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Population density is an essential factor affecting the life history traits of insects and their trade-off relationships, as increasing density intensifies intraspecific competition. It decreases the average resources available to individuals within a population, affecting their morphology, physiology, behavior, and fitness. The fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea (Drury) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae), has been an invasive pest of forest trees, ornamental plants, and fruit trees in China for many years. The larvae have a typical aggregation habit before the fourth instar and keep spitting silk to gather the damaged leaves into silk webs. However, the fitness of H. cunea in response to population density remains unclear. In this study, the critical biological parameters, food utilization, and population parameters of H. cunea in response to different rearing densities were investigated. The results showed that under high population density, H. cunea larvae showed better performance, with faster development, higher survival rates, and shorter generation time, but pupal weight and female fecundity decreased as population density increased. In contrast, for larvae raised in low density, the developmental period was prolonged, and mortality was increased, while higher food utilization, greater body size, and female fecundity were observed. Both males and females had similar development strategies in response to the density, but females may be more resistant to crowding than males. In conclusion, H. cunea could adopt different ecological strategies against the stress of density. High population densities result in shorter generation cycles and higher survival rates. Conversely, the low-density generation period becomes longer but with greater fecundity. The results may help determine the possible outbreak mechanism and develop effective population monitoring and forecasting measures for H. cunea.

Background: CAR-T is emerging as an effective treatment strategy for hematologic malignancies, however its effectiveness for treating solid tumors, such as Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is limited. Here, we screened a variety of CAR-T cells that target c-Met to investigate their potential to induce HCC cell death in vitro. Methods: Human T cells were transduced to express CARs by lentiviral vector transfection. c-Met expression in human HCC cell lines and CARs expression were monitored by flow cytometry. Tumor cell killing was evaluated by Luciferase Assay System Kit. The concentrations of cytokine were tested by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Knock down and overexpression studies targeting c-Met were conducted to assess the targeting specificity of CARs. Results: We found that CAR T cells expressing a minimal amino-terminal polypeptide sequence comprising the first kringle (kringle 1) domain (denoted as NK1 CAR-T cells), efficiently killed HCC cell lines that expressed high levels of the HGF receptor c-Met. Furthermore, we report that while NK1 CAR-T cells were efficient at targeting SMMC7221 cells for destruction, and its potency was significantly attenuated in parallel experiments with cells stably expressing short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) that suppressed c-Met expression. Correspondingly, overexpression of c-Met in the embryonic kidney cell line HEK293T led to their enhanced killing by NK1 CAR-T cells. Conclusion: Our studies demonstrate that a minimal amino-terminal polypeptide sequence comprising the kirngle1 domain of HGF is highly relevant to the design of effective CAR-T cell therapies that kill HCC cells expressing high levels of c-Met.

Side effects in psychotherapy are common and have a negative impact on patients or clients. However, effective evaluation tools are still lacking and have not been fully studied. The present study aims to develop a scale with good reliability and validity to measure the side effects of psychotherapy.The 25 items in the Psychotherapy Side Effects Scale (PSES) were condensed and distributed to 420 subjects online to test its psychometric properties.The internal consistency of the PSES was satisfactory to excellent (Cronbach's ɑ coefficient was .95, and the Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.88). A statistically significant negative correlation between the satisfaction score and the total score of the PSES was shown (r = -0.51, p .001). The PSES could effectively discriminate between two groups with and without side effects (F = 250.95, p .001) and was able to predict the occurrence of side effects in psychotherapy with an area under curve of 0.932 and a 95% confidence interval of 0.900-0.964 (p .001). A cutoff was set at 36 points in total PSES score, from which the maximum Youden's index (= 0.72) could be obtained. The positive rate of the PSES was 24% (101/420).The PSES showed good internal consistency, content validity, concurrent validity, discriminant validity and predictive validity in evaluating and identifying side effects in psychotherapy. More advanced reliability testing methods and structural validity testing for PESE need to be practiced in the future to better serve clinical practice.

In this study, a fully precast steel—ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) lightweight composite bridge (LWCB) was proposed based on Mapu Bridge, aiming at accelerating construction in bridge engineering. Cast-in-place joints are generally the controlling factor of segmental structures. Therefore, an innovative girder-to-girder joint that is suitable for LWCB was developed. A specimen consisting of two prefabricated steel—UHPC composite girder parts and one post-cast joint part was fabricated to determine if the joint can effectively transfer load between girders. The flexural behavior of the specimen under a negative bending moment was explored. Finite element analyses of Mapu Bridge showed that the nominal stress of critical sections could meet the required stress, indicating that the design is reasonable. The fatigue performance of the UHPC deck was assessed based on past research, and results revealed that the fatigue performance could meet the design requirements. Based on the test results, a crack width prediction method for the joint interface, a simplified calculation method for the design moment, and a deflection calculation method for the steel—UHPC composite girder in consideration of the UHPC tensile stiffness effect were presented. Good agreements were achieved between the predicted values and test results.

IntroductionThe type of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy is not clear, nor is the optimum duration of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with early breast cancer. Our study aims to satisfy the requirements for systematically identifying and synthesising the available evidence on the clinical safety and efficacy of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer.Methods and analysisA comprehensive electronic literature database search will be performed using three electronic databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library and Embase (Ovid interface). Our main outcomes of interest were overall survival, disease-free survival, relapse-free survival, invasive contralateral breast cancer, acceptability and grades 3 and 4 non-haematological toxicities in this study. We will assess the risk of bias and overall quality of evidence using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool and Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation, respectively. We will perform subgroup and sensitivity analyses in the selected trials. We will assess the three key assumptions of network meta-analysis: transitivity, consistency and homogeneity.Ethics and disseminationThe protocol was preregistered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database. Ethics approval and patient consent are not required for the network meta-analysis. The final results of this network meta-analysis will be disseminated through national and international conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021278271.

Adopting thermal energy storage (TES) based reverse cycle defrosting (RCD) for cascade air source heat pumps (ASHPs) is a feasible way to tackle the defrosting problem when the cascade ASHP is operated in heating process. However, during TES-based RCD, the phase change material (PCM) undergoes multi-mode heat discharging process, resulting from different operating conditions in high temperature cycle (HTC) and low temperature cycle (LTC) of a cascade ASHP unit. The heat provided to HTC and LTC is therefore different, thus influences the performances of space heating and defrosting. In this paper, the heat coupling relations between the HTC and LTC during TES-based RCD were experimentally investigated. Five cases with the same amount of frost under different outdoor conditions were conducted. The total heat output to indoor space in HTC, the total heat consumption in LTC for defrosting and the heat provided to HTC and LTC by the PCM based heat exchanger (PCM-HE) were reported, and a discussion on the factors that influence heat coupling relations was then given. Contributions of this study are supposed to be used for adjusting the control strategy for TES-based RCD of a cascade ASHP unit.

Three 1/10-scale bridge pier specimens were tested under quasi-static test. The specimens included two precast specimens (PC1 and PC2) and one cast-in-place reference specimen. The two precast bridge pier specimens were connected with prestressing threaded steel bar and steel flange at the connection between precast pier column and the foundation, and non-socket assembly scheme and socket assembly scheme are adopted, respectively. They were tested to verify the seismic performance of prefabricated piers connected by prestressed threaded steel bars and steel flanges and study which assembly scheme is better for non-socketed and socketed piers. The results show that the prefabricated pier with the combination of the prestressed threaded steel bars and steel flange has higher cracking load and smaller residual displacement, which indicates that it has good service performance and good self-resetting ability. Compared with the non-socket assembly scheme, the socket assembly scheme is superior due to its higher ductility, higher overall initial stiffness, and higher energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, the prefabricated assembled pier with the socket connection scheme of the combination of the prestressed threaded steel bars and steel flange has good service performance and seismic performance. After that, a hysteretic model for the precast assembled columns was proposed, which has a good agreement with the test results.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Pairs in the Gain vs Loss-Avoidance (GLA) task.

Additional file 1.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Valence and Arousal of GLA Task Stimuli.

Joints are always the key issue of the precast bridge structures for accelerated construction. In this paper, the transverse joint of a fully precast steel–UHPC lightweight composite bridg...

This paper proposes a lightweight low-profile steel plate-reinforced ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) deck panel with only longitudinal ribs as an alternative to traditional bridge de...

Supplemental Material, sj-docx-1-spp-10.1177_19485506211027794 for Explaining Individual Differences in Advantageous Inequity Aversion by Social-Affective Trait Dimensions and Family Environment by Hongbo Yu, Chunlei Lu, Xiaoxue Gao, Bo Shen, Kui Liu, Weijian Li, Yuqin Xiao, Bo Yang, Xudong Zhao, Molly. J. Crockett and Xiaolin Zhou in Social Psychological and Personality Science

The development of high-speed railway network is closely related to the development of national economy. In order to accurately identify the key nodes of high-speed railway and further improve the protection ability, we carried out the data mining on the two aspects of supply and demand of high-speed railway. Considering the functional characteristics of high-speed railway transportation and the imbalance between supply and demand, the paper analyzesd the complex network of high-speed railway, which is first upgraded to the directed transportation network and then reduced to the undirected hierarchical network. And the marginal utility model and the competitive opportunity gravity model were used as the supply and demand indexes, and the comprehensive analysis of high-speed railway network is carried out by the method of comprehensive quantification of damage utility to quantify the protection priority value of the network system. The results of case analysis showed that the difference of network demand was obvious, and the fluctuation of supply difference was small. Compared with single analysis, the comprehensive analysis result was more accurate and instructive, which reduced the mistake of subjective judgment based on previous empiricism due to the limitation of people's consciousness, and provided theoretical basis for the decision-making of high-speed railway network protection priority and the allocation of protection resources.

A novel lightweight, high-strength and economical hot rolled shape steel (HRSS)-ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) composite beam is proposed for short- and medium-span composite bridges. Compared with traditional steel-concrete composite bridges, the new composite bridge has lower self-weight, better economic efficiency, and more constructional feasibility. The flexural and shear behaviors of the HRSS-UHPC composite beam were investigated through four-point bending tests on two scaled (1:2) specimens. The influence of shear-to-span ratio on the behaviors of the HRSS-UHPC composite specimens was revealed, including the failure mode, the crack distribution pattern, the propagating angle of diagonal shear cracks, and the development of crack width. The experimental results showed that the failure mode of the specimens, as well as the morphology of cracks and crack distribution, were strongly dependent on the shear-to-span ratio. In addition, the results of finite element analysis (FEA) and theoretical calculation also demonstrated that the bending and shear resistances of the proposed HRSS-UHPC composite bridge could meet the design requirements of Eurocode [1] at the ultimate limit states (ULS) and the serviceability limit states (SLS). In addition, the influence of concentrated load caused by heavy vehicle on the response of the designed composite bridge at ULS and SLS is also discussed. The calculation results of FE model show that the location of vehicle load (i.e. shear-to-span ratio) has a significant impact on the deformation of the designed composite bridge, internal force of cross section and stress of UHPC web.

Simple Summary Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) has rapidly become the most accessible and widely-applied method for quantifying gene transcription. Stable reference genes need to be normalized to facilitate gene expression studies and obtain more accurate qRT-PCR data. In this research, eight reference genes from different functional categories and gene families were used to assess the stability level of gene expression under different conditions in H. cunea. Finally, the expression pattern of the target gene serine proteases (HcSP1) was evaluated under different conditions to verify the precision and reliability of the results. This study provides a comprehensive list of suitable reference genes for analyses and optional reference genes for other gene function research in H. cunea. Abstract The relative quantification of gene expression is mainly achieved through reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR); however, its reliability and precision rely on proper data normalization using one or more optimal reference genes. Hyphantria cunea (Drury) has been an invasive pest of forest trees, ornamental plants, and fruit trees in China for many years. Currently, the molecular physiological role of reference genes in H. cunea is unclear, which hinders functional gene study. Therefore, eight common reference genes, RPS26, RPL13, UBI, AK, RPS15, EIF4A, β-actin, α-tub, were selected to evaluate levels of gene expression stability when subjected to varied experimental conditions, including developmental stage and gender, different tissues, larvae reared on different hosts and different larval density. The geNorm, BestKeeper, ΔCt method, and NormFinder statistical algorithms were used to normalize gene transcription data. Furthermore, the stability/suitability of these candidates was ranked overall by RefFinder. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of reference genes in H. cunea and could help select reference genes for other Lepidoptera species.

Air refrigerated containers are important links and key equipment for air cold chain transportation. The refrigerated container cools the goods through the cold air circulation in the container to achieve the purpose of refrigeration. The key to the design of aviation refrigerators lies in the numerical simulation of the cold air flow and temperature distribution in the containers to determine the best air duct design and optimal air outlet arrangement. This article briefly analyzes the structure of the air refrigerated container, establishes the mathematical and physical models for numerical analysis, and then analyzes the two methods. At the same time, temperatures are tested in physical container with temperature measuring devices and conducts a comparative analysis with numerical simulation. The results show that the existing top on the basis of the air supply, assign a flow channel to each small tuyere and remove the small tuyere beside it. This situation is better for both flow and heat transfer. Temperatures in tests are similar with numerical simulation.

Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a plant chemical elicitor that has been used to artificially induce chemical defense responses and trigger induced resistance against a broad range of arthropod herbivores. This study assessed the effects of exogenous MeJA on the growth performance, chemical detoxification, and antioxidant enzyme activities of Clostera anachoreta. After feeding C. anachoreta with 10−5 mol/L MeJA solution-treated Populus × euramericana ‘Nanlin895’ leaves, we measured the larval and pupal development time, pupal weight, eclosion rate, fecundity, and nutritional physiology of the adults. We also measured superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) activities, which are reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, and glutathione S-transferase (GST) and carboxylesterase (CarE) activities, which are probably involved in the metabolism of induced plant allelochemicals. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment reduced larval performance in terms of prolonged developmental time of larvae and pupae and decreased growth rates, but had little effect on larval nutrition physiology. The activities of the SOD and POD antioxidant enzymes increased, but CAT activity declined at 36 and 48 h after C. anachoreta had fed on MeJA-treated leaves. The GST and CarE detoxification enzymes both were induced after the larvae had fed on MeJA-treated leaves. These results suggest that exogenous application of MeJA elicited induced resistance in Populus × euramericana ‘Nanlin895’ against C. anachoreta.

It is urgently necessary to find an effective way to solve the problem of thermal management in high-power light-emitting diodes (HPLED) because most of the input power is converted into heat, which leads to a high junction temperature. Novel ionic wind generators have been developed in the present work for effective cooling of high-power LEDs. The working performance of the ionic wind using ‘wire-to-net’ and ‘needle-to-net’ electrodes were investigated experimentally. The electric field intensity distribution of ‘needle-to-net’ ionic wind generator was described mathematically. The results indicate that better cooling performance could be obtained when thin wire or pointed needle were used at smaller discharge gap with reasonable electrode spacing under negative corona discharge. The maximum electric field intensity could be obtained at the tip of needles. Finally, the advantages of using ionic wind for cooling the LEDs were confirmed to be higher in efficiency, lower in energy consumption and mechanical noise.

Thermal stabilization is an important process in carbon fibers’ production, during which the polyacrylonitrile fibers are heated from 180 °C to 280 °C in air. In this study, the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, small angle X-ray Scattering(SAXS) and mechanical tensile tests. A new rule was suggested by the results of structural characterization for the cyclization, dehydrogenation and oxidation reactions that were observed to be drastic from 200 °C to 220 °C, from 220 °C to 250 °C, and in the later period of the thermal stabilization reactions, respectively. The sizes, shapes and distributions of the sealed micropores were obtained from the SAXS data. The breaking elongation was significantly affected by the drastic cyclization and dehydrogenation reactions. The breaking force was affected considerably by the bigger micropores, especially from 220 °C to 250 °C, owing to the drastic dehydrogenation reactions.

This paper investigates the static and fatigue flexural performance of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) decks on the basis of a 500 m cable-stayed bridge, namely, the Malukou Bridge. A series of numerical studies was conducted on the bridge to reveal the stress level in the deck under service loads, and then two kinds of steel bar reinforced UHPFRC decks with different steel fibers (i.e., hooked-end and straight steel fibers) were fabricated and tested to verify the design safety. Compared with traditional 280 mm-thick ordinary concrete decks, due to the high tensile strength (over 10 MPa) of the UHPFRC in this study, the deck thickness could be reduced to 170 mm with a maximum calculated tensile stress in the deck of 8.82 MPa induced by local wheel loads. Subsequently, the weight of the deck could be reduced by 35% due to the significant reduction in the deck thickness, leading to a smaller compressive stress (13.3 MPa) in the deck under service loads. In addition, in contrast to straight steel fibers, the use of hooked-end steel fibers could had a better advantage to increase in the crack resistance and post-cracking stiffness of the deck specimens. Due to the use of steel fibers and steel bars, cracks in the UHPFRC deck specimens propagated rather slowly under both static and fatigue loads. The deck specimens with hooked-end and straight steel fibers showed superior allowable tensile stresses of 23.2 MPa and 16.1 MPa, respectively, both satisfying the design requirement (8.82 MPa) of the bridge under service loads. The fatigue life of the former deck specimen was revealed as 9 million cycles under the stress range of 1.3–7.0 MPa only with a small reduction in the load carrying capacity, which greatly met the fatigue criteria of Chinese bridge design standards in terms of the crack width in UHPFRC. Based on the numerical and experimental investigations, the design safety of applying the UHPFRC deck was verified for the Malukou Bridge.

Aiming at the problem of urban water supply network protection under terrorist attack, a new comprehensive value evaluation method for important nodes of water supply network is proposed. Combined with the characteristics of terrorist attacks, Epanet and Aloha were used to simulate the changes in the efficiency of the water supply network and the consequences of secondary disasters after the node was destroyed, and a comprehensive value evaluation model based on the node’s own value, system value and indirect value was constructed. Taking an urban water supply network in Hubei Province as an example, the results can get the following conclusions: ①Compared with the buried water pipeline, the water supply plant as the source of the urban water supply network is the key target of terrorists; ②the calculation results show the comprehensive value of different water plants The gap is huge, and the comprehensive value of water plant 3 is nearly 5 times that of water plant 4; ③ the greater the comprehensive value of the water plant, the greater the terrorist attack revenue and the higher the probability of attack. Therefore, when responding to terrorist attacks, the comprehensive value should be High water plants provide more protection resources.

In order to promote the process of social modernization, the traditional street lamps are also moving towards intelligent development. However, the existing street lamps mostly use a single LED lamp or high-pressure sodium lamp, which can’t cope with the complex road conditions in China. The designer proposes to install the monitoring system on the street lamp, design the fine artificial intelligence light distribution and color temperature regulation scheme, add the functions of positioning, alarm, repair, pollutant and rain and snow monitoring, and realize the data interaction between the street lamp and the user and the manual intervention of the user when necessary through the infrared Bluetooth Internet of things and other technologies. The design is developed, simulated, debugged and tested on Arduino hardware and software platform. The results show that the design is reasonable and feasible.

An urban underground freight transport system (UFTS) can be an alternative for relieving the pressure of traffic congestion, reducing carbon emissions and breaking the bottlenecks of logistics transportation. The construction and operation of UFTSs require many resources invested at early stages, while the resources provided in each city are limited. Properly creating an environmentally friendly UFTS under finite resources is a prerequisite for effective reduction of the carbon emissions generated by freight transportation and is a key basis for guidance regarding operations management and network expansion. The main goal of the present research study is to develop an optimal resources allocation strategy to reduce carbon emissions by using a bi-level programming model under the finite construction resources of an UFTS. Thus, an optimal resources allocation method was developed to optimize carbon dioxide emissions in an integrated network of roads and UFTS under finite construction resources. This method integrates the characteristics of carbon emissions in UFTS and road transportation, together with a relationship between construction resources and initial design speed. Due to the nonconvexity and discreteness of the question, we transform the bi-level programming model to a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to obtain the optimum resource allocation strategy by linearizing the constraints and objective functions. The freight network between the Xiongan New Area and Beijing is taken as an example to verify the superiority of the model. The influences of the changes in resource quantities and typical strategies of transport time, freight volume in a UFTS and rotation volume of freight transport are analyzed, which provides a foundation for further study of the implementation of UFTSs in reality.

A series of Sr-substituted Gd1-x Sr x MnO3(0.1≤x≤0.3) materials was prepared via a standard method involving solid-state reaction. Their crystal structure within the entire doping region was determined to be orthorhombic perovskite type. The magnetic properties of the perovskite Gd1-x Sr x MnO3(0.1≤x≤0.3) were thoroughly investigated. It appears that Mn ions with high valence state can induce stronger magnetization, and negative magnetization is evident in the manganites with x=0.1 and x=0.2, suggesting that valence fluctuation plays an important role in such systems. The result of XPS analysis indicates that the valence state of Mn ions is 3.25 and there seems to be excess amounts of oxygen in the structure of Gd0.8Sr0.2MnO3+δ. In addition, the results of magnetization measurements demonstrate that spin reversal occurs only when the applied field is less than 1.99×105 A/m, which presumably could be due to the negative exchange interaction between Mn sub-lattice and Gd sites.

LiMn2O4 nano-wires with ideal size distribution were readily synthesized by flux method. Samples prepared conventionally were used as the comparison references to investigate the effect of flux. The structural, morphological and electrochemical properties of nano-sized materials were examined by powder X-ray diffraction(XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and charge-discharge cycling analysis. Results from galvanostatic charge-discharge analysis show that the samples prepared at 700 °C via flux method(FM-700) afford the highest initial discharge capacity of 125.5 mA·h/g between 3.0 to 4.3 V at a rate of 0.2 C. After 50 cycles, a cycling retention of 89.6% is evident. Overall, the LiMn2O4 nano-wires developed in this work seem to be promising cathode materials for lithium ion batteries suitable to different energy-saving settings.

In this paper a sensor with flexible strain gauge is proposed. The sensor can monitor the contact stress between two surfaces in some extreme environments such as thin slits. The force sensitive element inside the sensor is made up of film grid, supporting layer with holes and deforming layer for smoothing load. The device with this structure can easily convert the positive pressure into pulling stress of film grid. The sensor performance related to the number of holes, thickness of layers and elastic constant of layers is investigated. The response of the sensor is simulated and analyzed with finite element analysis software. Based on simulation results, several parameters are optimized and the corresponding sensor is manufactured. The whole sensor thickness is less than 300 μm. Based on the load test in 0–4 MPa, the results show that the linearity error is ±1.77% of full-scale output (FSO), the average deviation is ±0.98% FSO and the hysteresis is ±0.92% FSO. The proposed sensor has advantages of simple structure, easy package, excellent performance and great practicality.

Objective: Little is known about treatment for patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) in China. This study investigates the treatment expectations and treatment satisfaction of patients with MUS in psychosomatic medicine, biomedicine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Method: In a cross-sectional survey, n = 96 (10.3%) out of 931 participating patients were screened positive for multiple somatoform symptoms. These patients answered questionnaires concerning symptom duration, number of doctor visits, functional impairment, emotional distress, treatment expectations, treatment satisfaction, and empathy in the consultation. The physicians filled in a questionnaire about applied or recommended treatment. Results: Most of the patients from psychosomatic medicine wanted psychotherapy. In TCM, 55% of the patients had already received TCM treatment and most of them wanted to continue TCM treatment. Patients in biomedicine did not express clear expectations; most of them had had no previous treatment. A combination of treatment methods was most prevalent in biomedicine in comparison to psychosomatic medicine and TCM. The outcome from the patients' point of view was significantly better in TCM than in psychosomatic medicine and biomedicine. Psychosomatic medicine's strength was the empathetic physician-patient interaction. Conclusions: From a bio-psychosocial perspective, these results suggest that various treatment approaches with various emphases can be effective depending on the patient's complaints, his illness beliefs, and what the physician offers. The results will be verified in a larger multicenter longitudinal study.

The seed oil of Microula sikkimensis had been intensively studied due to its pharmacological actions. In the present study, seed oil of Microula sikkimensis was extracted using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). Determinations of the extracts composition were performed by gas chromatography (GC). An orthogonal array design (OAD), OA9 (34), was employed for optimization of the supercritical fluid extraction of the compound with regard to the various parameters. Four factors, namely pressure (21.0–27.0 MPa), the dynamic extraction time, temperature, and CO2 flow rate of the supercritical fluid, were studied and optimized by a three-level OAD. The effects of the parameters on the yield of seed oil were studied using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that the pressure had a significant effect on the yield of seed oil (p

Zirconium nitride powders with rock salt structure (γ-ZrNx) are prepared by mechanical milling of a mixture of Zirconium and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) powders. The products are analysed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Raman spectroscopy (RS). The formation mechanism of γ-ZrNx by ball milling technique is investigated in detail. N atoms diffuse from amorphous BN (α-BN) into Zr to form Zr(N) solid solution alloy then the Zr(N) solid solution alloy decomposes into γ-ZrNx. No ZrB2 is observed in the as-milled samples or the samples annealed at 1050° C for 2h.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on single crystals of HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+��}$ are presented that identify two distinct temperature-dependent spin susceptibilities: one is due to a spin component that is temperature-dependent above the critical temperature for superconductivity ($T_{\rm c}$) and reflects pseudogap behavior; the other is Fermi-liquid-like in that it is temperature independent above $T_{\rm c}$ and vanishes rapidly below $T_{\rm c}$. In addition, we demonstrate the existence of a third, hitherto undetected spin susceptibility: it is temperature independent at higher temperatures, vanishes at lower temperatures (below $T_0\neq T_{\rm c}$), and changes sign near optimal doping. This susceptibility either arises from the coupling between the two spin components, or it could be given by a distinct third spin component.

——————————— *Corresponding author. E-mail: wangxf103@jlu.edu.cn Received July 9, 2013; accepted September 3, 2013. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21271082) and the Development of Science and Technology Plan of Jilin Province, China(No.20110341). © Jilin University, The Editorial Department of Chemical Research in Chinese Universities and Springer-Verlag GmbH Single Crystal of Lanthanum Hydroxide La(OH)3: Controlled Synthesis by High Pressure Flux Method and Its Growth Mechanism

The factors affecting the sorption of radiocobalt by bentonite and kaolinite were studied with the aim to assess important factors which should be included in modelling radiocobalt migration in soils and waters. The distribution coefficients of radiocobalt sorption on bentonite and kaolinite from aqueous solutions were determined by using the batch method, and it was found that they were insensitive to the loading, the initial pH, the ionic strength, the humic substance and the sorption direction. Thus, the sorption characteristics of radiocobalt on bentonite and kaolinite facilitated the mathematical modelling of radiocobalt migration. In addition, the sorption kinetics and the sorption mechanism of radiocobalt on bentonite and kaolinite were also examined.

The strain derivatives of $T_c$ along the $a$ and $c$ axes have been determined for HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+��}$ (Hg1201), the simplest monolayer cuprate with the highest $T_c$ of all monolayer cuprates ($T_c$ = 97 K at optimal doping). The underdoped compound with the initial $T_c$ of 65 K has been studied as a function of pressure up to 20 GPa by magnetic susceptibility and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The observed linear increase in $T_c$ with pressure is the same as previously been found for the optimally-doped compound. The above results have enabled the investigation of the origins of the significantly different $T_c$ values of optimally doped Hg1201 and the well-studied compound La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ (LSCO), the latter value of $T_c$ = 40 K being only about 40% of the former. Hg1201 can have almost identical CuO$_6$ octahedra as LSCO if specifically strained. When the apical and in-plane CuO$_2$ distances are the same for the two compounds, a large discrepancy in their $T_c$ remains. Differences in crystal structures and interactions involving the Hg-O charge reservoir layers of Hg1201 may be responsible for the different $T_c$ values exhibited by the two compounds., 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, and Appendix

The illness behavior of patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUS) depends largely on what the patient believes to be the cause of the symptoms. Little data are available on the illness attributions of patients with MUS in China. This cross-sectional study investigated the illness attributions of 96 patients with MUS in the outpatient departments of Psychosomatic Medicine, biomedicine (Neurology, Gynecology), and Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shanghai. Patients completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) for illness attribution, the Screening Questionnaire for Somatoform Symptoms, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for emotional distress, and questionnaires on clinical and sociodemographic data. The physicians also filled out a questionnaire regarding the cause of the illness (IPQ). In contrast to previous research, both physicians and patients from all three areas of medicine most frequently reported “psychological attributions.” The concordance between the physicians’ and the patients’ illness attributions was low. Emotional distress was an important predictor of psychological attributions. Further research should include large-scale studies among patients from different regions of China and qualitative studies to deepen our understanding of cultural influences on illness attribution.

We report on the temperature dependence of $^{63}$Cu and $^{199}$Hg NMR magnetic shifts and linewidths for an optimally doped and an underdoped HgBa$_{2}$CuO$_{4+��}$ single crystal, as well as the quadrupole splitting and its distribution for $^{63}$Cu. From the $^{63}$Cu and $^{199}$Hg \textit{magnetic shifts} we have recently concluded on the existence of two spin components with different temperature dependencies [J. Haase, D. Rybicki, C. P. Slichter, M. Greven, G. Yu, Y. Li, and X. Zhao, Phys. Rev. B 85, 104517 (2012)]. Here we give a comprehensive account of all data and focus on the linewidths and quadrupole splittings. While the $^{63}$Cu quadrupole coupling and its distribution are by and large temperature independent, we identify three regions in temperature for which the magnetic widths differ significantly: at the lowest temperatures the magnetic linewidths are dominated by the rigid fluxoid lattice that seems to have disappeared above about 60 K. In the intermediate temperature region, starting above 60 K, the magnetic linewidth is dominated by the spatial distribution of the magnetic shift due to the pseudogap spin component, and grows linearly with the total shift up to about \textit{$\sim$}170-230 K, depending on sample and nucleus. Above this temperature the third region begins with an sudden narrowing where the second, Fermi-liquid-like spin component becomes homogeneous. We show that all linewidths, quadrupolar as well as magnetic, above the fluxoid dominated region can be understood with a simple model that assumes a coherent charge density variation with concomitant variations of the two spin components. In addition, we find a temperature independent spin based broadening in both samples that is incoherent with the other broadening for the underdoped crystal, but becomes coherent for the optimally doped crystal.

A multi-population biofilm model for completely autotrophic nitrogen removal was developed and implemented in the simulation software AQUASIM to investigate the stratification and total nitrogen removal characteristics in a membrane-aerated biofilm reactor, which realized the counter-diffusion of the oxygen and substrates. The model considered four microorganisms including AeAOB, AeNOB, AnAOB and HB. Oxygen is supplied through a gas-permeable membrane that support the biofilm, while ammonia (NH+4) is supplied from the bulk liquid. The model was checked with the selected experimental data. The simulation results reveal a clear stratification of microbial activities in biofilm. The flux ratio of oxygen and ammonia (J O2 /J NH4 ) is an important factor affecting the population stratification. When the J O2 /J NH4 is less than 0.25, no stratification appears. With J O2 /J NH4 increase, the time of stratification onset decrease quickly. When the J O2 /J NH4 is equal to 1.5, stratification time reaches the shortest, 154d. When the J O2 /J NH4 exceed 1.5, stratification time become successively increasing. Once the biofilm reaches a certain thickness, then the oxygen supply can be decreased, letting the anaerobic ammonia oxidizers growth and formation of anaerobic zone. When the J O2 /J NH4 keep constant 1.5, the total nitrogen removal efficiency will increase with the biofilm thickness increase. When the biofilm thickness exceed certain value (about 2.0mm), the total nitrogen removal efficiency will decreased immediately, this is probably because the difficult of diffusion in thicker biofilm. The optimization biofilm thickness for completely autotrophic nitrogen removal in a membrane-aerated biofilm reactor is between 1.5mm and 2.0mm.

The pulp and paper industry is under regulatory pressure to reduce the volume of its water consumption and wastewater discharge. A systematic methodology for analyzing the ways to reduce wastewater amount and consequently reduce the freshwater consumption is called mass exchange integration (MEI) or Pinch technology. The pinch technology establishes the minimum water flow rate required for the plant and thus sets the target for minimizing water consumption. In this paper an example is illustrated to show how pinch technology is effectively used for minimizing the wastewater in a paper mill. The result shows that this method is effectively used for minimizing freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge in the paper mill.

The nature of the enigmatic pseudogap region of the phase diagram is the most important and intriguing unsolved puzzle in the field of high transition-temperature (Tc) superconductivity. This region, the temperature range above Tc and below a characteristic temperature T*, is characterized by highly anomalous magnetic, charge transport, thermodynamic and optical properties. Associated with the pseudogap puzzle are open questions pertaining to the number of distinct phases and the presence of a quantum-critical point underneath the superconducting dome. Here we use polarized neutron diffraction to demonstrate for the model superconductor HgBa2CuO4+d (Hg1201) that T* marks the onset of an unusual magnetic order, and hence a novel state of matter with broken time-reversal symmetry. Together with prior results for YBa2Cu3O6+d (YBCO), this observation constitutes an essential and decisive demonstration of the universal existence of such a state. The new findings appear to rule out a large class of theories that regard T* as a crossover temperature rather than a phase transition temperature. Instead, they are consistent with a variant of previously proposed charge-current-loop order that involves apical oxygen orbitals, and with the notion that many of the unusual properties arise from the presence of a quantum-critical point., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures