Aesthetic gene and prospect of garden city from the perspective of Chinese dream

This study aims to delve into the impact of the Chinese Dream ideology on the development and aesthetic characteristics of park cities. Building upon their dialectical and unified relationship, it seeks to predict the evolutionary trajectory of urban modernization and methods to enhance residents' quality of life. Focusing on domestic cases of park city construction, the research employs innovative approaches such as on-site investigations, semi-structured interviews, and literature reviews. A distinctive contribution of this study is the introduction of the concept of "aesthetic genes," which is used to describe and interpret aesthetic elements and cultural features within park cities from five different perspectives. Furthermore, the research offers profound analyses from four distinct viewpoints regarding the future prospects of park city development in the new era. By organically integrating the Chinese Dream ideology with the concept of park cities, this study provides valuable theoretical insights and practical guidance in the fields of sustainable park city construction and urban aesthetics research

Transcriptome-wide identification and characterization of microRNAs in diverse phases of wood formation in Populus trichocarpa

We applied miRNA expression profiling method to Populus trichocarpa stems of the three developmental stages, primary stem (PS), transitional stem (TS), and secondary stem (SS), to investigate miRNA species and their regulation on lignocellulosic synthesis and related processes. We obtained 892, 872, and 882 known miRNAs and 1727, 1723, and 1597 novel miRNAs, from PS, TS, and SS, respectively. Comparisons of these miRNA species among different developmental stages led to the identification of 114, 306, and 152 differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs), which had 921, 2639, and 2042 candidate target genes (CTGs) in the three respective stages of the same order. Correlation analysis revealed 47, 439, and 71 DE-miRNA-CTG pairs of high negative correlation in PS, TS, and SS, respectively. Through biological process analysis, we finally identified 34, 6, and 76 miRNA-CTG pairs from PS, TS, and SS, respectively, and the miRNA target genes in these pairs regulate or participate lignocellulosic biosynthesis-related biological processes: cell division and differentiation, cell wall modification, secondary cell wall biosynthesis, lignification, and programmed cell death processes. This is the first report on an integrated analysis of genome-wide mRNA and miRNA profilings during multiple phases of poplar stem development. Our analysis results imply that individual miRNAs modulate secondary growth and lignocellulosic biosynthesis through regulating transcription factors and lignocellulosic biosynthetic pathway genes, resulting in more dynamic promotion, suppression, or regulatory circuits. This study advanced our understanding of many individual miRNAs and their essential, diversified roles in the dynamic regulation of secondary growth in woody tree species

Enhanced electrochemical performance of CuCo2S4/carbon nanotubes composite as electrode material for supercapacitors

CuCo2S4 is regarded as a promising electrode material for supercapacitor, but has inferior conductivity and poor cycle stability which restrict its wide-range applications. In this work, hierarchically hybrid composite of CuCo2S4/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was synthesized using a facile hydrothermal and sulfuration process. The embedded CNTs in the CuCo2S4 matrix provided numerous effective paths for electron transfer and ion diffusion, and thus promoted the faradaic reactions of the CuCo2S4 electrode in the energy storage processes. The CuCo2S4/CNTs-3.2% electrode exhibited a significantly increased specific capacitance of 557.5 F g-1 compared with those of the pristine CuCo2S4 electrode (373.4 F g-1) and CuO/Co3O4/CNTs-3.2% electrode (356.5 F g-1) at a current density of 1 A g-1. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) was assembled using the CuCo2S4/CNTs-3.2% as the positive electrode and the active carbon as the negative electrode, which exhibited an energy density of 23.2 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 402.7 W kg-1. Moreover, the residual specific capacitance of this ASC device retained 85.7 % of its original value after tested for 10000 cycles, indicating its excellent cycle stability

Atomically dispersed Cu-N3 on hollow spherical carbon nitride for acetaminophen degradation: Generation of 1O2 from H2O2

Discharge of recalcitrant pharmaceuticals into aquatic systems has caused severe impacts on public health and ecosystem. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are effective for eliminating these refractory pollutants, for which single-atom catalysts (SACs) become the state-of-the-art materials owing to the maximized exposure of active metal sites. In this work, hollow spherical graphitic carbon nitride (hsCN) was fabricated to incorporate copper species to develop Fenton-like catalysts for acetaminophen (ACT) removal. Through pyrolysis of supramolecular assemblies derived from melamine-Cu complex and cyanuric acid, single atom Cu-N3 sites were anchored on hsCN by N-coordination to obtain SACu-hsCN. In virtue of the atomically dispersed Cu-N3 sites as well as the hollow structure of hsCN providing smooth channels for the interactions between single Cu atoms and reactants, the optimal 5.5SACu-hsCN removed 94.8% of ACT after 180 min of Fenton-like reactions, which was superior to that of 5.5AGCu-hsCN with aggregated Cu particles on hsCN (56.7% in 180 min). Moreover, 5.5SACu-hsCN was still active after four cycles of regeneration. The mechanism investigation demonstrated that both hydroxyl radicals (OH) and singlet oxygen (1O2) contributed to ACT degradation in 5.5SACu-hsCN/H202 system, in which non-radical 1O2 played the dominant role

Biochar addition can negatively affect plant community performance when altering soil properties in saline-alkali wetlands

Biochar is a widely proposed solution for improving degraded soil in coastal wetland ecosystems. However, the impacts of biochar addition on the soil and plant communities in the wetland remains largely unknown. In this study, we conducted a greenhouse experiment using soil seed bank from a coastal saline-alkaline wetland. Three types of biochar, including Juglans regia biochar (JBC), Spartina alterniflora biochar (SBC) and Flaveria bidentis biochar (FBC), were added to the saline-alkaline soil at ratios of 1%, 3% and 5% (w/w). Our findings revealed that biochar addition significantly increased soil pH, and increased available potassium (AK) by 3.74% - 170.91%, while reduced soil salinity (expect for 3% SBC and 5%SBC) by 28.08% - 46.93%. Among the different biochar types, the application of 5% FBC was found to be the most effective in increasing nutrients and reducing salinity. Furthermore, biochar addition generally resulted in a decrease of 7.27% - 90.94% in species abundance, 17.26% - 61.21% in community height, 12.28% - 56.42% in stem diameter, 55.34% - 90.11% in total biomass and 29.22% - 78.55% in root tissue density (RTD). In particular, such negative effects was the worst in the SBC samples. However, 3% and 5% SBC increased specific root length (SRL) by 177.89% and 265.65%, and specific root surface area (SRSA) by 477.02% and 286.57%, respectively. The findings suggested that the plant community performance was primarily affected by soil pH, salinity and nutrients levels. Furthermore, biochar addition also influenced species diversity and functional diversity, ultimately affecting ecosystem stability. Therefore, it is important to consider the negative findings indirectly indicate the ecological risks associated with biochar addition in coastal salt-alkaline soils. Furthermore, Spartina alterniflora was needed to desalt before carbonization to prevent soil salinization when using S. alterniflora biochar, as it is a halophyte

PharmacyGPT: The AI Pharmacist

In this study, we introduce PharmacyGPT, a novel framework to assess the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and GPT-4 in emulating the role of clinical pharmacists. Our methodology encompasses the utilization of LLMs to generate comprehensible patient clusters, formulate medication plans, and forecast patient outcomes. We conduct our investigation using real data acquired from the intensive care unit (ICU) at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) Hospital. Our analysis offers valuable insights into the potential applications and limitations of LLMs in the field of clinical pharmacy, with implications for both patient care and the development of future AI-driven healthcare solutions. By evaluating the performance of PharmacyGPT, we aim to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding the integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings, ultimately promoting the responsible and efficacious use of such technologies

Identification of Causal Relationship between Amyloid-beta Accumulation and Alzheimer's Disease Progression via Counterfactual Inference

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is beginning with amyloidosis, followed by neuronal loss and deterioration in structure, function, and cognition. The accumulation of amyloid-beta in the brain, measured through 18F-florbetapir (AV45) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, has been widely used for early diagnosis of AD. However, the relationship between amyloid-beta accumulation and AD pathophysiology remains unclear, and causal inference approaches are needed to uncover how amyloid-beta levels can impact AD development. In this paper, we propose a graph varying coefficient neural network (GVCNet) for estimating the individual treatment effect with continuous treatment levels using a graph convolutional neural network. We highlight the potential of causal inference approaches, including GVCNet, for measuring the regional causal connections between amyloid-beta accumulation and AD pathophysiology, which may serve as a robust tool for early diagnosis and tailored care

Progress on Research and Application of Postbiotics

Postbiotics are a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components are beneficial to the health of the host, with multiple advantages such as safety, stability, easy storage and production, and clear chemical structure. This article reviews the major bioactive ingredients, probiotic functions and current application status of postbiotics; elaborates the health benefits of inactivated bacterial cells, bacterial components and bacterial metabolites to the host; summarizes recent progress in understanding the health benefits of postbiotics such as enhancing immunity, regulating gastrointestinal function, alleviating obesity, maintaining oral health, and preventing osteoporosis; outlines commercially available postbiotic products in Japan, the United States, Germany and China; and proposes the challenges and new research directions of postbiotics

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

A Hybrid Blockchain-Based Event Ticketing System

Event ticketing systems are facing challenges of preventing ticket forgery and scalping while assuring privacy protection and information transparency. To alleviate these issues, this thesis presents a hybrid blockchain-based event ticketing system. It uses blockchain technology to ensure the transparency of ticketing information, and uses asymmetric encryption technology to protect privacy. The system also uses digital signature technology to ensure ticket authenticity, and has a novel ticket verification mechanism for preventing ticket scalping. A description of the experiments that were conducted on the system implementation and the analysis of their results conclude an evaluation of the system