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Due to the varying connectivity of Zr6 cluster and unlimited carboxylic acid‐based organic linkers, zirconium‐based metal‐organic frameworks (Zr‐MOFs) exhibit the most abundant structural diversity. However, Zr‐MOFs possessing more than one kind of Zr6 clusters in a single structure have not yet been reported. Herein, four new pentacarboxylic acids are synthesized to prepare Zr‐MOFs, HIAM‐4051 to HIAM‐4054. As a result, due to the different lengths of linkers, two novel underlying nets (typ and cqh) are found in these four MOFs with coexisting 4‐ and 9‐connected Zr6 clusters. Furthermore, by changing the acceptor groups in the linker skeleton, the emission of results Zr‐MOFs can be customized from blue, yellow–green to red. The nano‐sized HIAM‐4053‐NS exhibits high sensitivity and efficient adsorption for tetracycline hydrochloride with 0.22 µm detection limit and ≈0.6 g g−1 removal capacity. To the best of the knowledge, this work is the first example of constructing Zr‐MOFs using pentacarboxylic acids as organic linkers and the first report of Zr‐MOFs with coexisted Zr6 connectivities in a single MOF matrix. This study provides a novel insight for the construction of Zr‐MOFs with unprecedented structures, which will not only enrich the structure diversity but also offer more opportunity to extend the applications of Zr‐MOFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics has played an increasingly important role in applied linguistics research. However, little research has been available that sheds light on statistical literacy among early‐career researchers of applied linguistics. The study reported in this article surveyed statistical literacy, attitudes toward statistics, and statistics self‐efficacy among Chinese applied linguistics research students and further examined the inter‐variable relationships. Based on analyses of the cross‐sectional survey of 211 master's students, we found that: (1) the students' overall statistical literacy was not satisfying; (2) although they thought positively of statistics, they were not particularly confident with statistics; (3) the three experience‐related variables—the number of statistics courses taken, quantitative research orientation, and self‐training—were important predictors of statistical literacy, attitudes toward statistics, and statistics self‐efficacy; and (4) statistics self‐efficacy seemed to mediate the relationship between attitudes toward statistics and statistical literacy. We discussed these findings in relation to improving statistics courses in applied linguistics program in China and to statistics learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION Ethylene plays a vital role in the ripening process of kiwifruit. A terrific amount of transcription factors (TFs) have been shown to regulate ethylene synthesis in various fruits.In this research, two new NAC TFs, named AcNAC3 and AcNAC4, were isolated from kiwifruit, which belonged to NAM subfamily. Bioinformatics analysis showed that both AcNAC3 and AcNAC4 were hydrophilic proteins with similar three‐dimensional structures. The expression levels of AcNAC3, AcNAC4 and AcACO1 increased during kiwifruit ripening, as well as were induced by ethylene and repressed by 1‐methylcyclopropene (1‐MCP). Correlation analysis exhibited that ethylene production was positively correlated with the expression levels of AcNAC3, AcNAC4 and AcACO1. Moreover, both AcNAC3 and AcNAC4 acted as transcriptional activators and could bind to and activate AcACO1 promoter.All results unveiled that the ethylene‐induced AcNAC3 and AcNAC4 were transcriptional activators, and might participate in kiwifruit ripening and ethylene biosynthesis through activating AcACO1, providing a new insight of ethylene synthetic regulation during kiwifruit ripening. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambulatory medical care has undergone more than 20 years of development in China, gradually improving into a medical model that provides diagnosis and treatment services throughout the 24-hour hospitalization process. In the past decade, under the guidance of relevant national policies, the development scale and speed of ambulatory medical care have further expanded, providing more patients with efficient and low-cost diagnostic and treatment services, and playing a leverage role in the high-quality development of public hospitals. However, the development of ambulatory medical care is also facing challenges brought about by various factors such as the support of medical insurance policies, performance evaluation, and homogeneous development. Under the new situation and concepts of promoting the high-quality development of public hospitals and improving the medical service experience, the ambulatory medical service model has played a greater role in medical value. However, how to promote the stable and long-term development of ambulatory medical care is a valuable topic for discussion. The article aims to provide ideas for the further development of ambulatory medical care in the future by reviewing the development process and overview of ambulatory medical care in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ESG scores of corporations is a crucial manifestation of their long-term strategic goals, attracting significant attention from society. The impact and underlying mechanisms of the enhancement of the social credit atmosphere on the ESG performance of corporations remain unclear. This study utilizes a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, employing the Difference-in-Differences (DID) methodology to investigate the relationship of the establishment of the social credit system on company ESG scores. This study reveals that the establishment of the social credit system significantly advances corporate ESG scores. Heterogeneity results indicate that the positive effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises or companies having substantial institutional shareholding. Furthermore, the implementation of the social credit system amplifies corporate ESG scores through three key mechanisms: fostering green technology innovation, cultivating ethical and moral corporate cultures, and optimizing the overall business environment. This paper enriches the informal institutional researches about the driving factors of corporate ESG scores, providing valuable insights for policymakers and corporate decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human retina is able to extract key feature information from a large amount of redundant visual information, which is the basis for efficient information processing in the human visual system. However, current retina‐inspired photonic synaptic devices lack fast noise filtering capabilities, limiting the speed of image preprocessing in neuromorphic visual systems. Here, a photonic synaptic transistor (PST) based on graphene/organic heterojunction that exhibits high photosensitivity and optically tunable synaptic characteristics from visible to near‐infrared (488–1310 nm) is demonstrated. The PST enables light‐intensity‐controlled memory‐free and long‐memory mode switching, allowing to achieve fast image noise filtering in a PST‐based vision sensor (processing times as low as 30 ms). In addition, image recognition in an artificial neural network connected by the PST, and the efficiency and accuracy of image recognition can be significantly improved by performing image noise filtering at the front‐end is demonstrated. This work provides the potential to improve the information processing speed of bio‐inspired neuromorphic visual systems and contribute to the development of machine vision applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a progressive fibroinflammatory disease, chronic pancreatitis (CP) often manifests as recurrent bouts of abdominal pain with or without complications, causing a heavy burden of health care. In recent years, some meaningful insights into the management of CP have been obtained from randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, which were of great importance. Based on this research, it is shown that there are various treatments for CP. Therefore, it is of great importance to choose a suitable strategy for patients with CP individually. Relevant evidence on the management of CP was summarized in this review, including nutrition supplements, medication, endoscopy, surgery, exploration of novel therapies as well as evaluation and prediction of treatment response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In experimental studies, single-wave mode and two counter-rotating wave mode are often observed in rotating detonation combustors. To investigate the mechanism behind different propagation modes, high-resolution numerical simulations of two-dimensional detonation in hydrogen/air mixtures are conducted by solving the reactive Navier–Stokes equations with a detailed chemical mechanism. The numerical results show that the occurrence of the dual-wave detonation propagation mode is positively influenced by an increase in both the channel width and the initial pressure. The dual-wave modes are observed when increasing the channel width, and it is found that the dual-wave modes are caused by increasing the residual premixed gas height near the inner wall. When increasing the initial pressure, the initial peak detonation heat release increases, which leads to the increase in the hot spot intensity formed, and it is found that the dual-wave modes are mainly caused by the interactions between the initial detonation wave and the inner wall. However, the initial equivalent ratio appears to have a relatively minor impact on the detonation propagation mode due to a relatively narrow range variation of physical properties. The peak heat release rate exerts a greater influence on the change of the propagation mode than the induction time does through a wider range test on rotating detonation engines' working condition. Moreover, the velocities and the cell sizes of detonation waves propagating in different directions with different channel widths are also analyzed, revealing that the characteristics of the detonation waves propagating in different directions are nearly the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoid-related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) is the lineage-specific transcription factor for T helper 17 (Th17) cells. Our previous study demonstrated that STAT3 likely participates in the activation of RORCE2 (a novel enhancer of the RORγt gene) in Th17 cells. However, the detailed mechanism is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that both STAT3 and SOX-5 mediate the enhancer activity of RORCE2 in vitro. Deletion of the STAT3 binding site (STAT3-BS) in RORCE2 impaired RORγt expression and Th17 differentiation, resulting in reduced severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Mechanistically, STAT3 and SOX-5 bind the RORCE2 region and recruit the chromatin remodeling factor BRG1 to remodel the nucleosomes positioned at this region. Collectively, our data suggest that STAT3 and SOX-5 mediate the differentiation of Th17 cells through the induction of BRG1-mediated chromatin remodeling of RORCE2 in Th17 cells. STAT3 and SOX-5 may mediate Th17 cell differentiation through the induction of BRG1-mediated chromatin remodeling of RORCE2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a hybrid scheme to renormalize quasi distribution amplitudes of a light baryon on the lattice, which combines the self-renormalization and ratio scheme. By employing self-renormalization, the UV divergences and linear divergence at large spatial separations in quasi distribution amplitudes are removed without introducing extra nonperturbative effects, while making a ratio with respect to the zero-momentum matrix element can properly remove the UV divergences in small spatial separations. As a specific application, distribution amplitudes of the Λ baryon made of uds are investigated, and the requisite equal-time correlators, which define quasi distribution amplitudes in coordinate space, are perturbatively calculated up to the next-to-leading order in strong coupling constant αs. These perturbative equal-time correlators are used to convert lattice QCD matrix elements to the continuum space during the renormalization process. Subsequently, quasi distribution amplitudes are matched onto lightcone distribution amplitudes by integrating out hard modes and the corresponding hard kernels are derived up to next-to-leading order in αs including the hybrid counterterms. These results are valuable in the lattice-based investigation of the lightcone distribution amplitudes of a light baryon from the first principles of QCD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer. Lonicerae flos polysaccharides (LPs) have been shown to be effective in treating metabolic diseases; however, the therapeutic effects and underlying molecular mechanisms of LPs in NAFLD remain unclear. PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the morphological characterization of Lonicerae flos polysaccharides (LPs) and the mechanism of LPs in relieving NAFLD. METHODS: The morphology of LPs was observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), thermal weight (TG), and thermal weight derivative (DTG); NAFLD mice were treated with LPs at the same time as they were induced with a Western diet, and then the indexes related to glycolipid metabolism, fibrosis, inflammation, and autophagy in the serum and liver of the mice were detected. RESULTS: The atomic force microscope analysis results indicated that the LPs displayed sugar‐chain aggregates, exhibited an amorphous structure, and were relatively stable in thermal cracking at 150 °C. It was also found that LPs exerted therapeutic effects in NAFLD. The LPs prevented high‐fat and ‐cholesterol diet‐induced NAFLD progression by regulating glucose metabolism dysregulation, insulin resistance, lipid accumulation, inflammation, fibrosis, and autophagy. Adenosine 5′‐monophosphate (AMP)‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor compound C abrogated LP‐induced hepatoprotection in mice with NAFLD. The LPs further treated NAFLD by reshaping the structure of the gut microbiota, in which Desulfovibrio bacteria plays a key roles. CONCLUSION: Lonicerae flos polysaccharides exert protective effects against NAFLD in mice by improving the structure of the intestinal flora and activating the AMPK signaling pathway. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A full rollout of COVID-19 vaccination offers the most promising prospect of bringing the pandemic to an end. This study aimed to compare the coverage, safety, and confidence of COVID-19 vaccination between patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy individuals so as to give suggestions for future immunization programs. A web-based, nationwide, multicenter survey was carried out in China from 2021 to 2022. The age and sex-standardized vaccination rate was calculated. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression models were used to estimate the influencing factors of vaccination status. We also investigated vaccination safety, willingness, confidence, and reasons for hesitancy with some ad hoc questions. A total of 962 PD patients and 1208 healthy individuals participated in this survey with a vaccination rate of 71.1% vs 94.4% respectively. PD patients living in first-tier cities, with comorbidities, experiencing unstable PD with a longer course and levodopa use were less likely to get vaccinated, while healthy individuals living in first-tier cities and feeling physically poor exhibited a lower vaccination rate. For PD patients, concern about the adverse impact on existing illness and disagreement from doctors were the most common reasons for vaccination hesitancy. Whereas, no evidence was present that they experienced any local or systematic adverse events more frequently or seriously than healthy individuals, or their state of PD and comorbidities was seriously exacerbated after vaccination. A prominent transition from a little concerned to unconcerned about the security and efficacy of vaccines was evident among both two populations from pre-vaccination to post-vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccination rate was remarkably lower in PD patients than healthy individuals in China. The approved vaccines have shown an acceptable safety profile. Our findings would offer a reference to guide future clinical decision-making of COVID-19 vaccination and improve the immunization management of PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modulation signal intelligent recognition model based on deep learning is widely used in the field of radio signal intelligent processing, but the adversarial attack has become a huge security threat. In order to promote the safe and reliable application of the modulation recognition intelligent model, it is necessary to study its adversarial defense technology. An adversarial defense method based on ensemble learning for modulation signal intelligent recognition model is proposed in this paper. Specifically, this method is achieved by combining multiple defense models such as adversarial training, defensive distillation, and noise smoothing. Variety of attack algorithms in both the white-box and black-box scenarios under different intensities of perturbation and different signal-to-noise ratios are carried out to verify the robustness performance of the proposed method. Strikingly, the accuracy of the model is improved to over 80% when the SNR is above 0 dB under Carlini and Wagner attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nintedanib (Ninte) has been approved for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, and whether it can ameliorate chronic pancreatitis (CP) is unknown. Aims: This study was conducted to investigate the effect and molecular mechanism of Ninte on pancreatic fibrosis and inflammation in vivo and in vitro. Methods: The caerulein-induced CP model of murine was applied, and Ninte was orally administered. Pathological changes in pancreas were evaluated using hematoxylin & eosin, Sirius Red, Masson's trichrome, and anti-Ki-67 staining. For in vitro studies, the effects of Ninte on cell viability, apoptosis, and migration of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) were determined by CCK-8, flow cytometry, and wound healing assays, respectively. The potential molecular mechanisms of the effects of Ninte on PSCs were analyzed by RNA-Seq and verified at the gene expression and protein activity levels by qRT-PCR and Western Blot. Results: Ninte significantly alleviated the weight loss in mice with caerulein-induced CP and simultaneously attenuated the pancreatic damage, as evidenced by reduced acinar atrophy, collagen deposition, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and inhibited cell proliferation/regeneration. Besides, Ninte markedly suppressed the transcription of fibrogenic and proinflammatory genes in pancreatic tissues. Further in vitro studies showed that Ninte significantly inhibited the transcription and protein expression of genes corresponding to fibrogenesis and proliferation in PSCs. The results of RNA-Seq analysis and subsequent verification assays indicated that Ninte inhibited the activation and proliferation of PSCs via the JAK/STAT3 and ERK1/2 pathways. Conclusions: These findings indicate that Ninte may be a potential anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic therapeutic agent for CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of translation and interpreting (T&I) in the language learning classroom is commonplace, serving various pedagogical and assessment purposes. Previous utilization of T&I exercises is driven largely by their potential to enhance language learning, whereas the latest trend has begun to underscore T&I as a crucial skill to be acquired as part of transcultural competence for language learners and future language users. Despite their growing popularity and utility in the language learning classroom, assessing T&I is time-consuming, labor-intensive and cognitively taxing for human raters (e.g., language teachers), primarily because T&I assessment entails meticulous evaluation of informational equivalence between the source-language message and target-language renditions. One possible solution is to rely on automated quality metrics that are originally developed to evaluate machine translation (MT). In the current study, we investigated the viability of using four automated MT evaluation metrics, BLEU, NIST, METEOR and TER, to assess human interpretation. Essentially, we correlated the automated metric scores with the human-assigned scores (i.e., the criterion measure) from multiple assessment scenarios to examine the degree of machine-human parity. Overall, we observed fairly strong metric-human correlations for BLEU (Pearson's r = 0.670), NIST (r = 0.673) and METEOR (r = 0.882), especially when the metric computation was conducted on the sentence level rather than the text level. We discussed these emerging findings and others in relation to the feasibility of operationalizing MT metrics to evaluate students' interpretation in the language learning classroom. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.1968915. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-cost desert sand and coal fly ash were used to synthesize high-quality quartz-anorthite composite ceramics. The effects of the addition of fly ash on the densification of green bodies, phase transformation, microstructure, and mechanical and thermal properties were investigated. The results showed that the densification of green bodies occurred when they were sintered from 1,100°C–1,200°C , and the phase transformation of anorthite mainly occurred in fly ash from 846.9°C to 982.7°C. Temperatures of densification and anorthite transformation increased with increased addition of fly ash. At 1,100°C, β -cristobalite formed in desert sand and remained at room temperature; the content increased with increased sintering temperature. The quartz-anorthite ceramics were composed of α -quartz, β -cristobalite, anorthite, and amorphous phase. Anorthite was formed by the solid-state reaction of quartz, mullite, and other phases in the desert sand and fly ash and was promoted by liquid-phase sintering at higher temperatures. The highest bending strength of 115.6 MPa and highest hardness of 668.3 Vickers hardness (HV) were produced for samples with 40% by weight fly ash sintered at 1,100°C. Samples with 100% by weight added fly ash had the lowest mean thermal expansion coefficient (5.1×10−6·K−1), the highest linear shrinkage (24.2%), and the highest bulk density (2.5 g/cm3) when sintered at 1,200°C. The samples with 0%–60%, 80%, and 100% by weight added fly ash exhibited a low water absorption of 0.8%–1.8% when sintered at 1,100°C, 1,150°C, and 1,200°C, respectively. This technique can be feasibly used to fabricate civil engineering materials such as decorative ceramics, roof tiles, wall bricks, and insulation and filling materials. Inexhaustible supplies of desert sand and huge reserves of industrial solid waste cause serious negative effects on the environment. In addition, the manufacturing of building materials consumes tremendous amounts of inorganic minerals. The use of idle desert sand and industrial solid waste to produce useful building materials is an effective route to reduce environmental problems and mineral consumption. Desert sand and fly ash contain quartz, feldspar, mullite, and amorphous phase—similar to the composition of silicate materials. Therefore, they can be used as sustainable raw materials for ceramic production through the use of new techniques. The present study introduces a new material—anorthite-based ceramic—and a method for synthesizing it using low-cost desert sand and fly ash as raw materials. The anorthite-based ceramic can be used in the construction and building fields—the largest consumer of silicate materials—in tiles, bricks, porcelain, lightweight filling materials, and insulation materials. This is of great significance to the economization of mineral resources, resource regeneration, and improvement to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Momentum distributions of quarks/gluons inside a light baryon in a hard exclusive process are encoded in the light-cone distribution amplitudes (LCDAs). In this work, we point out that the leading twist LCDAs of a light baryon can be obtained through a simulation of a quasi-distribution amplitude calculable on lattice QCD within the framework of the large-momentum effective theory. We calculate the one-loop perturbative contributions to LCDA and quasi-distribution amplitudes and explicitly demonstrate the factorization of quasi-distribution amplitudes at the one-loop level. Based on the perturbative results, we derive the matching kernel in the MS ¯ scheme and regularization-invariant momentum-subtraction scheme. Our result provides a first step to obtaining the LCDA from first principle lattice QCD calculations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilingual raters play an important role in assessing spoken-language interpreting (between X and Y languages). Presumably, raters with X being the dominant language (DL) and Y the less DL can potentially differ, in terms of rating processes, from other raters with Y being the DL and X the less DL, when assessing either X-to-Y or Y-to-X interpreting. As such, raters' language background and its interaction with interpreting directionality may influence assessment outcomes. However, this complex interaction and its effects on assessment have not been investigated. We therefore conducted the current experiment to explore how raters' language background and interpreting directionality would affect assessment of English-Chinese, two-way interpreting. Our analyses of the quantitative data indicate that, when assessing interpreting into raters' mother tongue or DL, they displayed a greater level of self-confidence and self-consistency, but rated performance more harshly. Such statistically significant group-level disparities led to different assessment outcomes, as pass and fail rates varied, depending on the rater group. These quantitative findings, coupled with the raters' qualitative comments, may have implications for selection and training of bilingual raters for interpreting assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In complex natural environments, sensory systems are constantly exposed to a large stream of inputs. Novel or rare stimuli, which are often associated with behaviorally important events, are typically processed differently than the steady sensory background, which has less relevance. Neural signatures of such differential processing, commonly referred to as novelty detection, have been identified on the level of EEG recordings as mismatch negativity (MMN) and on the level of single neurons as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). Here, we propose a multi-scale recurrent network with synaptic depression to explain how novelty detection can arise in the whisker-related part of the somatosensory thalamocortical loop. The "minimalistic" architecture and dynamics of the model presume that neurons in cortical layer 6 adapt, via synaptic depression, specifically to a frequently presented stimulus, resulting in reduced population activity in the corresponding cortical column when compared with the population activity evoked by a rare stimulus. This difference in population activity is then projected from the cortex to the thalamus and amplified through the interaction between neurons of the primary and reticular nuclei of the thalamus, resulting in rhythmic oscillations. These differentially activated thalamic oscillations are forwarded to cortical layer 4 as a late secondary response that is specific to rare stimuli that violate a particular stimulus pattern. Model results show a strong analogy between this late single neuron activity and EEG-based mismatch negativity in terms of their common sensitivity to presentation context and timescales of response latency, as observed experimentally. Our results indicate that adaptation in L6 can establish the thalamocortical dynamics that produce signatures of SSA and MMN and suggest a mechanistic model of novelty detection that could generalize to other sensory modalities. Author summary: Cortical sensory neurons have been shown to be capable of novelty detection, that is they respond more vigorously when a novel, unexpected stimulus is presented, and less so when the stimulus is part of a predictable sequence. However, the neural mechanism underlying this capability is not yet fully understood. Here, we developed a minimalistic thalamocortical network model that accounts for novelty detection and reproduces physiologically observed neural response patterns in the anaesthetized somatosensory cortex. Specifically, our results demonstrate that the novelty signal arises from the recurrent interplay between thalamic neurons and cortical neurons in layers 4 and 6, without the need of other components. This work therefore provides a concrete mechanism that can serve as a starting point for further investigating the neural circuit mechanisms underlying novelty detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Hyperlipidemia is regarded as a public health matter, and its effective prevention and treatment are urgently required. However, the treatment of hyperlipidemia is still relatively scarce. RESULTS: Fermented Cerasus humilis fruit (FCHF) had higher total flavonoid, total phenolic, procyanidin, and organic and free amino acid content, and lower total sugar content, than non‐fermented C. humilis fruit (NFCHF). Both FCHF and NFCHF treatment significantly prevent putting on weight. Furthermore, FCHF administration ameliorated hyperlipidemia and cholesterol over‐accumulation. In addition, FCHF administration activated the antioxidase system and decreased the malondialdehyde content to relieve oxidative stress, and showed more efficaciously than NFCHF administration. FCHF treatments significantly reverse the fat deposition in high‐fat diet rat liver. FCHF supplementation can relieve the dysbacteriosis induced by hyperlipidemia, and regulate the composition of rat gut microbiota by increasing the abundance of Prevotella and norank_f_Muribaculaceae. CONCLUSION: Lactobacillus plantarum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation enhanced the antihyperlipidemic property of C. humilis fruits by promoting gut microbiota regulation. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the tax of carbon emission is popular and consumers are exhibiting low-carbon preference, a manufacturer may invest to adopt carbon emission reduction (CER) technologies to produce green products. In face of high cost of CER investment and random yield in low carbon production processes for the manufacturer, this paper explores the incentive role of the contracts of revenue-sharing (RS) and cost-sharing with subsidy (CSS) offered by a retailer in a low-carbon supply chain. Theoretical analysis and numerical experiments show that both RS and CSS can promote the manufacturer's Carbon Emission Reduction (CER) efforts and improve the efficiency of the supply chain, and RS boosts these more than CSS. RS and CSS can also decrease firms' profit losses due to yield uncertainty, and RS also decreases firms' profit losses more than CSS. Moreover, to motivate manufacturer's CER efforts, the government should levy the highest-possible carbon tax under RS, the medium-level carbon tax under CSS, and the lowest-possible carbon tax for the decentralized case, and levy the same carbon tax on the centralized case with that under RS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning and studying the structure–activity relationship in the bio‐enzymes is conducive to the design of nanozymes for energy and environmental application. Herein, Fe single‐atom nanozymes (Fe‐SANs) with Fe–N5 site, inspired by the structure of cytochromes P450 (CYPs), are developed and characterized. Similar to the CYPs, the hyperoxide can activate the Fe(III) center of Fe‐SANs to generate Fe(IV)O intermediately, which can transfer oxygen to the substrate with ultrafast speed. Particularly, using the peroxymonosulfate (PMS)‐activated Fe‐SANs to oxidize sulfamethoxazole, a typical antibiotic contaminant, as the model hyperoxides activation reaction, the excellent activity within 284 min−1 g−1(catalyst) mmol−1(PMS) oxidation rate and 91.6% selectivity to the Fe(IV)O intermediate oxidation are demonstrated. More importantly, instead of promoting PMS adsorption, the axial N ligand modulates the electron structure of FeN5 SANs for the lower reaction energy barrier and promotes electron transfer to PMS to produce Fe(IV)O intermediate with high selectivity. The highlight of the axial N coordination in the nanozymes in this work provides deep insight to guide the design and development of nanozymes nearly to the bio‐enzyme with excellent activity and selectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated metrics for machine translation (MT) such as BLEU are customarily used because they are quick to compute and sufficiently valid to be useful in MT assessment. Whereas the instantaneity and reliability of such metrics are made possible by automatic computation based on predetermined algorithms, their validity is primarily dependent on a strong correlation with human assessments. Despite the popularity of such metrics in MT, little research has been conducted to explore their usefulness in the automatic assessment of human translation or interpreting. In the present study, we therefore seek to provide an initial insight into the way MT metrics would function in assessing spoken-language interpreting by human interpreters. Specifically, we selected five representative metrics – BLEU, NIST, METEOR, TER and BERT – to evaluate 56 bidirectional consecutive English–Chinese interpretations produced by 28 student interpreters of varying abilities. We correlated the automated metric scores with the scores assigned by different types of raters using different scoring methods (i.e., multiple assessment scenarios). The major finding is that BLEU, NIST, and METEOR had moderate-to-strong correlations with the human-assigned scores across the assessment scenarios, especially for the English-to-Chinese direction. Finally, we discuss the possibility and caveats of using MT metrics in assessing human interpreting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to verify weather atmospheric plasma spray (APS) in situ remelting posttreatment is effective for densifying the porous FeCoCrMoCBY amorphous alloy (FAA) coating and improving the antiabrasion and anticorrosion performances or not. Design/methodology/approach: APS was used to deposit and in situ densify FAA coating on the 40Cr substrate. Scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, energy dispersive spectroscopy, neutral salt spray, hardness and wear behavior test were used to evaluate the densifying effects. Findings: APS remelting technology can effectively improve the hardness of the coating by reducing the porosity. After remelting at 30 kW power, the hardness of the coating increased by about 260 HV0.2 and the porosity decreased to 2.78%. The amorphous content of the coating is 93.9%, which is about 3.5% lower than original powders. The electrochemical impedance spectrum and neutral salt spray test results show that APS remelting can reduce the corrosion rate by about 62.7%. Originality/value: APS remelting method is firstly proposed in this work to replace laser remelting or laser cladding methods. APS remelting method can effectively improve the corrosion and abrasion resistance of the FAA coating by increasing the densification with much low recrystallization, which is big progress for application of FAA coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mimicking the real‐time sensing and processing capabilities of human retina opens up a promising pathway for achieving vision chips with high‐efficient image processing. The development of retina‐inspired vision chip also requires hardware with high sensitivity, fast image capture, and the ability to sense under various lighting conditions. Herein, a high‐performance phototransistor based on graphene/organic heterojunction is demonstrated with a superior responsivity (2.86 × 106 A W−1), an outstanding respond speed (rise time/fall time is 20 µs/8.4 ms), and a remarkable detectivity (1.47 × 1014 Jones) at 650 nm. The phototransistor combines weak‐light detection capability (minimum detectable light intensity down to 2.8 nW cm−2) with gate‐tunable bi‐directional photoresponse capable of simultaneously sensing and processing visual images for light intensities ranging over six orders magnitude (10–107nW cm−2). Moreover, the phototransistor also exhibits an intriguing feature undiscovered in other retina‐inspired devices, namely that it can real‐time monitor the human pulse signal and heart rate by using photoplethysmography technology, and the measured heart rate error is only 0.87% compared with a commercially available sensor. This study paves the way for the development of low‐light and bio‐signal sensitive artificial retinas in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current evidence for the efficacy of pharmacological treatment in improving cognitive function is absent. Recent studies have reported that 3‐n‐butylphthalide (NBP) has a positive effect on improving cognitive impairment; however, its clinical efficacy and safety is unclear. Therefore, we conducted a meta‐analysis to assess its efficacy and safety for cognitive impairment. Methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, and two reviewers independently screened and extracted the data from included studies. We synthesized the data using the Review Manager Software version 5.3. Results: We included six randomized clinical trials (RCTs), encompassing 851 patients with cognitive impairment. The results showed that NBP improved cognitive impairment. Specifically, the clinical efficacy was better than that in the control group, with better performance in improving the Mini‐Mental State Examination and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores, while decreasing the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale‐Cognitive subscale and the Clinician's Interview‐Based Impression of Change plus caregiver input scores. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between both groups. Conclusion: The NBP is effective and safe in improving cognitive impairment; however, more high‐quality RCTs are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous Information Network (HIN) collecitve classification studies the problem of predicting labels for one type of nodes in a HIN which contains multiple types of nodes multiple types of links among them. Previous studies have revealed that exploiting relative importance of links is quite useful to improve node classification performance as connected nodes tend to have similar labels. Most existing approaches exploit the relative importance of links either by directly counting the number of connections among nodes or by learning the weight of each type of link from labeled data only. However, these approaches either neglect the importance of types of links to the class labels or may lead to overfitting problem. We propose a Tensor-based Markov chain (T-Mark) approach, which is able to automatically and simultaneously predict the labels for unlabeled nodes and give the relative importance of types of links that actually improve the classification accuracy. Specifically, we build two tensor equations by using the HIN and features of nodes from both labeled and unlabeled data. A Markov chain-based model is proposed and it is solved by an iterative process to obtain the stationary distributions. Theoretical analyses of the existence and uniqueness of such probability distributions are given. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that T-Mark is able to achieve superior performance in the comparison and obtain reasonable relative importance of links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Bi 2 Te 3 nanoflakes was fabricated by liquid-phase exfoliation and characterized. • Applying the Bi 2 Te 3 SA, a dual-loss-modulated QML IOPO laser was realized, resulting in the generation of sub-nanosecond single mode-locking pulses. • The rate equations for IOPO driven by the QML laser with Bi 2 Te 3 SA were numerically solved. By utilizing the ultrasound-assisted liquid phase exfoliation process, Bi 2 Te 3 nanosheets are synthesized and deposited onto a quartz plate to form a saturable absorber (SA), in which nonlinear absorption characteristics around 1 μm are investigated with a home-made Q-switched laser. With the as-prepared Bi 2 Te 3 SA employed, a sub-nanosecond KTiOPO 4 (KTP) based intracavity optical parametric oscillator (IOPO) pumped by a dual-loss-modulated Q-switched and mode-locked (QML) laser is successfully realized. With a short duration of sub-nanosecond and a repetition rate of several kilohertz (kHz), the signal wave's single mode-locking pulse existed underneath a Q-switched envelope can be formed. At an incident pump power of 8.92 W and an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) repetition rate of 2 kHz, a signal wave's single mode-locking pulse underneath a Q-switching envelope with a measured minimum pulse duration of 520 ps is accomplished. It is the first demonstration of such Bi 2 Te 3 SA utilized in a solid-state QML IOPO laser, to the best of our knowledge. According to the experimental results, this provides an efficient and straightforward approach to acquire sub-nanosecond OPO signal wave pulses. Additionally, the relevant coupled rate equations are established, and the simulation results match the experimental results, revealing the potential of Bi 2 Te 3 as a nanomaterial for optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rapidly evolving landscape of wireless communication systems, the vulnerability of automatic modulation classification (AMC) models to adversarial attacks presents a significant security challenge. This study introduces a pruning and training methodology tailored to address the nuances of signal processing within these systems. Leveraging a pruning method based on channel activation contributions, our approach optimizes adversarial training potential, enhancing the model’s capacity to improve robustness against attacks. Additionally, the approach constructs a resilient training method based on a composite strategy, integrating balanced adversarial training, soft target regularization, and gradient masking. This combination effectively broadens the model’s uncertainty space and obfuscates gradients, thereby enhancing the model’s defenses against a wide spectrum of adversarial tactics. The training regimen is carefully adjusted to retain sensitivity to adversarial inputs while maintaining accuracy on original data. Comprehensive evaluations conducted on the RML2016.10A dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in defending against both gradient-based and optimization-based attacks within the realm of wireless communication. This research offers insightful and practical approaches to improving the security and performance of AMC models against the complex and evolving threats present in modern wireless communication environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the installed capacity of wind power has rapidly increased. And the wind power prediction is the foundation for ensuring large-scale wind power grid connection. The current short-term prediction methods of wind farm cluster (WFC) are difficult to sufficiently extract spatiotemporal features to achieve high-precision prediction. The article proposes a short-term power prediction method for WFC based on deep attention embedded graph clustering-TimesNet (DAEGC-TimesNet). Firstly, the directed power curves of WFC are proposed to analyze wind data. Then, a graph attention network is constructed based on geographic location and numerical weather prediction (NWP) information to guide clustering algorithms to achieve effective cluster partitioning. Finally, the input of model is constructed based on the feature information from various sub-clusters of WFC and the prediction result is obtained through the TimesNet. The method is applied to WFCs in Inner Mongolia, Jilin province and Yunnan province of China. The result shows that the RMSE reduces 0.0155 and the MAE reduces 0.0156 as well as the coefficient of determination and accuracy rate are highest comparing with comparative algorithms averagely based on above three WFCs. The simulation results are superior to the comparison algorithms, which makes greater contributions to ensure regional power supply. [Display omitted] • Propose a directed power curves of wind farm cluster. • Propose a new short-term power prediction method for wind farm cluster. • Propose a short-term prediction method based on multi-source spatiotemporal feature. • It provides new ideas for short-term wind power prediction for wind farm cluster. • Proposed power prediction idea reduces the RMSE and MAE 0.0155 and 0.0156 on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasing flooding in provinces of the south of the Yangtze River, posing challenges for promoting Styrax tonkinensis seedlings in these areas. To understand the physiological reasons for this species' intolerance to waterlogging, we observed biochemical parameters in one-year-old S. tonkinensis seedlings during two seasons. For 4 and 12 days in summer and winter experiments, respectively, we subjected seedlings to a pot-in-pot waterlogging treatment. Control groups were established at 0 h and 0 days. We examined indicators related to root vigor, reactive oxygen species (ROS), antioxidant enzymes, fermentative pathways, and more. The results displayed that decreased abscisic acid accumulation in roots inhibited water transport. Increased dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase activity in roots promoted alcohol and lactate fermentation, causing toxic damage and reduced root vigor, impeding water absorption. In leaves, high ROS levels led to lipid peroxidation, exacerbating water loss from continuous transpiration. The high relative electric conductivity and low leaf relative water content indicated water loss, causing leaf wilting and shriveling. Conversely, winter seedlings, devoid of leaves, significantly reduced transpiration, and dormancy delayed root fermentation. With less ROS damage in roots, winter seedlings exhibited greater waterlogging tolerance. In summary, excessive water loss from leaves and inhibited vertical water transport contributed to low summer survival rates, while winter leafless dormancy and reduced ROS damage enhanced tolerance. Our findings provide insights for enhancing waterlogging resistance in S. tonkinensis amidst climate change challenges. • Reduced root vigor, decreased ABA content, active root fermentation hindered water absorption in roots. • ROS accumulation, lipid peroxidation, and transpiration led to leaf water loss. • Leaf water loss and water transport inhibition caused low S. tonkinensis survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the stability of biomass gel foam used for inhibiting coal spontaneous combustion (CSC), a novel highly stable biomass gel foam (SA-Ca2+@TA-GF) based on a double cross-linked structure was prepared by introducing tannic acid (TA) into a gel form (sodium alginate/calcium L-lactate/composite foaming agent). FT-IR confirmed the formation of the double cross-linked structure. The effects of TA concentration on the performance of SA-Ca2+@TA-GF were analyzed, considering gelation time, half-life, film microstructure, and strength. With the addition of 1.6 wt% TA, SA-Ca2+@TA-GF forms a dense foam structure with a gelation time of 10 min. The half-life of the gel foam improves from 0.4 to 30 days and the strength increases by 72.9% compared to that of foam without TA. The inhibition experiments show that SA-Ca2+@TA-GF can asphyxiate coal, thus effectively inhibiting coal oxidation. Additionally, it can increase the temperature of coal at the rapid oxidation stage by 60 °C, and the CO inhibition rate is up to 79.6% at 200 °C. The fire-fighting experiment shows that SA-Ca2+@TA-GF can effectively cool coal and quickly extinguish fires. This study provides a simple method to prepare highly stable biomass gel foams, which is useful for improving the efficiency of gel foams in inhibiting CSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photothermal nanoconfinement reactor (PNCR) system is proposed and demonstrated by using hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) to enhance the performance of the chemical reaction. Under light irradiation, the local temperature of the HCN inner void space was much higher than the bulk solution temperature because the confined space concentrates heat and inhibits heat loss. Using the temperature‐sensitive model reaction, peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation to oxidize micropollutant, it is shown that the degradation rate of sulfamethoxazole in the PNCR system is 7.1 times of that without nanoconfinement. It is further discovered that the high‐quality local heat inside the nanoconfined space shifted the model reaction from an otherwise non‐radical pathway to a radical‐based pathway. This work provides an interesting strategy to produce a locally high temperature, which has a wide range of applications to energy and environmental fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photothermal nanoconfinement reactor (PNCR) system is proposed and demonstrated by using hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) to enhance the performance of the chemical reaction. Under light irradiation, the local temperature of the HCN inner void space was much higher than the bulk solution temperature because the confined space concentrates heat and inhibits heat loss. Using the temperature‐sensitive model reaction, peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation to oxidize micropollutant, it is shown that the degradation rate of sulfamethoxazole in the PNCR system is 7.1 times of that without nanoconfinement. It is further discovered that the high‐quality local heat inside the nanoconfined space shifted the model reaction from an otherwise non‐radical pathway to a radical‐based pathway. This work provides an interesting strategy to produce a locally high temperature, which has a wide range of applications to energy and environmental fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melia azedarach Linn. is a deciduous tree of the Melia genus in the Meliaceae family that is native to China. To study the mechanism of drought resistance in Melia azedarach and evaluate the drought resistance capacity of each provenance, we selected eight provenances (Shandong Kenli, Jiangsu Pizhou, Hubei Shayang, Jiangsu Xuanwu, Jiangxi Xihu, Jiangsu Jurong, Guangdong Luogang, and Henan Shihe) as the research subjects and set four levels of drought stress treatment (CK: 75% of field capacity, mild drought: 60% of field capacity, moderate drought: 45% of field capacity, and severe drought: 30% of field capacity). The results showed that the growth in the seedling height and the ground diameter, the leaf relative water content, transpiration rate (Tr), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), and the content of chlorophyll (Chl) decreased with the increasing stress levels, while the root–shoot ratio, water saturation deficit, and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased. The SOD in most provenances initially increased and then decreased, reaching a peak during moderate drought. At the late stage of treatment, the magnitude of the changes in the photosynthetic indicators was more pronounced than in the physiological indicators. Principal component analysis showed that the contribution of all four principal components under the three drought stresses was above 85%, which represented the majority of the original data. Combined with the affiliation function method and weights, the comprehensive evaluation value (D value) of the drought resistance was calculated for the eight provenances. Then, we obtained the order of drought resistance of the test materials under the three drought stresses, respectively. The combined results revealed that the drought resistance of Henan Shihe and Jiangxi Xihu was stronger, while the drought resistance of Guangdong Luogang and Hubei Shayang was weaker. Based on the above findings, we can select provenances with strong and weak drought resistance for transcriptome sequencing to screen drought-resistant genes for an in-depth study at the molecular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optoelectronic synaptic devices, which combine the functions of photosensitivity and information processing, are essential for the development of artificial visual perception systems. Nevertheless, improving the paired pulse facilitation (PPF) index of optoelectronic synaptic devices, which is an urgent problem in the construction of high‐precision artificial visual perception systems, has received less attention so far. Herein, a light‐stimulated synaptic transistor (LSST) device with an ultra‐high PPF index (≈196%) is presented by introducing an ultra‐thin carrier regulator layer hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) into a classic graphene‐based hybrid transistor frame (graphene/CsPbBr3 quantum dots). Crucially, analysis of the rate‐limiting effect of h‐BN on photogenerated carriers reveals the mechanism behind the LSST ultra‐high PPF index. Furthermore, a two‐layer artificial neural network connected by LSST devices demonstrate ≈91.5% recognition accuracy of handwritten digits. This work provides an effective method for constructing artificial visual perception systems using a hybrid transistor frame in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Femoral nerve block (FNB) and fascia iliac compartment block (FICB) are alternative methods of pain relief during hip surgery. Nevertheless, the effectiveness and safety of FNB compared with FICB are yet to be fully determined. Methods. Electronic databases were systematically searched. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on hip surgery were included. Postoperatively, the pain scores at different time points, narcotic requirements in 24 h, mean arterial pressure, spinal anesthesia (SA) time, patient satisfaction, and adverse effect rates between the two groups were extracted throughout the study. Results. Fourteen RCTs including 1179 patients were included. Compared to the FICB, FNB decreased the VAS scores postoperatively at 24 h at rest (P < 0.05) and the incidence rate of some side effects (nausea, vomiting, and sedation) (P < 0.05). However, compared to the FICB, no significant difference was found in the FNB regarding the VAS scores postoperatively at any of the other time points (2 min, 20 min, 2 h, 24 h at movement, 48 h at rest, and 48 h at movement). Patients in both groups had similar narcotic needs after 24 h, mean arterial pressure, SA time, and patient satisfaction (P > 0.05). Conclusions. FNB has more advantages in reducing VAS scores postoperatively at 24 h at rest and the odds of some adverse effects. A better quality RCT is needed to properly compare FNB with FICB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a crucial driven gene in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and the EGFR mutation rate in lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is only 3 ~ 6.92%. Uncommon EGFR mutations, such as S768I, L861Q and G719X, accounting for approximately 15% of NSCLC harboring EGFR mutation. Afatinib, a second-generation EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), has been approved for NSCLC harboring uncommon mutations by the FDA in 2018. In our report, the lung SCC patient harboring uncommon compound EGFR mutation (G719A and R776C) benefited from afatinib. Case presentation: A case of a lung SCC patient harboring uncommon compound EGFR mutation (G719A and R776C) benefited from afatinib, and new MYC amplification was detected by next-generation sequencing (NGS) after disease progression. Conclusions: This case first identified a patient with lung squamous cell carcinoma harboring uncommon compound EGFR mutation (G719A and R776C) benefited from afatinib and achieved 11 months of progression-free survival (PFS). Then, new MYC amplification was detected after disease progression, indicating that MYC amplification may be one of the reasons for afatinib resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of sign language interpreting (SLI) is a gripping construct among practitioners, educators and researchers, calling for reliable and valid assessment. There has been a diverse array of methods in the extant literature to measure SLI quality, ranging from traditional error analysis to recent rubric scoring. In this study, we want to expand the terrain of SLI assessment, by exploring and evaluating a novel method, known as comparative judgment (CJ), to assess SLI quality. Briefly, CJ involves judges to compare two like objects/items and make a decision by choosing the one with higher quality. The binary outcomes from repeated comparisons by a group of judges are then modelled statistically to produce standardized estimates of perceived quality for each object/item. We recruited 12 expert judges to operationalize CJ via a computerized system to assess the quality of Chinese Sign Language interpreting produced by 36 trainee interpreters. Overall, our analysis of quantitative and qualitative data provided preliminary evidential support for the validity and utility of CJ in SLI assessment. We discussed these results in relation to previous SLI literature, and suggested future research to cast light on CJ's usefulness in applied assessment contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In Arabidopsis, the differentiation of epidermal cells into stomata is regulated by endogenous and environmental signals. Sugar is required for plant epidermal cell proliferation and differentiation. However, it is unclear how epidermal cells maintain division and differentiation to generate proper amounts of stomata in response to different sugar availability.Here, we show that two evolutionarily conserved kinase Snf1‐related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1) and Target of rapamycin (TOR) play critical roles in the regulation of stomatal development under different sugar availability.When plants are grown on a medium containing 1% sucrose, sucrose‐activated TOR promotes the stomatal development by inducing the expression of SPEECHLESS (SPCH), a master regulator of stomatal development. SnRK1 promotes stomatal development through phosphorylating and stabilizing SPCH. However, under the high sucrose conditions, the highly accumulated trehalose‐6‐phosphate (Tre6P) represses the activity of KIN10, the catalytic α‐subunit of SnRK1, by reducing the interaction between KIN10 and its upstream kinase, consequently promoting SPCH degradation and inhibiting stomatal development.Our findings revealed that TOR and SnRK1 finely regulate SPCH expression and protein stability to optimize the stomatal development in response to exogenously supplied sugar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bearing multidimensional tumor-relevant information ranging from genomic alterations to proteomic makeup, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) constitute a promising material for liquid biopsy. The clinical validity of CTCs has been most extensively studied in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The Cellsearch assay is currently the most widely used, while alternative strategies are pursued. A filtration-based microfluidic device has been described for CTC enrichment, but its clinical relevance remains unknown. Methods: In this preliminary study, we prospectively enrolled 47 MBC patients and evaluated the performance of the abovementioned CTC assay for tumor burden monitoring and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status determination. Results: At baseline, 51.1% patients (24/47) were CTC positive. CTC count and positivity were also significantly higher in samples that accompanied poorer radiographic response evaluations. Serial blood draws suggested that CTC count enabled more accurate monitoring of tumor burden than serum markers carcinoembryonic antigen and cancer antigen 15-3. Also, in contrast to previous reports, CTC-HER2 status was moderately consistent with tumor-HER2 status. CTC-HER2 status assessment was further supported by HER2 copy number measurements in select samples. Conclusion: The preliminary results from this study suggest promise for the interrogated CDC assay in several aspects, including sensitive CTC detection, accurate disease status reflection, and HER2 status determination. More studies are warranted to validate these findings and further characterize the value of CTC assay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable cloud masks in Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover products have a high potential to improve the retrieval of snow properties. However, cloud–snow confusion is a popular problem in MODIS snow cover products, especially in boreal forest areas. A large amount of forest snow is misclassified as clouds because of the low normalized difference snow index (NDSI), and excessive cloud masks limit the application of snow products. In addition, ice clouds are easily misclassified as snow due to their similar spectral characteristics, which leads to snow commission errors. In this paper, we quantitatively evaluated the cloud–snow confusion in Northeast China and found that snow-covered forests and transition zones from snow-covered to snow-free areas are prone to being misclassified as clouds, while clouds are less likely to be misclassified as snow. A temporal-sequence cloud–snow-distinguishing algorithm based on the high-frequency observation characteristics of the Himawarri-8 geostationary meteorological satellite is proposed. In the temporal-sequence images acquired from that satellite, the NDSI variance in cloud pixels should be greater than that of snow because clouds vary over time, while snow is relatively stable. In the MODIS snow cover products, the cloud pixels with NDSI variance lower than a threshold are identified as cloud-free areas and attributed their raw NDSI value, while the snow pixels with NDSI variance greater than the threshold are marked as clouds. We applied this method to MOD10A1 C6 in Northeast China. The results showed that the excessive cloud masks were greatly eliminated, and the new cloud mask was in good agreement with the real cloud distribution. At the same time, some possible ice clouds which had been misclassified as snow for their spectral characteristics similar to those of snow were identified correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starch is the main energy storage carbohydrate in plants and serves as an essential carbon storage molecule for plant metabolism and growth under changing environmental conditions. The TARGET of RAPAMYCIN (TOR) kinase is an evolutionarily conserved master regulator that integrates energy, nutrient, hormone, and stress signaling to regulate growth in all eukaryotes. Here, we demonstrate that TOR promotes guard cell starch degradation and induces stomatal opening in Arabidopsis thaliana. Starvation caused by plants growing under short photoperiod or low light photon irradiance, as well as inactivation of TOR, impaired guard cell starch degradation and stomatal opening. Sugar and TOR induce the accumulation of β-AMYLASE1 (BAM1), which is responsible for starch degradation in guard cells. The plant steroid hormone brassinosteroid and transcription factor BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT1 play crucial roles in sugar-promoted expression of BAM1. Furthermore, sugar supply induced BAM1 accumulation, but TOR inactivation led to BAM1 degradation, and the effects of TOR inactivation on BAM1 degradation were abolished by the inhibition of autophagy and proteasome pathways or by phospho-mimicking mutation of BAM1 at serine-31. Such regulation of BAM1 activity by sugar–TOR signaling allows carbon availability to regulate guard cell starch metabolism and stomatal movement, ensuring optimal photosynthesis efficiency of plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 50% prescribed drugs are metabolised by cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) and glutathione S‐transferase pi (GSTP1) adds a glutathione to the oxidative products by CYP3A, which increases the hydrophilic property of metabolites and facilitates the excretion. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CYP3A and GSTP1 show a diverse allele and genotype frequencies distribution among the world populations. The present study aimed to investigate the genotype and allele frequency distribution patterns of CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP3A7 and GSTP1 polymorphisms among healthy participants in mainland Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur, and Han Chinese populations. Blood samples were collected from 842 unrelated healthy subjects (323 Tibetan, 134 Mongolian, 162 Uyghur, and 223 Han) for genotyping analysis. Variant allele frequencies of CYP3A4 rs2242480, CYP3A5 rs776746, CYP3A7 rs2257401, and GSTP1 Ile105Val were observed in Han (0.253, 0.686, 0.312 and 0.188), Tibetan (0.186, 0.819, 0.192 and 0.173), Mongolian (0.198, 0.784, 0.228 and 0.235) and Uyghur (0.179, 0.858, 0.182 and 0.250) respectively. The allele frequency of CYP3A7*1C in Uyghur (0.019) was higher than that in Tibetan (0.002, p < 0.01). There was a strong linkage disequilibrium between CYP3A4 rs2242480, CYP3A5 rs776746, and CYP3A7 rs2257401 among the four ethnic groups. The results might be useful for the precise medication in the Chinese populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SAM enhances innate immunity by reducing the bacterial burden in the intestine. • SAM induces the expression of immune response genes, including irg-1 and T24B8.5. • SAM functions in germline to enhance innate immunity via an H3K4 methyltransferase complex to up-regulate the immune response genes. • SAM protects mice from P. aeruginosa PA14 infection by reducing the bacterial burden in lung. S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) was a methyl donor for modifying histones, which had crucial roles in lipid accumulation, tissue injury, and immune responses. SAM fluctuation might be linked to variations in histone methylation. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of whether the SAM diet influenced the immune response via histone modification remained obscure. In this study, we utilized the Caenorhabditis elegans as a model to investigate the role of SAM diet in innate immunity. We found that 50 μM SAM increased resistance to Gram-negative pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 by reducing the bacterial burden in the intestine. Furthermore, through the genetic screening in C. elegans , we found that SAM functioned in germline to enhance innate immunity via an H3K4 methyltransferase complex to upregulate the immune response genes, including irg-1 and T24B8.5. Intriguingly, SAM also protected mice from P. aeruginosa PA14 infection by reducing the bacterial burden in lung. These findings provided insight into the mechanisms of molecular connections among SAM diet, histone modifications and innate immunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to suppress the interference of speckle noise on the quality of hologram an attention-wavelet residual denoising network based on multi-level wavelet convolutional neural network is proposed. Firstly, the phase-only hologram is input into the network, and the wavelet transform of the shrinkage subnet is used instead of pooling to reduce the size of the hologram and expand the receptive field. Secondly, the attention-residual module which embeds the convolutional block attention module(CBAM) into the residual block is added to each layer of the network. The CBAM is used to capture the speckle noise of the hologram more accurately, and to improve the fusion capability of network feature information through the residual block. Finally, the hologram after denoising is obtained by up-sampling in the extended subnet by inverse wavelet transform. Simulation experiments show that the improved network effectively removes speckle noise while obtaining high quality holograms. • Denoising of phase-only holograms by attentional wavelet residual networks. • Discrete wavelet transform embedded in convolutional neural networks. • Speckle interference fringing maps simulate phase-only holograms. • Convolutional Block Attention Module and Residual Block to improve noise extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kiwifruit is a climacteric fruit that is prone to ripening and softening. Understanding molecular regulatory mechanism of kiwifruit softening, is helpful to ensure long-term storage of fruit. In the study, two NAC TFs and two XTH genes were isolated from kiwifruit. Phylogenetic tree showed that both AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 belonged to NAP subfamily, AcXTH1 belong to I subfamily, and AcXTH2 belong to III subfamily. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 possessed similar three-dimensional structural, and belonged to hydrophilic proteins. AcXTH1 and AcXTH2 were hydrophilic proteins and contained signal peptides. AcXTH1 had a transmembrane structure, but AcXTH2 did not. qRT-PCR results showed that AcNAC1 , AcNAC2 , Ac XTH1 and AcXTH2 were increased during kiwifruit ripening. Correlation analysis showed that kiwifruit softening was closely related to endotransglucosylase/hydrolase genes and NAC TFs, as well as there was also a close relationship between AcXTHs and AcNACs. Moreover, both AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 were transcriptional activators located in nucleus, which bound to and activated the promoters of AcXTH1 and AcXTH2. In shortly, we proved that the roles of NAC TFs in mediating fruit softening during kiwifruit ripening. Altogether, our results clarified that AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 were transcriptional activators, and took part in kiwifruit ripening and softening through activating endotransglucosylase/hydrolase genes, providing a new insight of fruit softening network in kiwifruit ripening. • AcNAC1 , AcNAC2 , AcXTH1 and AcXTH2 were raised during kiwifruit repening. • Both AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 were transcriptional activators located in nucleus. • AcNAC1 and AcNAC2 could bind to and activate AcXTH1 and AcXTH2 promoters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The catalysts contain multi-active sites. • The micro twinning structure promotes catalytic activity towards different reactions. • The synergic effect exists and leads to the deviation from the Scaling Effect. The twinning structure could lead to unexpected effects on electrocatalytic performance; however, research on relevant mechanisms is still rare and there is still a lack of an effective and convenient strategy to introduce twinning structures into nanoparticles. In this work, inspired by the in-situ fcc-hcp phase transition in metals and benefiting from the features of Prussian blue analogues (PBAs), N-doped carbon cages-coated CoNi nanoparticles, which contain multi-active sites including alloyed nanoparticles, micro twinning structures and single atom sites could be effectively fabricated by pyrolyzing of CoNi-based PBAs. The catalyst exhibits an obvious enhancement in oxygen evolution/reduction reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction under alkaline conditions. Theoretical calculations verify that the micro-twinning structures originating from the fcc-hcp phase transition promote electrocatalytic activities significantly due to the optimized adsorption energy towards different intermediates. Moreover, the synergic effect between the multi-active sites may further optimize the electronic structures and lead to the deviation from the Scaling Effect. The water-splitting device and Zinc-Air battery are also assembled based on this micro- twinning electrocatalyst, which yields a maximum power density of 95 mW cm−2 and a low voltage of 1.76 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 current density, respectively. In all, this work contributes a simple and universal strategy to introduce both the multi-active sites and the twinning structure into transition metal-based catalysts, which improves the multi-catalytic activity towards different reactions significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we applied and evaluated a scoring method known as comparative judgement to assess spoken-language interpreting. This methodological exploration represents an extension of previous efforts to optimise scoring methods for assessing interpreting. Essentially, comparative judgement requires judges to compare two similar objects and make a binary decision about their relative qualities. To evaluate its reliability, validity and usefulness in the assessment of interpreting, we recruited two groups of judges (novice and experienced) to assess 66 two-way English/Chinese interpretations based on a computerised comparative judgement system. Our data analysis shows that the new method produced reliable and valid results across judge types and interpreting directions. However, the judges held polarised opinions about the method's usefulness: while some considered it convenient, efficient and reliable, the opposite view was expressed by others. We discuss the results by providing an integrated analysis of the data collected, outline the perceived drawbacks and propose possible solutions to the drawbacks. We call for more evidence-based, substantive investigation into comparative judgement as a potentially useful method for assessing spoken-language interpreting in certain settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, testing and assessing spoken-language interpreting has garnered an increasing amount of attention from stakeholders in interpreter education, professional certification, and interpreting research. This is because in these fields assessment results provide a critical evidential basis for high-stakes decisions, such as the selection of prospective students, the certification of interpreters, and the confirmation/refutation of research hypotheses. However, few reviews exist providing a comprehensive mapping of relevant practice and research. The present article therefore aims to offer a state-of-the-art review, summarizing the existing literature and discovering potential lacunae. In particular, the article first provides an overview of interpreting ability/competence and relevant research, followed by main testing and assessment practice (e.g., assessment tasks, assessment criteria, scoring methods, specificities of scoring operationalization), with a focus on operational diversity and psychometric properties. Second, the review describes a limited yet steadily growing body of empirical research that examines rater-mediated interpreting assessment, and casts light on automatic assessment as an emerging research topic. Third, the review discusses epistemological, psychometric, and practical challenges facing interpreting testers. Finally, it identifies future directions that could address the challenges arising from fast-changing pedagogical, educational, and professional landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]