Drought stress is a major abiotic factor affecting tomato production and fruit quality. However, the genes and metabolites associated with tomato responses to water deficiency and rehydration are poorly characterized. To identify the functional genes and key metabolic pathways underlying tomato responses to drought stress and recovery, drought-susceptible and drought-tolerant inbred lines underwent transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses. A total of 332 drought-responsive and 491 rehydration-responsive core genes were robustly differentially expressed in both genotypes. The drought-responsive and rehydration-responsive genes were mainly related to photosynthesis–antenna proteins, nitrogen metabolism, plant–pathogen interactions, and the MAPK signaling pathway. Various transcription factors, including homeobox-leucine zipper protein ATHB-12, NAC transcription factor 29, and heat stress transcription factor A-6b-like, may be vital for tomato responses to the water status. Moreover, 24,30-dihydroxy-12(13)-enolupinol, caffeoyl hawthorn acid, adenosine 5′-monophosphate, and guanosine were the key metabolites identified in both genotypes under drought and recovery conditions. The combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis highlighted the importance of 38 genes involved in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, biosynthesis of amino acids, and ABC transporters for tomato responses to water stress. Our results provide valuable clues regarding the molecular basis of drought tolerance and rehydration. The data presented herein may be relevant for genetically improving tomato to enhance drought tolerance.

The research is devoted to the study of geotectonic and geodynamics of the Shu-Ile belt and petrographic composition and intrusive complexes geochemical features analysis. The Shu-Ile suture is an important geological structure of Kazakhstan. It is characterized by the presence of various intrusive formations and deep faults. The material composition of these intrusions is of interest for understanding the geological and metallogenic processes in this region. The research used modern scientific methods, including petrographic and geochemical studies of various compositions intrusion samples. Based on the results of material composition studies of intrusive complexes, their possible connections with other geological structures of Kazakhstan and the metallogeny of the region have been established. Based on the data obtained, a conclusion was made about the intrusive complexes origin and evolution of the Shu-Ile belt, which may be important for further geological research and forecasting of mineral resources in the region.

Keywords: mHealth; peritoneal dialysis; functionality; usability

In the TANGO study, the long-term noninferior efficacy of switching to dolutegravir/lamivudine (DTG/3TC) compared to continuing tenofovir alafenamide–based regimens was demonstrated in treatment-experienced adults with HIV. However, there is limited real-world data comparing the effectiveness and safety of bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (BIC/FTC/TAF) and DTG/3TC in Asia. This retrospective observational study, conducted at a designated HIV-care hospital from March 2019 to January 2023, aimed to address this gap. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data, including HIV viral loads and lipid profiles, were collected and analyzed. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with HIV RNA <50 copies/mL at week 48 in both groups, utilizing a snapshot, per-protocol–exposed population. A total of 1086 patients were included, with 511 in the DTG/3TC group and 575 in the BIC/FTC/TAF group. At week 48, 98% of patients in the DTG/3TC group and 94% in the BIC/FTC/TAF group achieved HIV RNA <50 copies/mL (p <0.01). Logistic regression analysis identified risk factors for detectable viral loads at week 48, including HIV RNA >100,000 copies/mL (AOR 5.13, 95% CI 1.42–18.53), low-level viremia (AOR 3.91, 95% CI 1.07–14.25), and record of virologic failure ≥2 times (AOR 4.21, 95% CI 1.64–10.85) before the switch. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the DTG/3TC and BIC/FTC/TAF regimens (AOR: 1.51, 95% CI 0.70–3.24). In conclusion, the study demonstrates that the effectiveness and safety profiles of DTG/3TC and BIC/FTC/TAF were comparable in treatment-experienced adults with HIV, particularly among those with undetectable viral loads at baseline.

Arylsulfatase and β-glucuronidase are two important enzymes in human, which play important role on dynamic equilibrium of steroidal estrogens. This work probably for the first time reported that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hypochlorite and peracetic acid (PAA) could effectively inhibit the activities of arylsulfatase and/or β-glucuronidase. The 50 percent of inhibitions (IC50) of H2O2, and PAA on arylsulfatase were found to be 142.90±9.00, 91.83±10.01, and 43.46±2.92 μM, respectively. The corresponding respective IC50 of hypochlorite and PAA on β-glucuronidase were 704.90±41.40 and 23.26±0.82 μM, while H2O2 showed no inhibition on β-glucuronidase. It was further revealed that the inhibition of hypochlorite on both arylsulfatase and β-glucuronidase was irreversible. On the contrary, the inhibition by H2O2 and PAA was reversible. Moreover, it was found that the inhibitions of arylsulfatase and/or β-glucuronidase by these three chemicals were pH-dependent, among which the inhibition by H2O2 was competitive and non-competitive for PAA. In general, H2O2 and hypochlorite can be endogenously produced in human, which suggested that the two compounds are potential endocrine disruption compounds (EDCs) as they can cause endocrine disruption via inhibition of arylsulfatase and β-glucuronidase. This work further indicated that any agent that can induce production of H2O2 or hypochlorite in human is potential EDC, which explains why some EDCs with very weak or no estrogenic potency can cause endocrine disruption that confirmed in epidemiological studies.

Under the background that the international technological innovation environment VUCA has been intensifying and the innovation situation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises has been impacted, the innovation dilemma faced by enterprises has attracted increasing attention, while the innovation dilemma is also one of the important factors affecting the operation efficiency of enterprises. Based on the micro-data of China’s A-share manufacturing listed enterprises, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of innovation dilemmas faced by enterprises on operational efficiency (innovation dilemmas are measured by the difference when actual innovation performance is lower than expected innovation performance). The results show that the innovation dilemma of manufacturing enterprises significantly inhibits the operational efficiency of manufacturing enterprises by reducing their risk tolerance, development ability expectation and profitability. After using a series of tests, such as instrumental variable method, propensity score matching method, DID (Differences-in-Differences) and changing variable measure method, the conclusion is still robust. In addition, the inhibitory effect of innovation dilemma on enterprise operation efficiency is more obvious for private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, enterprises in the ascend or decline phase, high-tech enterprises and enterprises in the eastern region. Therefore, the government should strengthen the policy support for the manufacturing enterprises in the innovation dilemma, help the enterprises to overcome the innovation bottleneck. Manufacturing enterprises themselves should enhance their innovation capabilities and strive to get rid of the innovation dilemma in order to maintain a stable footing in the fierce market competition and improve the high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry.

Recently, NOAA has included GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Radio Occultation (RO) data as one of the crucial long-term observables for weather and climate applications. To include more GNSS RO data in the numerical weather prediction system, the NOAA Commercial Weather Data Pilot program (CWDP) started to explore the commercial RO data available on the market. After two rounds of pilot studies, the CDWP decided to award the first Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to GeoOptics and Spire Incs. in 2020. This study examines the quality of Spire data products for weather and climate applications. Spire RO data are collected from commercial CubeSats through careful comparison with the data from Formosa Satellite Mission 7–Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2), ERA-5, and high-quality radiosonde data. The results demonstrated that although with lower Signal-Noise-Ratio (SNR) in general, the pattern of the lowest penetration height for Spire is similar to those for COSMIC-2. The Spire and COSMIC-2 penetrate heights are between 0.6 and 0.8 km altitude at the tropical oceans. Although using different GNSS RO receivers, the precision of Spire STRASP receivers is of the same quality as those of COSMIC-2 Global Positioning System - GPS, GALILEO, and GLObal NAvigation Satellite System – GLONASS (TGRS) receivers. The retrieval accuracy from Spire is very compatible with those from COSMIC-2. We validated Spire temperature and water vapor profiles by comparing them with collocated radiosonde data. Generally, over the height region between 8 km and 16.5 km, the Spire temperature profiles match those from RS41 RAOB very well with temperature biases &lt; 0.02 K. Over the height range from 17.8 to 26.4 km, the temperature differences are ~-0.034 K with RS41 RAOB being warmer. We also estimated the error covariance matrix for Spire, COSMIC-2, and KOMPSAT-5. Results showed that the COSMIC-2 estimated error covariance values are slightly more significant over the oceans at the mid-latitudes (45oN-30oN and 30oS-45oS), which may also be owing to COSMIC-2 SNR being lower at those latitudinal zones.

In thermodynamic theory, free energy (i.e., available energy) is the concept facilitating the combined applications of the theory’s two fundamental laws, the first and the second laws of thermodynamics. The critical step was taken by Kelvin, then by Helmholtz and Gibbs— that in natural processes, free energy dissipates spontaneously. With the formulation of the second law of entropy growth, this may be referred to as the dissymmetry proposition manifested in the spontaneous increase of system/environment-entropy towards equilibrium. Because of Kelvin’s pre-entropy-law formulation of free energy, our concept of free energy is still defined, energy-centrally, as body’s internal energy or enthalpy, subtracted by energy that is not available within a framework on the premise of primacy of energy, in which free energy dissipates spontaneously and universally. This primacy of energy is called into question because the driving force to cause a system’s change is the purview of the second law. This paper makes a case for an engineering thermodynamics framework, instead, to be based on the premise of the primacy of dissymmetry over free energy. With Gibbsian thermodynamics undergirded with dissymmetry proposition and engineering thermodynamics with the dissymmetry premise, the two branches of thermodynamics are unified to become classical thermodynamics.

This is a survey study that dialysis patients were randomly sampled from a medical center in northern Taiwan, and those who gave their consent to participate were included in this study. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between depression, hope, and quality of life of dialysis patients. All subjects agreed to take "Beck’s Depression Inventory", " The Chinese version of Herth Hope Index" and " The Chinese version of Kidney Disease Quality of Life" (KDQOL-SFTM). Data were processed using SPSS for descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that patients were 12.45±SD 9.03, which was mild depression, the mean score of hope was 34.25, which was equivalent to 72.60%, and was at the middle level. In KDQOL-SFTM, the score in mental composite (M=42.65, SD=8.81) was higher than in physical composite (M=37.38, SD=9.28), and the score was at the intermediate quality of life, and hope and depression were significantly and negatively correlated. This study suggests that dialysis case managers provide nursing guidance to help dialysis patients learn comfortable care methods and support the resilience they need.

This research used an experimental study design in which 60 subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental (image e-book guidance) group or a control (text guidance) group after meeting the admission conditions and agreeing to participate in the study. It was proven that providing image e-book guidance before surgery significantly changed the behavior of patients and promoted relief of urinary catheter discomfort through self-efficacy to reduce urinary catheter pain after surgery. It was found that providing image e-book guidance can shorten the time for health education and provide patients with repeated medical education and familiarity with health guidance, which can help to address the important clinical service demand issue and the shortage of nursing staff.

In the industrial field, the 3D target detection algorithm PointPillars has gained popularity. Improving target detection accuracy while maintaining high efficiency has been a significant challenge. To address the issue of low target detection accuracy in the PointPillars 3D target detection algorithm, this paper proposes an algorithm based on feature enhancement to improve the backbone network. The algorithm enhances preliminary feature information of the Backbone network by modifying it based on PointPillars with the aid of channel attention and spatial attention mechanisms. To address the inefficiency caused by the excessive number of subsampled parameters in PointPillars, FasterNet (a lightweight and efficient feature extraction network) is utilized for downsampling and forming different scale feature maps. To prevent the loss and blurring of extracted features resulting from the use of inverse convolution, we utilize the lightweight and efficient up-sampling modules Carafe and Dysample for adjusting resolution. Experimental results indicate improved accuracy under all difficulties of the KITTI dataset, demonstrating the superiority of the algorithm over PointPillars.

In the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for rotorcraft, two significant challenges are resolving the complex vortex structures in rotor wakes, and representing the moving rotor blades in the ambient airflow. This study addresses the first challenge by using a third-order unstructured finite volume solver, which, compared to its second-order counterpart, has substantially lower dissipation. Consequently, even relatively coarse meshes are capable of resolving small vortices. With this background flow field solver, the second challenge is addressed by modeling each rotor as an Actuator Disk Model (ADM), or describing individual rotor blades as actuator lines, designated as the Actuator Line Model (ALM). Both of these models are equipped with an improved correction for aerodynamic losses at blade tips, which is thoroughly presented in the methodology section. The numerical experiments section centers on analyzing errors linked to various sampling approaches. Additionally, the article discusses comparisons between vortex theory and ALM, specifically regarding calculations for fixed-wing aircraft. Furthermore, high-order precision and parallel efficiency are exemplified in scenarios encompassing rotors engaged in both hovering and forward flight rotors. The results in this paper demonstrate that the combination of the ALM/ADM with the improved tip loss correction and the third-order finite volume solver presents a new way of developing efficient tools for the aerodynamic analysis of helicopter rotors.

Bacterial wilt (BW), caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is one of the major biotic factors limiting tomato production in the humid tropics. Pyramiding of resistance genes through marker-assisted selection is an efficient way to develop durable BW resistant cultivars. Tomato line ‘Hawaii 7996’ (H7996) is a stable and robust resistance source against various R. solanacearum strains. Major BW resistance quantitative trait loci (QTLs) Bwr-12 and Bwr-6, and several minor or strain specific QTLs have been coarse-mapped in this line, but none has been fine-mapped and validated. The objective of the current study was to construct a high density genetic map using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from genotyping-by-sequencing, fine-map Bwr-12 and Bwr-6 and determine the effects of these QTLs using a near isogenic line (NIL) population. A high density genetic map using 1,604 SNP markers with an average distance of 0.82 cM was developed for 188 F9 recombinant inbred lines derived from the cross H7996 × WVa700. A total of seven QTLs associated with BW resistance to race 1-phylotype I or/and race 3-phylotype II strains were located on chromosomes 6 (Bwr-6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4) and 12 (Bwr-12.1, Bwr-12.2 and Bwr-12.3) with logarithm of odds (LOD) scores of 6.2-15.6 and 6.2-31.1, explaining 14.2-33.4% and 15.9-53.9% of the total phenotypic variation contributed from H7996, respectively. To validate the genetic effects of the two QTL regions, a set of 80 BC3F3 NILs containing different sections of Bwr-6 with or without Bwr-12 was phenotyped for disease severity after challenge with either race 1-phylotype I Pss4 or race 3-phylotype II Pss1632 BW strains over two seasons. Bwr-6.1 specific to Pss4 and Bwr-6.3 specific to Pss1632 were mapped to an interval of 5.0 cM (P < 0.05) between 6_33,444,000_SLM6-47 and 6_33,868,000_SLM6-124 SNP marker, and to 2.7 cM (P < 0.01) between positions 6_35,949,000 _SLM6-107 to 6_36,750,000_SLM6-82 marker, respectively. In addition, the specific effect of Bwr-12 for resistance to Pss4 (LOD score of 5.8-16.1, P < 0.01) was confirmed and markers for this QTL have already been made available previously.

Candida glabrata is a yeast of increasing medical relevance, particularly in critically ill patients. It is the second most isolated Candida species associated with invasive candidiasis (IC) behind C. albicans. The attributed higher incidence is primarily due to an increase in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) population, cancer, and diabetes patients. The elderly population and the frequent use of indwelling medical devices are also predisposing factors. The work aimed to review various virulence factors that facilitate the survival of pathogenic C. glabrata in IC. The available published research articles related to the pathogenicity of C. glabrata were retrieved and reviewed from four credible databases, mainly Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus. The articles highlighted many virulence factors associated with pathogenicity in C. glabrata, including adherence to a susceptible host surface, evading host defences, and producing hydrolytic enzymes (e.g., phospholipases, proteases, and haemolysins). The factors facilitate infection initiation. Other virulent factors include iron regulation and genetic mutations. Accordingly, biofilm production, tolerance to high-stress environments, and development of resistance to the antifungal drug, notably to fluconazole and other azole derivatives, were reported. The review provided evident pathogenic mechanisms and antifungal resistance associated with C. glabrata in ensuring its sustenance and survival.

Background: In long-term care facilities, there are many residents who do not have the ability to seek shelter by themselves in the case of an emergency. Thus, it is extremely important that the staff of nursing homes are equipped with correct disaster prevention concepts, emergency survival responses, and hazard mitigation measures. Purpose: Discuss the intervention effectiveness of different fire prevention and emergency response trainings at nursing homes and the relationship and predictivity of awareness to self-efficacy. Method: Recruit staff from two nursing homes through purposive sampling, using a two-team pre-and post-test design to collect results from 41 individuals in the experiment group and 40 individuals in the control group. The research tool is the “Nursing Home Fire Prevention and Emergency Response Awareness and Self-Efficacy Scale,” to compare the effectiveness of advanced and general fire safety trainings. Result: After receiving improved advanced fire safety training, the total score and the result of the experiment group on fire prevention and emergency response awareness and self-efficacy had both performed better than the control group who received general fire safety training (p < .001); fire prevention and emergency response awareness has significant and positive correlation with self-efficacy (r=.601, p < .001), and awareness is a significant predictor variable to self-efficacy (p < .001). Conclusion/Practical Application: This study finds that the key to improving learning effectiveness includes adding fire science concept chapter when creating fire safety training material in order to strengthen basic awareness; fire safety training should comprehensively introduce all related duty responsibilities of staff fire defense formation, in turn enabling mutual responsive support for the needs of the site; also, to become familiarized with the knowledge requires appropriate frequency of training and enhancing the staff’s awareness to fire prevention and emergency response, which is the most important key of learning effectiveness.

The emergence of diverse infections worldwide, which is a serious global threat to human existence, necessitate the urgent development of novel therapeutic candidates that can combat these diseases with efficacy. Isatin, a secondary metabolite from tryptophan is considered a privileged scaffold and favorable pharmacophore with a unique structural moiety and varied chemical and biological properties resulting in its widespread applications by medicinal chemists. Molecular hybridization is one of the most common and important techniques use in the synthesis of their bioactive hybrids in drug discovery. This review containing published articles from 2005 to 2022 focuses on isatin hybrids which have been synthesized and reported in the literature alongside a discussion on their biological properties. The purpose of this review is to set up the direction for the design and development of isatin-hybrids with tailored biological properties as effective therapeutic candidates inspired by nature.

Today, the various abilities that nurses require to meet patients’ healthcare needs adequately are all affected by AI-enabled systems. This research used an experimental study design in which 60 subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental (AI image e-book guidance) group or a control (text paper guidance) group after meeting the admission conditions and agreeing to participate in the study. It was proven that providing AI image e-book guidance before surgery significantly changed the behavior of patients and promoted relief of urinary catheter discomfort through self-efficacy to reduce urinary catheter pain after surgery(p=0.000). It was found that providing AI image e-book guidance can shorten the time for health education and provide patients with repeated medical education and familiarity with health guidance, which can help to address the important clinical service demand issue and the shortage of nursing staff.

Directional solidification experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of micro-alloying element Sn and magnetic field on the solidification of Al-Bi immiscible alloys. Experimental results show that the size distribution of the dispersed particles in the low-speed solidified Al-3.4wt%Bi alloy presents two peaks, while it only shows one peak when solidified at a relatively high speed. The addition of Sn not only can enhance the nucleation rate and the number density of the Bi-rich droplets in the sample, but also decrease the Marangoni migration velocity and the axial resultant velocity of minority phase droplets in front of the solidification interface. Thereby it promotes the formation of Al-Bi alloys with a well-dispersed microstructure. A static magnetic with the strength of 0.2T increase the number density of the dispersed particles and decrease the average size and the size distribution width of the dispersed particles. Under the effect of Sn addition and static magnetic field, the average radius of the dispersed particles <R> and the solidification velocity V_0 satisfy <R>∝〖V_0〗^(-1/3) when the alloy was solidified at a relatively low velocity, <R> and V_0 satisfy <R>∝〖V_0〗^(-1/2) when the alloy is solidified at a high velocity.

All humans will experience the process of birth, old age, illness, and death. However, when faced with life-sustaining decisions, the families of patients are often faced with medical decisions as surrogates. In recent years, the families of patients have started to value the importance of the right to palliative care, although this often requires lengthy discussions. Therefore, this study explored the predictability of factors that affect the feeling experienced by patients’ families when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. This study used a cross-sectional study and interviewed 90 family members using a structural questionnaire. The study hypotheses were tested using a t-test, one-way analysis of variance, product–moment correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis. Attribute variables of family members, such as gender and whether they live with the patient, are predictors that affect the family member’s feeling experience when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. The emotional support from medical professionals to family members helps the family member to express their negative feelings on signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent; more informational support information provided to family members by medical professionals can alleviate negative feelings felt by family members when signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Consent. This study identified that family members’ knowledge about Do-Not-Resuscitate acquired from medical professionals is relatively low. It is suggested that critical care units regularly conduct training on hospice palliative care, implement standard care procedures of hospice palliative care at critical care units, and provide detailed medical information about advanced decisions to family members so as to reduce their emotional stress. This will ensure that intensive care units can also achieve the goal of critically ill hospice palliative care.

Porous tantalum (Ta) is a promising biomaterial and has been applied in orthopedics and dentistry for nearly two decades. The high porosity and interconnected pore structure of porous Ta promise fine bone ingrowth and new bone formation within the inner space, which further guarantee rapid osteointegration and bone-implant stability in long term. Porous Ta has high wettability and surface energy that can facilitate adherence, proliferation and mineralization of osteoblasts. Meanwhile, low elastic modulus and high friction coefficient of porous Ta can effectively avoid stress shield effect, minimize marginal bone loss and ensure primary stability. Accordingly, the satisfactory clinical application of porous Ta based implants or prostheses are mainly derived from its excellent biological and mechanical properties. With the advent of additive manufacturing, personalized porous Ta based implants or prostheses have shown their clinical value in the treatment of individual patient who need specially designed implant or prosthesis. In addition, many modification methods have been introduced to enhance the bioactivity and antibacterial property of porous Ta with promising in vitro and in vivo research results. In any case, choosing suitable patients is of great importance to guarantee surgical success after porous Ta insertion.

Mixing is considered as a critical process parameter (CPP) during process development due to its significant influence on reaction selectivity and process safety. Nevertheless, mixing issues are difficult to identify and solve owing to their complexity and dependence on knowledge of kinetics and hydrodynamics. In this paper, we proposed an optimization methodology using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based compartmental modelling to improve mixing and reaction selectivity. More importantly, we have demonstrated that through the implementation of surrogate-based optimization, the proposed methodology can be used as a computationally non-intensive way for rapid process development of reaction unit operations. For illustration purpose, reaction selectivity of a process with Bourne competitive reaction network is discussed. Results demonstrate that we can improve reaction selectivity by dynamically controlling rates and locations of feeding in the reactor. The proposed methodology incorporates mechanistic understanding of the reaction kinetics together with an efficient optimization algorithm to determine the optimal process operation and thus can serve as a tool for quality-by-design (QbD) during product development stage.

Oligopeptide transporters (OPTs) are a group of membrane localized proteins that have a broad range of substrate transport capabilities and contribute to numerous biological processes. However, limited information has been reported on OPTs in higher plants. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the OPT gene family in Medicago truncatula was performed. A total of 26 OPT genes (MtOPT01-MtOPT26) have been identified in the Medicago truncatula genome. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that MtOPTs consisted of two distinct subgroups, 12 MtOPTs belonged to the peptide transport subgroup (PT-OPT) based on their predicted amino acid sequences containing the two highly conserved motifs (NPG and KIPPR) and 14 MtOPTs belonged to yellow stripe subgroup (YS-OPT). The MtOPTs distributed on each of 8 chromosomes in Medicago truncatula. Sequence analysis verified that MtOPTs significant similar to those in other plants. The copy number of MtOPTs was low and the multiply of MtOPTs was simple relatively. Gene structure analysis showed that most of the MtOPTs have various numbers of introns. The multiple of MtOPTs might play different biological roles which were supported by the fact that MtOPTs have a distinct tissue-specific expression pattern. The data obtained in this study will help to better understand the complexity of the MtOPTs gene family and provide new evidence for the function and evolution of the OPT gene family in higher plants.

Cartilage regeneration requires a balance of anabolic and catabolic processes. This study examined the susceptibility of fibromodulin (FMOD) and lumican (LUM) to degradation by MMP-13, ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5, the three major degradative proteinases in articular cartilage in osteoarthritis (OA). Immunolocalisation of FMOD and LUM in foot sections of developmental cartilages demonstrated prominent localisations in metatarsal and phalangeal foetal rudiment cartilages and growth plate. An MMP-13 neoepitope antibody (TsYG11) demonstrated localisation of MMP-13 cleaved FMOD in the hypertrophic chondrocytes of the metatarsal growth plate. FMOD was more prominently localised in the superficial cartilage of normal and fibrillated zones in OA cartilage, TsYG11 positive FMOD was located deeper in the cartilage samples. Ab TsYG11 also identified FMOD fragmentation in Western blots of extracts of normal and fibrillated cartilage and total knee replacement OA cartilage. The C-terminal anti-FMOD used in this study (PR-184) failed to identify FMOD fragmentation due to C terminal processing, an equivalent Ab to the C-terminus of LUM (pAb PR-353) identified 3 prominent LUM fragments in OA human knee cartilages. In-vitro digestion of human knee cartilage with MMP-13, ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 generated equivalently sized FMOD fragments of 54, 45 and 32kDa to those in blots of OA cartilage, LUM was not less susceptible to fragmention in in-vitro digestions however Ab PR-353 detected N-terminally processed LUM fragments of 39, 38 and 22 kDa in 65-80 year old OA knee cartilage. FMOD and LUM were differentially processed during in-vitro digestions with MMP-13, ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 with FMOD susceptible to degradation by MMP-13, ADAMTS-4 and to a lesser extent ADAMTS-5 however LUM was less susceptible to fragmentation. FMOD was processed by MMP-13 in metatarsal and phalangeal foetal rudiment developmental cartilages and growth plate indicating a role in skeletogenesis.

This study explores the relationship between mental and physical therapeutic through three dimensions: man-environment relationships; a sense of place and symbolic landscapes. The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Local residents living in the coastal area of Xinglin Bay are the research objects. Quantitative data analysis revealed that the frequency of residents' visits was an important variable affecting their physical and treatment perceptions. In addition, the significance is higher for females than for males. The text analysis shows that the environment, especially the ecological restoration of water quality and migratory birds, is of great significance to the identity of local residents. Daily activities contribute to a sense of place and are what make the coast a place of therapeutic landscape function.

(1) In recent ten years, with the fast development of digital and engineering manufacturing technology, additive manufacturing has already been more and more widely used in the field of dentistry, from the first personalized surgical guides to the latest personalized restoration crowns and root implants. (2) Especially, the bioprinting of teeth and tissue is of great potential to realize organ regeneration and finally improve the life quality. (3) In this review paper, we firstly presented the workflow of additive manufacturing technology. Then we summarized main applications and recent research progresses of additive manufacturing in dentistry. (4) Lastly, we sketched out some challenges and future directions of additive manufacturing technology in dentistry.

SARS-CoV2 (corona virus) has spread globally at an unprecedented rate; so far, increasing SARS-CoV2-infected individuals have been identified. Although the situation in China is improving and is currently under control, the outbreak in other countries and its pandemic management is only beginning to develop. Based on 154 SARS-CoV2 genome sequence analyses, we used receptor–ligand docking to identify one potential point mutation (V354F) on the spike structure which enhances spike binding to ACE2 receptors underlying potential super infection. Importantly, the V354F site on spike S1 had been identified in 5/10 infected French patients living in Paris, who sharing 100% identical SARS-CoV2 genomes. With Covid-19 cases increasing rapidly in France that could lead to a new explosion, we suggest that the French government should identify all potential super spreaders and treat them accordingly. In summary, our study provides on of the measures to avoid the potential second worldwide explosion of SARS-CoV2.

The era of Internet of Things (IoT) has begun to evolve and with this the devices around us are getting more and more connected. Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) is one of the applications of IoT. VANET allow vehicles within these networks to communicate effectively with each another. VANETs can provide an extensive range of applications that support and enhance passenger safety and comfort. It is important that VANETs are applied within a safe and reliable network topology; however, the challenging nature of reaching reliable and trustworthy agreement in such distributed systems is one of the most important issues in designing a fault-tolerant system. Therefore, protocols are required so that systems can still be correctly executed, reaching agreement on the same values in a distributed system, even if certain components in the system fail. In this study, the agreement problem is revisited in a VANET with multiple damages. The proposed protocol allows all fault-free nodes (vehicles) to reach agreement with minimal rounds of message exchanges, and tolerates the maximal number of allowable faulty components in the VANET.

In this study, a new type of temperature sensor device was developed. The circular electrode of the thermal sensitive sensor was modified with TMT and O₂ plasma to enhance the conductivity by forming a thin SnOxCy layer on the electrode surface. The Nano-Au particles were subjected to O₂ plasma pretreatment to form peroxide groups on the surface. The thermally sensitive sensor was made by mixing the above-treated Nano-Au particles with N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) to form solution and then UV-induced grafting polymerization of the NIPAAm-containing solution onto the electrode substrate. The composite hydrogels on the electrode introduce thermo-sensitive polymeric surface films for temperature sensing. Using ambient environment resistance test to measure the resistance, the LCST (lower critical solution temperature) of Nano-Au (MUA) mixed with NIPAAm hydrogel was found to be 32 °C. At ambient temperatures higher than LCST, the electrode resistance decreases linearly.

As precision medicine such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy often have limited accessibility, low response rate and evolved resistance, it is urgent to develop simple, low-cost, and quick-turnaround personalized diagnostic technologies for drug response prediction with high sensitivity, speed, and accuracy. Major challenges of drug response prediction strategies employing digital database modeling are the scarcity of labeled clinical data, applicable only to a few classes of drugs, and losing the resolution at the individual patient level. Although these challenges have been partially addressed by large-scale cancer cell line datasets and more patient-relevant cell-based systems, the integration of different data types and data translation from pre-clinical to clinical utilities are still far-fetched. To overcome current limitations of precision medicine with a clinically proven drug response prediction assay, we have developed an innovative and proprietary technology based on in vitro patient testing and in silico data analytics. First, a patient-derived gene expression signature was established via transcriptomic profiling of cell-free mRNA (cfmRNA) from the patient’s blood. Second, a gene-to-drug data fusion and overlaying mechanism to transfer data was performed. Finally, a semi-supervised method was used for database searching, matching, annotation and ranking of drug efficacies from a pool of ~700 approved, investigational or clinical trial drug candidates. A personalized drug response report can be delivered to inform clinical decision within a week. The PGA (Patient-derived Gene expression-informed Anticancer drug efficacy) test has significantly improved patient outcomes when compared to the treatment plans without PGA support. Implementation of PGA, which combines patient-unique cfmRNA fingerprints with drug mapping power, has the potential to identify treatment options when patients are no longer responding to therapy and when standard-of-care is exhausted.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread over the world for more than one year. COVID-19 often develops life-threatening hypoxemia. Endothelial injury caused by the viral infection leads to intravascular coagulation and ventilation-perfusion mismatch. However, besides above pathogenic mechanisms, the role of alveolar edema in the disease progression has not been discussed comprehensively. Since the exudation of pulmonary edema fluid was extremely serious in COVID-19 patients, we bring out a hypothesis that severity of alveolar edema may determine the size of poorly-ventilated area and the blood oxygen content. Treatments to pulmonary edema (alcohol-oxygen vapor therapy and fluid management) may be great helpful for reducing occurrence of severe cases. Given that late mechanical ventilation may cause mucus (edema fluid) to be blown to the deep of the small airways, oxygen therapy should be given at the early stages. The optimal time and SpO₂ threshold for oxygen therapy are also discussed.

This study aims to provide an understanding of the preferences of student tourists regarding service attributes related to domestic accommodation. To clarify how lodging firms formulate policies for the student travel market, a “Relative to an Identified Distribution” (RIDIT) analysis in which responses are treated as ordinal data instead of equally spaced data is performed to examine the Likert-scale data obtained from 296 university students in Taiwan. In our RIDIT analytical results, respondents’ preferences are sorted in a descending importance. Of the examined attributes, “Cleanliness of rooms” is the attribute most prioritized by the students, followed by “Located in a safe neighborhood/feeling safe in the room,” and “Close to scenic area for meeting the trip requirement.” The attribute least prioritized by the students is “Interaction with other guests.” This analysis provides conclusions that differ from those obtained through commonly used techniques including the arithmetic average and exploratory factor analysis. The preference rankings indicate that managers should focus on the most prioritized service attributes and implement the necessary measures to enhance their service quality and maximize customer satisfaction.

The KRAS mutant population has been undruggable for 40 years. G12C inhibitors and immunotherapy are the beginning of success. It is necessary to summarize the successful experience of the existing treatment model and explore the direction of the next treatment. In this review, we discuss the latest developments in targeted therapy and immunotherapy for KRAS-mutation NSCLC, aiming to provide direction or enlightenment for future treatment strategies.

Little is known about family medicine academic staff in Taiwan, and basic data about this workforce may aid healthcare decision makers. We analysed data on Taiwan’s 13 medical schools collected by the Taiwan Association of Family Medicine from June to September 2019. Items included medical school names and total staff, and the gender, age, degree, working title (part-time/full-time), academic level, and sub-specialty of each current family medicine faculty member. A total of 116 family medicine faculty members were reported; most were male (n= 85, 73.3%). Ages ranged between 30 and 69 years, with a mean (SD) age of 43.3 (8.09). Faculty members with a master’s degree were the largest group (n= 49, 42.2%), and most were academic lecturers (n=49, 42.2%). Additionally, only about one-fourth (n=26, 22.4%) of family medicine faculty in medical schools were full-time, while the other three-fourths (n=90, 77.6%) were part-time faculty; most were located in northern Taiwan (n=79, 68.1%) and specialized in gerontology and geriatrics (n=55, 47.4%) and hospice palliative care (n=53, 45.7%). Our research provides the most complete census of family medicine academic physicians in medical schools in Taiwan. The results inform efforts to improve the establishment and development of family medicine departments in Taiwan.

This study was focused on the development of oil-producing microorganisms to generate lipids. The yeast Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (R. mucilaginosa) was selected for liquid-state cultivation, and the conditions for growth of the yeast cells were assessed. Additionally, the relationships between different nutrient elements and the growth of R. mucilaginosa were explored. The lipid accumulation of R. mucilaginosa is increased under nitrogen-restricted conditions. As the concentration of the carbon source increases, the accumulation of lipids is increased. However, if the carbon source concentration is further increased, the growth of yeast is inhibited. From a large-scale liquid fermentation culture with a fixed inoculation amount of 5%, and from a batch of culture experiments, it was determined that a suitable oil-producing culture was obtained on the 6th day, and the optimum conditions involved a carbon source concentration of 60 g/L, a nitrogen source concentration of 0.5 g/L, and a KH2PO4 concentration of 7.0 g/L. After utilizing different carbon sources in this study, it was found that glucose was the carbon source most conducive to the accumulation of R. mucilaginosa lipids. In addition, the extraction method and solvent for the extraction of R. mucilaginosa lipids were chosen. The acid-heat method using the green organic solvent ethyl acetate exhibited the best performance for extraction of yeast lipids under environmentally friendly and safe conditions. The analysis of lipids showed that the fatty acids obtained primarily contained C16:0, C18:1 and C18:2, and especially C18:1 (41%) lipids, indicating that R. mucilaginosa lipids are a good bio-oil source for the production of biodiesel.

The airport ground handling services (AGHS) equipment supplier selection problem involves a safety guarantee on the part of the AGHS company that carries out the daily work. AGHS company can prevent aircraft damage and delays in airlines schedules, and ensure reliable and high-quality ground handling service. In our research, we developed an AGHS equipment supplier selection model based on the analytic hierarchy process and an AHP weighted fuzzy linear programming approach, and we solved the AGHS equipment supplier’s selection problem. The main objective of this article is to create an AHP and AHP-FLP decision model in order to help the AGHS company authorities select the best AGHS equipment supplier. The practical application in AGHS equipment supplier selection decisions can be interpreted as demonstrating that the proposed model provides knowledge and practical value for the AGHS industry.

The framework of product life cycle (PLC) cost analysis is one of the most important evaluation tools for a contemporary high-tech company in an increasingly competitive market environment. The PLC-purchasing strategy provides the framework for a procurement plan and examines the sourcing strategy of a firm. The marketing literature emphasizes that ongoing technological change and shortened life cycles are important elements in commercial organizations. From a strategic viewpoint, the vendor has an important position between supplier, buyer and manufacturer. The buyer seeks to procure the products from a set of vendors to take advantage of economies of scale and to exploit opportunities for strategic relationships. However, previous studies have seldom considered vendor selection (VS) based on PLC cost (VSPLCC) analysis. The purpose of this paper is to solve the VSPLCC problems considering the situation of a single-buyer-multiple-supplier. For this issue, a new VSPLCC procurement model and solution procedure are derived by this paper to minimize net cost, rejection rate, late delivery and PLC cost subject to vendor capacities and budget constraints. Moreover, a real case in Taiwan is provided to show how to solve the VSPLCC procurement problem.

The airport ground handling service (AGHS) equipment vendor selection (AGHSEVS) problem is critical for ramp work safety management, because AGHS equipment malfunctions affect airport ramp work safety. Appropriate vendor selection can prevent aircraft damage and delays in airlines schedules, and ensure reliable and high-quality ground handling service. The AGHSEVS problem is a time-consuming and complex process that requires professional knowledge and experience to make judgments. Specifically, AGHSEVS is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Previous research has seldom integrated MCDM methods with linear and goal programming to solve the AGHSEVS problem. The objective of this study was to develop a new system evaluation model for AGHSEVS by considering both qualitative and quantitative methods. We test the proposed approach on an AGHS company in Taiwan.

Hydrogels, soft materials with 3D polymer networks in aqueous solution, have been developed for engineering and bio-related fields. However, these conventional hydrogels are weak and brittle due to lack of energy dissipation mechanisms. Recently, dual-network hydrogels have been proposed, combining rigid and flexible networks and exhibiting high strength, stretchability, and toughness. This paper explores the rheological properties of dual-network hydrogels based on acrylamide and sodium alginate under large deformations. This dual network is a combination of a covalently crosslinked polyacrylamide network and a supramolecular crosslinked sodium alginate network at the presence of divalent calcium cations. Small and large amplitude oscillatory shear methods with Fourier transform rheology, stress decomposition method, and Chebyshev polynomial analysis of large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) data were employed to evaluate non-linearity limit, toughness, and network rigidity. The concentration of calcium ions affects (concentrations 0-80 mg/ml) the nonlinear transition and limit points, and all gel samples exhibit strain hardening, shear thickening, and shear densification.

The synthesis 2-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol is of great significance because of its widely application in industry, and the development of highly efficient catalyst is necessary to the alkylation of p-cresol and tert-butyl alcohol. Here, an efficient and mild method was established, caprolactam was chosen as hydrogen-bonding acceptor, p-toluenesulfonic acid was employed as hydrogen-bonding donor, and deep eutectic solvent (DES) was prepared to catalyze the alkylation reaction. The structure of the DES catalyst was characterized by 1H NMR spectra, thermogravimetric analysis and fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR). In addition, response surface design based on Box-Behnken method was employed to optimize the alkylation reaction process parameters, the study of reaction kinetics was also carried out subsequently. The recycle performance of the catalyst was evaluated by recovery experiments, and a good result was obtained. Comparing with the literature reported, we here provide a mild method to the synthesis of 2-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol.

Theories of reading comprehension emphasize decoding and listening comprehension as two essential components. The current study aimed to investigate how Chinese character decoding and context-driven auditory semantic integration contribute to reading comprehension in Chinese middle school students. Seventy-five middle school students were tested. Context-driven auditory semantic integration was assessed with speech-in-noise tests in which the fundamental frequency (F0) contours of spoken sentences were either kept natural or acoustically flattened with the latter requiring a higher degree of contextual information. Statistical modelling with hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the contributions of Chinese character decoding and context-driven auditory semantic integration to reading comprehension. Performance on Chinese character decoding and auditory semantic integration scores with the flattened (but not natural) F0 sentences significantly predicted reading comprehension. Furthermore, the contributions of these two factors to reading comprehension were better fitted with an additive model instead of a multiplicative model. These findings indicate that reading comprehension in middle schoolers is associated with not only character decoding but also the listening ability to make better use of the sentential context for semantic integration in a severely degraded speech-in-noise condition. The results add to our better understanding of the multi-faceted reading comprehension in children. Future research could further address the age-dependent development and maturation of reading skills by examining and controlling other important cognitive variables, and apply neuroimaging techniques such as functional magmatic resonance imaging to reveal the neural substrates for the contribution of auditory semantic integration and the observed additive model to reading comprehension.

Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crops grown worldwide. Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a seed-borne tobamovirus, poses a serious threat to tomato productions due to its ability to break the resistant genes (Tm-1, Tm-2, Tm-22) in tomato. The objective of this work was to identify new resistance source(s) of tomato germplasm against ToBRFV. To achieve this aim, a total of 476 accessions from 12 Solanum species were tested with the ToBRFV US isolate for their resistance and susceptibility. As a result, a total of 44 asymptomatic accessions were identified as resistance/tolerance, including 31 accessions of S. pimpinellifolium, one accession of S. corneliomulleri, four accessions of S. habrochaites, three accessions of S. peruvianum and five accessions of S. subsection lycopersicon hybrid. Further analysis using serological tests identified four highly resistant S. pimpinellifolium lines, PI 390713, PI 390714, PI 390716 and PI 390717. The inheritance of resistance in the selected lines was verified in next generation and confirmed by RT-qPCR. To our knowledge, this is a first report of high resistance to ToBRFV in S. pimpinellifolium. These new genetic resources will expand the genetic pool available for breeders to develop new resistant cultivars of tomato against ToBRFV.

Streptococcal infection is a main infectious diseases for farmed grey mullet (Mugil cephalus). This study were to identify spreptococcal species in diseased farmed grey mullet and to investigate differences in susceptibility to 13 antibiotics and in genotypes between the stains from the grey mullet and non-grey mullet. 170 samples from diseased farmed grey mullet were collected from three county in 2013 -2016. Multiplex PCR identified L. garviea (146) as the main pathogen, S. agalactia (9), S. dysgalactiae (19), and double infection (5), but no S. iniae. The prevalence changed annually and differed among three counties. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis demonstrated identical genotype with an ApaI-digested DNA pattern. Disc diffusion results demonstrated differences in antibiotic susceptibility between the strains from grey mullet (146) and non-grey mullet (30). Almost all strains resisted to clindamycin and all strains were susceptible to six antibiotic in grey mullet and 4 antibiotics in non-grey mullet. The reduced susceptible strains was more in non-grey mullet than grey mullet group. The reduced susceptible strains were observed the highest in 2014 and in Chiayi county and decreased from 2014 to 2016. However, the strains with reduced susceptibility to ceftriaxone, cirpofoxacin, moxifloxacin, tetracycline for human treatment were observed.

Rotary tillage is a main management tillage practices and widely applied in the North China Plain. However, the long term rotary tillage (depth of 20 cm) results in soil compaction and plow pan formation, which reduces water use efficiency and nutrient uptake, and then impedes the yield increase. In this study, a 3-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of different depths of tillage on soil bulk density, field capacity, water use, photosynthetic rate, nutrients and maize yields in the North China Plain. Three depths of tillage (D20, depth of 20 cm; D25, depth of 25 cm; D30, depth of 30 cm) were assessed. D25 and D30 significantly reduced soil bulk density and improved field capacity in 10-20 and 20-30 cm soil layer, compared to D20. Soil water consumption for D25 was significantly higher 10.12% and 6.61% than that for D20 and D30, respectively. Photosynthetic rate for D25 significantly improved than that for D20 and D30. Total nitrogen in 0-20cm soil layer decreased with the depths of tillage. The maize yields for D25 significantly increased by 20.92% and 21.56% compared to that for D20 and D30, respectively. Structural equation models showed that the total effects of tillage, total nitrogen, photosynthesis and soil water consumption on yields were 0.019, -0.628, 0.121, and 0.895 (path coefficients λ), respectively. The results demonstrated that D25 could improve maize yields, water use efficiency, photosynthetic rate by improving soil water consumption. Depth of 25 cm is optimal tillage practice for the maize production in the North China Plain.

Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) is a re-emerging threat to greenhouse cucumber and other Cucurbitaceae crop productions worldwide. This seed-borne virus can easily spread from a contaminated seed to seedlings and to adjacent plants through mechanical contact of the foliage of diseased and healthy plants causing extensive yield losses. Additionally, infection may not be limited to the current crop but may also affect subsequent crops due to the long-term persistence of the virus on contaminated crop residues, greenhouse hard surfaces and soil or soil-less greenhouse substrates. In the present work, three greenhouse trials were conducted to develop an integrated pest management strategy towards controlling CGMMV in commercial cucumber greenhouses, by implementing an effective sanitization program and using resistant and grafted cucumber varieties. Results of sanitization trial highlighted that pressure washing and cleansing with an alkaline foam cleanser has eliminated CGMMV on some of the most heavily infested areas. However, three successive applications of cleanser and disinfectants were essential to completely eliminate CGMMV on porous and uneven surfaces, such as cement alleyway, tray gutter and floor mats. The varietal trial revealed that out of 15 cucumber varieties evaluated, two Mini (‘Katrina’ and ‘Khassib’) and three Long English (‘Sepire’, ‘Bomber’ and ‘LC13900’) had reduced or delayed CGMMV infection spread in the greenhouse but were intermediate in yield. The varieties ‘Sunniwell’ and ‘Bonbon’ were the most tolerant to CGMMV. They showed a high CGMMV infection level without compromising yield. These results proved the need for new productive cucumber varieties with CGMMV resistance. Grafting experiment showed only yield increase in case of grafted ‘Picowell’ over ‘Bonbon’ and not marked CGMMV resistance, which is a much desirable result when the grafting experiments are evaluated for their economic potential. In all, the current experimental trials unfold unique methodologies on CGMMV management in commercial greenhouses that are recommended to the growers to be followed for reducing crop losses and get benefitted on revenue compromise.

We studied the effect of the structure parameters of engine annular cooling fan with outer ring on the aerodynamic performance by means of experiments and model simulation in fluent^®. Firstly, based on the experiment, a computational model is developed to calculate and analyze the aerodynamic performance of the tested annular fan. The model is validated by comparing the test results with the calculated data. Besides, the aerodynamic performance differences between two types of fans (common fan without outer ring and annular fan with outer ring) are discussed. Based on the computational model, the relation between aerodynamic performance and the outer ring structure parameters are investigated. The results show that the relative parameter on the axial direction has great influence on the aerodynamic performance; while the effect of radial relative parameter is minor. In addition, the outer ring with arc chamfer structure in the downstream side can improve its static pressure efficiency effectively.

Compared with the traditional slow charging loads, random integration of large scale fast charging loads will exert more serious impacts on the security of power network operation. Besides, to maximize social benefits, effective scheduling strategy guiding fast charging behaviors should be formulated rather than simply increasing infrastructure construction investments on the power grid. This paper has analyzed the charging users’ various responses to the elastic charging service fee, introduced the index of charging balance degree to a target region by considering the influence of fast charging loads on power grid. Then, a multi-objective optimization model of the fast charging service fee is constructed, whose service fee can be further optimized by employing fuzzy programming method. Therefore, both users’ satisfaction degree and the equilibrium of charging loads can be maintained simultaneously by guiding EVs to different fast charging stations reasonably. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed dynamic charging service pricing and the proposed fast charging load guidance strategy.

The treatment, disposal, and resource utilization of waste mud are challenges for engineering construction. This study investigates the road performance of waste mud–solidified soil and reveals the mechanism of how solidifying materials influence the strength and deformation characteristics of waste mud. Waste mud, collected from a highway reconstruction project, was mixed with ordinary Portland cement as a solidifying material. Unconfined compressive strength tests, consolidated undrained triaxial shear tests, resonant column tests, and consolidation compression tests were conducted to evaluate the solidification effect. The test results show that with an increase in cement content from 5% to 9%, the unconfined compressive strength of the waste mud–solidified soil increased by over 100%, the curing time was extended from 3 days to 28 days, and the unconfined compressive strength increased by approximately 70%. However, an increase in initial water content from 40% to 60% reduced the unconfined compressive strength by 50%. With the increase of cement content from 5% to 9%, the cohesion and friction angles increased by approximately 78% and 24%, respectively. The initial shear modulus under dynamic shear increased by approximately 38% and the shear strain corresponding to a damping ratio decay to 70% of the initial shear modulus decreased by nearly 11%. The compression coefficient decreased by approximately 55%. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction tests showed that a higher cement content led to the formation of more hydration reaction products, especially an increase in the content of AlPO4. The bonding material between soil particles significantly increased, exerting a bonding and filling effect on soil particles and firmly adhering them together. Consequently, the strength of the waste mud–solidified soil increased significantly while its compressibility decreased.

Reactions of N‚N'-bis(3-methylpyridyl)oxalamide (L1), N,N’-bis(3-methylpyridyl)adipoamide (L2) and N,N’-bis(3-methylpyridyl)sebacoamide (L3) with tricarboxylic acids and Cu(II) salts afforded {[Cu(L1)(1,3,5-HBTC)]·H2O}n (1,3,5-H3BTC = 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid), 1, {[Cu1.5(L2)1.5(1,3,5-BTC)(H2O)2]·6.5H2O}n, 2, [Cu(L2)0.5(1,3,5-HBTB)]n (1,3,5-H3BTB = 1,3,5-tri(4-carboxyphenyl)benzene), 3, [Cu4(L3)(OH)2(1,3,5-BTC)2]n, 4, {[Cu3(L3)2(1,3,5-BTB)2]·2.5MeOH·2H2O}n, 5, and {[Cu3(L3)2(1,3,5-BTB)2 ]·DMF·2H2O}n, 6, which have been structurally characterized by using single crystal X-ray crystallography. Complexes 1 – 4 form a 2D layer with the {44.62}-sql topology, a 2D layer with the (4.62)2(42.62.82)-bex topology, a 3-fold interpenetrated 3D net with the (412.63)-pcu topology and a 3D framework with the (410.632.83)(42.6)2(43.63) topology, respectively, whereas 5 and 6 are 3D frameworks with the (63)2(64.82)(68.85.102) topology. Complex 5 shows a better iodine-adsorption factor of 290.0 mg g-1 at 60 oC for 360 minutes than the other ones, revealing that the flexibility of the spacer ligand governs the structural diversity and the adsorption capacity.

To decrease privacy risks, consumers may choose to misrepresent when they are asked to offer personal information. This paper examines the impact of consumer misrepresentation on a monopolistic firm and consumers with an economic model. The results show that consumer misrepresentation may benefit the firm but hurt consumers. In addition, consumers misrepresentation may encourage the firm to provide higher personalized service level in certain scenarios, such as, when the unit cost of personalized service is low. Thirdly, when consumers misrepresent, and the firm only covers part of the market, a greater unit value of consumer’s privacy information will reduce the firm’s profit, but a greater unit cost of personalized service increases the firm’s profit.

We construct a repeated quantum game with public goods by the quantum entanglement and strong reciprocity. By using the paradigm of quantum game analysis, we obtain that both the quantum entanglement and strong reciprocity are helpful to intensify cooperation and achieving Pareto optimality. In addition, under an example which is greenhouse green viable planting industry, we verify that the quantum entanglement and strong reciprocity have a positive role in cooperation.

Tree growth is under the combined influence of abiotic and biotic factors. Trees with different sizes may respond differently to these factors, implying that tree heterogeneity in tree size may also modulate the overall growth trend. To test this hypothesis, we focused on the radial growth trends of natural subalpine forests on the Tibetan Plateau. We first extended the iterative growth model (IGM) to the tree-ring scale (IGMR) to test the applicability of the generalized metabolic growth theory to tree growth. As predicted by the IGMR, the radial growth of trees at the aggregate scale is constrained by a unimodal pattern. Using the IGMR, we reconstructed the historical best growth trajectory (HBGT) of trees within the same community based on the tree with the largest radius and/or longest age in the community. From the average difference between the HBGT and the current radial growth rate of trees with different sizes, we constructed an indicator that can measure the overall variation in tree radial growth. Based on this indicator, we found a negative effect of tree size heterogeneity on the overall variability of tree growth across elevations. Further analysis also revealed that the radial growth rate of trees on the Tibetan Plateau has increased significantly compared to the past, where growing season average temperature and annual minimum temperature were negatively and positively correlated with tree growth below and above the treeline, respectively. Our study not only confirmed that the overall variability of tree growth depends on tree size heterogeneity but also proposed an indicator that reveals net changes in tree radial growth rate relative to the past. These theoretical advances facilitate the understanding of changes in the extent of subalpine forests.

Search for appropriate materials with favorable staggered energy band arrangements is important and of great challenge to fabricate Z-scheme photocatalysts with high activity in visible light. In this study, we demonstrated a facile and feasible strategy to construct highly active organic-inorganic Z-scheme hybrids (P-BMO) with linear pyrene-based conjugated polymer (P17-E) and Bi₂MoO₆ via in-situ palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction. Characterization results revealed C-O chemical bond formed at the heterointerface between P17-E and Bi₂MoO₆ after in-situ polycondensation and endowed the hybrids with observably improved photogenerated carries transfer capability. Visible light driven photocatalytic removal of ciprofloxacin and Cr(VI) were significantly enhanced after the incorporation of P17-E into Bi₂MoO₆ whether with the morphology of nanosheets, nanobelts or microspheres. Moreover, this P-BMO hybrids were also found to exhibit sustainable excellent photocatalytic performance after four runs of photocatalytic evaluation test, suggesting its high activity and stability. To better eliminate the redox ability enhancement of P-BMO, a reasonable Z-scheme electrons transferring mechanism between P17-E and Bi₂MoO₆ was proposed and proved by the determination of •O₂^– and •OH and Pt nanoparticles photodeposition experiments. This work might provide a viable source and insight into the design of Z-scheme photocatalysts with excellent redox ability for environmental remediation.

Fracture density, a critical parameter of unconventional reservoirs, can be used to evaluate potential of unconventional reservoirs and location of production wells. Many technologies, such as amplitude variation with offset and azimuth (AVOA) technology, vertical seismic profiling (VSP) technology, and multicomponent seismic technology, are generally used to predict fracture of reservoirs. they can qualitatively predict fracture by analyzing seismic attributes, including seismic wave amplitudes, seismic wave velocities, which are sensitive to fracture. However, it is important to quantitatively describe fracture of reservoirs. In this study, based on a double-layer model, the relationships between fracture density and the double-layer model’s physical parameters, such as velocity of fast shear-wave, velocity of slow shear-wave, and density, were established, and then a powerful quantitative prediction method for fracture density was proposed dramatically. Afterwards, the Hudson model for crack was used to test the applicability of the method. The result shown that the quantitative prediction method for fracture density can be applied suitable to the Hudson model for crack. Finally, the result of validation models indicated that the method can predict fracture density effective, in which absolute relative deviation (ARD) were less than 5% and root-mean-square error (RMSE) was 4.88×10-3.

The circular supply chain was applied to many industries in the past studies, whereas the rubber recycling industry has not been explored in detail yet. Therefore, this study indentified the key factors of the circular supply chain used in remanufactured products, thereby perfecting its framework. This study put forward 5 aspects and 19 criteria for reference, so that companies in the rubber recycling industry are able to clearly know the direction of implementation when con-structing the circular supply chain for remanufactured products. This study integrated expert opinions with the fuzzy Delphi method and the fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory proposed key factors, and performed the ranking of importance. The results have displayed that key aspects include the circular business model (A3), increasing the value of resources in the supply chain (A4), and risk management of the circular supply chain (A2). The factors that the rubber recycling industry needs to pay attention to are: optimizing the production process (C2), sharing data in the product lifecycle (C4), effectively tracking and recycling products (C5), redesigning remanufactured products (C13), enhancing resource efficiency (C16), and identifying waste composition and separating materials (C14) . Based on the abovementioned, we had a discussion in this study.

We aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying social stress (SS)-induced erectile dysfunction (ED) and evaluate the effects of a single sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine on SS-related ED. Male FVB mice were exposed to retired male C57BL/6 mice for 60 minutes daily over a 4-week period. In the third week, SS mice received intraperitoneal injections of either saline (SSS group) or ketamine (SSK group). Erectile function was assessed by measuring intra-cavernosal pressure (ICP) during electrical stimulation at the major pelvic ganglia. Corpus cavernosum (CC) strips were utilized for wire myography to assess their reactivity. Both SSS and SSK mice exhibited significantly lower ICP in response to electrical stimulation than control. SS mice showed increased contractility of CC induced by phenylephrine. Acetylcholine-induced relaxation was significantly reduced in SSS and SSK mice. Sodium nitroprusside-induced relaxation was higher in SSS mice compared to control and SSK mice. Nicotine-induced neurogenic and nitric oxide (NO)-dependent relaxation was significantly impaired in both SSS and SSK mice. Immunohistochemically analysis revealed co-localization of tyrosine hydroxylase and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-immunoreactive fibers in the CC. These findings highlight the complex nature of SS-related ED and suggest the limited efficacy of ketamine as a therapeutic intervention in this condition.

This study aimed to present a systematic meta-analysis examining the association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, hemoglobin A1c levels, and the development of type 1 diabetes mellitus. The initial search identified 451 articles related to the association between H. pylori infection and T1DM. Among them, 14 articles had 2,971 participants meeting the inclusion criteria for advanced meta-analysis. A significant association was observed between H. pylori infection and T1DM, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.87 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.27–2.78, p = 0.002). A subgroup analysis on H. pylori status showed that a longer duration of diabetes diagnosis and higher hemoglobin A1c levels were significantly associated with H. pylori infection (p < 0.001 for both). However, there was no significant association between H. pylori infection and the diagnostic age of diabetes (p = 0.306). These findings contribute to the understanding of the association between H. pylori infection and T1DM, thereby highlighting the potential role of H. pylori in influencing the duration and glycemic control of diabetes.

Wild Chinese prickly ash with elevated antioxidants is a valuable genetic resource for Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim improvement. There are rich wild germplasm resources in the Qinling Mountains. In a study with wild germplasm resources from different altitudes and six cultivated varieties, the phenolic and flavonoid compounds were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The chromatograms of them were basically the same, although their chemical composition content was greatly different. The thirty samples were divided into three categories through the hierarchical clustering analysis. And catechin, hyperoside and quercitrin were considered to be key compound for the quality evaluation, by contrast, the wild samples with an altitude of 2300±50 m (Ⅳ group) had the highest content of key compounds, and showed stronger antioxidant activity and antibacterial ability, indicating that these wild samples could be used as an excellent breeding resource. This is the first time to evaluate the quality of wild Chinese prickly ash in different altitude areas of Qinling Mountains. These excellent wild germplasm resources provided substantial potential accessions for use directly in Chinese prickly ash breeding programs.

The coastal zone, situated at the sensitive interface between land and sea, serves as a pivotal area of extensive human economic activities. As one of China's economic special zones, Xiamen exemplifies the comprehensive trajectory of coastal governance in China. This research adopts an interdisciplinary approach grounded in historical geography and political ecology, employing data collection methods encompassing historical literature, field surveys, and interviews. The research findings indicate that:(1) The year 1994 witnessed the pivotal role played by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in connecting Jimei Peninsula from a local context to the international arena, thus signifying a momentous turning point in the process of scale reconstruction. However, the subsequent implementation of the Coastal Exclusion Policy in 2002 had detrimental consequences, leading to the disintegration of the local scale, the erosion of maritime culture, and the disregard for the livelihood security of displaced coastal populations.(2)The Coastal Exclusion Policy serves as an instrumental tool for implementing scale politics, while its functional realignment has had profound implications for the coastal zone, encompassing economic transformation, ecological degradation, and the marginalization of the socio-cultural fabric that intertwines humans and the coastal environment.

The rapid development of digital multimedia has resulted in a massive storm of large-scale data. The data compression method reduces data size and lowers transmission costs. As a result, data-hiding research in the compression domain poses significant challenges to researchers. This paper proposes a highly imperceptible data-hiding scheme for a compressed image of Absolute Moment Block Truncation Coding (AMBTC). The combination theory is implemented to ensure the high imperceptibility of the modified compressed images. By only modifying one pixel in a block to embed secret bits, the experimental results show that the proposed method achieved high imperceptibility and high hiding capacity.

Background: Cancer patients require cross-professional care during the diagnosis and treatment periods. Therefore, methods for effectively carrying out case management are essential to tumor care. Purpose: To investigate the effects of using the community software LINE Official Ac-count on oral cancer case management. Methods: An experimental design was used; 100 patients were randomly divided into two groups by using a computer-generated random number table. The experimental group used LINE Official Account, which gave them self-care information, timely messages, and one-on-one health-care consultations. The control group followed standard healthcare practices. Results: The experimental group was satisfied with the self-care information provided by LINE Official Account (86.9%), patients regularly checked the self-care information (89.4%) and would check the information when receiving a push notification (54.3%). Ten patients used the one-on-one consultation(20.0%). LINE Official Account had a significant effect on the rate of participation in support groups. Generalized estimating equations indicated a significant difference between the two groups regarding the overall quality of life over 7 days (P = 0.023). Conclusion: Community software applications used in oncological case management can improve self-management and empower, also enable tracking of long-term follow-up effectiveness and reinforce the case manager’s role as a family therapist. Therefore, this study recommends that case manager systems be incorporated into mobile applications to increase the sustainable management, accessibility, effectiveness, and satisfaction of oncological management systems. This study also provides the value of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Good Health and Well-being, and decreased social withdrawal among patients with oral cancer.

To circumvent the thermodynamic limitation of the synthesis of oxazolidinones starting from 2-aminoethanols and CO2 and realize incorporation CO2 under atmospheric pressure, a protic ionic liquid-facilitated three-component reaction of propargyl alcohols, CO2 and 2-aminoethanols was developed to produce 2-oxazolidinones along with equal amount of α-hydroxyl ketones. The ionic liquid structure, reaction temperature and reaction time were in detail investigated. And 15 mol% [TBDH][TFE] (1,5,7-triazabicylo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene trifluoroethanol) was found to be able to synergistically activate the substrate and CO2, thus catalyzing this cascade reaction under atmospheric CO2 pressure. By employing this task-specific ionic liquid as sustainable catalyst, 2-aminoethanols with different substituents were successfully transformed to 2-oxazolidinones with moderate to excellent yield after 12 h at 80 oC. This three-component reaction running under atmospheric pressure proves to be a clever detour to avoid the thermodynamic issue in the synthesis of 2-oxazolidinones starting from 2-aminoethanols and CO2.

Our study optimized MET ex14 skipping mutation detection by analyzing 223 Oncomine Focus Assay (OFA)-positive cases using Pan Lung Cancer PCR Panel (AmoyDx) and reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Among the 11 MET ex14 skipping mutation-positive cases (average read counts: 1,390), two with OFA read counts of 2540 and 10177 were positive on all platforms. Those with OFA read counts ranging from 179–612 tested negative elsewhere. Specimens with low ratios (average ratio: 0.12% for nine cases) may yield false-positive results. Our results suggested monitoring read counts and ratios, and validating results with RT-PCR, is crucial to prevent false positives.

Supplier selection (SC) continues to be a crucial component in manufacturing procurement. Using the PLCC advantages generates revenue and lowers costs more than might be anticipated. Supplier selection (SC) product life cycle cost (SCPLCC) is an important consideration among corporations, SCPLCC problem has become associated with deciding how one supplier should be selected from possible alternatives. Past literature on this topic is limited. We try to close this gap in knowledge. In this study, we attempt to apply two types of goal programming, multiobjective linear programming and revised multichoice goal programming to develop a PLCC-based concept to solve the SCPLCC problem and construct a decision-making tool for application to a case of supply chain management in a Taiwanese light-emitting diode company in the high-tech industry. Our study main contribution Company managers can easily use the two approaches of the SCPLCC model with different parameters to solve SCPLCC model problems. Finally, we are comparing five models found RMCGP with weighted linear goal programming had an adequate effect for application to the PLCC concept for high-technology Company; this cloud makes company decision–makers focus on low PLCC and select a better supplier in sustainable supply chains development.

Supplier selection (SC) product life cycle cost (SCPLCC) is an important consideration among corporations, SCPLCC problem has become associated with deciding how one supplier should be selected from possible alternatives. In this study, we applied two types of goal programming, multiobjective linear programming and revised multichoice goal programming to develop a PLCC-based concept to solve the SCPLCC problem and construct a decision-making tool for application to a case of supply chain management in a Taiwanese light-emitting diode company in the high-tech industry. Our study main contribution Company managers can easily use the two approaches of the SCPLCC model with different parameters to solve SCPLCC model problems. Finally, we comparing five models found RMCGP with weighted linear goal programming had an adequate effect for application to the PLCC concept for high-technology company; this cloud makes company decision–makers focus on low PLCC and select a better supplier in sustainable supply chains goal.

Using the PLCC advantages generates revenue and lowers costs more than might be anticipated. It ensures better decisions by using a more perfect and practical assessment of revenues and costs. Although the supplier selection (SC) product life cycle cost (SCPLCC) is an important consideration among corporations, SCPLCC problem has become associated with deciding how one supplier should be selected from possible alternatives. In this study, we applied two types of goal programming, multiobjective linear programming and revised multichoice goal programming to develop a PLCC-based concept to solve the SCPLCC problem and construct a decision-making tool for application to a case of supply chain management in a Taiwanese light-emitting diode company in the high-tech industry. Our study main contribution Company managers can easily use the two approaches of the SCPLCC model with different parameters to solve SCPLCC model problems. Finally, we comparing five models found RMCGP with weighted linear goal programming had an adequate effect for application to the PLCC concept for high-technology company; this cloud make company decision–makers focus on low PLCC and select better supplier.

Today’s purchasing companies demand an advanced buyer equal of enactment from their supplier while the two parties maintain a respectful connection. Although the supplier selection (SC) product life cycle cost (SCPLCC) is an important consideration among corporations, SCPLCC problem has become associated with deciding how one supplier should be selected from possible alternatives. In this study, we applied two types of goal programming, multiobjective linear programming and revised multichoice goal programming to develop a PLCC-based concept to solve the SCPLCC problem and construct a decision-making tool for application to a case of supply chain management in a Taiwanese light-emitting diode company in the high-tech industry. Our study main contribution Company managers can easily use the two approaches of the SCPLCC model with different parameters to solve SCPLCC model problems. Finally, we comparing five models found RMCGP with weighted linear goal programming had an adequate effect for application to the PLCC concept for high-technology comapny; this cloud make company decision–makers focus on low PLCC and select better supplier.

Biochar has high potential usage in retaining various contaminants, wastewater treatment, and water purification. In this study, three rice husk derived biochars with pyrolysis temperature 300, 400 and 500 ºC, respectively, and pristine rice rusk were used to remove cadmium from aqueous solution. The results showed that about 70% or more of Cd2+ adsorption occurred in the first 960 mins of adsorption kinetics. The Cd2+ adsorption capacity under equilibrium increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature, probably attributed to the increased specific surface area (SSA) under higher pyrolysis temperature noting that significant linear correlation occurred between Cd2+ adsorption capacity and SSA. The Cd2+ adsorption could be best fitted by pseudo-second order model relative to Elovich model and pseudo-first order model. The Cd2+ adsorption rates were higher in film diffusion stage, indicating that film diffusion stage was significant and fast in the early stage of Cd2+ adsorption. In contrast, Cd2+ adsorption by intra-particle diffusion accounted for 47.0%, 47.9% and 43.9% on average of the total Cd2+ adsorption, respectively, indicating that intra-particle diffusion of Cd2+ played a more predominant role in limiting Cd2+ adsorption rate. When reaching Cd2+ desorption equilibrium, removal ratio (RR) values were averaged 0.96, 0.91, and 0.90 under three initial concentrations. More than 90 percentage on average of Cd2+ was removed from aqueous solution by biochars and rice rusk as well, thus biochars can be used to efficiently remove contaminants from aqueous environment. Cation exchange, electrostatic attraction, and the complexation with surface functional groups could be the main dominant mechanisms for Cd2+ adsorption-desorption on biochars.

Proposed as a response to the increasing global need for environmental protection, a green port balances economic vibrancy and environmental protection. However, because exhaust emissions (e.g., CO2 or sulfide) are difficult to monitor in and around ports, data on such emissions are often incomplete, which hinders research on this topic. To remedy this problem, this study aimed to formulate a method for collecting CO2 emissions data at their source; this method was applied to collect real-world operating data from a large container-handling company in Taiwan. Specifically, to account for undesirable outputs, we formulated a method that combines (1) data envelopment analysis based on a modified slack-based measure and (2) a multichoice goal programming approach. We found that rubber-tired gantry cranes are the greenest and should be used. Our findings aid port managers in selecting port equipment that best balances between environmental protection and profitability.

Vertical-channel organic dual-gate/base transistors would be highly interesting since vertical organic transistors are the fastest organic transistors demonstrated today. However, incorporating a dual gate/base structure into an ultra-short channel vertical architecture represents a substantial challenge. Here, we successfully realize a new device concept of vertical organic permeable dual-base transistors (OPDBTs), where either of both base electrodes can be used to change the on-currents and tune the threshold voltages. The optimized devices yield a high on-current density of 1.54 A cm^-2 and a large current gain of 9.2×10⁵, corresponding to a high transmission value of 99.998%. The detailed operation mechanisms are investigated by calibrated TCAD simulations with the Poole-Frenkel mobility model, Gaussian density of states and tunneling model. Finally, high-performance logic circuits, e.g. inverter, NAND/AND computation functions are demonstrated with one single OPDBT operating at supply voltages of < 2.0 V. We believe that OPDBTs offer a compact and technologically simple hardware platform with excellent application potential for vertical-channel organic transistors in complex logic circuits.

Under the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the carbon emission reduction of the automobile industry has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Electric vehicle has the dual attributes of power load and energy storage unit. With the increase of the number of electric vehicles, reducing carbon emissions through the collaborative interaction between electric vehicle and power network will become an important way to control carbon emissions in the automotive field. In this study, an optimization model of emission reduction benefits based on integrated development of electric vehicle and power grid is proposed, which explores the best technical way of synergy between power grid and electric vehicle, achieves the best carbon reduction effect and provides a model basis for large-scale demonstration application. Numerical simulations based on the real case in Beijing are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Warming-induced drought stress and El Nino associated summer precipitation failure are responsible for increased forest fire intensities of tropical and temperate forests in Asia and Australia. However, both effects are unclear for boreal forests, the largest biome and carbon stock over land. Here we combined fire frequency, burned area and climate data in the Altai boreal forests, the southmost extension of Siberia boreal forest into China, and explored their link with ENSO (El Nino and South Oscillation). Surprisingly, both summer drought severity and fire occurrence have shown significant (P&lt;0.05) teleconnections with La Nina events of the previous year, and therefore provide an important reference for forest fire prediction and prevention in Altai. Despite a significant warming trend, the increased moisture over Altai has largely offset the effect of warming-induced drought stress, and lead to an insignificant fire frequency trend in the last decades, and largely reduced burned area since the 1980s. The reduced burned area could also benefit from the fire suppression efforts and greatly increased investment in fire prevention since 1987.

Organic compounds that contain poly-triazole are very important intermediates in pharmaceutical and chemical industry. Click chemistry is one of essential reactions that can form C-N bond with high atom economy. The research progress in metals catalyzed Click chemistry of azides and alkynes from the perspective of reaction mechanism is categorized and summarized.

We study the influence of high-order twisting phases on polarization states and optical angular momentum of a vector light field with locally linear polarization and a hybrid state of polarization (SoP). The initial SoP of a twisted vector optical field (TVOF) modulated by the high-order twisting phase possesses various symmetric distributions. The propagating properties of a high-order TVOF with locally linear polarization and hybrid SoP are explored, including the intensity compression, expansion, and conversion between the linear and circular polarization components. In particular, orbital angular momentum (OAM) appears in a high-order TVOF during propagation where no OAM exists in the initial field. The variation of OAM distribution in cross-section becomes more frequent with the increase of the twisting phase order. In addition, a non-symmetric OAM distribution appears in an anisotropic TVOF, leading to the rotation of the beam around the propagation axis during propagation. These results provide a new approach for optical field manipulation in a high-order TVOF.

Fiber coupling efficiency is one of the key technical indicators of atmospheric laser communication, which directly affects the communication system BER. According to the optical fiber coupling efficiency model, the optical fiber coupling model under atmospheric slant link is established, and the relationship between wavelength, zenith angle, receiving aperture, altitude and coupling efficiency is studied through numerical simulation. Based on the principle of adaptive optics turbulence correction, the relationship between fiber coupling efficiency and adaptive optics order is established. A fast method for estimating the coupling efficiency based on Strehl ratio is proposed. According to the principle of laser communication system, the semi-physical simulation experimental system of atmospheric slant-range channel coupling efficiency is constructed, and the coupling efficiency test and analysis are completed.

This study aims at the sustainable valorization of eggshells (ES) from different countries of origin in cement concrete as a cement replacement for Hong Kong. For this purpose, sixteen different eggs from different regions across the world were selected from the local market. Firstly, the extent of uniformity in the weight and mineral content of sampled eggshells were assessed by a specific gravity test and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. It was found that specific gravity varies between 2.02 and 2.39, with an average value of 2.20 ± 0.01, whereas CaCO₃ varies between 94.65% and 97.23%, with an average value of 96.33%. These values were a bit lower than those of extra-pure limestone (LS) because of the organic part and the porous structure of eggshells. Secondly, three different eggshells were selected for cement replacement in cement concrete, both in the uncalcined and calcined states, based on having the highest, medium, and lowest CaCO₃ content, respectively. To get the calcined eggshells, the eggshells were calcined at 800^oC for three hours. It was found that the strength of eggshells varies with CaCO₃, but the variation was acceptable. The calcined eggshells showed comparatively more compressive strength and were close to the LS because of the free CaO and the absence of an organic part. In general, the variation in the basic properties of eggshells from different regions across the world is negligible and suitable to use as a cement replacement with acceptable variation in strength in Hong Kong.

The main objective of this study is to develop a Hapke photometric model that is suited for Chang’E-1 (CE-1) Interference Imaging Spectrometer (IIM) data. We first divided the moon into three areas including ‘maria’, ‘new highland’ and old ‘highland’ with similar photometry characteristic based on the Hapke parameters of the moon derived from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) multispectral data. Then, we selected the sample data in the ‘maria’ area and obtained a new set of Hapke model’s parameters that can best fit these data. Result shows that photometric correction using Hapke model with these new derived parameters can eliminate the effect of variations in viewing and luminating geometry, especially ‘opposition surge’, more efficiently than the empirical model. The corrected mosaic shows no significant artifacts along the tile boundaries, and more detailed information of the image can be exhibited due to a better correction of ‘opposition surge’ at small phase angle (g <15°).

Heavy metals contamination in groundwater often occurs in various industrial processes. Stud-ies have confirmed that polysulfide could reduce hexavalent chromium to trivalent chromium, achieving the effect of in-situ stabilization. For other heavy metals contamination in groundwa-ter, whether polysulfide also had a stabilizing ability to achieve in-situ remediation. This re-search focused on heavy metals except for chromium that often contaminated in groundwater, including lead, nickel, zinc, copper, and cadmium to explore the feasibility of using calcium polysulfide (CaSx) as an in-situ stabilization technology for these heavy metals contamination groundwater. Results showed that CaSx had a great removal efficiency for heavy metals lead, nickel, zinc, copper, and cadmium. However, for nickel, zinc, copper and cadmium, when CaSx was added excessively, complexes would be formed, causing the result of re-dissolve and this would also reduce the removal efficiency. Since it is difficult to accurately control the dosage of agents for in-situ groundwater remediation, the concentration of re-dissolved nickel, zinc, cop-per, and cadmium may not be able to meet the groundwater control standards. CaSx had high lead removal efficiency, and it would not cause re-dissolution due to excessive CaSx dosing. CaSx can be used as an in-situ stabilization technique for lead contaminated groundwater.

In this work, nylon 6/ P(N-phenylmaleimide-alt-styrene) blends were prepared by melt blending, and the mechanical, heat-resistant, crystallographic and dynamical mechanical properties of nylon 6/ P(N-phenylmaleimide-alt-styrene) blends with different contents were investigated and analyzed. The results showed that the mechanical properties decreased with increasing PNS, while the heat deflection temperature (HDT), relative crystallinity (Xn), and storage modulus (G’) increased with increasing PNS. The results of differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) proved the PNS played the positive role of nucleating PA6. And the results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) proved the PNS could improve the rigidity of PA6/PNS blends. From the SEM, these PNS domains were between 0.2 and 4 μm in diameter. The experimental results indicated that the addition of PNS improved the rigidity of PA6/PNS blends, and then improved the heat-resistant property.

Flux-switching permanent magnet (FSPM) motors have gained increasing attention in the electric vehicles (EVs) applications due to the advantages of high power density, high efficiency. However, the heat sources of both permanent magnet (PM) and armature winding are located on the limited stator space in the FSPM motors, which may result in the PM overheated and irreversible demagnetization caused by temperature rise and it is often ignored in the conventional thermal analysis. In this paper, a new electrical-thermal two-way coupling design method is proposed to analyze the electromagnetic performances, where the change of PM material characteristics under different temperatures is taken into consideration. Firstly, the motor topology and design equations are introduced. Secondly, the demagnetization curves of PM materials under different temperatures are modeled due to PM materials are sensitive to the temperature. And based on the electrical-thermal two-way coupling method, the motor performances are evaluated in details, such as the load PM flux linkage and output torque. Then, the motor is optimized, and the electromagnetic performances between initial and improved motors are compared. Finally, a prototype motor is manufactured, and the results are validated by experimental measurements.

bZIP transcription factors, basic leucine zipper, play significant roles in plants’ growth and development processes, as well as in response to biological and abiotic stress. Hypericum perforatum is one of the world's top three best-selling herbal medicines, mainly used to treat depression. However, there is no systematic identification or functional analysis of the bZIP gene family in H. perforatum. In this study, 79 HpbZIP genes were identified. Based on phylogenetic analysis, the HpbZIP gene family was divided into ten groups, designated A-I, and S. The physicochemical properties, gene structures, protein conserved motifs, and Gene Ontology enrichments of all HpbZIPs were systematically analyzed. The expression patterns of all genes in different tissues of H. perforatum (root, stem, leaf, and flower) were analyzed by qRT-PCR, revealing the different expression patterns of HpbZIP under abiotic stresses. HpbZIP69 protein is localized in the nucleus. According to the results of the yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays, HpbZIP69 can bind to the HpASMT2 (N-Acetylserotonin O-methyltransferase) gene promoter ( G-box cis-element ) to activate its activity. Overexpressing HpbZIP69 transgenic Arabidopsis lines enhanced tolerance to drought. The content of MDA and H2O2 content was significantly decreased, and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was considerably increased under the drought stress. These results may aid in additional functional studies of HpbZIP transcription factors and cultivating drought-resistant medicinal plants.

The fault diagnosis of the gearbox is primarily based on the analysis of the harmonic response. However, the generation mechanism of the harmonic response of the gear pair is still not distinctly explained in a healthy gearbox. Therefore, this paper is dedicated to establishing a dynamic model of the gearbox for this issue. In this model, the contact force of the bearing and the meshing stiffness of the gear pair are determined by the Hertz theory and the potential energy method, then the shaft motion is used as the connection to establish the coupling relationship between the gear pair and the bearing. After this dynamic model is confirmed by experiments and existing models, the coupling relationship inside the gearbox and the harmonic response of the gear pair are studied using this model. The result demonstrates that a closed control loop is formed due to the vibration transmission between the gear pair, the bearing and the shaft, and there is a strong coupled vibration between the gear pair and the bearing in the gearbox. Due to the generation of the center distance error, misalignment angle and disorganized meshing process of the gear pair, the meshing stiffness is altered, which excites the harmonic response of the gear pair. When the speed of the gearbox is increased, although the vibration amplitude of the gearbox is increased, the system predominantly vibrates at the fundamental frequency, and the harmonic of the gear pair is also shifted to the low frequency band.

Background: Selection and application of suture materials, has gained more importance especially with the increasing number of patients seeking oral surgeries. Since lying in a bacterial-filled environment, sutures make the tissue prone to infection. Suture material plays an important role in the reduction of the risk of infection. This study aimed to assess the success rate of an antibacterial suture named Vicryl Plus in preventing bacterial growth in the surgical site of the mandibular third molar. Methods: 27 patients were included in this double-blinded randomized clinical trial study. Surgical Extraction of the mandibular wisdom tooth was done and the incision was managed by randomly using Vicryl Plus and Vicryl sutures. After 7 days, sutures were removed and assessed microbiologically. Predominant species of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus were assessed as well as the total number of colonies on each suture. Results: There was a significant difference between two suture materials in colony number-length ratio of lactobacillus (p-value= 0.031) and total bacterial colonies (p-value=0.016); but not for S. mutans species (p-value=0.201). Conclusion: Antibacterial Vicryl suture can be a useful tool for the reduction in the rate of surgical site infection in high-risk cases and situations.

(1) Background: The elderly who have chewing difficulty (CD) are prone to malnutrition, frail-ty, and sarcopenia, and those with insufficient physical activity (IPA) are also prone to frailty, overweight, and high blood cholesterol. There is an urgent need to prepare functional foods and to promote healthy physical activity for the elderly over 70 years of age to prevent poor nutri-tion and frailty. (2) Methods: This study prepared functional foods (FF) with softened chicken moose and milkfish without fin for the elderly and compared the different effects of FF from those of music aerobic exercise (MAE) on the complete blood counts, blood biochemistry, in-cluding nutrition index of albumin, and cholesterol levels, and frailty scores before and after in-stitution of FF and MAE among residents of long-term care institutes. (3) Results: The FF signif-icantly increased the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and albumin levels. In contrast, MAE significantly increased red blood cells (RBC), and decreased the rates of frailty items on fatigue feeling and low physical activity. In comparison between FF and MAE groups, we found that the FF for 5 weeks significantly improved better on HDL-C and MCV while the MAE for 10 weeks improved significantly better on hematopoiesis as increases in red blood cells and platelets. (4) Conclusions: Results from this study suggest that FF and MAE for the elderly have different ef-fects on nutrition status, blood biochemistry and frailty. A combination of both FF and MAE might provide better benefits of nutrition status, physical function, and frailty for the elderly.

To satisfy the interests of multiple agents and those of comprehensive indicators such as peak-to-valley differences and load fluctuations occurring on the network side, this paper presents a flexible load demand-side response optimization method that considers the benefits of peak-to-valley smoothing. First, load aggregation modelling of air conditioning and electric vehicles was conducted, and the complementarity of the power consumption behaviour of different types of flexible loads was used to improve the responsiveness of the load aggregator. Second, considering demand-side responses and taking into account the interests of both supply and demand, the load fluctuation and peak-to-valley difference on the network side are reduced, and a flexible load double-layer optimization model incorporating the peak-to-valley smoothing benefit is established. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed optimization model is verified by using the KKT condition and the big M method to evaluate this two-layer optimization problem as a single-layer optimization problem. Comparative examples demonstrate that the proposed two-layer optimization method can improve the revenue of the distribution network operators and the load aggregators by using the complementary nature of the load response characteristics of electric vehicles and air conditioners. Moreover, the proposed method can effectively reduce the load peak-to-valley difference and load fluctuation of the distribution network by introducing the peak-to-valley smoothing benefit model.

The molecular entity that catalyzes ferredoxin (Fd)-dependent cyclic electron flow around photosystem I (PSI) (Fd-CEF) remains unknown. To elucidate the in vivo molecular mechanism of Fd-CEF, the evaluation of Fd reduction‒oxidation kinetics is a good indicator of Fd-CEF activity. Recent research showed that the expression of Fd-CEF activity requires the oxidation of plastoquinone, and furthermore, chloroplast NAD(P)H dehydrogenase does not catalyze Fd-CEF in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the present research, the effect of reduced Fd on Fd-CEF activity was analyzed by comparing wild-type and pgr5-deficient mutants (pgr5hope1). PGR5 has been proposed to be the mediator of Fd-CEF, and pgr5hope1 showed the same CO2 assimilation rate and the same reduction‒oxidation level of PQ as WT, but P700 oxidation with Fd was highly reduced, unlike WT. As expected, the activity of Fd-CEF was enhanced in pgr5hope1 compared to the wild type, and its activity was also enhanced with the oxidation of PQ by the increase in the CO2 assimilation rate. The present in vivo research clearly shows that the expression of Fd-CEF activity requires reduced Fd in addition to oxidized PQ, and PGR5 does not catalyze Fd-CEF.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that has significant impact on quality of life and work capacity. Treatment of RA aims to control inflammation and alleviate pain, however achieving remission with minimal toxicity is frequently not possible with the current suite of drugs. This review aims to summarise current treatment practices and highlight the urgent need for alternative pharmacogenomic approaches to novel drug discovery. These approaches can elucidate new relationships between drugs, genes, and diseases to identify additional effective and safe therapeutic options. This review discusses how computational approaches such as connectivity mapping offers the ability to repurpose FDA approved drugs beyond their original treatment indication. This review also explores the concept of drug sensitisation, to predict co-prescribed drugs with synergistic effects that produce enhanced anti-disease efficacy by involving multiple disease pathways. Challenges of this computational approach are discussed including the availability of suitable high-quality datasets for comprehensive analysis and other data curation issues. The potential benefits include accelerated identification of novel drug combinations, and ability to trial and implement established treatments in a new index disease. This review underlines the huge opportunity to incorporate disease-related data and drug-related data to develop methods and algorithms which have strong potential to determine novel and effective treatment regimens.

In this study, based on frost formation data provided by Harbin Meteorological Bureau, combined with geographical factors, temperature and population density, linear fitting, Mann-Kendall mutation test, pettitt method and sliding T test were used to analyze the spatio-temporal variation characteristics of frost date in Harbin Municipality and the effects of geographical factors, temperature and population density on frost regularity. The results showed that (1) The earliest year of FSD appeared was 1966 and 1967, on the 255th, i.e., August 18th, and the latest was 283 days, i.e., October 10th, 2006. The earliest year in which the FED appeared was April 24th of 2015, the 114th day of that year, and the latest was April 21st of 1974, the 141st day of that year. The year with the most frost was 2012, with 161 days, and the year with the shortest was 1966, with 123 days. (2) Throughout the study period, FSD increased by 7.8 days at a rate of -1.27d/10a, FED increased by 10.9 days at a rate of 1.77d/10a, and FFS increased by 18.9 days at a rate of 3.05d/10a. The tendency rate of FSD and FFS at each site in Harbin showed an increasing trend. For FED, the tendency rate of some sites showed an increasing trend. In general, FSD showed a delayed trend, FED showed an advanced trend, and FFS showed a prolonged trend. Using the method of unary linear regression, FSD of each site showed an increasing trend, FFS showed an increasing trend, and FED showed a decreasing trend in general. (3) Throughout the study period, FSD was mutated in 2000, and the arrival time of it in the study area averaged the 265th, i.e., September 22nd, and after that, the arrival time of it changed to the 272nd, i.e., September 29th of that year. FED was mutated in 2006, and the arrival time of it in the study area averaged 128th, i.e., April 8th. After the mutation, the arrival time of FED changed to 121st, i.e., April 1st of that year. FFS was mutated in 2004. Before the mutation, with an average arrival time of 137days in the study area .But after that, the time changed to 150 days.(4) FSD and FFS in Harbin Municipality were negatively correlated with latitude and positively correlated with temperature, while FED was positively correlated with latitude and negatively correlated with temperature. The FSD, FED and FFS in the central part of Harbin Municipality were the earliest, the latest and the longest, respectively, so the Pearson correlation coefficient method and the influence of longitude could not be reflected in the multiple regression. Several factors were judged by grey correlation analysis method. The longitude is significantly related to FSD, FED and FFS.

The effects of simulated acid rain (SAR) on the photosynthetic performance of subtropical coniferous species have not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we treated two coniferous species, Pinus massoniana (PM) and Cunninghamia lanceolata (CL), with SAR and then analyzed photosynthetic activities via the simultaneous measurement of prompt fluorescence(PF), delayed fluorescence(DF), and modulated reflection at 820 nm(MR820). Following the low-pH SAR treatment, the I–P phase of the OJIP curves of PM and CL decreased significantly and then the K-band and L-band were detectable. The delayed fluorescence for both PM and CL decreased as the pH of the SAR solution decreased, with a more significant decrease in the I1 peak than in the I2 peak. According to the MR820 curve, the exposure to SAR stress inhibited the rapid decrease and slow increase in the MR820 transients of PM and CL. The gradients of the decreasing and increasing phases were lower for CL than for PM at pH 2.5. In addition, SAR decreased the light energy captured per unit area (ABS/CSm) and the quantum yield of electron transfer per unit area (ETO/CSm), but it increased the accumulation of QA−, thereby decreasing primary photochemical efficiency (TRO/CSm, φPO). These changes in photosystem II (PSII) resulted in a decrease in the maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm) and the performance index (PIABS). Moreover, PSII was protected from thylakoid membrane photodamages through the increase in heat dissipation per unit area (DIO/CSm) in response to SAR. The increase in δRO as the pH of the SAR solution decreased was observed for PM, but not for CL. Considered together, the study findings suggest that SAR treatments can decrease chlorophyll contents and damage the OEC in PM and CL, which obstructs the transfer of electrons on the donor and acceptor sides of PSII. However, PM is better able to withstand SAR stress than CL, likely because of the activation of a protective mechanism (reflected by the change in δRO). Therefore, in coniferous forest areas severely affected by acid rain, CL may need to be protected more than PM.

Dogs population increased exponentially in the past decade while the birth rate decreased gradually, especially in the developed countries. Due to dogs’ characteristics of loyalty and obedience, most pet owners treated their dogs as their family members or companions, therefore they are willing to select and purchase safe, high quality and nutrition dog food to their dogs. However, there is lack of regulation or standard to reinforce the production or distribution of dog food in Hong Kong. Consequently, this paper will first review the relationship between high dog population and declining birth rate, types of dog food and typical ingredients. Secondly, the potential health implications of various “toxic” food ingredients for dog, hazard analysis of dog food and its testing methods will be investigated. Lastly, this paper will summarize worldwide existing standards and regulations, quality and hygiene management system related to dog food safety to provide insights and suggestions to Hong Kong government about the importance and urgency of implementing regulations and policies to oversee the imported and local manufactured dog food.

Polysaccharide from Ficus carica L. (FCP) exert multiple biological activities, as a biological macromolecule, the available knowledge about the specific structures and mechanisms of biological activity of purified 'Brunswick' fig polysaccharide is currently limited. In the present study, by chemical purification and characteristics identified via specific instruments, and then the impact of FCP on the immunomodulation activity in vitro and in vivo was examined. Structural char-acteristics showed that the molecular weight of the FCP was determined to be 127.5 kDa, the primary monosaccharides present in the FCP were galacturonic acid (GalA), arabinose (Ara), galactose (Gal), rhamnose (Rha), glucose (Glc), and xylose (Xyl) at a ratio of 0.321:0.287:0.269:0.091:0.013:0.011. Based on the investigation of in vitro immunomodulatory ac-tivity, FCP was found to stimulate the production of NO, TNF-α, and IL-6 and increased the pi-nocytic activity of macrophages. Further analysis revealed that FCP activated macrophages by interacting with toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Moreover, the in vivo test results indicate that FCP showed significant increase serum pro-inflammatory factors in immunosuppressed mice. Overall, this study suggests that FCP has the potential to be utilized as a novel immunomodulator in the pharmaceutical and functional food industries.

The purpose of this study was to see how dietary supplementation with phenylpyruvate affected broiler chicken growth, slaughter performance, gut health microbiota, and immunity. A total of 288 day old broiler chickens were randomly assigned to one of four groups (6 replicates each with 12 chicken). NC (basal diet), PC (basal diet plus antibiotic virginiamycin 15ppm), LCP and HCP (basal diet plus phenylpyruvate 1kg/t and 2kg/t, respectively). Results showed that PC had higher ADFI during the first 21 days, and better FCR than the NC, the LCP and HCP also improved broilers’ FCR 0.001 and 0.037% in relation to NC respectively. HCP has a higher all-eviscerated ratio than NC and less abdominal fat than LCP. HCP has increased villus length and crypt depth in the ileum compared to the NC. Bursa was lower in HCP and thymus was lower in LCP and PC. In contrast HCP have lower pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1, as well as lower TLR4. The phenylpyruvate improved family Selenomonadaceae, genus Megamonas Bacteroides species that are known for beneficial effects like for maintenance of the cell surface structure, regulating aromatic amino acids and C. jejuni-suppressive treatment respectively. Finally, phenylpyruvate feed supplement can be utilized to improve growth performance and positively modulate gut microbiota, however this is less efficient than antibiotics in improving growth performance, although more efficient in improving productive performance and gut morphology. Moreover, high dose of phenylpyruvate is more effective than low dose

The cycling of soil phosphorus (P) is inherently linked with soil organic carbon-iron (C-Fe) cycling, yet empirical integration of these processes within paddy soils remains scarce. In this study, we conducted a microcosm experiment using paddy soils subjected to six distinct fertilization regimes involving varying P inputs for five years. In addition to evaluating P activation under reflooding conditions, we assessed the Fe reduction process and characterized the properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM) at the molecular level using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), alongside profiling the composition of soil microbial communities with high-throughput sequencing. Our findings revealed that after 25 days of reflooding, soil Olsen-P content increased by an average of 73% compared to its initial state, showing a strong correlation with the Fe reduction process. Specifically, treatments involving pig manure application exhibited higher Fe reduction rates and enhanced P activation, highlighting the role of organic matter in facilitating Fe reduction. Investigations on the relative abundance of typical iron-reducing microbes further supported their importance in P activation, but the rate of iron reduction is limited by soil organic matter content. Delving deeper into DOM properties, soil DOM composition profiling and network analysis suggested that high-molecular-weight DOM, particularly lignins, served as the primary resources driving Fe reduction by iron-reducing microbes, consequently promoting Fe reduction and P release. Taken together, our study assembled the C-Fe-P cycling dynamics in paddy soils, emphasizing the pivotal role of microbial-driven Fe reduction facilitated by soil DOM in P availability and subsequently sustainable agricultural practices.

The efficiencies of conventional triple organic Rankine cycle (TORC) configurations are restricted by the low critical temperatures of common working fluids (＜320 °C). This paper proposes a high-temperature TORC system. A near-azeotropic mixture biphenyl/diphenyl oxide (BDO), which has stellar track record in the high-temperature ORC applications, is innovatively adopted as the top and middle ORC fluid simultaneously. The top cycle evaporation temperature is up to 400 °C in view of BDO’s high stability. Five conventional organic fluids are chosen for the bottom ORC. Fundamentals of the TORC system are illustrated, and mathematical models are built. Thermo-economic performance is investigated. The results hint that the optimal thermodynamic property is achieved on the use of benzene as the bottom fluid. The maximum thermal and exergy efficiencies are respectively 40.86% and 74.14%. The largest irreversible loss occurs inside the heat exchanger coupling the middle and bottom ORCs, accounting for above 30% of the total entropy generation. The levelized energy cost (LEC) is 0.0284 $/kWh. Given the same heat source condition, the TORC system can boost efficiency by 1.02% and drive down LEC by 0.0024 $/kWh compared with a BDO mixture-based cascade ORC.

Background: Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) receive traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for unmet clinical needs with psychotropic medications. However, the clinical characteristics of practices and outcomes of TCM in BD are not fully understood. This cohort study investigated the clinical characteristics, principal diagnoses, TCM interventions, and TCM prescriptions in patients with BD. Methods: 12,113 patients with BD were withdrawn from Taiwan's longitudinal health insurance database 2000 (LHID 2000) between 1996 and 2013. Chi-squared test for categorical variables and independent t-test for continuous variables. A p-value less than 0.05 indicated significance. Results: One-thousand and three hundred nineteen patients who visited TCM clinics after the diagnosis of BD were in the TCM group, while those who never visited TCM were in the non-TCM group (N= 1,053). Compared to the non-TCM group, patients in the TCM group had younger average age, a higher percentage of female individuals, more comorbidities of anxiety and alcohol use disorders, and higher mood stabilizer usage rates. The TCM group exhibited pain-related indications, including joint pain, myalgia, myositis, headache, and sleep disturbances. Corydalis yanhusuo and Shu-Jing-Huo-Xue-Tang were the most useful single herb and herbal formulas. Conclusions: Physicians need to be aware of the use of TCM in Patients with BD.

Lipids have not traditionally been considered likely candidates for catalyzing reactions in biological systems. However, there is significant evidence that aggregates of amphiphilic compounds are capable of catalyzing reactions in synthetic organic chemistry. Here we demonstrate the potential for the hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer to provide an environment suitable for catalysis by means of a lipozyme, or lipid aggregate capable of speeding up a chemical reaction. By bringing organic molecules into the non-polar or hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer, reactions can be catalyzed by collections of small, nonpolar or amphiphilic molecules. We demonstrate this concept by the ester hydrolysis of calcein-AM to produce a fluorescent product, which is a widely used assay for esterase activity in cells. The reaction was first carried out in a two phase octanol-water system with the organic phase containing the cationic amphiphiles cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) or octadecylamine. The octanol was then replaced with DOPC added to the water in the form of vesicles, where the reaction was also found to be carried out. The reaction was monitored using quantitative fluorescence which revealed catalytic turnover numbers on a scale of 10−4s−1 for each system, which is comparable to some slow enzymes. The reaction product was characterized by 1H-NMR measurements which were consistent with ester hydrolysis. The implications of thinking about lipid aggregates as catalytic entities are discussed in the context of biochemistry, pharmacology and synthetic biology.

(1) Background: This retrospective study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of one-stage computed tomography (OSCT)- to that of two-stage computed tomography (TSCT)-guided localization for the surgical removal of small lung nodules. (2) Methods: We collected data from patients with ipsilateral pulmonary nodules who underwent localization before surgical removal at Veteran General Hospital Kaohsiung between October 2017 and January 2022. The patients were divided into the OSCT and TSCT groups. (3) Results: We found that OSCT significantly reduced the localization time and risky time compared to TSCT, and the success rate of localization and incidence of pneumothorax were similar in both groups. However, the time spent under general anesthesia was longer in the OSCT group than in the TSCT group. (4) Conclusions: The OSCT-guided approach to localize pulmonary nodules in hybrid operation room is a safe and effective technique for the surgical removal of small lung nodules.

Enzymes used in the synthesis of natural products are potent catalysts, capable of efficient and stereoselective chemical transformations. Lsd18 catalyzes two sequential epoxidations during the biosynthesis of lasalocid A, a polyether polyketide natural product. We performed protein engineering on Lsd18 to improve its thermostability and catalytic activity. Utilizing structure-guided methods of FoldX and Rosetta-ddG, we designed 15 mutants of Lsd18. Screening of these mutants using thermal shift assay identified stabilized variants Lsd18-T189M, Lsd18-S195M, and the double mutant Lsd18-T189M-S195M. Trypsin digestion, molecular dynamic simulation, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography provided insights into the molecular basis for the improved enzyme properties. Notably, enhanced hydrophobic interaction within the enzyme core and interaction of the protein with the FAD cofactor appear to be responsible for better thermostability.

There is currently a lack of pathologic data on the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia, or COVID-19, from autopsy or biopsy. Two patients who recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. These two cases thus provide important first opportunities to study the pathology of COVID-19. Pathologic examinations revealed that, apart from the tumors, the lungs of both patients exhibited edema, proteinaceous exudate, focal reactive hyperplasia of pneumocytes with patchy inflammatory cellular infiltration, and multinucleated giant cells. Hyaline membranes were not prominent. Since both patients did not exhibit symptoms of pneumonia at the time of surgery, these changes likely represent an early phase of the lung pathology of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) derived from organic fertilizers may increase soil phosphorus (P) availability. However, the frequently observed correlation between soil P availability and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content has led to an excessive focus on DOC content at the expense of DOM properties. The present study investigated the influence of DOM characteristics on soil P availability by using a 6-year field experiment and microcosms of P sorption in paddy soil. Our results showed that partial replacement of chemical P fertilizer with manure or crop straw increased P fertilizer-use efficiency, even when decreasing chemical P input by 34 %, compared to normal chemical fertilization. The microcosm experiment demonstrated that DOM properties, rather than total DOC content, determine soil P sorption capacity, despite the significant correlation between DOC content and P availability observed in the field experiment. Manure-DOM exerted stronger inhibitory effects on P sorption than straw-DOM, and high molecular weight (HMW)-fractionated DOM exerted stronger inhibitory effects on P sorption than low-molecular-weight-fractionated DOM by 16-20%. The mechanism was rooted in the HMW DOM with unique characteristics (e.g., strong aromaticity, hydrophobicity, abundant humic-like components, carboxyl groups, and benzene ring structures) competing for soil P sorption sites (e.g., reduction in specific surface area and micropore volume), decreasing the soil surface charge (e.g., zeta potential), and thereby suppressing P sorption in paddy soil. Our study points out a promising avenue for regulating organic matter properties with organic fertilization to improve P use efficiency in agricultural soils.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, WIC increased the Cash Value Benefit (CVB) for fruits and vegetables by roughly $25/month/person. We sought to understand WIC participant perceptions of this change and barriers and facilitators to using the CVB. We conducted 10 virtual focus groups (5 rural, 5 urban/suburban) with WIC participants (n=55) in North Carolina in March 2022. Focus groups were recorded and transcribed. We open coded the content and used thematic analysis to uncover consistencies within and between sampled groups. Participants expressed favorable perceptions of the CVB increase and stated the pre-pandemic CVB amount was insufficient. Barriers to using the increased CVB were identifying WIC approved fruits and vegetables in stores and insufficient supply of fruits and vegetables. Barriers were more pronounced in rural groups. CVB use facilitators were existing household preferences for fruits and vegetables and the variety of products that can be purchased with the CVB relative to other components of the WIC food package. Participants felt the CVB increase allowed their families to eat a wider variety of fruits and vegetables. The CVB increase may improve fruit and vegetable intake, particularly if made permanent, but barriers to CVB and WIC benefit use may be limiting the potential impact.