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Efficiently modeling spatial–temporal information in videos is crucial for action recognition. To achieve this goal, state-of-the-art methods typically employ the convolution operator and the dense interaction modules such as non-local blocks. However, these methods cannot accurately fit the diverse events in videos. On the one hand, the adopted convolutions are with fixed scales, thus struggling with events of various scales. On the other hand, the dense interaction modeling paradigm only achieves sub-optimal performance as action-irrelevant parts bring additional noises for the final prediction. In this paper, we propose a unified action recognition framework to investigate the dynamic nature of video content by introducing the following designs. First, when extracting local cues, we generate the spatial–temporal kernels of dynamic-scale to adaptively fit the diverse events. Second, to accurately aggregate these cues into a global video representation, we propose to mine the interactions only among a few selected foreground objects by a Transformer, which yields a sparse paradigm. We call the proposed framework as Event Adaptive Network because both key designs are adaptive to the input video content. To exploit the short-term motions within local segments, we propose a novel and efficient Latent Motion Code module, further improving the performance of the framework. Extensive experiments on several large-scale video datasets, e.g., Something-to-Something V1 &V2, Kinetics, and Diving48, verify that our models achieve state-of-the-art or competitive performances at low FLOPs. Codes are available at: https://github.com/tianyuan168326/EAN-Pytorch.

The growing demand for lithium batteries with higher energy densities requires new electrode chemistries. Lithium metal is a promising candidate as the anode material due to its high theoretical specific capacity, negative electrochemical potential and favorable density. However, during cycling, low and uneven lithium ion concentration on the surface of anode usually results in uncontrolled dendrite growth, especially at high current densities. Here we tackle this issue by using lithiophilic montmorillonite as an additive in the ether-based electrolyte to regulate the lithium ion concentration on the anode surface and thus facilitate the uniform lithium deposition. The lithiophilic montmorillonite demonstrates a pumping feature that improves the self-concentrating kinetics of the lithium ion and thus accelerates the lithium ion transfer at the deposition/electrolyte interface. The signal intensity of TFSI − shows negligible changes via in situ Raman tracking of the ion flux at the electrochemical interface, indicating homogeneous ion distribution, which can lead to a stable and uniform lithium deposition on the anode surface. Our study indicates that the interfacial engineering induced by the lithiophilic montmorillonite could be a promising strategy to optimize the lithium deposition for next-generation lithium metal batteries. The address one of the major challenges facing the lithium metal anode, here the authors use lithiophilic montmorillonite as an additive to the ether-based electrolyte to regulate the lithium ion concentration on the anode surface, facilitating uniform lithium deposition.

Natural products largely produced by Pseudomonads-like soil-dwelling microorganisms are a consistent source of antimicrobial metabolites and pesticides. Herein we report the isolation of Pseudomonas mosselii strain 923 from rice rhizosphere soils of paddy fields, which specifically inhibit the growth of plant bacterial pathogens Xanthomonas species and the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae . The antimicrobial compound is purified and identified as pseudoiodinine using high-resolution mass spectra, nuclear magnetic resonance and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Genome-wide random mutagenesis, transcriptome analysis and biochemical assays define the pseudoiodinine biosynthetic cluster as psdABCDEFG . Pseudoiodinine biosynthesis is proposed to initiate from guanosine triphosphate and 1,6-didesmethyltoxoflavin is a biosynthetic intermediate. Transposon mutagenesis indicate that GacA is the global regulator. Furthermore, two noncoding small RNAs, rsmY and rsmZ , positively regulate pseudoiodinine transcription, and the carbon storage regulators CsrA2 and CsrA3, which negatively regulate the expression of psdA . A 22.4-fold increase in pseudoiodinine production is achieved by optimizing the media used for fermentation, overexpressing the biosynthetic operon, and removing the CsrA binding sites. Both of the strain 923 and purified pseudoiodinine in planta inhibit the pathogens without affecting the rice host, suggesting that pseudoiodinine can be used to control plant diseases. Natural antimicrobial metabolites produced by soil microorganisms can be used as green pesticides. Here, the authors isolated a Pseudomonas mosselii strain 923 from rice rhizosphere soils and identify the compound pyrazolotriazine pseudoiodinine inhibits the growth of plant bacterial and fungal pathogens.

The long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) LUCAT1 was recently reported to be upregulated and to play an essential role in multiple cancer types, especially colorectal cancer (CRC), but the molecular mechanisms of LUCAT1 in CRC are mostly unreported. Here, a systematic analysis of LUACT1 expression is performed with data from TCGA database and clinic CRC samples. LUCAT1 is identified as a putative oncogene, which is significantly upregulated in CRC and is associated with poor prognosis. Loss of LUCAT1 restricts CRC proliferative capacities in vitro and in vivo. Mechanically, NCL is identified as the protein binding partner of LUCAT1 by using chromatin isolation by RNA purification coupled with mass spectrometry (ChIRP-MS) and RNA immunoprecipitation assays. We also show that NCL directly binds to LUCAT1 via its putative G-quadruplex-forming regions from nucleotides 717 to 746. The interaction between LUCAT1 and NCL interferes NCL-mediated inhibition of MYC and promote the expression of MYC. Cells lacking LUCAT1 show a decreased MYC expression, and NCL knockdown rescue LUCAT1 depletion-induced inhibition of CRC cell proliferation and MYC expression. Our results suggest that LUCAT1 plays a critical role in CRC cell proliferation by inhibiting the function of NCL via its G-quadruplex structure and may serve as a new prognostic biomarker and effective therapeutic target for CRC.

Yu-Ping-Feng-San (YPF) is a famous classical Chinese medicine formula known for its ability to boost immunity. YPF has been applied to enhance the immune status of tumor patients in clinical practice. However, there is still a lack of research on its immune regulatory effects and mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment. This study was designed to investigate the effects and mechanism of YPF on improving the immune suppression state of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) microenvironment. In an orthotopic mouse model of HCC, YPF improved the immune microenvironment of HCC immunosuppression, enhanced the maturation of dendritic cells (DCs), promoted the release of IL-12, and decreased the presence of JAK2, p-JAK2, STAT3, and p-STAT3 proteins in both tumor tissue and paracancerous tissues. YPF also could promote the maturation and reduce the activation of JAK2, p-JAK2, STAT3, and p-STAT3 proteins of mouse bone marrow-derived DCs induced by culture medium or tumor supernatant in vitro . Transient transfection of siRNA-STAT3 with DCs resulted in an increase in its maturation and its secretion of IL-12. On the whole, these combined effects of YPF served to ameliorate the HCC immune suppression microenvironment, which conducive to immune cells play the role of immune surveillance and killing liver cancer cells. The mechanisms of these combined effects were, at least in part, related to its inhibition of the activated JAK2-STAT3 signaling pathway in DCs within the HCC microenvironment.

Three kinds of Al flyer plates with different nanostructured absorption layers were in situ prepared by a direct laser writing technology to improve the energy conversion efficiency in a laser-driven flyer assembly. Microstructures, light absorption, and flyer velocity in the acceleration chamber were investigated. The reflectance for the flyers at 1064-nm wavelength can be reduced from 81.3 to 9.8% by the nanostructured absorption layer. The terminal velocity of a 50-μm-thick Al flyer irradiated by a 60-mJ laser pulse is 831 m/s, while the velocity of the flyer with an in situ-fabricated nano-absorption layer reaches up to 1113 m/s at the same condition. Resultantly, the energy conversion efficiency of the flyer with a nanostructure absorption layer can reach as high as 1.99 times that of the Al flyer. Therefore, the nanostructured absorption layer in situ prepared on the surface of a flyer provides a new method to significantly improve the energy conversion efficiency of a laser-driven flyer.

Recently, reported perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) are mostly based on mesoporous structures containing mesoporous titanium oxide (TiO2) which is the main factor to reduce the overall hysteresis. However, existing fabrication approaches for mesoporous TiO2 generally require a high-temperature annealing process. Moreover, there is still a long way to go for improvement in terms of increasing the electron conductivity and reducing the carrier recombination. Herein, a facile one-step, in situ, and low-temperature method was developed to prepare an Nb:TiO2 compact-mesoporous layer which served as both scaffold and electron transport layer (ETL) for PSCs. The Nb:TiO2 compact-mesoporous ETL-based PSCs exhibit suppressed hysteresis, which is attributed to the synergistic effect of the increased interface surface area caused by nano-pin morphology and the improved carrier transportation caused by Nb doping. Such a high-quality compact-mesoporous layer allows the PSCs assembled using optimized 2% Nb-doped TiO2 to achieve a remarkable PCE of 19.74%. This work promises an effective approach for creating hysteresis-less and high-efficiency PSCs based on compact-mesoporous structures with lower energy consumption and cost.

Background Aging is the major risk factor for most human cancers. We aim to develop and validate a reliable aging-related gene pair signature (ARGPs) to predict the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) patients. Methods The mRNA expression data and clinical information were obtained from two public databases, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset, and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset, respectively. The best prognostic signature was established using Cox regression analysis (univariate and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). The optimal cut-off value to distinguish between high- and low-risk patients was found by time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC). The prognostic ability of the ARGPS was evaluated by a log‐rank test and a Cox proportional hazards regression model. Results The 24 ARGPs were constructed for GC prognosis. Using the optimal cut-off value − 0.270, all patients were stratified into high risk and low risk. In both TCGA and GEO cohorts, the results of Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the high-risk group has a poor prognosis ( P  < 0.001, P  = 0.002, respectively). Then, we conducted a subgroup analysis of age, gender, grade and stage, and reached the same conclusion. After adjusting for a variety of clinical and pathological factors, the results of multivariate COX regression analysis showed that the ARGPs is still an independent prognostic factor of OS (HR, 4.919; 95% CI 3.345–7.235; P  < 0.001). In comparing with previous signature, the novel signature was superior, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value of 0.845 vs. 0.684 vs. 0.695. The results of immune infiltration analysis showed that the abundance of T cells follicular helper was significantly higher in the low-risk group, while the abundance of monocytes was the opposite. Finally, we identified and incorporated independent prognostic factors and developed a superior nomogram to predict the prognosis of GC patients. Conclusion Our study has developed a robust prognostic signature that can accurately predict the prognostic outcome of GC patients.

Since the early 20 th century, there has been extensive discussion on the intricate relationship between pathogenic infection and tumors. However, most studies on host-pathogen interactions are performed based on the in-vitro culture, immortalized cell lines or animal experiments. A significant challenge lies in accurately establishing a coculture model between tumors and pathogens under the three-dimensional (3D) context. Recently, the hybrid model system that incorporates 3D tumor organoids and two-dimensional cell lines have been gradually used to analyze the intricate relationship between pathogens and tumors, and several coculture techniques for tumor organoids and pathogens have also been developed. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed the preparation and identification of tumor organoids, coculture techniques with pathogens, and their clinical applications, aiming to further understand and simulate the interaction mechanism between the hosts and pathogens.

Current stress sensors for microsystems face integration challenges and complex signal decoding. This paper proposes a real-time uniaxially sensitive stress sensor. It is obtained by simple combinations of bar resistors using their sensitivity differences in different axes. With the aid of a Wheatstone bridge, the sensor can measure the uniaxial stress magnitude by simple calibration of the stress against the output voltage and detect the bidirectional stress magnitude and direction in a micro-zone by simple rotation. The theoretical sensitivity obtained from simulation is 0.087 mV/V·MPa when the X-bridge is stressed in the X-direction under 1 V of excitation, and the test sensitivity of the X-bridge prepared in this paper is 0.1 mV/V·MPa. The design is structurally and procedurally simple, exhibits better temperature stability, and reduces interface requirements, making it suitable for the health monitoring of multi-chip microsystem chips.