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Purpose Methods Results Conclusions This study aims to assess the current status and spatial distribution differences of elderly care service resources supply and demand in China.Semi‐structured qualitative interviews were utilized to gather participants’ insights into the current demands for elderly care services, the status of resource allocation, and related indicators. The entropy weight method was employed to determine indicator weights, yielding objective demand and allocation indices for elderly care service resources. Kernel density estimation was used to illustrate the distribution characteristics of the demand and allocation indices. The coupling coordination degree model was applied to measure the coupling coordination level of China's elderly care service resource supply and demand system in 2020.The demand index ranks highest in Beijing (0.3291), Shanghai (0.2941), and Tianjin (0.2563), while the lowest are found in Tibet (0.1673), Guangxi (0.1727), and Guizhou (0.1737). Kernel density estimation shows that the demand index is concentrated in the range of 0.1800 to 0.2000. The top three regions for allocation index are Shanghai (184.0007), Qinghai (129.8177), and Beijing (109.5941), with the lowest in Liaoning (34.8558), Hainan (35.3168), and Yunnan (36.6366). Kernel density estimation indicates that the allocation index is concentrated in the range of 25–75. Calculations of coupling coordination degree show that Shanghai has high coordination quality (0.9368), Beijing has good coordination (0.8392), while Hainan and Yunnan experience severe imbalances (0.1990, 0.1831).There is a significant lack of coordination between the demand for elderly care services and the allocation of resources in Hainan and Yunnan provinces in China. Most provinces, with the exception of Beijing and Shanghai, exhibit some degree of misalignment. The Chinese government should address the varying needs of the elderly population in different regions, pay timely attention to regional disparities, enhance regional cooperation, and dynamically allocate elderly care resources in a rational manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the fractional order calculus theory and Weibull distribution, the fractional order nonlinear creep constitutive equation of green mudstone in the weak interlayer of slope under the combined action of initial damage and creep damage is established. In order to investigate the effect of damage degree on creep mechanical parameters and creep parameters, as well as the superiority of the improved creep model, creep tests were conducted on green mudstone samples with different initial damage degrees. The fractional order nonlinear creep damage coupling model outperforms the other two theoretical models in accurately describing the three stages of creep. The stress and damage variables in the constitutive equation will change the initial strain value of the creep curve. The fractional derivative and damage factor affect the shape of the creep curve, that is, change the time when the rock enters the third stage of creep. Therefore, to accurately predict the entire creep process of green mudstone, it is necessary to add fractional derivatives and damage factors to the creep model. This study is of great significance for analyzing the initial failure of slope creep under long-term gravity action and also provides a basis for predicting slope stability under coupled failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the integral field spectroscopic data from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey, we study the kinematics and stellar population properties of the two counter-rotating stellar discs in a nearby galaxy SDSS J074834.64+444117.8. We disentangle the two stellar discs by three methods, including Ca  ii  λ8542 double Gaussian fit, penalized pixel fitting (pPXF) spectral decomposition, and orbit-based dynamical model. These three different methods give consistent stellar kinematics. The pPXF spectral decomposition provides the spectra of two stellar discs, with one being more luminous across the whole galaxy named primary disc, and the other named secondary disc. The primary disc is counter-rotating with ionized gas, while the secondary disc is co-rotating with ionized gas. The secondary disc has younger stellar population and poorer stellar metallicity than the primary disc. We estimate the stellar mass ratio between the primary and secondary discs to be ∼5.2. The DESI g, r, z colour image does not show any merger remnant feature in this galaxy. These findings support a scenario that the counter-rotating stellar discs in SDSS J074834.64+444117.8 formed through gas accretion from the cosmic web or a gas-rich companion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed that gravity can be considered as a quantum coherent mediator. In this study, we propose a plan to test the existence of extra dimensions using the quantum gravity induced entanglement of masses (QGEM) experiment. This experiment involves two freely falling test masses passing through a Stern–Gerlach-like device. We investigate the entanglement witness between these masses within the framework of the Randall–Sundrum II model (RS-II). Our findings indicate that the system reaches entanglement more rapidly in the presence of extra dimensions, particularly when the radius of the extra dimension is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In this study, the long‐term trajectories of depressive symptoms in a 7‐year prospective survey cohort of Chinese older adults were explored. Additionally, the study examined whether there was an independent association between scores on the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and the different trajectories of depressive symptoms. Methods: A total of 2177 elderly individuals had their depressive symptoms assessed based on the Center for Epidemiological Studies‐Depression (CES‐D) scale in the years 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018. In addition, their demographic characteristics, chronic diseases, and lifestyle factors were also assessed. The trajectories of depressive symptoms were analysed using the group‐based trajectories analysis model. Furthermore, the relationship between the objectively measured SPPB scores and the long‐term trajectory of depressive symptoms was explored using multinomial logistic regression. Results: The group‐based trajectory analysis model categorized the trajectories of depressive symptoms across four waves into four groups: persistent low depressive symptoms, increasing depressive symptoms, decreased depressive symptoms, and persistent high depressive symptoms. After controlling for confounding factors, it was observed that a higher baseline SPPB score was associated with an increased likelihood of persistent high depressive symptoms, OR (95% CI) = 0.724 (0.644, 0.814), for the persistent high depressive symptoms versus the persistent low depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Low levels of SPPB score are associated with persistent high depressive symptoms in older adults. Conversely, improving physical performance as measured by the SPPB can help reduce the risk of major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder in the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The model of superposition queries in symmetric cryptanalysis has yielded remarkable results, such as Simon's period-finding algorithm, which can break many constructions in polynomial time. However, due to limitations of current physical devices, quantum circuits with long depths are often noisy and difficult to realize in practice. The novel computing architecture of distributed quantum computing is expected to reduce the noise and depth of quantum circuits. In this paper, we propose an offline algorithm model that combines distributed Simon's and Grover's algorithms. This model enables us to perform key recovery attacks on different rounds Feistel structures, Even Mansour construction, and the FX construction, while minimizing the quantum query complexity. Despite being limited to classical queries and offline quantum computations, we leverage the algebraic structure of cryptosystems to achieve successful key recovery attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy is an adaptation mechanism to keep cellular homeostasis, and its deregulation is implicated in various cardiovascular diseases. After vein grafting, hemodynamic factors play crucial roles in neointimal hyperplasia, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impacts of arterial cyclic stretch on autophagy of venous smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and its role in neointima formation after vein grafting. Rat jugular vein graft were generated via the 'cuff' technique. Autophagic flux in venous SMCs is impaired in 3-day, 1-week and 2-week grafted veins. 10%-1.25 Hz cyclic stretch (arterial stretch) loaded with FX5000 stretch system on venous SMCs blocks cellular autophagic flux in vitro and shows no significant impact on activity of mTORC1 and AMPK. Microtubule depolymerization but not lysosome dysfunction nor autophagosome/amphisome-lysosomal membrane fusion blockade is involved in the impairment of autophagic flux. Microtubule stabilization, induced by paclitaxel treatment and external stents intervention respectively, restores venous SMC autophagy and ameliorates neointimal hyperplasia in vivo. Moreover, autophagy impairment causes accumulation of the cargo receptor p62, which sequesters keap1 to p62 aggregates and results in the stabilization and nuclear translocation of nrf2 to modulate its target antioxidative gene SLC7A11. p62 silencing abrogates the increases of nrf2 and slc7a11 protein expression, glutathione level and venous SMC proliferation triggered by arterial cyclic stretch in vitro , and further hinders nrf2 nuclear translocation, reduces neointimal thickness after vein grafting in vivo. p62 (T349A) mutation also inhibited venous SMC proliferation and alleviated neointimal formation in vivo. These findings suggest that stabilization of microtubules to rescue autophagic flux or direct silencing of p62 are potential therapeutic strategies for neointimal hyperplasia. Under static conditions, autophagosomes fuse with late endosomes (forming amphisomes) to recruit dynein motor complexes for retrograde transport. After moving to the perinuclear area, amphisomes fuse with lysosomes (forming autolysosomes) and recycle their contents. In grafted veins, arterial cyclic stretch triggers microtubule depolymerization, which hinders autophagosome/amphisome-lysosome fusion and causes p62 accumulation. p62 binds and sequesters keap1 to p62 aggregates, resulting in the stabilization and nuclear translocation of nrf2 and the expression of its target gene SLC7A11 , which increases intracellular glutathione level to protect venous SMCs against oxidative stress, promotes their proliferation and further accelerates neointimal hyperplasia. [Display omitted] • Autophagic flux in venous smooth muscle cells (SMCs) is impaired after vein graft. • Arterial cyclic stretch blocks autophagosome transport and autophagic flux via microtubule depolymerization. • p62 accumulation triggered by autophagy impairment activates nrf2/slc7a11 antioxidative signaling pathway in venous SMC. • p62 silencing suppresses neointimal hyperplasia in grafted vein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of research on the complex aetiology of many diseases, computational drug repositioning methodology has proven to be a shortcut to costly and inefficient traditional methods. Therefore, developing more promising computational methods is indispensable for finding new candidate diseases to treat with existing drugs. In this paper, a model integrating a new variant of message passing neural network and a novel-gated fusion mechanism called GLGMPNN is proposed for drug–disease association prediction. First, a light-gated message passing neural network (LGMPNN), including message passing, aggregation and updating, is proposed to separately extract multiple pieces of information from the similarity networks and the association network. Then, a gated fusion mechanism consisting of a forget gate and an output gate is applied to integrate the multiple pieces of information to extent. The forget gate calculated by the multiple embeddings is built to integrate the association information into the similarity information. Furthermore, the final node representations are controlled by the output gate, which fuses the topology information of the networks and the initial similarity information. Finally, a bilinear decoder is adopted to reconstruct an adjacency matrix for drug–disease associations. Evaluated by 10-fold cross-validations, GLGMPNN achieves excellent performance compared with the current models. The following studies show that our model can effectively discover novel drug–disease associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 3D holographic technology (3DHT) has attracted more and more attention from the field of education, bringing new opportunities to reform the delivery of instruction and learning. Whether the application of 3D holographic technology can effectively improve student learning performance has become a pendent issue. In this study, a meta-analysis method was used to provide a scientific answer based on 15 experimental or quasi-experimental studies that investigated the effect of 3DHT on student achievement between 2016 and 2021. The result showed that 3DHT has a large positive effect on student learning (SMD = 0.835, 95% CI [0.516, 1.153], p = 0.000). Moreover, the sample size, the treatment duration, the learning stage, the subject, the study design, and the type of 3DHT moderated the effectiveness of 3DHT on student learning insignificantly, while the sample region had a moderating effect. Even so, controlling the class size to less than 50 students, controlling the treatment duration to less than 3 months, and using naked eye holography are more conducive to promoting students’ learning performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A test particle possessing spin angular momentum moves along a non-geodesic path due to an additional spin-curvature force. We study the spinning test particle moving in the vicinity of the electrically charged black hole formation in Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld (EiBI) gravity. Through the numerical analysis of its effective potential and orbits, it is found that the orbital eccentricity reduces as the deviation parameter κ increases. By comparing the orbits for the observed stars around Sagittarius A*, we conclude that the observed orbits with too large radii can not give a stringent constraint with acceptable magnitude. To dig out the potential observation effects of the relations between the orbits and parameter κ , we mainly focus on the orbits in the vicinity of black hole in this paper. The parameters of inner most stable circular orbit (ISCO) decrease monotonously with κ when the spin angular momentum is small, however they change non-monotonously with κ when the spin is large enough. Moreover, the spin dependences of ISCO parameters have similar behavior to that of Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole. We analyze the causality of the circular orbits by using the superluminal constraint condition as well. As a result, two new parameter regions may emerge in case of large κ , where the particle has two stable circular orbits with one subluminal and the other superluminal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence regarding the associations between muscle strength in different parts of the body and depression is lacking. This study examined whether poor muscle strength is associated with a higher incidence of depression in a large cohort of middle-aged and older adults.Methods: In total, 5,228 middle-aged and older adults from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study without depression at baseline were followed for 7 years. Their demographic characteristics, chronic diseases and lifestyle behaviors were assessed. After adjusting for relevant variables, a Cox regression was used to determine the relationship between muscle strength and incident depression.Results: Over 32,544 person-years of follow-up, 1,490 participants developed depression. Low muscle strength at baseline was associated with a higher 7-year incident of depression, even after excluding those who developed depression within 2 years. After adjusting for confounding factors, it was found that a higher baseline relative handgrip strength was a protective factor against depression (HR [95% CI]=0.575 [0.430-0.768] for the lowest quartile vs. the highest quartile; p<0.001). Longer times on the 5TSTS test were a risk factor for depression (HR [95% CI]=1.321 [1.077-1.621] for the lowest quartile vs. the highest quartile; p = 0.007). When the strengths of the upper and lower limbs were considered together, the hazard ratio for depression in people with relatively greater muscle strength was 0.463 (95% CI=0.307-0.699; p<0.001).Conclusions: Muscle strength could be predictive of depression, and the combined measurement of upper and lower limb muscle strength can improve the predictive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore candidate prognostic and predictive biomarkers identified in retrospective observational studies (interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, ferritin, lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, d-dimer, and platelets) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia after treatment with tocilizumab, an anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody, using data from the COVACTA trial in patients hospitalized with severe coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia.Design: Exploratory analysis from a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.Setting: Hospitals in North America and Europe.Patients: Adults hospitalized with severe coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia receiving standard care.Intervention: Randomly assigned 2:1 to IV tocilizumab 8 mg/kg or placebo.Measurements and Main Results: Candidate biomarkers were measured in 295 patients in the tocilizumab arm and 142 patients in the placebo arm. Efficacy outcomes assessed were clinical status on a seven-category ordinal scale (1, discharge; 7, death), mortality, time to hospital discharge, and mechanical ventilation (if not receiving it at randomization) through day 28. Prognostic and predictive biomarkers were evaluated continuously with proportional odds, binomial or Fine-Gray models, and additional sensitivity analyses. Modeling in the placebo arm showed all candidate biomarkers except lactate dehydrogenase and d-dimer were strongly prognostic for day 28 clinical outcomes of mortality, mechanical ventilation, clinical status, and time to hospital discharge. Modeling in the tocilizumab arm showed a predictive value of ferritin for day 28 clinical outcomes of mortality (predictive interaction, p = 0.03), mechanical ventilation (predictive interaction, p = 0.01), and clinical status (predictive interaction, p = 0.02) compared with placebo.Conclusions: Multiple biomarkers prognostic for clinical outcomes were confirmed in COVACTA. Ferritin was identified as a predictive biomarker for the effects of tocilizumab in the COVACTA patient population; high ferritin levels were associated with better clinical outcomes for tocilizumab compared with placebo at day 28. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High baseline pulmonary function is independently associated with a lower incidence of depression in middle-aged and older Chinese, partly mediated by cognitive abilities. • Pulmonary function and sleep time have synergy with the effects of depression. • It is necessary to take measures to prevent and control the risk of depression in potentially susceptible individuals with poor pulmonary function, poor cognitive ability, and abnormal sleep schedules. Depression is a common mental disorder in middle-aged and elderly people, which seriously affects their physical health and life quality.So far, whether pulmonary function is a factor in depression has not been tested.The purpose of this study was to test whether pulmonary function was independently associated with depression and to assess the effects of cognitive ability and sleep time on this association. In this analysis, 5,235 participants from the Chinese Longitudinal Study of Health and Retirement were included. Participants were registered in 2015 and followed up in 2018. The relationship between pulmonary function and depression was estimated by binary logistic regression model. The mediated role of cognitive ability was examined by intermediary analysis, and the interaction between pulmonary function and sleep time on depression was discussed. After adjusting for confounding factors, it was found that higher baseline pulmonary function was the protective factor of depression (OR [95%CI]=0.524 [0.394–0.697] for the lowest quantile vs the highest quantile). Cognitive ability explained 14.55% of the association between pulmonary function and depression, pulmonary function and sleep time on the effects of depression have a combined interaction, RERI (95%CI) = 0.545 (0.053–1.038). High baseline pulmonary function is independently associated with a lower risk of depression, which is partly mediated by cognitive ability. Pulmonary function and sleep time have synergy with the effects of depression. These findings show that pulmonary function, cognitive ability and sleep time are reliable predictors of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder in middle-aged and elderly people, which seriously affects their physical health and life quality.So far, whether pulmonary function is a factor in depression has not been tested.The purpose of this study was to test whether pulmonary function was independently associated with depression and to assess the effects of cognitive ability and sleep time on this association.Methods: In this analysis, 5,235 participants from the Chinese Longitudinal Study of Health and Retirement were included. Participants were registered in 2015 and followed up in 2018. The relationship between pulmonary function and depression was estimated by binary logistic regression model. The mediated role of cognitive ability was examined by intermediary analysis, and the interaction between pulmonary function and sleep time on depression was discussed.Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, it was found that higher baseline pulmonary function was the protective factor of depression (OR [95%CI]=0.524 [0.394-0.697] for the lowest quantile vs the highest quantile). Cognitive ability explained 14.55% of the association between pulmonary function and depression, pulmonary function and sleep time on the effects of depression have a combined interaction, RERI (95%CI) = 0.545 (0.053-1.038).Conclusions: High baseline pulmonary function is independently associated with a lower risk of depression, which is partly mediated by cognitive ability. Pulmonary function and sleep time have synergy with the effects of depression. These findings show that pulmonary function, cognitive ability and sleep time are reliable predictors of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By taking advantage of the braneworld sum rules, we explore the feasibility of constructing a flat 3-brane scenario consisting solely of positive tension branes in a 5D extension of the Lorentz-violating massive gravity. It is found that the theory supports three distinct brane configurations, one of which is exactly what we expected, consisting solely of two positive tension branes. The cosmological problem of Randall-Sundrum-1 model and the gauge hierarchy problem can be solved in this model simultaneously. Furthermore, the analysis of linear perturbations reveals that the tensor, vector and scalar modes are all massive and share the same mass spectrum, except that the ground state of vector mode is absent. Moreover, the tensor and vector modes are robust, but the scalar mode is ghost-like. Interestingly, even though the Kaluza-Klein gravitons have an extremely small mass splitting scale, an estimation of the effective gravitational potential and production of these gravitons on the brane indicates that the phenomenology of the present model is equivalent to that of the 6D ADD model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of quantum computers has urged the cryptographic community to prepare cryptographic primitives for the eventual arrival of the post-quantum world. At Asiacrypt 2017, Leander and May combined Grover's and Simon's quantum algorithms to break the FX-based block ciphers. Technically this result is based on the combination of the quantum algorithms of Grover's and Simon's for the first time in the cryptographic setting. In this study, we using Bernstein–Vazirani's and Grover's algorithms to generate a new quantum key-recovery attacks on different rounds of Feistel constructions. An advantage of our attack is the keys can be divided into multiple blocks to enter the S-box and realize the process of recovery; this method greatly reduces the complexity of key recovery. Hence, it has strong practicability for key recovery (e.g., DES, Camellia, etc.). In order to show that, a detailed process has been provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensory perception is often impaired by self‐generated movements. This effect of sensory suppression has been commonly observed in voluntary hand‐movement‐induced tactile sensation during the period of motor preparation and execution. However, it remains unclear whether such suppression also occurs in the visual domain and if it can be induced by the preparation of other body movements. To extend our knowledge about sensory suppression, the present study investigated visual sensitivity during the preparation of head rotation. Participants wore virtual reality goggles and rotated their heads horizontally according to a visual cue presented on the goggles screens. Before the start of head rotation, a target of Landolt C was displayed at a peripheral location that was directed by the head‐rotation cue or a symmetric location in the opposite visual field. After each head rotation, participants reported the target's orientation, allowing the measurement of the discrimination threshold. Besides, the discrimination sensitivity was also measured in two head‐still conditions with or without the presentation of a visual cue. The results showed that the discrimination performance was largely impaired by the preparation of head rotation. This effect of sensory attenuation increased with the approach of head‐motion onset. However, the attenuation was not found on the discrimination of auditory stimuli during the preparation of head rotation, thus excluding the account of general dual‐task requirement. In contrast to the previous findings of improved perception by preparation of saccade or reach, our findings indicate that sensory suppression rather than attention shift plays a major role during the preparation of head movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the integral field unit (IFU) data from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we collect a sample of 36 star-forming galaxies that host galactic-scale outflows in ionized gas phase. The control sample is matched in the three-dimensional parameter space of stellar mass, star formation rate, and inclination angle. Concerning the global properties, the outflows host galaxies tend to have smaller size, more asymmetric gas disc, more active star formation in the centre, and older stellar population than the control galaxies. Comparing the stellar population properties along axes, we conclude that the star formation in the outflows host galaxies can be divided into two branches. One branch evolves following the inside-out formation scenario. The other located in the galactic centre is triggered by gas accretion or galaxy interaction, and further drives the galactic-scale outflows. Besides, the enhanced star formation and metallicity along minor axis of outflows host galaxies uncover the positive feedback and metal entrainment in the galactic-scale outflows. Observational data in different phases with higher spatial resolution are needed to reveal the influence of galactic-scale outflows on the star formation progress in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the nonlocal advantage of quantum coherence (NAQC) and entanglement for two spins coupled via the Heisenberg interaction and under the intrinsic decoherence. Solutions of this decoherence model for the initial spin-1/2 and spin-1 maximally entangled states are obtained, based on which we calculate the NAQC and entanglement. In the weak region of magnetic field, the NAQC behaves as a damped oscillation with the time evolves, while the entanglement decays exponentially (behaves as a damped oscillation) for the spin-1/2 (spin-1) case. Moreover, the decay of both the NAQC and entanglement can be suppressed significantly by tuning the magnetic field and anisotropy of the spin interaction to some decoherence-rate-determined optimal values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the integral field unit (IFU) data from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we collect a sample of 36 star-forming galaxies that host galactic-scale outflows in ionized gas phase. The control sample is matched in the three-dimensional parameter space of stellar mass, star formation rate, and inclination angle. Concerning the global properties, the outflows host galaxies tend to have smaller size, more asymmetric gas disc, more active star formation in the centre, and older stellar population than the control galaxies. Comparing the stellar population properties along axes, we conclude that the star formation in the outflows host galaxies can be divided into two branches. One branch evolves following the inside-out formation scenario. The other located in the galactic centre is triggered by gas accretion or galaxy interaction, and further drives the galactic-scale outflows. Besides, the enhanced star formation and metallicity along minor axis of outflows host galaxies uncover the positive feedback and metal entrainment in the galactic-scale outflows. Observational data in different phases with higher spatial resolution are needed to reveal the influence of galactic-scale outflows on the star formation progress in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a large number of non-penetrating collinear cracks in the rock slope of an open-pit mine. The timeliness of cracks in the rock mass is a problem that cannot be ignored in terms of slope engineering safety. Based on the superposition principle and fracture mechanics, the stress intensity factor of the rock mass crack tip with collinear fractures under biaxial compression was calculated in this study. A mechanical model of rock mass crack propagation with collinear fractures under constant load was established according to the Charles equation. The effects of loading time, crack penetration rate, and crack dip angle on crack propagation along the direction of the rock bridge were analyzed theoretically. The variations in crack propagation with time in the rock mass were examined using a LS-DYNA creep numerical model. The results show that the fracture growth rate changes in three stages over time, progressing through a stable stage, a decreasing stage, and an abrupt stage. A higher crack penetration rate and a larger crack inclination angle cause a higher rock bridge penetration rate in the rock mass. When the crack penetration rate exceeds 74% or the fracture inclination angle is about 60°, the crack expansion directly enters the abrupt stage, and the rock bridge is penetrated. The theoretical analysis results are in close agreement with the numerical results of this work, which validates the proposed age expansion mechanical model for rock masses with non-penetrating collinear fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important topic of quantum cryptography, quantum voting has attracted more and more attention in recent years. In this paper, we propose a quantum voting scheme based on a new set of orthogonal product states. Since different particles in the same orthogonal product state are transmitted separately, the security of the vote message in the scheme can be protected. The availability and security analysis show that the scheme satisfies the basic properties of voting can resist known quantum attacks. Furthermore, our scheme solves the problem of difficult preparation of entangled states in actual situations and improves the practicability of voting scheme. We hoped that our research will provide new ideas for the further study of quantum voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug repositioning is a rapidly growing strategy in drug discovery, as the time and cost needed are considerably less compared to developing new drugs. In addition to traditional wet experiments, designing effective computational methods to discover potential drug–disease associations is an attractive shortcut in drug repositioning. Most current methods based on graph neural networks ignore the heterophily of the constructed drug–disease network, resulting in inefficient predictions. In this paper, a novel structure-enhanced line graph convolutional network (SLGCN) is proposed to learn comprehensive representations of drug–disease pairs, incorporating structural information to conduct heterophily. First, line graphs centered around drug–disease pairs are extracted. This process turns the association prediction task into a node classification problem, which better displays the learning ability of SLGCN. Then, in message aggregation, a relation matrix is proposed to mark the structural importance of neighboring nodes. In this way, messages from nodes with lower structural importance can be assigned small weights. Unlike vanilla GCN, which adds self-loops to average ego representations and aggregated messages, an update gate is proposed to integrate biology information contained in ego representations with topology information contained in aggregated messages. Extensive experiments show that SLGCN achieves better performance than other advanced methods among the two datasets. • A novel structure-enhanced line graph convolutional network (SLGCN) is proposed. • A relation matrix is designed to identify more important neighboring messages. • An update gate is proposed to combine ego representations and aggregated messages. • Case studies show the capacity of SLGCN in finding new drug–disease associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the contact time between droplets and solid surfaces is important in anti-icing surface design. The present work investigates the impact dynamics of nanodroplets on hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces decorated by point textures via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, aiming to significantly reduce the contact by the point textures. Based on distinguishing outcome regimes into a phase diagram, the point texture is found to not affect the outcome regimes of sticky, bouncing, and splash, whereas the internal rupture regime is significantly enhanced so that the new outcome in this regime, ring-bouncing, which is reported for the first time at the nanoscale, is also significantly reinforced. Impacting nanodroplets with ring-bouncing behaviors have remarkably reduced the contact time due to the saved retraction time via creating a retraction of both inner and outer contact lines. Subsequently, an energy conservation equation from the initial to the bouncing states is established for identifying the boundary of this outcome regime, which shows good agreement with the outcome phase diagram. Finally, impacting nanodroplets with three diameters of 8, 10, and 14 nm are implemented for understanding how the ratio of the droplet size to the texture point affects the reduction of the contact time. The MD results show the cases of 8-nm nanodroplets displaying the best performance of reducing the contact time by 52%, which is superior to current studies in reducing the contact time at the nanoscale. This can be explained by the lower ratio of droplet diameter to texture size leading to a further shorter distance of retraction after the internal rupture and hence a shorter contact time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum key agreement(QKA) is an important part of quantum cryptography. In QKA, the final shared key must be negotiated equally by all participants, and any nontrivial subset of participants cannot fully determine the shared key. In this scheme, a novel three-party QKA with quantum fourier transform(QFT) is proposed. In addition, we utilize random numbers, decoy states and a hash function to make this protocol be resistant external attacks and participant attacks. Furthermore, the scheme can meet fairness i.e. each participant contributes fairly and equally to the final key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important topic of quantum cryptography, quantum voting has attracted more and more attentions recently. However, with our analysis, it can be seen that there exist some serious problems in a particular quantum voting model. Firstly, the voter does not have the ability to vote as his own. Secondly, the voter may be dishonest and can deny some corresponding voting results. Furthermore, some improvements will be presented to solve the loopholes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr) and trace elements (Cu, Se, Ni, Zn, Mn) in rice bran and corresponding polished rice is not well known. A total of 446 rice grains were collected from paddy fields distributed across China, and the concentrations of 8 elements in rice bran and their corresponding polished rice were measured. The levels of As, Cd, Cr, and Se have a good linear relationship between rice bran and polished rice (R2:.79,.97,.82,.99, respectively; all p <.001). Polishing rice could effectively remove the average contents of 44.4% As, 19.8% Cd, and 15.4% Cr in the whole grain, but caused the substantial losses of more than half of Mn and Ni (57.7% and 56.9%), and nearly one‐third (30.9%, 31.5%, and 29.1%) of Cu, Se, and Zn in brown rice although only about 10% of rice bran was milled. The "L" type correlation exists not only between As and Cd, but also between the nutrients Se, Mn, Ni, and the toxic elements As, Cd. These results indicated that As accumulation in rice could reduce the levels of essential mineral nutrients Mn, Ni, and Se. On the contrary, improving nutrient elements by fertilization could decrease the accumulation of some toxic elements. This provides a practical new idea for the prevention and control of rice As or Cd, and concomitantly improves the deficiency of nutrient elements in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important topic of quantum cryptography, quantum proxy blind signature has attracted more and more attentions in recent years. However, with our analysis, it can be seen that there exists a common security loophole in two particular quantum proxy blind signature schemes, i.e., the receiver can forge a valid signature without being caught by others. In order to show that, the detailed attack strategy and the potential improved ideas are proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the validity, accuracy, and clinical outcomes of Karyomapping in preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) for β-thalassemia combined with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching. Methods: A total of 128 cycles from January 2014 to December 2017 were identified, and 1205 embryos were biopsied. The case group included 88 cycles using Karyomapping for PGT-HLA, compared with 40 cycles using polymerase chain reaction-short tandem repeat (PCR-STR) as the control group. Results: There were significant differences in the HLA matching rate (21.34 vs. 14.37%), the matched transferable embryo rate (9.79 vs. 14.07%), the clinical pregnancy rate (65.08 vs. 41.86%), and the spontaneous miscarriage rate (2.44 vs. 22.22%) between the case and control groups. In the case group, nearly 1/3 (33.37%) of the embryos showed aneuploidy. According to the results of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) haplotype analysis, the recombination rates of HBB (hemoglobin subunit beta) and HLA were 11.46% and 5.61% respectively. HLA gene recombination was mostly distributed between HLA-A and HLA-B and the downstream region of HLA-DQB1. In addition, STR analysis could be considered in the case of copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the region where the HLA gene is located. Conclusion: Karyomapping contributes to accurate selection of matched embryos, along with aneuploidy screening. However, STRs assist identification in cases of LOH in the target region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented reality (AR) has developed rapidly since its conception less than 30 years ago and is now a hot topic for both consumers and scientists. Although much attention has been paid to its application in industry, medicine, education, and entertainment, the use of AR in psychological research has been less noted. In this article, we survey recent progress in basic research that uses AR to explore the plasticity of the adult visual system. We focus on a particular application of AR called altered reality, which has been used to shed new light on mechanisms of long-term contrast adaptation and ocular-dominance plasticity. The results suggest that AR could also be a useful tool for the treatment of visual disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, properties of black hole (BH) mass are well checked for the interesting object SDSS J0159, a changing-look active galactic nuclei and also a host galaxy of a tidal disruption event (TDE). Through spectral absorption features, the stellar velocity dispersion of SDSS J0159 can be well measured as |$\sigma \sim 81~{\rm km\, s}^{-1}$|⁠ , leading to SDSS J0159 being an apparent outlier in the M BH–σ space, because of the BH mass estimated through the M BH–σ relation about two magnitudes lower than the reported virial BH mass of about 108 M⊙. After considerations of contributions of stellar debris from the central TDE to broad line emission clouds, the overestimated virial BH mass could be well explained in SDSS J0159. Therefore, overestimated virial BH masses through broad-line properties in the M BH–σ space could be treated as interesting clues to support central TDEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on endo -inulinases from yeast are scarce, compared to those from other microbial sources. In this study, a novel endo -inulinase from Lipomyces starkeyi NRRL Y-11557 was identified, expressed in its soluble form, and characterized its physicochemically properties, together with its enzymatic activity and production of fructooligosaccharides (FOSs). A putative endo -inulinase gene inu3 was identified through rational genome mining. Through enzymatic activity and SDS-PAGE analysis, the endo -inulinase putative function of the protein encoded by inu3B gene (INU3B) was confirmed, and its soluble expression was achieved with pET22b (+) in Escherichia coli. INU3B showed effective catalytic activity and high thermostability. To our knowledge, the specific activity of INU3B against inulin reported in this study, 2262.8 ± 82.3 U·mg−1, at 70 °C and pH 5.0–6.0, is the highest reported to date. When the enzyme catalyzed FOSs production, the main products were DP3, DP4 and DP5. Overall, this report describes a novel yeast-derived endo -inulinase with optimal enzymatic properties, and thus, the reported enzyme has great potential for industrial production of FOSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although cigarette smoking is considered one of the key risk factors for lung cancer, 15% of male patients and 53% of female patients with lung cancer are non‐smokers. Metabolic changes are critical features of cancer. Therapeutic target identification from a metabolic perspective in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue of female non‐smokers has long been ignored. Results: Based on microarray data retrieved from Affymetrix expression arrays E‐GEOD‐19804, we found that the downregulated genes in non‐smoking female NSCLC patients tended to participate in protein/amino acid and lipid metabolism, while upregulated genes were more involved in protein/amino acid and carbohydrate metabolism. Combining nutrient metabolic co‐expression, protein–protein interaction network construction and overall survival assessment, we identified NR4A1 and TIE1 as potential therapeutic targets for NSCLC in female non‐smokers. To accelerate the drug development for non‐smoking female NSCLC patients, we identified nilotinib as a potential agonist targeting NR4A1 encoded protein by molecular docking and molecular dynamic stimulation. We also show that nilotinib inhibited proliferation and induced senescence of cells in non‐smoking female NSCLC patients in vitro. Conclusions: These results not only uncover nutrient metabolic characteristics in non‐smoking female NSCLC patients, but also provide a new paradigm for identifying new targets and drugs for novel therapy for such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we move in space, our retinae receive motion signals from two causes: those resulting from motion in the world and those resulting from self-motion. Mounting evidence has shown that vestibular self-motion signals interact with visual motion processing profoundly. However, most contemporary methods arguably lack portability and generality and are incapable of providing measurements during locomotion. Here we developed a virtual reality approach, combining a three-space sensor with a head-mounted display, to quantitatively manipulate the causality between retinal motion and head rotations in the yaw plane. Using this system, we explored how self-motion affected visual motion perception, particularly the motion aftereffect (MAE). Subjects watched gratings presented on a head-mounted display. The gratings drifted at the same velocity as head rotations, with the drifting direction being identical, opposite, or perpendicular to the direction of head rotations. We found that MAE lasted a significantly shorter time when subjects' heads rotated than when their heads were kept still. This effect was present regardless of the drifting direction of the gratings, and was also observed during passive head rotations. These findings suggest that the adaptation to retinal motion is suppressed by head rotations. Because the suppression was also found during passive head movements, it should result from visual–vestibular interaction rather than from efference copy signals. Such visual–vestibular interaction is more flexible than has previously been thought, since the suppression could be observed even when the retinal motion direction was perpendicular to head rotations. Our work suggests that a virtual reality approach can be applied to various studies of multisensory integration and interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance has become increasingly important during the peri-operative period of esophagectomy with cervical anastomosis (McKeown esophagectomy). This study sought to clarify the risk factors for SSI and to develop a stratification scoring system to predict SSI after esophagectomy with cervical anastomosis.Patients and Methods: All patients who underwent elective esophagectomy with cervical anastomosis were studied between January 2010 and December 2016 in the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Cancer Hospital (CAMS). Univariable analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used to screen the independent risk factors. A risk stratification scoring system was developed based on multivariable logistic regression parameters. The model derivation set involved 711 consecutive cases, and the validation set involved 168 consecutive cases.Results: In the model derivation set, there were 711 patients, of whom 146 were found to have SSI and the incidence rate was 20.53%. Multivariable analysis found that SSI was associated independently with the following adverse risk factors: peripheral vascular disease, prior chest surgery, no pre-operative surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) administration within 120 minutes prior to incision, low serum albumin, and low pre-albumin at post-operative day zero to three, respectively. Each of these factors contributed one point to the risk score and a risk stratification scoring system was established. The SSI rates were increased gradually in the low, intermediate, high, and extremely high-risk groups (p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was 0.706 for the logistic regression model and 0.704 for the scoring system. In the validation set, the model performed equivalently (AUC = 0.824).Conclusions: The validated stratification scoring system could predict accurately the risk of SSI after esophagectomy with cervical anastomosis. This could be helpful in the selection of high-risk patients requiring frequent monitoring and more aggressive interventions to decrease the incidence of SSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Conventional 2D cell culture techniques have provided fundamental insights into key biochemical and biophysical mechanisms responsible for various cellular behaviors, such as cell adhesion, spreading, division, proliferation, and differentiation. However, 2D culture in vitro does not fully capture the physical and chemical properties of the native microenvironment. There is a growing body of research that suggests that cells cultured on 2D substrates differ greatly from those grown in vivo. This article focuses on recent progress in using bioinspired 3D matrices that recapitulate as many aspects of the natural extracellular matrix as possible. A range of techniques for the engineering of 3D microenvironment with precisely controlled biophysical and chemical properties, and the impact of these environments on cellular behavior, is reviewed. Finally, an outlook on future challenges for engineering the 3D microenvironment and how such approaches would further our understanding of the influence of the microenvironment on cell function is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Summarized the destabilization damage patterns of slopes containing weak interlayer. • Image -based measurement techniques (DIC and PIV) are used to analyze the deformation instability and velocity vector fields of slopes. • Reveals the role of locking and creep-slip sections in the stability analysis of slopes with weak interlayer. The bedding rock slope is widely distributed, and its stability is mainly controlled by the weak interlayer. In our study, the weak interlayer was divided into two parts: the locked segment and the creep-slip segment. Besides, base friction tests were conducted on slopes with different weak interlayers to reveal the instability deformation mechanism of slopes containing weak interlayers. A comparative analysis of the damage pattern and displacement field evolution of slopes containing weak interlayers at different periods was performed using a noncontact scattering technique and measured point tracking. Following the blocking effect of the locking segment, the slope instability deformation was classified into five stages: decay creep, stable creep, accelerated creep, shoulder overturning, and failure. The slope with locking segments forms a steep hill at the top of the slope, and the slope exhibits a stepped failure near the surface as the length of the locking segment increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. In this study, we aim to elucidate the role of miR-1269 in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Methods and results: From the results of analyses using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, we noted the expression of miR-1269 was increased in lung cancer tissue. miR-1269 expression was detected in both the normal adjacent lung tissue and in the tumorous lung tissue of lung cancer patients, and miR-1269 was more highly expressed in the tumors. High expression of miR-1269 correlated with patients' tumor stage and lymph node metastasis. A Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) analysis and a cloning formation assay showed that overexpression of miR-1269 significantly promoted the growth of A549 cells, and that a lower expression of miR-1269 significantly increased cell apoptosis. We used the TargetScan 6.2 Database to predict the potential targets of miR-1269, and a luciferase activity assay was used to determine the direct interaction between miR-1269, tumor protein p53 (TP53), and caspase-9. Results from Western blots and real-time PCR showed that overexpression of miR-1269 significantly inhibited TP53 and caspase-9 expression. In addition, caspase-3 activity was found to decrease in a miR-1269 mimic group. The results showed that gene silencing of TP53 and caspase-9 significantly inhibited A549 cell growth and promoted cell apoptosis. The results also showed that the inhibition of miR-1269 and caspase-9 expression inhibited cell apoptosis. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) results demonstrated that TP53 and caspase-9 were expressed in low levels in tumor tissues, and that an inverse correlation exists between miR-1269 expression levels and TP53 or caspase-9 expression levels. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that miR-1269 promotes cell survival and proliferation by targeting TP53 and caspase-9 in lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new amino acid derivatives, oxalamido-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (1), oxalamido-L-leucine methyl ester (2), and lumichrome hydrolyzate (3), together with nine known compounds (4–12), were isolated from the solid culture of edible mushroomPleurotus ostreatus. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations of1and2were established by the chiral synthesis and confirmed by circular dichroism (CD) analysis of their total synthesis products and natural isolates. All new compounds were evaluated for their antioxidant effects, antimicrobial activities, and cytotoxic activity. Compounds1–3showed weak antifungal activities againstCandida albicanswith minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 500 μg/ml. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recognized as regulators of gene expression during the biological processes of cells as well as biomarkers of many diseases. Development of rapid and sensitive miRNA profiling methods is crucial for evaluating the pattern of miRNA expression related to normal and diseased states. This work presents a novel hollow Au nanoflowers (HAuNFs) substrate for rapid detection and identification of miRNAs by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. We synthesized the HAuNFs by a seed-mediated growth approach. Then, HAuNFs substrates were fabricated by depositing HAuNFs onto the surfaces of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane- (APTES-) functionalized ITO glass. The result demonstrated that HAuNFs substrates had very good reproducibility, homogeneous SERS activity, and high SERS effect. The substrates enabled us to successfully obtain the SERS spectra of miR-10a-5p, miR-125a-5p, and miR-196a-5p. The difference spectra among the three kinds of miRNAs were studied to better interpret the spectral differences and identify miRNA expression patterns with high accuracy. The principal component analysis (PCA) of the SERS spectra was used to distinguish among the three kinds of miRNAs. Considering its time efficiency, being label-free, and its sensitivity, the SERS based on HAuNFs substrates is very promising for miRNA research and plays an important role in early disease detection and prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Randall–Sundrum-like braneworld scenario is constructed in a 5D extension of the Lorentz-violating massive gravity. The gauge hierarchy problem is solved in current model. The linear perturbations are calculated, and it is found that the tensor and vector perturbations are robust and free from the ghost and tachyonic instabilities, however, the scalar perturbation is a ghost filed. After Kaluza–Klein reduction, all the tensor, vector and scalar modes are massive and possess the mass splitting of order of TeV in their respective mass spectra. The massive ground states of tensor and scalar modes propagate only along the brane, however, the vector ground state is absent in the mass spectrum. By introducing the Goldberger-Wise mechanism to stabilize the extra dimension, the 4D effective theory on the brane includes a nearly massless graviton plus three towers of very massive spin-2, spin-1 and ghost spin-0 particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new bisindolylbenzenoid alkaloids asterriquinol E (1) and asterriquinol F (2), together with four known compounds (3–6) were isolated from the fermentation products of the fungusAspergillussp. CBS-P-2. Their structures were established on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including HR-ESI-MS, UV, IR, 1D, and 2D NMR (HSQC, HMBC, and NOESY) methods. The stereochemical structure of2was confirmed via the CD data of thein situformed [Rh2(OCOCF3)4] complex method. All of the isolated compounds were tested for inhibitory activity against LPS (lipopolysaccharide)-induced nitric oxide production in microglia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Dynamic behaviors of impacting nanodroplets with oblique angles. • Reduction of contact time is noted for high oblique angles. • Two sliding regimes are distinguished in early and later impact processes. • Construction of the outcome phase diagram for oblique impact dynamics. In this study, the impact dynamics of water nanodroplets are investigated via MD simulations, aiming to examine scale effects during nanodroplets oblique impact. The MD results show that the significant interface slide can be observed at the nanoscale. Owing to the weakening of the adhesion effect between liquids and surfaces, asymmetric behaviors of oblique impacting nanodroplets vanish in spreading processes and are only observed in the retraction stage in the high oblique angle range (α > 45°). Additionally, the influence of increasing oblique angles on two feature parameters (i.e. the contact time and the sliding length) are detailed discussed, by reducing the former and enhancing the latter. Finally, the phase diagram in the parameter space of We n vs α is plotted, including adhesion, regular bouncing, and breakup bouncing. The outcome diagram can give a comprehensive insight into the oblique impact dynamics and further provide guidance for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Split of nanodroplets using mixed-wettability surfaces. • Construction of the outcome phase diagram for splitting dynamics. • Identification of splitting regimes for splitting time. • Establishment of criterion for stable droplet splitting. The present work is to investigate nanodroplets impacting mixed-wettability surfaces, which are hydrophilic surfaces decorated by hydrophobic stripes, via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Based on various impact conditions (W / D 0 = 0.1 to 1.5, and We = 1.5 to 410), the different impacting regimes are identified, including the stable non-splitting, coexisting regime, stable splitting, and hybrid regime, where W is the width of hydrophobic stripes and D 0 is the diameter of droplets. There shows a significant scale effect for droplets splitting due to the intermolecular force, i.e. existing stable non-splitting regime. And, a new type of droplet splitting pattern is found, namely hole splitting, which would produce some daughter fragments during the impact-splitting process. The splitting time acting as an important parameter for evaluating the performance of splitting dynamics is discussed. Two splitting regimes are distinguished by the dependence/independence of splitting time to the impact We. Finally, a criterion for separating the stable splitting regime by the increasing W / D 0 is obtained using a simple energy model. This work paves the way to understanding how to manipulate droplet splitting at the nanoscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new phenalenone derivatives, named flaviphenalenones A–C ( 1 – 3 ), together with ten known compounds ( 4 – 13 ) were isolated from solid cultures of a wetland fungus Aspergillus flavipes PJ03-11. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, and the absolute configuration of compound 1 was established by computational electronic circular dichroism (ECD) method. Compounds 2 and 3 showed stronger inhibitory activities on α-glucosidase than acarbose, and compound 1 exhibited strong cytotoxic activities against A549 and MCF-7. In addition, the possible biosynthetic pathways of compounds 1 – 3 were also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five new polyketides including three new butenolides ( 1 – 3 ), one new diphenyl ether ( 4 ), and one new benzophenone ( 5 ), together with eleven known compounds ( 6 – 16 ) were isolated from a wetland fungus Aspergillus flavipes PJ03-11. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of detailed spectroscopic analysis. All the isolated compounds were tested for their α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. The results showed that compounds 1 – 3 , 6 , 7 , 11 , 15 and 16 exhibited stronger inhibitory activities than acarbose. And the preliminary structure–activity relationships of aspulvinone and diphenyl ether compounds on the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity were reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]