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Since 1978, millions of Chinese workers have migrated to seek personal development opportunities. However, little is known about what the world's largest internal migration means for the public. Safety perceptions concern the vital well-being of each individual and can indirectly indicate criminal activities in society. From a microscopic perspective, this study is the first attempt to focus on the impact of migration on individuals' public safety perceptions in China. Using the ordered probit model and conducting robustness tests using the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Instrumental Variable (IV) methods, we found that an individual's public safety perception generally declines when the proportion of migrants in the community increases. However, the impacts on the various groups were different. Internal migration has been suggested to have a more significant influence on females, older people, high-income groups, locals, and individuals living in the east. Furthermore, migration negatively affected public safety perceptions in China, primarily by endangering employment and weakening social trust. This study has significant policy implications for the effective public safety administration in China. Likewise, the findings could also help many developing countries with migration management because there has been an increase in rural-urban migration during economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at complex operation problems, low precision and poor robustness of traditional concrete crack detection methods, a real-time concrete crack detection and geometric analysis algorithm based on the improved U-net model is proposed. First, the efficient channel attention (ECA) module is embedded in the U-net model to reduce the loss of target information. The DenseNet network is used instead of the VGG16 network in the U-net basic model architecture, making transmitting features and gradients more effective. Then, based on the improved U-net model, the concrete crack detection experiment is performed. The experimental results indicate that the improved U-net model has 91.56% pixel accuracy (PA), 80.12% mean intersection over union (mIoU), 84.89% recall and 88.10% F1_score. The mIoU, PA, recall and F1_score of the improved U-net model increased by 17.39%, 7.82%, 2.62% and 5.10%, respectively, compared with the original model. Next, the real-time detection experiment of concrete cracks is performed based on the improved U-net model. The FPS of the improved model is the same as that of the original model and reaches 42. Finally, the geometric analysis of concrete cracks is performed based on the detection results of the improved U-net model. The area, density, length and average width information of concrete cracks are effectively extracted. The research results indicate that the detection effect of this study’s model on concrete cracks is considerably improved and that the model has good robustness. The model proposed in this study can achieve intelligent real-time and accurate identification of concrete cracks, which has broad application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-organic frameworks are recognized as active electrode materials for rechargeable batteries due to their structural diversity, abundant electrochemical active sites and large ion diffusion channels. Herein, nickel-terephthalic acid metal-organic frameworks (Ni-PTA MOFs) with different crystal and morphology structures are synthesized via a facile solvothermal method by simply adjusting the nature of solvent. Due to the fewest guest molecules and porous structure, the Ni-PTA resulting from the combinations of DMF and EtOH exhibits the comparatively higher chemical/thermal stability and shortened ion diffusion pathway. As a result, it exhibits a high discharge/charge capacity of 2196.4 and 1762.3 mAh g−1 at the first cycle and retains 1300 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at 100 mA g−1 when tested as anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Even when the current density reaches 4000 mA g−1, it maintains a capacity of 452 mAh g−1. This work provides possibilities for regulating the crystal and morphology structure of MOFs as high performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link prediction aims to capture the evolution of network structure, especially in real social networks, which is conducive to friend recommendations, human contact trajectory simulation, and more. However, the challenge of the stochastic social behaviors and the unstable space-time distribution in such networks often leads to unexplainable and inaccurate link predictions. Therefore, taking inspiration from the success of imitation learning in simulating human driver behavior, we propose a dynamic network link prediction method based on inverse reinforcement learning (DN-IRL) to unravel the motivations behind social behaviors in social networks. Specifically, the historical social behaviors (link sequences) and a next behavior (a single link) are regarded as the current environmental state and the action taken by the agent, respectively. Subsequently, the reward function, which is designed to maximize the cumulative expected reward from expert behaviors in the raw data, is optimized and utilized to learn the agent's social policy. Furthermore, our approach incorporates the neighborhood structure based node embedding and the self-attention modules, enabling sensitivity to network structure and traceability to predicted links. Experimental results on real-world dynamic social networks demonstrate that DN-IRL achieves more accurate and explainable of prediction compared to the baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the mechanical behavior of curved glulam structures, five-point bending tests were conducted on three typical glulam structures, i.e., glulam curved beam, arch, and beam string. Different failure modes can be observed in the test results, which changed from brittle tensile failure to ductile compressive failure. A series of three-dimensional finite element models were established and verified to be effective. Theoretical analysis was conducted to illustrate the failure mechanism of different structures. The results indicated that glulam beam string can bring into full play the compressive characteristics of glulam. The bearing capacity of glulam string is 820.47% higher than that of curved glulam beam and 204.14% higher than that of glulam arch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anodonta woodiana samples from Xidong Water Works and Mashan in Taihu Lake, Yiyang near Dongting Lake, and Taiping Harbor in Gehu Lake preserved in a “specimen bank” established for the “Freshwater Mussel Watch” monitoring program were used to determine the historical metal backgrounds from different waters in the present study. The elements Co, Ni, Mo, Cd, Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, As, Ba, and Pb were determined using A. woodiana from four lacustrine sites. The results showed that Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, As, Ba, and Pb were all detected, whereas Co, Ni, Mo, and Cd were below the detection limits of 0.0165, 0.0106, 0.0189 and 0.0182 µg kg− 1, respectively. In particular, A. woodiana was noted to be an unusual Mn hyperaccumulator (ranged from 5124.09 to 13015.47 µg g− 1). The results of discriminant analysis showed that the four water samples could be accurately separated. This difference has the potential to infer the background difference of heavy metal pollution in different lacustrine habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultivation stage of juvenile fish is the starting point of the whole cultivation process. In this stage, the vitality of juvenile fish is weak and they are extremely vulnerable to environmental stress and death. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an automated method to replace the aquaculture personnel to achieve the growth monitoring of juvenile fish in the cultivation stage. However, the dead juvenile fish are generally small, and there are interference signals with high similarity to the color of the dead fish, such as reflection and foam, on the water surface of the aquaculture area. To solve this problem, this study constructs dead fish detection model from two perspectives of improving model accuracy and realizing model lightweight. First, the dead fish detection data set is constructed using visual technology. Secondly, the Efficient Channel Attention module (ECA) is used to strengthen the feature auxiliary branch of YOLOv4 backbone feature extraction network output (E-YOLOv4), the E-YOLOv4 dead fish detection model is constructed (mAP = 96.91%, model-size = 244 M). In addition, this study replaced YOLOv4's cross stage partial network (CSPDarkNet53) with Densenet169 (D-YOLOv4), the D-YOLOv4 dead fish detection model is constructed (mAP = 95.93%, model-size = 84.7 M). The results show that E-YOLOV4 and D-YOLOV4 are superior to YOLOV4 in model effect and model-size. Finally, Python+PyQt5 is used to build a dead fish monitoring platform, and the above model is deployed on the platform to achieve real-time monitoring of dead fish in the breeding process. The dead fish monitoring platform established in this study can not only assist the aquaculture personnel in daily aquaculture supervision, but also assist the water quality sensor to jointly monitor the safety of the growth environment of juvenile fish. The platform is simple in design and has certain practical application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The propagation of elastic waves in porous media has always been an important research topic in the fields of geotechnical engineering, ocean engineering, and geophysics, but the energy problem of propagation at different media interfaces is relatively less involved. Methods: This article adopts theoretical derivation and parameter analysis methods to study the energy characteristics of reflection and transmission of SV waves at the interface of layered unsaturated soil. Firstly, a reflection and transmission model of planar SV waves at the interface of layered unsaturated soil was established. Using the Helmholtz vector decomposition principle, a theoretical expression for the amplitude ratio of SV waves at the interface was derived. Secondly, combined with the reflection amplitude ratio, various wave energy coefficients are further solved. Finally, the relationship between energy reflection/transmission coefficient and incident angle, soil saturation, and porosity was analyzed and discussed. Results: The results show that the amplitude and energy reflection/transmission coefficients are not only affected by the incident angle but varied significantly with the change of saturation and porosity. The energy carried by the incident SV wave mainly occupied by the reflected SV wave. Conclusions: This conclusion has certain guiding significance for the theoretical research of soil dynamics and related engineering exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics between survivors and non-survivors after acute diquat (DQ) poisoning. Patients treated in the Emergency Department of Fu Yang People's Hospital for DQ poisoning between January 2018 and February 2022 were enrolled in this retrospective comparative study. A total of 65 patients were collected, including 36 males (55.4%) and 29 females (44.6%). There were 34 survivors (52.3%), and 31 non-survivors (47.7%). Patients in the non-survivor group were significantly older (P = 0.003), received a higher dose of DQ before admission (P < 0.001), had more severe organ damage (P < 0.001), lower respiration rate (P < 0.001) and enema (P = 0.009), lower GCS score (P = 0.038), and higher SIRS score (P = 0.018) and APACHE-II score (P < 0.001) than patients in the survivor group. Additionally, biochemical indicators after admission between survivors and non-survivors were significantly different (all P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that respiratory failure (P = 0.021), the dose of DQ (P = 0.022), respiratory rate (P = 0.007), and highest alanine transaminase (ALT) level after admission (P = 0.030) were independent risk factors for acute DQ-induced death. These data suggest that non-survivors with acute DQ poisoning are more likely to suffer from respiratory failure, have higher respiratory rate and ALT after admission, and are exposed higher doses of DQ before admission than survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Restocking by introducing hatchery-reared fish into wild habitats aids in the restoration of fishery aquatic ecosystems and reefs to increase the abundance of fish resources, restore the ecological balance of water bodies, and enhance ecosystem functioning. Accurately, rapidly, and effectively evaluating the success of restocking using chemical markers (e.g., strontium [Sr]) remains challenging for fisheries management. Consequently, for non-lethal fish sampling, hard tissues, such as fin rays, have received increasing attention as a target for marking method. However, data on the differences in marking different types of fin rays remain limited. Therefore, we exposed juvenile blunt snout bream individuals (Megalobrama amblycephala) to 0 (control group) or 800 mg/L of SrCl2·6H2O (marked group) for 5 days and transferred them into normal aerated water for post-immersion culture. We sampled their pectoral, dorsal, ventral, anal, and caudal fin rays. The Sr marks among the fin types were sampled at 0 and 20 days post-immersion and evaluated using an electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) for the five-day Sr/Ca ratios, along with line transect and Sr mapping analyses. Results: Sr marking signatures were observed in all fin types in the marked group, with a success rate of up to 100%. Although marking efficiency varied among the different fin ray types, the highest Sr/Ca ratios were most often detected in the dorsal fin. Cross-sectional Sr concentration maps of all fin rays sampled showed high-Sr domains in the marked group; in contrast, the entire cross-sections of the control group displayed low Sr contents, indicating successful marking efficiency. Conclusions: Fin ray Sr marking is a successful method for juvenile M. amblycephala, with the advantages of non-lethality and negligible sampling injuries, facilitating the rapid and effective evaluation of Sr marking in restocking M. amblycephala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triboelectric nanogenerator has recently received considerable attention, as it can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. The NaNbO3–CaSnO3–BaTiO3 (NN–CS–BT) perovskite was synthesized in order to obtain a tribo-material with better performance. It was found that the NN–CS–BT solid solution had been successfully prepared by introducing CS and BT phases into NN. After the sintering process, the NN–CS–BT ceramic showed a dense and fine-grained structure. And the dielectric property of NN–CS-BT was found to enhance significantly compared with that of NN. We additionally investigated the effect of NN–CS–BT particles as fillers on the output performance of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film. The values of output voltage for four samples (PDMS, NN/PDMS, NN–CS/PDMS, and NN–CS–BT/PDMS) were measured approximately 102, 156, 184, and 239 V, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel freestanding electrode of porous and amorphous NiMn1.57O4.13 microspheres is prepared for aqueous pseudo-capacitor. The NiMn1.57O4.13 microsphere has both cathodic site and anodic site so that it can be easily assembled as symmetric pseudo-capacitor, showing a great outlook for application. The SPC presents a superior stability and ability to withstand current fluctuations, which exhibits a high energy density of 122.8 Wh kg−1 with a retention of 106.1% at 5 A g−1 after 100,000 cycles. Moreover, the energy density is as high as 44.3 Wh kg−1 even at the ultra-high power density of 18,750.0 W kg−1, presenting an excellent charge/discharge rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the morphological characteristics of early juvenile shells of Anodonta woodiana, which were exposed to different concentrations of aqueous copper, were analyzed using 10 landmarks to determine morphological changes in the shells. Morphological changes mainly occurred at the top of the shell and front and back ends of the central axis. Stepwise discriminant analysis proved shape differences among experimental and control groups. The results of this study demonstrate for the first time that environmentally relevant copper concentrations cause stress-related morphological changes in A. woodiana in the vulnerable early juvenile stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetic changes may fill a critical gap in our understanding of kidney disease development, as they not only reflect metabolic changes but are also preserved and transmitted during cell division. We conducted a genome-wide cytosine methylation analysis of 399 human kidney samples, along with single-nuclear open chromatin analysis on over 60,000 cells from 14 subjects, including controls, and diabetes and hypertension attributed chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. We identified and validated differentially methylated positions associated with disease states, and discovered that nearly 30% of these alterations were influenced by underlying genetic variations, including variants known to be associated with kidney disease in genome-wide association studies. We also identified regions showing both methylation and open chromatin changes. These changes in methylation and open chromatin significantly associated gene expression changes, most notably those playing role in metabolism and expressed in proximal tubules. Our study further demonstrated that methylation risk scores (MRS) can improve disease state annotation and prediction of kidney disease development. Collectively, our results suggest a causal relationship between epigenetic changes and kidney disease pathogenesis, thereby providing potential pathways for the development of novel risk stratification methods.Kidney disease affects more than 850 million people worldwide, but the development of drug therapeutics has been limited by poor mechanistic understanding. Here, the authors perform epigenome-wide analyses to find methylation changes, and disease mechanisms associated with kidney disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional knowledge graph representation learn the representation of entities and relations by projecting triples in the knowledge graph to a continuous vector space. The vector representation increases the precision of link prediction and the efficiency of downstream tasks. However, these methods cannot process previously unseen entities during the knowledge graph evolution. In other words, the model trained on the source knowledge graph cannot be applied to the target knowledge graph containing new unseen entities. Recently, a few subgraph-based link prediction models obtained the inductive ability, but they all neglect semantic information. In this work, we propose an inductive representation learning model TGraiL which considers not only the topological structure but also semantic information. First, distance in the subgraph is used to encode the node's topological structure. Second, the projection matrix is used to encode the entity type information. Finally, both kinds of information are fused for training to acquire the ultimate vector representation of entities. The experimental results indicate that the model's performance has been significantly improved compared to the existing baseline models, demonstrating the method's effectiveness and superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytical representation of kinematic interaction between pipe pile and unsaturated soil subjected to vertical SH-waves is revisited using three-dimension continuum modelling. The fractional-order standard line solid (FSLS) model is employed in the governing equation of unsaturated soil to refine the characterization of the flow-independent viscosity of the soil skeleton. The Timoshenko beam theory is utilized to describe the horizontal dynamic behavior of pipe pile. A closed series form solution of horizontal kinematic response for a pipe pile embedded in unsaturated soils under the action of vertical SH-waves is deduced theoretically with boundary conditions of pile-soil system. The solutions of the proposed model are compared with those captured from existing solutions. Finally, the effects of physical parameters in pile-soil system on the horizontal kinematic response of pipe pile under SH-waves are evaluated with analytical examples and parametric study. The results indicate that FSLS model parameters have significant impact on the horizontal kinematic response of the pipe pile, changes in the soil saturation have a relatively slight effect on the horizontal kinematic response of the pipe pile, and the length and radii of pipe pile should be moderate rather than too large or too small to make the pipe pile play a better seismic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional structural design process of rural buildings requires a lot of trial calculations and iterations of modelling work. However, rural buildings are subject to construction costs and cannot be professionally designed and checked by designers like urban buildings. Their safety and economy are difficult to meet the requirements. Therefore, an intelligent design concept of rural light steel frame structure was proposed, including intelligent modeling and intelligent optimization. Based on the automatic layer recognition method and optical character recognition technology, the BIM intelligent modeling method of rural light steel frame structure corresponding to the standard atlas of rural buildings was proposed, including layer recognition, axis text data extraction, primary selection and automatic arrangement of components. The intelligent modeling results basically met the requirements of practical application. Based on the proposed two-stage genetic algorithm, an intelligent optimization method of rural light steel frame structure was given. The optimization speed was fast and the optimization effect was good. The proposed intelligent design method was verified by practical case. The results showed that the proposed intelligent design concept of rural light steel frame structure was feasible. Compared with the traditional manual design method, the design period could be shortened by more than 80%, and the structural design indexes were comparable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Austenitic S30408 stainless steel exhibits good low-temperature resistance and good welding performance. This steel is often used in liquefied natural gas stainless steel storage tanks. During the construction process, the tank wall is primarily connected by butt weld joints. Because welded joints are easily affected by temperature, low-temperature weld cracking can reduce the safety of structures. To study the cryogenic mechanical properties of austenitic S30408 stainless steel welded joints at low temperatures, the low-temperature mechanical properties of austenitic S30408 stainless steel base metal and welded joint components were studied by tensile tests from − 60 to 20 °C and scanning electron microscopy analysis of fractures at various temperatures. The results show that when the temperature decreases, the stress–strain curve of base metal components changes from a power function type to an inverted "s" type; in addition, secondary hardening occurs. The yield strength and tensile strength of the welded joint and base metal increased with decreasing temperature, and the elongation and reduction of area decreased. The plastic deformation capacity of the welded joint was significantly lower than that of the base metal, and there were obvious inclusions in the microstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After years of operation, cable-stayed bridge without backstays may present an unreasonable internal force state, which is a potential hazard. The cable-stayed bridge without backstays applied in the Jinzhou Bridge is selected as an engineering background to analyze its reasonable internal force state and corresponding cable force. First, the measured results of the geometric alignment and cable force are compared with the design limits, and the results uncover that the current cable force fails to satisfy the actual requirements. Secondly, finite element (FE) models of the bridge are established and modified based on the measured cable forces, so that they can be applied to analyze the internal force states of the beam and tower. It is found that the stress state exceeds the design limit. Then, the stress sensitivity of the beam and tower is analyzed by altering the cable forces, and the feasible region of structural stress under dead load is obtained after analysis. Finally, both the structural reasonable internal force state and the corresponding cable forces are determined based on the results of sensitivity and feasible region analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptive interference cancellation technique has been widely utilized in radar, GPS, data link, etc., systems to address challenges from external interference, such as co-site and hostile interference. Since the anti-jamming performance of the adaptive interference cancellation technique is sensitive to group delay mismatch between channels, the group delay mismatch becomes one of the main factors that limit the system's anti-jamming capability. However, the traditional adaptive interference cancellation system's mathematical model cannot quantitatively characterize the group delay mismatch effect on the wideband interference cancellation performance. In this paper, the mathematical model of the wideband adaptive spatial interference cancellation (ASIC) system is established, which considers the group delay mismatch, to quantitatively analyze the impact of group delay mismatch on the hostile interference cancellation. The mathematical model utilizes the weighted multi-tone signals to fit the wideband interference, and then, delay differences are attached to each tone signal to simulate the group delay mismatch. Then, the analytic expressions of weight and interference cancellation ratio are derived, which consider the interference bandwidth and group delay mismatch, to quantitatively analyze the group delay mismatch effect on the anti-jamming performance of the wideband ASIC system. Simulation results indicate that the theoretical analysis based on the mathematical model of wideband ASIC system are accurate, which can achieve the quantitative analysis of the group delay mismatch effect on the WIC performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NaNbO3 (NNO) is one of few Pb-free antiferroelectrics. But it commonly shows ferroelectricity due to the irreversible transition from antiferroelectric to ferroelectric. By adding Sr(Fe0.5Nb0.5)O3 (SFN), a novel dielectric ceramic (1 − x)NNO–xSFN has been prepared by a conventional solid reaction method. The ceramic is the pure phase with x up to 0.15. With increasing x, the polarization–electric relation varies from ferroelectric to antiferroelectric like and then to linear like, indicating that the polarization varies from parallel to antiparallel and then to randomly orientated. The electrical response of the ceramics is further analyzed by the normalizations of impedance and electrical modulus, which suggests enhanced electrical heterogeneity, reduced grain resistance, and decreased thermal activation energy with increasing x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The joint's cyclic behaviour and energy-dissipation capacity are important in lattice shell structures' resisting wind and seismic load capacities. Based on the bending test and FE analysis of the novel steel dovetail joint in the previous study, a full-scaled FE model with six H-shaped beams was analysed using the Abaqus program to determine the boundary conditions for the FE models of hysteric analysis. In the cyclic analysis, 1/6 FE models of the novel steel dovetail joints (NDJGs) were established and analysed based on the boundary conditions of the full FE model in the bending analysis and Quasi-static analysis step. The loading protocol is defined, and the analysis is carried out considering different design parameters, including hub ring thickness, slot edge thickness, and teeth depth. The analysis results indicated that the hub ring thickness does not affect the cyclic bending capacity and stiffness of the novel steel dovetail joint; meanwhile, they increased gradually when the slot edge increased. At the same time, the bending capacity is negatively correlated with the teeth depth, where the bending capacity is reduced when the teeth depth increases. All skeleton curves for all joints of this study are compared, and their energy-dissipation capacities and ductility are calculated. Finally, the novel steel dovetail joint showed an excellent energy-dissipation capacity with high ductility performance under cyclic loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, countries around the world are researching the use of hydrogen in the field of metallurgy to reduce carbon emission. However, the application of hydrogen is limited in ironmaking and the production of nonferrous metals, which is lack in steelmaking. The insufficiency of temperature and "slag dilution" phenomenon severely restrict the high manganese stainless steel smelting in conventional process. Based on the analysis of these two problems, this paper proposes a new method of stainless steel smelting by hydrogen blowing. By the theoretical calculation, the feasibility and advantages of hydrogen blowing in high manganese stainless steel smelting are analyzed. In the first decarbonization period, the temperature of molten steel can be increased more quickly by 188 K in 20 min, reducing 1.4 t carbon emissions at the same time, or additional 7.8–9.3 t of cold charge can be added by blowing hydrogen from the side gas jet. And the activity of chromium VI in the slag can be reduced to 10–20 effectively by blowing hydrogen. In the second decarbonization period, hydrogen blowing can also control the content of dissolved oxygen in molten steel and reduce the oxidation of chromium, manganese and iron, which may succeed in inhibiting "slag dilution" phenomenon. In the reduction period, the use of hydrogen to replace argon as the stirring gas can promote the reduction of chromium oxide, manganese oxide and iron oxide in the slag and increase the final metal yield. The advantages of hydrogen blowing in steelmaking [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic study into the behavior of reinforced semi-rigid piles in response to lateral monotonic and cyclic loading in clay was performed with centrifuge modeling tests (100×g). The aim was to investigate the pile–soil interaction mechanism of reinforced semi-rigid piles and to give some generally applicable design advice for reinforcing semi-rigid piles with cement-improved soil. For monotonic loading, the overall load–deflection behavior, profile of bending moment, net soil pressure and pile deflection have been fully studied, in addition to the p–y curves and excess pore pressure response of reinforced and unreinforced piles. It is found that shallow cement-improved soil reinforcement can greatly improve the lateral capacity of piles. In addition, a hyperbolic tangent model was proposed to fit the p–y curves obtained from monotonic tests for reinforced and unreinforced piles. For cyclic loading, it was found that compared with unreinforced piles, reinforced semi-rigid piles reduce the accumulation of pile deflection and the degradation of stiffness. The trends of the cyclic bending moment and cyclic p–y curves are also revealed. A series of supplementary finite element analyses were conducted to study the effects of reinforcement parameters (reinforced width, reinforced depth and strength of cement-improved soil) on lateral pile capacity. It is suggested that shallow reinforcement with a reinforced width of 5D and a reinforced depth above the rotation point of a semi-rigid pile is both economical and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, recycled high-density polyethylene (REHDPE)/black shale (B-shale) composites were prepared by a melt-blending method using a B-shale nucleating agent and polyolefin elastomer (POE) and acrylic impact modifier (ACR) as plasticizers. The melt index, microstructure, mechanical properties, and non-isothermal crystallization behavior of REHDPE were analyzed to determine the effects of the nucleating agent and plasticizer. Scanning electron microscopy and the melt index indicated that POE and ACR increased the melt flow rate of the composites and improved the interfacial properties of B-shale and REHDPE. The non-isothermal crystallization processes of the REHDPE and REHDPE composites were successfully described by Hoffmann–Lauritzen theory, demonstrating that B-shale, POE, and ACR can synergistically accelerate the crystallization process of REHDPE. The Friedman method revealed that B-shale, POE and ACR reduced the crystallization activation energy by heterogeneous nucleation and increasing the melt flow, respectively. The POE and ACR further enhanced the nucleation activity of B-shale and the nucleation activity is negatively correlated with the B-shale content according to the Dobreva and Gutzow's methods. The synergistic effect of nucleating agent and plasticizer improved the mechanical properties of REHDPE and solved the problem in relatively low mechanical properties of recycled plastics. And it will provide a new strategy for the practical production of REHDPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenetic markers are potential biomarkers for diabetes and related complications. Using a prospective cohort from the Hong Kong Diabetes Register, we perform two independent epigenome-wide association studies to identify methylation markers associated with baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and subsequent decline in kidney function (eGFR slope), respectively, in 1,271 type 2 diabetes subjects. Here we show 40 (30 previously unidentified) and eight (all previously unidentified) CpG sites individually reach epigenome-wide significance for baseline eGFR and eGFR slope, respectively. We also develop a multisite analysis method, which selects 64 and 37 CpG sites for baseline eGFR and eGFR slope, respectively. These models are validated in an independent cohort of Native Americans with type 2 diabetes. Our identified CpG sites are near genes enriched for functional roles in kidney diseases, and some show association with renal damage. This study highlights the potential of methylation markers in risk stratification of kidney disease among type 2 diabetes individuals. Epigenetic markers are potential biomarkers for diabetes and related complications. Here, the authors identify CpG sites associated with kidney function and its subsequent decline using both single-site and multisite analyses, which are shown to have functional significance in the kidney. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant frequency modes of pre-summer extreme precipitation events (EPEs) over South China (SC) between 1998 and 2018 were investigated. The 67 identified EPEs were all characterized by the 3–8-d (synoptic) frequency band. However, multiscale combined modes of the synoptic and three low-frequency bands [10–20-d (quasi-biweekly, QBW); 15–40-d (quasi-monthly, QM); and 20–60-d (intraseasonal)] accounted for the majority (63%) of the EPEs, and the precipitation intensity on the peak wet day was larger than that of the single synoptic mode. It was found that EPEs form within strong southwesterly anomalous flows characterized by either lower-level cyclonic circulation over SC or a deep trough over eastern China. Bandpass-filtered disturbances revealed the direct precipitating systems and their life cycles. Synoptic-scale disturbances are dominated by mid-high latitude troughs, and the cyclonic anomalies originate from downstream of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Given the warm and moist climate state, synoptic-scale northeasterly flows can even induce EPEs. At the QBW and QM scales, the disturbances originate from the tropical Pacific, downstream of the TP, or mid-high latitudes (QBW only). Each is characterized by cyclonic-anticyclonic wave trains and intense southwesterly flows between them within a region of large horizontal pressure gradient. The intraseasonal disturbances are confined to tropical regions and influence SC by marginal southwesterly flows. It is concluded that low-frequency disturbances provide favorable background conditions for EPEs over SC and synoptic-scale disturbances ultimately induce EPEs on the peak wet days. Both should be simultaneously considered for EPE predictions over SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete-filled steel plate composite walls are increasingly used in high-rise buildings; their mechanical properties at room temperature have produced fruitful results. However, research on their mechanical properties in fire and at high temperatures is scarce. Moreover, published studies on the fire resistance of concrete-filled steel plate composite walls have not considered the impact of fire protection measures. Based on previous fire resistance research, a fire resistance test was designed in this study for four walls under the combined action of axial compression and a single-sided fire under the ISO-834 standard heating curve. Apart from that, the existing fire protections have the disadvantages of too thick, easy falling off and cracking or difficult to install. In order to eliminate the disadvantages of existing fire prevention measures, new composite fireproof structure using a rock wool board and a thin fire-retardant coating is proposed. The effects of no fireproof structures, autoclaved lightweight concrete plate fireproof structures, thick-coated fire-retardant structures, and new composite fireproof structures on the fire resistance of concrete-filled steel plate composite walls were studied experimentally. The results show that the fire resistance of the four test specimens meets the 3 h fire resistance limit of the primary load-bearing component in the specification. Based on the experimental results, reasonable fire protection methods are suggested for concrete-filled steel plate composite walls in actual projects, and an experimental basis is provided for further numerical simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 0.76Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.24SiTiO3 which approaches the morphotropic phase boundary of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-SiTiO3 as base composition and adding Bi(Mg2/3Nb1/3)O3, (1-x)(0.76Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.24SiTiO3)-xBi(Mg2/3Nb1/3)O3 dielectric ceramics were prepared by a traditional solid-state reaction method, and their structural, dielectric, and electrical energy storage properties were studied comprehensively. Bi(Mg2/3Nb1/3)O3 disturbs the long-range ferroelectric ordering, thus remanent polarization decreases rapidly. As a result, the electrical energy storage properties improve greatly in the ternary system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediment Cu is significant for oceanic eco-environment and seafood quality. The sources and influencing factors of sediment Cu in the island area differ from those in other areas since the island is far away from the mainland. But there is no detailed information about sediment Cu characteristics and influencing factors in this specific area. The northern four-island area of Penglai District, Yantai City, China, was selected, and sediments were sampled. The sediments have a low Cu background (5.94–22.17 µg/g, an average of 12.19 µg/g) because of the far distance from the mainland. But more Cu accumulates in sediment near the islands, indicating the effect of islanders' daily activities on sediment Cu levels. Sediment Cu levels are significantly correlated with grain sizes and the organic matter (OM) in sediment and are not with pH, Fe, Mn, redox, and total sulfur levels. The normalization of sediment Cu with Ni, Sc, and the calculation of enrichment factors (EF) confirm the sediment Cu mainly derives from natural or internal sources. The prevailing culture activity near the northern four-islands slows ocean current velocity, causing finer fractions and higher sediment Cu levels. The sediment OM near the island is slightly higher than further away as a consequence of the local inhabitants' activities. Sediment TOC/TN implies sediment OM originates from the terrestrial regions. So, the imported OM by the local inhabitant' activity is another factor for the higher sediment Cu levels near the northern four-island area. Sediment grain size does a more significant effect on sediment Cu near the island area than sediment OM. An enrichment model of sediment Cu levels in faraway island area is forwarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a worldwide problem seriously influencing sugarcane (Saccharum L. spp. hybrids) production. The long-term domestication and selective breeding in artificial environments may have reduced the drought resistance of sugarcane. The objective of this study was to determine drought tolerance in a 138-genotype of elite sugarcane hybrids using the membership function value of drought tolerance (MFVD). Based on the drought-tolerant coefficient (DC) of four yield traits (biomass, stalk weight, stalk diameter and stalk height) and bud survival rate (SR) at different growth stage under well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS) conditions. As expected, genotype means decreased for all five traits with WS, and the decrease of biomass, stalk weight, stalk diameter, stalk height and bud survival rate (SR) was ≥ 24%. The broad sense heritability of five morphological traits (B, SW, SH, SD and SR) was relatively high. Correlation coefficients analysis revealed that the MFVD was significantly positively correlated with the DCB, DCSW, DCSH and DCSD at the growth stage and SR at the seedling stage. Results indicated that these characters were closely related to the drought resistance of sugarcane. Regression models built based on MFVD indicated that the variation of drought tolerant coefficient of 4 traits at the growth stage and SR at the seeding stage could explain the total variation. Thus, these five traits could be used as drought resistance indicators for screening drought resistance cultivars in sugarcane. The MFVD based on the DC of each yield traits and SR indicated that ten out of the138 sugarcane hybrids had high drought resistance, while 14 genotypes were highly susceptible to the drought, which can be used as ideal experimental materials to study the mechanism of sugarcane genotypes with contrasting drought sensitivities in response to drought stress. Our results help to fill the knowledge gap regarding to the sugarcane production under stress, shed light on sugarcane drought tolerance and provided useful information to the sugarcane breeders and producers which could be used in variety selecting and developing for dry prone regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large amounts of septic tank sludges from sanitation facilities are either landfilled or illegally dumped into the natural environment, leading to environmental pollution and waste of resources. This issue calls for advanced methods to recycle septic tank sludges such as sustainable adsorbents to recycle phosphorus, e.g., in agriculture, in the context of the circular economy. Here, we hypothesized that alkaline septic tank sludge biochar could be an efficient adsorbent to recycle phosphate from wastewater. We first prepared raw biochar by pyrolysis of septic tank sludge at 500 °C. Then, we prepared alkaline biochar by pyrolysis at 800 °C of mixtures of potassium hydroxide (KOH) and raw biochar at 3/1, 4/1 and 5/1 mass ratios. We studied biochar properties by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and we quantified adsorption of phosphates by biochars. Results show that phosphate adsorption highly increases with KOH content, from 27.83 mg/g for the raw biochar to 42.51 mg/g for the 5/1 KOH-biochar. This trend is explained by the increase in biochar surface area from 64.214 m2/g for the raw biochar to 82.901 m2/g for the 5/1 KOH-biochar, and by the improvement of the structural properties and surface morphology of KOH-biochars. Overall, alkaline biochar appears as a promising adsorbent to recycle phosphates from wastewaters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the tensioning process of the cable-supported structure, the sliding friction between cable wires and joint will have a great influence on the mechanical properties of the structure. However, due to the complex structure of the cable and the combined action of bending deformation and large pre-tension at the cable-strut joint, it is difficult to accurately determine the coefficient of sliding friction (CSF) between cable wires and joint, and thus the overall mechanical properties of the structure cannot be accurately evaluated. Based on the twisting characteristics of the cable, this paper establishes a friction-slip test model and a refined numerical model to carry out detailed study of the mechanical behavior of contact between cable wires and joint during the tensioning process. Firstly, combined with the calculation results of contact mechanics, it is finds that the stress distribution at straight and curved sections of the cable are non-uniform along its axis and each cross section, and the non-uniformity coefficient of the internal force distribution of the cable is further quantified. At the same time, the local bending of the cable will intensify the uneven stress distribution in the circumferential direction of the cable. The non-uniformity of stress reveals the contact working mechanism of the cable-joint pair. Then, the change of the prestress loss between cable wires and joint with the tensioning process is analyzed, and the parametric analysis is conducted to reveal the effect of the cable included angle, tensile force, and lay length on the CSF. The results find that the prestress loss increases approximately linearly with the increase of tension force and decreases with the increase of the cable included angle, but the CSF is less affected by the lay length during the tensioning process. Finally, a method for valuing the CSF of the cable-supported structure is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective and environmentally friendly herbicides are urgently needed to meet consumer demand for organic products. To evaluate the weed control effect of four pyroligneous acid (PAs) mixtures, the byproducts of bamboo/wood/straw vinegar, two herbicide discovery tests were done: (1) the greenhouse tests by using four indicative plants: wheat (Triticum sativa), radish (Raphanus sativus), cucumber (Cucumus sativus), and Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv; (2) Field trials with four weeds: E. crusgalli, Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb, and Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronq. Greenhouse tests showed that the efficacy of PAs and acetic acid (AA) to control four test plants increased with the increasing of PAs concentration. The inhibition rates of four tested PAs (FBV (0.6–9.2% AA + (0.3–5.0% tar), HWV (0.2–1.8% AA + 0.3–4.3% tar), ASV (0.5–8.7% AA + 0.4–7.0% tar), and CWV (0.7–5.3% AA + 0.5–7.5% tar) gave inhibition rates of 56 ± 4–97 ± 2%, 21 ± 2–90 ± 6%, 29 ± 3–98 ± 5%, and 44 ± 6–86 ± 2%, respectively, and the field effects of PAs against four weeds were enhanced with the increasing of concentrations and time after spraying (1 to 14 days). Their control effects against E. crusgalli, E. indica, A. philoxeroides, and C. canadensis were 4 ± 1–93 ± 4%, 7 ± 3–90 ± 3%, 32 ± 2–95 ± 3%, and 31 ± 5–96 ± 4%, respectively. The mixed effect of the four PAs was higher than the same dose of AA. These results will help to determine the potential of PAs to be developed as non-selective herbicides to control weeds in organic farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the current problems of helmet and reflective vest detection algorithms, such as long inference times, high hardware requirements, and difficulty detecting small objects, an improved real-time detection algorithm based on YOLOv5 is proposed. First, the Mosaic-9 data enhancement method is adopted to expand the number of image splicings from four to nine, enriching the small-scale sample dataset. Minimum rectangular area cropping is used instead of the original random cropping to improve the training efficiency. Then, the EIOU (Efficient Intersection Over Union) loss is used as the loss function, and the focal loss is introduced to focus on the high-quality anchor box, achieving the purpose of accelerating the convergence speed and improving regression accuracy. Next, the CBAM-CA (Convolutional Block Attention Module—Coordinate Attention) hybrid attention mechanism is added to the network model. The purpose of the model is to focus on the small object’s spatial and channel feature information to improve the small object’s detection performance. Finally, a new scale object detection layer is added to learn the multilevel features of the dense object. The experimental results show that the improved model’s mAP (mean average precision) is 94.9%, an improvement of 7.0% over the original model. The size of the improved model is 4.49 MB, and the mean FPS (Frames Per Second) is 62. This algorithm guarantees a small model size while significantly increasing mAP, which is suitable for deployment on low computing power platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estuarine tapertail anchovy (Coilia nasus) is a high-value commercial fish. Estimating the spawning site or hatchery origin and habitat is essential for its conservation. This study aimed to determine the habitat use and life history characteristics of C. nasus from the Changjiang River Estuary. We investigated the environmental signatures of strontium (Sr) and calcium (Ca) in the otoliths of the collected specimens using electron probe microanalysis; additionally, we examined their gonadal maturity stage. Our results indicate that the 31 adult C. nasus specimens used in this study could be classified into two types based on their otolith Sr:Ca concentration ratios and their gonadal maturity stage. The long freshwater early life history type (Type LF) had wider central region in the otolith with low Sr:Ca concentration ratios ranging from 1.24±0.62 to 1.92±0.78 and a bluish pattern of low Sr content level. These fish are of riverine origin and had a relatively long early life history in freshwater and low gonadal maturation when captured. The short freshwater early life history type (Type SF) had a shorter central region in the otolith with low Sr:Ca concentration ratios ranging from 1.35±0.5 to 2.82±0.97 and a correspondingly bluish pattern. These fish also had a relatively short-term early life history in freshwater and high gonadal maturation when captured. The results of the otolith microchemical analysis indicated that Type LF and Type SF originated in spawning/hatching sites far from and close to the estuary, respectively. The mature gonads of Type SF fish indicated that they may breed in areas close to the estuary, whereas the immature gonads of Type LF fish indicated that they may breed in areas far from the estuary. This study is the first to reveal that the Changjiang River Estuary contains stocks of anadromous C. nasus originating in different spawning sites during the same season. The estuarine habitat plays a critical role in the connectivity between freshwater recruitment and the marine resources available to adult spawners of this commercially valued species. From a conservation perspective, this study provides important information for identifying anadromous C. nasus stocks originating in different spawning sites in the Changjiang River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline of fossil fuel availability is calling for alternative energy such as electricity produced by degradation of waste in microbial fuel cells. The performance of microbial fuel cells is controlled by the anode because microorganisms grow and attach on the anode. Here, we prepared carbon felt electrodes modified with manganese ore based on the hypothesis that manganese and silicon oxides would improve the cell performance to treat simulated black water. We compared properties of the manganese ore-modified electrodes with properties of classical carbon felt electrodes modified with magnetic ferroferric oxide. We also studied the removal of the chemical oxygen demand and the enrichment in ammonia nitrogen. Results show that the maximum voltage of the manganese ore-modified carbon felt electrode is 1.7 times higher than that of the magnetic ferroferric oxide-modified carbon felt electrode. The start-up time to reach the maximum voltage is reduced by 68%. The removal of chemical oxygen demand reached 91.2%. Up to 68.0% of ammonia nitrogen can be enriched at the cathode, implying that ammonia nitrogen can be highly reduced in the effluent. Overall, the manganese ore-modified carbon felt electrode showed excellent redox performance, excellent corrosion resistance and low electron transfer resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial resistance of Shigella sonnei has become a global concern. Here, we report a phylogenetic group of S. sonnei with extensive drug resistance, including a combination of multidrug resistance, coresistance to ceftriaxone and azithromycin (cefRaziR), reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones, and even colistin resistance (colR). This distinct clone caused six waterborne shigellosis outbreaks in China from 2015 to 2020. We collect 155 outbreak isolates and 152 sporadic isolates. The cefRaziR isolates, including outbreak strains, are mainly distributed in a distinct clade located in global Lineage III. The outbreak strains form a recently derived monophyletic group that may have emerged circa 2010. The cefRaziR and colR phenotypes are attributed to the acquisition of different plasmids, particularly the IncB/O/K/Z plasmid coharboring the blaCTX-M-14, mphA, aac(3)-IId, dfrA17, aadA5, and sul1 genes and the IncI2 plasmid with an mcr-1 gene. Genetic analyses identify 92 accessory genes and 60 single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the cefRaziR phenotype. Surveillance of this clone is required to determine its dissemination and threat to global public health. Shigella sonnei is a major contributor to the global burden of dysenteric diarrhoea in developed countries. In this work, authors report a S. sonnei clone which has caused numerous waterborne shigellosis outbreaks in China from 2015 to 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is characterized by an immunosuppression environment and necessitates the development of new immunotherapy response predictors. The study aimed to build a prognosis-related competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network based on immune-related genes (IRGs) and analyze its immunological signatures. Differentially expressed IRGs were identified by bioinformatics analysis with Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and ImmPort databases. Finally, via upstream prognosis-related microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) prediction and co-expression analysis, we built an immune-related ceRNA network (LINC00052/hsa-miR-148a-3p/PLAU) related to HNSCC patient prognosis. CIBERSORT analysis demonstrated that there were substantial differences in 11 infiltrating immune cells in HNSCC, and PLAU was closely correlated with 10 type cells, including T cells CD8+ (R = − 0.329), T cells follicular helper (R = − 0.342) and macrophage M0 (R = 0.278). Methylation and Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) analyses revealed that PLAU upregulation was most likely caused by hypomethylation and that high PLAU expression may be associated with tumor immune evasion in HNSCC, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Genetic improvement of soybean oil content depends on in-depth study of the glycerolipid biosynthesis pathway. The first acylation reaction catalysed by glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) is the rate-limiting step of triacylglycerol biosynthesis. However, the genes encoding GPATs in soybean remain unknown. Methods: We used a novel yeast genetic complementation system and seed-specific heterologous expression to identify GmGPAT activity and molecular function in glycerolipid biosynthesis. Results: Sixteen GmGPAT genes were cloned by reverse transcription-PCR for screening in yeast genetic complementation. The results showed that GmGPAT9-2 could restore the conditional lethal double knockout mutant strain ZAFU1, and GmGPAT1-1 exhibited low acyltransferase activity in serial dilution assays. In addition, the spatiotemporal expression pattern of GmGPAT9-2 exhibited tissue specificity in leaves, flowers and seeds at different developmental stages. Furthermore, both the proportion of arachidic acid and erucic acid were significantly elevated in Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic lines containing the seed-specific GmGPAT9-2 compared wild type, but the oil content was not affected. Conclusion: Together, our results provide reference data for future engineering of triacylglycerol biosynthesis and fatty acid composition improvement through GPATs in soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to accurately simulate the creep behavior of rocks under the action of complex environments, the damage creep model considering the environmental effects (hydrous conditions and freeze–thaw cycles) is investigated. Through the statistical analysis of the test results of rocks under different water contents and freeze–thaw cycles, it is believed that the rock damage includes time-independent initial damage and time-dependent subsequent damage. Then, the mathematical expression of the creep failure time of rocks is calibrated with the help of the environmental effect of the characteristic stress, and a subsequent damage factor that can describe the damage creep of rocks under the environment-mechanics interaction is given, and its numerical analysis is carried out. Ultimately, a unified fractional rheological mechanical model is established by combining the extended fractional viscoplastic theory, Drucker-Prager yield theory considering damage effect and modified effective stress. The universality of the new model is verified by the damage creep test results of rocks under different environmental loads. The result indicative of the unified fractional rheological mechanical model can accurately describe the nonlinear creep behavior of rock under complex environment, and the model simplifies the loading conditions and viscoplastic theory of the traditional unified rheological mechanical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipe piles enhanced by cement-improved soil (hereinafter referred to as enhanced pipe piles) have excellent bearing capacity compared with traditional piles and are often used as the foundation of offshore wind turbines and coastal soft-soil embankment. This study aims to clarify and gain an insight into the lateral dynamic response of enhanced pipe piles in unsaturated soil by developing an analytical approach. In the proposed approach, the enhanced pipe pile divides into two parts: The first part is considered as a composite pile formed by a concrete pipe pile and a cement-soil mixing pile through high-strength bonding, and the second part formed by a concrete pipe pile and an unsaturated soil column. The lateral vibration behaviours of the enhanced pipe pile and the unsaturated soil resistance are deduced by the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and the porous viscoelastic theory of three-phase mixture, respectively. The closed-form solutions for the horizontal, rocking and horizontal-rocking dynamic impedances at the pile head of enhanced pipe pile under horizontal dynamic loads have been determined and then validated by comparing with the existing results. Numerical discussions are finally conducted to analysis the influence of physical parameters of enhanced pipe pile and unsaturated soil on the three types of dynamic impedance at the pile head. The main findings can be summarized as: (a) For the cement-soil mixing pile, its length should not exceed half of the concrete pipe pile, its radius size should be moderate and its elastic modulus can be as large as possible; (b) the wall thickness and elastic modulus of the concrete pipe pile can be appropriately increased to make the enhanced pipe pile achieve better vibration resistance and (c) the increase of the soil saturation will reduce the anti-vibration ability of enhanced pipe piles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/hypothesis: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of kidney failure and has a substantial genetic component. Our aim was to identify novel genetic factors and genes contributing to DKD by performing meta-analysis of previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on DKD and by integrating the results with renal transcriptomics datasets. Methods: We performed GWAS meta-analyses using ten phenotypic definitions of DKD, including nearly 27,000 individuals with diabetes. Meta-analysis results were integrated with estimated quantitative trait locus data from human glomerular (N=119) and tubular (N=121) samples to perform transcriptome-wide association study. We also performed gene aggregate tests to jointly test all available common genetic markers within a gene, and combined the results with various kidney omics datasets. Results: The meta-analysis identified a novel intronic variant (rs72831309) in the TENM2 gene associated with a lower risk of the combined chronic kidney disease (eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m2) and DKD (microalbuminuria or worse) phenotype (p=9.8×10−9; although not withstanding correction for multiple testing, p>9.3×10−9). Gene-level analysis identified ten genes associated with DKD (COL20A1, DCLK1, EIF4E, PTPRN–RESP18, GPR158, INIP–SNX30, LSM14A and MFF; p<2.7×10−6). Integration of GWAS with human glomerular and tubular expression data demonstrated higher tubular AKIRIN2 gene expression in individuals with vs without DKD (p=1.1×10−6). The lead SNPs within six loci significantly altered DNA methylation of a nearby CpG site in kidneys (p<1.5×10−11). Expression of lead genes in kidney tubules or glomeruli correlated with relevant pathological phenotypes (e.g. TENM2 expression correlated positively with eGFR [p=1.6×10−8] and negatively with tubulointerstitial fibrosis [p=2.0×10−9], tubular DCLK1 expression correlated positively with fibrosis [p=7.4×10−16], and SNX30 expression correlated positively with eGFR [p=5.8×10−14] and negatively with fibrosis [p<2.0×10−16]). Conclusions/interpretation: Altogether, the results point to novel genes contributing to the pathogenesis of DKD. Data availability: The GWAS meta-analysis results can be accessed via the type 1 and type 2 diabetes (T1D and T2D, respectively) and Common Metabolic Diseases (CMD) Knowledge Portals, and downloaded on their respective download pages (https://t1d.hugeamp.org/downloads.html; https://t2d.hugeamp.org/downloads.html; https://hugeamp.org/downloads.html). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane is introduced into ethylene glycol. The reaction is terminated using acrylic acid to obtain a linear polydimethylsiloxane intermediate comprising double bonds at the ends. The targeted copolymer is prepared by copolymerizing polydimethylsiloxane intermediate and butyl methacrylate. Additionally, blended-porous film is prepared by adding the copolymer to the cyclodextrin copolymer. The results reveal that the thermal stability of the copolymer increases with the increase of the polydimethylsiloxane content. The ethanol solution of the copolymer of a certain formulation has temperature sensitivity. The contact angle hysteresis of cyclodextrin copolymer is larger on the inclined surface at five degrees from the horizontal, but the blended-porous films all have low contact angle hysteresis, and the minimum contact angle hysteresis decreased to 2°. The main reason for the observed difference is that the presence of the copolymer makes the surface morphology of the film changed greatly. The blended-porous films have a waterproof and easy-to-slide surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess early changes in synthetic relaxometry after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer and establish a model with contrast-free quantitative parameters for early prediction of pathological response. Methods: From March 2019 to January 2021, breast MRI were performed for a primary cohort of women with breast cancer before (n = 102) and after the first (n = 93) and second (n = 90) cycle of NAC. Tumor size, synthetic relaxometry (T1/T2 relaxation time [T1/T2], proton density), and ADC were obtained, and the changes after treatment were calculated. Prediction models were established by multivariate logistic regression; evaluated with discrimination, calibration, and clinical application; and compared with Delong tests, net reclassification (NRI), and integrated discrimination index (IDI). External validation was performed from February to June 2021 with an independent cohort of 35 patients. Results: In the primary cohort, all parameters changed after early treatment. Synthetic relaxometry decreased to a greater degree in major histologic responders (MHR, Miller–Payne G4-5) compared with non-MHR (Miller–Payne G1-3). A model combining ADC after treatment, changes in T1 and tumor size, and cancer subtype achieved the highest AUC after the first (primary/validation cohort, 0.83/0.82) and second cycles (primary/validation cohort, 0.85/0.84). No difference of AUC (p ≥ 0.27), NRI (p ≥ 0.31), and IDI (p ≥ 0.32) was found between models with different cycles and size-measured sequences. Model calibration and decision curves demonstrated a good fitness and clinical benefit, respectively. Conclusions: Early reduction in synthetic relaxometry indicated pathological response to NAC. Contrast-free T1 and ADC combined with size and cancer subtype predicted effectively pathological response after one NAC cycle. Key Points: • Synthetic MRI relaxometry changed after early neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which demonstrated pathological response for mass-like breast cancers. • Contrast-free quantitative parameters including T1 relaxation time and apparent diffusion coefficient, combined with tumor size and cancer subtype, stratified major histologic responders. • A contrast-free model predicted an early pathological response after the first treatment cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tetragonal tungsten bronze Ca0.4SrxBa0.6−xNb2O6 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) ceramics were prepared by a conventional solid-state reaction method. The structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties of these ceramics were investigated. The dielectric response varies from normal ferroelectric to relaxor for x > 0.1 while the polarization–electric field hysteresis loop varies greatly for x > 0.4. The corresponding mechanisms are discussed comprehensively. Moreover, since the A1 sites are fully occupied by Ca in the system, the work discloses the effect of the Sr/Ba ratio at A2 sites on dielectric and ferroelectric properties of tetragonal tungsten bronze oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 1.6 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide annually, calling for advanced methods to recycle food waste into energy and materials. Anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste allows the efficient recovery of energy, and induces low-carbon emissions. Nonetheless, digestion stability and biogas production are variables, due to dietary habits and seasonal diet variations that modify the components of kitchen waste. Another challenge is the recycling of the digestate, which could be partly solved by more efficient reactors of anaerobic digestion. Here, we review the bottlenecks of anaerobic digestion treatment of kitchen waste, with focus on components inhibition, and energy recovery from biogas slurry and residue. We provide rules for the optimal treatment of the organic fraction of kitchen waste, and guidelines to upgrade the anaerobic digestion processes. We propose a strategy using an anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor to improve anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste, and a model for the complete transformation and recycling of kitchen waste, based on component properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]