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Abstract Significant efforts have been devoted to investigating the oxidation of MXenes in various environments. However, the underlying mechanism of MXene oxidation and its dependence on the electrode potential remain poorly understood. Here we show the oxidation behavior of MXenes under the working conditions of electrochemical processes in terms of kinetics and thermodynamics by using constant-potential ab initio simulations. The theoretical results indicate that the potential effects can be attributed to the nucleophilic attack of water molecules on metal atoms, similar to that taking place in the Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Building upon these findings, we deduced the oxidation potential of the common MXenes, and proposed antioxidant strategies for MXene. Finally, we demonstrated that MBenes, the boron analogs of MXenes, may undergo a similar nucleophilic attack in water and inferred that molecule-induced Walden inversion is widely present in material reconstructions. This work contributes to a fundamental understanding MXene stability at the atomic level, and promotes the transition in materials discovery from trial-and-error synthesis to rational design.

Abstract Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 for children and adolescents are needed. This international multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III clinical trial assessed the efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of CoronaVac® in children and adolescents (NCT04992260). The study was carried out in Chile, South Africa, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The enrollment ran from September 10, 2021 to March 25, 2022. For efficacy assessment, the median follow-up duration from 14 days after the second dose was 169 days. A total of 11,349 subjects were enrolled. Two 3-μg injections of CoronaVac® or placebo were given 28 days apart. The primary endpoint was the efficacy of the CoronaVac®. The secondary endpoints were the immunogenicity and safety. The vaccine efficacy was 21.02% (95% CI: 1.65, 36.67). The level of neutralizing antibody in the vaccine group was significantly higher than that in the placebo group (GMT: 390.80 vs. 62.20, P

We present a highly challenging case of brainstem hemorrhage complicated with pneumonia in a 41-year-old male patient. The patient had intermittent and recurrent fever for nearly two months from June 24, 2022 to August 22, 2022, along with extremely unstable vital signs. Multiple consultations were conducted among clinicians and pharmacists. In view of the patient's actual situation, they initially carried out empirical treatment and then comprehensively considered factors such as the characteristics of anti-infective drugs, interactions, susceptibility testing, and blood drug concentration to analyze and adjust the types and dosages of drugs and implement individualized therapy. Eventually, the patient's body temperature returned to normal, vital signs stabilized, and the patient was discharged smoothly. The author presents this case with the intention of providing a valuable reference for the treatment of patients with cerebral hemorrhage and pneumonia.

This study aimed to provide evidence for co-administration of the COVID-19 and EV71 vaccines in children aged 3 to 5 years. We conducted a phase 4, open-label, randomized, and controlled study. A total of 520 children were randomly allocated to two groups: Group C received the COVID-19 and EV71 vaccines simultaneously, while Group N received the two vaccines separately. The primary immunogenicity endpoints were the seroconversion rates of anti-SARS-CoV-2 and anti-EV71 antibodies 28 days after the second dose of each respective vaccine. Before vaccination, none of the participants was seropositive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and the baseline seropositivity for anti-EV71 antibodies was low (Group C: 14.86%; Group N: 17.83%). After completing full vaccination, the seroconversion rate of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies reached 100% in both groups, while for anti-EV71 antibodies, the seroconversion rates were 97.99% in Group C and 98.70% in Group N. The lower limit of the 95% confidence interval for the difference in seroconversion rates between the two groups for both COVID-19 and EV71 vaccines met the predefined non-inferiority criteria. Six months post-vaccination, the antibody levels remained high for both vaccines, with the seropositive rates of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at 91.21% in Group C and 92.77% in Group N, and the seropositive rates of anti-EV71 antibodies at 99.16% in Group C and 99.15% in Group N. Safety analysis revealed a lower incidence of adverse reactions in Group C compared to Group N (28.85% vs 45.56%), primarily solicited. Co-administration of the COVID-19 and EV71 vaccines demonstrated a positive safety profile and non-inferior immune responses.Trial registration Number NCT04993365 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Abstract 2D transition metal borides (MBenes) with abundant surface terminals hold great promise in molecular sensing applications. However, MBenes from etching with fluorine‐containing reagents present inert ‐fluorine groups on the surface, which hinders their sensing capability. Herein, the multilayer fluorine‐free MoBTx MBene (where Tx represents O, OH, and Cl) with hydrophilic structure is prepared by a hydrothermal‐assisted hydrochloric acid etching strategy based on guidance from the first‐principle calculations. Significantly, the fluorine‐free MoBTx‐based humidity sensor is fabricated and demonstrates low resistance and excellent humidity performance, achieving a response of 90% to 98%RH and a high resolution of 1%RH at room temperature. By combining the experimental results with the first‐principles calculations, the interactions between MoBTx and H2O, including the adsorption and intercalation of H2O, are understood first in depth. Finally, the portable humidity early warning system for real‐time monitoring and early warning of infant enuresis and back sweating illustrates its potential for humidity sensing applications. This work not only provides guidance for preparation of fluorine‐free MBenes, but also contributes to advancing their exploration in sensing applications.

Abstract Background Knowledge regarding the health impacts of daily eating frequency (DEF) and nighttime fasting duration (NFD) on mortality is very limited. Objective This study aimed to examine whether DEF and NFD are associated with CVD and all-cause mortality. Methods This was a prospective cohort study of a nationally representative sample from the United States, including 30,464 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2014. Using 24-h dietary recall, DEF was assessed by the number of eating episodes, and NFD was calculated by the first and last eating time across a day. Death information was obtained from the National Death Index up to 2019. Weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess survival relationships of DEF and NFD with mortality. Results During 307,686 person-years of follow-up, 4560 deaths occurred, including 1824 CVD cases. After adjustment for confounders, compared to DEF at 4–6 times, participants whose DEF was less than 3 times had greater CVD [hazard-ratio (HR) = 1.33, 95% confidence-interval (CI): 1.06–1.67] and all-cause (HR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01–1.33) mortality risks. Furthermore, compared to NFD of 10 to 11 h, participants whose NFD was shorter than 10 h had HRs of 1.30 (95% CI: 1.08–1.55) for CVD mortality and 1.23 (95% CI: 1.08–1.39) for all-cause mortality. NFD longer than 14 h was also related to CVD mortality (HR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.12–1.67) and all-cause mortality (HR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.19–1.54). Similar results for the association of NFD and DEF with heart-specific and stroke-specific mortality were observed. Conclusion This study found that DEF less than 3 times and NFD shorter than 10 h or longer than 14 h were independently associated with greater cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

To achieve high-precision 3D reconstruction, a comprehensive improvement has been made to the binocular structured light calibration method. During the calibration process, the calibration object’s imaging quality and the camera parameters’ nonlinear optimization effect directly affect the caibration accuracy. Firstly, to address the issue of poor imaging quality of the calibration object under tilted conditions, a pixel-level adaptive fill light method was designed using the programmable light intensity feature of the structured light projector, allowing the calibration object to receive uniform lighting and thus improve the quality of the captured images. Then, collaborative Particle Swarm Optimization was studied to optimize the camera parameters. Compared with other optimization algorithms, this algorithm has higher global search capability and can obtain more accurate camera parameters. Under comprehensive improvement, the 3D reconstruction accuracy of binocular structured light is 0.053 mm, showing a 36.33% improvement in reconstruction accuracy compared to mainstream calibration methods.

This study investigates the role of anthropomorphic design in alleviating consumer anxiety induced by mortality salience and delves into the underlying emotional and non-emotional mechanisms. Through a series of meticulously designed experiments, we confirm that anthropomorphic design significantly enhances positive emotional responses in consumers, reduces negative emotions, and thereby increases their preference and willingness to purchase products. Even after the diminution of emotional reactions, anthropomorphic design continues to sustain consumer preference by enhancing psychological intimacy. These findings reveal the crucial role of anthropomorphic design as an effective emotional regulation strategy in consumer purchasing behavior, enriching the application of terror management theory and emotion regulation theory in consumer behavior research. Furthermore, our study provides valuable practical guidance for product design and marketing strategies, especially for consumer groups frequently facing high-pressure situations. Products with anthropomorphic designs may be more appealing to these consumers, helping to mitigate their death anxiety and enhance psychological well-being.

Abstract The Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) crest location is known to vary over a variety of temporal scales. For the first time we perform a statistical survey of the temporal variation of the EIA crest location viewed globally and spanning 20 years. We extract the crest location for double‐peaked EIAs from a data set of total electron content intensifications identified on global ionospheric maps from 2003 to 2022. We show that the dominant temporal variations of the crest latitude are annual and semi‐diurnal for the northern crest, and annual and diurnal for the southern crest. For the annual variation, we find that both crests move poleward in local summer and equatorward in local winter, which is more pronounced for the southern crest than the northern crest, and more pronounced at solar minimum than solar maximum. For the diurnal and semi‐diurnal variations in universal time, both crests dip southward around 15UT and the northern crest additionally dips southward around 2.5UT. We consider apparent universal time dependence to be a proxy for the longitudinal distribution of the crest geomagnetic latitude, which exhibits the known wave‐number‐four longitudinal structure of EIA crests. In local time, the EIA crests form earlier than 10LT and move poleward to their maximum distance at 14LT, and remain at constant latitude until 18LT. Solar cycle modulation on the diurnal/semi‐diurnal variations and the local time evolution of the crest latitude is minimal.

BackgroundVaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection has been somewhat limited due to the widespread dissemination of the Omicron variant, its subvariants, and the immune response dynamics of the naturally infected with the virus.MethodsTwelve subjects between 3-17 years old (yo), vaccinated with two doses of CoronaVac®, were followed and diagnosed as breakthrough cases starting 14 days after receiving the second dose. Total IgGs against different SARS-CoV-2 proteins and the neutralizing capacity of these antibodies after infection were measured in plasma. The activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with peptides derived from the proteins from the wild-type (WT) virus and Omicron subvariants by flow cytometry, as well as different cytokines secretion by a Multiplex assay.Results2 to 8 weeks post-infection, compared to 4 weeks after 2nd dose of vaccine, there was a 146.5-fold increase in neutralizing antibody titers against Omicron and a 38.7-fold increase against WT SARS-CoV-2. Subjects showed an increase in total IgG levels against the S1, N, M, and NSP8 proteins of the WT virus. Activated CD4+ T cells showed a significant increase in response to the BA.2 subvariant (p

Visual density, defined as the number of identifiable elements per unit area within a visual design, significantly influences consumer perceptions. This study investigates the effects of varying visual densities in pizza packaging, encompassing both food-related and decorative elements, on consumers’ expectations regarding taste and texture, ultimately influencing their purchase decisions. We conducted a controlled experiment where participants were presented with pizza boxes of differing visual densities. Participants rated their expectations regarding the taste and texture of the pizza, as well as their purchase intentions. Additionally, we measured consumption frequency to evaluate its moderating influence on the observed effects. Results indicate that high-visual-density packaging significantly heightened expectations of taste and texture, independent of the element’s nature—whether food-related or decorative. Enhanced sensory expectations fully mediated the relationship between visual density and purchase intentions. Additionally, high consumption frequency amplified the effect of high visual density on sensory expectations and purchase intentions. These findings contribute to sensory marketing theory by highlighting the importance of visual density in packaging design and the role of consumption frequency. They provide practical implications for food packaging strategies aimed at enhancing consumer experience and satisfaction.

Jujube fruits usually suffer from physiological disorders or infectious diseases during storage, leading to quality deterioration, softening, or rotting. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of methionine soaking treatment on the postharvest jujube fruit decay rate and storage quality. Methionine treatment significantly reduced the decay rate of postharvest jujube fruit and effectively maintained fruit color and titratable acid. Methionine treatment effectively delayed the decrease of firmness, soluble solids, ascorbic acid, and lignin contents in jujube fruit. Methionine treatment reduced the content of alanine and phenylalanine, and increased the content of glycine in jujube fruit, but displayed no significant effect on total amino acid content. In addition, jujube fruits in the methionine treatment group had a higher total phenolic and flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity, both in free and bound forms. Compared with the control, methionine treatment also significantly increased the content of individual phenolic acid fractions (gallic acid, vanillic acid, and syringic acid) and flavonoid fractions (catechin, epicatechin, rutin) in free form as well as individual phenolic acid fractions in bound form (gallic acid and ferulic acid) in jujube fruits. Overall, this study suggested that the methionine treatment could be used as a prospective preservative to reduce the postharvest decay of jujube fruit and alleviate its nutritional quality deterioration during cold storage at 4°C.

Abstract Sub‐auroral polarization streams (SAPS) are one of the most intense manifestations of magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling. Magnetospheric energy transport to the ionosphere within SAPS is associated with Poynting flux and the precipitation of thermal energy (0.03–30 keV) plasma sheet particles. However, much less is known about the precipitation of high‐energy (≥50 keV) ions and electrons and their contribution to the low‐altitude SAPS physics. This study examines precipitation within one SAPS event using a combination of equatorial THEMIS and low‐altitude DMSP and ELFIN observations, which, jointly, cover from a few eV up to a few MeV energy range. Observed SAPS are embedding the ion isotropy boundary, which includes strong 300–1,000 keV ion precipitation. SAPS are associated with intense precipitation of relativistic electrons (≤3 MeV), well equatorward of the electron isotropy boundary. Such relativistic electron precipitation is likely due to electron scattering by electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves at the equator.

Abstract Introduction Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is associated with significant global morbidity and mortality. Low treatment rates are observed in patients living with HBV; the reasons for this are unclear. This study sought to describe patients’ demographic, clinical and biochemical characteristics across three continents and their associated treatment need. Methods This retrospective cross-sectional post hoc analysis of real-world data used four large electronic databases from the United States, United Kingdom and China (specifically Hong Kong and Fuzhou). Patients were identified by first evidence of chronic HBV infection in a given year (their index date) and characterized. An algorithm was designed and applied, wherein patients were categorized as treated, untreated but indicated for treatment and untreated and not indicated for treatment based on treatment status and demographic, clinical, biochemical and virological characteristics (age; evidence of fibrosis/cirrhosis; alanine aminotransferase [ALT] levels, HCV/HIV coinfection and HBV virology markers). Results In total, 12,614 US patients, 503 UK patients, 34,135 patients from Hong Kong and 21,614 from Fuzhou were included. Adults (99.4%) and males (59.0%) predominated. Overall, 34.5% of patients were treated at index (range 15.9–49.6%), with nucleos(t)ide analogue monotherapy most commonly prescribed. The proportion of untreated-but-indicated patients ranged from 12.9% in Hong Kong to 18.2% in the UK; almost two-thirds of these patients (range 61.3–66.7%) had evidence of fibrosis/cirrhosis. A quarter (25.3%) of untreated-but-indicated patients were aged ≥ 65 years. Conclusion This large real-world dataset demonstrates that chronic hepatitis B infection remains a global health concern; despite the availability of effective suppressive therapy, a considerable proportion of predominantly adult patients apparently indicated for treatment are currently untreated, including many patients with fibrosis/cirrhosis. Causes of disparity in treatment status warrant further investigation.

【Objective】 Jujube (Chinese date) is an important cash crop in southern Xinjiang but its production relies on irrigation and fertilization due to the limited rainfall in this region. This paper aims to investigate the combined effect of irrigation and fertilization on yield and quality of jujube fruits in attempts to find an optimal irrigation-fertilization combination for jujube production in this region. 【Method】 The field experiment was conducted in a 10-year-old orchard in the 224 Regiment of Kunyu City; it is a typical self-pressurized irrigation area in southern Xinjiang. The experiment had three irrigation treatments: irrigating 540 mm (W1), 630 mm (W2) and 720 mm (W2) of water. Each treatment had three fertilizations: 562.5 kg/hm2 (F1), 810 kg/hm2 (F2) and 1 080 kg/hm2 (F3). The control was fertigation used by local growers: irrigating 770 mm of water and applying 1 125 kg/hm2 of nitrogen fertilizer (CK). In each treatment, we measured fruit yield and quality. 【Result】 Irrigation amount affected irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), single-fruit weight, transverse and longitudinal diameters and quality of the fruits, all at significant levels (P

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and the post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with mAbs represent a very important public health strategy against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study has assessed a new Anti-SARS-COV-2 mAb (SA58) Nasal Spray for PEP against COVID-19 in healthy adults aged 18 years and older within three days of exposure to a SARS-CoV-2 infected individual. Recruited participants were randomized in a ratio of 3:1 to receive SA58 or placebo. Primary endpoints were laboratory-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 within the study period. A total of 1222 participants were randomized and dosed (SA58, n = 901; placebo, n = 321). Median of follow-up was 2.25 and 2.79 days for SA58 and placebo, respectively. Adverse events occurred in 221 of 901 (25%) and 72 of 321 (22%) participants with SA58 and placebo, respectively. All adverse events were mild in severity. Laboratory-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 developed in 7 of 824 participants (0.22 per 100 person-days) in the SA58 group vs. 14 of 299 (1.17 per 100 person-days) in the placebo group, resulting in an estimated efficacy of 80.82% (95%CI 52.41%−92.27%). There were 32 SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) positives (1.04 per 100 person-days) in the SA58 group vs. 32 (2.80 per 100 person-days) in the placebo group, resulting in an estimated efficacy of 61.83% (95%CI 37.50%−76.69%). A total of 21 RT–PCR positive samples were sequenced and all were the Omicron variant BF.7. In conclusion, SA58 Nasal Spray showed favourable efficacy and safety in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults who had exposure to SARS-CoV-2 within 72 h.

PurposeTo develop and validate multi-parametric MRI (MP-MRI)-based radiomics models for the prediction of biological characteristics in endometrial cancer (EC).MethodsA total of 292 patients with EC were divided into LVSI (n = 208), DMI (n = 292), MSI (n = 95), and Her-2 (n = 198) subsets. Total 2316 radiomics features were extracted from MP-MRI (T2WI, DWI, and ADC) images, and clinical factors (age, FIGO stage, differentiation degree, pathological type, menopausal state, and irregular vaginal bleeding) were included. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), spearman’s rank correlation test, univariate logistic regression, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used to select radiomics features; univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify clinical independent risk factors. Five classifiers were applied (logistic regression, random forest, decision tree, K-nearest neighbor, and Bayes) to construct radiomics models for predicting biological characteristics. The clinical model was built based on the clinical independent risk factors. The combined model incorporating the radiomics score (radscore) and the clinical independent risk factors was constructed. The model was evaluated by ROC curve, calibration curve (H-L test), and decision curve analysis (DCA).ResultsIn the training cohort, the RF radiomics model performed best among the five classifiers for the three subsets (MSI, LVSI, and DMI) according to AUC values (AUCMSI: 0.844; AUCLVSI: 0.952; AUCDMI: 0.840) except for Her-2 subset (Decision tree: AUC=0.714), and the combined model had higher AUC than the clinical model in each subset (MSI: AUCcombined =0.907, AUCclinical =0.755; LVSI: AUCcombined =0.959, AUCclinical =0.835; DMI: AUCcombined = 0.883, AUCclinical =0.796; Her-2: AUCcombined =0.812, AUCclinical =0.717; all P

Ever since the resolution revolution in 2013, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has become a powerful methodology in structural biology that is especially suited to study the structure of large flexible molecular complexes. Since then, the need of setting up state-of-the-art cryo-EM facilities around the world has increased tremendously. Access to high-end cryo-EM instrumentation is however expensive and requires expertise. The establishment of large cryo-EM centers worldwide, many of which provide academic users free access for both data collection and user training, has been possible with the support of government agencies across the globe. In addition, many universities, and private institutions like the Van Andel Institute (VAI) have made significant investments to establish their own cryo-EM core facilities, ensuring on-site access to their researchers. This paper aims to serve as a blueprint for establishing a new mid-sized cryo-EM facility, as it provides key information based on our experience at VAI and discusses strategies used to optimize routine operation towards high performance and efficiency for single-particle cryo-EM. Information regarding initial planning, selection of equipment as well as the development of IT solutions that were required to improve data collection and analysis are included. In addition, we present an account of the most common issues affecting operation as well as the needs for maintenance over a 6-year period, which can help interested parties to estimate the long-term costs of running this type of facility. Lastly, a brief discussion on the pros and cons of establishing the facility is also included.

Abstract Energetic electron precipitation from the equatorial magnetosphere into the atmosphere plays an important role in magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling: precipitating electrons alter ionospheric properties, whereas ionospheric outflows modify equatorial plasma conditions affecting electromagnetic wave generation and energetic electron scattering. However, ionospheric measurements cannot be directly related to wave and energetic electron properties measured by high‐altitude, near‐equatorial spacecraft, due to large mapping uncertainties. We aim to resolve this by projecting low‐altitude measurements of energetic electron precipitation by ELFIN CubeSats onto total electron content (TEC) maps serving as a proxy for ionospheric density structures. We examine three types of precipitation on the nightside: precipitation of 500 keV) electron precipitation by EMIC waves. All three types of precipitation show distinct features in TEC horizontal gradients, and we discuss possible implications of these features.

Abstract We examined the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)'s predictive ability for El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Our findings indicate that positive IODs have a stronger impact on the subsequent year's ENSO compared to negative IODs. To explain this asymmetry, we proposed the “IOD‐Atlantic‐Pacific” pathway, which involves the Atlantic in boreal winter as an intermediary. The pathway comprises two stages: (a) The asymmetric “IOD‐Atlantic” connection, where positive IODs in autumn trigger winter Atlantic Niño while negative IODs cannot trigger Atlantic Niña. This asymmetry is due to the modulation of the climatological mean state on the IOD‐induced atmospheric anomalies. (b) The “Atlantic‐ENSO” connection, which is symmetric, where winter Atlantic Niño (Niña) promotes the development of La Niña (El Niño), functioning independently of ENSO's self‐oscillation behavior. The Atlantic intermediary mechanism explains the asymmetric connection between IOD and the subsequent year's ENSO and provides the IOD with independent predictive power for ENSO beyond its self‐oscillation.

Abstract Growing evidence indicates that handgrip strength (HGS) is a conspicuous marker for assessing some diseases affecting middle-aged and elderly individuals. However, research regarding HGS and heart failure (HF) is sparse and controversial. Hence, we aimed to investigate the association between HGS and HF among adults aged 45 years and older in the United States. In this cross-sectional study, we included 4524 adults older than 45 years who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A generalized additive model was used to estimate the association between HGS and HF. Age, gender, race, income, education, body mass index, smoking status, drinking status, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, vigorous physical activity, total energy intake, total protein intake, total sugars intake, and total fat intake covariates were adjusted using multiple regression models. And further subgroup analysis was conducted. We documented 189 cases of HF, including 106 men and 83 women. HGS was negatively associated with HF after adjusting for all the covariates (odds ratio = 0.97, 95% confidence interval = 0.96–0.99; P

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) spring persistence barrier (SPB) describes the feature in which the predictive skills of ENSO decrease significantly in the boreal spring. This paper investigates an index constructed using sea surface temperature (SST), namely SSTH, which is based on tropical Pacific Ocean Heat Content (OHC) in crossing ENSO SPB. Inspired by the dynamical relationship between the tropical Pacific OHC and eastern Pacific SST anomalies, SSTH is constructed by SST anomalies (i.e., Niño3.4 index) to represent OHC. We show that this index leads ENSO SST anomalies by about 10 months, making it effective in crossing ENSO SPB. Particularly, among the 50 ENSO events from 1950 to 2022, 27 years were identified to be caused by SSTH signals. Compared with warm water volume (WWV) or the west of WWV (WWVw), this index is more stable and effective after the 21st century because the effective region of subsurface OHC changed dramatically afterward. However, SSTH avoids this problem as it is constructed by SST anomalies alone. Finally, as SST data is reliable before 1980, SSTH is utilized to study the interdecadal lead-lag relationship between subsurface OHC and ENSO SST.

Introduction: Irisin is a newly discovered myokine which links exercise to inflammation and inflammation-related diseases through macrophage regulation. However, the effect of irisin on the activity of inflammation related immune cells (such as neutrophils) has not been clearly described. Objectives: The objective of our study was to explore the effect of irisin on the neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation. Methods: Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) was used to construct a classic neutrophil inflammation model that was used to observe the formation of NETs in vitro. We studied the effect of irisin on NETs formation and its regulation mechanism. Subsequently, acute pancreatitis (AP) was used to verify the protective effect of irisin in vivo, which was an acute aseptic inflammatory response disease model closely related to NETs. Results: Our study found that addition of irisin significantly reduced the formation of NETs via regulation of the P38/MAPK pathway through integrin αVβ5, which might be the one of key pathways in NETs formation, and which could theoretically offset the immunoregulatory effect of irisin. Systemic treatment with irisin reduced the severity of tissue damage common in the disease and inhibited the formation of NETs in pancreatic necrotic tissue of two classical AP mouse models. Conclusion: The findings confirmed for the first time that irisin could inhibit NETs formation and protect mice from pancreatic injury, which further elucidated the protective effect of exercise on acute inflammatory injury.

Abstract This paper presents the validation of modeled total electron content (TEC) from 14 ionospheric models, including empirical, physics‐based, and data assimilation (DA) models, hosted by the NASA/NSF Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This study aims to assess the current progress and capability of the CCMC‐hosted ionospheric models in capturing the storm time ionosphere during the low and moderate solar flux years. We focus on the low‐latitude ionosphere (i.e., ±40° in magnetic latitude) and compare the modeled TEC with the Madrigal TEC during the 2013 March and 2021 November storms. Multiple metrics are used to quantitatively assess the models' accuracy, precision, association, bias, and capability in capturing the TEC changes in response to the storms. The skill score based on the metric scores is further proposed to evaluate the overall performance of ionospheric models against the reference model (International Reference Ionosphere 2016; IRI‐2016). The results indicate that the DA model GLObal Total Electron Content and JPL Global Ionospheric Map models show good performance in modeling the TEC and reasonably reflect the storm time TEC changes spatially and temporally. The empirical models IRI‐2016 and 2020 show relatively good performance compared with the physics‐based models regarding the model‐data comparison; however, it is difficult to characterize the TEC changes caused by storms. The physics‐based models can simulate the storm effect in spatial and temporal TEC variations better than the empirical model. The performance of ionospheric models in capturing the storm time TEC anomaly is presented and discussed.

Abstract Quantification of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions (CEs) at fine space and time resolution is a critical need in climate change research and carbon cycle. Quantifying changes in spatiotemporal patterns of urban CEs is important to understand carbon cycle and development carbon reduction strategies. The existing spatial data of CEs have low resolution and cannot distinguish the distribution characteristics of CEs of different emission sectors. This study quantified CEs from 15 types of energy sources, including residential, tertiary, and industrial sectors in Shanghai. Additionally, we mapped the CEs for the three sectors using point of interest data and web crawler technology, which is different from traditional methods. At a resolution of 30 m, the improved CEs data has a higher spatial resolution than existing studies. The spatial distribution of CEs based on this study has higher spatial resolution and more details than that based on traditional methods, and can distinguish the spatial distribution characteristics of different sectors. The results indicated that there was a consistent increase in CEs during 2000–2015, with a low rate of increase during 2009–2015. The intensity of CEs increased significantly in the outskirts of the city, mainly due to industrial transfer. Moreover, intensity of CEs reduced in city center. Technological progress has promoted the improvement of energy efficiency, and there has been a decoupling between the economic development and CEs in the city was observed during in 2000–2015.

High-resolution remote sensing images with complex contents have garnered significant attention for practical applications, which also pose substantial challenges related to space occupation, security, and information privacy. Compression is frequently coupled with encryption to balance the above-mentioned issues. Most existing methods for joint compression and encryption are primarily designed for common low-resolution images. Toward this end, we propose a novel compression-and-encryption algorithm for remote sensing images that maintains the JPEG format compatibility while virtually eliminating the block effects in the encrypted images. A novel block segmentation strategy that is friendly to simple images is first introduced, in which the original image is divided into nonoverlapping sub-blocks that are greater than the blocks in JPEG compression. The key that is utilized to encrypt the values of DC coefficients is generated through a fusion of the 2D Logistic-Sine-Coupling Map and SHA-512. After that, a parallel diffusion method is proposed for all nonzero AC coefficients, which significantly enhances the encryption efficiency. The global blocks permutation is conducted to further improve the security. Extensive experiments are carried out to demonstrate that our encryption scheme is highly efficient, provides enhanced security, and maintains format compliance for JPEG. Meanwhile, the presented method can resist various attacks to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundTo investigate the value of amide proton transfer weighted (APTw) imaging combined with modified Dixon fat quantification (mDixon-Quant) imaging in determining the degree of differentiation of cervical squamous carcinoma (CSC) against histopathologic.MethodsMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were collected from 52 CSC patients. According to histopathologic results, patients were divided into the poorly differentiated group (37 cases) and the well/moderately differentiated group (15 cases). The APTw value by APTw imaging and the fat fraction (FF) and transverse relaxation rate R2* values by mDixon-Quant were independently measured by two radiologists. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to test the consistency of APTw, FF, and R2* values measured by the two observers. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze the difference in each parameter between the two groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between the degree of differentiation on histopathology and imaging parameters by APTw and mDixon Quant. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of various parameters and their combination in distinguishing the degree of CSC differentiation on histopathology. The DeLong test was used to access the differences among the area under the ROC curves (AUCs). The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between APTw and mDixon-Quant imaging parameters.ResultsThe APTw means were 2.95 ± 0.78% and 2.05 (1.85, 2.65)% in the poorly and well/moderately differentiated groups, respectively. The R2* values were 26.62 (21.99, 33.31)/s and 22.93 ± 6.09/s in the poorly and well/moderately differentiated groups, respectively (P < 0.05). The AUCs of APTw, R2*, and their combination were 0.762, 0.686, and 0.843, respectively. The Delong test suggested statistical significance between R2* and the combination of APTw and R2*. R2* values showed a significant correlation with APTw values in the poorly differentiated group.ConclusionsAPTw combined with mDixon-Quant can be used to efficiently distinguish the differention degrees of CSC diagnosed on histopathology.

Brain functional networks identified from resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data have the potential to reveal biomarkers for brain disorders, but studies of complex mental illnesses such as schizophrenia (SZ) often yield mixed results across replication studies. This is likely due in part to the complexity of the disorder, the short data acquisition time, and the limited ability of the approaches for brain imaging data mining. Therefore, the use of analytic approaches which can both capture individual variability while offering comparability across analyses is highly preferred. Fully blind data-driven approaches such as independent component analysis (ICA) are hard to compare across studies, and approaches that use fixed atlas-based regions can have limited sensitivity to individual sensitivity. By contrast, spatially constrained ICA (scICA) provides a hybrid, fully automated solution that can incorporate spatial network priors while also adapting to new subjects. However, scICA has thus far only been used with a single spatial scale (ICA dimensionality, i.e., ICA model order). In this work, we present an approach using multi-objective optimization scICA with reference algorithm (MOO-ICAR) to extract subject-specific intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) from fMRI data at multiple spatial scales, which also enables us to study interactions across spatial scales. We evaluate this approach using a large N (N > 1,600) study of schizophrenia divided into separate validation and replication sets. A multi-scale ICN template was estimated and labeled, then used as input into scICA which was computed on an individual subject level. We then performed a subsequent analysis of multiscale functional network connectivity (msFNC) to evaluate the patient data, including group differences and classification. Results showed highly consistent group differences in msFNC in regions including cerebellum, thalamus, and motor/auditory networks. Importantly, multiple msFNC pairs linking different spatial scales were implicated. The classification model built on the msFNC features obtained up to 85% F1 score, 83% precision, and 88% recall, indicating the strength of the proposed framework in detecting group differences between schizophrenia and the control group. Finally, we evaluated the relationship of the identified patterns to positive symptoms and found consistent results across datasets. The results verified the robustness of our framework in evaluating brain functional connectivity of schizophrenia at multiple spatial scales, implicated consistent and replicable brain networks, and highlighted a promising approach for leveraging resting fMRI data for brain biomarker development.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by SFTS virus (SFTSV). SFTS patients were prone to invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), which was directly related to increased mortality. Here, we present a critical case of SFTS complicated by IPA in a previously healthy 58-year-old woman. On day 1, SFTSV and three different Aspergillus species were both detected in the patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and blood through metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). After 17 days of treatment, the patient was still in poor condition and A. fumigatus was once again detected in her blood through mNGS. Then her family decided to give up treatment because of financial problems and grave prognosis. She was discharged home and died the next day. Medical personnel should be alter to the possibility of IPA in SFTS patients due to its high mortality. mNGS may be used as an auxiliary diagnostic tool and efficacy-monitoring method for suspected SFTS complicated by IPA.