Abstract: The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of functional materials, and provided are a targeted nano-carrier, a preparation method therefor, an application thereof, a targeted drug-loaded nano-carrier, and a preparation method therefor. The targeted nano-carrier comprises a nano-carrier and a target chemically bonded on the nano-carrier, wherein the nano-carrier is nano-particles formed from an organic polymer or an inorganic material, and the target is aspartic acid or an aspartic acid derivative. The targeted nano-carrier provided by the invention can actively penetrate plant cell walls and cell membranes, is suitable for drug delivery for living plants, tissues etc., can reduce drug dosage and costs, has a protective effect on carried drugs and improves drug efficiency, prolongs the duration of drug action, reduces toxicity and contamination, and reduces the likelihood of drug resistance.

Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for generating an embedding—a learned representation—for an image. The embedding for the image is derived to capture visual aspects, as well as textual aspects, of the image. An encoder-decoder is trained to generate the visual representation of the image. An optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm is used to identify text/words in the image. From these words, an embedding is derived by performing an average pooling operation on pre-trained embeddings that map to the identified words. Finally, the embedding representing the visual aspects of the image is combined with the embedding representing the textual aspects of the image to generate a final embedding for the image.

Abstract: A water hardness detection probe, sensor, detection method and water softener are provided. The sensor includes a control unit which includes a processing module and a potential detection module. The detection probe includes a first probe and a second probe. When the first and second probes are both exposed in raw water, a potential between the first and second probes is regarded as first potential. When the first probe is in the raw water and the second probe is in softened water, the potential between the first and second probes is regarded as the second potential. The potential detection module measures the potential between the first and second probes. The processing module determines the water hardness of the softened water according to a difference between the first potential and the second potential. The sensor can detect the water hardness of the water softener in real time and eliminate detection deviations.

Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for generating an embedding—a learned representation—for an image. The embedding for the image is derived to capture visual aspects, as well as textual aspects, of the image. An encoder-decoder is trained to generate the visual representation of the image. An optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm is used to identify text/words in the image. From these words, an embedding is derived by performing an average pooling operation on pre-trained embeddings that map to the identified words. Finally, the embedding representing the visual aspects of the image is combined with the embedding representing the textual aspects of the image to generate a final embedding for the image.

Abstract: A water hardness detection probe, sensor, detection method and water softener are provided. The sensor includes a control unit which includes a processing module and a potential detection module. The detection probe includes a first probe and a second probe. When the first and second probes are both exposed in raw water, a potential between the first and second probes is regarded as first potential. When the first probe is in the raw water and the second probe is in softened water, the potential between the first and second probes is regarded as the second potential. The potential detection module measures the potential between the first and second probes. The processing module determines the water hardness of the softened water according to a difference between the first potential and the second potential. The sensor can detect the water hardness of the water softener in real time and eliminate detection deviations.

Abstract: A modified FGF-1 polypeptide that has an increased binding affinity for heparin relative the wild-type human FGF-1's binding affinity for heparin is described. The modified FGF-1 polypeptide has at least 80% amino acid sequence identity to wild-type human FGF-1 having SEQ ID NO: 1. The serine at an amino acid position of the modified FGF-1 polypeptide corresponding to amino acid position 116 of SEQ ID NO: 1 is substituted by an amino acid that increases the modified FGF-1 polypeptide's binding affinity for heparin relative to the binding affinity of SEQ ID NO: 1 to heparin.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides FGF1 mutant proteins having one or more mutations in the heparin binding domain. Such mutants may also have an N-terminal deletion, point mutation(s), or combinations thereof. In some examples, the mutant FGF1 proteins have reduced mitogenic activity. Also provided are nucleic acid molecules that encode such proteins, and vectors and cells that include such nucleic acids. The disclosed FGF1 mutants can reduce blood glucose in a mammal, and in some examples are used to treat a metabolic disorder.

Abstract: A modified FGF-1 polypeptide that has an increased binding affinity for heparin relative the wild-type human FGF-1's binding affinity for heparin is described. The modified FGF-1 polypeptide has at least 80% amino acid sequence identity to wild-type human FGF-1 having SEQ ID NO: 1. The serine at an amino acid position of the modified FGF-1 polypeptide corresponding to amino acid position 116 of SEQ ID NO: 1 is substituted by an amino acid that increases the modified FGF-1 polypeptide's binding affinity for heparin relative to the binding affinity of SEQ ID NO: 1 to heparin.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides FGF1 mutant proteins having one or more mutations in the heparin binding domain. Such mutants may also have an N-terminal deletion, point mutation(s), or combinations thereof. In some examples, the mutant FGF1 proteins have reduced mitogenic activity. Also provided are nucleic acid molecules that encode such proteins, and vectors and cells that include such nucleic acids. The disclosed FGF1 mutants can reduce blood glucose in a mammal, and in some examples are used to treat a metabolic disorder.