Globe-LFMC 2.0, an enhanced and updated dataset for live fuel moisture content research.

Globe-LFMC 2.0, an updated version of Globe-LFMC, is a comprehensive dataset of over 280,000 Live Fuel Moisture Content (LFMC) measurements. These measurements were gathered through field campaigns conducted in 15 countries spanning 47 years. In contrast to its prior version, Globe-LFMC 2.0 incorporates over 120,000 additional data entries, introduces more than 800 new sampling sites, and comprises LFMC values obtained from samples collected until the calendar year 2023. Each entry within the dataset provides essential information, including date, geographical coordinates, plant species, functional type, and, where available, topographical details. Moreover, the dataset encompasses insights into the sampling and weighing procedures, as well as information about land cover type and meteorological conditions at the time and location of each sampling event. Globe-LFMC 2.0 can facilitate advanced LFMC research, supporting studies on wildfire behaviour, physiological traits, ecological dynamics, and land surface modelling, whether remote sensing-based or otherwise. This dataset represents a valuable resource for researchers exploring the diverse LFMC aspects, contributing to the broader field of environmental and ecological research.

Trends and drivers of Arctic-boreal fire intensity between 2003 and 2022.

Climate change has disproportional effects on Arctic-boreal ecosystems, as the increase of air temperatures in these northern regions is several times higher than the global average. Ongoing warming and drying have resulted in recent record-breaking fire years in Arctic-boreal ecosystems, resulting in substantial carbon emissions that might accelerate climate change. While recent trends in Arctic-boreal burned area have been well documented, it is still unclear how fire intensity has changed. Fire intensity relates to the energy release from combustion and to a large extent drives the impact of a fire on the vegetation and soils, the emission of various gasses and the combustion completeness of different fuels. Here, we used the active fire product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to examine trends in fire radiative power (FRP) over the entire Arctic-boreal region. We found a significant increase in annual median fire intensity between 2003 and 2022 in Eurasian boreal forests, for both daytime (increase of 0.392 MW/km2 per year, R2 = 0.56, p < 0.001) and nighttime fires (increase of 0.175 MW/km2 per year, R2 = 0.47, p < 0.001), while no general trend in FRP was observed in boreal North America. This increase in FRP in Eurasian boreal forests was strongly associated with simultaneous increases in air temperature, vapour pressure deficit, fire weather and fuel availability. We estimated that for Eurasia with each degree increase in air temperature, annual median daytime FRP increases with 1.58 MW/km2 in the tundra and 0.94 MW/km2 in the taiga. Climate change has thus resulted in a widespread and clear increase in fire intensity in central and eastern Eurasia while we could not discern clear trends in Arctic-boreal North America. Arctic-boreal fire intensity may further increase with climate change, with potentially major consequences for fire regimes, carbon emissions and society.

Dynamic-Bond-Mediated Chain Reptation Enhances Energy Dissipation of Elastomers.

Vibrations with various frequencies in daily life and industry can cause health hazards and fatigue failure of critical structures, which requires the development of elastomers with high energy dissipation at desired frequencies. Current strategies relying on tuning characteristic relaxation time of polymer chains are mostly qualitative empirical methods, and it is difficult to precisely control damping performances. Here, we report a general strategy for constructing dynamic crosslinked polymer fluid gels that provide controllable ultrahigh energy dissipation. This is realized by dynamic-bond-mediated chain reptation of polymer fluids in a crosslinked network, where the characteristic time of chain reptation is dominated by the presence of well-defined dissociation time of dynamic bonds and almost independent of their molar mass. Using prototypical supramolecular polydimethylsiloxane elastomers, we demonstrate that dynamic crosslinked polymer fluid gels exhibit a controllable ultrahigh damping performance at desired frequencies (10-2~102 Hz), exceeding that of typical state-of-the-art silicone damping materials. Their shock absorption is over 300 % higher than that of commercial silicone rubber under the same impact force.

Multiply restimulated human cord blood-derived Tregs maintain stabilized phenotype and suppressive function and predict their therapeutic effects on autoimmune diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are involved in the maintenance of immune homeostasis and immune regulation. Clinical trials on the adoptive transfer of Tregs have been ongoing for > 10 years. However, many unresolved issues remain in the production of readymade Treg products and selection of patients. Hence, this study aimed to develop a method to expand off-the-shelf Tregs derived from umbilical cord blood (UCB-Tregs) in vitro without changing their phenotype and inhibitory function. In addition, the study intended to design an approach to precisely select patients who are more likely to benefit from the adoptive Treg transfer therapy. METHODS: UCB-Tregs were isolated and cultured in a medium containing human recombinant IL-2 and rapamycin and then multiply restimulated with human T-activator CD3/CD28 dynabeads. The phenotype and suppressive capacity of Tregs were assessed on days 18 and 42. The relationship between the suppressive function of UCB-Tregs in vitro and clinical indicators was analyzed, and the ability of the in vitro suppressive capacity to predict the in vivo therapeutic effects was evaluated. RESULTS: UCB-Tregs expanded 123-fold and 5,981-fold at 18 and 42 days, respectively. The suppressive function of UCB-Tregs on the proliferation of immune cells at 42 days was not significantly different compared with that of UCB-Tregs obtained at 18 days. The suppression rate of UCB-Tregs to PBMCs was negatively correlated with the course of diabetes. Moreover, the high-suppression group exhibited a better treatment response than the low-suppression group during the 12-month follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Multiply restimulated UCB-Tregs expanded at a large scale without any alterations in their classical phenotypic features and inhibitory functions. The suppressive function of Tregs in vitro was negatively correlated with the disease duration. The present study revealed the possibility of predicting the in vivo therapeutic effects via the in vitro inhibition assay. Thus, these findings provided a method to obtain off-the-shelf Treg products and facilitated the selection of patients who are likely to respond to the treatment, thereby moving toward the goal of precision treatment.

Decision model for binary safety management behavior in a supply chain under digital scenarios: A study based on differential game theory.

The purpose of this study is to expand and deepen research in the field of safety production, explore the role of enterprises as decision-making entities in safety production, analyze the role of different types of decision-making behaviors in the process of enterprise safety production, and provide certain theoretical guidance for multi-agent decision-making in safety production. By summarizing and comparing the existing dual system of supply chain safety management, this study proposes dividing supply chain safety management into the two categories of safety organization and safety research and development (safety R&D) in the context of digitalization. Differential equations are established to describe a two-level supply chain safety management problem including manufacturers and suppliers. The research results show that, compared with the Nash equilibrium, when there are strong manufacturers involved in safety management cooperation, the manufacturer's safety R&D subsidy to suppliers improves the total revenue of the supply chain. When the manufacturer's safety organization supervision efficiency is high, the Stackelberg equilibrium is lower. It is a Pareto improvement for the manufacturer to supervise the supplier's safety organization to the Nash equilibrium. In the case of dual safety cooperation in the supply chain, when there are strong manufacturers, R&D subsidies have a crowding out effect on the safety organization cooperation. Finally, based on the example analysis, relevant suggestions are put forward for supply chain safety management.

Estimation of potential wildfire behavior characteristics to assess wildfire danger in southwest China using deep learning schemes.

Accurate estimation of potential wildfire behavior characteristics (PWBC) can improve wildfire danger assessment. However, wildfire behavior has been estimated by most fire spread models with immeasurable uncertainties and difficulties in large-scale applications. In this study, a PWBC estimation model (named PWBC-QR-BiLSTM) was proposed by coupling the Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) and quantile regression (QR) methods. Multi-source data, including fuel, weather, topography, infrastructure, and landscape variables, were input into the PWBC-QR-BiLSTM model to estimate the potential rate of spread (ROS) and fire radiative power (FRP) over western Sichuan of China, and then to estimate the probability density of ROS and FRP. Daily ROS and FRP were extracted from the Global Fire Atlas and the MOD14A1/MYD14A1 product. The optimal PWBC-QR-BiLSTM model was determined using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm Ⅱ (NAGA-Ⅱ). Results showed that the PWBC-QR-BiLSTM performed well in estimating potential ROS and FRP with high accuracy (ROS: R2 > 0.7 and MAPE<30%, FRP: R2 > 0.8 and MAPE<25%). The modal PWBC values extracted from the estimated probability density were closer to the observed values, which can be regarded as a good indicator for wildfire danger assessment. The variable importance analysis also verified that fuel and infrastructure variables played an important role in driving wildfire behavior. This study suggests the potential of utilizing artificial intelligence to estimate PWBC and its probability density to improve the guidance on wildfire management.

Molecular mechanism of antihistamines recognition and regulation of the histamine H1 receptor.

Histamine receptors are a group of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that play important roles in various physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Antihistamines that target the histamine H1 receptor (H1R) have been widely used to relieve the symptoms of allergy and inflammation. Here, to uncover the details of the regulation of H1R by the known second-generation antihistamines, thereby providing clues for the rational design of newer antihistamines, we determine the cryo-EM structure of H1R in the apo form and bound to different antihistamines. In addition to the deep hydrophobic cavity, we identify a secondary ligand-binding site in H1R, which potentially may support the introduction of new derivative groups to generate newer antihistamines. Furthermore, these structures show that antihistamines exert inverse regulation by utilizing a shared phenyl group that inserts into the deep cavity and block the movement of the toggle switch residue W4286.48. Together, these results enrich our understanding of GPCR modulation and facilitate the structure-based design of novel antihistamines.

A method for structure determination of GPCRs in various states.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a class of integral membrane proteins that detect environmental cues and trigger cellular responses. Deciphering the functional states of GPCRs induced by various ligands has been one of the primary goals in the field. Here we developed an effective universal method for GPCR cryo-electron microscopy structure determination without the need to prepare GPCR-signaling protein complexes. Using this method, we successfully solved the structures of the ß2-adrenergic receptor (ß2AR) bound to antagonistic and agonistic ligands and the adhesion GPCR ADGRL3 in the apo state. For ß2AR, an intermediate state stabilized by the partial agonist was captured. For ADGRL3, the structure revealed that inactive ADGRL3 adopts a compact fold and that large unusual conformational changes on both the extracellular and intracellular sides are required for activation of adhesion GPCRs. We anticipate that this method will open a new avenue for understanding GPCR structure‒function relationships and drug development.

Glycaemia risk index uncovers distinct glycaemic variability patterns associated with remission status in type 1 diabetes.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this work was to define a unique remission status using glycaemia risk index (GRI) and other continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) metrics in individuals with type 1 diabetes for improved phenotyping. METHODS: A group of 140 individuals with type 1 diabetes were recruited for a cross-sectional study. The participants were categorised into four groups based on their remission status, which was defined as insulin-dose-adjusted A1c (IDAA1c) <9 or C-peptide ≥300 pmol/l: new-onset (n=24); mid-remission (n=44); post-remission (n=44); and non-remission (individuals who did not experience remission, n=28). Participants in the remission phase were referred to as 'remitters', while those who were not in the remission phase were referred to as 'non-remitters', the latter group including new-onset, post-remission and non-remission participants. Clinical variables such as HbA1c, C-peptide and insulin daily dose, as well as IDAA1C and CGM data, were collected. The patterns of CGM metrics were analysed for each group using generalised estimating equations to investigate the glycaemic variability patterns associated with remission status. Then, unsupervised hierarchical clustering was used to place the participants into subgroups based on GRI and other CGM core metrics. RESULTS: The glycaemic variability patterns associated with remission status were found to be distinct based on the circadian CGM metrics. Remitters showed improved control of blood glucose levels over 14 days within the range of 3.9-10 mmol/l, and lower GRI compared with non-remitters (p<0.001). Moreover, GRI strongly correlated with IDAA1C (r=0.62; p<0.001) and was sufficient to distinguish remitters from non-remitters. Further, four subgroups demonstrating distinct patterns of glycaemic variability associated with different remission status were identified by clustering on CGM metrics: remitters with low risk of dysglycaemia; non-remitters with high risk of hypoglycaemia; non-remitters with high risk of hyperglycaemia; and non-remitters with moderate risk of dysglycaemia. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: GRI, an integrative index, together with other traditional CGM metrics, helps to identify different glycaemic variability patterns; this might provide specifically tailored monitoring and management strategies for individuals in the various subclusters.

Influence of Different Ratios of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus on Fermentation Characteristics of Yogurt.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are industrially important bacteria that are widely used in the fermented food industry, especially in the manufacture of yogurt. The fermentation characteristics of LAB are an important factor affecting the physicochemical properties of yogurts. Here, different ratios of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus IMAU20312 and S. thermophilus IMAU80809 were compared with a commercial starter JD (control) for their effects on viable cell counts, pH values, titratable acidity (TA), viscosity and water holding capacity (WHC) of milk during fermentation. Sensory evaluation and flavour profiles were also determined at the end of fermentation. All samples had a viable cell count above 5.59 × 107 CFU/mL at the end of fermentation, and a significant increase in TA and decrease in pH were observed. Viscosity, WHC and the sensory evaluation results of one treatment ratio (A3) were closer to the commercial starter control than the others. A total of 63 volatile flavour compounds and 10 odour-active (OAVs) compounds were detected in all treatment ratios and the control according to the results from solid-phase micro-extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Principal components analysis (PCA) also indicated that the flavour characteristics of the A3 treatment ratio were closer to the control. These results help us understand how the fermentation characteristics of yogurts are affected by the ratio of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus to S. thermophilus in starter cultures; this is useful for the development of value-added fermented dairy products.

Investigating the effect of history of fractures and hypertension on the risk of all-cause death from osteoporosis: A retrospective cohort study.

To assess the coexistence effect between history of fractures and hypertension on the all-cause death risk of osteoporosis. In this retrospective cohort study, some characteristics of osteoporosis patients aged ≥ 20 years were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database (2005-2010, 2013-2014), such as age, gender, smoking, drinking, the history of diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, fractures and hypertension. The outcome of this study was defined as all-cause death of osteoporosis. These patients were followed up until 2015 with an average follow-up time of 62.00 ± 34.79 months. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was utilized to evaluate the association of history of fractures and hypertension on all-cause death risk of osteoporosis, respectively. The death risk factors were presented by using relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The attributable proportion (AP) to explore the interaction between history of fractures and hypertension on the all-cause death risk of osteoporosis. Of the total 801 osteoporosis patients, 227 died. After adjusting age, gender, marital status, education background, annual household income, diabetes, the prior use of prednisone or cortisone medication, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, the history of fractures (RR = 1.502, 95% CI: 1.035-2.180), spine fracture (RR = 2.944, 95% CI: 1.244-6.967), hip fracture (RR = 2.033, 95% CI: 1.066-3.875) was significantly associated with the increased death risk of osteoporosis. However, there was no significant difference between hypertension and the all-cause death risk of osteoporosis (P > .05). Additionally, there was a significant interaction between the history of fractures and hypertension on the all-cause death risk of osteoporosis, and the interaction was an enhancement effect (AP = 0.456, 95% CI: 0.005-0.906). The co-existence of the history of fractures and hypertension could increase the all-cause death risk of osteoporosis, which indicated that osteoporosis patients with the history of fractures should actively monitor blood pressure levels and prevent the occurrence of hypertension.

Removal of Al3+ and Mg2+ ions in wet-process phosphoric acid via the formation of aluminofluoride complexes.

With the decrease in the phosphate rock grade, the minor element ratios (MER) [(Fe2O3 wt% + Al2O3 wt% + MgO wt%)/P2O5 wt%] of wet-process phosphoric acid (WPA) exhibits a linear upward trend. This can lead to a huge challenge for the high-quality production of feed calcium phosphate salt (FCPS). In the present study, we proposed a novel and economical strategy to precipitate Al3+ and Mg2+ via the formation of aluminofluoride complexes (NaMgAlF6·H2O) with the anhydrous sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and hydrofluoric acid (HF) as precipitation agents. Because of the low solubility of the complexes in WPA, the removal efficiencies of Al3+ and Mg2+ ions could reach 99.5% and 64.8%, respectively. The maximum mass loss of P2O5 was less than 0.5%. The precipitates could be separated and converted into the HF and Na2SO4 for reuse, thus further decreasing the cost of WPA purification.

Fascia iliaca compartment block can reduce the incidence of early post-operative cognitive impairment in elderly patients with high-risk hip replacement.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to observe the effects of ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB) combined with hypobaric spinal anesthesia on post-operative pain and cognitive function in elderly patients with high-risk hip replacement. Methods: A total of 84 elderly patients-aged 65-85 years, with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status III-IV, and scheduled for hip arthroplasty between September 2021 and May 2022-were selected. One or more organs with moderate to severe impairment were included in all patients. The patients were randomly divided into a hypobaric spinal anesthesia group (group C, control group) and an ultrasound-guided FICB combined with hypobaric spinal anesthesia group (group E, experimental group). Group C was given 3.5 mL of 0.32% ropivacaine hypobaric spinal anesthesia, and group E received ultrasound-guided FICB combined with 3.5 mL of 0.32% ropivacaine hypobaric spinal anesthesia. The patients were compared using the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, Harris hip function score, and simple Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale. Blood ß-amyloid (Aß) and neuronal microtubule-associated protein (tau) levels were measured. We compared intraoperative conditions and post-operative complications between the two groups to assess the effects of FICB combined with hypobaric spinal anesthesia on post-operative pain and cognitive function in elderly patients with high-risk hip replacement. Results: At 1 and 3 days after the operation, patients in group C had significantly higher VAS and lower MMES scores than those in group E. The differences were statistically significant at 1 (P < 0.01) and 3 (P < 0.05) days after the operation. At 1 day after operation, the Harris score of patients in group C was significantly lower than that of patients in group E (P < 0.05). The Aß and tau levels of patients in group C were significantly higher than those of patients in group E at 1 day after the operation (P < 0.01). The Aß levels of patients in group C were significantly higher than those of patients in group E at 3 days after the operation (P < 0.05). The intraoperative conditions and post-operative complication rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. At 1 day before and 5 days after the operation, there was no difference in any of the indicators. Conclusion: By lowering pain and managing Aß and tau protein concentrations, FICB can successfully lower the incidence of early post-operative cognitive impairment in elderly patients with high-risk hip replacement. Clinical trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn, identifier: ChiCTR2100051162.

Stability analysis of Hadamard and Caputo-Hadamard fractional nonlinear systems without and with delay.

This paper handles with the Hadamard and the Caputo-Hadamard fractional derivative and stability of related systems without and with delay. Firstly, the derivative inequalities are obtained, which is indispensable in applying the theorems derived in this paper. Then, for systems without delay, we get the stability results by using the Lyapunov direct method and for systems with delay, we explore two useful inequalities to verify the stability. Examples are presented with numerical simulations to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.

Suprachoroidal injection of polyzwitterion hydrogel for treating glaucoma.

Glaucoma is the primary cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The current treatments are primarily based on drug usage or surgical operation to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP). However, it is expensive and requires patients to insist on taking the medicine for a long time. The suprachoroidal space (SCS) is the space between the choroid and the sclera, which forms part of the uveovortex pathway in the circulation of aqueous humor. So far, it is still challenging to realize the injection of hydrogels into the SCS with long-term duration. In this work, an in situ-forming polyzwitterionic polycarboxybetaine hydrogel is designed and injected to expand SCS to increase the drainage of aqueous humor from the eye via the uveovortex pathway, thus reducing IOP for at least 6 weeks, while commercial hyaluronic acid hydrogel can only last for about 4 weeks. The clinical ophthalmological safety assessment examination shows that the treatment of polyzwitterion hydrogel is well-tolerated that leads to minimal inflammatory reaction, and histopathology assessment demonstrates that the SCS is expanded after injection of the hydrogel. Further analysis of ultrasound biomicroscopy reveals that there is a strong correlation between IOP reduction and SCS expansion. In short, the polyzwitterion hydrogel developed in this work can prolong the period of IOP reduction by expanding SCS, thus treating ocular hypertension and glaucoma without resorting to drugs or regular surgery.

Magnetic Evaluation of Heat-Resistant Martensitic Steel Subjected to Microstructure Degradation.

The present paper investigates the use of the magnetic hysteresis loop technique to nondestructively evaluate microstructural degradation in heat-resistant martensitic (HRM) steels. The degradation impairs the safe operation of thermal power plants and it is thus essential to periodically assess it using nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. In this contribution, HRM steels are thermally aged up to 16,000 h at 675 °C to simulate the microstructural degradation, then the changes in the magnetic coercivity, hardness, and microstructure are systematically characterized and the relations between them are determined. Both coercivity and hardness decrease with thermal aging duration, which can be interpreted in terms of the microstructure parameters' evolution based on the pinning of crystal defects on domain walls and dislocations. Coercivity and hardness share the same softening trend with aging time, and good linear relations between coercivity, hardness, and microstructure parameters are found. These results provide a key to understanding the magnetic parameter evolution in HRM steels and suggest the possibility of using magnetic technologies for the NDE of microstructure degradation in thermal power plants.

Development of a Sensitive and Rapid HPLC-MS Method for Dihydrocodeine and Dihydromorphine: Application to Bioequivalence Studies.

A ultraperformance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed to determine dihydrocodeine (DHC) and dihydromorphine (DHM) in human plasma using dihydrocodeine-d6 and desomorphine as internal standards (IS). Acetonitrile-water-ammonium format was used as the mobile phase, in gradient elution on a C18 column. The concentration of DHC and DHM was determined in the positive ionization mode of mass spectrometry. The total chromatogram run time was 3.2 min, and the linear ranges of DHC and DHM were 1.000-400.0 ng/mL and 0.050-20.00 ng/mL, respectively. The method was fully validated concerning precision, accuracy, selectivity, linearity, recovery, stability and matrix effect. The method had been successfully applied to the bioequivalence test. In addition, we found that a high-fat diet impacts the Tmax and t1/2 of DHC.

3D printed biomimetic epithelium/stroma bilayer hydrogel implant for corneal regeneration.

Corneal regeneration has always been a challenge due to its sophisticated structure and undesirable keratocyte-fibroblast transformation. Herein, we propose 3D printing of a biomimetic epithelium/stroma bilayer implant for corneal regeneration. Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) and long-chain poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) are blended to form a two-component ink, which can be printed to different mechanically robust programmed PEGDA-GelMA objects by Digital Light Processing (DLP) printing technology, due to the toughening effect of crystalline crosslinks from long-chain PEGDA on GelMA hydrogel after photo-initiated copolymerization. The printed PEGDA-GelMA hydrogels support cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, meanwhile demonstrating a high light transmittance, and an appropriate swelling degree, nutrient permeation and degradation rate. A bi-layer dome-shaped corneal scaffold consisting of rabbit corneal epithelial cells (rCECs)-laden epithelia layer and rabbit adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rASCs)-laden orthogonally aligned fibrous stroma layer can be printed out with a high fidelity and robustly surgical handling ability. This bi-layer cells-laden corneal scaffold is applied in a rabbit keratoplasty model. The post-operative outcome reveals efficient sealing of corneal defects, re-epithelialization and stromal regeneration. The concerted effects of microstructure of 3D printed corneal scaffold and precisely located cells in epithelia and stroma layer provide an optimal topographical and biological microenvironment for corneal regeneration.