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Chinese migrant workers have contributed greatly to the industrialization and urbanization of China and have thus long been a popular topic in news reports. Most previous studies on the news about this group have been qualitative or quantitative analyses based on small-scale datasets, with few based on large-scale corpus data. This study combined topic modeling and critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyze 186,180 reports of migrant workers published by 906 Chinese newspapers between 2001 and 2021. We identified seventeen topics in the news that fell into five categories: “work and labor,” “support and care,” “rights and interests,” “homecoming,” and “social emergencies.” Overall, news reports on the group have become increasingly diverse, with various diachronic changes in the proportions of topic categories and specific topics. In addition, we found three major types of representation of migrant workers: as a disadvantaged group, as outsiders, and as a group vulnerable to risks. These negative representations might be closely related to government policies, ideology, media stance, and social reality (the broader societal context in which these individuals are situated).

G protein-coupled receptor 91 (GPR91) has garnered widespread attention as a prospective therapeutic target for metabolic diseases. However, no structural data for human GPR91 (hGPR91) and detailed molecular mechanism of action (MOA) of GPR91 have been reported, with reported compounds targeting GPR91 limited. In this study, hGPR91 structures were constructed through homology modeling. High-affinity agonist compound 31and antagonist NF-58-EJ40 were selected for investigation. By molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we have elucidated MOA of GPR91 agonists and antagonists for the first time. We identified the crucial role of the D174FASSG sequence, the L652.46SVSD2.50sequence and the N642.45-W1474.50in maintaining GPR91’s inactive state conformation. Agonist binding disrupted constraints mediated by the aforementioned sequence, which led to significant outward movements of transmembrane helixes (TMs) and repositioning of intracellular loop2 (ICL2) and ICL3, thereby forming an expanded cavity for G proteins binding. Furthermore, the pivotal role of the dicarboxylic acid structure of agonists in initiating signal transduction was confirmed. In contrast, antagonist binding stabilized these conformational constraints, resulting in relatively minor movements of TMs that were insufficient to generate a binding cavity large enough to accommodate the G protein. Clarifying MOA of GPR91 agonists and antagonists is crucial for guiding the design of relevant drugs.

Oncogenic RAS-induced senescence (OIS) is an autonomous tumour suppressor mechanism associated with premalignancy1,2. Achieving this phenotype typically requires a high level of oncogenic stress, yet the phenotype provoked by lower oncogenic dosage remains unclear. Here we develop oncogenic RAS dose-escalation models in vitro and in vivo, revealing a RAS dose-driven non-linear continuum of downstream phenotypes. In a hepatocyte OIS model in vivo, ectopic expression of NRAS(G12V) does not induce tumours, in part owing to OIS-driven immune clearance3. Single-cell RNA sequencing analyses reveal distinct hepatocyte clusters with typical OIS or progenitor-like features, corresponding to high and intermediate levels of NRAS(G12V), respectively. When titred down, NRAS(G12V)-expressing hepatocytes become immune resistant and develop tumours. Time-series monitoring at single-cell resolution identifies two distinct tumour types: early-onset aggressive undifferentiated and late-onset differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma. The molecular signature of each mouse tumour type is associated with different progenitor features and enriched in distinct human hepatocellular carcinoma subclasses. Our results define the oncogenic dosage-driven OIS spectrum, reconciling the senescence and tumour initiation phenotypes in early tumorigenesis.

Wax deposition is an important issue affecting the safe and economical transportation of waxy crude oil via pipelines. Molecular diffusion and aging are considered to be the main mechanisms of wax deposition. However, more and more studies proved the molecular diffusion and aging mechanisms alone cannot fully explain the wax deposition phenomenon. In this Review, the calculation accuracy of wax molecular diffusion coefficient, the wax deposit delay characteristic, deposit formation under zero and negative temperature difference and the change of wax deposit structure were reviewed and discussed. Moreover, the research progress of operating parameters (including temperature, flow, asphaltene, and wax inhibitors) on the wax deposition characteristic were analyzed from the aspect of heat transfer driving force, mass transfer driving force, gelation deposition, and other deposition mechanisms. Furthermore, the development of wax deposition models is summarized and the shortcomings of existing models are discussed from the aspects of wax deposit generation, wax molecules’ diffusion, and wax deposit aging in order to efficiently guide the prediction and control of wax deposition in waxy crude oil pipelines.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes neuroinflammation, neuronal death, and severe axonal connections. Alleviating neuroinflammation, protecting residual cells and promoting neuronal regeneration via endogenous neural stem cells (eNSCs) represent potential strategies for SCI treatment. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by mesenchymal stem cells have emerged as pathological mediators and alternatives to cell-based therapies following SCI. In the present study, EVs isolated from untreated (control, C-EVs) and TGF-β1-treated (T-EVs) mesenchymal stem cells were injected into SCI mice to compare the therapeutic effects and explore the underlying mechanisms. Our study demonstrated for the first time that the application of T-EVs markedly enhanced the proliferation and antiapoptotic ability of NSCs in vitro. The infusion of T-EVs into SCI mice increased the shift from the M1 to M2 polarization of reactive microglia, alleviated neuroinflammation, and enhanced the neuroprotection of residual cells during the acute phase. Moreover, T-EVs increased the number of eNSCs around the epicenter. Consequently, T-EVs further promoted neurite outgrowth, increased axonal regrowth and remyelination, and facilitated locomotor recovery in the chronic stage. Furthermore, the use of T-EVs in Rictor−/−SCI mice (conditional knockout of Rictorin NSCs) showed that T-EVs failed to increase the activation of eNSCs and improve neurogenesis sufficiently, which suggested that T-EVs might induce the activation of eNSCs by targeting the mTORC2/Rictor pathway. Taken together, our findings indicate the prominent role of T-EVs in the treatment of SCI, and the therapeutic efficacy of T-EVs for SCI treatment might be optimized by enhancing the activation of eNSCs via the mTORC2/Rictor signaling pathway.

Processing sensitive data and deploying well-designed Intellectual Property (IP) cores on remote Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) are prone to private data leakage and IP theft. One effective solution is constructing Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and its secure boot process on FPGA-SoC (FPGA System on Chip). This paper aims to establish Secure Runtime Customizable TEE (SrcTEE) on FPGA-SoC through the design of a novel secure boot scheme and the design of the following three components: 1) CrloadIP, which enforces access control on TEE applications deploying IP at runtime such that SrcTEE can alleviate threats from unauthorized TEE applications and then SrcTEE can be adjusted dynamically and securely; 2) CexecIP, which not only enables the execution of newly-installed IP cores without modifying the operating system of FPGA-SoC TEE, but also prevents insider attacks from executing IPs in SrcTEE; 3) CremoAT, which can provide the newly-measured SrcTEE state and establish a secure communication path between remote verifiers and SrcTEE. Our secure boot scheme supports refreshable root trust key, and assures the authenticity and integrity of boot codes during the SrcTEE booting process. We conduct a security analysis of SrcTEE and its performance evaluation on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ XCZU15EG 2FFVB1156 MPSoC.

In this article, a periodic nonuniform transmission line adaptively optimized by whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is proposed to suppress the differential-to-common mode conversion noise of the differential pair. The phase difference between the inner and outer traces can be compensated by periodic nonuniform structure with slow wave effect, which can reduce the electric length and achieve wideband impedance matching. The proposed nonuniform structure is parameterized by cosine exponential function, while the function coefficients can be optimized by WOA with properties of swarm-based and meta-heuristic. Compared with conventional mode conversion methods, wideband, and steep noise suppression level can be observed with the presented design, Time domain analysis is also conducted to verify the transmission performances. A compensated differential transmission line is fabricated with a suppression level |Scd21| of −25 dB from dc to 15 GHz.

Asphaltenes are a group of compounds that are soluble in benzene and toluene but insoluble in nonpolar small molecule n-alkanes. The asphaltene aggregation in the asphaltene–heptane–toluene system was studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and the interaction between asphaltene molecules during this process was also revealed from the evolution of the density field, radial distribution function (RDF), and intermolecular distance of asphaltenes. Three main findings were made: (1) more asphaltene precipitates (heptane) were contained, and more asphaltene dimers or trimers were formed during the MD simulation; (2) asphaltene molecules interacted with each other to form aggregates in the form of π–π or H-bond interaction. The stable distance of the π–π interaction was 3.3–3.5 Å, and the stable distance of the H-bond connection was 1.7–1.9 Å. (3) The asphaltene interaction in the heptane-rich system was dominated by π–π interaction between asphaltene molecules. However, the asphaltene interactions in the toluene-rich system were mainly the π–π interaction between asphaltene molecules and toluene and the H-bond interaction between the side chains of asphaltene molecules. The results of this study can aid in understanding how asphaltene molecules aggregate and self-associate and can also offer theoretical support for flow assurance in systems used to produce crude oil.

Love and Intrigueis an outstanding work by the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller. This work was initially titled Louise Millerin, which was changed to Love and Intriguebefore its premiere. The title Louise Millerinindicates the importance of the female character Louise in the drama. However, is Louise the real protagonist of the drama? Existing research provided no definitive answer to this question. Scholars have not agreed on who the protagonist is in the drama and how to quantify the prominence of the character. To address these issues, this study adopts Social Network Analysis (SNA) to visualize the character network, quantify the centrality of the characters, and perform cluster analysis of the characters in Love and Intrigue. The results indicate that Ferdinand displays the highest prominence and has higher stability regarding centrality than Louise. We explore possible reasons behind the findings. First, the highlighting of the male character Ferdinand may reflect male dominance in the eighteenth-century Germany. Second, Schiller incorporated his personal experiences and emotional preferences into the writing of the drama, leading to his favor of Ferdinand. Third, Schiller may have also been influenced by the style of previous German playwrights. By applying SNA to literary research, this study presents a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the characters in Love and Intrigueand contributes to the research on Schiller’s works.

Intrinsically stretchable conjugated polymers (CPs) have extensively been studied for the development of novel flexible electronic devices. In this work, a method to control the elastic properties of CPs has been proposed via regulation of spacer length between the siloxane side-chain and the backbone. The target polymers were CP films with the structure P(mC–Si) for four different numbers of the spacer methylene groups, namely, m = 5, 6, 7, and 8. The effect of spacer length on the aggregation state as well as on electrical and elastic properties of the prepared films was then investigated. An adjustable lamellar spacing (dL–L), in addition to improved elastic properties, was achieved as the spacer length was changed in the prepared polymer films. Moreover, P(7C–Si) has a sufficient dL–Lvalue of 35.77 Å, which provides enough space for inter-chain sliding to dissipate stress. This facilitated the dissipation of stress during the straining process. At a strain value of 100% in the vertical direction, the mobility of the P(7C–Si) film was 0.79 cm2V–1s–1and reduced to 84.0% of the initial value without any applied strain. The study provides clear evidence that tuning the spacer length between the silicone endgroup and backbone is an effective way to improve the intrinsic stretchability of CPs with siloxane side chains.

Recently, low-rank tensor recovery methods based on subspace representation have received increased attention in the field of hyperspectral image (HSI) denoising. Unfortunately, those methods usually analyze the prior structural information within different dimensions indiscriminately, ignoring the differences between modes, leaving substantial room for improvement. In this article, we first consider the low-rank properties in the subspace and prove that the structure correlation across the nonlocal self-similarity mode is much stronger than in the spatial sparsity and spectral correlation modes. On that basis, we introduce a new multidirectional low-rank regularization, in which each mode is assigned a different weight to characterize its contribution to estimating the tensor rank. After that, integrating the proposed regularization with the subspace-based tensor recovery framework, an optimization model for HSI mixed noise removal is developed. The proposed model can be addressed efficiently via the alternating minimization algorithm. Extensive experiments implemented with synthetic and real data demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art HSI denoising methods, which clearly indicates the effectiveness of the proposed approach in HSI denoising.

An intricate network of cis- and trans-elements acts on RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which in turn may affect gene expression and, ultimately, human health. A complete understanding of this network requires new approaches to accurately measure the subtle m6A differences arising from genetic variants, many of which have been associated with common diseases. To address this gap, we developed a method to accurately and sensitively detect transcriptome-wide allele-specific m6A (ASm6A) from MeRIP-seq data and applied it to uncover 12,056 high-confidence ASm6A modifications from 25 human tissues. We also identified 1184 putative functional variants for ASm6A regulation, a subset of which we experimentally validated. Importantly, we found that many of these ASm6A-associated genetic variants were enriched for common disease–associated and complex trait–associated risk loci, and verified that two disease risk variants can change m6A modification status. Together, this work provides a tool to detangle the dynamic network of RNA modifications at the allelic level and highlights the interplay of m6A and genetics in human health and disease.

During operation, nuclear facilities produce radioactive materials, solutions, or aerosols that form $\alpha/\beta/\gamma $ mixed radiation in the surrounding environment. Considering their differences in interaction mechanisms, hazards, and protection approaches, it is crucial to discriminate the radiation during measurement. Currently, for portable radiation monitors with simultaneous $\alpha/\beta/\gamma $ identification ability, there are two problems: small detection area and high misidentification ratio (MIR); in particular, some of them are too difficult in technique and extra expensive. Making use of range differences of $\alpha/\beta/\gamma $ , energy difference of $\alpha/\beta/\gamma $ in the mixed radiation, and different luminescence properties of different scintillators, this study proposes a new large-area Phoswich (phosphor sandwich) design that can identify $\alpha $ , $\beta $ , and $\gamma $ simultaneously and its corresponding pulse shape discrimination method with better accuracy using the combined information of position, amplitude, and time. It is worth mentioning that a special identification circuit scheme with only threshold discriminators, coincidence logic, and counter is suggested to avoid complete waveform collection and analysis, which can increase the detector’s rate capability and identification accuracy. The detector was modeled in Geant4, and the analysis shows its good performance: the misidentification rates for $\alpha $ (241Am), $\beta $ (90Sr-90Y), $\gamma (^{137}$ Cs), and $\gamma $ (40K) are 0.00%, 0.33%, 7.28%, and 8.00%, respectively. This study will help improve the Phoswich detector’s performance in $\alpha/\beta/\gamma $ radiation measurement.

In this study, Yin et al. show that SASP induces endothelial cell NF-κB activity and that SASP-induced endothelial expression of the canonical NF-κB component Relaunderpins senescence surveillance. Their results show that the endothelium is a nonautonomous SASP target and an organizing center for immune-mediated senescence surveillance.

This study examined home country bias in the New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM). Bibliographic information of publications in the NEJMfrom 2000 to 2019 was collected as data. Bibliometric analyses were performed to investigate the number of papers with one or more US‐based authors in the NEJMand compare this to other journals. Citation counts of US‐based and non‐US papers were calculated and compared. The results show that US‐based papers account for 65.44% of the NEJMpapers, and the US share of the NEJMpapers has remained stable in the examined years whereas in other journals the percentage decreased. More importantly, US‐based papers in the NEJMdisplay significantly lower research impact compared with non‐US papers. The results suggest that US‐based papers are favoured by the NEJMand a home country bias may exist in the publication process of the journal.

A novel Rh(III)-catalyzed C–H activation/annulation cascade of indole-enaminones with diazo compounds was reported to construct diversely functionalized carbazole frameworks. The most notable characteristic is that this transformation could smoothly furnish a novel [5 + 1] cyclization product with good to excellent yields (up to 95%), accompanied by the thorough removal of acetyl and N,N-dimethyl groups of two substrates from the target products, rather than the normally expected [4 + 2] cyclization products.

Semi-flexible pavement (SFP) is made of a composite material that consists of porous asphalt concrete (PA) filled with highly flowable grouting material. At present, most researches on SFP focuses on the materials design and pavement performance characterisation, and very limit effort has been made on evaluating its freeze–thaw durability, which limits the application of SFP in cold regions. The present paper was to fill this gap. In the study, two SFP mixes made with a given PA but two different grouting materials (early-strength (ES) and high-strength (HS) grouting materials) were evaluated. ASTM C666 freeze–thaw durability tests were performed not only on the SFP mixes but also on each of SFP component (PA, ES and HS grouting materials), where relative dynamic modulus and mass loss of the tested samples were measured. In addition, indirect tensile strength of the samples was also tested, and the stiffness and strain–stress behaviour of the samples were evaluated. The results indicate that the order of the freeze–thaw resistance of the individual components was the PA matrix < ES grouting material (4.9 MPa at 3 h and 25.4 MPa at 28 days) ≪ HS grouting material (82.4 MPa at 28 days). The relative dynamic elastic modulus and strain–stress behaviours of SFP-ES samples were very similarly to those of PA, indicating the loss of integrity of the composite during freeze–thaw cycling. Differently, relative dynamic elastic modulus and strain–stress behaviours of SFP-HS samples were close to those of HS grouting material, indicating that enhanced freeze–thaw resistance of a SFP mix can be achieved by incorporating a high strength grouting material into a PA matrix.

A dynamic epigenome is critical for appropriate gene expression in development and health1–5. Central to this is the intricate process of transcription6–11, which integrates cellular signaling with chromatin changes, transcriptional machinery and modifications to messenger RNA, such as N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which is co-transcriptionally incorporated. The integration of these aspects of the dynamic epigenome, however, is not well understood mechanistically. Here we show that the repressive histone mark H3K9me2 is specifically removed by the induction of m6A-modified transcripts. We demonstrate that the methyltransferase METTL3/METTL14 regulates H3K9me2 modification. We observe a genome-wide correlation between m6A and occupancy by the H3K9me2 demethylase KDM3B, and we find that the m6A reader YTHDC1 physically interacts with and recruits KDM3B to m6A-associated chromatin regions, promoting H3K9me2 demethylation and gene expression. This study establishes a direct link between m6A and dynamic chromatin modification and provides mechanistic insight into the co-transcriptional interplay between RNA modifications and histone modifications.

In this paper, a novel ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA)/amino-functionalized polymethylsilsesquioxane (PAMSQ) composite wax inhibitor (WI) was prepared through melt blending, and the rheological and wax depositing properties of the doped crude oil were studied. The EVA/PAMSQ composite can strongly crystallize with wax molecules and trigger the formation of compact wax flocs, which greatly improve the rheological properties of crude: compared to the pure EVA at the same dosage, the composite can further decrease the gel point and apparent viscosity (25 °C) by 14.6 °C and 92.0%, respectively. The wax deposition can also be inhibited by adding the composite: adding EVA inhibits the mass of the wax deposit at 24 h by 62.3%, and this number is suppressed by 77.9% after adding the EVA/PAMSQ composite, but the wax molecule diffusion is accelerated and the wax content in the wax deposit rises because of the improved crude oil rheological characteristics. Here, we develop the gel structure theory to consider the wax deposition process affected by the WI. Adding the WI contributes little to the wax precipitation temperature but decreases the gel structural strength of the oil a lot, and thus, the oil near the pipe wall can only form the wax deposit with a higher wax content to resist the pipe wall shearing. Therefore, the crude oil added EVA/PAMSQ composite possesses not only the lowest wax deposit rate and the highest aging rate but also the highest wax content in the wax deposit.

Exquisite regulation of PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 signaling is essential for homeostatic control of cell growth, proliferation, and survival. Aberrant activation of this signaling network is an early driver of many sporadic human cancers. Paradoxically, sustained hyperactivation of the PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 pathway in nontransformed cells results in cellular senescence, which is a tumor-suppressive mechanism that must be overcome to promote malignant transformation. While oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) driven by excessive RAS/ERK signaling has been well studied, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning the AKT-induced senescence (AIS) response. Here, we utilize a combination of transcriptome and metabolic profiling to identify key signatures required to maintain AIS. We also employ a whole protein-coding genome RNAi screen for AIS escape, validating a subset of novel mediators and demonstrating their preferential specificity for AIS as compared with OIS. As proof of concept of the potential to exploit the AIS network, we show that neurofibromin 1 (NF1) is upregulated during AIS and its ability to suppress RAS/ERK signaling facilitates AIS maintenance. Furthermore, depletion of NF1 enhances transformation of p53-mutant epithelial cells expressing activated AKT, while its overexpression blocks transformation by inducing a senescent-like phenotype. Together, our findings reveal novel mechanistic insights into the control of AIS and identify putative senescence regulators that can potentially be targeted, with implications for new therapeutic options to treat PI3K/AKT/mTORC1-driven cancers.

Permeable pavement is part of the low impact development (LID) measurement, which can decrease urban surface runoff coefficient and flood peak flow. In this paper, a two-way, six-lane road in Nanjing was selected as the study area. Storm water management model (SWMM) was used to simulate the effect of different pavement structures (drainage surface, permeable pavement and permeable road) under different rainfall conditions on reducing surface runoff and controlling urban stormwater. The simulation results show that the drainage surface can reduce part of surface runoff, but it has no influence on the reduction and hysteresis of flood peak. The permeable pavement can reduce part of surface runoff and flood peak and can delay peak time. The permeable road has better effect on reducing runoff coefficient and flood peak, which can effectively reduce the pressure of urban drainage and reduce the risk of stormwater flood.

Asphaltenes are natural pour point depressants, and the effect of asphaltene polarity on the low-temperature rheology of waxy oils has been well studied. In this paper, the influence of asphaltene polarity on the wax precipitation and deposition characteristics of synthetic waxy oils was investigated through a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), a rheometer, a polarizing microscope, and a Couette wax deposition experimental device. It was found that the asphaltenes with lower polarity have higher H/C ratio and can disperse into smaller associating particles in the synthetic waxy oils, which is beneficial for the cocrystallization interaction between asphaltenes and wax molecules, and also provide more nucleating sites for wax molecules. With the decrease of asphaltene polarity, the wax crystals of synthetic waxy oils are gradually changed from long needle-like to small needle-like or nearly spherical, which is not conducive to the overlap and insertion of wax crystals, thus greatly improving the rheological properties of synthetic waxy oils. The addition of asphaltenes with lower polarity can significantly reduce the wax deposition rate but increase the aging rate; that is, a thinner and harder wax deposit tends to form with the decrease of asphaltene polarity. Meanwhile, the formed wax deposits become heterogeneous along the radial direction after the asphaltenes addition; the wax contents of the wax deposits increase gradually from the bottom layer to the surface layer. On the one hand, with the decrease of asphaltene polarity, the low-temperature structural strength of synthetic waxy oils is continuously decreased. Therefore, the initial wax deposit layers require higher solid wax contents to resist shearing of pipe flow. On the other hand, the lower viscosity and smaller aspect ratio of wax crystals are also beneficial for the diffusion of wax molecules in the bulk oil and wax deposit, which increases the aging rate of wax deposits. Therefore, with the decrease of asphaltene polarity, the difference of wax content between the surface and bottom wax deposits in the formed heterogeneous wax deposit structure becomes larger and larger.

A single genome gives rise to diverse tissues through complex epigenomic mechanisms, including N6-methyladenosine (m6A), a widespread RNA modification that is implicated in many biological processes. Here, to explore the global landscape of m6A in human tissues, we generated 21 whole-transcriptome m6A methylomes across major fetal tissues using m6A sequencing. These data reveal dynamic m6A methylation, identify large numbers of tissue differential m6A modifications and indicate that m6A is positively correlated with gene expression homeostasis. We also report m6A methylomes of long intergenic non-coding RNA (lincRNA), finding that enhancer lincRNAs are enriched for m6A. Tissue m6A regions are often enriched for single nucleotide polymorphisms that are associated with the expression of quantitative traits and complex traits including common diseases, which may potentially affect m6A modifications. Finally, we find that m6A modifications preferentially occupy genes with CpG-rich promoters, features of which regulate RNA transcript m6A. Our data indicate that m6A is widely regulated by human genetic variation and promoters, suggesting a broad involvement of m6A in human development and disease. Xia and colleagues provided a map for transcriptome-wide distribution of m6A RNA methylation in eight human fetal tissue types.

The influence of thermal treatment temperature on the flowability and wax deposition characteristics of Changqing waxy crude oil was researched in detail through pour point/rheological tests, a cylindrical Couette wax deposition experimental device, DSC analyses, asphaltenes stability tests, and microscopic observations. It is found that the flowability of the crude oil can be greatly improved through increasing the thermal treatment temperature. Meanwhile, the wax deposition rate of the crude oil can be outstandingly inhibited with the increase of thermal treatment temperature from 50 to 70 °C. Moreover, the flow regime can also influence the wax deposition characteristics. Under cold flow regime (22 °C/12 °C), the structure of formed wax deposits is homogeneous while the aging of the wax deposits is not obvious. Under hot flow regime (30 °C/20 °C), the aging of the wax deposits is obvious, but a heterogeneous two-layer structure exists in the formed wax deposits at the thermal treatment temperatures 50 and 60 °C, with a hard/thin bottom layer and a relatively soft/thick surface layer. With the increase of thermal treatment temperature to 70 °C, the two-layer wax deposit structure cannot be identified due to the extremely thin wax deposit thickness. Increasing the thermal treatment temperature can disperse and activate the asphaltenes in the crude oil; the activated asphaltenes have stronger interactions with waxes and then decrease the WAT of the oil and change the precipitated wax crystals’ morphology further, hence dramatically improving the crude oil flowability and inhibiting wax deposition. Under hot flow regime, the two-layer wax deposit structure is mainly triggered through the diffusion of wax molecules and asphaltenes from the bulk oil into the wax deposits. Under cold flow regime, the asphaltenes have already coprecipitated with wax molecules into big wax flocs, which is difficult to diffuse from the bulk oil into the already existed wax deposits. Meanwhile, the aggravated flowability of bulk oil under cold flow regime further hinders the diffusion of wax molecules into the interior of the wax deposit. Therefore, the two-layer wax deposit structure cannot be found under cold flow regime.

•CAF subsets in HNSCC are significantly heterogeneous.•CKS2+ iCAFs are significantly associated with poor prognosis and low immune cell infiltration.•CKS2+ iCAFs are localized in proximity to cancer cells and displays significant intercellular communication.•CKS2+ iCAFs show high metabolic activity and low immunotherapeutic response.

A modified repeated load tri-axial (RLT) test, capable of simulating the lateral confinement and temperature gradient in real pavement, was developed to evaluate the high-temperature performance of asphalt mixture. Proper indenter size was determined to apply partial pressure to the specimen to produce varying lateral confining pressure. To generate temperature gradient of field pavement within the specimen, the side and bottom areas of the specimen were covered with thermal isolating materials so that only the surface transfers heat with the environment. This study then fabricated a three-layer mix as the specimen to examine the effectiveness of the modified RLT test. Testing elements include surface, middle and bottom mix types, binder types, temperatures as well as their interactive impacts. The flow number index, defined as strain/load cycle, is found to be able to differentiate the impacts of all the factors except for the surface layer mix. The developed test can readily utilise the current RLT test apparatus with minor modifications and better characterise the high-temperature performance of asphalt mix at the expense of additional specimen preparation work.

Recent studies indicate that dilatancy behaviour plays a key role in asphalt mixture rutting development. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of dilation for better predicting and mitigating rutting development in asphalt pavements. In this study, a new radial displacement transducer was designed and used to capture circumference displacement change of specimen to calculate dilation. The test was conducted using Universal Test Machine 25 multifunctional material system and the radial displacement transducers to characterise the dilation phenomenon by measuring radial and volumetric changes of asphalt mixture specimens at temperatures of 30 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C, and 60 °C. The test results were analysed using the mesoscale method and Reynolds dilatancy theory, which study the coupling effects of dilation gradient, distortional strain, and volumetric strain of soil. Results show that the radial displacement transducer is capable of measuring radial changes of specimens. The dilatational behaviour of asphalt mixtures is strongly correlated to the softening point of asphalt, and is affected by loading time, aggregate properties, and testing temperature. It is found that dilation increases dramatically when the test temperature reaches the softening point of asphalt. In addition, the dilatational behaviour of asphalt mixtures is also affected by the anisotropy property of asphalt mixtures, looseness of interlocking of aggregate elements, and lubrication provided by asphalt.

New strategies that enhance both the targetability of chemotherapy drugs and the synergistic effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy are urgently needed for efficacious solid tumor therapy. In this study, a novel biomimetic nanoparticle system possessing the properties of tumor targeting and immune synergy was designed to meet these requirements. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) were coated with cell membranes modified by glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored anti-HER2 single chain variable fragment (scFv) and the GPI-anchored co-stimulatory molecule CD80 (to promote solid tumor-targeted chemotherapy and cooperated immunotherapy, respectively). The impact of the nanotherapeutic system on both tumor-targeted chemotherapy and cellular immune response was investigated through in vitroand in vivoexperiments. The results show that the novel biomimetic therapeutic system effectively promoted antitumor efficiency in vitroand in vivo. In addition, this therapeutic system further enhanced antitumor capacity by increasing CD8+T cell activation and cytokine production and reducing myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) levels in tumors.

The tensor complementarity problem (TCP) is a special instance of nonlinear complementarity problems, which has many applications in multi-person noncooperative games, hypergraph clustering problems, and traffic equilibrium problems. How to solve the TCP, via analyzing the structure of the related tensor, is one of important research issues. In this paper, we propose an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to solve the TCP. We show that the solution set of the TCP, where the involved multilinear mapping is monotone, is nonempty and compact if the involved tensor is an S-tensor. Moreover, the ADMM for the TCP with a monotone involved multilinear mapping is proven to be globally convergent with a linear convergence rate. Some preliminary numerical results show that the proposed ADMM method is promising and effective.

Ice clouds are an important part of precipitation systems and their thermal (radiative and latent heat) and microphysical effects may impact rainfall. In this study, the thermal and microphysical effects of ice clouds on rainfall are investigated through the diagnostic analysis of rainfall and heat budgets of a torrential rainfall simulation in north China during July 2013. During evening, the maximum reduction in rainfall caused by the inclusion of the thermal effects of ice clouds is mainly associated with the inclusion of latent‐heat effects of ice clouds, which suppresses instability and upward motions. During early morning, the maximum increase in rainfall caused by the inclusion of the thermal effects of ice clouds is mainly related to the inclusion of radiative effects of ice clouds, which enhances radiative cooling in the upper troposphere and suppresses radiative cooling in the lower troposphere and thus increases instability and upward motions. The inclusion of microphysical effects of ice clouds increases rainfall directly by the inclusion of deposition and indirectly by the increase in condensation. The inclusion of the thermal effects of ice clouds weakens daytime rainfall mainly by the inclusion of latent‐heat effects of ice cloudsThe inclusion of the thermal effects of ice clouds increases nighttime rainfall mainly by the inclusion of radiative effects of ice cloudsThe inclusion of microphysical effects of ice clouds increases rainfall directly by the inclusion of deposition