High-Quality Image Compression Algorithm Design Based on Unsupervised Learning.

Increasingly massive image data is restricted by conditions such as information transmission and reconstruction, and it is increasingly difficult to meet the requirements of speed and integrity in the information age. To solve the urgent problems faced by massive image data in information transmission, this paper proposes a high-quality image compression algorithm based on unsupervised learning. Among them, a content-weighted autoencoder network is proposed to achieve image compression coding on the basis of a smaller bit rate to solve the entropy rate optimization problem. Binary quantizers are used for coding quantization, and importance maps are used to achieve better bit allocation. The compression rate is further controlled and optimized. A multi-scale discriminator suitable for the generative adversarial network image compression framework is designed to solve the problem that the generated compressed image is prone to blurring and distortion. Finally, through training with different weights, the distortion of each scale is minimized, so that the image compression can achieve a higher quality compression and reconstruction effect. The experimental results show that the algorithm model can save the details of the image and greatly compress the memory of the image. Its advantage is that it can expand and compress a large number of images quickly and efficiently and realize the efficient processing of image compression.

Development of a 2A peptide-based multigene expression system and its application for enhanced production of ganoderic acids in Ganoderma lucidum.

Ganoderma has received much attention for its medicinal value, but the manipulation of multiple genes remains a challenge, hindering the genetic engineering of this species for the development of cell factories. Here, we first showed that the presence of an intron is necessary for the efficient expression of the endogenous cDNA of carboxin-resistant gene (cbx) in G. lucidum. Then, the self-cleaving function of 2 A peptide was investigated in G. lucidum by linking cbx cDNA to the codon-optimized hygromycin B-resistant gene (ophph) using the 2A-peptide sequence. The results showed that cbx cDNA and ophph can be successfully expressed in G. lucidum in a bicistronic manner from a single transcript. Moreover, the expression of both genes was not affected by the order within the 2 A cassette. In addition, simultaneous expression of cbx cDNA, ophph, and codon-optimized yellow fluorescent protein gene (opyfp) was conducted for the first time in G. lucidum using the 2 A peptide-based approach. The developed method was successfully applied to express both cDNA of the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (hmgr) and squalene epoxidase gene (se) for enhanced production of ganoderic acids (GAs) in G. lucidum. The engineered strain produced the maximum content of GA-Mk, GA-T, GA-S, and GA-Me were 26.56±3.53,39.58±3.75, 16.54±2.16, and 19.1±1.87 µg/100 mg dry weight, respectively. These values were 3.85-, 4.74-, 3.65-, and 3.23-fold higher than those produced by the control strain. The developed method will be useful for the manipulation of complex metabolic or regulatory pathways involving multiple genes in Ganoderma.

A strategy for tough and fatigue-resistant hydrogels via loose cross-linking and dense dehydration-induced entanglements.

Outstanding overall mechanical properties are essential for the successful utilization of hydrogels in advanced applications such as human-machine interfaces and soft robotics. However, conventional hydrogels suffer from fracture toughness-stiffness conflict and fatigue threshold-stiffness conflict, limiting their applicability. Simultaneously enhancing the fracture toughness, fatigue threshold, and stiffness of hydrogels, especially within a homogeneous single network structure, has proven to be a formidable challenge. In this work, we overcome this challenge through the design of a loosely cross-linked hydrogel with slight dehydration. Experimental results reveal that the slightly-dehydrated, loosely cross-linked polyacrylamide hydrogel, with an original/current water content of 87%/70%, exhibits improved mechanical properties, which is primarily attributed to the synergy between the long-chain structure and the dense dehydration-induced entanglements. Importantly, the creation of these microstructures does not require intricate design or processing. This simple approach holds significant potential for hydrogel applications where excellent anti-fracture and fatigue-resistant properties are necessary.

Rapidly Prepared Lithophilic Frameworks Stabilizes Lithium Anodes via Altered Lithium Deposition Patterns.

Lithium metal batteries are regarded as promising candidates for next-generation energy storage systems. However, their anodes are susceptible to interfacial instability due to significant volume changes, which significantly impacts the cycle life of lithium metal batteries. Here, a rapid method for the fabrication of 3D-hosts with interface modified layers is reported. A simple infiltration and heating process enables the transformation of copper foam into Zn-BDC-modified copper foam within 1 min, rendering it suitable for use as a current collector for lithium metal anodes. The Zn-BDC nanosheets with high lithiophilicity are uniformly distributed on the surface of the current collector, facilitating the uniform deposition of lithium and reducing the volume change. Consequently, the half cell exhibits a remarkably low overpotential (26 mV) at a current-density of 4 mA cm-2 and is cycled stably for 1000 h. Furthermore, it demonstrates a significant enhancement in performance in the LiFePO4 full cell. This study provides a crucial reference on the connection between the interfacial modification of the current collector and the lithium deposition behavior, which promotes the practicalization of lithium metal anodes.

Synthesizing nickel single atom catalyst via SiO2 protection strategy for efficient CO2 electroreduction to CO in a wide potential range.

At present, electrochemical CO2 reduction has been developed towards industrial current density, but the high faradaic efficiency at wide potential range or large current density is still an arduous task. Therefore, in this work, the highly exposed Ni single atoms (NiNCR-0.72) was synthesized through simple metal organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived method with SiO2 protection strategy. The obtained catalyst keeps CO faradaic efficiency (FECO) above 91 % under the wide potential range, and achieves a high FECO of 96.0 % and large CO partial current density of -206.8 mA cm-2 at -0.7 V in flow cell. The experimental results and theoretical calculation disclose that NiNCR-0.72 possesses the robust structure with rich mesopore and more highly exposed Ni-N active sites under SiO2 protection, which could facilitate CO2 transportation, lower energy barrier of CO2 reduction, and raise difficulty of hydrogen evolution reaction. The protection strategy is instructive to the synthesis of other MOFs-derived metal single atoms.

In-Hospital Adverse Events of Pheochromocytoma-Induced Takotsubo Syndrome: A Literature Review and Cluster Analysis of 172 Cases.

Background: Pheochromocytoma-induced takotsubo syndrome (Pheo-TTS) significantly increases the risk of adverse events for inpatient. The early identification of risk factors at admission is crucial for effective risk stratification and minimizing complications in Pheo-TTS patients. Methods: We conducted a systematic review combined with hierarchical cluster and feature importance analysis of demographic, clinical and laboratory data upon admission, alongside in-hospital complication data for Pheo-TTS patients. We analyzed cases published in PubMed and Embase from 2 May 2006 to 27 April 2023. Results: Among 172 Pheo-TTS patients, cluster analysis identified two distinct groups: a chest pain dominant (CPD) group (n = 86) and a non-chest pain dominant (non-CPD) group (n = 86). The non-CPD group was characterized by a younger age (44.0 ± 15.2 vs. 52.4 ± 14.4, p < 0.001), a higher prevalence of neurological/psychiatric disorders (53.5% vs. 32.6%), and increased presentation of dyspnea (87.2% vs. 17.4%), pulmonary rales (59.3% vs. 8.1%), and tachycardia (77.9% vs. 30.2%). Additionally, they exhibited more atypical takotsubo syndrome (TTS) imaging phenotypes (55.8% vs. 36.5%, all p < 0.05). The non-CPD group experienced more than a 2-fold increase for in-hospital adverse events compared to the CPD group (70.9% vs. 30.2%, p < 0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, the absence of chest pain (odds ratio [OR] = 0.407, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.169-0.979, p = 0.045), the presence of abdominal symptoms (OR = 3.939, 95% CI 1.770-8.766, p = 0.001), pulmonary rales (OR = 4.348, 95% CI 1.857-10.179, p = 0.001), and atypical TTS imaging phenotype (OR = 3.397, 95% CI 1.534-7.525, p = 0.003) remained as independent predictors of in-hospital complications. Conclusions: Clinical manifestations and imaging features at admission help to predict in-hospital complications for Pheo-TTS patients.

Breeding a new Ganoderma lucidum strain with increased contents of individual ganoderic acids by mono-mono crossing of genetically modified monokaryons.

Ganoderic acids (GAs) are major functional components of Ganoderma lucidum. The study aimed to breed a new G. lucidum strain with increased contents of individual GAs. Two mating-compatible monokaryotic strains, G. 260125 and G. 260124, were successfully isolated from the dikaryotic G. lucidum CGMCC 5.0026 via protoplast formation and regeneration. The Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene (vgb) and squalene synthase gene (sqs) were overexpressed in the monokaryotic G. 260124 and G. 260125 strain, respectively. Mating between the G. 260124 strain overexpressing vgb and the G. 260125 strain overexpressing sqs resulted in the formation of the new hybrid dikaryotic G. lucidum strain sqs-vgb. The maximum contents of ganoderic acid (GA)-T, GA-Me, and GA-P in the fruiting body of the mated sqs-vgb strain were 23.1, 15.3, and 39.8 µg/g dry weight (DW), respectively, 2.23-, 1.75-, and 2.69-fold greater than those in G. lucidum 5.0026. The squalene and lanosterol contents increased 2.35- and 1.75-fold, respectively, in the fruiting body of the mated sqs-vgb strain compared with those in the G. lucidum 5.0026. In addition, the maximum expression levels of the sqs and lanosterol synthase gene (ls) were increased 3.23- and 2.13-fold, respectively, in the mated sqs-vgb strain. In summary, we developed a new G. lucidum strain with higher contents of individual GAs in the fruiting body by integrating genetic engineering and mono-mono crossing.

Tetraborated Intrinsically Axial Chiral Multi-resonance Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials.

Chiral multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (CP-MR-TADF) materials hold promise for circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (CP-OLEDs) and 3D displays. Herein, we present two pairs of tetraborated intrinsically axial CP-MR-TADF materials, R/S-BDBF-BOH and R/S-BDBT-BOH, with conjugation-extended bidibenzo[b,d]furan and bidibenzo[b,d]thiophene as chiral sources, which effectively participate in the distribution of the frontier molecular orbitals. Due to the heavy-atom effect, sulfur atoms are introduced to accelerate the reverse intersystem crossing process and increase the efficiency of molecules. R/S-BDBF-BOH and R/S-BDBT-BOH manifest ultra-pure blue emission with a maximum at 458/459 nm with a full width at half maximum of 27 nm, photoluminescence quantum yields of 90 %/91 %, and dissymmetry factors (|gPL|) of 6.8×10-4/8.5×10-4, respectively. Correspondingly, the CP-OLEDs exhibit good performances with an external quantum efficiency of 30.1 % and |gEL| factors of 1.2×10-3.

Outcomes of physical exercises on initiation, progression, and treatment of breast cancer.

The emergence of drug resistance is a substantial obstacle to the effective management of breast cancer, which is the primary cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. To facilitate the development of targeted therapies that can effectively overcome drug resistance, it is crucial to possess a comprehensive comprehension of the molecular mechanisms that underpin resistance to breast cancer treatment. So far, considerable progress has been made in the field of exercise-oncology research and overcome drug resistance, specifically about breast cancer. Evidence has suggested that participation in physical activity is correlated with a decrease in reappearance and fatality rates of breast cancer patients. It has been reported that participation in physical activity can yield favorable outcomes in the prevention, treatment, and post-treatment of breast cancer. An increasing body of empirical evidence suggests that participation in physical activity can alter diverse biological mechanisms, potentially augmenting breast cancer treatments' efficacy. Comparing increased physical activity versus reduced physical activity in breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery supported the significance of exercise in comprehensive care strategies to enhance overall health and treatment efficacy. Furthermore, previous studies have reported that physical activity can enhance the efficacy of breast cancer treatments. This review provides the current literature regarding the influence of physical activity on the occurrence and progression of breast cancer.

Increased indexed proximal aortic diameter is a predictor of poor prognosis in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

Background: Recent studies have shown that the baseline values of absolute aortic root diameter (ARD) and indexed diameter are associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in the general population, even in the absence of aneurysmal aortic disease. However, there is limited available data on the association between ARD and prognosis in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the predictive value of ARD for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in this specific population.Methods: ARD was measured by echocardiography at the level of the sinuses of Valsalva at end diastole and indexed to body surface area (BSA). The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. The secondary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction and stroke. Cox proportional hazards models were conducted to evaluate the association between baseline ARD/BSA and clinical outcomes.Results: A total of 391 patients were included in this study. The primary endpoint occurred in 95 (24.3%) patients while the secondary endpoint occurred in 71 (18.2%) patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that ARD/BSA was an independent prognostic factor for all-cause mortality (HR, per 1-SD increase, 1.403; 95% CI, 1.118-1.761; p = 0.003) as well as MACE (HR, per 1-SD increase, 1.356; 95% CI, 1.037-1.772; p = 0.026).Conclusions: Our results show that ARD/BSA is predictive of all-cause mortality and MACE in MHD patients with ESRD and support the view that assessment of ARD/BSA may refine risk stratification and preventive strategies in this population.

Decoding the Reactivity Enhancement of Ln2Ce2O7 Compounds (Ln = Yb, Y, Tb, and Gd) for Soot Combustion: The Remarkable Contribution of Variable Valence A-Sites.

The impact of variable valence A-sites on the redox property and reactivity of Ln2Ce2O7 compounds in soot particulate combustion has been investigated. It was observed that Yb2Ce2O7, Y2Ce2O7, and Gd2Ce2O7 formed a rare earth C-type phase, while Tb2Ce2O7 formed a solid solution phase. Both Tb2Ce2O7 and Yb2Ce2O7 possess dual valence state A-sites, resulting in significantly more surface vacancies. Additionally, the advantageous solid solution phase structure of Tb2Ce2O7 leads to even more surface vacancies than Yb2Ce2O7, which is crucial to generate active oxygen sites. Moreover, the introduction of NO into the reaction feed enhances combustion activity by producing active surface monodentate nitrates. A catalyst with higher numbers of surface vacancies exhibits improved NO oxidation ability and better NO2 utilization efficiency. Consequently, the Tb2Ce2O7 compound demonstrates not only the best soot combustion activity, but also an optimal NOx-assistance effect. Therefore, it is concluded that variable valence A-site is the intrinsic factor to improve the reactivity of Ln2Ce2O7 catalysts.

Comparing BaZrO3 Perovskite and La2Zr2O7 Pyrochlore for Oxidative Coupling of Methane (OCM): The Importance of Basic Sites vs Oxygen Vacancies.

La2Zr2O7 pyrochlore with intrinsic oxygen vacancies and BaZrO3 perovskite without intrinsic oxygen vacancies were synthesized for the OCM reaction. It has been revealed that the OCM performance and surface selective oxygen species of BaZrO3 are higher than that of La2Zr2O7 under the reaction condition. This is because BaZrO3 possesses more basic sites than La2Zr2O7, and thus it can stabilize the OCM reactive oxygen species better at elevated temperature. In the structure, the A-O bond lattice oxygen of the two compounds mainly provides basic sites, but the B-O bond lattice oxygen mainly promotes deep oxidation of methane and the generated hydrocarbons. The types of the OCM reactive oxygen species are prone to be associated with the properties of the A-site metal oxides.

Construction of chitosan-gelatin polysaccharide-protein composite hydrogel via mechanical stretching and its biocompatibility in vivo.

Natural polysaccharides and protein macromolecules are the important components of extracellular matrix (ECM), but individual component generally exhibits weak mechanical property, limited biological function or strong immunogenicity in tissue engineering. Herein, gelatin (Gel) was deposited to the stretched (65 %) chitosan (CS) hydrogel substrates to fabricate the polysaccharide-protein CS-Gel-65 % composite hydrogels to mimic the natural component of ECM and improve the above deficiencies. CS hydrogel substrates under different stretching deformations exhibited tunable morphology, chemical property and wettability, having a vital influence on the secondary structures of deposited fibrous Gel protein, namely appearing with the decreased ß-sheet content in stretched CS hydrogel. Gel also produced a more homogenous distribution on the stretched CS hydrogel substrate due to the unfolding of Gel and increased interactions between Gel and CS than on the unstretched substrate. Moreover, the polysaccharide-protein composite hydrogel possessed enhanced mechanical property and oriented structure via stretching-drying method. Besides, in vivo subcutaneous implantation indicated that the CS-Gel-65 % composite hydrogel showed lower immunogenicity, thinner fibrous capsule, better angiogenesis effect and increased M2/M1 of macrophage phenotype. Polysaccharide-protein CS-Gel-65 % composite hydrogel offers a novel material as a tissue engineering scaffold, which could promote angiogenesis and build a good immune microenvironment for the damaged tissue repair.

Doping SnO2 with metal ions of varying valence states: discerning the importance of active surface oxygen species vs. acid sites for C3H8 and CO oxidation.

To elucidate the valence state effect of doping cations, Li+, Mg2+, Cr3+, Zr4+ and Nb5+ with radii similar to Sn4+ (CN = 6) were chosen to dope tetragonal SnO2. Cr3+, Zr4+ and Nb5+ can enter the SnO2 lattice to produce solid solutions, thus creating more surface defects. However, Li+ and Mg2+ can only stay on the SnO2 surface as nitrates, thus suppressing the surface defects. The rich surface defects facilitate the generation of active O2-/Oδ- and acid sites on the solid solution catalysts, hence improving the reactivity. On the solid solution catalysts active for propane combustion, several reactive intermediates can be formed, but are negligible on those with low activity. It is confirmed that for propane combustion, surface acid sites play a more vital role than active oxygen sites. Nevertheless, for CO oxidation, the active oxygen sites play a more vital role than the acid sites.

The controlled engineering of surface oxygen defects on Bi2Zr2O7 compounds for catalytic soot combustion by adjusting the preparation methods.

The quantity of surface oxygen vacancies/defects is critical to promote the reactivity of metal oxide catalysts. Therefore, for the controlled engineering of Bi2Zr2O7 with rich surface defects for soot combustion, four different methods have been adopted. Bi2Zr2O7 compounds with a defective fluorite phase but with varied surface vacancy concentrations have been successfully synthesized by various methods. The best catalyst (Bi2Zr2O7-CP) was fabricated by a facile co-precipitation method. Both O2- and O22- were the active surface sites whose number positively correlated to the number of surface oxygen vacancies and determined the activity. Moreover, a sample with more surface vacancies usually had weaker Zr-O bonds, which could be the intrinsic factor to enhance the activity. In addition, a novel and simple method has been developed to accurately titrate the absolute amount of soot reactive oxygen sites and calculate the TOF values. In conclusion, by optimizing the preparation methods, Bi2Zr2O7 catalysts with rich surface defects can be tuned, which may help in designing more applicable soot oxidation catalysts.

Ionic Liquids Modulating Local Microenvironment of Ni-Fe Binary Single Atom Catalyst for Efficient Electrochemical CO2 Reduction.

The Ni and Fe dual-atom catalysts still undergo strikingly attenuation under high current density and high overpotential. To ameliorate the issue, the ionic liquids with different cations or anions are used in this work to regulate the micro-surface of nitrogen-doped carbon supported Ni and Fe dual-atom sites catalyst (NiFe-N-C) by an impregnation method. The experimental data reveals the dual function of ionic liquids, which enhances CO2 adsorption ability and modulates electronic structure, facilitating CO2 anion radical (CO2 •¯) stabilization and decreasing onset potential. The theoretical calculation results prove that the attachment of ionic liquids modulates electronic structure, reduces energy barrier of CO2 •¯ formation, and enhances overall ECR performance. Based on these merits, BMImPF6 modified NiFe-N-C (NiFe-N-C/BMImPF6) achieves the high CO faradaic efficiency of 91.9% with a CO partial current density of -120 mA cm-2 at -1.0 V. When the NiFe-N-C/BMImPF6 is assembled as cathode of Zn-CO2 battery, it delivers the highest power density of 2.61 mW cm-2 at 2.57 mA cm-2 and superior cycling stability. This work will afford a direction to modify the microenvironment of other dual-atom catalysts for high-performance CO2 electroreduction.

Preparation of La2Zr2O7 composite oxides with fluorite/pyrochlore phases by excluding element influences for catalyzing oxidative coupling of methane.

To elucidate the effect of the A2B2O7 phase on the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) while excluding elemental influences, La2Zr2O7 compounds with a disordered defect fluorite (La2Zr2O7-F) structure and an ordered pyrochlore phase (La2Zr2O7-P) have been synthesized. Irrespective of their element composition, the catalytic performance of La2Zr2O7-F exceeds that of La2Zr2O7-P. Furthermore, the La2Zr2O7-F surface has more oxygen vacancies/defects than the La2Zr2O7 surface because La2Zr2O7-F exhibits a higher lattice disorder degree and lower B-O bond strength, which leads to the formation of more reactive oxygen anions (O2- and O22-) and basic sites for OCM. Isotopic exchange results have testified that surface-active oxygen sites are generated due to the gaseous O2 adsorption/activation occurring on the surface vacancies via both simple and multiple hetero-exchange mechanisms. In conclusion, crystal structure is the primary factor that governs the catalytic performance of A2B2O7 compounds, with the disordered defect fluorite phase being the most optimal structure for OCM.

Increased production and anti-senescence activity of exopolysaccharides in Ganoderma lingzhi by co-overexpression of ß-1,3-glucan synthase and UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase.

A ß-1,3-glucan synthase gene (gls) was cloned and overexpressed in Ganoderma lingzhi. The content of intracellular polysaccharides (IPS) in G. lingzhi overexpressing gls was 22.36 mg/100 mg dry weight (DW), 19 % higher than those in the wild-type (WT) strain. Overexpression of gls did not affect the expression of the phosphoglucomutase gene and the UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase gene (ugp) in the polysaccharide biosynthesis. The gls and ugp were then simultaneously overexpressed in G. lingzhi for the first time. The combined overexpression of these two genes increased the IPS content and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production to a greater extent than the overexpression of gls independently. The maximum IPS content of the overexpressed strain was 24.61 mg/100 mg, and the maximum EPS production was 1.55 g/L, 1.31- and 1.50-fold higher than that in the WT strain, respectively. Moreover, the major EPS fractions from the overexpression strain contained more glucose (86.7 % and 72.5 %) than those from the WT strain (78.2 % and 62.9 %). Furthermore, the major fraction G+U-0.1 from the overexpression strain exhibited stronger antioxidant and anti-senescence activities than the WT-0.1 fraction from the WT strain. These findings will aid in the hyperproduction and application of Ganoderma polysaccharides and facilitate our understanding of mushroom polysaccharide biosynthesis.