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A market-oriented reform of China’s 2016 Temporary Purchase and Storage Policy (TPSP) is important for improving the price-forming mechanism of maize. Using monthly, province-level panel data and a dynamic spatial econometric model, this study distinguishes the heterogeneous spatial price transmissions of maize under officially supportive and market-oriented regimes. Our empirical results show that the spatial transmission of maize prices was remarkably distorted under the TPSP. Simultaneously, its market-oriented reform has greatly reduced regional price differences and generated a more flexible and much smoother spatial price transmission. The reform provides important insights for improving agricultural support regimes for other products in China.

He Zhao,1,&ast; Yan-jun Wang,1,&ast; Rui-guo Wang,2 Da Liu,3 Ya-qing Duan,4 Yang-jin Liu,1 Yu-hong Zeng,5 Qin-peng Zhao,2 Zheng-ping Zhang2 1Department of Emergency Medicine, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710054, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Spine Surgery, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710054, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Orthopaedics, General Hospital of Western Theatre Command of PLA, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610083, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Imaging, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710054, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Osteoporosis, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710054, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zheng-ping Zhang, Department of Spine Surgery, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 76 Nanguo Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710054, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 17791674069, Email hh_othem@163.comPurpose: Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is commonly used for evaluation of bone mineral density before spinal surgery, but frequently leads to overestimation in degenerative spinal diseases due to osteoproliferation factors. We introduce a novel method to compare the predictive ability of Hounsfield Units (HU) and DXA methods to predict screw loosening after lumbar interbody fusion surgery in degenerative spinal diseases by measuring HU of pedicle screw trajectory on computed tomography (CT) images preoperatively.Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on patients who underwent posterior lumbar fusion surgery for degenerative diseases. CT HUs measurement was performed using medical imaging software, including the cancellous region on cross-sections of the vertebral body and three-dimensional pedicle screw trajectory. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed for the risk of pedicle screw loosening in association with the Hounsfield scale and preoperative BMD, and the area under the curve (AUC) and the cutoff values were calculated.Results: A total of 90 patients were enrolled and were divided into loosening (n = 33, 36.7%) and non-loosening groups (n = 57, 63.3%). No significant differences in age, gender, length of fixation and preoperative BMD were found between both groups. The loosening group showed lower CT HU values in the vertebral body and screw trajectory than the non-loosening group. Screw trajectory HU (ST-HU) exhibited a higher AUC value than vertebral body HU (B-HU). The cutoff values of B-HU and ST-HU were 160 and 110 HUs, respectively.Conclusion: Three-dimensional pedicle screw trajectory HU values yields a stronger predictive value than vertebral body HU values and BMD and may provide more guidance for surgery. The risk of screw loosening is significantly increased at ST-HU < 110 or B-HU < 160 at L5 segment.Keywords: osteoporosis, degenerative spinal disease, fixation failure, imaging observation

High N-fertilizer applications to conventional vegetable production systems are associated with substantial emissions of NH3, a key substance that triggers haze pollution and ecosystem eutrophication and thus, causing considerable damage to human and ecosystem health. While N fertilization effects on NH3 volatilization from cereal crops have been relatively well studied, little is known about the magnitude and yield-scaled emissions of NH3 from vegetable systems. Here we report on a 2-year field study investigating the effect of various types and rates of fertilizer application on NH3 emissions and crop yields for a pepper-lettuce-cabbage rotation system in southwest China. Our results show that both NH3 emissions and direct emission factors of applied N varied largely across seasons over the 2-year period, highlighting the importance of measurements spanning entire cropping years. Across all treatments varying from solely applying urea fertilizers to only using organic manures, annual NH3 emissions ranged from 0.64 to 92.4 kg N ha−1 yr−1 (or 0.07–6.84 g N kg−1 dry matter), equivalent to 0.05–5.99% of the applied N. At annual scale, NH3 emissions correlated positively with soil δ15N values, indicating that soil δ15N may be used as an indicator for NH3 losses. NH3 emissions from treatments fertilized partially or fully with manure were significantly lower compared with the urea fertilized treatment, while vegetable yields remained unaffected. Moreover, full substitution of urea by manure as compared to the partial substitution further reduced the yield-scaled annual NH3 emissions by 79.0–92.4%. Across all vegetable seasons, there is a significant negative relationship between yield-scaled NH3 emissions and crop N use efficiency. Overall, our results suggest that substituting urea by manure and reducing total N inputs by 30–50% allows to reduce NH3 emissions without jeopardizing yields. Such a change in management provides a feasible option to achieve environmental sustainability and food security in conventional vegetable systems.

This paper proposes an efficient short-time probability approximation with Lévy excitation to capture the transient probability distribution and its evolving path. Using principal component analysis (PCA), the method constructs a probability core to exclude outliers beyond it. The statistics of samples that fall inside the core are treated, with a prescribed fiducial probability, as an easy-to-estimate Gaussian type. The idea is verified numerically by compared with Monte-Carlo results. Then, it is integrated into the path integral (PI) method, combined with evolving probabilistic vector (EPV) techniques, to efficiently obtain probability distributions in each time step of PI. This scheme is semianalytical, only dependent on a relatively small amount of response samples to form the probability core; thus, it can have very computational advantages over full Monte-Carlo simulation to capture transient responses and probability distributions. The application to investigating response transitions of a nonsmooth system driven by Lévy shock and jump has revealed the performance of the proposed method. Also, the exit times of stochastic response are characterized quantitatively from the perspective of global dynamic transition. These investigations will be helpful to achieve the efficient probability estimation for nonlinear system with non-Gaussian inputs and quantify the reliability of the mechanical system.

The MnSn monolayer synthesized recently is a novel two-dimensional ferromagnetic material with a hexagonal lattice, in which three Mn atoms come together to form a trimer, making it remarkably different from other magnetic two-dimensional materials. Most impressively, there occurs a sharp increase of the Curie temperature from 54 to 225 K when the number of layers increases from 1 to 3. However, no quantitative explanation has been reported in previous studies. Herein, by means of the first-principles calculation method and the Monte Carlo method, we demonstrate that strong interlayer ferromagnetic coupling plays an essential role in enhancing its critical temperature, which acts as a magnetic field to stabilize the ferromagnetism in MnSn multilayers. Our work not only explains the sharp increase of the Curie temperature of the MnSn film in experiments but also reveals that the interlayer coupling is a new routine to achieve high-temperature ferromagnetism in two-dimensional materials.

Recently, the interpretability of deep learning has attracted a lot of attention. A plethora of methods have attempted to explain neural networks by feature visualization, saliency maps, model distillation, and so on. However, it is hard for these methods to reveal the intrinsic properties of neural networks. In this work, we studied the 1-D optimal piecewise linear approximation (PWLA) problem, and associated it with a designed neural network, named lattice neural network (LNN). We asked four essential questions as following: (1) What are the characters of the optimal solution of the PWLA problem? (2) Can an LNN converge to the global optimum? (3) Can an LNN converge to the local optimum? (4) Can an LNN solve the PWLA problem? Our main contributions are that we propose the theorems to characterize the optimal solution of the PWLA problem and present the LNN method for solving it. We evaluated the proposed LNNs on approximation tasks, forged an empirical method to improve the performance of LNNs. The experiments verified that our LNN method is competitive with the start-of-the-art method.

Vincetoxicum is one of the largest genera in Apocynaceae with recent expansion that includes former Tylophora, Biondia, and other small genera. In this study, we describe Vincetoxicum pingtaoanum sp. nov., a new woody species of Apocynaceae from the Three Gorges District in Central China based on our recent field and old herbarium collections. It is unique due to its growth habit and leaf characteristics which is similar to the former Biondia species. However, it has the well-developed corona common to the former Tylophora species. Diagnostic characteristics, a full description, photographs, ecology, and a distribution map and conservation status of the new species are provided in this study. Detailed comparisons with similar species and a key to all known species of Vincetoxicum from the Three Gorges District are also provided.

Qianting Yang, Jiao Xie, Yan Cai, Na Wang, Yan Wang, Li Zhang, Youjia Li, Jingjie Yu, Ya Li, Haitao Wang, Kanghuai Zhang Department of Pharmacy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Kanghuai Zhang, Department of Pharmacy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 157 Xiwu Road, Xi’an, 710004, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-29-87679282, Email zhangkanghuai12@163.comPurpose: To determine whether combinations of antifungal drugs are effective and safe for patients in intensive-care units.Methods: This study compared the efficacy and safety of caspofungin (CAS), voriconazole (VOR), amphotericin B liposome (L-AmB), CAS+VOR, and CAS+L-AmB as empirical, preemptive, and targeted therapies for invasive fungal infection (IFI).Results: Comparing the CAS, VOR, and CAS+VOR groups revealed that there were no differences in response rates between all therapy types, IFI-associated death within 90 days was less common in the CAS+VOR group (1.8%) than the VOR group (14.3%), and there were more adverse events in the VOR group than in the CAS group (P < 0.05). For empirical or preemptive therapy, the CAS group had a better response rate (80.0%) than the CAS+VOR group (47.1%), and there were more adverse events in the VOR group than in the CAS group (P < 0.05). For targeted therapy, no differences were found for efficacy and safety. There were no differences among the CAS, L-AmB, and CAS+L-AmB groups in efficacy and safety.Conclusion: Patients who received CAS monotherapy as an empirical or preemptive therapy could achieve good outcomes. Patients who received CAS+VOR or CAS+L-AmB achieved almost the same outcomes when compared with those who received CAS, VOR, and L-AmB monotherapy as targeted therapies, but those who received CAS+VOR had a lower IFI mortality rate than did those who received VOR monotherapy.Keywords: caspofungin, voriconazole, amphotericin B liposome, combination therapy, invasive fungal infection, intensive-care units

Deep learning techniques for medical image analysis usually suffer from the domain shift between source and target data. Most existing works focus on unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA). However, in practical applications, privacy issues are much more severe. For example, the data of different hospitals have domain shifts due to equipment problems, and data of the two domains cannot be available simultaneously because of privacy. In this challenge defined as Source-Free UDA, the previous UDA medical methods are limited. Although a variety of medical source-free unsupervised domain adaption (MSFUDA) methods have been proposed, we found they fall into an over-fitting dilemma called "longer training, worse performance." Therefore, we propose the Stable Learning (SL) strategy to address the dilemma. SL is a scalable method and can be integrated with other research, which consists of Weight Consolidation and Entropy Increase. First, we apply Weight Consolidation to retain domain-invariant knowledge and then we design Entropy Increase to avoid over-learning. Comparative experiments prove the effectiveness of SL. We also have done extensive ablation experiments. Besides, We will release codes including a variety of MSFUDA methods.

The recently developed hybrid magnonics provides new opportunities for advances in both the study of magnetism and the development of quantum information processing. However, engineering coherent quantum state transfer between magnons and specific information carriers, in particular, mechanical oscillators and solid-state spins, remains challenging due to the intrinsically weak interactions and the frequency mismatch between diffrent components. Here, we show how to strongly couple the magnon modes in a nanomagnet to the quantized mechanical motion (phonons) of a micromechanical cantilever in a hybrid tripartite system. The coherent and enhanced magnon-phonon coupling is engineered by introducing the quantum parametric amplifiation of the mechanical motion. With experimentally feasible parameters, we show that the mechanical parametric drive can be adjusted to drive the system into the strong-coupling regime and even the ultrastrong-coupling regime. Furthermore, we show the coherent state transfer between the nanomagnet and a nitrogen-vacancy center in the dispersive-coupling regime, with the magnon-spin interaction mediated by the virtually-excited squeezed phonons. The amplifid mechanical noise can hardly interrupt the coherent dynamics of the system even for low mechanical quality factors, which removes the requirement of applying additional engineered-reservoir techniques. Our work opens up prospects for developing novel quantum transducers, quantum memories and high-precision measurements., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

Currently, deep learning (DL) has achieved the automatic prediction of dose distribution in radiotherapy planning, enhancing its efficiency and quality. However, existing methods suffer from the over-smoothing problem for their commonly used L_1 or L_2 loss with posterior average calculations. To alleviate this limitation, we innovatively introduce a diffusion-based dose prediction (DiffDP) model for predicting the radiotherapy dose distribution of cancer patients. Specifically, the DiffDP model contains a forward process and a reverse process. In the forward process, DiffDP gradually transforms dose distribution maps into Gaussian noise by adding small noise and trains a noise predictor to predict the noise added in each timestep. In the reverse process, it removes the noise from the original Gaussian noise in multiple steps with the well-trained noise predictor and finally outputs the predicted dose distribution map. To ensure the accuracy of the prediction, we further design a structure encoder to extract anatomical information from patient anatomy images and enable the noise predictor to be aware of the dose constraints within several essential organs, i.e., the planning target volume and organs at risk. Extensive experiments on an in-house dataset with 130 rectum cancer patients demonstrate the s, to be published in MICCAI 2023

To reduce vehicle exhaust gas pollution in transport-intensive roadways and tunnels, six types of photocatalytic asphalt binders were designed using graphite-phase carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and nanoscale titanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) particles. In this paper, the rheological behaviors and fatigue life of the nano-TiO2-modified asphalt binder (TiO2-MA) and g-C3N4-modified asphalt binder (C3N4-MA) were investigated. NO degradation capacity of six types of photocatalytic asphalt binders was characterized under visible light conditions. The results showed that TiO2-MA had more excellent rheological behaviors and rutting resistance than C3N4-MA. In addition, 4 wt% nano-TiO2 markedly improved the rheological behaviors and rutting resistance of MA compared to other dosages. TiO2-MA exhibited higher fatigue resistance. The fatigue life of TiO2-MA with 4 wt% nano-TiO2 was increased to 234.1% at 2.5% strain and 242.5% at 5% strain, respectively, compared to base asphalt binder (BA). C3N4-MA had better NO degradation capacity than TiO2-MA. Meanwhile, the NO degradation efficiency of C3N4-MA reached 17.8% with 5 wt% g-C3N4.

Zeolites were modified by high-temperature roasting and chitosan loading, respectively. As a result, activated zeolite and chitosan-loading natural zeolite were obtained. They were used for the treatment of the micro-polluted irrigation water quality simulated by a low concentration (100 μg/L) of Cd(II) contamination. The static adsorption experiments showed that two types of modified zeolites were cost-effective and had high removal efficiency for low concentrations of Cd(II). The removal rates were 95.8% and 92.06%, respectively. The static adsorption experiments investigated the effects of modified zeolite dosage, pH, initial concentration of the solution, and adsorption time on the removal efficiency of cadmium ions. The dynamic adsorption experiments discussed the influence of factors such as dynamic adsorption medium type, influent filtration rate, and adsorbent amount on adsorption efficiency in the adsorption column. The dynamic adsorption experiments adopted intermittent operation to simulate the characteristics of micro-polluted irrigation water. The optimal operating conditions were determined as follows: single activated zeolite filter column or mixed medium (activated zeolite: chitosan loading natural zeolite = 4:1), filtration rate of 6 m/h, filter column height of 500 mm, adsorbent dosage of 30 g. The removal rate was more than 99.5%. The adsorption experiments were represented by Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The adsorption results indicated that the adsorption of modified zeolite showed a better correlation with the Langmuir isotherm model than the Freundlich isotherm model. The adsorption process was described by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model being the predominant mechanism. The average concentration of Cd(II) in the effluent after filtration was 0.41 μg/L, which was far lower than the 0.01 mg/L stipulated in the standard for irrigation water quality (GB5084-2021), and met the requirements of the irrigation water quality standard. Activated zeolite and chitosan-loaded natural zeolite are good adsorbent materials that have broad application prospects in the treatment of micro-polluted irrigation water containing low concentrations of Cd(II).

For a number $l\geq 2$, let ${\cal{G}}_l$ denote the family of graphs which have girth $2l+1$ and have no odd hole with length greater than $2l+1$. Wu, Xu and Xu conjectured that every graph in $\bigcup_{l\geq 2} {\cal{G}}_{l}$ is $3$-colorable. Chudnovsky et al., Wu et al., and Chen showed that every graph in ${\cal{G}}_2$, ${\cal{G}}_3$ and $\bigcup_{l\geq 5} {\cal{G}}_{l}$ is $3$-colorable respectively. In this paper, we prove that every graph in ${\cal{G}}_4$ is $3$-colorable. This confirms Wu, Xu and Xu's conjecture., arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2210.12376, arXiv:2301.00112 by other authors

Spinning neutron stars (NSs) will emit continuous gravitational waves (GWs) that carry a wealth of information about the compact object. If such a signal is detected, it will provide us with new insight into the physical properties of the matter under extreme conditions. According to binary population synthesis simulations, future space-based GW detectors, such as LISA and TianQin, can potentially detect some double NSs in tight binaries with orbital periods shorter than 10 minutes. Targeted searches for continuous GWs from the spinning NS in such a binary system identified by LISA/TianQin will be possible with the proposed next-generation ground-based GW observatories, such as Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope. Searching for continuous GWs from such a tight binary system requires highly accurate waveform templates that account for the interaction of the NS with its companion. In this spirit, we derive analytic approximate GWs emitted by a triaxial non-aligned NS in a binary system in which the effects of spin-orbit coupling have been incorporated. The difference with the widely used waveform for the isolated NS is estimated and the parameter estimation accuracy of the signals using Cosmic Explorer is calculated. For a typical tight double NS system with a 6~min orbital period, the angular frequency correction of the spinning NS in this binary due to spin precession is $\sim 10^{-6}~{\rm Hz}$, which is in the same order of magnitude as the angular frequency of orbital precession. The fitting factor between the waveforms with and without spin precession will drop to less than 0.97 after a few days ($\sim 10^5~{\rm s}$). We find that spin-orbit coupling has the potential to improve the accuracy of parameter estimation, especially for the binary inclination angle and spin precession cone opening angle, by up to 3 orders of magnitude., 15 pages, 9 figures

Extensive studies have shown that deep learning models are vulnerable to adversarial and natural noises, yet little is known about model robustness on noises caused by different system implementations. In this paper, we for the first time introduce SysNoise, a frequently occurred but often overlooked noise in the deep learning training-deployment cycle. In particular, SysNoise happens when the source training system switches to a disparate target system in deployments, where various tiny system mismatch adds up to a non-negligible difference. We first identify and classify SysNoise into three categories based on the inference stage; we then build a holistic benchmark to quantitatively measure the impact of SysNoise on 20+ models, comprehending image classification, object detection, instance segmentation and natural language processing tasks. Our extensive experiments revealed that SysNoise could bring certain impacts on model robustness across different tasks and common mitigations like data augmentation and adversarial training show limited effects on it. Together, our findings open a new research topic and we hope this work will raise research attention to deep learning deployment systems accounting for model performance. We have open-sourced the benchmark and framework at https://modeltc.github.io/systemnoise_web., Proceedings of Machine Learning and Systems. 2023 Mar 18

Information session on Publishing/Archiving Data & Code, co-organized by the Graduate School, Research Data and Software Services and Data Stewards at TU Delft With contribution from Esther Plomp 0000-0003-3625-1357

Raw data of first-principles calculations for "Homogeneous Surface Manipulation Enables Efficient and Scalable Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells" from Gaussian (G16,version C01) calculations to reproduce electrostatic potential (ESP) results of Fc-based compounds in Fig. 1a-b using MULTIWFN software(see Manual_3.3.8.pdf (mit.edu)or Multiwfn_quick_start.pdf (berkeley.edu)).

Xiang-Zhe Shi,1,2 Sheng Zhao,3 Yan Wang,1,2 Meng-Yao Wang,1,2 Su-Wen Su,1,2 Yan-Zhao Wu,3 Chen Xiong1,2 1The Key Laboratory of Neural and Vascular Biology, Ministry of Education, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050017, People’s Republic of China; 2The Key Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology for New Drugs, Department of Pharmacology, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhung, 050017, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 4th Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050011, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Chen Xiong; Yan-Zhao Wu, Email bearmorning@sina.com; wyz315@163.comIntroduction: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most lethal thyroid carcinoma. Doxorubicin (DOX) is the only drug approved for anaplastic thyroid cancer treatment, but its clinical use is restricted due to irreversible tissue toxicity. Berberine (BER), an isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from Coptidis Rhizoma, has been proposed to have antitumor activity in many cancers. However, the underlying mechanisms by which BER regulates apoptosis and autophagy in ATC remain unclear. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the therapeutic effect of BER in human ATC cell lines CAL-62 and BHT-101 as well as the underlying mechanisms. In addition, we assessed the antitumor effects of a combination of BER and DOX in ATC cells.Methods: The cell viability of CAL-62 and BTH-101 with treatment of BER for different hours was measured by CCK-8 assay, and cell apoptosis was assessed by clone formation assay and flow cytometric analysis. The protein levels of apoptosis protein, autophagy-related proteins and PI3K/AKT/mTORpathway were determined Using Western blot. Autophagy in cells was observed with GFP-LC3 plasmid using confocal fluorescent microscopy. Flow cytometry was used to detect intracellular ROS.Results: The present results showed that BER significantly inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in ATC cells. BER treatment also significantly upregulated the expression of LC3B-II and increased the number of GFP-LC3 puncta in ATC cells. Inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine (3-MA) suppressed BER-induced autophagic cell death. Moreover, BER induced the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mechanistically, we demonstrated that BER regulated the autophagy and apoptosis of human ATC cells through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. Furthermore, BER and DOX cooperated to promote apoptosis and autophagy in ATC cells.Conclusion: Taken together, the present findings indicated that BER induces apoptosis and autophagic cell death by activating ROS and regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.Keywords: anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, berberine, autophagy, apoptosis, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, reactive oxygen species

On lunar missions, efficient and safe transportation of human–robot systems is essential for the success of human exploration and scientific endeavors. Given the fact that transportation constructs bottlenecks for numerous typical lunar missions, it is appealing to investigate what function allocation strategies can generate optimal task implementation paths for robots with low-human workloads when the situation changes. Thus, this paper presents a novel approach to dynamic human–robot function allocation explicitly designed for team transportation in lunar missions. The proposed dynamic allocation framework aims to optimize human–robot collaboration by responding to existing and potential contingencies. First, a fitness concept model is designed to quantify the factors that motivate the functional adaptation of each agent in dynamic lunar mission scenarios. A hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) algorithm with two layers is then employed for decision-making and optimization of human–robot function allocation. Finally, the validity of the framework and algorithm proposed is validated by a series of human–robot function allocation experiments on a simulated environment that mimics lunar transportation scenarios, and is compared with the performance of other algorithms. In the future, path-planning algorithms can be incorporated into the proposed framework to improve the adaptability and efficiency of the human–robot function allocation in lunar missions.

With the development of communication system to the mm-wave band, the antenna design in the mm-wave band for mobile phones encounters new requirements and challenges. The mm-wave characteristics of short wavelength, high free-space path loss, and easy-to-be-blocking usually require mm-wave antennas with high gain and beam-scanning capability. Also, considering the very limited space occupied by antennas in mobile phones and the massive production of consumer electronics, small size, low cost, multiband, multi-polarization, and wide beam steering becomes the main key point of mm-wave array performance. In addition, as a special situation of the mobile antenna, the analysis of effect of the human tissue on the antenna performance is also important. So, in this chapter, a comprehensive summary on the recent advances in the mm-wave array for mobile phones including single-band, dual-band, and reconfigurable design of broadside array, horizontal polarized, vertical polarized, and dual-polarized design of endfire array, co-design of mm-wave array with lower band antenna, and user influence are summarized.

Highly transparent Er:Y2O3 ceramics (1–9 at.% Er) were fabricated by hot pressing sintering with ZrO2 as the sintering additive. The microstructures, transmittance, luminescent properties, thermal conductivity, and mechanical properties of the Er:Y2O3 ceramic samples were investigated in detail. The samples all exhibited dense and fine grain microstructures; the average grain sizes were about 0.8 μm. The transmittance levels of the samples with various Er concentrations (2 mm thick) at the wavelengths of 600 and 2700 nm were ~74 and ~83%, respectively. As the Er doping concentration increased from 1 to 9 at.%, the up-conversion luminescence of the samples gradually changed from green to red, with the intensity ratio of red/green light increasing from 0.28 to 2.01. Meanwhile, the down-conversion luminescence properties of the specimens were also studied. When the samples were under 980 nm excitation, the emission bands were detected at 1552, 1573, 1639, and 1661 nm. The thermal conductivity of the samples was found to decrease from 8.72 to 5.81 W/(m·K) with an increase of the Er concentration from 1 to 9 at.%. Moreover, the microhardness and fracture toughness of the samples with 1 at.% Er concentration were ~8.51 GPa and ~1.03 MPa·m1/2, respectively.

There is an increasing interest in mesoscale eddy parameterizations that are scale-aware, normally interpreted to mean that a parameterization does not require re-tuning of parameters as the model resolution changes. Here we examine whether Gent--McWilliams (GM) based version of GEOMETRIC, a mesoscale eddy parameterization that is constrained by a parameterized eddy energy budget, is scale-aware in its energetics. It is generally known that GM-based schemes severely damp out explicit eddies, so the parameterized component would be expected to dominate across resolutions, and we might expect a negative answer to the question of energetic scale-awareness. A consideration of why GM-based schemes damp out explicit eddies leads a suggestion for what we term a splitting procedure: a definition of a `large-scale' field is sought, and the eddy-induced velocity from the GM-scheme is computed from and acts only on the large-scale field, allowing explicit and parameterized components to co-exist. Within the context of an idealized re-entrant channel model of the Southern Ocean, evidence is provided that the GM-based version of GEOMETRIC is scale-aware in the energetics as long as we employ a splitting procedure. The splitting procedure also leads to an improved representation of mean states without detrimental effects on the variability., 24 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

The Jiajika rare metal deposit contains the largest area of granitic pegmatite-type rare metal deposits in China. The X03 vein is an immense rare metal deposit dominated by lithium, which was found in the deposit in recent years. The contact metamorphic belt of tourmalinization and petrochemistry is widely developed in its wall rocks, and the altered rocks formed contain Li and other rare metal mineralization. In this paper, the tourmaline found in the different rocks of the Jiajika X03 vein is divided into four types: two-mica quartz schist (Tur-Ⅰ), tourmaline hornfels (Tur-Ⅱ), tourmaline-bearing granite pegmatite (Tur-Ⅲ) and spodumene-bearing granite pegmatite (Tur-Ⅳ); their in situ major element, trace element and boron isotope data are systematically studied. The results show that all tourmalines in the Jiajika X03 vein deposit belong to the alkali group, and are schorl–Oxy/Fluor–schorl, dravite–Hydroxy-dravite and foitite–Oxy foitite solid solutions, among which Tur-Ⅰ are dravite, Tur-Ⅱ are foitite of hydrothermal origin and Tur-Ⅲ and Tur-Ⅳ are schorl of magmatic origin. The boron isotope values show that the boron involved the formation process of tourmaline mainly originates from the Majingzi S-type granite, and the boron isotope variations in tourmaline are controlled by melt fluid and Rayleigh fractionation. Moreover, there is a clear correlation between the B isotope value of tourmaline and the Li, Mn, Zn, Mg, and V contents, showing that these contents in tourmaline are good indicators of the mineralization type of pegmatite.

The utilization of low-N tolerant and N-efficifent varieties offers significant benefits in terms of reducing the need for excessive N fertilizer input. Quinoa, a resilient crop for agroecological transition, possesses a wide genetic diversity, making it suitable for selecting genotypes that require less N fertilizer. In this study, the growth and physiological characteristics of nine quinoa genotypes were assessed to determine their low-N tolerance using the fuzzy membership function. Based on comprehensive evaluation indices, three genotypes were identified: low-N tolerant (BL22), intermediately tolerant (A29), and sensitive (G68). These genotypes were exposed to varying N concentrations, including normal (4 mM), low (0.8 mM), and deficient N (no N) conditions. The results indicate that low-N conditions altered root phenotype, with reduced biomass, total protein, and chlorophyll content; increased soluble sugar levels; and inhibited N-metabolizing enzymes (nitrate reductase, glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthase) and N uptake. Under low-N conditions, the tolerant genotype exhibited higher maximal efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), root vitality, and N content compared to the sensitive genotype. Interestingly, the sensitive genotype displayed elongated and thinner shoots and roots in response to low-N, suggesting that plant height and root length are unreliable indicators of low-N tolerance in quinoa. In contrast, shoot and root dry biomass, Fv/Fm, chlorophyll content, N-metabolizing enzymes, and N content proved to be reliable indicators of low-N tolerance during the early growth stage of quinoa. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of utilizing specific growth and physiological parameters as indicators for screening low-N tolerant quinoa genotypes, thereby reducing dependence on N fertilizers.

Purpose: To assess the therapeutic effects of chrysoeriol (CHE) on pediatric pneumonia and determine the mechanism of action. Methods: The role of chrysoeriol was investigated in a human lung fibroblasts (HFL1) cell model of pneumonia. The effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and CHE on cell viability and apoptosis were determined by CCK-8 kit and flow cytometry, respectively, while oxidative stress was determined by evaluating the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione, r-glutamyl cysteine +glycine (GSH)- px, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Inflammatory response was assessed by determining IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-18 and IL-10 levels using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The mechanisms of action of CHE were evaluated by immunoblot assays. Results: Chrysoeriol increased the viability of LPS-induced pneumonia cells (p < 0.001) but decreased cell apoptosis (p < 0.001). Furthermore, chrysoeriol reduced oxidative stress and inflammation in LPSinduced pneumonia cells, and suppressed the activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Conclusion: Chrysoeriol alleviates inflammation of infantile pneumonia by inhibiting PI3K/ AKT /mTOR signaling pathway. Thus, CHE is a potential drug for the management of pneumonia. Keywords: Chrysoeriol; Pneumonia; Cell viability; Oxidative stress; PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

Recent evidences have shown that glycoprotein V (GP5) protein, which is initially considered as an important adhesion molecule unique to the megakaryocyte line, was also specifically expressed in malignant human breast epithelial cells. However, its expression level and function are not clear. This study aimed to reveal the abnormal expression of GP5 in breast cancer (BC), research the associations between the GP5 abnormal expression and BC progression, and explore the molecular mechanism of GP5 in BC. Immunohistochemistry, Western blot (WB), and quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays were used to determine the expression patterns of GP5 in BC tissues and cells. The expression profiles of GP5 in the Cancer Genome Atlas databases were analyzed by UALCAN. The GP5 knockdown and over-expression BC cell lines were constructed and confirmed by RT-PCR and WB. Transcriptome sequencing and KEGG database were performed to screen cellular processes and signal pathways. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway was verified by RT-qPCR, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) was confirmed by WB. The results indicated GP5 was highly expressed in BC tissues and might play an important role as a cancer-promoting gene in BC. The high expression of GP5 was significantly associated with higher nuclear grade, higher TNM stage, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negativity. GP5 may promote the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of BC cells by activating PI3K/AKT signaling pathway to up-regulate the EMT. This study provides a new idea that GP5 was expected to become a potential molecular target for early BC clinic diagnosis and treatment.

Let $n$ be a sufficiently large integer with $n\equiv 0\pmod 4$ and let $F_i \subseteq{[n]\choose 4}$ where $i\in [n/4]$. We show that if each vertex of $F_i$ is contained in more than ${n-1\choose 3}-{3n/4\choose 3}$ edges, then $\{F_1, \ldots ,F_{n/4}\}$ admits a rainbow matching, i.e., a set of $n/4$ edges consisting of one edge from each $F_i$. This generalizes a deep result of Khan on perfect matchings in 4-uniform hypergraphs., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2004.12561

Purpose: To determine the effect of glycitin on PI3K/AKT signaling, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and cell cycle in A549 lung cancer cells.Methods: 3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and clonogenic assays were used to determine the proliferation and colony generation potency of A549 cells, respectively, after treatment with glycitin (0 - 120 μM). Apoptosis in A549 cells was measured using DAPI and Annexin V/PI-FITC assays. Cell cycle arrest was assessed byflow cytometry, while the effect of glycitin on migration and invasion of A549 cells was determined by Transwell assay. The effect of glycitin on expressions of proteins associated with PI3K/AKT signaling in A549 cells was measured using western blotting.Results: Glycitin significantly inhibited the proliferation and colony generation potential of A549 cells (p < 0.05). The antiproliferative effects of glycitin on A549 cells were mediated through stimulation of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G0/G1-phase. The compound also distorted normal cellular morphology by causing membrane damage and nuclear fragmentation. The proportion of cells in the G0/G1-phase increased after glycitin treatment, when compared to the other two phases, demonstrating cell cycle arrest (p < 0.05). Glycitin suppressed the migration and invasion of A549 cells. However, Western blotting results showed that glycitin down-regulated the expressions of PI3K/AKT signaling proteins in A549 cells (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Glycitin produced significant anticancer effect on A549 cells via enhanced apoptosis, induction of cell cycle arrest, and inhibition of PI3K/AKT signalling. Moreover, it suppressed the migration and invasion of A549 cells. Therefore, glycitin is a potential lead molecule for the development of a therapeutic agent for invasive lung cancer.

In this paper, the dominant factor affecting the performance of active intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided wireless communication networks in Rayleigh fading channel, namely the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) $\gamma_0$ at IRS, is studied. Making use of the weak law of large numbers, its simple asymptotic expression is derived as the number $N$ of IRS elements goes to medium-scale and large-scale. When $N$ tends to large-scale, the asymptotic received SNR at user is proved to be a linear increasing function of a product of $\gamma_0$ and $N$. Subsequently, when the BS transmit power is fixed, there exists an optimal limited reflective power at IRS. At this point, more IRS reflect power will degrade the SNR performance. Additionally, under the total power sum constraint of the BS transmit power and the power reflected by the IRS, an optimal power allocation (PA) strategy is derived and shown to achieve 0.83 bit rate gain over equal PA. Finally, an IRS with finite phase shifters being taken into account, generates phase quantization errors, and further leads to a degradation of receive performance. The corresponding closed-form performance loss expressions for user's asymptotic SNR, achievable rate (AR), and bit error rate (BER) are derived for active IRS. Numerical simulation results show that a 3-bit discrete phase shifter is required to achieve a trivial performance loss for a large-scale active IRS.

Modern large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have shown remarkable performance on general language tasks but still struggle on complex reasoning tasks, which drives the research on cognitive behaviors of LLMs to explore human-like problem-solving strategies. Along this direction, one representative strategy is self-reflection, which asks an LLM to refine the solution with the feedback generated by itself iteratively. However, our study shows that such reflection-style methods suffer from the Degeneration-of-Thought (DoT) problem: once the LLM has established confidence in its solutions, it is unable to generate novel thoughts later through reflection even if its initial stance is incorrect. To address the DoT problem, we propose a Multi-Agent Debate (MAD) framework, in which multiple agents express their arguments in the state of "tit for tat" and a judge manages the debate process to obtain a final solution. Clearly, our MAD framework encourages divergent thinking in LLMs which would be helpful for tasks that require deep levels of contemplation. Experiment results on two challenging datasets, commonsense machine translation and counter-intuitive arithmetic reasoning, demonstrate the effectiveness of our MAD framework. Extensive analyses suggest that the adaptive break of debate and the modest level of "tit for tat" state are required for MAD to obtain good performance. Moreover, we find that LLMs might not be a fair judge if different LLMs are used for agents. Codes: https://github.com/Skytliang/Multi-Agents-Debate, Work in progress

Objectives: To explore the incremental value of myocardial radiomics signature derived from static coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for identifying myocardial ischemia based on stress dynamic CT myocardial perfusion imaging (CT-MPI). Methods: Patients who underwent CT-MPI and CCTA were retrospectively enrolled from two independent institutions, one used as training and the other as testing. Based on CT-MPI, coronary artery supplying area with relative myocardial blood flow (rMBF) value Results: There were 168 vessels from 56 patients enrolled in the training set, and the testing set consisted of 135 vessels from 45 patients. From either cohort, HRP score, LL, stenosis ≥50% and CT-FFR ≤0.80 were associated with ischemia. The optimal myocardial radiomics signature consisted of nine features. The detection of ischemia using the combined model was significantly improved compared with conventional model in both training and testing set (AUC 0.789 vs 0.608, p < 0.001; 0.726 vs 0.637, p = 0.045). Conclusions: Myocardial radiomics signature extracted from static CCTA combining with conventional features could provide incremental value to diagnose specific ischemia. Advances in knowledge: Myocardial radiomics signature extracted from CCTA may capture myocardial characteristics and provide incremental value to detect specific ischemia when combined with conventional features.

The obligate symbiont Buchnera can synthesize amino acids for aphids. In this study, we found that a facultative symbiont, Arsenophonus , can help improve aphids’ growth performance under amino acid deficiency stress by changing the relative abundance of Buchnera and the expression levels of amino acid synthase genes. This study highlights the interaction between Arsenophonus and Buchnera to ameliorate aphid growth under amino acid stress.

Background: Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a highly aggressive stage of prostate cancer, and non-mutational epigenetic reprogramming plays a critical role in its progression. Super enhancers (SE), epigenetic elements, are involved in multiple tumor-promoting signaling pathways. However, the SE-mediated mechanism in mCRPC remains unclear.Methods: SE-associated genes and transcription factors were identified from a cell line (C4-2B) of mCRPC by the CUT&Tag assay. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between mCRPC and primary prostate cancer (PCa) samples in the GSE35988 dataset were identified. What’s more, a recurrence risk prediction model was constructed based on the overlapping genes (termed SE-associated DEGs). To confirm the key SE-associated DEGs, BET inhibitor JQ1 was applied to cells to block SE-mediated transcription. Finally, single-cell analysis was performed to visualize cell subpopulations expressing the key SE-associated DEGs.Results: Nine human TFs, 867 SE-associated genes and 5417 DEGs were identified. 142 overlapping SE-associated DEGs showed excellent performance in recurrence prediction. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed strong predictive power at 1 year (0.80), 3 years (0.85), and 5 years (0.88). The efficacy of his performance has also been validated in external datasets. In addition, FKBP5 activity was significantly inhibited by JQ1.Conclusion: We present a landscape of SE and their associated genes in mCPRC, and discuss the potential clinical implications of these findings in terms of their translation to the clinic.

AIM: To describe the clinical characteristics of eyes using multimodal imaging features with acute macular neuroretinopathy (AMN) lesions following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. METHODS: Retrospective case series study. From December 18, 2022 to February 14, 2023, previously healthy cases within 1-week infection with SARS-CoV-2 and examined at Tianjin Eye Hospital to confirm the diagnosis of AMN were included in the study. Totally 5 males and 9 females [mean age: 29.93±10.32 (16-49)y] were presented for reduced vision, with or without blurred vision. All patients underwent best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure, slit lamp microscopy, indirect fundoscopy. Simultaneously, multimodal imagings fundus photography (45° or 200° field of view) was performed in 7 cases (14 eyes). Near infrared (NIR) fundus photography was performed in 9 cases (18 eyes), optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 5 cases (10 eyes), optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in 9 cases (18 eyes), and fundus fluorescence angiography (FFA) in 3 cases (6 eyes). Visual field was performed in 1 case (2 eyes). RESULTS: Multimodal imaging findings data from 14 patients with AMN were reviewed. All eyes demonstrated different extent hyperreflective lesions at the level of the inner nuclear layer and/or outer plexus layer on OCT or OCTA. Fundus photography (45° or 200° field of view) showed irregular hypo-reflective lesion around the fovea in 7 cases (14 eyes). OCTA demonstrated that the superficial retinal capillary plexus (SCP) vascular density, deep capillary plexus (DCP) vascular density and choriocapillaris (CC) vascular density was reduced in 9 case (18 eyes). Among the follow-up cases (2 cases), vascular density increased in 1 case with elevated BCVA; another case has vascular density decrease in one eye and basically unchanged in other eye. En face images of the ellipsoidal zone and interdigitation zone injury showed a low wedge-shaped reflection contour appearance. NIR image mainly show the absence of the outer retinal interdigitation zone in AMN. No abnormal fluorescence was observed in FFA. Corresponding partial defect of the visual field were visualized via perimeter in one case. CONCLUSION: The morbidity of SARS-CoV-2 infection with AMN is increased. Ophthalmologists should be aware of the possible, albeit rare, AMN after SARS-CoV-2 infection and focus on multimodal imaging features. OCT, OCTA, and infrared fundus phase are proved to be valuable tools for detection of AMN in patients with SARS-CoV-2.

AIM: To introduce and evaluate the clinical efficacy of a new technique, the use of viscoelastic substances (VS) to close leaking sclerotomy in 23G microincision vitrectomy, and to observe its effect on the visual acuity and intraocular pressure (IOP) of patients. METHODS: Patients who underwent 23G vitrectomy in Ningbo Eye Hospital before the use of VS technique (June 2019 to September 2020) and after the use of VS technique (October 2020 to December 2021) were selected as the subjects of this study. The above cases underwent operation by the same surgeon and were retrospectively analyzed. VS technique was used as the alternative to suturing, in which a small amount of VS was injected at the leaking sclerotomy and then gently massaged to confirm leaking sclerotomy closure. RESULTS: A total of 174 eyes were covered in the study, including 84 eyes in the control group (before the use of VS technique) and 90 eyes in the VS technique group. The number of eyes that needed to be sutured decreased considerably from 42.9% in the control group to 3.3% in the VS technique group, and the proportion of subconjunctival hemorrhage at 1-2d after surgery decreased remarkably from 35.7% in the control group to 2.2% in the VS technique group. No substantial differences in the incidence of mean IOP and low IOP were found between 1-2 and 3-20d after surgery in the VS technique group. No major complications associated with VS technique were identified during the study. CONCLUSION: In 23G microincision vitrectomy, VS technique is a safe, simple, and effective method to close leaking sclerotomy.

Gapless helical edge modes are a hallmark of the quantum spin Hall effect. Protected by time-reversal symmetry, each edge contributes a quantized zero-temperature conductance quantum $G_0 \equiv e^2/h$. However, the experimentally observed conductance in WTe$_2$ decreases below $G_0$ per edge already at edge lengths around 100 nm, even in the absence of explicit time-reversal breaking due to an external field or magnetic impurities. In this work, we show how a time-reversal breaking excitonic condensate with a spin-spiral order that can form in WTe$_2$ leads to the breakdown of conductance quantization. We perform Hartree-Fock calculations to compare time-reversal breaking and preserving excitonic insulators. Using these mean-field models we demonstrate via quantum transport simulations that weak non-magnetic disorder reproduces the edge length scaling of resistance observed in the experiments. We complement this by analysis in the Luttinger liquid picture, shedding additional light on the mechanism behind the quantization breakdown., 12 pages, 5 figures

Introduction: Insulin has an effect on neurodegenerative diseases. However, the role and mechanism of insulin in vascular dementia (VD) and its underlying mechanism are unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects and mechanism of insulin on VD.Methods: Experimental rats were randomly assigned to control (CK), Sham, VD, and insulin (INS) + VD groups. Insulin was administered by intranasal spray. Cognitive function was evaluated using the Morris's water maze. Nissl's staining and immunohistochemical staining were used to assess morphological alterations. Apoptosis was evaluated using TUNEL-staining. Transcriptome and metabolome analyses were performed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs), respectively.Results: Insulin significantly improved cognitive and memory functions in VD model rats (p < 0.05). Compared with the VD group, the insulin + VD group exhibited significantly reduced the number of Nissl's bodies numbers, apoptosis level, GFAP-positive cell numbers, apoptosis rates, and p-tau and tau levels in the hippocampal CA1 region (p < 0.05). Transcriptomic analysis found 1,257 and 938 DEGs in the VD vs. CK and insulin + VD vs. VD comparisons, respectively. The DEGs were mainly enriched in calcium signaling, cAMP signaling, axon guidance, and glutamatergic synapse signaling pathways. In addition, metabolomic analysis identified 1 and 14 DEMs between groups in negative and positive modes, respectively. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that DEGs and DEMs were mostly enriched in metabolic pathway.Conclusion: Insulin could effectively improve cognitive function in VD model rats by downregulating tau and p-tau expression, inhibiting astrocyte inflammation and neuron apoptosis, and regulating genes involved in calcium signaling, cAMP signaling, axon guidance, and glutamatergic synapse pathways, as well as metabolites involved in metabolic pathway.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) in displaying the superior petrosal vein complex (SPVC) and the role of venous three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction in visualizing the anatomical relationship in patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Methods: A total of 30 patients with primary TN who received treatment between September 2019 and December 2020 were enrolled prospectively in this study. All patients were examined with fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (Fiesta), three-dimensional time of flight (3D-TOF) and SWI by the same technician. Image analysis was performed by 2 physicians. 3D reconstruction of nerves, arteries, and veins was performed with 3dslicer and compared with intraoperative findings. The general characteristics, vein description in MRI, and the composition of SPVC types were also compared. Results: The display effect of SPVC in SWI was significantly better than that in Fiesta and 3D-TOF (P < 0.05). The display effect of phase images was found to be superior to magnitude images (P < 0.05). The superior petrosal vein, pontotrigeminal vein, transverse pontine vein, and vein of the cerebellopontine fissure were clearly displayed in SWI. The anatomical relationship between SPVC and trigeminal nerve shown by 3D reconstruction of the vein was consistent with the findings observed during the operation. Conclusion: The SPVC can be clearly displayed by SWI. 3D reconstruction of the vein can accurately display the anatomical relationship between the trigeminal nerve and SPVC.