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Ethylene glycol, a widely used chemical, has a large global capacity exceeding 40 million tons per year. Nevertheless, its production is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, resulting in substantial CO 2 emissions. Herein, we report an approach for electrochemically producing ethylene glycol from biomass glycerol. This process involves glycerol electrooxidation to glycolaldehyde at anode, which is subsequently electro-reduced to ethylene glycol at cathode. While the anode reaction has been reported, the cathode reaction remains a challenge. An electrodeposited electrode with metallic Cu catalyst enables us to achieve glycolaldehyde-to-ethylene glycol conversion with an exceptional faradaic efficiency of about 80%. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that metallic Cu catalyst facilitates the C=O activation, promoting glycolaldehyde hydrogenation into ethylene glycol. We further assemble a zero-gap electrolyzer and demonstrate ethylene glycol electrosynthesis from glycerol to give a decent production rate of 1.32 mmol cm –2  h –1 under a 3.48 V cell voltage. The carbon intensity assessment based on a valid assumption reveals that our strategy may reduce CO 2 emissions by over 80 million tons annually compared to conventional fossil fuel routes. Ethylene glycol, widely utilized with over 40 million tons produced annually, is typically made with high CO 2 emissions. Here, the authors report an electrochemical method to produce ethylene glycol from biomass glycerol, offering a more sustainable, low-emission alternative.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and emerging Alternaria toxins often co-occur in cereal-based products, but the current risk assessment is commonly conducted for only one type of mycotoxin at a time. Compared to adults, infants and young children are more susceptible to mycotoxins through food consumption, especially with cereal-based food products which are the main source of exposure. This study aimed to perform a probabilistic risk assessment of combined exposure to DON and three major Alternaria toxins, namely including alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), alternariol (AOH), and tenuazonic acid (TeA) through consumption of cereal-based foods for Chinese infants and young children. A total of 872 cereal-based food products were randomly collected and tested for the occurrence of DON and three major Alternaria toxins. The results on mycotoxin occurrence showed the DON, TeA, AOH, and AME was detected in 56.4%, 47.5%, 7.5%, and 5.7% of the samples, respectively. Co-contamination of various mycotoxins was observed in 39.9% of the analyzed samples. A preliminary cumulative risk assessment using the models of hazard index (HI) and combined margin of exposure (MoET) was performed on DON and Alternaria toxins that were present in cereal-based food products for infants and young children in China for the first time. The results showed that only 0.2% and 1.5%, respectively, of individuals exceeded the corresponding reference value for DON and TeA, indicating a low health risk. However, in the case of AME and AOH, the proportion of individuals exceeding the reference value was 24.1% and 33.5%, respectively, indicating the potential health risks. In the cumulative risk assessment of AME and AOH, both HI and MoET values indicated a more serious risk than that related to individual exposure. Further research is necessary to reduce the uncertainties that are associated with the toxicities of the Alternaria toxins and cumulative risk assessment methods.

Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune disease primarily affecting exocrine glands, characterized by dry mouth and eyes, with an unclear pathogenesis. Recent studies suggest that salivary gland (SG) cell senescence is critical in SS pathogenesis. The senescence mechanism may serve as a critical pathological nexus linking molecular abnormalities to clinical phenotypes. Under assaults from infections, environmental factors, and immune dysregulation, SG cells undergo oxidative stress, telomere shortening, and DNA damage, leading to senescence. Senescent cells lose proliferative capacity and secrete senescence-associated cytokines, triggering inflammation and immune responses that exacerbate disease progression. Elucidating the mechanisms of SG cell senescence may advance our understanding of SS pathogenesis and identify novel therapeutic targets, offering new avenues for SS treatment.

Photonics-assisted wireless communication provides a powerful pathway for next-generation infrastructures, offering ultra-wide bandwidth and high spectral agility. Despite extensive research and commercial adoption of photonics-assisted schemes such as radio-over-fiber in base station scenarios, their implementation in space-constrained and power-sensitive end devices remains highly challenging. The main obstacles arise from complex transceiver architectures, as mitigating effects of drift and jitter in carriers necessitates either high-purity sources or complex digital signal processing (DSP). Here, we propose a minimalist integrated photonics-assisted terahertz wireless transceiver solution tailored for lightweight systems. By employing residual carrier modulation and injection locking, we achieve a streamlined architecture using solely off-the-shelf 4 MHz linewidth distributed feedback laser chips and a single photodetector receiver, which supports 144 Gbps high-speed transmission at sub-terahertz frequency, meanwhile operating in a DSP-free regime for carrier recovery. The system also incorporates on-chip modulator and photodiode, enabling higher-level system integration. Eliminating the long-standing hardware burden and DSP overhead, the proposed scheme paves the way for lightweight, massive adoption of high-performance photonics-assisted wireless transceivers in end devices for ubiquitous access. Researchers demonstrate a minimalist terahertz wireless transceiver in integrated photonics. They break the longstanding constraint between source purity and DSP complexity, realizing 144 Gbps high-speed transmission at subterahertz frequency.

Altitude training has been widely adopted. This study aimed to establish a mice model to determine the time point for achieving the best endurance at the lowland. C57BL/6 and BALB/c male mice were used to establish a mice model of hypoxic training with normoxic training mice, hypoxic mice, and normoxic mice as controls. All hypoxic mice were placed in a chamber filled with 16% O 2 and N 2 , and hypoxic training mice were trained for two weeks. Then mice were removed from the chamber and tested at normoxic conditions weekly at the beginning of the experiment and the second, third, fourth, and sixth weeks. The tests for endurance ability include maximal aerobic speed (MAS), Rota-rod, and grip strength. In addition, the open field, visual cliff, and Y maze were used to test cognitive abilities. Body composition and lactic acid tolerance level were also measured. For BALB/c but not C57BL/6 mice were evaluated for effectively training. Based on the average MAS of all mice, mice successfully passed the training according to the procedure: the first week (32%MAS/10min, 48%MAS/10min, and 64%MAS/10min) and second week (40%MAS/10min, 56%MAS/10min, and 72%MAS/10min). Hypoxic training mice reached peak rotarod performance on the 7th day post-training (Test 3), with significant improvements compared to Test 1, 2, 4, and 5. At Test 3, their rotarod scores significantly differed from both H and N groups, and showing a trend towards difference from NT group. Meanwhile, hypoxic mice showed significant cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, muscle loss, and fat gain compared with hypoxic training mice after hypoxia intervation. Two consecutive weeks of 16% O2 training followed by one week of reoxygenation may be the best for endurance competition. Thus, we think a mouse model for hypoxic training was built, with Rota-rod testing as a detection indicator. Moreover, hypoxic training may alleviate the damage of hypoxia to the body.

In this work, we develop a novel approach for designing the trajectory and controlling the velocity for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to achieve energy-efficient visual coverage of multiple terrestrial regions. Unlike previous works, our proposed approach allows the UAV to flexibly change both its velocity and its flight altitude during its task tour. To minimize the UAV’s total flight energy consumption during its task tour, we propose a novel four-step approach. The first step devises a simulated annealing (SA)-based searching algorithm to optimize the UAV’s photographing altitude for each region, considering various image resolution requirements and safety requirements across regions. Based on the identified photographing altitudes of all regions, the second step formulates a traveling salesman problem (TSP) and uses an efficient approximate method to determine the visiting order of each region. The third step generates all candidate intra-region trajectories used for visual coverage of each region, of which the optimal one will be decided together with the inter-region trajectory used for transitioning between neighboring regions during the fourth step. Finally, the fourth step employs dynamic programming (DP) and geometry to jointly determine the UAV’s velocity control and complete trajectory during its task tour. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach, compared with several existing methods.

Rice is a staple grain crop extensively cultivated in Fujian Province, China. This study examined the impact of high-temperature stress on rice yield and its components, focusing on four representative rice varieties, including early and middle rice grown in Fujian Province. Results indicate significant yield losses, with the most severe reduction of 60.8% observed during the flowering stage of early rice and over 40% during the meiosis and flowering stages of middle rice. High-temperature stress primarily affects early rice yield more at the flowering stage than at the grain-filling stage, whereas in middle rice, it is more severe at the meiosis stage than at the flowering stage. Leveraging historical climatic data spanning the past 20 years, a simulation model for high-temperature stress on rice yield was developed to assess disaster-induced yield loss rates, aiming to enhance prevention and disaster damage assessment for rice under high-temperature stress. Application of the model to four rice planting sites in Fujian Province revealed contrasting temporal changes between loss rates and meteorological yield, with middle rice experiencing more severe damage than early rice. The model’s effectiveness is validated by the strong correspondence between yield loss rate and meteorological yield across different regions, highlighting its robust simulation capabilities.

Background Grafting with dwarf rootstock is an efficient method to control plant height in fruit production. However, the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Our previous study showed that plants with Prunus mume (mume) rootstock exhibited a considerable reduction in plant height, internode length, and number of nodes compared with Prunus persica (peach) rootstock. The present study aimed to investigate the mechanism behind the regulation of plant height by mume rootstocks through transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses with two grafting combinations, ‘Longyan/Mume’ and ‘Longyan/Peach’. Results There was a significant decrease in brassinolide levels in plants that were grafted onto mume rootstocks. Plant hormone signal transduction and brassinolide production metabolism gene expression also changed significantly. Flavonoid levels, amino acid and fatty acid metabolites, and energy metabolism in dwarf plants decreased. There was a notable upregulation of PmLBD3 gene expression in plant specimens that were subjected to grafting onto mume rootstocks. Auxin signalling cues promoted PmARF3 transcription, which directly controlled this upregulation. Through its binding to PmBAS1 and PmSAUR36a gene promoters, PmLBD3 promoted endogenous brassinolide inactivation and inhibited cell proliferation. Conclusions Auxin signalling and brassinolide levels are linked by PmLBD3 . Our findings showed that PmLBD3 is a key transcription factor that regulates the balance of hormones through the auxin and brassinolide signalling pathways and causes dwarf plants in stone fruits.

Background Interleukin17 (IL17) is an important cytokine in host defense at mucosal surfaces and also mediates many autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In recent years, many types of research relevant to the structure and function of IL17 have been identified. However, there is no bibliometric analysis in this research field. This study aims to explore the history, research hotspots, and emerging trends of IL17 from the perspective of the structure and function dynamics. Methods Articles relevant to IL17 in the last two decades were retrieved through the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. The bibliometric analysis was performed by VOSview. Results A total of 882 papers in this research were analyzed from 65 countries, and the rate of published articles has increased from 2008 annually, with the USA, China, and Germany leading the research effort. Frontiers in Immunology has significantly impacted research in this field and the University of Pittsburgh was the leading institution. Gaffen, Sarah L. from the University of Pittsburgh was the most productive researcher in this field and Papp Ka from the Probity Medical Research Incorporate of Canada is the most co-cited author. The analysis of keywords showed that inflammation, expression, Th17 cells, and cytokines were the main hotspots and frontier directions of IL17. The trend of clinical application in the future is the development of new therapy drugs based on the structure of IL17 or IL17 signaling pathway molecular. Conclusions Our research summarized the developments and research trends of IL17 and would help researchers understand the research status of IL17 and provide a reference for future researchers as soon as possible.

Background Leaf inclination angle (LIA) is a key trait affecting crop canopy structure and photosynthetic efficiency, but its accurate measurement is challenging due to complex leaf geometry, especially in narrow, curved rice leaves. As the flag leaf serves as the primary photosynthetic organ in rice, the precise spatial parsing of its architecture is crucial for optimizing canopy light interception and yield potential. With the rapid development of high-throughput phenotyping technologies, an increasing number of studies have focused on the fine-grained characterization of 3D crop architecture. However, accurate methodologies for extracting the flag leaf inclination angle (FLIA) in rice, as well as systematic investigations into its spatiotemporal variation patterns, remain largely unexplored. Results In this study, we systematically evaluated multiple plane-fitting strategies based on SfM-MVS point clouds, finding that voxel-based piecewise analysis outperformed traditional global approaches. To further improve accuracy, skeleton extraction methods were innovatively extended to LIA estimation. A proposed multi-method ensemble, based on the median of eight skeleton extraction combinations, yielded high robustness (R 2  = 0.923, RMSE = 2.072°) against photographic ground truth. By applying the proposed framework to both field- and pot-grown rice, we observed no significant FLIA differences between varieties or nitrogen treatments under field-grown conditions, likely due to phenotypic plasticity regulated by population effects. However, pot-grown plants, experiencing reduced interplant competition, exhibited significant varietal differences in FLIA. Across growth environments, varieties, and nitrogen treatments, FLIA at maturity was significantly lower than at anthesis and grain filling stages due to leaf senescence. Conclusions This study establishes a robust and accurate measurement framework for LIA based on 3D point clouds, improving estimation performance through piecewise analysis, voxelization, and ensemble strategies. The proposed approach is demonstrated to be an effective tool for the precise quantification of rice leaf phenotypes.