mlsa-iai-msu-lab/ru_sci_bench_zho_cite_reranking huggingface dataset:
Anti-inflammatory effects of aucubin in cellular and animal models of rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease. It is known that aucubin (AU) exerts anti-inflammatory activity, but its effects and mechanisms in RA are unclear. This study investigated the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of AU in vivo and in vitro. Human fibroblast-like synoviocyte cells from patients with RA (HFLS-RA), RAW264.7 cells, and MC3T3-E1 cells were used to evaluate the effects of AU on migration, invasion, apoptosis, osteoclast differentiation and production. Immunofluorescence was used to observe nuclear translocation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB, the double luciferase reporter gene method was used to observe NF-κB-p65 activity in AU-treated MC3T3-E1 cells. RT-qPCR was used to measure expression of bone metabolism and inflammation-related genes, and western blot was used to measure bone metabolism and NF-κB protein expression levels. Collagen- induced arthritis (CIA) rat model was used for pharmacodynamics study. Arthritis indexes were measured in the ankle and knee, histological staining and Micro-computed tomography were performed on the ankle joints. Also, inflammatory factor gene expression and the levels of NF-κB-related proteins were detected as in vitro. AU effectively inhibited HFLS-RA cell migration and invasion, promoted apoptosis, and inhibited RAW264.7 cell differentiation into osteoclasts, as well as inhibited NF-κB-p65 activity in MC3T3-E1 cells. Notably, AU significantly reduced the gene expression levels of three cell-related inflammatory factors and bone metabolism factors, effectively inhibited the expression of p-Iκκαβ, p-IκBα, and p-p65 proteins. In vivo, AU relieved joint inflammation, reduced related inflammatory factors, and inhibited NF-κB signaling. It could be used to treat RA-related synovial inflammation and bone destruction through the NF-κB pathway.
Redox mediators for high-performance lithium±oxygen batteries

Aprotic lithium–oxygen (Li–O_2) batteries are receiving intense research interest by virtue of their ultra-high theoretical specific energy. However, current Li–O_2 batteries are suffering from severe barriers, such as sluggish reaction kinetics and undesired parasitic reactions. Recently, molecular catalysts, i.e. redox mediators (RMs), have been explored to catalyse the oxygen electrochemistry in Li–O_2 batteries and are regarded as an advanced solution. To fully unlock the capability of Li–O_2 batteries, an in-depth understanding of the catalytic mechanisms of RMs is necessary. In this review, we summarize the working principles of RMs and their selection criteria, highlight the recent significant progress of RMs and discuss the critical scientific and technical challenges on the design of efficient RMs for next-generation Li–O_2 batteries.
Human movement monitoring and behavior recognition for intelligent sports using customizable and flexible triboelectric nanogenerator

Effective collection,recognition,and analysis of sports information is the key to intelligent sports,which can help athletes to improve their skills and formulate scientific training plans and competition strategies.At present,wearable electronic devices used for movement monitoring still have some limitations,such as high cost and energy consumption,incompatibility of suitable flexibility and personalized spatial structure,dissatisfactory data analysis methods,etc.In this work,a novel three-dimensionalprinted thermoplastic polyurethane is introduced as the elastic shell and friction layer,and it endows the proposed customizable and flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (CF-TENG) with personalized spatial structure and robust correlation to external pressure.In practical application,it exhibits highly sensitive responses to the joint-bending motion of the finger,wrist,or elbow.Furthermore,a pressure-sensing insole and smart ski pole based on CF-TENG are manufactured to build a comprehensive sports monitoring system to transmit the athletes' motion information from feet and hands through the plantar pressure distribution and ski pole action.To recognize the movement status,the self-developed automatic peak recognition algorithm (P-Find) and machine learning algorithm (subspace K-Nearest Neighbors) were introduced to accurately distinguish the four typical motion behaviors and three primary sub-techniques of cross-country skiing,with accuracy rates of 98.2% and 100%.This work provides a novel strategy to promote the personalized applications of TENGs in intelligent sports.
Geometry-preserving full-waveform tomography and its application in the Longmen Shan area

Classic L2-norm-based waveform tomography is often plagued by insurmountable cycle skipping problems; as a result, the iterative inversion falls into local minima, yielding erroneous images. According to the optimal transportation theory, we adopt a novel geometry-preserving misfit function based on the quadratic Wasserstein metric (W2-norm), which improves the stability and convexity of the inverse problem. Numerical experiments illustrate that W2-norm-based full-waveform tomography has a larger convergence radius and a faster convergence rate than the L2-norm and can effectively mitigate cycle skipping issues. We apply this method to the Longmen Shan area and obtain a reliable lithospheric velocity model. Our tomographic results indicate that the crystalline crust underlying the Sichuan Basin wedges into the crustal interior of the Tibetan Plateau, and the mid-lower crust of the eastern Tibetan Plateau is characterized by low shear-wave velocities, indicating that ductile crustal flow and strong interactions between terranes jointly dominate the uplift behavior of the Longmen Shan. Furthermore, we find that large earthquakes (e.g., the Wenchuan and Lushan events) occur not only at the junction between high- and low-velocity regions but also in the transition zone from positive to negative radial anisotropy. These findings improve our understanding of the mechanism responsible for large earthquakes in this region.
Estimation of China's terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink: Methods, progress and prospects

China announced its national goal to reach the peak of carbon emission by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, during the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2020. In this context, the potential of the carbon sink in China's terrestrial ecosystems to mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions has attracted unprecedented attention from scientific communities, policy makers and the public. Here, we reviewed the assessments on China's terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink, with focus on the principles, frameworks and methods of terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink estimates, as well as the recent progress and existing problems. Looking forward, we identified critical issues for improving the accuracy and precision of China's terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink, in order to serve the more realistic policy making in pathways to achieve carbon neutrality for China.
Simulation and retrieval for spaceborne aerosol and cloud high spectral resolution lidar of China

Clouds and aerosols can significantly affect global climate change and the atmospheric environment, and observing them three-dimensionally with high spatial and temporal resolutions is a long-standing issue. Spaceborne lidars are effective instruments for the vertical detection of clouds and aerosols globally. Numerous Mie scattering lidars were successfully launched and widely used, such as the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Geoscience Laser Altimeter System. However, the retrieval of Mie scattering lidar data is an ill-posed problem that introduces a large uncertainty. The spaceborne Aerosol and Cloud High Spectral Resolution Lidar (ACHSRL) of China is currently under development and scheduled for launch in the near future. The ACHSRL attracted extensive attention, because it can separate Mie and Rayleigh scattering signals and avoid ill-posed retrieval. In this study, we conducted ACHSRL signal simulation and retrieval to explore the potential of the ACHSRL. First, we proposed a simplified scheme for retrieving optical parameters, which reduced the number of equations and intermediate variables of the traditional method and avoided false extrema in the backscatter coefficient retrieval. Additionally, the experiments showed that the backscatter coefficient retrieval was overestimated owing to the influence of the Poisson noise but can be corrected. Second, we examined the feasibility of the strategy of “first retrieving the lidar ratio then retrieving the extinction coefficient” to improve the extinction coefficient retrieval. We found that the retrieval error in the simulated cases can be reduced to less than 1% of the original retrieval error. Furthermore, we discussed the influence of the uncertainty of the iodine filter transmittance on the retrieval of the optical parameters and found that the average relative error was less than 1‰. Finally, we conducted simulation and retrieval based on the atmospheric parameters measured by the CALIOP. Results showed that the relative error in the backscatter and extinction coefficients at night was 12% and 28% for test cases, respectively, which was superior to that in the backscatter and extinction coefficients of the corresponding CALIOP product (i.e., 75% and 82%). This research is significant and useful for the development and application of satellite lidars in the future.
Artificial modification of Earth's radiation belts by ground-based very-low-frequency (VLF) transmitters

Wave-particle interactions play a fundamental role in the dynamic variability of Earth's donut-shaped radiation belts that are highly populated by magnetically trapped energetic particles and characteristically separated by the slot devoid of high energetic electrons. Owing to the continuous accumulation of high-quality wave and particle measurements from multiple satellites in geospace, the important contribution of ground-based very-low-frequency (VLF) transmitter waves to the electron dynamics in the near-Earth space has been unprecedently advanced, in addition to those established findings of the significant effects of a variety of naturally occurring magnetospheric waves. This paper focuses on the artificial modification of Earth's inner radiation belt and slot by artificial VLF transmitter emissions. We review the global distributions of VLF transmitter waves in geospace, their scattering effects on radiation belt electrons in terms of both theoretical and observational analyses, and diffusion simulation results of wave-particle interactions along with data-model comparisons. We start with a brief review of the radiation belt electron dynamics and an introduction of anthropogenic VLF transmitter waves. Subsequently, we review the global morphology of in situ VLF transmitter waves corresponding to different transmitter locations, including their day-night asymmetry, geographic distributions, seasonal and geomagnetic activity dependence, and wave propagation features. Existed theoretical and observational analyses of electron scattering effects by VLF transmitter waves are then reviewed to approach the underlying physics that can modulate the spatio-temporal variations of the electron radiation belts. Further Fokker-Planck electron diffusion simulations and their comparisons with realistic satellite observations clearly indicate that VLF transmitter emissions can effectively remove energetic electrons to produce a radially bifurcated electron belt, thereby quantitatively confirming the direct link between operations of VLF transmitters at ground and changes of the energetic electron environment in space. We finally discuss the unsolved problems and possible future research in this area, which has important implications for potential mitigation of the natural particle radiation environment with active means.
High-performance nonfused ring electron acceptor with a steric hindrance induced planar molecular backbone

Three nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) TTC6, TT-C8T and TT-TC8 were purposefully designed and synthesized. The molecular geometry can be adjusted by the steric hindrance of lateral substituents. According to the DFT calculations, from TTC6 to TT-C8T and TT-TC8, planarity of the molecular backbone is gradually improved, accompanying with the enhancing of intramolecular charge transfer effect. As for TT-TC8, the two phenyl substituents are almost perpendicular to the molecular backbone, which endues the acceptor with good solubility and suppresses it to form over-aggregation. Multidirectional regular molecular orientation and closer molecular stacking are formed in TT-TC8 film. As a result, TT-TC8 based devices afford the highest PCE of 13.13%, which is much higher than that of TTC6 (4.41%) and TT-C8T (10.42%) and among the highest PCE values based on NFREAs.
A local discontinuous Galerkin method for the pattern formation dynamical model in polymerizing action flocks

In this paper,we apply local discontinuous Galerkin methods to the pattern formation dynamical model in polymerizing action flocks.Optimal error estimates for the density and filament polarization in different norms are established.We use a semi-implicit spectral deferred correction time method for time discretization,which allows a relative large time step and avoids computation of a Jacobian matrix.Numerical experiments are presented to verify the theoretical analysis and to show the capability for simulations of action wave formation.
Comparative metabolomics provides novel insights into the basis of petiole color differences in celery (Apium graveolens L.)

Plant metabolites are important for plant development and human health. Plants of celery (Apium graveolens L.) with different-colored petioles have been formed in the course of long-term evolution. However, the composition, content distribution, and mechanisms of accumulation of metabolites in different-colored petioles remain elusive. Using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), 1159 metabolites, including 100 lipids, 72 organic acids and derivatives, 83 phenylpropanoids and polyketides, and several alkaloids and terpenoids, were quantified in four celery cultivars, each with a different petiole color. There were significant differences in the types and contents of metabolites in celery with different-colored petioles, with the most striking difference between green celery and purple celery, followed by white celery and green celery. Annotated analysis of metabolic pathways showed that the metabolites of the different-colored petioles were significantly enriched in biosynthetic pathways such as anthocyanin, flavonoid, and chlorophyll pathways, suggesting that these metabolic pathways may play a key role in determining petiole color in celery. The content of chlorophyll in green celery was significantly higher than that in other celery cultivars, yellow celery was rich in carotenoids, and the content of anthocyanin in purple celery was significantly higher than that in the other celery cultivars. The color of the celery petioles was significantly correlated with the content of related metabolites. Among the four celery cultivars, the metabolites of the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway were enriched in purple celery. The results of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) suggested that the differential expression of the chalcone synthase (CHS) gene in the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway might affect the biosynthesis of anthocyanin in celery. In addition, HPLC analysis revealed that cyanidin is the main pigment in purple celery. This study explored the differences in the types and contents of metabolites in celery cultivars with different-colored petioles and identified key substances for color formation. The results provide a theoretical basis and technical support for genetic improvement of celery petiole color.
Assessing sediment connectivity and its spatial response on land use using two flow direction algorithms in the catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Severe soil and water loss have led to widespread land degradation on the Loess Plateau in China. Exploring the relationship between land use and sediment connectivity can be beneficial to control soil erosion. In this study, three catchments in the Yanhe River Basin on the Loess Plateau were selected to analyse the relationship between land use and sediment connectivity using grey correlation method. Index of connectivity (IC) was employed to quantify sediment connectivity, including two flow direction algorithms (D8 and D-infinity) and two final targets of sediment transport (outlet and main channel of catchment). Then, 11 landscape metrics were used to evaluate the land use spatial patterns of catchments. By comparing the IC value ranges, histograms and classes, and their relationship with remote sensing images of the two flow direction algorithms, we find that the D8 algorithm is more suitable for this study area. The results showed that the three catchments are characterized by high sediment connectivity in the grassland and forest close to the channel. In addition, the roads and bare land close to the channel also have high or medium sediment connectivity. Grey correlation analysis showed that landscape division index (DIVISION), fractal dimension index (FRACMN), aggregation index (AI), total class area, patch cohesion index (COHESION), and largest patch index (LPI) indices were the main factors that affect sediment connectivity at the class scale. At the landscape scale, the landscape shape index (LSI), Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and gully density have an essential effect on sediment connectivity. This condition provides a way to control the sediment connectivity in the watershed by transforming land use type or changing its spatial pattern, but specific adjustment measures have to be further explored.
Effect of the Grain for Green Project on freshwater ecosystem services under drought stress

The Grain for Green Project (GGP) is an important measure for the prevention of sloping farmland and the restoration of natural vegetation. This project has been critical to the restoration of ecological environments in western China. However, the effect of the GGP on freshwater ecosystem services under extreme climates remains unclear. Thus, taking the middle and upper reaches of the Wujiang River Basin in western China as an example, this study assessed the variation of three freshwater ecosystem services (e.g., water yield, soil retention and nutrient retention) impacted by the GGP under drought stress by employing the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. In addition, the trade-off/synergistic relationship between three freshwater ecosystem services was analyzed based on the Pearson correlation coefficient. As revealed from the results, the effect of the GGP on the water yield and nutrient retention under drought stress was significantly higher than that on the soil retention. With the increase in the drought degree, the variation rate of the water yield and nutrient retention impacted by the GGP increased, whereas that of the soil retention decreased. The GGP in droughts of different seasons resulted in a significant heterogeneity in the changes of three freshwater ecosystem services. The correlation coefficients between the water yield and soil retention as well as that between the water yield and the nutrient retention increased, and the correlation coefficients declined between soil and nutrient retention under different drought degrees following the GGP. Unlike for the summer drought case, there were no significant changes in the correlation coefficients between three freshwater ecosystem services in spring, autumn and winter droughts. The results suggest that the amount of farmland converted to shrubland should be regulated to reduce the trade-off intensity between freshwater ecosystem services. In addition, food security and ecological environment protection should be balanced during the implementation of the GGP, and the most concentrated distribution region of farmland-to-forest conversion will be the key area of ecological management in the future.
Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio or platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio is a predictive factor of pancreatic cancer patients with type 2 diabetes

Pancreatic cancer(PC)is one of the most deadly cancers due to the difficulty of its early diagnosis. Most patients have developed an unresectable PC when diagnosed [1]. According to GLOBOCAN 2018 estimates, PC ranked the 11th most common cancer in the world counting 458 918 new cases and causing 432 242 deaths(4.5% of all deaths caused by cancer)in 2018 [2].
Green Development for Supporting Sustainability of Northeast China: Performance Quantification, Spatio-temporal Dynamics and Implications

Green development is the cognition of geography to human-nature nexus under the background of the new era. As China is facing various eco-environment problems, green development has become a key approach towards ecological progress, and it is ultimately an explicit means to respond to support sustainable development in China. Quantifying green development performance is essential to track efforts towards sustainability and guide policymakers. However, applying the balanced property of 'Economy-Ecology-Society' of green development to its performance assessment is rarely discussed. Here we elaborated the connotation of green development and developed a quantification model with coupling coordination degree to assess green development performance of the largest old industrial base of China, Northeast China. We found that the green development performance has been improved from a score of 0.443 in 2003 to 0.530 in 2019 but the disparities of green development performance were enlarging over time, especially for the cities in Heilongjiang. A positive spatial autocorrelation phenomenon of green development performance was confirmed, and Low-Low clusters in the northeastern Heilongjiang and High-High clusters in the central-eastern Liaoning were discovered. This study suggests the need to track the spatio-temporal dynamics of green development performance to provide references for achieving sustainable development goals in northeast China and other regions.
ZnMn_3O_7: A New Layered Cathode Material for Fast-Charging Zinc-Ion Batteries

Low-cost and high-energy-density manganese-based compounds are promising cathode materials for rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries(AZIBs), however, they often experience cycling instability issues and inferior rate capability. Herein, we report a new layered manganese-based cathode material, ZnMn_3O_7(ZMO), which possesses a large interlayer spacing of 4.8 A and allows the intercalation of ~1.23 Zn-ions per formula unit(corresponding to a capacity of ~170 mAh/g). Importantly, ZMO exhibits good cycling stability(72.9% capacity retention over 400 cycles), ultrafast-charging capability(73% state of charge in 1.5 min), and an ultrahigh power density(3510 W/kg at 88 Wh/kg). Through kinetic characterization, the favorable diffusion of ions and the dominant capacitor contribution are found to be conducive to the achievement of superior fast charging capability. Furthermore, the charge storage mechanism is revealed by ex-situ XRD and ex-situ XPS. This work may shed light on the design of high-performance electrode materials for AZIBs.