Omicron variants have higher infectivity, more immune escape but lower risk of severe clinical outcomes than the ancestral variants. However, people are still wondering whether SARS-CoV-2 may become lethal again or whether some highly-pathogenic strain may emerge in the future. Omicron is more selective proliferation in the upper respiratory tract (URT). The temperature of human URT is 33–34°C, and the virus strains other than Omicron cannot replicate effectively at this temperature. While Omicron adapted to the low temperature environment, so its distribution mainly depends on the expression levels of ACE2 in cells. Similar distribution switch from lungs to URT has been observed for the 1918 H1N1 influenza virus, who vanished after 1921 and has been turned to be the seasonal human influenza A viruses. However, some relatively high-pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 strains and influenza-virus strains may still emerge in the future. Dynamic changes in the viral virulence should be monitored constantly.

GaN-based micro-size light-emitting diodes (µLEDs) have a number of appealing and distinctive benefits for display, visible-light communication (VLC), and other novel applications. The smaller size of LEDs affords them the benefits of enhanced current expansion, less self-heating effects, and higher current density bearing capacity. Low external quantum efficiency (EQE) resulting from non-radiative recombination and quantum confined stark effect (QCSE) is the serious barrier for applications of µLEDs. In this work, the reasons for the poor EQE of µLEDs are reviewed, as well as the optimization techniques for improving the EQE of µLEDs.

In the speed control system of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) without a speed sensor, the speed under the traditional PI control suffers from poor tracking performance and step response overshoot. This paper proposes a Compound Variable Structure PI (CVSPI) controller to improve the system control performance. It can choose whether to include an integral term according to the size of the system deviation to speed up the response. It also introduces a Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) speed observer in the controller to estimate the speed and adaptively adjust the size of the anti-integration saturation gain to improve the dynamic response following performance and immunity of the system. A feed-forward link is added for a given input differential to achieve an accurate answer to time-varying inputs. As the linear compensation matrix of the conventional MRAS is a unit matrix, the speed can only be accurately observed in a specific speed range. In this paper, a new linear compensation matrix is designed, and a new speed adaptive law is derived, allowing the improved MRAS to measure speed over a wide range accurately. Simulation results validate the excellent control performance of the CVSPI and the accuracy of the enhanced MRAS over a wide speed range.

In the speed control system of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (IPMSM) without a speed sensor, the speed under the traditional PI control suffers from poor tracking performance and step response overshoot. This paper proposes a Compound Variable Structure PI (CVSPI) controller to improve the system control performance. It can choose whether to include an integral term according to the size of the system deviation to speed up the response. It also introduces a Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) speed observer in the controller to estimate the speed and adaptively adjust the size of the anti-integration saturation gain to improve the dynamic response following performance and immunity of the system. A feed-forward link is added for a given input differential to achieve an accurate answer to time-varying inputs. As the linear compensation matrix of the conventional MRAS is a unit matrix, the speed can only be accurately observed in a specific speed range. In this paper, a new linear compensation matrix is designed, and a new speed adaptive law is derived, allowing the improved MRAS to measure speed over a wide range accurately. Simulation results validate the excellent control performance of the CVSPI and the accuracy of the enhanced MRAS over a wide speed range.

During an epidemic outbreak it is useful for planners and responsible authorities to be able to plan ahead to estimate when an outbreak of an epidemic is likely to ease and when the last case can be predicted in their area of responsibility. Theoretically this could be done for a point source epidemic using epidemic curve forecasting. The extensive data now coming out of China makes it possible to test if this can be done using MS Excel a standard spreadsheet program available to most offices. The available data is divided up for whole China and the different provinces. This and the high number of cases makes the analysis possible. Data for new confirmed infections for Hubei, Hubei outside Wuhan, China excluding Hubei as well as Zhejiang and Fujian provinces all follow a log-normal distribution that can be used to make a rough estimate for the date of the last new confirmed cases in respective areas. In the version 2 continuation work, 9 additional days were added for the Chinese data to evaluate the previous predictions. The extra data then available from China follows the previous predicted trend supporting the usefulness of this simple technique. In the version 2 we also tested the feasibility for a non-specialist to make similar predictions using additional data from S Korea now available. In this third continuation the predictions for Version 2 are evaluated for S Korea and fits well the beginning of the decline but it seems to be difficult to bring down numbers of cases per day under about 100 new cases per day, potential reasons for this is discussed. To further evaluate when in a prediction becomes reliable the Chinese data was used to evaluate to make predictions for each day around the peak in number of cases and after2-3 consecutive days of decreasing new cases per day the prediction becomes reliable. In version 3 data for Italy just reaching this point was used to make further predictions for that country. A second new analysis was also added to use the fitted equation to detect when the acceleration of new cases per day stopped increasing exponentially. In the Chinese case this measured point coincides with the date of the complete Hubei lockdown and in the new Italian analysis it coincides with the mandatory Italian lockdown. Predicted dates for the end of the Italian outbreak is also added. In version 4 we expand the analysis to selected European countries, USA and the World as a whole and try to predict the end of the outbreak. We further discuss the apparent success of the used techniques that might work to introduce a “new normal” not very different to the previous to stop secondary outbreaks of COVID19 and future COVIDs that are sure to come.

In-depth insights into the profound impacts of climate change and human activities on water resources are garnered through the dynamic changes in surface water, a crucial aspect of effective water resource management and the preservation of aquatic ecosystems. This paper introduces an innovative approach employing the random forest algorithm for the systematic extraction and monitoring of surface water at large regional or national scales. This method integrates spectral bands, spectral indices, and digital elevation model data, offering a novel perspective on this critical task. A data filling model is proposed to mitigate the impact of missing data due to cloud cover. Leveraging the capabilities of the Google Earth Engine (GEE), detailed information on surface water dynamics during the rainy and dry seasons in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) from 1991 to 2021 is extracted using Landsat time series imagery. The analysis encompasses spatial-temporal variation characteristics and trends, with a specific focus on the intricate interplay between the areal extent of surface water and hydro-meteorological factors in each sub-basin of the YRB. Importantly, this includes considerations of potential groundwater contributions to surface water. Key findings from our research include: (1) Achieving a remarkable overall accuracy of 0.96 ± 0.03 in obtaining reliable surface water datasets with the support of GEE. (2) Identifying significant trends, such as a noteworthy increase in rainy season surface water bodies (+248.0 km2·yr−1) and a concerning decrease in surface ice/snow cover during both rainy and dry seasons, with change rates of −39.7 km2·yr−1 and −651.3 km2·yr−1, respectively. (3) Uncovering the driving mechanisms behind these changes, revealing positive correlations between the areal extent of rainy season surface water bodies and precipitation, as well as negative correlations between surface ice/snow cover area and average surface skin temperature. It is crucial to note that these driving factors exhibit variation among secondary river systems, underscoring the complexity of surface water dynamics. Furthermore, comparative analyses with existing surface water products are conducted, contributing to a deeper understanding of the advantages and uncertainties inherent in our proposed extraction method. The proposed method for large-scale surface water extraction not only enhances the monitoring of spatio-temporal surface water dynamics in the YRB but also provides valuable insights for the sustainable utilization and protection of water resources, considering the potential role of groundwater in supplementing surface water.

Novel 1,2,3-triazole compounds 3–4 were synthesised via the regioselective addition and cyclization reaction of 1,1-enediamines (EDAMs) 1 with p-methylbenzenesulfonyl azide (TsN₃) 2 in 1,4-dioxane at refluxing for 5 hours. As a result, 1,2,3-triazoles 3–4 can be easily and efficiently obtained via catalyst-free click chemistry. The reactions have some advantages such as metal-free catalyst, excellent yield, inexpensive raw materials, and convenient final treatment.

This study explores the enhancement of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) using ammonium-enhanced vanadium oxide cathodes. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations reveal that NH₄⁺ incorporation into V₆O₁₆ lattices significantly facilitates Zn²⁺ ion diffusion by reducing electrostatic interactions, acting as a structural lubricant. Subsequent experimental validation using (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆ cathodes synthesized via a hydrothermal method corroborates the DFT findings, demonstrating remarkable electrochemical stability with a capacity retention of 90% after 2000 cycles at 5 A g⁻¹. These results underscore the potential of NH₄⁺ in improving the performance and longevity of AZIBs, providing a pathway for sustainable energy storage solutions.

Numerous dynamic and complicated processes characterize development from the oocyte to the embryo. However, given the importance of functional transcriptome profiles, long non-coding RNAs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms, and alternative splicing during embryonic development, the effect that these features have on the blastomeres of 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-cell, and morula stages of development have not been studied. Here, we conducted a scRNA-seq survey of cells from sheep from the oocyte to the blastocyst developmental stages. We then carried out experiments to identify and functionally analyze the transcriptome profiles, long non-coding RNAs, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and alternative splicing (AS). We founded that between the oocyte and zygote groups significantly down-regulated genes and the second-largest change in gene expression occurred between the 8- and 16-cell stages. We used various methods to construct a profile to characterize cellular and molecular features and systematically analyze the related GO and KEGG profile of cells of all stages from the oocyte to the blastocyst. This large-scale, single-cell atlas provides key cellular information and will likely assist clinical studies in improving preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

Nanoporous films of Eu-doped organosilicate glass (OSG) have been synthesized using sol-gel technology and spin-coating, employing evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA), on silicon wafers. The Eu doping is achieved by dissolution of Eu(NO3)3·6H2O in the precursor solution. The deposited films are characterized by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ellipsometric porosimetry (EP), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It is observed that Eu doping makes the films more hydrophilic and reduces the pore size and open porosity. The reduction Eu3+ → Eu2+ occurs in the pores of OSG films, which is confirmed by depth profiling XPS. However, Eu3+ still presents on the film’s top surface. Presence of Eu3+ and Eu2+ gives characteristic luminescence emission in the range of 600‒630 nm (Eu3+) and 290‒400 nm (Eu2+). The Eu2+/Eu3+ concentrations ratio depends on CH3 groups concentration in the films. Moreover, concentration of Eu2+ ions in the pores can be reduced by exposure in inductively coupled (ICP) oxygen plasma. The observed shift of the luminescence spectra towards the UV region, in comparison to previously reported Eu-doped organosilicate films, can be attributed to the energy transfer occurring between the host material and Eu2+ ions.

In bioinformatics research, traditional machine learning methods have demonstrated efficacy in addressing Euclidean data. However, real-world data often encompasses non-Euclidean forms, such as graph data, which contain intricate structural patterns or high-order relationships that elude conventional machine-learning approaches. Representation learning seeks to derive valuable data representations from enhancing predictive or analytic tasks, capturing vital patterns and structures. This method has proven particularly beneficial in bioinformatics and biomedicine, as it effectively handles high-dimensional, sparse data, detects complex biological patterns, and optimizes predictive performance. In recent years, graph representation learning has become a popular research direction. It embeds graphs into a low-dimensional space while preserving the structural and attribute information of the graph, enabling better feature extraction for downstream tasks. This study extensively reviews representation learning advancements, particularly in the research of representation methods since the emergence of COVID-19. We begin with an analysis and classification of neural network-based language model representation learning techniques as well as graph representation learning methods. Subsequently, we explore their methodological innovations in the context of COVID-19, with a focus on the domains of drugs, public health, and healthcare. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with graph representation learning. This comprehensive review presents invaluable insights for researchers as it documents the development of COVID-19 and offers experiential lessons to preempt future infectious diseases. Moreover, this study guides future bioinformatics and biomedicine research methodologies.

Mucin glycans are important component of the mucus barrier and vital defence against physical and chemical damage as well as pathogens. Abnormal expression of mucin glycans can lead to disease, especially cancer. Here, we first summarize the main types of glycosylation on mucins and the mechanisms by which abnormal mucin glycans occur. We next describe the role of ab-normal mucin glycans in cancer. Finally, we describe MUC1-based antibodies, vaccines, radio-pharmaceuticals, and CAR-T therapies using the best characterized MUC1 as an example.

This review focuses on the evidence for neurotherapeutics for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). EEG-Neurofeedback has been tested for about 45 years with latest meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials (RCT) showing small/medium effects compared to non-active controls only. Three small studies piloted neurofeedback of frontal activations in ADHD using functional magnetic resonance imaging or near-infrared spectroscopy, finding no superior effects over control conditions. Brain stimulation has been applied to ADHD using mostly repetitive transcranial magnetic and direct current stimulation (rTMS/tDCS). rTMS has shown mostly negative findings on improving cognition or symptoms. Meta-analyses of tDCS studies targeting mostly dorsolateral prefrontal cortex show small effects on cognitive improvements with only two out of three studies showing clinical improvements. Trigeminal nerve stimulation has shown to improve ADHD symptoms with medium effect in one RCT. Modern neurotherapeutics are attractive due to their relative safety and potential neuroplastic effects. However, they need to be thoroughly tested for clinical and cognitive efficacy across settings and beyond core symptoms and for their potential for individualised treatment.

Based on the textured controllable interface effect, the dynamic performances of the textured and ordinary pilot valve are analyzed experimentally, and the influence of the textured controllable interface on the response of pilot valve is studied. Results show that when Pin is small, the textured surface shortens the reciprocating time of valve core, increasing the flow rate, and speeds up the piston stroke of oil cylinder. The valve core actions much more stable and sensitivity. Meanwhile, combined with the theoretical calculation, the operation mechanism of texturing the pilot valve is analyzed. It is concluded that the stress of textured valve core sealing surface is greater than that of ordinary one, and the pressure difference gradually decreases with the increase of Pin, and the flow difference is basically the same as the force on the sealing surface. This indicates that the textured surface improves lubrication characteristics, reduces the friction between components. The textured valve makes the velocity changes gently, and enhances the responsiveness and stability of the valve. Those related results provide a new idea for enhancing the response design of the pilot valve.

Leasing and recycling are important issues to achieve low-carbon sustainable development of construction machinery industry, however there are some dilemmas bothering which is caused by excessive restriction of product service life. Focusing on the problem of pricing and coordination, a two-stage model of leasing closed-loop supply chain based on the Industrial Internet platform practical application was proposed. Under the centralized and decentralized decision-making scenarios, the price of leasing and selling, maintenance effort and recovery rate are calculated respectively. By using the Shapley value method to optimize the selling price, and the two-part pricing contract to calculate the compensation fee, the global profit is reasonably distributed, while the supply chain achieving Pareto optimality. The performance of different contracts on the improvement of supply chain profit was investigated. And the correlation among parameters was also explored through sensitivity analysis and numerical simulation. The findings showed that maintenance and recycling of construction machinery can be improved with the advantage of the Industrial Internet platform, while achieving the supply chain coordination by contracts. The enhancement of maintenance effort can decrease the remanufacturing cost which is positively correlated to the selling price and leasing price of product, furthermore promoting the recovery rate of used products. In the future, reasonable control of platform cost can help improve the recycling of construction machinery.

In a global context, the story of the Jesuit compound in Shanghai, since its establishment by French Jesuits in 1847, reflected not only conflicts between rival powers in Europe but also the fight for their interests in the Eastern world. The Pope, who was stuck without legal status in the Vatican after 1861, was also seeking the chance to save the authority of the Church in the face of questions regarding the extent of his temporal power and the status of Rome in the context of Italian unification. As in the Reformation, a break-through in the east seemed to offer a solution for losses in Europe. However, the Jesuits to the East in the late 19th century were not only troops working and fighting on behalf of the Pope; their identities under the French Protectorate added complexity to an already complicated story involving not just the Church, but the course of world history.The female Catholic orders at the east bank of Zi-ka-wei compound became a unique window to approach the complexity.

In the era of persistent globalization, climate governance has emerged as a prominent concern within both the theoretical community and government departments of diverse nations. Of particular interest in academic research is the adverse effect of climate shocks on the global economy. This paper employs average temperature as a surrogate indicator for climate shocks and examines the influence of temperature fluctuations on inflation levels using a balanced panel dataset from 1995 to 2021. The findings indicate a positive association between temperature change and inflation within the country, which remains consistent even after subjecting the analysis to multiple robustness tests. Furthermore, accounting for heterogeneity reveals variations in the magnitude of response of inflation levels to temperature fluctuations. Regarding the analysis of underlying mechanisms, the study underscores the significance of energy demand as a pivotal pathway influencing inflationary pressures at the national level. Lastly, by incorporating GDP per capita as a threshold, the research reveals a nonlinear relationship between temperature change and inflation levels.

Background: Inhalation exposure to carcinogenic metals like cadmium (Cd) is a significant global health concern linked to various cancers. However, understanding their precise carcinogenic mechanism remains elusive. Methods: Using the colon cancer (CC) rat model and implanted intestinal stent, exposed them to atomized oxygen and nitrogen (O2/N2) gas containing Cd. Results: Atmospheric Cd intensified inflammation in CC cells, heightening nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate 1 (NOX1) activity, generating increased reactive oxygen species (ROS). This escalated ROS production triggered abnormal Wnt protein secretion, activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, stimulating CC cell proliferation. No discernible body weight effect was seen in CC mice, possibly due to later-stage tumor weight gain, masking rat changes. Cd facilitated colon tumor restructuring and cell migration later. Intestinal stents inhibited superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) in CC mice's tumors, with no clear effects on NOX1, SOD2, and catalase (CAT) enzymes. Elevated ROS levels didn't substantially impact Wnt/β-catenin and might slow its imbalance. Stent implantation eased inflammation, reducing CC cell proliferation but induced discomfort in rats, reducing food intake and weight. Conclusion: Cd might partially foster CC tumorigenesis via the ROS-mediated Wnt/β-catenin pathway. The effect of Cd on the invasive effect of intestinal stents in cancerous colon was not significant.

The rampant misuse of drones poses a serious threat to national security and human life. Currently, the CNN method has been widely used in drone detection. However, there is a challenge that traditional CNN cannot cope with, which is small drone targets often have reduced amplitude or even lost features in infrared images. This paper proposes a Progressive Feature Fusion Network (PFFNet) that gradually increases the response amplitude of the target in the deep network. The Feature Selection Model (FSM) is designed to improve the utilisation of the output coding graph and enhance the feature representation of the target in the network. A lightweight segmentation head is also designed to achieve progressive feature fusion with multi-layer outputs. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve low duration and high accuracy in drone target detection. On the public dataset, the IoU is improved by 2.53% and the detection time is reduced by 81.03%.

Cities exposed their vulnerabilities during COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedented policies restricted human activities but left an unique opportunity to quantify anthropogenic effects on urban air pollution. This study aimed to address the key questions of urban development behind the restrictions with the goal of supporting sustainable transition. Data from ground stations and Sentinel-5P satellite were used to assess the temporal and spatial anomalies of NO2. Beijing China was selected for a case study because this mega city maintained a “dynamic zero-COVID” policy with adjusted restrictions, allowing us better to track the effects. The time-series decomposition and prediction regression model were employed to estimate the normal NO2 levels in 2020. The anomalies between the observations and predictions as the deviation were identified due to the policy interventions and quantified different effects using spatial stratified heterogeneity statistics. The top three restrictions showing dominant effects were workplace closures, restricted public transport usage, and school closures, accounting for 54.8%, 52.3%, and 46.4% of NO2 anomalies, respectively; and they are directly linked to the mismatch of employment and housing (deter-mining the commuting patterns), educational inequality and the long-term unsolved road con-gestion. Promoting the transformation of urban spatial structure will effectively alleviate air pollution.

Ultrasonic-guided lamb wave approach is an effective non-destructive testing (NDT) method used for detecting localized mechanical damage, corrosion, and welding defects experienced in metallic pipelines. Signal processing of the guided waves is often challenged due to the complexity of operational conditions and environments in the pipelines. Machine learning approaches in recent years, including convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM), have exhibited their advantages to overcome these challenges for signal process and data classification of complex systems, thus great potential for damage detection of critical oil/gas pipeline structures. In this study, a CNN-LSTM hybrid model is utilized for decoding ultrasonic guided waves for damage detection of metallic pipelines, and twenty-nine features are extracted as input to classify different types of defects from metallic pipes. The prediction capacity of the CNN-LSTM model is assessed by comparing it to the CNN and LSTM. The results demonstrate that the CNN-LSTM hybrid model exhibits much higher accuracy, with 94.8%, as compared to those of CNN and LSTM. Interestingly, the results also reveal that predetermined features, including time-, frequency-, and time-frequency domains, could significantly improve the robustness of the deep learning approaches, even though the deep learning approaches are often believed they include automated feature extraction, without the hand-crafted steps as the shallow learning do. Furthermore, the CNN-LSTM model displays higher performance when the noise level is relatively low (e.g., SNR=9 or higher), as compared to the other two models, but its prediction drops gradually with the increase of the noise.

The phonon modes in YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ and YBa_2-xLa_xCu₃O_7-δ systems have been systematically studied by Raman spectroscopy. The new phonon modes of 104 cm^-1, 94 cm^-1, and 89 cm^-1 were found in all these samples. A crude estimate about the wavenumber of the collective vibration of the stable CuO2 plane was given in this paper. The standard deviations of the new phonons in YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ and YBa_2-xLa_xCu₃O_7-δ systems were discussed. The results of the calculation indicated that the 104 cm^-1 mode probably stands the c-direction collective vibration of the stable CuO2 plane, the 94 cm^-1 mode stands the a-direction vibration, and the 89 cm^-1 mode stands b-direction vibration. The relevance between these phonons and the superconductivity was discussed. It is found that, as the T_c decreased, the 104 cm^-1 mode and the 94 cm^-1 mode softened, and the 89 cm^-1 mode hardened slightly.

Aiming to improve the flame retardancy performance of natural rubber (NR), we developed a novel flame retardant synergistic agent through grafting of MCM-41 to graphene oxide (GO)，named as GO-NH-MCM-41，as an assistant of intumescent flame retardants (IFR). The structure of GO-NH-MCM-41 was characterized by FTIR, TEM and SEM tests, which confirmed that a fine grafting had been applied between GO and MCM-41. The flame retardancy of NR/IFR/GO-NH-MCM-41 composites was evaluated by limited oxygen index (LOI), UL-94 and cone calorimeter test. The LOI value of NR/IFR/GO-NH-MCM-41 reached to 26.3%; the UL-94 ratings improved to V-0 rating. Moreover, the addition of GO-NH-MCM-41 obviously decreased the peak heat release rate (PHRR) and the total heat release (THR) of the natural rubber composites. And the addition of GO-NH-MCM-41 increased the thickness of char residue. The images of SEM indicated the char residue were more compact and continuous. The degradation of GO-NH-MCM-41 based NR composites completed with a mass loss of 35.57% at 600 ℃. The tensile strength and the elongation at break of NR/IFR/GO-NH-MCM-41 composites were 13.9 MPa and 496.7%, respectively. The results of rubber process analyzer (RPA) reached the maximum value, probably due to a better network of the fillers in the matrix.

The analysis of high-temperature physicochemical properties of theK₃AlF₆-Na₃AlF₆-AlF₃ molten salt system is crucial for practical production of electrolytic aluminum. In this paper, the physicochemical properties of the K₃AlF₆-Na₃AlF₆-AlF₃ molten salt electrolyte system at 1173 K and standard atmospheric pressure were simulated using molecular dynamics calculations. The effects of Zr、B、C、W、Ti、Hf、Nb、and Ta on the radial distribution function, coordination number, viscosity and conductivity of the electrolyte system are discussed in detail. The simulation results show that the coordination number between Al-F and the conductivity is decreasing as the content of B²- increases. And the coordination number between Al-F and the viscosity is decreasing as the content of Zr⁴⁺ increases. With the addition of impurity elements such as C, W, Ti, Hf, Nb, and Ta, the data show that C has no significant effect on this electrolyte system, while the presence of W will decrease the coordination number between Al-F in the system. The presence of Ti, Hf, Nb, and Ta may intensify the decomposition reaction between one of the Al-F ligands, which increases the coordination number between Al-F and the number of ions in the electrolyte. This work provides theoretical support for the subsequent study of inert anodes containing Zr, B, Ti, Hf, Nb, and Ta.

As a typical form of value co-creation, crowdsourcing has been increasingly applied by firms to generate business value. By engaging a crowd, a platform, and other stakeholders, a crowdsourcer can foster the co-creation of a portfolio of value for diverse stakeholders. In analyzing the value co-creation in crowdsourcing, we propose a framework by combining the theories and frameworks in value co-creation and crowdsourcing. The framework examines the key stakeholders, joint purpose, engaged value co-creation processes, contributions, bidirectional relationships of the engagement, and perceived value, exhibiting a holistic view of the value co-creation in a crowdsourcing project. Results of the analysis reveal the business performance of the crowdsourcing project and identify areas of improvement regarding business sustainability. This is a major theoretical contribution of this study. The research design applied a case study approach to empirically investigate a crowdsourcing project. Both the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tree peony flowers are traditional ornamental and medicinal materials in China. In this study, 23 tree peony flowers at a broad color spectrum were analyzed. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) revealed that tree peony flowers are rich in sugars and organic acids. Up to 18 amino acids were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS), including all essential amino acids, except for methionine. The majority of amino acids were significant positively correlated with each other and were significant negatively correlated with glucose, fructose and galactose. A total of 11 polyphenols were identified in these tree fresh peony flowers by LC-MS. There was a high consistency in grouping peony flowers by using sugars and organic acids and amino acids, which differed from that based on color components and polyphenols. Tree peony flowers are also rich in K, Ca, Mg and Fe. In together, peony flowers can be a good resource of health-promoting compounds.

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is an important crop that serves as a source of edible oil and protein. However, little is known about its molecular mechanism of adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. Based on the Arabidopsis thaliana sequence database and Phytozome, a soybean gene that was highly homogenous with the reduced induction of the non-photochemical quenching2 (AtRIQ2) gene, GmRIQ2-like (accession NO.: Glyma.04G174400), was identified in this study. The gene structure analysis revealed that GmRIQ2-like encoded a transmembrane protein. Elements of the promoter analysis indicated that GmRIQ2-like participated in the photosynthesis and abiotic stress pathways. The subcellular localization results revealed that the protein encoded by GmRIQ2-like was located in chloroplasts. The quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR results revealed that GmRIQ2-like-overexpression (OE) and -knock-out (KO) transgenic soybean seedlings were cultivated successfully. The relative chlorophyll (Chl) and zeaxanthin contents and Chl fluorescence kinetic parameters demonstrated that GmRIQ2-like dissipated excess light energy by enhancing the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and reduced plant photoinhibition. These results suggested that GmRIQ2-like was induced in response to strong light and depressed Chl production involved in soybean stress tolerance. These findings indicate that the transgenic seedlings of GmRIQ2-like could be used to enhance strong light stress tolerance and protect soybean plants from photoinhibition damage. This study will serve as a reference for studying crop photoprotection regulation mechanisms and benefits the research and development of new cultivars.

The Stepped Frequency Waveform (SFW) is commonly employed in radar technology to synthesize wideband signals through the aggregation of narrow-band pulses, thereby achieving high-resolution range profiles without the need to increase the radar's instantaneous bandwidth. However, the inherent large time-bandwidth product of SFW introduces substantial ranging errors and energy dispersion, which significantly hinders its efficacy in detecting high-speed objects. This paper introduces a pioneering velocity estimation technique utilizing the fractional Fourier transform (FrFT) to address these limitations. Leveraging the characteristic of the Doppler signal from a moving target, which manifests as a chirp signal with a rate proportional to the target's velocity, the FrFT is utilized for precise velocity estimation. Subsequent to this, velocity compensation is applied using the deduced metrics, followed by the application of the inverse fast Fourier transform (iFFT) to pinpoint the target's exact location. To optimize the computational efficiency of determining the FrFT's optimal order, we propose an iterative algorithm founded on the golden section search method. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by simulation data, and the results demonstrate that the proposed approach can accurately estimate the velocity and the range of the high-speed targets with a relatively low computational complexity.

The unknown timing of appropriate initiation of administration has led to controversy over the use of hydrocortisone in the treatment of neonatal sepsis. This study sought to compare the survival rate and NF-κB pathway expression level in newborn mice treated with hydrocortisone at different initiation times after sepsis to find the appropriate administration time window for clinical neonatal sepsis patients. Before building the sepsis model, 36 newborn C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into six groups with six mice, using quasi-randomization: five treatment subgroups(1 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h based on the initiation of hydrocortisone therapy) and 1 control group. The survival rate of mice in each group was compared. The expression levels of the NF-κB pathway and inflammatory factors were analyzed and compared among groups. Initiation of hydrocortisone therapy within 12 h of sepsis onset improved the survival of LPS-induced newborn septic mice. Treatment with hydrocortisone over 12 hours reduced the expression level of NF-κB and lowered serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels in cardiopulmonary tissues of mice. Administration of hydrocortisone early in sepsis (within 12 hours) promotes neonatal mouse survival by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway.

Zidovudine (AZT) has significantly reduced the mortality and morbidity rates among AIDS patients, but it has been associated with hepatotoxicity. AZT treatment has been linked to disrupted lipid and glucose metabolism, and the enhancement of pro-inflammatory chemokines and other mediators, which can lead to liver steatosis. In contrast, the administration of adenosine (ADO) has proven to be an effective hepatoprotector against both acute and chronic liver damage. Therefore, present study was aimed to investigate the harmful effects of chronic AZT administration and the beneficial effects of the co-administered ADO. Chronic oral AZT administration did not induce hyperglycemia or dyslipidemia, but serum liver marker enzyme activities were increased, as well as evidence of liver steatosis and inflammation. These findings were associated with low insulin and glucagon levels, elevated serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and disruptions in cell redox states in these animals. ADO co-administration attenuated the deleterious effects induced by AZT: blocking the production of inflammatory molecules, increasing serum insulin and glucagon levels, and restoring liver cellular redox state. Then, blood insulin levels seemed to be greatly influenced by the cellular redox state, which was altered by AZT administration. This alteration is likely to be connected to mitochondrial integrity and metabolism.

The combination of neural network and beamforming has been proved to be very effective in multi-channel speech separation. But its performance faces a challenge in complex environment. In this paper, an iteratively refined multi-channel speech separation method is proposed for the challenge, where the proposed is composed of initial separation and iterative separation. In initial separation, the time-frequency domain dual-path recurrent neural network neural network (TFDPRNN), minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and post-separation (also TFDPRNN) are cascaded for obtaining the first additional input in iterative separation. In iterative separation, the MVDR beamformer and post-separation are iteratively used, where the output of the MVDR beamformer is used as an additional input of the post-separation network and the final output comes from post-separation module. This iteration of the beamformer and post-separation is fully employed for promoting their individual optimization, which ultimately improves the overall performance of speech separation in multi-speaker scenarios. Experiments on the spatialized version of the WSJ0-2mix corpus show that our proposed method is significantly better than the current popular methods. In addition, the method also has a good effect on the dereverberation task.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the major causes of cancer-related death worldwide. Aerobic glycolysis precedes obtainment of oncogenic mutations and loss of tumor suppressors, promoting the progress of CRC. Although numerous biomarkers have been identified to be associated with prognosis and survival, a glycolysis-related gene signature in CRC has not been explored. Methods: mRNA expression profiling data in a group of CRC patients (n = 540) was extracted from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Gene set enrichment analysis (GESA) was performed to identify gene sets that were significantly different between CRC tissues and normal tissues. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to identify genes significantly associated with overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to establish a prognostic risk parameter formula. Kaplan–Meier survival estimates and the log-rank test were used to validate the significance of risk parameters for prognosis prediction. Results: Five glycolysis-related genes (ENO3, GPC1, P4HA1, IDUA, ANKZF1) were identified to be significantly associated with overall survival (AUC=0.754). Based on the five‑gene signature, patients with CRC were divided into high and low‑risk subgroups. CRC patients with a low-risk score had better survival benefits than those with a high one (P < 0.001). Conclusions: A five-gene signature associated with glycolysis for predicting the outcome of CRC patients was generated, serving as a valuable prognosis model with high efficiency and potential targeted therapy of CRC patients.

Curcumin, a nontoxic and cheap natural medicine, has high therapeutic efficacy for many diseases including diabetes and cancers. Unfortunately, its exceedingly low water-solubility and rapid degradation in the body severely limit its bioavailability. In this work, we prepare a series of biocompatible poly(vinyl anisole)@nonlinear poly(ethylene glycol) (PVAS@PEG) core-shell nanogels with different PEG gel shell thickness to provide high water solubility, good stability, and controllable sustained release of curcumin. The PVAS nanogel core is designed to attract and store curcumin molecules for high drug loading capacity and the hydrophilic nonlinear PEG gel shell is designed to offer water dispersibility and thermo-responsive drug release. The obtained nanogels are monodispersed in spherical shape with clear core-shell morphology. The size and shell thickness of the nanogels can be easily controlled by changing the core-shell precursor feeding ratios. The optimized PVAS@PEG nanogels display a high curcumin loading capacity of 38.0 wt%. The nanogels can stabilize the curcumin from degradation at pH =7.4 and release the curcumin in response to heat in the physiologically important temperature range. The nanogels can enter cells effectively and exhibit negligible cytotoxicity to both the B16F10 and HL-7702 cells at a concentration up to 2.3 mg/mL. Such designed PVAS@PEG nanogels have a great potential to be used for delicate drug delivery.

The recently identified Mulberry Mosaic Dwarf-associated Virus (MMDaV), associated with mosaic dwarf symptoms in Chinese mulberry leaves, is a newly discovered member of the Geminiviridae family. The MMDaV genome, a single or twin circular single-stranded DNA molecule measuring approximately 2.5-3.0 kb, encodes five proteins and two hypothetical proteins, including a coat protein (CP) and movement protein (MP). The co-evolutionary dynamics between viral and host codon usage significantly impact viral survival, fitness, immune evasion, and evolutionary pathways. This study applied bioinformatic analyses to examine the codon usage bias in thirty MMDaV genomes collected from mulberry leaves in four distinct Chinese provinces. We aimed to understand the drivers of preferred synonymous codon usage. The Effective Number of Codons (ENC) analysis revealed significant regional variations among MMDaV isolates, allowing their classification into two main categories: the southern China HNZX strain and the eastern China HDZX strain. The codon preference analysis displayed a viral preference for using A/U as the terminal base, indicating a bias towards A/U over G/C. Using a combination of position-specific base composition, ENC-Plot, RP2-Plot, Neutral plot, and correspondence analysis, we found that mutational pressure and natural selection substantially influence codon usage and drive MMDaV evolution. Our findings shed light on the complex interplay between MMDaV and its mulberry host and offer crucial insights into the virus's adaptive and evolutionary mechanisms.

In this study, composite nanofiber films comprising polyvinyl alcohol, wheat gluten, and glucose (PWG) were fabricated using electrospinning, followed by cross-linking via the Maillard cross-linking. Various mass concentrations of ferulic acid (FA) were incorporated into the PWG films. The results indicate that the average diameter of the FA-PWG films decreased from 449 nm to 331 nm as the concentration of FA increased, until reaching a concentration of 12%, after which a significant increase in diameter was observed. Subsequent Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results suggested that FA was distributed in the sample films in an amorphous form through hydrogen and ester bonds. Additionally, release experiments and antimicrobial tests on FA-PWG sample films showed good con-trolled release of FA and excellent anti-Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus activity of this film. These findings all indicate that the FA-PWG nanofiber film is a potential candidate for food active packaging.

Repair mortar is commonly used to rehabilitate reinforced concrete structures or components that exhibit a relatively high level of distresses. Yet, this repair mortar can be contaminated by salt from its service environment. This work employs a two-dimensional finite element model to investigate the transport behavior of ionic species in salt-contaminated and water-saturated repair mortar under an externally applied electric field. The model was experimentally validated and then utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of electrochemical chloride extraction (ECE) with or without electrical injection of corrosion inhibitor (EICI). In the case study, both the ECE alone and the ECE+EICI treatment was found effective in decontaminating the zone in front of the steel rebar. In both techniques, the magnitude of current density has a significant effect on removing chloride out of the mortar and increasing the pH of the pore solution near the rebar, whereas the treatment time any not have a significant effect under some scenarios. The injection of the organic corrosion inhibitor significantly slowed down the removal of chloride. Changes in the ionic distribution in the mortar were generally beneficial in reducing the corrosion risk of the steel rebar and thus extending the service life of the repair mortar.

This study aimed to develop extended–release tablets containing 25 mg IMM−H014, an original drug formulated by a direct powder pressing method based on pharmaceutical–grade hydrophilic matrix polymers, such as hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, to establish an in vitro−in vivo corre-lation (IVIVC) to predict bioavailability. The tablets’ mechanical properties and in vitro and in vivo performance were studied. The formulation was optimized using a single factor experiment and the reproducibility was confirmed. The in vitro dissolution profiles of the tablet were de-termined in five dissolution media, in which the drug released from the hydrophilic tablets fol-lowed Ritger–Peppas model kinetics in 0.01 N HCl medium for the first 2 h, and in phosphate buffer saline medium (pH 7.5) for further 24 h. Accelerated stability studies (40°C, 75% relative humidity) proved that the optimal formulation was stable for 6 months. The in vivo pharmaco-kinetics study in beagle dogs showed that compared to the IMM−H014 immediate release prep-aration, the maximum plasma concentration of the extended release (ER) preparation was sig-nificantly decreased, while the maximum time to peak and mean residence time were significantly prolonged. The relative bioavailability was 97.9% based on an area under curve, indicating that the optimal formulation has an obvious ER profile. And a good IVIVC was established, which could be used to predict in vivo pharmacokinetics from the formulation composition.

Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is a blinding corneal infection caused by the protozoan Acanthamoeba. The long-term course of AK suggests the host immunity could not kill Acanthamoeba rapidly. The immune status is still unclear in the late stage of AK. The comparative transcriptome analysis was made based on the bulk RNA sequencing of cornea tissues from AK patients and donors. Differentially expressed genes and enriched signaling pathways were calculated. CIBERSORT algorithm was used for Immune infiltration analysis of cornea tissue between AK and normal controls. A total of 2668 differentially expressed genes, including 1477 upregulated genes and 1191 downregulated genes, were detected. Gene Ontology analysis revealed that the pathways were significantly enriched in leukocyte migration, regulation of T cell activation, the external side of plasma membrane, collagen-containing extracellular matrix, immune receptor activity and cytokine binding. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the pathways were significantly enriched in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, hematopoietic cell lineage and Staphylococcus aureus infection pathway. The immune infiltration profiles varied little between AK and normal controls. Compared with normal tissue, cornea tissue of AK contained a higher proportion of M0 macrophages and CD8 T cells, while resting memory CD4 T cells contributed to a relatively lower portion (P < 0.05). Finally, the expression levels of cell markers and SLAMF7/STAT6 pathway were confirmed by histopathology examinations, RT-qPCR and western blot.

Blind deconvolution (BD) is one of the effective methods that help pre-process vibration signals and assist in bearing fault diagnosis. Currently, most BD methods design an optimization criterion and use frequency or time domain information independently to optimize a deconvolution filter. It recovers weak periodic impulses related to incipient faults. However, the random noise interference may cause the optimizer to overfit. The time-domain-based BD methods tend to extract fault-unrelated single peak impulse, and the frequency-domain-based BD methods tend to retain the maximum energy frequency component, which will lose the fault-related harmonics frequency components. To solve the above issue, we propose a hybrid criterion that combines the kurtosis for time domain optimization and the $G-l_1/l_2$ norm for the frequency domain. These two criteria are monotonically increasing and decreasing, so they mutually constrain to avoid overfitting. After that, we design a multi-task one-dimensional convolutional neural network with time and frequency branches to achieve an optimal solution for this hybrid criterion. The multi-task neural network realizes the simultaneous optimization of two domains. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.

Hippophae is a tree species with ecological, economic and social benefits. In this study, we assembled and annotated chloroplast genomes of sympatric Hippophae gyantsensis and H. rhamnoides subsp. yunnanensis. Their full-length are 155260 and 156415 bp, respectively. Each of them has 131 genes, comprising 85 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes and 38 transfer RNA genes. After comparing the chloroplast genomes, we found 1302 base difference loci, and 63.29% are located in the intergenic region or intron sequences and 36.71% are located in the coding sequences. The SSC region has the highest mutation rate, followed by the LSC region; the IR regions have the lowest mutation rate. Among the protein-coding genes, three had a ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions (Ka/Ks) >1 (but P values were non-significant) and 66 had Ka/Ks <1 (46 were significant). In general, the chloroplast protein-coding genes may be subject to purification selection. Among H. gyantsensis and H. rhamnoides subsp. yunnanensis chloroplast protein-coding genes, there are 20 and 16 optimal codons, respectively. Most of the optimal codons were ending with A or U, which indicates significant AT preference. It is an important reference for studies on the general characteristics and evolution of the Hippophae chloroplast genome.

In order to realize the sustainable utilization of water resources and the sustainable development of economy, the evaluation index system of water use efficiency system and economic development system was constructed. Entropy weight method and comprehensive evaluation method were adopted to determine the index weights and conduct comprehensive evaluation for the two systems. The coupling coordination model was used to calculate the coupling degree, coordination degree and coupling coordination degree of the two systems. The annual coupling stage and coupling coordination intensity of the two systems were analyzed and determined. The results showed that the comprehensive evaluation values of both water use efficiency system and economic development system in Jinan City increased greatly from 2008 to 2017, and showed a changing trend of ups and downs. The two systems were in the antagonistic stage, and were gradually approaching the running-in stage, indicating that they were in the state of common development. The coupling coordination degree of the two systems gradually increased in waves, progressed from the moderately to the highly coordinated coupling. In the future, if the water control path appropriate to Jinan City can be explored actively, the water-saving kinetic energy of economic development can be increased constantly, and the linkage effect between economic development and water resources utilization can be given full play to, the two systems will be in the orbit with the benign interaction and healthy harmonious development.

Precipitation and temperature are significant inputs for hydrological models. Currently, many satellite and reanalysis precipitation and air temperature datasets exist at different spatio-temporal resolutions at a global and quasi-global scale. This study evaluated the performances of three open-access precipitation datasets (gauge-adjusted research-grade Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP_Gauge), Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS), Climate Forecast System Reanalysis(CFSR)) and CFSR air temperature dataset in driving the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model required for the monthly simulation of streamflow in the upper Shiyang River Basin of northwest China. After a thorough comparison of six model scenarios with different combinations of precipitation and air temperature inputs, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) Although the precipitation products had similar spatial patterns, however, CFSR differs significantly by showing an overestimation; (2) CFSR air temperature yielded almost identical performance in the streamflow simulation than the measured air temperature from gauge stations; (3) among the three open-access precipitation datasets, CHIRPS produced the best performance. These results suggested that the CHIRPS precipitation and CFSR air temperature datasets which are available at high spatial resolution (0.05), could be a promising alternative open-access data source for streamflow simulation in the case of limited access to desirable gauge data in the data-scarce area.

Background: Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews (SRs) on acupuncture treatment for post-acute stroke dysphagia have been published. Due to conflicting results an overview of SRs to summarize and assess the quality of this evidence to determine whether acupuncture is effective for this disease was conducted. Methods: Seven databases were searched for SRs and/or Meta-analysis of RCTs and quasi-RCTs on acupuncture for post-acute stroke dysphagia. Two authors independently identified SRs and meta-analyses, collected data to assess the quality of included SRs and meta analyses according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the revised Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR 2). Results: 31 SRs were identified. Quality of 22 SRs was critically low, 5 SRs were low, and 4 Cochrane SRs were moderate when evaluated by AMSTAR2. 17 SRs reported 85.2-96.3% items of PRISMA. Five SRs included explanatory RCTs, 16 SRs included pragmatic RCTs, and 10 SRs included both. Conclusion: Currently evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture on post-acute stroke dysphagia is low quality. Type of study appeared to have no direct influence on the result, but the primary outcome measures showed a relationship with the quality of SRs. High quality trials with large sample sizes should be the focus of future research. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019134163

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.

Abstract:The objects of fine-grained image categories(e.g., bird species) are various subclass under different categories. Because the differences between subclass are very subtle and most of them are concentrated in multiple local areas, the task of fine-grained image recognition is very challenging. At the same time, some fine-grained networks tend to focus on a certain region when judging the target category, resulting in the lack of other auxiliary regional features. To this end, Inception V3 is used as the backbone network, and an enhanced and complementary fine-grained image classification network is designed. While adopting the method of reinforcement learning to obtain more detailed fine grain image features, the complementary network can obtain the complementary discriminant area of the target through the method of attention erasure to increase the network's perception of the overall target. Finally, experiments are conducted on CUB-200-2011, FGVC Aircraft and Stanford dogs three open datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed model has better performance.

Single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) profiles conceal temporal and spatial tissue developmental information. De novo reconstruction of single cell temporal trajectory has been fairly addressed, but reverse engineering single cell 3D spatial tissue localization is hitherto landmark based, and de novo spatial reconstruction is a compelling computational open problem. Here we show that a new algorithm - named D-CE - for coalescent embedding of single cell transcriptomic networks can address this open problem. We rely merely on the spatial information encoded in the expression patterns of developmental signal transcription factor (DST) genes, and we find that D-CE of cell-cell association DST-transcriptomic networks reliably reconstructs the Geo-seq or single cell samples’ 3D spatial tissue distribution. Comparison to the novoSpaRC and CSOmap (recent and only available de novo 3D spatial reconstruction methods) on 16 datasets and 681 reconstructions, reveals a significantly distinctive superior performance of D-CE.

In recent years, laser engraving has received widespread attention as a convenient, efficient, and programmable method, which has enabled the obtaining of high-quality porous graphene from various precursors. Laser engraving is often used to fabricate the dielectric layer with micro-structure for capacitive pressure sensors, however, the usual choice of electrodes remains poorly flexible metal electrodes, which greatly limits the overall flexibility of the sensors. In this work, we propose a flexible capacitive pressure sensor made entirely of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and laser-induced graphene (LIG) derived from wood. The capacitive pressure sensor consisted of a flexible LIG/TPU electrode (LTE), a LIG/TPU electrode with micro hole array, and dielectric layer of TPU with micro-cone array molded from laser-engraved hole array on wood, which provided high sensitivity (0.11 kPa-1), ultra-wide pressure detection range (100Pa to 1.4MPa), fast response (~300 ms) and good stability (&gt;4000 cycles, at 0-35 kPa). We believe that our research makes a significant contribution to the literature because the easily available materials derived from wood and overall consistent flexibility meet the requirements of flexible electronic devices.

The electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of Nd-doped ZnO systems were calculated using the DFT/GGA+U method. According to the results, the Nd dopant causes lattice parameter expansion, negative formation energy, and bandgap narrowing, resulting in the formation of an n-type degenerate semiconductor. Overlapping of the generated impurity and Fermi levels results in a significant trap effect that prevents electron-hole recombination. The absorption spectrum demonstrates a redshift in the visible region and improved intensity, leading to enhanced photocatalytic performance. The Nd-doped ZnO system displays ferromagnetic, with FM coupling due to strong spd-f hybridization through magnetic exchange interaction between the Nd-4f state and O-2p, Zn-4s, and Zn-3p states. These findings imply that Nd-doped ZnO may be a promising material for DMS spintronic devices.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine how aging and modifications of critical acoustic parameters may affect the perception of whispered speech as a degraded signal. Method: Forty Mandarin-speaking adults were included in the study. Part 1 of the study compared the perception of Mandarin lexical tones, vowels, and syllables in older and younger adults in whispered vs. phonated speech conditions. Parts 2 and 3 further examined how modification of duration and intensity cues contributed to the perceptual outcomes. Results: Perception of whispered tones was compromised in older and younger adults. Older adults identified lexical tones less accurately than their younger counterparts, particularly for phonated T2, T3 and whispered T3. Aging also negatively affected the vowel identification of /i, u/ in the whispered condition. Syllable-level accuracy was largely dependent on the accuracy of lexical tones and vowels. Furthermore, reduced duration led to the decreased accuracy of phonated T3 and whispered T2, T3 but increased accuracy of phonated T4. Reduced intensity lowered the recognition accuracy for phonated vowels /i, ɤ, o, y/ in older adults and /i, u/ in younger adults, and it also lowered the accuracy of whispered vowels /a, ɤ/ in older adults. Contrary to our expectation, increased duration and intensity did not improve older adults’ speech perception in either phonated or whispered conditions. Conclusion: The results suggest that aging adversely affected speech perception in both phonated and whispered conditions with more challenges in identifying whispered speech for older adults. While older adults’ diminished performance may be potentially due to problems with processing the degraded temporal and spectral information of the target speech sounds, it cannot be simply compensated for by increasing the duration and intensity of the target sounds beyond the audible level.

Semi-continuous data are very common in the social science and economics. In this paper, a Bayesian variable selection procedure is developed to assess the influence of exogenous factors including observed and unobserved on the semi-continuous data. Our formulation is based on the two-part latent variable model with polytomous response. We consider two schemes for the penalties of regression coefficients and factor loadings: the Bayesian spike and slab bimodal prior and the Bayesian lasso prior. Within the Bayesian framework, we implement Markov Chains Monte Carlo sampling method to conduct posterior inference. To facilitate posterior sampling, we recast the logistic model in part one as the norm-like mixture model. Gibbs sampler is designed to draw observations from the posterior. Our empirical results show that with suitable hyper-parameters, the spike and slab bimodal method slightly outperforms the Bayesian lasso in the current analysis. Finally, a real example related to the China household finance survey is analyzed to illustrate the application of the methodology.. .

Wheat pollen, characterized by its short lifespan, exhibits rapid germination after anthesis. The preservation of wheat pollen is contingent upon environmental factors, including temperature, relative humidity, light, and wind. The objective is to develop a method for preserving wheat pollen effectively, specifically for the purpose of breeding. The short longevity of wheat pollen grains renders it impractical to conduct tests for pollen viability and in vitro germination on a large scale. Herein, the impact of storage temperatures and duration was assessed on pollen viability and in vitro germination to optimize storage conditions for preserving pollen viability. Pollen grains from 50 diverse spring wheat genotypes, each with three replicates, were harvested and stored at temperatures of 22°C, -20°C, and 4°C. Subsequently, pollen viability and in vitro germination rates were determined after storage of 1, 3, and 6 days. The results revealed that storage temperatures, durations, genotypes, and their interactions had a statistically significant impact on both pollen viability and in vitro germination. Notably, when pollen was kept at 22°C, almost all genotypes exhibited a loss of pollen viability and in vitro germination after 1, 3, and 6 days of storage. Likewise, storage at -20°C failed to extend pollen germination. However, at a storage temperature of 4°C, the pollen of 36 wheat genotypes exhibited a range of 6-14% in vitro pollen germination and remained viable even for 6 days. Simple linear regression analysis further revealed a significant negative correlation between pollen viability, in vitro germination, and storage time and temperature. In conclusion, our findings underscore 4°C as the optimal temperature for preserving pollen viability and in vitro pollen germination in spring wheat for up to 6 days. The results of the present study suggests that pollen viability of wheat is genotype de-pendent, storage temperature and storage duration. Thus, the 36 wheat genotypes identified during the present work could be efficiently maintained at 4◦C for short-term storage (6 days) and could be further used for genetics and breeding purposes.

The thoracic surgery has increased drastically in recent years, especially in the light of the severe outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Routine “passive” chest computed tomography (CT) screening of inpatients detects some pulmonary diseases requiring thoracic surgeries timely. As an essential device for thoracic anesthesia, the double-lumen tube (DLT) is particularly important for anesthesia and surgery. With the continuous upgrading of the DLTs and the widespread use of the fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB), the position of DLT in thoracic surgery is gradually becoming more stable and easier to observe or adjust. However, the DLT malposition still occurs during transferring patients from supine to lateral position in thoracic surgery, which leads to lung isolation failure and hypoxemia during one-lung ventilation (OLV). Recently some innovative DLTs or improved intervention methods have shown good results in reducing the incidence of DLT malposition. This review aims to summarize the recent studies of the incidence of left-sided DLT malposition, the reasons and effects of malposition, and summarize current methods for reducing DLT malposition and prospects for possible approaches. Meanwhile, we use bibliometric analysis to summarize the research trends and hot spots of the DLT research.

Ionic gel electrolyte retains the characteristics of non-volatilization, non-flammability and outstanding electrochemical stability of ionic liquid, and shows good electrochemical performance combined with the excellent characteristics of different matrix materials, which is considered to be the best choice to achieve the high energy density and safety at the same time. In this paper, a flexible and self-healing ionic gel electrolyte is prepared by solvent-assisted method based on a zteric ion (ZI) copolymer. Abundant hydrogen bonds and synergistic interaction of ions in the electrolyte system endowed it with wonderful self-healing ability. The ionic conductivity of 9.06×10-4 S cm-1 at room temperature was achieved. Besides, the tLi+ was also increased to 0.312. The self-healing function of the ionic gel electrolyte ensured the long-term tolerance of the SHIGE. The capacity retention rate of the Li//LiFePO4 battery is 96% after 155 cycles at 0.1 C at 60 oC. This polymer electrolyte is expected to solve the problem of increasing polarization，which is caused by the low lithium ions migration number in ionic liquid electrolyte. And ultimately, it gives rise to a good rate performance.

In this study, we resequenced the mitogenomes of P. megacephalus from different regions using a “primer bridging” approach with Sanger sequencing technologies. The mitogenome of this species was found to contain two copies of the ND5 genes and three copies of the control regions. Furthermore, multiple tandem repeats were identified in the control regions. Notably, we observed that there was no correlation between the distribution of species and their genetic distance. However, our research revealed the discovery of the “missing” ATP8 gene in P. megacephalus as well as three other previously published Polypedates, as a result of manual data curation. Using the mitogenome, gene expression analysis was performed via RT-qPCR of liver samples and determined that COIII, ND2, ND4, and ND6 were reduced to 0.64±0.24, 0.55±0.34, 0.44±0.21 and 0.65±0.17 under the low-temperature stress (8℃), respectively, as compared with controls (P<0.05). Remarkably, the transcript of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) between positions 8029 and 8612 decreased significantly with exposure to low-temperature stress (8℃). Antisense ND6 gene expression showed a downward trend but this was not significant. These results reveal that modulations of protein-coding mitogenomes genes and lncRNAs of P. megacephalus play a crucial part in the molecular response to cold stress.

A new type of low cost, environmentally friendly wood-plastic composites (WPC) containing carbon nanotubes(CNT)of low content 0%, 0.05wt%, 0.1wt% and 0.15wt%, wood fibers of 14wt% and polymer PES of 86wt% was manufactured by the selective laser sintering (SLS) approach of 3D printing. The experimental results showed that the incorporating of CNTs could obviously increase the mechanical properties of the wood/PES composites material. The tensile strength, bending strength and elasticity modulus were 76.3%, 227.9% and 128.7% higher with 0.1wt% CNTs than without CNTs. And the mechanical properties of specimens firstly increased and then decreased with the increasing contents of CNTs. The SEM results of the specimens’ fracture morphology indicated that the preferable bonding interfaces between wood flour grains and PES grains were achieved by adding CNTs to the composites. There are two reasons to explain why the composites possessed the superior mechanical properties: CNTs could facilitate the laser sintering process of wood plastic composites due to their thermal conductivities; also, CNTs could directly reinforce the WPC composites as reinforcement.

Noctuidae is known to have high species diversity, although the genomic diversity of Noctuidae species have not been studied extensively. Investigation of transposable elements (TEs) in this family can improve our understanding on the genomic diversity of Noctuidae. In this study, we annotated and characterized genome-wide TEs in ten noctuid species belonging to seven genera. With multiple annotation pipelines, we constructed a consensus sequence library containing 1,038 –2,826 TE consensus. The genome content of TEs showed high variation in the ten Noctuidae genomes, ranging from 11.3% to 45.0%. The relatedness analysis indicated that the TE content, especially the content of LINEs and DNA transposons, are positively correlated with the genome size (r=0.86, p-value=0.001). We identified SINE/B2 as a lineage-specific subfamily in Trichoplusia ni, a species-specific expansion of LTR/Gypsy subfamily in Spodoptera exigua, and a recent expansion of SINE/5S subfamily in Busseola fusca. We further revealed that of the four TE classes, only LINEs showed phylogenetic signal with high confidence. We also examined how the expansion of TEs contributed to the evolution of noctuid genomes. Moreover, we identified a total of 56 horizontal transfer TE (HTT) events among the ten noctuid species and at least three HTT events between the nine Noctuidae species and 11 non-noctuid arthropods. One of HTT events caused by a Gypsy transposon might have caused the recent expansion of Gypsy subfamily in the S.exigua genome. By determining the TE content, dynamics, and HTT events in the Noctuidae genomes, our study emphasized that TE activities and HTT events had substantial impacts on the Noctuidae genome evolution.

In March 2013, a novel avian influenza A H7N9 virus was emerged in China, which cause rapidly progressive pneumonia and with a high fatality rate. Serologic studies to evaluate neutralizing antibodies of infected patients and birds are invaluable tools for immunogenicity research of H7N9 and epidemiological investigation. Conventional neutralization assays are laborious and time-consuming which also hampered by biosafety requirement. In this study, We construct and produce pseudovirus bearing the full-length hemagglutinin (HA) of H7N9 virus in the Env-defective, luciferase-expressing HIV-1 backbone. The production of lentiviral pseudovirus was analysed by HA gene specific real-time reverse-transcription PCR, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Western Blot assay to prove the nucleic acid replication, the morphology of virus, and the expression of HA protein in pseudovirus. After that pseudovirus based inhibition assay was established to detect neutralizing antibodies of a panel of serum samples. Our results demonstrated that H7N9 pseudovirus which had single-cycle infection was generated. By comparing the neutralization antibody titers, pseudovirus based neutralization test could be recognized as an alternative of conventional microneutralization (MN). Hence, we conclude that it is possible to use pseudovirus inhibition assay to screen sera samples, as well as evaluate vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies against H7N9 virus.

Heat stress is a serious threat to tomato production. The ultrastructure and element mapping of tomato chloroplast were investigated under different nitrogen levels to explore the regulatory effect of nitrogen on tomato chloroplast under heat stress. Experiments design two temperature treatments (25°C/15°C, as control, 40°C/30°C, as severe high-temperature, SHT ) and four nitrogen levels (0.0 kg hm-2, N1; 187.5 kg hm-2, N2; 250 kg hm-2, N3, as recommended nitrogen-application; 312.5kg hm-2 , N4) for a duration of 5 days in artificial climate chamber. The results showed that heat stress led to obvious damage to the ultrastructure of tomato chloroplast, including thylakoid stacking disorder, granum destruction, and starch grain aggregation and degradation. With the increase of nitrogen level, the ratio of long and short axes of tomato chloroplasts increased, the differentiation of chloroplasts was strengthened, the number of plastoglobuli was increased and aggregated, and the degree of damage to the ultrastructure of chloroplasts was reduced. The regulatory effect of nitrogen on the ultrastructure of tomato chloroplasts under heat stress was mainly reflected in the phosphorylation degradation process of starch granules in chloroplasts. There are obvious segmentation lines of Ca, P and Cl on both sides of the inner and outer chloroplasts, and enriched in the chloroplasts, which can outline the boundary of the chloroplasts. Element mapping analysis revealed that heat stress significantly increased the contents of calcium, phosphorus and chlorine in the chloroplast of tomato leaves, while the contents of potassium was decreased. The application of nitrogen fertilizer could significantly regulate the element distribution of tomato chloroplast under heat stress, especially the regulation of phosphorus, chlorine, calcium, magnesium. These results provide new insight into the role of nitrogen using TEM-EDX mapping in the protection of tomato chloroplast under heat stress and the mechanism of heat stress tolerance in plants.

By reactive DC magnetron sputtering from a pure Ta target onto silicon substrates, Ta(N) films were prepared with a different N₂ flow rate of 0, 12, 17, 25, 38, 58 sccm. The effects of N₂ flow rate on the electrical properties, crystal structure, elemental composition and optical properties of Ta(N) were studied. These properties were characterized by the four-probe method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Results show that the deposition rate decreases with an increase of the N₂ flows. On the other hand, the resistivity increases, the crystal size decreases, and the crystal structure transitions from β-Ta to TaN(111), and finally becomes the N-rich phase Ta₃N₅ (130,040). Studying the optical properties, it is found that there are differences in the refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) of Ta(N) with different thicknesses and different N₂ flow rates, and dependent on the crystal size and crystal phase structure.

Cellular substructure has been widely observed in the sample fabricated by laser powder bed fusion, while its growth direction and the crystallographic orientation have seldom been studied. This research tries to build a general model to construct the substructure from its two-dimensional morphology. All the three Bunge Euler angles to specify a unique growth direction are determined, and the crystallographic orientation corresponding to the growth direction is also obtained. Based on the crystallographic orientation, the substructure in the single track of austenitic stainless steel 316L is distinguished between the cell-like dendrite and the cell. It is found that, with the increase of scanning velocity, the substructure transits from cell-like dendrite to cell. When the power is 200 W, the critical growth rate of the transition in the single track can be around 0.31 ms^-1.

The composition of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract of piglets is easily affected by environmental changes, particularly during the weaning period. Compound strains of Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus salivarius were supplemented to piglets during pre- and post-weaning to determine their effects in improving the growth performance and ameliorating the diarrhea rate and stress caused by antioxidation in piglets. A larger number of L. reuteri and L. salivarius colonized the distal segment of the ileum and the total numbers of Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium were higher in the ileal mucous membrane and cecal lumen with probiotics supplementation. The numbers of antioxidative and immune molecules were increased in the plasma following compound bacteria (CL) supplementation, whereas cortisol and endotoxin levels were lower and growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 were higher. Spearman’s and KEGG analysis of the bacterial operational taxonomic unit and antioxidative and immune indices and metabolic genes indicated that the body growth modulation by CL supplementation could be attributed to optimization of the intestinal bacterial composition. Collectively, these results suggest that supplementation with CL could reduce stress and improve the growth performance of piglets during weaning by optimizing the intestinal bacterial composition.

This paper proposes a parameter coordination optimization design of Power System Stabilizer (PSS) based on an improved Quasi-Affine Transformation Evolutionary (QUATRE) algorithm to suppress low-frequency oscillation and improve the dynamic stability of power system. To begin, the Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm randomly updates the globally optimal solution of each QUATRE iteration and matches the inferior solution with a certain probability to escape the local extreme point. This new algorithm is first applied to power system. Second, Since damping ratio is one of the criteria to measure the dynamic stability of power system, this paper sets the objective function according to the principle of maximization of damping coefficient of electromechanical mode, and uses SA-QUATRE to search a group of global optimal PSS parameter combinations to improve the stability margin of the system as much as possible. Finally, the method's rationality and validity were validated by applying it to the simulation examples of IEEE 4-machine 2-area system with different operation states. The comparison with the traditional optimization algorithm shows that the proposed method has more advantages for multi-machine PSS parameter coordination optimization, and can restrain the low-frequency oscillation of power system more effectively and enhance the system stability.

Over the past couple of decades, Global positioning system (GPS) technology has been utilized to collect large-scale data from travel surveys. As the precise spatiotemporal characteristics of travel could be provided by GPS devices, the issues of traditional travel survey, such as misreporting and non-response, could be addressed. Considering the defects of dedicated GPS devices (e.g., need much money to buy devices, forget to take devices to collect data, limit the simple size because of the number of devices, etc.), and the phenomenon that the smartphone is becoming one of necessities of life, there is a great chance for the smartphone to replace dedicated GPS devices. Although, several general reviews have been done about smartphone-based GPS travel survey in the literature review section in some articles, a systematic review from smartphone-based GPS data collection to travel mode detection has none. The included studies were searched from six databases. The purpose of this review is to critically assess the current literature on the existing methodologies of travel mode detection based on GPS raw data collected by smartphones. Meanwhile, according to the systematic comparison among different methods from data-preprocessing to travel mode detection, this paper could carefully provide the Strengths and Weaknesses of existing methods. Furthermore, it is the crucial step to develop the methodologies and applications of GPS raw data collected by smartphones.

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.

Orthohantaviruses can cause two types of human infections: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). HFRS is a zoonotic disease transmitted by multiple rodent species. Yunnan Province in southwest China is the natural foci of HFRS, and Dali Prefecture in Yunnan Province has the highest incidence of HFRS; however, the precise status of orthohantavirus infection in Dali Prefecture remains unknown. To this end, we obtained clinical data of HFRS patients from the medical records of the People's Hospital of Xiangyun County in Dali Prefecture from July 2019 to August 2021. We collected epidemiological data of HFRS patients through interviews and investigated host animals using the night clip or night cage method. We systematically performed epidemiological analyses of patients and host animals. The differences in the presence of rodent activity at home (2=8.75, P=0.031&lt;0.05), of rodent-proof equipment in the food (2=9.19, P=0.025&lt;0.05), and of rodents or rodent excrement in the workplace (2=10.35, P=0.014&lt;0.05) were statistically different in the four clinical types, including mild, medium, severe, and critical HFRS-associated diseases. Furthermore, we conducted molecular detection of orthohantavirus in host animals. The total orthohantavirus infection rate of rodents was 2.7% (9/331); the specific infection rate of specific animal species was 6.1% (5/82) for the Apodemus chevrieri, 100% (1/1) for the Rattus nitidus, 3.8% (2/53) for the Rattus norvegicus, and 12.5% (1/8) for the Crocidura dracula. In this study, a total of 21 strains of orthohantavirus were detected in patients and rodents. The 12 orthohantavirus strains from patients showed a closer relationship with Seoul orthohantavirus (SEOOV) L0199, DLR2, and GZRn60 strains; the six orthohantavirus strains from Rattus norvegicus and Apodemus chevrieri were closely related to SEOOV GZRn60 strain; One strains (XYRn163) from Rattus norvegicus and one strain (XYR.nitidus97) from Rattus nitidus were closely related to SEOOV DLR2 strain; the orthohantavirus strain from Crocidura dracula was closely related to the Luxi orthohantavirus (LUXV) LX309 strain. In conclusion, patients with HFRS in Xuangyun County of Dali Prefecture are predominantly affected by SEOOV, with multiple genotypes of orthohantavirus in host animals, and most importantly, these orthohantavirus strains constantly demonstrated zoonotic risk in humans.

Medical image analysis is an important branch in the field of medicine, which mainly uses image processing and analysis techniques to interpret and diagnose medical image data. Medical image data helps doctors to effectively observe and diagnose patients' body structures, tissues and lesions. Medical image analysis has been an important research area in the medical field, and it is important for disease diagnosis, treatment planning, and condition monitoring. In recent years, the rapid development of deep learning and computer vision technologies has contributed greatly to the automation, multimodal data fusion, real-time application, and accuracy improvement of medical image analysis. In addition, the development of deep learning has given rise to some new research areas in medical image analysis, such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for synthetic medical images, self-supervised learning for unsupervised feature learning, and neural network interpretability. In this paper, we will introduce some optimisation methods for medical images which are effective in improving the accuracy, efficiency and reliability of medical image analysis.

The centrifugal force field in the hydrocyclone was affected by the concave-wall curvature radius R0, the mechanism of droplet deformation was closely related to the mass transfer efficiency. Numerical simulation and experimental data were collected to reveal the deformation characteristics and mechanism of single droplet crossing concave-wall jet. Normalized interfacial energy γ and stretching performance were provided to investigate the droplet deformation process. The results showed that the droplet was stretched along the streamwise and shrank along the spanwise in the concave-wall jet. The droplet interfacial energy and deformation were the largest when the droplet crossed the jet boundary at t = 0.20 s. Maximum γ value increased with the increase of R0 by 57.3% to 71.4%, and the distance between droplet and concave-wall increased with R0. Q-criterion was exported to show the vortex strength increasing as the decrease of R0 in the jet boundary. The pressure distribution inside the droplet showed that the pressure decreased as R0 increased, while the pressure difference increased along the streamwise and wall-normal direction. The study suggested that the droplet breakup was more difficult for the smaller R0, which was beneficial for liquid-liquid heterogeneous separation.

The anodic polarization response of magnesium alloy AZ31 was characterized during exposure to aerated 0.1M NaCl solutions with millimolar additions of NaVO₃, Na₃PO₄, Na₂HPO₄, NaF and various pairings to assess their ability to inhibit corrosion kinetics and retard localized corrosion. Each of the candidate inhibitors reduced the corrosion rate of the alloy to some degree. A Na₃PO₄ - NaVO₃ pair produced a powerful inhibiting response decreasing the corrosion rate to about 10^-7 A/cm², which was two orders of magnitude lower than the uninhibited control case. A Bliss Independence assessment indicated that this inhibitor pair acted synergistically. A Na₂HPO₄ - NaVO₃ pair reduced the corrosion rate to 10^-6 A/cm² but was not assessed to be acting synergistically. The NaVO₃ - NaF pair did not reduce the corrosion rate significantly compared to the control case and was an antagonistic pairing. SEM imaging showed film formation due to exposure, which appears to be the origins of the observed inhibition. The resistance to localized corrosion was assessed as the difference in the breakdown potential and the corrosion potential with larger values indicating a lower probability of localized corrosion during free corrosion exposures. Effects of the inhibitors on this characteristic were mixed, but each of the inhibitor pairs yielded potential differences in excess of 100mV. A conceptual conversion coating process based on a mixture of vanadate and phosphate compounds were demonstrated. A fluoride-bearing formulation produced coatings whose total impedance was increased by a factor or 2 compared to an uncoated control. A fluoride-free formulation produced coatings whose corrosion resistance was increased by more than a factor of 3.

The transition region is a very thin but most peculiar layer in the solar atmosphere, located between the solar chromosphere and the corona. It is a key region for understanding the coronal heating, the solar eruptions triggering, and the origin of solar winds. Here, the gradients of all physical parameters are very high, including plasma density, ionization degree, temperature, and magnetic fields, etc. Therefore, the transition region should be highly dynamic, such as fast energy releasing and transporting, plasma heating, and even particle accelerating. They include two physical aspects: thermal and non-thermal processes. The thermal processes can be observed from the ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission by multi-wavelength images. The non-thermal processes, however, should be related to radio emissions especially at millimeter wavelengths, and the frequency range should span from several GHz to beyond 300 GHz, and the emission mechanism should be highly related to the magnetic fields and variations. The ultra-wide broadband spectral observations at millimeter wavelengths with high spectral resolutions may provide rich dynamic information about the transition region, such as non-thermal energy release and transmission, the flows of plasma and energetic particles, the magnetic fields and their variations, the generation and transportation of various waves, and the formation and evolution of the source regions of solar eruptions. Here, we discussed the spectral characteristics of millimeter-wave emission from the transition region and proposed a new conception of ultra-wide broadband millimeter-wave spectrometers to observe them.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory infection globally. There are vaccines in pipeline to prevent it but a systematic review on immunogenicity and safety of vaccine is lacking. Methods: This systematic review of RSV vaccine clinical trials was undertaken using 4 databases. Searches were conducted using both controlled vocabulary terms such as ‘Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Human’, ‘Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections’, ‘Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines’, ‘Immunization’, ‘Immunization Programs’ and ‘Vaccines’ and corresponding text word terms. The searches for published papers were limited to clinical trials published from January 2000 to August 6th, 2018. RSV infection case was defined as RSV associated medically attended acute respiratory illness (MAARI) or RSV infection by serologically-confirmed test (Western Blot) during the RSV surveillance period. We calculated the relative risk of each vaccine trial with RSV infection case. Results: Of 4395 publications, 24 were included and data were extracted covering 4 major types of RSV vaccine candidates, these being live-attenuated/chimeric (n=9), recombinant-vector (n=10), subunit (n=1) and nanoparticle vaccines (n=4). For RSV infection cases, 7 trials were involved and none of them showed a vaccine-related increased MAARI during RSV surveillance season. Conclusion: LID ∆M2-2, MEDI M2-2, and RSVcps2 (live-attenuated) were considered the most promising vaccine candidates in infant and children. In the elderly, a nanoparticle F vaccine candidate was considered as a potential effective vaccine. Although no promising vaccine was identified from pregnant-women test, RSV F-024 subunit vaccine candidate and an RSV F nanoparticle vaccine showed encouraging results in healthy non-pregnant women.

Performance of the overhead squat may affect golf swing mechanics associated with golf-related low back pain. This study investigates the difference in lumbar kinematics and joint loads during the golf downswing between golfers with different overhead squat abilities. Based on the per-formance of the overhead squat test, 21 golfers aged 18 to 30 years were divided into the highest-scoring group (HS, N=10, 1.61 ± 0.05 cm, and 68.06 ± 13.67 kg) and lowest-scoring group (LS, N=11, 1.68 ± 0.10 cm, and 75.00 ± 14.37 kg). Data collection used a motion analysis system, two force plates, and TrackMan. OpenSim software was used to simulate the joint loads for each lum-bar joint. An independent t-test was used for statistical analysis. Compared to golfers demonstrat-ing limitations in the overhead squat test, golfers with better performance in the overhead squat test demonstrated significantly greater angular extension displacement on the sagittal plane, smaller lumbar extension angular velocity, and smaller L4-S1 joint shear force. Consequently, the overhead squat test is found to be a useful index to reflect lumbar kinematics and joint loading patterns during the downswing, and provides a good training guide reference for reducing the risk of a golf-related low back injury

Earth observation satellites can capture images of specific areas in Earth's orbit based on user requirements. Despite the high demand for satellite imagery, satellites remain a scarce resource. When there are many observation tasks that are large and dense, they may interfere with each other due to satellite mobility. To address this issue, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on a task merging mechanism has been proposed. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to the problem: task merging phase and merging task scheduling phase. The task merging phase introduces two methods based on Mean Shift and Complete Graph to generate the merging task set. In the merging task scheduling phase, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on merging tasks is employed to solve the problem. Finally, certain measurement experiments suggest the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Considering characteristics of high river density, special underlying surface in plain river network region, and municipal drainage system function, river network drainage unit model is proposed, which is defined as a region surrounded by main river or embankment. Flood storage variety and control projects regulation of small rivers in each unit is simulated. With drainage catchment as an object, according to its drainage capacity, simplified municipal drainage model was developed. Coupling river network drainage unit model, simplified municipal drainage model and 2D flood routing model, urban flood analysis model for plain tidal river network region was developed, which could be applied to analyzing flood from upstream river, storm surge and local rainfall. Demonstration research was carried out in Puxi flood protected area in Shanghai.

The basic idea is to expand the completed zeta function $\xi(s)$ in MacLaurin series (infinite polynomial), which can be further expressed as infinite product (Hadamard product) by conjugate complex roots. Finally, the functional equation $\xi(s)=\xi(1-s)$ leads to $(s-\alpha_i)^2 = (1-s-\alpha_i)^2, i \in \mathbb{N}$ with solution $\alpha_i= \frac{1}{2}, i \in \mathbb{N}$, where $\alpha_i$ are the real parts of the zeros of $\xi(s)$, i.e., $s_i =\alpha_i\pm j\beta_i, i\in \mathbb{N}$. Therefore, a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis is achieved.

Resilience governance provides a new governance model for emergency management in higher education institutions facing major public crises. Higher education resilience governance, while achieving short-term objectives such as mitigating external impacts and maintaining core functions, enhances the enduring adaptability of higher education institutions to the increasingly changing natural and social environments. This transformation shifts the emergency management mode in higher education from reactive responses to proactive governance. In terms of value logic, resilience governance upholds the mission of higher education as the primary nurturing ground, ensuring fairness, quality, and sustainability in education. In terms of organizational logic, it emphasizes collaborative cooperation among higher education institutions, government, society, and the market, as well as the integration of functions within higher education institutions and relatively close connections among their personnel. In terms of institutional logic, it relies on both top-down institutional supply and bottom-up institutional demand to support effective participation, resulting in authoritative and complementary behavioral rules. In terms of action logic, it combines vertical coordination mechanisms and horizontal community collaboration to enhance the effectiveness of cooperative governance. Therefore, the highest value should be placed on the safety of faculty and students, and education planning should be imbued with resilience. It starts with organizational adaptability to develop resilient institutions, focuses on orderly transitions to enhance the emergency management system in higher education, and centers on proactivity and collaboration to build a community of action for emergency governance in higher education.

The goal of this paper is to explore the relationship between the specific non-performing loan ratio (NPL ratio) and the corresponding impact on the bank’s profitability and lending behavior. It also seeks to investigate the macroeconomic impacts of economies with excessively high NPL ratios as well as the efficacy and impact of alleviation measures used by banks and governments around the world to help facilitate a decrease in high NPL ratios. The possible implications and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on NPL ratios is also addressed in this paper. It is found that when excessively high NPL ratios go unaddressed, the economy tends to suffer. On the other hand, this study shows that when measures are taken to reduce or eliminate the high NPL ratios, economic performance improves, and the reduction has a clear positive impact on the economy.

The European white birch, scientifically known as Betula pendula, and its variant, B. pendula 'Dalecarlica' are characterized by a serrated leaf margin that enhances their aesthetic appeal. However, the lobed leaf trait can undergo random and spontaneous reversion to the typical ovoid or cordate shape during asexual reproduction. Investigating and elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying this unpredictable reversion mutation is essential for comprehending the birch leaf development process. In this research, we employed a non-lobed-leaf mutant derived from a lobed-leaf birch clone during plant tissue culture. We adopted a multi-omics approach, including whole-genome resequencing, transcriptome sequencing, and methylation profiling, to analyze and compare genomic variations and gene expression modifications. The study revealed that the 24 variant genes affected by 1464 SNP/InDel sites in the genome of the non-lobed-leaf mutant are not associated with leaf development. While the overall methylation level in the mutant's genome closely resembles that of the serrated-leaf birch, ten genes exhibit differential methylation accompanied by differential expression. Transcriptome sequencing demonstrated that the differentially downregulated genes in the mutant are significantly enriched in the GO:0009733 (response to auxin) and GO:0009734 (auxin-activated signaling) pathways. Validation through McrBC-PCR and qRT-PCR confirmed differential methylation and expression of BpIAA9 in the reversion mutant. The elevated methylation level in the BpIAA9 promoter leads to reduced expression, resulting in changes in the expression of auxin-responsive genes. This, in turn, leads to a transcriptional downregulation enrichment effect in auxin-related pathways in the reversion mutant, ultimately inhibiting the regulation of leaf veins by auxin during their development.

Actuators are essential components for intelligent machines that can fulfill certain tasks in response to environmental stimuli. In recent years, actuators that can transform from a 2D ribbon shape to a 3D helical configuration under certain external stimuli have attracted significant attention due to the potential applications of the targeted helical structures in springs, propulsion generation, and artificial muscles. Inspired by the chiral opening of Bauhinia variegate‘s seedpods and the coiling of the Towel Gourd tendril with perversions, researchers have made significant breakthroughs in synthesizing state-of-the-art actuators capable of mimicking helical transformations. In this review, we give a brief overview of the shape evolution mechanisms of these two plant structures and then review recent progress in the fabrication of biomimetic helical actuators. These structures are categorized by the stimuli-responsive materials involved, including hydrogels, liquid crystal networks/elastomers, shape memory polymers, and multiwall carbon nanotubes. By providing this survey on important recent advances along with our perspectives, we hope to solicit new inspirations and insights on the development and fabrication of smart actuators, as well as the future development of interdisciplinary research at the interface of physics, engineering, and biology.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic, progressive and fatal disease of the interstitial lung， there still lack of efficient therapy to reverse the prognosis of patients currently. In this study, a fucoidan from Costaria costata was isolated and its anti-idiopathic fibrosis activity was investigated both in vitro and in vivo. The chemical composition analysis results show that Costaria costata polysaccharide (CCP) is consisting of galactose and fucose as the main monosaccharides with a sulfate group content of 18.54%. The results found that CCP could resist TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in A549 cells by inhibiting the TGF-β/Smad and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. In vivo data found that CCP treatment alleviated bleomycin (BLM)-stimulated fibrosis and inflammation in mice lung tissue. This study suggests that CCP could protect the lung from fibrosis by relieving the EMT process and inflammation in lung cells.

Previous research suggests that the senescence and death of the replaceable bud in chestnut cultivar (cv.) ‘Tima Zhenzhu’ involves programmed cell death (PCD). However, the molecular network responsible for regulating replaceable bud PCD is poorly characterized. Here, we performed transcriptomic profiling of the chestnut cv. ‘Tima Zhenzhu’ replaceable bud before (S20), during (S25), and after PCD (S30) to ascertain the molecular mechanism underlying the PCD process. A total of 5,779, 9,867, and 2,674 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were discovered upon comparison of S20 vs. S25, S20 vs. S30, and S25 vs. S30, respectively. Approximately 6,137 DEGs common to at least two comparisons were selected for GO and KEGG enrichment analyses to interrogate the main corresponding biological functions and pathways. GO analysis showed that these common DEGs could be divided into three functional categories, including 15 cellular components, 14 molecular functions, and 19 biological processes. KEGG analysis found that “plant hormone signal transduction” included 93 DEGs. Overall, 441 DEGs were identified as related to the process of PCD. Most of these were found to be genes associated with ethylene signaling, as well as initiation and execution of various PCD processes. A hypothetical model, consisting of three overlapping processes, is proposed for the replaceable bud PCD: First, ethylene signaling is activated during preparation for PCD, in order to regulate the activity of downstream targets. Next, during PCD initiation, the up-regulation of several TFs (including MYB, MADS-box, bHLH, and NAC TFs) induces an increase in cytochrome c expression and in the cytosolic Ca2+ content, activating the Ca2+-dependent signaling cascade. Finally, during PCD execution, the process of autophagy and the activity of proteases (i.e., cysteine proteinases RD21A-like, metacaspase-9-like, vacuolar-processing enzyme-like, and senescence-associated proteins for hydrolysis) work synergistically to clear the cell of cellular components. When this process is complete, the replaceable bud senesces and dies.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by infection with the 2019 novel coronavirus 2 (2019-nCoV, now referred to as SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 has become a global pandemic since its outbreak at the end of Dec 2019. COVID-19 could lead to severe acute respiratory disease, especially to those who have reduced immunity. Binding of the viral Spike protein (S) to its receptor ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2) on the surface of target cells has been proven to be key for virus entry and infection. Although ACE2 expression in the respiratory system is necessary for pneumonia infection by SARS-CoV-2, the regulation of ACE2 gene expression remains poorly investigated, especially for patients that are in pre-pathological conditions. Here, by analyzing The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we investigated the expression regulation of ACE2 in various kinds of primary epithelial cells from the respiratory system after varies of respiratory viruses infection such as influenza A virus (IFV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human rhinovirus (hRV). Our analyses reveal that infection of multiple kinds of respiratory viruses or influenza vaccines greatly increased ACE2 expression, suggesting that respiratory viruses infection could represent a high risk factor for developing COVID-19. We also found that the regulatory effect of influenza A virus on ACE2 expression is associated with activation of the interferon beta-induced pathway and viral RNA-activated host response. Together, our data provide a theoretical framework for clinical classification for SARS-CoV-2 infection susceptibility and could be used for future prevention and therapy treatment for COVID-19.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD), meningoencephalitis, neonatal sepsis, and even fatal encephalitis in children, thereby representing a serious public health hazard. It is important to determine the mechanisms underlying the regulation of EV71 infection. In this study, we initially reveal that the interleukin enhancer binding factor 2 (ILF2) down-regulates EV71 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50), attenuates EV71 plaque formation unit (PFU), thereby repressing EV71 infection. Moreover, we reveal a distinct mechanism by which EV71 antagonizes ILF2-mediated antiviral effects. Chip data analyses show that ILF2 mRNA is reduced upon EV71 infection. Cellular studies indicate that EV71 infection represses ILF2 mRNA expression and protein production in human leukemic monocytes (THP-1) differentiated macrophages and in human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells. Additionally, EV71 non-structural protein 2B interacts with ILF2 in human embryonic kidney (HEK293T) cells. Interestingly, in the presence of EV71 2B, ILF2 is translocated from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and co-localizes with 2B in the cytoplasm. Therefore, we reveal a distinct mechanism by which EV71 antagonizes ILF2-mediated antiviral effects by inhibiting ILF2 expression and promoting ILF2 translocation from the nucleus to cytoplasm through its 2B protein.

This study investigated the mechanical properties and fatigue behavior of FH36 steel plate rolled in different directions. By adopting a sequential rolling process in the rolling direction (RD) and transverse direction (TD), the differences in properties between RD and TD were eliminated, resulting in nearly identical tensile properties. The steel plate exhibited a yield strength of approximately 420 MPa, a tensile strength of approximately 506 MPa, and an elongation of approximately 25%. Fatigue tests conducted at room temperature and -60℃ showed a fatigue limit of the maximum stress of 488 MPa at room temperature and 500 MPa at -60℃, indicating improved low-temperature fatigue performance. The fracture surfaces displayed distinct characteristics, such as oblique shearing fractures for high-cycle fatigue and cup-cone shape fractures for low-cycle fatigue. The fatigue source zone were both on the surface of the specimens. As the maximum stress increased, the area of the crack propagation zone for high-cycle fatigue decreased, while the area of the final fracture zone, the number of dimples and the proportion of the LAGBs increased.

'Huangguan' pear has significant social and economic value, and phosphorus, as one of the three main mineral elements of plants, has an irreplaceable effect on the normal growth of 'Huangguan' pear trees. The objective of this study was to predict the content of phosphorus in the pulp and peel of ‘Huangguan’ pears nondestructively and conveniently by using near-infrared spectroscopy (900–1700 nm) technology. First, twelve algorithms are used to preprocess the original spectral data, and the partial least squares regression algorithm and the gradient boosting regression tree algorithm are used to build a full-band prediction model based on the original spectral data and the processed spectral data. The characteristic wavelengths were extracted using genetic algorithms, followed by establishing a characteristic wavelength prediction model. The prediction accuracy of the models was evaluated according to the coefficient of determination R² and the relative analysis error RPD. The study found that the best prediction model for predicting phosphorus content in the pulp of 'Huangguan' pear was MSC-GA-PLSR, which had R²=0.843 and RPD=1.857 in the modelling set and R²=0.989 and RPD=7.041 in the prediction set. The best prediction model for predicting phosphorus content in the peel of ‘Huangguan’ pear was SG+SNV+FD-GA-PLSR, which had R²=0.991 and RPD=7.470 in the modelling set and R²=0.974 and RPD=4.414 in the prediction set, and the effect was good and met expectations. The results demonstrated that near-infrared spectroscopy could successfully achieve nondestructive detection of phosphorus content in the pulp and peel of 'Huangguan' pears.

Close to half (45.4%) of 2.3 million breast cancers (BC) diagnosed in 2020 were from Asia. While the burden of breast cancer has been examined on the level of broad geographic regions, literature on more in-depth coverage of the individual countries and subregions of the Asian continent is lacking. This review examines the breast cancer burden in 47 Asian countries. Breast cancer screening guidelines and risk-based screening initiatives are discussed.

Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) training is critical in clinical practice of occupational therapy (OT) for stroke patients. In the conventional approaches, the therapists simulate various occupational tasks in their healthcare settings or reach their nearby real circumstances for the training. As an alternative technology, immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been used widely in stroke rehabilitation for years; however, limited research has compared occupational performances between virtual and real environments. Our team has established a novel IVR shopping training system for stroke rehabilitation. We recruited 10 stroke patients from our department to test the system. All patients attempted to implement shopping tasks in the virtual and real environments respectively. The Wilcoxon test showed no significant differences between virtual and real environments in memory capacity and time-consuming for implementing tasks, and memory capacities in virtual and real environments presented excellent correlations with the IADL assessment. This study suggests that IVR shopping tasks can be used as an alternative approach in rehabilitation when there is limited resource for implementing shopping training in a real environment, while the psychometric property, clinical effect and the effect transferred to the real environment induced by virtual training require further study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to optimize the fermentation process of Radix Ranunculi ternate via microbial fermentation and analyze the changes in the contents of the main components, the antioxidant and hypoglycemic capacities of the extract before and after fermentation. Methods: The solid-state fermentation process was optimized using single-factor tests and the response surface method, with the yield of the alcohol extract of R. ternate as an evaluation index. Results: The best fermentation process was optimized using solid-state endophytic fungus fermentation technology as follows: strain addition ratio of Chaetomium globosum/Fusarium equiseti =1:1, fermentation for 5 d, sieve size of 40 mesh, liquid/material ratio of 0.8:1 mL·g−1, fermentation temperature of 31 °C, and inoculation amount of 7.5%. Under the optimized conditions, the contents of the water-soluble extract and total polysaccharides decreased by 12.71% and 12.95%, respectively, in the fermentation, The contents of ethanol-soluble-extract, flavonoids, saponins, polyphenols, organic acids, and total amino acids of fermented R. ternate increased by 19.77%, 57.14%, 79.67%, 14.29%, 17.63% and 3.82%, respectively, and the scavenging rate for DPPH, ABTS+, ·OH free radicals and inhibitory rate for α-amylase also increased by 19.02%, 14.17%, 7.53% and 34.54%, respectively, compared with unfermented R. ternate. Conclusions: Solid-state fermentation opens new avenues for the development and application of R. ternate as natural antioxidant and hypoglycemic food.

For the last two decades, an increasing demand for low-cost adsorbents for drinking water treatment has been challenged in the rural areas of developing countries that have problems with arsenic (As) contamination. In this work, spent bleaching earth (SBE), a residual material that is formed during the process of refining vegetable oil, has been utilized to prepare the new magnetic adsorbent Fe-SBE/C by modifying its surface area through calcination and co-precipitation with iron. The experimental results demonstrate that Fe-SBE/C exhibits a substantial adsorption capacity towards both arsenite (As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)). Optimal pH conditions were found to be pH 10 for As(III) and pH 3 for As(V), resulting in adsorption percentages of 76.7% and 94.1%, respectively. Other experimental parameters such as calcination conditions, adsorbent dosage, iron-loading ratio, and the presence of co-existing ions were thoroughly investigated. The kinetic study revealed that the adsorption processes follow the Elovich and intraparticle diffusion models, suggesting a combined adsorption mechanism of boundary layer control and chemisorption. Furthermore, the isotherm followed the Langmuir model with a maximum adsorption capacity of 202.61 μg g-1 for As(III) and 187.61 μg g-1 for As(V). Through thermodynamic analysis and reinforcement by activation energy data, this research validates that the observed adsorption process is indicative through chemisorption. The regeneration study revealed the potential for multiple cycles of arsenic removal, highlighting the practical applicability of Fe-SBE/C in environmental contexts. In conclusion, the findings of this study underscore the efficacy of Fe-SBE/C in arsenic removal and present it as a promising and environmentally friendly solution for mitigating arsenic pollution.

The development of computational acoustics allows simulation of sound generation and propagation in complex environment. In particular, meshfree methods are widely used to solve acoustics problems through arbitrarily distributed field points and approximation smoothness flexibility. As a Lagrangian meshfree method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method reduce the difficulty in solving problems with deformable boundaries, complex topologies, or multiphase medium. The traditional SPH method has been applied in acoustic simulation. This study presents the corrective smoothed particle method (CSPM), which is a combination of SPH kernel estimate and Taylor series expansion. The CSPM is introduced as a Lagrangian approach to improve accuracy in solving acoustic wave equations in the time domain. Moreover, a boundary treatment technique based on the hybrid meshfree and finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is proposed to represent different acoustic boundaries with particles. To model sound propagation in pipes with different boundaries, soft, rigid, and absorbing boundary conditions are built with this technique. Numerical results show that the CSPM algorithm is consistent and demonstrates convergence with exact solutions. Main computational parameters are discussed, and different boundary conditions are validated to be effective for benchmark problems in computational acoustics.

The purpose of our study was to discuss Rab 7 effects in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Using WT and Rab 7-/- mice as target animal, and HK-2 and HMEC-1 cell co-cultured to make cell model. Measuring kidney tissues were evaluated by Sirius red staining, immunohistochemistry staining to CD 34 protein, Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and gelatin zymography to MMP-2 activities. The cell proliferation were measured by CCK-8 and Ki67 protein expression. Measuring cell invasion and total length were evaluated by transwell and in vitro angiogenesis assay. MMP-2 activities were evaluated by gelatin zymography in cell groups. The relative proteins expression were evaluated by Western blot in kidney tissues and cell groups. Results: Hypoxia promoted the expression of Rab7 in HMEC-1, and the activity of MMP-2 related with regulatory molecules such as reversion-inducing-cysteine-rich protein with kazal motifs (RECK), negative correlation with membrane-type 1 MMP (MT1-MMP or MMP-14) on the membrane of TECs. In addition, the up-regulation of the expression of Rab7 inhibited the activity of MMP-2 and proliferation and cyclization of endothelial cells, and the inhibitor of MMP-2 partially blocked the effects of Rab7 on angiogenesis. Furthermore, the similar data were also obtained in the fibrosis kidney tissues of mice. Conclusion: Rab 7 might be an important role in hypoxic TECs regulated angiogenesis, Rab 7 knockdown could improve hypoxic TECs regulated angiogenesis, the relative mechanisms might be correlation with RECK pathway and MMP-2 activities in vivo and vitro study.

Plants grown under fluctuating light impact plant developments compared with those grown under non-fluctuating light conditions. However, our knowledge on the underlying regulatory mechanisms is still quite limited, particularly from the transcriptional perspective. In order to investigate the influence of different light intensity distributions on tomato plant development, we designed three fluctuating light intensity distributions with the non-fluctuating light intensity as control and compared the transcriptional differences after five weeks of treatment. We found plant height and aerial/root weight were significantly reduced under all fluctuating light treatments. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the number of up and down regulated genes had a distinct distribution pattern between different treatments and control. The largest difference between the numbers of down and up regulated genes was found between treatment 1 and 3, reaching to a total of 416 genes. The number and type of the top 20 enriched pathways differed between treatments and control. The largest number of genes enriched was involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. These results provide insights into the transcriptional regulations of tomato under different light intensity distributions.

Background: The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has spread globally with more than 80,000 people infected, and nearly 3000 patients died. Currently, we are in an urgent need for effective treatment strategy to control the clinical deterioration of COVID-19 patients. Methods: The clinical data of 10 COVID-19 patients receiving short-term moderate-dose corticosteroid (160mg/d) plus immunoglobulin (20g/d) were studied in the North Yard of The First Hospital of Changsha, Hunan from January 17^th to February 27^th, 2020. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, radiological findings were analyzed. Results: After treatment with combination of low-dose corticosteroid (40-80mg/d) and immunoglobulin (10g/d), patients’ lymphocyte count (0.88±0.34 vs 0.59±0.18, P<0.05), oxygenation index including SPO₂ (94.90±2.51 vs 90.50±5.91, P<0.05) and PaO₂/FiO₂ (321.36±136.91 vs 129.30±64.97, P<0.05) were significantly lower than pre-treatment, and CT showed that the pulmonary lesion deteriorated in all patients. While after treatment of short-term moderate-dose corticosteroid plus immunoglobulin, patients’ APACHE Ⅱ score (9.10±6.15 vs 5.50±9.01, P<0.05), body temperature (37.59±1.16 vs 36.46±0.25, P<0.05), lymphocyte count (0.59±0.18 vs 1.36±0.51, P<0.05), Lactate dehydrogenase (419.24±251.31 vs 257.40±177.88, P<0.05), and C-reactive protein (49.94±26.21 vs 14.58±15.25, P<0.05) significantly improved compared with post-treatment with low-dose therapy. In addition, oxygenation index including SPO₂ (90.50±5.91 vs 97.50±1.18, P<0.05), PaO₂ (60.47±14.53 vs 99.07±34.31, P<0.05), and PaO₂/FiO₂ (129.30±64.97 vs 340.86±146.72, P<0.05) significant improved. Furthermore, CT showed that pulmonary lesions obviously improved in 7 patients. After systematic therapy, 4 out of 10 COVID-19 patients recovered and discharged. Conclusions: Short-term moderate-dose corticosteroid plus immunoglobulin is effective for reversing the continued deterioration of COVID-19 patients who failed to respond to the low-dose therapy. Funding: This work was supported by the Innovative Major Emergency Project Funding against the New Coronavirus Pneumonia in Hunan Province (Dr. Ji-Yang Liu, number 2020SK3014; Dr. Yuan-Lin Xie, number 2020SK3013).

The surface defects of shield subway tunnel can significantly affect the serviceability of the tunnel structure and may compromise the operation safety. To effectively detect the multiple surface defects, this research employs a tunnel inspection trolley (TIT) based on the mobile laser scanning technique. By conducting the inspection of the shield tunnel on a metro line section, various surface defects are identified by the TIT, including water leakage defect, dislocation, spalling, cross-section deformation, etc. To explore the root causes of the surface defects, the association rules between different defects are calculated via an improved Apriori algorithm. Results show that: i) there are significant differences in different association rules of various surface defects of the shield tunnel; ii) the average confidence of the association rule “dislocation &amp; spalling → water leakage” is as high as 57.78%, indicating that most of the water leakage defects are caused by dislocation and spalling of the shield tunnel in the sections being inspected; iii) the weakest rule appears at “water leakage → spalling”, with the average confidence of 13%. The association analysis can be used in predicting the critical defects influencing the structural reliability and operation safety, such as water leakage, and optimizing the construction and maintenance work for the shield subway tunnel.

Imperatorin is a chemical compound belong to Linear furan coumarins. Imperatorin is attracting considerable attention because of its anti-tumor, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and inhibition of myocardial hypetrophy and other pharmacological efficacy. However, imperatorin has limited water solubility and preferable lipid solubility, we decided to design and synthesize imperatorin lipid microsphere, to optimize preparation conditions. The aim was to develop and formulate imperatorin lipid microsphere through nano emulsion technology and apply the response surface-central composite design to optimize the imperatorin lipid microsphere formulation. Influence of content of amount of egg lecithin(A), amount of poloxamer188(B), soybean oil for injection accounted for the total percentage of oil phase(C) were investigated. Integrated effect of dependent variables including particle size(Y₁), polydispersity index(Y₂), Zeta potentials(Y₃), drug loading(Y₄), encapsulation efficiency(Y₅). Data of overall desirabiities were fitted to a second-order polynomial equation, through which three dimensional response surface graphs were described. Optimum experimental conditions were calculated by Design-Expert 8.06. Results indicated that the optimum preparation conditions were as follows: egg lecithin amount 1.39 g, poloxamer188 amount 0.21 g, soybean oil for injection amount 10.57%. Preparation of imperatorin lipid microsphere according to the optimum experimental conditions resulted in an overall desirability of 0.7286, while the particele size (168±0.54) nm, polydispersity index (PDI) (0.138±0.02), Zeta potentials (−43.5±0.5) mV, drug loading (0.833±0.27) mg·mL⁻¹, encapsulation efficiency (90±1.27)%. The difference between observed and predicted values of the overall desirability of the optimum formulation was in range from 2.4% to 4.3%. Subsequently, using the Scanning electron microscopy to observe the micromorphology of imperatorin lipid microsphere, the result shows that round globular of relatively uniform and sizes within 200nm.The proliferation study of imperatorin lipid microsphere on MDA-MB-231 was investigated by MTT method. Furthermore, pharmacokinetics in Sprague Dawley rats were evaluated using orbital bleeding. A sensitive and reliable liquid chromatography with High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method was established and validated for the quantification of imperatorin in rat plasma samples. The data were calculated by DAS (Drug and statistics) pharmacokinetic software version3.2.6 (China). Results demonstrated that imperatorin lipid microsphere can significantly enhance the bioavailability of imperatorin and can significantly inhibit MDA-MB-231 cell proliferating. In conclusion, our results suggersted that the response surface-central composite design is suitable for the optimized lipid microspere formulation. Imperatorin Lipid microsphere can improve the bioavailability of imperatorin and inhibit the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 than that of imperatorin.

Road cracks significantly affect the serviceability and safety of roadways, especially in mountainous terrain. Traditional inspection methods, such as manual detection, are excessively time-consuming, labor-intensive, and inefficient. Additionally, multi-function detection vehicles equipped with various sensors are expensive and not suitable for mountainous roads due to poor conditions. To address these challenges, this study proposes a customized Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) inspection system designed for automatic crack detection. The system focuses on enhancing autonomous capabilities in mountainous terrains by incorporating embedded algorithms for route planning, autonomous navigation, and automatic crack detection. The slide window method is proposed to enhance the autonomous navigation of UAV flights by generating path planning in mountainous roads. This method compensates for GPS/IMU positioning errors, particularly in GPS-denied or GPS-drift scenarios. Moreover, the YOLOv8 algorithm is introduced to conduct autonomous crack detection from UAV imagery in the offboard module. To validate our UAV inspection system's performance, we conducted several experiments to assess its accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. The experimental results demonstrate that our UAS inspection system accurately estimates the flight trajectory along the mountainous road for autonomous navigation. Furthermore, the experimental detection results also demonstrate that the YOLOv8 algorithm achieves higher recognition accuracy compared to the YOLOv5, and YOLOv7-tiny algorithms, exceeding 3.1%,and 6.8% of mAP, respectively. In summary, the UAV inspection system proposed in this study can provide a useful tool and technological guidance for the regular inspection of mountainous roads.

The external and internal structures of male and female adults of Culicoides grisescens Edwards, were examined with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and tissue section techniques. Specimens were collected from Qilian Mountain National Park in Qinghai Province, China. The ultrastructure and morphology of compound eyes, antenna, maxillary palpus, spermathecae, genitalia and other structural characteristics of both male and female adults of C. grisescens are described. Internal structures of the species are described, including histological sections of the digestive, nervous, respiratory, and reproductive systems. This paper provides visual and descriptive details for the systematic taxonomic study of Ceratopogonidae.

A fast and effective determination method of different species of vegetable seeds oil is vital in the plant oil industry. The near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) method was developed in this study to massively analyze the oil and moisture contents of Camellia gauchowensis Chang and C. semiserrata Chi seeds kernels. In the prediction models of NIRS, the levels of accuracy obtained were sufficient for C. gauchowensis Chang and C. semiserrata Chi, the correlation coefficient of which oil were 0.983 and 0.962, respectively, while which of moisture were 0.937 and 0.907, respectively. The near infrared spectrum of crush seeds kernels was more precise compared to intact kernels. Based on the calibration models of the two Camellia species, the NIRS predictive oil contents of C. gauchowensis Chang and C. semiserrata Chi seeds kernels were 48.71 ± 8.94% and 31.71 ± 7.39%, respectively, and the NIRS predictive moisture contents were 4.39 ± 1.08% and 3.49 ± 0.71%, respectively. Compared with the traditional chemical measurement, the rapid, precise measurement of oil and moisture of C. gauchowensis Chang and C. semiserrata Chi seeds kernels can be actualized by NIRS method.

A series of novel sulfonylurea benzothiazoline were designed by splicing active groups and bioisosterism. A solvent-free synthetic route was developed for the sulfonylurea benzothiazoline derivatives via the cyclization and carbamylation. All the compounds were characterized by IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HRMS. The biological activity tests indicated the compounds could protect maize against the injury caused by chlorsulfuron to some extent. The molecular docking result showed that the new compound competed with chlorosulfuron to bind with the herbicide target enzyme active site to attain detoxification.

Subchondral bone loss is an important pathological feature of early-stage temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis (OA). Previous studies focused mainly on the bone resorption by osteoclasts in early-stage OA, but the bone formation feature has not drawn enough attention. Sema4D/Plexin-B1 is a pair of molecules expressed by osteoclast/osteoblast, which is capable of inhibiting bone formation by osteoblasts. The present study found that subchondral bone loss in early-stage TMJ OA was accompanied by up-regulated expression of Sema4D in cartilage and subchondral bone and Plexin-B1 in subchondral bone. Reducing Sema4D level could inhibit the subchondral bone loss and cartilage degeneration of early-stage TMJ OA. In vitro, results revealed that Sema4D could reduce the expression of osteocalcin (OCN) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and increase the migrating capability of Plexin-B1-positive osteoblasts. Our results revealed that elevated Sema4D expression in early-stage TMJ OA might decrease the bone formation activity of osteoblasts in the subchondral bone by binding to Plexin-B1 expressed by osteoblasts. Inhibiting Sema4D/Plexin-B1 signaling in the early-stage OA holds promise as a strategy for new therapeutic approaches to osteoarthritis.

The rock joint fissure slope in cold regions is prone to deformation and failure problems such as relaxation, tension and collapse under freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles. Based on the ideology of clean production and promoting the structural integrity of geotechnical projects in cold areas, this study designed and prepared aeolian-sand (AS) to replace part of river sand as a filling mortar material by taking advantage of the low cost and easy availability of AS. Investigations were carried out to determine the impact of varying proportions of AS in mortar on the microstructure and shear properties of the mortar-rock interface under F-T cycles. Therefore, F-T cycle testing, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) testing and shear testing were carried out on grout with different proportions of AS. The results show that the right proportion of AS replacement could enhance the shear deformation resistance and F-T resistance of the mortar-rock interface, and 30% proportion is the optimal proportion. By increasing of F-T cycles, the three types of specimens showed different degrees of particle spalling, shedding and cracking. The slurry-rock interface layer in the A (0%) group exhibited the most severe F-T deterioration, while the B (15%) group showed a lesser degree, and the C (30%) group performed the best. T2 spectrum curve and total spectrum area change law from the microscopic point of view to verify the 30% AS proportion mortar-rock interface F-T resistance is the strongest, followed by 15% AS proportion mortar, the weakest is ordinary mortar. The degradation of the mortar-rock bond is primarily due to the conversion of solid to liquid phases and the movement of internal water caused by fluctuating temperatures. The extent of F-T deterioration in the slurry-rock interface layer is greatly affected by the varying proportions of AS. The shear strength and shear stiffness of specific proportion of AS decreased with the increase of F-T cycles. For same F-T cycles, the shear strength and shear stiffness of group C (30%) were the highest, followed by group B (15%) and group A (0%). The grout material not only reinforces the F-T joint fissure slope, but also reduces the cost of grout reinforcement and promotes the clean production of geotechnical structures.