On the Synthesis of Isomeric Dithiophene Analogues of Phenathridine- N-oxides

Six of nine o,o\u27-formylnitrobithienyls have been synthesized by the tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(O)-catalyzed coupling of the three o-bromonitrothiophenes with two of the three o-formylthiopheneboronic acids with sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate as base and an ethylene glycol dimethyl ether-water mixture as solvent. In the reaction with 3-formyl-2-thiopheneboronic acid, the coupling was carried out by using triethylamine as base and N,N-dimethylformamide as solvent in an attempt to avoid the facile deboronation of 3-formyl-2-thiopheneboronic acid, but without success. Reduction of the o,o\u27-formylnitrobithienyls gave high yields of the N-oxides of the six isomeric dithienopyridines, which are analogues of phenanthridine-N-oxide. A direct synthesis of one of the dithienopyridines, dithieno[2,3-c:2\u27,3\u27-c]-pyridine, was achieved by the palladium(O)-catalyzed coupling of 2,3-dibromothiophene with 2-formyl-3-thiopheneboranic acid to 3-bromo-2\u27-formyl-2,3\u27- -bithienyl, which was transformed to the 3-azido-2\u27-formyl-2,3\u27- -bithienyl, which upon reduction with hydrogen sulfide underwent ring closure to the phenanthridine analogue

Fuzzy Multi-Objectives Topology Optimization of Slider Pallet in the Picking Machine of Camellia Fruit

In order to improve the dynamic characteristics of the slider pallet in the camellia fruit picking machine under the traditional empirical design and to lighten the weight, a fuzzy multi-objective topology optimization design method was proposed. In this paper, a static and dynamic topology optimization mathematical model was constructed by the compromise programming method, and the weight coefficients of each sub-objective were dynamically assigned by the fuzzy satisfaction variable weight coefficient method, and then the fuzzy multi-objective topology optimization design of the slider pallet for bending condition, bending-torsional complex condition, inertia condition and the first three orders of dynamic frequency was performed. The optimization results showed that the weight of the optimized slider pallet was reduced by 19.4%, and the first-order modal frequency was increased by 5.0%, second order modal frequency increased by 6.6%, third order modal frequency increased by 8.2%; the maximum deformation and maximum stress were increased, but still met the design requirements

Where to Go Next for Recommender Systems? ID- vs. Modality-based Recommender Models Revisited

Recommendation models that utilize unique identities (IDs) to represent distinct users and items have been state-of-the-art (SOTA) and dominated the recommender systems (RS) literature for over a decade. Meanwhile, the pre-trained modality encoders, such as BERT and ViT, have become increasingly powerful in modeling the raw modality features of an item, such as text and images. Given this, a natural question arises: can a purely modality-based recommendation model (MoRec) outperforms or matches a pure ID-based model (IDRec) by replacing the itemID embedding with a SOTA modality encoder? In fact, this question was answered ten years ago when IDRec beats MoRec by a strong margin in both recommendation accuracy and efficiency. We aim to revisit this `old' question and systematically study MoRec from several aspects. Specifically, we study several sub-questions: (i) which recommendation paradigm, MoRec or IDRec, performs better in practical scenarios, especially in the general setting and warm item scenarios where IDRec has a strong advantage? does this hold for items with different modality features? (ii) can the latest technical advances from other communities (i.e., natural language processing and computer vision) translate into accuracy improvement for MoRec? (iii) how to effectively utilize item modality representation, can we use it directly or do we have to adjust it with new data? (iv) are there some key challenges for MoRec to be solved in practical applications? To answer them, we conduct rigorous experiments for item recommendations with two popular modalities, i.e., text and vision. We provide the first empirical evidence that MoRec is already comparable to its IDRec counterpart with an expensive end-to-end training method, even for warm item recommendation. Our results potentially imply that the dominance of IDRec in the RS field may be greatly challenged in the future

Effects of fertilizer application schemes and soil environmental factors on nitrous oxide emission fluxes in a rice-wheat cropping system, east China

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with agricultural soils representing its largest anthropogenic source. However, the mechanisms involved in the N2O emission and factors affecting N2O emission fluxes in response to various nitrogenous fertilizer applications remain uncertain. We conducted a four-year (2012–2015) field experiment to assess how fertilization scheme impacts N2O emissions from a rice-wheat cropping system in eastern China. The fertilizer treatments included Control (CK), Conventional fertilizer (CF), CF with shallow-irrigation (CF+SI), CF with deep-irrigation system (CF+DI), Optimized fertilizer (OF), OF with Urease inhibitor (OF+UI), OF with conservation tillage (OF+CT) and Slow-release fertilizer (SRF). N2O emissions were measured by a closed static chamber method. N2O emission fluxes ranged from 0.61 μg m-2 h-1 to 1707 μg m-2 h-1, indicating a significant impact of nitrogen fertilizer and cropping type on N2O emissions. The highest crop yields for wheat (3515–3667 kg ha-1) and rice (8633–8990 kg ha-1) were observed under the SRF and OF+UI treatments with significant reduction in N2O emissions by 16.94–21.20% and 5.55–7.93%, respectively. Our findings suggest that the SRF and OF+UI treatments can be effective in achieving maximum crop yield and lowering N2O emissions for the rice-wheat cropping system in eastern China

Functional genomic studies on an immune- and antiviral-related gene of MyD88 in orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides

Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) is a universal adaptor protein involved in Toll-like receptors and in interleukin-1 receptor-induced nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappa B) activation. In this study, a new MyD88 gene (designated as Og-MyD88) was cloned from orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides, based on the expressed sequence tag (EST) obtained following Roche 454 GS-FLX (TM) sequencing. The full-length Og-MyD88 cDNA is composed of 1682 bp and encodes a deduced polypeptide of 289 amino acids with 86% homology to MyD88 of Siniperca chuatsi. The deduced amino acid sequence of Og-MyD88 contains a typical death domain at the amino terminus and a conserved Toll/IL-1R (TIR) domain at the carboxyl terminus, as well as three highly conserved motifs (Box1, Box2 and Box3) within the C-terminal TIR domain. In healthy fish, Og-MyD88 was found to be strongly expressed in immune-related tissues, including the spleen, head kidney, kidney, liver, skin and intestine, with lower expression in heart, stomach, brain and muscle. Transcripts of Og-MyD88 were found to be markedly up-regulated in fish spleen after challenge with Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV), a highly lethal viral pathogen to grouper fish. Furthermore, the full length Og-MyD88 and its N-terminal death domain were capable of inducing NF-kappa B activity in HEK-293 cells. Overexpressed Og-MyD88 showed the ability to inhibit replication of SGIV in grouper spleen (GS) cells. These results suggest that Og-MyD88 is involved in the grouper immune response to invasion of viral pathogens and may share similar functions to those observed in higher vertebrates

Multi-year downscaling application of two-way coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over east Asia for regional climate and air quality modeling: model evaluation and aerosol direct effects

Abstract. In this study, a regional coupled climate–chemistry modeling system using the dynamical downscaling technique was established by linking the global Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the regional two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting – Community Multi-scale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model for the purpose of comprehensive assessments of regional climate change and air quality and their interactions within one modeling framework. The modeling system was applied over east Asia for a multi-year climatological application during 2006–2010, driven with CESM downscaling data under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5), along with a short-term air quality application in representative months in 2013 that was driven with a reanalysis dataset. A comprehensive model evaluation was conducted against observations from surface networks and satellite observations to assess the model's performance. This study presents the first application and evaluation of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model for climatological simulations using the dynamical downscaling technique. The model was able to satisfactorily predict major meteorological variables. The improved statistical performance for the 2 m temperature (T2) in this study (with a mean bias of −0.6 °C) compared with the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multi-models might be related to the use of the regional model WRF and the bias-correction technique applied for CESM downscaling. The model showed good ability to predict PM2. 5 in winter (with a normalized mean bias (NMB) of 6.4 % in 2013) and O3 in summer (with an NMB of 18.2 % in 2013) in terms of statistical performance and spatial distributions. Compared with global models that tend to underpredict PM2. 5 concentrations in China, WRF-CMAQ was able to capture the high PM2. 5 concentrations in urban areas. In general, the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model performed well for both climatological and air quality applications. The coupled modeling system with direct aerosol feedbacks predicted aerosol optical depth relatively well and significantly reduced the overprediction in downward shortwave radiation at the surface (SWDOWN) over polluted regions in China. The performance of cloud variables was not as good as other meteorological variables, and underpredictions of cloud fraction resulted in overpredictions of SWDOWN and underpredictions of shortwave and longwave cloud forcing. The importance of climate–chemistry interactions was demonstrated via the impacts of aerosol direct effects on climate and air quality. The aerosol effects on climate and air quality in east Asia (e.g., SWDOWN and T2 decreased by 21.8 W m−2 and 0.45 °C, respectively, and most pollutant concentrations increased by 4.8–9.5 % in January over China's major cities) were more significant than in other regions because of higher aerosol loadings that resulted from severe regional pollution, which indicates the need for applying online-coupled models over east Asia for regional climate and air quality modeling and to study the important climate–chemistry interactions. This work established a baseline for WRF-CMAQ simulations for a future period under the RCP4.5 climate scenario, which will be presented in a future paper.</jats:p

Apelin protects auditory cells from cisplatin-induced toxicity in vitro by inhibiting ROS and apoptosis

Apelin, a specific endogenous ligand of the G protein-coupled receptor APJ, suppresses oxidative stress and apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. The current study explored whether Apelin protects against toxicity induced by the anticancer drug cisplatin in vitro, and the possible mechanisms that underlie this protective effect. The results showed that Apelin was expressed in the mouse auditory cell line HEI-OC1 and in cochlear hair cells (HCs) and was significantly downregulated by cisplatin, whereas pre-treatment with exogenous Apelin significantly reduced cisplatin-induced apoptosis, and thus protected HEI-OC1 cells and cochlear HCs from cisplatin-induced injury. Furthermore, Apelin reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, rescued mitochondrial membrane potential disruption, inhibited JNK signaling and attenuated the expression of pro-apoptotic factors in HEI-OC1 cells and in cochlear explants treated with cisplatin. Our findings suggest that Apelin could be used as an otoprotective agent for the prevention of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity