Search Results (1,341)

Objectives: A thorough understanding of pharmacokinetics and metabolism is critical during early drug development. This study investigates the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) profile of R14, a novel compound, using a combination of in vitro and in vivo approaches. Methods: In vitro studies included Caco-2 permeability assays, metabolic stability evaluations in liver microsomes and hepatocytes, and identification of CYP isoforms responsible for R14 metabolism. In vivo pharmacokinetic and metabolic profiling was conducted in rats following oral administration. R14 was quantified using UHPLC-MS/MS. Metabolites were identified using high-resolution UHPLC- QTOF MS/MS, and relative exposure was estimated using peak area-derived AUCs. Results: R14 exhibited low oral bioavailability (13.4%) and high systemic clearance (2.63 L/h/kg), indicating high hepatic extraction. A total of 21 plasma and 38 urine metabolites were identified. Major metabolic pathways included initial hydroxylation and hydrogenation, followed by sequential methylation and Phase II conjugations (glucuronidation and sulfation). Key metabolites (M3, M4, M22, M38) accounted for the majority of systemic exposure. Less than 1% of the unchanged drug was excreted in urine, confirming extensive metabolism. Notably, discrepancies between in vitro and in vivo metabolite profiles suggested rapid further transformation of initial metabolites in vivo, which were not fully captured in vitro. Conclusions: This study demonstrates an efficient and integrated strategy for early-phase ADME characterization. The combined use of in vitro assays and in vivo studies, guided by advanced analytical techniques, provides a robust framework for understanding drug metabolism. These findings can inform drug optimization and help minimize risks in later stages of development. Full article

To achieve efficient and accurate detection of blueberry fruit ripeness, this study proposes a lightweight yet high-performance object detection model—CES-YOLO. Designed for real-world blueberry harvesting scenarios, the model addresses key challenges such as significant visual differences across ripeness stages, complex occlusions, and small object sizes. CES-YOLO introduces three core components: the C3K2-Ghost module for efficient feature extraction and model compression, the SEAM attention mechanism to enhance the focus on critical fruit regions, and the EMA Head for improved detection of small and densely packed targets. Experiments on a blueberry ripeness dataset demonstrated that CES-YOLO achieved 91.22% mAP50, 69.18% mAP95, 89.21% precision, and 85.23% recall, while maintaining a lightweight structure with only 2.1 M parameters and 5.0 GFLOPs, significantly outperforming mainstream lightweight detection models. Extensive ablation and comparative studies confirmed the effectiveness of each component in improving detection accuracy and reducing false positives and missed detections. This research offers an efficient and practical solution for automated recognition of fruit and vegetable maturity, supporting broader applications in smart agriculture, and provides theoretical and engineering insights for the future design of agricultural vision models. To further demonstrate its practical deployment capability, CES-YOLO was successfully deployed on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano platform, where it maintained real-time detection performance, with low power consumption and high inference efficiency, validating its suitability for embedded edge computing scenarios in intelligent agriculture. Full article

Rock creep, a key factor in the long-term stability of deep geotechnical engineering, remains challenging to study due to the complexity of its microscopic damage mechanisms. Laboratory creep tests are limited by long durations and scale effects, while phenomenological models cannot fully capture the underlying processes. This study employs the parallel-bonded stress corrosion (PSC) model in PFC2D to simulate sandy mudstone’s creep behavior, systematically correlating macroscopic creep deformation with microscopic damage evolution and energy conversion. The model reproduces the four stages of the idealized creep curve and quantifies the effects of axial stress level and confining pressure on creep lifetime, rate, and failure mode. Increasing axial stress shortens creep lifetime; every 10% increase raises the creep rate by a factor of 4–14, and high stress enhances nonlinear deformation, producing stair-stepping curves due to unstable microcrack propagation. In contrast, confining pressure prolongs lifetime; at 90% uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), 15 MPa extends it from 2.78 h to ~25 years. Confinement also enhances ductility by suppressing tensile stresses and delaying damage accumulation. This study reveals the coupling mechanism of stress-corrosion-induced subcritical crack propagation and energy dissipation, clarifies the microscopic origin of stepped creep curves, and provides a micromechanical framework for long-term stability evaluation in deep geotechnical engineering. Full article

Background/Objectives: The immunogenicity of Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccines is commonly evaluated by assessing the fold increase or proportions exceeding 0.35 μg/mL in serotype-specific IgG antibody levels post-vaccination. Establishing baseline antibody levels in unvaccinated populations is therefore essential for defining serological thresholds and understanding naturally acquired immunity. This study aimed to assess the seroprevalence and baseline levels of IgG antibodies specific to 13 pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide serotypes in healthy infants and young children across multiple regions of China from 2016 to 2023, supporting evidence-based PCV13 vaccination strategies. Methods: IgG concentrations for 13 serotypes (1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 7F, 9V, 14, 18C, 19A, 19F, and 23F) were measured in unvaccinated individuals using the WHO-recommended ELISA. Univariate and multivariate analyses were applied to evaluate regional, age, and gender effects on baseline antibody levels. Results: GMCs for serotypes 6B, 14, 19A, and 19F exceeded 0.35 μg/mL, with 14 being the highest (1.64 μg/mL) and serotypes 3 and 4 the lowest. Significant regional variation (p < 0.001) and a U-shaped age trend were observed, with the lowest being at 7–11 months (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Baseline IgG levels varied by region and age. No significant gender differences were observed, and overall antibody levels were higher in the southern region. Full article

China’s carbon peak and neutrality transition is critically constrained by the severe talent shortage and structural inefficiencies in higher education. This study systematically investigates the current status of “dual-carbon” talent cultivation and demand in China, leveraging annual “dual-carbon” talent cultivation data from universities nationwide. By applying the GM(1,1)-ARIMA hybrid forecasting model, it projects future national “dual-carbon” talent demand. Key findings reveal significant regional disparities in talent cultivation, with a pronounced mismatch between industrial demands and academic supply, particularly in interdisciplinary roles pivotal to decarbonization processes. Forecast results indicate an exponential growth in postgraduate talent demand, outpacing undergraduate demand, thereby underscoring the urgency of advancing high-end technological research and development. Through empirical analysis and innovative modeling, this study uncovers the structural contradictions between “dual-carbon” talent cultivation and market demands in China, providing critical decision-making insights to address the bottleneck of carbon-neutral talent development. Full article

Plant-derived vesicles offer several advantages, including high yield, low cost, ethical compatibility, safety, and potential health benefits. These advantages enable them to overcome technological limitations associated with vesicles of mammalian origin. Ginseng, a prominent example of a natural botanical plant, is known for its abundant bioactive components. Recent studies confirmed that ginseng-derived vesicles offer significant advantages in the treatment of human diseases. Therefore, this study reviews the extraction and purification processes of ginseng-derived vesicle-like nanoparticles (GDVLNs), their therapeutic potential, and the active ingredients in GDVLNs that may exert pharmacological activities. Furthermore, this study evaluates the research and applications of nanosized ginseng extracts, with a primary focus on ginsenosides. Full article

Understanding the metabolic characteristics of pineapple varieties is crucial for market expansion and diversity. This study performed comparative metabolomic analysis on the “Comte de Paris” (BL) and three Taiwan-introduced varieties: “Tainong No. 11” (XS), “Tainong No. 23” (MG), and “Tainong No. 13” (DM). A total of 551 metabolites were identified across the four varieties, with 231 metabolites exhibiting no significant differences between all varieties. This included major sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose, as well as key acids like citric, malic, and quinic acids, indicating that the in-season maturing fruits of different pineapple varieties can all achieve good sugar–acid accumulation under suitable conditions. The differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) that were identified among the four varieties all primarily belonged to several major subclasses, including phenolic acids, flavonoids, amino acids and derivatives, and alkaloids, but the preferentially accumulated metabolites in each variety varied greatly. Specifically, branched-chain amino acids (L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-valine) and many DAMs in the flavonoid, phenolic acid, lignan, and coumarin categories were most abundant in MG, which might contribute to its distinct and enriched flavor and nutritional value. XS, meanwhile, exhibited a notable accumulation of aromatic amino acids (L-phenylalanine, L-tryptophan), various phenolic acids, and many lignans and coumarins, which may be related to its unique flavor profile. In DM, the dominant accumulation of jasmonic acid might contribute to its greater adaptability to low temperatures during autumn and winter, allowing off-season fruits to maintain good quality. The main cultivar BL exhibited the highest accumulation of L-ascorbic acid and many relatively abundant flavonoids, making it a good choice for antioxidant benefits. These findings offer valuable insights for promoting different varieties and advancing metabolome-based pineapple improvement programs. Full article

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.), a nutrient-rich legume beneficial to human health, is valued for its high L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and phenolic content. This study investigated phytochemical diversity and bioactivity across 29 Chinese faba bean varieties. Phenolics were profiled using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) and quantified via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Antioxidant capacity was evaluated, including DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), ABTS (2,2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) radical scavenging activity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), along with α-amylase/α-glucosidase inhibitory effects. Twenty-five phenolics were identified, including L-DOPA (11.96–17.93 mg/g, >70% of total content), seven phenolic acids, and seventeen flavonoids. L-DOPA showed potent enzyme inhibition (IC₅₀ values of 22.45 μM for α-amylase and 16.66 μM for α-glucosidase) but demonstrated limited antioxidant effects. Lincan 13 (Gansu) exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity (DPPH, 16.32 μmol trolox/g; ABTS, 5.85 μmol trolox/g; FRAP, 21.38 mmol Fe²⁺/g), which correlated with it having the highest flavonoid content (40.51 mg rutin/g), while Yican 4 (Yunnan) showed the strongest α-amylase inhibition (43.33%). Correlation analysis confirmed flavonoids as the primary antioxidants, and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed geographical trends (e.g., Jiangsu varieties were particularly phenolic-rich). These findings highlight faba beans’ potential as functional foods and guide genotype selection in targeted breeding programs aimed at enhancing health benefits. Full article

Background: Automated surgical navigation can be separated into three stages: (1) organ identification and localization, (2) identification of the organs requiring further surgery, and (3) automated planning of the operation path and steps. With its ideal visual and operating system, the da Vinci surgical system provides a promising platform for automated surgical navigation. This study focuses on the first step in automated surgical navigation by identifying organs in gynecological surgery. Methods: Due to the difficulty of collecting da Vinci gynecological endoscopy data, we propose DeepVinci, a novel end-to-end high-performance encoder–decoder network based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for pixel-level organ semantic segmentation. Specifically, to overcome the drawback of a limited field of view, we incorporate a densely multi-scale pyramid module and feature fusion module, which can also enhance the global context information. In addition, the system integrates an edge supervision network to refine the segmented results on the decoding side. Results: Experimental results show that DeepVinci can achieve state-of-the-art accuracy, obtaining dice similarity coefficient and mean pixel accuracy values of 0.684 and 0.700, respectively. Conclusions: The proposed DeepVinci network presents a practical and competitive semantic segmentation solution for da Vinci gynecological surgery. Full article

Asynchrony between the movement of water and sediment in a reservoir will affect long-term maintenance of the reservoir’s capacity to a certain extent. Based on water and sediment data on the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) measured over the years and a river network model, optimization of the dispatching mode of the reservoir’s sand peak process was studied, and the corresponding water and sediment dispatching indicators were provided. The results show that (1) sand peak discharge dispatching of the TGR can be divided roughly into three stages, namely the flood detention period, the sediment transport period, and the sediment discharge period. (2) According to the process of the flood peak and the sand peak, a division method for each period is proposed. (3) A corresponding scheduling index is proposed according to the characteristics of the sand peak process and the needs of flood control scheduling. This research can provide operational indicators for the operation and management of the sediment load in the TGR and also provide technical support for sustainable reservoirs similar to TGR. Full article

Ecological restoration in the cold and high-altitude mining areas of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is faced with dual challenges of extreme environments and insufficient microbial adaptability. This study aimed to screen local microbial resources with both extreme environmental adaptability and plant-growth-promoting functions. Local fungi (DK; F18-3) and commercially available bacteria (B0) were used as materials to explore their regulatory mechanisms for plant growth, soil physicochemical factors, microbial communities, and metabolic profiles in the field. Compared to bacterial treatments, local fungi treatments exhibited stronger ecological restoration efficacy. In addition, the DK and F18-3 strains, respectively, increased shoot and root biomass by 23.43% and 195.58% and significantly enhanced soil nutrient content and enzyme activity. Microbiome analysis further implied that, compared with the CK, DK treatment could significantly improve the α-diversity of fungi in the rhizosphere soil (the Shannon index increased by 14.27%) and increased the amount of unique bacterial genera in the rhizosphere soil of plants, totaling fourteen genera. Meanwhile, this aggregated the most biomarkers and beneficial microorganisms and strengthened the interactions among beneficial microorganisms. After DK treatment, twenty of the positively accumulated differential metabolites (DMs) in the plant rhizosphere were highly positively associated with six plant traits such as shoot length and root length, as well as beneficial microorganisms (e.g., Apodus and Pseudogymnoascus), but two DMs were highly negatively related to plant pathogenic fungi (including Cistella and Alternaria). Specifically, DK mainly inhibited the growth of pathogenic fungi through regulating the accumulation of D-(+)-Malic acid and Gamma-Aminobutyric acid (Cistella and Alternaria decreased by 84.20% and 58.53%, respectively). In contrast, the F18-3 strain mainly exerted its antibacterial effect by enriching Acidovorax genus microorganisms. This study verified the core role of local fungi in the restoration of mining areas in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and provided a new direction for the development of microbial agents for ecological restoration in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Full article

Papaya ripeness identification is a key task in orchard management. To achieve efficient deployment of this task on edge computing devices, this paper proposes a lightweight detection model, ABD-YOLO-ting, based on YOLOv8. First, the width factor of YOLOv8n is adjusted to construct a lightweight backbone network, YOLO-Ting. Second, a low-computation ADown module is introduced to replace the standard downsampling structure, aiming to enhance feature extraction efficiency. Third, an enhanced BiFPN is integrated into the neck structure to achieve efficient multi-scale feature fusion. Finally, to strengthen the model’s capability in identifying small objects, the dynamic detection head DyHead is introduced to improve ripeness recognition accuracy. On a self-constructed Japanese quince orchard dataset, ABD-YOLO-ting achieves a mAP50 of 94.7% and a mAP50–95 of 77.4%, with only 1.47 M parameters and 5.4 G FLOPs, significantly outperforming mainstream models such as YOLOv5, YOLOv8, and YOLOv11. On edge devices, the model achieves a well-balanced trade-off between detection speed and accuracy, demonstrating strong potential for practical applications in intelligent harvesting and orchard management. Full article

A new species of Aprostocetus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), Aprostocetus bipolaris sp. nov., is recognized to be fortuitously present on a population of the invasive Eucalyptus (E. grandis × E. urophylla) gall wasp Ophelimus bipolaris Chen & Yao, in Guangxi, China. To classify this species, an integrated approach of morphological characteristics and molecular data was applied. The morphology of the new species is described and illustrated, and an identification key for female and male adults is also presented. Regarding phylogenetic analyses, the position of A. bipolaris sp. nov. within the Aprostocetus group of genera was reaffirmed based on 28S and COI gene sequences. All these lines of evidence indicate that A. bipolaris sp. nov. is a new species. Full article

Carbon nanotubes are promising in agriculture for improving crop resilience and delivering agrochemicals. However, their effects on insect pests, especially chewing pests such as the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), remain underexplored. In this study, we investigated how two types of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes—hydroxylated (MWCNTs-OH) and carboxylated (MWCNTs-COOH), both obtained from Jiangsu Xianfeng Nano (Nanjing, China)—affect the pest’s development and reproduction. Using an age-stage two-sex life table approach, we fed larvae diets containing 0.04, 0.4, or 4 mg/g of these nanomaterials. Both types of MWCNTs exhibited concentration-dependent inhibitory effects. At the highest dose (4 mg/g), larval development was significantly prolonged, adult pre-oviposition periods increased, and fecundity (egg production) sharply declined, especially with MWCNTs-OH. Population growth parameters were also suppressed: net reproductive rate (R₀), intrinsic rate of increase (r), and finite rate of increase (λ) were reduced at 4 mg/g, particularly with MWCNTs-OH, while mean generation time (T) was extended with MWCNTs-COOH. Overall, MWCNTs-OH demonstrated a greater inhibitory impact compared to MWCNTs-COOH. These findings suggest that functionalized MWCNTs could serve as potential novel pest control agents against S. frugiperda by impeding its development and reproduction. Full article