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Abstract Streptococcus suis infection represents a major challenge in pig farming and public health due to its zoonotic potential and diverse serotypes, while existing vaccines lack effective cross-protection. This study employed reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics to identify 8 conserved proteins across 11 prevalent serotypes of S. suis. 16 candidate epitopes were selected to design three multi-epitope antigens against S. suis (designated as MEASs), which fused with a dendritic cell-targeting peptide to improve antigen presentation in host. Purified MEASs displayed favorable cross-reactogenicity against 29 serotype-specific antiserums. Robust humoral and cellular immune responses can be induced by MEAS 1 and MEAS 3 in a mouse model, which provided substantial protection against virulent strains from two different serotypes. In particular, their immune serums exhibited positive opsonization effects within bloodstream and macrophage phagocytosis. Taken together, we identified two promising MEASs with excellent cross-protection, offering potential in preventing S. suis infections in a mouse model.

BackgroundRapid economic growth in China has led to significant resource and environmental challenges, particularly in less economically developed regions. This study aims to identify effective strategies for achieving green, low-carbon development in these regions during the economic transition.MethodsWe employed the Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method to scrutinize the impact of economic, demographic, industrial, and technological factors on low-carbon development across a selection of Chinese provinces, including Qinghai, Hunan, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hainan, and Chongqing. This approach facilitates a nuanced exploration of the multifaceted determinants of low-carbon progress within the regional contexts of China.ResultsThe study identified three distinct paths to low-carbon development, each with unique prioritization characteristics. These paths are the traditional early low-carbon path, the semi-modernized mid-carbon path, and the post-modernized low-carbon path. Each path offers tailored strategies for less developed regions to enhance their environmental innovation capacity and global competitiveness.ConclusionThis research contributes a novel perspective for regional sustainable development in China by offering tailored low-carbon development strategies for less developed regions. The findings suggest that region-specific strategies, aligned with developmental stages and characteristics, are essential for ensuring balanced economic, social, and environmental development.

Abstract Background Patients with idiopathic scoliosis commonly present with an imbalance of the paraspinal muscles. However, it is unclear whether this muscle imbalance is an underlying cause or a result of idiopathic scoliosis. This study aimed to investigate the role of paraspinal muscles in the development of idiopathic scoliosis based on surface electromyography (sEMG) and radiographic analyses. Methods This was a single-center prospective study of 27 patients with single-curve idiopathic scoliosis. Posteroanterior whole-spine radiographs and sEMG activity of the erector spinae muscles were obtained for all patients in the habitual standing position (HSP), relaxed prone position (RPP), and prone extension position (PEP). The Cobb angle, symmetrical index (SI) of the sEMG activity (convex/concave), and correlation between the two factors were analyzed. Results In the total cohort, the mean Cobb angle in the HSP was significantly greater than the mean Cobb angle in the RPP (RPP-Cobb) (p

Abstract Background Current research has been focusing on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors among adolescents with depression. Although family intimacy and adaptability are considered protective factors for NSSI, evidence supporting this relationship is lacking. Objective This study aims to examine the mechanisms operating in the relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI behaviors among adolescents. Methods A self-administered general demographic information questionnaire, the Behavioral Functional Assessment Scale for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, the Family Intimacy and Adaptability Scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Self-Assessment of Depression Scale were distributed among adolescents with depression in three tertiary hospitals in Jiangsu Province. Results The relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI was assessed among 596 adolescents with depression. The results revealed the following: (1) Family intimacy and adaptability were negatively correlated with NSSI behavior. (2) Psychological resilience and depression levels acted as chain mediators in the relationship between family intimacy and adaptability and NSSI behavior. Conclusions Enhancing psychological resilience, controlling depressive symptoms, and reducing depression severity among adolescents by improving their family intimacy and adaptability are conducive to preventing and mitigating their NSSI behaviors.

In conjunction with the aggregates, bitumen is commonly applied for surface and base layers of asphalt pavements. A large number of studies concentrated more on the surface layer performance influenced by different types of bitumen and service time. However, the performance evolution of base layer bitumen properties influenced by surface layer bitumen over time remains understudied. To contribute to this gap, this study aims to investigate the influence of surface layer bitumen type on base layer performance with varying service time. Four road segments with two-layer structure (surface layer and base layer) serviced for 4, 6, 7 and 9 years were studied. The surface layer was paved with neat bitumen with Pen 70/100 and polymer modified bitumen (PMB), and the base layer was applied with soft bitumen with Pen 160/220. Physical properties, chemical structure, intermediate-temperature rheological properties, permanent deformation resistance, anti-rutting ability and recovery properties of the field bitumen were analysed and compared with the reference bitumen. The temperature- and frequency-dependent characteristics of asphaltic core samples, as well as the reference mixtures, were characterised. The statistical analyses were performed to quantitatively evaluate the significance of service time and bitumen type of surface layer to base layer performance using mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs), Pearson correlation coefficient and eta squared. The results showed that the performance of the surface layer was greatly related to service time, and PMB presented better durability and anti-ageing properties than 70/100. Notably, the bitumen type of the surface layer played an important role in base layer performance except for service time, especially in penetration, phase angle and Jnr with eta squared of 0.925, 0.976 and 0.988. Moreover, the ageing speed of the base layer was highly determined by the bitumen type of the surface layer. The findings imply that a better bitumen type of surface layer can enhance the durability of both surface and base layers, resulting in significant improvement in lifespan of asphalt pavement.

Waterborne epoxy modified emulsified asphalt (EMEA) has the shortcomings of insufficient toughness and poor aging resistance, which limits its application of low-carbon cold-paving technology in plateau zones. To obtain a cold-mix asphalt binder with excellent performance, waterborne polyurethane (WPU) was utilized to modify EMEA in this work. Properties, modification mechanism, action process, environmental benefits, and cost-benefit of composite-modified emulsified asphalt (CMEA) were analyzed. Results show that CMEA had good rutting resistance, low-temperature rheological, tensile toughness, adhesion with aggregate and moisture damage resistance, and aging resistance properties. These were closely related in that WPU was cross-linked with the waterborne epoxy resin (WER) to form an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure, when the space network structure of WER and the soft and hard segments of WPU worked together. Based on the above results, it was recommended that EA containing 4.0 wt% WER was modified by 7.5 wt% WPU to achieve the best pavement properties. Furthermore, it was discovered that a physical process by which WER and WPU modified EA, served as a skeleton connection and toughening agent. CMEA has excellent performance and is especially suitable for use in low-temperature and strong aging areas, while can bring good environmental benefits.

Asphalt surface layer as one of the significant pavement layers is directly withstanding traffic loading and external service conditions, and its performance highly determines the life cycle cost of asphalt pavements. Bitumen ageing is an unavoidable process for asphalt surface layer, and it shortens the service life and increases the risk of distress of asphalt pavements. A large number of studies have been conducted on the consequences of asphalt surface layer ageing under ambient environmental conditions. However, the development of asphalt mixture performance under Norwegian conditions and ageing model for the in-service bitumen have not been extensively investigated. Therefore, this work aims to investigate asphalt surface layer performance over service time and establish ageing model for the in-service bitumen. To achieve this goal, core samples acquired from the field and bitumen extracted from in-service field cores were analysed by comparing them with reference bitumen and asphalt mixtures. The physical, chemical, viscoelastic and performance grade variables of the bitumen were characterised, as well as the dynamic modulus and density of asphalt mixtures. The ageing models for bitumen property parameters were established using bitumen type, service time and average annual temperature as independent variables after statistical data processing. As a result, a good agreement between predicted values and measured values of property parameters was achieved because of the high accuracy of prediction of the ageing model. The proposed ageing model for bitumen under Norwegian conditions is beneficial for predicting bitumen properties at specific service time.

Abstract Purpose The clinical aspects and prognosis of eyes with endogenous endophthalmitis were compared over the last ten years. The occurrence and progression of endophthalmitis are linked to the systemic immune inflammation index (SII) and clinical features. Methods The study comprised patients with endogenous endophthalmitis and 64 patients without endophthalmitis who were treated at Hebei Province Eye Hospital in the last ten years. According to the prognostic visual acuity, patients with endophthalmitis were split into two groups: Group A and Group B. Underlying disease (hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis), infection risk (liver abscess, urinary tract infection, and recent abdominal surgery), signs and symptoms, and complete blood count were among the evaluation parameters (neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, monocyte count, platelet count, red blood cell distribution width). The NLR, PLR, MLR, and SII values were calculated. A nonparametric test was used to examine the clinical features and complete blood count results of patients in each group. To determine the parameters linked to endophthalmitis progression, researchers used principal component and ordinal logistic regression analyses. Results The study comprised a total of 25 eyes and 22 individuals with endogenous endophthalmitis. Infectious bacteria included Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus hemolyticus, and so on. The visual acuity of the affected eye ranged from 2.7 (1.55, 2.7) LogMAR to 1.22 (0.6, 2.7) LogMAR during the 6-month to 8-year follow-up period. The neutrophil, monocyte, and PLT counts, NLR, PLR, and SII values and other markers were considerably higher in Groups A and B than in the control group. The likelihood model of the SII and sex, age, onset time, diabetes, hypertension, monocyte count, and red blood cell distribution was the best, and its increase was strongly connected with the occurrence and progression of endophthalmitis, according to ordinal regression analysis. Conclusion Patients with endophthalmitis had significantly higher blood neutrophil, monocyte, and PLT counts and SII, NLR, PLR, and MLR values. The SII can be employed as a biomarker for predicting endophthalmitis severity and prognosis.

Abstract Bi3TiNbO9, a layered ferroelectric photocatalyst, exhibits great potential for overall water splitting through efficient intralayer separation of photogenerated carriers motivated by a depolarization field along the in-plane a-axis. However, the poor interlayer transport of carriers along the out-of-plane c-axis, caused by the significant potential barrier between layers, leads to a high probability of carrier recombination and consequently results in low photocatalytic activity. Here, we have developed an efficient photocatalyst consisting of Bi3TiNbO9 nanosheets with a gradient tungsten (W) doping along the c-axis. This results in the generation of an additional electric field along the c-axis and simultaneously enhances the magnitude of depolarization field within the layers along the a-axis due to strengthened structural distortion. The combination of the built-in field along the c-axis and polarization along the a-axis can effectively facilitate the anisotropic migration of photogenerated electrons and holes to the basal {001} surface and lateral {110} surface of the nanosheets, respectively, enabling desirable spatial separation of carriers. Hence, the W-doped Bi3TiNbO9 ferroelectric photocatalyst with Rh/Cr2O3 cocatalyst achieves an efficient and durable overall water splitting feature, thereby providing an effective pathway for designing excellent layered ferroelectric photocatalysts.

Abstract Background In the period of the early implant placement, the socket is mainly occupied by provisional matrix (PM). Keratinized epithelium (KE) is critical for primary wound closure. Although both KE and PM are important, the detailed relationship among migrating KE, PM formation and indication of the early implant placement is still unclear. Objective This research aimed to locate a healing stage of KE with highest osteogenic PM formation after tooth extraction, which could be treated as the optimal time point for early implant placement. Material and methods Mice were sacrificed on days 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 after incisor extraction. Clinical, histological, and immunohistochemical evaluations of the extraction sockets were performed, and statistical analyses were conducted. We then inserted implants into the PM with the greatest bioactivity and observed its osseointegration pattern for 3, 10, 17 and 30 days. Result When KE fusion was reached, sockets were dominated by PM with the greatest expression of osteocalcin (OC, P

This study aimed to explore the mechanism by which phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) inhibited the adhesion and biofilm formation of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). PEITC exhibited antimicrobial efficacy against S. aureus, demonstrating a minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of 1 mmol/L. PEITC exerted its antibacterial effect by disrupting cell membrane integrity, and it decreased total adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production after 1 and 4 h treatment. PEITC at 0.5 mmol/L increased the level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) by 26.39% compared to control. The mature biofilm of S. aureus was destroyed by 86.4% after treatment with PEITC for 24 h. Adhesion tests revealed that PEITC at 0.5 mmol/L reduced 44.51% of the S. aureus that adhered to NCM460 cells. Furthermore, at the genetic level, PEITC significantly downregulated the related genes by 31.26% to 97.04%, including agrB, agrD, isdA, ebh, luxS, fnbA, and icaR. Moreover, PEITC markedly inhibited S. aureus proliferation in beef preserved at temperatures of 25 and 4 °C, respectively. In summary, the present study suggests that PEITC effectively inhibits the adhesion and biofilm formation of S. aureus by affecting the relevant genes of S. aureus and holds promise for microbial management in meat products.

To obtain carbon dots (CDs) with narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) and long-wavelength emission, carbon sources with high conjugate sizes and abundant functional groups can be employed to synthesize CDs. In this study, orange-emissive carbon dots (OCDs) were synthesized with phloroglucinol and rhodamine B as precursors. When the molar ratio of them was 30:1, and ethanol was served as the solvent, OCDs with optimized emission wavelength at approximately 580 nm, an FWHM of 30 nm, and a quantum yield (QY) of 27.31% were obtained. Subsequently, the OCDs were incorporated into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to fabricate solid-state OCD/PVA fluorescent films, which exhibited an FWHM of 47 nm. The PVA matrix facilitated the dispersion of OCDs, thereby suppressing non-radiative energy transfer among the OCDs and enhancing luminescence efficiency. Consequently, compared with OCDs, the OCD/PVA film exhibited significant luminescent enhancement, and the QY of the composite film was increased to 84.74%. Moreover, OCD/PVA film showed good transmittance and thermal stability. This research offers a solid theoretical and experimental foundation for the potential applications of CDs in the field of solid-state lighting.

Neonicotinoids (NEOs), a large class of organic compounds, are a type of commonly used pesticide for crop protection. Their uptake and accumulation in plants are prerequisites for their intra- and intercellular movements, transformation, and function. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that underpin NEO uptake by plants is crucial for effective application, which remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that NEOs enter plant cells primarily through the transmembrane symplastic pathway and accumulate mainly in the cytosol. Two plasma membrane intrinsic proteins discovered in Brassica rapa, BraPIP1;1 and BraPIP2;1, were found to encode aquaporins (AQPs) that are highly permeable to NEOs in different plant species and facilitate NEO subcellular diffusion and accumulation. Their conserved transport function was further demonstrated in Xenopus laevis oocyte and yeast assays. BraPIP1;1 and BraPIP2;1 gene knockouts and interaction assays suggested that their proteins can form functional heterotetramers. Assessment of the potential of mean force indicated a negative correlation between NEO uptake and the energy barrier of BraPIP1;1 channels. This study shows that AQPs transport organic compounds with greater osmolarity than previously thought, providing new insight into the molecular mechanisms of organic compound uptake and facilitating innovations in systemic pesticides.

Abstract Background Stellate nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis (SNIFR) is a rare type of retinoschisis with a spoke-like splitting that occurs in the outer plexus layer. We present a case of stellate nonhereditary idiopathic foveomacular retinoschisis in a juvenile, in which two eyes show different development trends and macular retinoschisis could be associated with mechanical force in the Henle fibre layer. The removal of mechanical force can partially restore vision. Case presentation A 14-year-old girl with bilateral SNIFR was diagnosed and followed up with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). During the two follow-up visits, vitreous adhesion was released in the left eye, and visual acuity improved. Neuroepithelial detachment was aggravated in the right eye, and visual acuity decreased. Therefore, vitrectomy was performed on the right eye. After surgery, the patient’s retina was reattached, and her vision was partially restored. Conclusions We reported a juvenile with bilateral SNIFR. Each of her eyes showed different development trends, so we adopted different treatment methods for each eye. Vitrectomy was performed on the patient to address progressive vision loss, which improved the patient’s vision. It was further confirmed that the Henle layer of SNIFR patients was susceptible to posterior vitreous membrane adhesion.

The aim of our study was to investigate whether the combination of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) and resveratrol (RES) has a synergistic effect on the inhibition of inflammation in colitis. The results revealed that the BITC and RES combination (BITC_RES) was more effective than either substance alone at significantly alleviating the symptoms of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis in mice, including the prevention of colon shortening and loss of body weight, a reduction in the disease activity index, and prevention of colon damage. Similarly, compared with the DSS group, BITC_RES reduced myeloperoxidase (MPO) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels in the mouse colon by 1.4–3.0-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively. In addition, the combination of BITC and RES upregulated the inflammatory factor IL-10 by 1.3- and 107.4-fold, respectively, compared to the individual BITC and RES groups, whereas the proinflammatory factors, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, were downregulated by 1.1–7.4-, 0.7–3.6-, and 0.6–2.6-fold, respectively, in the BITC_RES group compared with the individual groups. Gut microbiome analysis indicated that BITC_RES remodeled the structure of gut bacteria at the phylum, family, and genus levels, upregulating the abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes and the family Muribaculaceae and the genus norank_f_Muribaculaceae and downregulating the abundance of the phylum Firmicutes. Significant correlations between the relative levels of these proinflammatory cytokines and changes in the gut microbiota were found using Pearson’s correlation analysis. BITC and RES exhibited synergistic effects by reshaping the gut microbiota and modulating the level of serum cellular inflammatory factors, thus exerting a protective effect against colitis.

Abstract Background Pennisetum giganteum (AABB, 2n = 4x = 28) is a C4 plant in the genus Pennisetum with origin in Africa but currently also grown in Asia and America. It is a crucial forage and potential energy grass with significant advantages in yield, stress resistance, and environmental adaptation. However, the mechanisms underlying these advantageous traits remain largely unexplored. Here, we present a high-quality genome assembly of the allotetraploid P. giganteum aiming at providing insights into biomass accumulation. Results Our assembly has a genome size 2.03 Gb and contig N50 of 88.47 Mb that was further divided into A and B subgenomes. Genome evolution analysis revealed the evolutionary relationships across the Panicoideae subfamily lineages and identified numerous genome rearrangements that had occurred in P. giganteum. Comparative genomic analysis showed functional differentiation between the subgenomes. Transcriptome analysis found no subgenome dominance at the overall gene expression level; however, differentially expressed homoeologous genes and homoeolog-specific expressed genes between the two subgenomes were identified, suggesting that complementary effects between the A and B subgenomes contributed to biomass accumulation of P. giganteum. Besides, C4 photosynthesis-related genes were significantly expanded in P. giganteum and their sequences and expression patterns were highly conserved between the two subgenomes, implying that both subgenomes contributed greatly and almost equally to the highly efficient C4 photosynthesis in P. giganteum. We also identified key candidate genes in the C4 photosynthesis pathway that showed sustained high expression across all developmental stages of P. giganteum. Conclusions Our study provides important genomic resources for elucidating the genetic basis of advantageous traits in polyploid species, and facilitates further functional genomics research and genetic improvement of P. giganteum.

Designing and developing photocatalysts with excellent performance in order to achieve efficient hydrogen production is an important strategy for addressing future energy and environmental challenges. Traditional single-phase photocatalytic materials either have a large bandgap and low visible light response or experience rapid recombination of the photogenerated carriers with low quantum efficiency, seriously hindering their photocatalytic applications. To solve these issues, an important solution is to construct well-matched heterojunctions with highly efficient charge separation capabilities. To this end, an in situ sulfurization reaction was adopted after the deposition of Bi3+ supramolecular complex on a layered supramolecular precursor of tubular carbon nitride (TCN). X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirmed that the as-prepared sample has a good crystalline structure without any other impurities, while high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) revealed that the heterojunction possesses a 2D structure with a layer of nano-array on its surface. Combined Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) revealed the interfacial interactions. Owing to the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction, the visible light adsorption and the separation efficiency of the photo-generated carriers are both obviously enhanced, leaving the high energy electrons and high oxidative holes to participate in the photocatalytic reactions. As a result, the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of Bi2S3-TCN achieves 65.2 μmol g-1·h-1. This proposed green and environmentally benign route can also be applied to construct other sulfides with 2D TCN, providing some important information for the design and optimization of novel carbon-nitride-based semiconductors.

The Cu-GO layered composites with excellent thermal conductivity were fabricated by ultrasonic-assisted electrodeposition and ultrasonic spraying composite processes. Moreover, the impact of the spraying frequency and spraying path of GO solution on the surface morphology, microstructure and thermal conductivity of the composites were investigated. The experimental findings indicated that the formation of the Cu–O–C covalent bonding and the interfacial product Cu2O among the Cu layers and the GO film enhanced the Cu/C interfacial bonding during the ultrasonic-assisted electrodeposition. The in-plane thermal conductivity of the composites reached 548.06 W m−1·-k−1 at the optimum process parameters, which was 76.2% higher compared to the pure Cu foil. In this work, the enhancement of the Cu/C interfacial bonding and the optimization of the microstructure of GO and Cu in the composites were responsible for the substantial enhancement of the thermal properties of the Cu-GO layered composites.

The optimal tuning of high-order motion parameters has emerged as a promising strategy for actively controlling the kinematics/dynamics of high-speed cam mechanisms. However, accomplishing this task remains challenging with current low-order interpolation or tuning methods. This study proposes an integrated high-order interpolation and tuning methodology for the optimal construction of high-speed motion curves. Initially, an explicit C4-spline interpolant (C4SI) is developed. This interpolant utilizes four-order continuous (C4) splines to synthesize a high-fidelity motion curve that satisfies the predefined motion constraints up to the fourth order, including dimensionless displacement, velocity, acceleration, jerk, and quirk. Concerning the reduction of motion peaks, a unique C4SI-based global kinematics optimization strategy is designed, using the definite integral of the motion curve (free of the time variable) as the objective function. This facile time-free optimization strategy could yield a simultaneous reduction in multiple motion peaks (up to five), which is currently inaccessible with conventional motion tuning strategies. Concerning the improvement of dynamic characteristics, the C4SI-based time-free global dynamics optimization of variable motion parameters is further performed. The results indicate that the optimized fourth-order motion curve offers minimal high-speed transmission error and residual vibration over the whole rise-dwell-return-dwell cycle, which outperforms the standard motion curves and other low-order counterparts.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and hemorrhagic disease caused by infection with the African swine fever virus (ASFV), resulting in a mortality rate of up to 100%. Currently, there are no effective treatments and commercially available vaccines for ASF. Therefore, it is crucial to identify biochemicals derived from host cells that can impede ASFV replication, with the aim of preventing and controlling ASF. The ASFV is an acellular organism that promotes self-replication by hijacking the metabolic machinery and biochemical resources of host cells. ASFV specifically alters the utilization of glucose and glutamine, which are the primary metabolic sources in mammalian cells. This study aimed to investigate the impact of glucose and glutamine metabolic dynamics on the rate of ASFV replication. Our findings demonstrate that ASFV infection favors using glutamine as a metabolic fuel to facilitate self-replication. ASFV replication can be substantially inhibited by blocking glutamine metabolism. The metabolomics analysis of the host cell after late-stage ASFV infection revealed a significant disruption of normal glutamine metabolic pathways due to the abundant expression of PLA (phenyllactic acid). Pretreatment with PLA also inhibited ASFV proliferation and glutamine consumption following infection. The metabolomic analysis also showed that PLA pretreatment greatly slowed down the metabolism of amino acids and nucleotides that depend on glutamine. The depletion of these building blocks directly hindered the replication of ASFV by decreasing the biosynthetic precursors produced during the replication of ASFV’s progeny virus. These findings provide valuable insight into the possibility of pursuing the development of antiviral drugs against ASFV that selectively target metabolic pathways.

Asphalt pavement is susceptible to cracking which affects its service life. And self-healing technology helps to heal micro-cracks in mixture at an early stage, but its mechanism of action at the mesoscale is still unclear. Therefore, the composition of steel slag asphalt mixture (SSAM) was designed, microwave heating performance, healing performance and road performance of SSAM were investigated by laboratory experiments. Finally, the SSAM was scanned using X-ray CT for 3D reconstruction and quantitative analyses. The results show that steel slag has obvious magnetic loss characteristics; the surface temperature of SSAM designed by composition is higher under microwave heating to obtain a better healing rate, and the road performance of SSAM meets the specification requirements. The damage-healing process mainly affects voids in SSAM, and microwave healing can reduce the fractal dimension of voids to reduce the proportion of fissures; from the healing index based on voids, self-healing can reduce the average coordination number and throat number of connected voids, thereby improving the performance of SSAM by reducing permeability. The self-healing performance of SSAM is improved through its compositional design; the mesoscopic model based on void characteristics helps to refine the theory of self-healing of asphalt mixtures under microwave heating.

Abstract With the advent of the screen‐reading era, the confidential documents displayed on the screen can be easily captured by a camera without leaving any traces. Thus, this paper proposes a novel screen‐shooting resilient watermarking scheme for document image using deep neural network. By applying this scheme, when the watermarked image is displayed on the screen and captured by a camera, the watermark can be still extracted from the captured photographs. Specifically, the scheme is an end‐to‐end neural network with an encoder to embed watermark and a decoder to extract watermark. During the training process, a distortion layer between encoder and decoder is added to simulate the distortions introduced by screen‐shooting process in real scenes, such as camera distortion, shooting distortion, and light source distortion. Furthermore, a background sensitive loss and a lpips loss are used to improve visual quality of the watermarked document images in the training process. Besides, a strength factor adjustment strategy is also designed to improve the visual quality with little loss of bit extraction accuracy. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme has higher visual quality and robustness than the other two recent state‐of‐the‐art methods.

Using 57 universities directly under the Ministry of Education of China from 2009 to 2017 as the research samples, the overall efficiency, technology research efficiency, result transformation efficiency and efficiency influencing factors of the transformation of scientific research results in universities were explored using the leader-follower model in two-stage network Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression model, respectively. It is found that: firstly, the overall low efficiency of the scientific research results is primarily caused by the low efficiency of the transformation stage, which is on a downward trend and has lower average efficiency than the technology research stage. The efficiency of the technology research stage is on an upward trend, while the efficiency of the transformation stage is on a downward trend. Secondly, the number of universities reaching DEA effective in results transformation stage is more than that of technology R&D stage; Thirdly, the overall efficiency and result transformation efficiency of “985” universities are better than those of non-“985” universities, but the efficiency of technology R&D is lower than that of non-“985” universities; Fourthly, regional economic strength, government’s financial investment, the quality of patents, the number of papers, and the other eight factors all have an impact on efficiency.

The core technique of unmanned vehicle systems is the autonomous maneuvering decision, which not only determines the applications of unmanned vehicles but also is the critical technique many countries are competing to develop. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the potential design method for autonomous maneuvering decision-making systems. Nevertheless, in the face of complex decision-making tasks, it is still challenging to master the optimal policy due to the low learning efficiency caused by the complex environment, high dimensional state, and sparse reward. Inspired by the human learning process from simple to complex, we propose a novel progressive deep RL algorithm for policy optimization in unmanned autonomous decision-making systems in this paper. The proposed algorithm divides the training of the autonomous maneuvering decision into a sequence of curricula with learning tasks from simple to complex. Finally, through the self-play stage, the iterative optimization of the policy is realized. Furthermore, the confrontation environment with two unmanned vehicles with obstacles is analyzed and modeled. Finally, the simulation leads to the one-to-one adversarial tasks demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed design algorithm.

Abstract Background Previous studies have investigated the imaging changes of the paravertebral muscles (PVM) in patients with degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS); however, most of these studies focused on the apical vertebra (AV) level or compared with the average of the whole-segment measurement. In this study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with surface electromyography (sEMG) was used to analyze the degenerative characteristics of the multifidus (MF) in patients with DLS at three levels of scoliosis (upper end vertebra [UEV], AV, and lower end vertebra [LEV]). Methods This is a prospective cross-sectional study. Forty patients with DLS (DLS group) and 40 healthy individuals without lumbar scoliosis (control group) were evaluated. The percentage of fat infiltration area (%FIA) and muscle relative cross-sectional area (rCSA) of the MF at the three levels of scoliosis were measured on MRI, whereas the sEMG activity of the participants in both groups was recorded during action tasks. The imaging parameters, sEMG activity, and relationship between them were analyzed. Results In the control group, there were no significant differences in the %FIA, rCSA, or sEMG activation of the MF between the bilateral sides at the three measured levels. In the DLS group, measurement of the MF at the UEV and AV levels showed that the %FIA was larger on the concave than convex side and that the rCSA was smaller on the concave than convex side, but there was no difference between the two parameters at the LEV level. In the standing flexion and extension tasks, the sEMG activation of the MF was higher on the concave than convex side. The coronal Cobb angle was correlated with the difference in the measurement data of the MF at the UEV and AV levels, but not with the difference at the LEV level. Conclusion The MF in patients with DLS has the same degenerative features at the UEV and AV levels, with the concave side showing greater degeneration; however, there are different degenerative manifestations at the LEV level. The MF degeneration at the UEV and AV levels is the result of spinal deformity, while the muscle changes at the LEV level are more consistent with natural degeneration.

Abstract The asymmetry of paravertebral muscle (PVM) degeneration in degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS) patients has been extensively studied by imaging and histological examination and has not yet been verified by surface electromyography (sEMG) techniques. To study the relationship between the surface electromyography (sEMG) and degenerative characteristics of paravertebral muscles (PVMs) in patients with degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS). In twenty DLS patients and fifteen healthy subjects, sEMG activity of the PVMs at the level of the upper end vertebra (UEV), apical vertebra (AV) and lower end vertebra (LEV) was measured during static standing and dynamic standing forward flexion and backward extension tasks. Action segmentation was achieved according to inertial measurement unit (IMU) data. The sEMG characteristics of the PVMs on the convex and concave sides were compared, and the relationship of these data with the Cobb angle and lumbar lordotic angle (LL) was analyzed. In the DLS group, there was no difference in sEMG activity between the convex and concave sides at the UEV or AV level, but in the motion and return phases of the standing forward flexion task (P = 0.000, P = 0.015) and the maintenance and return phases of the standing backward extension task (P = 0.001, P = 0.01), there was a significant difference in sEMG activity between the convex and concave sides at the LEV level. Asymmetrical sEMG activity at the LEV level was negatively correlated with the Cobb angle (F = 93.791, P

Abstract Binderless poplar/bismuth oxide wood alloy is prepared using the warm-press forming technology. The effect of the forming temperatures on color changes and mechanical properties of the poplar/bismuth oxide wood alloy is studied. The results show that the surface color of the specimen gradually darkened as the forming temperature increased. There is the most obvious change from 140 to 160 °C. The CIE lightness color coordinate L* and chroma coordinate b* decrease with the increase of the forming temperature, while chroma coordinate a* decreases initially, but later increases with treatment severity. The static bending strength (MOR), the elastic modulus (MOE) and the surface hardness (HV) increase first and then decrease with the increase of the forming temperature. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the wood underwent carbonization at 180 °C, resulting in a decrease in the density and mechanical properties of poplar/bismuth oxide wood alloy, and a deepening of the surface color. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis reveals that the pyrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose, as well as the pyrolysis and condensation of lignin led to the color of poplar/bismuth oxide wood alloy deepening. The hydroxyl groups between the cellulose molecular chains are reduced and hydrogen bonds are formed at 140 °C, which improve the mechanical properties of poplar/bismuth oxide wood alloy. However, the massive degradation of hemicellulose weakens binding strength with cellulose and lignin at 160 °C above. It greatly reduces the mechanical properties of specimen.

To address the problem of slit limitation in traditional slit imaging spectrometers, which hampers fast the identification, efficient tracking, and precise avoidance of faint targets in lunar orbit, this article proposes a lenslet-array integral field spectrometer structure that is free of slits, static, and that is fast and efficient for the visible-to-near-infrared wavelength band. Firstly, the field of view segmentation model is analyzed, and the requirement of the telecentric degree of the pre-imaging system is obtained. Secondly, the influence of aberrations, such as spherical aberration and coma distortion on the micro-pupil dispersion model is analyzed. Based on this, the pre-imaging system is designed to meet the requirements of aberration correction and the telecentricity of the system. Finally, the structure of the spectral system is designed, and the integrated system is optimized. The smile of the lenslet-array integral field spectrometer is ±1 nm, and the MTF is greater than 0.7 at 60 lp/mm and close to the diffraction limit.

Regarding the generation and integration of typical scenes of PV and loads in urban photovoltaic distribution networks, as well as the insufficient consideration of the spatiotemporal correlation between PV and loads, this paper proposes a typical scene extraction method based on local linear embedding, kernel density estimation, and a joint PV–load typical scene extraction method based on the FP-growth algorithm. Firstly, the daily operation matrices of PV and load are constructed by using the historical operation data of PV and load. Then, the typical scenes are extracted by the dimensionality reduction of local linear embedding and the kernel density estimation method. Finally, the strong association rules of PV–meteorological conditions and load–meteorological conditions are mined based on the FP-growth algorithm, respectively. The association of PV–load typical daily operation scenarios is completed using meteorological conditions as a link. This experiment involved one year of operation data of a distribution network containing PV in Qingyuan, Guangdong Province. The typical scene extraction joint method, Latin hypercube sampling method, and k-means clustering-based scene generation method proposed in this paper are used for comparison, respectively. The results show that compared to the other two scenario generation methods, the error between the typical scenario obtained by this method and the actual operating scenario of the distribution network is smaller. The extracted typical PV and load scenarios can better fit the actual PV and load operation scenarios, which have more reference value for the operation planning of actual distribution networks containing PV.

Aiming at the problem of poor oil identification accuracy in existing oil spill detection technologies, the polarization degree model of oil spill on rough sea surface under different azimuths and zenith angles was established based on Fresnel theory. The analytical expressions of visible light polarization degree in calm and fluctuating water surface were derived respectively, and the polarization degree model of oil spill in reflection space was constructed. The effectiveness of the method and its influence on the polarization distribution of oil spill were analyzed by simulation. A portable turntable was designed to test the polarization characteristics of the experiment, and the visible light polarization detection experiment was carried out. The visible light polarization images of five typical oil spills at different observation azimuth and zenth angles were obtained. The differences in the polarization degrees of different oil species were analyzed, and the correctness of the theoretical model was proved by experiments. The polarization detection experiment of visible light pBRDF was completed, which more intuitively showed the variation law of the polarization characteristics of light reflected by different oil spills in different spatial positions. Using polarization information to distinguish oil species is a useful supplement to the traditional oil spill detection method and has important significance to improve the marine pollution control ability.

Abstract Background Foodborne illness caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus) is generally associated with the consumption of seafood. Fish and other seafood can be contaminated with V. parahaemolyticus, natural inhabitants of the marine, estuarine, and freshwater environment. In this study, the antibacterial activities of benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) against V. parahaemolyticus were investigated by both transcriptomic analysis and morphological verification. Results Treatment with 1/8 minimum inhibitory concentration (1/8 MIC) BITC resulted in 234 upregulated genes and 273 downregulated genes. The results validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) revealed that the relative expression levels of the six genes VP0820, VP0548, VP2233, VPA2362, fliA and fliG were only 31.0%, 31.1%, 55.8%, 57.0%, 75.3%, and 79.9% of the control group, respectively. Among them, genes VP2233, fliA and fliG are related to flagella and VP2362 can regulate a protein relevant to biofilm formation. Morphologically, we verified that the swimming diffusion diameter of V. parahaemolyticus was significantly reduced by 14.9% by bacterial swimming ability, and biofilm formation was significantly inhibited by treatment with 1/8 MIC BITC by crystal violet quantification assay. Conclusions These results indicated that 1/8 MIC BITC had antibacterial effect on V. parahaemolyticus by inhibiting virulence gene expression related to flagella and biofilm.

Abstract Malignant proliferation and metastasis are the hallmarks of cancer cells. Aminated [70]fullerene exhibits notable antineoplastic effects, promoting it a candidate for multi‐targeted cancer drugs. It is an urgent need to reveal the structure–activity relationship for antineoplastic aminated fullerenes. Herein, three amphiphilic derivatives of [60]fullerene with clarified molecular structures are synthesized: TAPC‐4, TAPC‐3, and TCPC‐4. TAPC‐4 inhibits the proliferation of diverse tumor cells via G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, reverses the epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and abrogates the high mobility of tumor cells. TAPC‐4 can be excreted from the organism and achieves an in vivo inhibition index of 75.5% in tumor proliferation and 87.5% in metastatic melanoma with a wide safety margin. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the amphiphilic molecular structure and the ending amino groups promote the targeting of TAPC‐4 to heat shock protein Hsp90‐beta, vimentin, and myosin heavy chain 9 (MYH9), probably resulting in the alteration of cyclin D1 translation, vimentin expression, and MYH9 location, respectively. This work initially emphasizes the dominant role of the amphiphilic structure and the terminal amino moieties in the antineoplastic effects of aminated fullerenes, providing fundamental support for their anti‐tumor drug development.

Descurainia sophia seeds (DS), Astragalus mongholicus (AM), and their formulas are widely used to treat heart failure caused by various cardiac diseases in traditional Chinese medicine practice. However, the molecular mechanism of action of DS and AM has not been completely understood. Herein, we first used mass spectrometry coupled to UPLC to characterize the chemical components of DS and AM decoctions, then applied MS-based quantitative proteomic analysis to profile protein expression in the heart of rats with isoproterenol-induced cardiomyopathy (ISO-iCM) before and after treated with DS alone or combined with AM, astragaloside IV (AS4), calycosin-7-glucoside (C7G), and Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) from AM. We demonstrated for the first time that DS decoction alone could reverse the most of differentially expressed proteins in the heart of the rats with ISO-iCM, including the commonly recognized biomarkers natriuretic peptides (NPPA) of cardiomyopathy and sarcomeric myosin light chain 4 (MYL4), relieving ISO-iCM in rats, but AM did not pronouncedly improve the pharmacological efficiency of DS. Significantly, we revealed that AS4 remarkably promoted the pharmacological potency of DS by complementarily reversing myosin motor MYH6/7, and further downregulating NPPA and MYL4. In contrast, APS reduced the efficiency of DS due to upregulating NPPA and MYL4. These findings not only provide novel insights to better understanding in the combination principle of traditional Chinese medicine but also highlight the power of mass spectrometric proteomics strategy combined with conventional pathological approaches for the traditional medicine research.

BackgroundMost of data available in the literature reported the sperm retrieval rate and limited intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) results of microdissection testicular sperm extraction (micro-TESE) in non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) patients with different etiologies. Unfortunately, there is currently a lack of comprehensive data to guide clinicians in conducting comprehensive consultations with NOA patients.ObjectivesTo obtain more comprehensive evidence-based data and clinical outcomes for better consultation of NOA patients who opted to undergo micro-TESE combined with ICSI-IVFMethodsIt was a retrospective study involved 968 NOA patients underwent micro-TESE during January 2015 to December 2019. Embryological, clinical, and live birth outcomes were demonstrated comprehensively and three kinds of stratification analyses were performed based on ICSI-IVF cycles using frozen and fresh sperm, different etiologies of NOA and various amounts of sperm retrieved.ResultsThe sperm retrieval rate was 44.6%, and ICSI was performed in 299 couples leading to 150 clinical pregnancies and 140 live-birth deliveries. The clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) was 50.17%, and the cumulative live birth rate (LBR) was 46.82%, and the low birth defects rate was 1.43%. No significant difference was observed about cumulative LBR in frozen sperm group and fresh sperm group (47.5% vs 42.9%, P>0.05). NOA patients with AZFc microdeletions had the lowest rate of a high-score embryo on day 3 (4.4%, P

Background Patients with severe bone fractures and complex bone deformities are treated by orthopedic surgeons with external fixation for several months. During this long treatment period, there is a high risk of inflammation and infection at the superficial skin area (pin site). This can develop into a devastating, sometimes fatal, and always costly condition of deep bone infection. Objective For pin site infection surveillance, thermography technology could be the solution to build an objective and continuous home-based remote monitoring tool to avoid frequent nursing care and hospital visits. However, future studies of infection monitoring require a preliminary step to automate the process of locating and detecting the pin sites in thermal images reliably for temperature measurement, and this step is the aim of this study. Methods This study presents an automatic approach for identifying and annotating pin sites on visible images using bounding boxes and transferring them to the corresponding thermal images for temperature measurement. The pin site is detected by applying deep learning-based object detection architecture YOLOv5 with a novel loss evaluation and regression method, control distance intersection over union. Furthermore, we address detecting pin sites in a practical environment (home setting) accurately through transfer learning. Results and conclusion The proposed model offers the pin site detection in 1.8 ms with a high precision of 0.98 and enables temperature information extraction. Our work for automatic pin site annotation on thermography paves the way for future research on infection assessment on thermography.

Objective To explore the kinematic biomechanical changes and symmetry in the left and right sides of the facet joints of lumbar spine segments under different functional loads. Methods Participants (n = 10) performing standing flexion and extension movements were scanned using computed tomography (CT) and dual fluoroscopy imagine system. Instantaneous images of the L3–S1 vertebrae were captured, and by matching a three‐dimensional CT model with contours from dual fluoroscopy images, in vivo facet joint movements were reproduced and analyzed. Translations and rotations of lumbar vertebral (L3 and L4) facet joints of data were compared for different loads (0, 5, 10 kg). The participants performed flexion and extension movements in different weight‐bearing states, the translations and angles changes were calculated respectively. Results From standing to extension, there were no statistical differences in rotation angles for the facet joint processes of different vertebral segment levels under different weight loads (P > 0.05). Mediolateral axis and cranio‐caudal translations under different weight loads were not statistically different for vertebral segment levels (P > 0.05). Anteroposterior translations for L3 (1.4 ± 0.1 mm) were greater than those for L4 (1.0 ± 0.1 mm) under the different load conditions (P = 0.04). Bilaterally, mediolateral, anteroposterior, and cranio‐caudal translations of the facet joints under different weights (0, 10 kg) for each segment level (L3 and L4) were symmetric (P > 0.05). From flexion to standing, there were no statistical differences in rotation angles for different weights (0, 5, 10 kg) for each level (L3 and L4) (P > 0.05). There were no statistical differences between mediolateral, anteroposterior, and cranio‐caudal translations at each segment level (L3 and L4) under different loads (P > 0.05). Under the condition of no weight (0 kg), L3 mediolateral translations on the left side (1.7 ± 1.6 mm) were significantly greater (P = 0.03) than those on the right side (1.6 ± 1.6 mm). Left side (1.0 ± 0.7 mm) L4 mediolateral translations were significantly smaller (P = 0.03) than those on the right side (1.1 ± 0.7 mm). There were no statistical differences between different weights for either anteroposterior and cranio‐caudal translations (P > 0.05). There were no statistical differences for mediolateral, anteroposterior, and cranio‐caudal translations for 10 kg (P > 0.05). Conclusion Lumbar spine facet joint kinematics did not change significantly with increased loads. Anteroposterior translations for L3 were greater than those for L4 of the vertebral segments are related to the coronal facet joint surface. Changes in facet surface symmetry indicates that the biomechanical pattern between facet joints may change.

In order to meet the high accuracy pixel-matching requirements of space-dimensional dual-coded spectropolarimeter, a dual-coded image pixel-matching method based on dispersion modulation is proposed. The mathematics of the dispersion power and the pixel matching is modeled. The relationship between different pixel-matching coefficients and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structure similarity index measure (SSIM) of reconstructed images is analyzed. An imaging system experiment consisting of a digital micromirror device (DMD), a micro-polarizer array detector (MPA), and a prism–grating–prism (PGP) is built to reconstruct a spectral linear polarization data cube with 50 spectral channels and linear polarization parameters. The contrast ratio of the reconstructed spectropolarimeter image was raised 68 times against the ground truth. It can be seen from the reconstruction evaluation analysis that the spectral data and polarization data can be matched effectively by optimizing the dispersion coefficient of the PGP. The system can effectively reconstruct when the noise SNR is greater than 15 dB. The PSNR and SSIM of the reconstruction images can be improved by increasing the pixel-matching spacing. The optimal choice of the dual-coded pixel-matching spacing is one super-polarized pixel. The spectral resolution and quality of the spectropolarimeter are improved using the pixel-matching method.

In this paper, infrared polarization detection information acquisition technology is proposed, and the polarization characteristics of oil spills are modeled and studied. A set of long-wave infrared polarization detection equipment for oil spills is designed and built, and modeling research on oil spill polarization characteristics is carried out to accurately detect and identify oil spill types and for the faster processing of oil spill events. Oil spill accuracy is increased by defining the polarization maintenance method of the polarization optical system and reducing the polarization measurement error brought on by the imaging system. As a result, a higher than 3% contrast exists between the polarization degree image and the corrected infrared intensity image. Outdoor tests using oil, palm oil, crude oil, gasoline, and diesel oil spill types are carried out in a controlled environment to collect data on the polarization of various oil species. According to the findings, each oil species’ infrared polarization contrast with seawater is typically greater than its infrared intensity contrast. However, the polarization data of saltwater, diesel, and palm oil, which are difficult to identify in intensity data, show a noticeable difference, further proving the viability of utilizing polarization to discern oil spills.

The lunar crater production function describes the general pattern of the size–frequency distribution of craters on the lunar surface, and it is the foundation of the surface dating method via crater counting. In addition, the lunar crater production function has been extended to other celestial bodies and used to analyze the meteorite flux of the inner solar system. The basic process of establishing the lunar crater production function is to map in an ideal way the primary craters in different geological units, and then to normalize all of the corresponding size–frequency distributions using a mathematical model. Currently, the most widely used lunar crater production functions have been established based on the images acquired in the last century. However, now they can be refined with newly obtained high-resolution images. In this research, we mapped all of the primary craters in 13 regions on the lunar surface with the images acquired using the narrow angle camera and wide angle camera onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and then we fitted the lunar crater production function with a polynomial. The resultant new lunar crater production function is largely comparable with the previous results, and the difference is mainly at the large diameter end. We analyzed the uncertainty of model fitting as well as the difference in the crater measurements and demonstrated the reliability of the new production function. It is expected to refine the lunar surface dating models, which can provide more accurate information on the impact rate in related studies.

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is a noteworthy zoonotic pathogen that has been responsible for large economic losses in pig production and a great threat to human health. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an essential regulator of the innate immune response to bacterial pathogens; however, its role during SS2 infection is not fully understood. In this study, we found that the SS2 strain HA9801 induced a significant inflammatory response in the mouse air pouch model; this response was amplified by the treatment of exogenous PTX3 simultaneously in terms of the results of inflammatory cell recruitment and proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 production. In addition, PTX3 facilitated the phagocytosis of macrophage Ana-1 against SS2 strain HA9801. The supplementation of exogenous PTX3 significantly reduced the bacterial loads in a dose-dependent manner in lungs, livers and bloods of SS2-infected mice compared to the samples with HA9801 infection alone; this finding indicated that PTX3 may facilitate the bacterial clearance through enhancing the host inflammatory response during SS2 infection. Both PTX3 and SS2 capsular polysaccharide (CPS2) were required for the robust inflammatory response, implying that the host PTX3 protein and SS2 surface CPS2 modulate the host innate immune response in concert. All of these results suggested that PTX3 is a potential novel biological agent for the SS2 infection; however, the recommended dose of PTX3 must be evaluated strictly to avoid inducing an excessive inflammatory response that can cause serious tissue injury and animal death.

Nutrients play an important role as biogenic elements in modulating marine productivity, and water mixing usually facilitates the transportation of nutrients in the coastal ocean. In this study, the distributions of naturally occurring radioisotopes 226Ra and 228Ra in the surface and water column of the northern South China Sea (NSCS) have been investigated to estimate oceanic mixing and nutrient supplies. We identified three masses of the South China Sea Warm Current (SCSWC), the South China Sea Branch of the Kuroshio (SCSBK), and shelf water in the summer of June 2015, but only SCSWC and SCSBK were observed in the spring of March 2017. The fraction of the SCSBK in summer was estimated to be an average of 0.25 ± 0.16, which was lower than that in the spring of 0.57 ± 0.32 in our study area. The horizontal mixing from the Pearl River plume revealed eddy diffusion of (1.2 ± 0.79) × 105 cm2/s and advection velocity ω of 0.25 ± 0.16 cm/s in the slope region. In the water column, the best-fit exponential curve gradient of 228Ra led to a vertical diffusion coefficient of 0.43 ± 0.33 cm2/s that went down to the subsurface of the upper 1,000 m, and an upward vertical diffusion coefficient was revealed as 18 ± 9.9 cm2/s from the near-bottom. Combining the nutrient distributions, horizontal mixing from the Pearl River plume carried (5.6 ± 4.9) × 102 mmol N/m2/d, 2.2 ± 2.0 mmol P/m2/d, and (4.1 ± 3.9) × 102 mmol Si/m2/d in the very surface layer, suggesting that shelf water plays a significant role in the nutrient sources of the slope of the NSCS during June 2015. The upward vertical mixing supplied 2.7 ± 1.6 mmol N/m2/d, 0.18 ± 0.11 mmol P/m2/d, and 15 ± 8.4 mmol Si/m2/d to the upper layer, which appeared more important than atmospheric deposition and rivaled submarine groundwater discharge.

Abstract Background The small intestine, while serving as the main absorption organ, also possesses a unique bacterial environment and holds the critical function of conversion of primary bile acids. Bile acids are, in turn, able to regulate bacterial composition and promote the growth of bacteria that convert primary bile acids to secondary bile acids. However, in beef cattle, few studies have explored the influence of diets on jejunal bacterial communities and examined its relationships with bile acids. Here, we examined the impact of grain- and grass-based diets on jejunal and fecal bacterial communities’ composition and investigated possible association of bacterial features with bile acids. Results We demonstrated that the influences of diets on intestinal bacteria can be observed in young beef cattle after weaning. A significantly higher level of microbial diversity was documented in feces of grass-fed cattle comparing to grain-fed cattle. Top 20 important genera identified with random forest analysis on fecal bacterial community can be good candidates for microbial biomarkers. Moreover, the jejunal bacteria of adult Angus beef cattle exhibited significant differences in microbial composition and metabolic potential under different diets. Global balances and bacteria signatures predictive of bile acids were identified, indicative of the potential association of bacterial features with bile acids. Conclusions The findings from this study provided novel insights into the relationships between jejunal bacteria and bile acids under different diets in Angus beef cattle. Our results should help us gain a better understanding of potential health benefits of grass-fed beef.

Abstract Background Cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) has opened up new approaches for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), and it is often used as the second-tier test for high-risk pregnant women in detecting trisomy (T) 21, T18, and T13 after serum biochemistry screening. This study aims to discuss the clinical performance of NIPT as an alternative first-tier screening test for pregnant women in detecting T21, T18, T13, and sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs) in China. Methods A total of 42,924 samples were recruited. The cell-free plasma DNA was directly sequenced. Each of the chromosome aneuploidies of PPV was analyzed. A total of 22 placental samples were acquired, including 14 FP and 8 TP samples. The placental verification of FP NIPT results was performed. Results Among 42,924 samples, 281 (0.65%) positive cases, including 87 of T21, 31 of T18, 22 of T13, and 141 of SCAs were detected. For the detection of T21, the positive predictive value (PPV) was 78.46%, for trisomy 18, 62.96%, for trisomy 13, 10.00%, for SCAs, 47.22% in the total samples. For trisomy 21, the PPV was 86.67%, for trisomy 18, 80.00%, for trisomy 13, 20.00%, for SCAs, 56.52% in advanced maternal age (AMA) women. The PPV of T21 increased with age. For T18, the PPV showed an overall upward trend. For T13 and SCAs, PPV was raised first and then lowered. Placental verification of false positive (FP) NIPT results confirmed confined placental mosaicism(CPM) was the reason for false positives. Conclusions This study represents the first time that NIPT has been used as a first-tier screening test for fetal aneuploidies in a pilot city with large clinical samples in China. We propose that NIPT could replace serum biochemistry screening as a first-tier test.

Objectives. Insulin resistance is associated with the prognosis of heart failure (HF) patients. The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index is a simple marker of insulin resistance. However, it remains unclear whether the TyG index is associated with the incidence of readmission in patients with HF. Methods. We enrolled 901 patients with completed records on serum triglyceride and glucose in our study. The TyG index was calculated as log (fasting triglycerides (mg/dL) x fasting glucose (mg/dL)/2). There were 310 cases of readmission and the average TyG index was 7.8 ± 0.7. Restricted cubic spline was fitted to explore the linearity of TyG index associating with 6-month readmission of HF patients. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between TyG index quartile and the incidence of 6-month readmission. Results. Only the 6-month readmission was significantly different among TyG quartiles, and it was the highest (41.9%) in the lowest quartile (ranging 6.17∼7.36). the TyG index was nonlinearly associated with 6-month readmission (p for nonlinearity = 0.009), with the lower level of TyG index increasing the risk of 6-month readmission. Besides, multivariable logistic analysis showed that the lowest TyG quartile was associated with a higher incidence of 6-month readmission in the unadjusted model (odds ratio [OR] 1.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18–2.57; p=0.005), partially adjusted model (OR 1.82, 95%CI 1.22–2.72; p=0.004), and fully-adjusted model (OR 1.65, 95%CI 1.09–2.45; p=0.024). The association was consistent across gender and diabetes group. Conclusion. A lower TyG index independently increased the risk of 6-month readmission in HF patients, which could be a prognostic factor in heart failure.

The health benefits of grass-fed beef are well documented. However, the rumen microbiome features in beef steers raised in a grass-fed regimen have yet to be identified. This study examined the rumen microbiome profile in the feeding regimes. Our findings show that the rumen microbiome of the grass-fed cattle demonstrated greater species diversity and harbored significantly higher microbial alpha diversity, including multiple species richness and evenness indices, than the grain-fed cattle. Global network analysis unveiled that grass-fed cattle’s rumen microbial interaction networks had higher modularity, suggesting a more resilient and stable microbial community under this feeding regimen. Using the analysis of compositions of microbiomes with a bias correction (ANCOM-BC) algorithm, the abundance of multiple unclassified genera, such as those belonging to Planctomycetes, LD1-PB3, SR1, Lachnospira, and Sutterella, were significantly enriched in the rumen of grass-fed steers. Sutterella was also the critical genus able to distinguish the two feeding regimens by Random Forest. A rumen microbial predictor consisting of an unclassified genus in the candidate division SR1 (numerator) and an unclassified genus in the order Bacteroidales (denominator) accurately distinguished the two feeding schemes. Multiple microbial signatures or balances strongly correlated with various levels of SCFA in the rumen. For example, a balance represented by the log abundance ratio of Sutterella to Desulfovibrio was strongly associated with acetate-to-propionate proportions in the rumen (R2 = 0.87), which could be developed as a valuable biomarker for optimizing milk fat yield and cattle growth. Therefore, our findings provided novel insights into microbial interactions in the rumen under different feed schemes and their ecophysiological implications. These findings will help to develop rumen manipulation strategies to improve feed conversion ratios and average daily weight gains for grass- or pasture-fed cattle production.

This paper addresses the objectives in a complex context: the polarization mathematical and physical model of the basic components of the target/background is constructed by simulation modeling. The image fusion experiment is carried out based on a two-dimensional wavelet transformation. A high-resolution polarization imaging instrument was developed, and static experiments were carried out with polarization, infrared, and visible cameras. The result shows that using polarization imaging detection technology to detect physical evidence targets in complex backgrounds can effectively improve target contrast. It can enrich the target information, improve image quality, and improve target detection accuracy.

A bioactive packaging material based on chitosan (CS) incorporated with benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) and α−cyclodextrin (α−CD) was fabricated to evaluate its preservative effects on fresh beef stored at 4 °C for 12 d according to the quality analysis. The Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum revealed that the major structural moiety of BITC was embedded in the cavity of α−CD, except for the thiocyanate group. FTIR and X-ray diffraction analysis further verified that intermolecular interactions were formed between the BITC−α−CD and CS film matrix. The addition of BITC−α−CD decreased the UV light transmittance of pure CS film to lower than 63% but still had enough transparency for observing packaged items. The CS−based composite film displayed a sustainable antibacterial capacity and an enhanced antioxidant activity. Moreover, the total viable counts, total volatile base nitrogen, pH, thiobarbituric acid–reactive substances, and sensory evaluation of the raw beef treated with the CS−based composite film were 6.31 log colony-forming unit (CFU)/g, 19.60 mg/100 g, 6.84, 0.26 mg/kg, and 6.5 at 12 days, respectively, indicating the favorable protective efficacy on beef. These results suggested that the fabricated CS−based composite film has the application potential to be developed as a bioactive food packaging material, especially for beef preservation.

In the context of economic globalization, coastal port logistics has gradually become a focus of economic development, and the proper management of coastal port logistics performance is the main way to realize the high-efficiency operation of coastal ports, drives the direct economic development of the hinterland, and enhances import and export trade market competitiveness. Accordingly, this study was aimed to measure port logistics efficiency and explore its path of improvement for China’s coastal ports during the 2014–2018 period with a four-stage DEA model, including a Tobit model. The results of this study show that most of the coastal ports in China have emphasized their size more than their planning. During the study period, improving road network construction and the economic level in hinterland port cities was conducive to improving port logistics efficiency, but tertiary industry investment and foreign trade levels were negatively correlated with coastal port logistics efficiency.

With the development of high-speed and lightweight mechanisms, and the continuous improvement of manufacturing accuracy requirements in industrial production, clearance joints have increasingly become one of the key factors affecting dynamics performance. Poor clearance will seriously compromise stability, accuracy, and dynamics performance. Based on a genetic algorithm, an efficient modeling methodology for the dynamics optimization of a planar complex multi-link mechanism containing multiple clearance joints is put forward. The model comprises a 2-degree of freedom (DOF) nine-bar mechanism that can be used as the main transmission mechanism of a hybrid drive multi-link press, which is taken as the research object. The optimization objective is to minimize the maximum acceleration of the slider and minimize the difference between the actual central trajectory and the ideal trajectory. By optimizing the quality parameters of key components, an optimal solution for the design parameters is obtained, and the effects of the different optimizations of the objective functions on dynamics response are compared and analyzed. At the same time, a new modeling and calculation methodology of the dynamics accuracy and reliability of a complex multi-link mechanism in terms of multiple clearances is proposed, and the effect of optimization on dynamics accuracy and the reliability of the mechanism is analyzed. Based on the optimization results obtained by taking the minimum difference between the actual center trajectory and the ideal trajectory as an optimization objective, the nonlinear characteristics before and after optimization are analyzed through a phase diagram and Poincaré map. A test platform was built to study the dynamics of the mechanism with clearances. Research not only provides a basis for the dynamics optimization of a multi-link mechanism containing clearances but also provides reference significance for the reliability analysis of a multi-link mechanism containing clearances.

This paper surveys the strategies that the Contrastive, Typological, and Translation Mining parallel corpus traditions rely on to deal with the issue of target language representativeness of translations. On the basis of a comparison of the corpus architectures and research designs of the three traditions, we argue that they have each developed their own representativeness strategies: (i) monolingual control corpora (Contrastive tradition), (ii) limits on the scope of research questions (Typological tradition), and (iii) parallel control corpora (Translation Mining tradition). We introduce normalized pointwise mutual information (NPMI) as a bi-directional measure of cross-linguistic association, allowing for an easy comparison of the outcomes of different traditions and the impact of the monolingual and parallel control corpus representativeness strategies. We further argue that corpus size has a major impact on the reliability of the monolingual control corpus strategy and that a sequential parallel control corpus strategy is preferable for smaller corpora.