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The effects of reseeded native Gramineae and Leguminosae species on the multifunctionality of desert steppe have remained unclear. Therefore, we examined a semiarid desert steppe that was reseeded 5 years earlier with a dominant native Gramineae species, Agropyron mongolicum; a dominant native Leguminosae species, Lespedeza potaninii; and a 1:1 reseeded mixture of A. mongolicum × L. potaninii. We evaluated the changes in plant communities and soil properties and then quantified aboveground ecosystem multifunctionality (AEMF), belowground ecosystem multifunctionality (BEMF), and overall ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) using an averaging approach. Compared with the native steppe without reseeding, both reseeded A. mongolicum and A. mongolicum × L. potaninii increased fine root volume, plant height, plant cover, aboveground biomass (AGB), belowground biomass (BGB), soil water storage (SWS), soil organic carbon, light fraction organic carbon, labile organic carbon, total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen, and total phosphorus (P), but decreased soil bulk density. However, reseeded L. potaninii increased coarse root volume, plant height, plant cover, AGB, BGB, and SWS but decreased plant richness, plant diversity, TN, and total P. In addition, reseeded A. mongolicum and A. mongolicum × L. potaninii increased AEMF, BEMF, and overall EMF, but reseeded L. potaninii only increased AEMF. Further analysis indicated that the fine roots played a crucial role in improving individual ecosystem functions and eventually in determining EMF. Therefore, the reseeding of a desert steppe with Gramineae species has greater potential than with Leguminosae species for improving EMF, since Gramineae species have greater fine roots volume than Leguminosae species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faulting and folding of basement rocks together accommodate convergence within continental orogens, forming complex zones of intraplate deformation shaped by the fault interaction. Here we use the river terraces along the Dongda river to examine the tectonic deformation patterns of the hinterland and the foreland of the eastern North Qilian Shan, a zone of crustal shortening located at the northeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Five Late Pleistocene–Holocene terraces of Dongda river are displaced by three major reverse faults: Minle‐Damaying fault, Huangcheng‐Ta'erzhuang fault, and Fengle fault, from south to north. Based on displaced terrace treads, we estimated vertical slip rates along the Minle‐Damaying fault as 0.7–0.8 mm/a, and along the Fengle fault as 0.5–0.7 mm/a. Deformed terraces suggest an additional uplift of ∼0.2 mm/a through the folding of the Dahuang Shan anticline. Inhomogeneous uplift of the intermontane basins between the Minle‐Damaying fault and the Dahuang Shan anticline indicates a 0.9 ± 0.2 mm/a uplift rate along the Huangcheng‐Ta'erzhuang fault. Kinematic modeling of this thrust system shows that deformation propagated northward toward the foreland along a south‐dipping 10° décollement rooted into the Haiyuan fault at the depth of ∼20 km. This system accommodates 2.7–3.4 mm/a total crustal shortening rate. We suggest this broad thrust belt and the relatively high rate of shortening within this part of the eastern Qilian Shan is a result of the oblique convergence along a restraining bend of Haiyuan fault system. The elevated shortening rate within this area indicates high potential seismic hazard. Plain Language Summary: The eastern North Qilian Shan and its foreland basin exhibit a complex structure and spatially varying shortening rate because the area is not only deformed by the North Qilian frontal thrust system but also under the influence of the adjacent Haiyuan strike‐slip fault. A restraining bend along the Haiyuan fault leads to additional compressional strain concentrated in this area, which results in the development of a widely uplifted and deformed region to the north, within the Qilian Shan mountains. Through geomorphic survey of the riverbed and terrace elevations of the Dongda river, we find the most uplift is concentrated along the northernmost, lowest range adjacent to the foreland basin (∼0.6 mm/a) and at the North Qilian mountain front bounding the higher peaks (∼0.7 mm/a). We suggest that this wide zone of active faulting formed along multiple strands of high‐angle reverse faults that sole into a single deep detachment, and this structure has accommodated one of the highest rates of crustal shortening (∼3 mm/a) documented within the North Qilian. This results in an elevated seismic hazard in the nearby populated foreland basin. Key Points: The eastern North Qilian Shan is a north‐verging thrust belt above a ∼10°‐dipping décollement rooted into the Haiyuan faultThe activity of the three active thrust systems within this 70‐km‐wide belt accommodates 2.7–3.4 mm/a of crustal shorteningThe high shortening rate across the North Qilian Shan is the result of localized convergence within a restraining bend of the Haiyuan strike‐slip fault [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil compaction and resource competition are bottlenecks in the improvement of sugarcane productivity in intercropping systems. Fenlong tillage improves crop yields by alleviating soil compaction and ensuring water supply. Wide‐narrow rows are an effective solution for light competition. An efficient intercropping system with Fenlong tillage technology as the core needs to be constructed. A two‐cycle field study was conducted to investigate the effects of planting methods [sole ratoon sugarcane (S) and ratoon sugarcane‐soybean intercropping (I)] combined with tillage [conventional rotary tillage (RT), Fenlong tillage "145" mode (FL145)] on soil physical characteristics, photosynthesis, and growth of ratoon sugarcane, as well as crop yields. For the ratoon sugarcane, compared to RT‐I, FL145‐I decreased bulk density and increased porosity in the 0–40 cm soil layer. Root growth parameters were improved under FL145‐I in the 0–20 cm soil layer. FL145‐I positively affected the stomatal conductance, causing increases in the net photosynthetic and transpiration rates. The increased leaf area index, chlorophyll relative content, and photosynthesis under FL145‐I caused higher dry matter accumulation. The increased single stalk weight under FL145‐I resulted in 17.13%–22.55% higher stalk yield with similar quality. Intercropping under the wide‐narrow row planting pattern had no negative effects on the growth and stalk yield of ratoon sugarcane. For the soybean, compared to RT‐I, the increased 100‐seed weight under FL145‐I resulted in 11.14% higher seed yield with similar quality. Therefore, FL145‐I presents a promising and novel management practice for sustainably increasing ratoon sugarcane productivity in China. Core Ideas: Intercropping with Fenlong tillage "145" mode (FL145‐I) maintained better soil physical properties.FL145‐I improved ratoon sugarcane root growth in the 0–20 cm soil layer.FL145‐I promoted ratoon sugarcane photosynthesis and dry matter accumulation.FL145‐I resulted in higher yield of ratoon sugarcane and soybean with similar quality.FL145‐I is a promising and novel management practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is a neurogenerative disease caused by caprylic/capric triglyceride (CCTG) tetranucleotide repeat expansions in intron 1 of the cellular nucleic acid‐binding protein (CNBP) gene. Non‐B DNA structures formed by CCTG repeats can promote genetic instability, whereas interrupting motifs of NCTG (N = A/T/G) within CCTG repeats help to maintain genomic stability. However, whether the interrupting motifs can affect DNA structures of CCTG repeats remains unclear. Here, we report that four CCTG repeats with an interrupting 3′‐A/T/G residue formed dumbbell structures, whereas a non‐interrupting 3′‐C residue resulted in a multi‐loop structure exhibiting conformational dynamics that may contribute to a higher tendency of escaping from DNA mismatch repair and causing repeat expansions. The results provide new structural insights into the genetic instability of CCTG repeats in DM2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important method of reducing pollution, green technology innovation (GTI) is receiving more attention. However, facing the challenges in conducting GTI, it is crucial for enterprises to find the optimal path to acquire green technology. This paper investigates how high‐pollution manufacturing enterprises make decisions on independent innovation and green technology introduction under government intervention and public involvement. The influences of other factors, such as media attention and product market competition, have also been considered in the tripartite evolutionary game model. The simulation after applying MATLAB indicates that government intervention and public participation have a significant impact on the decision‐making of green technology acquisition paths for enterprises. Government subsidies and penalties are important policy tools for enterprises to make decisions on the selection of green technology acquisition paths. Meanwhile, reputational incentives or losses brought from public involvement are also essential in encouraging government intervention and green technology acquisition of enterprises. Finally, the extent to which the changes in various influencing factors affect the selection of enterprises' green technology acquisition paths have been tested and simulated. This paper aims to provide policy implications for governments, as well as decision‐making strategies for enterprises that urgently require green transition to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article in the Clinical & Translational Medicine journal explores the characterization and functional analysis of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) found in circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) in liver failure. The study involved 22 participants, including patients with liver failure and healthy individuals, and identified that liver failure patients had a higher abundance of EVs carrying eccDNAs compared to healthy controls. The research also synthesized artificial eccDNAs and found that eccZMIZ1-AS1 regulated specific signaling pathways in liver cells, potentially impacting liver failure pathogenesis. Further investigation is needed to understand the mechanisms by which eccDNA influences liver failure. [Extracted from the article]

BACKGROUND: The parasitic mite, Varroa destructor has posed a threat to the health and survival of European honey bees, Apis mellifera worldwide. There is a prevailing belief that small comb cells could provide a management tool against Varroa mites. However, the hypothesis that smaller cells can impede Varroa reproduction has not been fully tested. Here, we tested this hypothesis under laboratory conditions by using two distinct Varroa in vitro rearing systems: one involved gelatin capsules of different sizes, specifically size 00 (0.95 mL) versus size 1 (0.48 mL), and the second consisted of brood comb cells drawn on 3D printed foundations with varying cell sizes, ranging from 5.0 mm to 7.0 mm at 0.5 mm intervals. RESULTS: The results showed that mother mites in size 00 cells had significantly lower fecundity and fertility compared to those in size 1 cells. Interestingly, the reproductive suppression in larger cells could be reversed by adding an extra worker larva. Similarly, gonopore size of mother mites was smaller in size 00 cells, but restored with another host larva. Furthermore, both the fecundity and fertility of mother mites decreased linearly with the size of brood comb cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the reproduction of V. destructor is hindered by larger cells, possibly because larger brood cells disperse or weaken host volatile chemical cues that are crucial for Varroa reproduction. The insights derived from this study are expected to hold significant implications for the implementation of Varroa management programs. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Carotenoids are indispensable to plants and critical components of the human diet. The carotenoid metabolic pathway is conserved across plant species, but our understanding of the genetic basis of carotenoid variation remains limited for the seeds of most cereal crops. To address this issue, we systematically performed linkage and association mapping for eight carotenoid traits using six recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations. Single linkage mapping (SLM) and joint linkage mapping (JLM) identified 77 unique additive QTLs and 104 pairs of epistatic QTLs. Among these QTLs, we identified 22 overlapping hotspots of additive and epistatic loci, highlighting the important contributions of some QTLs to carotenoid levels through additive or epistatic mechanisms. A genome‐wide association study based on all RILs detected 244 candidate genes significantly associated with carotenoid traits, 23 of which were annotated as carotenoid pathway genes. Effect comparisons suggested that a small number of loci linked to pathway genes have substantial effects on carotenoid variation in our tested populations, but many loci not associated with pathway genes also make important contributions to carotenoid variation. We identified ZmPTOX as the causal gene for a QTL hotspot (Q10/JLM10/GWAS019); this gene encodes a putative plastid terminal oxidase that produces plastoquinone‐9 used by two enzymes in the carotenoid pathway. Natural variants in the promoter and second exon of ZmPTOX were found to alter carotenoid levels. This comprehensive assessment of the genetic mechanisms underlying carotenoid variation establishes a foundation for rewiring carotenoid metabolism and accumulation for efficient carotenoid biofortification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the electron‐withdrawing effect of the Pt(bpy)Cl2 molecule, a simple post‐modification amide reaction was firstly used to graft it onto the surface of NH2‐MIL‐125, which performed as a highly efficient electron acceptor that induced the conversion of the photoinduced charge migration pathway from internal BDC→TiOx migration to external BDC→PtNx migration, significantly improving the efficiency of photoinduced electron transfer and separation. Furthermore, precisely regulating over the first coordination sphere of Pt single atoms was achieved using further post‐modification with additional bipyridine to investigate the effect of Pt−Nx coordination numbers on reaction activity. The as‐synthesized NML‐PtN2 exhibited superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of 7.608 mmol g−1 h−1, a remarkable improvement of 225 and 2.26 times compared to pristine NH2‐MIL‐125 and NML‐PtN4, respectively. In addition, the superior apparent quantum yield of 4.01 % (390 nm) and turnover frequency of 190.3 h−1 (0.78 wt % Pt SA; 129 times compared to Pt nanoparticles/NML) revealed the high solar utilization efficiency and hydrogen evolution activity of the material. And macroscopic color changes caused by the transition of carrier migration paths was first observed. It holds profound significance for the design of MOF‐Molecule catalysts with efficient charge carrier separation and precise regulation of single‐atom coordination sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuning the thermal transport properties of hybrid halide perovskites is critical for their applications in optoelectronics, thermoelectrics, and photovoltaics. Here, an effective strategy is demonstrated to modulate the thermal transport property of hybrid perovskites by halide alloying. A highly tunable thermal conductivity of mixed‐halide hybrid perovskites is achieved due to halide‐alloying and structural distortion. The experimental measurements show that the room temperature thermal conductivity of MAPb(BrxI1‐x)3 (x = 0─1) can be largely modulated from 0.27 ± 0.07 W m−1 K−1 (x = 0.5) to 0.47 ± 0.09 W m−1 K−1 (x = 1). Molecular dynamics simulations further demonstrate that the thermal conductivity reduction of hybrid halide perovskites results from the suppression of the mean free paths of the low‐frequency acoustic and optical phonons. It is found that halide alloying and the induced structural distortion can largely increase the scatterings of optical and acoustic phonons, respectively. The confined diffusion of MA+ cations in the octahedra cage is found to act as an additional thermal transport channel in hybrid perovskites and can contribute around 10–20% of the total thermal conductivity. The findings provide a strategy for tailoring the thermal transport in hybrid halide perovskites, which may largely benefit their related applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites have such advantages as low density, high strength, high temperature resistance, impact resistance, and good ductility, but due to the density difference between carbon fibers and resin fibers, it is difficult to mix them uniformly. Hence, it is difficult to prepare the composites with the uniform properties. In order to solve this problem, a preparation process based on solid phase mixing of carbon and resin fibers by suspension method is proposed in this paper. The carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPs) can be prepared by dispersing carbon fibers of a certain length (~50 mm) and resin fibers in suspension through ultrasound‐assisted and churn‐combing methods. The effects of carbon fiber length, content and molding process on the mechanical properties of the CFRTPs were studied. The results show that the carbon fiber content and length are the main factors affecting the mechanical properties as well as void ratio of CFRTP. The performance of composites is significantly improved with the increase of carbon fiber length. While the length of carbon fiber is 50 mm and the content is 30 wt%, the prepared CFRTP has the best performance, with the tensile strength of 182.1 MPa, the bending strength of 354.3 MPa, the impact strength of 67.2 KJ·m−2, and the material void ratio of 0.65%. The study shows that the suspension method is feasible for the preparation of the CFRTPs. It is beneficial to improve production efficiency and decrease cost of production for the CFRTPs. Highlights: Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites can be prepared by dispersing carbon fibers of a certain length (~50 mm) and resin fibers in suspension through ultrasound‐assisted and churn‐combing methods.Through the cooling‐high pressure molding process, the porosity of CFRTP is reduced and the mechanical properties of CFRTP are improved.The tensile strength, bending strength, and notch‐free impact strength properties of CFRTP are best when the carbon fiber content is 30% and the CF length is 50 mm.The method is characterized by simple process, low cost and high mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Most of the existing adaptive filter algorithms pay more attention to improving performance while ignoring the computational complexity and the impact of the impulsive environment. When encountering the impulsive noise environments, the performance of traditional nonlinear adaptive filter may be significantly reduced and usually needs high computational cost. Therefore, this article proposes a hyperbolic tangent Leclerc robust nonlinear adaptive filter based on the low complexity decomposable Volterra model (HTLNAF‐DVM). The filter is implemented by imposing a rank‐one structure on the full Volterra model to get a product of linear filters, and employs a hyperbolic tangent Leclerc function as a robust norm to effectively improve the robustness against the impulsive noise. In addition, we give the theoretical analyses of the steady‐state mean‐square performance of the proposed HTLNAF‐DVM. Finally, the simulation results prove that the proposed HTLNAF‐DVM algorithm has better performance than the existing algorithms and fit well with the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow field of the environment plays a crucial role in cigarette combustion cone fallout propensity test, with air velocity exhibiting a positive correlation with combustion volume. In order to minimize the impact of the environmental flow field on the test results, it is necessary to control the air speed within the range of 200 ± 30 mm/s in the test area of each tobacco test channel. To address this concern, which used the Realizable k‐ε model to develop a mathematical model of the testing environment. The uniformity of air speed in each channel and its relationship with structural parameters were then analyzed. Based on these findings, the key structural parameters of the ventilation hood are optimized. After restimulated the optimized model, the results demonstrate a higher level of uniformity in the environmental flow field of the optimized section. To validate the accuracy of the simulation results, measurements indicated that the maximum air speed value at all points is 225.6 mm/s, while the minimum value is 178.44 mm/s. These values fall within the specified range of 200 ± 30 mm/s, thus meeting the design requirements. This study ensures that the cigarette can burn in a steady state during the cigarette combustion fallout propensity test and improves the stability of the cigarette combustion cone drop tendency test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KSR1, a key scaffold protein for the MAPK pathway, facilitates ERK activation upon growth factor stimulation. We recently demonstrated that KSR1 binds the Ca2+‐binding protein calmodulin (CaM), thereby providing an intersection between KSR1‐mediated and Ca2+ signaling. In this study, we set out to generate a KSR1 point mutant with reduced Ca2+/CaM binding in order to unravel the functional implications of their interaction. To do so, we solved the structural determinants of complex formation. Using purified fragments of KSR1, we showed that Ca2+/CaM binds to the CA3 domain of KSR1. We then used in silico molecular modeling to predict contact residues for binding. This approach identified two possible modes of interaction: (1) binding of extended Ca2+/CaM to a globular conformation of KSR1‐CA3 via electrostatic interactions or (2) binding of collapsed Ca2+/CaM to α‐helical KSR1‐CA3 via hydrophobic interactions. Experimentally, site‐directed mutagenesis of the predicted contact residues for the two binding models favored that where collapsed Ca2+/CaM binds to the α‐helical conformation of KSR1‐CA3. Importantly, replacing KSR1‐Phe355 with Asp reduces Ca2+/CaM binding by 76%. The KSR1‐F355D mutation also significantly impairs the ability of EGF to activate ERK, which reveals that Ca2+/CaM binding promotes KSR1‐mediated MAPK signaling. This work, by uncovering structural insight into the binding of KSR1 to Ca2+/CaM, identifies a KSR1 single‐point mutant as a bioreagent to selectively study the crosstalk between Ca2+ and KSR1‐mediated signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the proportion of renewable energy penetrated in power systems further increases, the optimal operation faces a large obstacle to satisfying various conflict interests simultaneously. This paper first formulates a many‐objective optimal operation problem of the new power system considering a comprehensive set of economic, environmental, and reliable objectives. To figure out this problem efficiently, this paper proposes a probability confidence correlation analysis method (PCCA) utilizing a t‐distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (T‐SNE) standard to greatly preserve the distribution information and separability of the objectives. Consequently, the objectives can be aggregated and the objective dimension is reduced based on the important sorting and correlation of the objectives. Based on the outcome of the T‐SNE, the adopted optimal operation problem with low dimensional objectives is solved by a multiple producer group search optimizer (GSOMP) with less computation burden, to obtain the Pareto‐optimal solution set. Simulation studies are conducted on IEEE 30‐bus, 39‐bus and 57‐bus systems to investigate the performance of the proposed PCCA in terms of efficiency and accuracy, making comparisons of the existing many‐objective optimization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Little is known regarding quality of life (QoL) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), particularly in advanced stages. METHODS: Dyads of individuals with moderate–advanced DLB and their primary caregivers were recruited from specialty clinics, advocacy organizations, and research registries. The study collected demographics, disease‐related measures, and measures of patient/caregiver experiences. RESULTS: The Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (QoL‐AD) was completed by the person with DLB and the caregiver (proxy) in 61 dyads; 85 dyads had only a proxy‐completed QoL‐AD. Patient‐ and proxy‐reported scores were moderately correlated (r = 0.57, P < 0.0001). Worse patient‐reported QoL correlated with daytime sleepiness, autonomic symptom burden, and behavioral symptoms. Proxy ratings correlated with dementia severity, daytime sleepiness, behavioral symptoms, dependence in activities of daily living, and caregiver experience measures. DISCUSSION: Patient‐ and proxy‐reported quality of life (QoL) should be assessed separately in advanced DLB. Some symptoms associated with QoL have available therapeutic options. Research is needed regarding strategies to optimally improve QoL in DLB. Highlights: Patient and proxy quality of life (QoL) ratings had moderate correlation in advanced dementia with Lewy bodies.Daytime sleepiness affected patient‐ and proxy‐reported QoL.Behavioral symptoms affected patient‐ and proxy‐reported QoL.Autonomic symptom burden affected patient‐reported QoL.Dementia severity, dependence, and caregiver experiences affected proxy ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Abiotic stresses such as salinity, heat and drought seriously impair plant growth and development, causing a significant loss in crop yield and ornamental value. Biotechnology approaches manipulating specific genes prove to be effective strategies in crop trait modification. The Arabidopsis vacuolar pyrophosphatase gene AVP1, the rice SUMO E3 ligase gene OsSIZ1 and the cyanobacterium flavodoxin gene Fld have previously been implicated in regulating plant stress responses and conferring enhanced tolerance to different abiotic stresses when individually overexpressed in various plant species. We have explored the feasibility of combining multiple favourable traits brought by individual genes to acquire superior plant performance. To this end, we have simultaneously introduced AVP1, OsSIZ1 and Fld in creeping bentgrass. Transgenic (TG) plants overexpressing these three genes performed significantly better than wild type controls and the TGs expressing individual genes under both normal and various abiotic stress conditions, exhibited significantly enhanced plant growth and tolerance to drought, salinity and heat stresses as well as nitrogen and phosphate starvation, which were associated with altered physiological and biochemical characteristics and delicately fine‐tuned expression of genes involved in plant stress responses. Our results suggest that AVP1, OsSIZ1 and Fld function synergistically to regulate plant development and plant stress response, leading to superior overall performance under both normal and adverse environments. The information obtained provides new insights into gene stacking as an effective approach for plant genetic engineering. A similar strategy can be extended for the use of other beneficial genes in various crop species for trait modifications, enhancing agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Stalk lodging is a severe problem that limits maize production worldwide, although little attention has been given to its genetic basis. Here we measured rind penetrometer resistance (RPR), an effective index for stalk lodging, in a multi‐parent population of 1948 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and an association population of 508 inbred lines (AMP508). Linkage and association mapping identified 53 and 29 single quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and 50 and 19 pairs of epistatic interactions for RPR in the multi‐parent population and AMP508 population, respectively. Phenotypic variation explained by all identified epistatic QTLs (up to ~5%) was much less than that explained by all single additive QTLs (up to ~33% in the multi‐parent population and ~ 60% in the AMP508 population). Among all detected QTLs, only eight single QTLs explained >10% of phenotypic variation in single RIL populations. Alleles that increased RPR were enriched in tropical/subtropical (TST) groups from the AMP508 population. Based on genome‐wide association studies in both populations, we identified 137 candidate genes affecting RPR, which were assigned to multiple biological processes, such as the biosynthesis of cell wall components. Sixty‐six candidate genes were cross‐validated by multiple methods or populations. Most importantly, 23 candidate genes were upregulated or downregulated in high‐RPR lines relative to low‐RPR lines, supporting the associations between candidate genes and RPR. These findings reveal the complex nature of the genetic basis underlying RPR and provide loci or candidate genes for developing elite varieties that are resistant to stalk lodging via molecular breeding. Significance Statement: Linkage and association mapping in multi‐parent and diverse natural populations revealed that a few large‐effect QTLs and many small‐effect QTLs contribute to the complex nature of maize stalk strength and provide loci or candidate genes for developing elite varieties with stalk lodging resistance via molecular breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examined whether Mandarin‐speaking children could use function words to learn novel verbs and recognize verbs in a new sentential context. In Experiment 1, 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children were taught two novel verbs supported by the verb marker "zài." The 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children successfully used the function word "zài" to learn novel verbs, but the 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds failed to interpret the novel words as verbs. In Experiment 2 and 3, the children had to recognize the newly learned verbs in new sentences containing a different function word (a different verb‐biased marker "le" or a non‐verb‐biased marker "shì"). Results showed that the 5‐year‐old children could recognize the newly learned verbs with another verb‐biased marker "le," but only the 6‐year‐old children could recognize the newly learned verbs with the non‐verb‐biased marker "shì." The study verified that Mandarin‐speaking children could use the function word "zài" to determine a novel word as a verb and revealed that such an ability appeared between the ages of 4 and 5 years. In addition, the ability to extend a newly learned verb across different morphosyntactic markers is developed in 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the radiation effects of commercially available medical disposable protective clothing materials under γ irradiation. FT‐IR, contact angle, DSC, OIT, and mechanical properties were used to examine the radiation effects of medical disposable protective clothing materials. The results showed when the radiation dose was less than or equal to 50 kGy, the FT‐IR spectra did not show any changes. However, when the radiation dose reached 70 kGy, new absorption peaks appeared in the infrared spectra of the TS−A and TS−B medical disposable protective clothing materials, indicating chemical changes. Contact angle analysis showed that medical disposable protective clothing materials were hydrophobic and had higher hydrophobicity on the inside than the outside under different packaging and irradiation conditions. Rheological analysis showed that the shear thinning phenomenon of medical disposable protective clothing materials increased significantly with the increase of radiation dose, and good rheological behavior was observed under vacuum packaging conditions when the radiation dose was 30 kGy. The crystallinity and initial crystallization temperature showed the order of vacuum, nitrogen, and air. The oxidation induction time trend was vacuum>nitrogen>air, while the fracture strength trend was nitrogen>vacuum>air. The mechanical properties met the national standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of sense of place (SoP) in the relationship between the neighbourhood environment (NE) and subjective well‐being (SWB), focusing on Chinese migrants who face spatial and cultural displacement. Beyond previous research, we further consider the influence of residential length. Surveying 716 migrants in Wuhan in 2018, we explore the dynamic place mechanisms underlying the association between the NE and SWB. Our findings reveal that the physical and social aspects of the NE, particularly walkability and social integration, significantly impact migrants' SWB. Moreover, SoP mediates the relationship between the NE and SWB, highlighting the social production function of people and places in communities. Long‐term residence does not directly affect migrants' SWB, yet just indirectly influence SWB through SoP. This underscores the ongoing pertinence and significance of SoP, connecting residential stability to positive social implications. This study concludes that the place mechanism underlying the association between the NE and migrants' SWB operates both through migrants' emotional connections to a specific place (SoP) and the reinforcement of place experience resulting from a longer duration of residence. To establish inclusive communities, we propose planning and governance measures that enhance space quality, empower neighbourhoods to foster SoP, strengthen residential stability, and improve migrants' SWB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to quickly assess lamb meat freshness using smartphones under various modified atmosphere packaging and storage times (0–10 days). Lamb meat images were collected across different periods and packaging types (50% O2 + 40% CO2 + 10% N2; 70% O2 + 20% CO2 + 10% N2; air). Key color features were extracted, and significant differences in five color features were identified. Three distinct color feature combinations were chosen for models: support vector regression (SVR), genetic algorithm‐back propagation (GA‐BP) neural network, and convolutional neural network (CNN). Results showed SVR models with varied color feature inputs outperformed BP and CNN models. The SVR model with 12 input features yielded the best results, enabling effective spoilage level analysis of lamb meat under different storage times. This work establishes a foundation for future smartphone app development, utilizing Raspberry Pi hardware to evaluate lamb meat freshness under diverse storage conditions. Practical applications: This study introduces a cell phone‐based method to rapidly determine lamb spoilage in air conditioning packages during different storage times. Using cell phone images, we collected data on lamb samples stored for 0–10 days under three packaging conditions. We extracted significant color features and selected three combinations as inputs for prediction models: SVR, GA‐BP neural network, and CNN. The SVR model with 12 feature values demonstrated the best performance. This research lays the foundation for a cell phone application based on Raspberry Pi hardware, enabling users to assess lamb freshness in various storage conditions. The potential benefits include efficient quality control in the food industry, increased consumer confidence, and improved preservation of lamb products through optimized storage and packaging. Overall, this study contributes to food quality evaluation and provides practical applications for professionals and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to investigate the potential of a combined score based on CYFRA 21-1 level and LMR as a prognostic predictor for patients with ESCC. Methods: A total of 460 patients who underwent esophagectomy were analyzed, and three groups were established based on the CA-LMR score. OS and RFS were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier analysis, and associated factors were analyzed by univariate and multivariate Cox analysis. A mpStage system was also established based on the CA-LMR score. Results: The allocation of CA-LMR score of 0, 1, and 2 was 107 (23.3%), 280 (60.9%), and 73 (15.9%). There was a significant association between CA-LMR and male gender (P = 0.001), lower BMI (P = 0.035), longer tumor lesions (P = 0.002), and high pT, pN, pStage (P < 0.001, P = 0.011, P = 0.001). The 5-year OS rates for CA-LMR scores of 0, 1, and 2 were 75.4%, 60.2%, and 32.8%, respectively (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that CA-LMR score (P = 0.011) was an independent prognostic factor for OS. The proposed mpStage system, based on CA-LMR score, demonstrated superior discriminatory ability, monotonicity, homogeneity, and prognosis prediction ability over AJCC 8th pStage system. Conclusions: The CA-LMR score, combined with tumor marker and inflammatory index, could use as a potential prognostic indicator; moreover, our modified pStage system exhibited superior stratification and prognostic accuracy for patients with ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ionic circuits using ions as charge carriers have demonstrated great potential for flexible and bioinspired electronics. The emerging ionic thermoelectric (iTE) materials can generate a potential difference by virtue of selective thermal diffusion of ions, which provide a new route for thermal sensing with the merits of high flexibility, low cost, and high thermopower. Here, ultrasensitive flexible thermal sensor arrays based on an iTE hydrogel consisting of polyquaternium‐10 (PQ‐10), a cellulose derivative, as the polymer matrix and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as the ion source are reported. The developed PQ‐10/NaOH iTE hydrogel achieves a thermopower of 24.17 mV K−1, which is among the highest values reported for biopolymer‐based iTE materials. The high p‐type thermopower can be attributed to thermodiffusion of Na+ ions under a temperature gradient, while the movement of OH− ions is impeded by the strong electrostatic interaction with the positively charged quaternary amine groups of PQ‐10. Flexible thermal sensor arrays are developed through patterning the PQ‐10/NaOH iTE hydrogel on flexible printed circuit boards, which can perceive spatial thermal signals with high sensitivity. A smart glove integrated with multiple thermal sensor arrays is further demonstrated, which endows a prosthetic hand with thermal sensation for human–machine interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive cognitive decline, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with a high risk of developing AD. Hippocampal morphometry analysis is believed to be the most robust magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers for AD and MCI. Multivariate morphometry statistics (MMS), a quantitative method of surface deformations analysis, is confirmed to have strong statistical power for evaluating hippocampus. Aims: We aimed to test whether surface deformation features in hippocampus can be employed for early classification of AD, MCI, and healthy controls (HC). Methods: We first explored the differences in hippocampus surface deformation among these three groups by using MMS analysis. Additionally, the hippocampal MMS features of selective patches and support vector machine (SVM) were used for the binary classification and triple classification. Results: By the results, we identified significant hippocampal deformation among the three groups, especially in hippocampal CA1. In addition, the binary classification of AD/HC, MCI/HC, AD/MCI showed good performances, and area under curve (AUC) of triple‐classification model achieved 0.85. Finally, positive correlations were found between the hippocampus MMS features and cognitive performances. Conclusions: The study revealed significant hippocampal deformation among AD, MCI, and HC. Additionally, we confirmed that hippocampal MMS can be used as a sensitive imaging biomarker for the early diagnosis of AD at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals (NCs)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) composite flexible films were synthesized through a two‐step process. Firstly, CsPbBr3 nanocrystals with size of ~15 nm were synthesized via hot‐injection method, then the nanocrystals were dispersed in toluene as well as dissolution of EVA. The as‐prepared films emitting high purity of 90 % green color and photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 80 % with CsPbBr3 nanocrystals loading of 5 % wt under X‐ray. Owing to the EVA encapsulating of CsPbBr3, the composites show long‐term stable luminescent properties in atmosphere and even in water. Also, with the EVA as matrix, the composite films are ponent to be repeated bent for 1500 cycles without losing PL intensity property obviously. The X‐ray image with high contrast was captured at dose rate of ~25 μGyair/s(~0.09 Gy/h), that were estimated via calibrated apparatus. These results indicate that the CsPbBr3/EVA composite film has great potential application in fields of radiation detection and especially of X‐ray imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Salvage esophagectomy, indicated for some patients with locally recurrent/persistent disease after definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT), reportedly has high postoperative complications. This study aims to compare the safety and efficacy of dCRT followed by salvage esophagectomy (DCRE) with planned esophagectomy after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRE) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all locally advanced ESCC patients treated with DCRE or NCRE at Shanghai Chest Hospital from 2018 to 2021. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance baseline differences. DCRE is defined as esophagectomy for recurrent/persistent disease after dCRT. Results: A total of 302 patients (41 for DCRE and 261 for NCRE) were included. The median interval of chemoradiotherapy-to-surgery was 47d in NCRE, 43d and 440d in DCRE of persistent disease (n = 24) and recurrence (n = 17), respectively. DCRE was observed with advanced ypT stage (63% vs 38%), poorer differentiation (32% vs 15%) and more lymphovascular invasion (29% vs 11%) compared with NCRE (all p < 0.05). The above factors were comparable between the two groups after PSM (all p > 0.05). There were no significant differences before and after PSM in postoperative complications over Clavien-Dindo grade III (e.g., respiratory failure and anastomotic leak), 30/90-day postoperative mortality, and survival. Conclusion: Through a standardized surgical procedure in a high-volume center, DCRE exhibited comparable postoperative complications and prognosis with NCRE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has surpassed all other thin‐film solar cells. It is well known that the mismatch between the perovskite film and electron transport layer is an important factor to damage the stability of PSCs. Herein, an effective modification strategy to improve stability by using FAI@ZIF‐8 is demonstrated. It is found that the FAI@ZIF‐8 modification reduces the trap‐state density of the perovskite by slowly releasing FAI from the ZIF‐8 pore. Besides, FAI@ZIF‐8 improves energy‐level alignment at TiO2/perovskite interface, which facilitates electron extraction at the interface. As a consequence, an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.52% is achieved for the FAI@ZIF‐8‐treated PSCs. After storing under 20–30% relative humidity and room temperature for 2000 h, the FAI@ZIF‐8‐treated device sustains 96% of its initial PCE; nevertheless, the control device maintains only 73% of its initial PCE under the same conditions. This strategy is helpful to guide the development of high‐performance PSCs and promotes commercialization of perovskite materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediation analyses play important roles in making causal inference in biomedical research to examine causal pathways that may be mediated by one or more intermediate variables (ie, mediators). Although mediation frameworks have been well established such as counterfactual‐outcomes (ie, potential‐outcomes) models and traditional linear mediation models, little effort has been devoted to dealing with mediators with zero‐inflated structures due to challenges associated with excessive zeros. We develop a novel mediation modeling approach to address zero‐inflated mediators containing true zeros and false zeros. The new approach can decompose the total mediation effect into two components induced by zero‐inflated structures: the first component is attributable to the change in the mediator on its numerical scale which is a sum of two causal pathways and the second component is attributable only to its binary change from zero to a non‐zero status. An extensive simulation study is conducted to assess the performance and it shows that the proposed approach outperforms existing standard causal mediation analysis approaches. We also showcase the application of the proposed approach to a real study in comparison with a standard causal mediation analysis approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic redox‐active materials are promising electrode candidates for lithium‐ion batteries by virtue of their designable structure and cost‐effectiveness. However, their poor electrical conductivity and high solubility in organic electrolytes limit the device's performance and practical applications. Herein, the π‐conjugated nitrogen‐containing heteroaromatic molecule hexaazatriphenylene (HATN) is strategically embedded with redox‐active centers in the skeleton of a Cu‐based 2D conductive metal–organic framework (2D c‐MOF) to optimize the lithium (Li) storage performance of organic electrodes, which delivers improved specific capacity (763 mAh g−1 at 300 mA g−1), long‐term cycling stability (≈90% capacity retention after 600 cycles at 300 mA g−1), and excellent rate performance. The correlation of experimental and computational results confirms that this high Li storage performance derives from the maximum number of active sites (CN sites in the HATN unit and CO sites in the CuO4 unit), favorable electrical conductivity, and efficient mass transfer channels. This strategy of integrating multiple redox‐active moieties into the 2D c‐MOF opens up a new avenue for the design of high‐performance electrode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the abrupt and significant drop of PM2.5 concentrations during the lockdown in 2020, hourly direct radiation (Rdir) at surface substantially increased in East China, such as Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Baoshan, with the maximum enhancement of 86% at Wuhan. Most of these stations had decreased diffuse radiation (Rdif) except Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou had both enhanced Rdir and Rdif, as well as reduced but still high PM2.5 concentrations, indicating atmospheric particles were more scattering in this region. At Beijing and Harbin in North and Northeast China, intensification of aerosol pollution led to hourly Rdir (Rdif) falling (rising) up to −28% (59%) and −23% (40%), respectively. By contrast, surface solar radiation (SSR) in West China was also greatly influenced by the elevated dust/smoke layers, revealed by aerosol layer vertical distribution and the reduction of SSR and PM2.5 concentrations. This study highlighted the importance of aerosol optical properties and vertical structures in aerosol–radiation interactions. Plain Language Summary: Atmospheric particulate matters block sunlight and reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground. The emission reduction during the COVID‐19 Atmospheric particulate matters block sunlight and reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground. The emission reduction during the COVID‐19 lockdown reduced fine particles (PM2.5) concentrations and resulted in substantial rise of direct radiation and drop of diffuse radiation at most stations in East China, with Wuhan having the maximum enhancement in direct radiation of 86%. The unusual increase of PM2.5 concentrations during the control period in North and Northeast China also correspondingly declined (enhanced) the observed direct (diffuse) radiation at surface. Actually, surface solar radiation is affected not only by particles near the ground, but also by aerosols at high levels. For example, the elevated layer of smoke/dust weakened the direct radiation at Urumqi, Yuzhong, Lhasa and Kunming in West China. In addition, the absorbing/scattering property of ambient aerosols also played a role in the aerosol‐radiation interactions, suggested by the unique increase in both direct and diffuse radiation, as well as reduced but still high PM2.5 concentrations at Zhengzhou. This study provided observational evidences and quantitative ranges of aerosol‐radiation interactions in the COVID‐19 lockdown across China. Key Points: Variations of surface solar radiation in East China during the COVID‐19 lockdown were highly linked to changes of PM2.5 concentrationsThe increase of both Rdir and Rdif and the reduced but still high PM2.5 concentration indicated aerosols at Zhengzhou became more scatteringRdir in West China could be weaken by the elevated aerosol layers despite the drop of ground PM2.5 concentrations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the adaptive finite time tracking control problem for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (QUAV) subject to actuator failure with event‐triggered control strategy. It is assumed that the models of actuator failure are actuator blockage and saturation faults. The finite time performance function and adaptive backstepping method are combined to design the controller to compensate the influence of actuator failure, so as to ensure that the tracking error converges to the preset neighborhood near the origin in finite time. In addition, a new event‐triggered strategy is introduced to save communication resources and avoid the Zeno‐behavior, which defines the variable threshold as a function combining with tracking error and positive constants. The variable threshold not only effectively reduces triggering times, but also makes the design of the controller more flexible. It is proved that the closed‐loop system is stability. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified by simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automotive paint is one of the most important evidence in solving vehicle‐related criminal cases. It contains the critical information about the suspected vehicle, providing essential clues for the investigation. In this study, a novel approach based on optical coherence tomography combined with multivariate statistical methods was proposed to facilitate rapid, accurate and nondestructive identification of different brands of automotive paints. 164 automotive paint samples from 8 different manufacturers were analyzed by a spectral‐domain optical coherence tomography system (SD‐OCT). Two‐dimensional cross‐sectional OCT images and three‐dimensional OCT reconstruction of vehicle paints of different paints were obtained to show the internal structural differences. Visual discrimination of A‐scan data after registration and averaging processing was first used to distinguish different samples. An scanning electron microscope was utilized to obtain the cross‐sectional image of the sample to evaluate the effectiveness of OCT technique. Then the original A‐scan data, first derivative data and second derivative data of 136 paints with four layers from 7 different manufacturers were collected. Multivariate statistical methods, including principal component analysis (PCA), multi‐layer perceptron (MLP), k‐nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm and Bayes discriminant analysis (BDA), were used to analyze different datasets. The results show the hybrid PCA and BDA model based on the first derivative OCT data achieved the best result of 100% accuracy on the testing dataset for identifying automotive paints. It is demonstrated that the OCT technique combined with multivariate statistics could be a promising method for identifying the automotive paints rapidly and accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A stable animal model was needed to study bone non‐union caused by insufficient blood supply, the main object of this paper is to develop a medial malleolar fracture model with controllable arterial vascular injuries in rats for revealing the biochemical mechanism of non‐union by insufficient blood supply. Methods: A total of 18 rats were randomly divided into three equal groups: the Sham group, the Fracture group, and the Fracture + Vascular group. The animals were subjected to unilateral medial malleolar bone fracture and vascular injury using customized molding equipment. The fracture site was scanned by micro‐CT, and vascular injury was evaluated by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) 24 h after modeling. Histological examination (HE), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were conducted on the medial malleolar fracture tissues of three rats randomly selected from each group 24 h after modeling. Subsequently, to further confirm the success of fracture modeling, the fracture sites of three other rats in each group underwent micro‐CT scanning again 6 weeks after surgery. Results: The results of a 24 h micro‐CT showed that all rats used to create the fracture models showed controlled injury of the medial malleolus. The model was stable, and the satisfaction of the homemade equipment agreed with the expectation. LDF showed that the blood flow of rats in the Fracture + Vascular group decreased significantly 24 h after fracture injury, while collateral blood flow perfusion increased by 50% on average. The results of HE, ALP and TRAP staining in the medial malleolus showed that the number of osteoblasts (OBs) and osteoclasts (OCs) in the Fracture group increased significantly, but the number of OBs and OCs in the Fracture + Vascular group decreased sharply relative to the number in the Sham group 24 h later. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence results showed that the number of neovessels in the Fracture group was significantly increased, while the number of neovessels in the Fracture + Vascular group was significantly decreased, which was consistent with the above results. After 6 weeks of modeling, the micro‐CT results showed that the fractures in the Fracture group had healed substantially, while those in the Fracture + Vascular group had not. Conclusion: This study provided a reproducible and stable experimental animal model for medial malleolar fractures with arterial injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concentrates on the optimal bidding strategy of a plug‐in electric vehicle aggregator (PEVA) using indirect load control in the day‐ahead energy market, which is generally formulated as bilevel programming. However, this bilevel model is nonconvex and intractable due to the complementary constraints imposed to preclude plug‐in electric vehicles (PEVs) from simultaneously charging and discharging. To handle this problem, an exact relaxation method is first proposed to remove the complementary constraints of the PEVs' charging and discharging behaviours. To further reduce the complexity of the model, a method is proposed for the exact relaxation of the complementary slackness of Karush‐Kuhn‐Tucker (KKT) conditions in the reformulated mathematical program with equilibrium constraints. By removing the complementary constraints, the relaxation methods can effectively reduce the complexity of the model and improve the computational performance. The results of the case study demonstrate the exactness and efficiency of the proposed relaxation methods. Specifically, in the test case with 1000 PEVs and 20 scenarios, 220,000 constraints are removed by the two exact relaxation methods. Moreover, using the second exact relaxation method, in the test case with 400 PEVs and 60 scenarios and the case with 1000 PEVs and 60 scenarios, the computational time drops by 30.3% and 23.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterfeiting of banknotes remains a severe threat to economic security and social stability. The characterization of banknote has mainly relied on the assessment of various security features applied to the surface of the note. However, the surface features are easy to forge and contain insufficient information to discover the source. In this paper, a novel approach for banknote characterization has been proposed by employing spectral‐domain optical coherence tomography (SD‐OCT) that can provide structural and optical features. Three groups of counterfeit Chinese 100 Yuan banknotes produced by different printing manners and one group of authentic banknotes were examined by SD‐OCT without any sample preparation and four distinct areas were selected for imaging. High‐resolution tomographic and three‐dimensional (3D) volumetric OCT images were obtained and a set of features were first revealed to characterize the banknotes qualitatively and quantitatively. The results demonstrated that SD‐OCT was effective to detect and classify different types of counterfeit banknotes and could potentially be used to link counterfeit banknotes to their sources in a fast, simple and nondestructive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock forecasting is difficult because of its complexity and uncertainty. To better predict stock prices and then provide stockholders with reasonable suggestions, this paper proposes an improved time convolution network (TCN) model for predicting stock prices. The model used can make up for some of the shortcomings of the traditional neural network, use the trading data in the stock market, and put the preprocessed data of financial news into the model for training to improve the accuracy of prediction. Using the Shanghai Securities Exchange (SSE) 50 Index (Shanghai Securities Exchange 50 Index selects the most representative 50 stocks with large scale and good liquidity in Shanghai stock market as sample stocks) and news text crawled from financial web pages as samples, predict the direction of the SSE 50 Index's rise and fall. After using different network structure hyperparameters to adjust the model structure, the prediction effect is compared with other models, and it is found that the proposed improved TCN model can effectively improve the effect of predicting the rise and fall of the SSE 50 index, and can complete the model training and predict the stock price faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy flow calculation of the integrated electric power and natural gas system (IEGS) is generally tackled by the classical Newton–Raphson (NR) method with second‐order convergence. However, this method may fail to converge or incur oscillating iterations leading to heavy computation burden if the initial point is not selected properly, especially in heterogenous integrated energy systems containing the natural gas system. To handle this problem, a variant of Newton–Raphson method with third‐order convergence is proposed, which needs one function and two derivative evaluations per iteration without increasing the number of derivative evaluations. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, simulation studies are carried out on several different cases for the energy flow calculation of IEGS. Experiment results reveal that the proposed method is superior to the classical Newton–Raphson method and its other variants in terms of computational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Splicing factor SRSF2 acts as a critical regulator for cell survival, however, it remains unknown whether SRSF2 is involved in myoblast proliferation and myogenesis. Here, knockdown of SRSF2 in myoblasts causes high rates of apoptosis and defective differentiation. Combined conditional knockout and lineage tracing approaches show that Myf5‐cre mice lacking SRSF2 die immediately at birth and exhibit a complete absence of mature myofibers. Mutant Myf5‐derived cells (tdtomato‐positive cells) are randomly scattered in the myogenic and non‐myogenic regions, indicating loss of the community effect required for skeletal muscle differentiation. Single‐cell RNA‐sequencing reveals high heterogeneity of myf5‐derived cells and non‐myogenic cells are significantly increased at the expense of skeletal muscle cells in the absence of SRSF2, reflecting altered cell fate. SRSF2 is demonstrated to regulate the entry of Myf5 cells into the myogenic program and ensures their survival by preventing precocious differentiation and apoptosis. In summary, SRSF2 functions as an essential regulator for Myf5‐derived cells to respond correctly to positional cues and to adopt their myogenic fate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the usage of temporary anchorage devices (TADs) at the ramus for the orthodontic extraction of the deeply impacted lower third molar. Method: Thirteen patients were involved in this study, surgical exposure, miniscrew insertion and orthodontic attachments bonding were carried out at one visit, all the extraction appliances were sutured under the flap. The elastic chain was changed every 4 weeks. When the root/roots were separated apart from the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) canal, tooth was easier and quicker to surgically extract. Data were analysed by paired t‐test. Result: All the patient's M3s were successfully and easily removed without neurological complication. The average orthodontic traction time was 15.4 ± 6.7 weeks, and average root movement was 3.9 ± 1.5 mm. The traction time seemed associated with gender, the traction time of female was 12.0 ± 4.9 weeks and male was 17.5 ± 7.1 weeks (p < 0.05). The linear and angular changes indicated that the M3s were distally upright. Discussion: To avoid IAN injury, coronectomy and orthodontic extraction were investigated by many studies, TADs at the ramus were demonstrated to be a reliable method for orthodontic extraction. Larger sample number and randomized controlled trial are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing integration literature in the Chinese context has mostly focused on migrants' relations with receiving contexts, such as place attachment and settlement intention. Few attempts have been made to investigate migrants' relations with local residents, a better indicator of migrants' integration. Based on the 2014 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study scrutinises how environmental factors and individual factors affect migrants' intergroup relations in China. The analysis shows that migrants who live in more migrant‐concentrated neighbourhoods and who stay in more developed cities with a higher presence of migrants tend to suffer from worse intergroup relations. This implies that no matter at which level the migrant concentration exists, it can hinder migrants' intergroup relations. Moreover, both higher socioeconomic status and acculturation can significantly improve migrants' intergroup relations, indicating that acculturation also plays an important role in the relatively homogeneous society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]