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To investigate the main feature and the association between euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis (euDKA) /diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and sodium-dependent glucose transporters 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) from the FDA adverse event reporting system (FAERS).Cases of SGLT-2i-associated with euDKA/DKA were extracted from the FAERS database and compared with the reports for other hypoglycemia agents (ATC10 class). Disproportionality analyses used the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and information components (IC). The lower limit of the IC 95% credibility interval for IC 0 is considered a reported signal, with at least 3 cases.A total of 10,195 cases of euDKA (n = 1680) and DKA (n = 8515) associated with SGLT-2i were identified from the FAERS. The SGLT-2i was associated with higher reporting of euDKA and DKA compared to other hypoglycemia agents (ROR = 16.69 [95% CI 14.89-18.70], IC = 3.27 [95% CI 2.91-3.66] for euDKA; ROR = 16.44 [95% CI 15.72-17.20], IC = 3.19 [95% CI 3.05-3.34] for DKA). In available data, the median onset time of euDKA/DKA was 31 days, and canagliflozin had the longest onset time (96.5 days for euDKA and 75 days for DKA) compared with dapagliflozin and empagliflozin (p 0.05). Male patients predominate in euDKA (51.9%), and female patients predominate in DKA (53.7%). Most patients discontinue the treatment (95.5% for euDKA, 93.9% for DKA), and approximately 49.0% (n = 3658) of patients had symptomatic remission after discontinuation of SGLT-2i, and 2.3% (n = 173) of patients had no remission. About 75.6% (n = 6126) of patients need hospitalization after euDKA/DKA.Post-marketing data showed that SGLT-2i was significantly associated with higher reporting of euDKA/DKA. Although euDKA/DKA is rare, clinicians should be aware of SGLT-2i-associated euDKA/DKA events.

Perinatal depression (PND) screening recommendations are made by national, state-based and professional organisations; however, there is disagreement regarding screening timing, provider responsible, screening setting, screening tool as well as the follow-up and referral pathways required post-screening. This systematic review aimed to identify, describe and compare PND screening recommendations from member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Publications were identified through systematically searching PubMed, Google and the Guidelines International Network (GIN). Recommendations regarding PND screening endorsement, timing, frequency, responsible provider, tools/assessments and follow-up and referral were extracted. Twenty-one publications, including guidelines, from five countries were included. Most made recommendations in support of PND screening using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Details differed regarding terminology used, as well as frequency of screening, follow-up mechanisms and referral pathways. A broad range of health providers were considered to be responsible for screening. This is the first review to identify and compare PND screening recommendations from OECD member countries; however, only online publications published in English, from five countries were included. Heterogeneity of publication types and inconsistency in definitions rendered quality assessment inappropriate. While most publications generally endorsed PND screening, there are exceptions and the associated details pertaining to the actual conduct of screening vary between and within countries. Developing clear, standardised recommendations based on current evidence is necessary to ensure clarity amongst healthcare providers and a comprehensive approach for the early detection of PND.

Symptomatic subsequent vertebral compression fracture (VCF; SVCF) is a common complication associated with poor outcomes. Accumulating evidence shows that demographic factors and incidences of symptomatic SVCFs differ during different periods after the primary vertebroplasty (VP).To investigate the incidence and demographic factors of symptomatic SVCFs after the primary VP in different periods using registry data in the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database.This retrospective cohort study included 28,343 patients aged ≥ 50 years with painful VCF treated with VP from 2002 to 2016. Symptomatic SVCF was defined as SVCF requiring another VP or re-admission. During the 2-year follow-up, 1955 patients received subsequent VP while 1,407 were readmitted. Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare the risks of subsequent VP or readmission.The cumulative incident rate of subsequent VP and re-hospitalization was 0.87 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.82 ~ 0.92] and 0.62 (95% CI, 0.58 ~ 0.66) per 100 person-months, respectively, within the first 6 months after the primary VP, and it decreased over time. A multiple Cox regression model showed that age, osteopenia or osteoporosis, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) were significant independent risk factors of subsequent VP or readmission within the first 6 months.This study demonstrated that the incidence of symptomatic SVCF peaked in the first 6 months after the primary VP. Age, osteoporosis or osteopenia, and CCI were determined to be risk factors in the first 6 months, but only osteoporosis or osteopenia and CCI were risk factors thereafter.

This paper constructs and elaborates a theoretical model of urban economic efficiency (UEE) from the perspective of urban scaling law. A framework of urban economic analysis is established with urban population agglomeration capacity (UPAC) as the explanatory factor. Taking the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) as a case study, explore the influence of UPAC on UEE. The results show that the gap between the UEE in the YRDUA gradually decreases, the spatial agglomeration characteristic weakens, and the UEE among cities leads to a balanced tendency. However, the spatial agglomeration pattern of UPAC becomes more and more significant. (Mega/super) large cities are mostly advanced types, while small cities are lagging types. The influence of UPAC on UEE gradually decreases and diverges from significant positive influence to insignificant influence in advanced cities and significant positive influence in lagging cities. The framework of UEE research provides a more objective way to understand and compare the economic performance of cities of different scales. The empirical study findings provide a basis for decision-making on developing different types of cities.

The subsea suspended manifold designed to replace the traditional foundation structure with the buoys is a new generation subsea production system that can be suspended at a certain height from the seafloor and rapidly recycled by its own buoyancy. Due to complex environmental conditions, its hydrodynamic performance in the splash zone is extremely important for the safety of the whole installation process. In this paper, the mathematical model for the dynamic analysis of the seawater ingress process of the single-layer pre-set horizontal cabin is proposed based on the different center of gravity positions of the buoy. Meanwhile, the theoretical analysis of fiber cable is divided into infinite differential units by the discretization method, and the formulae of the horizontal displacement of the subsea suspended manifold are presented. In addition, the simulations are carried out to verify the rules of the dynamic responses on the subsea suspended manifold system with the consideration of the environmental conditions in the South China Sea. Comparing with the calculated value of the mathematical model of the cabin water ingress, the error of the simulation result by use of FLUENT is about 5.47%. Furthermore, the wave height is greater than the current impact on the lowering manifold system and the azimuth angle of the installation vessel is aligned with the direction of the environmental load.

Sufficient attention should be attached to the large amount of fly ash containing high levels of toxic heavy metals generated after municipal solid waste incineration. Because heavy metals could be leached out of the fly ash under specific conditions, it is necessary to stabilize the heavy metals in fly ash before landfill disposal. Processing technologies of incineration fly ash include solidification/stabilization technology, thermal treatments, and separation processes. This study reviewed the current treatment technologies of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash, with the main focus on the treatment of heavy metals in fly ash with chemical stabilization. Chemical stabilization processes involve chemical precipitation of heavy metal and chelation of heavy metals. In multiple studies, chemical stabilization technology has shown practical feasibility in terms of technology, economy, and effect. In addition, the combination of two or more stabilization agents broadens the general applicability of the agents to heavy metals and reduces the cost. The application of joint processing technology realizes the remove of soluble salt from fly ash. To minimize pollutants while increase their usable value, effective use of waste and co-disposal of several kinds of wastes have gradually become the research hotspots. New developments in chemical stabilization are progressively moving towards the sustainable direction of harmlessness and resource utilization of MSWI fly ash.

Aging and aging-related disorders contribute to formidable socioeconomic and healthcare challenges. Several promising small molecules have been identified to target conserved genetic pathways delaying aging to extend lifespan and healthspan in many organisms. We previously found that extract from an edible and medicinal plant Chrysanthemum indicum L. (C. indicum L.) protect skin from UVB-induced photoaging, partially by reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Thus, we hypothesized that C. indicum L. and its biological active compound may extend lifespan and health span in vivo. We find that both water and ethanol extracts from C. indicum L. extended lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans, with better biological effect on life extending for ethanol extracts. As one of the major biological active compounds, handelin extended lifespan of C. elegans too. RNA-seq analysis revealed overall gene expression change of C. elegans post stimulation of handelin focus on several antioxidative proteins. Handelin significantly reduced ROS level and maintained the number and morphology of mitochondria. Moreover, handelin improveed many C. elegans behaviors related to healthspan, including increased pharyngeal pumping and body movement. Muscle fiber imaging analyses revealed that handelin maintains muscle architecture by stabilizing myofilaments. In conclusion, our present study finds a novel compound handelin, from C. indicum L., which bring about biologically beneficial effects by mild stress response, termed as hormetin, that can extend both lifespan and healthspan in vivo on C. elegans. Further study on mammal animal model of natural aging or sarcopenia will verify the potential clinical value of handelin.

Objectives We aimed to develop and validate radiologic scores from [18F]FDG PET/CT and MRI to guide individualized induction chemotherapy (IC) for patients with T3N1M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods A total of 542 T3N1M0 patients who underwent pretreatment [18F]FDG PET/CT and MRI were enrolled in the training cohort. A total of 174 patients underwent biopsy of one or more cervical lymph nodes. Failure-free survival (FFS) was the primary endpoint. The radiologic score, which was calculated according to the number of risk factors from the multivariate model, was used for risk stratification. The survival difference of patients undergoing concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with or without IC was then compared in risk-stratified subgroups. Another cohort from our prospective clinical trial (N = 353, NCT03003182) was applied for validation. Results The sensitivity of [18F]FDG PET/CT was better than that of MRI (97.7% vs. 87.1%, p p n = 329) stratified by radiologic score benefited from IC (5-year FFS: IC + CCRT 83.5% vs. CCRT 70.5%; p = 0.0044), while low-risk patients (n = 213) did not. These results were verified again in the validation cohort. Conclusions T3N1M0 patients were accurately staged by both [18F]FDG PET/CT and MRI. The radiologic score can correctly identify high-risk patients who can gain additional survival benefit from IC and it can be used to guide individualized treatment of T3N1M0 NPC. Key Points • [18F]FDG PET/CT was more accurate than MRI in diagnosing histologically proven cervical lymph nodes. • Radiologic lymph node characteristics were reliable independent risk factors for FFS in T3N1M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. • High-risk patients identified by the radiologic score based on [18F]FDG PET/CT and MRI could benefit from the addition of induction chemotherapy.

Computerized interpretation of electrocardiogram plays an important role in daily cardiovascular healthcare. However, inaccurate interpretations lead to misdiagnoses and delay proper treatments. In this work, we built a high-quality Chinese 12-lead resting electrocardiogram dataset with 15,357 records, and called for a community effort to improve the performances of CIE through the China ECG AI Contest 2019. This dataset covers most types of ECG interpretations, including the normal type, 8 common abnormal types, and the other type which includes both uncommon abnormal and noise signals. Based on the Contest, we systematically assessed and analyzed a set of top-performing methods, most of which are deep neural networks, with both their commonalities and characteristics. This study establishes the benchmarks for computerized interpretation of 12-lead resting electrocardiogram and provides insights for the development of new methods. Graphical AbstractA community effort to assess and improve computerized interpretation of 12-lead resting electrocardiogram Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11517-021-02420-z.

Accurate energy consumption modeling is an essential prerequisite for sustainable manufacturing. Recently, cutting-power-based models have garnered significant attention, as they can provide more comprehensive information regarding the machining energy consumption pattern. However, their implementation is challenging because new cutting force coefficients are typically required to address new workpiece materials. Traditionally, cutting force coefficients are calculated at a high operation cost as a dynamometer must be used. Hence, a novel indirect approach for estimating the cutting force coefficients of a new tool-workpiece pair is proposed herein. The key idea is to convert the cutting force coefficient calculation problem into an optimization problem, whose solution can be effectively obtained using the proposed simulated annealing algorithm. Subsequently, the cutting force coefficients for a new tool-workpiece pair can be estimated from a pre-calibrated energy consumption model. Machining experiments performed using different machine tools clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed approach. Comparative studies with measured cutting force coefficients reveal the decent accuracy of the approach in terms of both energy consumption prediction and instantaneous cutting force prediction. The proposed approach can provide an accurate and reliable estimation of cutting force coefficients for new workpiece materials while avoiding operational or economic problems encountered in traditional force monitoring methods involving dynamometers. Therefore, this study may significantly advance the development of sustainable manufacturing.

Anti-CRISPRs (Acrs) are natural inhibitors of bacteria’s CRISPR-Cas systems, and have been developed as a safeguard to reduce the off-target effects of CRISPR gene-editing technology. Acrs can directly bind to CRISPR-Cas complexes and inhibit their activities. However, whether this process is under regulation in diverse eukaryotic cellular environments is poorly understood. In this work, we report the discovery of a redox switch for NmeAcrIIC1, which regulates NmeAcrIIC1’s monomer-dimer interconversion and inhibitory activity on Cas9. Further structural studies reveal that a pair of conserved cysteines mediates the formation of inactive NmeAcrIIC1 dimer and directs the redox cycle. The redox switch also applies to the other two AcrIIC1 orthologs. Moreover, by replacing the redox-sensitive cysteines, we generated a robust AcrIIC1 variant that maintains potent inhibitory activity under various redox conditions. Our results reveal a redox-dependent regulation mechanism of Acr, and shed light on the design of superior Acr for CRISPR-Cas systems.

The development of optical organic nanoparticles (NPs) is desirable and widely studied. However, most organic dyes are water-insoluble such that the derivatization and modification of these dyes are difficult. Herein, we demonstrated a simple platform for the fabrication of organic NPs designed with emissive properties by loading ten different organic dyes (molar masses of 479.1–1081.7 g/mol) into water-soluble polymer nanosponges composed of poly(styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSMA). The result showed a substantial improvement over the loading of commercial dyes (3.7–50% loading) while preventing their spontaneous aggregation in aqueous solutions. This packaging strategy includes our newly synthesized organic dyes (> 85% loading) designed for OPVs (242), DSSCs (YI-1, YI-3, YI-8), and OLEDs (ADF-1–3, and DTDPTID) applications. These low-cytotoxicity organic NPs exhibited tunable fluorescence from visible to near-infrared (NIR) emission for cellular imaging and biological tracking in vivo. Moreover, PSMA NPs loaded with designed NIR-dyes were fabricated, and photodynamic therapy with these dye-loaded PSMA NPs for the photolysis of cancer cells was achieved when coupled with 808 nm laser excitation. Indeed, our work demonstrates a facile approach for increasing the biocompatibility and stability of organic dyes by loading them into water-soluble polymer-based carriers, providing a new perspective of organic optoelectronic materials in biomedical theranostic applications.

Urea/1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (urea-EMIC) was developed to electrodeposit Cu from Cu2O at room temperature. Density, viscosity and conductivity of this urea-EMIC system were obtained. The cyclic voltammograms illustrated that the electroreduction of copper ion (Cu(I) ion) involves a quasi-reversible and one-step single electron transfer process. Chronoamperometric studies showed that the copper electrodeposition proceeds a three-dimensional (3D) progressive model. With an increase in temperature, on voltammograms the onset potentials for copper ion reduction shifted anodically and the diffusion coefficient determined using chronoamperometry increased from 5.40 × 10−11 m2 s−1 at 333 K to 1.02 × 10−10 m2 s−1 at 363 K. Also, potentiostatic electrolysis was conducted on tungsten substrates at − 0.65 V (vs. Ag) and 363 K. Then spherical metallic copper electrodeposits were obtained.

Background and Purpose As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signs of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) may precede clinical symptoms we sought to evaluate an algorithm that automatically detects this pattern. Methods A support vector machine (SVM) was trained in 30 NPH patients treated with ventriculoperitoneal shunts and 30 healthy controls. For comparison, four neuroradiologists visually assessed sagittal MPRAGE images and graded them as no NPH pattern, possible NPH pattern, or definite NPH pattern. Results Human accuracy to visually detect a NPH was between 0.85 and 0.97. Interobserver agreement was substantial (κ = 0.656). Accuracy of the SVM algorithm was 0.93 and AUROC 0.99. Among 272 prespecified regions, gray matter and CSF volumes of both caudate, the right parietal operculum, the left basal forebrain, and the 4th ventricle showed the highest discriminative power to separate a NPH and a no NPH pattern. Conclusion A NPH pattern can be reliably detected using a support vector machine (SVM). Its role in the work-up of asymptomatic patients or neurodegenerative disease has to be evaluated.

In order to evaluate the stability of surrounding rock scientifically and reasonably, a model for evaluation of underground engineering surrounding rock stability based on D-S evidence theory and error-eliminating theory was proposed. Firstly, aiming at the fuzziness and complexity of index weight in the evaluation of surrounding rock stability, four groups of index weight were obtained by using four kinds of weighting methods and synthesized by D-S evidence theory to avoid the difference of single weighting method in calculating index weight. Then, 16 groups of measured rock mass data of the first-stage underground project in Guangzhou pumped storage power plant were taken as samples, and a model for the surrounding rock stability evaluation based on D-S evidence and error-eliminating was constructed. Finally, the established model was applied to the evaluation of the surrounding rock stability of the second-stage underground project of the power plant, and the evaluation results were consistent with those of the other four evaluation models. The results show that D-S evidence theory improves the weighting method, and error-eliminating theory optimizes the defect of setting upper and lower limit values in standard of surrounding rock evaluation. The evaluation results of the established model are accurate and reliable. It provides a new method for the evaluation of underground engineering surrounding rock stability and has certain guiding significance in engineering practice.

Reservoir prediction is often a primary objective in seismic exploration, especially for deep hydrocarbon detection with its potential for assessing oil and gas resources. Time–frequency analysis has become a successful method for detecting subsurface features and can also be used to identify potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. However, current applications for hydrocarbon detection often occur at low resolution, due to the influence of the windowing functions and lack of prior constraints, thereby affecting gas prediction for thin reservoirs. To rectify this issue, we investigate the use of sparse inverse spectral decomposition (SISD) based on the wavelet transform, which adopts an lp norm to constrain the time–frequency spectra, and thereby provides a more highly concentrated time–frequency representation than conventional spectral decomposition techniques. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the performance of spectral attributes derived from lp-norm constrained SISD and its application to the characterization of deep-marine dolomite reservoirs in southwest China. The gas-bearing zones in target reservoir are predicted well by extracting and analyzing the spectral amplitude responses of different frequency components. The predicted favorable gas-bearing areas are closely related to local structures in the target reservoir, which are also in good agreement with gas-testing results at three well locations and may be used to guide subsequent exploration well development in this region.

Through rock mechanics test, similar simulation experiment, borehole photographic observation of rock fissure, numerical simulation calculation of plastic zone distribution and deformation monitoring of rock mass during undersea mining, the fractal evolution mechanisms of rock fracture in undersea metallic deposits of Sanshandao Gold Mine were studied by fractal theory. The experimental researches on granite mechanics test in undersea deposit indicate that with the increase of load, the granite deformation energy and the fractal dimension of acoustic emission (FDAE) increase gradually. However, after reaching the peak stress of specimen, the fractal dimensions of acoustic emission (FDAEs) decrease and the granite specimen fails. Therefore, the fractal dimension evolution of rock failure can be divided into four stages, which are fissure inoculation stage, fissure growth stage, fissure expansion stage and fracture instability stage, respectively. By calculating and analyzing the damage photographs of rock specimens in Sanshandao Gold Mine, the fractal dimension of rock fissure is 1.4514, which is close to the average value of FDAE during granite destruction, i.e., 1.4693. Similar simulation experiments of undersea mining show that with the excavation proceeding, the FDAE in rock stratum increases gradually, and when the thickness of the isolation roof is less than 40 m, the FDAE begins to decrease, and meanwhile the sign of water inrush emerges. The numerical simulation researches on the plastic zone distribution of undersea mining in Sanshandao Gold Mine indicate that the fractal dimension of plastic zone (FDPZ) where the failure characteristics occur is 1.4598, close to the result of similar simulation experiment of 1.4364, which shows the sign of water inrush. Meanwhile, the thickness of the isolation roof for undersea mining should be more than 40 m, which is consistent with the results of similar simulation experiment. In Sanshandao Gold Mine, the rock fissures in undersea mining were observed by borehole photography and the rock mass deformation was monitored by multi-point displacement meters, and at the same time the fractal dimensions of strata borehole fissure distribution and energy release ratio (ERR) of rock mass were calculated by fractal principle, which are 1.2328 and 1.2685, respectively. The results demonstrate that rock deformation and fissure propagation are both in the second stage of fissure growth, and have not reached the fourth stage of fracture instability. Therefore, the conclusion can be obtained that the undersea mining in Sanshandao Gold Mine is safe at present.

Targeted gene mutation by allelic replacement is important for functional genomic analysis and metabolic engineering. However, it is challenging in mutating the essential genes with the traditional method by using a selection marker, since the first step of essential gene knockout will result in a lethal phenotype. Here, we developed a two-end selection marker (Two-ESM) method for site-directed mutation of essential genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with the aid of the CRISPR/Cas9 system. With this method, single and double mutations of the essential gene ERG20 (encoding farnesyl diphosphate synthase) in S. cerevisiae were successfully constructed with high efficiencies of 100%. In addition, the Two-ESM method significantly improved the mutation efficiency and simplified the genetic manipulation procedure compared with traditional methods. The genome integration and mutation efficiencies were further improved by dynamic regulation of mutant gene expression and optimization of the integration modules. This Two-ESM method will facilitate the construction of genomic mutations of essential genes for functional genomic analysis and metabolic flux regulation in yeasts. KEY POINTS: • A Two-ESM strategy achieves mutations of essential genes with high efficiency of 100%. • The optimized three-module method improves the integration efficiency by more than three times. • This method will facilitate the functional genomic analysis and metabolic flux regulation.

Background The psychometric properties of the simplified Chinese version of the Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) have not been assessed. Therefore, we aimed to assess its validity, reliability, and responsiveness. Patients and methods A Chinese version of the PRO-CTCAE and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) were distributed to 1580 patients from four cancer hospitals in China. Validity assessments included construct validity, measured by Pearson’s correlations and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and known-groups validity, measured by t-tests. The assessment of reliability included internal consistency, measured by Cronbach’s ɑ, and test-retest reliability, measured by the intraclass correlation (ICC). Responsiveness was assessed by standardized response means (SRMs). Results Data from 1555 patients who completed the instruments were analyzed. The correlations were high between PRO-CTCAE items and parallel QLQ-C30 symptom scales (r > 0.60, p r = 0.49). Moreover, CFA showed the PRO-CTCAE structure was a good fit with the data (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.046). Known-groups validity was also confirmed. Cronbach’s ɑ of all item clusters were greater than 0.9 and the median test-retest reliability coefficients of the 38 items were 0.85 (range = 0.71–0.91). In addition, the SRMs of PRO-CTCAE items were greater than 0.8, indicating strong responsiveness. Conclusion The simplified Chinese version of the PRO-CTCAE showed good reliability, validity, and responsiveness.

Fabrication of easily recyclable photocatalyst with excellent photocatalytic activity for degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater is highly desirable for practical application. In this study, a novel ternary magnetic photocatalyst BiVO4/Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide (BiVO4/Fe3O4/rGO) was synthesized via a facile hydrothermal strategy. The BiVO4/Fe3O4 with 0.5 wt% of rGO (BiVO4/Fe3O4/0.5% rGO) exhibited superior activity, degrading greater than 99% Rhodamine B (RhB) after 120 min solar light radiation. The surface morphology and chemical composition of BiVO4/Fe3O4/rGO were studied by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The free radicals scavenging experiments demonstrated that hole (h+) and superoxide radical (O2•−) were the dominant species for RhB degradation over BiVO4/Fe3O4/rGO under solar light. The reusability of this composite catalyst was also investigated after five successive runs under an external magnetic field. The BiVO4/Fe3O4/rGO composite was easily separated, and the recycled catalyst retained high photocatalytic activity. This study demonstrates that catalyst BiVO4/Fe3O4/rGO possessed high dye removal efficiency in water treatment with excellent recyclability from water after use. The current study provides a possibility for more practical and sustainable photocatalytic process.

Moire superlattices provide a powerful way to engineer the properties of electrons and excitons in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures1–8. The moire effect can be especially strong for interlayer excitons, where electrons and holes reside in different layers and can be addressed separately. In particular, it was recently proposed that the moire superlattice potential not only localizes interlayer exciton states at different superlattice positions, but also hosts an emerging moire quasi-angular momentum (QAM) that periodically switches the optical selection rules for interlayer excitons at different moire sites9,10. Here, we report the observation of multiple interlayer exciton states coexisting in a WSe2/WS2 moire superlattice and unambiguously determine their spin, valley and moire QAM through novel resonant optical pump–probe spectroscopy and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. We demonstrate that interlayer excitons localized at different moire sites can exhibit opposite optical selection rules due to the spatially varying moire QAM. Our observation reveals new opportunities to engineer interlayer exciton states and valley physics with moire superlattices for optoelectronic and valleytronic applications. Stacked 2D materials can host excitons with distinct valley selection rules due to the spatial variation of the moire pattern. The authors demonstrate this via optical spectroscopy, opening a route for control of optoelectronic devices.

In order to improve the efficiency of classification of rock mass blastability, a method for classification of rock mass blastability based on concept lattice and rough set was proposed. Four control factors of rock mass blastability, i.e. specific gravity, static tensile strength, integrity coefficient of rock mass, and dynamic strength under impact, were selected as the evaluation indexes. The concept lattice was used to analyze and reduced the index, and two irreducible indexes of specific gravity and dynamic strength under impact were obtained, then the rules of classification of rock mass blastability were generate through rough set. The rules of classification of rock mass blastability were applied to the classification of rock mass blastability in Nanfen open pit iron mine, and compared with the other three classification methods. The results show that the classification results using method for classification of rock mass blastability based on concept lattice and rough set in accordance with which from the other classification methods. This method reduces the classification index, and does not need to determine the index weight. It improves the efficiency of classification of rock mass blastability.

Structural and stratigraphic discontinuities, such as faults and channels, generally contribute to the construction of traps and reservoirs. Spectral decomposition can utilize the sensitivities of different frequency components to different geological conditions to identify these geological anomalies. The sparse inverse spectral decomposition (SISD) involves a sparse constraint of time–frequency spectra, and one critical parameter is the sparsity which determines the time–frequency resolution. A small sparsity gives a low temporal resolution result that cannot be used for thin-bed detection. Conversely, a large sparsity provides a high-resolution result, but it may lose weak reflection signals. The complex geological conditions in the subsurface will lead to some difficulties in detecting the discontinuities by using the SISD method with a fixed sparsity. To address this issue, we propose multi-sparsity-based spectral attributes by fusing the amplitude spectra results of three different sparsities to detect subsurface discontinuities. Compared with the fixed sparsity, the multi-sparsity-based spectral attributes can detect more geological details and highlight geological edges more clearly. The application on a 3D real data with an area of 230 km2 from deep formation in Northwest China exhibits its effectiveness in discontinuity detection. The proposed method can detect the weak or small hidden geological details more and better than the fixed sparsity method, suggesting that it may serve as a future tool for detecting the distribution of geological abnormalities in subsurface.

Our aim was to examine existing literature, and determine if there are outcome differences between accelerated corneal collagen cross-linking (A-CXL) and conventional corneal collagen cross-linking (C-CXL). A systematic review of the literature was conducted examining studies which compared A-CXL to C-CXL. Available studies were combined and the weighted mean difference (WMD) was calculated for range of outcome measures including maximal keratometry (Kmax), mean keratometry (Kmean) and minimum keratometry (Kmin), spherical equivalent, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and central corneal thickness (CCT). Seven eligible studies were included in our meta-analysis, with 283 eyes (135 in A-CXLand 148 in C-CXL). In the combined analysis, there was no statistically significant difference observed in Kmin or Kmax between A-CXL and C-CXL for at least 6 months after the procedure. Kmean was statistically higher in the C-CXL group in comparison with the A-CXL group for at least 6 months after the procedure (WMD − 3.15, 95% CI − 4.34 to − 1.97, p

White organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) were fabricated by using a highly blue fluorescent dye of 4,4’-bis(2,2’-diphenyl vinyl)-1,1’-biphenyl (DPVBi) and a red fluorescent dye of 5H-benzo[ij] quinolizin-9-yl) ethenyl]-4H-pyran-4-ylidene] propane-dinitrile (DCM2), together with a green fluorescent dye of 10-(2-benzothiazolyl)-2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1,1,7,7-tetramethyl-1H,5H,11H-(1)-benzopyroyran-o(6,7-8-i,j) quinolizin-11-one (C545T). The multilayer WOLEDs does not involve the doping process. The structure of the device is indium tin oxide (ITO)/4,4’,4”-tris{N,-(3-methylphenyl)-N-phenylamin}triphenylamine (m-MTDATA) (55 nm)/ N,N’-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N,N’-diphenyl-1,1’-biph-enyl-4,4’-diamine (NPB) (10 nm)/ DPVBi (8 nm)/ C545T (x nm)/ DPVBi (5 nm)/ DCM2 (y nm)/ tris- (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) (60nm)/ LiF (1 nm)/ Al, where the DPVBi is introduced as a spacer. By changing the thicknesses of dual ultrathin layers of C545T and DCM2, the WOLED is obtained. When x=y=0.05, the Commission Internationale de 1’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of the device change from (0.262 6, 0.351 4) at 4 V to (0.214 7, 0.269 3) at 12 V that are well in the white region. Its maximum luminance is 41400 cd/m2 at 13 V, and the maximum current efficiency and the maximum power efficiency are 7.95 cd/A at 6 V and 5.37 lm/W at 5 V, respectively.

Accumulating evidence indicates that post-injury inflammation characterized by activated microglia contributes much to the neuropathology of ischemic injury. Several studies have demonstrated that microglia exhibit two entirely different functional activation states, referred to as classically activated (M1) and alternatively activated (M2) phenotype. Promoting microglial phenotype to switch from M1 dominant to M2 dominant might be a promising approach for handling ischemic injury. However, the comprehensive mechanism that underlines microglia polarization in ischemic brain remains unclear. Neuronal erythropoietin-producing human hepatocellular carcinoma cell receptor 4 (EphA4), the richest Eph receptor in the central nervous system (CNS), upregulate after ischemia and may have the potential to regulate microglia activation. We hypothesized that modulating EphA4/ephrin signaling could affect ischemic injury through controlling microglia polarization. We therefore knocked down neuronal EphA4 with short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and determined the role of EphA4/ephrin signaling in oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R)-induced injury. We found that EphA4 shRNA treatment attenuated OGD/R-induced apoptosis and microglia proliferation. Neuronal EphA4 knockdown also promoted microglial M2 polarization, which reduced pro-inflammatory mediators and released anti-inflammatory cytokines as well as neurotrophic factors. We further revealed that EphA4 shRNA treatment functioned through RhoA/Rho-associated kinase 2 (ROCK2) signaling, a key mediator of microglia alternative activation. Together, these data suggested that blockage of EphA4/ephrin signaling between neuron and microglia decreased OGD/R-induced injury by promoting alternative activation of microglia via RhoA/ROCK2 signaling.

The stochastic resonance (SR) of a second-order harmonic oscillator subject to mass fluctuation and periodic modulated noise in viscous media is studied. The mass fluctuation noise is modeled as dichotomous noise and the memory of viscous media is characterized by fractional power kernel function. By using the Shapiro–Loginov formula and Laplace transform, we got the analytical expression of the first moment of the steady-state response and studied the relationship between the system response and the system parameters in the long-time limit. The simulation results show the non-monotonic dependence between the response amplitude and the input signal frequency, noise parameters of the system, etc, which indicates that the bona fide resonance and the generalized SR phenomena appear. Furthermore, the mass fluctuation noise, modulation noise, and the fractional order work together, producing more complex dynamic phenomena than the integral-order system. For example, there is a transition from bimodal resonance to unimodal resonance between the amplitude and the driving frequency under different fractional orders.

Background Clinopodium gracile (Benth.) Matsum (C. gracile) is an annual herb with pharmacological properties effective in the treatment of various diseases, including hepatic carcinoma. Triterpenoid saponins are crucial bioactive compounds in C. gracile. However, the molecular understanding of the triterpenoid saponin biosynthesis pathway remains unclear. Results In this study, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of the flowers, leaves, roots, and stems of C. gracile plants using the BGISEQ-500 platform. The assembly of transcripts from all four types of tissues generated 128,856 unigenes, of which 99,020 were mapped to several public databases for functional annotation. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified via the comparison of gene expression levels between leaves and other tissues (flowers, roots, and stems). Multiple genes encoding pivotal enzymes, such as squalene synthase (SS), or transcription factors (TFs) related to triterpenoid saponin biosynthesis were identified and further analyzed. The expression levels of unigenes encoding important enzymes were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Different chemical constituents of triterpenoid saponins were identified by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS). Conclusions Our results greatly extend the public transcriptome dataset of C. gracile and provide valuable information for the identification of candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of triterpenoid saponins and other important secondary metabolites.

Floquet states, where a periodic optical field coherently drives electrons in solids1–3, can enable novel quantum states of matter4–6. A prominent approach to realize Floquet states is based on the optical Stark effect. Previous studies on the optical Stark effect often treated the excited state in solids as free quasi-particles3,7–12. However, exciton–exciton interactions can be sizeably enhanced in low-dimensional systems and may lead to light–matter interactions that are qualitatively different from those in the non-interacting picture. Here we use monolayer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) as a model system to demonstrate that the driving optical field can couple a hierarchy of excitonic states, and the many-body inter-valley biexciton state plays a dominant role in the optical Stark effect. Specifically, the exciton–biexciton coupling in monolayer MoSe2 breaks down the valley selection rules based on the non-interacting exciton picture. The photon-dressed excitonic states exhibit an energy redshift, splitting or blueshift as the driving photon frequency varies below the exciton transition. We determine a binding energy of 21 meV for the inter-valley biexciton and a transition dipole moment of 9.3 debye for the exciton–biexciton transition. Our study reveals the crucial role of many-body effects in coherent light–matter interaction in atomically thin two-dimensional materials. Light–matter interactions in monolayer MoSe2 can be dramatically modified by the interactions between the excitonic states, leading to a rich set of light-driven coherent phenomena.

An estimated 5–10% of breast and ovarian cancers are due to hereditary causes such as hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndrome. Medicare, the third-party payer that covers 44 million patients in the United States, has implemented a set of clinical criteria to determine coverage for the testing of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These criteria, developed to identify carriers of BRCA1/2 variants, have not been evaluated in the panel testing era. This study investigated a series of Medicare patients undergoing genetic testing for HBOC to determine the efficacy of genetic testing criteria in identifying patients with hereditary risk. This study retrospectively examined de-identified data from a consecutive series of Medicare patients undergoing genetic testing based on personal and family history of breast and gynecologic cancer. Ordering clinicians indicated whether patients did or did not meet established criteria for BRCA1/2 genetic testing. The genetic test results were compared between the group that met the criteria and the group that did not. Patients in families with known pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) variants were excluded from the primary analysis. Among 4196 unique Medicare patients, the rate of P/LP variants for the patients who met the criteria for genetic testing was 10.5%, and for those who did not, the rate was 9% (p = 0.26). The results of this study indicate that a substantial number of Medicare patients with clinically actionable genetic variants are being missed by current testing criteria and suggest the need for significant expansion and simplification of the testing criteria for HBOC.

Core needle biopsy (CNB) and vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB) are both popularly used breast percutaneous biopsies. Both of them have become reliable alternatives to open surgical biopsy (OSB) for breast microcalcification (BM). It is controversial that which biopsy method is more accurate and safer for BM. Hence, we conducted this meta-analysis to compare the diagnostic performance between CNB and VAB for BM, aiming to find out the better method. Articles according with including and excluding criteria were collected from the databases, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Preset outcomes were abstracted and pooled to find out the potential advantages in CNB or VAB. Seven studies were identified and entered final meta-analysis from initially found 138 studies. The rate of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) underestimation was significantly lower in VAB than CNB group [risk ratio (RR) = 1.83, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.40 to 2.40, p

Antero-inferior temporal lobe meningoencephaloceles are a rare, but increasingly recognized cause of drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). In order to evaluate whether these lesions are related to idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), we analyzed clinical and MRI findings of a cohort of patients undergoing presurgical work-up. Seizure onset in the anterior temporal lobe was proven by EEG electrodes in 22 patients, and in 21 patients, anterior temporal lobectomy (mostly with sparing of the hippocampus) was performed. MRI signs of IIH (in particular empty sella) and the volumes of the ventricles and external CSF spaces were determined and related to the body mass index (BMI) and clinical outcome. Six of seven obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2) compared to four of 15 non-obese patients had partial empty or empty sella (p = 0.007). Bilateral lesions were found in all obese and 11 patients. Seizure freedom (Engel class 1A) was achieved in 12 of 21 patients (5 obese compared to 7 non-obese patients). BMI was related to the volume of the external CSF spaces (r = 0.467), and age at seizure onset was higher in obese patients. Roughly a third of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy due to antero-inferior meningoencephaloceles is obese and has MRI signs of idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition are predicted to increase in northern China. The present paper aimed to better understand how different dominant species in semi-arid grasslands in this region vary in their litter decomposition and nutrient release responses to increases in precipitation and N deposition. Above-ground litter of three dominant species (two grasses, Agropyron cristatum and Stipa krylovii, and one forb, Artemisia frigida) was collected from areas without experimental treatments in a semi-arid grassland in Inner Mongolia. Litter decomposition was studied over three years to determine the effects of water and N addition on litter decomposition rate and nutrient dynamics. Litter mass loss and nutrient release were faster for the forb species than for the two grasses during decomposition. Both water and N addition increased litter mass loss of the grass A. cristatum, while the treatments showed no impacts on that of the forb A. frigida. Supplemental N had time-dependent, positive effects on litter mass loss of the grass S. krylovii. During the three-year decomposition study, the release of N from litter was inhibited by N addition for the three species, and it was promoted by water addition for the two grasses. Across all treatments, N and potassium (K) were released from the litter of all three species, whereas calcium (Ca) was accumulated. Phosphorus (P) and magnesium (Mg) were released from the forb litter but accumulated in the grass litter after three years of decomposition. Our findings revealed that the litter decomposition response to water and N supplementation differed among dominant plant species in a semi-arid grassland, indicating that changes in dominant plant species induced by projected increases in precipitation and N deposition are likely to affect litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and further biogeochemical cycles in this grassland. The asynchronous nutrient release of different species’ litter found in the present study highlights the complexity of nutrient replenishment from litter decomposition in the temperate steppe under scenarios of enhancing precipitation and N deposition.

In precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients, we sought to (1) investigate the relationship between ventricular insertion point (VIP) T1 times, hemodynamic parameters, and biventricular function, and (2) determine the predictors of anterior and inferior VIP T1 time. Twenty-two patients with precapillary PH underwent 1.5-T cardiac MR, right heart catheterization (RHC), and echocardiography. A group of 10 healthy age- and sex-matched volunteers served as controls. Biventricular function, morphology and mass were obtained from short-axis cine images. Native T1 times at anterior, inferior VIP, septum and LV lateral wall were respectively derived from all subjects. Mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) was the strongest hemodynamic parameters correlating with anterior (rp = -0.67, P = 0.001) and inferior VIP T1 time (rp = -0.81, P

The Tilt-depth method has been widely used to determinate the source depth of a magnetic anomaly. In the present study, we deduce similar Tilt-depth methods for both magnetic and gravity data based on the contact and sphere models and obtain the same equation for a gravity anomaly as that for a magnetic anomaly. The theoretical equations and the model tests show that the routine Tilt-depth method would result in unreliable depth estimation for deep sources. This is due to that the contact model is no longer valid for causative sources under the condition in which the depths of causative sources are significantly larger than their horizontal lengths. Accordingly, we suggest that the Tilt-depth derived from the contact model can be used to detect a shallow source, whereas the Tilt-depth derived from the sphere model can be used to detect a deep source. We propose a weighting method based on the estimated depths from both the contact model and the sphere model to estimate the depth for real data. The model tests suggest that the determined depths from the contact model and the sphere model are shallower and deeper, respectively, than the real depth, while the estimated depth from the proposed method is more close to the actual depth. In the application to the Weigang iron ore located in Jiangsu province, China, the routine Tilt-depth method results in −76% relative error, whereas the proposed method obtains the reliable depth estimation compared with the drill holes. In addition, the proposed method works well in the application for the Shijiaquan iron ore located in Shandong province, China. These results indicate that the proposed weighting equation is a general improvement.

We report a small molecule host of 4,4(-N,N)-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) doped with 8% tris(2-phenylpyridine) iridium (Irppy3) for use in efficient green phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PHOLEDs) combined with different electron transport layers of Alq and BAlq. The PHOLEDs exhibit maximum current efficiency and power efficiency of 19.8 cd/A and 6.21 lm/W, respectively. The high performance of such PHOLEDs is attributed to the better electron mobile ability of BAlq and sub-monolayer quinacridone (QAD) as carrier trapping layer and equal charge carrier mobilities of hole and electron to form the broad carrier recombination zone in the emitting layer, which can reduce the triplet-triplet annihilation and improve the efficiency of the device.

During the extrusion process of aluminum alloy profiles, scientific and reasonable design of extrusion dies affects directly on the product qualified rate, production efficiency, and cost. In this work, for a 7N01 aluminum alloy beam profile used in high-speed train, the response surface method (RSM) and mesh deformation technique (MDT) are applied to automatically optimize the feeder chamber of the extrusion die. With implanted material physical properties and constitutive model of this alloy, the numerical simulation of the extrusion process is firstly carried out and verified experimentally. Then, RSM is used to optimize seven different geometric variables of the feeder chamber and to narrow the variables’ ranges. On the basis of above optimization, MDT is finally applied to automatically optimize the feeder chamber. After optimization, the velocity distribution in the cross section of the profile tends to more uniform. The standard deviation of the velocity field decreases from 7.83 to 2.47 mm/s with the reducing rate of 68.46%. More importantly, the automatic optimization process with mesh deformation technique is explored in this work, which could provide an effective and potential means for the automatic optimization design of three-dimensional dies or products in other fields.

The organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) using 4,4’,4”-tris{N-(3-methylphenyl)-N-phenylamin}triphenylamine (m-MTDATA) and MoO3 or 1,3,5-triazo-2,4,6-triphosphorine-2,2,4,4,6,6-tetrachloride (TAPC) and MoO3 as the hole-injection layer (HIL) were fabricated. MoO3 can be expected to be a good injection layer material and thus enhance the emission performance of OLED. The highest occupied molecular (HOMO) of MoO3 is between those of m-MTDATA or TAPC and N,N’-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N,N’-diphenyl-1,1’-biphenyl-4,4’-diamine (NPB), which reduces the hole-injection barrier and improves the luminance of the OLEDs. The current efficiency is improved compared with that of the device without the MoO3 layer. The highest luminous efficiency of the device with 2-nm-thick MoO3 as HIL is achieved as 5.27 cd/A at 10 V, which is nearly 1.2 times larger than that of the device without it. Moreover, the highest current efficiency and power efficiency of the device with the structure indium-tin oxide (ITO)/TAPC (40 nm)/MoO3 (2 nm)/TcTa:Ir(ppy)3 (10%, 10 nm)/ tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium (Alq) (60 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al are achieved as 37.15 cd/A and 41.23 lm/W at 3.2 V and 2.8 V, respectively.