Cost-effective mitigation of nitrogen pollution from global croplands.

Cropland is a main source of global nitrogen pollution1,2. Mitigating nitrogen pollution from global croplands is a grand challenge because of the nature of non-point-source pollution from millions of farms and the constraints to implementing pollution-reduction measures, such as lack of financial resources and limited nitrogen-management knowledge of farmers3. Here we synthesize 1,521 field observations worldwide and identify 11 key measures that can reduce nitrogen losses from croplands to air and water by 30-70%, while increasing crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by 10-30% and 10-80%, respectively. Overall, adoption of this package of measures on global croplands would allow the production of 17 ± 3 Tg (1012 g) more crop nitrogen (20% increase) with 22 ± 4 Tg less nitrogen fertilizer used (21% reduction) and 26 ± 5 Tg less nitrogen pollution (32% reduction) to the environment for the considered base year of 2015. These changes could gain a global societal benefit of 476 ± 123 billion US dollars (USD) for food supply, human health, ecosystems and climate, with net mitigation costs of only 19 ± 5 billion USD, of which 15 ± 4 billion USD fertilizer saving offsets 44% of the gross mitigation cost. To mitigate nitrogen pollution from croplands in the future, innovative policies such as a nitrogen credit system (NCS) could be implemented to select, incentivize and, where necessary, subsidize the adoption of these measures.

Highly-Branched PtCu Nanocrystals with Low-Coordination for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Catalysis.

Low-coordination platinum-based nanocrystals emanate great potential for catalyzing the oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) in fuel cells, but are not widely applied owing to poor structural stability. Here, several PtCu nanocrystals (PtCu NCs) with low coordination numbers were prepared via a facile one-step method, while the desirable catalyst structures were easily obtained by adjusting the reaction parameters. Wherein, the Pt1Cu1 NCs catalyst with abundant twin boundaries and high-index facets displays 15.25 times mass activity (1.647 A mgPt -1 at 0.9 VRHE) of Pt/C owing to the abundant effective active sites, low-coordination numbers and appropriate compressive strain. More importantly, the core-shell and highly developed dendritic structures in Pt1Cu1 NCs catalyst give it an extremely high stability with only 17.2% attenuation of mass activity while 61.1% for Pt/C after the durability tests (30 000 cycles). In H2-O2 fuel cells, Pt1Cu1 NCs cathode also exhibits a higher peak power density and a longer-term lifetime than Pt/C cathode. Moreover, theoretical calculations imply that the weaker adsorption of intermediate products and the lower formation energy barrier of OOH* in Pt1Cu1 NCs collaboratively boost the ORR process. This work offers a morphology tuning approach to prepare and stabilize the low-coordination platinum-based nanocrystals for efficient and stable ORR.

Fringe-based depth segmentation via minimum-fringe-period-based singular points extraction.

In the field of machine vision, depth segmentation plays a crucial role in dividing targets into different regions based on abrupt changes in depth. Phase-shifting depth segmentation is a technique that extracts singular points to form segmentation lines by leveraging the phase-shifting invariance of singular points in different wrapped phase maps. This makes it immune to color, texture, and camera exposure. However, current phase-shifting depth segmentation techniques face challenges in the precision of segmentation. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes a singular points extraction technique by constructing a more comprehensive threshold with the help of the minimum period of the phase map. Taking full advantage of the proposed technique, mean-value points and order singular points are accurately filtered out, and the integrity of segmentation lines in high-curvature regions can be guaranteed. During optimization processing, the precision of segmentation is improved by employing a low-cost morphology-based optimization model. Simulation results demonstrate the segmentation accuracy reaches up to 98.58% even in a noisy condition. Experimental results on different objects indicate that the proposed method exhibits good generalization and robustness.

Single-test Ritchey-Common interferometry.

The Ritchey-Common test is widely adopted to measure large optical flats. The traditional Ritchey-Common test eliminates the defocus error with multiple tests by changing the position of the mirrors, which suffers from cumbersome steps, poor repeatability, coupled system error, extra mirror deformation, and potential overturning. The above problems increase the test time, decrease the reliability and accuracy, increase the test cost, and threaten manufacturing safety. We propose a single-test Ritchey-Common interferometry to avoid the obligatory position change in the traditional method. A sub-aperture of test flat is directly measured by a small-aperture interferometer before the test, which is easy to implement, to replace the extra system wavefront measurement in different positions. The defocus is calculated in sub-aperture at exactly the same position as the full-field measurement without the position change, then the surface form under test can be obtained with accurate optical path modeling. Measurement experiments for 100 mm and 2050 mm aperture flats were performed to demonstrate the feasibility of this method. Compared with a direct test in a standard Zygo interferometer, the peak to valley (PV) and root mean square (RMS) errors were 0.0889 λ and 0.0126 λ (λ=632.8 nm), respectively, which reaches the upper limit of accuracy of the interferometer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proposal of the Ritchey-Common test that can eliminate the defocus error and realize high accuracy measurement in a single test. Our work paves the way for reliable and practical optical metrology for large optical flats.

Dual-wavelength Fourier ptychographic microscopy for topographic measurement.

Topographic measurements of micro- or nanostructures are essential in cutting-edge scientific disciplines such as optical communications, metrology, and structural biology. Despite the advances in surface metrology, measuring micron-scale steps with wide field of view (FOV) and high-resolution remains difficult. This study demonstrates a dual-wavelength Fourier ptychographic microscopy for high-resolution topographic measurement across a wide FOV using an aperture scanning structure. This structure enables the capture of a three-dimensional (3D) sample's scattered field with two different wavelength lasers, thus allowing the axial measurement range growing from nano- to micro-scale with enhanced lateral resolution. To suppress the unavoidable noises and artifacts caused by temporal coherence, system vibration, etc., a total variation (TV) regularization algorithm is introduced for phase retrieval. A blazed grating with micron-scale steps is used as the sample to validate the performance of our method. The agreement between the high-resolution reconstructed topography with our method and that with atomic force microscopy verified the effectiveness. Meanwhile, numerical simulations suggest that the method has the potential to characterize samples with high aspect-ratio steps.

Single-shot intensity diffraction tomography via polarization-multiplexed LED illumination.

We present a single-shot intensity diffraction tomography method via polarization-multiplexed LED illumination. Three LED elements covered with 0°, 45°, and 135° linear polarizers, respectively, are lit up simultaneously to illuminate the sample with illumination angles matching the numerical aperture of the objective. The scattering field of the sample is recorded on a single intensity image with a polarization sensor, and three intensity images corresponding to the three LED elements are decoupled from the intensity image by using a pre-calibrated intensity transform matrix. After a slice-wise deconvolution procedure, the 3D complex refractive index distribution of the sample can be recovered. To demonstrate the performance of our method, we perform experiments on a USAF absorption resolution target, rat hippocampal cell lines, and spongy spicule. These imaging results show that our method can achieve 3D tomography for various biomedical samples with a near incoherent diffraction-limited lateral resolution of 690 nm and an axial resolution of 4.68 µm.

Characterization the prognosis role and effects of snoRNAs in melanoma patients.

Melanoma is a melanocyte-derived malignant cancer and is known for its early metastasis and high mortality rates. It is a highly cutaneous tumour disease that could be related to the abnormal immune microenvironment, and the identification of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers is crucial for improving patient outcomes. In the search for biomarkers, various types of RNAs have been discovered and recognized as reliable prognostic markers. Among these, small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) have emerged as a promising avenue for studying early diagnosis and prognostic markers in tumours due to their widespread presence in tissues, tumour specificity and stability. In our study, we analysed snoRNAs data from melanoma samples in the TCGA-SKCM cohort and developed a prognostic model comprising 12 snoRNAs (SNORD9, SNORA31, SNORD14E, SNORA14A, SNORA5A, SNORD83A, SNORA75, AL096855, AC007684, SNORD14A, SNORA65 and AC004839). This model exhibited unique prognostic accuracy and demonstrated a significant correlation with the immune infiltration tumour microenvironment. Additionally, analysis of the GSE213145 dataset, which explored the sensitivity and resistance of immune checkpoint inhibitors, further supported the potential of snoRNAs as prognostic markers for immunotherapy. Overall, our study contributes reliable prognostic and immune-related biomarkers for melanoma patients. These findings can offer valuable insights for the future discovery of novel melanoma treatment strategies and hold promise for improving clinical outcomes in melanoma patients.

Air Quality and Health Implications of Coal Power Retirements Attributed to Industrial Electricity Savings in China.

The coal-dominated electricity system, alongside increasing industrial electricity demand, places China into a dilemma between industrialization and environmental impacts. A practical solution is to exploit air quality and health cobenefits of industrial energy efficiency measures, which has not yet been integrated into China's energy transition strategy. This research examines the pivotal role of industrial electricity savings in accelerating coal plant retirements and assesses the nexus of energy-pollution-health by modeling nationwide coal-fired plants at individual unit level. It shows that minimizing electricity needs by implementing more efficient technologies leads to the phaseout of 1279 hyper-polluting units (subcritical, <300 MW) by 2040, advancing the retirement of these units by an average of 7 years (3-16 years). The retirements at different locations yield varying levels of air quality improvements (9-17%), across six power grids. Reduced exposure to PM2.5 could avoid 123,100 pollution-related cumulative deaths over the next 20 years from 2020, of which ∼75% occur in the Central, East, and North grids, particularly coal-intensive and populous provinces (e.g., Shandong and Jiangsu). These findings provide key indicators to support geographically specific policymaking and lay out a rationale for decision-makers to incorporate multiple benefits into early coal phaseout strategies to avoid lock-in risk.

Additive efficacy and safety of probiotics in the treatment of ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: We aim to report the latest pooled analyses to evaluate the additive efficacy and safety of probiotics in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: We systematically searched the relevant literature investigating the efficacy and/or safety of probiotics in patients with UC from PubMed, Embase and Web of Science up to January 2023. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the quality of the included studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Any discrepancies throughout these processes were solved by consensus. All statistical analyses were performed by Review Manager version 5.4 and Stata version 15.0. RESULTS: A total of 13 articles were included in the pooled analyses, and the studies were all randomized controlled trials with a total of 930 patients. There were no significant differences between the probiotics and placebo groups concerning demographic and baseline characteristics. For patients with active UC, the probiotic group boosted the remission rate by 87% compared to the placebo group, but failed to reach a statistical difference (OR: 1.87; 95% CI 0.98, 3.57; P = 0.06, I2 = 67%); furthermore, there were no statistical differences in maintenance of clinical remission, clinical response, change in UCDAI scores, or mucosal healing outcomes in the probiotic group compared to the placebo group. For patients in clinical remission, the clinical relapse rates were significantly lower in the probiotic group than in the placebo group (OR: 0.34; 95% CI 0.14, 0.79; P = 0.01). Moreover, this study did not observe a significant difference between the two groups for general adverse events rate (OR: 1.98; 95% CI 0.69, 5.68; P = 0.20). CONCLUSION: Probiotic-assisted therapy may be effective in inhibiting UC recurrence in patients in clinical remission without increasing the risk of treatment-related adverse events; furthermore, probiotics may increase the rate of clinical remission in patients with active UC. However, caution is needed when interpreting the clinical efficacy of probiotics in improving the clinical outcome of patients with active UC.

Study on the Effect of Laser Marker in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis of the Knee Joint and the Accuracy of Reconstruction of Lower Extremity Alignment.

Objective: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a prevalent joint disease characterized by cartilage degradation and periarticular bone hyperplasia. Accurate assessment of knee alignment is fundamental for effective treatment, as it directly influences surgical planning and postoperative outcomes. This study assesses the effectiveness of laser marker technology in KOA treatment and its precision in reconstructing lower extremity alignment. Methods: Sixty KOA patients admitted to our orthopedics department from March 2020 to December 2021 were randomized into two groups via random number table method, with 30 patients in each. All patients underwent knee replacement surgery. The experiment group received laser marker assessments, while the control group had X-ray examinations. Postoperative Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) scores and knee mobility of the patients were compared. Results: At 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postoperatively, the experimental group exhibited significnatly higher HSS scores (89.75±3.81, 91.78±2.15, and 91.84±1.79) than the control group (84.28±2.56, 87.15±1.98, and 88.02±1.21) (P < .05). Better knee mobility (111.17±4.94) was observed in the experimental group versus the control group (108.07±3.08) at 6 months postoperatively (P < .05). Conclusion: Laser marker technology provides a clear visualization of lower extremity structures, offering a comprehensive assessment of KOA deformities. This could potentially lead to improved diagnostic precision and enhanced surgical outcomes. The study encourages further research into the broader application of laser marker technology in knee osteoarthritis treatment, such as the evaluation of its cost-effectiveness versus traditional methods.

Cationic Oxidative Leaching Engineering Modulated In Situ Self-Reconstruction of Nickel Sulfide for Superior Water Oxidation.

Tuning the electroactive surface species of electrocatalysts remains a significant challenge for achieving highly efficient oxygen evolution reactions. Herein, we propose an innovative in situ leaching strategy, modulated by cationic oxidation, to achieve active self-reconstruction of these catalysts. Vanadium is introduced as a cation into Ni3S2 and oxidized under low oxidative potential, leading to subsequent leaching into the electrolyte and triggering self-reconstruction. The structural evolution from V-Ni3S2 to Ni(OH)2 and subsequently to NiOOH is identified by operando Raman as a three-step transition. In contrast, V-free Ni3S2 is unable to bypass the thermodynamically predicted nickel oxysulfide products to transform into active NiOOH. As a result, the self-restructured V-Ni3S2 only needs an ultralow overpotential of 155 mV at 10 mA cm-2, outperforming V-free Ni3S2 and many other advanced catalysts. This work provides new guidelines for manipulating in situ leaching to modulate the self-reconstruction of catalysts.

Association between oxidative stress and chronic orofacial pain and potential druggable targets: Evidence from a Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress indicators affect chronic orofacial pain (COFP), but how to reduce these effects is uncertain. OBJECTIVES: 11 oxidative stress biomarkers were collected as exposures, while four forms of COFP were chosen as outcomes for Mendelian randomization (MR) study. METHODS: The effect estimates between oxidative stress and COFP were calculated using inverse variance-weighted MR (IVW-MR). Then, functional mapping and annotation (FUMA) was utilized in order to carry out SNP-based functional enrichment analyses. In addition, the IVW-MR method was applied to combine effect estimates when using genetic variants associated with oxidative stress biomarkers as an instrument for exploring potential druggable targets. RESULTS: The results indicated that oxidative stress biomarkers (causal OR of uric acid (UA), 0.998 for myofascial pain, 95% CI 0.996-1.000, p < .05; and OR of glutathione transferase (GST), 1.002 for dentoalveolar pain, 95% CI 1.000-1.003, p < .05) were significantly linked with the probability of COFP. Functional analysis also demonstrated that UA and myofascial pain genes were prominent in nitrogen and uracil metabolism, while GST and dentoalveolar pain genes were enriched in glutathione metabolism. Also, the study provided evidence that solute carrier family 2 member 9 (SLC2A9) and glutathione S-transferase alpha 2 (GSTA2) cause discomfort in the myofascial pain (OR = 1.003, 95% CI 1.000-1.006; p < .05) and dentoalveolar region (OR = 1.001, 95% CI 1.000-1.002; p < .05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this MR study indicates that genetically predicted myofascial pain was significantly associated with decreased UA and dentoalveolar pain was significantly associated with increased GST level. SLC2A9 inhibitor and GSTA2 inhibitor were novel chronic orofacial pain therapies and biomarkers, but clinical trials are called to examine if these oxidative biomarkers have the protective effect against orofacial pain, and further research are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms.

Comparison of Easydo Activator, ultrasonic and needle irrigation techniques on sealer penetration and smear layer removal in vitro.

The effects of Easydo Activator (EA), a new sonic irrigation system, on sealer penetration at the root apex were compared to needle irrigation (NI) and passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI) in this study. Forty-two single-rooted teeth were prepared and randomly divided into three groups (n = 14): group 1: NI; group 2: PUI; and group 3: EA. A solution of 3% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) was used for irrigation. Nine teeth in each group were filled with AH Plus sealer mixed with CY5 fluorescent dye and a single gutta-percha cone. The sealer penetration area, maximum penetration depth and percentage of sealer penetration at 5 mm and 1 mm from the apex were analyzed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The remaining 5 teeth in each group were subjected to test smear layer scores by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The CLSM evaluation showed that increases in the area, depth and percentage of sealer penetration were detected at 1 and 5 mm from the root apex in the PUI group compared with the NI group, and greater increases were observed in the EA group (P < 0.05). The SEM experiment showed that the lowest scores for the smear layer and debris removal were achieved by the EA group when compared with the PUI and NI groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, EA was superior to PUI and NI regarding sealer penetration at the root apex during endodontic treatment, and it could provide a new technical idea for clinical root canal therapy.

Multispectral transparent electromagnetic-wave-absorbing optical window technology based on a random grid.

A multimode detection system has stringent requirements in terms of electromagnetic characteristic control and electromagnetic compatibility. To meet these requirements, we designed and manufactured a type of transparent electromagnetic-wave-absorbing optical window based on a random grid (EAOWRG) in this study. Owing to the design and regulation of the materials of the random grid and the structures of the metasurface, the optical window has excellent multispectral transparency, electromagnetic wave absorption, and electromagnetic shielding performance. The experimental results showed that the transmissivity of the EAOWRG in the optical spectral ranges of 460-800 nm and 8-12 µm is above 89.77%, the electromagnetic reflectivity in the frequency ranges of 3.6-7.2 GHz and 14.3-17.7 GHz is not more than - 5 dB, the bandwidth at which the electromagnetic reflectivity is not more than -10 dB is 4.4 GHz, the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz is above 31 dB. The average radar cross section of the detection system using the EAOWRG in the ± 60° angle domain at 6 GHz is 8.79 dB lower than that before processing. The detection system has a good imaging effect in the visible and infrared bands, meeting the requirements of the electromagnetic characteristic control and electromagnetic compatibility, and has good application prospects.

Time-slicing high dynamic range 3D imaging.

Fringe projection profilometry (FPP) has been widely used in 3D measurement due to its high precision and non-contact properties. Nevertheless, it still faces great challenges in measuring scenes with complex reflectivity, in which the dynamic range of the reflected light field of the scene is significantly higher than that of the image detector. In this paper, we propose a time-slicing strategy for high dynamics range 3D imaging by projecting a series of sinusoidal fringe patterns with short and equal length exposure time and performing the fusion of different numbers of short exposure images according to the local gray-value distribution of the images. Moreover, to further improve the measurement efficiency, we realize phase unwrapping using complementary Gray code patterns, which are binary and insensitive to the image sensor's nonlinear response to the reflected light from the scene under test. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method.

Projected feature assisted coarse to fine point cloud registration method for large-size 3D measurement.

Fringe projection profilometry has gained significant interest due to its high precision, enhanced resolution, and simplified design. Typically, the spatial and perspective measurement capability is restricted by the lenses of the camera and projector in accordance with the principles of geometric optics. Therefore, large-size object measurement requires data acquisition from multiple perspectives, followed by point cloud splicing. Current point cloud registration methods usually rely on 2D feature textures, 3D structural elements, or supplementary tools, which will increase costs or limit the scope of the application. To address large-size 3D measurement more efficiently, we propose a low-cost and feasible method that combines active projection textures, color channel multiplexing, image feature matching and coarse-to-fine point registration strategies. Using a composite structured light with red speckle patterns for larger areas and blue sinusoidal fringe patterns for smaller ones, projected onto the surface, which allows us to accomplish simultaneous 3D reconstruction and point cloud registration. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for the 3D measurement of large-size and weak-textured objects.

Single-shot quantitative differential phase contrast imaging combined with programmable polarization multiplexing illumination.

We propose a single-shot quantitative differential phase contrast method with polarization multiplexing illumination. In the illumination module of our system, a programmable LED array is divided into four quadrants and covered with polarizing films of four different polarization angles. We use a polarization camera with polarizers before the pixels in the imaging module. By matching the polarization angle between the polarizing films over the custom LED array and the polarizers in the camera, two sets of asymmetric illumination acquisition images can be calculated from a single-shot acquisition image. Combined with the phase transfer function, we can calculate the quantitative phase of the sample. We present the design, implementation, and experimental image data demonstrating the ability of our method to obtain quantitative phase images of a phase resolution target, as well as Hela cells.

The romantic history of signaling pathway discovery in cell death: an updated review.

Cell death is a fundamental physiological process in all living organisms. Processes such as embryonic development, organ formation, tissue growth, organismal immunity, and drug response are accompanied by cell death. In recent years with the development of electron microscopy as well as biological techniques, especially the discovery of novel death modes such as ferroptosis, cuprotosis, alkaliptosis, oxeiptosis, and disulfidptosis, researchers have been promoted to have a deeper understanding of cell death modes. In this systematic review, we examined the current understanding of modes of cell death, including the recently discovered novel death modes. Our analysis highlights the common and unique pathways of these death modes, as well as their impact on surrounding cells and the organism as a whole. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on cell death, with a focus on identifying gaps in our knowledge and opportunities for future investigation. We also presented a new insight for macroscopic intracellular survival patterns, namely that intracellular molecular homeostasis is central to the balance of different cell death modes, and this viewpoint can be well justified by the signaling crosstalk of different death modes. These concepts can facilitate the future research about cell death in clinical diagnosis, drug development, and therapeutic modalities.

Costs and Benefits of Household Fuel Policies and Alternative Strategies in the Jing-Jin-Ji Region.

Air pollution is still one of the most severe problems in northern China, especially in the Jing-Jin-Ji region around Beijing. In recent years, China has implemented many stringent policies to address the air quality issue, including promoting energy transition toward cleaner fuels in residential sectors. But until 2020, even in the Jing-Jin-Ji region, nearly half of the rural households still use solid fuels for heating. For residents who are not covered by the clean heating campaign, we analyze five potential mitigation strategies and evaluate their environmental effects as well as the associated health benefits and costs. We estimate that substitution with electricity or gas would reduce air pollution and premature mortality more strongly, while the relatively low investment costs of implementing clean coal or biomass pellet lead to a larger benefit-cost ratio, indicating higher cost efficiency. Hence, clean coal or biomass pellet could be transitional substitution options for the less developed or remote areas which cannot afford a total transition toward electricity or natural gas in the short term.