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Background Clinical instructional strategies and the climate in which teaching and learning take place have a significant impact on the quality of dental education. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of early microsurgery training on the skills of dental intern students who are planning to join an oral and maxillofacial surgical field (DIS) as compared with junior residents within an oral and maxillofacial surgery department who had no microsurgery experience (JR). Methods A total of 100 trainees, 70 were DIS, while the other 30 were JR. The average age was 23.87 ± 2.05 years for DIS group and 31.05 ± 3.06 for JR group. All trainees attended a microsurgical course (theoretical and practical parts) for seven days within a Microvascular Laboratory for Research and Education of a university-affiliated tertiary hospital. Two blinded examiners had assessed the performance of trainees independently using a specific scoring system. The independent sample t-test was used to compare the effect of microsurgery training between DIS and JR groups. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results The DIS group had showed higher attendance rate than JR group (p Conclusion Overall, the performance of dental intern students was favourably compared with junior residents in most aspects. Therefore, it is promising and essential for dental colleges to add a microsurgery course to the curriculum of dental intern students who plan to specialize in oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Human diseases, particularly infectious diseases and cancers, pose unprecedented challenges to public health security and the global economy. The development and distribution of novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines are the prioritized countermeasures of human disease. Among all vaccine platforms, viral vector vaccines offer distinguished advantages and represent prominent choices for pathogens that have hampered control efforts based on conventional vaccine approaches. Currently, viral vector vaccines remain one of the best strategies for induction of robust humoral and cellular immunity against human diseases. Numerous viruses of different families and origins, including vesicular stomatitis virus, rabies virus, parainfluenza virus, measles virus, Newcastle disease virus, influenza virus, adenovirus and poxvirus, are deemed to be prominent viral vectors that differ in structural characteristics, design strategy, antigen presentation capability, immunogenicity and protective efficacy. This review summarized the overall profile of the design strategies, progress in advance and steps taken to address barriers to the deployment of these viral vector vaccines, simultaneously highlighting their potential for mucosal delivery, therapeutic application in cancer as well as other key aspects concerning the rational application of these viral vector vaccines. Appropriate and accurate technological advances in viral vector vaccines would consolidate their position as a leading approach to accelerate breakthroughs in novel vaccines and facilitate a rapid response to public health emergencies.

Compared to general anisotropic rocks, the contact zone composite rock composed of strong and weak rocks has distinct characteristics in terms of structure and physical and mechanical properties. The uniaxial compression test of composite specimens with different degrees of material difference λ and interface inclination angle θ = 0° ~ 90° were carried out to study the effect of material difference and inclination angle on the anisotropy of strength, deformation and damage evolution with acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. The results show that the UCS, elastic modulus, σci and σcd of the composite specimen roughly show U-shaped anisotropy. The damage evolution characteristics of two materials and inclined interface vary regularly with the inclination angle. There is differential deformation between the two materials, which forms the relative sliding tendency between the materials that changes with the inclination angle. The degree of relative sliding at different angles is 60° > 45° > 75° > 90° > 30° > 0°. The composite specimen has three types of failure modes: weak material failure mode (0° ~ 30°), interface shear mode (60°) and composite mode (45°, 75° ~ 90°). The anisotropy of the composite specimen is comprehensively affected by material difference and inclination angle. Increasing the material difference will increase the differential deformation and damage and relative sliding tendency between materials. Increasing the inclination angle will increase the shear stress on the interface and weaken the differential deformation and damage. Material difference affects the interface strength, which in turn affects the ability of the interface to resist shear failure and relative sliding.

This study focused on the performance and limitations of the local inertial approximation form model (LIM) of the shallow water equations (SWEs) when applied in urban flood modeling. A numerical scheme of the LIM equations was created using finite volume method with a first-order spatiotemporal Roe Riemann solver. A simplified urban stormwater model (SUSM) considering surface and underground dual drainage system was constructed based on LIM and the US Environmental Protection Agency Storm Water Management Model. Moreover, a complete urban stormwater model (USM) based on the SWEs with the same solution algorithm was used as the evaluation benchmark. Numerical results of the SUSM and USM in a highly urbanized area under four rainfall return periods were analyzed and compared. The results reveal that the performance of the SUSM is highly consistent with that of the USM but with an improvement in computational efficiency of approximately 140%. In terms of the accuracy of the model, the SUSM slightly underestimates the water depth and velocity and is less accurate when dealing with supercritical flow in urban stormwater flood modeling. Overall, the SUSM can produce comparable results to USM with higher computational efficiency, which provides a simplified and alternative method for urban flood modeling.

Existing models of bulk modulus for aerated hydraulic fluids primarily focus on the effects of pressure and air fraction, whereas the effect of temperature on bulk modulus is disregarded. Based on the lumped parameter method and the full cavitation model, combined with the improved Henry’s law and the air polytropic course equation, a theoretical model of dynamic bulk modulus for an aerated hydraulic fluid is derived. The effects of system pressure, air fraction, and temperature on bulk modulus are investigated using the controlled variable method. The results show that the dynamic bulk modulus of the aerated hydraulic fluid is inconsistent during the compression process. At the same pressure point, the dynamic bulk modulus during expansion is higher than that during compression. Under the same initial air faction and pressure changing period, a higher temperature results in a lower dynamic bulk modulus. When the pressure is lower, the dynamic bulk modulus of each temperature point is more similar to each other. By comparing the theoretical results with the actual dynamic bulk modulus of the Shell Tellus S ISO32 standard air-containing oil, the goodness-of-fit between the theoretical model and experimental value at three temperatures is 0.9726, 0.9732, and 0.9675, which validates the theoretical model. In this study, a calculation model of dynamic bulk modulus that considers temperature factors is proposed. It predicts the dynamic bulk modulus of aerated hydraulic fluids at different temperatures and provides a theoretical basis for improving the analytical model of bulk modulus.

Macrophage-mediated inflammation plays an important role in hypertensive cardiac remodeling, whereas effective pharmacological treatments targeting cardiac inflammation remain unclear. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) contributes to vascular inflammation-related diseases by mediating macrophage migration and activation. Darapladib, the most advanced Lp-PLA2 inhibitor, has been evaluated in phase III trials in atherosclerosis patients. However, the role of darapladib in inhibiting hypertensive cardiac fibrosis remains unknown. Using a murine angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion-induced hypertension model, we found that Pla2g7 (the gene of Lp-PLA2) was the only upregulated PLA2 gene detected in hypertensive cardiac tissue, and it was primarily localized in heart-infiltrating macrophages. As expected, darapladib significantly prevented Ang II-induced cardiac fibrosis, ventricular hypertrophy, and cardiac dysfunction, with potent abatement of macrophage infiltration and inflammatory response. RNA sequencing revealed that darapladib strongly downregulated the expression of genes and signaling pathways related to inflammation, extracellular matrix, and proliferation. Moreover, darapladib substantially reduced the Ang II infusion-induced expression of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor with pyrin domain 3 (NLRP3) and interleukin (IL)-1β and markedly attenuated caspase-1 activation in cardiac tissues. Furthermore, darapladib ameliorated Ang II-stimulated macrophage migration and IL-1β secretion in macrophages by blocking NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Darapladib also effectively blocked macrophage-mediated transformation of fibroblasts into myofibroblasts by inhibiting the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages. Overall, our study identifies a novel anti-inflammatory and anti-cardiac fibrosis role of darapladib in Lp-PLA2 inhibition, elucidating the protective effects of suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Lp-PLA2 inhibition by darapladib represents a novel therapeutic strategy for hypertensive cardiac damage treatment.

As a typical class of crystalline porous materials, metal–organic framework possesses unique features including versatile functionality, structural and compositional tunability. After being reduced to two-dimension, ultrathin metal-organic framework layers possess more external excellent properties favoring various technological applications. In this review article, the unique structural properties of the ultrathin metal-organic framework nanosheets benefiting from the planar topography were highlighted, involving light transmittance, and electrical conductivity. Moreover, the design strategy and versatile fabrication methodology were summarized covering discussions on their applicability and accessibility, especially for porphyritic metal-organic framework nanosheet. The current achievements in the bioapplications of two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks were presented comprising biocatalysis, biosensor, and theranostic, with an emphasis on reactive oxygen species-based nanomedicine for oncology treatment. Furthermore, current challenges confronting the utilization of two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks and future opportunities in emerging research frontiers were presented. Graphical Abstract

Crabs may elicit effects on wetland carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) concentrations and associated ecological stoichiometry. In this study, we assessed effects of crabs on carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions; soil C, N, and P concentrations; and stoichiometry in upper and mid-tidal flats of an estuarine wetland in China. The results showed that averaged CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes were greater in the upper and mid-tidal flats in the presence of crabs, being 46.4, 66.7, and 69.7% and 53.6, 143, and 73.1% greater than control, respectively. Mixed model analyses showed overall positive relationships between wetland soil CO2 CH4 and N2O emissions (F = 4.65, P = 0.033; F = 42.42, P = 0.042 and F = 10.2, P = 0.0018, respectively) in the presence of crabs, taking into account season, flooding intensity, and plot effects. This may be related to the direct effects of respiration and the indirect effects of feeding, excretion, and disturbance of soil on microorganisms and/or plant roots. There were no effects of crabs on total C or N concentrations, whereas decreased soil total P concentrations, especially in the upper-tidal flats (P = 0.04). Crab presence was positively associated with soil C/P and N/P ratios (P

The spatial and temporal variability of soil CO2 emissions from agricultural soils is inherently high. While tillage and crop residue practices play vital roles in governing soil CO2 emission, their effects on the variability of soil CO2 fluxes across depths and seasons are still poorly understood. To address this, an experiment consisting of four treatments, namely conventional tillage with (CT+) and without crop residue application (CT−), as well as no tillage with (NT+) and without crop residue application (NT−), was conducted to investigate soil CO2 fluxes at top 40 cm soils with 10-cm depth intervals in a winter wheat-summer maize rotation system in the North China Plain. Our results showed soil CO2 fluxes increased with depth in both the wheat- and maize-growing seasons. However, the dominant factors in regulating soil CO2 fluxes changed with soil depth and seasons. In the wheat-growing season, increase in soil CO2 fluxes with depth was attributed to the increase of dissolved organic carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (DOC/DON) and a decline in soil DON concentration along the soil profile. These factors explained about 55–96% of the total variation in soil CO2 fluxes at different soil depths. In the maize-growing season, the dominant factors were soil DOC/DON ratio, soil DON concentrations, and soil moisture. These factors explained approximately 79–96% of the total variation in soil CO2 fluxes along the soil depth. Greater soil CO2 fluxes (except at 30–40 cm depth) were observed in NT− than CT− treatments. Furthermore, crop residue application enhanced soil CO2 fluxes across different depths, but the enhancement was more prominent in CT+ than NT+. Moreover, soil CO2 fluxes in the maize-growing season were greater than those in the wheat-growing season. Our results demonstrate that the effects of tillage regimes and crop residue management practices on soil CO2 emissions are not confined only to the plough layer but can extend to soils of over 30 cm depths. We also need to revisit the general conventional view that no tillage can significantly reduce soil CO2 emissions compared with conventional tillage for better climate change mitigation.

The deformation and failure of composite rock masses at the contact zone can cause serious safety hazards in underground engineering. Therefore, uniaxial compression experiment and numerical studies of composite samples were conducted. Combined with theoretical analysis, the effects of differences in the mechanical properties of two media on the mechanical properties and failure form of composite samples were investigated. The results show that the difference in mechanical properties of two media weakened the strength and elastic modulus of the composite sample and resulted in complex failure form of the sample. Additionally, the peaks of the AE frequencies of the two media occurred successively after the peak stress of the sample. At the macrolevel, the two media failed successively. These effects are more pronounced as the degree of difference in the mechanical properties of the two media increased. The difference in mechanical properties of the two media resulted in uncoordinated deformation and constrained stress near the contact interface, and the difference in Poisson’s ratio is the main factor. The influence (enhanced or weakened) of uncoordinated deformation on the mechanical properties of the composite sample is affected by differences in the elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratios of the two media.

Background and objectives Circulating branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) increase the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The genetic variants in the BCAA metabolic pathway influence the individual metabolic ability of BCAAs and may affect circulating BCAA levels together with dietary intakes. So, we investigated whether genetic predisposition to impaired BCAA metabolism interacts with dietary BCAA intakes on the risk of type 2 diabetes and related parameters. Methods We estimated dietary BCAA intakes among 434 incident T2D cases and 434 age-matched controls from The Harbin Cohort Study on Diet, Nutrition and Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases. The genetic risk score (GRS) was calculated on the basis of 5 variants having been identified in the BCAA metabolic pathway. Multivariate logistic regression models and general linear regression models were used to assess the interaction between dietary BCAAs and GRS on T2D risk and HbA1c. Results Dietary BCAAs significantly interact with metabolism related GRS on T2D risk and HbA1c (p for interaction = 0.038 and 0.015, respectively). A high intake of dietary BCAAs was positively associated with diabetes incidence only among high GRS (OR 2.40, 95% CI 1.39, 4.12, P for trend = 0.002). Dietary BCAAs were associated with 0.14% elevated HbA1c (p = 0.003) and this effect increased to 0.21% in high GRS (p = 0.003). Furthermore, GRS were associated with 9.19 μmol/L higher plasma BCAA levels (p = 0.006, P for interaction = 0.015) only among the highest BCAA intake individuals. Conclusions Our study suggests that genetic predisposition to BCAA metabolism disorder modifies the effect of dietary BCAA intakes on T2D risk as well as HbA1c and that higher BCAA intakes exert an unfavorable effect on type 2 diabetes risk and HbA1c only among those with high genetic susceptibility.

Angelica decursiva is one of the lending traditional Chinese medicinal plants producing coumarins. Notably, several studies have focused on the biosynthesis and not the RT-qPCR (quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) study of coumarins. This RT-qPCR technique has been extensively used to investigate gene expression levels in plants and the selection of reference genes which plays a crucial role in standardizing the data form the RT-qPCR analysis. In our study, 11 candidate reference genes were selected from the existing transcriptome data of Angelica decursiva. Here, four different types of statistical algorithms (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and Delta Ct) were used to calculate and evaluate the stability of gene expression under different external treatments. Subsequently, RefFinder analysis was used to determine the geometric average of each candidate gene ranking, and to perform comprehensive index ranking. The obtained results showed that among all the 11 candidate reference genes, SAND family protein (SAND), protein phosphatase 2A gene (PP2A), and polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTBP) were the most stable reference genes, where Nuclear cap binding protein 2 (NCBP2), TIP41-like protein (TIP41), and Beta-6-tubulin (TUBA) were the least stable genes. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to evaluate the stability of reference genes in the Angelica decursiva which has provided an important foundation on the use of RT-qPCR for an accurate and far-reaching gene expression analysis in this medicinal plant.

This paper presents a machine learning-based guidance (LbG) approach for kinesthetic human-robot interaction (HRI) that can be used in virtual training simulations. Demonstrated positional and force skills are learned to both discriminate the skill levels of users and produce LbG forces. Force information is obtained from virtual forces, which developed based on real computed tomography (CT) data, rather than force sensors. A femur bone drilling simulation is developed to provide a practice environment for orthopaedic residents. The residents are provided with haptic feedback that enable them to feel the variable stiffness of bone layers. The X-ray views of the bone are also presented to them for better tracking of a pre-defined path inside the bone. The simulation is capable of planning a drill path, generating X-rays based on user defined orientation, and recording motion data for user assessment and skill modeling. The knowledge of expert surgeons is also incorporated into the simulation to provide LbG forces for improving the unpredictable motions of the residents. To discriminate the skill level of users, machine learning tools are used to develop surgical expert and resident models. In addition, to improve residents performance, the expert HCRF is used to generate adaptive LbG forces regarding the similarities between residents motions and the expert model. Experimental results show that the learning-based approach is able to assess the skill of users and improve residents performance.

Aerobic methanotrophs in paddies serve as methane (CH4) filters and thereby reduce CH4 emissions. Amending soil with waste products can mitigate CH4 emissions in crops, but little is known about the impacts of amendments with steel slag and biochar on the populations and activities of aerobic methanotrophs in rice cropland. We used real-time quantitative PCR detecting system and high-throughput sequencing to determine the effects of slag and biochar amendments on CH4 emission, abundance, and community structure of methanotrophs, and the relationships between soil properties and the abundance and community composition of methanotrophs during the rice growing season in both early and late paddies. Soil salinity and pH were significantly higher for an amendment with both slag and biochar than the control in both the early and late paddies, and pH was significantly higher for a slag amendment in the late paddy. Cumulative CH4 emission was lower for the slag and slag + biochar amendments than the control in early paddy by—34.1%. Methanotrophic abundance was three- and sixfold higher for the slag + biochar amendment than the control in the early and late paddies (p

Steel slag, a by-product of the steel industry, contains high amounts of active iron oxide and silica which can act as an oxidizing agent in agricultural soils. Biochar is a rich source of carbon, and the combined application of biochar and steel slag is assumed to have positive impacts on soil properties as well as plant growth, which are yet to be validated scientifically. We conducted a field experiment for two rice paddies (early and late paddy) to determine the individual and combined effects of steel slag and biochar amendments on CO2, CH4, and N2O emission, and rice productivity in a subtropical paddy field of China. The amendments did not significantly affect rice yield. It was observed that CO2 was the main greenhouse gas emitted from all treatments of both paddies. Steel slag decreased the cumulative CO2 flux in the late paddy. Biochar as well as steel slag + biochar treatment decreased the cumulative CO2 flux in the late paddy and for the complete year (early and late paddy), while steel slag + biochar treatment also decreased the cumulative CH4 flux in the early paddy. The biochar, and steel slag + biochar amendments decreased the global warming potential (GWP). Interestingly, the cumulative annual GWP was lower for the biochar (55,422 kg CO2-eq ha−1), and steel slag + biochar (53,965 kg CO2-eq ha−1) treatments than the control (68,962 kg CO2-eq ha−1). Total GWP per unit yield was lower for the combined application of steel slag + biochar (8951 kg CO2-eq Mg−1 yield) compared to the control (12,805 kg CO2-eq Mg−1 yield). This study suggested that the combined application of steel slag and biochar could be an effective long-term strategy to reduce greenhouse gases emission from paddies without any detrimental effect on the yield.

We consider the elastic stress near a hole with corners in an infinite plate under biaxial stress. The elasticity problem is formulated using complex Goursat functions, resulting in a set of singular integro-differential equations on the boundary. The resulting boundary integral equations are solved numerically using a Chebyshev collocation method which is augmented by a fractional power term, derived by asymptotic analysis of the corner region, to resolve stress singularities at corners of the hole. We apply our numerical method to the test case of the hole formed by two partially overlapping circles, which can include either a corner pointing into the solid or a corner pointing out of the solid. Our numerical results recover the exact stress on the boundary to within relative error $$10^{-3}$$ for modest computational effort.

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs), such as WS2, are considered to have the potential for high-performance gas sensors. It is a pity that the interaction between gases and pristine 2D WS2 as the sensitive element is too weak so that the sensor response is difficult to detect. Herein, the sensing capabilities of Al- and P-doped WS2 to NO, NO2, and SO2 were evaluated. Especially, we considered selectivity to target gases and dopant concentration. Molecular models of the adsorption systems were constructed, and density functional theory (DFT) was used to explore the adsorption behaviors of these gases from the perspective of binding energy, band structure, and density of states (DOS). The results suggested that doping atoms could increase the adsorption strength between gas molecules and substrate. Besides, the sensitivity of P-doped WS2 to NO and NO2 was hardly affected by CO2 or H2O. The sensitivity of Al-doped WS2 to NO2 and SO2 was also hard to be affected by CO2 or H2O. For NO detection, the WS2 with 7.4% dopant concentration had better sensitive properties than that with a 3.7% dopant concentration. While for SO2, the result was just the opposite. This work provided a comprehensive reference for choosing appropriate dopants (concentration) into 2D materials for sensing noxious gases.

There are 11 Archimedean tilings in $$\mathbb {R}^{2}$$ . Let E(n) denote the ellipse of short half axis length n $$(n\in \mathbb {Z}^{+})$$ centered at an arbitrary vertex of the Archimedean tiling by regular polygons of edge length 1, and let $$\mathcal {N}(E(n))$$ denote the number of vertices of the Archimedean tiling that lie inside or on the boundary of E(n). In this paper, we present an algorithm to calculate the number $$\mathcal {N}(E(n))$$ , and get a unified formula $$\displaystyle \lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{\mathcal {N}(E(n))}{n^{2}}=m\cdot \frac{\pi }{S}$$ , where S is the area of the central polygon, and m is the ratio of long half axis length and short half axis length of the ellipse. Let $$\mathcal {C}$$ be a cube-tiling by cubes of edge length 1 in $$\mathbb {R}^{3}$$ , and the vertex of cube-tiling is called a C-point. Let S(n) denote the sphere of radius $$n(n\in \mathbb {Z}^{+})$$ centered at an arbitrary C-point, and let $$\mathcal {N}_{C}(S(n))$$ denote the number of C-points that lie inside or on the surface of S(n). In this paper, we present an algorithm to calculate the number $$\mathcal {N}_{C}(S(n))$$ and get a formula $$\displaystyle \lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{\mathcal {N}_{C}(S(n))}{n^{3}}=\frac{4\pi }{3V}$$ , where V is the volume of the cube.

Point-of-interest (POI) recommendation has attracted much interest recently because of its significant business potential. Data used in POI recommendation (e.g., user-location check-in matrix) are much more sparse than that used in traditional item (e.g., book and movie) recommendation, which leads to more serious cold start problem. Social POI recommendation has proved to be an effective solution, but most existing works assume that recommenders have access to all required data. This is very rare in practice because these data are generally owned by different entities who are not willing to share their data with others due to privacy and legal concerns. In this paper, we first propose PLAS, a protocol which enables effective POI recommendation without disclosing the sensitive data of every party getting involved in the recommendation. We formally show PLAS is secure in the semi-honest adversary model. To improve its performance. We then adopt the technique of cloaking area by which expensive distance computation over encrypted data is replaced by cheap operation over plaintext. In addition, we utilize the sparsity of check-ins to selectively publish data, thus reducing encryption cost and avoiding unnecessary computation over ciphertext. Experiments on two real datasets show that our protocol is feasible and can scale to large POI recommendation problems in practice.

Spatial crowdsourcing (SC) outsources tasks to a set of workers who are required to physically move to specified locations and accomplish tasks. Recently, it is emerging as a promising tool for emergency management, as it enables efficient and cost-effective collection of critical information in emergency such as earthquakes, when search and rescue survivors in potential ares are required. However in current SC systems, task locations and worker locations are all exposed in public without any privacy protection. SC systems if attacked thus have penitential risk of privacy leakage. In this paper, we propose a protocol for protecting the privacy for both workers and task requesters while maintaining the functionality of SC systems. The proposed protocol is built on partially homomorphic encryption schemes, and can efficiently realize complex operations required during task assignment over encrypted data through a well-designed computation strategy. We prove that the proposed protocol is privacy-preserving against semi-honest adversaries. Simulation on two real-world datasets shows that the proposed protocol is more effective than existing solutions and can achieve mutual privacy-preserving with acceptable computation and communication cost.

Individuals with narcolepsy suffer from abnormal sleep patterns due to loss of neurons that uniquely supply hypocretin (HCRT). Previous studies found associations of narcolepsy with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQ6 allele and T-cell receptor α (TRA) J24 gene segment and also suggested that in vitro-stimulated T cells can target HCRT. Here, we present evidence of in vivo expansion of DQ6-HCRT tetramer+/TRAJ24+/CD4+ T cells in DQ6+ individuals with and without narcolepsy. We identify related TRAJ24+ TCRαβ clonotypes encoded by identical α/β gene regions from two patients and two controls. TRAJ24-G allele+ clonotypes only expand in the two patients, whereas a TRAJ24-C allele+ clonotype expands in a control. A representative tetramer+/G-allele+ TCR shows signaling reactivity to the epitope HCRT87–97. Clonally expanded G-allele+ T cells exhibit an unconventional effector phenotype. Our analysis of in vivo expansion of HCRT-reactive TRAJ24+ cells opens an avenue for further investigation of the autoimmune contribution to narcolepsy development., T cells from narcolepsy patients were recently reported to recognize hypocretin, a wakefulness-promoting neurohormone, suggesting autoimmune origin of the disease. Here the authors show that hypocretin-specific T cells expand both in healthy controls and in narcolepsy patients, and identify preliminary features that may distinguish them.

Background Dental caries is still considered a major public health concern for human beings, especially minority groups and those living in disadvantaged communities. The Lisu is a minority group in China of more than 702,000 people located primarily in Yunnan Province. The present study was aimed at studying the status of dental caries status, as well as its risk factors, among Lisu children aged 5 years in Yunnan Province, China. Methods A multistage cluster sampling method was employed for participants’ recruitment. Two calibrated dentists carried out the clinical examination with dental mirrors and CPI probes under an LED headlight. The dental caries experience was assessed by the dmft index. Oral hygiene status was evaluated using the visible plaque index (VPI). Information on the child’s socio-demographic characteristics and oral health-related practices were collected using a parental questionnaire. A zero-inflated negative binomial regression (ZINB) was employed to analyse the associations between the dental caries status and the children’s social-demographic status and their oral health–related behaviours. Results In all, 470 Lisu children aged 5 were invited, and 404 were examined. Their mean dmft (±SD) and caries prevalence were 5.6 ± 4.8 and 80%, respectively. Their mean VPI scores were 58% ± 21%. Lisu children who brushed their teeth at least once daily had higher dmft scores, and children from high-income families were more likely to have dental caries. Conclusion The prevalence of dental caries among Lisu children aged 5 years in Yunnan, China was high, and their caries status was severe, with a majority of carious teeth untreated. The dental caries experience of Lisu children aged 5 was related to their brushing frequency and families’ economic backgrounds.

Taking advantage of the continuous spatial coverage, satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) products have been widely used to assess the spatial and temporal characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on the ground and their effects on human health. However, the national-scale ground-level PM2.5 estimation is still very limited because the lack of ground PM2.5 measurements to calibrate the model in China. In this study, a national-scale geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was developed to estimate ground-level PM2.5 concentration based on satellite AODs, newly released national-wide hourly PM2.5 concentrations, and meteorological parameters. The results showed good agreements between satellite-retrieved and ground-observed PM2.5 concentration at 943 stations in China. The overall cross-validation (CV) R (2) is 0.76 and root mean squared prediction error (RMSE) is 22.26 μg/m(3) for MODIS-derived AOD. The MISR-derived AOD also exhibits comparable performance with a CV R (2) and RMSE are 0.81 and 27.46 μg/m(3), respectively. Annual PM2.5 concentrations retrieved either by MODIS or MISR AOD indicated that most of the residential community areas exceeded the new annual Chinese PM2.5 National Standard level 2. These results suggest that this approach is useful for estimating large-scale ground-level PM2.5 distributions especially for the regions without PMs monitoring sites.

A Cu nanowire (NW)/cuprous oxide (Cu2O)-based semiconductor-liquid junction solar cell with a greatly enhanced efficiency and reduced cost was assembled. The Cu NWs function as a transparent electrode as well as part of the Cu NWs/ Cu2O coaxial structures, which remarkably benefit the charge separation. The best solar cell reached a conversion efficiency as high as 1.92% under a simulated AM1.5G illumination, which is 106 times higher than that of cells based on fluorine-doped tin oxide and Cu2O.

In a nanoscale friction test, wear of an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is inevitable. The shape of the worn tip influences the friction force measured. In order to eliminate the influence, nanowear pretreatment should be conducted for the AFM tip. In our study, pretreatment of three kinds of tips, i.e. Si3N4 tip, Si tip and silica colloidal tip, was performed using AFM. The results show that the shape of the tips changes with the increase of sliding distance, which leads to the variety of friction force. Whereas, when the tip gets blunt, the shape of tip tends to become stable and the friction force becomes stable correspondingly. To a certain degree, it reveals that the pretreated tips can be applied to study the friction force of samples.

Duckweed (Lemna minor), a floating macrophyte belonging to the Lemnaceae family, is commonly found in subtropical paddy fields. This plant rapidly takes up nutrients from water and forms dense floating mats over the water surface that may impact the biogeochemical processes and greenhouse gas production in paddy fields. In this study, we measured CH4 and N2O emissions from duckweed and non-duckweed plots in a subtropical paddy field in China during the period of rice growth using static chamber and gas chromatography methods. Our results showed that CH4 emission rate ranged from 0.19 to 26.50 mg m−2 h−1 in the duckweed plots, and from 1.02 to 28.02 mg m−2 h−1 in the non-duckweed plots. The CH4 emission peak occurred about 1 week earlier in the duckweed plots compared to the non-duckweed counterparts. The mean CH4 emission rate in the duckweed plots (9.28 mg m−2 h−1) was significantly lower than that in non-duckweed plots (11.66 mg m−2 h−1) (p

Paddy field, being a man-made wetland, is recognized as one of the major sources of global methane (CH4) emission. Since China has the second-largest area of rice cultivation in the world, it is important to develop valid and reliable strategies to reduce CH4 emission and sustain rice productivity in Chinese paddy fields. In this study, we applied steel slag fertilizer, a by-product of steel industry with a high concentration of active iron (Fe), at rates of 0, 2, 4, and 8 Mg ha−1 in subtropical rice (Oryza sativa L.) paddy fields in China to assess the effect of steel slag amendment on CH4 emissions as well as rice growth and yield characteristics. Results showed that the Fe concentrations in paddy soils significantly increased with the application levels of steel slag fertilizer. Steel slag amendment in paddy fields largely reduced the CH4 production rate, resulting in a decrease in the overall CH4 emission rate. In response to the applications of steel slag at a rate of 2, 4 and 8 Mg ha−1, total CH4 emission during rice cultivation decreased by 26.6, 43.3 and 49.3 %, respectively. Furthermore, steel slag amendment had a significant, positive effect on the rice grain yield and the percentage of ripened grain, most probably due to the increased availability of inorganic nutrients such as silicate and manganese. Our results suggest that steel slag can be an effective soil amendment for reducing CH4 emissions as well as increasing rice productivity in subtropical paddy fields in China.

This study examined how the signals of interest (SOI) effect on the backscattering measurement numerically based on 3-D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. High resolution microstructure mappings of bovine cancellous bones provided by micro-CT were used as the input geometry for simulations. Backscatter coefficient (BSC), integrated backscatter coefficient (IBC) and apparent integrated backscatter (AIB) were calculated with changing the start (L1) and duration (L2) of the SOI. The results demonstrated that BSC and IBC decrease as L1 increases, and AIB decreases more rapidly as L1 increases. The backscattering parameters increase with fluctuations as a function of L2 when L2 is less than 6 mm. However, BSC and IBC change little as L2 continues to increase, while AIB slowly decreases as L2 continues to increase. The results showed how the selections of the SOI effect on the backscattering measurement. An explicit standard for SOI selection was proposed in this study and short L1 (about 1.5 mm) and appropriate L2 (6 mm–12 mm) were recommended for the calculations of backscattering parameters.

Ultrasonic guided waves (GWs) can be used to evaluate long bones effectively because of the ability to provide the information of the whole bone. In this study, a joint spectrogram segmentation and ridge-extraction (JSSRE) method was proposed to separate multiple modes in long bones. First, the Gabor time-frequency transform was applied to obtain the spectrogram of multimodal signals. Then, a multi-class image segmentation algorithm was used to find the corresponding region of each mode in the spectrogram, including an improved watershed transform and a region growing procedure. Finally, the ridges were extracted and the time domain signals representing individual modes were reconstructed from these ridges in each region. The validations of this method were discussed by simulated multimodal signals with different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The correlation coefficients between the original signals without noise and the reconstructed signals were calculated to analyze the results quantitatively. The results showed that the extracted ridges were in good agreement with generated theoretical dispersion curves, and the reconstructed signals were highly related to the original signals, even under the SNR=3 dB situation.

We describe a highly sensitive electrochemical immunoassay for the tumor maker HER2 on the surface of SKOV-3 human ovarian cancer cells. Following the binding of the cancer cells, ssDNA-labeled anti-HER2 antibody (ssDNA-Ab; the detection antibody) was added to conjugate unbound antigen on the target cells. Following hybridization of ssDNA with its complementary DNA, daunorubicin was injected in order to intercalate into the duplex. This enables electron transfer between daunorubicin and electrode to take place. The GO film strongly amplifies the redox signal of daunorubicin. This new assay has a detection limit of 5.2 cells per mL and in our opinion holds great promise for clinical screening of cancer biomarkers and point-of-care diagnostics.

Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas whose emission from the largest source, wetlands is controlled by a number of environmental variables amongst which temperature, water-table, the availability of substrates and the CH4 transport properties of plants are most prominent and well characterised. Coastal wetland ecosystems are vulnerable to invasion by alien plant species which can make a significant local contribution to altering their species composition. However the effect of these changes in species composition on CH4 flux is rarely examined and so is poorly understood. Spartina alterniflora, a perennial grass native to North America, has spread rapidly along the south-east coast of China since its introduction in 1979. From 2002, this rapid invasion has extended to the tidal marshes of the Min River estuary, an area that, prior to invasion was dominated by the native plant Cyperus malaccensis. Here, we compare CH4 flux from the exotic invasive plant S. alterniflora with measurements from the aggressive native species Phragmites australis and the native species C. malaccensis following 3-years of monitoring. CH4 emissions were measured over entire tidal cycles. Soil CH4 production potentials were estimated for stands of each of above plants both in situ and in laboratory incubations. Mean annual CH4 fluxes from S. alterniflora, P. australis and C. malaccensis dominated stands over the three years were 95.7 (±18.7), 38.9 (±3.26) and 10.9 (±5.26) g m-2year-1, respectively. Our results demonstrate that recent invasion of the exotic species S. alterniflora and the increasing presence of the native plant P. australis has significantly increased CH4 emission from marshes that were previously dominated by the native species C. malaccensis. We also conclude that higher above ground biomass, higher CH4 production and more effective plant CH4 transport of S. alterniflora collectively contribute to its higher CH4 emission in the Min River estuary.

A novel glucose biosensor is presented as that based on a glassy carbon electrode modified with hollow gold nanoparticles (HGNs) and glucose oxidase. The sensor exhibits a better differential pulse voltammetric response towards glucose than the one based on conventional gold nanoparticles of the same size. This is attributed to the good biological conductivity and biocompatibility of HGNs. Under the optimal conditions, the sensor displays a linear range from 2.0 × 10−6 to 4.6 × 10−5 M of glucose, with a detection limit of 1.6 × 10−6 M (S/N = 3). Good reproducibility, stability and no interference make this biosensor applicable to the determination of glucose in samples such as sports drinks.