Quercetin Regulates Lipid Metabolism and Fat Accumulation by Regulating Inflammatory Responses and Glycometabolism Pathways: A Review.

Fat synthesis and lipolysis are natural processes in growth and have a close association with health. Fat provides energy, maintains physiological function, and so on, and thus plays a significant role in the body. However, excessive/abnormal fat accumulation leads to obesity and lipid metabolism disorder, which can have a detrimental impact on growth and even harm one's health. Aside from genetic effects, there are a range of factors related to obesity, such as excessive nutrient intake, inflammation, glycometabolism disease, and so on. These factors could serve as potential targets for anti-obesity therapy. Quercetin is a flavonol that has received a lot of attention recently because of its role in anti-obesity. It was thought to have the ability to regulate lipid metabolism and have a positive effect on anti-obesity, but the processes are still unknown. Recent studies have shown the role of quercetin in lipid metabolism might be related to its effects on inflammatory responses and glycometabolism. The references were chosen for this review with no date restrictions applied based on the topics they addressed, and the databases PubMed and Web of Sicence was used to conduct the references research, using the following search terms: "quercetin", "obesity", "inflammation", "glycometabolism", "insulin sensitivity", etc. This review summarizes the potential mechanisms of quercetin in alleviating lipid metabolism through anti-inflammatory and hypoglycemic signaling pathways, and describes the possible signaling pathways in the interaction of inflammation and glycometabolism, with the goal of providing references for future research and application of quercetin in the regulation of lipid metabolism.

A Time Mode Pulse Interleaver in a Silicon-on-Insulator Platform for Optical Analog-to-Digital Converters.

We propose and demonstrate a novel on-chip optical sampling pulse interleaver based on time mode interleaving. The designed pulse interleaver was fabricated on a 220 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, utilizing only one S-shaped delay waveguide. Interleaving is achieved by the relative time delay between different optical modes in the waveguide, eliminating the need for any active tuning. The total length of the delay waveguide is 5620.5 µm, which is reduced by a factor of 46.3% compared with previously reported time-wavelength interleaver schemes. The experimental results indicate that the device can convert an optical pulse into a 40 GHz pulse sequence composed of four pulses with a root mean square (RMS) timing error of 0.9 ps, making it well suited for generating high-frequency sampling pulses for optical analog-to-digital converters.

An Efficient Multiscale Spatial Rearrangement MLP Architecture for Image Restoration.

The effective use of long-range information can yield improved network performance, which is very important for image restoration. Although local window-based models have linear complexity and can be feasibly applied to process high-resolution images, a single-scale window has a limited receptive field and is less efficient for encoding long-range context information. To address this issue, this paper presents a single-stage multiscale spatial rearrangement multilayer perceptron (MSSR-MLP) architecture that can obtain information at different scales within a local window. Specifically, we propose a simple and efficient spatial rearrangement module (SRM) that moves information outside the local window to the inside of the local window so that long-range dependencies can be modeled using only a window-based fully connected (FC) layer. The SRM can extend the local receptive field of a window-based FC layer without introducing additional parameters and FLOPs. Utilizing several spatial rearrangement modules with different step sizes, we design an efficient multiscale spatial rearrangement MLP architecture for image restoration. This design aggregates multiscale information to achieve improved restoration quality while maintaining a low computational cost. Extensive experiments conducted on several image restoration tasks demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our method. For example, it requires only ~4.3% of the FLOPs needed by SwinIR for Gaussian gray image denoising, ~13.9% of the FLOPs needed by C2 PNet for single-image dehazing and ~18.9% of the FLOPs needed by MAXIM for single-image motion deblurring but achieves better performance on each of these restoration tasks.

A net-zero emissions strategy for China's power sector using carbon-capture utilization and storage.

Decarbonized power systems are critical to mitigate climate change, yet methods to achieve a reliable and resilient near-zero power system are still under exploration. This study develops an hourly power system simulation model considering high-resolution geological constraints for carbon-capture-utilization-and-storage to explore the optimal solution for a reliable and resilient near-zero power system. This is applied to 31 provinces in China by simulating 10,450 scenarios combining different electricity storage durations and interprovincial transmission capacities, with various shares of abated fossil power with carbon-capture-utilization-and-storage. Here, we show that allowing up to 20% abated fossil fuel power generation in the power system could reduce the national total power shortage rate by up to 9.0 percentages in 2050 compared with a zero fossil fuel system. A lowest-cost scenario with 16% abated fossil fuel power generation in the system even causes 2.5% lower investment costs in the network (or $16.8 billion), and also increases system resilience by reducing power shortage during extreme climatic events.

Lipid-extracted muscle and liver tissues: Can they reveal mercury exposure of pelagic sharks?

Pelagic sharks are apex predators in oceanic ecosystems and tend to accumulate high amounts of mercury (Hg). The conventional method for assessing Hg exposure in sharks involves analyzing tissue samples without any chemical treatment. However, a substantial number of chemically treated tissue samples are still being preserved in laboratories or museums. It is critical to maximize the utilization of existing samples to reduce the need for additional sampling of pelagic sharks, especially endangered species. Lipid extraction is a widely employed pretreatment process for carbon isotope analysis in shark trophic ecology, while its impact on Hg quantification remains uncertain. Here, we evaluated the feasibility of using lipid-free muscle and liver tissues for investigation of Hg exposure in four endangered pelagic sharks inhabiting the eastern Pacific, including bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus), pelagic thresher (A. pelagicus), blue shark (Prionace glauca) and silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis). Results showed that total Hg concentrations (THg) differed between untreated (THgbulk) and lipid-free (THglipid-free) samples for each tissue type of each species. In addition, dichloromethane-methanol extractions significantly altered the amount of Hg. This may result from the removal of lipoprotein compounds that vary between tissues and species. The THgbulk can be calculated by THglipid-free using the following formulas, THgbulk = 1.14 × THglipid-free + 0.30 and THgbulk = 0.33 × THglipid-free + 0.18, for muscle and liver tissues, respectively. These findings emphasize the applications of lipid-free tissues in THg analysis. This study may have important implications for improving evaluation of Hg exposure in endangered pelagic sharks.

Data-driven evolutionary game models for the spread of fairness and cooperation in heterogeneous networks.

Unique large-scale cooperation and fairness norms are essential to human society, but the emergence of prosocial behaviors is elusive. The fact that heterogeneous social networks prevail raised a hypothesis that heterogeneous networks facilitate fairness and cooperation. However, the hypothesis has not been validated experimentally, and little is known about the evolutionary psychological basis of cooperation and fairness in human networks. Fortunately, research about oxytocin, a neuropeptide, may provide novel ideas for confirming the hypothesis. Recent oxytocin-modulated network game experiments observed that intranasal administration of oxytocin to a few central individuals significantly increases global fairness and cooperation. Here, based on the experimental phenomena and data, we show a joint effect of social preference and network heterogeneity on promoting prosocial behaviors by building evolutionary game models. In the network ultimatum game and the prisoner's dilemma game with punishment, inequality aversion can lead to the spread of costly punishment for selfish and unfair behaviors. This effect is initiated by oxytocin, then amplified via influential nodes, and finally promotes global cooperation and fairness. In contrast, in the network trust game, oxytocin increases trust and altruism, but these effects are confined locally. These results uncover general oxytocin-initiated mechanisms underpinning fairness and cooperation in human networks.

Three-dimensional on-chip mode converter.

The implementation of transverse mode, polarization, frequency, and other degrees of freedom (d.o.f.s) of photons is an important way to improve the capability of photonic circuits. Here, a three-dimensional (3D) linear polarized (LP) LP11 mode converter was designed and fabricated using a femtosecond laser direct writing (FsLDW) technique. The converter included multi-mode waveguides, symmetric Y splitters, and phase delaying waveguides, which were constructed as different numbers and arrangements of circular cross section waveguides. Finally, the modes (LP11a and LP11b) were generated on-chip with a relatively low insertion loss (IL). The mode converter lays a foundation for on-chip high-order mode generation and conversion between different modes, and will play a significant role in mode coding and decoding of 3D photonic circuits.

Ultralow birefringent glass waveguide fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing.

Optical waveguides prepared by femtosecond laser direct writing have birefringent properties, which can affect polarization encoding and entanglement on chips. Here, we first propose a shape-stress dual compensation fabrication scheme to decrease birefringence. Ultralow birefringent waveguides (1 × 10-9) were obtained by controlling the cross sectional shape of the main waveguide and adjusting the position of the auxiliary lines. In addition, we prepared polarization-independent directional coupler and demonstrated the evolution of polarization-independent waveguide array with different polarized light. In the future, ultralow birefringent waveguides will be widely applied in polarization encoding and entangled quantum photonic integrated circuits.

Mercury bioaccumulation in thresher sharks from the eastern tropical Pacific: Influences of body size, maturation stage, and feeding habitat.

Sharks, as top order predators, provide a guidance on how contaminants such as mercury bioaccumulate in marine environments. This study assessed the bioaccumulation of mercury (total mercury, THg) in the muscle, liver, red blood cells (RBC), and plasma of pelagic and bigeye thresher sharks (Alopias pelagicus and A. superciliosus) from eastern tropical Pacific. Additionally, the concentration of methylmercury (MeHg) in muscle was also determined to assess risks for human consumption. For both species, muscle THg concentrations (4.05 ± 2.15 and 4.12 ± 1.84 µg g-1 dry weight for pelagic and bigeye thresher shark) were higher than that in other tissues. THg concentrations for all tissues were significantly correlated with precaudal length, with higher accumulation rates after maturity in pelagic than bigeye thresher sharks, suggesting an associated dietary shift at maturation. Correlations among tissues in both species suggested similar transportation and distribution patterns in internal tissues. The δ13C values in muscle, RBC and plasma suggested that habitat shifts influenced Hg accumulation, whereas trophic position, estimated by δ15N values, had limited effects on patterns of Hg bioaccumulation. Diet shifts towards prey more cephalopods that content higher Hg than small fishes (large fishes: 1.77 µg g-1; cephalopods: 0.66 µg g-1 and small fishes 0.48 µg g-1, dry weight) increased Hg accumulation rates in adult pelagic thresher sharks. Concentrations of MeHg in the muscle of both thresher shark (3.42 ± 1.68 µg g-1 in A. pelagicus and 3.78 ± 2.13 µg g-1 in A. superciliosus) exceeded the recommended levels for human consumption. This research provides insight into the factors influencing mercury bioaccumulation in thresher sharks, which are essential for the management and conservation of these species.

Plastic ingestion and trophic transfer in an endangered top predator, the longfin mako shark (Isurus paucus), from the tropical western Pacific Ocean.

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental problem of major concern. However, the plastic contamination in the marine top predators, particularly in endangered species, is incompletely understood because of the limited amount of data on their presence in the digestive system and prey. This study investigated the stomach contents of an endangered but poorly known shark species, the longfin mako shark (Isurus paucus), found in the tropical western Pacific Ocean. We examined the plastics in this female specimen (1.22-m fork length) and her prey to assess the potential for trophic transfer of microplastics. Polypropylene bottle cap and lollipop packaging, longnose lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox), and squid were found in the stomach of I. paucus, while no apparent internal injuries were noted. The microplastic fragments and granules, confirmed by laser direct infrared spectroscopy, were found in the digestive system of the intact squid ingested by I. paucus, suggesting that trophic transfer may occur between shark and prey. These results indicate that I. paucus is vulnerable to plastic ingestion and provide evidence of trophic transfer of microplastics in shark species. Our study emphasizes the need to evaluate the potential ecotoxicological consequences of increasing plastic pollution to endangered marine top predators.

Microplastic contamination and risk assessment in blue shark (Prionace glauca) from the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

We quantified the abundance and characteristics of microplastics in the blue shark, Prionace glauca, found in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and investigated the potential microplastic pollution risks. Microplastics (MPs) were detected in 39.1 % of specimens, up to 0.15 ± 0.38 items/g wet weight of the posterior part of the pylorus, and were sized 45.87 to 3220.12 µm. The majority were fibrous in shape (83.3 %) and blue in color (72.2 %). Both sexes of sharks had similar MP abundance and characteristics, except for polymers, with polyethylene terephthalate and polypropylene representing the dominant type in males and females, respectively. Most individuals experienced low pollution, but one male P. glauca exhibited a high ecological risk level owing to the high MP abundance and detection of polyvinyl chloride. This study provides an important baseline for the ingestion of microplastics by pelagic shark species and is a preliminary quantitative measure that could be used in future studies of the risk of MPs.

Effect of body size, feeding ecology and maternal transfer on mercury accumulation of vulnerable silky shark Carcharhinus falciformis in the eastern tropical pacific.

The silky shark Carcharhinus falciformis is a large pelagic species distributed in the global oceans and was recently listed as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN because of its decline in population due to overfishing. As an apex predator, the silky shark can accumulate elevated quantities of mercury (Hg), posing a potential risk to its remaining population. In this study, total Hg (THg) concentrations were determined in silky shark muscle, liver, dermis, red blood cells (RBC) and plasma sampled from the eastern tropical Pacific, and δ15N values were measured to explore the influence of feeding ecology on Hg accumulation. The highest THg concentrations were in muscle (7.81 ± 6.70 µg g-1 dry weight (dw) or 2.14 ± 1.83 µg g-1 wet weight (ww)) and liver (7.88 ± 10.22 µg g-1 dw or 4.66 ± 6.04 µg g-1 ww) rather than dermis, RBC and plasma. The THg concentrations in all tissue types were significantly correlated with fork length and showed faster accumulation rates after maturity. Maternal THg transfer was observed in silky sharks with embryos having 33.16% and 1.98% in muscle and liver compared with their respective mothers. The potentially harmful THg concentrations in silky shark tissues and embryos may lead to health problems of sharks and consumers. THg concentrations were negatively correlated with δ15N values for all tissues, indicating likely baseline variations in δ15N values that reflect changes in the foraging habitats or regions of silky sharks with size or age. Lastly, strong correlations were observed among THg concentrations of all tissue types, indicating that nonlethal sampling of muscle and dermis tissue can be used effectively to quantify THg concentration of other internal tissues.

Quantifying maternal transfer of trace elements and stable isotopes in the endangered pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus).

To quantify maternal provisioning of nutrients in the pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) and the potential for negative impacts, the concentrations of trace elements (essential: Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Se, and Zn; nonessential: As, Ba, Cd, Hg, and Pb) and fractionation of stable isotopes (13C and 15N) were analyzed in the muscle and liver of 10 pregnant females and 18 associated embryos. Essential trace elements were observed to be offloaded at higher concentrations to embryos, with the exception of Zn and Ni in liver, while nonessential trace elements were unevenly distributed between maternal-embryo tissues. Observed Hg concentrations were at levels considered toxic in A. pelagicus, but the Se: Hg molar ratios in all embryonic tissues were all greater than one. A negative correlation was observed between transfer ratios and concentrations of all elements in maternal tissue, indicating the existence of a regulatory mechanism in maternal ovaries of A. pelagicus. Compared with maternal specimens, associated embryos had higher δ13C and δ15N values in muscle and liver tissue. Negative correlations were observed between δ13C, δ15N, and Δδ13C values and precaudal length in embryonic muscle tissue potentially reflecting either a dietary-habitat shift in pregnant females during the latter period of gestation or a physiological change modifying fractionation. Higher concentrations of essential elements are linked to potential benefits for embryos during early development, levels of Hg suggested a degree of anthropogenic impact with unknown consequences while the directionality of isotopic fractionation could suggest a potential reproductive migration as a protective mechanism for birthing.

A Model Study on Raw Material Chemical Composition to Predict Sinter Quality Based on GA-RNN.

The quality control process for sintered ore is cumbersome and time- and money-consuming. When the assay results come out and the ratios are found to be faulty, the ratios cannot be changed in time, which will produce sintered ore of substandard quality, resulting in a waste of resources and environmental pollution. For the problem of lagging sinter detection results, Long Short-Term Memory and Genetic Algorithm-Recurrent Neural Networks prediction algorithms were used for comparative analysis, and the article used GA-RNN quality prediction model for prediction. Through correlation analysis, the chemical composition of the sintered raw material was determined as the input parameter and the physical and metallurgical properties of the sintered ore were determined as the output parameters, thus successfully establishing a GA-RNN-based sinter quality prediction model. Based on 150 sets of original data, 105 sets of data were selected as the training sample set and 45 sets of data were selected as the test sample set. The results obtained were compared to the real value with an average prediction error of 1.24% for the drum index, 0.92% for the low-temperature reduction chalking index (RDI), 0.95% for the reduction index (RI), 0.40% for the load softening temperature T10%, and 0.43% for the load softening temperature T40%, with all within the running time thresholds. The study of this model enables the prediction of the quality of sintered ore prior to sintering, thus improving the yield of sintered ore, increasing corporate efficiency, saving energy, and reducing environmental pollution.

[Patterns of maternal transfer of trace elements in the pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus) of the Eastern Pacific Ocean]. / ä¸œå¤ªå¹³æ´‹æµ æµ·é•¿å°¾é²¨æ¯ä½“å’ŒèƒšèƒŽé—´ç—•é‡å ƒç´ çš„è¿ç§»è§„å¾‹.

Pelagic sharks are vulnerable to overfishing due to slow growth rates, late-at-maturity and low fecundity, 90% of which are Near Threatened with an elevated risk of extinction according to IUCN Red List Criteria. Trace elements can be accumulated by marine predators and may have detrimental effects on population dynamics. In this study, we analyzed the concentrations of 11 trace elements (Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mn, Se, Co, Hg, Cd, Pb, and As) in muscle and liver tissues of 10 pregnant pelagic thresher sharks (Alopias pelagicus) and their 18 embryos. The results showed that four essential elements (Cu, Cr, Mn, and Se) were accumulated in both tissue types of embryos. Ni and Zn concentrations were higher in embryonic muscle than that in the liver. For nonessential elements, concentrations of As, Cd and Hg in both embryonic tissues were lower than those of their mothers. Though maternal and embryonic tissues had high levels of Hg, the Se/Hg molar ratios in both tissues of the embryo were above 1 with larger values in the embryos, indicating that Se played a protective role against Hg toxicity in embryonic tissues. Liver is the primary energy resource of embryo development. There was no correlation for element concentrations between embryonic and maternal liver tissues, indicating there is a regulatory mechanism to maintain the stability of element contents during maternal transfer in pelagic thresher shark.

Concentrations, Source Characteristics, and Health Risk Assessment of Toxic Heavy Metals in PM2.5 in a Plateau City (Kunming) in Southwest China.

To explore the mass concentration levels and health risks of heavy metals in the air in dense traffic environments, PM2.5 samples were collected at three sites in the city of Kunming in April and October 2013, and January and May 2014. Ten heavy metals--V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb--were analyzed by ICP-MS, and the results showed PM2.5 concentrations significantly higher in spring and winter than in summer and autumn, especially for Zn and Pb. The concentration of heavy metals on working days is significantly higher, indicating that vehicle emissions are significant contributors. An enrichment factor analysis showed that Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb come mainly from anthropogenic sources, while V and Co may be both anthropogenic and natural. The correlation and principal component analysis (PCA) showed that Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb mainly come from vehicles emissions and metallurgical industries; Cr and Mn, from vehicles emissions and road dust; and As, mainly from coal combustion. The health risk assessment shows that the non-carcinogenic risk thresholds of the heavy metals in PM2.5 to children and adult men and women are all less than 1. The carcinogenic risk of Cr for men and women in traffic-intensive areas exceeds 10-4, reaching 1.64 × 10-4 and 1.4 × 10-4, respectively.

On-chip four-mode (de-)multiplexer on thin film lithium niobate-silicon rich nitride hybrid platform.

A four-mode (de-)multiplexer with transverse electric field light (TE0-TE3) is experimentally demonstrated on a thin film lithium niobate-silicon rich nitride hybrid platform. Enabled by cascaded asymmetrical directional couplers, a (de-)multiplexer with low insertion loss (0.38 dB to 1.6 dB) and low cross talk (-18.46dB to -20.43dB) is obtained at 1550 nm. All channels have cross talk <-16dB from 1480 nm to 1580 nm. The transmission of 4×50 Gbps on-off keying signals is experimentally achieved on the proposed (de-)multiplexer. Experimental results show that the proposed (de-)multiplexer is a promising approach to enhance the transmission capacity in thin film lithium niobate based photonics integrated circuits.

40 GHz high-efficiency Michelson interferometer modulator on a silicon-rich nitride and thin-film lithium niobate hybrid platform.

We propose and demonstrate a Michelson interferometer modulator with integrated Bragg reflectors on a silicon-rich nitride-thin-film lithium niobate hybrid platform. High-reflectivity Bragg reflectors are placed at the ends of both arms, which double the electro-optic (E-O) interaction length and reduce the velocity mismatch between the microwave and optical wave. The presented Michelson interferometer modulator achieves a measured half-wave voltage length product as low as 1.06 V cm and high-speed modulation up to 70 Gbps. A 3-dB E-O bandwidth beyond 40 GHz is also achieved, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest modulation bandwidth of Michelson interferometer modulators.

Circular cross section waveguides processed by multi-foci-shaped femtosecond pulses.

We developed a simple multi-foci-shaped femtosecond pulsed (MFSFP) method for processing circular cross section waveguides in transparent materials. With this flexible processing method, the focus energy distribution can be designed freely and arbitrarily, and single-mode waveguides with cross section circularity better than 96.0% were achieved. The mode shape difference (1.93%) of circular waveguides is smaller than the difference (7.01%) of normal elliptical waveguides. The coupling abilities of the two kinds of waveguides were investigated with three-dimensional (3D) directional couplers in both experiments and theoretical simulations. The coupling coefficient difference of circular waveguides in vertical and horizontal coupling directions was ∼0.01mm-1, which was smaller than 0.33mm-1 of normal waveguides. The circular symmetric waveguides will play an important role in large-scale high-intensity 3D photonic integrated circuits.

Efficient grating couplers on a thin film lithium niobate-silicon rich nitride hybrid platform.

A grating coupler on a thin film x-cut lithium niobate-silicon rich nitride hybrid platform is proposed and demonstrated. An inverse taper is applied to suppress higher-order mode excitation. A coupling efficiency of -5.82dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 57 nm are obtained near the wavelength of 1550 nm between the standard single-mode fiber (SMF-28) and sub-micrometer waveguides.