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Abstract Achieving fast gates and long coherence times for superconducting qubits presents challenges, typically requiring either a stronger coupling of the drive line or an excessively strong microwave signal to the qubit. To address this, we introduce on-chip filters of the qubit drive exhibiting a stopband at the qubit frequency, thus enabling long coherence times and strong coupling at the subharmonic frequency, facilitating fast single-qubit gates, and reduced thermal load. The filters exhibit an extrinsic relaxation time of a few seconds while enabling sub-10-ns gates with subharmonic control. Here we show up to 200-fold improvement in the measured relaxation time at the stopband. Furthermore, we implement subharmonic driving of Rabi oscillations with a π pulse duration of 12 ns. Our demonstration of on-chip filters and efficient subharmonic driving in a two-dimensional quantum processor paves the way for a scalable qubit architecture with reduced thermal load and noise from the control line.

The Arabidopsis Tóxicos en Levadura (ATL) protein is a subfamily of the E3 ubiquitin ligases, which exists widely in plants and is extensively involved in plant growth and development. Although the ATL family has been identified in other species, such as Arabidopsis, Oryza sativa, and grapevine, few reports on pear ATL gene families have been reported. In this study, 92 PbrATL genes were identified and analyzed from the Pyrus breschneideri genome. Motif analysis and phylogenetic tree generation divided them into nine subgroups, and chromosome localization analysis showed that the 92 PbrATL genes were distributed in 16 of 17 pear chromosomes. Transcriptome data and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) experiments demonstrated that PbrATL18, PbrATL41, and PbrATL88 were involved in both pear drought resistance and Colletotrichum fructicola infection. In addition, Arabidopsis thaliana overexpressing PbrATL18 showed greater resistance to drought stress than the wild type (WT), and PbrATL18-silenced pear seedlings showed greater sensitivity to drought and C. fructicola infection than the controls. PbrATL18 regulated plant resistance by regulating chitinase (CHI), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. This study provided a reference for further exploring the functions of the PbrATL gene in drought resistance and C. fructicola infection.

Soft magnetic composites (SMCs) play a crucial role in modern electronics and electrical devices, for which challenges remain in maintaining magnetic performance and reducing loss at megahertz (MHz) frequencies. Here, CeFeCo/FeSiAl@ polyurethane (PU) SMCs have been rationally designed with the simultaneous achievement of large relative permeability, high domain-wall resonance frequency, and low power loss. As a rare-earth soft magnetic alloy, the CeFeCo is promising for high-frequency applications due to its easy-plane anisotropy, whereas FeSiAl is advantageous with increased electrical resistivity as well as approaching-zero magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetostriction. Hot pressing has been adopted to achieve a dense and homogeneous distribution of CeFeCo and FeSiAl powders in the PU for reduced magnetic dilution and eddy current loss. The resultant SMCs exhibit optional soft magnetic performance with large relative permeability of 21.0, low power loss of 3677.5 kW·m−3 at 5 MHz, and high domain-wall resonance frequency of 386.1 MHz. As such this work provides insights into the design of high-frequency SMCs incorporating novel rare-earth soft magnetic alloys.

Animal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) research is meaningful for exploring the mechanism of TMS and promoting the clinical promotion of new therapeutic methods. Tracing back the physiological phenomena caused by TMS is limited by the spatial resolution of the induced electric field. Through human and animal experiments, life science has proven that electric field direction affects the effect of magnetic stimulation, but this factor has not been introduced into the design of animal TMS coils. Therefore, this paper aims to design the TMS coil (EC-X) with controllable induced electric field direction, by finding the most favorable electric field direction for target activation, which can reduce interference to non-target areas and improve stimulation accuracy and energy utilization. Firstly, the structure of EC-X is proposed, establishing the Electromagnetic field Analytical Calculation Model (EM-ACM) for the arbitrarily shaped coil in the air domain, it is theoretically proven that EC-X can achieve direction control of the electric field. Then, the coil structure (such as coil length and angle) is optimized based on maximum ampere-turn $AN_{max}$ and stimulation focusing degree $F_{c}$ . Finally, the measurement of xy plane magnetic field distribution proves the accuracy of EM-ACM calculation results, which indirectly proves the feasibility of EC-X. Compared with the Figure-8 coil, EC-X can change the planar electric field direction without moving the coil, which has potential application value.

A series of laboratory and large-scale field model footing tests were conducted to assess the modulus and stress distribution behavior of a clayey soil foundation, both with/without geogrid reinforcement, deviating from the conventional approach of evaluating the strength performance, such as bearing capacity. The modulus was evaluated at three settlement ratios of s/B = 1, 3, and 5%, while the stress distribution angle α was estimated at three applied surface pressures of 234 kPa, 468 kPa, and 936 kPa. The results indicated a stiffer load-settlement response when geogrid reinforcement was included. The modulus of reinforced clayey soil remained nearly constant for test sections with the same reinforced ratio, with the modulus improvement increasing as the reinforced ratio (Rr) increased. The modulus improvement also increased with the settlement ratio (s/B). These results demonstrated that the stress distribution improvement decreased as the surface pressure increased. Generally, both the modulus and stress distribution improvement exhibited an increase with an increase in the tensile modulus of the geogrid. While laboratory model tests consistently provided a higher improvement in the modulus than large-scale field model tests in this study due to a higher reinforced ratio, the stress distribution improvement was similar for both.

The utilization of 3D printing technology for the fabrication of intricate transparent ceramics overcomes the limitations associated with conventional molding processes, thereby presenting a highly promising solution. In this study, we employed direct ink writing (DIW) to prepare yttrium oxide transparent ceramics using a ceramic slurry with excellent moldability, solid content of 45 vol%, and shear-thinning behavior. A successfully printed transparent yttrium oxide ring measuring 30 mm in diameter, 10 mm in inner diameter, and 0.9 mm in thickness was obtained from the aforementioned slurry. After de-binding and sintering procedures, the printed ceramic exhibited in-line transmittance of 71% at 850 nm. This work not only produced complex yttria transparent ceramics with intricate shapes, but also achieved in-line transmittance that was comparable to that of the CIP method (79%), which can meet certain optical applications.

Sodium nitrate passivation has been developed as a new insulation technology for the production of FeSiAl soft magnetic composites (SMCs). In this work, the evolution of coating layers grown at different pH values is investigated involving analyses on their composition and microstructure. An insulation coating obtained using an acidic NaNO3 solution is found to contain Fe2O3, SiO2, Al2O3, and AlO(OH). The Fe2O3 transforms into Fe3O4 with weakened oxidizability of the NO3– at an elevated pH, whereas an alkaline NaNO3 solution leads to the production of Al2O3, AlO(OH), and SiO2. Such growth is explained from both thermodynamic and kinetic perspectives and is correlated to the soft magnetic properties of the FeSiAl SMCs. Under tuned passivation conditions, optimal performance with an effective permeability of 97.2 and a core loss of 296.4 mW∙cm−3 is achieved at 50 kHz and 100 mT.

Objective: The relationship between base excess (BE) and 28-day death in sepsis patients remains to be elucidated. The aim of our clinical study is to explore the association of BE with 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis by using a large sample, multicenter Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database. Methods: We extracted the data of 35,010 patients with sepsis from the MIMIC-IV database, in which we used BE as an exposure variable and the 28-day mortality as an outcome variable, respectively, so as to explore the impact of BE on the 28-day mortality of patients with sepsis after adjusting for covariates. Results: BE and the 28-day mortality of patients with sepsis appeared to have a U-shaped relationship. The calculated inflection points were −2.5 mEq/L and 1.9 mEq/L, respectively. Our data demonstrated that BE was negatively associated with 28-day mortality in the range of −41.0 mEq/L to −2.5 mEq/L (odds ratio: 0.95; 95% confidence intervals (95%CI): 0.93 to 0.96), p

Background Circular RNA is a key regulator involved in the progression of many human diseases including diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the role and mechanism of hsa_circ_0037128 in the occurrence and development of DN remains to be explored. Methods High glucose (HG)-induced podocytes were used to construct in vitro DN models. The expression of hsa_circ_0037128, microRNA (miR)-31-5p, and Kruppel-like factor 9 (KLF9) was determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The viability and apoptosis of podocytes was measured using cell counting kit 8 assay and flow cytometry. Western blot analysis was performed to examine the protein levels of apoptosis markers and KLF9 in podocytes. Inflammation factors were detected by ELISA assay, and oxidative stress markers were assessed by corresponding Assay Kits. In addition, the interaction between miR-31-5p and hsa_circ_0037128 or KLF9 was verified using dual-luciferase reporter assay and RIP assay. Results Our data suggested that hsa_circ_0037128 was highly expressed in DN patients and HG-induced podocytes. In HG-induced podocytes, hsa_circ_0037128 knockdown could alleviate HG-induced podocytes injury. In the term of mechanism, hsa_circ_0037128 could sponge miR-31-5p to upregulate KLF9. MiR-31-5p inhibitor could reverse the negative regulation of hsa_circ_0037128 silencing on HG-induced podocytes injury. Also, miR-31-5p relieved HG-induced podocytes injury, and this effect also could be reversed by KLF9 overexpression. Conclusion In summary, our data showed that hsa_circ_0037128 could promote HG-induced podocytes injury via regulating miR-31-5p/KLF9 axis, showing that hsa_circ_0037128 might be a target for DN treatment.

Autophagy is a process that promotes the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic proteins and is highly conserved in eukaryotic organisms. Autophagy maintains homeostasis in organisms and regulates multiple developmental processes, and autophagy disruption is related to human diseases. However, the functional roles of autophagy in mediating innate immune responses are largely unknown. In this study, we sought to understand how Atg2, an autophagy-related gene, functions in the innate immunity of Drosophila melanogaster. The results showed that a large number of melanotic nodules were produced upon inhibition of Atg2. In addition, inhibiting Atg2 suppressed the phagocytosis of latex beads, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli; the proportion of Nimrod C1 (one of the phagocytosis receptors)-positive hemocytes also decreased. Moreover, inhibiting Atg2 altered actin cytoskeleton patterns, showing longer filopodia but with decreased numbers of filopodia. The expression of AMP-encoding genes was altered by inhibiting Atg2. Drosomycin was upregulated, and the transcript levels of Attacin-A, Diptericin and Metchnikowin were decreased. Finally, the above alterations caused by the inhibition of Atg2 prevented flies from resisting invading pathogens, showing that flies with low expression of Atg2 were highly susceptible to Staphylococcus aureus and Erwinia carotovora carotovora 15 infections. In conclusion, Atg2 regulated both cellular and humoral innate immunity in Drosophila. We have identified Atg2 as a crucial regulator in mediating the homeostasis of immunity, which further established the interactions between autophagy and innate immunity.

Abstract Background Transcription factors (TFs) are involved in many important biological processes, including cell stretching, histological differentiation, metabolic activity, seed storage, gene regulation, and response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Little is known about the functions, evolutionary history, and expression patterns of basic region-leucine zipper TF family genes in pear, despite the release of the genome of Chinese white pears (“Dangshansuli”). Results Overall, 92 bZIP genes were identified in the pear genome (Pyrus breschneideri). Of these, 83 were randomly distributed on all 17 chromosomes except chromosome 4, and the other 9 genes were located on loose scaffolding. The genes were divided into 14 subgroups. Whole-genome duplications, dispersed duplication, and purifying selection for whole-genome duplications are the main reasons for the expansion of the PbrbZIP gene family. The analysis of functional annotation enrichment indicated that most of the functions of PbrbZIP genes were enriched in Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways involved in the abiotic stress response. Next, expression analysis and virus-induced gene silencing results indicated that PbrbZIP genes might play critical roles in response to drought and cold stresses, especially for the genes from subgroups A, C, G, I, and S. Conclusions Ninety-two PbrbZIP genes were identified from the pear genome and classified into 14 subgroups. PbrbZIP genes were mainly expanded from whole-genome duplications and dispersed duplications and retained by purifying selection. PbrbZIP genes were induced by cold and drought stresses and played important roles in drought and cold tolerance. These results provided useful information for further increasing the tolerance of pears to stresses and a foundation to study the cold and drought tolerance mechanism of PbrbZIP genes.

Abstract Background The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors play important roles in many processes in plant growth, metabolism and responses to abiotic stresses. Although, the sequence of Chinese white pear genome (cv. ‘Dangshansuli’) has already been reported, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the bHLH family genes and their evolutionary history. Results In this work, a genome-wide identification of the bHLH genes in Chinese white pear was performed, and we characterized the functional roles of these PbrbHLH genes in response to abiotic stresses. Based on the phylogenetic analysis and structural characteristics, 197 identified bHLH genes could be well classified into 21 groups. Expansion of PbrbHLH gene family was mainly driven by WGD and dispersed duplication with the purifying selection from the recent WGD. The functional annotation enrichment showed that the majority of PbrbHLHs were enriched in the GO terms and KEGG pathways involved in responds to stress conditions as TFs. Transcriptomic profiles and qRT-PCR revealed that PbrbHLH7, PbrbHLH8, PbrbHLH128, PbrbHLH160, PbrbHLH161 and PbrbHLH195 were significantly up-regulated under cold and drought treatments. In addition, PbrbHLH195-silenced pear seedlings display significant reduced cold tolerance, exhibiting reduced chlorophyll content, as well as increased electrolyte leakage and concentrations of malondialdehyde and H2O2. Conclusion For the first time, a comprehensive analysis identified the bHLH genes in Chinese white pear and demonstrated that PbrbHLH195 is involved in the production of ROS in response to cold stress, suggesting that members of the PbrbHLH family play an essential role in the stress tolerance of pear.

Purpose – 1. To improve the causality analysis performance, a novel causality detector based on time-delayed convergent cross mapping (TD-CCM) is proposed in this work. 2. Identify the root cause of plant-wide oscillations in process control system. Design/methodology/approach – A novel causality analysis framework is proposed based on denoising and periodicity-removing TD-CCM (time-delayed convergent cross mapping). We first point out that noise and periodicity have adverse effects on causality detection. Then, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and detrended fluctuation analysis (FDA) are combined to achieve denoising. The periodicities are effectively removed through singular spectrum analysis (SSA). Following, the TD-CCM can accurately capture the causalities and locate the root cause by analyzing the filtered signals. Findings – 1. A novel causality detector based on denoising and periodicity-removing time-delayed convergent cross mapping (TD-CCM) is proposed. 2. Simulation studies show that the proposed method is able to improve the causality analysis performance. 3. Industrial case study shows the proposed method can be used to analyze the root cause of plant-wide oscillations in process control system. Originality/value – 1. A novel causality detector based on denoising and periodicity-removing time-delayed convergent cross mapping (TD-CCM) is proposed. 2. The influences of noise and periodicity on causality analysis are investigated. 3. Simulations and industrial case shows that the proposed method can improve the causality analysis performance and can be used to identify the root cause of plant-wide oscillations in process control system.

Abstract Background Lysin motif-containing proteins (LYP), which act as pattern-recognition receptors, play central roles in growth, node formation, and responses to biotic stresses. The sequence of Chinese white pear genome (cv. ‘Dangshansuli’) along with the seven other species of Rosaceae has already been reported. Although, in these fruit crops, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the LYP family genes and their evolutionary history. Results In the existing study, eight Rosaceae species i.e., Pyrus communis, Prunus persica, Fragaria vesca, Pyrus bretschneideri, Prunus avium, Prunus mume, Rubus occidentalis, and Malus × domestica were evaluated. Here, we determined a total of 124 LYP genes from the underlined Rosaceae species. While eighteen of the genes were from Chinese white pear, named as PbrLYPs. According to the LYPs structural characteristics and their phylogenetic analysis, those genes were classified into eight groups (group LYK1, LYK2, LYK3, LYK4/5, LYM1/3, LYM2, NFP, and WAKL). Dispersed duplication and whole-genome duplication (WGD) were found to be the most contributing factors of LYP family expansion in the Rosaceae species. More than half of the duplicated PbrLYP gene pairs were dated back to the ancient WGD (~ 140 million years ago (MYA)), and PbrLYP genes have experienced long-term purifying selection. The transcriptomic results indicated that the PbrLYP genes expression was tissue-specific. Most PbrLYP genes showed differential expression in leaves under fungal pathogen infection with two of them located in the plasmalemma. Conclusion A comprehensive analysis identified 124 LYP genes in eight Rosaceae species. Our findings have provided insights into the functions and characteristics of the Rosaceae LYP genes and a guide for the identification of other candidate LYPs for further genetic improvements for pathogen-resistance in higher plants.

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical produced by plants of the Curcuma longa species. Chemically, curcumin is a diarylheptanoid, belonging to the group of curcuminoids. The therapeutic potential of curcumin has been widely investigated, including its utilization in various of cardiovascular diseases. However, its effect in cardiac remodeling post myocardial infarction and underlying mechanism remains to be uncover.Aim: To evaluate the therapeutic effect and underlying mechanism of curcumin on cardiac fibrosis after myocardial infarction via macrophage-fibroblast crosstalk.Methods: Male C57BL/6 (C57) mice were subjected to left anterior descending coronary artery ligation to establish myocardial infarction and intragastrically fed vehicle or curcumin (50 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg) for 4 weeks. In parallel, neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts were isolated and co-cultured with liposaccharide (LPS− or LPS+) curcumin-treated macrophages, followed by TGF-β stimulation for 24 h. Cardiac function was determined by 2-dimensional echocardiography, and cardiac fibrosis was measured by picrosirius red staining. Apoptosis of macrophages was investigated by flow cytometry; all pro-fibrotic protein expression (EDA-Fibronectin, Periostin, Vimentin, and α-SMA) as well as TGF-βR1 downstream signaling activation reflected by phosphorylated SMAD2/3 (p-SMAD2 and p-SMAD3) were demonstrated by western blotting.Results: Curcumin significantly ameliorated the inflammation process subsequent to myocardial infarction, reflected by decreased expression of CD68+ and CD3+ cells, accompanied by dramatically improved cardiac function compared with the placebo group. In addition, cardiac fibrosis is inhibited by curcumin administration. Interestingly, no significant reduction in fibrotic gene expression was observed when isolated cardiac fibroblasts were directly treated with curcumin in vitro; however, pro-fibrotic protein expression was significantly attenuated in CF, which was co-cultured with LPS-stimulated macrophages under curcumin treatment compared with the placebo group. Mechanistically, we discovered that curcumin significantly downregulated pro-inflammatory cytokines in macrophages, which in turn inhibited IL18 expression in co-cultured cardiac fibroblasts using bulk RNA sequencing, and the TGF-β1-p-SMAD2/3 signaling network was also discovered as the eventual target downstream of IL18 in curcumin-mediated anti-fibrosis signaling.Conclusion: Curcumin improves cardiac function and reduces cardiac fibrosis after myocardial infarction. This effect is mediated by the inhibition of macrophage-fibroblast crosstalk in the acute phase post-MI and retrained activation of IL18-TGFβ1-p-SMAD2/3 signaling in cardiac fibroblasts.

Abstract Background Lysin motif (LysM)-containing proteins are involved in the recognition of fungal and bacterial pathogens. However, few studies have reported on their roles in the defense responses of woody plants against pathogens. A previous study reported that the apple MdCERK1 gene was induced by chitin and Rhizoctonia solani, and its protein can bind to chitin. However, its effect on defense responses has not been investigated. Results In this study, a new apple CERK gene, designated as MdCERK1–2, was identified. It encodes a protein that shares high sequence identity with the previously reported MdCERK1 and AtCERK1. Its chitin binding ability and subcellular location are similar to MdCERK1 and AtCERK1, suggesting that MdCERK1–2 may play a role in apple immune defense responses as a pattern recognition receptor (PRR). MdCERK1–2 expression in apple was induced by 2 fungal pathogens, Botryosphaeria dothidea and Glomerella cingulate, but not by the bacterial pathogen, Erwinia amylovora, indicating that MdCERK1–2 is involved in apple anti-fungal defense responses. Further functional analysis by heterologous overexpression (OE) in Nicotiana benthamiana (Nb) demonstrated that MdCERK1–2 OE improved Nb resistance to the pathogenic fungus, Alternaria alternata. H2O2 accumulation and callose deposition increased after A. alternata infection in MdCERK1–2 OE plants compared to wild type (WT) and empty vector (EV)-transformed plants. The induced expression of NbPAL4 by A. alternata significantly (p

Seagrass meadows provide important habitats and rich organic carbon sources for consumers at different trophic levels but are threatened by accelerating eutrophication in coastal waters. Nevertheless, at present, carbon transfer processes throughout the food web and trophic pathways in eutrophic seagrass meadows are still poorly known. To resolve this issue, carbon sources of different trophic communities in a eutrophic tropical seagrass meadow [Xincun (XC) bay, South China Sea] under eutrophication were examined in summer and winter using dual stable isotopes. The δ13C value of omnivores and carnivores overlapped more with that of herbivores and planktivores/filter feeders, which mainly overlapped with that of epiphytes in summer and macroalgae in winter. Meanwhile, epiphytes and macroalgae exhibited high biomass and corresponding highest contribution to herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in summer and winter, respectively. These results suggest that the grazing food chain was the main trophic pathway in this eutrophic seagrass meadow, and that the transfer of carbon flow in the grazing food chain was mainly dominated by the proliferating epiphytes or macroalgae carbon. In contrast, the contribution of seagrass to detritivores in both seasons was higher than that of other food sources. Our findings suggest that in eutrophic tropical seagrass meadows, the proliferation of epiphytes or macroalgae induced by high nutrient loading, as well as their seasonal changes, has a greater impact on the transfer of carbon in the grazing food chain than that in the detritus food chain, and the seagrass fueled the food web mainly through the detritus food chain.

Eutrophication, dredging, agricultural and urban runoffs, and epiphyte overgrowth could reduce light availability for seagrass. This may affect “blue carbon” stocks in seagrass beds. However, little research is available on the effect of light intensities on carbon sequestration capacity in seagrass beds, especially small-bodied seagrasses. The dominant seagrass Halophila beccarii, a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List, was cultured in different light intensities to examine the response of vegetation and sediment carbon in seagrass beds. The results showed that low light significantly reduced leaf length and above-ground biomass, while carbon content in both above-ground and below-ground tissues were not affected. Low light reduced both the above-ground biomass carbon and the total biomass carbon. Interestingly, while under saturating light conditions, the subsurface and surface carbon content was similar, under low light conditions, subsurface sediment carbon was significantly lower than the surface content. The reduction of subsurface sediment carbon might be caused by less release flux of dissolved organic carbon from roots in low light. Taken together, these results indicate that reduced light intensities, to which these meadows are exposed to, will reduce carbon sequestration capacity in seagrass beds. Measures should be taken to eliminate the input of nutrients on seagrass meadows and dredging activities to maintain the “blue carbon” storage service by enhancing light penetration into seagrass.

Abstract Food sources and food web structure in seagrass meadows are important determinants of ecosystem functions and services. However, there is little information on the effect of eutrophication on food source contributions and food web structure in seagrass meadows. Here we used stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N) to investigate how do different levels of nutrient enrichment affect the diets of consumers and food web structure within tropical seagrass meadows. We found that the diet contributions of macroalgae (mean 24% ± 12% for fish, 21% ± 5% for invertebrates), particulate organic matter (mean 19% ± 12% for fish, 18% ± 8% for invertebrates), and sediment organic matter (mean 24% ± 13% for fish, 21% ± 8% for invertebrates) to fish and invertebrates were all higher in seagrass meadows with higher nutrient concentrations, while seagrass and epiphytes contributed more to consumers in seagrass meadows with lower nutrient concentrations. Meanwhile, higher nutrient concentrations decreased the trophic position (mean 2.6 ± 0.5 in high‐nutrient level, 3.4 ± 0.6 in low‐nutrients level) of consumers and food chain length (2.5 in high‐nutrient level, 2.9 in low‐nutrients level). Higher nutrient concentrations reduced the contribution of seagrass carbon to consumers through the grazing food chain, but enhanced the flow of macroalgal carbon to consumers through the grazing food chain. Overall, eutrophication modified the food web structure of seagrass meadows. We recommend that measures be taken to decrease nutrient input into seagrass ecosystems to maintain its important functions and services.

The heavy metals contamination in soil has attracted increasing attention. In this study, the main objective was to determine three heavy metals (Cd, Pb, and Cr) of soils contaminated by smelting waste, and to evaluate pollution risk. The Pb (15.48 mg/kg) and Cd (311.39 mg/kg) mean concentrations exceeded the national standard, while Cr (48.60 mg/kg) concentration did not exceed. The Heavy metal fractions analysis showed that three heavy metals were dominated by FeMn oxides fraction (Fe-Mn). The correlation and cluster analysis indicated that there was significant correlation between Cd and Pb (0.55< r < 0.96), while Cr was not correlation to Cd and Pb. The environmental pollution of heavy metals was assessed by the ratio of secondary phase and primary phase (RSP). The result showed that RSP values of Cd, Pb, and Cr range from 13.05–54.28, 16.11–4.97 and 1.61–52.33, which indicated soil was serious contaminated by them. These results showed that smelting waste discharge led to this smelter soil being seriously contaminated by multiple heavy metals which have a tendency to transport and accumulate into deep soil due to their high fractional transformation.

Perovskite-based electrocatalysts with compositional flexibility and tunable electronic structures have emerged as one of the promising non-noble metal candidates for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, we propose a heterostructure comprising perovskite oxide (LaNiO3) nanorods and iron oxide hydroxide (FeOOH) nanosheets as an effective electrochemical catalyst for OER. The optimized 0.25Fe-LNO catalyst with an interesting 1D-2D hierarchical structure shows a low overpotential of 284 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 69 mV dec−1. The enhanced performance can be explained by the synergistic effect between LaNiO3 and FeOOH, resulting in an improved electrochemically active surface area, facilitated charge transfer and the optimized adsorption of OH intermediates.

Microstructures are fabricated with a fast fabrication speed, submicron-scale precision and a minimum feature size of 1.5 μm. The proposed rapid prototyping fabrication method takes advantage of the maskless lithography technique based on a digital mirror device (DMD) and photocurable resin, which has a broad range of uses in three-dimensional (3D) printing. To illustrate the feasibility of this method, a Dammann grating is fabricated. Using a series of experiments and optimized designs, we analyze the characteristics of the photocurable resin, quantify the dose modulation for lithography and redesign the mask pattern. Consequently, a Dammann grating with a 50% diffraction efficiency is successfully fabricated, which can not only guarantee the precision but also maintain the fabrication speed. This work demonstrates the potential of this method to rapidly and directly manufacture binary optical elements or structures at the nanoscale based on photocurable resin and DMD-based maskless lithography.

This paper presents a flexible microstrip low-pass filter (LPF) fabricated on a polyimide film substrate. The proposed flexible microstrip LPF with ten cascaded asymmetrical Pi-shaped defected ground structure (DGS) resonators are designed, simulated, manufactured, and measured. The simulation and experiment results demonstrate that the designed flexible microstrip LPF has a very sharp transition band, an ultra-wide stop-band (SB) and high rejection in SB performance compared with the existed microstrip LPFs with symmetrical and asymmetrical DGS. The proposed flexible LPF with ten cascaded resonators is with a compact size of 100 mm × 2.6 mm × 0.254 mm, a very low insertion loss of less than 1.9 dB under 2.2 GHz, and a wide SB from 2.7 to 12 GHz with the rejection of larger than 50 dB. The proposed flexible LPF has the potential to be used in wireless terminals to replace the traditional RF coaxial cable because it is very thin and has good transmission and filtering functions.

A novel detector based on improved variational mode decomposition (VMD) is proposed to detect the nonlinearity-induced oscillations. Despite its high adaptivity and frequency resolution, the effectiveness of VMD highly depends on parameters, including mode number K, initial center frequency ωinit, and the penalty coefficient α. To tackle this problem, an improved VMD is proposed, which involves: 1) the spectrum of phase-rectified signal averaging (PRSA) to determine optimal K, ωinit and 2) the summation of permutation entropy (SPE) to optimize α, respectively. The presence of nonlinearity can be monitored by investigating the relationships among different frequencies of the process variable (PV) in the control loops. In addition, the oscillation detector based on the improved VMD is capable of distinguishing multiple oscillations, even when both nonlinear and linear oscillations from different sources occur. The proposed method is completely adaptive and data driven, which acts without a priori knowledge. The validity of the raised approach is verified by a set of simulations as well as industrial applications.

Fibroblasts are the essential cell type of skin, highly involved in the wound regeneration process. In this study, we sought to screen out the novel genes which act important roles in diabetic fibroblasts through bioinformatic methods. A total of 811 and 490 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between diabetic and normal fibroblasts were screened out in GSE49566 and GSE78891, respectively. Furthermore, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways involved in type 2 diabetes were retrieved from miRWalk. Consequently, the integrated bioinformatic analyses revealed the shared KEGG pathways between DEG-identified and diabetes-related pathways were functionally enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway, and the MAPKAPK3, HSPA2, TGFBR1, and p53 signaling pathways were involved. Finally, ETV4 and NPE2 were identified as the targeted transcript factors of MAPKAPK3, HSPA2, and TGFBR1. Our findings may throw novel sight in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of fibroblast pathologies in patients with diabetic wounds and targeting new factors to advance diabetic wound treatment in clinic.

Objectives Normokalemic periodic paralysis (NormoKPP) of skeletal muscle is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the gene encoding voltage-gated sodium channel protein type 4 subunit alpha ( SCN4A ), which leads to ion channel dysfunction. Little is known about the relationship between genotype and the clinical symptoms of NormoKPP. The present study aimed to evaluate the genetic variation in a large Chinese family with NormoKPP. The patients in this pedigree did not respond to saline treatment, but calcium gluconate treatment was effective. Methods We performed a series of clinical examinations and genetic analyses, using whole-exome and Sanger sequencing, to examine the mutation status of SCN4A in a Chinese family segregating for NormoKPP. Results Whole-exome sequencing revealed a c.2111C>T substitution in SCN4A in most of the affected family members. This mutation results in the amino acid substitution p.T704M. Conclusions These results support a causative role of this mutation in SCN4A in NormoKPP, and provide information about the relationship between genotype and atypical clinical symptoms.

Rapid urbanization leads to an accelerating decline of seagrass beds. The status of seagrass beds along the entire coastline of a rapidly urbanizing area, Guangdong Province, was examined to document the change in seagrass beds and to explore the determinants of seagrasses characteristics and their plasticity. Thirteen seagrass beds were newly discovered with a total area as 679.04 ha, whereas eleven known seagrass beds have decreased from 972.55 ha to 858.67 ha with seven of them having disappeared in recent decade primarily due to exacerbated construction of artificial shorelines and beach dams, increased nutrient inputs from fish caging and shrimp pond culture, oyster culture, mangrove planting and shellfish collection. The leaf nitrogen content of Halophila ovalis, which dominated the largest beds, increased from (2.09 ± 0.24)% in 2011 to (3.39 ± 0.18)% in 2017, indicating enhanced eutrophication. The optimum seawater dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved inorganic phosphorus levels for Halophila beccarii were 40 μmol/L and 2.5 μmol/L, respectively. The standing stock and plant dimensions of H. beccarii were positively correlated with sediment mud content. Longer, wider leaves, and greater aboveground and belowground biomass were observed at lower salinities, indicating that H. beccarii prefers hyposaline habitats. High shoot density could induce intraspecific competition followed by self-thinning in H. beccarii, leading to reduced leaf area, aboveground and belowground biomass, and root length. Thus, long-term monitoring of seagrass beds along the rapidly urbanizing coastline of Guangdong Province is needed to unravel the mechanisms of decline and to develop effective management strategies.

To solve the heat diffusion problem in electronic packaging, a novel kind of irregularly shaped hybrid filler, boron nitride@copper (BN@Cu), was successfully assembled via reduction of Cu2+. BN@Cu hybrid fillers composed of different mass ratios between BN and Cu have been prepared and characterized. A specific BN@Cu hybrid filler (mBN:mCu = 100:2), labeled as BN@2Cu, exhibited remarkable ability in enhancing the thermal conductivity of polybenzoxazine (PBz) composites fabricated through ball milling followed by hot pressing. With 25 wt% of BN@2Cu hybrid fillers, the thermal conductivity of PBz composites reaches 1.049 W m−1 K−1. Dielectric properties, electrical conductivity, and curing behavior of the composites were also investigated. In addition, Foygel's thermal conduction model was employed to demonstrate the mechanism of BN@2Cu hybrid filler in improving thermal conductivity.

Seagrass beds provide nursery habitats for marine species. Seagrass leaves, in particular, are used as spawning grounds and as a food source for fish and invertebrates, but direct evidence of spawning in seagrass leaves is rare. It is also very challenging to identify eggs through morphological analysis, since the eggs of many marine species appear similar. To accurately identify the eggs on the leaves of the dominant seagrass species in the South China Sea, and evaluate seasonal contribution of seagrass leaves as a food source, DNA barcoding and stable isotope technique were conducted. Interestingly, Monetaria annulus was found to spawn on the leaf sheath of Thalassia hemprichii in Li’an gang, Hainan Island. This choice of oviposition site might increase embryo survival compared to the other parts of the seagrass leaves. Meanwhile, the eggs of Stethojulis trilineata were deposited on the entire leaf of Halophila ovalis in Liusha Bay, Guangdong Province. The small fingernail-shaped leaves of H. ovalis might be beneficial for S. trilineata to lay eggs as they are closer to the sediment surface than other seagrass leaves. Based on the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses, the primary food source of M. annulus in summer and in winter were particulate organic matter and seagrass, respectively. The results suggest that seagrass leaves are not only important for fish and invertebrates as a spawning site, but also as a food source. The findings of the present study may support the urgent requirement of the conservation of seagrass beds for sustaining the productivity of marine fisheries.

Cronobacter spp. (formerly Enterobacter sakazakii) are special foodborne pathogens. Cronobacter infection can cause necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis and meningitis in all age groups, especially neonates and infants, with a high fatality of up to 80%, although the infection is rare. Outbreaks of Cronobacter infection are epidemiologically proven to be associated with contaminated powdered infant formula (PIF). Cronobacter spp. can resist dry environments and survive for a long period in food with low water activity. Therefore, Cronobacter spp. have become serious pathogens of neonates and infants, as well as in the dairy industry. In this review, we present the taxonomy, pathogenesis, resistance, detection and control of Cronobacter spp.

Abstract Background Parasitoid wasps are well-known natural enemies of major agricultural pests and arthropod borne diseases. The parasitoid wasp Macrocentrus cingulum (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) has been widely used to control the notorious insect pests Ostrinia furnacalis (Asian Corn Borer) and O. nubilalis (European corn borer). One striking phenomenon exhibited by M. cingulum is polyembryony, the formation of multiple genetically identical offspring from a single zygote. Moreover, M. cingulum employs a passive parasitic strategy by preventing the host’s immune system from recognizing the embryo as a foreign body. Thus, the embryos evade the host’s immune system and are not encapsulated by host hemocytes. Unfortunately, the mechanism of both polyembryony and immune evasion remains largely unknown. Results We report the genome of the parasitoid wasp M. cingulum. Comparative genomics analysis of M. cingulum and other 11 insects were conducted, finding some gene families with apparent expansion or contraction which might be linked to the parasitic behaviors or polyembryony of M. cingulum. Moreover, we present the evidence that the microRNA miR-14b regulates the polyembryonic development of M. cingulum by targeting the c-Myc Promoter-binding Protein 1 (MBP-1), histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2E (KMT2E) and segmentation protein Runt. In addition, Hemomucin, an O-glycosylated transmembrane protein, protects the endoparasitoid wasp larvae from being encapsulated by host hemocytes. Motif and domain analysis showed that only the hemomucin in two endoparasitoids, M. cingulum and Venturia canescens, possessing the ability of passive immune evasion has intact mucin domain and similar O-glycosylation patterns, indicating that the hemomucin is a key factor modulating the immune evasion. Conclusions The microRNA miR-14b participates in the regulation of polyembryonic development, and the O-glycosylation of the mucin domain in the hemomucin confers the passive immune evasion in this wasp. These key findings provide new insights into the polyembryony and immune evasion.

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary arginine levels on growth performance, body composition, serum biochemical indices and resistance ability against ammonia-nitrogen stress in juvenile yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco). Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (42% protein and 9% lipid) were formulated to contain graded levels of arginine (2.44%, 2.64%, 2.81%, 3.01% and 3.23% of diet), by supplementing L-Arginine HCl. Seven hundred juvenile yellow catfish with an initial average body weight of 1.13 ± 0.02 g were randomly divided into 5 groups with 4 replicates of 35 fish each and each group was fed one of the diets. After 56 d feeding, fish were exposed to 100 mg/L of ammonia-nitrogen for 72 h. The results showed that weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR) in 2.64% and 2.81% groups were significantly higher than those in 3.23% group (P 0.05). After the fish were challenged to ammonia-nitrogen for 72 h, their cumulative mortality rate in 2.81% group was significantly lower than that in 2.44% group (P

In this paper, we report on a type of SU-8 microstructure with vertical sidewalls used for polydimethydiloxane (PDMS) microchannels. Multi-layer lithography using focal plane changing approach is proposed to expose the SU-8 photoresist based on a digital micromirror device (DMD) maskless lithography system. We used a light-emitting diode source with a wavelength of 405 nm. The thickness of the SU-8 is divided into multi-layers according to the depth of focus. Each layer corresponds to a depth of focus, and then, a virtual mask is designed for the layer. Finally, each layer is exposed to changes in the focal plane. The results indicate that the actual profile of the SU-8 mold shows good agreement with the design profile without any T-profiles. Additionally, there is better linewidth in the proposed method compared with multi-exposure by a single fixed focal plane. The PDMS microchannels result also demonstrate the stability of the SU-8 mold.

Purpose. Powered lower-limb exoskeleton has gained considerable interests, since it can help patients with spinal cord injury(SCI) to stand and walk again. Providing walking assistance with SCI patients, most exoskeletons are designed to follow predefined gait trajectories, which makes the patient walk unnaturally and feels uncomfortable. Furthermore, exoskeletons with predefined gait trajectories cannot always maintain balance walking especially when encountering disturbances. Design/Methodology/Approach. This paper proposed a novel gait planning approach, which aims to provide reliable and balance gait during walking assistance. In this approach, we model the exoskeleton and patient together as a linear inverted pendulum (LIP) and obtain the patients intention through orbital energy diagram. To achieve dynamic gait planning of exoskeleton, the dynamic movement primitive (DMP) is utilized to model the gait trajectory. Meanwhile, the parameters of DMP are updated dynamically during one step, which aims to improve the ability of counteracting external disturbance. Findings. The proposed approach is validated in a human-exoskeleton simulation platform, and the experimental results show the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach. Originality/Value. We decomposed the issue of obtain dynamic balance gait into three parts: (1) based on the sensory information of exoskeleton, the intention estimator is designed to estimate the intention of taking a step; (2) at the beginning of each step, the discrete gait planner utilized the obtained gait parameters such as step length S and step duration T and generate the trajectory of swing foot based on S,T; (3) during walking process, continuous gait regulator is utilized to adjust the gait generated by discrete gait planner to counteract disturbance.

Lignocellulosic biomass (LB) is potentially a relatively inexpensive and abundant feedstock for ethanol production. One of the most challenging steps during the lignocellulosic ethanol production is to convert the carbohydrates in LB to the fermentable reducing sugars (FRS) in an economically viable and environmentally friendly way. The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of LB in ionic liquids (ILs) has provided a promising technical tool to improve upon the traditional FRS production process. Compared to the conventional FRS production process from LB via the acid or enzymatic hydrolysis method, it has many advantages, such as a simplified process, mild reaction conditions, low acid consumption, and low equipment investment. However, there are still some technical challenges that need to be solved regarding its use at an industrial scale, for example, improving its reaction selectivity, developing effective methods to separate the FRS and ILs, and alleviating the negative effect of the remaining ILs in FRS on subsequent ethanol fermentation. This editorial will give a brief discussion about opportunities and challenges of the acid catalyzed hydrolysis of LB in ILs for ethanol production.

Since distributed stream analytics is treated as a kind of cloud service, there exists a pressing need for its reliability and fault-tolerance, to guarantee the streaming data tuples to be processed in the order of their generation in every dataflow path, with each tuple processed once and only once. Currently there exist two kind approaches: one treats the whole process as a single transaction, and therefore suffers from the loss of intermediate results during failures; the other relies on the receipt of acknowledgement (ACK) to decide whether moving forward to emit the next resulting tuple or resending the current one after timeout, on the per-tuple basis, thus incurs extremely high latency penalty. In contradistinction to the above, we propose the backtrack mechanism for failure recovery, which allows a task to process tuples continuously without waiting for ACKs and without resending tuples in the failure-free case, but to request (ASK) the source tasks to resend the missing tuples only when it is restored from a failure which is a rare case thus has limited impact on the overall performance. The specific hard problem for building a transaction layer on-top of an existing stream processing platform consists in how to keep track the physical input/output messaging channels in order to realize re-messaging during failure recovery. Our solution is characterized by tracking physical messaging channels logically, for that we introduce the notions of virtual channel, task alias and messageId-set in reasoning, recording and communicating the channel information. We also provide a designated messaging channel, separated from the regular dataflow channel, for signaling ACK/ASK messages and for resending tuples, in order to avoid interrupting the regular order of data transfer. We have implemented the proposed mechanisms on Fontainebleau, the distributed stream analytics infrastructure we developed on top of Storm. As a principle, we ensure all the transactional properties to be system supported and transparent to users. Our experience shows the novelty and efficiency of the proposed mechanisms.