One-Drop Self-Assembly of Ultra-Fine Second-Order Organic Nonlinear Optical Crystal Nanowires

In this study, we propose a one-drop self-assembly method, which proved capable of successfully preparing 4-N, N-dimethylamino-4′-N′-methyl-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) single-crystalline nanowires (NWs). The apparent roughness of the DAST NWs was determined to be less than 100 pm by using a high-resolution atomic force microscope, indicating their ultrafine quality. The DAST NWs also exhibited excellent nonlinear optical properties, including two-photon excited fluorescence and second harmonic generation, which could enable the production of low-cost, low-power-consumption wideband wavelength conversion devices. Thus, the described method may provide a new avenue for organic NW fabrication

Microbial-feeding interactions reveal the effects of feeding blood on the gut microbiota of the aquaculture leech (Hirudo nipponica)

Leeches (Hirudo nipponica), as a kind of aquatic animal, mainly feed on fresh blood. After feeding, they needed to digest for a long time because the intestinal digestive enzyme content is low, so their digestive needed the help of gut microbiota. Here, we examined intestinal microbiota in captive Hirudo nipponica of different periods after feeding blood with high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that gut microbial diversity was lower before feeding than after. At the level of the core phylum of the gut microbiota of Hirudo nipponica, the focus was on Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes. After feeding blood, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria decreased, while the opposite was true for Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. The core bacteria at the genus level are Aeromonas and Mucinivorans. The results show that the structure of the gut microbiota and function are closely associated with the blood feeding. The study aimed to lay a theoretical foundation for the blood-digestive mechanism of Hirudo nipponica

Opportunities and Challenges for ChatGPT and Large Language Models in Biomedicine and Health

ChatGPT has drawn considerable attention from both the general public and domain experts with its remarkable text generation capabilities. This has subsequently led to the emergence of diverse applications in the field of biomedicine and health. In this work, we examine the diverse applications of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, in biomedicine and health. Specifically we explore the areas of biomedical information retrieval, question answering, medical text summarization, information extraction, and medical education, and investigate whether LLMs possess the transformative power to revolutionize these tasks or whether the distinct complexities of biomedical domain presents unique challenges. Following an extensive literature survey, we find that significant advances have been made in the field of text generation tasks, surpassing the previous state-of-the-art methods. For other applications, the advances have been modest. Overall, LLMs have not yet revolutionized the biomedicine, but recent rapid progress indicates that such methods hold great potential to provide valuable means for accelerating discovery and improving health. We also find that the use of LLMs, like ChatGPT, in the fields of biomedicine and health entails various risks and challenges, including fabricated information in its generated responses, as well as legal and privacy concerns associated with sensitive patient data. We believe this first-of-its-kind survey can provide a comprehensive overview to biomedical researchers and healthcare practitioners on the opportunities and challenges associated with using ChatGPT and other LLMs for transforming biomedicine and health

Calculation method for holding prestress of corroded prestressed anchor cable in long-term operation slope

Due to the rich water in the weathered layer of the free section, the prestressed anchor cable of the long-term operating slope is severely corroded and its mechanical properties are deteriorated, affecting the stability of the slope. Based on a certain number of long-term operation highway anchor cable excavation tests, the author found that the free section of the anchor cable orifice was seriously corroded. Currently, there is very little research on the relationship between the holding capacity of anchor cables and the degree of corrosion of the free section of the cable, and the research is mainly focused on the life of the anchor section. Therefore, the constitutive relationship of the cable body is established on the basis of corrosion force coupled statistical damage mechanics, and the relationship between the degree of corrosion of the cable body and the holding prestress of the operating slope anchor cables is derived using the load transfer method. The rationality of prestressed anchor cables on highway slopes during the operation period was verified by actual measurement. This study has positive significance for long-term stability analysis of slopes

Designing Artificial Two-Dimensional Landscapes via Room-Temperature Atomic-Layer Substitution

Manipulating materials with atomic-scale precision is essential for the development of next-generation material design toolbox. Tremendous efforts have been made to advance the compositional, structural, and spatial accuracy of material deposition and patterning. The family of 2D materials provides an ideal platform to realize atomic-level material architectures. The wide and rich physics of these materials have led to fabrication of heterostructures, superlattices, and twisted structures with breakthrough discoveries and applications. Here, we report a novel atomic-scale material design tool that selectively breaks and forms chemical bonds of 2D materials at room temperature, called atomic-layer substitution (ALS), through which we can substitute the top layer chalcogen atoms within the 3-atom-thick transition-metal dichalcogenides using arbitrary patterns. Flipping the layer via transfer allows us to perform the same procedure on the other side, yielding programmable in-plane multi-heterostructures with different out-of-plane crystal symmetry and electric polarization. First-principle calculations elucidate how the ALS process is overall exothermic in energy and only has a small reaction barrier, facilitating the reaction to occur at room temperature. Optical characterizations confirm the fidelity of this design approach, while TEM shows the direct evidence of Janus structure and suggests the atomic transition at the interface of designed heterostructure. Finally, transport and Kelvin probe measurements on MoXY (X,Y=S,Se; X and Y corresponding to the bottom and top layers) lateral multi-heterostructures reveal the surface potential and dipole orientation of each region, and the barrier height between them. Our approach for designing artificial 2D landscape down to a single layer of atoms can lead to unique electronic, photonic and mechanical properties previously not found in nature

Oncogenic state and cell identity combinatorially dictate the susceptibility of cells within glioma development hierarchy to IGF1R targeting

Glioblastoma is the most malignant cancer in the brain and currently incurable. It is urgent to identify effective targets for this lethal disease. Inhibition of such targets should suppress the growth of cancer cells and, ideally also precancerous cells for early prevention, but minimally affect their normal counterparts. Using genetic mouse models with neural stem cells (NSCs) or oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) as the cells‐of‐origin/mutation, it is shown that the susceptibility of cells within the development hierarchy of glioma to the knockout of insulin‐like growth factor I receptor (IGF1R) is determined not only by their oncogenic states, but also by their cell identities/states. Knockout of IGF1R selectively disrupts the growth of mutant and transformed, but not normal OPCs, or NSCs. The desirable outcome of IGF1R knockout on cell growth requires the mutant cells to commit to the OPC identity regardless of its development hierarchical status. At the molecular level, oncogenic mutations reprogram the cellular network of OPCs and force them to depend more on IGF1R for their growth. A new‐generation brain‐penetrable, orally available IGF1R inhibitor harnessing tumor OPCs in the brain is also developed. The findings reveal the cellular window of IGF1R targeting and establish IGF1R as an effective target for the prevention and treatment of glioblastoma

A Wireless Sensor Network Based Personnel Positioning Scheme in Coal Mines with Blind Areas

This paper proposes a novel personnel positioning scheme for a tunnel network with blind areas, which compared with most existing schemes offers both low-cost and high-precision. Based on the data models of tunnel networks, measurement networks and mobile miners, the global positioning method is divided into four steps: (1) calculate the real time personnel location in local areas using a location engine, and send it to the upper computer through the gateway; (2) correct any localization errors resulting from the underground tunnel environmental interference; (3) determine the global three-dimensional position by coordinate transformation; (4) estimate the personnel locations in the blind areas. A prototype system constructed to verify the positioning performance shows that the proposed positioning system has good reliability, scalability, and positioning performance. In particular, the static localization error of the positioning system is less than 2.4 m in the underground tunnel environment and the moving estimation error is below 4.5 m in the corridor environment. The system was operated continuously over three months without any failures

Immune cell early activation, apoptotic kinetic, and T-cell functional impairment in domestic pigs after ASFV CADC_HN09 strain infection

African swine fever (ASF) caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a fatal and highly contagious disease of domestic pigs characterized by rapid disease progression and death within 2 weeks. How the immune cells respond to acute ASFV infection and contribute to the immunopathogenesis of ASFV has not been completely understood. In this study, we examined the activation, apoptosis, and functional changes of distinct immune cells in domestic pigs following acute infection with the ASFV CADC_HN09 strain using multicolor flow cytometry. We found that ASFV infection induced broad apoptosis of DCs, monocytes, neutrophils, and lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of pigs over time. The expression of MHC class II molecule (SLA-DR/DQ) on monocytes and conventional DCs as well as CD21 expression on B cells were downregulated after ASFV infection, implying a potential impairment of antigen presentation and humoral response. Further examination of CD69 and ex vivo expression of IFN-γ on immune cells showed that T cells were transiently activated and expressed IFN-γ as early as 5 days post-infection. However, the capability of T cells to produce cytokines was significantly impaired in the infected pigs when stimulated with mitogen. These results suggest that the adaptive cellular immunity to ASFV might be initiated but later overridden by ASFV-induced immunosuppression. Our study clarified the cell types that were affected by ASFV infection and contributed to lymphopenia, improving our understanding of the immunopathogenesis of ASFV

Genome-Wide Association Studies Reveal the Genetic Basis of Ionomic Variation in Rice

Rice (Oryza sativa) is an important dietary source of both essential micronutrients and toxic trace elements for humans. The genetic basis underlying the variations in the mineral composition, the ionome, in rice remains largely unknown. Here, we describe a comprehensive study of the genetic architecture of the variation in the rice ionome performed using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the concentrations of 17 mineral elements in rice grain from a diverse panel of 529 accessions, each genotyped at ∼6.4 million single nucleotide polymorphism loci. We identified 72 loci associated with natural ionomic variations, 32 that are common across locations and 40 that are common within a single location. We identified candidate genes for 42 loci and provide evidence for the causal nature of three genes, the sodium transporter gene Os-HKT1;5 for sodium, Os-MOLYBDATE TRANSPORTER1;1 for molybdenum, and Grain number, plant height, and heading date7 for nitrogen. Comparison of GWAS data from rice versus Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) also identified well-known as well as new candidates with potential for further characterization. Our study provides crucial insights into the genetic basis of ionomic variations in rice and serves as an important foundation for further studies on the genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling the rice ionome