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Tryptophan metabolism and gut microbiota form an integrated regulatory axis that impacts immunity, metabolism, and cancer. This review consolidated current knowledge on the bidirectional interactions between microbial tryptophan processing and the host. We focused on how the gut microbiome controls tryptophan breakdown via the indole, kynurenine, and serotonin pathways. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota induces disruptions in tryptophan catabolism which contribute to disorders like inflammatory conditions, neuropsychiatric diseases, metabolic syndromes, and cancer. These disruptions affect immune homeostasis, neurotransmission, and gut-brain communication. Elucidating the mechanisms of microbial tryptophan modulation could enable novel therapeutic approaches like psychobiotics and microbiome-targeted dietary interventions. Overall, further research on the microbiota-tryptophan axis has the potential to revolutionize personalized diagnostics and treatments for improving human health.

The big data of user-generated content (UGC) on social media are laden with potential value for brand managers. However, there are many obstacles to using big data to answer brand-management questions. This article presents a framework that automatically derives latent brand topics and classifies brand sentiments. It applies text mining with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and sentiment analysis on 1.7 million unique tweets for 20 brands across five industries: fast food, department store, footwear, electronics, and telecommunications. The framework is used to explore four brand-related questions on Twitter. There are three main findings. First, product, service, and promotions are the dominant topics of interest when consumers interact with brands on Twitter. Second, consumer sentiments toward brands vary within and across industries. Third, separate company-specific analyses of positive and negative tweets generate a more accurate understanding of Twitter users' major brand topics and sentiments. Our findings provide brand managers with actionable insights in targeted advertising, social customer relationship management (CRM), and brand management.

Anaerobically digested sludge-derived biochar was produced through pyrolysis at 700 °C, called BC700. BC700 was characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method. The factors influencing the adsorption process and the mechanism involved in adsorbing tricyclazole and 2,4-D in single and binary systems were revealed. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacities of BC700 for tricyclazole and 2,4-D in a single system were 11.86 mg/g and 7.89 mg/g, respectively. In the binary system, the theoretical saturated adsorptive capacities of tricyclazole and 2,4-D were 5.27 mg/g and 3.20 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption of tricyclazole and 2,4-D by BC700, whether in single or binary systems, matched closely with the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second-order model. This study indicates that anaerobically digested sludge-derived biochar is potentially valuable for removing pesticide contamination in surface water.

The evaluation of the interfacial shear strength between sand and steel materials plays a fundamental role in the design of geotechnical foundations and structures. However, testing equipment cannot consider the dual effects of particle size and steel roughness on a uniform stress state. In this study, a novel torsion shear apparatus was designed that can measure arbitrary displacement within the interface. On this basis, the influence of the sand particle size and contact surface roughness on interface shear behavior was studied, and the sand–steel interface mechanical responses, including stress state, sample deformation, and friction properties, were evaluated. The results of the torsional interface shear test (TIST) were compared with those of the conventional direct interface shear test (DIST). The results indicate that the shear strength of rough interfaces exceeds that of smooth interfaces but remains below the shear strength observed in pure soil shear tests. Moreover, a critical value of relative roughness exists, beyond which the peak shear stress or friction angle does not significantly increase. Despite variations in the sand grain sizes used in the tests, the corresponding friction angles were approximately equal. In pure soil shear tests, the friction angle was positively correlated with grain size, indicating that grain size directly affects the friction angle in pure soil shear. Additionally, the normalized interface friction angles obtained from the torsional interface shear tests showed good agreement with those derived from interface direct shear tests.

Acquired drug resistance is one of the most common limitations for the clinical response of colon cancer to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy. The relevant molecular mechanisms might be diversity, but still not be elucidated clearly. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential mechanisms of c-Fos, a subfamily of activator protein-1, in 5-FU chemoresistance. We determined that phosphorylated c-Fos promoted colon cancer cells resistance to 5-FU by facilitating the cancer stemness. Mechanically, 5-FU treatment induced autolysosome-dependent degradation of TMPO, which subsequently triggered ERK-mediated phosphorylation of c-Fos. Additionally, c-Fos was found to bind to the promoter of NANOG and phosphorylation of c-Fos at Ser 374 was required for its regulation of NANOG expression. NANOG ablation impaired c-Fos/p-c-Fos induced 5-FU resistance and stemness. Taken together, these findings revealed that TMPO-mediated phosphorylation of c-Fos conferred 5-FU resistance by regulating NANOG expression and promoting cell stemness in colon cancer cells. c-Fos could be as a therapeutic target for colon cancer.

In complex citrus orchard environments, light changes, branch shading, and fruit overlapping impact citrus detection accuracy. This paper proposes the citrus detection model YOLO-DCA in complex environments based on the YOLOv7-tiny model. We used depth-separable convolution (DWConv) to replace the ordinary convolution in ELAN, which reduces the number of parameters of the model; we embedded coordinate attention (CA) into the convolution to make it a coordinate attention convolution (CAConv) to replace the ordinary convolution of the neck network convolution; and we used a dynamic detection head to replace the original detection head. We trained and evaluated the test model using a homemade citrus dataset. The model size is 4.5 MB, the number of parameters is 2.1 M, mAP is 96.98%, and the detection time of a single image is 5.9 ms, which is higher than in similar models. In the application test, it has a better detection effect on citrus in occlusion, light transformation, and motion change scenes. The model has the advantages of high detection accuracy, small model space occupation, easy application deployment, and strong robustness, which can help citrus-picking robots and improve their intelligence level.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the online and in-store shopping behavior towards luxury goods. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies are presented. Study one is qualitative in nature. It uses a mixed method approach and explores why luxury consumers decide to purchase luxury products online or in-store. The second study is a quantitative one. It tests the hypotheses drawn from the first study and validates the qualitative results. Findings – Online and in-store luxury shoppers are influenced by different motivational factors. Online luxury shoppers are price-conscious, prefer the online product availability and have a higher level of trust towards online customer reviews. In-store shoppers who are more averse to online risks find it very important to see the product personally before the purchase and value shopping experience and interactions. In addition, differences exist between the online shopping behaviors of regular and luxury shoppers. Research limitations/implications – It contributes to luxury consumption research and expands shopping motivation literature by investigating luxury buyer behavior in the online context. Practical implications – Luxury retailers should pay attention to the newly emerging segment of online luxury consumers. Lack of trust prevents more luxury consumers from shopping on the internet and the trustworthiness of the sellers can help attract potential shoppers. Luxury retailers can cater to the needs of different types of luxury buyers. Originality/value – This paper is the first exploratory, comparative study on luxury consumption in the online and physical store environments. It investigates the motivational factors that drive the shopping behavior of internet and in-store luxury shoppers.

The acidic tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in promoting liver cancer cell survival by enhancing glycolysis and adaptive mechanisms. Acid-sensing ion channel 1 (ASIC1) is a key regulator of pH sensing, but its role in liver cancer progression and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we examined ASIC1 expression in clinical liver tumor tissues using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, correlating it with tumor stages. HepG2 and Li-7 cells were cultured in tumor supernatant and acidic conditions to mimic the tumor microenvironment. Western blotting assessed the expression of ASIC1 and glycolysis-related enzymes, with siRNA transfections used to investigate ASIC1 and phosphofructokinase muscle-type (PFKM) in liver cancer cell survival. Our results showed that ASIC1 expression was significantly elevated in liver tumor tissues and correlated with tumor progression. Acidic conditions increased ASIC1 expression in both cell lines, enhancing cell survival, while knockdown of ASIC1 reduced viability and increased apoptosis, particularly under acidic conditions. Moreover, PFKM silencing reversed the survival advantage conferred by ASIC1, confirming PFKM as a critical downstream effector. Additionally, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity assays showed no significant changes, suggesting other regulatory mechanisms may also be involved. These findings suggest that the ASIC1/PFKM pathway promotes liver cancer cell survival in acidic environments, representing a potential therapeutic target for disrupting tumor adaptation in liver malignancies.

Nanomaterials have unique physicochemical properties, such as large surface area to mass ratio, ultra small size and high reactivity, which are different from bulk materials with the same composition. These properties can be used to overcome some limitations found in traditional therapeutic and diagnostic agents. The application of nanomaterials in medicine and pharmaceuticals is increasing rapidly and offers excellent prospects. In this review, we will provided an overview on nanomaterial developments with less toxicity and more efficacy in the fields of imaging and diagnosis, disease therapy, drug delivery and tissue engineering. In summary, although these fields are still in their infancy, the present results have clearly demonstrated enormous potential.

In order to evaluate the biodistribution and toxicity of europium-doped Gd 2 O 3 nanotubes, we synthesized Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ nanotubes via a simple wet-chemical route at ambient pressure. The as-obtained Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ sample is composed of uniform and well-dispersed nanotubes. The diameters and lengths of the nanotubes are about 50 and 300 nm, respectively. All mice of the experimental groups were administered by intraperitoneal injection everyday over a period of 60 days at doses ranging from 1.25 to 125 mg/kg. Haematological and biochemical parameters and histopathology were examined, and the biodistribution of Gd element in different organs was analyzed. The results indicate that the spleen shows significant higher coefficient than the control, and other organs have no obvious difference from the control in the middle-dose and high-dose groups. There was no significant difference in the blood-elements between the control group and the experimental groups, and no significant change of all parameters can be observed in both low-dose and middle-dose groups. However, in the high-dose group, the ALT, AST, the ratio of AST/ALT, UA, LDH, and HBDH levels was increased significantly in comparison with the control group. The pathology results show that the ischemia of myocardial cell, hemorrhage of lung tissue, hepatocyte necrosis, congestion of renal interstitium, mesangial cell proliferation, and congestion of spleen sinus were induced by high-dose Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ nanotubes. Biodistribution experiment exhibits that Gd mainly accumulates in spleen, lung, and liver. Therefore, it can be concluded that high-dose Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ nanotubes were toxic, but low-dose and middle-dose groups did not show significant toxicity. The results provide novel toxicology data of Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ nanotubes and may be helpful for more rational applications of Gd-based compounds in the future.