Ursolic acid alleviates meiotic abnormalities induced by 3-nitropropionic acid in mouse oocytes.

3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA), a toxic metabolite produced by mold, is mainly found in moldy sugarcane. 3-NPA inhibits the activity of succinate dehydrogenase that can induce oxidative stress injury in cells, reduce ATP production and induce oxidative stress in mouse ovaries to cause reproductive disorders. Ursolic acid (UA) has a variety of biological activities and is a pentacyclic triterpene compound found in many plants. This experiment aimed to investigate the cytotoxicity of 3-NPA during mouse oocyte in vitro maturation and the protective effects of UA on oocytes challenged with 3-NPA. The results showed that UA could alleviate 3-NPA-induced oocyte meiotic maturation failure. Specifically, 3-NPA induced a decrease in the first polar body extrusion rate of oocytes, abnormal distribution of cortical granules, and an increase in the proportion of spindle abnormalities. In addition, 3-NPA caused mitochondrial dysfunction and induced oxidative stress, including decreases in the GSH, mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels, and increases in the ROS levels, and these effects led to apoptosis and autophagy. The addition of UA could significantly improve the adverse effects caused by 3-NPA. In general, our data show that 3-NPA affects the normal development of oocytes during the in vitro culture, and the addition of UA can effectively repair the damage caused by 3-NPA to oocytes.

Design, Synthesis, Antifungal Evaluation, Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) Study, and Molecular Docking of Novel Spirotryprostatin A Derivatives.

Phytopathogenic fungi cause plant diseases and economic losses in agriculture. To efficiently control plant pathogen infections, a total of 19 spirotryprostatin A derivatives and 26 spirooxindole derivatives were designed, synthesized, and tested for their antifungal activity against ten plant pathogens. Additionally, the intermediates of spirooxindole derivatives were investigated, including proposing a mechanism for diastereoselectivity and performing amplification experiments. The bioassay results demonstrated that spirotryprostatin A derivatives possess good and broad-spectrum antifungal activities. Compound 4d exhibited excellent antifungal activity in vitro, equal to or higher than the positive control ketoconazole, against Helminthosporium maydis, Trichothecium roseum, Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Fusarium graminearum, Alternaria brassicae, Alternaria alternate, and Fusarium solan (MICs: 8-32 µg/mL). Compound 4k also displayed remarkable antifungal activity against eight other phytopathogenic fungi, including Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. niveum and Mycosphaerella melonis (MICs: 8-32 µg/mL). The preliminary structure-activity relationships (SARs) were further discussed. Moreover, molecular docking studies revealed that spirotryprostatin A derivatives anchored in the binding site of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). Therefore, these compounds showed potential as natural compound-based chiral fungicides and hold promise as candidates for further enhancements in terms of structure and properties.

Automatic assessment of divergent thinking in Chinese language with TransDis: A transformer-based language model approach.

Language models have been increasingly popular for automatic creativity assessment, generating semantic distances to objectively measure the quality of creative ideas. However, there is currently a lack of an automatic assessment system for evaluating creative ideas in the Chinese language. To address this gap, we developed TransDis, a scoring system using transformer-based language models, capable of providing valid originality (novelty) and flexibility (variety) scores for Alternative Uses Task (AUT) responses in Chinese. Study 1 demonstrated that the latent model-rated originality factor, comprised of three transformer-based models, strongly predicted human originality ratings, and the model-rated flexibility strongly correlated with human flexibility ratings as well. Criterion validity analyses indicated that model-rated originality and flexibility positively correlated to other creativity measures, demonstrating similar validity to human ratings. Study 2 and 3 showed that TransDis effectively distinguished participants instructed to provide creative vs. common uses (Study 2) and participants instructed to generate ideas in a flexible vs. persistent way (Study 3). Our findings suggest that TransDis can be a reliable and low-cost tool for measuring idea originality and flexibility in Chinese language, potentially paving the way for automatic creativity assessment in other languages. We offer an open platform to compute originality and flexibility for AUT responses in Chinese and over 50 other languages ( https://osf.io/59jv2/ ).

Electronic-Waste-Driven Pollution of Liquid Crystal Monomers: Environmental Occurrence and Human Exposure in Recycling Industrial Parks.

Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) may be released into the environment, especially in electronic waste (e-waste) recycling industrial parks with a high pollution risk. However, little has been known about the environmental release and human exposure to LCMs until now. Herein, a total of 45 LCMs were detected in LCDs of commonly used smartphones and computers by high-resolution mass spectrometry with suspect screening analysis. Fluorinated biphenyls and their analogs were the dominant LCMs. Based on available standards of the screening results and previous studies, 55 LCMs were quantified in samples from an e-waste recycling industrial park in Central China. The LCMs were frequently detected in outdoor dust (n = 43), workshop #1 indoor dust (n = 53), and hand (n = 43) and forehead wipes (n = 43), with median concentrations of 6950 ng/g, 67,400 ng/g, 46,100 ng/m2, and 62,100 ng/m2, respectively. The median estimated daily intake values of the LCMs via dust ingestion and dermal absorption were 48.3 and 16.5 ng/kg body weight/day, respectively, indicating a high occupational exposure risk of these compounds. In addition, 16 LCMs were detected in the serum of eight elderly people (≥60 years old) with over 5 years of experience in e-waste dismantling operations, resulting in a total concentration range of 3.9-26.3 ng/mL.

Rapid and precise identification of bloodstream infections using a pre-treatment protocol combined with high-throughput multiplex genetic detection system.

BACKGROUND: Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a life-threatening condition with high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Early diagnosis of BSI is critical to avoid the unnecessary application of antimicrobial agents and for proper treatment. However, the current standard methods based on blood culture are time-consuming, thus failing to provide a timely etiological diagnosis of BSI, and common PCR-based detection might be inhibited by matrix components. METHODS: The current study explored an integrated pre-analytical treatment protocol for whole blood samples, wherein pathogens are enriched and purified by incubation and concentration, and inhibitors are inactivated and removed. Further, this study developed and evaluated a novel high-throughput multiplex genetic detection system (HMGS) to detect 24 of the most clinically prevalent BSI pathogens in blood culture samples and pre-treated whole blood samples. The specificity and sensitivity were evaluated using related reference strains and quantified bacterial/fungal suspensions. The clinical utility of BSI-HMGS combined with the pre-analytical treatment protocol was verified using blood cultures and whole blood samples. RESULTS: The combined pre-treatment protocol and BSI-HMGS was highly specific for target pathogens and possessed a low detection limit for clinical whole blood samples. The pre-treatment protocol could deplete the PCR inhibitors effectively. For blood culture samples, the current method showed 100.0% negative percent agreements and > 87.5% positive percent agreements compared to the reference results based on blood culture findings. For whole blood samples, the current method showed 100.0% negative percent agreements and > 80.0% positive percent agreements compared to the reference results for most pathogens. The turnaround time was ≤ 8 h, and all the procedures could be conducted in a general clinical laboratory. CONCLUSION: The BSI-HMGS combined with the pre-treatment protocol was a practical and promising method for early and precise detection of BSIs, especially for areas without access to advanced medical facilities.

A Dual Functional Artificial SEI Layer Based on a Facile Surface Chemistry for Stable Lithium Metal Anode.

Solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on a Li anode is critical to the interface stability and cycle life of Li metal batteries. On the one hand, components of SEI with the passivation effect can effectively hinder the interfacial side reactions to promote long-term cycling stability. On the other hand, SEI species that exhibit the active site effect can reduce the Li nucleation barrier and guide Li deposition homogeneously. However, strategies that only focus on a separated effect make it difficult to realize an ideal overall performance of a Li anode. Herein, a dual functional artificial SEI layer simultaneously combining the passivation effect and the active site effect is proposed and constructed via a facial surface chemistry method. Simultaneously, the formed LiF component effectively passivates the anode/electrolyte interface and contributes to the long-term stable cycling performance, while the Li-Mg solid solution alloy with the active site effect promotes the transmission of Li+ and guides homogeneous Li deposition with a low energy barrier. Benefiting from these advantages, the Li||Li cell with the modified anode performs with a lower nucleation overpotential of 2.3 mV, and an ultralong cycling lifetime of over 2000 h at the current density of 1 mA cm-2, while the Li||LiFePO4 full battery maintains a capacity retention of 84.6% at rate of 1 C after 300 cycles.

Effects of natural organic matter on cadmium mobility in paddy soil: A review.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in paddy soil has caused public concern. The uptake of Cd by rice plants depends on soil Cd mobility, which is in turn substantially influenced by organic matter (OM). In this review, we first summarize the fate of Cd in soil and the role of OM. We then focus on the effects of OM on Cd mobility in paddy soil and the factors influencing the remedial effectiveness of OM amendments. We further discuss the performance of straw incorporation in the remediation of Cd-contaminated paddy soils reported in laboratory and field studies. Considering the huge production of organic materials (such as straw) in agriculture, the use of natural OM for soil remediation has obvious appeal due to the environmental benefits and low cost. Although there have been successful application cases, the properties of OM amendments and soil can significantly affect the remedial performance of the OM amendments. Importantly, straw incorporation alone does not often decrease the mobility of Cd in soil or the Cd content in rice grains. Careful evaluation is required when considering natural OM amendments, and the factors and mechanisms that influence their remedial effectiveness need further investigation in paddy soil with realistic Cd concentrations.

Acidic pH-Induced Conformations and LAMP1 Binding of the Lassa Virus Glycoprotein Spike.

Lassa virus is an enveloped, bi-segmented RNA virus and the most prevalent and fatal of all Old World arenaviruses. Virus entry into the host cell is mediated by a tripartite surface spike complex, which is composed of two viral glycoprotein subunits, GP1 and GP2, and the stable signal peptide. Of these, GP1 binds to cellular receptors and GP2 catalyzes fusion between the viral envelope and the host cell membrane during endocytosis. The molecular structure of the spike and conformational rearrangements induced by low pH, prior to fusion, remain poorly understood. Here, we analyzed the three-dimensional ultrastructure of Lassa virus using electron cryotomography. Sub-tomogram averaging yielded a structure of the glycoprotein spike at 14-Å resolution. The spikes are trimeric, cover the virion envelope, and connect to the underlying matrix. Structural changes to the spike, following acidification, support a viral entry mechanism dependent on binding to the lysosome-resident receptor LAMP1 and further dissociation of the membrane-distal GP1 subunits.

Wavelength tunable polarizer based on layered black phosphorus on Si/SiO2 substrate.

We report on both the theoretical and experimental design of a black phosphorus (BP)-based reflective linear polarizer on Si/SiO2 substrate in visible range using the Fabry-Perot cavities method. Thanks to the optical anisotropy of BP, polarization wavelength regulation and a high extinction ratio are achievable via optimizing the thickness of BP. Using azimuth-dependent reflectance difference microscopy, we directly measured a huge optical anisotropy of 1.58, corresponding to an extinction ratio of ∼9 dB, from a 96 nm BP on a silicon substrate capped by 260 nm thermally oxidized silicon at a wavelength of 690 nm for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Our results not only provide a new route to designing nanoscale polarizers based on anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) materials, promoting the application of 2D materials in integrated optoelectronics and system-on-chip, but also suggest a modulation technique for optical anisotropy by integrating the BP film with cavity structures.

Three-dimensional sparse image reconstruction for terahertz surface layer holography with random step frequency.

In this Letter, a sparse image reconstruction approach is proposed for three-dimensional (3D) terahertz (THz) surface layer holography by a sharply dwindled amount of frequency samples, without reducing the high quality of the final reconstructed 3D THz images. To avoid the range ambiguity resulting from the reduction of frequency samples, a random step frequency method is adopted to evaluate the rough range profile of the 3D surface layer. With the obtained range profile, a de-ambiguity procedure is proposed to demodulate the sparse echoed data to greatly compress the maximum nonambiguous range and recover all the information for 3D holography image reconstruction. Proof-of-state experiments are performed in 0.2-THz band. The results verify the effectiveness and the efficiency of the sparse imaging scheme for THz surface layer 3D holography.

Isoliquiritin can cause mitochondrial dysfunction and regulate Nrf2 to affect the development of mouse oocytes.

IsoliQuirtigenin (ILG) has been widely studied in somatic cells and tissues, but less in reproductive development. It is a kind of widely used food additive. In this study, it was found that ILG could significantly increase the levels of ROS,GSH and MMP in mouse oocytes (P < 0.01). In order to explore the cause of this phenomenon, it was found that the abnormal distribution of mitochondria and ATP synthesis levels were significantly increased (P < 0.05). At this time, we made a reasonable hypothesis that ILG affected mitochondrial function. In subsequent studies, it was found that the endogenous ROS accumulation level in mitochondria was significantly increased. After continuous RT-PCR screening, it was found that the expression of Nrf2 was significantly inhibited (P < 0.01). Its upstream and downstream FOXO3 GPX1, CAT, SOD2, SIRT1 gene also appear different degree of significant change (P < 0.05), in which the lower expression of NADP + (P < 0.05) illustrates the mitochondrial ATP synthesis electronic chain were suppressed, it also has the reason, By inhibiting electron chain and ATP synthesis, ILG leads to oocyte apoptosis and initiation of autophagy, reducing oocyte and its subsequent developmental potential.

Efficacy and safety of hyaluronic-polidocanol foam in sclerotherapy for head and neck venous malformations.

Background: Foam sclerotherapy is currently the first-line treatment for venous malformations (VMs). Hyaluronic acid-polidocanol (HA-POL) foam has been used in the treatment of head and neck VMs recently; however, its clinical efficacy and safety have yet to be further evaluated, and the impact of age and other related factors on its safety is still unclear. Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of HA-POL foam in the treatment of head and neck VMs. Methods and materials: We performed a single-center retrospective review of all patients with VMs involving the head and neck region undergoing HA-POL foam sclerotherapy from February 2015 to February 2022 in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department of Qilu Hospital Shandong University. Patients' medical records were collected and all patients enrolled were followed up for 1-6 months (group 1), part of them were followed up for 3-9 years (group 2). Results: A total of 223 patients with head and neck VMs were enrolled in the study, with 36 patients who were followed for 3-9 years. Total response rate in group 1 was 96.41% (n = 215), of which 30.94% (n = 69) of the patients met the criteria of "resolution," and 65.47% (n = 146) of the patients had "significant improvement." In group 2, the total response rate was 72.22% (n = 26), of which the rates of the patients met the criteria of "resolution" and patients had "significant improvement" were all 36.11% (n = 13)0.144 (64.57%) patients experienced complications like localized swelling, pain and fever, and no serious complications occurred. The risk of developing complications after treatment was independent of age, and was weakly associated with the dose of HA-POL foam. Conclusion: The HA-POL foam sclerotherapy is safe and effective in the treatment of head and neck VMs.

Copper-Catalyzed Enantioselective Synthesis of Spirohydroindoles by Ethoxyformylmethylene Oxindole and Iminoester 1,3-Dipole Cycloaddition: An Examination of Associated Biological Activities.

A highly enantioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of ethoxyformylmethylene oxindole with iminoesters has been achieved using the Cu(I)-(S,Sp)-Ph Phosferrox catalytic system, generating a series of chiral spiro[pyrrolidin-3,3'-oxindole] compounds with four consecutive stereocenters, including a spirocycle quaternary center (71%-99% yield, up to >20:1 dr and 95:5 er). The compounds exhibited good inhibitory activity against Valsa mali (V.m.), Fusarium oxysporium (F.o.), and Alternaria brassicae (A.b.).

Effects of limonin on oxidative stress and early apoptosis in oocytes during in vitro maturation.

To investigate the effects of limonin (Lim) on oxidative stress and early apoptosis in bovine oocytes during in vitro maturation (IVM), different concentrations of Lim (0, 10, 20, 50 µmol/L) were added to bovine IVM medium. Oocyte maturation rates and development 24 h after in vitro fertilization (IVF) were examined to determine the optimal Lim concentration. The optimal Lim concentration was added to the IVM medium, and 0 µmol/L Lim was used as the control. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the abnormal rate of spindle assembly, reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) levels, mitochondrial distribution, and the fluorescence intensity of cathepsin B (CB)-active LC3 protein. RT‒qPCR was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of antioxidant-, apoptosis- and autophagy-related genes in oocytes. The total number of blastocysts and the proportion of apoptotic cells among blastocysts were detected. The results showed that the PBI ejection rate, cleavage rate and blastocyst rate of bovine oocytes in the 20 µmol/L Lim group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Compared with those in the control group, ROS levels, abnormal mitochondrial distribution, the proportion of abnormal spindle assembly, CB activity and LC3 protein fluorescence intensity of oocytes in the 20 µmol/L Lim group were significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and GSH and MMP levels were significantly increased (P < 0.05). The expression of antioxidant genes (Prdx3, Prdx6, Sirt1) and antiapoptotic genes (Bcl-xl, Survivin) were significantly upregulated (P < 0.05), and the expression levels of proapoptotic genes (Caspase-4, BAX) and autophagy-related genes (LC3) were significantly downregulated (P < 0.05). The total number of cells among in vitro fertilized embryos was significantly increased (P < 0.05), and the apoptosis rate of blastocysts was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Here, we show that Lim exerts positive effects on bovine oocyte IVM by regulating REDOX homeostasis, reducing spindle damage and enhancing mitochondrial function during IVM, thereby inhibiting oocyte apoptosis and autophagy.

Molecular insight into the initial hydration of tricalcium aluminate.

Portland cement (PC) is ubiquitously used in construction for centuries, yet the elucidation of its early-age hydration remains a challenge. Understanding the initial hydration progress of tricalcium aluminate (C3A) at molecular scale is thus crucial for tackling this challenge as it exhibits a proclivity for early-stage hydration and plays a pivotal role in structural build-up of cement colloids. Herein, we implement a series of ab-initio calculations to probe the intricate molecular interactions of C3A during its initial hydration process. The C3A surface exhibits remarkable chemical activity in promoting water dissociation, which in turn facilitates the gradual desorption of Ca ions through a metal-proton exchange reaction. The dissolution pathways and free energies of these Ca ions follow the ligand-exchange mechanism with multiple sequential reactions to form the ultimate products where Ca ions adopt fivefold or sixfold coordination. Finally, these Ca complexes reprecipitate on the remaining Al-rich layer through the interface-coupled dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism, demonstrating dynamically stable inner-sphere adsorption states. The above results are helpful in unmasking the early-age hydration of PC and advancing the rational design of cement-based materials through the bottom-up approach.

Highly selective electroreduction of CO2 to CO with ZnO QDs/N-doped porous carbon catalysts.

ZnO quantum dots (QDs) supported on porous nitrogen-doped carbon (ZnOQDs/P-NC) exhibited excellent electrochemical performance for the electroreduction of CO2 to CO with a faradaic efficiency of 95.3% and a current density of 21.6 mA cm-2 at -2.2 V vs. Ag/Ag+.

SSAT ++ : A Semantic-Aware and Versatile Makeup Transfer Network With Local Color Consistency Constraint.

The purpose of makeup transfer (MT) is to transfer makeup from a reference image to a target face while preserving the target's content. Existing methods have made remarkable progress in generating realistic results but do not perform well in terms of semantic correspondence and color fidelity. In addition, the straightforward extension of processing videos frame by frame tends to produce flickering results in most methods. These limitations restrict the applicability of previous methods in real-world scenarios. To address these issues, we propose a symmetric semantic-aware transfer network (SSAT ++ ) to improve makeup similarity and video temporal consistency. For MT, the feature fusion (FF) module first integrates the content and semantic features of the input images, producing multiscale fusion features. Then, the semantic correspondence from the reference to the target is obtained by measuring the correlation of fusion features at each position. According to semantic correspondence, the symmetric mask semantic transfer (SMST) module aligns the reference makeup features with the target content features to generate MT results. Meanwhile, the semantic correspondence from the target to the reference is obtained by transposing the correlation matrix and applied to the makeup removal task. To enhance color fidelity, we propose a novel local color loss that forces the transferred results to have the same color histogram distribution as the reference. Furthermore, a morphing simulation is designed to ensure temporal consistency for video MT without requiring additional video frame input and optical flow estimation. To evaluate the effectiveness of our SSAT ++ , extensive experiments have been conducted on the MT dataset which has a variety of makeup styles, and on the MT-Wild dataset which contains images with diverse poses and expressions. The experiments show that SSAT ++ outperforms existing MT methods through qualitative and quantitative evaluation and provides more flexible makeup control. Code and trained model will be available at https://gitee.com/sunzhaoyang0304/ssat-msp and https://github.com/Snowfallingplum/SSAT.

The Role of Negative Perfectionism and the Relationship between Critical Thinking and the Halo Effect: Insights from Corporate Managers in Human Resources.

This research aims to explore the relationship between critical thinking and the halo effect among managers working in the Human Resources (HR) departments of corporations. By utilizing a sample of over 301 corporate HR managers as participants, this study provides valuable insight into the dynamics between critical thinking, the halo effect, and the mediating role of negative perfectionism. The findings of this study suggest a significant negative relationship between critical thinking and the halo effect, as well as a significant positive relationship between negative perfectionism and the halo effect. Notably, negative perfectionism acts as a mediator between critical thinking and the halo effect. Our research also reveals that compensation level moderates this relationship, with lower-income HR managers exhibiting a stronger association between negative perfectionism and the halo effect compared to higher-income HR managers. These findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the interplay between critical thinking and the halo effect among HR managers in corporate settings. Identifying negative perfectionism as a mediating factor clarifies the underlying mechanisms between critical thinking and the halo effect, while the moderating effect of compensation level highlights the importance of considering contextual factors. The practical implications of this research include the significance of promoting critical thinking skills among HR managers to mitigate the halo effect in job recruitment and performance evaluation. Additionally, organizations should prioritize fairness and consistency in compensation levels to minimize the influence of negative perfectionism and its impact on the halo effect.

Coping with mortality salience: the role of connection thinking and afterlife beliefs in Chinese context.

Introduction: Grounded in Terror Management Theory (TMT), this research explored the influence of mortality salience on preferences for afterlife beliefs (reincarnation vs. resignation to fate) within a Chinese context. We also examined the mediating role of death anxiety and the moderating effects of connection thinking across different age groups. Methods: Across three experimental studies involving a cumulative sample of 485 Chinese participants, we primed individuals with thoughts of their own mortality and then assessed their death anxiety and proclivity toward reincarnation beliefs or resignation to fate. Connection thinking-a cognitive construct emphasizing relational interconnectedness-was also evaluated to ascertain its moderating impact. Results: The data revealed a pronounced preference for reincarnation beliefs as a distal defense mechanism following mortality salience, significantly mediated by death anxiety. The moderating role of connection thinking was also verified, but with age-related differences: among younger Chinese participants (age < 35), heightened connection thinking buffered against increased death anxiety triggered by mortality salience and thus mitigated its mediating role. Conversely, for older participants (age ≥ 35), amplified connection thinking exacerbated both the increased death anxiety and its mediating effect. Discussion: These findings contribute to TMT by elucidating the influence of death anxiety on the relationship between mortality salience and afterlife beliefs in the Chinese cultural context. They also enrich the literature on connection thinking by uncovering its moderating role. Moreover, our research yields practical implications for coping with mortality salience and alleviating existential anxiety, enhancing the understanding of these phenomena across different cultural and age groups.

How Does COVID-19 Risk Perception Affect Sense of Control? The Roles of Death Anxiety and Confucian Coping.

This research examined the impact of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control, testing the hypotheses that COVID-19 risk perception would reduce sense of control and that this effect would be mediated by death anxiety and moderated by Confucian coping. A series of six studies were conducted with Chinese participants (N = 2202) and employed different research designs in lab and real-life settings. Across the studies, we found that the perceived risk of COVID-19 impaired sense of control. Studies 3a to 5 further revealed that death anxiety mediated the adverse effect of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control, and Studies 4 to 5 revealed that Confucian coping strategies alleviated the adverse effect of COVID-19 risk perception on sense of control. These findings shed new light on the psychological impact of risk perception in times of crisis and identify mitigating factors and boundary conditions.