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The ESG scores of corporations is a crucial manifestation of their long-term strategic goals, attracting significant attention from society. The impact and underlying mechanisms of the enhancement of the social credit atmosphere on the ESG performance of corporations remain unclear. This study utilizes a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, employing the Difference-in-Differences (DID) methodology to investigate the relationship of the establishment of the social credit system on company ESG scores. This study reveals that the establishment of the social credit system significantly advances corporate ESG scores. Heterogeneity results indicate that the positive effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises or companies having substantial institutional shareholding. Furthermore, the implementation of the social credit system amplifies corporate ESG scores through three key mechanisms: fostering green technology innovation, cultivating ethical and moral corporate cultures, and optimizing the overall business environment. This paper enriches the informal institutional researches about the driving factors of corporate ESG scores, providing valuable insights for policymakers and corporate decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a progressive fibroinflammatory disease, chronic pancreatitis (CP) often manifests as recurrent bouts of abdominal pain with or without complications, causing a heavy burden of health care. In recent years, some meaningful insights into the management of CP have been obtained from randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, which were of great importance. Based on this research, it is shown that there are various treatments for CP. Therefore, it is of great importance to choose a suitable strategy for patients with CP individually. Relevant evidence on the management of CP was summarized in this review, including nutrition supplements, medication, endoscopy, surgery, exploration of novel therapies as well as evaluation and prediction of treatment response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoid-related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) is the lineage-specific transcription factor for T helper 17 (Th17) cells. Our previous study demonstrated that STAT3 likely participates in the activation of RORCE2 (a novel enhancer of the RORγt gene) in Th17 cells. However, the detailed mechanism is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that both STAT3 and SOX-5 mediate the enhancer activity of RORCE2 in vitro. Deletion of the STAT3 binding site (STAT3-BS) in RORCE2 impaired RORγt expression and Th17 differentiation, resulting in reduced severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Mechanistically, STAT3 and SOX-5 bind the RORCE2 region and recruit the chromatin remodeling factor BRG1 to remodel the nucleosomes positioned at this region. Collectively, our data suggest that STAT3 and SOX-5 mediate the differentiation of Th17 cells through the induction of BRG1-mediated chromatin remodeling of RORCE2 in Th17 cells. STAT3 and SOX-5 may mediate Th17 cell differentiation through the induction of BRG1-mediated chromatin remodeling of RORCE2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a hybrid scheme to renormalize quasi distribution amplitudes of a light baryon on the lattice, which combines the self-renormalization and ratio scheme. By employing self-renormalization, the UV divergences and linear divergence at large spatial separations in quasi distribution amplitudes are removed without introducing extra nonperturbative effects, while making a ratio with respect to the zero-momentum matrix element can properly remove the UV divergences in small spatial separations. As a specific application, distribution amplitudes of the Λ baryon made of uds are investigated, and the requisite equal-time correlators, which define quasi distribution amplitudes in coordinate space, are perturbatively calculated up to the next-to-leading order in strong coupling constant αs. These perturbative equal-time correlators are used to convert lattice QCD matrix elements to the continuum space during the renormalization process. Subsequently, quasi distribution amplitudes are matched onto lightcone distribution amplitudes by integrating out hard modes and the corresponding hard kernels are derived up to next-to-leading order in αs including the hybrid counterterms. These results are valuable in the lattice-based investigation of the lightcone distribution amplitudes of a light baryon from the first principles of QCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-cost desert sand and coal fly ash were used to synthesize high-quality quartz-anorthite composite ceramics. The effects of the addition of fly ash on the densification of green bodies, phase transformation, microstructure, and mechanical and thermal properties were investigated. The results showed that the densification of green bodies occurred when they were sintered from 1,100°C–1,200°C , and the phase transformation of anorthite mainly occurred in fly ash from 846.9°C to 982.7°C. Temperatures of densification and anorthite transformation increased with increased addition of fly ash. At 1,100°C, β -cristobalite formed in desert sand and remained at room temperature; the content increased with increased sintering temperature. The quartz-anorthite ceramics were composed of α -quartz, β -cristobalite, anorthite, and amorphous phase. Anorthite was formed by the solid-state reaction of quartz, mullite, and other phases in the desert sand and fly ash and was promoted by liquid-phase sintering at higher temperatures. The highest bending strength of 115.6 MPa and highest hardness of 668.3 Vickers hardness (HV) were produced for samples with 40% by weight fly ash sintered at 1,100°C. Samples with 100% by weight added fly ash had the lowest mean thermal expansion coefficient (5.1×10−6·K−1), the highest linear shrinkage (24.2%), and the highest bulk density (2.5 g/cm3) when sintered at 1,200°C. The samples with 0%–60%, 80%, and 100% by weight added fly ash exhibited a low water absorption of 0.8%–1.8% when sintered at 1,100°C, 1,150°C, and 1,200°C, respectively. This technique can be feasibly used to fabricate civil engineering materials such as decorative ceramics, roof tiles, wall bricks, and insulation and filling materials. Inexhaustible supplies of desert sand and huge reserves of industrial solid waste cause serious negative effects on the environment. In addition, the manufacturing of building materials consumes tremendous amounts of inorganic minerals. The use of idle desert sand and industrial solid waste to produce useful building materials is an effective route to reduce environmental problems and mineral consumption. Desert sand and fly ash contain quartz, feldspar, mullite, and amorphous phase—similar to the composition of silicate materials. Therefore, they can be used as sustainable raw materials for ceramic production through the use of new techniques. The present study introduces a new material—anorthite-based ceramic—and a method for synthesizing it using low-cost desert sand and fly ash as raw materials. The anorthite-based ceramic can be used in the construction and building fields—the largest consumer of silicate materials—in tiles, bricks, porcelain, lightweight filling materials, and insulation materials. This is of great significance to the economization of mineral resources, resource regeneration, and improvement to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Momentum distributions of quarks/gluons inside a light baryon in a hard exclusive process are encoded in the light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs). In this work, we point out that the leading twist LCDAs of a light baryon can be obtained through a simulation of a quasi-distribution amplitude calculable on lattice QCD within the framework of the large-momentum effective theory. We calculate the one-loop perturbative contributions to LCDA and quasi-distribution amplitudes and explicitly demonstrate the factorization of quasi-distribution amplitudes at the one-loop level. Based on the perturbative results, we derive the matching kernel in the MS ¯ scheme and regularization-invariant momentum-subtraction scheme. Our result provides a first step to obtaining the LCDA from first principle lattice QCD calculations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In complex natural environments, sensory systems are constantly exposed to a large stream of inputs. Novel or rare stimuli, which are often associated with behaviorally important events, are typically processed differently than the steady sensory background, which has less relevance. Neural signatures of such differential processing, commonly referred to as novelty detection, have been identified on the level of EEG recordings as mismatch negativity (MMN) and on the level of single neurons as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). Here, we propose a multi-scale recurrent network with synaptic depression to explain how novelty detection can arise in the whisker-related part of the somatosensory thalamocortical loop. The "minimalistic" architecture and dynamics of the model presume that neurons in cortical layer 6 adapt, via synaptic depression, specifically to a frequently presented stimulus, resulting in reduced population activity in the corresponding cortical column when compared with the population activity evoked by a rare stimulus. This difference in population activity is then projected from the cortex to the thalamus and amplified through the interaction between neurons of the primary and reticular nuclei of the thalamus, resulting in rhythmic oscillations. These differentially activated thalamic oscillations are forwarded to cortical layer 4 as a late secondary response that is specific to rare stimuli that violate a particular stimulus pattern. Model results show a strong analogy between this late single neuron activity and EEG-based mismatch negativity in terms of their common sensitivity to presentation context and timescales of response latency, as observed experimentally. Our results indicate that adaptation in L6 can establish the thalamocortical dynamics that produce signatures of SSA and MMN and suggest a mechanistic model of novelty detection that could generalize to other sensory modalities. Author summary: Cortical sensory neurons have been shown to be capable of novelty detection, that is they respond more vigorously when a novel, unexpected stimulus is presented, and less so when the stimulus is part of a predictable sequence. However, the neural mechanism underlying this capability is not yet fully understood. Here, we developed a minimalistic thalamocortical network model that accounts for novelty detection and reproduces physiologically observed neural response patterns in the anaesthetized somatosensory cortex. Specifically, our results demonstrate that the novelty signal arises from the recurrent interplay between thalamic neurons and cortical neurons in layers 4 and 6, without the need of other components. This work therefore provides a concrete mechanism that can serve as a starting point for further investigating the neural circuit mechanisms underlying novelty detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning and studying the structure–activity relationship in the bio‐enzymes is conducive to the design of nanozymes for energy and environmental application. Herein, Fe single‐atom nanozymes (Fe‐SANs) with Fe–N5 site, inspired by the structure of cytochromes P450 (CYPs), are developed and characterized. Similar to the CYPs, the hyperoxide can activate the Fe(III) center of Fe‐SANs to generate Fe(IV)O intermediately, which can transfer oxygen to the substrate with ultrafast speed. Particularly, using the peroxymonosulfate (PMS)‐activated Fe‐SANs to oxidize sulfamethoxazole, a typical antibiotic contaminant, as the model hyperoxides activation reaction, the excellent activity within 284 min−1 g−1(catalyst) mmol−1(PMS) oxidation rate and 91.6% selectivity to the Fe(IV)O intermediate oxidation are demonstrated. More importantly, instead of promoting PMS adsorption, the axial N ligand modulates the electron structure of FeN5 SANs for the lower reaction energy barrier and promotes electron transfer to PMS to produce Fe(IV)O intermediate with high selectivity. The highlight of the axial N coordination in the nanozymes in this work provides deep insight to guide the design and development of nanozymes nearly to the bio‐enzyme with excellent activity and selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current evidence for the efficacy of pharmacological treatment in improving cognitive function is absent. Recent studies have reported that 3‐n‐butylphthalide (NBP) has a positive effect on improving cognitive impairment; however, its clinical efficacy and safety is unclear. Therefore, we conducted a meta‐analysis to assess its efficacy and safety for cognitive impairment. Methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, and two reviewers independently screened and extracted the data from included studies. We synthesized the data using the Review Manager Software version 5.3. Results: We included six randomized clinical trials (RCTs), encompassing 851 patients with cognitive impairment. The results showed that NBP improved cognitive impairment. Specifically, the clinical efficacy was better than that in the control group, with better performance in improving the Mini‐Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores, while decreasing the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale‐Cognitive subscale and the Clinician's Interview‐Based Impression of Change plus caregiver input scores. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between both groups. Conclusion: The NBP is effective and safe in improving cognitive impairment; however, more high‐quality RCTs are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous Information Network (HIN) collecitve classification studies the problem of predicting labels for one type of nodes in a HIN which contains multiple types of nodes multiple types of links among them. Previous studies have revealed that exploiting relative importance of links is quite useful to improve node classification performance as connected nodes tend to have similar labels. Most existing approaches exploit the relative importance of links either by directly counting the number of connections among nodes or by learning the weight of each type of link from labeled data only. However, these approaches either neglect the importance of types of links to the class labels or may lead to overfitting problem. We propose a Tensor-based Markov chain (T-Mark) approach, which is able to automatically and simultaneously predict the labels for unlabeled nodes and give the relative importance of types of links that actually improve the classification accuracy. Specifically, we build two tensor equations by using the HIN and features of nodes from both labeled and unlabeled data. A Markov chain-based model is proposed and it is solved by an iterative process to obtain the stationary distributions. Theoretical analyses of the existence and uniqueness of such probability distributions are given. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that T-Mark is able to achieve superior performance in the comparison and obtain reasonable relative importance of links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhomogeneous microstructures in the thickness direction and stress corrosion cracking of 2050-T84 Al-Li alloy thick plate was investigated. The quarter layer of alloy thick plate exhibited the highest stress corrosion cracking sensitivity, which was related to AlCuMnFe IMPs, subgrains, orientation, T 1 phase and dislocation density. In the quarter layer, the obstruction of subgrains to deformation bands resulted in significant stress concentration. Cracks originated from corrosion pits caused by AlCuMnFe IMPs around subgrains. The dealloying corrosion of T 1 phase and the presence of Goss texture increased the brittleness of the alloy, further accelerating the stress corrosion cracking of the quarter layer. • Inhomogeneous microstructures of 2050-T84 alloy induce differences in SCC sensitivity. • Obstruction of subgrains to deformation bands result in stress concentration. • Cracks originate from corrosion pits caused by AlCuMnFe IMPs around subgrains. • Dealloying corrosion of T 1 phase increases the brittleness and SCC sensitivity of 2050-T84 alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the stability of biomass gel foam used for inhibiting coal spontaneous combustion (CSC), a novel highly stable biomass gel foam (SA-Ca2+@TA-GF) based on a double cross-linked structure was prepared by introducing tannic acid (TA) into a gel form (sodium alginate/calcium L-lactate/composite foaming agent). FT-IR confirmed the formation of the double cross-linked structure. The effects of TA concentration on the performance of SA-Ca2+@TA-GF were analyzed, considering gelation time, half-life, film microstructure, and strength. With the addition of 1.6 wt% TA, SA-Ca2+@TA-GF forms a dense foam structure with a gelation time of 10 min. The half-life of the gel foam improves from 0.4 to 30 days and the strength increases by 72.9% compared to that of foam without TA. The inhibition experiments show that SA-Ca2+@TA-GF can asphyxiate coal, thus effectively inhibiting coal oxidation. Additionally, it can increase the temperature of coal at the rapid oxidation stage by 60 °C, and the CO inhibition rate is up to 79.6% at 200 °C. The fire-fighting experiment shows that SA-Ca2+@TA-GF can effectively cool coal and quickly extinguish fires. This study provides a simple method to prepare highly stable biomass gel foams, which is useful for improving the efficiency of gel foams in inhibiting CSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melia azedarach Linn. is a deciduous tree of the Melia genus in the Meliaceae family that is native to China. To study the mechanism of drought resistance in Melia azedarach and evaluate the drought resistance capacity of each provenance, we selected eight provenances (Shandong Kenli, Jiangsu Pizhou, Hubei Shayang, Jiangsu Xuanwu, Jiangxi Xihu, Jiangsu Jurong, Guangdong Luogang, and Henan Shihe) as the research subjects and set four levels of drought stress treatment (CK: 75% of field capacity, mild drought: 60% of field capacity, moderate drought: 45% of field capacity, and severe drought: 30% of field capacity). The results showed that the growth in the seedling height and the ground diameter, the leaf relative water content, transpiration rate (Tr), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), and the content of chlorophyll (Chl) decreased with the increasing stress levels, while the root–shoot ratio, water saturation deficit, and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased. The SOD in most provenances initially increased and then decreased, reaching a peak during moderate drought. At the late stage of treatment, the magnitude of the changes in the photosynthetic indicators was more pronounced than in the physiological indicators. Principal component analysis showed that the contribution of all four principal components under the three drought stresses was above 85%, which represented the majority of the original data. Combined with the affiliation function method and weights, the comprehensive evaluation value (D value) of the drought resistance was calculated for the eight provenances. Then, we obtained the order of drought resistance of the test materials under the three drought stresses, respectively. The combined results revealed that the drought resistance of Henan Shihe and Jiangxi Xihu was stronger, while the drought resistance of Guangdong Luogang and Hubei Shayang was weaker. Based on the above findings, we can select provenances with strong and weak drought resistance for transcriptome sequencing to screen drought-resistant genes for an in-depth study at the molecular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Femoral nerve block (FNB) and fascia iliac compartment block (FICB) are alternative methods of pain relief during hip surgery. Nevertheless, the effectiveness and safety of FNB compared with FICB are yet to be fully determined. Methods. Electronic databases were systematically searched. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on hip surgery were included. Postoperatively, the pain scores at different time points, narcotic requirements in 24 h, mean arterial pressure, spinal anesthesia (SA) time, patient satisfaction, and adverse effect rates between the two groups were extracted throughout the study. Results. Fourteen RCTs including 1179 patients were included. Compared to the FICB, FNB decreased the VAS scores postoperatively at 24 h at rest (P < 0.05) and the incidence rate of some side effects (nausea, vomiting, and sedation) (P < 0.05). However, compared to the FICB, no significant difference was found in the FNB regarding the VAS scores postoperatively at any of the other time points (2 min, 20 min, 2 h, 24 h at movement, 48 h at rest, and 48 h at movement). Patients in both groups had similar narcotic needs after 24 h, mean arterial pressure, SA time, and patient satisfaction (P > 0.05). Conclusions. FNB has more advantages in reducing VAS scores postoperatively at 24 h at rest and the odds of some adverse effects. A better quality RCT is needed to properly compare FNB with FICB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In Arabidopsis, the differentiation of epidermal cells into stomata is regulated by endogenous and environmental signals. Sugar is required for plant epidermal cell proliferation and differentiation. However, it is unclear how epidermal cells maintain division and differentiation to generate proper amounts of stomata in response to different sugar availability.Here, we show that two evolutionarily conserved kinase Snf1‐related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1) and Target of rapamycin (TOR) play critical roles in the regulation of stomatal development under different sugar availability.When plants are grown on a medium containing 1% sucrose, sucrose‐activated TOR promotes the stomatal development by inducing the expression of SPEECHLESS (SPCH), a master regulator of stomatal development. SnRK1 promotes stomatal development through phosphorylating and stabilizing SPCH. However, under the high sucrose conditions, the highly accumulated trehalose‐6‐phosphate (Tre6P) represses the activity of KIN10, the catalytic α‐subunit of SnRK1, by reducing the interaction between KIN10 and its upstream kinase, consequently promoting SPCH degradation and inhibiting stomatal development.Our findings revealed that TOR and SnRK1 finely regulate SPCH expression and protein stability to optimize the stomatal development in response to exogenously supplied sugar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable cloud masks in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover products have a high potential to improve the retrieval of snow properties. However, cloud–snow confusion is a popular problem in MODIS snow cover products, especially in boreal forest areas. A large amount of forest snow is misclassified as clouds because of the low normalized difference snow index (NDSI), and excessive cloud masks limit the application of snow products. In addition, ice clouds are easily misclassified as snow due to their similar spectral characteristics, which leads to snow commission errors. In this paper, we quantitatively evaluated the cloud–snow confusion in Northeast China and found that snow-covered forests and transition zones from snow-covered to snow-free areas are prone to being misclassified as clouds, while clouds are less likely to be misclassified as snow. A temporal-sequence cloud–snow-distinguishing algorithm based on the high-frequency observation characteristics of the Himawarri-8 geostationary meteorological satellite is proposed. In the temporal-sequence images acquired from that satellite, the NDSI variance in cloud pixels should be greater than that of snow because clouds vary over time, while snow is relatively stable. In the MODIS snow cover products, the cloud pixels with NDSI variance lower than a threshold are identified as cloud-free areas and attributed their raw NDSI value, while the snow pixels with NDSI variance greater than the threshold are marked as clouds. We applied this method to MOD10A1 C6 in Northeast China. The results showed that the excessive cloud masks were greatly eliminated, and the new cloud mask was in good agreement with the real cloud distribution. At the same time, some possible ice clouds which had been misclassified as snow for their spectral characteristics similar to those of snow were identified correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starch is the main energy storage carbohydrate in plants and serves as an essential carbon storage molecule for plant metabolism and growth under changing environmental conditions. The TARGET of RAPAMYCIN (TOR) kinase is an evolutionarily conserved master regulator that integrates energy, nutrient, hormone, and stress signaling to regulate growth in all eukaryotes. Here, we demonstrate that TOR promotes guard cell starch degradation and induces stomatal opening in Arabidopsis thaliana. Starvation caused by plants growing under short photoperiod or low light photon irradiance, as well as inactivation of TOR, impaired guard cell starch degradation and stomatal opening. Sugar and TOR induce the accumulation of β-AMYLASE1 (BAM1), which is responsible for starch degradation in guard cells. The plant steroid hormone brassinosteroid and transcription factor BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT1 play crucial roles in sugar-promoted expression of BAM1. Furthermore, sugar supply induced BAM1 accumulation, but TOR inactivation led to BAM1 degradation, and the effects of TOR inactivation on BAM1 degradation were abolished by the inhibition of autophagy and proteasome pathways or by phospho-mimicking mutation of BAM1 at serine-31. Such regulation of BAM1 activity by sugar–TOR signaling allows carbon availability to regulate guard cell starch metabolism and stomatal movement, ensuring optimal photosynthesis efficiency of plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The catalysts contain multi-active sites. • The micro twinning structure promotes catalytic activity towards different reactions. • The synergic effect exists and leads to the deviation from the Scaling Effect. The twinning structure could lead to unexpected effects on electrocatalytic performance; however, research on relevant mechanisms is still rare and there is still a lack of an effective and convenient strategy to introduce twinning structures into nanoparticles. In this work, inspired by the in-situ fcc-hcp phase transition in metals and benefiting from the features of Prussian blue analogues (PBAs), N-doped carbon cages-coated CoNi nanoparticles, which contain multi-active sites including alloyed nanoparticles, micro twinning structures and single atom sites could be effectively fabricated by pyrolyzing of CoNi-based PBAs. The catalyst exhibits an obvious enhancement in oxygen evolution/reduction reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction under alkaline conditions. Theoretical calculations verify that the micro-twinning structures originating from the fcc-hcp phase transition promote electrocatalytic activities significantly due to the optimized adsorption energy towards different intermediates. Moreover, the synergic effect between the multi-active sites may further optimize the electronic structures and lead to the deviation from the Scaling Effect. The water-splitting device and Zinc-Air battery are also assembled based on this micro- twinning electrocatalyst, which yields a maximum power density of 95 mW cm−2 and a low voltage of 1.76 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 current density, respectively. In all, this work contributes a simple and universal strategy to introduce both the multi-active sites and the twinning structure into transition metal-based catalysts, which improves the multi-catalytic activity towards different reactions significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hovering technology, as one of the core technologies in on-orbit service (OOS) missions, enables the relative position between an active spacecraft and chief spacecraft to be maintained within a given range, and it has received widespread attention in recent years. In this study, for an elliptical reference orbit, we proposed a series of control strategies to maintain a teardrop hovering formation with a J 2 perturbation. First, we formulated a mathematical model of the teardrop hovering formation maintained by the impulse control and presented a rapid method based on a relative-position correction method. Based on the sensitivity matrix, a strategy for maintaining a hovering formation using constant-thrust control was obtained. Furthermore, based on the proposed fast iterative method, an improved strategy was developed to satisfy a magnitude constraint. Finally, we analyzed the influence of the reference orbital elements and formation parameters on the hovering formation using numerical simulations, which demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method. This provides a reference for the preliminary design of hovering formations. • The constant-thrust strategies for maintaining teardrop formation are proposed. • The magnitude constraint of engine is considered in the constant-thrust strategy. • Compared with traditional way, the proposed constant-thrust strategies save fuel. • The influence of the parameters on total impulse for maintenance are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimulus-Specific Adaptation (SSA) to repetitive stimulation is a phenomenon that has been observed across many different species and in several brain sensory areas. It has been proposed as a computational mechanism, responsible for separating behaviorally relevant information from the continuous stream of sensory information. Although SSA can be induced and measured reliably in a wide variety of conditions, the network details and intracellular mechanisms giving rise to SSA still remain unclear. Recent computational studies proposed that SSA could be associated with a fast and synchronous neuronal firing phenomenon called Population Spikes (PS). Here, we test this hypothesis using a mean-field rate model and corroborate it using a neuromorphic hardware. As the neuromorphic circuits used in this study operate in real-time with biologically realistic time constants, they can reproduce the same dynamics observed in biological systems, together with the exploration of different connectivity schemes, with complete control of the system parameter settings. Besides, the hardware permits the iteration of multiple experiments over many trials, for extended amounts of time and without losing the networks and individual neural processes being studied. Following this "neuromorphic engineering" approach, we therefore study the PS hypothesis in a biophysically inspired recurrent networks of spiking neurons and evaluate the role of different linear and non-linear dynamic computational primitives such as spike-frequency adaptation or short-term depression (STD). We compare both the theoretical mean-field model of SSA and PS to previously obtained experimental results in the area of novelty detection and observe its behavior on its neuromorphic physical equivalent model. We show how the approach proposed can be extended to other computational neuroscience modelling efforts for understanding high-level phenomena in mechanistic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the production of underground engineering, investigating the mechanical behaviors of rock materials after high temperature damage is of great importance for controlling the stability of the underground structure. In this paper, for revealing the deformation and energy evolution laws of rock materials after high temperature damage under cyclic loading, a series of uniaxial compressive and cyclic loading experiments were conducted on sandstone after various high temperature damages, i.e., 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900°C, to study the effect of high temperature on primary wave velocity, microstructure, deformation, strength, energy, etc. It can be observed that the primary wave velocity and microstructure weakened seriously with the development of high temperature damage and the uniaxial compressive strength of samples increases toward the maximum value with a high temperature damage of 300°C and then decreases gradually. The energy proportion index was established to characterize the influence of high temperature damage and cyclic stress levels on energy evolution laws of samples. With an increase in temperature, compared with input energy, elastic strain energy proportion decreases and dissipated energy proportion rises up, which indicate that the property of samples transforms from elasticity to plasticity. Finally, the variation laws between the burst tendency of the sample and high temperature damage were well described by presenting the average elastic energy index, which provides references for studying failure characteristics of rock materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satellite formation plays an important role in space missions such as on-orbit services and distributed space facilities. In these missions, hovering in a bounded range is one of the core tasks, but hovering technologies for the chief satellite in an elliptical orbit have been rarely investigated. Given the boundary constraints of relative motion between the chief and deputy satellites, this paper proposes two models for the design and control of hovering formation near an elliptical reference orbit through impulse: (1) the revisiting hovering formation model, which forces the deputy satellite to revisit the same relative position and maintains the formation via impulses; (2) the sequential-impulse-control hovering formation model, which uses a sequence of impulses to ensure the deputy satellite flies within the given boundary. Unlike the revisiting hovering formation model, this model does not require a fixed revisiting point, so the satellite's trajectory is more flexible. The geometrical properties, formation maintenance strategy, and impulse-control solution for both models are investigated in detail. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to verify the advantages of the proposed methods over other conventional methods, suggesting their wide applications in practical space missions. • Two impulsive-control models are proposed for bounded hovering formation in elliptical orbit. • The proposed methods support in-plane, out-of-plane, and three-dimension hovering formations. • The in-plane and out-of-plane controls are decoupled to decrease control complexity and difficulty. • Different factors on the fuel cost are analyzed to provide a reference for practical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate segmentation of pelvic bones is an initial step to achieve accurate detection and localisation of pelvic bone metastases. This study presents a deep learning-based approach for automated segmentation of normal pelvic bony structures in multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) using a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN). Methods: This retrospective study included 264 pelvic mpMRI data obtained between 2018 and 2019. The manual annotations of pelvic bony structures (which included lumbar vertebra, sacrococcyx, ilium, acetabulum, femoral head, femoral neck, ischium, and pubis) on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) images were used to create reference standards. A 3D U-Net CNN was employed for automatic pelvic bone segmentation. Additionally, 60 mpMRI data from 2020 were included and used to evaluate the model externally. Results: The CNN achieved a high Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) average in both testing (0.80 [DWI images] and 0.85 [ADC images]) and external (0.79 [DWI images] and 0.84 [ADC images]) validation sets. Pelvic bone volumes measured with manual and CNN-predicted segmentations were highly correlated (R2 value of 0.84–0.97) and in close agreement (mean bias of 2.6–4.5 cm3). A SCORE system was designed to qualitatively evaluate the model for which both testing and external validation sets achieved high scores in terms of both qualitative evaluation and concordance between two readers (ICC = 0.904; 95% confidence interval: 0.871–0.929). Conclusions: A deep learning-based method can achieve automated pelvic bone segmentation on DWI and ADC images with suitable quantitative and qualitative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential diagnosis of abnormalities in the prostate is broad, covering common (acinar adenocarcinoma, benign prostatic hyperplasia, chronic prostatitis, hemorrhage, cysts, calcifications, atrophy and fibrosis) and less common conditions (tumors other than acinar adenocarcinoma, granulomatous prostatitis containing tuberculosis, abscesses and other conditions, and idiopathic disorders such as amyloidosis and exophytic benign prostatic hyperplasia). Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate gland and imaging guidelines, such as the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2.1 (PI-RADS v2.1), have dramatically improved the ability to distinguish common abnormalities, especially the ability to detect clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa). Overlap can exist in the clinical history and imaging features associated with various common/uncommon prostate abnormalities, and biopsy is often required but is invasive. Prostate abnormalities can be divided into two categories: category 1, diseases for which PI-RADS scores are suitable for use, and category 2, diseases for which PI-RADS scores are unsuitable for use. Radiologists must have an intimate knowledge of other diseases, especially uncommon conditions. Past relevant history, symptoms, age, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, MRI manifestations, and the applicability of the PI-RADS assessment should be considered when diagnosing prostate abnormalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Until now, the influential factors associated with pleural adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity among children remain unclear. This retrospective study was therefore conducted aiming to investigate the factors associated with negative pleural ADA results in the diagnosis of childhood pleural tuberculosis (TB).Methods: Between January 2006 and December 2019, children patients with definite or possible pleural TB were recruited for potential analysis. Then, patients were stratified into two categories: negative pleural ADA results group (experimental group, ≤40 U/L) and positive pleural ADA results group (control group, > 40 U/L). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate risk factors for negative pleural ADA results.Results: A total of 84 patients with pleural TB were recruited and subsequently classified as experimental (n = 17) and control groups (n = 67). Multivariate analysis (Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test: χ2 = 1.881, df = 6, P = 0.930) revealed that variables, such as chest pain (age-adjusted OR = 0.0510, 95% CI: 0.004, 0.583), pleural total protein (≤45.3 g/L, age-adjusted OR = 27.7, 95% CI: 2.5, 307.7), pleural lactate dehydrogenase (LDH, ≤505 U/L, age-adjusted OR = 59.9, 95% CI: 4.2, 857.2) and blood urea nitrogen (≤3.2 mmol/L, age-adjusted OR = 32.0, 95% CI: 2.4, 426.9), were associated with negative pleural ADA results when diagnosing childhood pleural TB.Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that chest pain, pleural total protein, pleural LDH, and blood urea nitrogen were associated with a negative pleural ADA result for the diagnosis of pleural TB among children. When interpreting pleural ADA levels in children with these characteristics, a careful clinical assessment is required for the pleural TB diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the tax of carbon emission is popular and consumers are exhibiting low-carbon preference, the green manufactures have to spend more extra cost on investing carbon emission reduction (CER) technology to decrease the carbon emission. To encourage the manufacture's CER investment efforts, this paper explores the impact of carbon tax, CER cost, and consumers' low-carbon preference on low-carbon decision-making and designs a revenue-sharing contract (RS) by constructing Stackelberg models. Based on the theoretical and numerical analysis, this paper finds that the supply chain would benefit from the increment of consumer's environmental awareness but be depressed by the increase of the CER investment cost factor. Additionally, there exists a unique optimal carbon tax to make CER degree the maximum. Furthermore, RS can effectively promote manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions and also improve the supply chain efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to determine the safe operation window of drilling fluid density (SOWDFD) for deep igneous rock strata. Although the formation three-pressure (pore pressure, collapse pressure, and fracture pressure) prediction method with credibility improves the accuracy of formation three-pressure prediction, it still has a large error for deep igneous strata. To solve this problem, a modified method of the SOWDFD in deep igneous rock strata is proposed based on the leakage statistics of adjacent wells. This method is based on the establishment of the SOWDFD with credibility. Through statistical analysis of drilling fluid density of igneous rock leaky formation group in adjacent wells, the fracture leakage law of the formation is revealed and the upper limit of leak-off pressure containing probability information is obtained. Finally, the modified SOWDFD with credibility for deep igneous rock strata is formed. In this work, the proposed method was used to compute the SOWDFD with credibility of SHB well in Xinjiang, China. Results show that the modified density window is consistent with the field drilling conditions and can reflect the narrow density window in the Permian and lower igneous strata. Combined with the formation three-pressure prediction method with credibility and the actual leakage law of adjacent wells, it can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of the SOWDFD for deep igneous rock strata. The findings of the study can help in better understanding of the complex downhole geological environment in deep igneous rock strata and making reasonable drilling design scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a highly stable differential resonant accelerometer that is monolithically micro-machined from a piece of ultrapure, single z-cut crystal quartz. The overall structure of quartz accelerometer is centrally symmetrical, which comprises two double-ended tuning forks (DETFs), two link beams, two micro-leverages, a proof mass, and a quartz frame. Micro-leverages and DETFs are perpendicular to each other and are located around the chip, which maximizes the utilization of the sensor area and is conducive to the miniaturization of the sensor. The effectiveness of the structure was verified by theoretical analysis, simulation, and experiment. The structure with differential arrangement can eliminate common mode disturbances, such as temperature, to improve sensitivity to acceleration. Within the measurement range of ±100 g, the sensor’s sensitivity, which is measured by experiments, is 17.72 Hz/g, with a velocity random walk of 0.84 μg/√ Hz and bias instability of 3.05 μg, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis results. [2020-0309] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case highlights the importance of coordinating with cardiopediatricians or congenitalists in the evaluation and treatment of ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and safety of myocardial biopsy using a new approach, the Liwen procedure.Background: Myocardial biopsy is essential when other methods could not differentiate other etiologies from hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). Our previous work using intramyocardial radiofrequency ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (Liwen procedure) may provide another approach to obtain the myocardial samples.Method: Seventeen patients with HOCM were enrolled for biopsies through percutaneously accessed intramyocardial septum and evaluated possible complications.Results: We obtained 31 specimens from 17 patients with a success rate of sample acquisition 100.0%. The number of myocardial samples taken per patient was 1.8 ± 0.8, and the average length of all samples was 16.7 ± 5.6 mm which could be used for pathological diagnosis. The complications included pericardial effusion with and without tamponade in one patient (5.9%), and no incidence of nonsustained and sustained ventricular tachycardia, conduction abnormity, perforation, stroke, and pneumothorax. The inhospital and 30-day mortality was 0%.Conclusion: This study has shown that myocardial biopsy of the Liwen procedure is relatively safe and technically feasible with adequate tissue sampling, which may help pathological diagnosis and further research of HOCM of diverse etiologies. This trial is registered with NCT04355260. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) offers an energy-efficient alternative to conventional thermal distillation processes for organic solvent separations. However, the fabrication of polymeric OSN membranes with adequate chemical stability in strong polar aprotic solvents remains a remarkable challenge. In this work, chemically robust polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) OSN membranes were fabricated by utilizing an innovative chemical modification of polyimide (PI) nanofiber substrate via one-step crosslinking and thermal cyclodehydration of terephthalic hydrazide (TPDH). The crosslinking and cyclodehydration reaction mechanisms were thoroughly elucidated and the effects of TPDH loading and thermal treatment conditions on solvent resistance and pore structure of the resulting TPDH/PI nanofiber substrates as well as the formation of the polyamide selective layer were systematically studied. The resulting TFC membranes show excellent stability in polar aprotic solvents (i.e., DMF, DMAC, and NMP), and a high DMF permeance of 9.4 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 was achieved with a 99.8% rejection to Rose Bengal at 2.0 bar. The outstanding long-term performance stability revealed the robust structure of the developed TFC OSN membranes. This work demonstrates a facile strategy to address the chemical stability limitations of TFC OSN membranes through a multifaceted yet generalizable approach of chemical crosslinking and thermal cyclodehydration. We believe this strategy can be broadly applied to different substrates, enabling TFC membranes to address a wide variety of unmet OSN needs. (TFC membranes with chemically robust TPDH/PI nanofiber substrates for polar solvent filtration). [Display omitted] • Polyimide (PI) nanofiber substrate was chemically crosslinked by terephthalic dihydrazide (TPDH). • Thermal cyclodehydration further improves the chemical robustness of the crosslinked TPDH/PI nanofiber substrates. • The modified TPDH/PI nanofiber substrates show outstanding stability in polar aprotic solvents. • The resulting polyamide TFC membranes exhibit excellent performance in organic solvent filtration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Compelling evidence indicates that status epilepticus is a prevalent cause of rhabdomyolysis. However, cases of rhabdomyolysis induced by a single seizure accompanied by viral encephalitis are rarely reported. Herein, we present a case of adult Herpes Simplex Encephalitis complicated with rhabdomyolysis.Case Presentation: A 32-year-old male was patient presented with fever accompanied by episodes of convulsions, myalgia, and oliguria, which exacerbated the delirium. Routine blood examination showed impaired kidney function and elevated myoglobin (Mb) and creatine phosphokinase (CK) levels. MRI scanning revealed a damaged frontotemporal lobe and limbic system. In addition, herpes simplex virus (HSV) pathogen was identified in the cerebrospinal fluid thus indicating HSV infection. Therefore, a diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis triggered by HSV infection accompanied by epilepsy was made. Notably, the patient recovered well after early intervention and treatment.Conclusion: The case presented here calls for careful analysis of rhabdomyolysis cases with unknown causes, minor seizures, and without status epilepticus. This case also indicates that HSV virus infection might contribute to the rhabdomyolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asparagine synthetase (ASNS) and CTP synthase (CTPS) are two metabolic enzymes that catalyze the biosynthesis of asparagine and CTP, respectively. Both CTPS and ASNS have been identified to form cytoophidia in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Glutamine is a common substrate for both these enzymes, and they play an important role in glutamine homeostasis. Here, we find that the ASNS cytoophidia are shorter than the CTPS cytoophidia, and that disruption of ASNS shortens the length of CTPS cytoophidia. However, the deletion of CTPS has no effect on the formation and length of ASNS cytoophidia, or on the ASNS protein level. We also find that Asn1 overexpression induces the formation of a multi-dot structure in diauxic phase which suggests that the increased protein level may trigger cytoophidia formation. Collectively, our results reveal a connection between ASNS cytoophidia and CTPS cytoophidia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: With the application of 3D photography, our study aimed to quantify parameters of static nasolabial fold wrinkles and establish mathematic regression model between parameters of wrinkles and age, further to quantitatively evaluate the effect of rejuvenation treatment in terms of age. Methods: From October 2016 to May 2018, 433 Chinese female volunteers, aged 25‐60 years old, were enrolled in this study. Antera 3D camera was used to collect four parameters of static nasolabial fold wrinkles on the left and right sides of the volunteers, including overall size, average depth (mm), average width (mm), and maximum depth (mm). For those presented a linear relationship with age, univariate linear regression fitting was performed, followed by residual analysis, goodness of fit test, and significance test. Results: The results of univariate linear regression fitting showed there was a clear linear relationship between the maximum depth, average depth, overall size of nasolabial fold wrinkles and age, and the regression equations were established. The significance test of regression coefficients showed P values were less than.0001. Conclusions: With application of the regression model between parameters of nasolabial fold wrinkles and age, the effect of rejuvenation treatment can be quantitatively evaluated in terms of age, which has certain reference and promotion value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previously study shown that Lysophosphatidylcholine Acyltransferase1 (LPCAT1) is overexpressed in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) relative to primary prostate cancer (PCa), and androgen controls its expression via the Wnt signaling pathway. While highly expressed in CRPC, the role of LPCAT1 remains unclear. In vitro cell experiments referred to cell transfection, mutagenesis, proliferation, migration, invasion, cell cycle progression and apoptosis, Western blotting, Pulse-chase RNA labeling. BALB/c nude mice were used for in vivo experiments. We found that LPCAT1 overexpression enhanced the proliferation, migration, and invasion of CRPC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Silencing of LPCAT1 reduced the proliferation and the invasive capabilities of CRPC cells. Providing exogenous PAF to LPCAT1 knockdown cells increased their invasive capabilities; however platelet activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) and the PAFR antagonist ABT-491 both reversed this phenotype; proliferation of CRPC cells was not affected in either model. LPCAT1 was found to mediate CRPC growth via nuclear re-localization and Histone H4 palmitoylation in an androgen-dependent fashion, increasing mRNA synthesis rates. We also found that LPCAT1 overexpression led to CRPC cell resistance to treatment with paclitaxel. LPCAT1 overexpression in CRPC cells drives tumor progression via increased mRNA synthesis and PAF production. Our results highlight LPCAT1 as a viable therapeutic target in the context of CRPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Delay in diagnosis and treatment worsens the disease and clinical outcomes, which further enhances the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in the community. Therefore, this study aims to assess treatment delay and its associated factors among childhood pleural TB patients in China.Methods: Between January 2006 and December 2019, consecutive patients aged ≤15 years with definite or possible pleural TB were included for analysis. Treatment delay duration was defined as the time interval from the onset of symptoms to treatment initiation and was stratified into two categories: < 30 days, ≥30 days (median delay day is 30 days). The electronic medical records of children were reviewed to obtain demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, laboratory examinations, and radiographic findings. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to explore the factors associated with treatment delay in patients.Results: A total of 154 children with pleural TB were included, with a mean age of 12.4 ± 3.3 years. The median treatment delay was 30 days (interquartile range, 10-60 days) and 51.3% (n = 79) of patients underwent a treatment delay. Multivariate analysis revealed that heart rate (≤92 beats/min, age-adjusted OR = 2.503, 95% CI: 1.215, 5.155) and coefficient of variation of red cell distribution width (RDW-CV, ≥12.9%, age-adjusted OR = 4.705, 95% CI: 2.048, 10.811) were significant risk factors for treatment delays in childhood pleural TB.Conclusion: Our findings suggested that a significant treatment delay occurs among children with pleural TB in China. Patients with a low heart rate or a high RDW-CV experienced delays in the initiation of anti-TB therapy. Therefore, well awareness of the associations between clinical characteristics and treatment delay may improve the management of children with pleural TB and enable us to develop preventive strategies to reduce the treatment delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can affect tumorigenesis. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCAG) suggest that LINC02783 is highly expressed in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and is expected to be a potential biological target. We conducted this study to verify this. Patients and Methods: We conducted this study to verify the opinion that "LINC02783 is highly expressed in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and is expected to be a potential biological target". We employed quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to test LINC02783 expression in RCC tissues, CKK-8 assay and transwell assay to assess the viability and invasion of RCC cells, Western blot to quantify Sox-4 expression, dual-luciferase reporter (DLR) assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay to analyze the interaction between LINC02783 and miR-20b, in vivo experiments to test tumor formation. Results: We detected high LINC02783 expression in RCC patients. Patients with higher LINC02783 levels had a markedly poorer prognosis. In vitro and in vivo, the down-regulation of LINC02783 suppressed the viability and invasion of RCC cells. The DLR assay results revealed that LINC02783 enhanced Sox-4 expression by regulating miR-20b. LINC02783 can act as a sponge for miR-20b to inhibit Sox-4 expression. Conclusion: LINC02783 is highly expressed in RCC patients and indicates a poor prognosis. LINC02783 can affect the occurrence and progression of RCC through the miR-20b/Sox-4 axis, making it a promising target for the treatment of RCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lignocellulose is the most abundant and renewable biomass resource on the planet. Lignocellulose can be converted into biofuels and high-value compounds; however, its recalcitrance makes its breakdown a challenge. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) offer tremendous promise for the degradation of recalcitrant polysaccharides. Chaetomium thermophilum, having many LPMO-coding genes, is a dominant thermophilic fungus in cellulose-rich and self-heating habitats. This study explores the genome, secretomes and transcript levels of specific genes of C. thermophilum. Results: The genome of C. thermophilum encoded a comprehensive set of cellulose- and xylan-degrading enzymes, especially 18 AA9 LPMOs that belonged to different subfamilies. Extracellular secretomes showed that arabinose and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) could specifically induce the secretion of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), especially AA9 LPMOs, by C. thermophilum under different carbon sources. Temporal analyses of secretomes and transcripts revealed that arabinose induced the secretion of xylanases by C. thermophilum, which was obviously different from other common filamentous fungi. MCC could efficiently induce the specific secretion of LPMO2s, possibly because the insert in loop3 on the substrate-binding surface of LPMO2s strengthened its binding capacity to cellulose. LPMO2s, cellobio hydrolases (CBHs) and cellobiose dehydrogenases (CDHs) were cosecreted, forming an efficient cellulose degradation system of oxidases and hydrolases under thermophilic conditions. Conclusions: The specific expression of LPMO2s and cosecretion of hydrolases and oxidases by the thermophilic fungus C. thermophilum play an important role in cellulose degradation. This insight increases our understanding of the cellulose degradation under thermophilic conditions and may inspire the design of the optimal enzyme cocktails for more efficient exploration of biomass resources in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced as undesirable by‐products of metabolism in various cellular compartments, especially in response to unfavorable environmental conditions, throughout the life cycle of plants. Stress‐induced ROS production disrupts normal cellular function and leads to oxidative damage. To cope with excessive ROS, plants are equipped with a sophisticated antioxidative defense system consisting of enzymatic and non‐enzymatic components that scavenge ROS or inhibit their harmful effects on biomolecules. Nonetheless, when maintained at relatively low levels, ROS act as signaling molecules that regulate plant growth, development, and adaptation to adverse conditions. Here, we provide an overview of current approaches for detecting ROS. We also discuss recent advances in understanding ROS signaling, ROS metabolism, and the roles of ROS in plant growth and responses to various abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early morning off (EMO) is a common feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aimed to characterize its clinical features and develop a convenient and pragmatic self-assessment instrument in a Chinese nationwide population. Methods: This study was conducted on 942 PD patients admitted to 55 clinic centers for movement disorders between June 2018 and May 2019 in China. Stepwise logistic regression analyses were performed to determine potential risk factors and the most predictive symptoms of EMO, as well as whether EMO was an independent risk factor of functional dependency in daily life. Based on this, a 7-question scale was derived for EMO screening. Diagnostic accuracy of this scale was assessed from the area under the receiver operative characteristic curve (AUROC) and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We further calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for the optimal cutoff point. Results: EMO occurred in 49.2% of PD patients across all disease stages. We identified 7 symptoms most predictive of EMO, including bradykinesia or rigidity, excessive sweating or salivation, difficulty in turning on or getting out of bed, muscle cramp, fatigue or sleepiness, frozen state or freezing gait, and tremor. The resulting 7-item scale was confirmed to be of good discrimination with a relatively large AUROC of 0.83, a relatively high sensitivity of 75.7%, specificity of 77.5%, PPV of 76.5%, and NPV of 76.7%. Nonideal nighttime sleep, long PD duration, advanced H&Y stages, posture instability gait difficulty-dominant or mixed subtypes, and high levodopa dose were independently associated with increased risk of EMO. EMO patients were at 87% higher (OR = 1.87, 95%CI: 1.07–3.32) risk of experiencing functional dependency in daily living compared with their counterparts. Conclusions: We demonstrated that EMO is a common feature for PD patients across all disease stages and put forward an EMO-specific screening card of sufficient accuracy and brevity. Meanwhile we have thrown some light upon potential determinants and negative health effects of EMO. Our findings may exert great impact on improving the awareness, recognition and management of EMO in PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To date, the burden of childhood spinal TB in China has not been estimated, and current treatment is hindered by a lack of evidence. This study aimed to review our experience of childhood spinal TB.Methods: We reviewed the medical records of paediatric patients (≤15 years) admitted for spinal TB (confirmed or possible) at Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital from January 2006 to December 2019. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and radiological data were collected from medical records and analysed retrospectively.Results: Seventy-two patients were diagnosed with spinal TB. 45 were male (62.5%), and 27 female (37.5%), with a mean age of 8.42 ± 4.47 (SD) years. During this 14-year period, the overall prevalence of spinal TB among childhood TB was 4.5%. T-SPOT.TB, AFB smear, mycobacterial culture, TB RT-PCR and biopsies were positive in 29.6%, 14.3%, 23.3%, 43.8% and 88.5% of assayed patients, respectively. The overall surgical rate of the studied patients was 40.3%. The requirement of surgery in childhood spinal TB was associated with pulmonary TB (OR = 4.000, 95% CI: 1.197, 13.367).Conclusion: Spinal TB in children cannot be neglected. It remains a severe problem to public health, and more attention should be paid to initiating treatment early. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fly-around technology, as applied to maintain a chasing spacecraft flying periodically around the chief spacecraft, has received widespread attention in recent years. The conventional impulsive or continuous-thrust control approaches for maintaining non-natural formations put a high demand on the engine and limit the applicability of engineering. In this study, which is based on the relative orbital elements, we propose a series of analytic natural fly-around formations for the two-body case, which can revisit specific points or be maintained within a certain range. In addition to maintaining the fly-around formation when considering the J2 perturbation, we present a two-stage constant thrust control method solved with the linearized sensitive matrix. Furthermore, based on this method, we present several maintaining strategies that guarantee a periodic revisit to a specified relative position. We conduct numerical simulations to demonstrate the efficacy of these proposed methods. • A series of analytic natural fly-around formations are proposed. • The reference orbit is elliptical orbit, which can also be applied to circular orbit. • A two-stage constant thrust control method solved through the linearized sensitive matrix is presented. • Several maintaining strategies are presented to guarantees periodic revisit specified relative position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an effective way to improve the spectrum efficiency of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where this advancement can be fully exploited by employing a proper user selection strategy in the multiuser MIMO system. However, for multiuser scenarios, information-theoretic throughput may not be properly used as the performance indicator since the constraints at the receiver (e.g., suboptimal detectors) are not taken into consideration. In this paper, we adopt the error probability (EP) as the performance metric, which is equivalent to the practical throughput efficiency and can take the critical constraints into consideration. We analyze the pair-wise error probability (PEP) performance of different detectors and propose two kinds of user selection methods to minimize the PEP. To facilitate the detection performance evaluation, we further investigate the multiuser diversity of the proposed selection methods and derive a tight lower PEP bound for the case with randomly selected users. From the analytical and numerical results, we demonstrate that the proposed multiuser selection methods can suppress the inter-user interference effectively and achieve better performance than that of the state-of-the-art method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder with unknown etiology. A number of recent studies have shown that the polymorphism of the neural precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated 4 (NEDD4) gene is associated with a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, and may also be associated with cognitive dysfunction in these diseases. Methods: A case-control study was carried out, the alleles and genotypes distributions of five loci (rs3088077, rs2303579, rs7162435, rs11550869, rs62043855) of the NEDD4 gene from 296 schizophrenia patients and 320 healthy controls were detected by using Taqman single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping technology. The clinical data of case and control group members were collected by self-made questionnaire and the psychotic symptoms of case group members were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The Matrics Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) was used to test the cognitive function of case group members. Results: The alleles and genotypes frequency of two loci (rs3088077, rs2303579) between case and control group showed significant differences (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in MCCB scores of patients with different genotypes at rs3088077, rs11550869 and rs7162435 loci in case group. The study of rs2303579 locus showed that, patients' scores with CT genotype were significantly lower than those with CC and TT genotypes (P < 0.05) in the test of Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition (WMS-III): Spatial Span, the scores of patients with TT genotype were significantly higher than those with CT genotype (P < 0.05) in the test of Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R). The study of rs62043855 locus showed that patients with TG genotype had significantly lower scores than those with GG genotype (P < 0.05) in the test of Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB): Mazes. Conclusions: Our study showed that in schizophrenia patients of Chinese Han population, the polymorphisms of rs3088077 and rs2303579 loci were related to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, while the polymorphisms of rs2303579 and rs62043855 loci were associated with cognitive dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was conducted to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of Salvia miltiorrhiza polysaccharides (SMP) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced liver injury. The mice were treated with SMP first and LPS later. Results showed that SMPs significantly reduced the activities of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL), malondialdehyde (MDA) and contents of inflammation factors and mRNA expressions in LPS induced liver injury mice. However, SMP significantly increased the contents of glutathione (GSH), Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC). SMP also downregulated the expressions of p-p65, p-IκBα, inducible nitricoxide synthase (iNOS) and improved the expression of Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) and Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1). The study indicates SMP protects the liver via attenuating inflammatory reactions and antioxidant effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the visibility optimization problem of satellite constellations, this paper presents an efficient hybrid optimization method taking multiple constraints into account. To reduce the time needed for the optimization, the satellite constellation is assumed to have a specific configuration. The optimization includes two steps. The first step searches for optima over a large scale, while the second step is designed to obtain the accurate optimal solution based on the result of the first-step optimization. Based on the analysis of the coverage performance function, a linear adaptive population method is proposed for the first step. When compared with the traditional optimization method, calculation time can be efficiently reduced while ensuring an accurate optimization. Several numerical simulations are conducted for validation. It proves to be a practical choice for engineering applications. • Different types of satellite load sensors and different coverage performance indices are considered. • Constraints of double- or more-level coverage are discussed. • The trend of the number of local maximum points of one-level coverage to the ground point are analyzed. • A novel hybrid two-step optimization method is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of Salvia miltiorrhiza polysaccharides (SMPs) on the injury of chicken hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo. In in vitro studies primary cultured hepatocytes were isolated by 2-step collagenase perfusion. Carbon tetrachloride (CCL4) was added to the hepatocytes to establish a hepatocyte injury model. Hepatocytes were treated with different concentrations of SMPs to detect the protective effects of SMPs on CCL4-induced hepatocyte injury. The results of the control group showed that chicken hepatocytes grew well and their morphology was normal. After CCL4 treatment, the activity of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) of hepatocytes increased compared with the normal control group. SMPs treatment downregulated the contents of ALT, AST, and malondialdehyde (MDA), and upregulated the contents of glutathione (GSH) and cytochrome P 450 (CYP450). An acute chicken liver injury model was established in vivo with 2.0 mL/kg 50% CCL4. Oral administration of SMP at different doses exhibited preventive success. The results showed that compared with the control group, the contents of total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), and GSH in the liver injury model group were significantly decreased and the levels of liver index, ALT, AST, and MDA were significantly increased. In contrast, in the SMP group the contents of TP, Alb, and GSH were significantly increased, and the levels of liver index, ALT, AST, and MDA were significantly decreased compared with the model group. Therefore, we conclude that SMPs have good protective effect on chicken liver damage in vivo and in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-to-cell transport of risk molecules is a highly anticipated pathogenic mechanism in the initiation and progression of various neurodegenerative diseases. Extracellular exosome-mediated neuron to neuron transport of α-synuclein (α-syn) is increasingly recognized as a potential etiologic mechanism in Parkinson's disease (PD). Exosomal inflammation has also been increasingly implicated in PD pathogenesis and could trigger, facilitate, or aggravate disease development. However, these mechanisms have not been verified systematically, especially in vivo. Since serum contains abundant exosomes, the correlation between serum exosomes and PD pathogenesis remains unknown. Here, we show that exosomes from PD patient serum contain more α-syn and inflammatory factors such as IL-1β and TNF-α than neurological normal controls, eventually cause α-syn, ubiquitin, and P62 aggregation in recipient cells. More importantly, the intravenous or intrastriatal treatment of mice with exosomes from PD patient serum could evoke protein aggregation, trigger dopamine neuron degeneration, induce microglial activation, and cause apomorphine-coaxed rotation and movement defects. All these findings imply the exosome pathway as a new pathogenesis mechanism for PD, and therefore may present new targets for therapeutics. Key messages: We have presented the evidence for a relationship between PD (Parkinson's disease) patients' serum exosomes and pathogenesis. PD patients' serum-derived exosomes could induce α-syn, ubiquitin and P62 aggregation in recipient cells. Intravenous or intrastriatal treatments of mice with PD exosomes were able to recapitulate the molecular, cellular and behavioral phenotypes of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Different flamelet tables can be generated by using the same laminar flamelet solutions. • Different flamelet table integration approaches can lead to different predictions. • Effect of table integration on a turbulent combustion flame is investigated. A flamelet model implementation consists of two steps: the generation of a set of laminar flamelet solutions and the integration of the laminar flamelet solutions with presumed shape probability density functions (PDFs) to produce a flamelet table for turbulent flame simulations. Many studies have been done in the past to examine the effect of different flamelet modeling strategies including the effect of employing different laminar flamelet solutions for the modeling. However, little work has been done to examine the effect of different presumed PDF table integration approaches on different flamelet model predictions. This work aims at investigating the source of errors arising from the flamelet table integration. The flamelet/progress variable model is chosen as a representative flamelet model, and three different presumed PDF table integration approaches are compared to examine the effect of table integration on flamelet model predictions. A laboratory-scale turbulent non-premixed jet flame (Sandia flame D) is chosen as a test case for the examination. In general, some evident sensitivity of the modeling results to the different flamelet table integration approaches is observed. The underlying reasons for the performance difference of different approaches are explored, and it is found that a model that preserves the one-dimensional laminar flamelet structure during the presumed-PDF table integration can improve the model prediction accuracy. Different sources of errors involved in flamelet model implementation are investigated, including numerical integration errors, flamelet table errors, and the errors in the predictions of the flamelet independent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of AlCuMnFe IMPs on the corrosion behavior of 2050-T84 Al-Li alloy was investigated in NaCl solution. EBSD phase map illustrated that AlCuMnFe IMPs consisted of Al 7 Cu 2 Fe and Al 6 Mn, based on which the coupling system of the two phases and matrix was synthesized by Spark Plasma Sintering for simulating multi-phase AlCuMnFe IMPs. Corrosion of IMPs was accelerated after coupling Al 7 Cu 2 Fe and Al 6 Mn. First-principles calculations further elaborated the mechanism of the coupling effect in accelerating the corrosion of Al 6 Mn and improving the oxygen reduction reaction current on the surface of Al 7 Cu 2 Fe from the perspective of electronic structure and electron transfer. • Multi-phase AlCuMnFe IMPs in 2050 Al-Li alloy consist of Al 7 Cu 2 Fe and Al 6 Mn. • Corrosion resistance of Al 6 Mn decreases after coupling. • Coupling effect favors the oxygen reduction reaction on the surface of Al 7 Cu 2 Fe. • Electronic structural and charge transfer affect the corrosion of alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]