into lethally irradiated mice that subsequently were rendered ischemic by coronary artery occlusion and reperfusion. The engrafted stem cells or their progeny differentiated into cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells and contributed to the formation of functional tissue.

Phytic acid, myo-inositol-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexakisphosphate or Ins P6, is the most abundant myo-inositol phosphate in plant cells, but its biosynthesis is poorly understood. Also uncertain is the role of myo-inositol as a precursor of phytic acid biosynthesis. We identified a low-phytic acid mutant, lpa3, in maize. The Mu-insertion mutant has a phenotype of reduced phytic acid, increased myo-inositol and lacks significant amounts of myo-inositol phosphate intermediates in seeds. The gene responsible for the mutation encodes a myo-inositol kinase (MIK). Maize MIK protein contains conserved amino acid residues found in pfkB carbohydrate kinases. The maize lpa3 gene is expressed in developing embryos, where phytic acid is actively synthesized and accumulates to a large amount. Characterization of the lpa3 mutant provides direct evidence for the role of myo-inositol and MIK in phytic acid biosynthesis in developing seeds. Recombinant maize MIK phosphorylates myo-inositol to produce multiple myo-inositol monophosphates, Ins1/3P, Ins4/6P and possibly Ins5P. The characteristics of the lpa3 mutant and MIK suggest that MIK is not a salvage enzyme for myo-inositol recycling and that there are multiple phosphorylation routes to phytic acid in developing seeds. Analysis of the lpa2/lpa3 double mutant implies interactions between the phosphorylation routes.

Metal transporters regulated by iron can transport a variety of divalent metals, suggesting that iron regulation is important for specificity of iron transport. In plants, the iron-regulated broad-range metal transporter IRT1 is required for uptake of iron into the root epidermis. Functions of other iron-regulated plant metal transporters are not yet established. To deduce novel plant iron transport functions we studied the regulation of four tomato metal transporter genes belonging to the <i>nramp</i> and <i>irt</i> families with respect to environmental and genetic factors influencing iron uptake. We isolated <i>Lenramp1</i> and <i>Lenramp3</i> from tomato and demonstrate that these genes encode functional NRAMP metal transporters in yeast, where they were iron-regulated and localized mainly to intracellular vesicles. <i>Lenramp1</i> and <i>Leirt1</i> revealed both root-specific expression and up-regulation by iron deficiency, respectively, in contrast to <i>Leirt2</i> and <i>Lenramp3. Lenramp1</i> and <i>Leirt1</i>, but not <i>Lenramp3</i> and <i>Leirt2</i>, were down-regulated in the roots of <i>fer</i> mutant plants deficient in a bHLH gene regulating iron uptake. In <i>chloronerva</i> mutant plants lacking the functional enzyme for synthesis of the plant-specific metal chelator nicotianamine <i>Leirt1</i> and <i>Lenramp1</i> were up-regulated despite sufficient iron supply independent of a functional <i>fer</i> gene. <i>Lenramp1</i> was expressed in the vascular root parenchyma in a similar cellular pattern as the <i>fer</i> gene. However, the <i>fer</i> gene was not sufficient for inducing <i>Lenramp1</i> and <i>Leirt1</i> when ectopically expressed. Based on our results, we suggest a novel function for NRAMP1 in mobilizing iron in the vascular parenchyma upon iron deficiency in plants. We discuss <i>fer</i>/nicotianamine synthase-dependent and -independent regulatory pathways for metal transporter gene regulation.

Several olefinic compounds such as vinyl acetate, divinyl adipate and allyl methyl carbonate were studied as additives for propylene carbonate (PC)-based electrolytes in lithium-ion battery, which kind of electrolytes always exfoliate graphitic carbon and decompose drastically to liberate organic gas. Three kinds of graphitic carbons commonly used in lithium-ion batteries, namely, natural graphite, MCMB 6-28 and MCF were chosen to test the decomposition-suppressing ability of additives. The effects of the type of graphitic anodes and the structure of additives on the electrolyte decomposition have been investigated in the terms solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation, which was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), ac impedance, SEM, XPS analyses, and auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The electrochemical performance of the additives-containing electrolytes in combination with LiCoO2 cathode and graphitic carbon anode was also tested in coin cells.

Four types of water-soluble quantum dots (QDs) grafted with different organic coating layers were fabricated, and their sensitivities for hypochlorite/hypochlorous acid (HClO) were examined. It was found that QDs with HClO reactive (methylamino and sulphide groups) coating layers exhibited a protective effect on HClO quenching of QD fluorescence, whereas QDs with hydrocarbon and carboxylate coating layers showed least protection to QD fluorescence quenching by HClO and, thus, has the highest sensitivity for the detection of HClO. The QDs with carboxylate coating layers (QDs-poly-CO2−) was successfully applied to the quantification of HClO in tap water. The excellent selectivity of the QDs-poly-CO2− toward hypochlorite against other reactive oxygen species allowed us to monitor myeloperoxidase activity. Finally, the QDs-poly-CO2− was also used for the detection of hypochlorite in HL60 cells by fluorescent imaging. Hence, QD-poly-CO2− exhibits great promise as a selective and sensitive HClO probe in chemical and biological systems.

The evolution of the bacterial population during formation of denitrifying phosphorus removal granular sludge was investigated using high-throughput pyrosequencing. As a result, mature granules with a compact structure were obtained in an anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic (A/O/A) sequencing batch reactor under an organic loading rate as low as 0.3kg COD/(m(3)·d). Rod-shaped microbes were observed to cover with the outer surface of granules. Besides, reliable COD and simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies were achieved over the whole operation period. MiSeq pyrosequencing analysis illustrated that both the microbial diversity and richness increased sharply during the granulation process, whereas they stayed stable after the presence of granules. Some microorganisms seemed to contribute to the formation of granules, and some were identified as functional bacterial groups responsible for constructing the biological reactor.

Electrochemical oxidation as a convenient and effective method was established for anode modification to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The anode modification was realized by one-step electrochemical treatment in one of the three electrolytes (nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, ammonium persulfate) at ambient temperature. The performances of MFCs before and after anode modification were compared, confirming that all these anode modifications posed positive effects. The maximum power density of the MFC with the anode modified by nitric acid was 792 mW/m2, which was 43% larger than the unmodified control (552 mW/m2). Furthermore, the Coulombic efficiency (CE) significantly promoted about 71% from 14% (the unmodified MFC) to 24%. It revealed that the electrochemical oxidation resulted in the change of the anode properties, such as surface morphology, internal resistance and anode potential, and thus benefited to the microbial attachment and electron transfer on the anode surface, which might contribute to the performance improvement of the MFCs.

The classification of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image is a significant yet challenging task, due to the presence of speckle noises and the absence of effective feature representation. Inspired by deep learning technology, a novel deep supervised and contractive neural network (DSCNN) for SAR image classification is proposed to overcome these problems. In order to extract spatial features, a multiscale patch-based feature extraction model that consists of gray level-gradient co-occurrence matrix, Gabor, and histogram of oriented gradient descriptors is developed to obtain primitive features from the SAR image. Then, to get discriminative representation of initial features, the DSCNN network that comprises four layers of supervised and contractive autoencoders is proposed to optimize features for classification. The supervised penalty of the DSCNN can capture the relevant information between features and labels, and the contractive restriction aims to enhance the locally invariant and robustness of the encoding representation. Consequently, the DSCNN is able to produce effective representation of sample features and provide superb predictions of the class labels. Moreover, to restrain the influence of speckle noises, a graph-cut-based spatial regularization is adopted after classification to suppress misclassified pixels and smooth the results. Experiments on three SAR data sets demonstrate that the proposed method is able to yield superior classification performance compared with some related approaches.

Abstract Because the reliability of feature for every pixel determines the accuracy of classification, it is important to design a specialized feature mining algorithm for hyperspectral image classification. We propose a feature learning algorithm, contextual deep learning, which is extremely effective for hyperspectral image classification. On the one hand, the learning-based feature extraction algorithm can characterize information better than the pre-defined feature extraction algorithm. On the other hand, spatial contextual information is effective for hyperspectral image classification. Contextual deep learning explicitly learns spectral and spatial features via a deep learning architecture and promotes the feature extractor using a supervised fine-tune strategy. Extensive experiments show that the proposed contextual deep learning algorithm is an excellent feature learning algorithm and can achieve good performance with only a simple classifier.

With the increasing concerns for global climate change, a sustainable, efficient and renewable energy production from wastewater is imperative. In this study, a novel microbial carbon capture cell (MCC), is constructed for the first time by the introduction of immobilized microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) into the cathode chamber of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to fulfill the zero discharge of carbon dioxide. This process can achieve an 84.8% COD removal, and simultaneously the maximum power density can reach 2485.35 mW m−3 at a current density of 7.9 A m−3 and the Coulombic efficiency is 9.40%, which are 88% and 57.7% greater than that with suspended C. vulgaris, respectively. These enhancements in performance demonstrate the feasibility of an economical and effective approach for the simultaneous wastewater treatment, electricity generation and biodiesel production from microalgae.

New chiral bifunctional thiourea-phosphonium salts have been developed based on natural amino acids as highly efficient phase-transfer catalysts in the enantioselective aza-Henry reaction.

Mesoporous spinel NiCo2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal strategy. Their physicochemical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectra (SEM-EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and nitrogen sorption measurements. Their electrocatalytic performances were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperomerty (CA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. The obtained NiCo2O4 materials exhibit a particle size of about 200 nm, a specific surface area (SSA) of 88.94 m2 g−1 and a mesopore volume of 0.195 cm3 g−1. The binary electroactive sites of Co and Ni species, high electron conductivity and intriguing mesoporous structures of the NiCo2O4 electrode favor its desirable electro-catalytic activity. A current density of 93 mA cm−2 at 0.6 V in 1 M KOH and 0.5 M CH3OH electrolytes was obtained for CH3OH electro-oxidation, and a current density of 130 mA cm−2 at −0.3 V in 3 M NaOH and 0.5 M H2O2 electrolytes was achieved for H2O2 electro-reduction. Moreover, the NiCo2O4 electrode exhibits a high stability for both catalytic reactions, showing the potential for further development of high performance non-Pt catalysts based alkaline fuel cells (AFCs).

In this work, 4-aminothiophenol and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane were firstly used to functionalize graphene oxide (GO) in order to promote the sorption efficiencies of methylene blue (MB) and copper (Cu2+). Characterization experiments illustrated that sulfydryl group (SH) and amino group (NH2) were existed onto 4-aminothiophenol modified GO (GO-SH) and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane modified GO (GO-N), respectively. Adsorption isotherm results showed that the maximum adsorption capacities of MB by GO-SH and GO-N were 763.30 and 676.22 mg/g, which was much higher than original GO 455.95 mg/g. For Cu2+ adsorption, the maximum adsorption capacities by GO-SH and GO-N were 99.17 and 103.28 mg/g, suggesting that the engineered GO exhibited greater Cu2+ sorption ability than original GO 32.91 mg/g. Both MB and Cu2+ removal rates increased with pH and adsorbent dosage increased, while the sorption rates weakly reduced with increasing ionic strength. The modification by SH and NH2 would not only increase the sorption sites, but also cause chelation with heavy metals, and thus improving the sorption capacities of MB and Cu2+.

Anion-intercalated graphite compounds are becoming attractive as high-potential positive electrode materials in some electric energy storage devices. The intercalation of anions from electrolyte solutions to graphite electrode generally involves the co-entrance of organic solvent molecules inside the interlayer galleries of graphite, which has a great impact on the electrochemical behaviour of the graphite electrode. In situ XRD (X-ray diffraction) and EQCM (Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance) techniques have been corporately employed to investigate the mechanism of BF4− intercalation into graphite positive electrode from three electrolyte solutions in activated carbon/graphite capacitors. The solvation states of BF4− by different solvents inside the graphite electrode have been correlated with the performance of AC/graphite capacitors using corresponding electrolyte solutions.

A structurally orthogonal molecule (<bold>SBF-PDI4</bold>) with a 9,9′-spirobi[9<italic>H</italic>-fluorene] (SBF) core and four perylenediimide (PDI) at periphery was developed for use in polymer solar cells. Proper LUMO energy level (−4.1 eV) and good light absorption ability over 450–550 nm make it an excellent non-fullerene acceptor.

A facile route of poly (vinyl alcohol)/[email protected] polyacrylamide (PVA/[email protected]) for heavy metal adsorption was prepared by crosslinking with PAM onto PVA/SA, which complemented both benefits of natural and synthetic polymers, resulting from the design of core–shell/bead-like structure and polymer blending. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) etc. were applied to characterize as-synthesized beads. The results showed the optimal pH value was 5.0. The adsorption process of Cu(Ⅱ) fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model in batch system. The experimental maximum adsorption capacity was 79.5 ± 1.6 mg/g under the optimal condition, which is approximately 2.3 and 2 times higher than that of plain SA beads and PVA/SA beads, respectively. Thermodynamic studies revealed the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Thomas model was fitted better than Bohart-Adams model with breakthrough curves under different initial Cu(Ⅱ) concentration in a column system. More importantly, the PVA/[email protected] showed excellent mechanical stability and resistance for interference of co-existing ions. Besides, its removal ability only decreased slightly even after eleven cycles in reusability tests. Overall, PVA/[email protected] exhibits attractive characteristics of simple production process, low cost, good adsorption capacity, excellent adaptability and chemical and mechanical stability.

Abstract Single‐atom catalysts (SACs), as homogeneous catalysts, have been widely explored for chemical catalysis. However, few studies focus on the applications of SACs in enzymatic catalysis. Herein, we report that a zinc‐based zeolitic‐imidazolate‐framework (ZIF‐8)‐derived carbon nanomaterial containing atomically dispersed zinc atoms can serve as a highly efficient single‐atom peroxidase mimic. To reveal its structure–activity relationship, the structural evolution of the single‐atom nanozyme (SAzyme) was systematically investigated. Furthermore, the coordinatively unsaturated active zinc sites and catalytic mechanism of the SAzyme are disclosed using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The SAzyme, with high therapeutic effect and biosafety, shows great promises for wound antibacterial applications.

Nanoparticles as novel theranostic agents for cancer treatment have been extensively investigated in recent years. However, the poor tumor selectivity and retention of the theranostic agents result in unsatisfactory performance of both the diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Herein, we developed an alpha-cyclodextrin (α-CD)-based gold/DNA nanomachine for tumor-selective diagnosis and therapy. The α-CDs were capped at the ends of DNA, and their release was triggered by the low pH of the tumor microenvironment, which further resulted in DNA self-assembly through complementary base pairing. The large-sized gold aggregates failed to escape from the tumor tissue, thereby realizing the goal of tumor-specific targeting and enhanced retention. Thus, the photoacoustic signal and photothermal effect are also activated, thereby achieving tumor-targeted photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy. In vivo results indicated that the designed gold nanomachines can serve as efficient theranostic agents for diagnosis and therapy. Moreover, we found that the α-CD caps have the ability to protect the nanoparticles from clearance and enzyme digestion, which helps the nanoparticles reach the tumor more efficiently.

Porous nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) nanostructures were synthesized via a facile chemical deposition route. Their physicochemical properties were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and nitrogen sorption measurements. Their electrocatalytic performances were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. The obtained NiCo2O4 materials exhibit typical agglomerate porous nanostructures with the specific surface area (SSA) and pore volume of 190.1 m2 g−1 and 1.136 cm3 g−1. Remarkably, the NiCo2O4 materials exhibit higher electrocatalytic activity, lower overpotential, better stability and greater tolerance compared to those of NiO and Co3O4 materials synthesized by the same procedure. As for the NiCo2O4 electrode, a current density of 98 mA cm−2 was obtained toward CH3OH electro-oxidation at 0.6 V in 1 M KOH and 0.5 M CH3OH electrolytes, and a current density of 223 mA cm−2 was achieved toward H2O2 electro-reduction at −0.3 V in 3 M NaOH and 0.5 M H2O2 electrolytes. Moreover, the NiCo2O4 electrode shows a desirable stability for both electrocatalytic reactions. The impressive electrocatalytic activity is largely attributable to the binary electroactive sites of Co and Ni species, intrinsic high electronic conductivity and superior porous nanostructures of the NiCo2O4 electrode, which are very promising for further development of high performance non-Pt catalysts alkaline fuel cells (AFCs).

Fibers have been commonly used to enhance the cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures. However, the reinforcing actions of different fibers have presented diverse effects. Therefore, three kinds of fibers, including glass fibers, basalt fibers and steel fibers, were selected to investigate their influences on the low temperature properties and cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures in this paper. Indirect tensile testing (IDT) was conducted to obtain basic properties such as the Poisson’s ratio and moduli. The digital image correlation (DIC) technique was employed to measure the deformation and strain. The crack inhibition action was evaluated by the failure time. The results showed that the fiber type has no influence on the Poisson’s ratio of the mixture. However, the addition of fibers remarkably affects the mixture modulus. The modulus and ultimate tensile strength of the reinforced mixture decline after the addition of fibers. The gaps between the compressive and tensile moduli are also increased by the addition of fibers. Moreover, the addition of fibers not only substantially improves the mixture ductility but also delays the fracture process. The fiber reinforced asphalt concrete (FRAC) presents a higher fracture energy (FE) and dissipated creep strain energy (DCSE) than that of the control concrete. Among the selected fibers, basalt fibers exhibit optimal crack resistance performance, while steel fibers are not recommended due to their smooth appearance.

In this paper, we propose a novel feature learning framework for video person re-identification (re-ID). The proposed framework largely aims to exploit the adequate temporal information of video sequences and tackle the poor spatial alignment of moving pedestrians. More specifically, for exploiting the temporal information, we design a temporal residual learning (TRL) module to simultaneously extract the generic and specific features of consecutive frames. The TRL module is equipped with two bi-directional LSTM (BiLSTM), which are respectively responsible to describe a moving person in different aspects, providing complementary information for better feature representations. To deal with the poor spatial alignment in video re-ID datasets, we propose a spatial-temporal transformer network (ST^2N) module. Transformation parameters in the ST^2N module are learned by leveraging the high-level semantic information of the current frame as well as the temporal context knowledge from other frames. The proposed ST^2N module with less learnable parameters allows effective person alignments under significant appearance changes. Extensive experimental results on the large-scale MARS, PRID2011, ILIDS-VID and SDU-VID datasets demonstrate that the proposed method achieves consistently superior performance and outperforms most of the very recent state-of-the-art methods.

In this study, we prepared a novel hybrid functionalized chitosan-Al2O3@SiO2 composite (FCAS) for removing hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from aqueous system. Spectroscopic studies like Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) were characterized. The effects such as dosage of adsorbent, pH, contact time and initial Cr(VI) concentration were evaluated. It has been illustrated that a wide acidic condition in the pH range of 2–6 was conducive to Cr(VI) adsorption and only 10 min was required to reach about 80% adsorption. Also, the adsorption properties of prepared adsorbent such as kinetics, thermodynamics and isotherms were comprehensively studied. Additionally, the adsorption capacity barely declined even after five cycles. Studies found that FCAS with characteristics of high performance of adsorption rate and capacity and better reusability would be a potential adsorbent for wastewater treatment.

Street-level scene segmentation aims to label each pixel of street-view images into specific semantic categories. It has been attracting growing interest due to various real-world applications, especially in the area of autonomous driving. However, this pixel-wise labeling task is very challenging under the complex street-level scenes and large-scale object categories. Motivated by the scene layout of street-view images, in this work we propose a novel Spatial Gated Attention (SGA) module, which automatically highlights the attentive regions for pixel-wise labeling, resulting in effective street-level scene segmentation. The proposed module takes as input the multi-scale feature maps based on a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) backbone, and produces the corresponding attention mask for each feature map. The learned attention masks can neatly highlight the regions of interest while suppress background clutter. Furthermore, we propose an efficient multi-scale feature interaction mechanism which is able to adaptively aggregate the hierarchical features. Based on the proposed mechanism, the features of different levels are adaptively re-weighted according to the local spatial structure and the surrounding contextual information. Consequently, the proposed modules are able to boost standard FCN architectures and result in an enhanced pixel-wise segmentation for street-level scene images. Extensive experiments on three public available street-level benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed Gated Attention Network (GANet) approach achieves consistently superior performance and outperforms the very recent state-of-the-art methods.

Change detection is an important task to identify land-cover changes between the acquisitions at different times. For synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, inherent speckle noise of the images can lead to false changed points, which affects the change detection performance. Besides, the supervised classifier in change detection framework requires numerous training samples, which are generally obtained by manual labeling. In this paper, a novel unsupervised method named saliency-guided deep neural networks (SGDNNs) is proposed for SAR image change detection. In the proposed method, to weaken the influence of speckle noise, a salient region that probably belongs to the changed object is extracted from the difference image. To obtain pseudotraining samples automatically, hierarchical fuzzy C-means (HFCM) clustering is developed to select samples with higher probabilities to be changed and unchanged. Moreover, to enhance the discrimination of sample features, DNNs based on the nonnegative- and Fisher-constrained autoencoder are applied for final detection. Experimental results on five real SAR data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The electrochemical behaviour of graphite positive electrode has been tested in the electrolyte solutions of 1 mol dm−3 LiPF6 dissolved in mixed solvents of sulfolane (SL) and ethylmethyl carbonate (EMC). The suppression of PF6− anion intercalation into graphite by SL has been demonstrated. Moreover, the favourable effect of EMC on PF6− insertion into graphite in SL-based solutions has been verified by ex situ XRD, ex situ Raman, and electrochemical tests. Furthermore, improved long-term cycling performance of graphite positive electrode has been obtained in solutions with suitable ratios of SL and EMC.

Filamentous sludge bulking poses great threats to operational stability of aerobic granular sludge. Exploration of the microbial community aids knowledge of the causative factors to sludge bulking and guides directions for corresponding actions for prevention and controlling. Detailed changes of bacterial community within the non-bulking and bulking were performed and compared with a non-specific method through 1‰ (v/v) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) addition. Results revealed that non-bulking/bulking granules maintained effective carbon and nitrogen removal, while bulking completely deteriorated enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). Excess extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) especially polysaccharide (PS) were directly linked with sludge bulking and abundant PS contributed to subsequent granular re-stability. Filamentous bulking dramatically altered the bacterial populations and 1‰ H2O2 effectively controlled bulking by eliminating causative filaments Singulisphaera and Thiothrix. Together, this study provides new insights into the non-bulking/bulking granules and could direct the prevention and control of filamentous bulking in aerobic granules.

The titanium carbide (TiC) modified layer is prepared by plasma surface modification technology on the surface of Ti plate (TA1) to meet the performance requirements of bipolar plate of PEMFC. The microstructure characterization confirms that a compact and defectless TiC modified layer is formed on the surface of Ti bipolar plate. The corrosion current density of TiC modified plate in simulated PEMFC environment is reduced by approximately an order of magnitude and the self-corrosion potential is significantly improved compared with bare Ti plate. The interfacial contact resistance (ICR) of TiC modified plate (7.5 mΩ cm2, under loading pressure of 140 N) is evidently lower than bare Ti plate (98.1 mΩ cm2). Even after potentiostatic polarization, the ICR of TiC modified plate still remains at satisfactory values. Furthermore, the contact angle of TiC modified plate reaches a higher value of 112°, which is beneficial to the water discharge of PEMFC.

In this paper, we propose a new image super-resolution (SR) approach based on a convolutional neural network (CNN), which jointly learns the feature extraction, upsampling, and high-resolution (HR) reconstruction modules, yielding a completely end-to-end trainable deep CNN.However, directly training such a deep network in an end-to-end fashion is challenging, which takes a longer time to converge and may lead to sub-optimal results.To address this issue, we propose to jointly train an ensemble of deep and shallow networks.The shallow network with weaker learning capability restores the main structure of the image content, while the deep network with stronger representation power captures the high-frequency details.Since the shallow network is much easier to optimize, it significantly lowers the difficulty of deep network optimization during joint training.To further ensure more accurate restoration of HR images, the highfrequency details are reconstructed in a multi-scale manner to simultaneously incorporate both short-and long-range contextual information.The proposed method is extensively evaluated on widely adopted data sets and compares favorably against state-of-the-art methods.In-depth ablation studies are conducted to verify the contributions of different network designs to image SR, providing additional insights for future research.

In this work, a pilot-scale low dissolved oxygen (DO) composite biological system (LDOCBS) composed of an anoxic rotating biological contactor (RBC) and four aeration tanks with gradient aeration was used to treat landfill leachate for 88 d. The maximum removals of 85.65%, 99.92% and 84.06% for chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia (NH4+-N) and total nitrogen (TN) were achieved, respectively. The three-dimensional exaction and emission matrix (3D-EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the biodegradability of leachate was significantly improved by the LDOCBS. Mass balance calculations showed that the COD removal and denitrification process mainly occurred in RBC while 1# contributed primarily to nitrification. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that denitrifying bacteria with highly relative abundances of 46.45%–53.81% played key roles in organic degradation and nitrogen removal. This work could add some guiding insights into the cost-efficient treatment of landfill leachate by the composite biological system.

Abstract Calix[4]pyrrole‐based porous organic polymers ( P1 – P3 ) for removing organic micropollutants from water were prepared. A bowl‐shaped α,α,α,α‐tetraalkynyl calix[4]pyrrole and diketopyrrolopyrrole monomer were crosslinked via Sonogashira coupling to produce a 3D network polymer, P1. P1 proved too hydrophobic for use as an adsorbent and was converted to the corresponding neutral polymer P2 (containing carboxylic acid groups) and its anionic derivative P3 (containing carboxylate anion groups). Anionic P3 outperformed P2 in screening studies involving a variety of model organic micropollutants of different charge, hydrophilicity and functionality. P3 proved particularly effective for cationic micropollutants. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacity ( q max,e ) of P3 reached 454 mg g −1 for the dye methylene blue, 344 mg g −1 for the pesticide paraquat, and 495 mg g −1 for diquat. These uptake values are significantly higher than those of most synthetic adsorbent materials reported to date.

Accumulating studies have revealed that aberrant expression of circular RNAs (circRNAs) is widely involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of malignant cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, the clinical significance, levels, features, biological function, and molecular mechanisms of novel circRNAs in CRC remain largely unexplored.CRC-related circRNAs were identified through bioinformatics analysis and verified in clinical specimens by qRT-PCR and in situ hybridization (ISH). Then, in vitro and in vivo experiments were performed to determine the clinical significance of, functional roles of, and clinical characteristics associated with circIL4R in CRC specimens and cells. Mechanistically, RNA pull-down, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), luciferase reporter, and ubiquitination assays were performed to confirm the underlying mechanism of circIL4R.CircIL4R was upregulated in CRC cell lines and in sera and tissues from CRC patients and was positively correlated with advanced clinicopathological features and poor prognosis. Functional experiments demonstrated that circIL4R promotes CRC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Mechanistically, circIL4R was regulated by TFAP2C and competitively interacted with miR-761 to enhance the expression of TRIM29, thereby targeting PHLPP1 for ubiquitin-mediated degradation to activate the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and consequently facilitate CRC progression.Our findings demonstrate that upregulation of circIL4R plays an oncogenic role in CRC progression and may serve as a promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for CRC detection and as a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment.

Effective wind-power prediction enhances the adaptability of a wind power system to the instability of wind power, which is beneficial for load and frequency regulation, helping to convert wind power to electricity and connect wind power to the grid safely. Moreover, the use of numerical weather prediction (NWP) to predict the probability results of wind power is a matter of general concern in the field of wind power prediction, and deep neural networks have become an indispensable research tool. In this study, a new neural-network prediction model called EALSTM-QR was developed for wind-power prediction considering the input of NWP and the deep-learning method. In the model, there are four main levels: Encoder, Attention, bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM), and quantile regression (QR). The combination inputs contain historical wind-power data and the features extracted and obtained from the NWP through the Encoder and Attention levels. The bidirectional LSTM is used to generate wind-power time-series probability prediction results. The QR method and confidence interval limits are used to obtain the final prediction intervals. The proposed method was compared with several interval prediction models and probability prediction models based on neural networks for wind-power prediction by using datasets from wind farms in China. The results indicated that the proposed EALSTM-QR has good accuracy and reliability for the prediction of intervals and probabilities.

In the present work, talc (a low-cost clay) encapsulated salts alginate (TAL) beads were synthesized by cross-linking with lanthanum ion and tested for phosphate adsorption. Multiple methods were applied for the characterization of composites. The combined effect of talc and lanthanum improved phosphate removal performance of TAL beads. Factors such as talc content, La3+ concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, co-existing ions (Cl−, NO3− and SO42−) were studied in batch experiments. The optimized TAL-7 beads exhibited satisfactory selectivity towards phosphate in the coexistence of competing anions and could remain efficient phosphate removal in the pH range of 4–6. The phosphate removal efficiency reached to 95% with a maximum uptake of 16.4 mg P/g obtained at the optimal pH 4. Further experiments suggested that Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model could well describe the phosphate adsorption process of TAL-7 beads. Moreover, TAL-7 beads exhibited superior phosphate fixation performance in the long-term experiment. The results from adsorption experiment and characterization analysis demonstrated that TAL-7 beads could be a cost-effective and promising biosorbent for phosphate adsorption and fixation in the aqueous environment.

Enzymes have been used to direct the conversion of prodrugs in cancer therapy. However, non-specific distribution of endogenous enzymes seriously hinders their bioapplications. Herein, we developed a near-infrared-triggered locoregional chemo-photothermal therapy based on the exogenous enzyme delivery and remolded tumor mivroenvironment. The catalytic efficiency of enzymes was enhanced by the hyperthermia, and the therapeutic efficacy of photothermal therapy (PTT) was improved owing to the inhibition of heat shock protein 90 by chemotherapeutics. The locoregional chemo-phototherapy achieved a one-time successful cure in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice model. Thus, a mutually reinforcing feedback loop between PTT and chemotherapy can be initiated by the irradiation, which holds a promising future in cancer therapy.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries have been considered as a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage owing to their low-cost, safety and environment friendly. However, the development of high performance cathode materials using for zinc-ion de/intercalation is still a challenge. Herein, we prepared the V2O5·1.6H2O nanosheet with an ultrathin thickness of 2 nm and lateral size up to several micrometers by a simple hydrothermal method. The nanosheet configuration is an impressive microstructure to enhance the ion diffusion kinetics during the electrochemical reactions. As a proof of concept, we built a rechargeable aqueous Zn-V2O5 battery, assembling with the V2O5·1.6H2O nanosheet cathodes, Zn anode and 3 M Zn(CF3SO3)2 electrolyte. Owing to the high percentage of capacitive contribution (86.6% at 1 mV s−1) and rapid diffusion coefficient of Zn2+ in the V2O5·1.6H2O nanosheet cathodes, the aqueous Zn-V2O5 battery delivers a high reversible capacity (426 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1), exceptional rate capability (251 mAh g−1 at 20 A g−1), long-term cycle performance (95% capacity after 5000 cycles at 10 A g−1) and excellent energy/power densities (151 Wh kg−1 energy density at a high power density of 11.9 kW kg−1). These merits make the aqueous Zn-V2O5 battery hold potential for grid storage applications.

Buildings produce a large amount of carbon emissions in their life cycle, which intensifies greenhouse-gas effects and has become a great threat to the survival of humans and other species. Although many previous studies shed light on the calculation of carbon emissions, a systematic analysis framework is still missing. Therefore, this study proposes an analysis framework of carbon emissions based on building information modeling (BIM) and life cycle assessment (LCA), which consists of four steps: (1) defining the boundary of carbon emissions in a life cycle; (2) establishing a carbon emission coefficients database for Chinese buildings and adopting Revit, GTJ2018, and Green Building Studio for inventory analysis; (3) calculating carbon emissions at each stage of the life cycle; and (4) explaining the calculation results of carbon emissions. The framework developed is validated using a case study of a hospital project, which is located in areas in Anhui, China with a hot summer and a cold winter. The results show that the reinforced concrete engineering contributes to the largest proportion of carbon emissions (around 49.64%) in the construction stage, and the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) generates the largest proportion (around 53.63%) in the operational stage. This study provides a practical reference for similar buildings in analogous areas and for additional insights on reducing carbon emissions in the future.

In this perspective, the design, applications and potential directions of photothermal therapeutic agents with dual-targeted properties are systematically described.

Salinity stress during anaerobic digestion is known to cause extensive changes in biogas production and microbial community structure. Thus, our study sought to characterize the adaptation response of bacteria when challenged with increased salinity. Firstly, experiments were conducted at eight salinity levels at a constant kitchen waste/inoculum ratio (K/I = 1.0), which indicated that the effect of salinity on anaerobic digestion was strictly dosage-dependent. Then, kitchen waste anaerobic digestion was conducted for 70 days at five increasing salinity levels (1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0, and 16.0 g NaCl/g). Furthermore, six samples taken at the end of each salinity level acclimation phase were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing, which illustrated that Euryarchaeota, Synergistetes, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes were dominance at phylum level. Moreover, the proportion of Methanosaeta as major genus among Euryarchaeota was 16.46% after being acclimated 70 days of NaCl acclimation, which was higher than its proportions at the initial sample (22.08%). Methanosarcina were also enriched after acclimation. Therefore, Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina could both potentially adapt to high-salinity environments.

Pulmonary infections are among the most common and important infectious diseases due to their high morbidity and mortality, especially in older and immunocompromised individuals. However, due to the limitations in sensitivity and the long turn-around time (TAT) of conventional diagnostic methods, pathogen detection and identification methods for pulmonary infection with greater diagnostic efficiency are urgently needed. In recent years, unbiased metagenomic next generation sequencing (mNGS) has been widely used to detect different types of infectious pathogens, and is especially useful for the detection of rare and newly emergent pathogens, showing better diagnostic performance than traditional methods. There has been limited research exploring the application of mNGS for the diagnosis of pulmonary infections. In this study we evaluated the diagnostic efficiency and clinical impact of mNGS on pulmonary infections. A total of 100 respiratory samples were collected from patients diagnosed with pulmonary infection in Shanghai, China. Conventional methods, including culture and standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) panel analysis for respiratory tract viruses, and mNGS were used for the pathogen detection in respiratory samples. The difference in the diagnostic yield between conventional methods and mNGS demonstrated that mNGS had higher sensitivity than traditional culture for the detection of pathogenic bacteria and fungi (95% vs 54%; p&amp;lt;0.001). Although mNGS had lower sensitivity than PCR for diagnosing viral infections, it identified 14 viral species that were not detected using conventional methods, including multiple subtypes of human herpesvirus. mNGS detected viruses with a genome coverage &amp;gt;95% and a sequencing depth &amp;gt;100× and provided reliable phylogenetic and epidemiological information. mNGS offered extra benefits, including a shorter TAT. As a complementary approach to conventional methods, mNGS could help improving the identification of respiratory infection agents. We recommend the timely use of mNGS when infection of mixed or rare pathogens is suspected, especially in immunocompromised individuals and or individuals with severe conditions that require urgent treatment.

In this paper, we propose a novel effective non-rigid object tracking framework based on the spatial-temporal consistent saliency detection. In contrast to most existing trackers that utilize a bounding box to specify the tracked target, the proposed framework can extract accurate regions of the target as tracking outputs. It achieves a better description of the non-rigid objects and reduces the background pollution for the tracking model. Furthermore, our model has several unique characteristics. First, a tailored fully convolutional neural network (TFCN) is developed to model the local saliency prior for a given image region, which not only provides the pixel-wise outputs but also integrates the semantic information. Second, a novel multi-scale multi-region mechanism is proposed to generate local saliency maps that effectively consider visual perceptions with different spatial layouts and scale variations. Subsequently, the local saliency maps are fused via a weighted entropy method, resulting in a discriminative saliency map. Finally, we present a non-rigid object tracking algorithm based on the predicted saliency maps. By utilizing a spatial-temporal consistent saliency map (STCSM), we conduct the target-background classification and use an online fine-tuning scheme for model updating. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves competitive performance in both saliency detection and visual tracking, especially outperforming other related trackers on the non-rigid object tracking datasets. Source codes and compared results are released at https://github.com/Pchank/TFCNTracker.

Serology detection is recognized for its sensitivity in convalescent patients with COVID-19, in comparison with nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). This article aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of serologic methods for COVID-19 based on assay design and post-symptom-onset intervals. Two authors independently searched PubMed, Cochrane library, Ovid, EBSCO for case–control, longitudinal and cohort studies that determined the diagnostic accuracy of serology tests in comparison with NAATs in COVID-19 cases and used QUADAS-2 for quality assessment. Pooled accuracy was analysed using INLA method. A total of 27 studies were included in this meta-analysis, with 4 cohort, 16 case–control and 7 longitudinal studies and 4565 participants. Serology tests had the lowest sensitivity at 0–7 days after symptom onset and the highest at >14 days. TAB had a better sensitivity than IgG or IgM only. Using combined nucleocapsid (N) and spike(S) protein had a better sensitivity compared to N or S protein only. Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) had a lower sensitivity than enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA). Serology tests will play an important role in the clinical diagnosis for later stage COVID-19 patients. ELISA tests, detecting TAB or targeting combined N and S proteins had a higher diagnostic sensitivity compared to other methods.

Abstract Tin‐based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) demonstrate a potential application in wearable electronics due to its hypotoxicity. However, poor crystal quality is still the bottleneck for achieving high‐performance flexible devices. In this work, graphite phase‐C 3 N 4 (g‐C 3 N 4 ) is applied into tin‐based perovskite as a crystalline template, which delays crystallization via a size‐effect and passivates defects simultaneously. The double hydrogen bond between g‐C 3 N 4 and formamidine cation can optimize lattice matching and passivation. Moreover, the two‐dimensional network structure of g‐C 3 N 4 can fit on the crystals, resulting an enhanced hydrophobicity and oxidation resistance. Therefore, the flexible tin‐based PSCs with g‐C 3 N 4 realize a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.56 % with negligible hysteresis. In addition, the PSCs can maintain 91 % of the initial PCE after 1000 h under N 2 environment and keep 92 % of their original PCE after 600 cycles at a curvature radius of 3 mm.

Abstract Although outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been achieved in flexible perovskite solar cells, unsatisfactory operational stability and toxicity caused by the moisture transmittance of polymer packaging are still the bottleneck challenges that limit their applications. Herein, inspired by the non‐selective permeability of inactivated cell membrane, the diphosphatidyl‐glycerol (Di‐g) is tactfully introduced as a self‐shield interface upon the perovskite layer. 96% of lead leakage is suppressed because the amphipathic Di‐g can simultaneously bind tightly to the divalent lead ion and afford an interfacial water‐resistance. More importantly, the gradient distribution of lattice residual stress perpendicular to the substrate are optimized. The resultant flexible devices achieve a PCE of 20.29% and 15.01% at effective areas of 1.01 and 21.82 cm 2 respectively, yielding excellent environmental and mechanical stability. This strategy exhibits the feasibility of developing interfacial encapsulation to stabilize scalable PSCs with negligible lead leakage.

Abstract As one of the most promising hole transport layers (HTLs), nickel oxide (NiO x ) has received extensive attention due to its application in flexible large‐area perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the poor interface contact caused by inherent easy‐agglomeration phenomenon of NiO x nanoparticles (NPs) is still the bottleneck for achieving high‐performance devices. Herein, a general strategy to synthesize NiO x NPs with high crystallinity and good dispersibility via the polymer network micro‐precipitation method is reported. Promisingly, this approach realizes the flow‐division of precipitant and the restraint of the NPs motion, thereby effectively alleviating the coagulation phenomenon caused by excessive local concentration and secondary movement adsorption. Furthermore, the addition of ionic liquid not only inhibits the secondary aggregation of NiO x NPs during the dispersion process, but also significantly enhances the properties of the colloidal solution. Ultimately, the 1.01 cm 2 PSCs based on the optimized NiO x HTLs achieve the champion power conversion efficiency of 20.91% and 19.17% on rigid and flexible substrates, respectively. Moreover, the reproducibility and stability of PSCs are also significantly improved, especially for flexible devices. Overall, this strategy provides the possibility for flexible, large‐area fabrication of high‐quality NiO x HTLs to promote the development of stable and efficient perovskite devices.

The development of feasible adsorbent for phosphate removal is of great urgency to remediate water eutrophication and maintain sustainable development of water resources. In the present work, eco-friendly lanthanum cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol/alginate/palygorskite (LPAP) composite hydrogel beads were synthetized for phosphate removal from aqueous solution. The encapsulation of palygorskite (PAL) into polymers enhanced the mechanical strength of LPAP hydrogel and selectivity towards phosphate as well. The characterization of synthesized hydrogel was conducted by SEM-EDS, BET, XRD, FT-IR and XPS, etc. Batch experiments indicated that phosphate uptake by LPAP was pH dependent with the optimal pH range of 3–6, and efficient phosphate removal (nearly 100%) was maintained in the co-existence of anions (Cl−, NO3− and SO42−). The adsorptive behavior of LPAP beads could be satisfactorily described by Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, with the experimental maximum phosphate uptake of ∼33.2 mg/g obtained at pH 4. Thermodynamics analysis suggested the spontaneous and endothermic character of adsorption process. More crucially, the superior reusability of LPAP beads confirmed through sorption-desorption cyclic experiments provided access for waste elimination at the minimum cost. The main phosphate removal routes were identified as electrostatic interaction, ligand exchange and Lewis acid-base interaction, and crystalline LaPO4·xH2O was formed on the surface of LPAP beads. Overall results demonstrated the applicable potential of LPAP beads as an environmental-sustainable, low-cost, anti-interfering and easily-recovered biosorbent for environmental remediation.

In this paper, a progressive global perception and local polishing (PCPLP) network is proposed to automatically segment the COVID-19-caused pneumonia infections in computed tomography (CT) images. The proposed PCPLP follows an encoder-decoder architecture. Particularly, the encoder is implemented as a computationally efficient fully convolutional network (FCN). In this study, a multi-scale multi-level feature recursive aggregation (mmFRA) network is used to integrate multi-scale features (viz. global guidance features and local refinement features) with multi-level features (viz. high-level semantic features, middle-level comprehensive features, and low-level detailed features). Because of this innovative aggregation of features, an edge-preserving segmentation map can be produced in a boundary-aware multiple supervision (BMS) way. Furthermore, both global perception and local perception are devised. On the one hand, a global perception module (GPM) providing a holistic estimation of potential lung infection regions is employed to capture more complementary coarse-structure information from different pyramid levels by enlarging the receptive fields without substantially increasing the computational burden. On the other hand, a local polishing module (LPM), which provides a fine prediction of the segmentation regions, is applied to explicitly heighten the fine-detail information and reduce the dilution effect of boundary knowledge. Comprehensive experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed PCPLP in boosting the learning ability to identify the lung infected regions with clear contours accurately. Our model is superior remarkably to the state-of-the-art segmentation models both quantitatively and qualitatively on a real CT dataset of COVID-19.

An <italic>in situ</italic> bifacial passivation strategy is developed to improve the performance of flexible perovskite solar module during roll-to-roll printing.

Ultrasonic vibration-assisted rock breaking is a potentially effective technique to accelerate hard rock drilling processes. Fatigue damage is a primary factor that governs rock fragmentation subject to ultrasonic vibration, and when such damage accumulates to a critical level via crack initiation and propagation, macro-damage (e.g., macro-cracks) will occur. To date, however, the specific fatigue damage mechanism of hard rock materials under high-frequency and low-amplitude cyclic loading conditions is still unclear. In the present study, we applied a 2D digital image correlation (2D-DIC) method to measure the full-field strain in granite samples with different loading amplitudes. From these deformation data, the threshold value for rock fragmentation under ultrasonic vibration was obtained, and it was also found that the logarithm of the time required to meet this value decreases linearly with an increasing amplitude coefficient. Then, we conducted numerical simulation based on a 2D particle flow code (PFC2D) to reproduce the crack initiation and propagation processes and explore their mechanisms. The results from the simulation show that due to irreversible sliding under ultrasonic vibration, the difference in the displacement between particles on either side of a crack tip will increase, which leads to an increase in the concentrated lateral tensile stress. When the tensile stress exceeds the strength limit, the crack will initiate and propagate, resulting in fragmentation of rocks.

Ever-increasing global environmental issues, land degradation, and groundwater contamination may significantly impact the agricultural sector of any country. The situation worsens while the global agricultural sectors are going through the unsustainable intensification of agricultural production powered by chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This trend leads the sector to exercise environmentally friendly technology (EFT). Capital endowment and ecological cognition may significantly impact fostering farmers’ adoption of environmentally friendly technology. The government also tends to change the existing policies to cope with ever-increasing challenges like pollution control, maintaining ecological balance, and supporting agricultural sectors substantially by employing ecological compensation policy. The study’s main objective is to explore the impacts of farmer’s ecological compensation, capital endowment, and ecological cognition for the adoption of EFT. The empirical setup of the study quantifies with survey data of 471 apple farmers from nine counties of Shandong province. The study used Heckman’s two-stage model to craft the findings. The results showed that 52.02% of fruit farmers adopted two environmentally friendly technologies, and 23.99% of fruit farmers adopted three forms of environmentally friendly technologies. At the same time, we have traced that the capital endowment, planting scale, family income, and technical specialization of fruit farmers significantly impact adopting EFT. The study also revealed that understanding ecological compensation policy has a significant positive effect on adopting environmentally friendly technology. Seemingly, ecological compensation policy has a specific regulatory effect on fruit farmers’ capital endowment and ecological cognition. Therefore, it is necessary to extend the demonstration facilities, training, and frequently arrange awareness-building campaigns regarding rural non-point source pollution hazards and improve the cognition level of farmers. The agriculture extension department should strengthen the agricultural value chain facilities to make farmers fully realize the importance of EFT. Government should promote and extend the supports for availing new and innovative EFT at a reasonable price. Moreover, cooperative, financial, and credit organizations need to lead for the smooth transition of EFT. The agricultural cooperatives and formal risk-taking networks should act responsibly for shaping the behavioral factors of farmers.

Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the predominant variant worldwide. VV116 is an oral drug with robust anti-SARS-CoV-2 efficacy in preclinical studies. We conducted an open, prospective cohort study to evaluate its safety and effectiveness in Chinese participants infected with the omicron variant from March 8th, 2022 to March 24th, 2022. 136 hospitalized nonsevere patients confirmed with COVID-19 were enrolled including 60 patients who received VV116 (300 mg, BID×5 days) in the treatment group and 76 patients who didn’t receive VV116 in the control group besides standard treatment. Viral load shedding time and adverse events were collected during the follow-up. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics between the VV116 group and the control group, except for a higher symptom prevalence in the control group (P = 0.021). The median time from the first positive test to the first VV116 administration was 5 (range: 2-10) days. Participants who received VV116 within 5 days since the first positive test had a shorter viral shedding time than the control group (8.56 vs 11.13 days), and cox regression analysis showed adjusted HR of 2.37 [95%CI 1.50-3.75], P < 0.001. In symptomatic subgroup, VV116 group had a shorter viral shedding time than the control group (P = 0.016). A total of 9 adverse events with no serious adverse events were reported in the VV116 group, all of them were resolved without intervention. VV116 is a safe, effective oral antiviral drug, which shows a better performance within the early onset of omicron infection.

A COVID-19 booster vaccination is being comprehensively evaluated globally due to the emerging concern of reduced protection rate of previous vaccination and circulating Variants of Concern (VOC). But the safety and immunogenicity of homologous BBIBP-CorV boosting vaccination are yet to be thoroughly evaluated. We conducted this prospective, open-label study in Huashan Hospital using a third 6.5U BBIBP-CorV administered at an interval of 4-8 months following the previous two doses in healthy adults. Safety, anti-RBD response and neutralizing titers against SARS-CoV-2 and VOCs were examined. Sixty-three and forty participants entered the booster and the control group, respectively. A significant increase in IFN-γ SFU per million PBMCs was observed on day 14 against N peptide (20 vs. 5, P < 0.001). On day 14, pVNT GMTs increased over 15 folds of the baseline levels against prototype to reach 404.54 titers and over 9-13 folds against 4 VOCs and continuously increased by day 28. sVNT GMTs increased 112.51 and 127.45 folds by days 14 and 28 compared to the baseline level. Median anti-RBD antibody and IgG level significantly increased from 11.12 to 2607.50 BAU/ml and 4.07 to 619.20 BAU/ml on day 14. On day 14, females showed a significantly higher cell-mediated immune response against S1 peptide. The 7-8 months interval group had a higher humoral response than the 4-6 months interval group. No severe adverse event was reported. A third homologous BBIBP-CorV boosting vaccination was safe and highly immunogenic for healthy adults and broadened participants' immunity against VOCs.

Imidacloprid (IMI), an emerging pollutant, has high toxicity to non-target organisms. This paper presents the kinetics of IMI removal by ferrate(VI) at different pH (6.0-9.0), molar ratios ([ferrate(VI)]:[IMI]) and added Fe(III) ions. The apparent second-order rate constant (kapp) decreased with increase in pH from pH 6.0 to 9.0 (i.e., (1.2 ± 0.1) × 102 M-1 s-1 to (8.3 ± 0.3) M-1 s-1). The species-specific rate constants were obtained as k (HFeO4-) = 1.3 × 102 M-1 s-1 and k (FeO42-) = 6.9 M-1 s-1. The decreases in the concentration of HFeO4- with increase in pH caused the observed pH dependence in kapp. At pH 7.0, the removal of IMI increased with the molar ratio from 1.0 to 10.0 with complete removal at the highest ratio. The variation in pH from 6.0 to 9.0 had no obvious effect on removal of IMI. Experiments indicate that IMI removal is mainly by ferrate(VI) oxidation and to a lesser extent by Fe(III) adsorption. Mineralization of IMI was also observed (20-26%). The addition of Fe(III) ions to ferrate(VI)-IMI at pH 7.0 and 8.0 resulted in enhanced removal of IMI, but the presence of Ca2+, SO42-, HCO3-, and humic acid (HA) has negative effects. The presence of coexisting substances in river water slightly decreased IMI removal by ferrate(VI) by less than 10%. Identification of products and frontier electron density (FED) calculations demonstrated involvement of opening of the five-membered heterocyclic moiety of IMI by ferrate(VI). Toxicity assessment with NIH 3T3 fibroblasts and ECOSAR analysis indicated lower toxicity of oxidized products than parent IMI.

The polyaniline grown on activated carbon fibers (PANI-ACF) was synthesized through an electrochemical deposition process to act as the energy storage electrode material for wearable bracelet supercapacitor application. The ACF was synthesized by activating carbon fibers through hydrothermal process in HNO3 solution and then thermal process in argon atmosphere, which kept the microporous surface structure and oxygen-containing functional groups. The ACF substrate could contributes to improving electrical conductivity and activation of PANI-ACF. The density functional theory calculation result shows that PANI-ACF has larger Fermi energy than PANI. The XPS spectrum measurements and Mulliken charge distribution analysis indicate the formation of interfacial hydrogen bond interaction between hydroxyl group of ACF and amino group of PANI in PANI-ACF. The HOMO-LUMO energy gap decreases from 2.62 eV of PANI to 0.23 eV of PANI-ACF, indicating the bonding interaction is beneficial to improve conductivity of PANI. The PANI-ACF achieves superior capacitance of 296.3 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1 and maintains reasonable capacitance retention of 63.8 % when the current density increases from 1.0 to 10 A g−1. Electroactive PANI-ACF electrode was applied for wearable bracelet-supercapacitor, which exhibits the energy density of 30.42 Wh kg−1 at power density of 900 W kg−1. So, hydrogen bond enforced PANI-ACF electrode with high capacitance and flexibility properties presents the promising wearable energy storage application.

Mapping human hand motion to robotic hands has great significance in a wide range of applications, such as teleoperation and imitation learning. The ultimate goal is to develop a device-independent control solution based on human hand synergies. Over the past twenty years, a considerable number of mapping methods have been proposed, but most of the mapping methods use intrusive devices, such as the CyberGlove data gloves, to capture human hand motion. Until recently, a very small number of mapping methods have been proposed based on vision-based human hand pose estimation. Traditionally, mapping methods and vision-based human hand pose estimation have been studied independently. To the best of our knowledge, no review has been conducted to summarize the achievements on haptic mapping methods or explore the feasibility of applying off-the-shelf human hand pose estimation algorithms to teleoperation. To address this literature gap, we present the first survey on mapping human hand motion to robotic hands from a kinematic and algorithmic perspective. We discuss the realistic challenges, intuitively summarize recent mapping methods, analyze the theoretical solutions, and provide a teleoperation-oriented human hand pose estimation overview. As a preliminary exploration, a vision-based human hand pose estimation algorithm is introduced for robotic hand teleoperation.

The toxicity, corrosiveness, and volatility of elemental bromine presents challenges for its safe storage and transportation. Purification from other halogens is also difficult. Here, we report an easy-to-prepare calix[4]pyrrole-based azo-bridged porous organic polymer (C4P-POP) that supports efficient bromine capture. C4P-POP was found to capture bromine as a vapor and from a cyclohexane source phase with maximum uptake capacities of 3.6 and 3.4 g·g-1, respectively. Flow-through adsorption experiments revealed that C4P-POP removes 80% of the bromine from a 4.0 mM cyclohexane solution at a flow rate of 45 mL·h-1. C4P-POP also allowed the selective capture of bromine from a 1:1 mixture of bromine and iodine in cyclohexane.

The nutrients availability determines efficiency of biological treatment systems, along with the structure and metabolism of microbiota. Herein nutrients deficiencies on aerobic granular sludge were comparatively evaluated, treating wastewater with mass ratios of chemical oxygen demand : nitrogen : phosphorus being 200:20:4, 200:2:4, and 200:20:0.4 (deemed as nutrient-balanced, nitrogen-deficient, and phosphorus-deficient), respectively. Results revealed that both nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies significantly raised the effluent qualities especially nitrogen removal. However, nitrogen deficiency aroused considerable growth of filamentous bacteria, while granules kept compact structure under phosphorus deficient condition. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) also varied in contents and structures in response to different wastewaters. Microbial community structure analysis demonstrated that nitrogen deficiency led to lower richness and higher diversity, while the reverse was observed under phosphorus deficient condition. Nitrogen deficiency mainly induced decrease of nitrifying bacteria, while similarly phosphorus deficiency led to loss of phosphorus accumulating organisms. Dramatic enrichment Candidatus_Competibacter and filamentous Thiothrix were found under nutrients deficiencies, in which the latter explained and indicated filamentous bulking potential especially under nitrogen limited condition. Bacterial metabolism patterns verified the functions of microbial community responding to nutrients via PICRUSt2 prediction mainly by up-regulating cell motility, and cellular processes and signaling. This study could aid understanding of long-term stability of aerobic granular sludge for low-strength wastewater treatment.