Supplementary Low Far-Red Light Promotes Proliferation and Photosynthetic Capacity of Blueberry In Vitro Plantlets.

Far-red light exerts an important regulatory influence on plant growth and development. However, the mechanisms underlying far-red light regulation of morphogenesis and photosynthetic characteristics in blueberry plantlets in vitro have remained elusive. Here, physiological and transcriptomic analyses were conducted on blueberry plantlets in vitro supplemented with far-red light. The results indicated that supplementation with low far-red light, such as 6 µmol m-2 s-1 and 14 µmol m-2 s-1 far-red (6FR and 14FR) light treatments, significantly increased proliferation-related indicators, including shoot length, shoot number, gibberellin A3, and trans-zeatin riboside content. It was found that 6FR and 14 FR significantly reduced chlorophyll content in blueberry plantlets but enhanced electron transport rates. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) showed the enrichment of iron ion-related genes in modules associated with photosynthesis. Genes such as NAC, ABCG11, GASA1, and Erf74 were significantly enriched within the proliferation-related module. Taken together, we conclude that low far-red light can promote the proliferative capacity of blueberry plantlets in vitro by affecting hormone pathways and the formation of secondary cell walls, concurrently regulating chlorophyll content and iron ion homeostasis to affect photosynthetic capacity.

Universal Method for Label-Free Detection of Pathogens and Biomolecules by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Based on Gold Nanoparticles.

The detection of biomolecules is the key to basic molecular research, diagnostics, drug screening, and other biomedical applications. However, the existing detection techniques can only detect single classes of biomolecules, which warrant the development of a versatile biomolecule detection platform. Here, we developed a universal method for label-free detection of biomolecules via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) by using sulfhydryl-modified gold nanoparticles as the substrate. The biomolecules can be adsorbed on the surface of gold nanoparticles cleaned by bromide ions to obtain initially enhanced Raman signals, and the aggregator (calcium ion) was further added to form a "hot spot", which enhanced the biomolecular signal again. Through the "two-step enhancement method", we were able to obtain fingerprints of DNA, RNA, amino acids, peptides, proteins, viruses, bacteria, and lipid molecules. This low-toxic, highly sensitive, and widely applicable technique has potential applications in biomedical research, clinical testing, and disease diagnosis and lays the foundation for the development of SERS technology in various fields.

Polyethylene glycol with dual three-dimensional porous carbon nanotube/diamond: a high thermal conductivity of composite PCM.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is widely used as a phase change material (PCM) in thermal energy storage systems due to its high latent heat and chemical stability. However, practical application has been hindered by its low thermal conductivity and leakage issues. Therefore, developing shape-stable high thermal conductivity PCM is of great importance. In this study, new shape-stable composite PCM with high thermal conductivity and leak-prevention capabilities were designed. The porous carbon skeleton of diamond foam (DF) and dual-3D carbon nanotube-diamond foam (CDF) were prepared using the microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition method. The composite materials (DF/PEG and CDF/PEG) were produced by vacuum impregnation with PEG and skeletons. The results showed that CDF/PEG had the highest thermal conductivity, measuring 2.30 W·m-1·K-1, which is 707% higher than that of pure PEG. The employing of 3D networks of CNTs, which can improve the phonon mean free path in DF/PEG (1.79 W·m-1·K-1) while reducing phonon dispersion.The phonon vibration of dual-3D CDF plays an important role in heat transfer. PEG was physically absorbed and well-distributed in CDF, alleviating leakage of liquid PEG. The weight loss of CDF/PEG was only 25% at 70 °C for 120 s. Using CDF is an attractive and efficient strategy to increase the heat transfer of PEG and improve heat storage efficiency, alleviate the problem of poor shape-stability.

Energy-Efficient Trajectory Planning for Smart Sensing in IoT Networks Using Quadrotor UAVs.

Quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used as flexible and mobile access points and information carriers for the future Internet of Things (IoT). This work studies a quadrotor UAV-assisted IoT network, where the UAV helps to collect sensing data from a group of IoT users. Our goal is to optimize the UAV's overall energy consumption required to complete the sensing task. Firstly, we propose a more accurate and mathematically tractable model to characterize the UAV's real-time energy consumption, which accounts for the UAV's dynamics, brushless direct current (BLDC) motor dynamics and aerodynamics. Then, we can show that the UAV's circular flight based on the proposed energy-consumption model consumes less energy than that of hover flight. Therefore, a fly-circle-communicate (FCC) trajectory design algorithm, adopting Dubins curves for circular flight, is proposed and derived to save energy and increase flight duration. Employing the FCC strategy, the UAV moves to each IoT user and implements a circular flight in the sequence solved by the travelling-salesman-problem (TSP) algorithm. Finally, we evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in a mobile sensing network by comparing the proposed algorithm with the conventional hover-communicate (HC) algorithm in terms of energy consumption. Numerical results show that the FCC algorithm reduces energy consumption by 1-10% compared to the HC algorithm, and also improves the UAV's flight duration and the sensing network's service range.

Bayesian maximum entropy-based prediction of the spatiotemporal risk of schistosomiasis in Anhui Province, China.

BACKGROUND: "Schistosomiasis" is a highly recurrent parasitic disease that affects a wide range of areas and a large number of people worldwide. In China, schistosomiasis has seriously affected the life and safety of the people and restricted the economic development. Schistosomiasis is mainly distributed along the Yangtze River and in southern China. Anhui Province is located in the Yangtze River Basin of China, with dense water system, frequent floods and widespread distribution of Oncomelania hupensis that is the only intermediate host of schistosomiasis, a large number of cattle, sheep and other livestock, which makes it difficult to control schistosomiasis. It is of great significance to monitor and analyze spatiotemporal risk of schistosomiasis in Anhui Province, China. We compared and analyzed the optimal spatiotemporal interpolation model based on the data of schistosomiasis in Anhui Province, China and the spatiotemporal pattern of schistosomiasis risk was analyzed. METHODS: In this study, the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) and absolute residual (AR) indicators were used to compare the accuracy of Bayesian maximum entropy (BME), spatiotemporal Kriging (STKriging) and geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) models for predicting the spatiotemporal risk of schistosomiasis in Anhui Province, China. RESULTS: The results showed that (1) daytime land surface temperature, mean minimum temperature, normalized difference vegetation index, soil moisture, soil bulk density and urbanization were significant factors affecting the risk of schistosomiasis; (2) the spatiotemporal distribution trends of schistosomiasis predicted by the three methods were basically consistent with the actual trends, but the prediction accuracy of BME was higher than that of STKriging and GTWR, indicating that BME predicted the prevalence of schistosomiasis more accurately; and (3) schistosomiasis in Anhui Province had a spatial autocorrelation within 20 km and a temporal correlation within 10 years when applying the optimal model BME. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that BME exhibited the highest interpolation accuracy among the three spatiotemporal interpolation methods, which could enhance the risk prediction model of infectious diseases thereby providing scientific support for government decision making.

An Improved Method for Stable Feature Points Selection in Structure-from-Motion Considering Image Semantic and Structural Characteristics.

Feature matching plays a crucial role in the process of 3D reconstruction based on the structure from motion (SfM) technique. For a large collection of oblique images, feature matching is one of the most time-consuming steps, and the matching result directly affects the accuracy of subsequent tasks. Therefore, how to extract the reasonable feature points robustly and efficiently to improve the matching speed and quality has received extensive attention from scholars worldwide. Most studies perform quantitative feature point selection based on image Difference-of-Gaussian (DoG) pyramids in practice. However, the stability and spatial distribution of feature points are not considered enough, resulting in selected feature points that may not adequately reflect the scene structures and cannot guarantee the matching rate and the aerial triangulation accuracy. To address these issues, an improved method for stable feature point selection in SfM considering image semantic and structural characteristics is proposed. First, the visible-band difference vegetation index is used to identify the vegetation areas from oblique images, and the line feature in the image is extracted by the optimized line segment detector algorithm. Second, the feature point two-tuple classification model is established, in which the vegetation area recognition result is used as the semantic constraint, the line feature extraction result is used as the structural constraint, and the feature points are divided into three types. Finally, a progressive selection algorithm for feature points is proposed, in which feature points in the DoG pyramid are selected by classes and levels until the number of feature points is satisfied. Oblique images of a 40-km2 area in Dongying city, China, were used for validation. The experimental results show that compared to the state-of-the-art method, the method proposed in this paper not only effectively reduces the number of feature points but also better reflects the scene structure. At the same time, the average reprojection error of the aerial triangulation decrease by 20%, the feature point matching rate increase by 3%, the selected feature points are more stable and reasonable.

Computational Simulation of HIV Protease Inhibitors to the Main Protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2: Implications for COVID-19 Drugs Design.

SARS-CoV-2 is highly homologous to SARS-CoV. To date, the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is regarded as an important drug target for the treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some experiments confirmed that several HIV protease inhibitors present the inhibitory effects on the replication of SARS-CoV-2 by inhibiting Mpro. However, the mechanism of action has still not been studied very clearly. In this work, the interaction mechanism of four HIV protease inhibitors Darunavir (DRV), Lopinavir (LPV), Nelfinavir (NFV), and Ritonavire (RTV) targeting SARS-CoV-2 Mpro was explored by applying docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and MM-GBSA methods using the broad-spectrum antiviral drug Ribavirin (RBV) as the negative and nonspecific control. Our results revealed that LPV, RTV, and NFV have higher binding affinities with Mpro, and they all interact with catalytic residues His41 and the other two key amino acids Met49 and Met165. Pharmacophore model analysis further revealed that the aromatic ring, hydrogen bond donor, and hydrophobic group are the essential infrastructure of Mpro inhibitors. Overall, this study applied computational simulation methods to study the interaction mechanism of HIV-1 protease inhibitors with SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, and the findings provide useful insights for the development of novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents for the treatment of COVID-19.

Dearomatizing [4+1] Spiroannulation of Naphthols: Discovery of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Materials.

Disclosed here is a palladium-catalyzed direct [4+1] spiroannulation of ortho-C-H bonds of naphthols with cyclic diaryliodonium salts to construct spirofluorenyl naphthalenones (SFNP) under mild reaction conditions. This spiroannulation directly transforms the hydroxy group into a carbonyl group, and also tolerates reactive functional groups such as the halo groups, which provide an opportunity to rapidly assemble structurally new thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials that feature a carbonyl group with an adjacent spirofluorenyl unit as the acceptor. As an illustrated example, the OLED device utilizing the assembled DMAC-SFNP as the host material exhibits a low turn-on voltage of 2.5 V and an ultra-high external quantum efficiency of 32.2 %. This work provides inspiration for structurally new TADF materials, and also displays the potential of C-H activation as a synthetic strategy for the innovation of optoelectronic materials.

A Hybrid Method for Predicting Traffic Congestion during Peak Hours in the Subway System of Shenzhen.

Traffic congestion, especially during peak hours, has become a challenge for transportation systems in many metropolitan areas, and such congestion causes delays and negative effects for passengers. Many studies have examined the prediction of congestion; however, these studies focus mainly on road traffic, and subway transit, which is the main form of transportation in densely populated cities, such as Tokyo, Paris, and Beijing and Shenzhen in China, has seldom been examined. This study takes Shenzhen as a case study for predicting congestion in a subway system during peak hours and proposes a hybrid method that combines a static traffic assignment model with an agent-based dynamic traffic simulation model to estimate recurrent congestion in this subway system. The homes and work places of the residents in this city are collected and taken to represent the traffic demand for the subway system of Shenzhen. An origin-destination (OD) matrix derived from the data is used as an input in this method of predicting traffic, and the traffic congestion is presented in simulations. To evaluate the predictions, data on the congestion condition of subway segments that are released daily by the Shenzhen metro operation microblog are used as a reference, and a comparative analysis indicates the appropriateness of the proposed method. This study could be taken as an example for similar studies that model subway traffic in other cities.

Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulation of Human Anti-Complement Factor H (CFH) Antibody Ab42 and CFH Polypeptide.

An understanding of the interaction between the antibody and its targeted antigen and knowing of the epitopes are critical for the development of monoclonal antibody drugs. Complement factor H (CFH) is implied to play a role in tumor growth and metastasis. An autoantibody to CHF is associated with anti-tumor cell activity. The interaction of a human monoclonal antibody Ab42 that was isolated from a cancer patient with CFH polypeptide (pCFH) antigen was analyzed by molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, free energy calculation, and computational alanine scanning (CAS). Experimental alanine scanning (EAS) was then carried out to verify the results of the theoretical calculation. Our results demonstrated that the Ab42 antibody interacts with pCFH by hydrogen bonds through the Tyr315, Ser100, Gly33, and Tyr53 residues on the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs), respectively, with the amino acid residues of Pro441, Ile442, Asp443, Asn444, Ile447, and Thr448 on the pCFH antigen. In conclusion, this study has explored the mechanism of interaction between Ab42 antibody and its targeted antigen by both theoretical and experimental analysis. Our results have important theoretical significance for the design and development of relevant antibody drugs.

Rapamycin Combi with TAE on the Growth, Metastasis, and Prognosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Rat Models.

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: To investigate the effect of mTOR inhibitor Rapamycin combined with transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) on the growth, metastasis, and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in rat model. MATERIAL AND METHOD: McARH7777 cells were used to construct rat models of HCC, which were randomly divided into Model, Rapamycin, TAE, and Rapamycin + TAE groups. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western Blot were used to detect the expression of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT)-related molecules, and immunohistochemical staining to determine the expression of EMTrelated proteins, angiogenic factors as well as microvessel density (MVD)-CD34. RESULTS: The hepatic tumor volume of rats in the other three groups were all significantly smaller than the Model group on the 7th, 14th, and 21st day after treatment and the combination treatment was apparently more effective than either treatment alone. Besides, both the number and the size of metastatic nodules of HCC rats after combination treatment were remarkably reduced. In addition, compared with rats in the Rapamycin + TAE group, N-cadherin, Vimentin, HIF-1α, VEGF, and MVD-CD34 were obviously enhanced, while E-cadherin was lowered in those TAE group, which were the complete opposite to the Rapamycin group. Besides, the median survival time of rats in the Rapamycin + TAE group was evidently longer than the resting groups. CONCLUSION: Rapamycin combined with TAE may effectively suppress the EMT formation and angiogenesis, thereby inhibiting the growth and lung metastasis of HCC rats, which provides a new idea for countering the recurrence and metastasis of HCC.

Synthesis of Phenalenyl-Fused Pyrylium Cations: Divergent C-H Activation/Annulation Reaction Sequence of Naphthalene Aldehydes with Alkynes.

Described herein is the synthesis of stable oxonium-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by the rhodium-catalyzed C-H activation/annulations of naphthalene-type aldehydes with internal alkynes. This protocol provides four divergent reaction types, including two unexpected annulations with an oxygen transposition process, which lead to diverse types of phenalenyl-fused pyrylium cations comprising a four-, five-, or six-ring-fused π-conjugated core. The annulations exhibit an exquisite regioselectivity and a high tolerance of sensitive functional groups. These PAHs feature intriguing photophysical properties such as full-color tunable fluorescence emission, high quantum yield, and positively charged core, and can be reduced easily to the phenalenyl radicals.

In situ formation of nanoscale zero-value iron on fish-scale-based porous carbon for Cr(VI) adsorption.

Magnetic carbon materials that have nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) supported on fish scale based hierarchical lamellar porous carbon (FHLC) is reported in this study. The nZVI on FHLC was in the form of body-centered-cubic iron (Fe) crystal. Although it was demonstrated that the specific surface area (SBET), total pore volume (Vt) and micropore volume (Vm) of the FHLC decreased with the increase of Fe contents, a certain amount of addition of iron nanoparticles on FHLC enhances the Cr(VI) adsorption properties. The as-prepared material shows faster adsorption rate and higher maximum adsorption capacity (357.14 mg/g) compared to bare FHLC (344.83 mg/g). In addition, this magnetic carbon material exhibits a high saturated magnetization (16.49 emu/g). It is indicated that the as-prepared carbon material not only can be used to remove Cr(VI) efficiently but also shows excellent magnetic separation performance from wastewater.

Hybrid III-V/silicon laser with laterally coupled Bragg grating.

In this paper, we demonstrate a compact electrically pumped distributed-feedback hybrid III-V/silicon laser with laterally coupled Bragg grating for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The hybrid laser structure consists of AlGaInAs/InP multi-quantum-well gain layers on top of a laterally corrugated silicon waveguide patterned on a silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate. A pair of surface couplers is integrated at the two ends of the silicon waveguide for the optical coupling and characterization of the ouput light. Single wavelength emission of ~1.55µm with a side-mode-suppression- ratio larger than 20dB and low threshold current density of 1.54kA/cm(2) were achieved for the device under pulsed operation at 20 °C.

An AIE active Y-shaped diimidazolylbenzene: aggregation and disaggregation for Cd(2+) and Fe(3+) sensing in aqueous solution.

A simple Y-shaped dimb with AIE properties was designed and synthesized. It showed selective fluorescence turn-on toward Cd(2+) ion in MeCN-water (2 : 8, v/v) through aggregation, and also selective fluorescence turn-off toward Fe(3+) ion in MeCN-water (1 : 99, v/v) through disaggregation.

A study of the kinetics and isotherms for Cr(VI) adsorption in a binary mixture of Cr(VI)-Ni(II) using hierarchical porous carbon obtained from pig bone.

Cr(VI) adsorption in a binary mixture Cr(VI)-Ni(II) using the hierarchical porous carbon prepared from pig bone (HPC) was investigated. The various factors affecting adsorption of Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solutions such as initial concentration, pH, temperature and contact time were analyzed. The results showed excellent efficiency of Cr(VI) adsorption by HPC. The kinetics and isotherms for Cr(VI) adsorption from a binary mixture Cr(VI)-Ni(II) by HPC were studied. The adsorption equilibrium described by the Langmuir isotherm model is better than that described by the Freundlich isotherm model for the binary mixture in this study. The maximum adsorption capacity was reliably found to be as high as 192.68 mg/g in the binary mixture at pH 2. On fitting the experimental data to both pseudo-first- and second-order equations, the regression analysis of the second-order equation gave a better R² value.

Underdog entrepreneurship in the digital era: The effect of digital servitization on household entrepreneurship in China.

In today's digital era, households are empowered by digital servitization, which could potentially impact their ability to become entrepreneurs. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and the National Bureau of Statistics of China, we construct the digital servitization index to analyze the impact of digital servitization on household entrepreneurship. The results show that the utilization of digital servitization by households significantly increases the likelihood of them engaging in entrepreneurial endeavors. This result remains robust after a series of robustness tests. We also find that digital servitization can help households identify entrepreneurial opportunities and access entrepreneurial resources by alleviating information and financial constraints, and increasing social capital. Further, the effect is more among households with rural residences, low material assets, elderly household heads, and household heads with low cognitive abilities, which means that digital servitization can promote underdog entrepreneurship. In conclusion, this paper provides micro-level evidence supporting the idea that digital servitization can foster household entrepreneurship, particularly among underprivileged groups. Ultimately, this paper highlights the potential of digitization as an essential resource to drive economic growth and help households in need become successful entrepreneurs.

Prognostic implications of combining EGFR-TKIs and radiotherapy in Stage IV lung adenocarcinoma with 19-Del or 21-L858R mutations: A real-world study.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the potential benefits of combining radiotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) for individuals with Stage IV lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) harboring either exon 19 deletion (19-Del) or exon 21 L858R mutation (21-L858R). METHODS: In this real-world retrospective study, 177 individuals with Stage IV LUAD who underwent EGFR-TKIs and radiotherapy at Shandong Cancer Hospital from June 2012 to August 2017 were included. The main focus of this real-world study was overall survival (OS). RESULTS: The clinical characteristics of patients with Stage IV LUAD harboring 19-Del were similar to those harboring 21-L858R (p > 0.05). Overall, the patients had a median OS (mOS) of 32.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 28.6-35.5). Subsequently, multivariate analysis indicated that both EGFR mutations and thoracic radiotherapy were independent predictors of OS (p = 0.001 and 0.013). Furthermore, subgroup analysis highlighted a longer OS for the 19-Del group compared to the 21-L858R group, especially when EGFR-TKIs were combined with bone metastasis or thoracic radiotherapy (mOS: 34.7 vs. 25.1 months and 51.0 vs. 29.6 months; p = 0.0056 and 0.0013, respectively). However, no significant differences were found in OS when considering patients who underwent brain metastasis radiotherapy (mOS: 34.7 vs. 25.1 months; p = 0.088). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with Stage IV LUAD harboring 19-Del experience a notably prolonged OS following combined therapy with EGFR-TKIs and radiotherapy, while this OS benefit is observed despite the absence of substantial differences in the clinical characteristics between the 19-Del and 21-L858R groups.

Handcrafted silver substrates boost surface plasmon resonance for ultra-sensitive lipid analysis.

Lipid monitoring plays a crucial role in biomedical research, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular health, metabolic disorders and nutrition. However, direct and highly sensitive detection of lipids poses significant challenges due to the interference of high SERS background noise in lipid samples. In this study, we present a SERS platform for the quantitative analysis of lipids. By harnessing the Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) effect of nanostructured grooves and leveraging deuterium oxide, a remarkable enhancement of in-situ Raman signals originating from cholesterol is achieved. This approach yielded an impressive average enhancement factor of 7.3 × 105 and a detection limit of 1.9 × 10-4 mg/mL, highlighting the exceptional sensitivity and precision of our method. We have obtained high quality, in-situ SERS signals for six distinct lipid molecules. Rapid identification of lipid samples in mixed systems has been achieved through the combination of characteristic peak analysis and PCA-LDA, including the detection of SERS signals from lipids in milk. Notably, univariate monitoring of in-situ cholesterol in human serum was successfully achieved for the first time using deuterium water as an internal standard. In addition, silver substrate demonstrated outstanding reproducibility, maintaining consistent SERS activity even after more than 10 repetitions. Therefore, this platform offers the distinct advantages of high sensitivity, specificity and cost-effectiveness for lipid detection. These findings enable dietary management and blood lipid monitoring, and therefore hold crucial implications for the early prevention of lipid-related disorders and diseases.

Ros-responsive nano-platform for lipid-specific fluorescence imaging of atherosclerosis.

Fluorescent probes that specifically targeting Lipid droplets (LDs) have shown potential in biological imaging. Albeit, their in vivo applications are limited due to the hydrophobicity, low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and LDs-specificity. Thus, we designed a novel probe namely MeOND, and a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive nano-platform to improve in vivo LDs-specific imaging. MeOND exhibits a remarkable twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) effect with a strongly enhanced near-infrared emission in low-polarity lipid environment. Also, MeOND demonstrates satisfactory biocompatibility and superior intracellular LDs imaging capabilities. MeOND encapsulated nano-platform (MeOND@PMM) presented favorable water solubility and biocompatibility. MeOND@PMM remains stable in physiological conditions but quickly degrades in the environment of elevated ROS level. The released MeOND could then light up the intracellular LDs in atherosclerotic plaques. The design of the probe and nano-platform is expected to provide a better tool for the scientific research of LDs and LDs-related diseases.