Enhanced effect of ferrous sulfate on nitrogen retention and PBAT degradation during co-composting by combing with biochar-loaded FN1 bacterial composites.

The treatment of biodegradable plastics through composting has garnered increasing attention. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Biochar FN1 bacteria and ferrous sulfate on nitrogen retention, greenhouse gas emissions, and degradable plastics during composting and to elucidate their synergistic mechanisms on microbial communities. Compared with the control, applying biochar-loaded FN1 bacteria composites combined with Ferrous sulfate (SGC) markedly accelerated organic matter degradation and reduced cumulative CO and NH emissions.

Suspended sediment (SPS) triggers nitrogen retention by altering microbial network stability and electron transport behavior during the aerobic-anoxic transition.

NO-N transformation, the vital biological process, determines nitrogen removal and retention in aquatic environment. Suspended sediment (SPS) ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems can accelerate the transitions from aerobic to anoxic states, inevitably impacting NO-N transformation. To elaborate on the microbial mechanism by which SPS content affected NO-N transformation, we explored nitrogen removal and retention, microbial communities, co-occurrence networks, and electron transfer behavior under different SPS content during the aerobic-anoxic transition.

The influence of enterprise ESG performance on overseas business income - Evidence from China.

As an emerging information disclosure system, enterprise ESG performance holds substantial importance for the international expansion of Chinese enterprises. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of literature examining the relationship between the ESG performance of Chinese enterprises and their overseas business income. This research utilizes data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning from 2009 to 2022 to explore the causal link between ESG performance and overseas business income.

Identifying priority conservation areas for threatened amphibian habitats in the Yangtze river Delta region to maintain regional biodiversity.

The complex life cycle traits of amphibians make them especially sensitive to environmental change, and their ongoing conservation requires the maintenance of suitable habitat that accounts for such life cycle characteristics which may impacted by local environmental dynamics arising from climate change and human disturbance. Many existing studies on amphibian habitats disregard this important issue, leading to uncertainty in managing critical habitats. The application of appropriate conservation practices is therefore constrained by the fact that the major factors influencing amphibian habitats, and their spatio-temporal dynamics at different life stages, are poorly understood.

Removal, conversion and utilization technologies of alkali components in bayer red mud.

Bayer red mud is a highly alkaline industrial solid waste generated during alumina production, and its massive discharge and stockpiling poses significant environmental risks. The strong alkalinity of red mud is a primary challenge limiting its effective utilization. This study systematically analyzes the composition and characteristics of alkaline components in red mud, emphasizing the roles of soluble free alkali and chemically bound alkali in regulating its alkalinity.

Exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles disrupts the BTB by interfering with the assembly of stress granules in germ cells.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs) are among the most prevalent nanomaterials utilized in industrial and medical fields. However, their impact on spermatogenesis and male fertility remains insufficiently characterized. This study addresses the reproductive toxicity of TiO NPs and elucidates the underlying molecular mechanisms involved.

A bimodal closed-loop neuromodulation implant integrated with ultraflexible probes to treat epilepsy.

Anti-seizure medications and deep brain stimulation are widely used therapies to treat seizures; however, both face limitations such as resistance and the unpredictable nature of seizures. Recent advancements, including responsive neural stimulation and on-demand drug release, have been developed to address these challenges. However, a gap remains, as electrical stimulation provides only transient effects while medication has a delayed onset.

Perioperative immunotherapy plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for patients with resectable pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma.

Background: Primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (PLELC) is a rare subtype of non-small-cell lung cancer. This study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of perioperative PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in stage II-IIIB PLELC patients.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study included stage II-IIIB PLELC patients.

Stearic acid metabolism in human health and disease.

Named after the Greek term for "hard fat", stearic acid has gradually entered people's field of vision. As an important component of various physiological cellular functions, stearic acid plays a regulatory role in diverse aspects of energy metabolism and signal transduction. Its applications range from serving as a bodily energy source to participating in endogenous biosynthesis.

Accelerated quadratic penalty dynamic approaches with applications to distributed optimization.

In this paper, we explore accelerated continuous-time dynamic approaches with a vanishing damping α/t, driven by a quadratic penalty function designed for linearly constrained convex optimization problems. We replace these linear constraints with penalty terms incorporated into the objective function, where the penalty coefficient grows to +∞ as t tends to infinity. With appropriate penalty coefficients, we establish convergence rates of O(1/t) for the objective residual and the feasibility violation when α>0, and demonstrate the robustness of these convergence rates against external perturbation.

Explicitly diverse visual question generation.

Visual question generation involves the generation of meaningful questions about an image. Although we have made significant progress in automatically generating a single high-quality question related to an image, existing methods often ignore the diversity and interpretability of generated questions, which are important for various daily tasks that require clear question sources. In this paper, we propose an explicitly diverse visual question generation model that aims to generate diverse questions based on interpretable question sources.

CMFX: Cross-modal fusion network for RGB-X crowd counting.

Currently, for obtaining more accurate counts, existing methods primarily utilize RGB images combined with features of complementary modality (X-modality) for counting. However, designing a model that can adapt to various sensors is still an unsolved issue due to the differences in features between different modalities. Therefore, this paper proposes a unified fusion framework called CMFX for RGB-X crowd counting.

A sparse and wide neural network model for DNA sequences.

Accurate modeling of DNA sequences requires capturing distant semantic relationships between the nucleotide acid bases. Most existing deep neural network models face two challenges: (1) they are limited to short DNA fragments and cannot capture long-range interactions, and (2) they require many supervised labels, which is often expensive in practice. We propose a new neural network model called SwanDNA to address the above challenges.

Ginsenoside Rh2 promotes cell apoptosis in T-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia by MAPK and PI3K/AKT signalling pathways.

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) is a common childhood malignant tumour, which has poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Ginsenoside Rh2 (GRh2), a bioactive ingredient of has significant anti-tumour effect. In this study, we found that gene expressions of Jurkat cells were significantly changed in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signalling pathways after 35 µm GRh2 treatment, involving in JUN, PIEN, AKT3 and MAPK8IP2.

Protocol for conditional mutagenesis in zebrafish germ cells using Tol2 transposon and a CRISPR-Cas9-based plasmid system.

Here, we present a protocol for conditional mutagenesis in zebrafish germ cells using Tol2 transposon and a CRISPR-Cas9-based plasmid system. We describe steps for conditional mutagenesis plasmid construction, zebrafish embryo microinjection, and screening for green fluorescence in the heart. This protocol is simple to execute, time efficient, and multifunctional, enabling the disruption of genes in zebrafish germ cells to be conducted with ease.

Causal contributions of cell-type-specific circuits in the posterior dorsal striatum to auditory decision-making.

In the dorsal striatum (DS), the direct- and indirect-pathway striatal projection neurons (dSPNs and iSPNs) play crucial opposing roles in controlling actions. However, it remains unclear whether and how dSPNs and iSPNs provide distinct and specific contributions to decision-making, a process transforming sensory inputs to actions. Here, we perform causal interrogations on the roles of dSPNs and iSPNs in the posterior DS (pDS) in auditory-guided decision-making.

Non-pharmacological treatment strategies for anthropometric, physical capacity and physiological indicators among sarcopenic obesity patients: a systematic review of rigorous randomized controlled trials.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of non-pharmacological treatments on sarcopenic obesity (SO).

Methods: A search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on SO was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, CENTRAL, SPORTDiscus, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP. A meta-analysis was conducted using random-effects models for MDs.

Immune checkpoint B7-H3 is a potential therapeutic target in prostate cancer.

High expression of immune checkpoint molecule B7-H3 (CD276) in many cancer types makes it a promising immunotherapeutic target. Both coinhibitory and costimulatory effects of B7-H3 in tumors have been demonstrated, but the mechanism of B7-H3 immune response under dual effects is open to question. B7-H3 is crucially involved in the migration and invasion, angiogenesis, metabolism and chemotherapy resistance of prostate cancer.

OsPAD1, encoding a non-specific lipid transfer protein, is required for rice pollen aperture formation.

Plant lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are distinguished by their capacity to facilitate lipid transport in vitro between membranes. This includes the transportation of lipid constituents from the tapetum to the microspore, thereby playing a pivotal role in the synthesis and construction of the pollen wall, encompassing the formation of the pollen aperture. However, our understanding of LTPs and their role in pollen aperture formation in rice remains limited.

Relationships between blood cadmium concentration and risk of nine cancers: evidence from the NHANES 1999-2018 and Mendelian randomization analyses.

Background: Previous observational studies examining the relationship between cadmium exposure and various cancers have yielded conflicting results. This study aims to comprehensively clarify the relationship between blood cadmium concentration (BCC) and nine specific cancers.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2018 identified 36,991 participants.

Executive function in young children with and without global developmental delays: Association with mastery motivation and developmental abilities.

Executive functions (EF) affect child competencies across domains in early childhood. Thus, this study examined: 1) the EF differences between young children with global developmental delays (GDD) and those with typical development (TD); 2) the relationship between mastery motivation (MM) and EF; 3) the association between developmental abilities and EF in both groups. Participants included 26 mother-child dyads of preschoolers with GDD (age 24-55 months) and 26 sex- and mental-age-matched dyads of TD preschoolers (age 15-29 months).

A clinical pilot trial of an artificial intelligence-driven smart phone application of bowel preparation for colonoscopy: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: High-quality bowel preparation is paramount for a successful colonoscopy. This study aimed to explore the effect of artificial intelligence-driven smartphone software on the quality of bowel preparation.

Methods: Firstly, we utilized 3305 valid liquid dung images collected mobile phones as training data.

Flowing-water remediation simulation experiments of lead-contaminated soil using UCB technology.

The flowing-water remediation of contaminated soil was investigated. Urease combined with biochar (UCB) technology was used to handle the Pb-contaminated sand column. The results showed that with the continuous increase of pore volume, the concentration of Pb in the leachate undergoes three stages: slow growth, rapid growth, and steady state.