Identifying the clinical implications and modifiable and unmodifiable factors of aging requires the measurement of biological age (BA) and age gap. Leveraging the biomedical traits involved with ...physical measures, biochemical assays, genomic data, and cognitive functions from the healthy participants in the UK Biobank, we establish an integrative BA model consisting of multi‐dimensional indicators. Accelerated aging (age gap >3.2 years) at baseline is associated incident circulatory diseases, related chronic disorders, all‐cause, and cause‐specific mortality. We identify 35 modifiable factors for age gap (p < 4.81 × 10−4), where pulmonary functions, body mass, hand grip strength, basal metabolic rate, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and C‐reactive protein show the most significant associations. Genetic analyses replicate the possible associations between age gap and health‐related outcomes and further identify CST3 as an essential gene for biological aging, which is highly expressed in the brain and is associated with immune and metabolic traits. Our study profiles the landscape of biological aging and provides insights into the preventive strategies and therapeutic targets for aging.
The study included 59,316 healthy participants in the UK Biobank and considered 8276 phenotypes for developing biological age model. LightGBM algorithm was conducted to identify the most important predictors for biological age and build the model and the top 20 predictors were selected. We tested the longitudinal associations of age gap with 70 common health‐related outcomes, all‐cause mortality and cause‐specific mortality, and the genetic correlations of age gap with common health‐related outcomes. We identified 34 modifiable factors and 9 genomic risk loci for age gap and profiled the pleiotropy of rs3761280 in the UK Biobank.
This paper proposes a novel design approach for a filtering antenna, which contains an array of 4 by 2 waveguide aperture radiation elements. Coupling matrix theory is introduced in this paper to ...synthesize the multiple coupled-resonators circuit. Unequal amplitude excitation is applied to the 4 × 2 elements so as to obtain a low sidelobe level. To demonstrate the concept, an X-band antenna array is designed and fabricated using a three-layer waveguide structure. Measured results show that the filtering antenna array can achieve a gain of more than 15.58 dBi and a radiation efficiency of higher than 90% over the passband (9.91-10.1 GHz). The sidelobe level is -18.3 dB in the H-plane and -21.1 dB in the E-plane.
The reaction of geosynthetic-encased stone columns (GECs) in soft soils under embankment loading was modeled with an indoor physical model test and numerical models using three dimensional and two ...dimensional finite element methods. The experimental and three dimensional numerical modeling results showed that the failure of the GECs is caused by the bending of the columns rather than shear. Three dimensional finite element analysis showed that the distribution of unbalanced lateral loading acting on the columns is symmetric about a ‘hinge point’ above the plastic hinge, rather than triangle or uniform distribution. An equivalent shear resistance model of the GECs is proposed based on the distribution of the unbalanced lateral loadings on the wall. The stability of the embankment was analyzed in two dimensional finite element method by transforming the columns into equivalent soil walls using equivalent bending resistance and equivalent shear resistance methods. It was found that results from equivalent bending resistance method is closer to the estimations from the three dimensional analysis, which agrees with the bending failure mechanism of the GECs. It is suggested that one more row of such columns may be required to provide higher lateral resistance in the soils in front of the toe to improve the stability of the embankment.
A spectrally sparse signal of order r is a mixture of r damped or undamped complex sinusoids. This paper investigates the problem of reconstructing spectrally sparse signals from a random subset of n ...regular time domain samples, which can be reformulated as a low rank Hankel matrix completion problem. We introduce an iterative hard thresholding (IHT) algorithm and a fast iterative hard thresholding (FIHT) algorithm for efficient reconstruction of spectrally sparse signals via low rank Hankel matrix completion. Theoretical recovery guarantees have been established for FIHT, showing that O(r2log2(n)) number of samples are sufficient for exact recovery with high probability. Empirical performance comparisons establish significant computational advantages for IHT and FIHT. In particular, numerical simulations on 3D arrays demonstrate the capability of FIHT on handling large and high-dimensional real data.
Silicon (Si) is not classified as an essential plant nutrient, and yet numerous reports have shown its beneficial effects in a variety of species and environmental circumstances. This has created ...much confusion in the scientific community with respect to its biological roles. Here, we link molecular and phenotypic data to better classify Si transport, and critically summarize the current state of understanding of the roles of Si in higher plants. We argue that much of the empirical evidence, in particular that derived from recent functional genomics, is at odds with many of the mechanistic assertions surrounding Si’s role. In essence, these data do not support reports that Si affects a wide range of molecular-genetic, biochemical and physiological processes. A major reinterpretation of Si’s role is therefore needed, which is critical to guide future studies and inform agricultural practice. We propose a working model, which we term the ‘apoplastic obstruction hypothesis’, which attempts to unify the various observations on Si’s beneficial influences on plant growth and yield. This model argues for a fundamental role of Si as an extracellular prophylactic agent against biotic and abiotic stresses (as opposed to an active cellular agent), with important cascading effects on plant form and function.
Summary
Inter‐vascular transfer in rice (Oryza sativa) nodes is required for delivering mineral elements to developing tissues, which is mediated by various transporters in the nodes. However, the ...effect of these transporters on distribution of mineral elements in the nodes at a cellular level is still unknown. Here, we established a protocol for bioimaging of multiple elements at a cellular level in rice node by laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS), and compared the mineral distribution profile between wild‐type (WT) rice and mutants. Both relative comparison of mineral distribution normalized by endogenous 13C and quantitative analysis using spiked standards combined with soft ablation gave valid results. Overall, macro‐nutrients such as K and Mg were accumulated more in the phloem region, while micro‐nutrients such as Fe and Zn were highly accumulated at the inter‐vascular tissues of the node. In mutants of nodal Zn transporter OsHMA2, Zn localization pattern in the node tissues did not differ from that of WT; however, Zn accumulation in the inter‐vascular tissues was lower in uppermost node I but higher in the third upper node III compared with the WT. In contrast, Si deposition in the mutants of three nodal Si transporters Lsi2, Lsi3 and Lsi6 showed different patterns, which are consistent with the localization of these transporters. This improved LA‐ICP‐MS analysis combined with functional characterization of transporters will provide further insight into mineral element distribution mechanisms in rice and other plant species.
Significance Statement
We established a method with laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry for multi‐elemental imaging at a cellular level in rice node as well as root and leaf tissues. This method is characterized by high‐resolution, easy accessibility, low running cost. Normalization by endogenous 13C makes different samples comparable. Furthermore, combination of spiked cryo‐compound of standards with soft ablation technique gave quantitative results for each element. This technique will be a powerful tool for linking transporter localization to element distribution at a cellular level.
2D materials hold great potential for designing novel electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, 2D material can only absorb limited incident light. As a representative 2D semiconductor, ...monolayer MoS2 can only absorb up to 10% of the incident light in the visible, which is not sufficient to achieve a high optical‐to‐electrical conversion efficiency. To overcome this shortcoming, a “gap‐mode” plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 fluorescent emitter and photodetector is designed by squeezing the light‐field into Ag shell‐isolated nanoparticles–Au film gap, where the confined electromagnetic field can interact with monolayer MoS2. With this gap‐mode plasmon‐enhanced configuration, a 110‐fold enhancement of photoluminescence intensity is achieved, exceeding values reached by other plasmon‐enhanced MoS2 fluorescent emitters. In addition, a gap‐mode plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 photodetector with an 880% enhancement in photocurrent and a responsivity of 287.5 A W−1 is demonstrated, exceeding previously reported plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 photodetectors.
By dropping Ag shell‐isolated nanoparticles onto Al2O3‐covered Au film, the gap‐mode plasmonic structure with a gap thickness of 7 nm can form naturally. By integrating monolayer MoS2 into this plasmonic structure, 110‐fold photoluminescence and 880% photocurrent enhancement are achieved. This work shows that the gap‐mode plasmonic structures have huge potential for realizing high‐performance 2D‐material‐based optoelectronic devices.
It is vital to understand the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanism at the molecular level for the rational design and synthesis of high activity fuel‐cell catalysts. Surface enhanced Raman ...spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique capable of detecting the bond vibrations of surface species in the low wavenumber range, however, using it to probe practical nanocatalysts remains extremely challenging. Herein, shell‐isolated nanoparticle‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) was used to investigate ORR processes on the surface of bimetallic Pt3Co nanocatalyst structures. Direct spectroscopic evidence of *OOH suggests that ORR undergoes an associative mechanism on Pt3Co in both acidic and basic environments. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the weak *O adsorption arise from electronic effect on the Pt3Co surface accounts for enhanced ORR activity. This work shows SHINERS is a promising technique for the real‐time observation of catalytic processes.
SHINERS (shell‐isolated nanoparticle enhanced Raman spectroscopy) was used to reveal in situ the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process on Pt3Co nanocatalysts. An associative mechanism was proposed for ORR on nanocatalysts and the weaker *O adsorption lead to the improved activity.
The development of green synthetic approaches is one of the key materials challenges in moving toward semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for large-scale production and commercial applications. This ...article presents a comprehensive overview on the synthesis of colloidal QDs prepared via chemical approaches in solution phase, with emphasis on green routes which possess the advantages of environment-friendly raw materials, simple operation process, and robust mass-scale production. The approaches for the synthesis of QDs in batch reactors are summarized, including hot-injection organometallic synthesis, noninjection organometallic synthesis, aqueous synthesis and biosynthesis approaches, with some of the concerns on their limitations for scale-up, followed by some continuous synthetic methods aiming for reproducible and large-scale production. Current advances in continuous synthesis of QDs by microfluidic devices, high-gravity reactors, and spray-based techniques are briefly introduced. We also provide some insights into challenges and opportunities based on our own understanding of this field.
Chemoresistance is a major unmet clinical obstacle in ovarian cancer treatment. Epigenetics plays a pivotal role in regulating the malignant phenotype, and has the potential in developing ...therapeutically valuable targets that improve the dismal outcome of this disease. Here we show that a series of transcription factors, including C/EBPβ, GCM1, and GATA1, could act as potential modulators of histone methylation in tumor cells. Of note, C/EBPβ, an independent prognostic factor for patients with ovarian cancer, mediates an important mechanism through which epigenetic enzyme modifies groups of functionally related genes in a context-dependent manner. By recruiting the methyltransferase DOT1L, C/EBPβ can maintain an open chromatin state by H3K79 methylation of multiple drug-resistance genes, thereby augmenting the chemoresistance of tumor cells. Therefore, we propose a new path against cancer epigenetics in which identifying and targeting the key regulators of epigenetics such as C/EBPβ may provide more precise therapeutic options in ovarian cancer.
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