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China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a study on the existence of synthetic Weyl points with various planar symmetries in phononic crystals. We design a set of phononic crystals to display Weyl points at high-symmetry points with different symmetries in both square and honeycomb lattices. We demonstrate that, in a square lattice, double Weyl points are protected by C4 rotation symmetry, while in a honeycomb lattice, they are protected by C3 rotation symmetry. Additionally, we investigated the effects of symmetry on double Weyl points. The results indicate that double Weyl points would split into two single Weyl points along high-symmetry lines if we break the corresponding symmetries. The distributions of Weyl points in various symmetries are presented systematically. Finally, gapless surface states and the robust one-way acoustic transport in a square lattice are demonstrated in a double Weyl system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological valley states, emerging as an exciting field in condensed matter physics, are attracting attention because of their potential as a new type of information carrier with orbital angular momentum. In this paper, we exhibit that the acoustic valley states can achieve trapping of microparticles due to the acoustic radiation force induced by the acoustic vortex. In addition, we can achieve the separation of microparticles based on different acoustic contrast factors. Our study shows a demonstration of acoustic valley states in the field of particle contactless manipulation. Potential applications can be predicted by the exotic interaction of acoustic vortices with microparticles, such as cell separation, drug delivery, and other biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consistent innovations and applications of information technology drive the vigorous development of the gig economy, and generate gig workers such as food delivery workers and couriers, and make a great contribution to stabilizing employment and increasing income. Gig workers, mostly made up of migrants, and suffer from job and status difficulties. Research on the well-being of migrant gig workers can reveal the practical problems and provide suggestions for narrowing the wealth gap to promote social fairness and justice. Taking Hangzhou city in China as an example, this paper explores the well-being of food delivery workers, couriers, and online car-hailing drivers as representatives of migrant gig workers. Firstly, the relevant data are acquired through the questionnaire. Secondly, the characteristics of this group are analyzed through descriptive analysis, namely: most of them are migrant workers aged between 20 and 39 with low occupation satisfaction due to insufficient social security coverage and limited well-being, despite relatively high income. Based on the analysis of differences in demographic variables and structural equation modeling, the factors affecting the well-being of migrant gig workers are studied, which mainly are occupation satisfaction, social interaction, and social security. The results show that occupation satisfaction is positively affected by family characteristics, social interaction, and social security. In addition, family characteristics and social security positively impact social interaction, but the former has no significant effect on well-being. Finally, this paper enriches the research on the well-being of specific migrant gig workers and gives policy suggestions for enhancing the well-being of migrant gig workers in Hangzhou city from the perspective of optimizing the mechanism, pilot construction, and platform provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed the intensive development of live streaming E-commerce, an emerging business mode. Although it contributes to economic growth, various forms of chaos show up and disturbs the market order. Therefore, from 1 July 2020, the official release of the first domestic document on live streaming E-commerce, the Code of Conduct for Online Live Streaming Marketing, to the end of the first half of 2021, China has witnessed so intensive release of relevant policies that are rare over the past years. Introducing these policies will inevitably attract the general public's attention and discussions. Based on online comments, this paper uses the LDA models to extract topics from online comments related to live streaming E-commerce and identifies sentiment polarity and sentiment intensity by the analysis models of different emotion dictionaries to study policy implementation effects and the main topics of concern before and after the policy implementation. The analysis results show that people between the age of 20 and 40 attach more importance to the implementation of the normative policy for live streaming E-commerce. Women, the main force of live streaming users, are less enthusiastic about the policy implementation than men. Moreover, the analysis results of the LDA models and online HDP (online hierarchical Dirichlet process) models demonstrate that the most discussed topics are the contribution of live streaming E-commerce to traditional economic transformation, public welfare activities, resumption of work and production, and poverty alleviation, as well as fraud, counterfeit goods, supervision, rights protection and other incidents in this industry. Overall, the majority of the public holds a positive attitude towards the policy implementation. After further analysis of comments under the relevant topics, it is found that compared with the first two policies released on 1 July and 5 November in 2020, although the proportion of netizens with positive emotions during the implementation of the follow-up policy has increased, the increment is not significant, indicating that the implementation of the new normative policy in a short term will hardly curb the occurrence of industry chaos. In turn, the governments should transfer their attention to actual regulatory problems, and intensify efforts to implement normative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 31 May 2021, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed the policy that a couple can have three children, and rolled out more supportive measures to further optimize the fertility policies. However, while the Chinese government is further optimizing its fertility policy, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 is raging around the world, which threatens the implementation of China's fertility optimization policy. Based on this, this paper firstly explores the impact of COVID-19 on women's fertility intentions. Secondly, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, this paper constructs a structural equation model to quantitatively reveal the specific factors that affect women's fertility intentions under the epidemic, as well as their impact paths, and then puts forward corresponding suggestions for the government to solve the problem of fertility, aiming at delaying population aging and optimizing population structure. The research results show that: (1) COVID-19 lowers the fertility intentions of women of childbearing age. (2) During the pandemic, economic pressure emerged as the biggest factor affecting women's fertility intentions. The decline in income caused by the pandemic has become an important factor in preventing women from having children. (3) The conflict between work and childbearing is still an important factor affecting the fertility intentions of women of childbearing age. The government's provision of perfect childcare services and their strengthening of the protection of women's employment rights and interests will greatly reduce women's anxiety about childbearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an emerging business modality and Internet format, live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly since its emergence in 2016, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in late 2019, when an increasing number of businesses from other industries attracted participation. However, with the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, the industry's market environment is becoming increasingly chaotic. Therefore, during this period, government departments continuously formulate and implement relevant industry policies. In order to exploring the cooperation network structure, policy content distribution, and implementation effectiveness characteristics among publishers, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analysis framework of policy from the perspective of policy tools, policy effectiveness evaluation and policy publishers. The results show that in terms of policy tools, the overall structure of policy tools in the live streaming e-commerce industry is unreasonable, and different types of policy tools are significantly diverse. The proportion of environmental policy tools is greater than that of demand-based and supply-based policy tools, accounting for 62.97%, and among them, the tools related to industry regulation and management account for the largest proportion of the total, which greatly suppresses the enthusiasm of various entities in the industry for development. In terms of policy effectiveness evaluation, most of the policies do not formulate detailed long-, medium-, or short-term goals, nor are the policy priorities, incentive measures, or action modes perfect, indicating that the government's pushing and pulling forces for the live streaming e-commerce industry are insufficient. Finally, in the subject dimension of policy release, the synergy of relevant subjects is constantly improving, but there is also a phenomenon of over-concentration in the synergistic departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced acoustic sensing is a topic of interest in a variety of research fields. Here, we propose a gradient coiling up metamaterial (GCM), combining gradient and coiled structures, so as to realize enhanced broadband acoustic sensing. Compared with metamaterials without coiled structures, the GCM shows a far superior performance in terms of acoustic enhancement, enabling the acoustic signals to be magnified up to approximately 80 times, over a wide frequency range. Moreover, by virtue of coupling the coiled structures, trapped and enhanced frequencies in the GCM can be reduced by nearly 43%. In addition, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate the property of frequency-selective enhancement over a wide frequency range, which can be used to approximate unknown signals by changing their measured positions. Moreover, harmonic signals with useful information can be effectively recognized and recovered from strong background noise, using GCM. Our results indicate that GCMs can be regarded as a functional material or an enhanced acoustic sensing device to improve the acoustic sensing performance of signal detection in practical engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Topological acoustic rainbow trapping can be realized by regulating topological edge mode dispersion curve and group velocity. • The topological phononic crystal is robust to multiple structural disorders, such as scaling, rotating and removing unit cells. • The proposed gradient phononic crystal is capable of recovering the Gaussian pulse signal from the background noise. In this letter, a gradient phononic crystal (PC) structure is proposed for robust enhanced acoustic sensing. At first, the topologically protected edge states are introduced by breaking the space-inversion symmetry of the PC structure. Then, the topological edge mode dispersion curve and group velocity are demonstrated to be regulated by varying the structure parameters gradually and the edge states can be slowed down to zero group velocity and trapped at different positions. Consequently, topological acoustic rainbow trapping is formed. Furthermore, the robustness and enhancement properties are verified both numerically and experimentally. All the results indicate that the gradient PC structure is able to realize robust enhanced acoustic sensing. This work opens a new vista to improve the robustness of the PC-based enhanced acoustic sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a number of instances of large-scale panic buying. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, this paper explores the impact of panic in uncertain environments on panic buying behavior. Under certain circumstances, the spread of rumors about shortage of goods is likely to cause large-scale panic buying. This paper focuses on the study of such panic buying caused by online rumors. Methods: Firstly, based on the improved BA network, this paper constructs a directed network for public opinion communication and integrates an offline communication network to build a two-layer synchronous coupling network based on online and offline communications. Secondly, the individual decision model and the panic emotion transmission model under the uncertain environment are constructed. Netizens judge the authenticity of network information, determine their own panic degree according to the above two models, and judge whether they participate in the panic buying based on the above factors. Finally, the spread of the public opinion of goods buying under the panic state is simulated and analyzed. Results: The experimental results of the two-layer synchronous network that integrates offline interaction are significantly different from the results of pure online interaction, which increases the speed of public opinions spread after offline interaction and affects a wider range of groups. Under the condition of sufficient supplies, panic in local areas will not cause large-scale panic buying on the whole network. However, the results under the same parameters suggest that if there is a shortage of supplies, panic will spread quickly across the network, leading to large-scale panic buying. It is very important to ensure sufficient supply of materials at the beginning of the spread of rumors, which can reduce the number of buyers. However, if there is a shortage of goods before the panic dissipates in the later stage, there will still be a large-scale rush purchase. Conclusion: These results explain the reasons why it is difficult to stop the buying events in many areas under the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the uncertain environment, the panic caused by people's fear of stock shortage promotes the occurrence of large-scale rush buying. Therefore, in the event of major public health events, ensuring adequate supply of materials is the top priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cysteine (Cys) is not only the central matter of sulfur metabolism in cells but also the only amino acid with reduced thiol group in 20 kinds of natural amino acids. In animal cells, Cys is taking part in many important and essential biological functions including protein synthesis, detoxification and metabolism. The development and application of fluorescent probes for the detection of Cys have attracted more and more attention and interest. Herein, we report a new fluorescent probe NFA that utilized naphthyl carboxy fluorescein as fluorophore and acryloyl group as reaction site for Cys specific detection. The probe essentially has weak fluorescence. Cys addition to NFA containing system induced distinct enhanced fluorescence emission which was attributed to the nucleophilic reaction of cysteine and acryloyl to release the fluorophore. The signal fluorescent response detection system allows NFA to be a reliable tool for Cys detection with low detection limit (0.58 μM). And NFA has been successfully applied for Cys imaging specifically in live Hela cells, which promotes the probe as a potential tool to understand the pathology of Cys related diseases. Graphical Abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • A dual-wavelength sensor based on naphthyl carboxy fluorescein for specific detection Cys was realized • The probe showed excellent water solubility because of the introduction of the carboxyl group. • The high selective detection was exhibited at a cellular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors have been considered as candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and have been utilized in clinical trials. In the present study, the interactions of forsythiaside and rutin with AChE have been investigated, after discovering the inhibitory AChE activity of the two compounds. Forsythiaside and rutin both can bind to AChE to form forsythiaside-AChE and rutin-AChE complex, and thus quench the intrinsic fluorescence of AChE. The quenching mechanism, the binding sites, the binding forces, the binding constants and the energy transfer involved were studied in details. Forsythiaside and rutin show some properties in common, including the stoichiometric binding ratio of 1:1 with AChE and the full quenching of AChE fluorescence. At the same time, the two compounds distinctly present some different characters, for example, the binding constant of rutin is less than that of forsythiaside, and the interaction force and the affinity between forsythiaside and AChE are much bigger than that of rutin. Spectroscopy data and docking analysis powerfully support the findings that forsythiaside inhibit AChE activity more strongly than rutin. The current study will provide the better understanding on the nature of the possible interactions between forsythiaside and rutin with AChE. Highlights • Forsythiaside has better inhibitory effects on AChE activity than rutin • Forsythiaside and rutin quench the fluorescence of AChE by forming non-fluorescent complex with binding ratio of 1:1 • Binding constant, force and affinity of forsythiaside with AChE are much bigger than those of rutin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correct affiliation is listed below: 'Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 9800845, Japan'. Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35137-0, published online 16 May 2023 The original version of this Article contained an error in Affiliation 3, which was incorrectly given as 'Graduate School of Agricultural Science Graduate, Tohoku University, Sendai 9800845, Japan'. [Extracted from the article]

Increasing the acetylcholine level and fighting the neuroinflammation has always been taken as a treatment strategy for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Forsythoside A is a major component in Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl (F. suspensa, Lianqiao in Chinese) that has been traditionally used as Chinese herbal medicine to treat the inflammation in China. This study examined the inhibitory acetylcholinesterase activities of Forsythoside A at chemical and biological level. Forsythoside A inhibited acetylcholinesterase in a mixed type of inhibition, with Ki of 47.68 μM. Docking analysis strongly supported these findings. In PC12 cells Forsythoside A increased cell viability and suppressed acetylcholinesterase increased by Aβ 25-35 , thus alleviated the corresponding apoptosis. Taken together, these results suggest that Forsythoside A has the protective effects on Aβ 25-35 -induced apoptosis in PC12 cells by downregulating acetylcholinesterase, making it a potential functional food ingredient or drug candidate for the treatment of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain cooperation strategy believes that the integration of the operation process can produce value for customers, optimize the supply chain of the connection between the vertical nodes, and constantly strengthen the performance of the advantages, so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Under fuzzy uncertain environment and centralized decision-making mode, we study multiobjective decision-making optimization, which focuses on equilibrium and compensation of multiobjective problems; that is to say, the proper adjustment of the individual goal satisfaction level will make other goals’ satisfaction levels change greatly. Through coordination among the multiobjectives, supply chain system will achieve global optimum. Finally, a simulation experiment from Shaoxing textile case is used to verify its efficiency and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection and localization of weak sound sources are a topic of great interest in a wide range of applications, but generally require a pressure amplification and directivity acoustic system. Although acoustic technologies have been advanced in recent years, the realization of pressure amplification and directivity acoustic systems remains a slippery subject. Here, we propose a gradient acoustic metamaterial (GAM) coupled with space-coiling structure (GAM-SCS) for the detection and localization of weak sound sources. The GAM-SCS is evaluated both numerically and experimentally. Compared with the GAM without space-coiling structure, the GAM-SCS has a better pressure amplification performance which enables the sound signals to be pre-amplified. Meanwhile, the induced space-coiling structure, making use of subwavelength features, also enables the GAM-SCS to work in a lower frequency. Furthermore, the directivity of the GAM-SCS also shines lights on directional acoustic sensing to resist noise interference. We believe that this work opens up a new vista to realize the detection and localization of weak sound sources based on acoustic metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Phononic crystal (PC) point defects coupled with Helmholtz resonators is proposed. • Coupled resonator (CPCR) can realize acoustic enhancement and directional sensing. • The CPCR helps overcome the detection limit of conventional acoustic systems. • The CPCR can be used for sound source localization. The detection and localization of acoustic signals play a vital role in many areas, such as structural health monitoring, gas pipeline leakage detection and underwater acoustic communication. However, the realization of both high-sensitivity and high-directivity acoustic systems at the same time remains a slippery subject. Besides, the detection limit, namely the detection capability of minimal detectable pressure, of sensitivity and directivity still hinders the performance of ordinary acoustic sensors where weak signals or low signal to noise ratios (SNRs) exist. Here, we propose a structure that couples phononic crystal (PC) point defects with four-sided Helmholtz resonators (HRs) to realize acoustic enhancement and directional sensing simultaneously in a high energy density cavity. The proposed coupled PC resonator (CPCR) shows a much better acoustic enhancement performance than PC point defects or four-sided HRs individually. Meanwhile, the remarkable directional response of the CPCR ensures the success in directional sensing. Furthermore, both in numerical and experimental studies, we demonstrate that the CPCR can be regarded as an acoustic device or sensor to detect harmonic signals and Gaussian pulse signals effectively. This work breaks through the detection limit of conventional acoustic sensing systems and provides a new routine for the development of coupled acoustic sensing devices that are highly desirable in practical engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Graded reflection acoustic grating metamaterial(GRAGM) broaden the working bandwidth. • The GRAGM enables to realize a deep subwavelength acoustic sensing. • The strong directional response of the GRAGM is able to localize sound sources. • The GRAGM can be regarded as an acoustic antenna. Acoustic grating metamaterials (AGMs) with exotic enhancement property and remarkable directional response are promising candidates to advance the metamaterial-based acoustic sensing. In this paper, a graded reflection AGM (GRAGM) is proposed to broaden the working bandwidth and reduce the device volume. In contrast with conventional periodic AGM, GRAGM with graded slit width can be viewed as a series of combined Fabry-Perot-like (FP-like) resonators. As a result, the working band is broadened twice by combining multiple resonant bands. The added reflection plate is capable of reducing the working frequency of GRAGM by manipulating the reflection phase at the boundaries with the maximum variation over than 280 Hz, which enables the GRAGM to work in a deep subwavelength scale. Moreover, the strong directional response of the GRAGM is able to localize sound sources. These exotic properties promise a number of potential applications, such as sound source localization, condition monitoring, and remote whispering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the great risk exposed in IT outsourcing, how to assess IT outsourcing risk becomes a critical issue. However, most of approaches to date need to further adapt to the particular complexity of IT outsourcing risk for either falling short in subjective bias, inaccuracy, or efficiency. This paper proposes a dynamic algorithm of risk assessment. It initially forwards extended three layers (risk factors, risks, and risk consequences) of transferring mechanism based on transaction cost theory (TCT) as the framework of risk analysis, which bridges the interconnection of components in three layers with preset transferring probability and impact. Then, it establishes an equation group between risk factors and risk consequences, which assures the “attribution” more precisely to track the specific sources that lead to certain loss. Namely, in each phase of the outsourcing lifecycle, both the likelihood and the loss of each risk factor and those of each risk are acquired through solving equation group with real data of risk consequences collected. In this “reverse” way, risk assessment becomes a responsive and interactive process with real data instead of subjective estimation, which improves the accuracy and alleviates bias in risk assessment. The numerical case proves the effectiveness of the algorithm compared with the approach forwarded by other references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In elastic systems, the researchers have observed the topological valley edge states. However, the topological valley edge states can only enable elastic waves to propagate along the narrow interfaces. Here, we obtain the topological valley waveguide states (TVWSs) by constructing the sandwich-like plates. By virtue of the TVWSs, the transport of elastic waves in the wide straight and bent waveguides is achieved. In addition, we realize the splitting effect and converging of elastic waves according to the valley-locking property. Our research may promote the design of innovative devices about energy harvesting, sensing, and information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of bicyclists in urban areas continues to increase, the need to realistically model the movement and interactions of bicyclists in mixed urban traffic is rapidly gaining importance. Therefore, this paper presents an agent space model (ASM) to elucidate the movements of bicyclists and pedestrians on shared roads. The ASM model, via simulation, particularly illustrates the dispersion phenomenon observed for non-motorized road users. The mutual interactions and diverse bicyclist and pedestrian properties were also incorporated into this model. The mutual interactions were realised through agent spaces of different sizes in conflict and overtaking behaviours for the following combinations: bicyclist-to-pedestrian, bicyclist-to-bicyclist, pedestrian-to-bicyclist, and pedestrian-to-pedestrian, which were obtained through experiments. The hypothesis test indicated that different agent spaces exist for different types of interactions. The experimental data were used to obtain several variables that describe the elements of road user agent spaces, including longitudinal and lateral distances and the dynamic relationship between the longitudinal distance and speed. The simulation results indicated that with an increase in the number of pedestrians, the maximum capacity decreased and the dispersion degree increased. The following psychological and physiological factors affect the degree of dispersion of bicyclists: travelling speed, reaction time, intensity, probability of selecting the head-on direction, and probability of selecting the right-hand direction. In addition, lane formation was observed in all simulations. The results also demonstrated that dedicated bicycle lanes will significantly reduce the dispersion degree. Moreover, the safety and efficiency effects of different forms of bicycle lanes were analysed from the perspective of the degree of dispersion. The simulation results can provide specific guidelines for understanding the causes of phenomena such as dispersion and lane formation, as well as for studying the traffic dynamics, effects of dedicated bicycle lanes, and macroscopic characteristics according to different bicyclist-pedestrian ratios. • The study simulated the dispersion effect in pedestrians–bicyclists shared roads. • A model that considers agent space (AS) to describe pedestrian-bicyclist interactions is proposed. • The agent space model (ASM) can describe the dispersion phenomenon with clear physical meanings and fewer parameters. • Physiological and psychological factors influencing the degree of dispersion are revealed. • Dedicated bicycle lanes will significantly reduce the dispersion degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the Internet, the speed with which information can be updated and propagated has accelerated, resulting in wide variations in public opinion. Usually, after the occurrence of some newsworthy event, discussion topics are generated in networks that influence the formation of initial public opinion. After a period of propagation, some of these topics are further derived into new subtopics, which intertwine with the initial public opinion to form a multidimensional public opinion. This paper is concerned with the formation process of multi-dimensional public opinion in the context of derived topics. Firstly, the initial public opinion variation mechanism is introduced to reveal the formation process of derived subtopics, then Brownian motion is used to determine the subtopic propagation parameters and their propagation is studied based on complex network dynamics according to the principle of evolution. The formula of basic reproductive number is introduced to determine whether derived subtopics can form derived public opinion, thereby revealing the whole process of multi-dimensional public opinion formation. Secondly, through simulation experiments, the influences of various factors, such as the degree of information alienation, environmental forces, topic correlation coefficients, the amount of information contained in subtopics, and network topology on the formation of multi-dimensional public opinion are studied. The simulation results show that: (1) Environmental forces and the amount of information contained in subtopics are key factors affecting the formation of multi-dimensional public opinion. Among them, environmental forces have a greater impact on the number of subtopics, and the amount of information contained in subtopics determines whether the subtopic can be the key factor that forms the derived public opinion. (2) Only when the degree of information alienation reaches a certain level, will derived subtopics emerge. At the same time, the degree of information alienation has a greater impact on the number of derived subtopics, but it has a small impact on the dimensions of the final public opinion. (3) The network topology does not have much impact on the number of derived subtopics but has a greater impact on the number of individuals participating in the discussion of subtopics. The multidimensional public opinion dimension formed by the network topology with a high aggregation coefficient and small average path length is higher. Finally, a practical case verifies the rationality and effectiveness of the model proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the outbreak of the COVID-19, offline consumption has been significantly impacted. For the sake of safety, online consumption has become the most common manner, and this has generated e-commerce, which not only breaks the spatio-temporal or regional restrictions, but also conforms to the normal economic development needs for epidemic prevention and control. However, this new business model causes problems such as the shortage of post-sales service, false publicity, and uneven quality of live streaming anchors, seriously affecting the interests of consumers. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the management of the chaos of live streaming. This study focuses on exploring the problems and the behavioral strategies of stakeholders in the governance process. The paper obtained online user comments by python, and used topic clustering and subject extraction methods to dig out the problems and related multiple subjects in live streaming at first. Secondly, the theory of social preference was introduced to construct an evolutionary game model among multiple subjects, and how to guide the behavioral decision-making of multiple subjects to standardize and rationalize was studied, so as to control the problem of live streaming. Finally, simulation experiments were conducted and the results demonstrated that: (1) Compared with strengthening the reciprocal preference of the government, live streaming platforms, and consumers, changing the individual's altruistic preference is more effective in controlling the chaos of live streaming; (2) weakening the platform's altruistic preference for anchors is conducive to creating a good live streaming environment; and (3) changing consumers' altruistic preference or reciprocal preference is less effective in promoting the governance of the live streaming environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effect of geothermal energy output on carbon dioxide emissions among the European countries (EU) classified as EU27 states, within the time frame 1990 to 2021. The study adopted autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL), and the findings show that the carbon dioxide emissions mitigate with an improvement in geothermal power production. Carbon dioxide emissions were observed to be increased by some socioeconomic factors such as population density, economic growth, and fossil fuel. Findings from this study show there could be a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emission among the EU13 emerging economies leveraging on geothermal energy growth than what will be achieved among the EU14 emerged economies. Conversely, the findings from this study also show that a significant level of reduction could be attained in carbon dioxide emission among the EU14 emerged economies as a result of aging population density than we could have among the EU13 emerging economies. Also, this study established that EU14 emerging economies could attain a significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions through fossil fuel consumption and economic growth than what will be attained among the EU13 emerging economies. The three estimators adopted in the study which are the pooled mean group, mean group, and dynamic fixed effect confirmed that the projected calculations in the study are confirmed valid. This study, therefore, recommended that European nations classified as EU27 should lay more emphasis on geothermal growth to attain energy and environmental goals. Legislators in these EU countries should focus more on policies that will ensure the security and sustainability of geothermal growth. Policymakers in these EU countries should make concerted efforts toward making policies that will promote the growth and sustainability of geothermal power, thereby cutting down the need for fossil fuel and CO2 emissions in the future time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Planted forests are very important in restoration of disturbed lands in the Loess Plateau, China. Pinus tabulaeformis and Platycladus orientalis are common tree species in plantation in Eastern Loess Plateau. Hippophae rhamnoides with its rich root nodules is a local and high-productivity shrub species. This study tried to test the roles of H. rhamnoides in enriching community structure, increasing species diversity and improving soil conditions in mixed coniferous plantations. Five forest types, P. tabulaeformis and H. rhamnoides mixed forest, P. orientalis and H. rhamnoides mixed forest, P. tabulaeformis pure forest, P. orientalis pure forest, and H. rhamnoides pure shrubland, were investigated and compared 21 years after plantation. The results showed that H. rhamnoides had significant positive effects on community structure, species diversity, soil physical and nutrient conditions etc. in mixed forests over pure forests. P. tabulaeformis forest and P. orientalis forest mixed with H. rhamnoides were suitable plantation models. P. tabulaeformis is more suitable in loess area than P. orientalis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With highly developed social media, English learning Applications have become a new type of mobile learning resources, and online comments posted by users after using them have not only become an important source of intellectual competition for enterprises, but can also help understand customers' requirements, thereby improving product functionalities and service quality, and solve the pain points of product iteration and innovation. Based on this, this paper crawled the online user comments of three typical APPs (BaiCiZhan, MoMoBeiDanCi and BuBeiDanCi), through emotion analysis and hotspot mining technology, to obtain user requirements and then the K-means clustering method was used to analyze user requirements. Finally, quantile regression is used to find out which user needs have an impact on the downloads of English vocabulary APPs. The results show that: (1) Positive comments have a more significant impact on users' downloads behavior than negative online comments. (2) English vocabulary APPs with higher downloads, both the 5-star user ratings and the increase of emotional requirement have a negative effect on the increase in APP downloads, while the enterprise's service requirement improvement has a positive effect on the increase of APP downloads. (3) Regarding English vocabulary APPs with average or high downloads, improving the adaptability and Appearance requirements have significant negative impact on downloads. (4) The functional requirements to improve products will have a significant positive impact on the increase in downloads of English vocabulary APPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of "We media" technology, netizens can freely express their opinions regarding enterprise products on a network platform. Consequently, online public opinion about enterprises has become a prominent issue. Negative comments posted by some netizens may trigger negative public opinion, which can have a significant impact on an enterprise's image. From the perspective of helping enterprises deal with negative public opinion, this paper combines user portrait technology and a random forest algorithm to help enterprises identify high-risk users who have posted negative comments and thus may trigger negative public opinion. In this way, enterprises can monitor the public opinion of high-risk users to prevent negative public opinion events. Firstly, we crawled the information of users participating in discussions of product experience, and we constructed a portrait of enterprise public opinion users. Then, the characteristics of the portraits were quantified into indicators such as the user's activity, the user's influence, and the user's emotional tendency, and the indicators were sorted. According to the order of the indicators, the users were divided into high-risk, moderate-risk, and low-risk categories. Next, a supervised high-risk user identification model for this classification was established, based on a random forest algorithm. In turn, the trained random forest identifier can be used to predict whether the authors of newly published public opinion information are high-risk users. Finally, a back propagation neural network algorithm was used to identify users and compared with the results of model recognition in this paper. The results showed that the average recognition accuracy of the back propagation neural network is only 72.33%, while the average recognition accuracy of the model constructed in this paper is as high as 98.49%, which verifies the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed random forest recognition method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Gradient acoustic-grating metamaterial (GAGM) can realize acoustic rainbow trapping. • Detection of weak signals based on the GAGM was proposed for the first time. • Weak signals submerged by noise can be recovered more easily in the GAGM. • The GAGM helps overcome the detection limit of conventional acoustic systems. Acoustic signals detection attracts considerable attention in many areas, such as structural healthy monitoring, biomedicine, communication and earthquake prediction. However, the useful signals are always very weak and overwhelmed by background noise. In this paper, we proposed a method based on the gradient acoustic-grating metamaterial (GAGM) to detect harmonic and periodic impulse signals for the first time. The analytic analysis indicates that the incident acoustic waves with various frequencies gradually slow down and eventually stop at different positions in the GAGM. In the numerical study, we show that acoustic rainbow trapping, realized by the GAGM, can spatially separate different frequency components accompanied by the local enhancement of their amplitudes. Moreover, in the experimental investigation, we demonstrate that the GAGM is capable of amplifying pressure amplitudes about 30 times even at different measured positions. With this acoustic system, the harmonic and periodic impulse signals submerged by background noise in the GAGM can be detected much more easily. All the results indicate that the GAGM can be regarded as a functional material or an enhanced acoustic sensing device to overcome the detection limit of conventional acoustic systems. This work opens up new vistas for weak signals detection of many areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a unique bilayer design of phononic crystal slabs. • The bilayer phononic crystal slabs exhibit two kinds of valley Hall phases. • The interesting topological transport properties are realized in the bilayer slabs. In this Letter, we propose a unique bilayer design of phononic crystal slabs that are constructed by two layers of snowflake phononic crystal plates connected by a honeycomb array of cylinders. By tuning orientations of snowflake-shaped holes in both layers, we achieve two kinds of valley-projected topological elastic insulators distinguished by conventional and layer-polarized topological valley Hall phases. Then, between different conventional and layer-polarized topological valley Hall phases, two kinds of edge modes, layer-mixed and layer-polarized edge modes, are obtained and explored. In finite-size samples, the interesting topological transport properties, which the elastic wave can propagate alternatively between both layers and only in a single layer, are realized by exciting layer-mixed and layer-polarized edge states. In addition, we design an interlayer converter to realize conversion of the elastic wave propagation between both layers. Our research promotes the development of topological elastic insulators and provides a route for various practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, hot issues are likely become bipolar or multipolar after heated discussion on the Internet. This article is focused on the study of the polarization phenomenon and establishes a public opinion polarization model with the considerations of individual heterogeneity and dynamic conformity. At first, this article introduces the dynamic changing function of an individual's conformity tendency to other's attitudes in the interaction process. It further defines the influential weight between different interactive individuals, and expands the interactive individual from complete homogeneity to initial attitude heterogeneity, and finally, conformity heterogeneity. Then, through simulation experiments, we find that the degree of changing in individual attitude is limited. That is, it is difficult for the individuals who have one directional attitude at the initial time to change into another opposite attitude through interaction. In addition, individuals with low conformity within a certain threshold are more likely to form polarization. Finally, the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed model are verified by the typical case "Mimeng Event". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the study, the neuroprotectivities of forsythiaside, a main constituent of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl (F. suspensa , Lianqiao in Chinese), were investigated in the hippocampal slices. Forsythiaside suppressed the overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) proteins induced by β-amyloid (Aβ 25-35) to upregulate the levels of 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), an endogenous endocannabinoids. Then the inhibition of forsythiaside on COX-2 was deeply studied by the molecular docking. Forsythiaside prevented neuroinflammation and apoptosis from Aβ 25-35 insults, and this action appeared to be mediated via cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R)-dependent nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathways. More importantly, forsythiaside functionally improved Aβ 25-35 -induced learning and memory deficits, which was indicated by long term potentiation (LTP). Taken together, forsythiaside may have therapeutic potential for Alzheimer's diseases (AD) by increasing the levels of 2-AG. Highlights • Forsythiaside inhibits COX-2 and MAGL over-expression induced by Aβ to up-regulate 2-AG. • Forsythiaside prevents inflammation and apoptosis from Aβ via CB1R-dependent NF-κB pathway. • Forsythiaside functionally improves Aβ-caused LTP deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Compounds that bind and stabilize selectively human telomeric quadruplex DNA structures are of significant interest due to their potential to inhibit telomerase and to halt tumor cell proliferation. In our previous study, we found that three novel phenanthroline derivatives could induce and stabilize significantly the formation of an antiparallel structure of human telomeric G-quadruplex DNA (G3(T2AG3)3), moreover, these compounds could bind selectively to G-quadruplex over duplex. In order to understand their binding nature, in this work we investigated the interactions of compounds 1–3 with human telomeric G-quadruplex and i-motif (C3(A2TC3)3) DNAs together with calf thymus DNAs (ct DNA) by means of absorption, fluorescence and CD spectroscopies and competition dialysis assay. Results showed that all three compounds showed the highest affinity for G-quadruplex structure although with least affinity for ct DNA. Compounds 1–3 could also stabilize the structure of i-motif with an increase in melting temperature (ΔT m) of 7.6, 7.2 and 10.1°C, respectively, in the presence of 10 times excess of compounds. Their binding stoichiometric ratios were 2:1 and 1:1 for G-quadruplex and i-motif DNAs, respectively. The thermodynamic parameters results indicated that the binding of compound to either quadruplex or duplex DNAs was entropically driven and hydrophobic force played a major role in the reaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, the authors focus on swarm intelligence represented by the ant colony system and artificial neural network simulating the brain working principles, and analyse the similarities between them by the approaches of a complexity study. Firstly, the similarities between swarm intelligence and neural network have been analysed qualitatively from system structure and operation mechanisms and the results show that there exist obvious similarities in overall disciplines between them. Moreover, the mapping relationships between swarm intelligence and artificial neural network at algorithm level have been revealed using the travelling salesman problem (TSP), which illustrates that these two algorithms are also similar from the viewpoint of numeric computing and simulating when they are directly used to solve a complex problem. In addition, the swarm intelligence algorithm and the artificial neural network algorithm are adopted to solve an engineering practical problem, which can be transformed into the TSP. The results show that the performance of these two algorithms still has close similarities. The purpose of the above work is to construct the inherent relationship among different bio-inspired computation methods, which has both important theoretic significance and practical value to reveal the generation and operation mechanisms of human intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its discovery, anthraquinone has become very valuable as a lead compound in the development of anti-cancer drugs. Previously, we designed and synthesized a new type of amide anthraquinone derivative (1-nitro-2-acylanthraquinone glycine, C10) with good activity against colon cancer. However, its effect and the underlying mechanism are unclear. In this study, C10 significantly inhibited the proliferation of HCT116 and HT29 colon cancer cells by blocking the cell cycle at the G2/M phase. C10 also plays a role in cell cycle arrest by reducing the protein and gene expression levels of cyclin B1 and its downstream signaling molecule cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK1). In addition, molecular docking studies showed that C10 has high affinity for Jak2, the first target in the cell cycle-related Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway. Furthermore, C10 downregulated the expression of Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway-related signaling molecules proteins and genes, and up-regulated the expression of PIAS-3, the upstream signaling molecule of Stat3, thereby down-regulating Stat3 phosphorylation. C10 reversed the expression of Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway-related molecules activated by IL-6. Overall, our results indicate for the first time that C10 induces cell cycle arrest and inhibits cell proliferation by inhibiting the Jak2/Stat3 signaling pathway. This study provides new insights into the potential role of Jak2/Stat3 in the regulating cell cycle-related signaling pathways that mediate the inhibitory effects of C10 on colon cancer cell proliferation. [Display omitted] • C10 significantly inhibited the proliferation of colon cancer cells. • C10 induced the cell cycle arrest by regulating the Jak/Stat3 signaling pathway. • PIAS-3 play a essential role on C10 down-regulates the expression level of Stat3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Forsythia suspensa metabolites have many bioactivities, such as selective immuno suppression, antioxidation, anti-hepatic injury, etc. In the present study, the interactions of the three metabolites with BSA have been investigated in a buffer (pH 7.40) using multi-spectroscopic techniques in combination with molecular docking methods. Two isoformers, forsythoside A and forsythoside I can statically quench BSA intrinsic fluorescence by forming the complexes with BSA at stoichiometric ratio of 1:1 that is again proved by UV–visible absorption. During the binding, the proportion of α-helix in BSA increases, the microenvironment around Tryptophan 213 changes and FRET is one of the major factors to quench fluorescence. Forsythoside E forms BSA-forsythoside E complex (1:1) and thus enhances the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA. During the process, forsythoside E affects not only Tryptophan residues but also Tyrosine residues so that the conformation of BSA is consequently changed. All above binding processes are spontaneous mainly through hydrogen bonding and the hydrophobic force interaction, which is supported by docking analysis and thermodynamic parameters. In addition, three compounds do not induce BSA aggregation. These findings are beneficial to understand the detailed information of the interactions of Forsythia suspensa metabolites with BSA. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Forsythoside A and forsythoside I quench BSA intrinsic fluorescence by forming complexes with 1:1 • Forsythoside A has better binding ability on BSA than forsythoside I • Forsythoside E, without Caffeoyl group, increases the fluorescence intensities of BSA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of amide anthraquinone derivatives, an important component of some traditional Chinese medicines, were structurally modified and the resulting antitumor activities were evaluated. The compounds showed potent anti-proliferative activities against eight human cancer cell lines, with no noticeable cytotoxicity towards normal cells. Among the candidate compounds, 1-nitro-2-acyl anthraquinone-leucine (8a) showed the greatest inhibition of HCT116 cell activity with an IC50 of 17.80 μg/mL. In addition, a correlation model was established in a three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) study using Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA). Moreover, compound 8a effectively killed tumor cells by reactive oxygen species (ROS)-JNK activation, causing an increase in ROS levels, JNK phosphorylation, and mitochondrial stress. Cytochrome c was then released into cytoplasm, which, in turn activated the cysteine protease pathway and ultimately induced tumor cell apoptosis, suggesting a potential use of this compound for colon cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The probe was obtained with both cancer cells target and chromophorer. • The probe was lighted by Cys with 115-fold fluorescence enhancement. • The probe can successfully distinguish cancer cells from the normal cells. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. The discrimination of cancer cells from normal cells is of importance for early diagnosis. Designing and synthesizing fluorescent probes that precisely target cancer cells can greatly aid treatment efforts. Biotin can target over-expressed receptors on the surface of cancer cells. In addition, the abundant free biothiols in cells play important roles in many physiological and pathological processes. We therefore developed a fluorescein derivative probe possessing an acryloyl group as a reaction site for detecting biothiol and biotin as a cancer cell-targeting agent. Thus, cancer cells over-expressing the biotin receptor are labeled via a fluorescence signal significant enhancement from the reaction product of the probe and Cys, enabling the probe (Ac) to distinguish cells via imaging. The probe is successfully applied to distinguish among four cell types, Hela, B16, RAW264.7 and NIH-3T3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]