Gut microbiota and risk of endocarditis: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study

BackgroundThe associations between gut microbiota and cardiovascular disease have been reported in previous studies. However, the relationship between gut microbiota and endocarditis remains unclear.MethodsA bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study was performed to detect the association between gut microbiota and endocarditis. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was considered the main result. Simultaneously, heterogeneity and pleiotropy tests were conducted.ResultsOur study suggests that family Victivallaceae (p = 0.020), genus Eubacterium fissicatena group (p = 0.047), genus Escherichia Shigella (p = 0.024), genus Peptococcus (p = 0.028) and genus Sellimonas (p = 0.005) play protective roles in endocarditis. Two microbial taxa, including genus Blautia (p = 0.006) and genus Ruminococcus2 (p = 0.024) increase the risk of endocarditis. At the same time, endocarditis has a negative effect on genus Eubacterium fissicatena group (p = 0.048). Besides, no heterogeneity or pleiotropy was found in this study.ConclusionOur study emphasized the certain role of specific gut microbiota in patients with endocarditis and clarified the negative effect of endocarditis on gut microbiota

Preparation and Performance Optimization of Two-Component Waterborne Polyurethane Locomotive Coating

This paper reports the effects of different formulas on the performance of waterborne polyurethane (WPU), including two-component WPU and curing agent, wetting dispersant, defoaming agent, and wetting agent. The optimization of rheological additives selection, through the optimization of coating physical properties and chemical properties, can make the film show uniform color and appearance without pinholes, bubbles, or wrinkles, and have a long probation period. Through the analysis of performance after a 1000-h quick ultraviolet (QUV) aging test, the light reduction rate is 23.19%, and the color difference is 1.9. As can be seen from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) image and the three-dimensional stereomicroscope, the film shows relatively uniform dispersion, good compactness, and smooth surface. The two-component WPU topcoat is found to have high gloss 87.1 (60°) and high weather resistance, which provides a positive indication for the modulation and production of waterborne locomotive paint

Non-coding RNAs: The recently accentuated molecules in the regulation of cell autophagy for ovarian cancer pathogenesis and therapeutic response

Autophagy is a self-recycling and conserved process, in which the senescent cytoplasmic components are degraded in cells and then recycled to maintain homeostatic balance. Emerging evidence has suggested the involvement of autophagy in oncogenesis and progression of various cancers, such as ovarian cancer (OC). Meanwhile, the non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) frequently regulate the mRNA transcription and other functional signaling pathways in cell autophagy, displaying promising roles in human cancer pathogenesis and therapeutic response. This article mainly reviews the cutting-edge research advances about the interactions between ncRNAs and autophagy in OC. This review not only summarizes the underlying mechanisms of dynamic ncRNA-autophagy association in OC, but also discusses their prognostic implications and therapeutic biomarkers. The aim of this review was to provide a more in-depth knowledge framework exploring the ncRNA-autophagy crosstalk and highlight the promising treatment strategies for OC patients

Trojan Insertion versus Layout Defenses for Modern ICs: Red-versus-Blue Teaming in a Competitive Community Effort

Hardware Trojans (HTs) are a longstanding threat to secure computation. Among different threat models, it is the fabrication-time insertion of additional malicious logic directly into the layout of integrated circuits (ICs) that constitutes the most versatile, yet challenging scenario, for both attackers and defenders. Here, we present a large-scale, first-of-its-kind community effort through red-versus-blue teaming that thoroughly explores this threat. Four independently competing blue teams of 23 IC designers in total had to analyze and fix vulnerabilities of representative IC layouts at the pre-silicon stage, whereas a red team of 3 experts in hardware security and IC design continuously pushed the boundaries of these defense efforts through different HTs and novel insertion techniques. Importantly, we find that, despite the blue teams’ commendable design efforts, even highly-optimized layouts retained at least some exploitable vulnerabilities. Our effort follows a real-world setting for a modern 7nm technology node and industrygrade tooling for IC design, all embedded into a fully-automated and extensible benchmarking framework. To ensure the relevance of this work, strict rules that adhere to real-world requirements for IC design and manufacturing were postulated by the organizers. For example, not a single violation for timing and design-rule checks were allowed for defense techniques. Besides, in an advancement over prior art, neither red nor blue teams were allowed to use any so-called fillers and spares for trivial attack or defense approaches. Finally, we release all methods and artifacts: the representative IC layouts and HTs, the devised attack and defense techniques, the evaluation metrics and setup, the technology setup and commercial-grade reference flow for IC design, the encompassing benchmarking framework, and all best results. This full release enables the community to continue exploring this important challenge for hardware security, in particular to focus on the urgent need for further advancements in defense strategies

Trojan Insertion versus Layout Defenses for Modern ICs: Red-versus-Blue Teaming in a Competitive Community Effort

Hardware Trojans (HTs) are a longstanding threat to secure computation. Among different threat models, it is the fabrication-time insertion of additional malicious logic directly into the layout of integrated circuits (ICs) that constitutes the most versatile, yet challenging scenario, for both attackers and defenders. Here, we present a large-scale, first-of-its-kind community effort through red-versus-blue teaming that thoroughly explores this threat. Four independently competing blue teams of 23 IC designers in total had to analyze and fix vulnerabilities of representative IC layouts, whereas a red team of 3 experts in hardware security and IC design continuously pushed the boundaries of these defense efforts through different HTs and novel insertion techniques. Importantly, we find that, despite the blue teams’ commendable efforts, even highly-optimized layouts retained at least some exploitable vulnerabilities. Our effort follows a real-world setting for a modern 7nm technology node and industry-grade tooling for IC design, all embedded into a fully-automated and extensible benchmarking framework. To ensure the relevance of this work, strict rules that adhere to real-world requirements for IC design and manufacturing were postulated by the organizers. For example, not a single violation for timing and design-rule checks were allowed for defense techniques. Besides, in an advancement over prior art, neither red nor blue teams were allowed to use any so-called fillers and spares for trivial attack or defense approaches. Finally, we release all methods and artifacts: the representative IC layouts and HTs, the devised attack and defense techniques, the evaluation metrics and setup, the technology setup and commercial-grade reference flow for IC design, the encompassing benchmarking framework, and all best results. This full release enables the community to continue exploring this important challenge for hardware security, in particular to focus on the urgent need for further advancements in defense strategies

Solidification for solid-state lithium batteries with high energy density and long cycle life

Conventional lithium-ion batteries with inflammable organic liquid electrolytes are required to make a breakthrough regarding their bottlenecks of energy density and safety, as demanded by the ever-increasing development of electric vehicles and grids. In this context, solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs), which replace liquid electrolytes with solid counterparts, have become a popular research topic due to their excellent potential in the realization of improved energy density and safety. However, in practice, the energy density of SSLBs is limited by the cathode mass loading, electrolyte thickness and anode stability. Moreover, the crucial interfacial issues related to the rigid and heterogeneous solid-solid contacts between the electrolytes and electrodes, including inhomogeneous local potential distributions, sluggish ion transport, side reactions, space charge barriers and stability degradation, severely deteriorate the cycle life of SSLBs. Solidification, which converts a liquid into a solid inside a solid battery, represents a powerful tool to overcome the aforementioned obstacles. The liquid precursors fully wet the interfaces and infiltrate the electrodes, followed by in-situ conformal solidification under certain conditions for the all-in-one construction of cells with highly conducting, closely contacted and sustainable electrode/electrolyte interfaces, thereby enabling high energy density and long cycle life. Therefore, in this review, we address the research progress regarding the latest strategies toward the solidification of the electrolyte layers and the interfaces between the electrodes and electrolytes. The critical challenges and future research directions are proposed for the solidification strategies in SSLBs from both science and engineering perspectives.</jats:p

Solidification for solid-state lithium batteries with high energy density and long cycle life

Conventional lithium-ion batteries with inflammable organic liquid electrolytes are required to make a breakthrough regarding their bottlenecks of energy density and safety, as demanded by the ever-increasing development of electric vehicles and grids. In this context, solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs), which replace liquid electrolytes with solid counterparts, have become a popular research topic due to their excellent potential in the realization of improved energy density and safety. However, in practice, the energy density of SSLBs is limited by the cathode mass loading, electrolyte thickness and anode stability. Moreover, the crucial interfacial issues related to the rigid and heterogeneous solid-solid contacts between the electrolytes and electrodes, including inhomogeneous local potential distributions, sluggish ion transport, side reactions, space charge barriers and stability degradation, severely deteriorate the cycle life of SSLBs. Solidification, which converts a liquid into a solid inside a solid battery, represents a powerful tool to overcome the aforementioned obstacles. The liquid precursors fully wet the interfaces and infiltrate the electrodes, followed by in-situ conformal solidification under certain conditions for the all-in-one construction of cells with highly conducting, closely contacted and sustainable electrode/electrolyte interfaces, thereby enabling high energy density and long cycle life. Therefore, in this review, we address the research progress regarding the latest strategies toward the solidification of the electrolyte layers and the interfaces between the electrodes and electrolytes. The critical challenges and future research directions are proposed for the solidification strategies in SSLBs from both science and engineering perspectives