At a new historical crossroads, China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a major measure to coordinate sustained economic growth at home, maintain a peaceful and stable environment in the ...surrounding region, and foster regional economic and commercial cooperation in the region. The BRI, a major initiative, can not only drive national economic growth but also has far-reaching significance for promoting world economic prosperity and peace. The national plan clearly pointed out that in the face of the new international pattern and situation, China should improve its new opening-up system and promote construction for the BRI in the future. In this context, research on the benefits and security issues for foreign investment under the BRI has become an important topic. This work combines it with artificial intelligence to propose a neural network (IPSO-DBN) for evaluating the effectiveness and safety of Chinese outbound investment. First, this work applies DBN to evaluate the benefits and security for outbound investment under the BRI. This work introduces a policy of linearly decreasing weights and an adaptive learning factor into the PSO algorithm to construct IPSO. Then, the IPSO is utilized to optimize initial weights for DBN, and the problem of initial weights are random and easy to fall local optimal solution is improved to construct IPSO-DBN. Second, this work puts forward a series of suggestions for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad in response to the current investment problems under the BRI Third, this work has carried out various experiments on IPSO-DBN and Chinese enterprises' foreign investment proposals, and the experimental results have verified the feasibility of the method designed in this work.
The role of urban parks in improving public health has been analyzed in the context of urban design in developed countries, but has seldom been considered in developing countries such as China. ...Previous studies have found positive correlations between parks and residents' physical activity and mental health status. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate respondents' physical activity status and its relationship with urban parks. The impact of different activities engaged in during park use on positive mental health was examined.
The average physical activity level of the sample was 92.7 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Park users were more active in all forms of physical activity, except transport walking, than non-users. The presence of a park within 500 m from home and park use were significantly associated with total physical activity. Physical activity in parks significantly restored visitors' moods and energy levels, and interaction with nature brought mental health benefits in terms of relaxation and self-perceived confidence. Overall, this study found a positive correlation of urban parks with public physical activity and positive mental health benefits. However, further research is needed to improve the understanding of this relationship in the context of China.
•Park users were more active than non-users in every form of physical activity except transport walking.•For park users, park-related physical activity accounted for 28.9% of total physical activity.•Park accessibility within 500 m from home and park use were significantly correlated with resident’s physical activity.•Physical activity and nature interaction in parks were positively correlated with multiple mental health benefits.
Deciphering the mechanism of malate accumulation in plants would contribute to a greater understanding of plant chemistry, which has implications for improving flavor quality in crop species and ...enhancing human health benefits. However, the regulation of malate metabolism is poorly understood in crops such as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Here, we integrated a metabolite-based genome-wide association study with linkage mapping and gene functional studies to characterize the genetics of malate accumulation in a global collection of tomato accessions with broad genetic diversity. We report that TFM6 (tomato fruit malate 6), which corresponds to Al-ACTIVATED MALATE TRANSPORTER9 (Sl-ALMT9 in tomato), is the major quantitative trait locus responsible for variation in fruit malate accumulation among tomato genotypes. A 3-bp indel in the promoter region of Sl-ALMT9 was linked to high fruit malate content. Further analysis indicated that this indel disrupts a W-box binding site in the Sl-ALMT9 promoter, which prevents binding of the WRKY transcription repressor Sl-WRKY42, thereby alleviating the repression of Sl-ALMT9 expression and promoting high fruit malate accumulation. Evolutionary analysis revealed that this highly expressed Sl-ALMT9 allele was selected for during tomato domestication. Furthermore, vacuole membrane-localized Sl-ALMT9 increases in abundance following Al treatment, thereby elevating malate transport and enhancing Al resistance.
Multicolor emissive carbon dots (M-CDs) have tremendous potential applications in manifold fields of bioimaging, biomedicine and light-emitting devices. Until now, it is still difficult to produce ...fluorescence tunable CDs with high quantum yield across the entire visible spectra. In this work, a type of M-CDs with concentration-tunable fluorescence and solvent-affected aggregation states was synthesized by solvothermal treatment of citric acid (CA) and 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) and the formation mechanism was monitored by different reaction time and raw material ratio. The fluorescence spectra of M-CDs in organic solvents can range from 350 to 750 nm by adjusting the concentration. M-CDs possess different aggregation states in water and organic solvents, accompanied by different fluorescence emission, which is attributed to the different surface states of various component CDs in M-CDs. Moreover, the obtained products can be uniformly dispersed into polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) solutions as well as epoxy resins to fabricate transparent CDs/PMMA films and CDs/epoxy composites, which can effectively prevent the aggregation and produce multicolor and white light-emitting diodes (WLED). In addition, the prepared WLED with Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) of (0.29, 0.31) by using M-CDs/epoxy resin as packages, demonstrating the M-CDs exhibit potential applications for light-emitting devices.
•Omentin-1 serves as a novel biomarker for predicting the functional outcome of acute ischemic stroke, and low circulating omentin-1 level indicates high risk of ischemic stroke.•Elevated omentin-1 ...level could attenuate atherosclerosis and exert a favorable impact on cerebral ischemia.•Omentin-1 has benefical effects on vascular inflammation and dysfunction through various signaling pathways.•Metformin and statins together with omentin-1 have great potential to be developed into novel drug therapy against ischemic stroke.
Omentin-1, a newly identified adipokine, has recently been revealed as a novel biomarker for ischemic stroke (IS). Low circulating omentin-1 levels could indicate a high risk of IS, and elevated omentin-1 levels exert a favorable impact on cerebral ischemia. Furthermore, omentin-1 has anti-atherosclerotic, anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular protective capabilities through the intracellular Akt/AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/ nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and certain protein kinase (ERK, JNK, and p38) signaling pathways. Omentin-1 also alleviates endothelial cell dysfunction, improves revascularization via the Akt-endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) regulatory axis, promotes endothelium-dependent vasodilation through endothelium-derived NO in an eNOS fashion, and inhibits VSMC proliferation by means of AMPK/ERK signaling pathways, VSMC migration via inactivation of the NADPH oxidase (NOX)/ROS/p38/HSP27 pathways and artery calcification via the PI3K-Akt pathway. These findings indicate that omentin-1 may be a negative mediator of IS. Pharmacologically, several lines of clinical evidence indicate that metformin and statins could elevate omentin-1 levels, although the specific mechanism has not been precisely delineated until now. This study is the first to summarize the comprehensive mechanisms between omentin-1 and atherosclerosis and to review the shielding effect of omentin-1 on IS. We shed light on omentin-1 as a novel therapeutic target for combating IS.
A novel distributed strain and temperature fast measurement method in Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) system based on double-sideband (DSB) modulation is proposed. The ...single-wavelength probe light is modulated into dual-wavelength probe light with a fixed phase difference by using carrier suppressed DSB modulation. The interaction between the Brillouin scattering signals corresponding to dual-wavelength probe light forms a Brillouin beat spectrum (BBS). The distributed temperature and strain are obtained by only measuring the peak power trace of the BBS and one of the slope power trace of the two Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) corresponding to dual-wavelength probe light. The proposed method does not require scanning the Brillouin spectrum and does not require using optical fibers with multiple Brillouin scattering peaks as sensing fibers, and thus features fast measurement speed and wide variety of sensing fiber types. In a proof-of-concept experiment, the temperature uncertainty of 1.3 °C and the strain uncertainty of 36.3 με are respectively achieved over a 4.5-km G.657 fiber with 3 m spatial resolution and 30 s measurement time. The experimental measurement uncertainties of temperature and strain of the proposed method are almost equivalent to that of the method by using BGS scanning and special fibers.
Electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) has been considered as a promising alternative to the traditional Haber–Bosch process for the preparation of ammonia (NH3) under ambient conditions. ...The development of cost-effective electrocatalysts with suppressive activity for hydrogen evolution reaction is critical for improving the efficiency of NRR. Herein, oxygen-containing molybdenum carbides (O-MoC) embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon layers (N-doped carbon) can be easily fabricated by pyrolyzing the chelate of dopamine and molybdate. A rate of NH3 formation of 22.5 μg·h–1·mgcat –1 is obtained at −0.35 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode with a high faradaic efficiency of 25.1% in 0.1 mM HCl + 0.5 M Li2SO4. Notably, the synthesized O-MoC@NC-800 also exhibits high selectivity (no formation of hydrazine) and electrochemical stability. The moderate electron structure induced by the interaction between O-MoC and N-doped carbon shells can effectively weaken the activity of hydrogen evolution reaction and increase the faradaic efficiency of NRR. Additionally, by applying the in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, an associative reaction pathway is proposed on O-MoC@NC-800. This work provides new insights into the rational design of carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles as efficient catalysts for NRR at ambient conditions.
Ascorbate (AsA) is an antioxidant that can scavenge the reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced when plants encounter stressful conditions. Here, it was revealed by a yeast one‐hybrid assay that a ...tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) HD‐Zip I family transcription factor, SlHZ24, binds to the promoter of an AsA biosynthetic gene encoding GDP‐d‐mannose pyrophosphorylase 3 (SlGMP3). Both the transient expression system and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that SlHZ24 binds to a regulatory cis‐element in the SlGMP3 promoter, and further overexpression of SlHZ24 in transgenic tomato lines resulted in increased AsA levels. In contrast, suppressing expression of the gene using RNA interference (RNAi) had the opposite effect. These data suggest that SlHZ24 can positively regulate the accumulation of AsA, and in support of this it was shown that SlGMP3 expression increased in the SlHZ24‐overexpressing lines and declined in SlHZ24‐RNAi lines. SlHZ24 also affected the expression of other genes in the d‐mannose/l‐galactose pathway, such as genes encoding GDP‐mannose‐3′,5′‐epimerase 2 (SlGME2), GDP‐l‐galactose phosphorylase (SlGGP) and SlGMP4. The EMSA indicated that SlHZ24 bound to the promoters of SlGME2 and SlGGP, suggesting multi‐targeted regulation of AsA biosynthesis. Finally, SlHZ24‐overexpressing plants showed less sensitivity to oxidative stress; we therefore conclude that SlHZ24 promotes AsA biosynthesis, which in turn enhances oxidative stress tolerance.
Objective
The interaction between tumor microenvironment and tumor cells plays a key role in tumor progression. However, the mechanisms by which this interaction promotes the transdifferentiation of ...normal fibroblasts (NFs) to cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether ovarian cancer (OvCa) cells‐derived microRNAs were involved in the transition of resident fibroblasts to CAFs, and in promoting tumorigenesis.
Methods
CAFs and NFs were isolated from the same ovarian site in OvCa and noncancerous prophylactic oophorectomy specimens. The effect of exosomes on the motility of CAFs or NFs was analyzed by wound healing and Transwell assays. The expression of CAFs marker α‐smooth muscle actin (α‐SMA) and fibroblast activated protein (FAP) were determined by quantitative real‐time PCR and Western blotting. A luciferase reporter assay was used to test the interaction between miR‐124 and sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1).
Results
NFs with downregulated miR‐124 displayed the characteristics of CAFs, including overexpression of α‐SMA and FAP and increased migratory and invasive ability. Overexpression of miR‐124 in CAFs reversed some traits of NFs. Human ovarian surface epithelial cells‐secreted miR‐124 could be transferred via exosomes to CAFs and resulted in decreased α‐SMA and FAP expression and attenuated cell motility. Moreover, our finding showed that the expression of SPHK1, a potential target of miR‐124, was significantly elevated in CAFs.
Conclusions
The present study provides important and novel perspective into OvCa CAF differentiation and extracellular matrix remodeling, which trigger the tumor progression.
In this study, we have investigated whether ovarian cancer cells‐derived microRNAs are involved in the transition of resident fibroblasts to cancer‐associated fibroblasts, and in promoting tumorigenesis.
The rapid development of intelligent vehicle networking technology has posed new requirements for in-vehicle gateway authentication security in the heterogeneous Internet of Vehicles (IoV). The ...current research on network layer authentication mechanisms usually relies on PKI infrastructure and interactive key agreement protocols, which have poor support for mobile and multihomed devices. Due to bandwidth and interaction delay overheads, they are not suitable for heterogeneous IoV scenarios with network state fluctuations. In this study, we propose a data-driven noninteractive authentication scheme, a lightweight, stateless scheme supporting mobility and multihoming to meet the lightweight data security requirements of the IoV. Our scheme implements device authentication and noninteractive key agreement through context parameters during data communication. Due to saving the signaling interactive delay and certificate overhead, in the IoV scenario, the proposed scheme reduced the delay by 20.1% and 11.8%, respectively, in the authentication and handover processes and brought higher bandwidth aggregation efficiency.
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