Direct Ink Writing of Low-Concentration MXene/Aramid Nanofiber Inks for Tunable Electromagnetic Shielding and Infrared Anticounterfeiting Applications.

MXene inks offer a promising avenue for the scalable production and customization of printing electronics. However, simultaneously achieving a low solid content and printability of MXene inks, as well as mechanical flexibility and environmental stability of printed objects, remains a challenge. In this study, we overcame these challenges by employing high-viscosity aramid nanofibers (ANFs) to optimize the rheology of low-concentration MXene inks. The abundant entangled networks and hydrogen bonds formed between MXene and ANF significantly increase the viscosity and yield stress up to 103 Pa·s and 200 Pa, respectively. This optimization allows the use of MXene/ANF (MA) inks at low concentrations in direct ink writing and other high-viscosity processing techniques. The printable MXene/ANF inks with a high conductivity of 883.5 S/cm were used to print shields with customized structures, achieving a tunable electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) in the 0.2-48.2 dB range. Furthermore, the MA inks exhibited adjustable infrared (IR) emissivity by changing the ANF ratio combined with printing design, demonstrating the application for infrared anticounterfeiting. Notably, the printed MXene/ANF objects possess outstanding mechanical flexibility and environmental stability, which are attributed to the reinforcement and protection of ANF. Therefore, these findings have significant practical implications as versatile MXene/ANF inks can be used for customizable, scalable, and cost-effective production of flexible printed electronics.

Utilizing a structure-based virtual screening approach to discover potential LSD1 inhibitors.

BACKGROUND: Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is highly expressed in a variety of malignant tumors, rendering it a crucial epigenetic target for anti-tumor therapy. Therefore, the inhibition of LSD1 activity has emerged as a promising innovative therapeutic approach for targeted cancer treatment. METHODS: In our study, we employed innovative structure-based drug design methods to meticulously select compounds from the ZINC15 database. Utilizing virtual docking, we evaluated docking scores and binding modes to identify potential inhibitors. To further validate our findings, we harnessed molecular dynamic simulations and conducted meticulous biochemical experiments to deeply analyze the binding interactions between the protein and compounds. RESULTS: Our results showcased that ZINC10039815 exhibits an exquisite binding mode with LSD1, fitting perfectly into the active pocket and forming robust interactions with multiple critical residues of the protein. CONCLUSIONS: With its significant inhibitory effect on LSD1 activity, ZINC10039815 emerges as a highly promising candidate for the development of novel LSD1 inhibitors.

FOXA1 regulates ribosomal RNA transcription in prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: Ribosome biogenesis is excessively activated in tumor cells, yet it is little known whether oncogenic transcription factors (TFs) are involved in the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transactivation. METHODS: Nucleolar proteomics data and large-scale immunofluorescence were re-analyzed to jointly identify the proteins localized at nucleolus. RNA-Seq data of five prostate cancer (PCa) cohorts were combined and integrated with multi-dimensional data to define the upregulated nucleolar TFs in PCa tissues. Then, ChIP-Seq data of PCa cell lines and two PCa clinical cohorts were re-analyzed to reveal the TF binding patterns at ribosomal DNA (rDNA) repeats. The TF binding at rDNA was validated by ChIP-qPCR. The effect of the TF on rRNA transcription was determined by rDNA luciferase reporter, nascent RNA synthesis, and global protein translation assays. RESULTS: In this study, we reveal the role of oncogenic TF FOXA1 in regulating rRNA transcription within nucleolar organization regions. By analyzing human TFs in prostate cancer clinical datasets and nucleolar proteomics data, we identified that FOXA1 is partially localized in the nucleolus and correlated with global protein translation. Our extensive FOXA1 ChIP-Seq analysis provides robust evidence of FOXA1 binding across rDNA repeats in prostate cancer cell lines, primary tumors, and castration-resistant variants. Notably, FOXA1 occupancy at rDNA repeats correlates with histone modifications associated with active transcription, namely H3K27ac and H3K4me3. Reducing FOXA1 expression results in decreased transactivation at rDNA, subsequently diminishing global protein synthesis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest FOXA1 regulates aberrant ribosome biogenesis downstream of oncogenic signaling in prostate cancer.

Rational Design Toward Advanced Non-Flow Aqueous Zinc-Bromine Systems Boosted by Alkaline-Neutral Decoupling Electrolytes.

Non-flow aqueous zinc-bromine batteries (AZBBs) are highly attractive owing to their lightweight construction and largely reduced cost compared with the flow ones. Yet, their development is restricted by the sluggish reaction kinetics of Br2/Br-, the shuttle of soluble polybromide species (Brn -, n is odd), and the poor stability of Zn-based anode. Herein, an effective alkaline-neutral electrolyte decoupling system is constructed to mitigate these issues, where nitrogen-doped carbon felt with high catalytic activity to Br2/Br- reaction is developed for cathode, a cost-effective cation exchange membrane (CEM) of polyethersulfone/sulfonated polyether ether ketone (PES/SPEEK-M) that can stop Brn - is used as separator, and glucose that can inhibit dendrites is introduced as anolyte additive. The constructed flowless AZBB mainly consists of two separate redox couples, including Zn/Zn(OH)4 2- in alkaline anolyte and Br2/Br- in neutral media, where non-cations (e.g. OH-, Zn(OH)4 2-, H2O,  and Brn -) can be restricted to their respective chamber by the PES/SPEEK-M while cations can pass by. In the optimized system, good electrochemical performance is achieved, mainly including a surprising discharge voltage of 2.01 V, a high average Coulombic efficiency of 96.7%, and a good cycling life of ≈1000 cycles without obvious capacity decay at a fixed charge capacity of 2 mAh cm-2.

Detection and Analysis of VOCs in Cherry Tomato Based on GC-MS and GC×GC-TOF MS Techniques.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a significant role in influencing the flavor quality of cherry tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme). The scarcity of systematic analysis of VOCs in cherry tomatoes can be attributed to the constraints imposed by detection technology and other contributing factors. In this study, the cherry tomato cultivar var. 'Zheyingfen1' was chosen due to its abundant fruit flavor. Two detection technology platforms, namely the commonly employed headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) and the most advanced headspace solid-phase microextraction-full two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC×GC-TOFMS), were employed in the analysis. The VOCs of cherry tomato cultivar var. 'Zheyingfen1' fruits at red ripening stage were detected. A combined total of 1544 VOCs were detected using the two aforementioned techniques. Specifically, 663 VOCs were identified by through the HS-SPME-GC-MS method, 1026 VOCs were identified by through the HS-SPME-GC×GC-TOFMS, and 145 VOCs were identified by both techniques. The identification of ß-ionone and (E)-2-nonenal as the principal VOCs was substantiated through the application of the relative odor activity value (rOAV) calculation and subsequent analysis. Based on the varying contribution rates of rOAV, the analysis of sensory flavor characteristics revealed that cherry tomato cultivar var. 'Zheyingfen1' predominantly exhibited green and fatty attributes, accompanied by elements of fresh and floral flavor characteristics. In conclusion, our study conducted a comprehensive comparison of the disparities between these two methodologies in detecting VOCs in cherry tomato fruits. Additionally, we systematically analyzed the VOC composition and sensory flavor attributes of the cherry tomato cultivar var. 'Zheyingfen1'. This research serves as a significant point of reference for investigating the regulatory mechanisms underlying the development of volatile flavor quality in cherry tomatoes.

Achievement of Efficient and Stable Nonflow Zinc-Bromine Batteries Assisted by Rational Decoration upon the Two Electrodes.

Aqueous zinc-bromine batteries (ZBBs) are highly promising because of the advantages of safety and cost. Compared with flow ZBBs, static ones without the assistance of pumping and tank components possess decreased cost and increased energy density and efficiency. Yet, the issues of Zn dendrites and shuttle effect of polybromide ions (Brn-) are more serious in nonflow ZBBs. Meanwhile, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the sluggish kinetics of the Br2/Br- couple are also in-negligible. Herein, a compressive approach, the cation-exchange membrane (CEM) coating on Zn anodes and N-defect decoration toward carbon felt cathodes, is developed. The CEM with cation-only function can inhibit the formation of Zn dendrites via tuning the Zn2+ flow at the interface, block the noncationic substances, and hence prevent the shuttle of Br2/Brn- and the water decomposition-concerned HER. The optimized nonflow ZBBs can deliver high Coulombic, voltage, and energy efficiencies of 94.1, 92.8, and 87.4%, respectively, which can be well remained in 1000 cycles. Meanwhile, the output voltage is as high as 1.7 V at 10 mA cm-2 with a high areal capacity of 2 mA h cm-2, and a LED with a rated voltage of 1.6 V can be powered successfully, exhibiting high application value.

The F-box protein ZmFBL41 negatively regulates disease resistance to Rhizoctonia solani by degrading the abscisic acid synthase ZmNCED6 in maize.

KEY MESSAGE: The maize F-box protein ZmFBL41 targets abscisic acid synthase 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase 6 for degradation, and this regulatory module is exploited by Rhizoctonia solani to promote infection. F-box proteins are crucial regulators of plant growth, development, and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Previous research identified the F-box gene ZmFBL41 as a negative regulator of maize (Zea mays) defenses against Rhizoctonia solani. However, the precise mechanisms by which F-box proteins mediate resistance to R. solani remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that ZmFBL41 interacts with an abscisic acid (ABA) synthase, 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase 6 (ZmNCED6), promoting its degradation via the ubiquitination pathway. We discovered that the ectopic overexpression of ZmNCED6 in rice (Oryza sativa) inhibited R. solani infection by activating stomatal closure, callose deposition, and jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis, indicating that ZmNCED6 enhances plant immunity against R. solani. Natural variation at ZmFBL41 across different maize haplotypes did not affect the ZmFBL41-ZmNCED6 interaction. These findings suggest that ZmFBL41 targets ZmNCED6 for degradation, leading to a decrease in ABA levels in maize, in turn, inhibiting ABA-mediated disease resistance pathways, such as stomatal closure, callose deposition, and JA biosynthesis, ultimately facilitating R. solani infection.

Novel bidentate N-coordinated alkylaluminum complexes: synthesis, characterization, and efficient catalysis for hydrophosphonylation.

Five new alkylaluminum complexes with different pyridinyl-substituted imines or cyclohexyl-substituted imines were synthesized and characterized successfully. The aluminum complex [FlCHNCH(CH3)Py]AlMe2(Py = 2-pyridyl) (1) was obtained by reacting 9-[2-pyridyl-CH(CH3)-NCH]Fl (Fl = fluorenyl) (L1) and equimolar AlMe3. The reactions of 9-(2-pyridyl-NCH)Fl (L2) and 9-[2-N(CH3)2-cyclohexyl-NCH]Fl (L3) with equimolar AlMe3 or AlEt3 afforded other alkylaluminum complexes [FlCHNPy]AlMe2(Py = 2-pyridyl) (2), [FlCHNPy]AlEt2 (Py = 2-pyridyl) (3), [FlCHNCyN(CH3)2]AlMe2 (Cy = 2-cyclohexyl) (4) and [FlCHNCyN(CH3)2]AlEt2 (Cy = 2-cyclohexyl) (5). All these complexes (1-5) were characterized using NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray crystal structure analysis. The catalytic properties of these new alkylaluminum complexes for the hydrophosphonylation of aldimines were examined. Complex 5 showed the best catalytic performance under mild reaction conditions with a low catalyst loading (1 mol%), and 20 different substituents of aldimines were isolated with more than 90% yields.

A novel lysosomal targeted near-infrared probe for ratio detection of carbon monoxide in cells and in vivo.

Carbon monoxide (CO) as an endogenous gas signaling molecule possesses important physiological functions and is of great significance in the treatment of various diseases. Real-time tracking of CO in living organisms has become a research hotspot in recent years. This article presents a lysosomal targeted near-infrared ratio fluorescence probe (TBM-CO) for selective detection of CO based on the dicyanoisophorone skeleton and morpholine fragment. The probe TBM-CO with weak ICT effect can be transformed to precursor TBM-NH2 with strong ICT effect by the traditional Tsuji-Trost reaction procession in the presence of Pd2+ ions. The mechanism was proved by DFT calculation or the MS and HPLC results respectively. In the near-infrared region an obvious ratio fluorescence intensity change (F686 / F616) is observed in vitro spectral experiments. The concentration titration experiments indicate that there is a good liner relationship between the ratio fluorescence intensity and the concentration in the range of 0 to 50 µM (R2 = 0.996) and the detection limit is calculated as 0.38 µM. The cell fluorescence imaging and co-localization experiments further demonstrate that TBM-CO is able to detect the exogenous and endogenous CO in lysosomal subcellular organelle. Finally, it was used to detect the changes of CO concentration in living mice successfully. In short, a probe with three advantages of near-infrared emission, ratiometric fluorescence and organelle targeting was reported and used to detect CO successfully in cells and in living mice.

Palladium-Based Dyotropic Rearrangement Enables A Triple Functionalization of Gem-Disubstituted Alkenes: An Unusual Fluorolactonization Reaction.

We report in this paper a Pd(II)-catalyzed migratory gem-fluorolactonization of ene-carboxylic acids. Reaction of 4-methylenealkanoic acid derivatives with Selectfluor in the presence of Pd(OAc)2 (1.0 mol %) at room temperature affords fluorolactones in good to excellent yields. 2-(2-Methylenecycloalkanyl)acetic acids are transformed to bridged fluorolactones under identical conditions. One C-C, one C-O and one tertiary C-F bond were generated along the gem-disubstituted carbon-carbon double bond in this operationally simple transformation. Trapping experiments indicates that the reaction is initiated by a 5-exo-trig oxypalladation followed by Pd oxidation, regioselective ring-enlarging 1,2-alkyl/Pd(IV) dyotropic rearrangement and C-F bond forming reductive elimination cascade. Post-transformations of these fluorolactones taking advantage of the electrophilicity of the 1-fluoroalkylcarboxylate function are also documented.

Enantioselective Rh(I)-Catalyzed C-H Arylation of Ferroceneformaldehydes.

As an important class of platform molecules, planar chiral ferrocene carbonyl compounds could be transformed into various functional groups offering facile synthesis of chiral ligands and catalysts. However, developing efficient and straightforward methods for accessing enantiopure planar chiral ferrocene carbonyl compounds, especially ferroceneformaldehydes, remains highly challenging. Herein, we report a rhodium(I)/phosphoramidite-catalyzed enantioselective C-H bond arylation of ferroceneformaldehydes. Readily available aryl halides such as aryl iodides, aryl bromides, and even aryl chlorides are suitable coupling partners in this transformation, leading to a series of planar chiral ferroceneformaldehydes in good yields and excellent enantioselectivity (up to 83% yield and >99% ee). The aldehyde group could be transformed into diverse functional groups smoothly, and enantiopure Ugi's amine and PPFA analogues could be synthesized efficiently. The latter was found to be a highly efficient ligand in Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation reactions. Mechanistic experiments supported the formation of imine intermediates as the key step during the reaction.

Network meta-analysis on efficacy and safety of different biologics for ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic options for ulcerative colitis (UC) have increased since the introduction of biologics a few decades ago. Due to the wide range of biologics available, physicians have difficulty in selecting biologics and do not know how to balance the best drug between clinical efficacy and safety. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of biologics in treating ulcerative colitis. METHODS: In this study, eight electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, Sinomed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chongqing VIP Information, and WanFang Data) were searched to collect eligible studies without language restrictions. Retrieved 1 June 2023, from inception. All articles included in the mesh analysis are randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The inclusion of drugs for each outcome was ranked using a curved surface under cumulative ranking (SUCRA). Higher SUCRA scores were associated with better outcomes, whereas lower SUCRA scores were associated with better safety. This study has registered with PROSPERO, CRD42023389483. RESULTS: Induction Therapy: Among the biologic therapies evaluated for induction therapy, vedolizumab demonstrated the highest efficacy in achieving clinical remission (OR vs daclizumab, 9.09; 95% CI, 1.01-81.61; SUCRA 94.1) and clinical response. Guselkumab showed the lowest risk of recurrence of UC (SUCRA 94.9%), adverse events resulting in treatment discontinuation (SUCRA 94.8%), and serious infections (SUCRA 78.0%). Maintenance Therapy: For maintenance therapy, vedolizumab ranked highest in maintaining clinical remission (OR vs mesalazine 4.36; 95% CI, 1.65-11.49; SUCRA 89.7) and endoscopic improvement (SUCRA 92.6). Infliximab demonstrated the highest efficacy in endoscopic improvement (SUCRA 92.6%). Ustekinumab had the lowest risk of infections (SUCRA 92.9%), serious adverse events (SUCRA 91.3%), and serious infections (SUCRA 67.6%). CONCLUSION: Our network meta-analysis suggests that vedolizumab is the most effective biologic therapy for inducing and maintaining clinical remission in UC patients. Guselkumab shows promise in reducing the risk of recurrence and adverse events during induction therapy. Infliximab is effective in improving endoscopic outcomes during maintenance therapy. Ustekinumab appears to have a favorable safety profile. These findings provide valuable insights for clinicians in selecting the most appropriate biologic therapy for UC patients.

Network-Pharmacology-Based Study on Active Phytochemicals and Molecular Mechanism of Cnidii Fructus in Treating Colorectal Cancer.

AIMS: Cnidii Fructus (CF) is known for its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antitumor properties, as well as its activities against kidney deficiency and impotence. In this study, we aimed to explore the anti-CRC cancer effect and molecular mechanism of CF via network pharmacology and in vitro antitumor experiments. METHODS: Network pharmacology was used to investigate the anti-CRC mechanism of CF. First, a series of databases was used to screen the active phytochemical targets and anti-CRC core targets. Then, the GO and KEGG pathways were analyzed to predict possible mechanisms. Molecular docking analysis explore core targets-phytochemicals interactions. In vitro antitumor experiments were carried on verifying anti-CRC mechanism of CF. RESULTS: In this study, 20 active ingredient targets and 50 intersecting targets were analyzed by Cytoscape software 3.9.1 to obtain the core genes and phytochemicals. Then, the GO and KEGG pathways of 50 intersecting targets were analyzed to predict possible mechanisms. The results from GO and KEGG indicated that CF has significant antitumor efficacy, which involves many signaling pathways, such as PI3K/AKT and p53. The five core targets and five core phytochemicals were screened for molecular docking to show protein-ligand interactions. According to the results of molecular docking, the compound O-acetylcolumbianetin was selected for the anti- CRC functional verification in vitro. MTT assay showed that O-acetylcolumbianetin significantly inhibited the proliferation of colorectal HCT116 cells in a time- and quantity-dependent manner. O-acetylcolumbianetin can promote the expression of CASP3 protein, induce HCT116 cells apoptosis, thus exert anti-CRC effect. CONCLUSION: This study preliminarily verified the anti-CRC effect and molecular mechanism of CF and provided a reference for Traditional Chinese Medicine anti-tumor subsequent research.

Construction of Cation-Sieving Function Layers Enabling Dendrite-Free Zinc Metal Anodes for Durable Aqueous Systems.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries are considered as promising candidates for safe and green energy storage. Yet, Zn anodes still suffer from serious challenges. Herein, an effective cation-sieve of polyethersulfone-modified sulfonated polyether ether ketone is developed as protective coating layer of the Zn anodes. Cation-only transmission and dense property of the layer can protect the Zn from active water and anions, inhibiting corrosion, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and passivation. Zincophilic property of the layer can homogenize Zn2+ flow, and promote uniform plating of Zn. Therefore, protected symmetric Zn||Zn cell can maintain as long as 5600 h with a low polarization at 1.0 mA cm-2 and 0.5 mAh cm-2 , and still long as 800 h at 5.0 mA cm-2 and 5.0 mAh cm-2 . It is found that not only the dendrites but also the popular existed passivation product of Zn4 SO4 (OH)6 ·5H2 O can be inhibited effectively. In asymmetric Zn||Ti cells, average Coulombic efficiency can reach 98.2%, suggesting corrosion and HER are restrained effectively. Matched with MnO2 cathode, full cells using coated Zn exhibit much better cycling performance than that using bare Zn. Moreover, Zn4 O3 (SO4 )·7H2 O (ZSH)-assisted reversible conversion mechanism between the ZSH and Znx Hy MnO2 is revealed through operando Raman.

GTR: An SQL Generator With Transition Representation in Cross-Domain Database Systems.

Recent studies have focused on using natural language (NL) to automatically retrieve useful data from database (DB) systems. As an important component of autonomous DB systems, the NL-to-SQL technique can assist DB administrators in writing high-quality SQL statements and make persons with no SQL background knowledge learn complex SQL languages. However, existing studies cannot deal with the issue that the expression of NL inevitably mismatches the implementation details of SQLs, and the large number of out-of-domain (OOD) words makes it difficult to predict table columns. In particular, it is difficult to accurately convert NL into SQL in an end-to-end fashion. Intuitively, it facilitates the model to understand the relations if a "bridge" transition representation (TR) is employed to make it compatible with both NL and SQL in the phase of conversion. In this article, we propose an automatic SQL generator with TR called GTR in cross-domain DB systems. Specifically, GTR contains three SQL generation steps: 1) GTR learns the relation between questions and DB schemas; 2) GTR uses a grammar-based model to synthesize a TR; and 3) GTR predicts SQL from TR based on the rules. We conduct extensive experiments on two commonly used datasets, that is, WikiSQL and Spider. On the testing set of the Spider and WikiSQL datasets, the results show that GTR achieves 58.32% and 71.29% exact matching accuracy which outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, respectively.

Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric C-H Functionalization Reactions.

This review summarizes the advancements in rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric C-H functionalization reactions during the last two decades. Parallel to the rapidly developed palladium catalysis, rhodium catalysis has attracted extensive attention because of its unique reactivity and selectivity in asymmetric C-H functionalization reactions. In recent years, Rh-catalyzed asymmetric C-H functionalization reactions have been significantly developed in many respects, including catalyst design, reaction development, mechanistic investigation, and application in the synthesis of complex functional molecules. This review presents an explicit outline of catalysts and ligands, mechanism, the scope of coupling reagents, and applications.

Autophagy promotes jasmonate-mediated defense against nematodes.

Autophagy, as an intracellular degradation system, plays a critical role in plant immunity. However, the involvement of autophagy in the plant immune system and its function in plant nematode resistance are largely unknown. Here, we show that root-knot nematode (RKN; Meloidogyne incognita) infection induces autophagy in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and different atg mutants exhibit high sensitivity to RKNs. The jasmonate (JA) signaling negative regulators JASMONATE-ASSOCIATED MYC2-LIKE 1 (JAM1), JAM2 and JAM3 interact with ATG8s via an ATG8-interacting motif (AIM), and JAM1 is degraded by autophagy during RKN infection. JAM1 impairs the formation of a transcriptional activation complex between ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR 1 (ERF1) and MEDIATOR 25 (MED25) and interferes with transcriptional regulation of JA-mediated defense-related genes by ERF1. Furthermore, ERF1 acts in a positive feedback loop and regulates autophagy activity by transcriptionally activating ATG expression in response to RKN infection. Therefore, autophagy promotes JA-mediated defense against RKNs via forming a positive feedback circuit in the degradation of JAMs and transcriptional activation by ERF1.

Automatic recognition of schizophrenia from brain-network features using graph convolutional neural network.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that imposes considerable economic burden on families and society. However, its clinical diagnosis primarily relies on scales and doctors' clinical experience and lacks an objective and accurate diagnostic approach. In recent years, graph convolutional neural networks (GCN) have been used to assist in psychiatric diagnosis owing to their ability to learn spatial-association information. Therefore, this study proposes a schizophrenia automatic recognition model based on graph convolutional neural network. Herein, the resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) data of 103 first-episode schizophrenia patients and 92 normal controls (NCs) were obtained. The automatic recognition model was trained with a nodal feature matrix that comprised the time and frequency-domain features of the EEG signals and local features of the brain network. The most significant regions that contributed to the model classification were identified, and the correlation between the node topological features of each significant region and clinical evaluation metrics was explored. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the model using 10-fold cross-validation. The best performance in the theta frequency band with a 6 s epoch length and phase-locked value. The recognition accuracy was 90.01%. The most significant region for identifying with first-episode schizophrenia patients and NCs was located in the parietal lobe. The results of this study verify the applicability of the proposed novel method for the identification and diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Molecular simulations of sliding on SDS surfactant films.

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the frictional response of monolayers of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate and hemicylindrical aggregates physisorbed on gold. Our simulations of a sliding spherical asperity reveal the following two friction regimes: at low loads, the films show Amonton's friction with a friction force that rises linearly with normal load, and at high loads, the friction force is independent of the load as long as no direct solid-solid contact occurs. The transition between these two regimes happens when a single molecular layer is confined in the gap between the sliding bodies. The friction force at high loads on a monolayer rises monotonically with film density and drops slightly with the transition to hemicylindrical aggregates. This monotonous increase of friction force is compatible with a traditional plowing model of sliding friction. At low loads, the friction coefficient reaches a minimum at the intermediate surface concentrations. We attribute this behavior to a competition between adhesive forces, repulsion of the compressed film, and the onset of plowing.

The RUBY reporter enables efficient haploid identification in maize and tomato.

In vivo haploid induction has been extended from maize to monocotyledonous plants like rice, wheat, millet and dicotyledonous plants such as tomato, rapeseed, tobacco and cabbage. Accurate identification of haploids is a crucial step of doubled haploid technology, where a useful identification marker is very pivotal. R1-nj is an extensively used visual marker for haploid identification in maize. RFP and eGFP have been shown to be feasible in identifying haploid. However, these methods are either limited to specific species, or require specific equipment. It still lacks an efficient visual marker that is practical across different crop species. In this study, we introduced the RUBY reporter, a betalain biosynthesis system, into maize and tomato haploid inducers as a new marker for haploid identification. Results showed that expression of RUBY could result in deep betalain pigmentation in maize embryos as early as 10 days after pollination, and enabled 100% accuracy of immature haploid embryo identification. Further investigation in tomato revealed that the new marker led to deep red pigmentation in radicles and haploids can be identified easily and accurately. The results demonstrated that the RUBY reporter is a background-independent and efficient marker for haploid identification and would be promising in doubled haploid breeding across different crop species.