Fixed frequency beam-scanning leaky-wave antennas have been a focus of attention for many scholars in recent years, and numerous related results have been obtained. However, these antennas suffer ...from several issues such as small beam-scanning range, low gain, and unsatisfactory impedance matching. To address these problems, this paper proposes a microstrip line (ML) antenna unit based on liquid crystal (LC) materials etched Complementary Split Ring Resonator (CSRR). In a first-of-its-kind approach, the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) structure and the ML transmission structure are combined to present the SIW-ML transmission structure. The antenna operates in the Ka-band with excellent resonance characteristics at 34.7 GHz, and the S11 parameters are below - 13 dB in the frequency range of 30-40 GHz, indicating outstanding impedance matching. By arranging 56 antenna units, a periodic leaky-wave antenna is created, enabling fixed-frequency beam-scanning at 34.7 GHz. Experimental results show that the antenna can achieve scanning of angles between - 53° and + 60° with a gain of up to 12.63 dB. Once single-beam scanning is achieved, a method combining LC and discrete amplitude weighting technique, as well as multi-beam theory, is proposed for multi-beam study. Experimental results reveal that the designed 56-unit beam-scanning antenna can effectively realize beam scanning in two directions.
Subendothelial macrophage internalization of modified lipids and foam cell formation are hallmarks of atherosclerosis. Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are involved in various cellular activities; ...however, their role in foam cell formation is not fully understood. Here, using a loss-of-function lipid accumulation screening, we identified ubiquitin-specific peptidase 9 X-linked (USP9X) as a factor that suppressed lipid uptake in macrophages. We found that USP9X expression in lesional macrophages was reduced during atherosclerosis development in both humans and rodents. Atherosclerotic lesions from macrophage USP9X-deficient mice showed increased macrophage infiltration, lipid deposition, and necrotic core content than control apolipoprotein E-KO (Apoe-/-) mice. Additionally, loss-of-function USP9X exacerbated lipid uptake, foam cell formation, and inflammatory responses in macrophages. Mechanistically, the class A1 scavenger receptor (SR-A1) was identified as a USP9X substrate that removed the K63 polyubiquitin chain at the K27 site. Genetic or pharmacological inhibition of USP9X increased SR-A1 cell surface internalization after binding of oxidized LDL (ox-LDL). The K27R mutation of SR-A1 dramatically attenuated basal and USP9X knockdown-induced ox-LDL uptake. Moreover, blocking binding of USP9X to SR-A1 with a cell-penetrating peptide exacerbated foam cell formation and atherosclerosis. In this study, we identified macrophage USP9X as a beneficial regulator of atherosclerosis and revealed the specific mechanisms for the development of potential therapeutic strategies for atherosclerosis.
Largely limited by the high dissociation energy of the O-O bond, how to effectively promote the activation of molecular oxygen (O2) on the surface of the graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has always ...been the key to improving the photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4. In this study, by utilizing the coordination reaction between F-Fe and O-Fe, a complex (ox-Fe-F-g-C3N4) with F and Fe as central atom, oxalate (ox) and g-C3N4 as ligand molecule was successfully constructed. Relevant characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations together verify that the electron transfer of complex was significantly promoted. It not only beneficial to enhance the ability of photogenerated holes (h+) to directly oxidize tetracycline (TC), but also helps to accelerate the activation of O2 to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, under the action of photoelectron reduction, a photo-Fenton oxidation platform based on Fe (III) and Fe (II) cycling can be established on the surface of F-g-C3N4. This facilitates the conversion of H2O2 generated by activating O2 into hydroxyl radicals (•OH) with higher oxidative activity. Batch degradation experiments confirmed that under the synergistic promotion of surface coordination and photo-Fenton oxidation, the photocatalytic efficiency of ox-Fe-F-g-C3N4 is nearly 4 times that of pristine g-C3N4.
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•Surface double central atom coordination enhances photoelectron transfer.•Organic acid ligand molecule promotes the activation of O2 to generate ROS.•Photo-Fenton oxidation system accelerates the decomposition of H2O2 into •OH.•Planar structure design and surface charge regulation synergistically boost the photocatalytic efficiency of F-g-C3N4.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a ubiquitous pathogen of viral bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 2 years of age, which is closely associated with recurrent wheezing and airway ...hyperresponsiveness (AHR). Alveolar macrophages (AMs) located on the surface of the alveoli cavity are the important innate immune barrier in the respiratory tract. AMs are recognized as recruited airspace macrophages (RecAMs) and resident airspace macrophages (RAMs) based on their origins and roaming traits. AMs are polarized in the case of RSV infection, forming two macrophage phenotypes termed as M1-like and M2-like macrophages. Both M1 macrophages and M2 macrophages are involved in the modulation of inflammatory responses, among which M1 macrophages are capable of pro-inflammatory responses and M2 macrophages are capable of anti-proinflammatory responses and repair damaged tissues in the acute and convalescent phases of RSV infection. Polarized AMs affect disease progression through the alteration of immune cell surface phenotypes as well as participate in the regulation of T lymphocyte differentiation and the type of inflammatory response, which are closely associated with long-term AHR. In recent years, some progress have been made in the regulatory mechanism of AM polarization caused by RSV infection, which participates in acute respiratory inflammatory response and mediating AHR in infants. Here we summarized the role of RSV-infection-mediated AM polarization associated with AHR in infants.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant lethal tumor and both cancer stem cells (CSCs) and metabolism reprogramming have been proven to play indispensable roles in HCC. This study aimed to ...reveal the connection between metabolism reprogramming and the stemness characteristics of HCC, established a new gene signature related to stemness and metabolism and utilized it to assess HCC prognosis and immunotherapy response. The clinical information and gene expression profiles (GEPs) of 478 HCC patients came from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The one-class logistic regression (OCLR) algorithm was employed to calculate the messenger ribonucleic acid expression-based stemness index (mRNAsi), a new stemness index quantifying stemness features. Differentially expressed analyses were done between high- and low-mRNAsi groups and 74 differentially expressed metabolism-related genes (DEMRGs) were identified with the help of metabolism-related gene sets from Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB). After integrated analysis, a risk score model based on the three most efficient prognostic DEMRGs, including Recombinant Phosphofructokinase Platelet (PFKP), phosphodiesterase 2A (PDE2A) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A5 (UGT1A5) was constructed and HCC patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups. Significant differences were found in pathway enrichment, immune cell infiltration patterns, and gene alterations between the two groups. High-risk group patients tended to have worse clinical outcomes and were more likely to respond to immunotherapy. A stemness-metabolism-related model composed of gender, age, the risk score model and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging was generated and showed great discrimination and strong ability in predicting HCC prognosis and immunotherapy response.
Inorganic acids are commonly used in mining, metallurgical, metal-processing, and nuclear-fuel-reprocessing industries in various processes, such as leaching, etching, electroplating, and ...metal-refining. Large amounts of spent acidic liquids containing toxic metal ion complexes are produced during these operations, which pose a serious hazard to the living and non-living environment. Developing economic and eco-friendly regeneration approaches to recover acid and valuable metals from these industrial effluents has focused the interest of the research community. Diffusion dialysis (DD) using anion exchange membranes (AEMs) driven by an activity gradient is considered an effective technology with a low energy consumption and little environmental contamination. In addition, the properties of AEMs have an important effect on the DD process. Hence, this paper gives a critical review of the properties of AEMs, including their acid permeability, membrane stability, and acid selectivity during the DD process for acid recovery. Furthermore, the DD processes using AEMs integrated with various technologies, such as pressure, an electric field, or continuous operation are discussed to enhance its potential for industrial applications. Finally, some directions are provided for the further development of AEMs in DD for acid recovery from acidic waste solutions.
The assembled hollow-core slab bridge is the most widely used beam bridge in China. With the increasing traffic volume and traffic load in China, the joints of the hollow-core slab bridge are prone ...to damage. In this paper, a hollow-core slab bridge with locally curved prestressed tendons is proposed. Based on the static load test of a beam with joints taken from the cross section of a hollow-core slab bridge in practical engineering, a finite element nonlinear analysis is used to simulate the test, and the concrete and interface parameters under the correct analysis results are obtained. Finally, the parameters are applied to the three-beam and two-joint hollow-core slab bridge with a span of 10 m and a finite element analysis is carried out to explore the total failure process and performance improvement effect of the prestressed hollow-core slab bridge. The results show that the interface unit method can successfully simulate the new-to-old concrete interface where the joint is in contact with the precast beam segment. Compared with the static load test results, the analysis error of each finite element model is basically within 15%. Compared with the traditional hollow-core slab bridge, the cracking load, through-joint load, and ultimate load of the prestressed hollow-core slab bridge are increased by 50.0%, 91.7%, and 66.7%, respectively. Under the same load, the stress of the U-bar, the relative deflection of both sides of the joint, and the maximum width of the joint of the prestressed hollow-core slab bridge are lower than those of the traditional hollow-core slab bridge. When the ultimate load is reached, the longitudinal crack lengths of the traditional hollow-core slab bridge and the prestressed hollow-core slab bridge are 0.48 L and 0.4 L, respectively, and the damage degree of the prestressed hollow-core slab bridge is lower than that of the traditional hollow-core slab bridge.
N‐Queens problem derives three variants: obtaining a specific solution, obtaining a set of solutions and obtaining all solutions. The purpose of the variant I is to find a constructive solution, ...which has been solved. Variant III is aiming to find all solutions and the largest number of queens currently being resolved is 26. Variant II whose purpose is to obtain a set of solutions for larger‐scale problems relies on various intelligent algorithms. In this paper, we use a master‐slave model genetic algorithm that combines the idea of the evolutionary algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm to solve Variant III, and use a parallel fitness function based on compute unified device architecture. Experimental results show that our scheme achieved a maximum 60‐fold speedup over the single‐CPU counterpart. On this basis, a two‐level parallel genetic algorithm based on the island model and master‐slave model is implemented on the GPU cluster by using message passing interface technology. Using two‐node and three‐node GPU cluster, speedup of 1.46 and 2.01 are obtained on average over single‐node, respectively. Compared with the sequential genetic algorithm, the two‐level parallel genetic algorithm makes full use of the parallel computing power of GPU cluster in solving N‐Queen variant II and improves the performance by 99.19 times in the best
case.
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•Higher PM1, PM2.5, NO2 exposure concentrations were associated with increased odds of type 2 diabetes.•Higher levels of PM1, PM2.5, NO2 exposure were associated with an elevated ...fasting blood glucose levels.•Males and populations aged 65 years or older may susceptible to air pollution.
To evaluate the associations between long-term exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤1.0 μm and ≤2.5 μm (PM1 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and type 2 diabetes prevalence and fasting blood glucose levels in Chinese rural populations.
A total of 39, 259 participants were enrolled in The Henan Rural Cohort study. Questionnaires and medical examination were conducted from July 2015 to September 2017 in rural areas of Henan province, China. Three-year average residential exposure levels of PM1, PM2.5, NO2 for each subject were estimated by a spatiotemporal model. Logistic regression and linear regression models were applied to estimate the associations between PM1, PM2.5, NO2 exposure and type 2 diabetes prevalence and fasting blood glucose levels.
The mean 3-year residential exposure concentrations of PM1, PM2.5 and NO2 was 57.4 μg/m3, 73.4 μg/m3 and 39.9 μg/m3, respectively. Higher exposure concentrations of PM1, PM2.5, NO2 by 1 μg/m3 was positively related to a 4.0% (95%CIs: 1.026, 1.054), 6.8% (1.052, 1.084) and 5.0% (1.039, 1.061) increase in odds of type 2 diabetes in the final adjusted models. Besides, a 1 μg/m3 increase of PM1, PM2.5 and NO2 was related to a 0.020 mmol/L (95%CIs: 0.014, 0.026), 0.036 mmol/L (95%CIs: 0.030, 0.042) and 0.030 mmol/L (95%CIs: 0.026, 0.034) mmol/L higher fasting blood glucose levels.
Higher exposure concentrations of air pollutants were positively related to the increased odds of type 2 diabetes, as well as higher fasting blood glucose levels in Chinese rural populations.
Streptococcus suis is an important zoonotic pathogen. Biofilm formation largely explains the difficulty in preventing and controlling S. suis. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism ...of S. suis biofilm formation. In this study, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of S. suis in biofilm and planktonic states were performed to identify key genes and metabolites involved in biofilm formation. A total of 789 differential genes and 365 differential metabolites were identified. By integrating transcriptomics and metabolomics, five main metabolic pathways were identified, including amino acid pathway, nucleotide metabolism pathway, carbon metabolism pathway, vitamin and cofactor metabolism pathway, and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis metabolic pathway. These results provide new insights for exploring the molecular mechanism of S. suis biofilm formation.
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