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17α-Methyltestosterone (MT) is a widely used androgen for all-male fish production in aquaculture. However, the molecular mechanism underlying MT-induced masculinization remains unclear. In this study, we aim to identify the key gene responsible for MT-induced masculinization using the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) amhy, dmrt1, and gsdf mutants, which exhibit male-to-female sex reversal. Nile tilapia fry from these three mutant lines were treated with 50 μg/g MT from 5 to 30 days after hatching (dah). The results showed that amhy and gsdf mutants, but not dmrt1 mutants, were masculinized by the MT treatment. Gonadal transcriptome analysis revealed that genes involved in steroidogenesis and germ cell development in MT-treated dmrt1 mutants exhibited a similar expression pattern to that of the wild type (WT) XX. In addition, the dmrt1 mutants cannot be masculinized by co-treatment with MT and the aromatase inhibitor fadrozole. The MT treatment completely blocked early steroidogenic enzyme (Star2, Cyp17a2, and Cyp19a1a) expression independent of amhy, gsdf, and dmrt1. A luciferase analysis showed that MT directly suppressed basal and Sf-1-activated cyp19a1a promoter activity through ara and arb in cultured HEK293 cells. Furthermore, MT treatment inhibited germ cell proliferation in amhy and gsdf mutants but not in dmrt1 mutants. Consistently, dmrt1 expression was induced in MT-treated WT XX, -amhy, and -gsdf mutants. Taken together, these results suggest that dmrt1 is indispensable for MT-induced masculinization in Nile tilapia and that MT functions by inhibiting early steroid synthesis and activating dmrt1 to promote testis development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we prepared a low-cost novel Cu/Cu2O/BC nanocomposite visible-light photocatalyst by the impregnation method using CuSO4·5H2O and rice husk biochar (BC) as raw materials and Na2S2O4 as a single reductant to improve the stability and dispersion of the Cu/Cu2O nanoparticles, in order to solve their aggregation tendency during photocatalysis. The morphology and structure of the Cu/Cu2O/BC were characterized using various analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The photocatalytic effect and cyclic stability of the synthesized photocatalyst on methyl orange (MO) removal were investigated under visible light radiation and various parameter conditions, including the mass ratio of BC to Cu/Cu2O, initial MO concentration, pH, temperature, and catalyst dosage. The results show that the synthesized Cu/Cu2O/BC nanocomposite composed of Cu/Cu2O spherical particles was loaded on the BC carrier, which has better stability and dispersion. The best adsorption–photocatalytic effect of the Cu/Cu2O/BC is exhibited when the mass ratio of BC to Cu/Cu2O is 0.2. A total of 100 mg of Cu/Cu2O/BC can remove 95% of the MO and 88.26% of the COD in the aqueous solution at pH = 6, T = 25 °C, and an initial MO concentration of 100 mg/L. After five cycles of degradation, the MO degradation rate in the sample can still remain at 78.41%. Both the quasi-secondary kinetic model and the Langmuir isothermal adsorption model describe the adsorption process. Additionally, the thermodynamic analysis demonstrates that the photocatalytic process follows the quasi-primary kinetic model and that the removal process is of spontaneous heat absorption. The photocatalyst described in this paper offers a cost-effective, easily prepared, and visible-light-responsive solution for water pollution treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the development of animal organs, various adverse stimuli or toxic environments can induce oxidative stress and delay ovarian development. Paeoniflorin (PF), the main active ingredient of the traditional Chinese herb Paeonia lactiflora Pall., has protective effects on various diseases by preventing oxidative stress. However, the mechanism by which PF attenuates oxidative damage in mouse ovaries remains unclear. We evaluated the protective effects of PF on ovaries in an H2O2-induced mouse oxidative stress model. The H2O2-induced mouse ovarian oxidative stress model was used to explore the protective effect of PF on ovarian development. Histology and follicular development were observed. We then detected related indicators of cell apoptosis, oxidative stress, and autophagy in mouse ovaries. We found that PF inhibited H2O2-induced ovarian cell apoptosis and ferroptosis and promoted granulosa cell proliferation. PF prevented oxidative stress by increasing nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression levels. In addition, the autophagic flux of ovarian cells was activated and was accompanied by increased lysosomal biogenesis. Moreover, PF-mediated autophagy was involved in clearing mitochondria damaged by H2O2. Importantly, PF administration significantly increased the number of primordial follicles, primary follicles, secondary follicles, and antral follicles. PF administration improved ovarian sizes compared with the H2O2 group. The present study suggested that PF administration reversed H2O2-induced ovarian developmental delay and promoted follicle development. PF-activated mitophagy is crucial for preventing oxidative stress and improving mitochondrial quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fire is a significant global natural disaster, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gained attention in wildfire prevention for their efficient and flexible monitoring capabilities. Proper UAV patrol path planning can enhance fire-monitoring accuracy and response speed. This paper proposes a probabilistic path planning (PPP) module that plans UAV patrol paths by combining real-time fire occurrence probabilities at different points. Initially, a forest fire risk logistic regression model is established to compute the fire probabilities at different patrol points. Subsequently, a patrol point filter is applied to remove points with low fire probabilities. Finally, combining fire probabilities with distances between patrol points, a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm is employed to generate an optimal UAV patrol route. Compared with conventional approaches, the experimental results demonstrate that the PPP module effectively improves the timeliness of fire monitoring and containment, and the introduction of DP, considering that the fire probabilities and the patrol point filter both contribute positively to the experimental outcomes. Different combinations of patrol point coordinates and their fire probabilities are further studied to summarize the applicability of this method, contributing to UAV applications in forest fire monitoring and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize the effective profile control of a heavy oil reservoir, hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and water-soluble phenol-formaldehyde resin (PR) were chosen to prepare the profile control system, which gelled at medium or low temperatures and existed stably at high temperatures in the meantime. The effects of phenolic ratios, PR concentration, and HPAM concentration on the formation and strength of the gels were systematically studied by the gel-strength code method and rheological measurements. And the microstructure of the gels was investigated by scanning electron microscope measurements. The results showed that the gelling time of the HPAM-PR system was 13 h at 70 °C. The formed gel could stay stable for 90 days at 140 °C. In addition, the gels showed viscoelastic properties, and the viscosity reached 18,000 mPa·s under a 1.5 s−1 shearing rate due to their three-dimensional cellular network structure. The formation of the gels was attributable to the hydroxyl groups of the PR crosslinking agent, which could undergo the dehydration condensation reaction with amide groups under non-acidic conditions and form intermolecular crosslinking with HPAM molecules. And the organic crosslinker gel system could maintain stability at higher temperatures because covalent bonds formed between molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The erosive wear encountered in some industrial processes results in economic loss and even disastrous consequences. Hitherto, the mechanism of the erosive wear is not clear, especially when the erosive wear is caused by large particles (>3.0 mm) carried by a flowing liquid. Current approaches of predicting erosive wear need improvement, and the optimization of relevant equipment and systems lacks a sound guidance. It is of significance to further explore such a subject based on the relevant literature. The present review commences with a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of large particles and the fundamental mechanism of erosion. Then the characteristics of the erosion of various equipment are explicated. Effects of influential factors such as particle size and properties of the target material are analyzed. Subsequently, commonly used erosion models, measurement techniques, and numerical methods are described and discussed. Based on established knowledge and the studies reported, some expectations for future work are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a configurable Internet of Things architecture for acoustical sensing and analysis for frequent remote respiratory assessments. The proposed system creates a foundation for enabling real-time therapy and patient feedback adjustment in a telemedicine setting. By allowing continuous remote respiratory monitoring, the system has the potential to give clinicians access to assessments from which they could make decisions about modifying therapy in real-time and communicate changes directly to patients. The system comprises a wearable wireless microphone array interfaced with a programmable microcontroller with embedded signal conditioning. Experiments on the phantom model were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of reconstructing acoustic lung images for detecting obstructions in the airway and provided controlled validation of noise resilience and imaging capabilities. An optimized denoising technique and design innovations provided 7 dB more SNR and 7% more imaging accuracy for the proposed system, benchmarked against digital stethoscopes. While further clinical studies are warranted, initial results suggest potential benefits over single-point digital stethoscopes for internet-enabled remote lung monitoring needing noise immunity and regional specificity. The flexible architecture aims to bridge critical technical gaps in frequent and connected respiratory function at home or in busy clinical settings challenged by ambient noise interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomb murals are different from cave temple murals and temple murals, as they are underground cultural relics, their painting style is unique, solemn, and austere, and the performance image is characterised by simple colours, low contrast, and fewer survivors. During the digital restoration process, it is important to have sufficient reference samples to ensure the accuracy of the restoration. In addition, the style of mural paintings in the tombs varies greatly from other styles of murals and types of word paintings. Therefore, learning the unique artistic style of tomb murals, providing stylistically consistent training samples for digital restoration, and overcoming the problems of dim lighting and complex surface granularity of tomb murals are all necessary for research. This paper proposes a generative adversarial network algorithm that separates and fuses style features to enhance the generative network's ability to acquire image information. The algorithm extracts underlying and surface style feature details of the image to be tested and conducts fusion generation experiments. The generative network's parsing layer modifies the input noise tensor and optimises the corresponding weights to prevent misalignment between drawing lines and fresco cracks. Finally, to optimise the fresco generation effect, we add the corresponding loss function in the discriminator. The tomb murals dataset was established for experiments and tests, and quantitatively and qualitatively analysed with other style migration models, and SSIM, FID, LPIPS and NIQE were used as evaluation indexes. The results were 0.97, 269.579, 0.425 and 3.250, respectively, and the effect of style migration of this paper's method was significantly higher than that of the control group model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of network characteristics on supply chain network resilience (SCNR) when risk propagation occurs in supply chain networks (SCNs). The network characteristics we study here (e.g., clustering coefficient, scalar index, node type, etc.) are exceptionally important for real-life SCNs, but are not sufficiently considered in the previous research on SCNR. To this end, we first construct an SCN model with adjustable parameters for multiple network characteristics. Second, this SCN model is combined with a susceptible–infectious–susceptible model to construct an SCN risk propagation model. Third, we propose using the average (i.e., a novel SCNR metric considering node type) of the sizes of the maximum connected subgraphs (which contain all node types) over a period of time after risk propagation reaches a steady state. Fourth, the parameters of the SCN model are adjusted to generate SCNs with different network characteristics, and then the resilience of these SCNs is addressed accordingly. The simulation results mainly show the following: the larger the scalar index of an SCN is, the higher its resilience; the larger the clustering coefficient of an SCN is, the smaller its resilience; and the more uniform the distribution of node types is in an SCN, the higher its resilience. Our research work will help optimize SCNs' structure, which has important implications for society and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raman microlasers form on-chip versatile light sources by optical pumping, enabling numerical applications ranging from telecommunications to biological detection. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) lasing has been demonstrated in optical microresonators, leveraging high Q factors and small mode volume to generate downconverted photons based on the interaction of light with the Stokes vibrational mode. Unlike redshifted SRS, stimulated anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SARS) further involves the interplay between the pump photon and the SRS photon to generate an upconverted photon, depending on a highly efficient SRS signal as an essential prerequisite. Therefore, achieving SARS in microresonators is challenging due to the low lasing efficiencies of integrated Raman lasers caused by intrinsically low Raman gain. In this work, high-Q whispering gallery microresonators were fabricated by femtosecond laser photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), which is a strong Raman-gain photonic platform. The high Q factor reached 4.42 × 106, which dramatically increased the circulating light intensity within a small volume. And a strong Stokes vibrational frequency of 264 cm−1 of lithium niobate was selectively excited, leading to a highly efficient SRS lasing signal with a conversion efficiency of 40.6%. And the threshold for SRS was only 0.33 mW, which is about half the best record previously reported on a TFLN platform. The combination of high Q factors, a small cavity size of 120 μm, and the excitation of a strong Raman mode allowed the formation of SARS lasing with only a 0.46 mW pump threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well productivity of high-waxy reservoirs is highly influenced by temperature changes. A decrease in temperature can cause the precipitation of wax from the crude oil, leading to a decrease in the formation's drainage capacity and a drop in oil production. In this study, the wax precipitation of crude oil is characterized by rheological properties tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermal analysis. The wax damage characteristics of cores and the relative permeability curves at different temperatures were investigated through coreflood experiments. Furthermore, nanoemulsion is selected as a chemical agent for injection fluid. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) scanning technique is used to investigate the effects of oil recovery enhancement at different pores by increasing temperature and adding nanoemulsion. By comparing the changes in T2 spectra and the distribution pattern of residual oil before and after liquid injection, the results have shown that both increasing temperature and adding nanoemulsion have a significant effect on oil recovery. The improvement of micropores is less pronounced compared to macropores. The produced oil mainly comes from the large pores. When the temperature is lower than the crude oil dewaxing point temperature, there is a serious dewaxing plugging phenomenon in the pores. Additionally, by observing the pattern of residual oil distribution at the end of the NMR online drive, it is hereby classified into wax deposition retention type, weak water washing retention type, and immobilized type, each with its own distinct characteristics. Wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction can help to improve the drainage capacity of high-wax oil reservoirs, which is the main mechanism of nanoemulsion for enhanced oil recovery. These findings are highly valuable for enhancing the comprehension of the impact of highly waxed crude oils on drainage capacity and the ultimate oil recovery rate, particularly in relation to wax precipitation deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses recent advances in reservoir stimulation and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology in unconventional reservoirs. The use of hydraulic fracturing and other stimulation techniques has led to significant production growth in unconventional reservoirs. The document highlights the latest research on geology, reservoir, drilling, and completion, and includes 35 publications on new ideas and methodologies in this field. The studies cover topics such as fracture propagation patterns, acidizing and acid fracturing technology, EOR technologies, and reservoir modification and completion technologies. These advancements are important for the development of unconventional oil and gas resources, as well as geothermal and coal resources. [Extracted from the article]

The precision and stability of the Robot-Assisted Percutaneous Puncture (RAPP) system have become increasingly crucial with the widespread integration of robotic technology in the field of medicine. The accurate calibration of the RAPP system prior to surgery significantly influences target positioning performance. This study proposes a novel system calibration method that simultaneously addresses system hand–eye calibration and robot kinematic parameters calibration, thereby enhancing the surgery success rate and ensuring patient safety. Initially, a Closed-loop Hand–eye Calibration (CHC) method is employed to rapidly establish transformation relationships among system components. These CHC results are then integrated with nominal robot kinematic parameters to preliminarily determine the system calibration parameters. Subsequently, a hybrid algorithm, combining the regularized Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm and a particle filtering algorithm, is utilized to accurately estimate the system calibration parameters in stages. Numerical simulations and puncture experiments were conducted using the proposed system calibration method and other comparative methods. The experimental results revealed that, among several comparative methods, the approach presented in this paper yields the greatest improvement in the puncture accuracy of the RAPP system, demonstrating the accuracy and effectiveness of this method. In conclusion, this calibration method significantly contributes to enhancing the precision, operational capability, and safety of the RAPP system in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tight-sandstone oil and gas resources are the key areas of unconventional oil and gas resources exploration and development. Because tight-sandstone reservoirs usually have the characteristics of a low porosity and ultralow permeability, large-scale hydraulic fracturing is often required to form artificial fractures with a high conductivity to achieve efficient development. The brittleness of rock is the key mechanical factor for whether fracturing can form a complex fracture network. Previous scholars have carried out a lot of research on the brittleness characteristics of conglomerate and shale reservoirs, but there are few studies on the brittleness characteristics of sandstone with different types and different coring angles in tight-sandstone reservoirs and the fracture propagation law of sandstone with different brittleness characteristics. Based on this, this paper carried out a systematic triaxial compression and hydraulic fracturing experiment on the tight sandstone of Shan 1 and He 8 in the Longdong area of the Changqing oilfield. Combined with CT scanning cracks, the brittleness characteristics and fracturing crack propagation law of different types and different coring angles of sandstone under formation-confining pressure were clarified. The results show that there are great differences between different types of sandstone in the yield stage and the failure stage. The sandstone with a quartz content of 100% has the highest peak strength and a strong brittleness. Sandstones with a high content of natural fractures and dolomite have a lower peak strength and a weaker brittleness. There are also differences in the peak strength and fracture morphology of sandstone with different coring angles due to geological heterogeneity. The sandstone with a comprehensive brittleness index of 70.30 produces a more complex fracture network during triaxial compression and hydraulic fracturing than the sandstone with a comprehensive brittleness index of 14.15. The research results have important guiding significance for on-site fracturing construction of tight-sandstone reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plant-based meat (PBM) takes up ever-increasing market shares and draws great attention from both customers and retailers these days. However, little is known about the nutritional quality of PBM products. Objective: This study intended to profile and evaluate the overview nutrition of PBM with equivalent meat products on the Hong Kong market. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 274 PBM and 151 meat products from 27 different brands on the Hong Kong market in October 2022. The nutritional differences between PBM and meat products were assessed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and two independent sample t-test. The nutritional quality of PBMs was evaluated according to nutrient reference value, front-of-package (FoP) criteria and nutritional score. Results: PBM had relatively lower energy density, total fat, saturated fat, protein, and salt compared to meat. According to the FoP criteria, 91.36%, 17.88%, and 99.34% of PBMs were labeled as medium to high in fat, salt, and sugar, respectively. Through ingredient analysis of 81 PBM products, soy and canola were the main source of protein and fat. Conclusions: PBM products have a roughly better nutrient quality compared to muscle-based meat, though there is still potential for further refinement in terms of production, consumption, and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of other viruses has raised concerns about the safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and antibody therapeutics. In vitro studies have shown ADE of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this study, we also found that vaccination/convalescent sera and some approved monoclonal antibodies can enhance SARS-CoV-2 infection of FcR-expressing B cells in vitro. However, the enhancement of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be prevented by blocking Fc–FcR interaction through the addition of human serum/IgG or the introduction of mutations in the Fc portion of the antibody. It should be noted that ADE activity observed on FcR-expressing cells in vitro may not necessarily reflect the situation in vivo; therefore, animal and clinical data should be included for ADE evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart respiratory therapy is enabled by continual assessment of lung functions. This systematic review provides an overview of the suitability of equipment-to-patient acoustic imaging in continual assessment of lung conditions. The literature search was conducted using Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, SciELO Preprints, and Google Scholar. Fifteen studies remained for additional examination after the screening process. Two imaging modalities, lung ultrasound (LUS) and vibration imaging response (VRI), were identified. The most common outcome obtained from eleven studies was positive observations of changes to the geographical lung area, sound energy, or both, while positive observation of lung consolidation was reported in the remaining four studies. Two different modalities of lung assessment were used in eight studies, with one study comparing VRI against chest X-ray, one study comparing VRI with LUS, two studies comparing LUS to chest X-ray, and four studies comparing LUS in contrast to computed tomography. Our findings indicate that the acoustic imaging approach could assess and provide regional information on lung function. No technology has been shown to be better than another for measuring obstructed airways; hence, more research is required on acoustic imaging in detecting obstructed airways regionally in the application of enabling smart therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land resources are essential natural resources and strategic economic resources for human survival and development. However, human improper use has brought unprecedented pressure and challenges to the ecosystem. Therefore, the assessment and analysis of land ecological security status and the identification and diagnosis of obstacles affecting land ecological security are helpful to avoid land ecological security problems caused by improper land use at the source and provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable use of land resources and the construction of ecological civilization in China. Based on the data from 2006 to 2020, this study constructed the land ecological risk-evaluation index system and land ecological health-evaluation index system. AHP, entropy method, combination weighting method, TOPSIS model, Boston matrix and obstacle degree model were used to assess the land ecological security situation in Nanyang City and to analyze the obstacle factors. The results show the following: (1) during the study period, the land ecological risk value of Nanyang City exhibited a Kuznets inverted "U" curve change, while the land ecological health value showed a "U" curve change; (2) the overall level of land ecological security in Nanyang City has gradually improved, with a security level pattern of "relatively safe (2006–2020)–unsafe (2011–2016)–relatively safe (2017–2019)–safe (2020)"; (3) the main obstacle factors of land ecosystem were the following: erosion area, sewage discharge, area of waterlogging control, grain sown area, coverage of urban green built-up area and farmland effective irrigated area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The uterus is an important organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals. The normal growth and development of ruminant uterus caruncles are crucial to maintain gestation and fetal health in goats. The aim of this study was to screen a set of candidate housekeeping genes (HKGs) in Carpra hircus uterus caruncles. Four programs and one comprehensive index were applied to assess the stability of 22 selected HKGs expression during non-pregnant and pregnancy stages. The most and least stable HKGs were used to normalize the target genes expression of SPP1, VEGFA, and PAG8. Traditional reference genes were not suitable for target gene normalization, while PPIB and EIF3K, POP4, PPIA, and SDHA showed the least variation and were recommended as the best HKGs during the nonpregnant stage and the whole stages of goat uterus caruncle tissue, respectively. This study found the suitable HKGs in uterus caruncle tissues at different stages of non-pregnancy and pregnancy. The uterus is a critical pregnancy organ for mammals. The normal growth and development of ruminant uterus caruncles are crucial to maintain gestation and fetal health in goats. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is a reliable tool to study gene expression profiling for exploring the intrinsic mechanism underlying the conversion process of uterus caruncle tissue. However, the candidate housekeeping genes (HKGs) are required for normalizing the expression of function genes. In our study, 22 HKGs were selected from analyzing transcriptome data at non-pregnancy and pregnancy processes and previous reports about HKGs in goat tissues. We assessed them for expression suitability in 24 samples from uterus tissues at 15 non-pregnant days (Stage 1), early (Stage 2), and medium-later pregnant days (Stage 3). The expression stability of these genes was evaluated by using geNorm, Normfinder, Bestkeeper, and Delta Ct algorithms and, comprehensively, by ReFinder. In addition, the most and least stable HKGs were used to normalize the target genes expression of SPP1, VEGFA, and PAG8. It was found that traditional reference genes, such as ACTB and GAPDH, were not suitable for target gene normalization. In contrast, PPIB selected from RNA sequencing data and EIF3K selected from previous references showed the least variation and were recommended as the best HKGs during the nonpregnant stage and the whole stages of goat uterus caruncle tissue, respectively. It is the first time the HKGs genes in uterus during the non-pregnant day and throughout the total pregnancy have been explored. These findings found suitable HKGs in uterus caruncle tissues at various stages of non-pregnancy and pregnancy; these can be useful for gene expression studies to reveal the molecular mechanisms of uterus development in goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intracellular pressure, a key physical parameter of the intracellular environment, has been found to regulate multiple cell physiological activities and impact cell micromanipulation results. The intracellular pressure may reveal the mechanism of these cells' physiological activities or improve the micro-manipulation accuracy for cells. The involvement of specialized and expensive devices and the significant damage to cell viability that the current intracellular pressure measurement methods cause significantly limit their wide applications. This paper proposes a robotic intracellular pressure measurement method using a traditional micropipette electrode system setup. First, the measured resistance of the micropipette inside the culture medium is modeled to analyze its variation trend when the pressure inside the micropipette increases. Then, the concentration of KCl solution filled inside the micropipette electrode that is suitable for intracellular pressure measurement is determined according to the tested electrode resistance–pressure relationship; 1 mol/L KCl solution is our final choice. Further, the measurement resistance of the micropipette electrode inside the cell is modeled to measure the intracellular pressure through the difference in key pressure before and after the release of the intracellular pressure. Based on the above work, a robotic measurement procedure of the intracellular pressure is established based on a traditional micropipette electrode system. The experimental results on porcine oocytes demonstrate that the proposed method can operate on cells at an average speed of 20~40 cells/day with measurement efficiency comparable to the related work. The average repeated error of the relationship between the measured electrode resistance and the pressure inside the micropipette electrode is less than 5%, and no observable intracellular pressure leakage was found during the measurement process, both guaranteeing the measurement accuracy of intracellular pressure. The measured results of the porcine oocytes are in accordance with those reported in related work. Moreover, a 90% survival rate of operated oocytes was obtained after measurement, proving limited damage to cell viability. Our method does not rely on expensive instruments and is conducive to promotion in daily laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of repairing significant bone defects requires the recruitment of a considerable number of cells for osteogenesis-related activities, which implies the consumption of a substantial amount of oxygen and nutrients. Therefore, the limited supply of nutrients and oxygen at the defect site is a vital constraint that affects the regenerative effect, which is closely related to the degree of a well-established vascular network. Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α), which is an essential transcription factor activated in hypoxic environments, plays a vital role in vascular network construction. HIF-1α, which plays a central role in regulating cartilage and bone formation, induces vascular invasion and differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells to promote and maintain extracellular matrix production by mediating the adaptive response of cells to changes in oxygen levels. However, the application of HIF-1α in bone tissue engineering is still controversial. As such, clarifying the function of HIF-1α in regulating the bone regeneration process is one of the urgent issues that need to be addressed. This review provides insight into the mechanisms of HIF-1α action in bone regeneration and related recent advances. It also describes current strategies for applying hypoxia induction and hypoxia mimicry in bone tissue engineering, providing theoretical support for the use of HIF-1α in establishing a novel and feasible bone repair strategy in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A patent false lumen (FL) in patients with thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR)-treated type B aortic dissection (TBAD) can cause a significant risk for late aortic expansion (LAE). We hypothesize that preoperative features can predict the occurrence of LAE. Methods: Sufficient preoperative and postoperative follow-up clinical and imaging feature data for patients treated with TEVAR in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to December 2020 were collected. A univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to find potential risk factors of LAE. Results: Ninety-six patients were finally included in this study. The mean age was 54.5 ± 11.7 years and 85 (88.5%) were male. LAE occurred in 15 (15.6%) of 96 patients after TEVAR. Two preoperative factors showed strong associations with LAE according to the multivariable logistic regression analysis: preoperative partial thrombosis of the FL (OR = 10.989 [2.295–48.403]; p = 0.002) and the maximum descending aortic diameter (OR = 1.385 [1.100–1.743] per mm increase; p = 0.006). Conclusions: Preoperative partial thrombosis of the FL and an increase in the maximum aortic diameter are strongly associated with late aortic expansion. Additional interventions of the FL may help to improve the prognosis of patients with the high risk of late aortic expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate the effect of chromium content in carbon steel on the corrosion resistance of carbon steel materials, the corrosion behavior of 1Cr and N80 steels was investigated in this study by immersion weight loss method under three different CO2 partial pressure and temperature conditions in formation water for 72, 168 and 336 h. Detailed material surface morphological characterization was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The results show that the pitting corrosion of N80 carbon steel is serious at medium temperature and low CO2 partial pressure (50 °C, 0.30 MPa), and the corrosion rate is significantly higher than that of 1Cr steel. However, at high-temperature and high CO2 partial pressure (100 °C/0.63 MPa and 114 °C/0.73 MPa), 1Cr steel is more inclined to the mesa corrosion dominated by local corrosion characteristics, and the corrosion rate is seriously higher than that of N80 steel with uniform corrosion. From the experimental results, we can know the corrosion resistance of carbon steel and 1Cr steel is not only affected by the corrosion environment, but also depends on the formation process of the product film, as well as its compactness and integrity characteristics. At low-temperature and low CO2 partial pressure, 1 wt.% chromium content can provide a certain degree of corrosion resistance, while high temperature and high partial pressure can broaden the application window of carbon steel N80 and weaken the corrosion inhibition effect of chromium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of wearable technology has facilitated the collection and sharing of health data, allowing patients to benefit from caretakers and medical research. However, these personal health data often contain sensitive information and it is typically not known in advance with whom the information will be shared. Therefore, messages must be encrypted and shared while adhering to the decoupled communication model. This paper presents NACDA, a secure many-to-many data-sharing service on the Named Data Network (NDN). NACDA uses Identity-Based Encryption with Wildcard Key Derivation (WKD-IBE) to allow naming-based access control, enabling data subjects to share data securely and flexibly regardless of the data processor. In addition, NACDA supplements a decentralized authorization mechanism with blockchain to ensure data subjects' data ownership and enforce access policies. We developed an NDN-based prototype and performed a security analysis to demonstrate NACDA's feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially long-chain PUFAs (LCPUFAs), are crucial for both the structural and functional integrity of cells. PUFAs have been reported to be insufficient in schizophrenia, and the resulting cell membrane impairments have been hypothesized as an etiological mechanism. However, the impact of PUFA deficiencies on the onset of schizophrenia remain uncertain. We investigated the associations between PUFAs consumption and schizophrenia incidence rates through correlational analyses and conducted Mendelian randomization analyses to reveal the causal effects. Using dietary PUFA consumption and national schizophrenia incidence rates in 24 countries, we found that incidence rates of schizophrenia were inversely correlated with arachidonic acid (AA) and ω-6 LCPUFA consumption (rAA = −0.577, p < 0.01; rω-6 LCPUFA = −0.626, p < 0.001). Moreover, Mendelian randomization analyses revealed that genetically predicted AA and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) were protective factors against schizophrenia (ORAA = 0.986, ORGLA = 0.148). In addition, no significant relationships were observed between schizophrenia and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) or other ω-3 PUFAs. These findings show that the deficiencies of ω-6 LCPUFAs, especially AA, are associated with schizophrenia risk, which sheds novel insight into the etiology of schizophrenia and a promising diet supplementation for the prevention and treatment of schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone tissue engineering (BTE) utilizes a special mix of scaffolds, cells, and bioactive factors to regulate the microenvironment of bone regeneration and form a three-dimensional bone simulation structure to regenerate bone tissue. Silk fibroin (SF) is perhaps the most encouraging material for BTE given its tunable mechanical properties, controllable biodegradability, and excellent biocompatibility. Numerous studies have confirmed the significance of SF for stimulating bone formation. In this review, we start by introducing the structure and characteristics of SF. After that, the immunological mechanism of SF for osteogenesis is summarized, and various forms of SF biomaterials and the latest development prospects of SF in BTE are emphatically introduced. Biomaterials based on SF have great potential in bone tissue engineering, and this review will serve as a resource for future design and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Currently, as a neoadjuvant conversion therapy (NCT), pazopanib combined with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy could improve the pathological response of unresectable soft tissue sarcoma (uSTS). However, there is no available evidence of its effectiveness with respect to tumor reduction and surgical margins. In China, anlotinib is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is approved for STS. In this study, adding anlotinib to adriamycin and ifosfamide resulted in an increased rate of tumor regression, surgical conversion and R0 resection in patients with uSTS, particularly for synovial sarcoma and liposarcoma. Severe toxicities are more frequent than monotherapy, but they are controllable. (1) Background: This study investigated the safety and efficiency of adriamycin and ifosfamide combined with anlotinib (AI/AN) as a neoadjuvant conversion therapy in uSTS. (2) Methods: Patients with uSTS were eligible to receive AI/An, including adriamycin (20 mg/m2/d) and ifosfamide (3 g/m2/d) for the first to the third day combined with anlotinib (12 mg/d) for 2 weeks on/1 week off, all of which combine to comprise one cycle. Surgery was recommended after four cycles of treatment. (3) Results: A total of 28 patients were enrolled from June 2018 to December 2020. The best tumor responses included eight patients with partial responses and 20 with a stable disease. Patients with synovial sarcoma and liposarcoma had a significant decrease in the number of tumors compared with fibrosarcoma (p = 0.012; p = 0.042). The overall response rate and disease control rate were 28.57% and 100%, respectively. In total, 24 patients received surgery, while the rates of limb salvage and R0 resection were 91.67% (n = 22/24) and 87.50% (n = 21/24), respectively. Until the last follow-up visit, the mean PFS and RFS were 21.70 and 23.97 months, respectively. During drug administration, 67.87% of patients had grade ≥3 AEs. No treatment-related death occurred. (4) Conclusions: AI/AN followed by surgery showed favorable efficiency and manageable safety in patients with uSTS. A randomized controlled study with a large cohort should be performed for further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-quality and controllable preparation of molybdenum nitrides (MoxNy) will significantly advance the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, energy storage, and superconductivity. However, the complex structure of MoxNy, which contains multiple phases, makes exploring the structure-property relationship challenging. The selective preparation of MoxNy with distinct phases is undoubtedly an effective method for addressing this issue, but it is lacking experimental cases and theoretical reports. Here we demonstrate a feasible chemical vapor deposition (CVD) strategy for selectively producing γ-Mo2N or δ-MoN through modulating the mass quantity of N precursors. A liquid Cu-Mo alloy was used as a Mo precursor and catalyst in this system. The resulting γ-Mo2N was systematically characterized and found to be of high quality. Furthermore, the morphology evolutions of γ-Mo2N and δ-MoN with growth time were summarized in detail, as a result of growth and etching dynamics. This work promotes the phase modulation of MoxNy and provides a framework for future research on the structure-property relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subphthalocyanines (SubPcs) are a kind of tripyrrolic macrocycle with a boron atom at their core. Incorporating different units onto the SubPc periphery can endow them with various unique properties. Herein, a series of novel fluorinated low-symmetry SubPc derivatives containing chlorine groups (F8-Cl4-SubPc, F4-Cl8-SubPc) and methoxy groups (F8-(OCH3)2-SubPc) were synthesized and characterized by spectral methods (MS, FT-IR, 1H, 13C, 11B, and 19F NMR spectroscopy), and the effect of the peripheral substituents on their electronic structure of low-symmetry macrocycle was investigated by cyclic voltammetry, theoretical calculation, electronic absorption, and emission spectroscopy. In contrast to perfluorinated SubPcs, these low-symmetry SubPcs revealed non-degenerate LUMO and LUMO + 1 orbitals, especially F8-(OCH3)2-SubPc, which was consistent with the split Q-band absorptions. The cyclic voltammetry revealed that these SubPcs exhibited two or three reduction waves and one oxidation wave, which is consistent with the reported SubPcs. Finally, an intracellular fluorescence imaging study of these compounds revealed that these compounds could enter cancer cells and be entrapped in the lysosomes, which provides a possibility of future applications in lysosome fluorescence imaging and targeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) is the latest video coding standard, but currently, most steganographic algorithms are based on High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). The concept of symmetry is often adopted in deep neural networks. With the rapid rise of new multimedia, video steganography shows great research potential. This paper proposes a VVC steganographic algorithm based on Coding Units (CUs). Considering the novel techniques in VVC, the proposed steganography only uses chroma CUs to embed secret information. Based on modifying the partition modes of chroma CUs, we propose four different embedding levels to satisfy the different needs of visual quality, capacity and video bitrate. In order to reduce the bitrate of stego-videos and improve the distortion caused by modifying them, we propose a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) as an additional in-loop filter in the VVC codec to achieve better restoration. Furthermore, the proposed steganography algorithm based on chroma components has an advantage in resisting most of the video steganalysis algorithms, since few VVC steganalysis algorithms have been proposed thus far and most HEVC steganalysis algorithms are based on the luminance component. Experimental results show that the proposed VVC steganography algorithm achieves excellent performance on visual quality, bitrate cost and capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity incorporates both domain-general and domain-specific ideas. While previous studies have explored the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) on creativity in both domains, a consensus has not been reached, and the mechanism is currently unclear. In the present study, we examined which aspect of creativity EI was most strongly associated with in a group of undergraduates. Moreover, we explored the moderated mediation effect between EI and domain-specific creativity. In Study 1, 532 undergraduates completed questionnaires measuring EI, convergent and divergent creative thinking, and creative achievement. The results revealed that the most reliable positive correlations were between EI and domain-specific creativity. In Study 2, 926 undergraduates completed measurements of EI, resilience, gratitude, and creative achievement. The results revealed that resilience mediates the relationship between EI and creative achievement. Furthermore, gratitude moderated the indirect effect of EI on creative achievement through resilience. The indirect effect of EI on creative achievement was stronger for high-gratitude individuals than for low-gratitude individuals. This orientation and other results are discussed. Overall, our findings add further nuance to the relationship between EI and creativity in different domains. This study serves as a basis for other contributions aligned with these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is the mainstay of China's energy supply. With the gradual progress in China's policy of phasing out backward coal production capacity, the intensive and deep mining of coal has gradually become the new norm. The current mining depth is increasing at a rate of 10~15 m/year. The high crust stress, high gas pressure, high ground temperature, and engineering disturbance stress in deep coal mines can lead to the occurrence of coal–rock–gas dynamic disasters that are complex and show the characteristics of compound dynamic disasters. It is important to understand the evolution and mechanism of deep coal and rock dynamic disasters accurately for the safe development of deep resources. To study the mechanism of occurrence and the evolution of impact–protrusion compound dynamic disasters, we herein analyzed the apparent characteristics of coal–rock–gas compound dynamic disasters in deep mines and obtained the mechanical and acoustic emission characteristics of coal–rock composites through indoor experiments. Then, we conducted in-depth analysis on the non-uniform deformation behaviors and non-uniform stress field of the coal–rock composite and clarified the generation mechanism of local tensile cracks at the coal–rock interface. Subsequently, we established the energy transfer model of the rock–rock–gas composite specimen in the process of dynamic destabilization in the engineering scale mining field and revealed the mechanism of nonlinear energy evolution and release of the coal–rock–gas composite, which has been less reported in previous studies. In this paper, we further clarified the occurrence and development mechanism of coal–rock–gas compound dynamic disasters in the engineering scale mining environment to guide the prevention and control of coal–rock–gas dynamic disasters in deep mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperatures are often used to preserve fruits and vegetables. However, low-temperature storage also causes problems, such as chilling injury, nitrite accumulation, and browning aggravation in plants. This study investigated the effects of brassinolide (BR,1.0 mg L−1) solution soaking, storage temperatures (−2 ± 0.5 °C, 4 ± 0.5 °C, and 20 ± 1 °C), and their combinations on nitrite content, color change, and quality of stored Toona sinensis bud. The results showed that low temperature (LT, 4 ± 0.5 °C) and near freezing-point temperature (NFPT, −2 ± 0.5 °C) storage effectively inhibited the decay of T. sinensis bud compared to room temperature (20 ± 1 °C, the control). The combined treatments of BR with LT or NFPT reduced nitrite content and maintained the color and the contents of vitamin C, carotenoids, saponins, β-sitosterol, polyphenol, anthocyanin, flavonoids, and alkaloids in T. sinensis bud. BR soaking delayed the occurrence of chilling injury during NFPT storage. Meanwhile, BR soaking enhanced the DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS activity, and FRAP content by increasing SOD and POD activity and the contents of proline, soluble, and glutathione, thus decreasing MDA and hydrogen peroxide content and the rate of superoxide radical production in T. sinensis bud during NFPT storage. This study provides a valuable strategy for postharvest T. sinensis bud in LT and NFPT storage. BR soaking extended the shelf life during LT storage and maintained a better appearance and nutritional quality during NFPT storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An in-depth study of the operational efficiency of Internet banks is essential to enhance banks' competitiveness and sustainable development. We use the two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to divide the operational process of Internet banks into the value operation stage (stage 1) and the value creation stage (stage 2). This paper adopts the R&D investment that reflects the characteristics of Internet banks as the input of the value operation stage in the two-stage DEA model. It examines the operating efficiency of China's Internet banks from 2018 to 2019, including stage efficiency and comprehensive efficiency. The empirical analysis results indicate that the contribution of stage 2 to the comprehensive efficiency is higher than that of stage 1. Similarly, it can also be shown that the average values of the stage efficiency and comprehensive efficiency of Internet banking in 2019 are higher than those in 2018. In addition, the Kruskal–Wallis test shows no significant difference in the average comprehensive efficiency of Internet banks in the three major economic belts. These results have significant strategic implications for managers, regulators, and policymakers who share a common interest in boosting financial sustainability and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, TBM has been widely applied in deep coal mining to lift the TBM tunneling efficiency and avoid accidents, and more flexible support schemes are expected and required. This research aims to evaluate the performance of the two different support schemes and to study the law of the support effect. A three-dimensional continuum model was established based on the available geological information, and the support effect at the three-dimensional level was studied by changing the support spacing and was assessed in term of the stress, displacement, failure zone, bolt force distributions, and axial deformation behavior of the tunnel. The results show that no matter what the geological condition was, the support of the non-radial support was a little lower than that of the radial support, and with a worse geological condition, the non-radial support had a better performance in the stabilizing tunnel. Additionally, the law of the support effect was found. The interlapping of the support influence domain was the essence of the increase in the support effect. Finally, according to the support law, the appropriate support spacing is found, which is smaller than 50% of the support influence domain length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root-zone CO2 is essential for plant growth and metabolism. However, the partitioning and assimilation processes of CO2 absorbed by roots remain unclear in various parts of the oriental melon. We investigated the time at which root-zone CO2 enters the oriental melon root system, and its distribution in different parts of the plant, using 13C stable isotopic tracer experiments, as well as the effects of high root-zone CO2 on leaf carbon assimilation-related enzyme activities and gene expressions under 0.2%, 0.5% and 1% root-zone CO2 concentrations. The results showed that oriental melon roots could absorb CO2 and transport it quickly to the stems and leaves. The distribution of 13C in roots, stems and leaves increased with an increase in the labeled root-zone CO2 concentration, and the δ13C values in roots, stems and leaves increased initially, and then decreased with an increase in feeding time, reaching a peak at 24 h after 13C isotope labeling. The total accumulation of 13C in plants under the 0.5% and 1% 13CO2 concentrations was lower than that in the 0.2% 13CO2 treatment. However, the distributional proportion of 13C in leaves under 0.5% and 1% 13CO2 was significantly higher than that under the 0.2% CO2 concentration. Photosynthetic carbon assimilation-related enzyme activities and gene expressions in the leaves of oriental melon seedlings were inhibited after 9 days of high root-zone CO2 treatment. According to these results, oriental melon plants' carbon distribution was affected by long-term high root-zone CO2, and reduced the carbon assimilation ability of the leaves. These findings provide a basis for the further quantification of the contribution of root-zone CO2 to plant communities in natural field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited-entry fracturing (LEF) technology is a widely used method to realize the simultaneous propagation of multiple fractures in horizontal wells. The key of this technology is to create high perforation friction to maintain the high treatment pressure in the wellbore and realize the uniform fluid entry of multi-fractures; however, high perforation friction cannot be effectively maintained due to the serious perforation erosion effect. Considering that the current laboratory studies mostly used small fluid injection flowrate, low injection pressure, and small proppant dosage, this study has developed a field-scale flow system to investigate the effect of various factors on perforation erosion under real field conditions. The filed-scale flow system uses the real fracturing trucks, proppant, and perforated wellbore, the fluid flow rate through perforation could reach 200 m/s and the injection pressure could reach 105 MPa. The effects of different parameters, such as injection flow rates, proppant concentration, proppant type, proppant size, and carrying fluid viscosity, on the perforation erosion were investigated. The experimental results show that: (1) The perforation friction during erosion goes through two stages, i.e., the roundness erosion stage and the diameter erosion stage. The reduction of perforating friction mainly occurred in the first stage, which was completed after injecting 1 m3 proppant. (2) After erosion, the perforation changes from the original circular shape to a trumpet shape, the inner diameter is much larger than the outer diameter. (3) The more serious perforation erosion is caused by the conditions of high injection flow rate, large proppant size, using ceramic proppant, and low viscosity fluid. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of perforation erosion during the limited-entry fracturing in the horizontal wells, and also could promote the establishment of a theoretical model of perforation erosion under the field-scale conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-derived drug carriers have increasingly gained the interest of the scientific community due to their ability to imitate various natural properties of their source cells. We developed theranostics nanoplatforms composed of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), indocyanine green (ICG) molecules, microRNAs-137 (miR-137), red-blood-cell membranes (RM), and tumor-targeting cyclo Arg-Gly-Asp-d-Phe-Cys peptides (cRGD(fC)), which were abbreviated as MSNs/ICG/miR/RM/RGD particles. These particles possessed photothermal and gene therapy properties due to ICG and miR-137, respectively. The photothermal conversion efficiency was ~18.7%. Upon 808 nm light irradiation, the tumor inhibition rate reached 94.9% with dosage of 10 mg/kg. The developed nanoplatform possessed unique properties, such as exceptional biocompatibility, immune escaping, and specific recognition, which was also used for near-infrared fluorescence, photoacoustic (PA) bimodal imaging-guided tumor recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving accurate single snapshot direction of arrival (DOA) information significantly improves communication performance. This paper investigates an accurate and high-resolution DOA estimation technique by enabling single snapshot data collection and enhancing DOA estimation results compared to multiple snapshot methods. This is carried out by manipulating the incoming signal covariance matrix while suppressing undesired additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) by actively updating and estimating the antenna array manifold vector. We demonstrated the estimation performance in simulation that our proposed technique supersedes the estimation performance of existing state-of-the-art techniques in various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios and single snapshot sampling environments. Our proposed covariance-based single snapshot (CbSS) technique yields the lowest root-mean-squared error (RMSE) against the true DOA compared to root-MUSIC and the partial relaxation (PR) approach for multiple snapshots and a single signal source environment. In addition, our proposed technique presents the lowest DOA estimation performance degradation in a multiple uncorrelated and coherent signal source environment by up to 25.5% with nearly negligible bias. Lastly, our proposed CbSS technique presents the best DOA estimation results for a single snapshot and single-source scenario with an RMSE of 0.05 ° against the true DOA compared to root-MUSIC and the PR approach with nearly negligible bias as well. A potential application for CbSS would be in a scenario where accurate DOA estimation with a small antenna array form factor is a limitation, such as in the intelligent transportation system industry and wireless communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: It has previously been shown that the International Fitness Scale (IFIS) is a reliable and valid instrument when used in numerous regions and subgroups, but it remains to be determined whether the IFIS is a reliable instrument for use with Chinese children and adolescents. If the reliability of the IFIS can be verified, populational surveillance and monitoring of physical fitness (PF) can easily be conducted. This study aimed to test the reliability of the IFIS when used with Chinese children and adolescents. Methods: The convenience sampling method was used to recruit study participants. In total, 974 school-aged children and adolescents between 11 and 17 years of age were recruited from three cities in Southeast China: Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi. The study participants self-reported demographic data, including age (in years) and sex (boy or girl). The participants completed the questionnaire twice within a two-week interval. Results: A response rate of 95.9% resulted in a sample of 934 participants (13.7 ± 1.5 years, 47.4% girls) with valid data. On average, the participants were 13.7 ± 1.5 years of age. The test–retest weighted kappa coefficients for overall fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle fitness, speed and agility and flexibility were 0.52 (Std. errs. = 0.02), 0.51 (Std. errs. = 0.02), 0.60 (Std. errs. = 0.02), 0.55 (Std. errs. = 0.02) and 0.55 (Std. errs. = 0.02), respectively. Conclusions: The International Fitness Scale was found to have moderate reliability in the assessment of (self-reported) physical fitness in Chinese children and adolescents. In the future, the validity of the IFIS should be urgently tested in Chinese subgroup populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper, based on the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in different areas of China, was to give the corresponding measures to prevent UV aging of asphalt. In this paper, based on the average annual amount of UV radiation in China in the past 30 years and the characteristics of UV aging of asphalt, the climatic zoning of UV radiation of asphalt in China was proposed. A variety of base asphalts and styrene–butadiene–styrene block copolymer (SBS) modified asphalts were selected to carry out a UV radiation test, and the relationship between UV radiation amount and viscosity, low-temperature performance, and the rheological properties of asphalt were studied. The equivalent aging indexes of asphalt during UV radiation were selected, the UV aging equation of asphalt was proposed, and the equivalent UV aging relationship among different UV climate zones was established. The prevention and control strategies of UV aging of asphalt among different zones were proposed, and the above theory was verified using a trial road. The main conclusions in the paper are presented: The climate zoning of asphalt UV radiation in China can be divided into three zones: zone I with an annual UV radiation less than or equal to 69.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years; zone II with an annual UV radiation of 69.4~81.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years; zone III with an annual UV radiation more than or equal to 81.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years. The greater the amount of UV radiation, the greater the loss rate of penetration and ductility. For the same kind of asphalt, there is a relatively stable functional relationship between the loss rate and the amount of UV radiation. The results also show that UV radiation changes the proportion of viscous and elastic components in asphalt, showing that the proportion of viscous components decreases and the proportion of elastic components increases. The penetration loss rate and ductility loss rate of asphalt can be used as equivalent UV aging indexes of asphalt. Under the same outdoor UV irradiation time, for asphalt to achieve the same technical performance as zone I, the anti-UV ability of zone II needs to be improved by more than 5%, and that of zone III needs to be improved by more than 10%. Engineering practice has proved that the zoning established in this paper and the corresponding UV control measures are basically reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lower Cambrian shale and lower Silurian shale are both typical of oil-prone kerogen and siliceous composition, but different in thermal maturities. Porosity differences were determined in marine shales between the two shales. Measurements were utilized including organic geochemistry, XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N2 gas adsorption. Pore volume (PV) of lower Silurian shale was approximately 1.5 times higher than that of lower Cambrian shale, and pore surface area (PSA) of lower Silurian shale was almost 2.5 times higher than that of lower Cambrian shale. Lower Cambrian shale and lower Silurian shale possess similar materials, but distinctive thermal degrees. Evolution mechanisms of different types of pores, especially organic matter (OM)-hosted pores, may trigger this different pore features. Pores of rigid framework are the residue of primary interparticle pores during the burial history. Pores associated with clay flakes can be preserved well adjacent to rigid grains or secondary minerals acting as rigid frameworks or grain supporters. Dissolved pores in both lower Cambrian shale and lower Silurian shale barely contribute to the total porosity and mean little to the permeability. Both excessive OM content and over thermal maturity are detrimental to development of OM-hosted pores. Rigid particles, clay flakes, and OM commonly co-exist within shale matrix. Rigid grains act as supporters, clay flakes confine ample space, and OM first migrates into and provides secondary OM-hosted pores. In this condition, pores can be preserved owing to associating matrix with good mechanic and chemical stability. The significant differences of structural settings result into various hydrocarbon explosion efficiency and different pressure circumstance, which consequently leads to the different pore features between the two shales. For lower Cambrian shale, overpressure circumstance diminish if hydrocarbon expels outside of the shale system, and OM-hosted pores destroy through compaction. Sustaining overpressure and abundant residue hydrocarbon (migrated OM) make positive contributions to the pore properties, in terms of numbers, diameters and connectivity of the lower Silurian shale samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial ecosystem health (TEH) is the basis of regional sustainability development. The state of TEH is an important research direction in the land science field. The purpose of this paper was to explore the development trends and influencing factors of the. By using the radial basis function (RBF), neural network model, geographic information system (GIS), and the comprehensive index method, this paper predicted the land ecological changes of Henan Province from 2007 to 2025 based on a comprehensive evaluation of the system. The results show that the TEH of Henan Province exhibited a general trend of improvement from 2007 to 2025. The predictions exhibited a tendency to fluctuate and increase, from "severe warning" to "moderate warning" and even to "no warning" state. The early warning index of the subsystem showed a fluctuating upward trend except for the press subsystem, which fluctuated between "extraordinary warning" and "heavy warning" states. The overall TEH level is improving but is largely dependent on effective corresponding measures. The health status of the land ecosystem in Henan Province is guaranteed to be stable due to improvements in rural residential incomes, mechanization levels of cultivated land, domestic sewage treatment rates, and the numbers of scientific and technological personnel per unit of land. The TEH is mainly restricted by the population densities, urbanization levels, inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, and average wastewater load factors of the land. To improve the health level of the land ecosystem, it is necessary to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides and to control the urbanization rate. At the same time, improving the level of forest coverage and the effective irrigation rate play a positive role in improving ecosystem health. The results provide a reference for land-use planning and management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite Internet Network (LEO-SIN) is a promising approach to global Gigabit per second (Gbps) broadband communications in the coming sixth-generation (6G) era. This paper mainly focuses on the innovation of accuracy improvement of simulation modeling of the Doppler Power Spectrum (DPS) of satellite channels in LEO-SIN. Existing DPS modeling methods are based on Rice's Sum-of-Sinusoids (SOS) which have obvious modeling errors in scenarios with main signal propagation paths, asymmetrical power spectrum, and random multi-path signals with a random Angle of Arrival (AOA) in LEO-SIN. There are few state-of-art researches devoted to higher accuracy of DPS modeling for simulation. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Random Method of Exact Doppler Spread method Set Partitioning (RMEDS-SP). Distinct from existed researches, we firstly model the DPS of LEO-SIN, which more accurately describes the characteristics of frequency dispersion with the main path and multi-path signals with random AOA. Furthermore, piecewise functions to the Autocorrelation Function (ACF) of RMEDS-SP is first exploited to converge the modeling error supposition with time by periodic changes, which further improve the accuracy of the DPS model. Experimental results show that the accuracy of DPS in our proposed model is improved by 32.19% and 18.52%, respectively when compared with existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of myocarditis/pericarditis incidences has been reported after coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccination in adolescents and young adults. This study was designed to investigate the incidence rate of—and risk for—myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination in the United States according to age and vaccine type. This study used the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) from 11 December 2020 to 13 August 2021. A population-based data mining approach was performed based on the reporting odds ratio (ROR). Adverse events of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination were rare, with an incidence rate of 5.98 (95% CI = 5.73–6.24) cases per million doses administered. The incidence rate was higher in adolescents and after the administration of the second dose of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Overall, two mRNA vaccines were significantly associated with increased risks for myocarditis/pericarditis (mRNA-1273 (Moderna): ROR = 2.91, 95% CI = 2.21–3.83; BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech): ROR = 5.37, 95% CI = 4.10–7.04) compared to all other vaccines from VAERS. The viral vector vaccine of Ad26.COV2.S (Janssen) was not associated with signals of myocarditis/pericarditis (ROR = 1.39; 95% CI = 0.99–1.97). This study found increased risks for myocarditis/pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. For patients at high risk for myocarditis/pericarditis or with myocardial injuries, the viral vector vaccine may be an alternative for consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the early stage of a novel infectious disease outbreak provide vital information in risk assessment, prediction, and precise disease management. Since the first reported case of COVID-19, the pattern of the novel coronavirus transmission in Wuhan has become the interest of researchers in epidemiology and public health. To thoroughly map the mechanism of viral spreading, we used the patterns of data at the early onset of COVID-19 from seven countries to estimate the time lag between peak days of cases and deaths. This study compared these data with those of Wuhan and estimated the natural history of disease across the infected population and the time lag. The findings suggest that comparative analyses of data from different regions and countries reveal the differences between peaks of cases and deaths caused by COVID-19 and the incomplete and underestimated cases in Wuhan. Different countries may show different patterns of cases peak days, deaths peak days, and peak periods. Error in the early COVID-19 statistics in Brazil was identified. This study provides sound evidence for policymakers to understand the local circumstances in diagnosing the health of a population and propose precise and timely public health interventions to control and prevent infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutathione (GSH) is involved in and regulates important physiological functions of the body as an essential antioxidant. GSH plays an important role in anti-oxidation, detoxification, anti-aging, enhancing immunity and anti-tumor activity. Herein, based on the physiological properties of GSH in different diseases, mainly including the strong reducibility of GSH, high GSH content in tumor cells, and the NADPH depletion when GSSH is reduced to GSH, we extensively report the design principles, effect, and potential problems of various nano-drugs in diabetes, cancer, nervous system diseases, fluorescent probes, imaging, and food. These studies make full use of the physiological and pathological value of GSH and develop excellent design methods of nano-drugs related to GSH, which shows important scientific significance and prominent application value for the related diseases research that GSH participates in or responds to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated the β recrystallization behavior and deformation microtexture evolution of TB6 titanium alloy (Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al) taking place during isothermal compression. The hot deformation tests were carried out in the temperature range below the β phase transition temperature and spanned a wide strain rate range of 0.0001~1 s−1. Microstructure evolution on β phase, including its recrystallization behavior and microtexture formation, is sensitive to the strain rates, whereas the average grain size of equiaxed α phase exhibits a slight increase with the strain rate decreasing. Moreover, β recrystallization is not homogeneous among the prior β grains, and is characterized by: (I) enriched β sub-grains, (II) sporadically or chain-like distributed recrystallized β grains with a grain size far less than the prior β grains, and (III) wave-shaped β grain boundaries. The β recrystallization is inadequate and its orientation takes on the inheritance characteristic, which makes the β microtexture significant after deformation. At a lower strain rate, the high activity of the {11−2}<111> and {12−3}<111> slip systems induced the crystal rotation around <101>, but such crystal rotation did not destroy the Burgers orientation relationship (BOR), which could be accounted for by the generation of a strong microtexture of <001>//RD. The divergences on β recrystallization fraction, the operation of slip systems, and initial crystal orientations explain the different microtexture components with varied intensities under different deformation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether smokers respond to anti-cancer drugs differently than non-smokers remains controversial. The objective of this study is to explore whether the better response of the smokers is specific to therapy of anti-PD-1/PD-L1, anti-checkpoint inhibitor, individual drugs on the cell surface, or lung cancer. Our results showed that among all non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, when the data from anti-PD-1/PD-L1, anti-CTLA-4, and anti-MUC1 drugs are combined, the mean hazard ratios (HR) of smokers and non-smokers were 0.751 and 1.016, respectively. A meta-analysis with a fixed effect (FE) model indicated that the smokers have an HR value of 0.023 lower than that of the non-smokers. A stratified subgroup meta-analysis indicated that when treated with anti-CTLA-4 drugs, smokers had reduced HR values of 0.152 and 0.165 on average and FE model meta-analysis, respectively. When treated with an anti-MUC1 drug, smokers had reduced HR values of 1.563 and 0.645, on average and FE model meta-analysis, respectively. When treated with a combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab drugs, smokers had, on average, reduced HR and FE model meta-analysis values (0.257 and 0.141), respectively. Smoking is a clinical response predictor for anti-PD/PD-L1 monotherapy or first-line treatment in lung, urothelial carcinoma, and head and neck cancer. Smokers treated with other drugs have shown worse responses in comparison to non-smokers. These data suggest that, along with the progress in the development of new drugs for cancer, drugs acting on specific genotypes of smokers likely will arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]