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Cholesterol is an essential structural component of membranes that contributes to membrane integrity and fluidity. Cholesterol homeostasis plays a critical role in the maintenance of cellular activities. Recently, increasing evidence has indicated that cholesterol is a major determinant by modulating cell signaling events governing the hallmarks of cancer. Numerous studies have shown the functional significance of cholesterol metabolism in tumorigenesis, cancer progression and metastasis through its regulatory effects on the immune response, ferroptosis, autophagy, cell stemness, and the DNA damage response. Here, we summarize recent literature describing cholesterol metabolism in cancer cells, including the cholesterol metabolism pathways and the mutual regulatory mechanisms involved in cancer progression and cholesterol metabolism. We also discuss various drugs targeting cholesterol metabolism to suggest new strategies for cancer treatment. Cancer: Changes in cholesterol metabolism Emerging evidence suggests that changes in cholesterol metabolism can be involved in the onset and progression of cancer, opening avenues towards better understanding of cancer and new treatment options. Cholesterol is an essential structural component of cell membranes, important for maintaining optimal fluidity of the membrane under varying conditions. Si Shi, Xianjun Yu and colleagues at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, China, review recent research into cholesterol metabolism in cancers, including cellular regulatory pathways involving cholesterol that are also implicated in cancer progression. The influence of cholesterol metabolism on cancer has been linked to effects on several key physiological processes, including the immune response, regulated cell death, recycling of cellular components, DNA repair, and the activities of stem cells. The authors consider the potential of drugs known to influence cholesterol metabolism in anti-cancer therapy.

Background The basic/helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family exists in all three eukaryotic kingdoms as important participants in biological growth and development. To date, the comprehensive genomic and functional analyses of bHLH genes has not been reported in cucumber ( Cucumis sativus L.). Results Here, a total of 142 bHLH genes were identified and classified into 32 subfamilies according to the conserved motifs, phylogenetic analysis and gene structures in cucumber. The sequences of CsbHLH proteins were highly conserved based on the results of multiple sequence alignment analyses. The chromosomal distribution, synteny analysis, and gene duplications of these 142 CsbHLHs were further analysed. Many elements related to stress responsiveness and plant hormones were present in the promoter regions of CsbHLH genes based on a cis -element analysis. By comparing the phylogeny of cucumber and Arabidopsis bHLH proteins, we found that cucumber bHLH proteins were clustered into different functional clades of Arabidopsis bHLH proteins. The expression analysis of selected CsbHLHs under abiotic stresses (NaCl, ABA and low-temperature treatments) identified five CsbHLH genes that could simultaneously respond to the three abiotic stresses. Tissue-specific expression profiles of these five genes were also analysed. In addition, 35S : CsbHLH041 enhanced the tolerance to salt and ABA in transgenic Arabidopsis and in cucumber seedlings, suggesting CsbHLH041 is an important regulator in response to abiotic stresses. Lastly, the functional interoperability network among the CsbHLH proteins was analysed. Conclusion This study provided a good foundation for further research into the functions and regulatory mechanisms of CsbHLH proteins and identified candidate genes for stress resistance in cucumber.

In the era of global economic integration, the banking domain stands as a pivotal influence in determining a nation's economic health and stability. This piece explores the mounting significance of appraising banking hazards, especially in the face of the unparalleled obstacles brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic. The international economic scenery has experienced significant transformations due to the pandemic, influencing economic endeavors, corporate earnings, and workforce dynamics. As a result, banks confront mounting credit, market, and liquidity risks, demanding strategic measures for operational stability. The essay focuses on assessing banking risks, with an emphasis on interest rate hikes, providing valuable insights for the industry's prudent development. It scrutinizes liquidity risk, highlighting challenges stemming from rising interest rates and urging diversification of funding sources and effective liquidity management. The credit risk landscape, influenced by pandemic-induced financial distress, increased defaults, and the need for enhanced risk management, is discussed. Additionally, the examination of market risk, particularly affected by interest rate hikes, explores fluctuations in asset prices and heightened volatility. The interplay of these risks during the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the necessity for banks to comprehensively strengthen their risk management strategies. The challenges associated with liquidity risk, including run risk, credit risk amid economic downturns, and market risk dynamics influenced by interest rate changes, are highlighted. The essay concludes by underscoring the substantial impact of the pandemic on the global economy, prompting the need for effective risk management strategies to ensure sustained operations and resilience in evolving market conditions.

Recent progress in high power ultrafast short-wave and mid-wave infrared lasers has enabled gas-phase high harmonic generation (HHG) in the water window and beyond, as well as the demonstration of HHG in condensed matter. In this Perspective, we discuss the recent advancements and future trends in generating and characterizing soft X-ray pulses from gas-phase HHG and extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses from solid-state HHG. Then, we discuss their current and potential usage in time-resolved study of electron and nuclear dynamics in atomic, molecular and condensed matters. Different methods are demonstrated in recent years to produce attosecond pulses. Here, the authors discuss recent development and future prospects of the generation of such pulses from gases and solids and their potential applications in spectroscopy and ultrafast dynamics in atoms, molecules and other complex systems.

Air-stability is one of the most important considerations for the practical application of electrode materials in energy-harvesting/storage devices, ranging from solar cells to rechargeable batteries. The promising P2-layered sodium transition metal oxides (P2-Na x TmO 2 ) often suffer from structural/chemical transformations when contacted with moist air. However, these elaborate transitions and the evaluation rules towards air-stable P2-Na x TmO 2 have not yet been clearly elucidated. Herein, taking P2-Na 0.67 MnO 2 and P2-Na 0.67 Ni 0.33 Mn 0.67 O 2 as key examples, we unveil the comprehensive structural/chemical degradation mechanisms of P2-Na x TmO 2 in different ambient atmospheres by using various microscopic/spectroscopic characterizations and first-principle calculations. The extent of bulk structural/chemical transformation of P2-Na x TmO 2 is determined by the amount of extracted Na + , which is mainly compensated by Na + /H + exchange. By expanding our study to a series of Mn-based oxides, we reveal that the air-stability of P2-Na x TmO 2 is highly related to their oxidation features in the first charge process and further propose a practical evaluating rule associated with redox couples for air-stable Na x TmO 2 cathodes. Air-stability is a critical challenge faced by layered sodium transition metal oxide cathodes. Here, the authors depict a general and in-depth model of the structural/chemical evolution of P2-type layered oxides in air and propose an evaluation rule for the air-stability of layered sodium cathodes.

This paper deals with gear pitting fault diagnosis problem and presents a method by integrating convolutional neural network (CNN) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) networks with vibration and acoustic emission signals to solve the problem. The presented method first trains a one-dimensional CNN with acoustic emission signals and a GRU network with vibration signals. Then the gear pitting fault features obtained by the two networks are concatenated to form a deep learning structure for gear pitting fault diagnosis. Seven different gear pitting conditions are used to test the feasibility of the presented method. The diagnosis result of the gear pitting fault shows that the accuracy of the presented method reaches above 98% with only a relatively small number of training samples. In comparison with the results using CNN or GRU network alone, the presented method gives more accurate diagnosis results. By comparing the results of different loads and learning rates, the robustness of the presented method for gear pitting fault diagnosis is proved. Moreover, the presented deep structure can be easily extended to more other sensor input signals for gear pitting fault diagnosis in the future.

Research on data-driven fault diagnosis methods has received much attention in recent years. The deep belief network (DBN) is a commonly used deep learning method for fault diagnosis. In the past, when people used DBN to diagnose gear pitting faults, it was found that the diagnosis result was not good with continuous time domain vibration signals as direct inputs into DBN. Therefore, most researchers extracted features from time domain vibration signals as inputs into DBN. However, it is desirable to use raw vibration signals as direct inputs to achieve good fault diagnosis results. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method by stacking spare autoencoder (SAE) and Gauss-Binary restricted Boltzmann machine (GBRBM) for early gear pitting faults diagnosis with raw vibration signals as direct inputs. The SAE layer is used to compress the raw vibration data and the GBRBM layer is used to effectively process continuous time domain vibration signals. Vibration signals of seven early gear pitting faults collected from a gear test rig are used to validate the proposed method. The validation results show that the proposed method maintains a good diagnosis performance under different working conditions and gives higher diagnosis accuracy compared to other traditional methods.

Background Education has been recognised as necessary in forming and internalising professional values. The system and instructors' content in existing educational institutions focus on developing students' knowledge, skills and practices. Still, the development of values has yet to achieve significant effects, leading to a crisis in students' professional identity. Aims To construct a professional values growth theory for undergraduate nursing students and develop a corresponding education framework. Methods Through the review, some databases(PubMed、CINAHL、Web of Science、Wiley and Google Scholars)were searched using a systematic search strategy to collect relevant literature on professional values education. Based on the nursing professional values growth theory (Li and Li, Nursing Ethics In press, 2022), a theory of professional values growth of nursing undergraduates was developed using the method of theory derivation. Two rounds of expert meetings were conducted to review and revise an education framework of professional values of nursing undergraduates derived from that theory. Findings A total of 10 studies were included. The contents of two themes were analysed: theories and models and the current status of the professional values development of nursing students. The resulting professional values growth theory for undergraduate nursing students consists of five parts: key aspects, decisive opportunities, drivers, embodiment (humanistic sentiments, moral emotions), and outcomes. A total of five experts in the relevant fields were invited to this study. After two rounds of expert meetings, an education framework for undergraduate nursing students was finally developed, which consists of four parts: education objectives, education process and content, environment and conditions, and evaluation. Conclusion The education framework developed in this study has practical implications for the development of professional values of undergraduate nursing students, providing educational strategies and methods for the growth and internalisation of professional values of undergraduate nursing students.

It is widely acknowledged that urban form significantly affects urban thermal environment, which is a key element to adapt and mitigate extreme high temperature weather in high-density urban areas. However, few studies have discussed the impact of physical urban form features on the land surface temperature (LST) from a perspective of comprehensive urban spatial structures. This study used the ordinary least-squares regression (OLS) and random forest regression (RF) to distinguish the relative contributions of urban form metrics on LST at three observation scales. Results of this study indicate that more than 90% of the LST variations were explained by selected urban form metrics using RF. Effects of the magnitude and direction of urban form metrics on LST varied with the changes of seasons and observation scales. Overall, building morphology and urban ecological infrastructure had dominant effects on LST variations in high-density urban centers. Urban green space and water bodies demonstrated stronger cooling effects, especially in summer. Building density (BD) exhibited significant positive effects on LST, whereas the floor area ratio (FAR) showed a negative influence on LST. The results can be applied to investigate and implement urban thermal environment mitigation planning for city managers and planners.

We propose to embed the atomic magnetometer (AM) into an optical Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI). We analyze the effect of amplification of the Faraday rotation (FR) angle of the probe laser light, by properly postselecting the path-information state of the laser photons when passing through the MZI. In the presence of practical limitations, such as the polarization cross talk in the polarizing-beam-splitter, the amplified FR angle in the postselected photons can make the postselection scheme outperform the conventional measurement, thus further enhancing the sensitivity of the nowadays state-of-the-art optical AM.