Disrupted cerebellar structural connectome in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 and its association with transcriptional profiles.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is primarily characterized by progressive cerebellar degeneration, including gray matter atrophy and disrupted anatomical and functional connectivity. The alterations of cerebellar white matter structural network in SCA3 and the underlying neurobiological mechanism remain unknown. Using a cohort of 20 patients with SCA3 and 20 healthy controls, we constructed cerebellar structural networks from diffusion MRI and investigated alterations of topological organization. Then, we mapped the alterations with transcriptome data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas to identify possible biological mechanisms for regional selective vulnerability to white matter damage. Compared with healthy controls, SCA3 patients exhibited reduced global and nodal efficiency, along with a widespread decrease in edge strength, particularly affecting edges connected to hub regions. The strength of inter-module connections was lower in SCA3 group and negatively correlated with the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia score, International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale score, and cytosine-adenine-guanine repeat number. Moreover, the transcriptome-connectome association study identified the expression of genes involved in synapse-related and metabolic biological processes. These findings suggest a mechanism of white matter vulnerability and a potential image biomarker for the disease severity, providing insights into neurodegeneration and pathogenesis in this disease.

Tunable and Non-Invasive Printing of Transmissive Interference Colors with 2D Material Inks.

Interference colors hold significant importance in optics and arts. Current methods for printing interference colors entail complex procedures and large-scale printing systems for the scarcity of inks that exhibit both sensitivity and tunability to external fields. The production of highly transparent inks capable of rendering transmissive colors has presented ongoing challenges. Here, a type of paramagnetic ink based on 2D materials that exhibit polychrome in one magnetic field is invented. By precisely manipulating the doping ratio of magnetic elements within titanate nanosheets, the magneto-optical sensitivity named Cotton-Mouton coefficient is engineerable from 728 to a record high value of 3272 m-1 T-2, with negligible influence on its intrinsic wide optical bandgap. Combined with the sensitive and controllable magneto-responsiveness of the ink, modulate and non-invasively print transmissive interference colors using small permanent magnets are precised. This work paves the way for preparing transmissive interference colors in an energy-saving and damage-free manner, which can expand its use in widespread areas.

DTI-HETA: prediction of drug-target interactions based on GCN and GAT on heterogeneous graph.

Drug-target interaction (DTI) prediction plays an important role in drug repositioning, drug discovery and drug design. However, due to the large size of the chemical and genomic spaces and the complex interactions between drugs and targets, experimental identification of DTIs is costly and time-consuming. In recent years, the emerging graph neural network (GNN) has been applied to DTI prediction because DTIs can be represented effectively using graphs. However, some of these methods are only based on homogeneous graphs, and some consist of two decoupled steps that cannot be trained jointly. To further explore GNN-based DTI prediction by integrating heterogeneous graph information, this study regards DTI prediction as a link prediction problem and proposes an end-to-end model based on HETerogeneous graph with Attention mechanism (DTI-HETA). In this model, a heterogeneous graph is first constructed based on the drug-drug and target-target similarity matrices and the DTI matrix. Then, the graph convolutional neural network is utilized to obtain the embedded representation of the drugs and targets. To highlight the contribution of different neighborhood nodes to the central node in aggregating the graph convolution information, a graph attention mechanism is introduced into the node embedding process. Afterward, an inner product decoder is applied to predict DTIs. To evaluate the performance of DTI-HETA, experiments are conducted on two datasets. The experimental results show that our model is superior to the state-of-the-art methods. Also, the identification of novel DTIs indicates that DTI-HETA can serve as a powerful tool for integrating heterogeneous graph information to predict DTIs.

Removal of nitrate by FeSiBC metallic glasses: high efficiency and superior reusability.

The development of sustainable technologies for efficient nitrate removal has attracted increasing attention, because excessive nitrate emissions can result in serious environmental, economic, and health effects. Herein, we propose to utilize FeSiBC metallic glass (MG) powders as a potential solution for nitrate removal. In terms of removal efficiency and reusability, our results show that the MG powders, as special zero-valent iron carriers, are 2-3 orders of magnitude more efficient in nitrate removal than the previous studies, while maintaining more than 50% nitrate removal efficiency after 9 cycles of reaction. Moreover, the optimal FeSiBC MG dosage, pH value, and temperature for nitrate removal are determined. The mechanism of nitrate removal is also revealed. The present study offers a promising approach to remediate nitrate, one of the world's most widespread water pollutants.

Interdependence and the cost of uncoordinated responses to COVID-19.

Social distancing is the core policy response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). But, as federal, state and local governments begin opening businesses and relaxing shelter-in-place orders worldwide, we lack quantitative evidence on how policies in one region affect mobility and social distancing in other regions and the consequences of uncoordinated regional policies adopted in the presence of such spillovers. To investigate this concern, we combined daily, county-level data on shelter-in-place policies with movement data from over 27 million mobile devices, social network connections among over 220 million Facebook users, daily temperature and precipitation data from 62,000 weather stations, and county-level census data on population demographics to estimate the geographic and social network spillovers created by regional policies across the United States. Our analysis shows that the contact patterns of people in a given region are significantly influenced by the policies and behaviors of people in other, sometimes distant, regions. When just one-third of a state's social and geographic peer states adopt shelter-in-place policies, it creates a reduction in mobility equal to the state's own policy decisions. These spillovers are mediated by peer travel and distancing behaviors in those states. A simple analytical model calibrated with our empirical estimates demonstrated that the "loss from anarchy" in uncoordinated state policies is increasing in the number of noncooperating states and the size of social and geographic spillovers. These results suggest a substantial cost of uncoordinated government responses to COVID-19 when people, ideas, and media move across borders.

Repairing of rutin to the toxicity of combined F-53B and chromium pollution on the biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The wastewater discharge from the process of chrome plating, which contains 6:2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (F-53B) and chromium (Cr), may be toxic to biofilm. In this study we found that the biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 was inhibited by exposure to a combination of F-53B and Cr(VI). The combined pollution damaged the cell membranes and the structure of the biofilm, and inhibited the production of the Pseudomonas quinolone-based signal, which affected biofilm formation. Moreover, the secretion of extracellular polymeric substances decreased as a result of this combined exposure. Exposure to F-53B and Cr(VI) individually or in combination could induce the excessive accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the ROS positive rate of the bacteria increased under the treatment with 0.2 mmol/L of Cr(VI) and 250 nmol/L of F-53B, respectively. In addition, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were enhanced for scavenging ROS in the bacteria that were exposed to Cr(VI) and F-53B. As an antioxidant, rutin was used to repair the toxicity of Cr(VI) and F-53B towards the biofilm formed by the bacteria. When rutin was added to the bacteria medium, with either Cr(VI) or F-53B as pollutant, or with the combined pollutants, the extracellular protein content of the bacteria recovered to 0.84, 0.94, and 0.85 times that of the control, respectively. Meanwhile, the accumulation of ROS and the activities of SOD and CAT decreased, which indicated that the addition of rutin can alleviate the oxidative stress and promote the antioxidant stress system.

Metabolomics analysis of three Artemisia species in the Tibet autonomous region of China.

BACKGROUND: The Artemisia species are widely distributed around the world, and have found important usage in traditional medicinal practice. This study was designed to investigate the metabolites of Tibetan Artemisia species and understand the metabolic pathways. METHODS: The metabolites from three Artemisia species in Tibet, were analyzed using LC-MS/MS. The differential metabolites were classified and analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares analysis and hierarchical clustering. KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis was used to identify the key metabolic pathways involved in the differential metabolites of three Artemisia species. RESULT: The metabolites of three Artemisia species were analyzed. Under the positive ion mode in LC-MS/MS, 262 distinct metabolites were differentially detected from Artemisia sieversiana and Artemisia annua, 312 differential metabolites were detected from Artemisia wellbyi and Artemisia sieversiana, 306 differential metabolites were screened from Artemisia wellbyi and Artemisia annua. With the negative ion mode, 106 differential metabolites were identified from Artemisia sieversiana and Artemisia annua, 131 differential metabolites were identified from Artemisia wellbyi and Artemisia sieversiana,133 differential metabolites were differentially detected from Artemisia wellbyi and Artemisia annua. The selected differential metabolites were mainly organic acids and their derivatives, ketones, phenols, alcohols and coumarins. Among these natural compounds, artemisinin, has the highest relative content in Artemisia annua. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first reported attempt to comparatively determine the types of the metabolites of the three widely distributed Artemisia species in Tibet. The information should help medicinal research and facilitate comprehensive development and utilization of Artemisia species in Tibet.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of selenogefitinib for reducing bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

Selenium has demonstrated effectiveness in the reduction of oxidative stress and inflammation in vitro and in vivo, both of which are key indicators of the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Gefitinib, an FDA-approved EGFR inhibitor, effectively reverses the deterioration of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Based on this, we proposed introducing a selenium atom into the structure of gefitinib, resulting in the generation of selenogefitinib. Compared to gefitinib, selenogefitinib was significantly less hepatotoxic and cytotoxic in cells. The results of the H&E staining of lung tissue validated that Selenogefitinib effectively protected the structure of the alveolar tissue and mitigated the infiltration of inflammatory cells in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis models. The reduction in the deposition of collagen fibers in lung tissue determined by Masson staining and hydroxyproline (HYP) content also corroborated the efficacy of selenogefitinib in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, Selenogefitinib decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory markers IL-4, IL-6, and TNF-α more significantly than gefitinib, which indicated that it exhibited a higher anti-inflammatory activity. In addition, the presence of selenium manifested a greater reduction in oxidative stress based on the decrease in the levels of MDA in mice blood. These results suggested that Selenogefitinib may be a potential candidate for the treatment of IPF.

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of hydroxamic acid-substituted 2,4-diaryl aminopyrimidines as potent EGFRT790M/L858R inhibitors for the treatment of NSCLC.

A series of 2,4-diarylaminopyrimidine derivatives bearing hydrophilic hydroxamic acids were designed and synthesized as potent EGFRT790M/L858R inhibitors. Among the derivatives synthesized, 10c (IC50 = 5.192 nM), 10j (IC50 = 10.35 nM), and 10o (IC50 = 0.3524 nM) exhibited higher potencies against EGFRT790/M/L858R compared to the known EGFR inhibitor AZD-9291 (IC50 = 20.80 nM). Moreover, 10j showed moderate activity against H1975 cells transfected with the EGFRT790M/L858R mutant, with an IC50 of 0.2113 µM over A431 (wild-type EGFR, SI = 47.3). In addition, 10j exhibited low toxicity in normal HBE cells (human bronchial epithelial cells, IC50 > 40 µΜ). Analysis of the mode of action indicated that 10j effectively induced apoptosis in H1975 cells by arresting the cells in the G2/M phase. Compound 10j also demonstrated efficacy in inhibiting tumor growth in a H1975 xenograft mouse model without losing body weight or killing the mice. Taken together, these results suggested that 10j might be a promising candidate for development as a potential treatment for NSCLC harboring the EGFRT790M/L858R mutation.

Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention.

Across two studies with more than 1,700 U.S. adults recruited online, we present evidence that people share false claims about COVID-19 partly because they simply fail to think sufficiently about whether or not the content is accurate when deciding what to share. In Study 1, participants were far worse at discerning between true and false content when deciding what they would share on social media relative to when they were asked directly about accuracy. Furthermore, greater cognitive reflection and science knowledge were associated with stronger discernment. In Study 2, we found that a simple accuracy reminder at the beginning of the study (i.e., judging the accuracy of a non-COVID-19-related headline) nearly tripled the level of truth discernment in participants' subsequent sharing intentions. Our results, which mirror those found previously for political fake news, suggest that nudging people to think about accuracy is a simple way to improve choices about what to share on social media.

Method of reducing thermal-induced errors of a fiber optic gyroscope by adding additional winding layers.

Thermal-induced errors have a significant impact on the environmental adaptability of a fiber optic gyroscope (FOG). Reasonable winding methods can reduce and offset the thermal-induced errors. However, complex methods put higher requirements on winding accuracy. By adding additional winding layers on the outer surface of the fiber coil, an improved winding method to reduce the temperature error of FOG is proposed in this paper. Simulations in temperature-control conditions and time-varying temperature conditions are performed. Simulation and experimental results show that additional winding layers lead to a satisfactory reduction of thermal-induced rate errors. With parameter estimation and error compensation, thermal-induced errors can be further reduced.

New application of rutin: Repair the toxicity of emerging perfluoroalkyl substance to Pseudomonas stutzeri.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are toxic to microorganisms, thereby affecting microbial communities in sludge and soil, but how to repair the toxicity of microorganisms remains unclear. In this study, rutin, an antioxidant, was added into a culture medium with an aerobic denitrification bacteria, Pseudomonas stutzeri, under the exposure of sodium perfluorononyloxy-benzenesulfonate (OBS) to evaluate the repair mechanisms of rutin to the toxicity of OBS to the bacteria. The results showed that rutin could repair the damage of OBS to cell structures, and reduce the death rates of the bacteria under OBS exposure. The dosage of rutin reduced the effect on the inhibition of denitrification ability of P. stutzeri under OBS exposure. Compared with the bacteria exposed to single OBS, the dosage of rutin resulted in that the death rates recovered from 96.2% to 66.4%, the growth inhibition rate decreased from 46.5% to 15.8%, the total nitrogen removal rate recovered from 66.9% to 100%, and the NO2- content recovered from 34.5 mg/L to 0.22 mg/L. The expressions of key denitrification genes (napA, nirS, norB, nosZ) were recovered after adding rutin under OBS exposure. Rutin changed the positive rate of reactive oxygen species, the relative superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in the bacteria which exposed to OBS. The mechanism by which rutin repaired the toxicity of OBS to P. stutzeri related to inhibiting the activities of antioxidant and denitrification enzymes rather than affecting the expressions of genes involved in these enzymes. This study sheds light on the repair method of micro-organics and reveals the repair mechanisms under PFASs exposure.

Adaptive optical self-interference cancellation for in-band full-duplex systems using regular triangle algorithm.

In this paper, we propose an adaptive optical self-interference cancellation using regular triangle algorithm for in-band full-duplex systems. By using this algorithm, the manual adjustment of the tunable optical time delay line and attenuator is replaced with the adaptive program to change the delay and attenuation for achieving optimal cancellation point. The adjustment process is simplified as a convex function problem. We choose to attain the optimal cancellation point by directly and continuously sampling the power of the signal after cancellation and in turn adjust the time delay and attenuation according to the algorithm. In this way, the two paths in the self-interference cancellation system are precisely and automatically matched. By using our proposed algorithm, the interference signal over 300-MHz wideband is diminished to the noise floor, attaining 20-25 dB cancellation depth adaptively. Compared with other existing algorithms in both the experiment and simulation, our proposed regular triangle algorithm reaches the optimal point faster with 10-30% less number of samples from the near start region, and lowers 40-60% less number of samples from the farther start region.

Toxicity of perfluorooctane sulfonate on Phanerochaete chrysosporium: Growth, pollutant degradation and transcriptomics.

As a persistent organic pollutant listed in the Stockholm Convention, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is extremely refractory to degradation under ambient conditions. Its potential ecotoxicity has aroused great concerns and research interests. However, little is known about the toxicity of PFOS on fungus. In this study, the white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium (P. chrysosporium) was adopted to assess the toxicity of PFOS in liquid culture. The addition of 100 mg/L PFOS potassium salt significantly decreased the fungal biomass by up to 76.4% comparing with un-amended control during the incubation period. The hyphostroma of P. chrysosporium was wizened and its cell membrane was thickened, while its vesicle structure was increased, based on the observation with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Nevertheless, the PFOS dosage of below 100 mg/L did not show a considerable damage to the growth of P. chrysosporium. The degradation of malachite green (MG) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) by P. chrysosporium was negatively affected by PFOS. At the initial dosage of 100 mg/L PFOS, the decolorization efficiency of MG and the degradation efficiency of 2,4-DCP decreased by 37% and 20%, respectively. This might be attributed to the inhibition of PFOS on MnP and LiP activities. The activities of MnP and LiP decreased by 20.6% and 43.4%, respectively. At a high dosage PFOS (100 mg/L), P. chrysosporium could show a high adsorption of MG but lose its pollutant degradation ability. Transcriptome analysis indicated that PFOS contamination could lead to the change of gene expression in the studied white rot fungus, and the genes regulating membrane structure, cell redox process, and cell transport, synthesis and metabolism were impacted. Membrane damage and oxidative damage were the two main mechanisms of PFOS' toxicity to P. chrysosporium.

Performance analysis of an optical self-interference cancellation system with a directly modulated laser-based demonstration.

In this paper, two main performance indices of the optical self-interference cancellation (OSIC) system are theoretically analyzed: cancellation bandwidth and depth. Delay deviation is investigated to be the determining factor of cancellation bandwidth, based on which the bandwidth advantage of the OSIC system over electrical schemes is also proven theoretically. Cancellation depth in the narrowband is mostly influenced by attenuation and delay-adjusting deviation, while in the broadband case, the performance is mostly limited by frequency-dependent amplitude and phase mismatch. The cancellation performance analysis is suitable for most linear modulation-demodulation OSIC systems, including the directly modulated laser (DML)-based OSIC system verified experimentally in this paper. The cancellation model is well demonstrated by the agreement between experimental cancellation results and predicted performance. For over-the-air demonstration with the employment of antennas, broadband cancellation within 450 MHz bandwidth of 22 dB and 25 dB is achieved at 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz, respectively. In addition, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals are employed to show in-band full-duplex transmission with good performance by the DML-based OSIC system, with successful suppression of self-interference and recovery of the signal of interest.

Performance investigation of the polar coded FSO communication system over turbulence channel.

In this paper, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, polar codes are introduced and experimentally implemented in a free space optical (FSO) communication system to combat atmospheric turbulence induced fading. By analyzing the characteristics of the turbulence channel, a method of evaluating the channel state information for polar decoding is proposed that can achieve good trade-off between the performance and the computational complexity of this polar coded system. To verify our scheme, an intensity modulation direct detection FSO communication experimental platform with a turbulence chamber is established. For the weak turbulence condition, comparing with the low-density parity check codes, the experimental results show that our proposed scheme has stronger error correcting capacity and lower computational complexity in combating the turbulence induced fading. Moreover, for moderate and strong turbulence conditions, the gamma-gamma turbulence model is adopted for constructing the Monte Carlo simulation. The results of the experiment and simulation both show that our proposed scheme can effectively combat atmospheric turbulence induced fading with a relatively low computational complexity in a wide range of turbulence conditions.

High performance and cost effective CO-OFDM system aided by polar code.

A novel polar coded coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) system is proposed and demonstrated through experiment for the first time. The principle of a polar coded CO-OFDM signal is illustrated theoretically and the suitable polar decoding method is discussed. Results show that the polar coded CO-OFDM signal achieves a net coding gain (NCG) of more than 10 dB at bit error rate (BER) of 10-3 over 25-Gb/s 480-km transmission in comparison with conventional CO-OFDM. Also, compared to the 25-Gb/s low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded CO-OFDM 160-km system, the polar code provides a NCG of 0.88 dB @BER = 10-3. Moreover, the polar code can relieve the laser linewidth requirement massively to get a more cost-effective CO-OFDM system.

Thermal-induced phase-shift error of a fiber-optic gyroscope due to fiber tail length asymmetry.

As a high-precision angular sensor, the fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) usually shows high sensitivity to disturbances of the environmental temperature. Research on thermal-induced error of the FOG is meaningful to improve its robust performance and reliability in practical applications. In this paper, thermal-induced nonreciprocal phase-shift error of the FOG due to asymmetric fiber tail length is discussed in detail, based on temperature diffusion theory. Theoretical analysis shows that the increase of thermal-induced nonreciprocal phase shift of the FOG is proportional to the asymmetric tail length. Moreover, experiments with temperature ranging from -40°C to 60°C are performed to confirm the analysis. The analysis and experiment results indicate that we may compensate the asymmetry of fiber coil due to imperfect winding and the assembly process by adjusting the fiber tail length, which can reduce the thermal-induced phase-shift error and further improve the adaptability of the FOG in a changing ambient temperature.

Experimental study of wideband in-band full-duplex communication based on optical self-interference cancellation.

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate and study a wideband in-band full-duplex (IBFD) wireless communication system based on optical self-interference cancellation (SIC). The optical SIC performances based on antennas for broadband IBFD are firstly evaluated within high frequency bands (> 10GHz). In this system, two electro-absorption-modulated lasers (EMLs) and a balanced photo-detector (BPD) are employed to remove the wideband self-interference within received wireless signal. By theoretical derivation and experimental verification, the impact factors of SIC are analyzed, especially for non-flatness wireless channel case. Experimental results show more than 30-dB cancellation depth in 100-MHz bandwidth with employment of horn antennas. Besides, IBFD transmission performance based on OFDM signals for different bandwidth with 11.15-GHz center frequency is also demonstrated, and ~52.2- dB•Hz2/3 spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is obtained.

Modeling for IFOG Vibration Error Based on the Strain Distribution of Quadrupolar Fiber Coil.

Improving the performance of interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) in harsh environment, especially in vibrational environment, is necessary for its practical applications. This paper presents a mathematical model for IFOG to theoretically compute the short-term rate errors caused by mechanical vibration. The computational procedures are mainly based on the strain distribution of quadrupolar fiber coil measured by stress analyzer. The definition of asymmetry of strain distribution (ASD) is given in the paper to evaluate the winding quality of the coil. The established model reveals that the high ASD and the variable fiber elastic modulus in large strain situation are two dominant reasons that give rise to nonreciprocity phase shift in IFOG under vibration. Furthermore, theoretical analysis and computational results indicate that vibration errors of both open-loop and closed-loop IFOG increase with the raise of vibrational amplitude, vibrational frequency and ASD. Finally, an estimation of vibration-induced IFOG errors in aircraft is done according to the proposed model. Our work is meaningful in designing IFOG coils to achieve a better anti-vibration performance.