phytochemicals ameliorated hyperglycemia symptoms by modulating gut microbial communities in mice with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Introduction: Prolonged hyperglycemia caused by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) can lead to liver injury and disrupt the community of the gut microbiota that pose significant risks to human health. As a food rich in a variety of active ingredients, () exhibits hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects. However, the regulatory influence of ethanol extract (ZSE) on the gut microbiota of T2DM mice or its potential relationship with T2DM pathology remains unexplored.

Enhancing flame retardancy, antibacterial activity and UV resistance of polyamide 66 fabric by fully biobased intumescent flame-retardant nanocellulose coating.

Polyamide 66 (PA66) fabric, one of the most common textile materials, presents great fire hazards to human safety and property due to its intrinsic flammability. In this study, fully biobased intumescent flame-retardants (IFRs) composed of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), tannic acid (TA) and phytic acid (PA) were synthesized and coated onto the surface of the PA66 fabric for improving the flame retardancy, antibacterial and UV resistance. It is found that IFR coating effectively suppressed the droplet and smoke phenomenon of PA66 fabric, and the total smoke production (TSP) and smoke production rate (SPR) values of the fabric were significantly reduced by 71.

Adaptive block-matching and 4D denoising scheme for a distributed vibration sensing system.

A noise reduction method based on the block-matching and 4D (BM4D) scheme is proposed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in distributed vibration sensing (DVS) systems. In the proposed scheme, the original Rayleigh backscattering (RBS) signal is converted into a three-dimensional image containing Rayleigh trajectory and energy information. The correlation between the time-domain and spatial-domain signals is then used to achieve the denoising operation.

Two-response surface design optimization of carboxylated CNCs with super high thermal stability and dye removal capability.

Discharging wastewater from industrial dyeing and printing processes poses a significant environmental threat, necessitating green and efficient adsorbents. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have emerged as a promising option for dye adsorbing. However, the industrial production and commercialization of CNCs still faced low yield, time-consuming, and uneco-friendly.

Enhanced Tunability of Dual-Band Chiral Metasurface in the Mid-Infrared Range via Slotted Nanocircuit Design.

Multi-band circular dichroism (CD) response and tunability on the chiral metasurface are crucial for this device's applications in sensing and detection. This work proposes a dual-band CD Au-CaF-Au dimer elliptical metasurface absorber, where chiroptical sensing is realized by breaking the geometric symmetry between two ellipses. The proposed metasurface can achieve high CD values of 0.

Experimental demonstration of flexible information rate PON beyond 100 Gb/s with rate-compatible LDPC codes.

The applications of rate-compatible low-density parity-check (RC-LDPC) codes are investigated for a 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) signal and coherent detection system. With rate-compatible signals, we can provide the flexible net data rate between 135.5 Gb/s and 169.

Demixing is a default process for biological condensates formed via phase separation.

Excitatory and inhibitory synapses do not overlap even when formed on one submicron-sized dendritic protrusion. How excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic cytomatrices or densities (e/iPSDs) are segregated is not understood. Broadly, why membraneless organelles are naturally segregated in cellular subcompartments is unclear.

The Interplay between Ferroptosis and Neuroinflammation in Central Neurological Disorders.

Central neurological disorders are significant contributors to morbidity, mortality, and long-term disability globally in modern society. These encompass neurodegenerative diseases, ischemic brain diseases, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, depression, and more. The involved pathogenesis is notably intricate and diverse.

Underwater laser positioning of targets outside the field of view based on a binocular vision.

An underwater laser positioning scheme based on a binocular camera is introduced. In spite of the scattering, the underwater laser light path can be clearly captured by a camera within an appropriate range depending on the water turbidity. For an emitting laser with a fixed position, the three-dimensional information of the laser source can be calculated from the beam images captured by a binocular camera, even if the laser is out of the camera's field of view (FOV).

Multi-functional nanocellulose based nanocomposites for biodegradable food packaging: Hybridization, fabrication, key properties and application.

Nowadays, non-degradable plastic packaging materials have caused serious environmental pollution, posing a threat to human health and development. Renewable eco-friendly nanocellulose hybrid (NCs-hybrid) composites as an ideal alternative to petroleum-based plastic food packaging have been extensively reported in recent years. NCs-hybrids include metal, metal oxides, organic frameworks (MOFs), plants, and active compounds.

ACSL4-Mediated Ferroptosis and Its Potential Role in Central Nervous System Diseases and Injuries.

As an iron-dependent regulated form of cell death, ferroptosis is characterized by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and has been implicated in the occurrence and development of various diseases, including nervous system diseases and injuries. Ferroptosis has become a potential target for intervention in these diseases or injuries in relevant preclinical models. As a member of the Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family (ACSLs) that can convert saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain familymember4 (ACSL4) is involved in the regulation of arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, thus leading to ferroptosis.

Phase separation-mediated actin bundling by the postsynaptic density condensates.

The volume and the electric strength of an excitatory synapse is near linearly correlated with the area of its postsynaptic density (PSD). Extensive research in the past has revealed that the PSD assembly directly communicates with actin cytoskeleton in the spine to coordinate activity-induced spine volume enlargement as well as long-term stable spine structure maintenance. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the communication between the PSD assembly and spine actin cytoskeleton is poorly understood.

Biological condensates form percolated networks with molecular motion properties distinctly different from dilute solutions.

Formation of membraneless organelles or biological condensates via phase separation and related processes hugely expands the cellular organelle repertoire. Biological condensates are dense and viscoelastic soft matters instead of canonical dilute solutions. To date, numerous different biological condensates have been discovered, but mechanistic understanding of biological condensates remains scarce.

Joint design of ordered QR precoding and SIC detection for MIMO VLC systems.

Ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) detection has been investigated to mitigate the high spatial correlation for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) systems. However, existing OSIC schemes have to perform reordering and matrix inversion for each detected symbol, which may lead to high complexity when a large number of symbols are transmitted. In this work, a joint design of ordered QR decomposition precoding and SIC detection (OQR-SIC) is proposed for MIMO VLC systems.

TrkB agonist N-acetyl serotonin promotes functional recovery after traumatic brain injury by suppressing ferroptosis via the PI3K/Akt/Nrf2/Ferritin H pathway.

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is mainly triggered by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation. A growing body of evidence suggests that ferroptosis is involved in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB) deficiency would mediate TBI pathologies. As an agonist of TrkB and an immediate precursor of melatonin, N-acetyl serotonin (NAS) exerts several beneficial effects on TBI, but there is no information regarding the role of NAS in ferroptosis after TBI.

Targeting Molecular Mediators of Ferroptosis and Oxidative Stress for Neurological Disorders.

With the acceleration of population aging, nervous system diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), anxiety, depression, stroke, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) have become a huge burden on families and society. The mechanism of neurological disorders is complex, which also lacks effective treatment, so relevant research is required to solve these problems urgently. Given that oxidative stress-induced lipid peroxidation eventually leads to ferroptosis, both oxidative stress and ferroptosis are important mechanisms causing neurological disorders, targeting mediators of oxidative stress and ferroptosis have become a hot research direction at present.

Arc weakens synapses by dispersing AMPA receptors from postsynaptic density via modulating PSD phase separation.

In response to stimuli, the immediate early gene product Arc can acutely down-regulate synaptic strength by removing AMPA receptors (AMPARs) from synapses and thus regulate synaptic plasticity. How Arc, a scaffold protein, can specifically facilitate synaptic removal of AMPARs is unknown. We found that Arc directly antagonizes with PSD-95 in binding to TARPs, which are the auxiliary subunits of AMPARs.

IRSp53 promotes postsynaptic density formation and actin filament bundling.

IRSp53 (aka BAIAP2) is a scaffold protein that couples membranes with the cytoskeleton in actin-filled protrusions such as filopodia and lamellipodia. The protein is abundantly expressed in excitatory synapses and is essential for synapse development and synaptic plasticity, although with poorly understood mechanisms. Here we show that specific multivalent interactions between IRSp53 and its binding partners PSD-95 or Shank3 drive phase separation of the complexes in solution.

Partially pruned DNN coupled with parallel Monte-Carlo algorithm for path loss prediction in underwater wireless optical channels.

In this paper, we propose a new approach to solve the radiative transfer equation (RTE) and determine the path loss for line-of-sight (LOS) propagation with laser diode sources in underwater wireless optical channels, which severely suffers from attenuation due to inevitable absorption and scattering. The scheme is based on an effective combination of Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation employed for dataset generation and a partially pruned deep neural network (PPDNN) utilized to predict the received optical power. First, a parallel MC algorithm is newly introduced and applied to speed up the dataset-generation process.

Demonstration of a 2 × 2 MIMO-UWOC system with large spot against air bubbles.

In order to reduce turbulence-induced scintillation and deal with alignment problems, a 2×2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. With help of the large divergence angle of light beams and large field of view (FOV) of the detectors, the effect of high-density air bubbles is greatly eliminated. Simulation and experimental results confirm that, in most intensity-modulation/direct-detection (IM/DD) MIMO-UWOC systems, the repetition coding (RC) scheme performs better than the space-time block coding (STBC) scheme.

Ferristatin II, an Iron Uptake Inhibitor, Exerts Neuroprotection against Traumatic Brain Injury via Suppressing Ferroptosis.

As a specific ferroptosis marker, transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) expression is increased following traumatic brain injury (TBI), but the precise role of TfR1 in TBI-induced ferroptosis and neurodegeneration remains to be determined. To further identify more potent ferroptosis inhibitors and effective targets for treating TBI, our study aims at investigating the effects of TfR1 on ferroptosis in a mouse TBI model using ferristatin II (an iron uptake and TfR1 inhibitor). The effect of ferristatin II was first verified in the HT-22 cell line and showed antiferroptotic action when exposed to ferric citrate (FAC), which is in parallel with the results obtained from the positive controls, including deferoxamine (DFO) and liproxstatin-1 (Lip-1).

Assembly of model postsynaptic densities involves interactions auxiliary to stoichiometric binding.

The assembly of functional biomolecular condensates often involves liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins with multiple modular domains, which can be folded or conformationally disordered to various degrees. To understand the LLPS-driving domain-domain interactions, a fundamental question is how readily the interactions in the condensed phase can be inferred from interdomain interactions in dilute solutions. In particular, are the interactions leading to LLPS exclusively those underlying the formation of discrete interdomain complexes in homogeneous solutions? We address this question by developing a mean-field LLPS theory of two stoichiometrically constrained solute species.

Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Biology: Specific Stoichiometric Molecular Interactions vs Promiscuous Interactions Mediated by Disordered Sequences.

Extensive studies in the past few years have shown that nonmembrane bound organelles are likely assembled via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), a process that is driven by multivalent protein-protein and/or protein-nucleic acid interactions. Both stoichiometric molecular interactions and intrinsically disordered region (IDR)-driven interactions can promote the assembly of membraneless organelles, and the field is currently dominated by IDR-driven biological condensate formation. Here we discuss recent studies that demonstrate the importance of specific biomolecular interactions for functions of diverse physiological condensates.

Multi-vibration information fusion for detection of HVCB faults using CART and D-S evidence theory.

The condition of a high-voltage circuit breaker (HVCB) may have a major effect on a power system. In the practical application of artificial intelligence, many advanced technologies have been applied to the assessment of the state of health of a HVCB or the identification of a fault. To date, most related research related to the improvement of a feature extraction process or a classification method intended to attain a higher level of precision have been based on a single sensor.

Glucose starvation induces mitochondrial fragmentation depending on the dynamin GTPase Dnm1/Drp1 in fission yeast.

Mitochondria undergo morphological and dynamic changes in response to environmental stresses. Few studies have focused on addressing mitochondrial remodeling under stress. Using the fission yeast as a model organism, here we investigated mitochondrial remodeling under glucose starvation.