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Amorphous molybdenum sulfide (MoS x ) has been regarded as a promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst due to its mild preparation conditions and low-cost precursor materials. In this work, we report a simple strategy combining the growth of amorphous MoS x on the surface of metal organic frameworks (ZIF-67) and annealing treatment to prepare Co-doped MoS x nanopolyhedrons (denoted as CoMoS x NPs). The CoMoS x NPs exhibit excellent HER activity in acid condition with an overpotential of 188 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 (η 10 ), and a relatively stable overpotential after 2000 cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles testing. The excellent HER performance of the CoMoS x NPs can be attributed to the doping of Co element adjust the electronic structure and increase the conductivity of catalyst, and the nanopolyhedrons structure which can expose more active sites for HER electrocatalytic. This study offers a low-cost and simple strategy to prepare high-activity HER catalyst, which holds great promises in developing advanced electrocatalysts for energy storage.

Stock index forecasting has been one of the most widely investigated topics in the field of financial forecasting. Related studies typically advocate for tuning the parameters of forecasting models by minimizing learning errors measured using statistical metrics such as the mean squared error or mean absolute percentage error. The authors argue that statistical metrics used to guide parameter tuning of forecasting models may not be meaningful, given the fact that the ultimate goal of forecasting is to facilitate investment decisions with expected profits in the future. The authors therefore introduce the Sharpe ratio into the process of model building and take it as the profit metric to guide parameter tuning rather than using the commonly adopted statistical metrics. The authors consider three widely used trading strategies, which include a na¨ıve strategy, a filter strategy and a dual moving average strategy, as investment scenarios. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed profit guided approach, the authors carry out simulation experiments using three global mainstream stock market indices. The results show that profit guided forecasting models are competitive, and in many cases produce significantly better performances than statistical error guided models. This implies that profit guided stock index forecasting is a worthwhile alternative over traditional stock index forecasting practices.

Pepper ( Capsicum spp.) is one of the earliest cultivated crops and includes five domesticated species, C. annuum var. annuum , C. chinense , C. frutescens , C. baccatum var. pendulum and C. pubescens . Here, we report a pepper graph pan-genome and a genome variation map of 500 accessions from the five domesticated Capsicum species and close wild relatives. We identify highly differentiated genomic regions among the domesticated peppers that underlie their natural variations in flowering time, characteristic flavors, and unique resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses. Domestication sweeps detected in C. annuum var. annuum and C. baccatum var. pendulum are mostly different, and the common domestication traits, including fruit size, shape and pungency, are achieved mainly through the selection of distinct genomic regions between these two cultivated species. Introgressions from C. baccatum into C. chinense and C. frutescens are detected, including those providing genetic sources for various biotic and abiotic stress tolerances. Existing genetics and genomics studies of peppers mainly focus on single species. Here, the authors report a pepper graph pan-genome and a genome variation map of 500 accessions from five domesticated species and close wild relatives to reveal their domestication, introgression and population differentiation.

Viral infections can alter host transcriptomes by manipulating host splicing machinery. Despite intensive transcriptomic studies on SARS-CoV-2, a systematic analysis of alternative splicing (AS) in severe COVID-19 patients remains largely elusive. Here we integrated proteomic and transcriptomic sequencing data to study AS changes in COVID-19 patients. We discovered that RNA splicing is among the major down-regulated proteomic signatures in COVID-19 patients. The transcriptome analysis showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces widespread dysregulation of transcript usage and expression, affecting blood coagulation, neutrophil activation, and cytokine production. Notably, CD74 and LRRFIP1 had increased skipping of an exon in COVID-19 patients that disrupts a functional domain, which correlated with reduced antiviral immunity. Furthermore, the dysregulation of transcripts was strongly correlated with clinical severity of COVID-19, and splice-variants may contribute to unexpected therapeutic activity. In summary, our data highlight that a better understanding of the AS landscape may aid in COVID-19 diagnosis and therapy.

ObjectiveTo present the most recent data on urinary calculi characteristics in the southern region of China and explore the effects of sociodemographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics on stone composition to fill the research gap.SettingA retrospective observational study was performed in Shenzhen between December 2019 and August 2022.ParticipantsA total of 858 calculi samples from patients with urolithiasis were analysed via infrared spectroscopy.MethodsThe stone was classified by the European Association of Urology guidelines and the Mayo Clinic stone classification practices. Multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to evaluate the association between different characteristics and urinary stone composition.ResultsWe found that the majority of these patients with urolithiasis were under 60. Almost half of the stone samples (49.4%) were single constitute, and calcium oxalate stone accounted for the highest proportion (80.0%), followed by infection stone (10.0%) and uric acid stone (4.9%). Of these, 78.0% were collected from males, with a male-to-female ratio of 3.54:1; the majority (95.0%) of calculi localisation was in the upper urinary tract. Multivariate analysis found that age, gender, history of urolithiasis, kidney disease, anatomical location and urinary pH influenced urinary stone composition.ConclusionsThe effective prevention of urolithiasis is the key to this working-age population. These findings may supply significant evidence for understanding the underlying aetiology of urolithiasis and offer clues for effectively preventing and treating urinary calculi.

This work investigated a piecewise immunosuppressive infection model that assessed the effectiveness of implementing this therapeutic regimen once the effector cell count falls below a specific threshold level by introducing a threshold strategy. The sliding mode dynamics, global dynamics, and boundary equilibrium bifurcations of the Filippov system were examined based on the global dynamics of the two subsystems. Our primary findings indicate that the HIV viral loads and effector cell counts can be stabilized within the required predetermined level. This outcome depends on the threshold level, immune intensity, and the initial values of the system. Therefore, properly combining these key factors makes it possible to effectively curb the abnormal increase of virus and keep the effector cells at a reliable level. This approach maximizes the controllable range of the HIV. The proposed switching system incorporating pseudo-equilibrium exhibits three types of equilibriums that could be bistable or tristable. It means there is a possibility of controlling the virus after administering therapy if the immune intensity$ c $is limited within the range of the post-treatment control threshold and the elite control threshold when$ {R_0} > {R_{{c_1}}} > {R_{{c_2}}} > 1 $ .

The gross primary production (GPP) of the mangrove ecosystem determines the upper limit of the scale of its “blue carbon” sink. Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most important extreme events that threaten the subtropical mangrove ecosystem and have a serious impact on mangrove ecosystem GPP. However, there are somewhat insufficient scientific findings on regional-scale mangrove ecosystem GPP responding to large-scale weather events such as TCs. Therefore, we selected the subtropical Hainan Island mangrove ecosystem, where more than two TCs pass through per year, as the research area; selected direct-attack TCs as the research object; and took the mangrove vegetation photosynthesis light-use efficiency model established based on the eddy covariance observation data as the tool to evaluate the loss and recovery of mangrove ecosystem GPP after TCs attacked at a regional scale. We found that the TC impacted the mangrove ecosystem GPP through the photosynthetic area and rate, and the recovery of the rate occurred prior to the recovery of the area; the loss of mangrove ecosystem GPP is inversely proportional to the distance to the center of the TC and the distance to the coastline; and the canopy height, diameter at breast height, and aspect where the tree stands significantly influence the response of the mangrove ecosystem GPP to TCs. However, the response varies for different mangrove community compositions, soil conditions, and planting densities as well as different frequencies and intensities of TCs, and they should be analyzed in detail. This study is expected to provide technical and data support for the protection of blue carbon in a subtropical island mangrove ecosystem in response to extreme events and post-disaster recovery.

Thioredoxin binding protein (thioredoxin-interacting protein, TXNIP), known as vitamin D3 increase protein 1, has been identified as a tumor suppressor in various cancers such as pancreatic, breast, lung and thyroid cancer. However, the role of TXNIP in hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation and apoptosis remains unknown. In this study, we first used qRT-PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry to compare the expression of TXNIP between hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and tumor-adjacent normal liver tissues. In vitro, we explored the role of TXNIP in hepatocellular carcinoma progression via transfection of the pcDNA-3.1-TXNIP plasmid into SMMC7221 cells. Our results showed that the expression of TXNIP was significantly decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues. Moreover, TXNIP overexpression inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation and induced apoptosis by triggering mitochondrial-mediated ROS generation and activating MAPK pathways. This study provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of TXNIP overexpression in liver cancer cell survival and apoptosis and indicated that TXNIP may be a novel promising agent for liver cancer treatment.

Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii (Cb). From January 2018 to November 2019, plasma samples from 2,382 patients with acute fever of unknown cause at a hospital in Zhuhai city of China were tested using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). Of those tested, 138 patients (5.8%) were diagnosed with Q fever based on the presence of Cb genomic DNA detected by mNGS. Among these, 78 cases (56.5%) presented from Nov 2018 to Mar 2019, suggesting an outbreak of Q fever. 55 cases with detailed clinical information that occurred during the outbreak period were used for further analysis. The vast majority of plasma samples from those Cb-mNGS-positive patients were positive in a Cb-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction (n = 38) and/or indirect immunofluorescence assay (n = 26). Mobile phone tracing data was used to define the area of infection during the outbreak. This suggested the probable infection source was Cb-infected goats and cattle at the only official authorized slaughterhouse in Zhuhai city. Phylogenic analysis based on genomic sequences indicated Cb strains identified in the patients, goat and cattle were formed a single branch, most closely related to the genomic group of Cb dominated by strains isolated from goats. Our study demonstrates Q fever was epidemic in 2018–2019 in Zhuhai city, and this is the first confirmed epidemic of Q fever in a contemporary city in China.