Neuroprotective effects of phenylacetylglycine via β2AR on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats.

Phenylacetylglycine (PAGly) is a small molecule derived from phenylalanine in the gut glycine degradation and conjugation. It has been associated with both the progression of atherosclerosis and protective effects on the myocardium. This study evaluated the function and the underlying mechanisms of PAGly in a rat cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury model.

Ab initio uncertainty quantification in scattering analysis of microscopy.

Estimating parameters from data is a fundamental problem in physics, customarily done by minimizing a loss function between a model and observed statistics. In scattering-based analysis, it is common to work in the reciprocal space. Researchers often employ their domain expertise to select a specific range of wave vectors for analysis, a choice that can vary depending on the specific case.

Sex-specific effects of intermittent fasting on hippocampal neurogenesis the gut-brain axis.

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a widely used dietary strategy that has shown several advantageous impacts on general health and aging. IF has recently been linked to the control of neurogenesis, a crucial process for emotional control, memory, and learning, in the hippocampus. Nevertheless, there is little knowledge about the sex-specific impacts of IF on hippocampal neurogenesis and the related mechanisms, which were investigated in this study among both male and female rats, together with analyzing the involvement of the flora-gut-brain axis in facilitating these effects.

Disodium Cromoglycate Templates Anisotropic Short-Chain PEG Hydrogels.

Anisotropic hydrogels have found widespread applications in biomedical engineering, particularly as scaffolds for tissue engineering. However, it remains a challenge to produce them using conventional fabrication methods, without specialized synthesis or equipment, such as 3D printing and unidirectional stretching. In this study, we explore the self-assembly behaviors of polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), using disodium cromoglycate (DSCG), a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal, as a removable template.

The Droplet Creeping-Sliding Dynamic Wetting Mechanism on Bionic Self-Cleaning Surfaces.

The dynamic wetting behavior of droplets has been of wide concern due to the hazards of accretion/icing of supercooled droplets on engineering components/systems served in low temperature freezing rain environment; thus, it is urgent to establish the relationship between droplet depinning/removing behaviors and surface characteristics. In this article, the actual rotation conditions of moving components such as wind turbine blades are simulated. The self-cleaning hydrophobic coating surface(S1) and bionic superhydrophobic coating surface(S2) show outstanding droplet removal performance compared to hydrophilic bare steel surface(S0), and the average speed of the droplet removal is increased by 400-500%.

The dynamic risk spillover effects among carbon, renewable energy, and electricity markets based on the TVP-VAR-DY model.

The linkages among carbon, renewable energy, and electricity markets are gradually strengthening. In order to prevent risk transmission among markets, this paper uses the TVP-VAR-DY (Time-Varying Parameter-Vector Auto Regression-Dynamic) model to analyze the dynamic risk spillover effects and network structure of risk transmission among carbon, renewable energy, and electricity markets. The empirical results show that there are significant asymmetric spillover effects among carbon, renewable energy, and electricity markets.

Coacervate or precipitate? Formation of non-equilibrium microstructures in coacervate emulsions.

Non-equilibrium processing of aqueous polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) coacervates is critical to many applications. In particular, many coacervate-forming systems are known to become trapped in out-of-equilibrium states (, precipitation). The mechanism and conditions under which these states form, and whether they age, is not clearly understood.

An ultrasensitive colorimetric biosensor for the detection of Gram-positive bacteria by integrating paper-based enrichment and carbon dot-based selective recognition.

Rapid screening of bacteria by low-cost and eco-friendly material-based approaches is still a major challenge. Herein, a colorimetric biosensor was designed for the ultrasensitive and rapid detection of Gram-positive bacteria. The biosensor exploited polydopamine and polyethyleneimine (PDA-PEI)-modified papers for separating bacteria and carbon dots (CDs) for selective colorimetric detection of Gram-positive bacteria.

Molecular-scale substrate anisotropy, crowding and division drive collective behaviours in cell monolayers.

The ability of cells to reorganize in response to external stimuli is important in areas ranging from morphogenesis to tissue engineering. While nematic order is common in biological tissues, it typically only extends to small regions of cells interacting via steric repulsion. On isotropic substrates, elongated cells can co-align due to steric effects, forming ordered but randomly oriented finite-size domains.

Genetically engineered bacterium-modified magnetic particles assisted chiral recognition and colorimetric determination of D/L-tryptophan in millets.

Chiral recognition of enantiomers has always been a thorny issue since they exhibit the same properties under an achiral environment. Herein, polydopamine-functionalized magnetic particles (MP@PDA) were synthesized to immobilize the genetically engineered bacterium Escherichia coli DH5α (MP@PDA-E. coli).

Comprehensive effects of grain-size modification of electrolytic manganese residue on deep dehydration performance and microstructure of sludge.

As the by-product accompanied by sewage treatment, sludge has complex composition and high moisture content, therefore, its reutilization and disposal are still a challenge. In this paper, five kinds of quartz sand conditioners with different particle sizes (denoted as QS1, QS2, QS3, QS4 and QS5, respectively) were used to explore the effect of particle size distribution of conditioners on sludge dewatering performance. The moisture content, capillary suction time (CST), time to filter (TTF), specific resistance of filtration (SRF), particle size distribution curve, pore distribution law, scanning electron microscopy, isothermal adsorption-desorption curve and extracellular polymeric substances distribution were employed to characterize the modified sludge and explore the improvement mechanism.

Quasi-distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensor based on a low coherence light source: publisher's note.

This publisher's note contains a correction to Opt. Lett.47, 3780 (2022)10.

Topological defect-propelled swimming of nematic colloids.

Topological defects on colloids rotating in nematic liquid crystals form far-from-equilibrium structures that perform complex swim strokes in which the defects periodically extend, depin, and contract. These defect dynamics propel the colloid, generating translation from rotation. The swimmer's speed and direction are determined by the topological defect's polarity and extent of elongation.

Quasi-distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensor based on a low coherence light source.

A quasi-distributed acoustic sensor using in-line weak reflectors and a low coherence light source is presented. The dynamic strain is retrieved from the phase change of the two interfering light beams reflected by the same weak reflector. In the experiments, two vibrations at different channels along a weak reflector array are successfully detected simultaneously.

Ischemic stroke and intestinal flora: an insight into brain-gut axis.

Stroke is a type of cerebrovascular disease that significantly endangers human health and lowers quality of life. This understandably places a heavy burden on society and families. In recent years, intestinal flora has attracted increasing attention from scholars worldwide, and its association with ischemic stroke is becoming a hot topic of research amongst researchers in field of stroke.

High-throughput microscopy to determine morphology, microrheology, and phase boundaries applied to phase separating coacervates.

Evolution of composition, rheology, and morphology during phase separation in complex fluids is highly coupled to rheological and mass transport processes within the emerging phases, and understanding this coupling is critical for materials design of multiphase complex fluids. Characterizing these dependencies typically requires careful measurement of a large number of equilibrium and transport properties that are difficult to measure as phase separation proceeds. Here, we propose and demonstrate a high-throughput microscopy platform to achieve simultaneous, mapping of time-evolving morphology and microrheology in phase separating complex fluids over a large compositional space.

Edge-enhancement densenet for X-ray fluoroscopy image denoising in cardiac electrophysiology procedures.

Purpose: Reducing X-ray dose increases safety in cardiac electrophysiology procedures but also increases image noise and artifacts which may affect the discernibility of devices and anatomical cues. Previous denoising methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown improvements in the quality of low-dose X-ray fluoroscopy images but may compromise clinically important details required by cardiologists.

Methods: In order to obtain denoised X-ray fluoroscopy images whilst preserving details, we propose a novel deep-learning-based denoising framework, namely edge-enhancement densenet (EEDN), in which an attention-awareness edge-enhancement module is designed to increase edge sharpness.

Uncertainty quantification and estimation in differential dynamic microscopy.

Differential dynamic microscopy (DDM) is a form of video image analysis that combines the sensitivity of scattering and the direct visualization benefits of microscopy. DDM is broadly useful in determining dynamical properties including the intermediate scattering function for many spatiotemporally correlated systems. Despite its straightforward analysis, DDM has not been fully adopted as a routine characterization tool, largely due to computational cost and lack of algorithmic robustness.

Photoinduced Acetylation of Anilines under Aqueous and Catalyst-Free Conditions.

A green and efficient visible-light induced functionalization of anilines under mild conditions has been reported. Utilizing nontoxic, cost-effective, and water-soluble diacetyl as photosensitizer and acetylating reagent, and water as the solvent, a variety of anilines were converted into the corresponding aryl ketones, iodides, and bromides. With advantages of environmentally friendly conditions, simple operation, broad substrate scope, and functional group tolerance, this reaction represents a valuable method in organic synthesis.

Ultra-Dense Denoising Network: Application to Cardiac Catheter-Based X-Ray Procedures.

Reducing radiation dose in cardiac catheter-based X-ray procedures increases safety but also image noise and artifacts. Excessive noise and artifacts can compromise vital image information, which can affect clinical decision-making. Developing more effective X-ray denoising methodologies will be beneficial to both patients and healthcare professionals by allowing imaging at lower radiation dose without compromising image information.

How Micro-/Nanostructure Evolution Influences Dynamic Wetting and Natural Deicing Abilities of Bionic Lotus Surfaces.

Anti-icing materials have become increasingly urgent for many fields such as power transmission, aviation, energy, telecommunications, and so on. Bionic lotus hydrophobic surfaces with hierarchical micro-/nanostructures show good potential of delaying ice formation; however, their icephobicity (deicing ability) has been controversial. It is mainly attributed to lack of deep understanding of the correlation between micro-/nanoscale structures, wettability, and icephobicity, as well as effective methods for evaluating the deicing ability close to natural environments.