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Objectives: Developing a deep learning radiomics model from longitudinal breast ultrasound and sonographer's axillary ultrasound diagnosis for predicting axillary lymph node (ALN) response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer. Methods: Breast cancer patients undergoing NAC followed by surgery were recruited from three centers between November 2016 and December 2022. We collected ultrasound images for extracting tumor-derived radiomics and deep learning features, selecting quantitative features through various methods. Two machine learning models based on random forest were developed using pre-NAC and post-NAC features. A support vector machine integrated these data into a fusion model, evaluated via the area under the curve (AUC), decision curve analysis, and calibration curves. We compared the fusion model's performance against sonographer's diagnosis from pre-NAC and post-NAC axillary ultrasonography, referencing histological outcomes from sentinel lymph node biopsy or axillary lymph node dissection. Results: In the validation cohort, the fusion model outperformed both pre-NAC (AUC: 0.899 vs. 0.786, p < 0.001) and post-NAC models (AUC: 0.899 vs. 0.853, p = 0.014), as well as the sonographer's diagnosis of ALN status on pre-NAC and post-NAC axillary ultrasonography (AUC: 0.899 vs. 0.719, p < 0.001). Decision curve analysis revealed patient benefits from the fusion model across threshold probabilities from 0.02 to 0.98. The model also enhanced sonographer's diagnostic ability, increasing accuracy from 71.9% to 79.2%. Conclusion: The deep learning radiomics model accurately predicted the ALN response to NAC in breast cancer. Furthermore, the model will assist sonographers to improve their diagnostic ability on ALN status before surgery. Clinical relevance statement: Our AI model based on pre- and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy ultrasound can accurately predict axillary lymph node metastasis and assist sonographer's axillary diagnosis. Key Points: Axillary lymph node metastasis status affects the choice of surgical treatment, and currently relies on subjective ultrasound. Our AI model outperformed sonographer's visual diagnosis on axillary ultrasound. Our deep learning radiomics model can improve sonographers' diagnosis and might assist in surgical decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal-based cities, compared with others, are generally deemed to face double pressure from both emission reduction and economic development, indicating the great practical significance to explore high-quality development methods for China's goal of carbon neutrality. As previous studies have verified, technological innovation exerts the driving effect on total factor productivity, yet the impact mechanism between green innovational technology and carbon emission performance (TFCEP) of coal-based cities remains rather a blank area. Given this, the super-SBM model was applied to measure the TFCEP of 47 typical coal-based cities in China from 2013 to 2016. Furthermore, the econometric model was employed to analyze the impact mechanism of TFCEP. Finally, the heterogeneity effects of green technology within different regulation levels on TFCEP through mechanism analysis were revealed. The results indicate that: (1) The TFCEP of coal-based cities in the northeast, west and east regions is on the rise, while the central region shows a gradual decline trend. The relationship between TFCEP and urban development stage shows a U-shaped curve. (2) The heterogeneous effects of green innovational technology on TFCEP were revealed. The innovation compensation effect mainly occurs in coal-based cities with relatively loose environmental regulation level. the driving effect of green technologies featured by breakthrough innovations on TFCEP is greater than that of green technologies featured by conceptual design. (3) The openness has proved to be an important channel for green innovational technologies affecting TFCEP. Therefore, to advocate high-quality green development in coal-based cities, the government can choose to increase financial support for local green technology breakthroughs and reduce dependence on foreign technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme high temperature has deleterious impact on the yield and quality of tea production, which has aroused the attention of growers and breeders. However, the mechanisms by which tea plant varieties respond to extreme environmental heat is not clear. In this study, we analyzed physiological indices, metabolites and transcriptome differences in three different heat-tolerant tea plant F1 hybrid progenies. Results showed that the antioxidant enzyme activity, proline, and malondialdehyde were significantly decreased in heat-sensitive 'FWS' variety, and the accumulation of reactive oxygen molecules such as H2O2 and O2− was remarkably increased during heat stress. Metabolomic analysis was used to investigate the metabolite accumulation pattern of different varieties in response to heat stress. The result showed that a total of 810 metabolites were identified and more than 300 metabolites were differentially accumulated. Transcriptional profiling of three tea varieties found that such genes encoding proteins with chaperon domains were preferentially expressed in heat-tolerant varieties under heat stress, including universal stress protein (USP32, USP-like), chaperonin-like protein 2 (CLP2), small heat shock protein (HSP18.1), and late embryogenesis abundant protein (LEA5). Combining metabolomic with transcriptomic analyses discovered that the flavonoids biosynthesis pathway was affected by heat stress and most flavonols were up-regulated in heat-tolerant varieties, which owe to the preferential expression of key FLS genes controlling flavonol biosynthesis. Take together, molecular chaperons, or chaperon-like proteins, flavonols accumulation collaboratively contributed to the heat stress adaptation in tea plant. The present study elucidated the differences in metabolite accumulation and gene expression patterns among three different heat-tolerant tea varieties under extreme ambient high temperatures, which helps to reveal the regulatory mechanisms of tea plant adaptation to heat stress, and provides a reference for the breeding of heat-tolerant tea plant varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research in the field of radar signal processing focuses on the use of time-frequency images (TFIs) to distinguish between different signal types. However, most studies have only examined the TFIs of a single signal, making it challenging to analyze and process the simultaneous reception of multiple signal components. This study proposes the use of adversarial latent separation auto encoder to separate and recognize multi-component signals, and innovatively propose a multi-network structure of feature extraction sub-network and signal separation sub-network. Thus, the problem of multi-component signal recognition is solved. Following separation, each component retains its time-frequency data while removing the influence of other components, and the separated TFIs are then subjected to parameter estimation and structural similarity (SSIM) measurements. The experimental findings demonstrate that the parameters retrieved from the separated signal have a low error with respect to the original signal, especially at low signal-to-noise ratios. The excellent SSIM and parameter estimation metrics between the separation results and the time-frequency image of the target tag imply that the separated single-component signal can be successfully reconstructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonproportional multiaxial ratchetting of cast AZ91 magnesium (Mg) alloy was examined by performing a sequence of axial–torsional cyclic tests controlled by stress with various loading paths at room temperature (RT). The evolutionary characteristics and path dependence of multiaxial ratchetting were discussed. Results illustrate that the cast AZ91 Mg alloy exhibits considerable nonproportional additional softening during cyclic loading with multiple nonproportional multiaxial loading paths; multiaxial ratchetting presents strong path dependence, and axial ratchetting strains are larger under nonproportional loading paths than under uniaxial and proportional 45° linear loading paths; multiaxial ratchetting becomes increasingly pronounced as the applied stress amplitude and axial mean stress increase. Moreover, stress–strain curves show a convex and symmetrical shape in axial/torsional directions. Multiaxial ratchetting exhibits quasi-shakedown after certain loading cycles. The abundant experimental data obtained in this work can be used to develop a cyclic plasticity model of cast Mg alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Postoperative anastomotic leakage (PAL) is a serious complication of gastric cancer surgery. Although perioperative management has made considerable progress, anastomotic leakage (AL) cannot always be avoided. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether intraoperative leak testing (IOLT) can reduce the incidence of PAL and other postoperative outcomes in gastric cancer surgery. Materials and methods: In this meta-analysis, we searched the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases for clinical trials to assess the application of IOLT in gastric cancer surgery. All patients underwent laparoscopic radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer surgery. Studies comparing the postoperative outcomes of IOLT and no intraoperative leak testing (NIOLT) were included. Quality assessment, heterogeneity, risk of bias, and the level of evidence of the included studies were evaluated. PAL, anastomotic-related complications, 30-day mortality, and reoperation rates were compared between the IOLT and NIOLT group. Results: Our literature search returned 721 results, from which six trials (a total of 1,666 patients) were included in our meta-analysis. Statistical heterogeneity was low. The primary outcome was PAL. IOLT reduced the incidence of PAL [2.09% vs 6.68%; (RR = 0.31, 95% Cl 0.19–0.53, P < 0.0001]. Anastomotic-related complications, which included bleeding, leakage, and stricture, were significantly higher in the NIOLT group than in the IOLT group [3.24% VS 10.85%; RR = 0.30, 95% Cl 0.18–0.53, P < 0.0001]. Moreover, IOLT was associated with lower reoperation rates [0.94% vs 6.83%; RR = 0.18, 95% CI 0.07–0.43, P = 0.0002]. Conclusion: Considering the observed lower incidence of postoperative anastomotic leakage (PAL), anastomotic-related complications, and reoperation rates, IOLT appears to be a promising option for gastric cancer surgery. It warrants further study before potential inclusion in future clinical guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a world-leading scintillation light yield among inorganic crystals measured from a 0.5 kg pure-CsI detector operated at 77 Kelvin. Scintillation photons were detected by two 2-inch Hamamatsu SiPM arrays equipped with cryogenic front-end electronics. Benefiting the light yield enhancement of pure-CsI at low temperatures and the high photon detection efficiency of SiPM, a light yield of 30.1 photoelectrons per keV energy deposit was obtained for X-rays and γ -rays with energies from 5.9 to 59.6 keV. Instrumental and physical effects in the light yield measurement are carefully analyzed. This is the first stable cryogenic operation of kg-scale pure-CsI crystal readout by SiPM arrays at liquid nitrogen temperatures for several days. The world-leading light yield opens a door for the usage of pure-CsI crystal in several fields, particularly in detecting the coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering of reactor neutrinos. The potential of using pure-CsI crystals in neutrino physics is discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transition away from coal power always maintains a high level of complexity as there are several overlapping considerations such as technical feasibility, economic costs, and environmental and health impacts. Here, we explore the cost-effectiveness uncertainty brought by policy implementation disturbances of different coal power phaseout and new-built strategies (i.e., the disruption of phaseout priority) in China based on a developed unit-level uncertainty assessment framework. We reveal the opportunity and risk of coal transition decisions by employing preference analysis. We find that, the uncertainty of a policy implementation might lead to potential delays in yielding the initial positive annual net benefits. For example, a delay of six years might occur when implementing the prior phaseout practice. A certain level of risk remains in the implementation of the phaseout policy, as not all strategies can guarantee the cumulative positive net benefits from 2018–2060. Since the unit-level heterogeneities shape diverse orientation of the phaseout, the decision-making preferences would remarkably alter the selection of a coal power transition strategy. More strikingly, the cost-effectiveness uncertainty might lead to missed opportunities in identifying an optimal strategy. Our results highlight the importance of minimizing the policy implementation disturbance, which helps mitigate the risk of negative benefits and strengthen the practicality of phaseout decisions. China's use of coal is complex to establish a clean and low-carbon transition for the country. With an uncertainty assessment framework, this study displays the risks of missing opportunities in obtaining cumulative positive net benefits and identifying an optimal transition strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac macrophage contributes to the development of cardiac fibrosis, but factors that regulate cardiac macrophages transition and activation during this process remains elusive. Here we show, by single-cell transcriptomics, lineage tracing and parabiosis, that cardiac macrophages from circulating monocytes preferentially commit to macrophage-to-myofibroblast transition (MMT) under angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced hypertension, with accompanying increased expression of the RNA N6-methyladenosine demethylases, ALKBH5. Meanwhile, macrophage-specific knockout of ALKBH5 inhibits Ang II-induced MMT, and subsequently ameliorates cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction. Mechanistically, RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing identifies interlukin-11 (IL-11) mRNA as a target for ALKBH5-mediated m6A demethylation, leading to increased IL-11 mRNA stability and protein levels. By contrast, overexpression of IL11 in circulating macrophages reverses the phenotype in ALKBH5-deficient mice and macrophage. Lastly, targeted delivery of ALKBH5 or IL-11 receptor α (IL11RA1) siRNA to monocytes/macrophages attenuates MMT and cardiac fibrosis under hypertensive stress. Our results thus suggest that the ALKBH5/IL-11/IL11RA1/MMT axis alters cardiac macrophage and contributes to hypertensive cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction in mice, and thereby identify potential targets for cardiac fibrosis therapy in patients. Cardiac macrophage contributes to the onset of cardiac fibrosis, but the underneath mechanisms remain unclear. Here the authors show that mouse cardiac macrophages from circulating monocytes may trans-differentiate into myofibroblast under hypertensive conditions for fibrosis development, with an AKLBH5/IL11 molecular axis modulating this macrophage-to-myofibroblast transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic redox reactions are important for synthesizing fine chemicals from olefins, but the limited lifetime of radical cation intermediates severely restricts semiconductor photocatalysis efficiency. Here, we report that Ag3PO4 can efficiently catalyze intramolecular and intermolecular [2 + 2] and Diels-Alder cycloadditions under visible-light irradiation. The approach is additive-free, catalyst-recyclable. Mechanistic studies indicate that visible-light irradiation on Ag3PO4 generates holes with high oxidation power, which oxidize aromatic alkene adsorbates into radical cations. In photoreduced Ag3PO4, the conduction band electron (eCB−) has low reduction power due to the delocalization among the Ag+-lattices, while the particle surfaces have a strong electrostatic interaction with the radical cations, which considerably stabilize the radical cations against recombination with eCB−. The radical cation on the particle's surfaces has a lifetime of more than 2 ms, 75 times longer than homogeneous systems. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of inorganic semiconductors for challenging radical cation-mediated synthesis driven by sunlight. Photoredox catalysis is an important approach for synthesizing fine chemicals from olefins, but the limited lifetime of radical cation intermediates severely restricts the efficiency. Here, the authors report that Ag3PO4 can efficiently catalyze intramolecular and intermolecular [2 + 2] and Diels–Alder cycloadditions under visible-light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO2 emission inventory provides fundamental data for climate research and emission mitigation. Currently, most global CO2 emission inventories were developed with energy statistics from International Energy Agency (IEA) and were available at country level with limited source categories. Here, as the first step toward a high-resolution and dynamic updated global CO2 emission database, we developed a data-driven approach to construct seamless and highly-resolved energy consumption data cubes for 208 countries/territories, 797 sub-country administrative divisions in 29 countries, 42 fuel types, and 52 sectors, with the fusion of activity data from 24 international statistics and 65 regional/local statistics. Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production in 1970–2021 were then estimated with highly-resolved source category (1,484 of total) and sub-country information (797 of total). Specifically, 73% of global CO2 emissions in 2021 were estimated with sub-country information, providing considerably improved spatial resolution for global CO2 emission accounting. With the support of detailed information, the dynamics of global CO2 emissions across sectors and fuel types were presented, representing the evolution of global economy and progress of climate mitigation. Remarkable differences of sectoral contribution were found across sub-country administrative divisions within a given country, revealing the uneven distribution of energy and economic structure among different regions. Our estimates were generally consistent with existing databases at aggregated level for global total or large emitters, while large discrepancies were observed for middle and small emitters. Our database, named the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory model for Climate and air pollution research (MEIC) is publicly available through http://meicmodel.org.cn with highly-resolved information and timely update, which provides an independent carbon emission accounting data source for climate research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (HS–SPME–GC–MS) and Odor Activity Value (OAV) analysis were used to characterize the aroma components of Chuanhong congou black tea. The key aroma compounds were screened by combining Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discrimination Analysis (OPLS-DA) model, and Variable Importance Projection (VIP). The perceived interactions among the key aroma compounds in the tea were analyzed using Feller summation model and S-curve. Thus, 89 volatile aroma compounds were identified in the samples. Thirty key aroma compounds (OAV > 1) were screened by OAV, PCA (R2Xcum = 0.941, Q2cum = 0.897), and OPLS-DA (R2cum > 0.9, Q2cum > 0.9). Results showed a good model fit and more effective clustering of the samples. Finally, eight key aroma compounds were screened, which included trans-2-Hexenal, 2-hexenal, linalool, hexanal, phenylacetaldehyde, methyl salicylate, benzaldehyde, and (E)-linalool oxide (furan type). The perceived interactive relationships among the key aroma substances showed that 12 of the 15 groups of binary compounds had masking effects and 3 groups had additive effects. The results would serve as a reference for improving the quality of Chuanhong congou black tea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jinsha River basin in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China is prone to strong geological activities, with numerous large-scale landslides along its banks that can potentially trigger a cascade of flood hazards. Recent seismic events such as the Wenchuan and Luding earthquakes have heightened the likelihood of landslide collapses along the slopes of the Jinsha River, thereby increasing the risk of a large-scale landslide-dam-break-flood hazard chain. Among these landslides, the ancient Woda landslide is currently in a state of slow deformation, and if reactivated, it can potentially obstruct the river and trigger catastrophic outburst floods. This study uses the integrated continuum method to simulate the dynamic processes associated with large-scale slope failures and the formation of landslide dams. Furthermore, the outburst flood resulting from the dam breach is modeled by combining the dammed lake flow model and the shallow water equation, allowing for the simulation of long-distance flood propagation. The findings indicate that the Woda landslide has the potential to create a dam of approximately 68.1 m in height, with a corresponding dammed-lake volume of about 7.10 × 108 m3. The peak flow rate of the resulting outburst flood can reach 4.4 × 104 m3/s, leading to an extensive impact zone reaching 140 km downstream. This flood inundates several downstream villages, towns, and even the Sichuan-Tibet Railway which is under construction. Moreover, the study reveals that the resistance coefficient of landslides significantly influences the entire hazard chain evolution process. Lowering the resistance coefficient of landslides leads to a considerable increase in the height of the landslide dam, amplification of the peak flow rate of the outburst flood, and an elevated risk for downstream elements situated at greater distances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon is a significant background source in rare event detection experiments. Activated carbon (AC) adsorption is widely used for effective radon removal. The selection of AC considers its adsorption capacity and radioactive background. In this study, using self-developed devices, we screened and identified a new kind of low-background AC from Qingdao Inaf Technology Company that has very high Radon adsorption capacity. By adjusting the average pore size to 2.3 nm, this AC demonstrates a radon adsorption capacity of 2.6 or 4.7 times higher than Saratech or Carboact activated carbon under the same conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of ultrasonic power, leaching time, reaction temperature, solution concentration and particle size in leaching process were investigated by univariate method, and the optimal leaching conditions were obtained with Fe3+ concentration of 2.0 mol/L, ultrasonic power of 1500 W, particle size around 100 mesh (− 168 μm + 135 μm) and leaching temperature at 348 Κ for 180 min. The results showed that the leaching efficiencies of nickel, copper and cobalt were 96.3%, 98.2%, and 94.5%, respectively, which were 4–7% higher than those of the mechanical agitation leaching under the same conditions of time, temperature, concentration and particle size. Due to the cavitation effect of ultrasound, the sulfur layer changed from loose and porous labyrinth structure into spherical particles. The rate-determining step of ultrasound-assisted leaching of low-nickel matte was diffusion reaction, and the removal effect of ultrasound on sulfur layer was limited. The change of the micro-morphology of the product layer will cause energy dissipation of ultrasound, which will make the sulfur layer not completely separated from the matrix, and the growth of the leaching efficiency was limited in the macroscopic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protein and fat contents are important indicators for the quality evaluation of brewing sorghum, and a rapid and non-destructive testing method is urgently required to accurately detect them. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology has been widely used in the assessment of the composition of various foods. In this study, different preprocessing methods were used to process the spectral data and determine the optimal preprocessing method. The characteristic spectra were extracted by three combination algorithms, namely, uninformative variable elimination-successive projections algorithm (UVE-SPA), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling-successive projections algorithm (CARS-SPA), and principal component analysis-successive projections algorithm (PCA-SPA). Four models (cascade forest (CF), the backpropagation-genetic algorithm (BP-GA), support vector regression (SVR), and partial least square regression (PLSR)) were established to predict the protein and fat contents based on the full spectrum, the feature spectrum, and fusion data (the integration of the feature spectrum with its corresponding texture features). A comparative analysis revealed that the BP-GA and CF models based on the visible light characteristic spectra extracted by PCA-SPA and UVE-SPA were the best models for predicting the protein and fat contents, respectively; they had respective RPD values of 5.1716 and 12.9724 and respective AB_RMSE values of 0.0916 and 0.0243 g/100 g. The overall results show that HSI combined with machine learning algorithms can rapidly and non-destructively predict the protein and fat contents of sorghum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medulloblastoma (MB) is a malignant tumor of the cerebellum that occurs in children and infants. Abnormal neuronal differentiation can lead to brain tumors, and topoisomerase IIβ (Top IIβ) plays an important role in neuronal differentiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular mechanism of 13-cis retinoic acid (13-cis RA) promoting the expression of Top IIβ and inducing neuronal differentiation in human MB Daoy cells. The results showed that 13-cis RA inhibited the cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase. The cells differentiated into a neuronal phenotype, with high expression of the neuronal marker microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) and abundant Top IIβ, and obvious neurite growth. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay showed that histone H3 lysine 27 tri-methylation (H3K27me3) modification in Top IIβ promoter decreased after 13-cis RA-induced cell differentiation, while jumonji domain-containing protein 3 (JMJD3) binding in Top IIβ promoter increased. These results suggest that H3K27me3 and JMJD3 can regulate the expression of Top IIβ gene, which is related to inducing neural differentiation. Our results provide new insights into understanding the regulatory mechanisms of Top IIβ during neuronal differentiation and imply the potential application of 13-cis RA in the clinical treatment of MB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time estimates of the Earth orientation parameters (EOP) are currently unavailable for users owing to the delay caused by complex data processing and heavy computation procedures. Accurate short-term predictions of the EOP are therefore essential for several real-time applications such as navigation and tracking of interplanetary spacecrafts and precise orbit determination of Earth satellites, whilst medium- and long-term predictions are required for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) autonomous satellite navigation, climate forecasting as well as for astrogeodynamic studies. Universal time (UT1 – UTC) or its first time derivative, length of day (ΔLOD), representing the changes of the Earth's rotation rate, are the most challenging to predict among the EOP. Various methods and techniques have been used to improve ΔLOD predictions since the present prediction accuracy is yet unsatisfactory even up a few days into the future. This study employs a popular time-series analysis method, called singular spectrum analysis (SSA), in combination with the neural network (NN) technique for medium- and long-term prediction of ΔLOD up to 2 years in the future. The SSA is first applied to extracting the predominant periodic components including annual and semiannual oscillations and irregular short-period signals in ΔLOD data. These extracted predominant periodic components are then extrapolated by the proposed SSA-based data filling strategy. Next, the residuals (the difference between these predominant components and the data themselves) are modeled and predicted by the NN technique. The predicted ΔLOD value is sum of the extrapolation of the predominant periodic components and the prediction of the residuals. The results show that the accuracy of the 180-day ahead predictions is worse than that by the combination of least squares (LS) extrapolation and a stochastic method including autoregressive and NN technology in terms of the mean absolute prediction error. However, the proposed SSA extrapolation in combination with NN modeling can achieve a noticeably better accuracy for the medium- and long-term predictions out 180 days than the combined LS + stochastic technology. The improvement in the prediction accuracy for lead time of 1 year and 2 years can reach up to 53% and 56%, respectively. The combined SSA extrapolation and NN modeling is thus very promising for medium- and long-term prediction of ΔLOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African natural landscape reshaping in search for housing, food and infrastructure development exposes the slope to failure. However, the entire African landslide characterization is still not well known due to limited studies covering the whole continent. The authors recognize this fact and conduct this study to present the historical landslide susceptibility (1990–2020) and the 2050 predicted occurrence under urbanization practices in Africa. The 1982–2021 reviewed literature identifies 26,211 recent landslides and high number is localized within same areas highlighted by the 2007–2018 Global Landslide inventories. For periodical landslide susceptibility mapping, rainfall, urbanization and LULC are selected as major drivers based on literature and inventory. These factors' historical maps are estimated to date (2022) and combined with other landslide causal factors namely elevation, slope, aspects, curvature, distance to roads, distance to rivers, distance to faults, soil moisture, soil texture and lithology as of 2022. GIS facilitated to estimate current (2022) landslide susceptibility. The Information Gain Ratio sensitivity analysis highlights urbanization (0.106), LULC (0.097), slope (0.091), elevation (0.088) and rainfall (0.083) as key landslide drivers. The Southern and Horn of Africa seize over 80% of high and very high susceptibility, respectively. This 2022 susceptibility map is then predicted to 2050 and reclassified as that of 2050 urbanization (base map). The Southern, Eastern, Northern and Horn of Africa are future landslide prone areas. This new study helps policymakers to ensure proper/suitable land and urban planning and management practices for sustainable urbanization and lowering loss on human lives, damage on properties and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider a generalized model of the facilitated exclusion process, which is a one-dimensional exclusion process with a dynamical constraint that prevents the particle at site x from jumping to x + 1 (or x − 1) if the sites x − 1, x − 2 (or x + 1, x + 2) are empty. It is non-gradient and lacks invariant measures of product form. The purpose of this paper is to identify the invariant measures and to show that they satisfy both exponential decay of correlations and equivalence of ensembles. These properties will play a pivotal role in deriving the hydrodynamic limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gesture segmentation is an essential part of gesture detection. The accuracy of gesture detection can be improved by using gesture segmentation to remove the background part un-hand images. However, the inaccurate features of current methods can greatly affect the accuracy of results in segmentation and gesture recognition. In order to solve this problem and obtain accurate features, this paper proposes the improved atrous spatial pyramid pooling (IASPP). IASPP is a pooling layer in convolution neural network, which can refine features by connecting cascade model and parallel model in atrous spatial pyramid pooling. Otherwise, in order to improve the segmentation performance by integrating details and spatial location information at different levels, the IASPP is embedded in the encoder-decoder, and we name the method the improved atrous spatial pyramid pooling-ResNet (IASPP-ResNet) for gesture segmentation. In the experiment part of this paper, we test the proposed method by comparing it with the states of art on the two datasets of OUTHANDS and HGR. It can be seen that IASPP-ResNet can achieve 97.75% Pixel Accuracy and 89.60% MIoU on the OUTHANDS dataset. The Pixel Accuracy and MIoU of the presented method on the HGR dataset can reach 99.09% and 97.52%, respectively. These presented that our method is superior to the states of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A new plastic ban has banned the use of single-use non-degradable plastic drinking straws in China's food and beverage industry by the end of 2020. However, this has caused widespread discussion and complaints on social media. What are consumers' reactions and what factors influence consumers to choose bio-straws (substitutes for plastic straws) are unclear. Therefore, this research collected 4367 effective comments (177,832 words in total) on "bio-straws" from social media and extracted keywords based on grounded theory to generate questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the consumption intention and influencing factors of 348 consumers regarding the ban. The results indicate the following: (1) consumer opinion on straws can be summarized into five main categories, namely, consumers' user experience, consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, policy acceptance, and consumption intention; (2) consumer subjectivity, policy awareness, and policy acceptance directly affect consumption intention significantly, while user experience affects consumption intention indirectly; and (3) user experience and consumer subjectivity play significant roles in mediating these relationships. From the perspective of consumers, this study provides an important basis for policymakers to formulate single-use plastic alternative policies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gene fusions caused by cytogenetic aberrations play important roles in the initiation and progression of cancers. The recurrent MTAP-ANRIL fusion gene was reported to have a frequency of greater than 7% in melanoma in our previous study. However, its functions remain unclear. Truncated MTAP proteins resulting from point mutations in the last three exons of MTAP can physically interact with the wild-type MTAP protein, a tumor suppressor in several human cancers. Similarly, MTAP-ANRIL, which is translated into a truncated MTAP protein, would influence wild-type MTAP to act as an oncogene. Here, we found that MTAP-ANRIL gene fusion downregulated the expression of wild-type MTAP and promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition-like process through the activation of JNK and p38 MAPKs in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggest that MTAP-ANRIL is a potential molecular prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of Review: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by various autoantibodies and multi-organ. Microbiota dysbiosis in the gut, skin, oral, and other surfaces has a significant impact on SLE development. This article summarizes relevant research and provides new microbiome-related strategies for exploring the mechanisms and treating patients with SLE. Recent Findings: SLE patients have disruptions in multiple microbiomes, with the gut microbiota (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) and their metabolites being the most thoroughly researched. This dysbiosis can promote SLE progression through mechanisms such as the leaky gut, molecular mimicry, and epigenetic regulation. Summary: Notwithstanding study constraints on the relationship between microbiota and SLE, specific interventions targeting the gut microbiota, such as probiotics, dietary management, and fecal microbiota transplantation, have emerged as promising SLE therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect and the main noninfectious cause of death during the neonatal stage. The non-POU domain containing, octamer-binding gene, NONO, performs a variety of roles involved in DNA repair, RNA synthesis, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. Currently, hemizygous loss-of-function mutation of NONO have been described as the genetic origin of CHD. However, essential effects of NONO during cardiac development have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we aim to understand role of Nono in cardiomyocytes during development by utilizing the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system to deplete Nono in the rat cardiomyocytes H9c2. Functional comparison of H9c2 control and knockout cells showed that Nono deficiency suppressed cell proliferation and adhesion. Furthermore, Nono depletion significantly affected the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and glycolysis, resulting in H9c2 overall metabolic deficits. Mechanistically we demonstrated that the Nono knockout impeded the cardiomyocyte function by attenuating phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase-serine/threonine kinase (Pi3k/Akt) signaling via the assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing in combination with RNA sequencing. From these results we propose a novel molecular mechanism of Nono to influence cardiomyocytes differentiation and proliferation during the development of embryonic heart. We conclude that NONO may represent an emerging possible biomarkers and targets for the diagnosis and treatment of human cardiac development defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, an area widely covered by alpine glaciers, two types of debris flow generally occur: glacier-related debris flows (GDFs) and rainfall-related debris flows (RDFs). It is widely accepted that topographic conditions influence debris flow activities; however, few studies have examined the differences between such influence on GDFs and RDFs. This study investigated the GDFs and RDFs in the periglacial area of the Parlung Tsangpo Basin, and calculated 12 geomorphic indexes to reveal the topographic features associated with these two types of debris flow. It was found that lower values in the drainage area, main channel length, and relative elevation occurred in RDFs compared to the GDFs. In contrast, higher values in the channel gradient, relief ratio, and effective basin area appeared in RDFs. The discrepancy is mainly related to the different topographic and geomorphic shaping of modern glaciers. According to its geomorphological characteristics, the Parlung Tsangpo Basin can be divided into the upper V-shaped canyon section, middle wide valley section, and lower steep canyon section. The scale and frequency of debris flow in the upstream canyon region are substantially lower than those in the downstream. Moreover, the frequency and scale of RDFs are considerably different from those of GDFs, primarily because of the different geomorphic evolutionary stages of debris flow gullies in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a basis for further optimization of the polio sequential immunization schedule, this study evaluated the effectiveness of booster immunization with one dose of bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV) at 48 months of age after different primary polio immunization schedules. At 48 months of age, one dose of bOPV was administered, and their poliovirus types 1–3 (PV1, PV2, and PV3, respectively)-specific neutralizing antibody levels were determined. Participants found to be negative for any type of PV-specific neutralizing antibody at 24, 36, or 48 months of age were re-vaccinated with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). The 439 subjects who received a bOPV booster immunization at the age of 48 months had lower PV2-specific antibody levels compared with those who received IPV. One dose of IPV during basic polio immunization induced the lowest PV2-specific antibody levels. On the basis of our findings, to ensure that no less than 70% of the vaccinated have protection efficiency, we recommend the following: if basic immunization was conducted with 1IPV + 2bOPV (especially Sabin strain-based IPV), a booster immunization with IPV is recommended at 36 months of age, whereas if basic immunization was conducted with 2IPV + 1bOPV, a booster immunization with IPV is recommended at 48 months of age. A sequential immunization schedule of 2IPV + 1bOPV + 1IPV can not only maintain high levels of antibody against PV1 and PV3 but also increases immunity to PV2 and induces early intestinal mucosal immunity, with relatively good safety. Thus, this may be the best sequential immunization schedule for polio in countries or regions at high risk for polio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare earth dysprosium-doped Z-type hexaferrite were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The synthesized material has a uniform particle size and a typical hexagonal flake shape. The research results show that the samples have excellent soft magnetic properties, and the saturation magnetization of the samples increases gradually with the increase of the doping amount of Dy. In addition, it is also found that the doping of trace dysprosium has a significant effect on the improvement of microwave absorption properties of Z-type hexaferrite. Specifically, when the doping amount is x = 0.05, the sample not only exhibits an excellent reflection loss value of −52.6dB at 5.25 GHz, but also has a maximum effective absorption bandwidth (RL<−10dB) of 6.6 GHz, encompassing both C-band and X-band. When the amount of doping is excessive, an impurity phase will be generated, and the magnetic properties and microwave absorption properties of the material will be reduced, indicating that doping an appropriate amount of Dy3+ will improve the microwave absorption property of Z-type hexaferrite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the capacity to be alone has been considered as a sign of maturity and inner peace for human beings, the contextual factors underlying the relation between the capacity to be alone and psychological distress remain unclear. This study speculated that the direct effect of the capacity to be alone on psychological distress may vary with the levels of individuals' personality characteristics, such as rumination and mindfulness. To test these hypotheses, 815 middle school students were recruited to complete the self-report questionnaires measuring their capacity to be alone, psychological distress, ruminative responses and mindfulness. The results indicated that the capacity to be alone was positively associated with psychological distress. This direct effect could be moderated by rumination and mindfulness as well as the combined effect of these two. The direct effect was stronger for adolescents with high rumination and low mindfulness than those with low rumination and high mindfulness. These findings enrich our understanding of when or for whom the capacity to be alone is correlated with psychological distress. Moreover, these findings highlight the need to take individuals' personality characteristics into account to reveal the relation between the capacity to be alone and psychological distress more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bepridil is a commonly used medication for arrhythmia and heart failure. It primarily exerts hemodynamic effects by inhibiting Na+/K+ movement and regulating the Na+/Ca2+ exchange. In comparison to other Ca2+ inhibitors, bepridil has a long half-life and a complex pharmacology. Additionally, it is widely used in antiviral research and the treatment of various diseases. However, the toxicity of this compound and its other possible effects on embryonic development are unknown. In this study, we investigated the toxicity of bepridil on rat myocardial H9c2 cells. After treatment with bepridil, the cells became overloaded with Ca2+ and entered a state of cytoplasmic vacuolization and nuclear abnormality. Bepridil treatment resulted in several morphological abnormalities in zebrafish embryo models, including pericardium enlargement, yolk sac swelling, and growth stunting. The hemodynamic effects on fetal development resulted in abnormal cardiovascular circulation and myocardial weakness. After inhibiting the Ca2+ transmembrane, the liver of zebrafish larvae also displayed an ectopic and deficient spatial location. Additionally, the results of the RNA-seq analysis revealed the detailed gene expression profiles and metabolic responses to bepridil treatment in zebrafish embryonic development. Taken together, our study provides an important evaluation of antiarrhythmic agents for clinical use in prenatal heart patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sequence assembly algorithms have rapidly evolved with the vigorous growth of genome sequencing technology over the past two decades. Assembly mainly uses the iterative expansion of overlap relationships between sequences to construct the target genome. The assembly algorithms can be typically classified into several categories, such as the Greedy strategy, Overlap-Layout-Consensus (OLC) strategy, and de Bruijn graph (DBG) strategy. In particular, due to the rapid development of third-generation sequencing (TGS) technology, some prevalent assembly algorithms have been proposed to generate high-quality chromosome-level assemblies. However, due to the genome complexity, the length of short reads, and the high error rate of long reads, contigs produced by assembly may contain misassemblies adversely affecting downstream data analysis. Therefore, several read-based and reference-based methods for misassembly identification have been developed to improve assembly quality. This work primarily reviewed the development of DNA sequencing technologies and summarized sequencing data simulation methods, sequencing error correction methods, various mainstream sequence assembly algorithms, and misassembly identification methods. A large amount of computation makes the sequence assembly problem more challenging, and therefore, it is necessary to develop more efficient and accurate assembly algorithms and alternative algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Device-assisted practice for instrument learning has been widely used by professional and amateur musicians to improve their learning efficiency. This study fabricates a novel self-powered and flexible player-interactive patch for guitar-learning assistance based on a piezoelectric T-ZnO/PVDF film. The system consists primarily of three parts: a flexible piezoelectric T-ZnO/PVDF film for pressure sensing, a signal processing module for analyzing the sensed signal, and light-emitting diode (LED) indicators for visualizing guitar performance. The sensing film can be conformably fixed on a guitar and can convert the mechanical energy generated by pressing a finger on a string into a piezoelectric signal without any external power supply. The output voltage of the film can act as a sensing signal for guitar performance, and both the response and recovery times are short. As fingers press on different strings, a series of piezoelectric signals are generated and transferred to the signal processing module, subsequently lighting up LEDs of different colors. The actions of the fingers during guitar playing are reflected by the corresponding LED indicators. The proposed system can help players adjust their posture and rhythm in real time, thus improving their playing technique. This study demonstrates the potential application of self-powered sensing systems in musical instrument learning assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated the activation characteristics of mining faults and the effect of grouting reinforcement under thick loose layer and thin bedrock of the working face and evaluate their impact on the safety of mining at similar working faces. Implementing the geological conditions of the 331 working face of the Yangcun Coal Mine (China) of the Yankuang Energy Group Corporation, we have analyzed mechanically the process of fault activation at first. Subsequently, we have obtained the mechanical criterion of fault slip and the expression of relative strength of the nearby rock mass. Using numerical software we have simulated and analyzed the damage characteristics of different bedrock thicknesses on overlying rocks and faults in the fluid–solid coupling mode. In addition, we have studied the controlling effect of grouting reinforcement on fault activation, which has been verified in the field. The main results of our study show that: 1. The mechanical properties of the rock mass near the fault interface have changed and they are related to the cohesive force of the interface; 2. The water inrush mode of the working face changes under different bedrock thickness, and the thinner the bedrock, the less easily the fault is destroyed 3. The slip of the high-level fault is reduced after the grouting of the fault, the propagation of the fracture zone at the fault is suppressed, the seepage of the aquifer water is prevented, and the safe recovery is realized. The results of our study provide a scientific basis for the secure mining across the fault of the 331 working face of Yangcun Coal Mine. Based on the results of our study the working face can be mined safely from now on and in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beneficial effect of chloride on the leaching of nickel matte by sulfuric acid has been found in hydrometallurgy, but its mechanism has not been properly revealed. This investigation focuses on the analysis of the reaction process of electrochemical oxidation leaching of high-grade nickel matte in HCl solution. According to the condition of potentiostatic polarization, the reactions took place in four stages to obtain different interface reaction products, and the dissolution mechanism has been proposed according to the characterization results. The results showed that the product layer became cracks and porous due to the penetration effect of chloride in the interfacial reaction, which greatly increases the surface area of the interfacial product layer. This makes the interface reaction more likely to occur, thus improving the leaching effect. Accompanied by the dissolution of nickel and copper ions from the high-grade nickel matte, and the sulfur element, which is combined with the metal ions, is oxidized by potentiostatic polarization to form a monosulfide/disulphide (0.2–0.8 V), polysulfide/elemental sulfur (0.8–1.0 V), and thiosulphate/sulfate (1.0–1.2 V). These can provide some constructive guidance for optimizing the existing nickel matte leaching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Recent excavation of the elephant ivories at the Sanxingdui site of the Shang Dynasty in Sichuan, China brings attention to the burnt features of the ivories. However, burnt ivories cannot be assessed by the same criteria established for burnt bones because of the differences in the ways that the two materials respond to heat. This study examines differences in the phase transition characteristics of ivory and bone, and confirms that the threshold temperature of the alteration in ivories is lower than that in bones. In our analysis, elephant ivories and bovine bones burnt at the temperatures between 200 and 1000 °C in oxidizing or reducing atmosphere are prepared and comparatively investigated by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that the transformation from magnesium-substituted hydroxyapatite (Mg-HAp) to magnesium-substituted β-tricalcium phosphate in ivory dentin takes place at the temperature as low as 800 °C, while β-tricalcium phosphate is not observed in bovine bones burnt at 1000 °C or below mainly because of the different magnesium contents. Due to the destruction of Mg-HAp at 800 °C in ivories, cyanamidapatite that could form in bones burnt under reducing atmosphere is absent in burnt ivories. With reference to the experimental burnt ivories, archaeological burnt ivories from the Sanxingdui site can now be clearly determined to be burnt unevenly at temperatures up to around 800 °C. This study may provide further information for archaeological research on ivories from the Sanxingdui site and identification of burnt bioapatite materials in other archaeological findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theaflavin (TF), a chemical component important in measuring the quality of fermented tea, has a strong natural antioxidant effect and many pharmacological functions. Enzymatic oxidation has become a widely used method for preparing TFs at the current research stage. Using plant exogenous polyphenol oxidase (PPO) to enzymatically synthesize TFs can significantly increase yield and purity. In this study, tea polyphenols were used as the reaction substrate to discuss the optimal synthesis conditions of potato PPO enzymatic synthesis of theaflavins and the main products of enzymatic synthesis of TFs. The optimal enzymatic synthesis conditions were as follows: pH of the reaction system was 5.5, reaction time was 150 min, substrate concentration was 6.0 mg/mL, reaction temperature was 20 °C, and the maximum amount of TFs produced was 651.75 μg/mL. At the same time, high-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the content of theaflavins and catechins in the sample to be tested, and the dynamic changes and correlations of the main catechins and theaflavins in the optimal enzymatic system were analyzed. The results showed that epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) are all the main substrates synthesis of TFs. The main substrate of TFs and its strongest enzymatic catalytic effect on EGCG make theaflavin-3,3′-digallate (TFDG) the most important synthetic monomer. In this study, theaflavins were synthesized by polyphenol oxidase catalysis, which laid a foundation for industrialization of theaflavins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "ALKBH5-mediated m6A modification of IL-11 drives macrophage-to-myofibroblast transition and pathological cardiac fibrosis in mice" published in Nature Communications. The correction addresses an error in the author affiliation, where the author Wei Lu was incorrectly associated with affiliation '2' instead of affiliation '3'. The correction has been made in both the HTML and PDF versions of the article. The authors of the article are Tao Zhuang, Mei-Hua Chen, Ruo-Xi Wu, Jing Wang, Xi-De Hu, Ting Meng, Ai-Hua Wu, Yan Li, Yong-Feng Yang, Yu Lei, Dong-Hua Hu, Yan-Xiu Li, Li Zhang, Ai-Jun Sun, Wei Lu, Guan-Nan Zhang, Jun-Li Zuo, and Cheng-Chao Ruan. [Extracted from the article]

China's vigorous involvement in the Pacific Island countries (PICs) is often surmised by scholars of international relations (Wesley-Smith 1; Pryke 2) to be primarily motivated by geopolitical calculations. This paper argues that China's increasing presence in the Pacific Islands indeed helps China create a "sphere of influence," but such geopolitical dynamics are characterized not merely by China's response to its perceived containment imposed by the USA and its allies in the region, but also by China's willingness to engage with PICs on its own terms. This is reflected in China's multifaceted approaches to offering economic assistance and expanding its economic and political presence in the region. China has increasingly cemented its strategic partnership with PICs by pursuing its traditional strategy of "non-interference" that satisfies PICs' demands for political independence and self-determination. China reaps not only economic but also geopolitical benefits from its intensified economic, and by extension, political, and strategic partnership with PICs, thus assisting its rise at the systemic (global) level. This paper examines the rationale behind China's economic and political approaches to the region and evaluates its promises and pitfalls as regional power dynamics continues to evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the deep convolutional neural network, the input image needs to be fixed to the corresponding size due to the existence of the fully connected layer. Stretching and clipping can make the image reach the required size, but these operations can easily distort the image. The methods based on pooling layer groups enable variable-size feature maps to be converted into fixed-size. However, there is a loss of information due to the pooling operations, and the recognition accuracy will be significantly reduced. Based on this problem, we propose the shared conversion matrix routing (SCMR) layer as a general network layer to replace the fully connected layer of the convolutional neural network, which can enable the network added to this layer to deal with multi-scale image problems without changing the original convolution structure and parameters. In the SCMR layer, we propose a RECOMBINATION method which dynamically increases or decreases the number of capsules according to the scale of the input image to ensure the normal operation of the convolutional layer and the SCMR layer. At the same time, a new dynamic routing algorithm is established by sharing the transformation matrix in the SCMR layer so that the SCMR layer can receive the convolutional multi-dimensional feature map and generate fixed-size image features output to realize the classification of multi-scale images. The algorithm makes each capsule have a corresponding weight to avoid the problem of feature loss, which improves the recognition rate. In addition, new capsules are created by increasing the dimensions of capsules to solve the exploding gradient problem in backpropagation. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the method proposed in this paper is better than the modern methods on public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twenty-first century, our life will increasingly depend on software-based products and complex interconnected systems. Thus, the quality and security of software-based systems is a world-wide concern. Combinatorial testing is a versatile methodology for finding errors (bugs) and vulnerabilities in software-based systems. This paper offers a review of combinatorial testing. Combinatorial testing (CT) methods evolved from investigations which looked like factorial experiments (FE) with pass/fail outcomes. We will discuss the similarities and differences between FE and CT. Use of CT for detecting errors (bugs) in software-based systems has gained significant interest from the international software testing community. Many successful results have been reported from the use of CT to detect software errors in aerospace, automotive, defense, cybersecurity, electronic medical systems, and financial service industries. Now, combinatorial testing methods are being increasingly used to investigate vulnerabilities in software-based systems. Combinatorial testing could be useful in detecting errors and security vulnerabilities in Internet of Things, Autonomous Systems, and Artificially Intelligent Software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]