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Wooden figurines were excavated from the tomb of the Princess Yongtai of the Tang Dynasty. A series of analytical techniques were employed to understand the craftsmanship of wooden figurines during the Tang Dynasty. The pigments, cross-sections, and adhesives were analyzed using energy X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDX), micro-Raman spectroscopy, polarized light microscopy (PLM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py–GC/MS). The results demonstrate that the pigments were primarily cinnabar, malachite, azurite, goethite, carbon black, and anglesite. The cross-sectional images show that the painted layer of the wooden figurines includes pigment and preparation layers. The main component of the preparation layer was mendipite. Chinese wax, animal glue, and benzoin were used as adhesives. This study provides scientific support for antiquarians and a basis for the protection and repair of this valuable world cultural heritage site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe calligraphy on Xuan paper written by Cao Hongxun, who was a scholar at the end of the Qing Dynasty, was comprehensively characterized using various analytical techniques in order to provide support for further conservation. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to identify the type of oil in the stains. The color difference, acidity, microstructure and elemental composition of the paper areas with and without the oil stains were analyzed and characterized using colorimetry, pH measurements, and scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), respectively. Paper fibers were observed using SEM and an optical microscope after dying with Herzberg stain. The results demonstrate that the stain in this paper artifact is mineral oil and the paper was produced using softwood, paper mulberry and herb fibers. A large color difference, lower pH and changes in the carbon ratio were present in the oil stains. However, the stains did not affect the elemental composition of the paper. Overall, this study provides evidence for further conservation treatment, such as selecting proper paper and cleaning reagents for the stains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy is social cognition and reduced empathy in schizophrenia (SCZ) has been noted; however, whether there are gender differences in empathy remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore this issue by examining a large sample of the population with SCZ. We recruited 987 SCZ patients (M/F = 638/349). The empathy was assessed by The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was adopted to assess their clinical psychiatric symptoms and their ability to recognise the facial emotions of others was assessed by the Pictures Of Facial Affect (POFA). Female SCZ patients had higher IRI total score than male patients. In male patients, Pearson correlation analysis showed that empathy was negatively correlated with PANSS total score and negative symptom subscale scores, but positively correlated with anger identification. In female patients, IRI total score was negatively correlated with PANSS total score as well as its positive and negative symptom subscale scores (all p < 0.05). There are gender differences in the empathy of SCZ patients, with female patients having greater empathy and a correlation with their clinical symptoms. This gender difference may provide potential clinical value for the treatment of SCZ. Female SCZ were more likely to empathise than males; Female patients had more severe clinical symptoms than males; There were gender differences in the association between certain specific clinical presentations and empathy. In future studies, it may be useful to investigate gender differences in schizophrenia empathy for the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the substantial increase in vehicle population, the road safety problems such as accidents have become serious. In this paper, we propose a road-safety data delivery solution in vehicular sensor networks to solve road safety problems and improve driving safety. The road-safety data delivery in vehicular sensor networks is delay-sensitive, so this solution aims to reduce the road-safety data delivery latency by shortening the addressing, routing and handover delays. In the proposal, a new address structure is proposed to achieve the road-safety data delivery. Based on the new address structure, the address configuration can be achieved without duplicate address detection and the routing can be performed without route discovery. Moreover, multiple sensor devices can achieve handovers via one handover operation without performing time-consuming care-of address configuration. Finally, the proposal is analyzed and evaluated, and the data shows that the proposal effectively reduces the road-safety data delivery latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the in vitro and in vivo evidence, studies are limited in evaluating whether chemokines are potential inflammatory mediators in response to air pollution exposure in humans. Methods: We conducted a panel study coinciding with the Beijing Olympics, when temporary air pollution controls were implemented. We measured a suite of serum chemokines among healthy adults before, during and after the Olympics, respectively. Linear mixed-effect models were used to evaluate changes in chemokine levels over the three time periods. Results: In response to the 50% drop in air pollution levels during the games, levels of RANTES, MCP-2, and TARC decreased by 25.8%, 20.9% and 35.3%, respectively (p < 0.001) from pre-Olympics, and then increased by 45.8%, 34.9% and 61.5%, respectively (p < 0.001) after the games when air pollution levels went up again. Similar patterns were observed in subgroup analyses by sex, age, smoking and body mass index. GRO-α and IL-8 decreased significantly during the games (22.5% and 30.4%), and increased non-significantly after the games. Eotaxin-1 only increased significantly from during- to post-games. Conclusions: The strongest associations with air pollution levels were observed among RANTES, TARC and MCP-2. Those chemokines may play important roles in the air pollution-induced inflammatory pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Animal studies have demonstrated that propofol post-conditioning produces long-term neuroprotection in focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. However, whether propofol post-conditioning provides neuroprotection in human beings has never been explored. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of propofol post-conditioning on oxidative stress and post-operative cognitive function following aneurysm clipping. Materials and Methods: Sixty patients undergoing intracranial aneurysm clipping were randomized into a propofol post-conditioning group or a sevoflurane group. Sevoflurane (0.5-2%) was used for maintenance anesthesia in both groups. In the propofol post-conditioning group, the inhaled concentration of sevoflurane was reduced after temporary clip removal to keep the bispectral index (BIS) value between 40 and 60, and propofol (Cp 1.2 µg/mL) was subsequently started. Blood samples were drawn at six time points: before induction, immediately after clip removal, at the end of the operation, 24-h post-surgery, 3 days post-surgery, and 7 days post-surgery. Oxidative stress and cognitive function were measured. Results: Between the conclusion of the operation to 7 days after surgery, propofol post-conditioning decreased the serum concentration of •OH and 8-isoprostane and increased γ-tocopherol and SOD. Reduced micronuclei and nucleoplasmic bridges were observed in the propofol post-conditioning group. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were improved by propofol post-conditioning compared to the group that received no propofol. Conclusions: Together, our data suggest that propofol post-conditioning (Cp 1.2 µg/mL) may protect the brain from oxidative stress injury up to 7 days post-surgery after temporary parent artery clipping. Furthermore, the neuroprotection induced by propofol post-conditioning may contribute to improvement in cognitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the Editor, Recently in this journal, a study on risk factors for disease progression in hospitalised COVID-19 patients was reported [[1]]. 15 patients were included and general data were shown in Table 1. 12 patients had NRS2002 >= 3 points, of whom 6 had NRS2002 score = 3 points, 4 had NRS2002 score = 4 points, and 2 had NRS2002 score = 5 points. [Extracted from the article]

Reversible data hiding (RDH) is a special class of steganography that is capable of recovering the original cover image upon the extraction of the secret data. The main goal of this paper is to develop different adaptive predictors based on superpixel irregular block sorting. Firstly, a superpixel irregular block and sorting strategy is proposed which is applied to histogram shifting for the first time. Then, a multi-directional edge classification method is proposed, which divides pixels into strong edge pixels, normal edge pixels, and weak edge pixels. Moreover, strong edge pixels and normal edge pixels are further divided into four directions. According to edge classification, the most appropriate adaptive multi-predictor is proposed. Finally, an optimization-based data hiding strategy is proposed. The proposed scheme focuses on constructing a sharp enough histogram. The investigational results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves large capacity, high image quality, and low complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construct of teachers’ pay satisfaction is important to the systemic appraisal of teachers’ compensation. The study aims to probe the components of teachers’ pay satisfaction and verify this construct in primary and secondary schools in China. In-depth interviews with 24 teachers were conducted to propose a construct model for teachers’ pay satisfaction. A survey of 1,218 teachers was conducted to verify the teachers’ pay satisfaction construct, including its reliability and validity, with subjects recruited from 45 primary and secondary schools in 6 cities and counties. Another survey of 364 teachers sampled from 6 provinces was used to compare the proposed two-order model with Heneman’s four-dimensional model. Teachers’ pay satisfaction comprises pay results satisfaction and pay management process satisfaction. The former includes pay level and increase, promotion and training. The latter includes teachers’ engagement, openness and transparency of pay distribution, as well as the reasonableness of distribution rules. Teachers assign greater importance to relative pay than do workers in other occupations. Chinese teachers attach great importance to pay management process satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hexamerins are large hemolymph-proteins that have been discovered in all insect species. According to the present study, hexamerins are not only storage proteins that provide amino acids and energy, but also transport hormones such as ecdysteroids. The hexamerin family genes cDNA from the grasshopperLocusta migratoriawere cloned using RT-PCR and RACE methods. The biological functions ofLmiHx5were studied by RNA interference (RNAi), and qRT-PCR was performed to detectLmiHx transcripts after RNAi. Compared to the transcription database previously obtained, four family members (LmiHx1,LmiHx2,LmiHx4andLmiHx5) of differentLmiHx were determined. Homologous sequence alignments showed that the consistency of the amino acid sequence ofLmiHx family members was 32%–43% and their encoded protein have the same three hemocyanin domains: hemocyanin-C, hemocyanin-N and hemocyanin-M. Gene expression patterns in different tissues and at different developmental stages showed that theLmiHx family genes are widely expressed in both female and male adults and at all developmental stages. The expression showed cyclical fluctuation with the nymphs molt. In addition,LmiHx2mRNA expression level was the highest in fat body.LmiHx5mRNA levels substantially decreased at 12, 24 and 48 h after dsLmiHx5injection compared to the negative controls and almost not expressed at 96 h after dsRNA injection. The relative expression levels of other hexamerin family members showed varying degrees of increase afterLmiHx5RNAi. We speculate that hexamerin family gene members showed functional compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, the concurrent use of multiple taxonomic groups in stream bioassessment is becoming increasingly common because the responses of each group to anthropogenic stressors may be different. In this study, a multimetric index based on fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages for the Huntai River basin (MMIHT) was developed using a dataset covering 54 sampling sites in order to assess ecosystem health. An index of land use, water, and habitat quality (ILWHQ) was calculated to evaluate the environmental quality at the studied sites. The five least deteriorated sites (ILWHQ < 2; T13, T15, T16, T17, and T18) were selected as the reference sites. Seven of an initial 68 candidate metrics were selected using a stepwise procedure that evaluated metric stability, responsiveness to environmental variables, and redundancy. The selected metrics included number of Cyprinidae species, the proportion of individuals as benthic species, the proportion of omnivore species, the proportion of individuals as tolerant species, the proportion of demersal egg species, number of EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plectopera, and Trichoptera) taxa, and the proportion of clingers. The ration scoring method was used to score the seven metrics and four classes were defined to describe the ecosystem health of the Huntai River basin. The findings that the final multimetric index was negatively correlated with the ILWHQ and successfully differentiated reference from impaired condition indicated that the index should be useful for evaluating river conditions. According to the results, more than half of the sites (57.4%) were classified as poor or very poor. The ecosystem health in the Taizi River was better than that in the Hun River. Furthermore, testing with additional data is needed to assess the suitability and robustness of the index. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Analyzes the cognitive fallacies regarding women's acquisition of ability and talent in China. Characteristics of the development of talent in women; Importance of socialized education to female's acquisition of ability and talent; Relationship between women's acquisition of ability and talent and socialized education.

A novel mesoporous polymer-based composite, C7-BTBP/XAD-7, was prepared by impregnating 6,6’-bis(5,6-diheptyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)-2,2’-bipyridine (C7-BTBP) into the pores of the polymeric XAD-7 carrier. The microstructure of the material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The selective adsorption of Pd(II) onto C7-BTBP/XAD-7 from a HNO3medium containing some typical metals, including Ru(III), Fe(III), Mo(VI), Zr(IV), Li(I), Na(I), K(I), Rb(I), Cs(I), Mg(II), Ca(II), Sr(II), Ba(II), Y(III), La(III), Nd(III), and Yb(III), was investigated. The polymeric composite exhibited strong adsorption affinity, high selectivity, and fast adsorption rate for Pd(II) in 3.0 M HNO3. The adsorption isotherm fitted well with Langmuir model, with a maximum adsorption capacity of 0.412 mmol/g. The hybrid polymeric composite was very stable in HNO3solution. The kinetics of Pd(II) coordinated with C7-BTBP was discussed by Density Function Theory (DFT) calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ADAM10 and ADAM17 expression and soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) predict poor prognosis in many malignancies, including in patients treated with PD-(L)1 inhibitors. The mechanism of soluble PD-L1 production and its effects are unknown. Here we uncover a novel mechanism of ADAM10- and ADAM17-mediated resistance to PD-(L)1 inhibitors. ADAM10 and ADAM17 cleave PD-L1 from the surface of malignant cells and extracellular vesicles. This cleavage produces an active sPD-L1 fragment that induces apoptosis in CD8 + T cells and compromises the killing of tumor cells by CD8 + T cells. Reduced tumor site PD-L1 protein-to-mRNA ratios predict poor outcomes and are correlated with elevated ADAM10 and ADAM17 expression in multiple cancers. These results may explain the discordance between PD-L1 immunohistochemistry and PD-(L)1 inhibitor response. Thus, including ADAM10 and ADAM17 tissue staining may improve therapy selection. Furthermore, treatment with an ADAM10/ADAM17 inhibitor may abrogate PD-(L)1 inhibitor resistance and improve clinical responses to PD-(L)1 immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cotton is one of the most important economic crops in the world.Gossypium barbadenseL. has higher resistance to Verticillium wilt thanGossypium hirsutumL. In the present study, seedlings of Pima90-53 (G. barbadense) had better growth performance than those of CRI8 (G. hirsutum) inoculated withVerticillium dahliae.WRKY1genomic DNA of Pima90-53 and CRI8 were isolated (GbWRKY1andGhWRKY1) and predicted to include three introns which were 289, 92, 87 bp and 286, 92, 87 bp in length, respectively. Compared with the DNA sequence ofGbWRKY1,GhWRKY1had a 13-base deletion in exon 4, which resulted in premature termination of translation. It was predicted that the GbWRKY1 and GhWRKY1 proteins contain two WRKY domains and zinc-finger motifs belonging to group I WRKY proteins. Two promoters, located 1745 bp and 1738 bp upstream ofGbWRKY1andGhWRKY1, were cloned and predicted to contain important regulatory elements (TATA-box, CAAT-box and pathogen/elicitor-related elements). Interestingly, compared withGbWRKY1, theGhWRKY1promoter lacked an ethylene-responsive element (ERE) component. The relative expression ofGbWRKY1, too, was higher than that ofGhWRKY1afterV. dahliaeand ACC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid) induction. The results suggest that the difference in the promoter sequence could probably be one of the reasons that lead to different expression patterns and resistance to Verticillium wilt in Pima90-53 and CRI8. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Allergic asthma is a complicated genetic disorder caused by interaction of the acquired and innate immune responses. Acquired immune responses to protein antigens could induce type 2 T lymphocyte-driven responses and result in atopic asthma. Recent studies demonstrated that endotoxin, LPS and air pollution-induced innate immunity induce asthma through Toll-like receptors (TLR). However, the definite mechanism of LPS-induced asthma is still not known. Here, we investigated the effects of different doses of LPS in a mouse model of allergic asthma to define the molecular mechanism of LPS-induced asthma. We found that low doses of LPS in OVA induced significant inflammatory infiltration in lung tissue of asthmatic mice. Histologic studies demonstrated that lungs of these asthmatic mice were characterized by the recruitment of both eosinophils and neutrophils, increased airway mucus secretion and the elevated levels of Th2 cytokines. A high dose of LPS in OVA can induce a Th1 associated response, histologically characterized by neutrophil recruitment, the absence of airway mucus secretion and an increase of IFN-γ production. Regardless of high or low dose of LPS, TLR4 in alveolar macrophages (AM) was up-regulated in lungs of asthmatic mice. Our data demonstrated that the dose of LPS exposure determines the type of inflammatory response and a low dose of LPS together with OVA augments the antigen-induced lung inflammation in asthma. This study demonstrates that the TLR4 signaling pathway plays a vital role in the development of asthma and indicates the tight connection between endotoxin exposure and asthma prevalence in the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]