mlsa-iai-msu-lab/ru_sci_bench_zho_cite_reranking huggingface dataset:
Mesenchymal stem cell secretome and extracellular vesicles for neurodegenerative diseases: Risk-benefit profile and next steps for the market access

Neurodegenerative diseases represent a growing burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown promise as a potential therapy due to their neuroregenerative, neuroprotective, and immunomodulatory properties, which are, however, linked to the bioactive substances they release, collectively known as secretome. This paper provides an overview of the most recent research on the safety and efficacy of MSC-derived secretome and extracellular vesicles (EVs) in clinical (if available) and preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, acute ischemic stroke, and spinal cord injury. The article explores the biologically active substances within MSCsecretome/EVs, the mechanisms responsible for the observed therapeutic effects, and the strategies that may be used to optimize MSC-secretome/EVs production based on specific therapeutic needs. The review concludes with a critical discussion of current clinical trials and a perspective on potential future directions in translating MSCsecretome and EVs into the clinic, specifically regarding how to address the challenges associated with their pharmaceutical manufacturing, including scalability, batch-to-batch consistency, adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines, formulation, and storage, along with quality controls, access to the market and relative costs, value for money and impact on total expenditure.
Hypoxia-inducing cryogels uncover key cancer-immune cell interactions in an oxygen-deficient tumor microenvironment

Hypoxia is a major factor shaping the immune landscape, and several cancer models have been developed to emulate hypoxic tumors. However, to date, they still have several limitations, such as the lack of reproducibility, inadequate biophysical cues, limited immune cell infiltration, and poor oxygen (O_2) control, leading to nonpathophysiological tumor responses. Therefore, it is essential to develop better cancer models that mimic key features of the tumor extracellular matrix and recreate tumor-associated hypoxia while allowing cell infiltration and cancer-immune cell interactions. Herein, hypoxia-inducing cryogels (HICs) have been engineered using hyaluronic acid (HA) to fabricate three-dimensional microtissues and model a hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Specifically, tumor cell-laden HICs have been designed to deplete O_2 locally and induce long-standing hypoxia. HICs promoted changes in hypoxia-responsive gene expression and phenotype, a metabolic adaptation to anaerobic glycolysis, and chemotherapy resistance. Additionally, HIC-supported tumor models induced dendritic cell (DC) inhibition, revealing a phenotypic change in the plasmacytoid DC (pDC) subset and an impaired conventional DC (cDC) response in hypoxia. Lastly, our HIC-based melanoma model induced CD8+ T cell inhibition, a condition associated with the downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, increased expression of immunomodulatory factors, and decreased degranulation and cytotoxic capacity of T cells. Overall, these data suggest that HICs can be used as a tool to model solid-like tumor microenvironments and has great potential to deepen our understanding of cancer-immune cell relationship in low O_2 conditions and may pave the way for developing more effective therapies.
Dynamic evaluation of a scaled-down heat pipe-cooled system during start-up/shut-down processes using a hardware-in-the-loop test approach

Micro-mobile heat pipe-cooled nuclear power plants are promising candidates for distributed energy resource power generators and can be flexibly deployed in remote places to meet increasing electric power demands.However,previous steady-state simulations and experiments have deviated significantly from actual micronuclear system operations.Hence,a transient analysis is required for performance optimization and safety assessment.In this study,a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) approach was used to investigate the dynamic behavior of scaled-down heat pipe-cooled systems.The real-time features of the HIL architecture were interpreted and validated,and an optimal time step of 500 ms was selected for the thermal transient.The power transient was modeled using point kinetic equations,and a scaled-down thermal prototype was set up to avoid modeling unpredictable heat transfer behaviors and feeding temperature samples into the main program running on a desktop PC.A series of dynamic test results showed significant power and temperature oscillations during the transient process,owing to the inconsistency of the rapid nuclear reaction rate and large thermal inertia.The proposed HIL approach is stable and effective for further studying of the dynamic characteristics and control optimization of solid-state small nuclear-powered systems at an early prototyping stage.
An easy CTAB-assisted path towards bayberry-like Ni-Co-Mn ternary hydroxide with enhancing supercapacitor performance

In this study, we synthesized a bayberry-like Ni-Co-Mn ternary hydroxide with a secondary nanoneedle structure using a modified and cost-effective hydrothermal process assisted by the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The incorporation of CTAB and graphene in the preparation process significantly enhances the electrochemical performance of NiCoMn-OH. The achieved results are truly impressive, with a high specific capacity of 1450 F g-1 and an outstanding capacity retention of 52.57% over 5000 cycles. The superior performance could be attributed to the specific bayberry-like microstructure with high effective specific surface area, which allowed for facile and rapid transport of ions and electrons. Moreover, the synergistic effect of CTAB and graphene proved to be crucial in stabilizing the Co~(2+) and Mn~(2+) ions within the ternary hydroxide structure. We developed a hybrid capacitor using a NiCoMn-OH-CTAB/Graphene composite electrode and an active electrode, which delivered a superior energy density of 50.79 Wh kg~(-1) at a power density of 400 W kg~(-1) and a cycling stability of 60.37% after 10000 cycles. These results indicate that the NiCoMn-OH-CTAB/Graphene composite electrode has great potential as an electrode material for energy storage devices.
Acupuncture clinical research methodology:Advances and challenges

Acupuncture is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicines worldwide.In recent years,rapid progress has been made in clinical research on acupuncture.Clinical studies on acupuncture treatment for diseases such as chronic severe functional constipation,female stress urinary incontinence,migraine prophylaxis,chronic stable angina,and postprandial distress syndrome have been published in top journals including Annals of Internal Medicine,British Medical Journal,etc.These studies have further confirmed the effects of acupuncture and promoted the international development and influence of acupuncture.High-quality clinical research on acupuncture is inseparable from the scientific application of clinical research methodology.Although clinical research methodology has been well established,there still faces many challenges in evaluating the effects of acupuncture.
Intra-Patient and Inter-Patient Multi-Classification of Severe Cardiovascular Diseases Based on CResFormer

Severe cardiovascular diseases can rapidly lead to death. At present, most studies in the deep learning field using electrocardiogram (ECG) are performed on intra-patient experiments for the classification of coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure (CHF). By contrast, actual conditions are inter-patient experiments. In this study, we proposed a deep learning network, namely, CResFormer, with dual feature extraction to improve accuracy in classifying such diseases. First, fixed segmentation of dual-lead ECG signals without preprocessing was used as input data. Second, one-dimensional convolutional layers performed moderate dimensionality reduction to accommodate subsequent feature extraction. Then, ResNet residual network block layers and transformer encoder layers sequentially performed feature extraction to obtain key associated abstract features. Finally, the Softmax function was used for classifications. Notably, the focal loss function is used when dealing with unbalanced datasets. The average accuracy, sensitivity, positive predictive value, and specificity of four classifications of severe cardiovascular diseases are 99.84%, 99.68%, 99.71%, and 99.90% in intra-patient experiments, respectively, and 97.48%, 93.54%, 96.30%, and 97.89% in inter-patient experiments, respectively. In addition, the model performs well in unbalanced datasets and shows good noise robustness. Therefore, the model has great application potential in diagnosing CAD, MI, and CHF in the actual clinical environment.
Collaborative Offloading Method for Digital Twin Empowered Cloud Edge Computing on Internet of Vehicles

Digital twinning and edge computing are attractive solutions to support computing-intensive and servicesensitive Internet of Vehicles applications.Most of the existing Internet of Vehicles service offloading solutions only consider edge-cloud collaboration,but the collaboration between small cell eNodeB (SCeNB) should not be ignored.Service delays far lower than offloading tasks to the cloud can be obtained through reasonable collaborative computing between nodes.The proposed framework realizes and maintains the simulation of collaboration between SCeNB nodes by constructing a digital twin that maintains SCeNB nodes in the central controller,thereby realizing user task offloading positions,sub-channel allocation,and computing resource allocation.Then an algorithm named AUC-AC is proposed,based on the dominant actor-critic network and the auction mechanism.In order to obtain a better command of global information,the convolutional block attention mechanism (CBAM) is used in the digital twin of each SCeNB node to observe its environment and learn strategies.Numerical results show that our experimental scheme is better than several baseline algorithms in terms of service delay.
In memory of Friedrich Ackermann: a personal view

The paper contains the author’s personal account of the professional achievements of Professor Friedrich (Fritz) Ackermann based on the author’s memories and private documents which demonstrate Ackermann’s significant influence throughout various professional phases over a period of four decades. The structure of the paper is based on the path of the author’s studies, the period as a member of the Institute of Photogrammetry at Stuttgart University, and finally, a professional career in photogrammetry, geoinformation and management. The emphasis is on the character and skills of Friedrich Ackermann. Profession, team spirit and social skills are demonstrated with impressive examples.
Diverse soliton solutions and dynamical analysis of the discrete coupled mKdV equation with 4×4 Lax pair

Under consideration in this study is the discrete coupled modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) equation with 4×4 Lax pair. Firstly, through using continuous limit technique, this discrete equation can be mapped to the coupled KdV and mKdV equations, which may depict the development of shallow water waves, the optical soliton propagation in cubic nonlinear media and the Alfven wave in a cold collision-free plasma. Secondly, the discrete generalized (r,N-r)-fold Darboux transformation is constructed and extended to solve this discrete coupled equation with the fourth-order linear spectral problem, from which diverse exact solutions including usual multi-soliton and semi-rational soliton solutions on the vanishing background, higher-order rational soliton and mixed hyperbolic-rational soliton solutions on the non-vanishing background are derived, and the limit states of some soliton and rational soliton solutions are analyzed by the asymptotic analysis technique. Finally, the numerical simulations are used to explore the dynamical behaviors of some exact soliton solutions. These results may be helpful for understanding some physical phenomena in fields of shallow water wave, optics, and plasma physics.
Compact generation scheme of path-frequency hyperentangled photons using 2D periodical nonlinear photonic crystal

Hyperentanglement is a promising resource for achieving high capacity quantum communication. Here, we propose a compact scheme for the generation of path-frequency hyperentangled photon pairs via spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) processes, where six different paths and two different frequencies are covered. A two-dimensional periodical χ~((2)) nonlinear photonic crystal (NPC) is designed to satisfy type-I quasi-phase-matching conditions in the plane perpendicular to the incident pump beam, and a perfect phase match is achieved along the pump beam’s direction to ensure high conversion efficiency, with theoretically estimated photon flux up to 2.068×10~5 pairs·s~(-1)·mm~(-2). We theoretically calculate the joint-spectral amplitude (JSA) of the generated photon pair and perform Schmidt decomposition on it, where the resulting entropy S of entanglement and effective Schmidt rank K reach 3.2789 and 6.4675, respectively. Our hyperentangled photon source scheme could provide new avenues for high-dimensional quantum communication and high-speed quantum information processing.
Engineered biocontainable RNA virus vectors for non-transgenic genome editing across crop species and genotypes

CRISPR/Cas genome-editing tools provide unprecedented opportunities for basic plant biology research and crop breeding. However, the lack of robust delivery methods has limited the widespread adoption of these revolutionary technologies in plant science. Here, we report an efficient, non-transgenic CRISPR/Cas delivery platform based on the engineered tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), an RNA virus with a host range of over 1000 plant species. We eliminated viral elements essential for insect transmission to liberate genome space for accommodating large genetic cargoes without sacrificing the ability to infect plant hosts. The resulting non-insect-transmissible viral vectors enabled effective and stable in planta delivery of Cas12a and Cas9 nucleases as well as adenine and cytosine base editors. In systemically infected plant tissues, the deconstructed TSWV-derived vectors induced efficient somatic gene mutations and base conversions in multiple crop species with little genotype dependency. Plants with heritable, bi-allelic mutations could be readily regenerated by culturing the virus-infected tissues in vitro without antibiotic selection. Moreover, we showed that antiviral treatment with ribavirin during tissue culture cleared the viral vectors in 100% of regenerated plants and further augmented the recovery of heritable mutations. Because many plants are recalcitrant to stable transformation, the viral delivery system developed in this work provides a promising tool to overcome gene delivery bottlenecks for genome editing in various crop species and elite varieties.
Progress and prospects of mining with backfill in metal mines in China

Mining is the foundation of modern industrial development. In the context of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” era, countries have put forward the development strategy of “adhering to the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature.” The ongoing progress and improvement of filling mining technology have provided significant advantages, such as “green mining, safe, efficient, and low-carbon emission,” which is crucial to the comprehensive utilization of mining solid waste, environmental protection, and safety of re-mining. This review paper describes the development history of metal mine filling mining in China and the characteristics of each stage. The excitation mechanism and current research status of producing cementitious materials from blast furnace slag and other industrial wastes are then presented, and the concept of developing cementitious materials for backfill based on the whole solid waste is proposed. The advances in the mechanical characteristics of cemented backfill are elaborated on four typical levels: static mechanics, dynamic mechanics, mechanical influencing factors, and multi-scale mechanics. The working/rheological characteristics of the filling slurry are presented, given the importance of the filling materials conveying process. Finally, the future perspectives of mining with backfill are discussed based on the features of modern filling concepts to provide the necessary theoretical research value for filling mining.
Efficient utilization of glass fiber separator for low-cost sodium-ion batteries

The separator is a key component of sodium-ion battery, which greatly affects the electrochemical performances and safety characteristics of the battery. Conventional glass fiber separator cannot meet the requirements of large-scale application because of high cost and poor mechanical properties. Herein, the novel composite separators are prepared by a simple slurry sieving process using glass fiber separator scraps and ordinary qualitative filter paper as raw materials. As the composite mass ratio is 1:1, the composite separator has excellent comprehensive properties, including tensile strength of 15.8 MPa, porosity of 74.3%, ionic conductivity of 1.57 × 10~(-3) S·cm~(-1) and thermal stability at 210°C. The assembled sodium-ion battery shows superior cycling performance (capacity retention of 94.1% after 500 cycles at 1C) and rate capacity (retention rate of 87.3% at 10C), and it maintains fine interface stability. The above results provide some new ideas for the separator design of high-performance and low-cost sodium-ion batteries.
High-performance triboelectric nanogenerator based on ZrB_2/polydimethylsiloxane for metal corrosion protection

Metal corrosion causes billions of dollars of economic losses yearly. As a smart and new energy-harvesting device, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can convert almost all mechanical energy into electricity, which leads to great prospects in metal corrosion prevention and cathodic protection. In this work, flexible TENGs were designed to use the energy harvested by flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films with ZrB_2 nanoparticles and effectively improve the dielectric constant by incorporating ZrB_2. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current were 264 V and 22.9 μA, respectively, and the power density of the TENGs reached 6 W·m~(-2). Furthermore, a selfpowered anti-corrosion system was designed by the rectifier circuit integrated with TENGs, and the open-circuit potential (OCP) and Tafel curves showed that the system had an excellent anti-corrosion effect on carbon steel. Thus, the system has broad application prospects in fields such as metal cultural relics, ocean engineering, and industry.
Theoretical study on the morphology of cobalt nanoparticles modulated by alkali metal promoters

Cobalt nanoparticles (NPs) catalysts are extensively used in heterogeneous catalytic reactions, and the addition of alkali metal promoters is a common method to modulate the catalytic performance because the catalyst’s surface structures and morphologies are sensitive to the addition of promoters. However, the underlying modulation trend remains unclear. Herein, the adsorption of alkali metal promoters (Na and K) on the surfaces of face-centered-cubic (FCC) and hexagonal-closest packed (HCP) polymorphous cobalt was systematically investigated using density functional theory. Furthermore, the effect of alkali promoters on surface energies and nanoparticle morphologies was revealed on the basis of Wulff theory. For FCC-Co, the exposed area of the (111) facet in the nanoparticle increases with the adsorption coverage of alkali metal oxide. Meanwhile, the (311), (110), and (100) facets would disappear under the higher adsorption coverage of alkali metals. For HCPCo, the Wulff morphology is dominated by the (0001) and (1011) facets and is independent of the alkali metal adsorption coverage. This work provides insights into morphology modulation by alkali metal promoters for the rational design and synthesis of cobalt-based nanomaterials with desired facets and morphologies.
Effect of ammonium sulfate on the formation of zinc sulfide species on hemimorphite surface and its role in sulfidation flotation

Effectively strengthening the surface sulfidation is essential for recovering hemimorphite by froth flotation. In this work, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) measurements, Visual MINTEQ calculation, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analysis, and micro-flotation experiments were explored to systematically investigate the effect of ammonium sulfate ((NH_4)_2SO_4) on the formation of zinc sulfide species on hemimorphite surface and its role in sulfidation flotation. The results showed that (NH_4)_2SO_4 exhibited a positive influence on hemimorphite sulfidation flotation. It was ascribed to the number of zinc components in the form of Zn~(2+) and [Zn(NH_3)_i]~(2+) (i = 1-4) increased in the flotation system after hemimorphite treatment with (NH_4)_2SO_4, which was beneficial to its interaction with sulfur species in solution, resulting in a dense and stable zinc sulfide layer generated on the hemimorphite surface. [Zn(NH_3)_i]~(2+) participated in the sulfidation reaction of hemimorphite as a transition state. In addition, the sulfidation reaction of hemimorphite was accelerated by (NH_4)_2SO_4. Thus, (NH_4)_2SO_4 presents a vital role in promoting the sulfidation of hemimorphite.
An integrated and efficient process for borax preparation and magnetite recovery from soda-ash roasted ludwigite ore under CO-CO_2-N_2 atmosphere

To realize the comprehensive utilization of ludwigite ore, an integrated and efficient route for the boron and iron separation was proposed in this work, which via soda-ash roasting under CO-CO_2-N_2 atmosphere followed by grind-leaching, magnetic separation, and CO_2 carbonation. The effects of roasting temperature, roasting time, CO/(CO+CO_2) composition, and Na_2CO_3 dosage on the boron and iron separation indices were primarily investigated. Under the optimized conditions of the roasting temperature of 850°C, roasting time of 60 min, soda ash dosage of 20wt%, and CO/(CO+CO_2) of 10vol%, 92% of boron was leached during wet grinding, and 88.6% of iron was recovered during the magnetic separation and magnetic concentrate with a total iron content of 61.51wt%. Raman spectra and ~(11)B NMR results indicated that boron exists as B(OH)_4~- in the leachate, from which high-purity borax pentahydrate could be prepared by CO_2 carbonation.