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Shanghai has been experiencing the Omicron wave since March 2022. Though several studies have evaluated the risk factors of severe infections, the analyses of BA.2 infection risk and protective factors among geriatric people were much limited. This multicentre cohort study described clinical characteristics, and assessed risk and protective factors for geriatric Omicron severe infections. A total of 1377 patients older than 60 were enrolled, with 75.96% having comorbidities. The median viral shedding time and hospitalization time were nine and eight days, respectively. Severe and critical were associated with longer virus clearance time (aOR [95%CI]:0.706 (0.533–0.935), P = .015), while fully vaccinated/booster and paxlovid use shortened viral shedding time (1.229 [1.076–1.402], P = .002; 1.140 [0.019–1.274], P = .022, respectively). Older age (>80), cerebrovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease were risk factors of severe/critical. Fully vaccination was a significant protective factor against severe infections (0.237 [0.071–0.793], P = .019). We found patients with more than two comorbidities were more likely to get serious outcomes. These findings demonstrated that in the elderly older than 60 years old, older age (aged over 80), cerebrovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease were risk factors for severe infection. Patients with more than two comorbidities were more likely to get serious outcomes. Fully vaccinated/booster patients were less likely to be severe and vaccinations could shorten viral shedding time. The limitation of lacking an overall spectrum of COVID-19 infections among elders could be compensated in other larger-scale studies in the future.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are important probiotic microorganisms used in food fermentation industry. AI-2/ LuxS is an important quorum sensing system which affects the growth, biofilm formation, virulence, and metabolism of bacteria. LuxS is encoded by the luxS gene, but how AI-2/LuxS is associated with a diverse array of physiological activities in lactic acid bacteria is not known. In this study, four strains of lactic acid bacteria S1-4, among which S1-3 were obtained from Chinese traditional fermented pickles and S4 was the luxS gene knockout mutant from the wild strain S1, were used to explore the effect of AI-2/luxS system on the biofilm formation of lactic acid bacteria. The results showed that the strains of S1-3 all produced AI-2 signal molecules except S4, but the biofilm formation ability of S4 was the highest among the 4 strains, which demonstrated that the deletion of the luxS gene upregulated the biofilm formation ability of S4. Similar results were proven by microscopic observation. It can be seen that the AI-2/LuxS system has a significant impact on biofilm formation. This study will provide the theoretical basis for further research and for the high value of utilization of lactic acid bacteria.

Tropical rainforests in the central hilly section of Hainan Island are the source of the Nandu, Changhua, and Wanquan rivers, which are crucial for water conservation and ecological protection. The quantitative assessment of water yield in the three basins is beneficial for developing regional water resource protection plans, establishing ecological compensation mechanisms, and maintaining ecological balance. Based on land use data from five periods between 1980 and 2020, this paper adopts the InVEST model and geographic detectors to investigate the spatial-temporal variation characteristics and driving factors of water yield in three major basins of Hainan Island. The results demonstrate that forestland, which makes up more than 70% of the total area in the three basins of Hainan Island, is the predominant land use type. With a depth of 1269.18 mm, Wanquan Basin is the deepest of the three basins, followed by Nandu Basin and Changhua Basin. The total water yield of three basins shows a slightly decreasing trend from 17.991 billion m3 in 1980 to 17.864 billion m3 in 2020. The spatial distribution of water yield is high in the southeast region and low in the northwest region, with strong autocorrelation and significant aggregation. According to geographic detection, land use type is the dominant factor for the spatial differentiation of water yield in the three basins, with a contribution rate of 0.563, and soil type and annual precipitation are important impact factors. The interaction and synergy of soil types and land use types jointly affect the spatial differentiation of water yield in the basin. The results of this study can provide data support and scientific references for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration in the three major basins of Hainan Island.

The genus Ecpyrrhorrhoe Hübner, 1825 is revised. Most type materials were examined, and a preliminary phylogeny is presented based on a combined dataset of COI, 16S rRNA, 28S rRNA and EF-1α gene regions. The tree topology and morphological characters suggest that Paliga Moore, 1886 is a new synonym of Ecpyrrhorrhoe, and Yezobotys Munroe & Mutuura, 1969 is restored as a valid genus. According to the morphological evidence and tree topology, 17 species are recorded, including five new species described from China: E. allochroa Zhang & Xiang, sp. nov., E. rosisquama Xiang & Zhang, sp. nov., E. exigistria Zhang & Xiang, sp. nov., E. brevis Zhang & Xiang, sp. nov. and E. longispinalis Zhang & Xiang, sp. nov. Seven new combinations are created, E. damastesalis (Walker, 1859), comb. nov., E. minnehaha (Pryer, 1877), comb. nov., E. obliquata (Moore, 1888), comb. nov., E. rufipicta (Butler, 1880), comb. nov., E. fimbriata (Moore, 1886), comb. nov., E. machoeralis (Walker, 1859), comb. nov., and E. rubellalis (Snellen, 1890), comb. nov., as well as eight new synonyms, namely Leucocraspeda auratalis Warren, 1895, syn. nov., Pionea schenklingi Strand, 1918, syn. nov., Paliga rubicundalis Warren, 1896, syn. nov., E. angustivalvaris Gao, Zhang & Wang, 2013, syn. nov., Pyrausta pygmaealis South, 1901, syn. nov., E. multispinalis Gao, Zhang &Wang, 2013, syn. nov., E. aduncis Gao, Zhang & Wang, 2013, syn. nov., and E. ruidispinalis Zhang, Li & Wang, 2004, syn. nov. All adults and their genital structures are illustrated and an identification key based on adult external morphology and genitalia is provided.

Mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 and the reduction of the basic pension insurance contribution rate paid by work unit to 16% in the Comprehensive Scheme for Reducing Social Insurance Contribution Rates, nearly one-third of China’s provinces’ public pension funds have experienced the phenomenon that revenue does not cover expenditure, which makes the sustainable operation of the public pension insurance system face more severe challenges. Moreover, in recent years, some policies issued by the Chinese government have some complex impacts on the sustainability of basic pension insurance. It is urgent to sort out the impacts of these significant policies on China’s public pension insurance funds, which is conducive to summarizing some useful enlightenment from the existing literatures. It can provide the reference for the government to further reform the system and improve the sustainable operation of China’s public pension insurance.

Supplementary Material 1

Additional file 1: Supplementary Figure 1. Association between dietary folate (log transformed) and serum folate (log transformed). The solid red line represents the relation between the variables, the blue punctate lines indicate a 95% confidence interval, and the black bars show frequency. Adjust for: age, gender, race, education level, BMI, energy intake, total fat intake, dietary fiber intake, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, diabetes, hypertension. Supplementary Table 1. Threshold effect analysis of dietary folate on serum folate, using the segmented regression model.

Virtual network embedding (VNE) in network virtualization over flexi-grid networks is one of the main challenges up to now. Many models and algorithms based on reducing the cost or keeping integrity and continuity of spectrum slots have been already proposed. In this paper, we employ the concept of distribution equilibrium of computation resources to improve performance of VNE. An integer linear programming (ILP) model and an algorithm based on the concept of distribution equilibrium for virtual node embedding are developed. The experimental results show that this algorithm has some significant advantages. And then, an ILP model based on resource distribution equilibrium and adaptive modulation for VNE over flexi-grid optical networks is established. Since the ILP problem is NP-complete, a heuristic algorithm to manipulate VNE on table is developed. The simulation results reveal the superiority in terms of acceptance ratios and system revenues.

My PhD research studies medium-term economic cycles and real-financial linkages over the medium term under the supervision of Professor Solomos Solomou. The first paper (‘National and International Medium-term Economic Fluctuations since c.1870’) uses wavelet analysis to examine the time-profile of medium-term fluctuations using GDP and GDP per capita for 30 developed and developing countries since c.1870. The second paper (‘Endogenous Growth and the Financial Accelerator over Medium-term Business Cycles’) studies the mechanism of medium-term cycles in real economy and financial sector, with the structure model. The third paper (‘The Effects of Systemic Banking Crises’) is written with Dr. Bruno Rocha (University of Lisbon) and my supervisor Professor Solomos Solomou (University of Cambridge). We examine the medium-term effects of systemic banking crises on macroeconomy using a data set for a panel of 161 countries for the period 1970-2020, using the linear and non-linear local projection methods to estimate the impulse-response function. The last paper is a joint project with Dr. Nelson Sobrinho (International Monetary Fund). We produce an IMF working paper (‘A Framework for Assessing Low-Income Countries’ Capacity to Repay the IMF’). It is empirical research on the topics of real-financial linkages. Preserving low-income countries (LICs)’ ability to service their debt obligations including to the IMF is key for their continued access to concessional financing and development.

This overview of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses will aim to critically appraise the methodology and reporting quality of the relevant SRs and meta-analyses with the aim of identifying whether acupuncture could provide an effective treatment for patients with PCOS or not.

Blind hyperspectral unmixing (BHSU) is ill-posedness. It aims to obtain accurate and robust endmember signatures and the corresponding abundances simultaneously. Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF)-based sparsity-regularized algorithms have been widely employed for the BHSU. However, the existing unmixing approaches are sensitive to the multifarious intrinsic interferences and noises, which are caused because of the utilization of the inappropriate loss function to measure the quality of the hyperspectral data (HD) reconstruction and regularization. In this article, we propose a noise-free graph regularized model (NFGRM) by applying the dual graph regularized robust nonnegative matrix tri-factorization (NMTF), which leads to a novel reliable reconstruction of the HD. In the NFGRM, all the challenging interferences are addressed as noises. Consequently, a more faithful approximation is expected to recover from the highly noisy mixed data set and achieve robust regularization by controlling the heteroscedastic noises and the ill-posedness of the BHSU problem simultaneously. Experimental results on synthetic and several benchmark HD sets demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model and algorithm.

5xxx Al-Mg based alloys are widely applied as non-heat-treatable alloys. In this work, we designed a dispersion-strengthening Al-4Mg-1Mn-0.3Fe-0.2Si-0.2Zr-0.2Cr (wt.%) alloy. By applying ramp heating and 400 °C isothermal aging, a significant dispersion-strengthening effect through the formation of various types of dispersoids was achieved. Detailed scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed the precipitation behaviors of nanoscale Mn-rich dispersoids and Al3Zr nanoparticles during heat treatments. As a result, an increment of 48 MPa in yield strength was obtained compared with the reference 5182 alloy. Meanwhile, the modified alloy shows a good heat resistance at 400 °C with little loss of yield strength until 200 h of heating. This has been attributed to the further precipitation of Al3Zr particles which counteracts the coarsening of Mn-rich dispersoids. Moreover, the addition of peritectic element Cr was found to significantly promote the precipitation of Al6(Mn,Fe,Cr) in dendritic center regions, thus improving their global distribution across dendrite arms. The presence of dense dispersoids can also improve the recrystallization resistance of the deformed alloy during annealing, thus retaining the deformation fiber structure and significantly retarding the recrystallization behavior. This research demonstrates an effective strategy to develop high-performance 5xxx series alloys strengthened via dispersoids.

Blind hyperspectral unmixing (BHU) is an important technology to decompose the mixed hyperspectral image (HSI), which is actually an ill-posed problem. The ill-posedness of the BHU is deteriorated by nonlinearity, endmember variability (EV) and abnormal points, which are considered as three challenging intractable interferences currently. To sidestep the challenges, we present a novel unmixing model, where a latent multidiscriminative subspace is explored and the inherent self-expressiveness property is employed. The most existing unmixing approaches directly decompose the HSI utilizing original features in an interference corrupted single subspace, unlike them, our model seeks the underlying intrinsic representation and simultaneously reconstructs HSI based on the learned latent subspace. With the help of both clustering homogeneity and intrinsic features selection, structural differences in the HSI and the spectral property of a certain material are exploited perfectly, and an ideal multiheterogeneous subspace is recovered from the heavily contaminated original HSI. Based on the multiheterogeneous subspace, the reconstructed differentiated transition matrix is split into two matrices to avoid the emergence of the artificial endmember. Experiments are conducted on synthetic and four representative real HSI sets, and all the experimental results demonstrate the validity and superiority of our proposed method.

BackgroundHemodynamic management is of paramount importance in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Central venous pressure (CVP) has been used to assess volume status. We intended to identify the optimal time window in which to obtain CVP to avoid the incidence of adverse outcomes in patients with AKI.MethodsThe study was based on the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) IV database. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included the number of ICU-free days and norepinephrine-free days at 28 days after ICU admission, and total fluid input and fluid balance during the first and second day. A time–dose–response relationship between wait time of CVP measurement and in-hospital mortality was implemented to find an inflection point for grouping, followed by propensity-score matching (PSM), which was used to compare the outcomes between the two groups.ResultsTwenty Nine Thousand and Three Hundred Thirty Six patients with AKI were enrolled, and the risk of in-hospital mortality increased when the CVP acquisition time was >9 h in the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Compared with 8,071 patients (27.5%) who underwent CVP measurement within 9 h and were assigned to the early group, 21,265 patients (72.5%) who delayed or did not monitor CVP had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality in univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. After adjusting for potential confounders by PSM and adjusting for propensity score, pairwise algorithmic, overlap weight, and doubly robust analysis, the results were still stable. The HRs were 0.58–0.72, all p < 0.001. E-value analysis suggested robustness to unmeasured confounding.ConclusionsAmong adults with AKI in ICU, increased CVP wait time was associated with a greater risk of in-hospital mortality. In addition, early CVP monitoring perhaps contributed to shortening the length of ICU stays and days of norepinephrine use, as well as better fluid management.

A plasma robot model with redundant freedom is proposed for the shortage of flexibility in the complex working environment of plasma robot. The existence of redundant degrees of freedom leads to the complex motion characteristics of the plasma robot joints. The trajectory of the end of the spray gun is difficult to describe. Therefore, a trajectory optimization algorithm based on fitness function is proposed. In the plasma robot joint space, a parabolic linear fitting is adopted. The error between the actual trajectory and the desired trajectory is taken as fitness function. Genetic algorithm is applied to find the optimal solution for the parameters in trajectory planning. The orthogonal experimental model of the parameters of the plasma spray gun is set up. The optimum working parameters of the spray gun are obtained through the analysis and study of the power, atmospheric pressure and the distance of the gun. Finally, the rationality of the proposed method is proved by simulation and test.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies indicate that non-coding circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved in the development of esophageal carcinoma (EC). This study aimed to identify differential expression of circRNAs in EC, which can provide potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for EC treatment and improve the understanding of tumorigenesis mechanism. METHODS: First, samples (n=5) of EC tissues and adjacent normal tissue were sent for circRNA microarray detection, Second, further bioinformatic analysis was performed, including circRNA-microRNA (miRNA), co-expression network analysis, Spearman correlation test, and cancer-related circRNA-miRNA axis analysis. Finally, the expression of circRNA that our analysis predicted to be hub genes was verified in samples (n=15) of EC tissues and adjacent normal tissue by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: Microarray identified 102 upregulated and 67 significantly downregulated circRNAs were in EC patients’ tumors relative to adjacent normal tissue. One upregulated circRNA (hsa_circRNA_401955) showed the most connection with MREs, therefore was regarded as the hub gene by the Spearman correlation test. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses showed that four primary pathways (mRNA surveillance, cytoskeleton actin regulation, spliceosome, and the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway) were predicted in the hub circRNA’s five connected miRNA response elements (MREs). Furthermore, cancer-related circRNA-miRNA axis analyses showed that hsa_circRNA_100375 and its four connected MREs participated in the cancer-related pathway. RT-PCR showed that hsa_circRNA_100375 and hsa_circRNA_401955 were significantly increased in the tumor tissues of EC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal expression of circRNAs was involved in the tumorigenesis of EC. Key circRNAs, namely hsa_circRNA_401955 and hsa_circRNA_100375, may be as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of EC.

Additional file 1. PRISMA 2020 flow diagram.

Additional file 2. PRISMA 2020 checklist.

Additional file 1.

In order to recuperate the ultra-high purity xenon from PandaX-4T dark matter detector to high-pressure gas cylinders in emergency or at the end-of-run situation, a high speed ultra-high purity xenon recuperation system is designed and developed. This system includes a diaphragm pump, the heat management system, the main recuperation pipeline, the reflux pipeline, the auxiliary recuperation pipeline and the automatic control system. The liquid xenon in the detector is vaporized by the heat management system, and the gaseous xenon is compressed to 6 MPa at the flow rate of 200 standard litres per minute (SLPM) using the diaphragm compressor. The high-pressure xenon is filled into 128 gas cylinders via the main recuperation pipeline. During the recuperation, the low pressure and temperature conditions of 2 ~ 3 atmospheres and 178 ~ 186.5 K in PandaX-4T dark matter detector are kept by the cooperation of the main recuperation pipeline, reflux pipeline and the auxiliary recuperation pipeline to guarantee the safety, and the purity of the recuperated xenon gas is measured to ensure no contamination happened. The development of the high speed ultra-high purity xenon recuperation system is important for the operation of large-scale dark matter detectors with the requirements of strict temperature and pressure environment and low background.

Background and PurposeHyperglycemia (HG) is associated with increased postoperative complications. This study aims to evaluate the effect of HG during supplemental parenteral nutrition (SPN) on short-term prognosis in non-diabetic patients undergoing gastrectomy for cancer and to analyse the risk factors and prevention methods for HG.MethodsA total of 359 patients were divided into three groups according to blood glucose (BG) during SPN: normoglycemic patients ( ≤ 125 mg/dL), mild HG (125~200 mg/dL), and severe HG (>200 mg/dL). The effect of BG on postoperative short-term outcomes was analyzed. Multivariate regression was performed to investigate influencing factors for severe HG. The safety and efficacy of insulin addition to total nutrient admixture (TNA) for the prevention and management of HG were assessed by propensity score matching (PSM). In addition, regression analysis was performed in the noninsulin group to investigate the predictive factors of severe HG, and a nomogram was plotted.ResultsThe postoperative complication rate was 18.9%, but it was significantly higher in patients with severe HG than in mild HG and normoglycemic patients (25.2, 15.0, and 10.0%, respectively, p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that anemia, myosteatosis, higher postoperative capillary blood glucose (CBG) before TNA infusion, and insulin in the TNA were independent influencing factors for severe HG. Based on the above factors, 75 pairs of patients (insulin group and non-insulin group) with comparable baseline data were successfully matched by PSM. The HG incidence and the glycemic fluctuation were significantly improved through 1 U insulin/6 g glucose (1/6 scheme) to TNA. A nomogram containing hemoglobin, skeletal muscle radiodensity, pre-SPN CBG, and pTNM stage with good predictive efficacy (C-index: 0.750) was constructed based on the noninsulin group.ConclusionPoor postoperative glycemic control was related to worse outcomes in non-diabetic patients undergoing gastrectomy for cancer. Pre-operative anemia, myosteatosis, and high postoperative CBG before TNA infusion are risk factors for severe HG. Insulin in TNA can improve the blood glucose control of patients. Our proposed nomogram rendered an individualized predictive tool for HG during SPN, which helps screen high-risk patients requiring insulin therapy. Future studies with larger samples are needed to develop a complete insulin application protocol for SPN.

Land application of animal manure has been encouraged widely in China. This presents a risk of heavy metals (HMs) accumulation in the soil due to their high contents in the feeds and additives. A 4-year field-scale study was conducted to monitor and estimate HMs accumulation in the soil with land application of swine manure. The results show a clear tendency for As, Hg, Cr, Cu, Zn and Mn to increase gradually with the application duration, yielding an average annual increase of 0.57, 0.011, 6.20, 5.64, 22.58, and 23.45 mg kg−1, respectively, at the annual application rate of about 250 t ha−1 of swine manure. The estimation from the mass balance modeling indicates the environmental risk of Cd, Cu and Zn will exceed the threshold levels for agricultural soils in China in the next 10–50 years. Determination of a suitable application rate of animal manure would be the first consideration for mitigating the environmental risk of HMs currently.

Background In the high incidence period of COVID-19, it is very important to quickly classify and evaluate the prognosis of patients through limited clinical antibody data. Methods Chemiluminescence immunoassay was used to detect serum IgM and IgG concentrations in 1951 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and R language was used to analyze the influence of factors such as antibody, age, gender and concomitant diseases on the prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 patients. Results The results showed that the incidence of COVID-19 was consistent with the characteristics of the elderly, and patients with hypertension, diabetes, stroke, hypoalbuminemia and anemia were at increased risk of critical illness (p p = 0.000 and 0.013), and high IgM and IgG concentration could reduce the incidence of critical illness (p = 0.003 and 0.015). Except in the 41–60 and 91–100 age groups, the simultaneous low expression of IgM and IgG in COVID-19 patients was significantly positively correlated with the severity of illness (p = 0.000). Conclusions IgM and IgG were important prognostic factors for COVID-19 patients. It was hence vital to carry out special clinical classification for the management and early intervention for patients with low IgM/IgG concentrations and with concomitant diseases.

In order to optimize the output parameters of 808nm array of high-power microchannel heat sink package, the fluid thermodynamic characteristics of 50 × 10 array were simulated. The thermal distribution of the simulation results was used to guide the array assembly. The spectral characteristics of each bar in the stacked array were observed by near-field fiber scanning probe. The simulation results show that the flow rate of the stacked bar decreases gradually from bottom to top, the temperature of the bar increases gradually, and the flow rate of each stacked bar decreases slowly as it is far away from the water outlet. When the flow rate at the entrance of the stack array is 10 L/min, the temperature difference between the bottom and top bar of a single stack array is 13.1 °C, the flow rate difference is 0.24 L/min, and the FWHM width of the stack array spectrum can reach 4.5nm. The temperature of the active region is calculated by measuring the wavelength shift of each bar in a single stacked array, and the results are consistent with the simulation results. The spectral characteristics of the array can be effectively improved by assembling the array according to the temperature distribution.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Intracellular ROS production probe 2 0,7 0dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA). HDGF knockdown significantly increased ROS formation compared to control group. The data were quantitated, and the results are expressed as the means AE SE.

Additional file 1 Fig. S1 Flow chart of LAB interventions in C. elegans. Fig. S2 Flow chart of LAB interventions in mice and chicken. (A) Experimental design for mice. (B) Experimental design for chicken. Table S1 The information of 44 LAB strains. Table S2 LAB load in the intestine of C. elegans. Table S3 C. jejuni load in the intestine of C. elegans. Table S4 E.coli OP50 load in the intestine of C. elegans. Table S5 Effects of LAB on the body size of C. elegans infected by C. jejuni. Table S6 Effects of LAB on the pharynx pumping of C. elegans infected by C. jejuni. Table S7 Differential effects of LAB on the transcription of immune genes of C. elegans infected by C. jejuni. Table S8 Differential effects of LAB alone on the transcription of immune genes of C. elegans on day 3. Table S9 qPCR primers for nematodes defense gene.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. Collinearity diagnostics steps.

The Ni-based Udemit720Li superalloy tends to form large γ/γ' eutectic on grain boundaries (GBs) during solidification due to the addition of excessive Al and Ti elements, which provides convenience to study the effect of carbide and γ/γ' eutectic on crack initiation and propagation during tensile process. In this paper, Udemit720Li superalloy samples were prepared by induction melting casting method, arc melting and suction casting method. The microstructure, tensile properties and mechanism of crack initiation and propagation in Ni-based superalloy fabricated by two methods are investigated. The results exhibit γ/γ' eutectic accelerates the stress concentration at GB and thus leads to premature fracture failure. The samples with grain-boundary eutectic have higher strain hardening rate, but their cumulative and local misorientations are lower. For samples without eutectic at GB, the primary crack initiates at grain-boundary carbide along GB and extends along GB or into grain matrix, and exhibits better deformation performance and dislocation storage capacity within grains.

Manure-based fertilizer is usually applied to agricultural soils to increase soil fertility and improve soil quality. However, this practice has an impact on the soil environment, e.g., increasing heavy metal contents. The aim of this study was to evaluate and estimate the accumulation tendencies of eight heavy metals, including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn) in a soil fertilized continuously with dairy manure through a 5 years' field-scale experiment. Contents of the As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, and Zn gradually increased with the fertilization time of dairy manure at the stable rate of around 326 t hm-2 year-1, leading to annual mean increases of 3.6%, 2.4%, 3.9%, 3.8%, 4.2%, and 6.1%, respectively. Based on the prediction of a dynamic mass balance model using the current practice, the contents of Cd and Zn in the fertilized soil would reach the Chinese standard values for agricultural soils in 48 and 35 years. The mitigation measures, such as lower application rates, for the environmental risk of heavy metal accumulation should be considered.

High power wavelength-stabilized 976nm diode lasers attract more attention recently with the development of higher power, higher efficiency and higher brightness fiber lasers. The wide spectrum of a high-power diode laser without wavelength stabilization (about 5 nm), together with thermal shift at about 0.3 nm/°C, strongly limits the conversion efficiency benefits at 976 pumping. In this paper, we will report the development of kilowatt wavelength-stabilized CW and QCW diode lasers at BWT.

The aim of this paper is to improve the level of consumption in the region and achieve sustained and steady regional economic growth. According to global autocorrelation calculation, the difference in county consumption level of the Wanjiang City Cluster since 2004 generally takes on an increasing trend, while the consumption level presents unbalanced development. Evolution of spatial distribution pattern indicates that high level consumption areas are mainly distributed along Yangtze River and these areas are constantly expanding, while low level consumption areas are situated in central Anhui and southwest mountain areas of Anhui. The differentiation pattern of consumption level gets constantly increasing and tends to remain stable. Quantile regression approach was used in different quantiles to depict effects of influencing factors on consumption level. In all quantiles, per capita GDP, per capita financial revenue, and average wage exert a positive effect on county consumption level, while the per capita industrial added value and net income of farmers produce a negative effect on county consumption level. Based on the overall grasp of the influencing factors of the regional consumption level and the quantile regression analysis, in order to improve the consumption level in the region and reduce the difference in regional consumption, policy makers should make every effort to improve the basic conditions for regional economic development and implement it in a targeted manner when formulating the regional consumption policy Countermeasures to Improve Regional Consumption Level. Key words: County consumption level, evolution of spatial pattern, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), quantile regression, Wanjiang City Cluster.

The applications of Hyperspectral Image (HI) are limited for the existence of the ”mixed” pixels. The Blind spectral unmixing (BSU) aims to capture the spectral signatures and extract the corresponding fractional abundance maps from the HI. The existing unmixing approaches do not well concurrently consider the structure of the local patches inside each abundance map and the diversity of different endmember signatures, which could deteriorate the performance of the subsequent unmixing. In this paper, we advocate an elastic constrained split abundances method for BSU. It does not need to know the statistical distribution of the HIs. To capture and seamlessly incorporate both the homogeneous information and distinguishable knowledge across different modalities, the divergence among the different endmembers is maximized, and each endmember signature is projected into a common semantic space, furthermore, each abundance map is differentiated into a consensus part and diverse local patches. Extensive experiments are implemented on synthetic and real HIs, and the vigorous experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm.

To support Chinese Inertial Confined Fusion research, a thermal cycling absorption process (TCAP) system was previously developed for protium removal from D–T fuels. However, to monitor the product quality in each TCAP cycle (10 min), an on-line analysis method is required. At ITER, the Analytical System is an individual system used, which meets the static analysis requirement via interconnecting lines. In this study, to meet the dynamic analysis requirement, a new on-line micro gas chromatography system is installed in this system glovebox and is directly connected to the sampling point. For proximity to the sampling point, its sampling valve is connected with two 10-cm, 1/16-inch stainless steel tubings. Two six-port valves are combined to perform the sampling cycle of “vacuum-loading-injection.” A 30 m MnSO4 deactivated alumina metallic PLOT column is prepared for sufficient resolution of hydrogen isotopes at 77 K. The results show that the D2 retention time is 3.6 min, and that the resolutions between H2 and HD and between HD and D2 were 1.5 and 3.8, respectively. The estimated lower detection limit of HD was 20 ppm for a sampling volume of 1 cm3. The times of sample loading, sample injection, and vacuum were 1, 0.5, and 2.5 min, respectively. A D–T mixture testing is in progress.

Nitrogen (N) loss from paddy fields is a major cause of water eutrophication. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation is a promising measure for controlling nutrient loss. Nevertheless, quantifying N loss from paddy fields under AWD to water bodies is difficult because of 1) the sharp fluctuations in soil moisture and 2) the variation in runoff N concentrations caused by the probable first flush effect. Consequently, studies on N loss are usually confined to plot experiments. From June to November 2020, a 2.5 ha field-scale experiment was conducted in Shanghai during the rice growth stage. The proposed methodology included recording the water levels in a paddy field, quantification of runoff, and implementation of automatic sampling procedures. The electrical conductivity (EC) of runoff was applied to study the loss characteristics of nutrients. The antecedent field water level (AFWL) in paddies was used to evaluate the effect of soil moisture on the field water capacity, which was indicated by the runoff curve number (CN). It was found that AWD significantly altered the CN. When the AFWL dropped to 100 mm beneath the soil surface, the CN dropped to 40. The EC was closely related to the N concentration (adjusted R2 = 0.76, n = 176) when water samples with N concentrations ranging from 0.28 to 109.32 mg/L were analyzed. A hydrograph of EC versus runoff velocity during rainfall events indicated the significant effects of dilution caused by rainfall; therefore, the estimate of N loss should be based on high-frequency sampling. There was a more significant first flush effect on N loss during rainfall events than with artificial drainage. However, due to the high frequency of artificial drainage, N loss through artificial drainage should also be fully taken into account. In conclusion, the quantity and quality of N loss were significantly affected by wide fluctuations in soil moisture under AWD and the first flush effect of rainfall.

To improve the corrosion resistance of steel wires, a uniform thin layer of bulk metallic glass alloy with different compositions of (Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5)100-xNbx (x=0, 3, 5, 8 at%) was coated on the surface of Q195 steel wires by a newly developed continuous coating process. Phase analysis results show that the coating is mainly composed of metallic glass alloy and some other intermetallics. The potentiodynamic polarization tests indicate that the steel wires with metallic glass coating show passivation behavior, and have higher pitting potential and lower corrosion current density than Q195 steel wires. With the increment of Nb content, the passivation region of the metallic glass-coated steel wires become wider while pitting potential is increased. As shown in composition analysis results, it may be attributed to the addition of Nb which has properties of easy passivation and stabilizing the passivation elements of Zr and Ti

3-demensional (3D) culture model is a valuable in vitro tool to study liver biology, metabolism, organogenesis, tissue morphology, drug discovery and cell-based assays. Compelling evidence suggests that cells cultured in 3D model exhibit superior liver-specific functions over the conventional 2-dimentional (2D) culture in evaluating hepatobiliary drug disposition and drug-induced hepatotoxicity due to the in vivo-like physiological condition recapitulated by 3D model technologies. We will review the attributes of 3D culture model in acquiring relevant liver phenotypes and functionalities, discuss the critical niche factors found to modulate hepatocytes and highlight recent advancements on 3D cell culture technologies to achieve next-level in vitro tool for preclinical study.

The level of apoptosis is directly related to the occurrence of cancer and other diseases. Real-time continuous monitoring of apoptotic process of living cells has great potential for early diagnosis of related diseases, as well as evaluation of therapeutic effect and screening of apoptotic drugs. This work proposed a ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe Lyso-PCE equipped with a dual-function pyridine, as a pH-sensitive and specific lysosome-targeted group. A clear linearity relationship between two-channel fluorescence intensity ratios of Lyso-PCE and pH values was established in both solutions and living cells. Thanks to its ability of quantitative detection of pH, probe Lyso-PCE can detect the dynamic pH changes of lysosomes treated by chloroquine, and also can be used to in situ monitor dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. More importantly, reagent potassium bisperoxo (1,10-phenanthroline) oxovanadate (bpV(phen)) was evaluated and testified as a new apoptotic drug by Lyso-PCE, and the real-time visualization of bpV(phen)-induced apoptosis was realized under two-photon excitation. Our results provide a new and promising strategy for evaluating and screening apoptosis-related drugs.

The isotherms of hydrogen isotope, absorbed or desorbed by palladium particles of various sizes were investigated at ∼100 kPa of various absorption-desorption cycles at room temperature (25 ℃). The maximum hydrogen (D) content of these samples, the hydrogen (D) absorption capactiy, was determined using the Langmuir monolayer coverage equation from the isotherms after several cycles. A ratio of the hydrogen absorption capactiy of palladium/kieselguhr (Pd/K) to that of pure palladium was calculated to determine the palladium content of Pd/K. The results showed that the particle size and cycle numbers affected the isotherms of the isotopes. Only 78 % of the maximum absorption capacity at 100 kPa was obtained at the first cycle of H absorption when the particle size was 10–30 mesh, and the absorption capacity approached 100 % after the first hydrogenation when the particle size was reduced to 100–150 mesh. At 10−100 kPa, where the Pd-H system existed in the hydride β-phase, the relationship between pressure and the content absorbed strictly followed the Langmuir equation (correlation coefficient was >0.9999), which confirmed that the hydrogen atoms in the octahedral interstices follow a monolayer coverage model. According to the linear plot, the monolayer absorption capacity of H or D in the hydride β-phase, Qm, was calculated from the slope of the curve. The calculated Qm (Pd-H) and Qm (Pd-D) were 3.31 and 3.16 mmol/g, respectively, while Qm (Pd/K-H) and Qm (Pd/K-D) were 1.231 and 1.182 mmol/g, respectively. The Pd content of Pd/K, investigated from the H and D isotherms, were 37.2 and 37.4 wt%, respectively, which correlated with the result from inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) (37.7 wt%).

Network virtualization is an enabler for intelligent energy-aware network deployment. The existing research usually searches the subset of resources in the whole substrate network passively for the virtual networks (VNs), where resource consolidation achieves the minimization of energy consumption by switching off or hibernating as many network nodes and interfaces as possible. However, the stable active resources for accommodating the VNs help enhance the number of the hibernated nodes and links, which can reduce the energy consumption. A novel method for energy efficient virtual network embedding (EEVNE) is proposed in this paper, which controls the mappable area of the substrate network actively and can find the minimal consolidation of the network resources. In our proposed method, a controller, a check device and an actuator are designed for finding the stable consolidated subset of the substrate resources. Besides, two feedback-control-based EEVNE algorithms are devised to minimize the energy consumption of the substrate network for embedding VNs. Simulation results show that our algorithms significantly save greater energy than the existing algorithms.

With certain emitter beam quality and BPP allowed by fiber, we have derived a spatial beam combination structure that approaches the BPP limit of the fiber. Using the spatial beam combination structure and polarization beam combination, BWT has achieved 1.1KW output from a fiber (one end coated) with NA 0.22 and core diameter of 200μm. The electro- optical efficiency is nearly 47%. Multiple emitters with wavelength of 976nm are packaged in a module with size of 600 ×350×80mm3.

Traditional spectral unmixing methods are usually based on the linear mixture model (LMM) or nonlinear mixture model (NLMM), in which only the additive noise is considered. However, in hyperspectral applications, the additive, multiplicative, and mixed noises play important roles. In this paper, we propose an antinoise model for hyperspectral unmixing. In the antinoise model, all the additive, multiplicative and mixed noises are addressed. To deal with the problems faced by LMM or NLMM and to tackle the antinoise model, an antinoise model based hyperspectral unmixing method is presented, where block coordinate descent is employed to solve an approximated $L_0$ norm constraint, then a nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) method is presented, which is based on the bounded Itakura–Saito divergence. The experimental results on both synthetic and real hyperspectral data sets demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model and the corresponding method.

In the existing virtual network embedding algorithms, the minimization of energy consumption for mapping virtual nodes is ignored. By means of the optimization theory and the resource consolidation, we construct an optimization model for energy efficient virtual node embedding. The minimization of energy consumption is solved as the minimal product of energy cost per CPU and allocated CPU from virtual nodes to substrate nodes. Based on the minimal element, an algorithm of energy-efficient virtual network embedding is proposed. Simulation results show the energy gains of the proposed algorithm over the existing heuristic algorithms.

Mutant RAS has remained recalcitrant to targeted therapy efforts. We demonstrate that combined treatment with poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MEK) inhibitors evokes unanticipated, synergistic cytotoxic effects in vitro and in vivo in multiple RAS mutant tumor models across tumor lineages where RAS mutations are prevalent. The effects of PARP and MEK inhibitor combinations are independent of BRCA1/2 and p53 mutation status, suggesting that the synergistic activity is likely to be generalizable. Synergistic activity of PARP and MEK inhibitor combinations in RAS mutant tumors is associated with (i) induction of BIM-mediated apoptosis, (ii) decrease in expression of components of the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway, (iii) decrease in homologous recombination DNA damage repair capacity, (iv) decrease in DNA damage checkpoint activity, (v) increase in PARP inhibitor-induced DNA damage, (vi) decrease in vascularity that could increase PARP inhibitor efficacy by inducing hypoxia, and (vii) elevated PARP1 protein, which increases trapping activity of PARP inhibitors. Mechanistically, enforced expression of FOXO3a, which is a target of the RAS/MAPK pathway, was sufficient to recapitulate the functional consequences of MEK inhibitors including synergy with PARP inhibitors. Thus, the ability of mutant RAS to suppress FOXO3a and its reversal by MEK inhibitors accounts, at least in part, for the synergy of PARP and MEK inhibitors in RAS mutant tumors. The rational combination of PARP and MEK inhibitors warrants clinical investigation in patients with RAS mutant tumors where there are few effective therapeutic options.

With continuous increase in output power of fiber lasers, small volume, low weight, high electro-optic efficiency and high brightness diode laser pump source has become the trend of development. Using spatial beam combining and polarization beam combining methods, BWT has developed a compact pump laser achieving 600W level out of a fiber of 0.22 NA and 200 μm core diameter. At 12A, electro-optical efficiency is higher than 49%. Its brightness is higher than that of the commercially available 158W pump from BWT.

Chen Qubing was a famous poet and literary figure during the democratic revolution, as well as an important founder of China's first bourgeois revolutionary literature group in the modern era, the South Society. Chen Qubing played an important role in the development of the South Society. He and his participation in the founding of the South Society hold important positions in the history of modern Chinese literature.

A simple and effective approach was developed to prepare novel graphene/ordered mesoporous necklace-like ZnS nanocomposite (GR–ZnS). Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy observations confirmed that the as-formed necklace-like ZnS, about 50 nm in diameter and more than hundreds of nanometers in length, were distributed on graphene sheets. Each ZnS contained a lot of ordered mesopores. The photocatalytic experimental results indicated that this nanocomposite enhanced photocatalytic performance with 97.5% decomposition of methyl orange (MO) after 30 min under UV-light irradiation. This new nanocomposite is expected to show considerable potential applications in water purification.