Tartaric acid ameliorates experimental non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by activating the AMP-activated protein kinase signaling pathway.

Tartaric acid (TA) has been shown beneficial effects on blood pressure and lipid levels. However, its effect on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the role of TA in experimental NAFLD. Mice were fed a Western diet for 8 weeks, followed by administration of TA or a vehicle for an additional 12 weeks while continuing on the Western diet. Blood biochemistry including transaminases and glucose tolerance test and liver tissue RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), lipid content, and histology were investigated. The HepG2 cell line was used to explore the mechanism by which TA regulates lipid metabolism. We found that TA significantly improved weight gain, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis in Western diet-fed mice. By comparing gene expression differences, we found that TA affects pathways related to lipid metabolism, inflammatory response, and fibrosis. Furthermore, TA effectively reduced oleic acid-induced lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells and downregulated the genes associated with fatty acid synthesis, which were enriched in the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway. TA also enhanced the phosphorylation of AMPK which could be reverted by the AMPK inhibitor Compound C in HepG2 cells. Our study suggests that TA improves experimental NAFLD by activating the AMPK signaling pathway. These findings indicate that TA may serve as a potential therapy for the human NAFLD.

MicroRNA-181a-5p alleviates acute liver failure in mice by inhibiting HMGB1.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) control liver diseases, but the role of microRNA-181a-5p in acute liver failure (ALF) is unclear. In this study, the ALF model was generated by injection of D-galactosamine (D-GalN) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The levels of miRNAs were assessed by microarray and qRT-PCR. The expression of caspase 3 was detected as the marker of cell apoptosis in ALF by immunohistochemistry and western blot. The targeting of microRNA-181a-5p on the high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) was verified by dual luciferase assay. The impact of microRNA-181a-5p and HMGB1 was explored by flow cytometry. Results showed that microRNA-181a-5p was significantly down-regulated by D-GalN/LPS in vivo and in vitro, while the level of HMGB1 was up-regulated after the challenge. Furthermore, microRNA-181a-5p overexpression attenuated cell apoptosis in D-GalN/TNF-treated BNLCL2 cells. MicroRNA-181a-5p could directly target HMGB1 mRNA and repress its expressions, in further HMGB1 is involved in microRNA-181a-5p effect on cell apoptosis of ALF. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that microRNA-181a-5p regulates hepatocyte apoptosis via HMGB1 in the development of ALF, which may provide potential therapeutic targets for ALF. However, the precise underlying mechanism that connects microRNA-181a-5p and HMGB1 remains to be explored.

Adaptive Subgraph Neural Network With Reinforced Critical Structure Mining.

While graph representation learning methods have shown success in various graph mining tasks, what knowledge is exploited for predictions is less discussed. This paper proposes a novel Adaptive Subgraph Neural Network named AdaSNN to find critical structures in graph data, i.e., subgraphs that are dominant to the prediction results. To detect critical subgraphs of arbitrary size and shape in the absence of explicit subgraph-level annotations, AdaSNN designs a Reinforced Subgraph Detection Module to search subgraphs adaptively without heuristic assumptions or predefined rules. To encourage the subgraph to be predictive at the global scale, we design a Bi-Level Mutual Information Enhancement Mechanism including both global-aware and label-aware mutual information maximization to further enhance the subgraph representations in the perspective of information theory. By mining critical subgraphs that reflect the intrinsic property of a graph, AdaSNN can provide sufficient interpretability to the learned results. Comprehensive experimental results on seven typical graph datasets demonstrate that AdaSNN has a significant and consistent performance improvement and provides insightful results.

Glucose-induced enhanced anti-oxidant activity inhibits apoptosis in goose fatty liver.

The development of mammalian nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with oxidative stress, reduced mitochondrial function, and increased apoptosis in hepatocytes; however, the expressions of mitochondria-related genes are elevated in goose fatty liver, suggesting that there may be a unique protective mechanism in goose fatty liver. The aim of the study was to investigate this protective mechanism in terms of anti-oxidant capacity. Our data showed no substantial differences in the mRNA expression levels of the apoptosis-related genes including B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), BCL2-associated X (Bax), cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase-3 (Caspase-3), and cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase-9 (Caspase-9) in the livers of the control and overfeeding Lander geese groups. The protein expression levels of Caspase-3 and cleaved Caspase-9 were not markedly different between the groups. Compared with the control group, malondialdehyde content was significantly lower (P < 0.01), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, glutathione (GSH) content, and mitochondrial membrane potential levels were higher (P < 0.01) in the overfeeding group. The mRNA expression levels of the anti-oxidant genes superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPX1), and glutathione peroxidase 2 (GPX2) were increased in goose primary hepatocytes after 40 mM and 60 mM glucose treatment. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were significantly reduced (P < 0.01), whereas the mitochondrial membrane potential was maintained at normal levels. The mRNA expression levels of the apoptosis-related genes Bcl-2, Bax, and Caspase-3 were not substantial. There were no significant differences in the expression levels of Caspase-3 and cleaved Caspase-9 proteins. In conclusion, glucose-induced enhanced anti-oxidant capacity may help protect the function of mitochondria and inhibit the occurrence of apoptosis in goose fatty liver.

No significant pathological symptoms were observed in the liver of goose after overfeeding, suggesting that a specific protection mechanism exists in goose liver. Previous studies have shown that mitochondria may participate in the formation of goose fatty liver by improving its energy metabolism and the production of precursor metabolites. To further understand the role of mitochondria in the formation of goose fatty liver, the present study investigated the changes of mitochondrial function, anti-oxidant capacity, and apoptosis in goose fatty liver. There were found that the level of mitochondrial membrane potential was increased, no apoptosis was observed and anti-oxidant capacity was improved in goose fatty liver, no apoptosis was observed and anti-oxidant genes expressions were increased in goose primary hepatocytes after 40 mM glucose treatment. Our findings imply that apoptosis is inhibited by glucose-induced enhanced anti-oxidant activity in goose fatty liver. Our study not only contributes to revealing the protective mechanism in goose fatty liver but also providing new references for the study of nonalcoholic fatty liver in mammals.

Berberine Reverses the Tumorigenic Function of Colon Cancer Cell-Derived Exosomes.

Exosomes derived from colon cancer cells has been found to elevate viability and metastasis of recipient cells. Berberine is a plant-derived natural compound that has shown anti-colon cancer potential. However, berberine's impacts on the tumorigenic functions of tumor exosomes have yet to be evaluated. To elucidate whether berberine modulates exosomal pro-tumor activity, we evaluated the effects of exosomes released by berberine-treated colon cancer cells against viability, migration, and invasion of recipient cancer cells. The human colon cancer HCT116 cells were treated or not treated with berberine, and culture media were collected following 48 h of treatment. Exosomes released by treated or untreated cells were isolated from collected media via ultracentrifugation. To study effects of berberine on tumor exosomes, HCT116 cells were co-cultured with exosomes derived from berberine-treated and non-treated cells, followed by monitoring changes in cell viability, migration, and invasion. The treatment with 100, 150, and 200 µg/ml of berberine-primed exosomes could dose-dependently decrease the viability [by -35.4% (p < 0.0001), -47% (p < 0.0001), and -65.5% (p < 0.0001), respectively], migration [by -24% (p = 0.0001), -43.5% (p = 0.0001), and -65.2% (p = 0.0001), respectively], and invasion [by -29% (p < 0.0001), -58.8% (p < 0.0001), and -69.7% (p < 0.0001), respectively] of HCT116 cells compared to the control. However, non-primed exosomes exerted significant inducing effects on the viability and metastatic ability of HCT116 cells. In conclusion, berberine can reverse the tumorigenic function of colon cancer exosomes and, thus, exert a remarkable suppressive impact against the survival and metastatic ability of colon cancer cells.

Impact of COVID-19 convalescence on pregnancy outcomes in patients undergoing IVF/ICSI during fresh ART cycles: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: The aim was to study the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) convalescence on female fertility and laboratory and clinical outcomes in fresh assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed data from 294 patients who had recovered from COVID-19 and who underwent fresh ART cycles between January and March 2023 (COVID-19 group). This group was compared with 631 patients who underwent similar ART cycles in the same period in 2022 but without having been infected with COVID-19 (non-COVID-19 group). The analysis focused on comparison of basic demographic characteristics and laboratory parameters of patients in each group. The primary outcome measure was the clinical pregnancy rate, which was examined to assess the impact of COVID-19 infection on the efficacy of ART treatment. Results: Basal follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were significantly lower and antral follicle count (AFC) was markedly higher in the COVID-19 group compared to the non-COVID-19 group (P<0.001 and P=0.004, respectively). The predominant ovarian stimulation protocol in the COVID-19 group was GnRH antagonists (64.85%, P<0.001), with a reduced gonadotropin (Gn) dosage and duration in comparison to the non-COVID-19 group (P<0.05). Although the number of blastocysts formed was lower in the COVID-19 group (P=0.017), this group also exhibited a higher blastocyst freezing rate and a higher rate of high-quality embryos per retrieved oocyte (P<0.001 and P=0.023, respectively). Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that COVID-19 convalescence did not significantly impact clinical pregnancy rates in fresh transfer cycles (odds ratio [OR] = 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.68-1.96, P=0.5874). However, smooth curve-fitting and threshold effect analysis revealed an age-related decline in clinical pregnancy rates in both groups, more pronounced in the COVID-19 group, for women aged over 38 years, with the likelihood of clinical pregnancy decreasing by 53% with each additional year of age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.61-1.08, P=0.1460; odds ratio [OR] = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.21-1.05, P=0.0647). Conclusions: Our findings present no substantial evidence of adverse effects on clinical pregnancy outcomes in fresh ART cycles in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) during the period of convalescence from COVID-19. However, age emerges as a significant factor influencing these outcomes. Notably, for women above 38 years of age, the likelihood of clinical pregnancy in patients with a prior COVID-19 infection decreased by 53% with each additional year. This highlights the importance of considering maternal age, especially in the context of COVID-19, when evaluating the likelihood of successful pregnancy following ART treatments.

Enzyme-manipulated hydrogelation of small molecules for biomedical applications.

Enzyme-manipulated hydrogelation based on self-assembly of small molecules is an attractive methodology for development of functional biomaterials. Upon the catalysis of enzymes, small-molecular precursors are converted into assemblable building blocks, which arrange into high-ordered nanofibers via non-covalent interactions at the molecular level, and further trap water to form hydrogels at the macroscopic level. Such approach has numerous advantages of region- and enantioselectivity, and mild reaction conditions for encapsulation of biomedications or cells that are fragile to environmental change. In addition to the common applications as drug reservoirs or cell scaffolds, the utilization of endogenous enzymes as stimuli to initiate self-assembly in the living cells and tissue is considered as an intelligent spatiotemporally controllable hydrogelation strategy for biomedical applications. The enzyme-instructed in situ self-assembly and hydrogelation can modulate the cell behavior, and even present therapeutic bioactivities, which provides a new perspective in the field of disease treatment. In this review, we categorize distinct enzymatic stimuli and elaborate substrate design, catalytic characteristics, and mechanisms of self-assembly and hydrogelation. The biomedical applications in drug delivery, tissue engineering, bioimaging, and in situ gelation-produced bioactivity are outlined. Advantages and limitations regarding the state-of-the-art enzyme-driven hydrogelation technologies and future perspectives are also discussed. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Hydrogel is a semi-solid soft material containing a large amount of water. Due to the features of adjustable flexibility, extremely porous architecture, and the high similarity of structure to natural extracellular matrices, the hydrogel has broad application prospects in biomedicine. In recent 20 years, enzyme-manipulated hydrogelation based on self-assembly of small molecules has developed rapidly as an attractive methodology for the construction of functional biomaterials. Upon the catalysis of enzymes, small-molecular precursors are converted into assemblable building blocks, which arrange into high-ordered nanofibers via non-covalent interactions at the molecular level, and further trap water to form hydrogels at the macroscopic level. This review summarized the characteristics of enzymatic hydrogel, as well as the traditional application and emerging prospect of enzyme-instructed self-assembly and hydrogelation.

Band Bending Mechanism in CdO/Arsenene Heterostructure: A Potential Direct Z-scheme Photocatalyst.

For the few years, two-dimensional (2D) materials have aroused general focus. In order to expand the properties and application range of 2D materials, two different layered materials are usually combined into heterostructure through van der Waals (vdW) interaction. In this research, based on first-principles simulation, we propose CdO/Arsenene (CdO/As) vdW heterostructure as a semiconductor possessing a direct bandgap by 2.179 eV. Besides, the CdO/As vdW heterostructure presents type-II band alignment, which can be used as a remarkable photocatalyst. Importantly, the CdO/As heterostructure demonstrates a direct Z-type principle photocatalyst by exploring the band bending mechanism in the heterostructure. Furthermore, we calculated the light absorption characteristics of CdO/As vdW heterostructure by optical absorption spectrum and conversion efficiency of a novel solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (η STH) about 11.67%, which is much higher than that of other 2D photocatalysts. Our work can provide a theoretical guidance for the designing of Z-scheme photocatalyst.

Ab Initio Calculations for the Electronic, Interfacial and Optical Properties of Two-Dimensional AlN/Zr2CO2 Heterostructure.

Recently, expanding the applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials by constructing van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures has become very popular. In this work, the structural, electronic and optical absorption performances of the heterostructure based on AlN and Zr2CO2 monolayers are studied by first-principles simulation. It is found that AlN/Zr2CO2 heterostructure is a semiconductor with a band gap of 1.790 eV. In the meanwhile, a type-I band structure is constructed in AlN/Zr2CO2 heterostructure, which can provide a potential application of light emitting devices. The electron transfer between AlN and Zr2CO2 monolayer is calculated as 0.1603 |e| in the heterostructure, and the potential of AlN/Zr2CO2 heterostructure decreased by 0.663 eV from AlN layer to Zr2CO2 layer. Beisdes, the AlN/Zr2CO2 vdW heterostructure possesses excellent light absorption ability of in visible light region. Our research provides a theoretical guidance for the designing of advanced functional heterostructures.

Formulating Multiphase Medium Anti-wetting States in an Air-Water-Oil System: Engineering Defects for Interface Chemical Evolutions.

Studies which regulate macroscopic wetting states on determined surfaces in multiphase media are of far-reaching significance but are still in the preliminary stage. Herein, inspired by the wettability subassembly of fish scales, Namib desert beetle shell, and lotus leaf upper side, interfaces in the air-water-oil system are programmed by defect engineering to tailor the anti-wetting evolution from double to triple liquid repellency states. By controlling the visible light irradiation and plasma treatment, surface oxygen vacancies on CuxO@TiO2 nanowires (NWs) can be healed or reconstructed. The original membrane or the membrane after plasma treatment possesses abundant surface oxygen vacancies, and the homogeneous hydrophilic membrane shows only double anti-wetting states in the water-oil system. By the unsaturated visible light irradiation time, the surface oxygen vacancy partially healed, the heterogeneous hydrophilic-hydrophobic components occupied the membrane surface, and the anti-wetting state finally changed from double to triple in the air-water-oil system. After the illumination time reaches saturation, it promotes the healing of all surface oxygen vacancies, and the membrane surface only contains uniform hydrophobic components and only maintains double anti-wetting state in the air-oil system. The mechanism of the triple anti-wetting state on a heterogeneous surface is expounded by establishing a wetting model. The wetting state and the adhesion state of the CuxO@TiO2 NW membrane show regional specificity by controlling the illumination time and region. The underwater oil droplets exhibit the "non-adhesive" and "adhesive" state in a region with unsaturated irradiation time or in an unirradiated region, respectively. Underwater oil droplet manipulation can be accomplished easily based on switchable wettability and adhesion. Current studies reveal that defect engineering can be extended to anti-wetting evolution in the air-water-oil system. Constructing an anti-wetting interface by heterogeneous components provides reference for designing the novel anti-wetting interface.

Electronic and Optical Properties of Atomic-Scale Heterostructure Based on MXene and MN (M = Al, Ga): A DFT Investigation.

After the discovery of graphene, a lot of research has been conducted on two-dimensional (2D) materials. In order to increase the performance of 2D materials and expand their applications, two different layered materials are usually combined by van der Waals (vdW) interactions to form a heterostructure. In this work, based on first-principles calculation, some charming properties of the heterostructure constructed by Hf2CO2, AlN and GaN are addressed. The results show that Hf2CO2/AlN and Hf2CO2/GaN vdW heterostructures can keep their original band structure shape and have strong thermal stability at 300 K. In addition, the Hf2CO2/MN heterostructure has I-type band alignment structure, which can be used as a promising light-emitting device material. The charge transfer between the Hf2CO2 and AlN (or GaN) monolayers is 0.1513 (or 0.0414) |e|. The potential of Hf2CO2/AlN and Hf2CO2/GaN vdW heterostructures decreases by 6.445 eV and 3.752 eV, respectively, across the interface. Furthermore, both Hf2CO2/AlN and Hf2CO2/GaN heterostructures have remarkable optical absorption capacity, which further shows the application prospect of the Hf2CO2/MN heterostructure. The study of this work provides theoretical guidance for the design of heterostructures for use as photocatalytic and photovoltaic devices.

The optimal number of embryo cells for effective pregnancy and decrease of multiple pregnancy rate in frozen-thawed embryo transfer.

To investigate the effect of the number of embryo cells on the clinical outcome of frozen-thawed embryo transfer and explore the optimal policy for decreases of multiple pregnancy rate, patients who experienced day 3 vitrified double frozen-thawed embryo transfer were retrospectively analyzed. According to the number of embryonic cells in each pre-frozen embryo, the patients were divided into six groups: 8C2 (two 8-cell embryos), 8C1- < 8C1 (one 8-cell embryo and one under-8-cell embryo), 8C1- > 8C1 (one 8-cell embryo and one over-8-cell embryo), < 8C2 (two under-8-cell embryos), < 8C1- > 8C1 (one under-8-cell embryo and one over-8-cell embryo), and > 8C2 (two over-8-cell embryos). The clinical data were analyzed. The classification decision tree was used to analyze the optimal transfer strategy. A total of 2184 cycles of day 3 vitrified double frozen-thawed embryo transfer were enrolled. In day 3 double frozen-thawed embryo cycles, the 8C2 group and 8C1- > 8C1 group had significantly (P < 0.05) higher pregnancy and multiple pregnancy rates than the other groups. No significant (P > 0.05) difference existed in the pregnancy rate and live birth rate between the 8C1- < 8C1 group, 8C2 group and 8C1- > 8C1 group, but the implantation rate and multiple pregnancy rate in the 8C1- < 8C1 group were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than in the other two groups. Compared with the multiple pregnancy rate of all cycles, the cycles in two branches showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher multiple pregnancy rates (≤ 29 years old: 8C2 / 8C1- > 8C1; 29 < age ≤ 36 years for the first transfer: 8C2 / 8C1- < 8C1 / 8C1- > 8C1, one branch showed similar rate (≤ 29 years old: 8C2 / 8C1- > 8C1) for the first transfer, and the remaining four branches demonstrated significantly (P < 0.05) lower rates. The clinical pregnancy rates before and after optimization were 51.0% vs 50.5%, and the multiple pregnancy rates were 38.5% vs 16.9%. In conclusion, the number of pre-frozen embryonic cells is an important factor affecting the clinical outcome of frozen-thawed embryo transfer in day 3 double good embryos frozen-thawed cycles. The age of patient, number of embryo cells, and the first time of transfer are the most valuable parameters for prediction. For women ≤ 29 years old, the single embryo transfer (SET) strategy was to choose an embryo ≥ 8 cells, and for women with < 29 age ≤ 36 years old, the SET strategy in the first transfer was to choose an embryo ≥ 8 cells.

Dietary Selenized Glucose Increases Selenium Concentration and Antioxidant Capacity of the Liver, Oviduct, and Spleen in Laying Hens.

Selenized glucose (SeGlu) is a new type of organic selenium (Se) that is synthesized through the selenide reaction of glucose with sodium hydrogen selenide. This study aimed to clarify the influence of dietary SeGlu on the Se level and antioxidant capacity of the liver, oviduct, and spleen in laying hens. A total of 360, 60-week-old, Hy-Line Brown laying hens were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: a basal diet alone (control group, without adding exogenous Se) or the basal diet supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg of Se from sodium selenite (SS) or 5 mg/kg of Se from SeGlu. Diets with SeGlu increased Se levels in the liver, oviduct, and spleen of laying hens (P < 0.001). Compared with the control and SS groups, diet supplemented with SeGlu enhanced glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in the spleen and oviduct as well as the scavenging ability of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH•) in the oviduct (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, SeGlu treatment resulted in an increase (P < 0.05) in GSH-Px activity, T-AOC, and scavenging abilities of hydroxyl radical and DPPH• in the liver of hens. In addition, dietary SeGlu and SS decreased the hydrogen peroxide level in the oviduct in comparison to the control group (P < 0.05). Therefore, dietary SeGlu increased Se concentration and antioxidant ability in the liver, oviduct, and spleen of laying hens. Moreover, SeGlu may be used as a potential source of Se additive in laying hen production.

Up-regulating lncRNA OIP5-AS1 protects neuron injury against cerebral hypoxia-ischemia induced inflammation and oxidative stress in microglia/macrophage through activating CTRP3 via sponging miR-186-5p.

BACKGROUND: Inflammation and oxidative stress is closely associated with the development of ischemic brain stroke. Opa-interacting protein 5 antisense RNA 1 (OIP5-AS1), a novel identified long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), has been suggested to play an important role in the development of many types of human cancers. However, the functional involvement of OIP5-AS1 in ischemic stroke is still unknown. METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and /or western blot were conducted to determine the expression profiles of OIP5-AS1, C1q/TNF-related protein 3 (CTRP3) and miR-186-5p in the serum of stroke patients, as well as in the ischemic penumbra of rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) injury and microglial cells treated with oxygen glucose deprivation/re-oxygenation (OGD/R). Upon selective regulation of OIP5-AS1 and miR-186-5p, the inflammation and oxidative stress responses in microglia/macrophage as well as neurologic functions in MCAO/R rats were detected. Furthermore, the interactions between OIP5-AS1 and miR-186-5p, miR-186-5p and CTRP3 were investigated by RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay, luciferase report assay and bioinformation anaylsis. RESULTS: We observed markedly increased infarct volume, neuronal apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress responses in the infarcted lesions of MCAO/R rats, in line with down-regulated levels of OIP5-AS1 and CTRP3 while up-regulated miR-186-5p. Functional studies demonstrated that up-regulation of OIP5-AS1 attenuated infarct volume, neuronal apoptosis, microglia/macrophage inflammation and oxidative stress responses induced by MCAO/R or OGD/R. In terms of mechanism, we revealed that OIP5-AS1-miR-186-5p-CTRP3 axis played a vital role in modulating microglia/macrophage activation and neuronal apoptosis. CONCLUSION: Up-regulating lncRNA OIP5-AS1 protects neuron injury against MCAO/R induced inflammation and oxidative stress in microglia/macrophage through activating CTRP3 via sponging miR-186-5p.

Solar-Heating Crassula perforata-Structured Superoleophilic CuO@CuS/PDMS Nanowire Arrays on Copper Foam for Fast Remediation of Viscous Crude Oil Spill.

In nature, leaf photosynthesis is the most common solar energy conversion system, which involves light absorption and conversion processes. Most interestingly, the leaves of a green plant are almost lamellar. Herein, inspired by the structure and light conversion capacity of plants, we developed a Crassula perforata-structured CuO@CuS/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (CuO@CuS/PDMS) nanowire arrays (NWAs) on copper foam (CF) with effective light-to-heat conversion to clean up viscous crude oil (∼105 mPa s) by in situ reducing the viscosity of crude oil. The C. perforata-structured CuO@CuS/PDMS core/shell NWAs were grown on copper foam with high density and uniformity, exhibiting excellent light adsorption and photothermal conversion efficiency. When simulated sunlight was irradiated on the structure of the CuO@CuS/PDMS NWAs/CF, abundant heat was generated and in situ reduced the viscosity of crude oil, which prominently increased the oil diffusion coefficient and sped up the oil sorption rate. The oil recovery procedure can realize a continuous clean up with the assistance of a pump device, and the crude oil adsorption capacity can reach up to 15.57 × 105 g/m3 during a 5 min adsorption process. The high-performance photothermal self-heated superoleophilic CuO@CuS/PDMS NWAs/CF has a promise of promoting the practical applications of the sorbents in the clean up of viscous crude oil spills.

PID Controller-Based Stochastic Optimization Acceleration for Deep Neural Networks.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) are widely used and demonstrated their power in many applications, such as computer vision and pattern recognition. However, the training of these networks can be time consuming. Such a problem could be alleviated by using efficient optimizers. As one of the most commonly used optimizers, stochastic gradient descent-momentum (SGD-M) uses past and present gradients for parameter updates. However, in the process of network training, SGD-M may encounter some drawbacks, such as the overshoot phenomenon. This problem would slow the training convergence. To alleviate this problem and accelerate the convergence of DNN optimization, we propose a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) approach. Specifically, we investigate the intrinsic relationships between the PID-based controller and SGD-M first. We further propose a PID-based optimization algorithm to update the network parameters, where the past, current, and change of gradients are exploited. Consequently, our proposed PID-based optimization alleviates the overshoot problem suffered by SGD-M. When tested on popular DNN architectures, it also obtains up to 50% acceleration with competitive accuracy. Extensive experiments about computer vision and natural language processing demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on benchmark data sets, including CIFAR10, CIFAR100, Tiny-ImageNet, and PTB. We have released the code at https://github.com/tensorboy/PIDOptimizer.

Morphology controlling of 〈111〉-3C-SiC films by HMDS flow rate in LCVD.

Morphology of 〈111〉-oriented 3C-SiC films was transformed from mosaic to whisker to cauliflower-like with the increased flow rate (f) of hexametyldisilane (HMDS) in the process of laser chemical vapor deposition (LCVD). The SiC whiskers were naturally sharp hexagonal pyramids with average height of 250 nm and an aspect ratio in the range of 5 to 10, with a density of 1.3 × 108 mm-2. The influence mechanism of f on the surface morphology, as well as the growth mechanism of SiC whiskers, was discussed.

Efficacy of different antidiabetic drugs based on metformin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A network meta-analysis involving eight eligible randomized-controlled trials.

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent metabolic diseases globally and it is increasing in prevalence. It is one of the most expensive diseases with respect to total health care costs per patient as a result of its chronic nature and its severe complications. To provide a more effective treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), this study aims to compare different efficacies of six kinds of hypoglycemic drugs based on metformin, including glimepiride, pioglitazone, exenatide, glibenclamide, rosiglitazone, and vildagliptin, in T2DM by a network meta-analysis that were verified by randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). Eight eligible RCT in consistency with the aforementioned six hypoglycemic drugs for T2DM were included. The results of network meta-analysis demonstrated that the exenatide + metformin and vildagliptin + metformin regimens presented with better efficacy. Patients with T2DM with unsatisfactory blood glucose control based on diet control, proper exercise, and metformin treatment were included. The original regimen and dose of medication were unchanged, followed by the addition of glimepiride, pioglitazone, exenatide, glibenclamide, rosiglitazone, and vildagliptin. The results of RCTs showed that all these six kinds of drugs reduced the HbA1c level. Compared with other regimens, exenatide + metformin reduced fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting plasma insulin (FPI), total cholesterol (TC), and homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) levels, but increased the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level; vildagliptin + metformin decreased FPI and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels; glibenclamide + metformin decreased the FPG level, but promoted HDL; and glimepiride + metformin decreased the TC level and rosiglitazone + metformin reduced the LDL level. Our findings indicated that exenatide + metformin and vildagliptin + metformin have better efficacy in T2DM since they can improve insulin sensitivity.

High-Flux Oil/Water Separation with Interfacial Capillary Effect in Switchable Superwetting Cu(OH)2@ZIF-8 Nanowire Membranes.

Highly ordered architectures with roughness and porous surface are the key challenges toward developing smart superwetting membranes. We prepared switchable superwetting Cu(OH)2@ZIF-8 core/shell nanowire membranes for high-flux oil/water separation as well as simultaneous heavy-metal ions removal in one step. The well-defined Cu(OH)2@ZIF-8 core/shell nanowire grown on copper mesh with average length of ca. 15 µm and diameter of ca. 162 nm exhibits high water contact angle (CA) of ca. 153 ± 0.6°. After modified by ethanol, the membrane holds the reverse superwettability with oil (dichloromethane as an example) CA of ca. 155 ± 0.8° underwater. The separation efficiencies of the membranes are higher than that of 97.2% with a remarkable flux rate higher than 90 000 L m-2 h-1 for the immiscible oil/water mixture. And the removal efficiency for Cr3+ ions at 10 ppb can arrive at 99.2 wt % in the toluene-in-water emulsion. The high performances of the smart superwetting membranes can be attributed to the interfacial capillary effects of the hierarchical Cu(OH)2@ZIF-8 core/shell nanostructures. This work may provide a new insight into the design of smart superwetting surfaces for oil/water separation and target adsorption in one step.