Space information network (SIN) is a promising networking architecture to significantly broaden the observation area and realize continuous information acquisition for earth observation. Over the ...dynamic and complex SIN environment, it is a key issue to coordinate multi-dimensional heterogeneous network resources (e.g., observation resource and transmission resource) in the presence of multi-resource variations and severe conflicts, such that diverse earth observation service requirements can be satisfied. To this end, this paper studies the multi-resource coordinate scheduling problem in SINs. Specifically, we first characterize the relationship among multi-resource using an event-driven time-expanded graph (EDTEG). Based on the EDTEG, observation resource and transmission resource are jointly considered, and an integer linear programming optimization problem is formulated to maximize the sum priorities of the successfully scheduled tasks. An iterative optimization technique is employed to decompose the problem into separate observation scheduling and transmission scheduling sub-problems, which can be efficiently solved by extended transmission time sharing graph and directed acyclic graph methods, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and performance impacts of different network parameters.
The study of metal phosphide catalysts for organic synthesis is rare. We present, for the first time, a well-defined nano-cobalt phosphide (nano-Co
2
P) that can serve as a new class of catalysts for ...the hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines. While earth-abundant metal catalysts for nitrile hydrogenation generally suffer from air-instability (pyrophoricity), low activity and the need for harsh reaction conditions, nano-Co
2
P shows both air-stability and remarkably high activity for the hydrogenation of valeronitrile with an excellent turnover number exceeding 58000, which is over 20- to 500-fold greater than that of those previously reported. Moreover, nano-Co
2
P efficiently promotes the hydrogenation of a wide range of nitriles, which include di- and tetra-nitriles, to the corresponding primary amines even under just 1 bar of H
2
pressure, far milder than the conventional reaction conditions. Detailed spectroscopic studies reveal that the high performance of nano-Co
2
P is attributed to its air-stable metallic nature and the increase of the d-electron density of Co near the Fermi level by the phosphidation of Co, which thus leads to the accelerated activation of both nitrile and H
2
. Such a phosphidation provides a promising method for the design of an advanced catalyst with high activity and stability in highly efficient and environmentally benign hydrogenations.
A well-defined nano-cobalt phosphide serves as an air-stable, highly active and reusable heterogeneous catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines under mild reaction conditions.
Obesity is a significant health concern that often leads to metabolic dysfunction and chronic diseases. This study introduces a novel approach to combat obesity using orally ingested self‐powered ...electrostimulators. These electrostimulators consist of piezoelectric BaTiO3 (BTO) particles conjugated with capsaicin (Cap) and aim to activate the vagus nerve. Upon ingestion by diet‐induced obese (DIO) mice, the BTO@Cap particles specifically target and bind to Cap‐sensitive sensory nerve endings in the gastric mucosa. In response to stomach peristalsis, these particles generate electrical signals. The signals travel via the gut–brain axis, ultimately influencing the hypothalamus. By enhancing satiety signals in the brain, this neuromodulatory intervention reduces food intake, promotes energy metabolism, and demonstrates minimal toxicity. Over a 3‐week period of daily treatments, DIO mice treated with BTO@Cap particles show a significant reduction in body weight compared to control mice, while maintaining their general locomotor activity. Furthermore, this BTO@Cap particle‐based treatment mitigates various metabolic alterations associated with obesity. Importantly, this noninvasive and easy‐to‐administer intervention holds potential for addressing other intracerebral neurological diseases.
After oral administration in mice, the piezoelectric BTO@Cap particles target and bind to the capsaicin‐sensitive mucosal nerve endings on the gastric surface. In response to gastric movement, these particles spontaneously generate mild electric pulses, stimulating the vagal afferent fibers. These fibers then transmit the stimulated signals to the brain, regulating food intake and energy expenditure, ultimately facilitating obesity management.
Traditional satellite networks are generally locked down to a specific space mission, with isolated substrate infrastructure as well as network resources. This forbids dynamic resource sharing among ...different networks, and thus leads to resource under utilization, poor service provisioning and unacceptable expenditure. In this regard, it is crucial to embrace emerging technologies such as software-defined networking and network virtualization to construct a FRBSN. Both the resource management architecture and enabling strategies are explicitly investigated to realize FRBSN. Specifically, we propose a novel TERG to precisely describe the evolution of multi-dimensional resources in BSN, and reveal the continuity and correlation relationships among various resources. Based on TERG, we further propose an optimal resource allocation strategy to facilitate efficient cooperation among various resources. The achievable performance limits are demonstrated by simulations under a realistic BSN setting.
Network control strategies for energy-efficient operation of HetNets need to match the dynamics of spatial and temporal traffic loads and to stabilize the network. In this paper, we develop a ...stochastic optimization framework, which formulates spatially inhomogeneous traffic distributions and time-varyingly random traffic arrivals and guarantees network stability, to investigate the energy conservation problem in HetNets. In particular, we jointly optimize base station (BS) operation, user association, subcarrier assignment, and power allocation to minimize the average energy consumption. We devise an algorithm without requiring any prior-knowledge of traffic distributions, referred to as the Steerable Energy ExpenDiture algorithm (SEED), to solve the problem. To deal with a highly coupled and mixed combinational subproblem in the SEED, we separate optimization variables for suboptimal but cost-efficient and easy-to-implement algorithm design. By this, we develop closed-form solutions for both user association and subcarrier assignment, a fast and tuning-free algorithm that provably achieves at least local optimality for power allocation, and a greedy-style heuristic algorithm for BS operation with polynomial complexity. Simulation results exhibit that the SEED usually converges fast, can flexibly tune the power-delay tradeoff, and can significantly reduce energy consumption against other existing schemes.
In order to investigate the properties of metal to metal charge transfer (MMCT) influenced by the relative energy level between the bridging unit and the terminal unit, two groups of ...heterotrimetallic cyanido-metal-bridged complexes,
trans
-Cp(dppe)Fe-CN-Ru(MeOpy)
4
-NC-Fe(dppe)CpX
n
(
1X
n
;
n
= 2, 3, or 4; X = PF
6
or BF
4
) (Cp = cyclopentadiene, dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane, MeOpy = 4-methoxypyridine) and Cp*(dppe)Fe-CN-Ru(MeOpy)
4
-NC-Fe(dppe)Cp* X
n
(
2X
n
; Cp* = 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadiene;
n
= 2, 3, or 4; X = PF
6
or BF
4
) were synthesized and fully characterized. The crystallography data suggest different oxidation sites in the ground state for one-electron oxidation products
1
3+
and
2
3+
, and the electrochemical and Mössbauer spectra suggest that in the one-electron oxidation compounds
1
3+
, the charge is delocalized all along the trimetal backbone Fe-Ru-Fe, while in
2
3+
, the charge is rather delocalized between the two metal parts Fe-Ru. Further oxidation of
N
3+
gives
N
4+
(
N
= 1 or 2), during which a spin transfer towards the terminal units is observed in both series.
A substituent change from Cp to Cp* in cyanidometal bridged Fe-Ru-Fe complexes makes the one-electron oxidation products not only show a redox site change from Ru to Fe, but also exhibit a delocalization range change from Fe-Ru-Fe to Fe-Ru.
Evolutionary and ecological forces are important factors that shape gut microbial profiles in hosts, which can help insects adapt to different environments through modulating their metabolites. ...However, little is known about how gut microbes and metabolites are altered when lepidopteran pest species switch hosts. In the present study, using 16S-rDNA sequencing and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, we analyzed the gut microbiota and metabolites of three populations of
: one feeding on radish (PxR) and two feeding on peas (PxP; with PxP-1 and PxP-17 being the first and 17th generations after host shift from radish to peas, respectively). We found that the diversity of gut microbes in PxP-17 was significantly lower than those in PxR and PxP-1, which indicates a distinct change in gut microbiota after host shift. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that the functions of energy metabolism, signal transduction, and xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism were increased in PxP-17, suggesting their potential roles in host adaptation. Metabolic profiling showed a significant difference in the abundance of gut metabolites between PxR and PxP-17, and significant correlations of gut bacteria with gut metabolites. These findings shed light on the interaction among plants, herbivores, and symbionts, and advance our understanding of host adaptation associated with gut bacteria and metabolic activities in
.
Abstract
Background
Vision loss in patients with wet/exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is associated with choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and AMD is the leading cause of ...irreversible vision impairment in older adults. Interleukin-17A (IL-17A) is a component of the microenvironment associated with some autoimmune diseases. Previous studies have indicated that wet AMD patients have elevated serum IL-17A levels. However, the effect of IL-17A on AMD progression needs to be better understood. We aimed to investigate the role of IL-17A in a laser-induced CNV mouse model.
Methods
We established a laser-induced CNV mouse model in wild-type (WT) and IL-17A-deficient mice and then evaluated the disease severity of these mice by using fluorescence angiography. We performed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to analyze the levels of IL-17A and to investigate the immune cell populations in the eyes of WT and IL-17A-deficient mice. We used ARPE-19 cells to clarify the effect of IL-17A under oxidative stress.
Results
In the laser-induced CNV model, the CNV lesions were larger in IL-17A-deficient mice than in WT mice. The numbers of γδ T cells, CD3
+
CD4
+
RORγt
+
T cells, Treg cells, and neutrophils were decreased and the number of macrophages was increased in the eyes of IL-17A-deficient mice compared with WT mice. In WT mice, IL-17A-producing γδ T-cell numbers increased in a time-dependent manner from day 7 to 28 after laser injury. IL-6 levels increased and IL-10, IL-24, IL-17F, and GM-CSF levels decreased in the eyes of IL-17A-deficient mice after laser injury. In vitro
,
IL-17A inhibited apoptosis and induced the expression of the antioxidant protein HO-1 in ARPE-19 cells under oxidative stress conditions. IL-17A facilitated the repair of oxidative stress-induced barrier dysfunction in ARPE-19 cells.
Conclusions
Our findings provide new insight into the protective effect of IL-17A in a laser-induced CNV model and reveal a novel regulatory role of IL-17A-producing γδ T cells in the ocular microenvironment in wet AMD.
Aims
To investigate the risk of diabetic macular oedema (DMO) associated with the use of sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Materials ...and Methods
We conducted a retrospective cohort study by analysing a large multi‐institutional electronic medical records database in Taiwan. We included adult patients with T2DM without DMO newly receiving either SGLT2 inhibitors or glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists (GLP‐1RAs) during the period 2016 to 2018. We used propensity scores with inverse probability of treatment weighting to generate comparable groups. The study outcome was incident DMO, determined by clinical diagnosis during outpatient visits or admissions. We followed patients from the index date to either DMO occurrence, last clinical visit, patient death, or December 31, 2020. We performed Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of DMO.
Results
We included 9986 new users of SGLT2 inhibitors (mean SD age 59.6 (12.1) years, median interquartile range {IQR} glycated haemoglobin HbA1c 70 (61‐81)mmol/mol, estimated glomerular filtration rate eGFR 89.1 71.4‐108.7 mL/min/1.73 m2 and urine albumin‐creatinine ratio UACR 26.1 9.7‐117.6 mg/g) and 1067 new users of GLP‐1RAs (mean SD age 58.4 (41.5) years, median IQR HbA1c 73 64‐84 mmol/mol, eGFR 91.6 68.6‐114.0 mL/min/1.73 m2 and UACR 37.6 11.1‐153.2 mg/g) with similar baseline characteristics. Lower DMO risks were observed among patients newly receiving SGLT2 inhibitors (7.9/1000 person‐years), compared to those receiving GLP‐1RAs (10.7/1000 person‐years) with an HR of 0.75 (95% CI 0.64‐0.88).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest use of SGLT2 inhibitors was associated with lower risk of DMO in T2DM patients in clinical practice, compared to use of GLP‐1RAs. Future studies are necessary to confirm this observation.
The quality of mitochondria in skeletal muscle is essential for maintaining metabolic homeostasis during adaptive stress responses. However, the precise control mechanism of muscle mitochondrial ...quality and its physiological impacts remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that FUNDC1, a mediator of mitophagy, plays a critical role in controlling muscle mitochondrial quality as well as metabolic homeostasis. Skeletal-muscle-specific ablation of FUNDC1 in mice resulted in LC3-mediated mitophagy defect, leading to impaired mitochondrial energetics. This caused decreased muscle fat utilization and endurance capacity during exercise. Interestingly, mice lacking muscle FUNDC1 were protected against high-fat-diet-induced obesity with improved systemic insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance despite reduced muscle mitochondrial energetics. Mechanistically, FUNDC1 deficiency elicited a retrograde response in muscle that upregulated FGF21 expression, thereby promoting the thermogenic remodeling of adipose tissue. Thus, these findings reveal a pivotal role of FUNDC1-dependent mitochondrial quality control in mediating the muscle-adipose dialog to regulate systemic metabolism.
Display omitted
•Muscle FUNDC1 is a crucial regulator of fat utilization and exercise capacity•FUNDC1-dependent mitophagy regulates mitochondrial function in muscle•Loss of muscle FUNDC1 alleviates high-fat-diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance•FUNDC1 deficiency triggers muscle-adipose crosstalk to promote fat burning in adipose
Mitochondrial quality is essential to muscle function. How muscle mitochondrial quality is regulated and its physiological impacts remain unclear. Fu et al. show that loss of FUNDC1-dependent mitochondrial quality control in muscle alleviates high-fat-diet-induced obesity and improves systemic glucose homeostasis through promoting exercise-independent fat burning in adipose tissue.