Early-warning ecological risk assessments of multi-element pollution in the surface soil of karst basins in southwest China based on the delayed geochemical hazard model.

Soil potentially toxic element (PTE) pollution, especially in karst regions, poses significant ecological risks due to the unique geological features and environmental conditions. This study focuses on the delayed geochemical hazard (DGH) model to assess the progressive risks of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) contamination in the surface soils of karst regions in southwestern China. The study found that Pb and Cd pollution in karst areas presents ecological risks, with the region's high porosity and alkaline soils facilitating the transformation of pollutants from stable to mobile forms.

Optimization of motion-corrected liver diffusion-weighted imaging at 3 Tesla (3T): incorporating complex averaging and reparametrized sinc fatsat pulse with optimized water excitation pulse.

Background: In liver diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), single-shot echo-planar imaging (SS-EPI) sequences are susceptible to motion artifacts, resulting in image blurring and decreased lesion detection rates. This study aimed to develop and optimize a motion-corrected (MOCO) technique for liver DWI at 3 Tesla (3T). The technique incorporates motion correction, complex averaging, and a combination of a reparametrized sinc fatsat pulse with an optimized water excitation pulse.

scEpiAge: an age predictor highlighting single-cell ageing heterogeneity in mouse blood.

Ageing is the accumulation of changes and decline of function of organisms over time. The concept and biomarkers of biological age have been established, notably DNA methylation-based clocks. The emergence of single-cell DNA methylation profiling methods opens the possibility of studying the biological age of individual cells.

Effect of Stroke Etiology on Endovascular Treatment for Acute Basilar-Artery Occlusion: A Post Hoc Analysis of the ATTENTION Randomized Trial.

Background: Stroke etiology could influence the outcomes in patients with basilar-artery occlusion (BAO). This study aimed to evaluate the differences in efficacy and safety of best medical treatment (BMT) plus endovascular treatment (EVT) versus BMT alone in acute BAO across different stroke etiologies.

Methods: The study was a post hoc analysis of the ATTENTION trial (Trial of Endovascular Treatment of Acute Basilar-Artery Occlusion), which was a multicenter, randomized trial at 36 centers in China from February 2021 to September 2022.

Precise Helium Sieving from Hydrogen Using Fluorine-Decorated Carbon Hollow Fiber Membranes.

Separating helium (He) and hydrogen (H), two gases that are extremely similar in molecular size and condensation properties, presents a formidable challenge in the helium industry. The development of membranes capable of precisely differentiating between these gases is crucial for achieving large-scale, energy-efficient He/H separation. However, the limited selectivity of current membranes has hindered their practical application.

Cancer Incidence After Diagnosis of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm-Brief Report.

Background: Epidemiological and mechanistic data support a potential causal link between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) represent a common form of CVD with at least partially distinct genetic and biologic pathogenesis from other forms of CVD. The risk of cancer and how this risk differs compared with other forms of CVD, is unknown among AAA patients.

Managing differential performance of polygenic risk scores across groups: Real-world experience of the eMERGE Network.

The differential performance of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) by group is one of the major ethical barriers to their clinical use. It is also one of the main practical challenges for any implementation effort. The social repercussions of how people are grouped in PRS research must be considered in communications with research participants, including return of results.

Cr-catalyzed borylation of C(aryl)-F bonds using a terpyridine ligand.

The defluoroborylation of fluoroarenes by chromium-catalyzed cleavage of unactivated C-F bonds is described. The reaction uses HBpin as the boron source, low-cost and commercially available chromium salt as the precatalyst, and terpyridine as a crucial ligand, providing a protocol with atom-efficient benefits and a wide range of applicable substrates for the functionalization of aryl C-F bonds. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicate that an unprecedented Cr-catalyzed magnesiation of the unactivated C-F bond occurred.

Discovery of a Covalent Inhibitor Selectively Targeting the Autophosphorylation Site of c-Src Kinase.

Nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c-Src plays a crucial role in cell signaling and contributes to tumor progression. However, the development of selective c-Src inhibitors turns out to be challenging. In our previous study, we performed posttranslational modification-inspired drug design (PTMI-DD) to provide a plausible way for designing selective kinase inhibitors.

Integrating high-throughput phenotypic profiling and transcriptomic analyses to predict the hepatosteatosis effects induced by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a large compound class (n > 12,000) that is extensively present in food, drinking water, and aquatic environments. Reduced serum triglycerides and hepatosteatosis appear to be the common phenotypes for different PFAS chemicals. However, the hepatosteatosis potential of most PFAS chemicals remains largely unknown.

Recognizing the situation awareness of forklift operators based on EEG techniques in a field experiment.

Lack of situation awareness (SA) is the primary cause of human errors when operating forklifts, so determining the SA level of the forklift operator is crucial to the safety of forklift operations. An EEG recognition approach of forklift operator SA in actual settings was presented in order to address the issues with invasiveness, subjectivity, and intermittency of existing measuring methods. In this paper, we conducted a field experiment that mimicked a typical forklift operation scenario to verify the differences in EEG states of forklift operators with different SA levels and investigate the correlation of multi-band combination features of each brain region of forklift operators with SA.

Engineering a Dynamic Solvent-Phobic Liquid Electrolyte Interphase for Long-Life Lithium Metal Batteries.

The heterogeneity, species diversity, and poor mechanical stability of solid electrolyte interphases (SEIs) in conventional carbonate electrolytes result in the irreversible exhaustion of lithium (Li) and electrolytes during cycling, hindering the practical applications of Li metal batteries (LMBs). Herein, this work proposes a solvent-phobic dynamic liquid electrolyte interphase (DLEI) on a Li metal (Li-PFbTHF (perfluoro-butyltetrahydrofuran)) surface that selectively transports salt and induces salt-derived SEI formation. The solvent-phobic DLEI with C-F-rich groups dramatically reduces the side reactions between Li, carbonate solvents, and humid air, forming a LiF/LiPO-rich SEI.

Promoting C-F bond activation via proton donor for CF decomposition.

Tetrafluoromethane (CF), the simplest perfluorocarbons, is a permanently potent greenhouse gas due to its powerful infrared radiation adsorption capacity. The highly symmetric and robust C-F bond structure makes its activation a great challenge. Herein, we presented an innovated approach that efficiently activates C-F bond utilizing protonated sulfate (-HSO) modified AlO@ZrO (S-AlO@ZrO) catalyst, resulting in highly efficient CF decomposition.

Female-specific pancreatic cancer survival from CT imaging of visceral fat implicates glutathione metabolism in solid tumors.

Rationale And Objectives: To identify if body composition, assessed with preoperative CT-based visceral fat ratio quantification as well as tumor metabolic gene expression, predicts sex-dependent overall survival (OS) in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of preoperative CT in 98 male and 107 female patients with PDAC. Relative visceral fat (rVFA; visceral fat normalized to total fat) was measured automatically using software and corrected manually.

Engineering C /ZrB -SiC-Y O for Thermal Structures of Hypersonic Vehicles with Excellent Long-Term Ultrahigh Temperature Ablation Resistance.

Ultrahigh temperature ceramic matrix composites (UHTCMCs) are critical for the development of high Mach reusable hypersonic vehicles. Although various materials are utilized as the thermal components of hypersonic vehicles, it is still challenging to meet the ultrahigh temperature ablation-resistant and reusability. Herein, the Y O reinforced C /ZrB -SiC composites are designed, which demonstrates near-zero damage under long-term ablation at temperatures up to 2500 °C for ten cycles.

LncRNA MEG3: Targeting the Molecular Mechanisms and Pathogenic causes of Metabolic Diseases.

Background: Non-coding RNA is a type of RNA that does not encode proteins, distributed among rRNA, tRNA, snRNA, snoRNA, microRNA and other RNAs with identified functions, where the Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) displays a nucleotide length over 200. LncRNAs enable multiple biological processes in the human body, including cancer cell invasion and metastasis, apoptosis, cell autophagy, inflammation, etc. Recently, a growing body of studies has demonstrated the association of lncRNAs with obesity and obesity-induced insulin resistance and NAFLD, where MEG3 is related to glucose metabolism, such as insulin resistance.

Desymmetrization of Geminal Difluoromethylenes using a Palladium/Copper/Lithium Ternary System for the Stereodivergent Synthesis of Fluorinated Amino Acids.

Fluorinated amino acids and related peptides/proteins have been found widespread applications in pharmaceutical and agricultural compounds. However, strategies for introducing a C-F bond into amino acids in an enantioselective manner are still limited and no such asymmetric catalysis strategy has been reported. Herein, we have successfully developed a Pd/Cu/Li ternary system for stereodivergent synthesis of chiral fluorinated amino acids.

Optical Coherence Tomographic Optic Nerve Head Morphology in Myopia III: The Exposed Neural Canal Region in Healthy Eyes-Implications for High Myopia.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence and magnitude of optical coherence tomography (OCT) exposed neural canal (ENC), externally oblique choroidal border tissue (EOCBT), and exposed scleral flange (ESF) regions in 362 non-highly myopic (spherical equivalent -6.00 to 5.75 diopters) eyes of 362 healthy subjects.

Nickel-Catalyzed Selective C(sp )-F Bond Alkylation of Industrially Relevant Hydrofluoroolefin HFO-1234yf.

The selective transition-metal catalyzed C-F bond functionalization of inexpensive industrial fluorochemicals represents one of the most attractive approaches to valuable fluorinated compounds. However, the selective C(sp )-F bond carbofunctionalization of refrigerant hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) remains challenging. Here, we report a nickel-catalyzed selective C(sp )-F bond alkylation of HFO-1234yf with alkylzinc reagents.

Surface Engineering of Fluorinated Graphene Nanosheets Enables Ultrafast Lithium/Sodium/Potassium Primary Batteries.

Fluorinated carbon (CF ) is considered as a promising cathode material for lithium/sodium/potassium primary batteries with superior theoretical energy density. However, achieving high energy and power densities simultaneously remains a considerable challenge due to the strong covalency of the C-F bond in the highly fluorinated CF . Herein, an efficient surface engineering strategy combining surface defluorination and nitrogen doping enables fluorinated graphene nanosheets (DFG-N) to possess controllable conductive nanolayers and reasonably regulated C-F bonds.

Computational Study of Photodegradation Process and Conversion Products of the Antidepressant Citalopram in Water.

Citalopram (CIT) is a commonly prescribed medication for depression. However, the photodegradation mechanism of CIT has not yet been fully analyzed. Therefore, the photodegradation process of CIT in water is studied by density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory.