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Helicase POLQ‐like (HELQ) is a DNA helicase essential for the maintenance of genome stability. A recent study identified two HELQ missense mutations in some cases of infertile men. However, the functions of HELQ in the process of germline specification are not well known and whether its function is conserved between mouse and human remains unclear. Here, we revealed that Helq knockout (Helq−/−) could significantly reduce the efficiency of mouse primordial germ cell‐like cell (PGCLC) induction. In addition, Helq−/− embryonic bodies exhibited a severe apoptotic phenotype on day 6 of mouse PGCLC induction. p53 inhibitor treatment could partially rescue the generation of mouse PGCLCs from Helq mutant mouse embryonic stem cells. Finally, the genetic ablation of HELQ could also significantly impede the induction of human PGCLCs. Collectively, our study sheds light on the involvement of HELQ in the induction of both mouse and human PGCLCs, providing new insights into the mechanisms underlying germline differentiation and the genetic studies of human fertility.

Seismic data are typical nonlinear and nonstationary data. In the acquisition and processing of seismic data, many factors interfere with it. Seismic data contain both effective waves and random noises, seriously affecting the quality of seismic data and not conducive to the goal of fine interpretation of subsequent seismic data. Therefore, studying new seismic data denoising methods is beneficial for improving the quality of seismic data and plays a very important role in subsequent seismic data interpretation. In this paper, the principle of variational mode decomposition (VMD) and 2D-VMD is introduced in detail, and the seismic profile with a simple signal and fault model is denoised. Compared to traditional empirical mode decomposition (EMD), the 2D-VMD method has the best seismic data denoising effect. The test results of the synthesised signal show that the 2D-VMD method has a signal-to-noise ratio of 47.14 dB after denoising, which is higher than the signal-to-noise ratio after EMD and VMD denoising, indicating that it has a better denoising effect. The VMD and 2D-VMD methods are applied to the denoising of actual seismic data. The application results show that the 2D-VMD method can effectively improve the quality of the seismic data, enhance the continuity and reliability of the seismic data, and is conducive to the fine interpretation of subsequent seismic data.

Abstract Biochar application is widely studied to mitigate the threats of soil degradation to food security and climate change. However, there are big variations in the effects of biochar application on crops, soils, and the atmosphere during crop production. This study provides a global dataset of biochar application effects on crop yield, soil properties, and greenhouse emissions. The dataset is extracted and integrated from 367 peer-reviewed studies with 891 independent field, laboratory, and incubation experiments across 37 countries. This dataset includes 21 variables before and after biochar application (including soil properties, crop yield, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.) of 2438 items, focusing on two main biochar application types: biochar application alone and combined with fertilizers. Background information on climate conditions, initial soil properties, management practices, and characteristics of biochar sources and production is also contained in the dataset. This dataset facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the impact of biochar application, supports the utilization of agricultural wastes for biochar production, and assists researchers in refining experimental protocols for further studies.

ABSTRACT: Riemerella anatipestifer (RA) is an important pathogen of waterfowl, with multiple serotypes and a lack of cross-protection between each serotype, which leads to the continued widespread in the world and causing significant economic losses to the duck industry. Thus, prevention and inhibition of RA infection are of great concern. Previous research has established that Lactobacillus plantarum supernatant (LPS) can prevents the pathogenic bacteria infection. However, LPS whether inhibits RA and underlying mechanisms have not yet been clarified. In this study, we investigated the direct and indirect effects of LPS-ZG7 against RA infection in Muscovy ducks. The results demonstrated that LPS-ZG7 prevented RA growth in the presence of pH-neutralized, and the inhibition was relatively stable and unaffected by heat, acid-base and ultraviolet light (UV). Following flow cytometry data found that LPS-ZG7 increased RA membrane permeability and leakage of intracellular molecules. And scanning electron microscopy revealed LPS-ZG7 damaged the RA membrane integrity and leading to RA death. Furthermore, quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis represented that LPS-ZG7 upregulated mucosal tight junction proteins occludin, claudin-1, and Zo-1 in Muscovy ducks, and increasing mucosal transport channels SGLT-1, PepT1, AQP2, AQP3, and AQP10 in duodenum, jejunum, and colon, then decreased the intestinal permeability and intestinal barrier disruption which were caused from RA. From the data, it is apparent that LPS-ZG7 enhanced intestinal mucosal integrity by rising villus height, villus height-to-crypt depth ratio and lower crypt depth. LPS-ZG7 significantly decreased intestinal epithelia cells apoptosis caused by RA invasion, and enhanced intestinal permeability and contribute to barrier dysfunction, ultimately improving intestinal health of host, indirectly leading to reduce diarrhea rate and mortality caused by RA. Overall, this study strengthens the idea that LPS-ZG7 directly inhibited the RA growth by increased RA membrane permeability and damaged the RA membrane integrity, and then indirectly enhanced intestinal mucosal integrity, improved intestinal health of host and mediated intestinal antimicrobial defense.

Abstract Transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) is an important genome maintenance system that preferentially removes DNA lesions on the transcribed strand of actively transcribed genes, including non-coding genes. TC-NER involves lesion recognition by the initiation complex consisting of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and Cockayne syndrome group B (CSB), followed by NER-catalyzed lesion removal. However, the efficient lesion removal requires the initiation complex to yield the right of way to the excision machinery, and how this occurs in a timely manner is unknown. Here we show that heat shock protein DNAJA2 facilitates the HSC70 chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) to degrade CSB during TC-NER. DNAJA2 interacts with and enables HSC70 to recognize sumoylated CSB. This triggers the removal of both CSB and Pol II from the lesion site in a manner dependent on lysosome receptor LAMP2A. Defects in DNAJA2, HSC70 or LAMP2A abolish CSB degradation and block TC-NER. Our findings discover DNAJA2-mediated CMA as a critical regulator of TC-NER, implicating the DNAJA2-HSC70-CMA axis factors in genome maintenance.

Abstract Molecular chaperone HSP70s are attractive targets for cancer therapy, but their substrate broadness and functional non-specificity have limited their role in therapeutical success. Functioning as HSP70’s cochaperones, HSP40s determine the client specificity of HSP70s, and could be better targets for cancer therapy. Here we show that tumors defective in HSP40 member DNAJA2 are benefitted from immune-checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Mechanistically, DNAJA2 maintains centrosome homeostasis by timely degrading key centriolar satellite proteins PCM1 and CEP290 via HSC70 chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA). Tumor cells depleted of DNAJA2 or CMA factor LAMP2A exhibit elevated levels of centriolar satellite proteins, which causes aberrant mitosis characterized by abnormal spindles, chromosome missegregation and micronuclei formation. This activates the cGAS-STING pathway to enhance ICB therapy response in tumors derived from DNAJA2-deficient cells. Our study reveals a role for DNAJA2 to regulate mitotic division and chromosome stability and suggests DNAJA2 as a potential target to enhance cancer immunotherapy, thereby providing strategies to advance HSPs-based cancer therapy.

In order to meet the needs of intelligent development of coal mines in China for transparency of geological conditions, identifying small faults with a drop of about 3 m has become one of the important geological tasks in structural interpretation. However, the accuracy of conventional 3D seismic exploration data interpretation methods for detecting small faults is still low. On the basis of introducing the basic principles of S-transform time-frequency analysis, principal component analysis, and RGB fusion, this paper proposes a method for identifying small faults in coal fields using multi-scale seismic curvature attribute fusion. The method uses S-transform to perform time frequency analysis to obtain seismic data volumes with multiple frequencies and seismic data volumes at different frequencies correspond to different scales of underground geological information portrayal. Perform spectral analysis on seismic data, determine parameters such as the dominant frequency and frequency bandwidth of seismic signals, and extract the maximum positive curvature attributes of seismic data volumes at different frequencies. Then the principal component analysis (PCA) method is used to analyze the seismic attributes of different frequency seismic data, the GRB fusion method is used to fuse the first three principal components. The application results of actual seismic data show that the results of multi-scale seismic curvature attribute fusion have obvious advantages in identifying small faults, and can improve the accuracy and interpretation accuracy of small faults in seismic data.

Abstract Background Grafting is one of the promising techniques for improving abiotic stress tolerance in horticultural crops, but the underlying regulatory mechanisms of drought on grafted grapevine are largely unexplored. Results Herein, we investigated the phenotypic, physiologic, biochemical, and drought related genes change of self-rooted 1103P (1103 Paulsen), SM (Shine Muscat) and grafted SM/1103P (SM shoot/1103P root) under drought stress condition. The results indicated that grafted grapevine effectively alleviated drought damage in grape leaves by higher RWC, water potential and free water content. Drought stress led to the alterations of chlorophyll, carotenoid, photosynthetic parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence in grapevine leaves after drought treatment indicated grafted plants improved the photosystem response to drought stress. Moreover, grafted plants under drought stress exhibited higher levels of abscisic acid (ABA), indoleacetic acid (IAA) and soluble protein, but less contents of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) both in leaves and roots. Drought stress also increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD and CAT) and activated the transcript expression of VvCu/ZnSOD, VvPOD4 and VvCAT1) in both leaves and roots. Further expression analysis by real-time PCR indicated that the expression levels of ABA-dependent and ABA-independent related genes could be activated in grafted grape after drought treatment. Conclusions Taken together, our findings demonstrated that grafting onto 1103P enhanced tolerance against drought stress in grape by improving water content, photosynthesis and antioxidant defense capacity, which provided a valuable information for understanding the mechanisms of drought tolerance regulated by grafting plants.

Abstract We report a case of hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in a renal transplant recipient. Reactivation manifested as an occult infection with detectable HBV-DNA and negativity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The anti-HBs antibody titre was above the protective threshold and continued to rise, to 951.36 mIU/ml, after HBV reactivation. Sequencing revealed multiple vaccine- and diagnostic-escape mutations in the major hydrophilic region of HBsAg. This case demonstrates both reactivation of an HBV escape mutant in a vaccinated patient and host immunity after virus mutation.

Skin color is an important trait that is mainly determined by the content and composition of anthocyanins in apples. In this study, a new bud mutant (RM) from ‘Oregon Spur II’ (OS) of Red Delicious apple was obtained to reveal the mechanism underlying red color formation. Results showed that the total anthocyanin content in RM was significantly higher than that in OS with the development of fruit. Through widely-targeted metabolomics, we found that cyanidin-3-O-galactoside was significantly accumulated in the fruit skin of RM. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the structural gene MdF3H and MdMYB66 transcription factor were significantly up-regulated in the mutant. Overexpression of MdMYB66 in apple fruit and apple callus significantly promoted anthocyanin accumulation and significantly increased the expression level of MdMYB66 and structural genes related to anthocyanin synthesis. Y1H and LUC analysis verified that MdMYB66 could specifically bind to the promoter of MdF3H. The results of the double luciferase activity test showed that MdMYB66 activated MdF3H 3.8 times, which led to increased anthocyanin contents. This might explain the phenotype of red color in RM at the early stage. Taken together, these results suggested that MdMYB66 was involved in regulating the anthocyanin metabolic pathways through precise regulation of gene expression. The functional characterization of MdMYB66 provides insight into the biosynthesis and regulation of anthocyanins.

Objective Rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone, once every 3 weeks (R-CHOP21) is commonly used in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), but accompanied by Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) as a fatal treatment complication. This study aims to estimate the specific effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of PCP prophylaxis in NHL undergoing R-CHOP21.Design A two-part decision analytical model was developed. Prevention effects were determined by systemic review of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science from inception to December 2022. Studies reporting results of PCP prophylaxis were included. Enrolled studies were quality assessed with Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Costs were derived from the Chinese official websites, and clinical outcomes and utilities were obtained from published literature. Uncertainty was evaluated through deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (DSA and PSA). Willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold was set as US$31 315.23/quality-adjusted life year (QALY) (threefold the 2021 per capita Chinese gross domestic product).Setting Chinese healthcare system perspective.Participants NHL receiving R-CHOP21.Interventions PCP prophylaxis versus no prophylaxis.Main outcome measures Prevention effects were pooled as relative risk (RR) with 95% CI. QALYs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were calculated.Results A total of four retrospective cohort studies with 1796 participants were included. PCP risk was inversely associated with prophylaxis in NHL receiving R-CHOP21 (RR 0.17; 95% CI 0.04 to 0.67; p=0.01). Compared with no prophylaxis, PCP prophylaxis would incur an additional cost of US$527.61, and 0.57 QALYs gained, which yielded an ICER of US$929.25/QALY. DSA indicated that model results were most sensitive to the risk of PCP and preventive effectiveness. In PSA, the probability that prophylaxis was cost-effective at the WTP threshold was 100%.Conclusion Prophylaxis for PCP in NHL receiving R-CHOP21 is highly effective from retrospective studies, and routine chemoprophylaxis against PCP is overwhelmingly cost-effective from Chinese healthcare system perspective. Large sample size and prospective controlled studies are warranted.

Background: Life expectancy for patients with malignant tumors has been significantly improved since the presence of the programmed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death protein ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors in 2014, but they impose heavy financial burdens for patients, the healthcare system and the nations. The objective of this study was to determine the survival benefits, toxicities, and monetary of programmed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death protein ligand-1 inhibitors and quantify their values.Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for malignant tumors were identified and clinical benefits were quantified by American Society of Clinical Oncology Value Framework (ASCO-VF) and European Society for Medical Oncology Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS). The drug price in Micromedex REDBOOK was used to estimate monthly incremental drug costs (IDCs) and the correlation between clinical benefits and incremental drug costs of experimental and control groups in each randomized controlled trial, and the agreement between two frameworks were calculated.Results: Up to December 2022, 52 randomized controlled trials were included in the quantitative synthesis. All the randomized controlled trials were evaluated by American society of clinical oncology value framework, and 26 (50%) met the American society of clinical oncology value framework “clinical meaningful value.” 49 of 52 randomized controlled trials were graded by European society for medical oncology magnitude of clinical benefit scale, and 30 (61.2%) randomized controlled trials achieved European Society for Medical Oncology criteria of meaningful value. p-values of Spearman correlation analyses between monthly incremental drug costs and American society of clinical oncology value framework/European society for medical oncology magnitude of clinical benefit scale scores were 0.9695 and 0.3013, respectively. In addition, agreement between two framework thresholds was fair (κ = 0.417, p = 0.00354).Conclusion: This study suggests that there might be no correlation between the cost and clinical benefit of programmed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death protein ligand-1 inhibitors in malignancy, and the same results were observed in subgroups stratified by drug or indication. The results should be a wake-up call for oncologists, pharmaceutical enterprises and policymakers, and meanwhile advocate the refining of American Society of Clinical Oncology and European Society for Medical Oncology frameworks.

The molecular chaperone GroEL of C. sakazakii, a highly conserved protein encoded by the gene grol, has the basic function of responding to heat shock, thus enhancing the bacterium’s adaptation to dry and high-temperature environments, which poses a threat to food safety and human health. Our previous study demonstrated that GroEL was found in the bacterial membrane fraction and caused a strong immune response in C. sakazakii. In this study, we tried to elucidate the subcellular location and virulent effects of GroEL. In live C. sakazakii cells, GroEL existed in both the soluble and insoluble fractions. To study the secretory mechanism of GroEL protein, a non-reduced Western immunoblot was used to analyze the form of the protein, and the result showed that the exported GroEL protein was mainly in monomeric form. The exported GroEL could also be located on bacterial surface. To further research the virulent effect of C. sakazakii GroEL, an indirect immunofluorescence assay was used to detect the adhesion of recombinant GroEL protein to HCT-8 cells. The results indicated that the recombinant GroEL protein could adhere to HCT-8 cells in a short period of time. The recombinant GroEL protein could activate the NF-κB signaling pathway to release more pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8), downregulating the expression of tight-junction proteins (claudin-1, occluding, ZO-1 and ZO-2), which collectively resulted in dose-dependent virulent effects on host cells. Inhibition of the grol gene expression resulted in a significant decrease in bacterial adhesion to and invasion of HCT-8 cells. Moreover, the deficient GroEL also caused slow growth, decreased biofilm formation, defective motility and abnormal filamentation of the bacteria. In brief, C. sakazakii GroEL was an important virulence factor. This protein was not only crucial for the physiological activity of C. sakazakii but could also be secreted to enhance the bacterium’s adhesion and invasion capabilities.

ObjectiveTo investigate the diagnostic role of heart rate variability in breast cancer and its relationship with Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in peripheral serum.MethodsWe reviewed the electronic medical records of patients who attended Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University between October 2016 and May 2019. The patients were grouped based on breast cancer history and were divided into two groups: breast cancer group(n = 19) and control group(n = 18). All women were invited for risk factor screening, including 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring and blood biochemistry after admission. The difference and correlation between the breast cancer group and control group were performed by comparing the heart rate variability and serum CEA levels. Additionally, diagnostic efficacy analysis of breast cancer was calculated by combining heart rate variability and serum CEA.ResultsIn total, 37 patients were eligible for analysis, with 19 and 18 patients in the breast cancer group and control groups, respectively. Women with breast cancer had a significantly lower level of total LF, awake TP, and awake LF, and a significantly higher level of serum CEA compared with women with no breast cancer. Total LF, awake TP, and awake LF were negatively correlated with the CEA index (P < 0.05). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves indicated the highest area under the curve (AUC) scores and specificity of the combination of awake TP, awake LF, and serum CEA (P < 0.05), while sensitivity was highest for total LF, awake TP, and awake LF (P < 0.05).ConclusionsWomen with history of breast cancer had abnormalities in autonomic function. The combined analysis of heart rate variability and serum CEA analysis may have a predictive effect on the development of breast cancer and provide more basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

The full-term developmental profile of male germ cells remains undefined. Here, the authors use single-cell sequencing to investigate the transcriptome landscapes of mouse male germ cells throughout development and find several critical regulators for prenatal cell-fate determination.

Chest X-ray image classification suffers from the high inter-similarity in appearance that is vulnerable to noisy labels. The data-dependent and heteroscedastic characteristic label noise make chest X-ray image classification more challenging. To address this problem, in this paper, we first revisit the heteroscedastic modeling (HM) for image classification with noise labels. Rather than modeling all images in one fell swoop as in HM, we instead propose a novel framework that considers the noisy and clean samples separately for chest X-ray image classification. The proposed framework consists of a Gaussian Mixture Model-based noise detector and a Heteroscedastic Modeling-based noise-aware classification network, named GMM-HM. The noise detector is constructed to judge whether one sample is clean or noisy. The noise-aware classification network models the noisy and clean samples with heteroscedastic and homoscedastic hypotheses, respectively. Through building the correlations between the corrupted noisy samples, the GMM-HM is much more robust than HM, which uses only the homoscedastic hypothesis. Compared with HM, we show consistent improvements on the ChestX-ray2017 dataset with different levels of symmetric and asymmetric noise. Furthermore, we also conduct experiments on a real asymmetric noisy dataset, ChestX-ray14. The experimental results on ChestX-ray14 show the superiority of the proposed method.

High-intensity human activities have caused dramatic changes in land-use structure in Guangzhou. It is essential to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use and the induced ecological risks. In this research, a framework was developed for landscape ecological risk (LER) prediction based on a patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model through incorporating analysis of land expansion strategies, CA model based on multi-type random patch seeds and LER assessment model. The results showed: 1) the urbanization process of Guangzhou was obvious in the past 20 years. Proximity to railways, highways, and secondary roads have the primary impact on the expansion of cultivated land, grassland and construction land, respectively, 2) Guangzhou's future urban expansion is inevitable based on the PLUS model prediction, 3) during 2000–2020, the overall LER in Guangzhou was at a relatively low level. The higher ecological risk area was mainly distributed in the southern sea area, and 4) from 2020 to 2040, Guangzhou's higher ecological risk areas are on an overall decreasing trend under three scenarios. This research can provide a reference for the planning of regional ecological environmental protection and sustainable development of land resources, as well as LER prediction.

Due to their high porosity, large specific surface area, and structural similarity with the extracellular matrix (ECM), electrospun nanofiber membranes are often endowed with the antibacterial properties for biomedical applications. The purpose of this study was to synthesize nano-structured Sc2O3-MgO by doping Sc3+, calcining at 600 °C, and then loading it onto the PCL/PVP substrates with electrospinning technology with the aim of developing new efficient antibacterial nanofiber membranes for tissue engineering. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) were used to study the morphology of all formulations and analyze the types and contents of the elements, and an X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) were used for further analysis. The experimental results showed that the PCL/PVP (SMCV-2.0) nanofibers loaded with 2.0 wt% Sc2O3-MgO were smooth and homogeneous with an average diameter of 252.6 nm; the antibacterial test indicated that a low load concentration of 2.0 wt% Sc2O3-MgO in PCL/PVP (SMCV-2.0) showed a 100% antibacterial rate against Escherichia coli (E. coli).

The toxicity of Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles (NPs) as antibacterial agents to a normal biological system is unclear, so it is necessary to evaluate their potential toxic effect for safe use. In this work, the administration of these antibacterial agents did not induce pulmonary interstitial fibrosis as no significant effect on the proliferation of HELF cells was observed in vitro. Additionally, Mg(OH)2 NPs caused no inhibition of the proliferation of PC-12 cells, indicating that the brain’s nervous system was not affected by Mg(OH)2 NPs. The acute oral toxicity test showed that the Mg(OH)2 NPs at 10,000 mg/kg induced no mortality during the administration period, and there was little toxicity in vital organs according to a histological analysis. In addition, the in vivo acute eye irritation test results showed little acute irritation of the eye caused by Mg(OH)2 NPs. Thus, Mg(OH)2 NPs exhibited great biosafety to a normal biological system, which was critical for human health and environmental protection.

Most existing text detection methods are mainly motivated by deep learning‐based object detection approaches, which may result in serious overlapping between detected text lines, especially in dense text scenarios. It is because text boxes are not commonly overlapped, as different from general objects in natural scenes. Moreover, text detection requires higher localisation accuracy than object detection. To tackle these problems, the authors propose a novel dense text detection network (DTDN) to localise tighter text lines without overlapping. Their main novelties are: (i) propose an intersection‐over‐union overlap loss, which considers correlations between one anchor and GT boxes and measures how many text areas one anchor contains, (ii) propose a novel anchor sample selection strategy, named CMax‐OMin, to select tighter positive samples for training. CMax‐OMin strategy not only considers whether an anchor has the largest overlap with its corresponding GT box (CMax), but also ensures the overlapping between one anchor and other GT boxes as little as possible (OMin). Besides, they train a bounding‐box regressor as post‐processing to further improve text localisation performance. Experiments on scene text benchmark datasets and their proposed dense text dataset demonstrate that the proposed DTDN achieves competitive performance, especially for dense text scenarios.

China has achieved success in implementing the rural revitalization strategy and promoting the development of new urbanization. However, there are still many problems in the research and implementation on urban–rural integration development, such as insufficient research at the township level, unclear recognition of development patterns, and disconnection from land-use planning. Therefore, taking Hanchuan city in the Wuhan metropolitan area as a case study, this research constructs a comprehensive evaluation system of urban–rural integration development based on both on the current and potential level of development, and identifies the spatial characteristics and patterns in the study area. This study found that: (1) The comprehensive evaluation result of urban–rural integration development in Hanchuan City shows that a high level of development units are mainly distributed in the northeast and southwest, and gradually decreases from the northeast and southwest, indicating that towns in the central area are relatively weakly driven by the radiation of the surrounding growth poles. (2) Xiannvshan Street, Makou Town, Chenhu Town, and Xinyan Town with the highest comprehensive evaluation values were selected as the centers of urban–rural integration development in four directions. (3) Four typical patterns of urban–rural integration development, which are town gathering, agro-tourism interaction, industry-trade driven, and agricultural service, are derived by the gravity model and classification assignment method according to their respective centers. (4) According to the urban–rural integration development patterns, land-use strategies such as centralization for promoting linkage level of towns, differentiation for arranging various resources and infrastructures, and demonstration for optimization of experience to the whole area are proposed in a targeted manner. This study has important implications for the preparation and implementation of urban–rural integration development and provides effective planning guidance for promoting social equity and accessibility of facilities in the metropolitan area.

The multifunctional polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics were successfully prepared through a dip-coating technology to endow the flame retardant and antibacterial properties of PET fabrics, which are extensively used in many fields. The flame retardant and antibacterial agent was synthesized by a double drop-reverse precipitation method and surface-modified by the mixtures of titanate coupling agents and stearic acid to result in a good compatibility of the hydrophilic nano-Mg(OH)2 and the hydrophobic PET fabrics. The results indicated that the suitable synthesis conditions of nano-Mg(OH)2 are: Mg2+ concentration 1.5 mg/mL, reaction temperature 50 °C and reaction time 50 min, and the optimal modification conditions of nano-Mg(OH)2 are: modifier ratio 5/5, modification temperature 70 °C and modification time 40 min. The flame retardant test and the antibacterial test showed that the multifunctional PET fabrics had excellent flame retardant and antibacterial properties.

There is a growing number of studies on the phenomenon of urbanization and family migration in China, but there is a lack of corresponding underlying logical constructs to explain the underlying patterns of the phenomenon. Based on the development of Western urbanization theories, it is proposed that the traditional urbanization theories, which are purely based on economic dynamics, are insufficient to explain the characteristic patterns of Chinese household urbanization, and traditional urbanization theories usually ignore the role of Chinese family-oriented cultural concepts. Through a theoretical review and a summary of the characteristics of the phenomenon, we propose an analytical framework based on “culture–institution”, in which the cultural and ethical concepts represented by family orientation and intergenerational upbringing are the ideological basis of family urbanization. In this process, China’s household registration system and land system have resulted in the coexistence of multiple stages of urbanization, such as moving to the city, moving to the city in stages, and moving back to the city. The purposes of this study are to explain the phenomenon of Chinese family urbanization by constructing a “culture–institution” framework and to expand the relevant content of China’s theoretical urbanization system. A deep understanding of family urbanization with Chinese characteristics is important for the steady promotion of new urbanization in the new era.

Abstract DNA mismatch repair (MMR) maintains replication fidelity by correcting mispaired nucleotides incorporated by DNA polymerases. Defects in MMR lead to cancers characterized by microsatellite instability. Recently, chromatin mechanisms that regulate MMR have been discovered, which sheds new light on MMR deficiency and its role in tumorigenesis. This review summarizes these chromatin-level mechanisms that regulate MMR and their implications for tumor development.

Dairy cow mammary gland fibrosis causes huge economic losses to livestock production, however, research on dairy cow mammary gland fibrosis is in its infancy and it lacks effective treatments. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to explore the correlation between mastitis and fibrosis and mitochondrial damage, and to further explore its pathogenesis. In vivo, mammary tissue and milk samples were collected from healthy cows (n = 10) and mastitis cows (n = 10). The results of the study showed that compared with the control group, the mastitis tissue showed tissue damage, accumulation of collagen fibers, and the content of TGF-β1 in mammary tissue and milk was significantly increased; the level of inflammatory mediators was significantly increased; the fibrotic phenotype, collagen 1, α-SMA, vimentin gene, and protein levels were significantly increased, while the E-cadherin gene and protein levels were significantly decreased. In vitro, based on TGF-β1-induced bMECs, the above experimental results were further confirmed, and TGF-β1 significantly promoted the fibrotic phenotype of bMECs. On the other hand, in vivo results showed that fibrotic mammary tissue had a significantly stronger mitochondrial damage phenotype and significantly higher ROS than the control group. In vitro, the results also found that TGF-β1 induced a significant increase in the mitochondrial damage phenotype of bMECs, accompanied by a large amount of ROS production. Furthermore, in a TGF-β1-induced bMEC model, inhibiting the accumulation of ROS effectively alleviated the elevated fibrotic phenotype of TGF-β1-induced bMECs. In conclusion, the fibrotic phenotype of mammary gland tissue in dairy cows with mastitis was significantly increased, and mastitis disease was positively correlated with mammary fibrotic lesions. In an in vitro and in vivo model of cow mammary fibrosis, bMECs have impaired mitochondrial structure and dysfunction. Inhibiting the accumulation of ROS effectively alleviates the elevated fibrotic phenotype, which may be a potential therapeutic approach to alleviate mammary fibrosis.

Metropolitan areas in China are not only the core spatial carriers of urbanization development but also the main generators of land use carbon emission (LUCE). However, existing research lacks comparative studies on the differential patterns and impact factors of LUCE in different stages of metropolitan areas. Therefore, this paper deeply analyzes the spatial characteristics of LUCE and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of the economy contributive coefficient (ECC) and ecological support coefficient (ESC) in three different stages of metropolitan areas in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China. Moreover, quantitative modelling of the impact factors of LUCE in these different stages of metropolitan areas is furtherly revealed. Results show that: (1) The more mature stage of the metropolitan area, the higher the amount of LUCE, and the more districts or counties with high carbon emissions levels are clustered. (2) At the metropolitan area scale, the more mature the metropolitan area is and the lower the CCD between ECC and ESC is, while at the finer scale, more developed counties have lower CCD. (3) Resident population, per capita GDP, and urbanization rate have good explanatory effects on carbon emissions in these three metropolitan areas; however, except for the urbanization rate, which has a negative effect on LUCE in Nanchang metropolitan area (NMA), the other two factors have positive effects on LUCE in these three metropolitan areas. This study has important implications for different stages of metropolitan areas to formulate targeted LUCE reduction policies.

The all-composite sandwich structure with the honeycomb core is a lightweight and high-strength structure with broad application scenarios. The face sheet and honeycomb core of the proposed all-composite sandwich structure in this work are composed of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The mechanical response and damage mechanism of the all-composite sandwich structure under out-of-plane quasi-static compression and out-of-plane impact are studied by numerical methods. The refined finite element models of the sandwich structures are built on the ABAQUS/Explicit platform. The micromechanics of failure (MMF) theory based on physical component failure is used to describe the intralaminar damage mechanism of the face sheet and honeycomb core, and the mixed-mode exponential cohesive zone model (ECZM) is utilized to simulate the initiation and evolution of interlayer damage. In addition, the cohesive contact approach is adopted to capture the debonding failure at the face-sheet/core. The numerical results show that the all-composite sandwich structure has the characteristics of large structural stiffness and strong energy absorption ability. The failure mechanism of the all-composite sandwich structure under compression is mainly matrix damage and delamination of the honeycomb core, with buckling and folding in appearance. Under out-of-plane impact, matrix damage and delamination arise on the upper sheet, little damage is observed on the lower sheet, and the delamination damage morphology tends to be circular with increasing impact energy. In addition, the interface failure of the upper-sheet/core is more than that of the lower-sheet/core. In addition, the matrix damage near the impact center of the honeycomb core tends to be consistent with the delamination contour, and a small amount of fiber failure is also observed, which manifests as a collapse morphology of the impact area. The research results enrich the understanding of the mechanical behavior of all-composite sandwich structures with honeycomb cores and provide theoretical support for their potential applications.

Since the founding of the country, China’s urban–rural relations have experienced four stages: differentiation, opposition, coordination, and equivalence. The scope of rural research has expanded from individual villages to group relations, and the research content also tends to the urban–rural integration trend of factor flow. In the context of New Urbanization and the Rural Revitalization Strategies, urban–rural integration is an important starting point to solve urban–rural contradictions, and the metropolitan area is an important spatial carrier to achieving urban–rural integration. Based on investigating the key issues of urban–rural integration and metropolitan governance, this paper constructs a “place function” cognitive framework of urban–rural space in the metropolitan area, and takes Wuhan metropolitan area with its dense rural distribution as an example to recognize the urban–rural spatial characteristics of the metropolitan area scale from six dimensions: spatial structure, land use, settlement distribution, scenic spots, agricultural enterprises, and service facilities. Then, it proposes a spatial development model of the Wuhan metropolitan area of the “point axis structure-, functional area-, resilient network”, and further explores the urban–rural integration path of “planning guidance, policy promotion, and spatial support”.

Objective: Procalcitonin (PCT) testing adds value in the early detection of infection and sepsis, as well as in management of antibiotic therapy. We determined the analytical and diagnostic performance of four PCT assays at POC. Methods: PCT assays on AQT90 FLEX, Getein 1100, mLabs, and Finecare POC analyzers, in whole blood and plasma, were analyzed for repeatability, linearity, accuracy and concordance, by comparing with our reference PCT assay on the Cobas E602 system. Results: For all assays precision was found higher in plasma than in whole blood. AQT90 showed good performance in all analytical and diagnostic areas, irrespective of test matrix and PCT concentration. The other POC assays demonstrated at least one analytical weakness. The Getein assay showed adequate precision only in plasma at high PCT levels, the mLabs assay only in plasma at low PCT levels. Accuracy, as demonstrated by Bland-Altman and Passing-Bablok analysis, was found adequate only for the AQT90 FLEX and Getein 1100 assay. Diagnostic concordance at 0.5 ​ng/mL was found excellent for the AQT90 FLEX, Getein 1100, and Finecare assays, much lower for the mLabs assay. At 0.25 ​ng/mL, only the AQT90 FLEX and Finecare assays showed excellent concordance with the reference assay. Conclusions: The AQT90 FLEX PCT assay demonstrated excellent analytical performance and diagnostic agreement with the Cobas E602 assay, allowing both stand-alone and side-by-side testing. The other assays demonstrated some analytical deficiencies, potentially limiting their diagnostic use. Any clinical use of PCT results should always be in combination with all other clinical signs and diagnostic information.

Cetuximab is a monoclonal antibody that acts as an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agent. Cetuximab inhibits the phosphorylation and activation of EGFR and blocks downstream signal pathways of EGF/EGFR, including Ras-Raf-MAPK and PI3K-Akt pathways. Akt activation is an important factor in cetuximab resistance. It has been reported that resveratrol and connexin 43 regulate Akt in different ways based on tissue type. Since connexin 43 interacts with Akt, and resveratrol is known to upregulate connexin 43, we investigated whether resveratrol can sensitize colorectal cancer cells to cetuximab via connexin 43 upregulation. Our work confirmed that resveratrol increases the inhibition of growth by cetuximab in vitro and in vivo, upregulates connexin 43 expression and phosphorylation, increases gap junction function, and inhibits the activation of Akt and NFκB in parental or cetuximab-treated parental HCT116 and CT26 cells. Resveratrol did not exhibit these effects on connexin 43-shRNA transfected cells, so connexin 43 upregulation may contribute to Akt inhibition in these cells. Given these data, resveratrol may sensitize colorectal cancer cells to cetuximab via upregulating connexin 43 to inhibit the Akt pathway.

There is currently no effective treatment to prevent the progress of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The traditional Chinese herbs Dengzhan Shengmai (DZSM) capsules and their active component scutellarin possess multiple effects and are clinically used for the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. Scutellarin has been reported to affect Aβ aggregation. However, the effects of DZSM capsules on AD remain unknown. Through in vivo experiments, our study proved that the alleviating effects of DZSM capsules on cognitive deficits of AD mice were due to the role of scutellarin, which up-regulated low toxic amyloid plaques and down-regulated highly toxic soluble Aβ42 and Aβ40 levels in cortex. In vitro, we confirmed scutellarin’s role in accelerating transforming Aβ42 monomers into high-molecular-mass aggregates by biochemical assays, which supported the results observed in drug-treated APP/PS1 mice. In detail, the 1:10 ratio of scutellarin/Aβ42 mixtures promoted production of large β-sheet-rich fibrils whereas the 1:1 ratio promoted production of protofibrils. In addition, the binding between scutellarin and Aβ monomers was quantified by microscale thermophoresis test and the apparent dissociation constant (Kd) was 1284.4 ± 238.8 μM. What’s more, binding regions between scutellarin and Aβ fibrils were predicted by computational docking models and scutellarin might bind parallel to the long axis of Aβ42 fibrils targeting hydrophobic grooves at residues 35–36 or 39. In conclusion, DZSM capsules protected against cognitive defects of AD through scutellarin-mediated acceleration of Aβ aggregation into fibrils or protofibrils and reduction of soluble Aβ oligomers, thus suggesting potential clinical applications of DZSM capsules and scutellarin in the treatment of AD.

Quantum dots (QDs) luminescent films are extensively applied to optoelectronics and optical devices. However, QDs aggregation results in the quenching of their fluorescence property which limits their practical applications to a greater extent. In order to resolve this issue, 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA) functionalized Cadmium Tellurium (CdTe) QDs were stabilized by silk fibroin (SB) and co-assembled with layered doubled hydroxide (LDH) to form (QDs@SF/LDH)n ultrathin films (UTFs) via the layer-by-layer (LBL) technique. UV–Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy showed a stepwise and normal growth of the films upon increasing the number of deposition cycles. XRD and AFM studies confirmed the formation of a periodic layered structure and regular surface morphology of the thin films. As compared to (CdTe QDs/LDH)nUTFs, the (CdTe QDs@SF/LDH)nUTFs displayed fluorescence enhancement and longer fluorescent lifetime, both in solid states and aqueous solutions. Furthermore compared with the solution state, the fluorescence enhancement of SF-RC and SF-β are, respectively, 7 times and 17 times in the (CdTe QDs@SF/LDH)n UTFs, indicating that the LDH nanosheets favor the fluorescence enhancement effect on the CdTe QDs@SF. The fabricated materials displayed fluorescence response to a biological molecule such as immune globulin, lgG. Thus, the (CdTe QDs@SF/LDH)n UTFs has a potential to be used as biosensor. Keywords: CdTe quantum dots, Silk fibroin, Layered doubled hydroxide, Co-assembly, Fluorescence enhancement

The small fault with a vertical displacement (or drop) of 2–5 m has now become an important factor affecting the production efficiency and safety of coal mines. When the 3D seismic data contain noise, it is easy to cause large errors in the prediction results of small faults. This paper proposes an intelligent small fault identification method combining variable mode decomposition (VMD) and a support vector machine (SVM). A fault forward model is established to analyze the response characteristics of different seismic attributes under the condition of random noise. The results show that VMD can effectively realize the attenuation of random noise and the seismic attributes extracted on this basis have a good correlation with the small fault. Through the analysis of the SVM algorithm and the fault forward model, it is proved that it is feasible to realize intelligent predictions of small faults by using seismic attributes as the input of a SVM. The fault prediction method using a SVM that is proposed in this paper has higher accuracy than the principal component analysis method, as the prediction results have important guiding significance and reference value for later coal mining. Therefore, the method presented in this paper can be used as a new intelligent method for small fault identification in coal fields.

Manufacturing space is a spatial system that combines the interaction between capital and institutions at the enterprise, industry, and spatial levels. It is also an important functional type that promotes the spatial evolution of big cities. Most studies focus on the effects of a single institutional type on the manufacturing space of big cities and lack systematic and complete exploration of the institutional mechanism. Current empirical research on typical industrial cities in China is insufficient. This study uses a GIS spatial analysis technique and a Poisson regression model to analyze the mechanism by which institutions have influenced the spatial patterns of manufacturing industries in the Wuhan metropolitan area since the 1990s. The results show that land policy, development zone policy, urban planning, transportation strategy, and eco-environmental policy all have a significant impact on the restructuring process and distribution pattern of the manufacturing industries through incentives and constraints. This study expands our understanding of the influence mechanism of manufacturing spatial patterns and proposes spatial guiding strategies and policy implications for the spatial transformation of urban manufacturing.

The rock physics model of coalbed methane (CBM) reservoir is significant for the study of CBM content. However, because of the adsorption and dissociation of the CBM reservoir, it is difficult to establish models. In addition, the studies on rock physics modeling of the CBM reservoir are scarce. This paper proposes the basic modeling process. First, the coal rock minerals and methane in adsorbed state are used to calculate elastic parameters of coal rock matrix. Then, the differential equivalent medium model is used to get elastic parameters of the dry rock skeleton. The free methane is mixed with water, and finally the Gassmann equation is applied to obtain elastic parameters of the CBM reservoir model. The study on the CBM reservoir rock physics model's response characteristics has found that there is a sensitive negative correlation between CBM content and P-wave velocity and density. The higher CBM content goes with larger absolute values of intercept, gradient, and seismic amplitude, because their seismic attributes are more sensitive to higher CBM content, whereas the response characteristics are opposite with the lower CBM content. The relationship among the CBM content and absolute values of intercept, gradient, and seismic amplitude in the real data of Qinshui Basin is largely consistent with the response characteristics of the established rock physics model, indicating that the CBM reservoir rock physics model proposed in this paper has a certain feasibility, and the response characteristics of its intercept, gradient, and seismic amplitude are more sensitive to predicting CMB reservoirs.

Background Dysfunctional mitochondria are associated with neurological injury after cardiac arrest (CA). Although carbon monoxide (CO) has shown various potential therapeutic effects in preclinical tissue injury models, its mechanism of action in CA remains unclear. We sought to investigate the effects of a novel CO‐releasing molecule on cerebral mitochondrial dysfunction and neurological injury after CA. Methods and Results Male Sprague‐Dawley rats aged 20 to 22 months were subjected to 6‐minute asphyxia CA before receiving CO treatment. Survival, neurologic deficit scores, neuronal death, mitochondrial function, and autophagy were evaluated after the return of spontaneous circulation. Results showed that CO post‐treatment increased 3‐day survival rate from 25% to 70.83% and reduced neurologic deficit scores. CO also ameliorated CA‐induced neuronal apoptosis and necrosis in the cerebral cortex and improved cerebral mitochondrial function by reducing reactive oxygen species, reversing mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization, and preventing cytochrome C release. Furthermore, CO increased mitochondrial autophagy by inducing mitochondrial accumulation of PINK1 (PTEN‐induced putative kinase 1) and Parkin. Downregulation of PINK1 with genetic silencing siRNA abolished CO‐afforded mitochondrial autophagy. Conclusions Taken together, our results indicate, for the first time, that CO treatment confers neuroprotection against ischemic neurological injury after CA possibly by promoting mitochondrial autophagy.

Background As global climate change accelerates, ecologists and conservationists are increasingly investigating changes in biodiversity and predicting species distribution based on species observed at sites, but rarely consider those plant species that could potentially inhabit but are absent from these areas (i.e., the dark diversity and its distribution). Here, we estimated the dark diversity of vascular plants in China and picked up threatened dark species from the result, and applied maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to project current and future distributions of those dark species in their potential regions (those regions that have these dark species). Methods We used the Beals probability index to estimate dark diversity in China based on available species distribution information and explored which environmental variables had significant impacts on dark diversity by incorporating bioclimatic data into the random forest (RF) model. We collected occurrence data of threatened dark species (Eucommia ulmoides, Liriodendron chinense, Phoebe bournei, Fagus longipetiolata, Amentotaxus argotaenia, and Cathaya argyrophylla) and related bioclimatic information that can be used to predict their distributions. In addition, we used MaxEnt modeling to project their distributions in suitable areas under future (2050 and 2070) climate change scenarios. Results We found that every study region’s dark diversity was lower than its observed species richness. In these areas, their numbers of dark species are ranging from 0 to 215, with a generally increasing trend from western regions to the east. RF results showed that temperature variables had a more significant effect on dark diversity than those associated with precipitation. The results of MaxEnt modeling showed that most threatened dark species were climatically suitable in their potential regions from current to 2070. Discussions The results of this study provide the first ever dark diversity patterns concentrated in China, even though it was estimated at the provincial scale. A combination of dark diversity and MaxEnt modeling is an effective way to shed light on the species that make up the dark diversity, such as projecting the distribution of specific dark species under global climate change. Besides, the combination of dark diversity and species distribution models (SDMs) may also be of value for ex situ conservation, ecological restoration, and species invasion prevention in the future.

Background The mechanisms underlying human germ cell development and infertility remain largely unknown due to bioethical issues and the shortage of experimental materials. Therefore, an effective in vitro induction system of human primordial germ-like cells (hPGCLCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) is in high demand. The current strategies used for the generation of hPGCLCs are not only costly but also difficult to perform at a large scale, thereby posing barriers to further research. In this study, we attempted to solve these problems by providing a new 3D culture system for hPGCLC differentiation. Methods The efficiency and relative yield of a methylcellulose (MC)-based 3D hPGCLC induction system were first compared with that of a conventional U96 system. Then, we examined the gene expression of germ cell marker genes and the key epigenetic modifications of the EpCAM-/INTEGRINα6-high cells from the 3D MC induction system and the U96 system via quantitative PCR and immunofluorescence. Finally, the reliability of the MC-based 3D hPGCLC induction system was evaluated via the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from the testicular cells of one patient with obstructive azoospermia (OA) and followed by the subsequent differentiation of iPSCs into the germ cell lineage. Results In the present study, we demonstrated that the 3D MC induction system combined with low-cell attachment plates facilitated the generation of hPGCLCs at a large scale. We found that the hPGCLCs generated via the MC system shared similar characteristics to that via the U96 system in terms of the gene expression profiles, germ cell-specific markers, epigenetic modification states and cellular states. In addition, hPGCLCs from iPSCs derived from one OA patient were generated with high efficiency via the present 3D MC induction system. Discussion The in vitro induction of hPGCLCs from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)/human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) has significant implications in exploring the underlying mechanisms of the origin and specification of hPGCs and the epigenetic programming of the human germ line as well as treating male infertility. Here, we developed a simple and efficient 3D induction system to generate hPGCLCs from hESCs/hiPSCs at a large scale, which facilitated the study of human germ cell development and stem cell-based reproductive medicine.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

The selection of seismic attributes is a key process in reservoir prediction because the prediction accuracy relies on the reliability and credibility of the seismic attributes. However, effective selection method for useful seismic attributes is still a challenge. This paper presents a novel selection method of seismic attributes for reservoir prediction based on the gray relational degree (GRD) and support vector machine (SVM). The proposed method has a two-hierarchical structure. In the first hierarchy, the primary selection of seismic attributes is achieved by calculating the GRD between seismic attributes and reservoir parameters, and the GRD between the seismic attributes. The principle of the primary selection is that these seismic attributes with higher GRD to the reservoir parameters will have smaller GRD between themselves as compared to those with lower GRD to the reservoir parameters. Then the SVM is employed in the second hierarchy to perform an interactive error verification using training samples for the purpose of determining the final seismic attributes. A real-world case study was conducted to evaluate the proposed GRD-SVM method. Reliable seismic attributes were selected to predict the coalbed methane (CBM) content in southern Qinshui basin, China. In the analysis, the instantaneous amplitude, instantaneous bandwidth, instantaneous frequency, and minimum negative curvature were selected, and the predicted CBM content was fundamentally consistent with the measured CBM content. This real-world case study demonstrates that the proposed method is able to effectively select seismic attributes, and improve the prediction accuracy. Thus, the proposed GRD-SVM method can be used for the selection of seismic attributes in practice.

Geological structures play a leading role in the occurrence characteristics of coalbed methane (CBM), and curvature attributes are an important geometric seismic attribute that can be used to identify a geological structure. In view of the characteristics of curvature attributes which are easily affected by noise, this paper proposes a method based on variational mode decomposition and correlation coefficients (VMDC) for denoising, and then extracts curvature attributes for geological structure interpretation. The geological models with anticline, syncline and normal fault structure characteristics are constructed, and curvature attributes of geological models without noise and with different percentages of random noise are calculated respectively. According to the time window test results, the 5 × 5 time window is more suitable in the case of no noise, while 9 × 9 time window is more suitable when there is noise. The results also show that both the median filtering and VMDC can suppress random noise, but VMDC can suppress noise better and improve the accuracy of curvature attributes. Mean curvature attributes can effectively identify geological structures such as anticlines, synclines and faults. Gauss curvature is not ideal for identifying geological structures. Both the maximum positive curvature and the minimum negative curvature have obvious responses to some geological structures. The method has been applied to a CBM enrichment area prediction in Qinshui Basin, China, and the geological structure characteristics of this area have been preliminarily interpreted. The known CBM content information verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The design and optimization of urban form has always been a hot topic in urban planning and development research. Besides, the creation of continuous vitality in urban areas is of critical importance in the development of urbanization. However, due to the lack of data, it is difficult to measure the effects of urban form on neighborhood vibrancy. Additionally, no uniform conclusion has been drawn regarding to what degree urban form can contribute to neighborhood vibrancy. Taking advantage of emerging new data sources, the depth and breadth of related research can now be improved. Therefore, this paper uses high-precision positioning social media check-in data to approximate the vibrancy of 658 neighborhoods, and uses a geographical information system (GIS) to quantitatively measure the urban form indicators in the central area of Chengdu City, China. A quantitative exploration and analysis of the relationships between neighborhood vibrancy and urban form is conducted. The results of three regression models considering different explanatory variables show that socio-economic factors account for approximately 23% of neighborhood vibrancy. In addition, the correlation between the shape characteristics of a neighborhood and the vibrancy is weak. However, when the inner urban form indicators of neighborhoods are introduced into the regression model, the goodness of fit (R2) is nearly doubled. This finding indicates that strong associations exist between urban form and neighborhood vibrancy. Specifically, building density and functional diversity are positively correlated with neighborhood vibrancy. Unlike existing studies, this study finds that the road network within the neighborhood plays a positive role in the creation of neighborhood vibrancy. However, the impact of a road density indicator is not as powerful as the impacts of building density and functional diversity. This research can help urban designers to better design urban environments.

China’s high speed rail (HSR) network has been rapidly constructed and developed during the past 10 years. However, few studies have reported the spatiotemporal changes of railway network structures and how those structures have been affected by the operation of high speed rail systems in different periods. This paper analyzes the evolving network characteristics of China’s railway network during each of the four main stages of HSR development over a 10-year period. These four stages include Stage 1, when no HSR was in place prior to August 2008; Stage 2, when several HSR lines were put into operation between August 2008, and July 2011; Stage 3, when the network skeleton of most main HSR lines was put into place. This covered the period until January 2013. Finally, Stage 4 covers the deep intensification of several new HSR lines and the rapid development of intercity-HSR railway lines between January 2013, and July 2017. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the timetable-based statistical properties of China’s railway network, as well as the spatiotemporal patterns of the more than 2700 stations that have been affected by the opening of HSR lines and the corresponding policy changes. Generally, we find that the distribution of both degrees and strengths are characterized by scale-free patterns. In addition, the decreasing average path length and increasing network clustering coefficient indicate that the small world characteristic is more significant in the evolution of China’s railway network. Correlations between different network indices are explored, in order to further investigate the dynamics of China’s railway system. Overall, our study offers a new approach for assessing the growth and evolution of a real railway network based on train timetables. Our study can also be referenced by policymakers looking to adjust HSR operations and plan future HSR routes.

The function of a metro station area is vital for city planners to consider when establishing a context-aware Transit-Oriented Development policy around the station area. However, the functions of metro station areas are hard to infer using the static land use distribution and other traditional survey datasets. In this paper, we propose a method to infer the functions occurring around the metro station catchment areas according to the patterns of staying activities derived from smart card data. We first define the staying activities by the spatial and temporal constraints of the two consecutive alighting and boarding records from the individual travel profile. Then we cluster and label the whole staying activities by considering the features of duration, frequency, and start time. By analyzing the percentage of different types of aggregated activities happening around each metro station, we cluster and explore the functions of the metro station area. Taking Wuhan as a case study, we analyze the results of Wuhan metro systems and discuss the similarities and differences between the functions and the land use distribution around the station area. The results show that although there exist some agreements, there is also a gap between the human activities and the land uses around the station area. These findings could give us deeper insight into how people act around the stations by metro systems, which will ultimately benefit the urban planning and policy development.

Hilbert–Huang transform (HHT) is a popular method to analyze nonlinear and non-stationary data. It has been widely used in geophysical prospecting. This paper analyzes the mode mixing problems of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and introduces the noncontact measurement and detection of instantaneous seismic attributes using complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition (CEEMD). Numerical simulation testing indicates that the CEEMD can effectively solve the mode mixing problems of EMD and can provide stronger anti-noise ability. The decomposed results of the synthetic seismic record show that CEEMD has a better ability to decompose seismic signals. Then, CEEMD is applied to extract instantaneous seismic attributes of 3D seismic data in a real-world coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China. The detection results demonstrate that instantaneous seismic attributes extracted by CEEMD are helpful to effectively identify the undulations of the top interfaces of limestone.