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AbstractObjectivesMethodsResultsConclusionsInsomnia has been the subject of much systematic research because it is a risk factor for a variety of diseases. There is some evidence that gamma sensory stimulation therapy has also been demonstrated to improve sleep quality for people with Alzheimer’s disease. However, it is unclear whether this method is effective for treating insomnia. The principal objective of this project was to investigate the efficacy and safety of gamma sensory flicker in improving the sleep quality of insomnia patients.Thirty-seven participants with insomnia were recruited for this prospective observational study. For a duration of 8 weeks, participants were exposed to flicker stimulation through a light and sound device.During the main phase of the study, adherence rates averaged 92.21%. Additionally, no severe adverse events were reported for flicker treatment. Analysis of sleep diaries indicated that 40 Hz flickers can enhance sleep quality by reducing sleep onset latencies, and arousals, and increasing total sleep duration.Gamma sensory flicker improves sleep quality in people suffering from insomnia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the matrix optimization problem with group sparsity and nonnegativity constraints. We analyze the optimality conditions and develop two matrix-based improved iterative hard thresholding algorithms for the problem, using the projected gradient method with the Armijo-type stepsize rule and the fixed stepsize, respectively. We then prove that the whole sequence generated by each of the proposed algorithm converges to a local minimizer of the optimization problem and establish the linear convergence rates as well as the iteration complexity results under mild conditions. Finally, numerical results are reported to demonstrate the usefulness of this type of problem and the efficiency of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing suitable adsorbents is a key challenge in the recovery of Au(I) from thiosulfate gold‐leaching solutions as the ideal adsorbent not only possesses abundant active sites with high affinities and selectivities toward Au(I), but also demonstrates fast recovery of Au(I) at high purity and large capacity. Herein, guided by theoretical calculations, a water‐insoluble inclusion complex is synthesized using β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) and diphenylphosphine (DPP) as host and guest molecules, respectively, by a steric hindrance strategy for highly efficient and selective Au(I) recovery. The prepared β‐CD@DPP exhibits outstanding Au(I) adsorption performance, with a saturated loading capacity of 146.28 mg g−1. The excellent adsorption performance of β‐CD@DPP for Au(I) is mainly attributed to the full exposure of the adsorption site and the weakly alkaline adsorption environment. Furthermore, β‐CD@DPP demonstrates outstanding selectivity for Au(I) in a Cu─NH3─thiosulfate gold‐leaching solution, and the Au(I) recovery rate is higher than 99%. Synthesis of β‐CD@DPP primarily depends on the weak interactions between DPP and β‐CD. Mechanism of adsorption of Au(I) on β‐CD@DPP involves ligand exchange between PPh2− and [Au(S2O3)2]3−. This study provides a new idea and material preparation method for highly efficient, selective, and large‐capacity recovery of Au(I) from thiosulfate leaching solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming and precipitation fluctuations are changing desert ecosystems in global drylands. However, the effects of climate change on keystone species such as cryptogamic biocrust in drylands remain relatively under‐investigated, even though biocrusts play a vital role in desert ecosystems.We conducted a long‐term experiment (14 years) to simulate the responses of two main types of biocrusts to warming coupled with reduction in precipitation that was achieved by open‐top chambers (OTCs) to simulate the predicted warming and precipitation decreasing under climate change scenario. We also conduct a structural analysis to evaluate the resulting changes in desert ecosystem functioning (carbon and nitrogen cycling).Neither warming and corresponding rainfall reduction treatments had a negative effect on lichen species richness, but both treatments reduced lichen cover and biomass. The negative effects of warming on moss‐dominated crusts were much greater than those on lichen‐dominated crusts. Although mosses and lichens had varying degree responses to warming, the loss of mosses and decreased lichen cover and biomass, as well as the shortening of the wet time, resulted in a reduction in carbon and nitrogen fixation, soil enzyme activity and water‐holding capacity of biocrusts and topsoil. These impacts collectively change the water balance of drylands and weaken the hydrological and biogeochemical function of biocrusts.Synthesis and applications: Results from this long‐term experiment suggest that the ecosystem C and N cycling and water balance of global drylands may be highly impacted by climate change, in part because of the response of biocrusts, which contribute an important implication for both dryland restoration and earth system dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of surface texture on noise response and propeller-media interaction for additively manufactured (AM) features of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) rotary propellers. The microgeometry nature of material extrusion (ME), molding in additively manufactured molds, and vat polymerization (VP) processes was captured with areal texture measurements, and further aerodynamic and acoustic tests allowed to differentiate among these AM technologies. Three-layer thickness values of 50 μm, 125 μm, and 254 μm were tested on fabricated rotary blades at eight different rotational speeds ranging from 4000 to 7500 RPM by increments of 500 RPM, measuring their thrust, torque, vibration, and sound pressure level (SPL). The experimental results showed the overall sound pressure level (OASPL) is mostly constant around the recording microphones. Surface roughness and RPM were the main factors that affect performance. AM propellers exhibited a thrust loss with an associated OASPL decrease; with blades fabricated via VP having the least form deviation and best surface quality, outperforming other specimens compared against the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) baseline. Expected advantages of using VP over COTS include onsite production and customization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glucolipid metabolism plays an important role in the occurrence and development of diabetes mellitus. However, there is limited research on the characteristics of glucolipid metabolism and complications in different subgroups of newly diagnosed diabetes. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of glucolipid metabolism and complications in novel cluster-based diabetes subgroups and explore the contributions of different glucolipid metabolism indicators to the occurrence of complications and pancreatic function. Methods: This retrospective study included 547 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients. Age, body mass index (BMI), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C), homeostasis model assessment-2 beta-cell function (HOMA2-β), and homeostasis model assessment-2 insulin resistance (HOMA2-IR) were used as clustering variables. The participants were divided into 4 groups by k-means cluster analysis. The characteristics of glucolipid indicators and complications in each subgroup were analyzed. Regression analyses were used to evaluate the impact of glucolipid metabolism indicators on complications and pancreatic function. Results: Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), triglyceride glucose index (TyG), HbA1C, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and 2-h postprandial plasma glucose (2hPG) were higher in the severe insulin-resistant diabetes (SIRD) and severe insulin-deficient diabetes (SIDD) groups. Fasting insulin (FINS), fasting C-peptide (FCP), 2-h postprandial insulin (2hINS), 2-h postprandial C-peptide (2hCP), and the monocyte-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (MHR) were higher in mild obesity-related diabetes (MOD) and SIRD. 2hCP, FCP, and FINS were positively correlated with HOMA2-β, while FPG, TyG, HbA1C, and TG were negatively correlated with HOMA2-β. FINS, FPG, FCP, and HbA1C were positively correlated with HOMA2-IR, while high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was negatively correlated with HOMA2-IR. FINS (odds ratio (OR),1.043;95% confidence interval (CI) 1.006 ~ 1.081), FCP (OR,2.881;95%CI 2.041 ~ 4.066), and TyG (OR,1.649;95%CI 1.292 ~ 2.104) contributed to increase the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); 2hINS (OR,1.015;95%CI 1.008 ~ 1.022) contributed to increase the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD); FCP (OR,1.297;95%CI 1.027 ~ 1.637) significantly increased the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Conclusions: There were differences in the characteristics of glucolipid metabolism as well as complications among different subgroups of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. 2hCP, FCP, FINS, FPG, TyG, HbA1C, HDL and TG influenced the function of insulin. FINS, TyG, 2hINS, and FCP were associated with ASCVD, NAFLD, and CKD in newly diagnosed T2DM patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation determines the success or failure of restoration of degraded ecosystem, accurately evaluating the stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation can provide evidence for the future management and maintenance of re-vegetated regions. In this paper, a novel data-driven evaluation model was proposed by combining statistical methods and a neural network model to evaluate the stability of artificial sand-binding vegetation in the southeastern margins of the Tengger Desert, where the evaluation indexes were selected from vegetation, soil moisture, and soil. The evaluation results indicate that the stability of the artificially re-vegetated belt established in different years (1956a, 1964a, 1981a, and 1987a) tend to be stable with the increase of sand fixation years, and the artificially re-vegetated belts established in 1956a and 1964a have almost the same stability, but the stability of the artificially re-vegetated belt established in 1981a and 1987a have a significant difference. The evaluation results are reliable and accurate, which can provide evidence for the future management of artificial sand-binding vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of evaporation is of great significance for understanding regional drought, and managing and applying limited water resources in dryland. However, the application of the traditional estimation approaches is limited due to the lack of required meteorological parameters or experimental conditions. In this study, a novel hybrid model was proposed to estimate the monthly pan Ep in dryland by integrating long short-term memory (LSTM) with grey wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm and Kendall-τ correlation coefficient, where the GWO algorithm was employed to find the optimal hyper-parameters of LSTM, and Kendall-τ correlation coefficient was used to determine the input combination of meteorological variables. The model performance was compared to the performance of other methods based on the evaluation metrics, including root mean squared error (RMSE), the normalized mean squared error (NMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (NSCE). The results indicated that the optimal input meteorological parameters of the hybrid Kendall-τ-GWO-LSTM models are the monthly average temperature, the minimum air temperature, the maximum air temperature, the minimum values of RMSE, NMSE, MAE, and MAPE are 38.28, 0.20, 26.62, and 19.96%, and the maximum NSCE is 0.89, suggesting that the hybrid Kendall-τ-GWO-LSTM exhibit better model performance than the other hybrid models. Thus, the hybrid Kendall-τ-GWO-LSTM model was highly recommended for estimating pan Ep with limited meteorological information in dryland. The present investigation provides a novel method to estimate the monthly pan Ep with limited meteorological variables in dryland by coupling a deep learning model with meta-heuristic algorithms and the data preprocessing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of artificial sand-binding vegetation is determined by the water balance between evapotranspiration (ET) and precipitation in desert regions. Consequently, accurately estimating ET is a critical prerequisite for determing the types and spatial distribution of artificial vegetation in different sandy areas. For this purpose, a novel hybrid estimation model was proposed to estimate monthly ET by coupling the deep learning long short term memory (LSTM) with variational mode decomposition (VMD) and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) (i.e., VMD-WOA-LSTM) to estimate the monthly ET in the southeast margins of Tengger Desert. The superiority of LSTM was selected due to its capability of automatically extracting the nonlinear and nonstationary features from sequential data, WOA was employed to optimize the hyperparameters of LSTM, and VMD was used to extract the intrinsic traits of ET time series. The estimating results of VMD-WOA-LSTM has been compared with actual ET and estimation of other hybrid models in terms of standard performance metrics. The results reveale that VMD-WOA-LSTM provide more accurate and reliable estimating results than that of LSTM, the support vector machine (SVM), and the variants of those models. Therefore, VMD-WOA-LSTM could be recommended as an essential auxiliary method to estimate ET in desert regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Cysteamine-grafted granular polyacrylonitrile adsorbs gold in thiosulfate solutions. • Interaction between cys-PANG and Au involves charge attraction and ligand exchange. • Large particle size of the material is conducive to easy isolation from ore pulp. • Materials are robust, displaying no significant damage after 14 days in pulp. Gold recovery technology is an urgent challenge in the industrialisation of thiosulfate-based gold extraction. Current materials used for gold recovery suffer from a lack of wear resistance and small particle size, which makes it difficult to separate the material from thiosulfate solutions. In this study, a cysteamine-functionalised granular polyacrylonitrile (cys-PANG) material containing three-dimensional channels was designed and synthesised. The results indicate that cys-PANG, prepared using a solvent exchange method, has remarkable adsorption capacity for gold, smooth outer surface, well-developed internal pore structure, high wear resistance, and controllable size, making it suitable for gold recovery from thiosulfate pulp. The adsorption of gold in a thiosulfate solution by cys-PANG followed the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic adsorption models with minimal pH dependence. Cys-PANG also demonstrated the effective adsorption of gold in a Cu(II)–ethanediamine (en)–S 2 O 3 2− solution, even in the presence of copper and en interference. Both experimental results and theoretical calculations revealed that the interaction between cys-PANG and gold in the thiosulfate solution is predominantly characterised by charge attraction and ligand exchange mechanisms. Adsorption tests of cys-PANG in actual thiosulfate pulp demonstrated exceptional gold recovery properties and minimal wear even after 14 days of continuous stirring. This study presents a promising alternative methodology for the recovery of gold from thiosulfate pulp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual depletion of natural gold ore, waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) have become one of the most attractive alternatives to gold ore. Here, a series of quaternary phosphonium adsorbents with a large size were successfully synthesized by adjusting the number of functional groups and carbon chain length of functional monomers, which can be used for selective recovery of gold(III) from WPCBs leaching solution. The quaternary phosphonium adsorbent (PS-TEP) prepared by the nucleophilic substitution reaction between triethyl phosphine with the smallest volume and chloromethylated polystyrene (PS-Cl) exhibited the best gold loading capacity (617.90 mg g−1). The adsorption mechanism of gold(III) on PS-TEP surface mainly involves anion exchange between AuCl 4 − and Cl− in the adsorbent. The charge level of the H atom closest to –CH 2 –P+ group directly determines the strength of the interaction between the adsorbent and the gold ion. Multiwfn and VMD programs visually confirm the weak interaction between PS-TEP+ and AuCl 4 −. After 5 adsorption-stripping cycles, the adsorption rate of gold(III) in solution remained at about 99 %. In addition, PS-TEP exhibited good gold(III) selectivity in both simulated and actual WPCBs gold leaching solutions. These results indicate that the large-particle PS-TEP with high capacity is suitable for selective gold recovery from WPCBs leaching solution. [Display omitted] • Polychloromethylstyrene-triethylphosphine (PS-TEP) as a Au(III) selective adsorbent • PS-TEP exhibited near 100 % adsorption rate for Au(III) in WPCBs leaching solution. • Maximum loading capacity of Au ions on PS-TEP reached 617.90 mg g−1. • PS-TEP can be reused at least 5 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurons interact with astrocytes, microglia, and vascular cells. These interactions become unbalanced in disease states, resulting in damage to neurons and synapses, and contributing to cognitive impairment. Importantly, synaptic loss and synaptic dysfunction have been considered for years as a main pathological factor of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recently, miRNAs have emerged as essential regulators of physiological and pathological processes in the brain. Focusing on the role of miRNAs in regulating synaptic functions, as well as different cell types in the brain, offers opportunities for the early prevention, diagnosis, and potential treatment of AD-related cognitive impairment. Here, we review the recent research conducted on miRNAs regulating astrocytes, microglia, cerebrovasculature, and synaptic functions in the context of AD-related cognitive impairment. We also review potential miRNA-related biomarkers and therapeutics, as well as emerging imaging technologies relevant for AD research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous comparative trials showed that virtual reality (VR) therapies achieved larger effects than gold-standard cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on overall auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). However, no trial has examined the corresponding underlying electrophysiological mechanisms. We performed a pilot randomized comparative trial evaluating the efficacy of a virtual reality–based computer AT system (CATS) over CBT for schizophrenia (SCZ) patients with treatment-resistant AVHs and explored these potential electrophysiological changes via the visual P300 component. Patients (CATS, n = 32; CBT, n = 33) completed the clinical assessments pre- and post-interventions and at 12-week follow-up. The visual P300 were measured before and after both therapies. The analysis of changes in psychiatric symptoms used linear mixed-effects models, and the P300 response in temporal and time-frequency domains was analyzed with repeated-measures analysis of variance. There was no interaction effect between change in clinical symptoms and treatment group. However, several statistically significant within-group improvements were found for CATS and CBT over time. AVH improved significantly after both treatments, as measured with the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales-Auditory Hallucinations (PSYRATS-AH) sub-scores. Especially for the CATS group, omnipotence beliefs, anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, and quality of life also remained improved at the 12-week follow-up. Moreover, P300 amplitude had a significant interaction effect and correlation with AVH response. Overall, our analysis did not demonstrate general clinical superiority of CATS over CBT, but CATS improved refractory AVH in SCZ patients, likely by increasing P300 amplitude. These findings support the continued development of CATS for persistent AVH and suggest further trials to clarify the neurological effects of CATS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of athletes with lower limb movement injuries in table tennis footwork, with the increasing risk of sports, the incidence of acute injury also increased. The increase in athletic training, on the one hand, improves the skill level of the athlete; on the other hand, it increases the chances of more chronic injuries. Through the investigation of the injury site of 143 table tennis players, the researchers found that the lower limb injury accounted for 32% of the total injuries and the upper limb injury rate accounted for 33.14% of the trunk, accounting for 34.29%. The injury sites are mostly concentrated in the lumbar region, followed by the shoulders and knees. Through epidemiological research on the injuries of outstanding table tennis players, the survey results show that the probability of lower extremity injuries ranks in the top three, and most of them are acute sprains and chronic strain injuries. By applying the principles of sports biomechanics, a biomechanical analysis of the asynchronous foot movement in table tennis is proposed; from three aspects of kinematics, dynamics, and plantar pressure, it is found that the injury of table tennis is closely related to technical play connect. The risk of sports injury is inevitable in a sense, due to the long-term local overload, which causes the strain of the sports system. In order to avoid or reduce the occurrence of such sports injuries, coaches should standardize the technical movements of the players and arrange the exercise load reasonably according to the characteristics of the sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-efficiency carbon-based metal catalyst was prepared using inexpensive raw materials and a simple synthetic method to replace the commercial platinum-based catalyst in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this article, clay was used as the template, and residual organic matter after oil adsorption was used as the carbon source and the nitrogen source, respectively. Through ion adsorption, nitrogen-doped porous carbon catalyst (Fe3C/NC) modified by iron carbide was synthesized by high-temperature pyrolysis and etching of clay mineral template. Fe3C/NC was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffractometer. Further experiment showed that this catalyst had good electrochemical activity for ORR. In this paper, we use the organic matter in the waste clay as the carbon source and nitrogen source and use the characteristics of clay in the waste clay to introduce iron ions into the reaction. After high-temperature calcination, we get Fe3C/NC composite. Fe-N co-doping can expose more graphite defects and more active sites, which can also improve the electrocatalytic performance of ORR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Esophageal cancer (EC) is a common and lethal carcinoma; however, the effectiveness and feasibility of the chemo- and radio-therapy (CRT) for the elderly patients (≥ 70 years) with surgery have not been fully discussed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential effect of CRT on the prognosis.Methods: A total of 1085 patients (534 CRT patients vs. 551 non-CRT patients) from 1998 to 2016 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Using the competing risk regression and survival analysis, an overall estimation of the effectiveness of CRT was performed on a well-balanced cohort via performing propensity score matching. Then, the specific impact of CRT on high- (n = 557) and low-risk (n = 528) cohorts derived from the nomogram's risk quantification for every patient were further evaluated respectively. Additionally, the advantages of the nomogram model and the conventional tumor, node, metastasis (TNM, 6th revision) staging system were compared.Results: A better survival outcome was observed among patients receiving both surgery and CRT than those who underwent surgery alone (HR: 0.55, 95% CI 0.45-0.68, P < 0.001), especially for those with tumors characterized by poor differentiation, large tumor size, advanced T staging, lymphatic metastasis, and distant metastasis (HR: 0.48, 95% CI 0.39-0.59, P < 0.001), while no benefit was observed among the low-risk patients. Furthermore, the newly established nomogram model might be better than the TNM (6th revision) staging system but more data needed.Conclusion: Aggressive treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, were considered effective for selected elderly patients with EC according to the newly established nomogram model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Desert regions are regarded as highly sensitive to climatic changes. In arid and semi-arid desert, photosynthetic organisms from biological soil crusts are poikilohydric and sensitive to fluctuations in precipitation. How do physiological properties such as concentration of biochemical constituents and enzymes respond to a precipitation gradient from semi-arid to arid desert regions? Methods: We sampled cyanobacteria and moss crusts from four desert regions with distinctly different amounts of annual rainfall. Subsequently, the contents of photosynthetic pigments, malondialdehyde (MDA), osmotic adjustment substances, and antioxidative enzyme activities were correlated with the means of annual precipitation, evaporation, and temperature at the various sites. Results: Crust type, precipitation level, and their interaction had significant influences on many physiological properties (photosynthetic pigments, proline, soluble sugar, and superoxide dismutase). The contents of soluble protein, proline, and soluble sugar of cyanobacteria/moss crusts decreased with increasing precipitation level. Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities of cyanobacteria crusts decreased significantly with increasing annual precipitation. No significant variations in MDA were observed between different precipitation regions in the two crusts. Conclusions: Among the environmental variables tested, the annual amount of precipitation had the strongest effect on the physiological properties of moss/cyanobacteria crusts in different regions. Crust type combined with particular precipitation level influenced the physiological properties of crusts. Moreover, both moss and cyanobacteria crusts exhibited strong physiological adaptability to changes in precipitation. This result needs to be incorporated into future ecological models, which will help in understanding the function and vulnerability of biocrusts in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Here, we cloned a phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene from Rehmannia glutinosa, and realized RgPDS1 knock out in R. glutinosa resulted in the generation of albino plants. Rehmannia glutinosa is a highly important traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with specific pharmacology and economic value. R. glutinosa is a tetraploid plant, to date, no report has been published on gene editing of R. glutinosa. In this study, we combined the transcriptome database of R. glutinosa and the reported phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene sequences to obtain the PDS gene of R. glutinosa. Then, the PDS gene was used as a marker gene to verify the applicability and gene editing efficiency of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in R. glutinosa. The constructed CRISPR/Cas9 system was mediated by Agrobacterium to genetically transform into R. glutinosa, and successfully regenerated fully albino and chimeric albino plants. The next-generation sequencing (NGS) confirmed that the albino phenotype was indeed caused by RgPDS gene target site editing, and it was found that base deletion was more common than insertion or replacement. Our results revealed that zCas9 has a high editing efficiency on the R. glutinosa genome. This research lays a foundation for further use of gene editing technology to study the molecular functions of genes, create excellent germplasm, accelerate domestication, and improve the yield and quality of R. glutinosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Soil bacteria play an essential role in functioning of ecosystems and maintaining of biogeochemical cycles. However, little is known about changes in the compositions and functional groups of soil bacterial communities during different restoration stages. The influences of aboveground vegetation and belowground soil properties on soil bacterial communities were also unclear during this process. Here we sequenced the soil bacterial communities in different stages of sand fixation. Sand fixation increased the diversity of the bacterial communities, among which the populations of Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes changed significantly. The function prediction showed sand fixation increased Gram‐positive and aerobic bacteria. Bacterial structure is significantly correlated with plant richness, coverage and biomass. In particular, we found species identity was an important determinant in structuring bacterial composition. Soil properties were all significantly correlated with soil bacterial community richness and diversity. Fusobacteria was strongly positively correlated with sand, Chloroflexi with total N and Gemmatimonadetes with SOM and total C. It suggested that soil nutrients (TC, TN and SOM) have large consequences for soil bacterial community dissimilarities. These results indicated that vegetation richness, especially species identity, together with improvement in soil nutrients, play key roles in driving the shifts in soil microbial community structure and function during restoration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the professional field of interior designing, sketch colouring is often a time‐consuming and vapidity task. The traditional neural network does not handle the semantic relationship of sketch lines well, and the colouring effect is unsatisfactory. This paper proposes visual‐attention generative adversarial network (VAGAN), which enhances the processing effect of edge semantics, strengthens the network to line edge recognition ability, as well as reduces colour overflow and improved model colouring result. In addition, a two‐stage training mode is used to simplify the training of rare samples. The simple line draft input into the trained VAGAN, output natural, realistic colour pictures. The experimental results show that, compared with the existing methods, the proposed method can better deal with the problem of sketch and generate stable and reliable images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: In water-limited areas, shrubs influence biological soil crust (biocrust) composition and diversity via soil microenvironment alterations and through modifying biotic interactions amongst biocrust taxa. However, the relative contributions of shrubs to biocrust succession and assembly via the biotic and abiotic influences are poorly known. Methods: The community composition of biocrusts and soil properties in the interspace and beneath the dominant shrub (Artemisia ordosica) along a biocrust succession sequence were investigated. Biocrust interspecific interactions at a small scale (within shrub) were evaluated based on the co-occurrence pattern using null models. A hypothetical multigroup structural equation model (SEM) was proposed to evaluate the influence of multiple variables on the biocrust richness and to investigate the path variance between successional stages. Results: Along the biocrust succession, shrubs significantly increased the size of bare soil gap by 489%, decreased lichens by 43% and increased soil organic matter by 13%. In years 18, 31and 37, the paths in SEM explained 59% of the variation in richness, only the effect of abiotic amelioration was significant (0.62). In years 54 and 62, the shrubs had direct (0.37) and indirect effect (0.10) via species interaction to biocrust richness. Conclusions: Shrubs directly and indirectly affected the community assembly of biocrusts. Biocrust species interactions are an important driver of biocrust diversity and primarily affect late succession. The increasing influences of shrubs suggests a close relationship between shrub and biocrust components in arid or semiarid ecosystems, with shrubs playing an important role in regulating biocrust assembly and maintaining biocrust richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Metastatic adenocarcinoma of unknown primary site (MACUP) is the most common cancer of unknown primary site, and shows worse prognosis. Prediction of its tumor site origin attracts a growing attention. However, the site determined by gene expression profiling does not have a significant impact on the survival. Some other special method might need to be found out. Methods: We reviewed 1011 MACUP patients diagnosed by pathological examination and immunohistochemistry based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database during 2010–2016. Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard model were analyzed to compare the survival. Logistic regression models and relevant nomograms were performed to predicting the probability of the primary site which including digestive system, respiratory system, and female breast. The validation and clinical utility of models were measured with relevant statistical approaches. Results: About 324 (32.1%), 299 (29.6%), and 203 (20.1%) of MACUP patients were identified as the primary sites of digestive system, respiratory system, and female breast, respectively. Patients derived from digestive system and respiratory system showed poorer survival than these with other sites. Digestive system was significantly associated with liver (Odds ratio =13.21 [95% confidence interval =8.48–21.02]) or lung (2.36 [1.40–3.97]) metastasis, while respiratory system was linked to brain (11.68 [6.68–21.26]) or lymph node (3.39 [2.26–5.13]) metastasis. Patients identified as female breast were prone to occur bone metastasis (5.85 [3.68–9.45]). Logistic regression nomograms were developed to help clinicians intuitively predict the probabilities of tumor site origin with 0.867, 0.824, and 0.753 of the C‐index, respectively. Decision curve analysis and clinical impact curves both revealed the clinical effectiveness. Conclusions: We profiled different tumor site origin of MACUP patients and established prediction models. These features might be significant for clinicians to improve the probabilities of predicting the primary sites, and to decide subsequent treatment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second primary malignancy (SPM) ranks the second leading cause of death in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), while studies exploring the risk factors for SPM are limited. To clarify this, we investigated the relationship between the chemotherapy and SPM using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. 11 345 patients initially diagnosed with HNC between 1998 and 2016 were selected from the SEER database. First, these patients were divided into two groups according to chemotherapy or not. With Fine and Gray model, the subdistribution hazard ratio (sHR) of chemotherapy was calculated based on Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Second, the 11 345 cases were randomized into a training set and a validation set. Based on the training set, the different cumulative incidence of SPMs between the patients with and without chemotherapy was estimated respectively in the high‐ and low‐risk group according to the scores derived from a nomogram. Chemotherapy was negatively correlated to the SPMs (sHR: 0.847, 95% CI: 0.733‐0.977, P =.023) by conducting competing risk analysis. With chemotherapy, forest plots showed subgroups of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, sHR: 0.815, 95% CI: 0.7‐0.948, P =.008), 50‐64 years old (sHR:0.794, 95% CI: 0.655‐0.962, P =.019), male (sHR:0.828, 95% CI: 0.703‐0.974, P =.023), and well/moderate histological grade (sHR:0.828, 95% CI: 0.688‐0.996, P =.045) were negatively correlated to SPMs; the nomogram showed the high‐risk population characterized as SCC, elder age, male, and well/moderate histological grade also tended to have lower incidence of SPMs (sHR: 0.805, 95% CI: 0.669‐0.969, P =.022). Despite HNC patients with characteristics of SCC, increased age, male, and well/moderate histological grade had higher risk of a SPM, they were also more likely to be benefitted from chemotherapy to avoid it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PPARD has been suggested to contribute to the etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ) with the underlying mechanisms largely unknown. Here, we first collected and analyzed the PPARD expression profile from three groups: (1) 18 healthy control (HC) subjects, (2) 14 clinical high-risk (CHR) patients, and (3) 19 early onset of SCZ (EOS) patients. After that, we conducted a systematical pathway analysis to explore the potential mechanisms involved in PPARD exerting influence on the pathological development of SCZ. Compared to the HC group, the expression of PPARD was slightly decreased in the EOS group (LFC = − 0.34 ; p = 0.23) and increased in the CHR group (LFC = 0.65 ; p = 0.20). However, there was a significant difference between the EOS group and the CHR group (LFC = − 0.99 ; p = 0.015), reflecting the amount of variation in PPARD expression before and after the onset of SCZ. Pathway analysis suggested that overexpression of PPARD may regulate ten proteins or molecules to inhibit the pathological development of SCZ, including the deactivation of eight SCZ promoters and stimulation of two SCZ inhibitors. Our results support the association between PPARD and SCZ. The pathways identified may help in the understanding of the potential mechanisms by which PPARD contributes to the etiology of SCZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer leads to most of cancer deaths among women worldwide. Systematically analyzing the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network and their functional modules may provide valuable insight into the pathogenesis of breast cancer. In this study, we constructed a lncRNA-TF-associated ceRNA network via combining all the significant lncRNA-TF ceRNA pairs and TF-TF PPI pairs. We computed important topological features of the network, such as degree and average path length. Hub nodes in the lncRNA-TF-associated ceRNA network were extracted to detect differential expression in different subtypes and tumor stages of breast cancer. MCODE was used for identifying the closely connected modules from the ceRNA network. Survival analysis was further used for evaluating whether the modules had prognosis effects on breast cancer. TF motif searching analysis was performed for investigating the binding potentials between lncRNAs and TFs. As a result, a lncRNA-TF-associated ceRNA network in breast cancer was constructed, which had a scale-free property. Hub nodes such as MDM4, ZNF410, AC0842-19, and CTB-89H12 were differentially expressed between cancer and normal sample in different subtypes and tumor stages. Two closely connected modules were identified to significantly classify patients into a low-risk group and high-risk group with different clinical outcomes. TF motif searching analysis suggested that TFs, such as NFAT5, might bind to the promoter and enhancer regions of hub lncRNAs and function in breast cancer biology. The results demonstrated that the synergistic, competitive lncRNA-TF ceRNA network and their functional modules played important roles in the biological processes and molecular functions of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider matrix optimization with the variable as a matrix that is constrained into a low-rank spectral set, where the low-rank spectral set is the intersection of a low-rank set and a spectral set. Three typical spectral sets are considered, yielding three low-rank spectral sets. For each low-rank spectral set, we first calculate the projection of a given point onto this set and the formula of its normal cone, based on which the induced stationary points of matrix optimization over low-rank spectral sets are then investigated. Finally, we reveal the relationship between each stationary point and each local/global minimizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear dispersion (LD) based perfect space-time codes (STBCs) are an efficient means of increasing a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system's overall diversity gain while maintaining the same spectral efficiency as a traditional spatial multiplexed (SM) MIMO system. Because the decoding procedure of LD codes traditionally requires the entire code to be received and decoded simultaneously, complexity increases proportional to the square of the MIMO array size. In this paper, we leverage the increased number of spatial and temporal layers at the decoder to dynamically reduce the complexity of a BLAST optimum ordering and successive interference cancellation (SIC) detector based on the instantaneous system capacity and data rate. The novel approach proposed in this paper is channel code and modulation agnostic, meaning the underlying constellation can be HEX or QAM and there is no feedback from a forward error correction (FEC) decoder, which makes the design useful in a wide range of MIMO systems employing LD codes with linear detectors. We investigate the method's bit error rate (BER) using MIMO dimensions up to $8 \times 8$ and bits per channel use (BPCU) up to 32. We analyze the system's run-time complexity and BER performance in software and implement perfect coding along with the novel method presented here in a custom MIMO orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system and test it over-the-air using an Ettus Research X310 software-defined radio (SDR) testbed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the founding of the New China in 1949, with the gradual development of the history and the constant change of the realistic situation , China's national ideology has also undergone profound changes. As an important type of film, meteorological film plays an important role in the history of Chinese film. From the founding of New China to the end of 1970s, Chinese meteorological films showed a strong atmosphere of class struggle and political propaganda style in ideology. From the beginning of 1980s to the end of 1990s, Chinese meteorological films showed new ideas in ideology and the characteristics of coexistence and spread of new viewpoints. Since the 21st century, Chinese meteorological films have integrated into globalization ideologically and stuck nationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from animal houses and the corresponding hazard have raised increasing attention during recent years. In this study, a large-scale manure-belt laying hen house located in Beijing, China was selected as the experimental site for the study of the emission rates (ER) and chemical compositions of PM 2.5 and PM 10 in 3 seasons, namely, summer, autumn, and winter, to investigate their possible influences on ambient air quality and human health. The results showed that the mean ER from the hen house in summer, autumn, and winter were 9.0 ± 1.7, 2.4 ± 0.7, and 1.9 ± 0.7 mg hen−1 d−1 for PM 2.5 (P < 0.05), and 30.7 ± 1.1, 12.8 ± 1.5, and 10.9 ± 0.9 mg hen−1 d−1 for PM 10 (P < 0.05), respectively. Moreover, large amounts of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA) were observed inside the house in summer, accounting for 11.4 and 9.6% of indoor PM 2.5 and PM 10 mass, respectively, compared with the value of <1.4% in autumn and winter. Among the 31 detected elements in indoor PM, arsenic concentration exceeded the threshold set in legislation. Zn had a notably high concentration of 3,403 to 4,432 ng m−3 in indoor PM 10 , which was 28 to 71 times higher than that in ambient PM 10. The findings suggest that the poultry-raising house emit PM 2.5 and PM 10 containing SIA and toxic heavy-metal elements such as As and Zn to the ambient with much more emissions in summer than in autumn and winter. Considering the increasing development of poultry-raising farming in China, the potential hazard derived from the exhaust of PM 2.5 and PM 10 should be focused on, especially during summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Despite the important role of biological soil crusts in the soil carbon cycles of desert ecosystems, the responses of soil respiration in biological soil crust-dominated areas to warming are not well understood. The goal of this study was to investigate the expected increases in temperature on soil respiration both diurnally and seasonally in biological soil crust-dominated areas. Methods: We used open-top chambers to simulate warming in the Shapotou region in the Tengger Desert, northern China. An automated soil respiration system was used to measure the soil respiration rates in moss-dominated crusts. The measured environmental variables included the precipitation, volumetric soil water content, air temperature and soil temperature at depths of 0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cm. Results: The response of soil respiration to warming is a function of soil moisture following rainfall in desert ecosystems. Our results showed that 1.5 °C of simulated warming significantly decreased soil respiration, indicating that the inhibition of soil respiration was likely due to the reduction in soil water content at a relatively high temperature. Over daily cycles, hourly soil respiration rates have commonly been related to hourly temperatures. The observed diel hysteresis between hourly soil respiration and temperature resulted in semielliptical hysteresis loops, and the temperature often lagged behind soil respiration for several hours. The lag times between soil respiration and temperature were significantly and positively related to the depth of the soil temperature measurements. The proximate reason for the diel hysteresis between soil respiration and temperature was likely a mismatch between the depth of CO2 production and the depth of the temperature measurements. Conclusions: Our results indicate that warming increases the response of soil respiration to soil water availability in biological soil crust-dominated desert ecosystems. Therefore, the accelerated drying effect of warming on soil respiration and diel soil respiration patterns between soil respiration and temperature at different depths should be considered in future soil carbon cycle models for biological soil crust-dominated desert ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Echinops gmelini Turcz. is an annual Asteraceae species widely distributed in the desert habitats of northern China. However, little is known about how this species adapts to harsh desert habitats. In this study, E. gmelini germination behaviors were observed in a natural population at the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert. In addition, the effects of temperature, light, hydration–dehydration (H–D) cycles and different storage conditions on seed germination were tested in the laboratory. E. gmelini behaves as a winter annual, and its seeds germinate during the summer and early autumn in the field. Fresh seeds have non‐deep physiological dormancy (PD). A 15‐day dry storage treatment under laboratory conditions was required to break PD. Non‐dormant seeds can germinate rapidly and at a high rate in light at 30/20°C. Dry storage with seasonal temperature changes had little effect on seed germination and dormancy. However, under natural field conditions, greater and faster germination at a wide range of temperatures was observed after seeds were stored for 1–2 months, which allows seeds to germinate during short periods of moisture availability; seeds were induced into secondary dormancy after storage for 3 months which may prevent germination in autumn. Furthermore, seed germination was reduced and became faster after exposure to four or more H–D cycles. Our results suggest that precipitation is the key factor in determining E. gmelini seed germination time in natural habitats, and they provide information about the strategies that annual plants need to adapt to climatically unpredictable environments in temperate deserts. Echinops gmelini Turcz. behaves as a winter annual in a temperate desert of northern China. The species seeds germinate during the summer and early autumn in the field and the seeds were induced into secondary dormancy in autumn. Furthermore, precipitation is the key factor in determining E. gmelini seed germination time in temperate desert habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel covalent triazine framework (CTF), CTF-MG, was synthesized using a one-step method and used as an adsorbent to recover gold(I) from a thiosulfate solution. CTF-MG exhibited rapid adsorption kinetics for gold, with an equilibrium gold loading capacity of 10.9 mg g−1. The adsorption of gold was observed to be an exothermic process, and the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were used to describe the adsorption process. NaCl could effectively elute gold from the gold-loaded CTF-MG at a desorption rate of 90%. Even after five adsorption–desorption cycles, the gold recovery rate still remained above 80%. Moreover, 94.18% of gold in a copper–ethylenediamine–thiosulfate actual gold leaching solution was efficiently recovered using CTF-MG within 4 h. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization results revealed that anion exchange interaction is the mechanism of adsorption of gold by CTF-MG. The development of this work provides a reference for new methods to recover gold(I) in a thiosulfate solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil respiration induced by biological soil crusts (BSCs) is an important process in the carbon (C) cycle in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, where vascular plants are restricted by the harsh environment, particularly the limited soil moisture. However, the interaction between temperature and soil respiration remains uncertain because of the number of factors that control soil respiration, including temperature and soil moisture, especially in BSC-dominated areas. In this study, the soil respiration in moss-dominated crusts and lichen-dominated crusts was continuously measured using an automated soil respiration system over a one-year period from November 2015 to October 2016 in the Shapotou region of the Tengger Desert, northern China. The results indicated that over daily cycles, the half-hourly soil respiration rates in both types of BSC-covered areas were commonly related to the soil temperature. The observed diel hysteresis between the half-hourly soil respiration rates and soil temperature in the BSC-covered areas was limited by nonlinearity loops with semielliptical shapes, and soil temperature often peaked later than the half-hourly soil respiration rates in the BSC-covered areas. The average lag times between the half-hourly soil respiration rates and soil temperature for both types of BSC-covered areas were two hours over the diel cycles, and they were negatively and linearly related to the volumetric soil water content. Our results highlight the diel hysteresis phenomenon that occurs between soil respiration rates and soil temperatures in BSC-covered areas and the negative response of this phenomenon to soil moisture, which may influence total C budget evaluations. Therefore, the interactive effects of soil temperature and moisture on soil respiration in BSC-covered areas should be considered in global carbon cycle models of desert ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, the potential threats of exotic invasive species are enhanced due to increasing human activities. Biological soil crusts ( BSCs), acting as arid ecosystem engineers, may play an important role in preventing the establishment of exotic invasive plants. Our goal was to examine whether BSCs could inhibit the establishment of probable exotic plant species originating from adjacent grasslands located along the southeast edge of the Tengger Desert. In our study, we investigated the effects of three BSC types (cyanobacteria, lichen, and moss crusts) under two disturbance conditions (intact and disturbed) on the establishment of two exotic plant species ( Ceratoides latens and Setaria viridis) using indoor experiments. We found both negative and positive effects of BSCs on the establishment of the two exotic plant species. Compared with the disturbed BSCs, the germination percentages of C. latens and S. viridis were reduced by 54% to 87% and 89% to 93%, respectively, in intact BSCs. In contrast, BSCs significantly promoted the height growth and aboveground biomass of the two exotic plant species ( p < .05) by enhancing the soil water and nutrient availability for the exotic plants. Our results confirm that BSCs strongly suppress the rapid expansion of exotic plant populations by inhibiting germination of seed with big size or appendages and have a weak inhibitory effect on exotic plant with small and smooth seeds. This may decrease the threat of propagation of exotic species. In the meantime, BSCs promote the growth of a few successful engraftment seedlings, which increased the beta diversity. Our work suggests that better understanding the two opposing effects of BSCs on the establishment of exotic plant species in different growth stages (germination and growth) is important for maintaining the health and stability of revegetated regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) can improve the stability and health of native plant communities in arid ecosystems. However, it is unknown whether BSCs can also inhibit invasions of exotic vascular plants on stabilized reclaimed sand dunes. To answer this question, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to test the effects of cyanobacteria-dominated BSCs on 1) seed germination and biomass of an exotic grass (Stipa glareosa P. Smirn.), and 2) individual biomass of the exotic S. glareosa growing with two native plants, Eragrostis poaeoides Beauv. and Artemisia capillaris Thunb. Our experiment included three BSC treatments (intact crust, disturbed crust, and bare soil) and five species trials (native E. poaeoides alone, E. poaeoides mixed with exotic S. glareosa, native A. capillaris alone, A. capillaris mixed with exotic S. glareosa, and S. glareosa alone). The results showed that cyanobacteria-dominated crusts can significantly reduce the cumulative percent germination of the exotic grass (P<0.001) and native plants (P<0.001). Maximum cumulative percent germinations of the exotic grass and two native plants were found in bare soil, and minimum in intact crusts. The interaction of crust treatment × species trials on shoot biomass of the two native plants was significant (P<0.05). These results indicate that the presence of BSCs on stabilized sand dunes may reduce the germination of the exotic and two native plants. The effect of reducing exotic and native plant seeds germination would maintain more diverse plant communities and contribute to the formation of clumped vegetation patterns. We conclude that BSCs act as a natural regulator for vegetation patterns and thus promote ecosystem stability and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NAs of cyanobacteria- and moss-dominated crusts respond differently to warming. • Lower warming increased N input in cyanobacteria-dominated crusts. • Higher warming decreased N input in soils of both biocrusts. Changes in temperature and precipitation are expected to influence the function of desert ecosystems by altering the biogeochemical cycles of elements. Biocrusts can introduce additional nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) to arid ecosystems through N fixation and photosynthesis. Although biocrusts are the main N contributor in desert ecosystems, it remains unclear how the nitrogenase activity (NA) of biocrusts responds to the prolonged warming coupled with precipitation reduction that is predicted to occur with climate change. To address this important knowledge gap, the experiment including two groups of open-top chambers was designed to simulate the predicted climate change in an arid desert. In a simulation experiment conducted over 14 years, the NAs of cyanobacteria- and moss-dominated crusts were determined by acetylene reduction assay. In parallel, the water increment, NO 3 –-N, NH 4 +-N, total N content, and absolute abundance of nif H-gene were also determined. The results showed that in cyanobacteria-dominated crusts, 0.5 °C-warming coupled with a reduction in precipitation (abbreviated as 0.5 W-RP) increased the NA, while 1.5 °C-warming coupled with a reduction in precipitation (1.5 W-RP) decreased the NA and the biocrust-soil total N content. The abundance of nif H-gene in the cyanobacteria-dominated crusts increased under the two warming scenarios. Both 0.5 W-RP and 1.5 W-RP promoted the NA in the moss-dominated crusts, simultaneously reducing the abundance of nif H-gene. However, there was no N pool increase in the cyanobacteria-dominated crusts with 1.5 W-RP and in the moss-dominated crusts under the two warming scenarios. In contrast, the results suggested that there may be an increase in nitrogen input in cyanobacteria-dominated crusts under lower warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural materials that are economical and environmentally benign are being explored as adsorbent bases for recovering Au(I) from thiosulfate solution via an efficient grafted functional group. In this work, natural vermiculite (VE) modified with triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) was used to adsorb Au(I) from thiosulfate solution, and it's gold recovery performance and adsorption mechanism. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption were used to characterize the adsorbents. TPPO-modified VE (VE-TPPO) showed improved gold adsorption ability at a pH of approximately 10, thiosulfate concentration of approximately 0.1 mol/L and temperature of approximately 25 °C. More than 95% of Au(I) could be recovered, and the loading capacity of Au on VE-TPPO increased with decreasing adsorption temperature, reaching an amount of 4.22 kg/t after once adsorption. TPPO was adsorbed on vermiculite through cationic-π bonds. Au(I) was adsorbed on VE-TPPO by a ligand-exchange mechanism involving charge transfer between P O groups and Au(I). Moreover, the interaction mechanism between TPPO and Au(I) was further validated by density functional theory calculations. The use of natural materials with low cost and environmental impact can make the process of leaching gold with thiosulfate safer and cleaner. [Display omitted] • Natural vermiculite mineral could be used as a support for Au(I) adsorption. • Vermiculite rich in P O groups could be obtained by a controllable impregnation. • P O groups could recovered Au(I) from the thiosulfate solution effectively. • The complex of P O group with Au(I) was more stable than the [Au(S 2 O 3) 2 ]3−. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type R (PTPRR), which regulates the dephosphorylation of the downstream mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) steering cell proliferation, apoptosis and synaptic plasticity, may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression.Methods: Lentiviral vectors were utilized to express the PTPRR constitutively in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) of mice before or after chronic mild stress. Behavior tests, MAPK levels, neuronal apoptosis and cell proliferation in the hippocampal DG were examined.Results: Without chronic mild stress (CMS), the lenti-shPTPRR mice showed shorter immobility time in the tail suspension test than controls, while the lenti-PTPRR mice exhibited significantly less sucrose intake and increased immobility time in the forced swim tests than control mice, indicating increased prodepressant-like effects of PTPRR in lenti-PTPRR mice. Similarly, under CMS, the lenti-shPTPRR mice had more sucrose intake, shorter immobility time in the forced swim test and tail suspension test compared to controls, and lenti-PTPRR mice had less sucrose intake and longer immobility time in forced swim test and tail suspension test, exhibiting increased susceptibility to depressive-like behaviors and greater sensitivity to CMS. Besides, the Phospho-ERK1/2(p-ERK) had significant lower phosphorylation in lenti-PTPRR group and higher expression in lenti-shPTPRR group, both without CMS. The Lenti-PTPRR mice exposed to CMS had significant lower p-ERK, and the lenti-shPTPRR mice exposed to CMS had significant higher p-ERK and lower p-P38. Moreover, there were more cells underwent apoptosis in lenti-PTPRR group ,with and without CMS. In cell proliferation, less BrdU positive cells were observed in lenti-PTPRR mice than controls.Conclusion: The site-specific lentiviral injections resulted in the PTPRR over-expression in the hippocampal DG and subsequent increased ERK dephosphorylation, which leads to more neuron apoptosis, less cell proliferation, depression onset and increased sensitivity to CMS. PTPRR/ERK pathway could be potential target for depression therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Treatment effects of electroacupuncture for patients with subjective tinnitus has yet to be clarified. Objectives: To assess the effect of electroacupuncutre for alleviating the symptoms of subjective tinnitus. Methods: Extensive literature searches were carried out in three English and four Chinese databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang Chinese Digital Periodical and Conference Database, VIP, and ChiCTR).The date of the most recent search was 1 June 2014. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs were included. The titles, abstracts, and keywords of all records were reviewed by two authors independently. The data were collected and extracted by three authors. The risk of bias in the trials was assessed in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook, version 5.1.0. (). Eighty-nine studies were retrieved. After discarding 84 articles, five studies with 322 participants were identified. Assessment of the methodological quality of the studies identified weaknesses in all five studies. All studies were judged as having a high risk of selection and performance bias. The attrition bias was high in four studies. Incompleteness bias was low in all studies. Reporting bias was unclear in all studies. Because of the limited number of trials included and the various types of interventions and outcomes, we were unable to conduct pooled analyses. Conclusions: Due to the poor methodological quality of the primary studies and the small sample sizes, no convincing evidence that electroacupuncture is beneficial for treating tinnitus could be found. There is an urgent need for more high-quality trials with large sample sizes for the investigation of electroacupuncture treatment for tinnitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An indoor air quality monitoring system helps in the detection and improvement of indoor air quality. The monitoring systems presently available are very expensive. In this paper, we present a low-cost indoor air quality monitoring wireless sensor network system developed using Arduino, XBee modules, and micro gas sensors. The system is capable of collecting six air quality parameters from different locations simultaneously. We have also developed a linear least square estimation-based method for sensor calibration and measurement data conversion. In this paper, we present the detailed design of wireless air quality sensor node and the calibration method. The performance and usefulness of the system are demonstrated by comparing measurement results of our system with a professional-grade air quality measurement device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similarity between spectral lines is key in the field of agricultural sensing classification, however, the measured spectral lines mostly mislead the classification because of unexpected disturbance in application. To enhance the accuracy of classification, similarity learning is introduced into agricultural remote sensing classification. Within the framework of similarity learning, the training set is generated by pairing the labeled spectral lines which means the size of training set for learning similarity is heavily increasing. Noticed this problem, a novel spectrum-set similarity learning algorithm is reported for balancing the gain in classification and the computational burden of learning similarity. Different from traditional point-based similarity, the spectrum-set similarity measures the similarity between two spectral sets which contain some spectral lines. Following the idea, set-based training set is generated by clustering the spectral lines in the point-based training set. Experimental results have shown the effectiveness and efficiency of learning spectrum-set similarity measure for agriculture sensing classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaumuria soongorica is one of the typical desert plants that present excellent tolerance to adverse environments. However, its molecular response to UV-B radiation remains poorly understood. To test the response and tolerance mechanisms of R. soongorica to the increasing UV-B radiation, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were investigated between the control and UV-B radiation groups. A total of 2150 DEGs were detected between the two groups, of which 561 were up-regulated and 1589 were down-regulated. For functional analysis, DEGs were divided into three groups: (i) Chloroplast-localized proteins, including photosynthesis-associated proteins, ribulose-phosphate-3-epimerase, and ATP-dependent Clp protease. Their transcripts were inhibited, implying that the normal function of chloroplast was affected by UV-B radiation. (ii) Proteins involved in signaling transduction, such as phototropins and GTP-binding proteins. The transcriptional alternation of phototropins may reduce the penetration of UV-B radiation by regulating phototropism, stomatal opening, and chloroplast relocation. The down regulation of GTP-binding proteins may inhibit replication of potentially damaged DNA through preventing cell division; and (iii) proteins for lipid transfer and flavonoids biosynthesis. The up-regulation of these genes suggested that lipid transfer and flavonoids may have a protective function in response to UV-B radiation. Thus, UV-B radiation may lead to the disruption of chloroplasts function. The induction of genes for signal transduction and protective proteins may be a strategy for responding to UV-B radiation in R. soongorica . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a high-dimensional data, hyperspectral image contains rich information for agricultural remote sensing classification. Locality preserving projections (LPPs) have been widely used for extracting compact and discriminative information from such high-dimensional data. The objective function of LPP is formulated as a sum of the difference between transformed low dimensional vectors weighed by a function of the difference between images. The weights are crucial for LPP which enforce reduced feature vectors preserving the locality property in the original high dimensional space. In this paper, we borrow the idea of weight design of bilateral filtering to re-design the weights in LPP. The weights in bilateral filtering depend not only on the Euclidean distance of pixels (i.e., spatial weight) but also on the intensity differences (i.e., range weight). Analogously, we design the weights in our improved LPP (called bilateral LPP and abbreviated to BLPP) as a multiplication of a function of Euclidean distance ‖ x i − x j ‖ of the original images (i.e., spatial weight) and a function of the Euclidean distance ‖ f ( x i ) − f ( x j ) ‖ of the features extracted from the images (i.e., range weight, a.k.a., feature weight). The spatial weight measures the similarity in spatial space whereas the feature weight measures the similarity in feature space which reveals the content of the images. Thus, the proposed BLPP utilizes both the spatial information and the image content information, which results in higher recognition rate. Experimental results on the Salinas and Indian Pine hyperspectral databases demonstrate the effectiveness of BLPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf epidermal micromorphology and mesophyll structure during the development of Populus euphratica heteromorphic leaves, including linear, lanceolate, ovate, dentate ovate, dentate rhombic, dentate broad-ovate and dentate fan-shaped leaves, were studied by using electron and light microscopy. During development of heteromorphic leaves, epidermal appendages (wax crystals and trichomes) and special cells (mucilage cells and crystal idioblasts) increased in all leaf types while chloroplast ultrastructure and stomatal characters show maximum photosynthetic activity in dentate ovate and rhombic leaves. Also, functional analysis by subordinate function values shows that the maximum adaptability to adverse stress was exhibited in the broad type of mature leaves. The 12 heteromorphic leaf types are classified into three major groups by hierarchical cluster analysis: young, developing and mature leaves. Mature leaves can effectively obtain the highest stress resistance by combining the protection of xerophytic anatomy from drought stress, regulation of water uptake in micro-environment by mucilage and crystal idioblasts, and assistant defense of transpiration reduction through leaf epidermal appendages, which improves photosynthetic activity under arid desert conditions. Our data confirms that the main leaf function is differentiated during the developing process of heteromorphic leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field studies were conducted to investigate the influence of ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on the moss Bryum argenteum and cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus isolated from biological soil crusts (BSC) from the southeastern fringe of the Tengger Desert, China. UV-B supplementation with 0.33, 0.50, and 0.66 W m −2 was achieved using fluorescence tube systems for 40 days. We investigated Chl fluorescence parameters as well as photosynthetic pigment contents. We also measured lipid peroxidative production, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) which quench free radicals and prevent oxidative stress. We found that higher UV-B radiation significantly decreased ( p < 0.05) the Chl fluorescence parameters, Chl and carotenoid (Car) contents, and antioxidative enzymes activities. In addition, higher intensities of UV-B radiation induced dramatic increases in MDA content of B. argenteum and M. vaginatus . The results of this study showed that increased levels of UV-B radiation caused detrimental effects on chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence, photosynthetic pigment and antioxidant systems of B. argenteum and M. vaginatus . B. argenteum was more sensitive to enhanced UV-B radiation than M. vaginatus . Increased UV-B intensity causes changes in the composition and structure of BSC that could impair their protective ecological functions in desert areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous attempts have been made to control desertification and restore soil by inducing biological soil crusts (BSCs) formation through inoculation with cyanobacteria or application of soil fixing chemicals. In this study, combined application of biological (cyanobacteria) and chemical (superabsorbent polymer: SAP) materials to sand particles was conducted under laboratory conditions. Nostoc sp. was applied to sand at 5 to 25 mg fresh weight (FW)/cm2and incubated at 25°C under 100 μmol photons m−2s−1for 12 hr per day for 3 months. MWD (Mean Weight Diameter) analysis showed that the minimal cell dose for artificial BSCs induction was 10 mg FW/cm2, and the resulting BSC was stable enough to resist various destructive factors. Aggregate stability of the combined biological and chemical treatment (ACSAP) was higher than that of samples treated withNostoccells alone (AC) in the fast and slow wetting tests, but less stable than that of AC treatment in the wet stirring test. The SAP showed no harmful effect onNostoccell growth because of increased biomass during ACSAP treatment. However, the levels of extracellular polysaccharides (ESP) were lower upon ACSAP treatment than AC treatment. The wet stirring test demonstrated that ESP content was more important than cyanobacterial biomass for maintaining stability of the induced BSC. Overall, this study provides useful information regarding the interaction ofNostoccells and superabsorbent polymer during artificial BSC formation. The results indicate that future studies investigating application of combined treatment ofNostoccells and SAP in the field are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NA of biocrusts is mainly determined by surface soil water. • NA of cyanobacteria- was higher than that of moss-dominated crust when not restricted by water. • NA of moss- was related with micro-biomass C, but oxidable C for cyanobacteria-dominated crust. In arid desert regions, a large proportion of the ground surface is covered by specialized organisms such as cyanobacteria and mosses that form biological soil crusts (BSCs), which have multifunctionality in the ecosystem via stabilizing soil and fixing nitrogen (N) and carbon (C). Climate change, especially variations in rainfall will alter BSC species composition, cover and biomass, shaping the N-fixation of BSCs. Although BSCs are main contributors of N in desert ecosystems, it is not clear how nitrogenase activity (NA) of BSCs responds to changes in rainfall amount and frequency to function in the N-cycle. To address this important knowledge gap, based on long-term rainfall monitoring and predicted scenarios, we designed five levels of rainfall amount ranging from decreased by 50% to increased by 50%, and five rainfall frequencies ranging from increased by 100% to decreased by 80%, to simulate the potential variation of rainfall using rainout shelters. The NA of bare soil and cyanobacteria- and moss-dominated crust soil (three soil types) was determined by acetylene reduction assay. The soil water content (SWC), oxidable C and microbial biomass C and N were also determined. The NA of the three soil types was positively correlated with their SWC when rainfall amount decreased. In the case of increased rainfall frequency, NA of bare soil and moss-dominated crust was positively correlated with SWC, but negatively correlated for cyanobacteria-dominated crust. However, with increased rainfall amount combined with decreased rainfall frequency, there was no significant relationship between NA and SWC. In addition, NA of BSC was higher than that of bare soil with increased rainfall amount combined with decreased rainfall frequency, while that of bare soil was higher than that of BSC for decreased rainfall amount combined with increased rainfall frequency. In the case of increased frequency combined with decreased rainfall amount, the NA was higher for moss-dominated than cyanobacteria-dominated crust, but higher for cyanobacteria-dominated than moss-dominated crust for reduced rainfall frequency combined with increased rainfall amount. Meanwhile, NA of both bare soil and moss-dominated crust was correlated with microbial biomass C; and NA of cyanobacteria-dominated crust was positively correlated with SWC as well as oxidable C. Our findings indicated that future changes in rainfall regime will strongly affect NA of BSCs and bare soil in arid desert regions, and consequently change the soil fertility and net primary production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]