Search

Objective: To investigate the safety and prognosis of enbloc or piecemeal removal after enbloc resection of a gastric GIST by comparing the clinical data of endoscopic en block resection and piecemeal removal (EP) and en block resection and complete removal (EC) of gastric GISTs. Methods: A total of 111 (43 endoscopic piecemeal, and 68 complete removal) patients with gastric GIST's ≥ 2 cm in diameter who underwent endoscopic therapy from January 2016 to June 2020 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were retrospectively analyzed. In all cases, it was ensured that the tumor was intact during the resection, however, it was divided into EP group and EC group based on whether the tumor was completely removed or was cut into pieces which were then removed. The patients' recurrence-free survival rate and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were recorded. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in RFS rates between the two groups (P = 0.197). The EP group had relatively high patient age, tumor diameter, risk classification, and operation time. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of nuclear fission images, postoperative hospitalization time, postoperative fasting time, complication rate and complication grading between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Endoscopic piecemeal removal after en block resection of gastric GIST is safe and effective and achieves similar clinical outcomes as complete removal after en block resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As can be retained by Fe components in coal during high-temperature combustion, which is beneficial for reducing As emissions. In this study, high-temperature As adsorption experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed experimental system with As model compound and minerals. The adsorption amount of As was much higher when Fe 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , and Al 2 O 3 acted together than when they acted alone. As was mainly distributed in the Fe-Si-Al minerals generated by the reaction of the three oxides, for which the Fe 2 O 3 :SiO 2 :Al 2 O 3 mass ratio of 1:1:1 was the most favorable, and the maximum adsorption amount of As was 18.2 mg·g−1. Density functional theory calculations were carried out for the adsorption of As 2 O 3 by Fe 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3, and Fe 2 Al 4 Si 5 O 18. Fe 2 Al 4 Si 5 O 18 had the highest adsorption energy for As 2 O 3 , indicating the most stable adsorption. As 2 O 3 was adsorbed on the Fe and Si sites. The adsorption ability of the Fe site was strengthened in Fe 2 Al 4 Si 5 O 18 relative to that in Fe 2 O 3. The formation of Fe-O-Si and Fe-O-Al in the mineral promoted electron transfer from the adsorbent to As 2 O 3 molecule, thereby strengthening adsorption. These results can guide the optimization of coal blending methods and the modification of adsorbents to control As emissions in coal-fired systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common complication of diabetes, and it is also the main cause of chronic renal failure. Physiological/pathological changes mediated by high glucose are the main factors causing injury of DN, including the enhancement of polyol pathway, the accumulation of advanced glycation products (AGEs), and the activation of protein kinase C (PKC) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signals. In addition, the abnormal activation of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and oxidative stress are also involved. Melatonin is a physiological hormone mainly secreted by the pineal gland which has been proved to be related to diabetes. Studies have shown that exogenous melatonin intervention can reduce blood glucose and alleviate high glucose mediated pathological damage. At the same time, melatonin also has a strong antioxidant effect, and can inhibit the activation of RAS. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the therapeutic effect and value of melatonin on DN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chemotherapeutic agents are used to control tumor proliferation. However, their influence in the pre-metastatic niche of target organs has not been well studied. Oxaliplatin (OXA) is a drug applied in standard treatments of colorectal cancer (CRC), while the direct effect of which on the pre-metastatic microenvironment of the liver remains unclear. Methods: Models of liver metastases were established with luciferase expressing CT26 cells in BALB/c and BALB/c-nude mice. Single-cell RNA Sequencing was performed to examine the immune microenvironment in the liver elicited by OXA. Immunofluorescence and flowcytometry were utilized to confirm the changes in the number of immune cells. LDH, CellTrace CFSE Cell Proliferation and apoptosis assays were conducted to explore the impact of OXA on T cells ex vivo. The correlation between chemotherapy-related lymphopenia and metastases was assessed by meta-analysis. Results: Herein we discovered that administration of OXA prior to the occurrence of liver metastasis actually accelerated tumor development and colonization in the liver. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that the landscape of the liver immune microenvironment had been changed to immunosuppressive phenotype. Macrophages after the treatment of OXA exhibited a high ability to inhibit the activation of T cells. Further investigation revealed a significant decrease in the number of T cells in the liver, particularly CD8+ T cells with reduced capacity of proliferation, activation, and killing. When mice were treated with T cell supplementation, the OXA-induced metastasis was notably abolished, indicating that the OXA-primed liver microenvironment could be reversed by the infusion of T cells. Consistent with our findings in mice, a meta-analysis was performed to verify that chemotherapy-related lymphopenia was associated with an inferior prognosis related with high incidence of metastasis, suggesting the pivotal role of chemotherapy in pre-metastatic niche formation. Furthermore, a notable reduction in the count of both macrophages and T cells was observed in the liver of colorectal cancer (CRC) patient undergoing OXA-based chemotherapy. Conclusions: Our findings proposed that immunosuppressive microenvironment in liver induced by OXA enhanced liver metastasis of colorectal cancer, which highlighted a new consideration to balance the pro metastases and anti-cancer possibility of OXA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic metasurfaces can significantly enhance the interaction between light and 2D materials. Hybrid structures of plasmonic lattices and 2D materials show great promise for both fundamental and practical studies because of their unprecedented ability for precise manipulation of light at the nanoscale. This review starts with an overview of the basic concepts of plasmonic lattices and optical properties of 2D materials, as well as fabrication strategies for hybrid metasurfaces. Then, the enhanced photoluminescence, quantum emission, optoelectronic detection, nonlinear process, and valleytronics in hybrid metasurfaces are summarized, and their development for nanophotonic functional devices are reviewed. Further, several compelling topics are also outlined that provide outlooks for future directions of hybrid metasurfaces such as novel structural design and high‐quality fabrication, all‐dielectric metasurfaces, dynamic metasurfaces, and plasmonic mediation of chemical reactions and physical processes. It is believed that hybrid metasurfaces of plasmonic lattices and 2D materials can open prospects for versatile platforms for light‐matter interactions and contribute to the revolutions on nanophotonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Aqueous Zn-ion battery is expected to become a substitute for Li-ion battery due to its inherent safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Dendrite growth and side reaction problems during electroplating lead to its low Coulombic efficiency and unsatisfactory life, which greatly limits its practical application. Here, we propose a dual-salts hybrid electrolyte, which alleviates the above issues by mixing Zn(OTf) 2 to ZnSO 4 solution. Extensive tests and MD simulations have shown that the dual-salts hybrid electrolyte can regulate the solvation structure of Zn2+, facilitating uniform Zn deposition, and inhibiting side reactions and dendrite growth. Hence, the dual-salts hybrid electrolyte exhibits good reversibility in Zn//Zn batteries, which can provide a lifetime of more than 880 h at 1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2. Moreover, the average Coulombic efficiency of Zn//Cu cells in hybrid system can reach 98.2% after 520 h, much better than that of 90.7% in pure ZnSO 4 electrolyte and 92.0% in pure Zn(OTf) 2 electrolyte. Benefiting from the fast ion exchange rate and high ion conductivity, Zn-ion hybrid capacitor in hybrid electrolyte also displays excellent stability and capacitive performance. This effective strategy for dual-salts hybrid electrolytes provides a promising direction for designing aqueous electrolytes for Zn-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chemotherapeutic agents are used to control tumor proliferation. However, their influence in the pre-metastatic niche of target organs has not been well studied. Oxaliplatin (OXA) is a drug applied in standard treatments of colorectal cancer (CRC), while the direct effect of which on the pre-metastatic microenvironment of the liver remains unclear. Methods: Models of liver metastases were established with luciferase expressing CT26 cells in BALB/c and BALB/c-nude mice. Single-cell RNA Sequencing was performed to examine the immune microenvironment in the liver elicited by OXA. Immunofluorescence and flowcytometry were utilized to confirm the changes in the number of immune cells. LDH, CellTrace CFSE Cell Proliferation and apoptosis assays were conducted to explore the impact of OXA on T cells ex vivo. The correlation between chemotherapy-related lymphopenia and metastases was assessed by meta-analysis. Results: Herein we discovered that administration of OXA prior to the occurrence of liver metastasis actually accelerated tumor development and colonization in the liver. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that the landscape of the liver immune microenvironment had been changed to immunosuppressive phenotype. Macrophages after the treatment of OXA exhibited a high ability to inhibit the activation of T cells. Further investigation revealed a significant decrease in the number of T cells in the liver, particularly CD8+ T cells with reduced capacity of proliferation, activation, and killing. When mice were treated with T cell supplementation, the OXA-induced metastasis was notably abolished, indicating that the OXA-primed liver microenvironment could be reversed by the infusion of T cells. Consistent with our findings in mice, a meta-analysis was performed to verify that chemotherapy-related lymphopenia was associated with an inferior prognosis related with high incidence of metastasis, suggesting the pivotal role of chemotherapy in pre-metastatic niche formation. Furthermore, a notable reduction in the count of both macrophages and T cells was observed in the liver of colorectal cancer (CRC) patient undergoing OXA-based chemotherapy. Conclusions: Our findings proposed that immunosuppressive microenvironment in liver induced by OXA enhanced liver metastasis of colorectal cancer, which highlighted a new consideration to balance the pro metastases and anti-cancer possibility of OXA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, is among the most important pests of citrus. It is the main vector of the Huanglongbing (HLB) pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), which causes severe losses in citrus crops. Control of D. citri is therefore of paramount importance to reduce the spread of HLB. In this regard, using RNA interference (RNAi) to silence target genes is a useful strategy to control psyllids. In this study, using RNAi, we examined the biological functions of the V‐ATPase subunit E (V‐ATP‐E) gene of D. citri, including its effect on acquisition of CLas. The amino acid sequence of V‐ATP‐E from D. citri had high homology with proteins from other insects. V‐ATP‐E was expressed at all D. citri life stages analyzed, and the expression level in mature adults was higher than that of teneral adults. Silencing of V‐ATP‐E resulted in a significant increase in mortality, reduced body weight, and induced cell apoptosis of the D. citri midgut. The reduced expression of V‐ATP‐E was indicated to inhibit CLas passing through the midgut and into the hemolymph, leading to a majority of CLas being confined to the midgut. In addition, double‐stranded RNA of D. citri V‐ATP‐E was safe to non‐target parasitic wasps. These results suggest that V‐ATP‐E is an effective RNAi target that can be used in D. citri control to block CLas infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is debated whether Cretaceous magmatism and mineralization in southeastern Yunnan (China) resulted from the subduction of Neo-Tethys or Paleo-Pacific lithosphere. To address this problem, we report whole-rock geochemical and Sr–Nd isotopic compositions and zircon U–Pb ages and Lu–Hf isotopic compositions from the Changlinggang syenites in the southeastern Yunnan Sn mineralization belt, western South China Block. LA–ICP–MS zircon U–Pb dating suggests that syenites were emplaced during the Late Cretaceous (79.2 ± 0.5 Ma). They contain nepheline and aegirine, and have high (K2O + Na2O) contents (16.0–18.6 wt %), K2O/Na2O ratios (0.7–1.7), FeOT/(FeOT + MgO) ratios (0.83–0.97), 104 × Ga/Al ratios (2.3–3.7), and (Zr + Nb + Ce + Y) contents (505–2138 ppm), which are typical of A-type granitoids. The samples have slightly more enriched initial Sr–Nd isotopic compositions than the coeval Jiasha gabbros, with (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.7088–0.7101 and εNd(Т) values of –7.5 to –6.6. The geochemical data suggest that the Changlinggang syenites were derived by partial melting of enriched lithospheric mantle that had been metasomatized by subducted-sediment-derived melts, followed by crustal assimilation and fractional crystallization of the partial melt during ascent. These results, along with those of previous studies, indicate that Cretaceous magmatism and mineralization in southeastern Yunnan were emplaced in an extensional setting related to subduction of Neo-Tethys lithosphere. Therefore, we propose that the Neo-Tethyan slab was subducted under the western South China Block during the Late Cretaceous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of multicomponent ligands to improve catalytic reactivity and selectivity remains a significant challenge for the synthesis of chiral building blocks. Here, a modular synthesis of structurally diverse multiligated platinum complexes, characterized by X‐ray crystallography, was revealed to open up a previously inaccessible reaction space. A library of more than 16 binary component‐ligated platinum complexes was identified as a practical toolkit to enable faster screening. The isolated bench‐stable PtII(oxazoline)(phosphine) complex paired with a chiral copper complex exhibits fundamentally new cooperative reactivity. The newly designed Pt/Cu dual catalytic system contributed to the development of highly enantioselective vinylogous addition reactions between a Pt‐activated electrophilic α,β‐unsaturated carbene and a Cu‐activated nucleophile, resulting in a reliable process for the asymmetric synthesis of valuable functionalized indoles in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of multicomponent ligands to improve catalytic reactivity and selectivity remains a significant challenge for the synthesis of chiral building blocks. Here, a modular synthesis of structurally diverse multiligated platinum complexes, characterized by X‐ray crystallography, was revealed to open up a previously inaccessible reaction space. A library of more than 16 binary component‐ligated platinum complexes was identified as a practical toolkit to enable faster screening. The isolated bench‐stable PtII(oxazoline)(phosphine) complex paired with a chiral copper complex exhibits fundamentally new cooperative reactivity. The newly designed Pt/Cu dual catalytic system contributed to the development of highly enantioselective vinylogous addition reactions between a Pt‐activated electrophilic α,β‐unsaturated carbene and a Cu‐activated nucleophile, resulting in a reliable process for the asymmetric synthesis of valuable functionalized indoles in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to research the noise generated by gas–liquid two-phase flow within capillary tubes in refrigeration systems, this study employs a numerical simulation method based on the volume of fluid model and evaporation-condensation model. The noise of gas–liquid two-phase flows is generated by refrigerant vaporization in capillary tubes under different inlet temperatures and diameters. The results of this study showed that two-phase flow noise in capillary tubes predominantly exists in the frequency range of 0–200 Hz, corresponding to low-frequency noise. Under different inlet temperature and diameter conditions, the total sound pressure level (TSPL) of a two-phase flow noise increased with the increase in the capillary tube diameter. Moreover, when the inlet temperature was 316.6 K, as the diameter increased from 1 to 1.9 mm, TSPL increased from 32.02 to 34.36 dB. In addition, as the inlet temperature gradually decreased, TSPL increased. Furthermore, it was found that the lower the inlet temperature, the greater the increase in TSPL. When the inlet temperatures were 316.6, 313.6, 310.6, and 307.6 K, and the diameter increased from 1 to 1.9 mm, TSPL increased by 2.34, 3.41, 4.1, and 5.38 dB, respectively, corresponding to the relative increase of 7.31%, 10.23%, 11.85%, and 15.34%. Finally, using an orthogonal analysis, a criterion relationship was obtained for predicting the TSPL of gas–liquid two-phase flow noises in capillary tubes under different conditions. This study provides guidance for noise control and structural optimization of capillary tubes considering the gas–liquid two-phase flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: By comparing the differences in plant use between various cultures or regions, we can gain a better understanding of traditional knowledge of plant use among different groups, which may lead to a more objective understanding. Even though the Tibetan and Daman people live in the same ecosystem in Gyirong town, China, their cultural backgrounds and livelihoods differ. Therefore, the objective of this study is to document the traditional knowledge of plant use among the Daman people and compare it with the local Tibetan knowledge of plant use. By doing so, we aim to explore the relationship between plant selection and use and the cultural backgrounds of different groups. Methods: During fieldwork, ethnobotanical data were collected using various methods including free listings, key informant interviews, and semi-structured interviews. To quantify the importance of plant species in the Daman people's culture, the culture importance index, informant consensus factor index, and The Index of Agreement on Species consensus (IASc) were used. In addition, we cited previous ethnobotanical survey data from the Tibetan in Gyirong. To more comprehensively compare the differences in plant use between the Daman and Tibetan, this study constructed a knowledge network to compare the knowledge differences between the two groups. Results: In this study, traditional knowledge was collected from 32 Daman informants, resulting in a total of 68 species belonging to 39 families mentioned by Daman people and 111 species mentioned by Tibetans. Of these, 58 plants were used by both populations. The plants were classified into 3 categories and 28 subcategories, with 22 identical classes in both groups. The majority of use categories showed a high degree of sharing in both groups, and the Tibetan people had more plant use categories than the Daman people. Five plants with IASc value > 0.5 were identified in both groups: Rhododendron anthopogon D. Don, Artemisia japonica Thunb., Juniperus indica Bertol., Gastrodia elata Blume, and Rheum australe D. Don. The analysis of the knowledge network revealed a 66% overlap between the knowledge of the Daman and the knowledge of the Tibetans. Additionally, the plant knowledge of Tibetan people was found to be richer and more complex than that of the Daman people. However, the Daman people possess 30 unique knowledge items. Conclusions: From the perspective of plant use, the history of the Daman people's discrete migration on the border between China and Nepal allows them to retain their own knowledge of plant use. The status quo of joining Chinese nationality and settling in Gyirong town allows them to gradually integrate into the local Tibetan society. In summary, despite living in the same ecosystem and biodiversity background, the plant utilization of the Daman people and Tibetans still shows significant differences, which are due to their different cultural backgrounds and social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was proposed recently that the fine-grained entropy of the Hawking radiation can be expressed by the semiclassical island formula, which reproduces the unitary Page curve. In this paper, we choose the "in" vacuum state and apply the quantum extremal surface construction to study the Page curve for the step-function Vaidya model of evaporating black holes in four dimensions, which is produced by the spherical null shells. Metrics of the three regions of this spacetimes are obtained. In addition, the entanglement islands for the step-function Vaidya model of evaporating black holes at very late times are studied. When cutoff surface A is located in Minkowski region III with uA< uH at very late times, we find that the location of the boundary of island ∂I depends on the value of 8M − vA + vI. Specifically, ∂I is inside, at or outside the horizon when 8M − vA + vI is less than, equal to or larger than zero respectively. Moreover, when cutoff surface A is located in Minkowski region III with uA> uH after the black hole evaporates completely, we find that entanglement island still exists and ∂I is located on an equal-time Cauchy surface of the observer A when r A 2 ≥ 64GNκc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Ectodysplasin A (EDA), a member of the TNF family, plays important roles in ectodermal development, while recent studies expanded its regulatory effects on insulin resistance and lipid metabolism. This study was the first time to investigate the correlation between circulating EDA and albuminuria in patients with T2DM. Methods. A total of 189 T2DM and 59 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. We analyzed the concentrations of EDA by ELISA. Plasma glucose, insulin, HbA1c, lipids, creatinine, BUN, and UACR were also measured. Insulin resistance and pancreatic cell function were assessed by HOMA. Results. Circulating EDA concentration was significantly increased in T2DM patients and increased with the degree of albuminuria. EDA was positively correlated with age, FIns, HOMA-IR, HOMA-β, Scr, and UACR, and negatively correlated with eGFR. Linear stepwise regression showed that FIns, HOMA-β, and UACR were independent influencing factors of EDA. Logistic regression analysis showed that EDA was independently associated with the occurrence of albuminuria in T2DM. ROC curve showed that EDA had an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.701 [ 95 % CI = 0.625 − 0.777 , P < 0.001 ]. Conclusion. EDA is positively correlated with the degree of albuminuria in patients with T2DM and may be involved in the occurrence and progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garnet‐based solid‐state Li‐metal batteries (GSSBs) have the merits of high energy density and high safety. However, the realization of a stable and well‐matched Li|garnet interface for GSSBs remains challenging due to electron leakage and lithiophobic Li2CO3 impurity. To address these issues, herein, new surface chemistry is reported that converts the undesired Li2CO3 contaminant into an ultra‐thin lithium polyphosphate (Li‐PPA) layer through anhydrous polyphosphoric acid ‐induced in situ substitution reaction without damaging the water‐sensitive garnet electrolyte. In particular, the Li‐PPA interlayer not only facilitates the homogenous spreading of molten Li but also creates a robust electron‐blocking shield to suppress Li dendrite formation. As a result, the assembled Li symmetric cell exhibits a low interfacial impedance (4 Ω cm2) and high critical current density (1.8 mA cm−2) at 25 °C, which enables the cell to continuously cycle over 2500 h at 0.2 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the GSSBs paired with LiFePO4 deliver a high capacity of 149.3 mAh g−1 at 1 C and maintain 92.3% of the initial capacity after 500 cycles and can be used for solar energy storage, suggesting the feasibility of this interfacial engineering strategy for GSSBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that engineered surface enabling remarkable phase change heat transfer have elicited increasing attention due to their ubiquitous applications in thermal management, the underlying mechanisms of intrinsic rough structures as well as the surface wettability on bubble dynamics remain to be explored. Therefore, a modified molecular dynamics simulation of nanoscale boiling was conducted in the present work to investigate bubble nucleation on rough nanostructured substrates with different liquid–solid interactions. Specifically, the initial stage of nucleate boiling was mainly investigated and the bubble dynamic behaviors were quantitively studied under different energy coefficients. Results shows that as the contact angle decreases, the nucleation rate increases, because liquid obtains more thermal energy there compared with that on less wetting surfaces. The rough profiles of the substrate can provide nanogrooves, which can enhance initial nucleate embryos, thereby improving thermal energy transfer efficiency. Moreover, atomic energies are calculated and adopted to explain how bubble nuclei are formed on various wetting substrates. The simulation results are expected to provide guidance towards surface design in state–of–the art thermal management systems, such as the surface wettability and the nanoscale surface patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reveal the mechanism of the effect of audible sound waves on the heat transfer process, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of an air-to-air heat exchanger were analyzed by incidence of sound waves with different intensities on its cold, hot, and both sides. The results showed that the sound waves incident on the cold side enhanced the heat exchange between the unstable cold flow and hot surface, which decreased the surface temperature of the latter with an increasing sound pressure level (SPL). In contrast, the sound waves incident on the hot side increased the surface temperature, thereby enhancing the heat transfer performance. When the SPL increased to 140 dB, the average surface heat flux increased by 8.22% and 15.19% under the sound waves incident on the cold and hot sides, respectively, whereas the sound energy efficiency was relatively higher with the sound waves incident on the cold side. Additionally, under the synergetic effect of the incidence of sound waves on both sides on the flow characteristics, the average surface heat flux increased by 25.56%. It was higher than the summation of the corresponding fluxes under the incidence of sound waves on single side, while the sound energy efficiency decreased under high SPL. The results indicated that sound waves incident on both sides can effectively enhance the heat transfer performance. This research is significant for the application of sound waves on the heat transfer process of air-to-air heat exchange systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lagerstroemia indica L. is a well-known ornamental plant with large pyramidal racemes, long flower duration, and diverse colors and cultivars. It has been cultivated for nearly 1600 years and is essential for investigating the germplasm and assessing genetic variation to support international cultivar identification and breeding programs. In this study, 20 common Lagerstroemia indica cultivars from different varietal groups and flower morphologies, as well as multiple wild relative species, were analyzed to investigate the maternal donor of Lagerstroemia indica cultivars and to discover the genetic variation and relationships among cultivars based on plastome and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) sequences. A total of 47 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 24 insertion/deletions (indels) were identified in the 20 L. indica cultivars' plastome and 25 SNPs were identified in the nrDNA. Phylogenetic analysis based on the plastome sequences showed that all the cultivars formed a clade with the species of L. indica, indicating that L. indica was the maternal donor of the cultivars. Population structure and PCA analyses supported two clades of cultivars, which exhibited significant genetic differences according to the plastome dataset. The results of the nrDNA supported that all 20 cultivars were divided into three clades and most of the cultivars had at least two genetic backgrounds and higher gene flow. Our results suggest that the plastome and nrDNA sequences can be used as molecular markers for assessing the genetic variation and relationships of L. indica cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish an optimal L p -regularity theory for solutions to fourth order elliptic systems with antisymmetric potentials in all supercritical dimensions n ≥ 5 : Δ 2 u = Δ (D · ∇ u) + div (E · ∇ u) + (Δ Ω + G) · ∇ u + f in B n , where Ω ∈ W 1 , 2 (B n , s o m) is antisymmetric and f ∈ L p (B n) , and D , E , Ω , G satisfy the growth condition (GC-4), under the smallness condition of a critical scale invariant norm of ∇ u and ∇ 2 u . This system was brought into lights from the study of regularity of (stationary) biharmonic maps between manifolds by Lamm–Rivière, Struwe, and Wang. In particular, our results improve Struwe's Hölder regularity theorem to any Hölder exponent α ∈ (0 , 1) when f ≡ 0 , and have applications to both approximate biharmonic maps and heat flow of biharmonic maps. As a by-product of our techniques, we also partially extend the L p -regularity theory of approximate harmonic maps by Moser to Rivière-Struwe's second order elliptic systems with antisymmetric potentials under the growth condition (GC-2) in all dimensions n ≥ 2 when p > n 2 , which partially confirms an interesting expectation by Sharp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diarylamines and related scaffolds are ubiquitous atropisomeric chemotypes in biologically active natural products. However, the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of these axially chiral compounds remains largely unexplored. Herein, we report that a BINOL‐derived chiral phosphoric acid (CPA) successfully catalyzed the atroposelective coupling of quinone esters and anilines through direct C−N bond formation to afford N‐aryl quinone atropisomers with an unprecedented intramolecular N−H−O hydrogen bond within a six‐membered ring in good yields and enantioselectivities with the quinone ester as both the electrophile and the oxidant. A gram‐scale experiment demonstrated the utility of this synthetic protocol. Moreover, this methodology provides a platform for the synthesis of structurally diverse secondary amine atropisomers by nucleophilic addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diarylamines and related scaffolds are ubiquitous atropisomeric chemotypes in biologically active natural products. However, the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of these axially chiral compounds remains largely unexplored. Herein, we report that a BINOL‐derived chiral phosphoric acid (CPA) successfully catalyzed the atroposelective coupling of quinone esters and anilines through direct C−N bond formation to afford N‐aryl quinone atropisomers with an unprecedented intramolecular N−H−O hydrogen bond within a six‐membered ring in good yields and enantioselectivities with the quinone ester as both the electrophile and the oxidant. A gram‐scale experiment demonstrated the utility of this synthetic protocol. Moreover, this methodology provides a platform for the synthesis of structurally diverse secondary amine atropisomers by nucleophilic addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) is a synthetic analog of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that activates anti-infective innate immunity. The underlying mechanisms are identified as targeting pattern recognition receptors and Th1-inducing. However, whether poly I:C manipulates metabolism to implement this anti-infective function is unknown. Here, GC-MS based metabolomics was used to characterize metabolic profiles induced by different doses of poly I:C. Analysis on the dose-dependent metabolomes shows that elevation of the TCA cycle and malate with the increasing dose of ploy I:C forms the most characteristic feature of the poly I:C stimulation. Exogenous malate activates the TCA cycle and elevates survival of zebrafish infected with Vibrio alginolyticus , which is related to the elevated expression of il-1b, il-6, il-8, tnf-a , and c3b. These results reveal a previously unknown regulation of poly I:C that boosts the TCA cycle to enhance innate immunity against bacterial infection. • Metabolic profiles induced by different doses of poly I:C. was characterized. • Elevated TCA cycle and malate forms the most characteristic feature. • Malate boosts TCA cycle and elevates zebrafish survival post bacterial infection. • This is related to the elevated expression of il-1b, il-6, il-8, tnf-a , and c3b. • These reveal a metabolic modulation of poly I:C against bacterial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gyirong Valley known as the "Back Garden of the Himalayas" is located in the core area of the Everest National Nature Reserve. It is also one of the important ports from ancient Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal, since ancient times. Over the years, the Tibetans of Gyirong had accumulated sufficient traditional knowledge about local plant resources. However, there is almost no comprehensive report available on ethnobotanical knowledge about the local people. The purposes of this study were to (1) conduct a comprehensive study of wild plants used by Tibetan people in Gyirong Valley and record the traditional knowledge associated with wild useful plants, (2) explore the influence of Tibetan traditional culture and economic development on the use of wild plants by local people, and (3) explore the characteristics of traditional knowledge about wild plants of Tibetans in Gyirong. Methods: Ethnobotanical data were documented through free listings, key informant interviews and semi-structured interviews during fieldwork. The culture importance index and the informant consensus factor index were used as quantitative indices. Results: In total, 120 informants (61 women and 59 men) and 3333 use reports and 111 wild plant species belonging to 39 families and 81 genera were included. These use reports were then classified into 27 categories belonging to three major categories. The use category that contained the most plant species was edible plants (62), followed by medicinal plants (32) and economic plants (22), and other uses (71). Plants with high CI included Allium prattii, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Gymnadenia orchidis, Rhododendron anthopogon and Fritillaria cirrhosa. Thirty-six species of plants in the catalog of Gyirong and Yadong were the same, but only 17 species were the same in Gyirong and Burang. There were only 11 overlapping species between all the three regions. Conclusion: Tibetans of Gyirong have rich and unique knowledge about plant use, and wild edible and medicinal plants play an important role in the nutrition and health protection of local people. However, traditional knowledge is slowly being lost and is being hit by modern tourism. In the future, more attention needs to be paid to the important role of traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triterpene scaffolds are cyclized by differential functional genes of the oxidosqualene cyclase (OSC) gene family, which are widely present in plant species. Thirty‐nine OSCs were identified from the hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genome. The gene structure organization and the distribution of conserved motifs of OSCs gene family revealed that the TaOSC proteins are highly conserved. By phylogenetic analysis, all OSC proteins from wheat and other cereal crops were clustered into 11 subfamilies (I–XI). Based on the publicly available transcriptional profiling, the tissue‐specific expression patterns of TaOSC during several developmental stages revealed diverged expression patterns, indicating that the TaOSC family has undergone subfunctionalization. Furthermore, homeolog expression bias was commonly detected in the TaOSC subfamilies, such as the expression of Ta5A004900 and Ta5D011800 in the subfamily II were specifically expressed in the leaf sheath and flag leaf sheath. In addition, two genes were strongly induced by Pst, indicating that the two homolog genes are involved in the resistance to powdery mildew. Molecular evolution analysis indicated that the TaOSC family genes were undergone purifying selection. So, the powdery mildew response may be very conservative and important biological function of the Ta5A004900 and Ta5D011800 in wheat. In conclusion, these results can be used to explore the diversity of triterpenes and clarify the mechanism of triterpene cyclization, and also provide useful information for future studies on the function of the TaOSC gene family in bread wheat and other important crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retention of arsenic (As) during coal combustion facilitates As emission control. A fixed-bed experimental system was used to conduct devolatilization and char combustion experiments at 1100–1300 °C using three types of coal. Both processes contributed to the As release. As in coal was bound to carbonate, oxide, sulfide, and aluminosilicate (Als-As). During devolatilization, carbonate- and oxide-bound As and Als-As remained stable, while sulfide-bound As was completely decomposed. The gaseous As was partially retained as Char-As. During char combustion, Char-As was oxidized to As 2 O 3 , which was partially retained by minerals. Carbonate- and oxide-bound As reacted with silicon (Si) and aluminum (Al) to produce Als-As, which was the main As form in ash. As retention was significantly inhibited by the destruction of the lattice structure. As retention by char during devolatilization and minerals during char combustion promoted As enrichment in solid products and its removal. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from December 2019, the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is continuously expanding and has caused several millions of deaths worldwide. Fast and accurate diagnostic methods for COVID-19 detection play a vital role in containing the plague. Chest computed tomography (CT) is one of the most commonly used diagnosis methods. However, a complete CT-scan has hundreds of slices, and it is time-consuming for radiologists to check each slice to diagnose COVID-19. This study introduces a novel method for fast and automated COVID-19 diagnosis using the chest CT scans. The proposed models are based on the state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture, and a 2D global max pooling (globalMaxPool2D) layer is used to improve the performance. We compare the proposed models to the existing state-of-the-art deep learning models such as CNN based models and vision transformer (ViT) models. Based off of metric such as area under curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and false discovery rate (FDR), experimental results show that the proposed models outperform the previous methods, and the best model achieves an area under curve of 0.9744 and accuracy 94.12% on our test datasets. It is also shown that the accuracy is improved by around 1% by using the 2D global max pooling layer. Moreover, a heatmap method to highlight the lesion area on COVID-19 chest CT images is introduced in the paper. This heatmap method is helpful for a radiologist to identify the abnormal pattern of COVID-19 on chest CT images. In addition, we also developed a freely accessible online simulation software for automated COVID-19 detection using CT images. The proposed deep learning models and software tool can be used by radiologist to diagnose COVID-19 more accurately and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the quiet centrifugal pump design, the effect of number of blades on the flow-induced noise is explored. The results show that the sound pressure fluctuation is generated due to the influence of sound source fluctuation and adjacent spatial locations, and the fluctuation ranges of sound source and sound pressure at the same location change little with the change in the number of blades. Additionally, the total sound source intensity increases along the flow direction in the volute under the same rotational radius, while it increases slowly and even decreases near the outlet of the impeller, which causes similar evolution characteristics of noise. Besides, the volume-weighted standard deviation of sound source (V-STDSS) is proposed to characterize the overall sound intensity, and the V-STDSS proportion of impeller is more than 0.6. The impeller with an even number of blades has a better sound performance, while the noise induced by volute with an odd number of blades is lower. Generally, the centrifugal pumps with an even number of blades have a better sound performance. This research can guide the noise control and optimization design of centrifugal pumps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by a challenging expectation of Rivière [24] , in the recent interesting work [5] , de Longueville and Gastel proposed the following geometrical even order elliptic system Δ m u = ∑ l = 0 m − 1 Δ l 〈 V l , d u 〉 + ∑ l = 0 m − 2 Δ l δ (w l d u) in B 2 m which includes polyharmonic mappings as special cases. Under minimal regularity assumptions on the coefficient functions and an additional algebraic antisymmetry assumption on the first order potential, they successfully established a conservation law for this system, from which everywhere continuity of weak solutions follows. This beautiful result amounts to a significant advance in the expectation of Rivière. In this paper, we seek for the optimal interior regularity of the above system, aiming at a more complete solution to the aforementioned expectation of Rivière. Combining their conservation law and some new ideas together, we obtain optimal Hölder continuity and sharp L p regularity theory, similar to that of Sharp and Topping [27] , for weak solutions to a related inhomogeneous system. Our results can be applied to study heat flow and bubbling analysis for polyharmonic mappings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Hallux valgus is a common disease which causes pain and dysfunction of the foot. Although numerous methods of procedures have been introduced, a single procedure cannot correct all deformities of hallux valgus. The study aims to evaluate the radiographic and clinical effectiveness of a new minimally invasive surgery (MIS) versus open Chevron-Akin procedures. Methods: This was a retrospective comparative study. Data were collected from May 2018 to January 2020. A total of 27 patients (31 feet) undergoing MIS for hallux valgus were included in this study. The average age of patients underwent MIS was 59.9 years. The mean follow-up was 25.1 months. Open osteotomies were performed in 30 patients (31 feet) during the same period. The mean age of these patients at the time of surgery was 59.1 years. The mean follow-up was 26.1 months. Pre-operative and post-operative radiographic outcome measures included HVA, IMA, DMAA, the Sgarlato's angle and the length of the first metatarsal, and distance between the dorsal cortex of first and second metatarsal necks. The AOFAS and VAS were used to assess foot function. Results: The preoperative HVA in MIS group and open group were 34.8° and 33.1° respectively. The post-operative HVA were 20.4° and 13.7°. The pre-operative IMA in MIS group and open group were 13.0° and 12.1°. The post-operative IMA were 11.4° and 5.5° respectively. The pre-operative DMAA were 14.8° and 15.1° respectively. The post-operative DMAA were 6.3° and 8.7°. The AOFAS increased from 44.0 to 90.2 in MIS group and from 47.6 to 89.5 in open group. The VAS decreased from 7.3 to 1.3 in MIS group and from 7.1 to 1.2 in open group. Conclusion: Although open osteotomies were superior than MIS in HVA and IMA, MIS showed advantages in correcting DMAA. MIS provided equivalent functional outcomes compared to open surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using first-principles methods, we investigated the effect of structural deformation on the electronic and magnetic properties of Sr 3 Ir 2 O 7 by two tuning ways: reducing only the interlayer spacing and the uniaxial-like compression. In both cases, an insulator-metal transition is successfully achieved with significantly different Fermi surface features. The former consists of a hole pocket and an electronic pocket, while for the latter, a pseudo-gap is captured near the center of the crystallographic Brillouin zone. The anti-ferromagnetism collapses completely and is not fully synchronized with the closing of the Mott gap in two kinds of compression cases, indicating that the conventional correlation between magnetic order and Mott insulating state does not exist here. Our research is conducive to understand the nature of lattice distortion-induced electronic and magnetic transitions, and will be expected to provide a new theoretical reference for the experimental regulation of novel metallic properties in iridium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Studying coupled effects of hydrogen, temperature, and surface on GS80A mechanics. • Analyzing microstructures in fractures of GS80A at diverse environmental conditions. • Proposing heuristic micro-mechanisms governing temperature and hydrogen effects. In a hydrogen (H) rich environment, metal materials are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement (HE), resulting in a reduction in mechanical properties and raising safety concerns. Moreover, the mechanical behavior of metals can be markedly influenced by temperature and surface roughness. In the context of ensuring the safety of high-strength GS80A steel bolts submerged in underwater seawater conditions, this study systematically conducts mechanical tests with and without H pre-charging at varying temperatures, using specimens with different surface roughness. It is found that the combined effect of H and temperature on mechanical property losses surpasses the individual effects of H or temperature alone. Notably, observations of fracture surfaces in the broken specimens reveal a significant impact on the area fraction of cleavage steps, strongly associated with material ductility, by both H and temperature. Furthermore, the influence of surface roughness on the H-affected mechanical behavior is minimal compared to the temperature effect, based on our experiments. Finally, the micro-mechanics of the coupled environmental effects are thoroughly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-hoc explaining approaches for deep learning (DL) models has attracted much attention in safety–critical applications such as rotating machinery intelligent fault diagnosis (IFD). However, with the help of the explanation techniques, the models are still fragile to domain shifts caused by varying speeds and loads without help for improving their cross-domain performance. Since humans in the decision-making loop are essential for a reliable diagnostic system to determine the reliability of diagnosis, this paper proposes a causal explaining guided domain generalization (CXDG) method to realize trust worthy IFD with human in the decision loop. Specifically, an explaining model is trained with the conditional mutual information, which is a causal strength metric, and utilized to tell the causal features in the input data as the attributions of the diagnostic model. A translation process of the attributions is proposed to make the explaining process understandable. Furthermore, the aim of this paper is not only explaining but also beyond that the diagnostic model is guided to focus on the causal features to improve its generalization ability in unseen domains. The effectiveness of the method is validated on two experiment datasets. The results show that the proposed method can both explain the attributions of the diagnosis model and be beneficial to the generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous networks, like social and academic networks are widespread in the real world, characterized by diverse nodes and complex relationships. Influence maximization is a crucial research topic, in these networks, as it can help in comprehending the mechanisms of information propagation and diffusion. Effectively utilizing complex structural information poses a challenge in current research on influence maximization in heterogeneous information networks. As a solution to this problem, a heterogeneous network influence maximization algorithm based on the multi-scale propagation strength and repulsive force of propagation field is proposed. Firstly, based on the propagation field, we design a multi-scale propagation strength index for the propagation ability of nodes to achieve maximum coverage of influence propagation. Specifically, in the homogeneous structure, the homogeneous propagation strength describes the propagation ability of nodes. In the heterogeneous structure, the heterogeneous shallow propagation strength and the heterogeneous deep propagation strength are designed to exploit the local and global spreading ability of nodes using meta-paths and link prediction based on graph neural networks, respectively. Secondly, to ensure the minimum overlap in the propagation range of seed nodes, we designed the overlapping repulsive force between node pairs in the propagation field. Finally, considering the complexity of the propagation process of heterogeneous information networks, an independent cascade model based on meta-paths is proposed. Based on experiments conducted with several datasets, our algorithm outperforms baseline algorithms for solving influence maximization problem. • Propose a propagation field for solving the influence maximization problem. • Takes advantage of the heterogeneous network's different structural scales. • GNN is trained for link prediction to mine the global propagation range of nodes. • Propose independent cascade model based on meta-path for heterogeneous networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual object tracking is a basic task in the field of computer vision. Despite the rapid development of visual object tracking, it is not reliable to use only visible light images for object tracking in some cases. Since visible light and thermal infrared images have complementary advantages in imaging, and the use of them as a joint input for tracking becomes more noted, this kind of tracking is RGBT tracking. The existing RGBT tracking can be divided into image-level fusion tracking, feature-level fusion tracking, and response-level fusion tracking. Compared with the first two, response-level fusion tracking can use deeper dual-mode image information, but most of them use traditional tracking methods and introduce weights at inappropriate stages. Based on the above, we propose a response-level fusion tracking algorithm that employed deep learning. And the weight distribution is placed in the feature extraction stage, for which we design the joint modal channel attention module. We adopt the Siamese framework and expand it into a dual Siamese subnetwork. In the meantime, we improve the regional proposal subnetwork and propose the strategy for fusing two modal predicted position maps. To verify the performance of our algorithm, we conducted experiments on two tracking benchmarks. After testing, our algorithm has very good performance and runs at 116 frames per second, which far exceeds the real-time requirement of 25 frames per second. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum-enhanced measurement can unambiguously discriminate coherent states with accuracy beyond what is fundamentally possible with conventional technologies. However, this advantage can be achieved only if quantum-enhanced measurement technologies are robust against to real-world imperfections. Improving resistance to real-world imperfections such as imperfect interference and dark count rate to enhance performance is of particular importance for an unambiguous state discrimination scenario. In this paper, we demonstrate an optimized decision strategy for quadrature phase-shift-keying unambiguous states discrimination, which to make the correct probability close to optimal. In addition, the error probability of the scheme is lower than ideal heterodyne measurement scheme when the average photon number of the signal is less than 4.5. The optimized decision strategy is based on the probability of photon-detection in measurement. Our demonstration shows that optimized decision strategy can provide practical advantages over conventional technologies for coherent optical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Plant resources gathered from the wild are important sources of livelihood needs, especially for low-income populations living in remote areas, who rely on these plants for food, fuelwood, medicine and building materials. Yadong County is a valley at the border between the China, India and Bhutan in southern Tibet. Yadong is rich in biodiversity and culture, but ethnobotanical knowledge has not been systematically studied. This study aimed to document the ethnobotanical knowledge of Tibetans in Yadong County. Methods: Ethnobotanical data were documented through free listings, key informant interviews, and semi-structured interviews during fieldwork. The culture importance index (CI) and informant consensus factor index (FIC) were used as the quantitative indices. Results: In total, 163 informants (46 women and 117 men). A total of 3,031 use reports and 121 plant species belonging to 52 families and 91 genera were included. These use reports were then classified into 20 categories belonging to 9 major categories. The utilisation category that containing the most plant species was food, followed by economic, medicine, animal feed, social uses, other uses, environmental uses, materials and fuels. Among the economic plants, 32 medicinal plants are traditionally used in the local region. Plants with high CI included Fritillaria cirrhosa, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Betula utilis, Rheum nobile, and Urtica hyperborean. Conclusion: This research demonstrates the diversity of the types and functions of Yadong Tibetan traditional plant knowledge. Knowledge of edible and medicinal plants in this area is prominent, reflecting the ability to cope with the lack of fruits and vegetables and basic family medical care. There were exchanges between the traditional plant culture in the study area and its surroundings. With socioeconomic development, the commercial value of medicinal plants has increased, and locals are also seeking ways to adoptsustainable development to cope with the excessive consumption of plant resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The wooden bowl is an important symbol of the Tibetan cultures, yet, in China, little has been documented regarding the raw materials used to make these items as well as their cultural significance in Tibet. This study explores the ethnobotanical uses of plants used to make wooden bowls to understand their sustainability, cultural significance, and current status of related traditional knowledge in Gyirong Town, which is one of the most famous places for wooden bowl making. Materials and methods: Between 2019 and 2021, key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, and participatory observations were used to conduct ethnobotanical field surveys in Gyirong Valley. The field work was performed with the assistance of local guides. In this study, we utilized a use-report (UR) to reflect the number of mentions of a species by locals. Results: Our results show that 16 different plants are used during the wooden bowl making process, of which nine are used as raw materials, three for dyeing, and four for varnishing. Although communities rely heavily on these plants, good management and collection methods were observed. We also documented the use of Fallopia denticulata as a red dye and four species of Impatiens as wood varnishes for the first time. Conclusion: The wooden bowl craftsmen and their housewives have a wealth of traditional knowledge of using plants to make wooden bowls in Gyirong Town. And the wooden bowls are now also offering benefits to the locals as well. The government and local people are committed to the protection and development of traditional knowledge related to wooden bowls, and this knowledge maintains a healthy degree of vitality. This research can provide insights into the vitality of traditional handicrafts that are facing challenges and promote their protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient capture of radioactive iodine and sensitive detection of picric acid are very important to environmental protection. Herein, we synthesized two new flexible 4,4′-thiodianiline (TDA)-based covalent organic frameworks (TTDA and HTDA) by using simple Schiff-base polycondensation reactions with flexible 4,4′-thiodianiline (TDA) and 2,4,6-tris(4-formylphenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TPT − 3 − CHO) and hexa(4-formyl-phenoxy)cyclotriphosphazene (NOP − 6 − CHO). The flexible TDA-based COFs are porous, crystalline, and show high thermal stability and good chemical stability. Due to the high content of heteroatoms, abundant aromatic rings, and orderly network, it is conducive to electron transfer, the as-prepared flexible TDA-based COFs show outstanding dual properties of iodine adsorption and fluorescence sensing. The maximum iodine capacities of TTDA and HTDA are as high as 3.34 and 4.38 g g−1, respectively. The flexible TDA-based COFs can be used for sensing picric acid with low limits of detection (LODs) of 1.25 × 10−9 and 1.67 × 10−9 mol L−1 and high quenching constants (K SV) of 6.00 × 104 and 4.88 × 104 L mol−1, respectively. • Two new flexible TDA-based COFs with dual functions of iodine adsorption and fluorescence sensing PA were synthesized by Schiff base reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A steady flow with a high flow rate, oscillating flow, and audible sound waves can enhance the heat transfer performance in air-to-air heat exchangers, while the comparison of influence mechanisms and degrees of different methods is ignored. This study investigates flow instability and heat transfer characteristics in an air-to-air heat exchanger under steady flow, oscillating flow and sound waves. The results show that steady flow and oscillating flow with different amplitudes have little effect on the distribution characteristics of velocity and vortices. However, the vortices disappear and generate periodically under 140 dB. Moreover, oscillating flow and sound waves exert distinct influences on flow instability. The cold side experiences the highest increase in turbulence kinetic energy when subjected to high-amplitude oscillating flow, while the greatest increase on the hot side occurs under high-amplitude sound waves, and the influence of steady flow on turbulence kinetic energy is relatively low. Additionally, the steady flow enhances the heat transfer performance by increasing flow rate, while the oscillating flow and sound waves promote the heat transfer between the fluid and surface. Under the effect of steady flow, oscillating flow, and sound waves, the values of heat flux are 1.22, 1.24, and 1.31 times that of the initial condition with the amplitude increasing to 0.683 m/s (140 dB). The results demonstrate that with the increase in amplitude acting on the inlet, the sound waves have the greatest impact on heat transfer performance, followed by oscillating flow, and the effect of steady flow is relatively slight. The research can provide guidelines for the development of heat transfer enhancement in air-to-air heat exchangers. • Effects of steady, oscillating flow, and sound waves on heat transfer are compared. • Oscillating flow and sound waves exert the distinct effects on flow instability. • Sound waves with high amplitude alter the evolution of vortex structure. • Increase in flow instability contributes more to heat transfer than that in velocity. • Sound waves with high amplitude enhance the air heat transfer significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the heat flow and bubble analysis of biharmonic mappings, we study further regularity issues of the fourth order Lamm–Rivière system Δ 2 u = Δ (V · ∇ u) + div (w ∇ u) + (∇ ω + F) · ∇ u + f in dimension four, with an inhomogeneous term f which belongs to some natural function space. We obtain optimal higher order regularity and sharp Hölder continuity of weak solutions. Among several applications, we derive weak compactness for sequences of weak solutions with uniformly bounded energy, which generalizes the weak convergence theory of approximate biharmonic mappings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a destructive disease of citrus primarily transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). Biocontrol of ACP is an environmentally sustainable alternative to chemicals. However, the risk of parasitoid rational application in ACP biocontrol has never been evaluated. Here we show, the dominant parasitoid of ACP, Tamarixia radiata, can acquire the HLB pathogen Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) and transmit it horizontally when probing ACP nymphs. If these ACP nymphs survive the probing, develop to adults and move to healthy plants, CLas can be transmitted to citrus leaves during feeding. We illustrate the formerly unrecognized risk that a parasitoid can potentially serve as a phoretic vector of the pathogen transmitted by its host, thus potentially diminishing some of the benefits it confers via biocontrol. Our findings present a significant caution to the strategy of using parasitoids in orchards with different infection status of insect-vectored pathogens. Guo et al. demonstrate the possibility of a parasitoid to contract and transmit a bacterial pathogen via its insect host to the citrus plant it is used to protect. This reduces the efficacy of the biological control agent to protect the plant from ill effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we survey the existence, uniqueness and interior regularity of solutions to the Dirichlet problem associated with various energy functionals in the setting of mappings between singular metric spaces. Based on known ideas and techniques, we separate the necessary analytical assumptions to axiomatizing the theory in the singular setting. More precisely, (1) we extend the existence result of Guo and Wenger (Comm Anal Geom 28(1):89–112, 2020) for solutions to the Dirichlet problem of Korevaar–Schoen energy functional to more general energy functionals in purely singular setting. (2) When Y has non-positive curvature in the sense of Alexandrov (NPC), we show that the ideas of Jost (Calc Var Partial Differ Equ 5(1):1–19, 1997) and Lin (Analysis on singular spaces, collection of papers on geometry, analysis and mathematical physics, World Science Publishers, River Edge, pp 114–126, 1997) can be adapted to the purely singular setting to yield local Hölder continuity of solutions of the Dirichlet problem of Korevaar–Schoen and Kuwae–Shioya. (3) We extend the Liouville theorem of Sturm (J Reine Angew Math 456:173–196, 1994) for harmonic functions to harmonic mappings between singular metric spaces. (4) We extend the theorem of Mayer (Comm Anal Geom 6:199–253, 1998) on the existence of the harmonic mapping flow and solve the corresponding initial boundary value problem. Combing these known ideas, with the more or less standard techniques from analysis on metric spaces based on upper gradients, leads to new results when we consider harmonic mappings from RCD (K , N) spaces into NPC spaces. Similar results for the Dirichlet problem associated with the Kuwae–Shioya energy functional and the upper gradient functional are also derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chlamydomonas reinhardtii serves as a model organism for photosynthesis research. • C. reinhardtii cia5 mutant lacks a functional carbon-concentrating mechanism. • Metabolic profiles of cia5 mutant were changed as compared to a wild type strain. • The cia5 mutant produced substantial amounts of glycolate at the autotrophic phase. • This metabolomic approach is a tool for understanding the photosynthetic mechanisms. The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii serves as a model organism for plant and photosynthesis research due to many commonalities in metabolism and to the fast growth rate of C. reinhardtii which accelerates experimental turnaround time. In addition, C. reinhardtii is a focus of research efforts in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for the potential production of biofuels and value-added chemicals. Here, we report that the C. reinhardtii cia5 mutant, which lacks a functional carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM), can produce substantial amounts of glycolate, a high-value cosmetic ingredient, when the mutant is cultured under ambient air conditions. In order to reveal the metabolic basis of glycolate accumulation by the cia5 mutant, we investigated the metabolomes of the cia5 mutant and a wild type strain CC-125 (WT) through the global metabolic profiling of intracellular and extracellular fractions using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. We observed the intracellular and extracellular metabolic profiles of the WT and the cia5 mutant were similar during the mixotrophic phase at 30 h. However, when the cells entered the photoautotrophic phase (i.e., 96 h and 120 h), both the intracellular and extracellular metabolic profiles of cia5 mutant differed significantly when compared to WT. In the cia5 mutant strain, a group of photorespiration pathway intermediates including glycolate, glyoxylate, glycine, and serine accumulated to significantly higher levels compared to WT. In the photorespiration pathway, glycolate is metabolized to glyoxylate and glycine leading to NH 3 and CO 2 generation during the mitochondrial conversion of glycine to serine. This result provides further evidence that the CIA5 mutation increased the photorespiration rate. Because the cia5 mutant lacks a CCM, and C. reinhardtii might harbor an inefficient or incomplete photorespiration pathway, glycolate may accumulate when the CCM is not functional. We envision that investigating photorespiration controls in C. reinhardtii provides tools for producers to use the cia5 mutant to produce glycolate as well as platform to engineer alternative pathways for glycolate metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to compare the percutaneous oblique osteotomy (POO) and the open chevron osteotomy technique for correction of hallux valgus deformity at a 2‐year follow‐up. Methods: This is a retrospective study of consecutive patients undergoing operative correction of hallux valgus using one of two techniques (POO vs open chevron osteotomy) from 2014 to 2018. Forty eight feet (41 patients) that underwent the POO was compared with 64 feet (58 patients) that underwent open chevron osteotomy. The hallux valgus angle (HVA), intermetatarsal angle (IMA) and American Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Society Hallux Metatarsophalangeal‐Interphalangeal scores (AOFAS‐HMI) were assessed preoperatively and postoperatively at the 1, 2‐year follow‐up. The Manchester–Oxford Foot Questionnaire (MOXFQ) were assessed preoperatively and postoperatively at the 2‐year follow‐up. The VAS score was collected preoperatively and on 2 weeks,1 year and 2‐year follow‐up. Results: Both groups achieved significant correction of the hallux deformity. The HVA in the POO group during the follow‐up period were 12.5 ± 2.22 and 17.9 ± 9.31, respectively, and in the open chevron group were 14.1 ± 6.78 and 14.8 ± 7.83, respectively. The IMA in the POO group during the follow‐up period were 7.61 ± 1.63 and 6.94 ± 1.53, respectively, and in the open chevron group were 6.89 ± 3.06 and 6.97 ± 2.95, respectively. Postoperative MOXFQ scores in all domains were significantly improved in both groups, however there was no significant difference in the improvement of any domain between POO and open groups at a 2‐year follow‐up. The AOFAS HMI scores in the POO group during the follow‐up period were 86.5 ± 10.7 and 85.2 ± 13.8, respectively, and in the open chevron group were 88.2 ± 10.8 and 79.5 ± 23.7, respectively. The VAS scores in the POO group during the follow‐up period were 2.00 ± 0.98, 2.00 ± 0.99 and 1.55 ± 1.11, respectively, and in the open chevron group were 5.51 ± 1.45, 2.56 ± 2.88 and 2.56 ± 2.88 respectively. The 1‐year and 2‐year follow‐up outcomes between POO and open groups showed no significant difference regarding AOFAS HMI scores and VAS scores, however the POO group showed statistically significant improvement of VAS scores in the postoperative 2 weeks (P < 0.001). There was no statistical significance between the POO and open group in terms of complications rates (8.3% vs 12.5%, P = 0.480). Conclusion: The POO technique is reliable and shows a comparable outcome to the open chevron osteotomy. However, the POO technique shows significantly less pain in the first 2 weeks after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency communication network (ECN) is the important infrastructure to acquire the real-time information after disaster, which is essential for rescue task. However, the existed routing protocols seldom consider the uneven distribution of rescue area so that cannot satisfy the ECN's requirement and the quality of rescue needs improvement. In this paper, we avoided the traditional linear propulsion from rim to core and proposed a novel four-quadrant mobility model (FQMM), which makes rescuers arrive the most intensity core area first, which can improve the rescue quality. Then, a FQMM-based protocol (FQMMBP) for ECN is designed, which aims to improve the performance of ECN in terms of package delivery rate (PDR) and end-to-end delay. Finally, we set up a virtual earthquake scenario to simulate our proposed protocol in NS2. Results show that the proposed protocol outperforms to the three compared routing protocols, i.e., AODV, DSDV and DSR. The average FDR is improved by 16.31%, and the average reduction of delay is 64.45%, which shows our proposed scheme's advantages in quality of rescue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop an elementary and unified treatment, in the spirit of Rivière and Struwe (Comm. Pure. Appl. Math. 2008), to explore regularity of weak solutions of higher order geometric elliptic systems in critical dimensions without using conservation law. As a result, we obtain an interior Hölder continuity for solutions of the higher order elliptic system of de Longueville and Gastel in critical dimensions Δku = ∑i=0k−1Δi⟨Vi,du⟩ + ∑i=0 k−2Δiδ (widu) quad in B2k, under critical regularity assumptions on the coefficient functions. This verifies an expectation of Rivière, and provides an affirmative answer to an open question of Struwe in dimension four when k = 2. The Hölder continuity is also an improvement of the continuity result of Lamm and Rivière and de Longueville and Gastel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the role of Zizyphus jujuba cv. Muzao polysaccharides (ZJPs) in protecting intestinal barrier function and the survival of septic mice. The sepsis mouse model was generated through cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) to observe the effect of ZJPs on the function of the intestinal barrier in the context of sepsis. We observed the clinical symptoms and survival time of the mice and evaluated serum inflammatory cytokines, intestinal pathological changes and intestinal permeability. Moreover, tight junction (TJ) proteins and apoptosis‐associated proteins in intestinal tissue were examined. Finally, TLR4/NF‐κB pathway‐related proteins were measured in all groups. The results showed that pretreatment with ZJPs improved clinical and histological scores and reduced intestinal barrier permeability, and the levels of proinflammatory factors were decreased. Pretreatment with ZJPs also upregulated the levels of TJ proteins and downregulated the expression of proapoptotic proteins. Moreover, the activation of TLR4/NF‐κB signaling was partly inhibited in septic mice by ZJPs pretreatment. The current study provides evidence that ZJPs have the potential to protect intestinal barrier function and improve the survival of septic mice via the attenuation of TLR4/NF‐κB inflammatory signaling. Practical applications: This study reports the potential protective effect of ZJPs against cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)‐induced sepsis. Our data reveal that CLP induced damage to the gut mucosal barrier, inflammation, and apoptosis in intestinal tissues. However, pretreatment with ZJPs improved clinical and histological scores, reduced intestinal barrier permeability, and decreased the levels of proinflammatory factors in mice. Pretreatment with ZJPs also upregulated the levels of TJ proteins and downregulated the expression of proapoptotic proteins. Moreover, the activation of TLR4/NF‐κB signaling was partly inhibited in septic mice after ZJPs pretreatment. These findings provide evidence that pretreatment with ZJPs has the potential to attenuate CLP‐induced gut damage in mice by restraining inflammation and apoptosis via the attenuation of NF‐κB signaling. It provides a basis for further study of ZJPs in sepsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) refers to liver damage caused by long‐term heavy drinking, which causes oxidative stress and changes in gut microbiota. In this paper, we investigated the hepatoprotective effect of sea buckthorn fermentation liquid on ALD in mice and the interaction between ALD and gut microbiota using animal experiments and gut microbiota measurements. RESULTS: We found that the contents of total flavonoids, total triterpenes and related short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in sea buckthorn fermentation liquid (SFL) were significantly greater. Liver index, kidney index, spleen index, serum indexes of liver injury – alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and spartate aminotransferase (AST), inflammatory factors in liver tissues – tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), oxidation indexes – malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), and lipid metabolism indexes – high‐density liptein cholesterol (HDL‐C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), and triglyceride (TG), suggested that SFL significantly ameliorates liver injury caused by alcohol. By measuring gut microbiota in mice feces samples, we found that the high‐dose group of SFL reversed the declining trend of the gut microbiota Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio caused by alcohol, reducing the number of gram‐negative bacteroidetes. Patescibacteria was tightly connected with the indicators of ALD. At the genus level, high‐dose SFL significantly downregulated Akkermansia, Turicibacter, Alistipes and Ruminiclostridium, and improved the abundance of beneficial bacteria in Lactobacillus. In addition, Alistipes and Ruminiclostridium was closely connected with the indicators of ALD. CONCLUSION: Sea buckthorn fermentation liquid protected against alcoholic liver disease and modulated the composition of gut microbiota. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]