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Two lines of evidence emerged in the past suggesting that lexical form seemed to play a more important role in the organization of the second language (L2) mental lexicon than in that of the first language (L1) lexicon. They were masked orthographic priming in L2 word recognition and an elevated proportion of form-related responses in L2 word association. However, findings from previous word association studies were inconsistent regarding (1) how often L2 speakers produced form-related responses (flood-blood) and (2) whether L2 speakers were more likely than L1 speakers to provide such responses. Attributing this inconsistency to two methodological causes, the classification of form-related responses and the selection of stimuli, the present study adopted an improved approach by quantifying the definition of form-related responses and by selecting stimuli that had both strong semantic associates and orthographically similar words as potential responses. The latter improvement helped remove the bias for producing either meaning-based or form-based responses. A group of 30 English native speakers and two groups of 65 non-native speakers were tested on the same set of stimuli of 74 English words. Three findings were obtained: (1) non-native speakers produced significantly more form-related responses than native speakers, (2) the two non-native speaker group who differed in L2 experiences showed comparable results, and (3) the participants' familiarity with the stimuli and the lexical frequency of the stimuli negatively correlated with the proportion of form-related responses among non-native speakers. These results provided more compelling evidence for form prominence in the L2 lexicon.

Salt stress is a key environmental factor altering rice plant growth. Strigolactones (GR24) play a vital role in responding to various abiotic stresses and regulating plant growth. However, the regulatory mechanisms of SLs on rice seedlings under salt stress have not yet been clarified. A pot experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effects of GR24 soaking on the rice variety 'Huanghuazhan' (salt-sensitive) seedling growth, antioxidant metabolism, and endogenous hormones under NaCl stress. Results showed that NaCl stress significantly inhibited rice growth; disrupted antioxidant enzymes activity; and increased the content of soluble proteins (SPs), proline (Pro), malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen–peroxide (H2O2). GR24 significantly improved photosynthetic pigments and antioxidant–enzyme activities, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and ascorbate–peroxidase (APX); increased SP, ascorbic acid (AsA); and reduced glutathione (GSH) content and MDA, H2O2, and Pro content, resulting in the mitigation of oxidative injury caused by NaCl stress. Moreover, GR24 significantly increased the content of strigolactones (SLs), cytokinin (CTK), auxin (IAA), Gibberellin A3 (GA3), and IAA/ABA and CTK/ABA ratios and decreased the abscisic acid (ABA). Findings indicated that GR24 alleviated oxidative damage caused by NaCl stress by increasing photosynthetic and antioxidant capacity and maintaining the balance of endogenous hormones, thus improving the salt tolerance of rice seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To observe the effects of cardiac rehabilitation guided by cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) on cardiorespiratory reserve function, blood pressure, blood pressure variability, and lipid metabolism in patients with hypertension. Methods: A randomized trial enrolled 67 Grade 1 hypertensive patients on antihypertensive drugs, divided into conventional (n = 35) and CPET (n = 32) groups. Antihypertensive drugs were not adjusted in both groups during the study period. Blood pressure, cardiorespiratory indicators, lipid profile, and BMI were assessed pre/post 12 weeks. Results: Postintervention, the CPET group exhibited significantly lower blood pressure levels and improved cardiac indicators compared to the conventional group (p < 0.05). CPET group showed greater improvements in cardiorespiratory endurance indicators (p < 0.05). The cardiorespiratory endurance indicators showed significantly greater increases in the CPET group compared to the conventional group (p < 0.05). Low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and body mass index (BMI) were significantly lower in the CPET group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In addition to drug treatment, cardiac rehabilitation guided by CPET can effectively improve blood pressure control, reduce blood pressure variability, improve cardiorespiratory function and lipid metabolism, and increase exercise endurance in patients with Grade 1 hypertension. Its efficacy is clear and safe, with clinical value for promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytochromes P450 (P450s) are one of the largest enzymatic protein families and play critical roles in the synthesis and metabolism of plant secondary metabolites. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is one of the primary active components in Astragalus herbs, exhibiting diverse biological activities and pharmacological effects. However, P450s involved in the astragaloside biosynthesis have not been systematically analyzed in Astragalus mongholicus (A. mongholicus). In this study, we identified 209 P450 genes from the genome of A. mongholicus (AmP450s), which were classified into nine clans and 47 families and performed a systematic overview of their physical and chemical properties, phylogeny, gene structures and conserved motifs. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that AmP450s are critical in the astragaloside biosynthesis pathway. The expression levels of these AmP450s were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis in the root, stem and leaf, showing that most AmP450s are abundant in the root. Additionally, the correlation analysis between gene expressions and AS-IV content showed that twelve AmP450s, especially CYP71A28, CYP71D16 and CYP72A69, may have significant potential in the biosynthesis of astragaloside. This study systematically investigates the P450s of A. mongholicus and offers valuable insights into further exploring the functions of CYP450s in the astragaloside biosynthesis pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid advancement of ecological civilization construction, prioritizing green stormwater infrastructure to address urban stormwater management issues has become an important strategy for ecological priority and green development in sustainable urban development. Green stormwater infrastructure, as a major facility in the construction of sponge cities, can reduce the generation and external discharge of runoff and play a purification role. However, there are various types of green stormwater infrastructure, each with different control effects and applicable conditions. Therefore, to facilitate the planning, design, acceptance, assessment, and monitoring evaluation of sponge city green stormwater infrastructure, this study proposes the "sponge equivalent" method. By comparing the control effects of different facilities with bioretention facilities, the method standardizes the effects, making them easier to understand and apply. Taking a typical area of Beijing and its urban roads as examples, the study analyzed and applied planning and design control strategies. The results show that for a residential area of 1 km2, to achieve the annual runoff total control rate target of 85%, the method of converting runoff volume control equivalents, using bioretention pools as a benchmark, allows for the calculation of various combinations of areas of different types of green stormwater infrastructure, such as sunken green spaces, permeable paving bricks, green roofs, and water storage tanks. This optimizes the planning index of Beijing, which mandates stormwater detention facilities for new projects with a hardened surface area of 2000 m2 or more. The sponge equivalent method can optimize the planning and design control strategy of green stormwater infrastructure, allowing for rapid assessment and application of the design scale of green stormwater infrastructure in areas during the planning and design stage, providing theoretical and technical support for ecological and green urban stormwater management. The application of this research method helps promote green development and ecological priority in urban sustainable development strategies, and the conclusions provide valuable references for decision-makers and practitioners in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fashion industry has a critical need for fashion compatibility. Modeling compatibility is a challenging task that involves extracting (in)compatible features of pairs, obtaining compatible relationships between matching items, and applying them to personalized recommendation tasks. Measuring compatibility is a complex and subjective concept in general. The complexity is reflected in the fact that relationships between fashion items are determined by multiple matching rules, such as color, shape, and material. Each personal aesthetic style and fashion preference differs, adding subjectivity to the compatibility concept. As a result, personalized factors must be considered. Previous works mainly utilize a convolutional neural network to measure compatibility by extracting general features, but they ignore fine-grained compatibility features and only model overall compatibility. We propose a novel neural network framework called the Attention-based Personalized Compatibility Embedding Network (PCE-Net). It comprises two components: attention-based compatibility embedding modeling and attention-based personal preference modeling. In the second part, we utilize matrix factorization and content-based features to obtain user preferences. Both pieces are jointly trained using the BPR framework in an end-to-end method. Extensive experiments on the IQON3000 dataset demonstrate that PCE-Net significantly outperforms most baseline methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]