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Abstract Managing learning efforts and self-regulation skills are crucial for academic performance. Graduate students are considered more mature and utilize more sophisticated learning strategies than undergraduates. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they may have struggled with challenging academic tasks, transition to online course modality, and additional family responsibilities. This study examines how graduate students’ adjustment, mental health, and motivation impact their use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies. An anonymous online survey was distributed via Qualtrics between November and December 2021. The survey incorporated a demographic questionnaire, College Adjustment Test (CAT), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and selected subscales from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study gathered responses from 301 graduate students enrolled at a large southeastern university in the United States. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The final model suggests that mental health and motivation factors may significantly and directly impact SRL strategies. Within the model, mental health factors, such as stress, seem to positively affect SRL strategies, while depression suggests a negative impact. Intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy in motivation had a positive influence on SRL strategies based on the model. Additionally, graduate students’ adjustment could influence their use of learning strategies via the mediation of these mental health and motivation factors. The opposite effects of positive and negative adjustment, as mediated by stress, depression, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy were also discussed.

Study region: Lake Chaohu Basin, a typical agricultural watershed with polders in lowland areas Study focus: Agricultural polders are typical agro-ecosystem units to prevent flooding in lowland areas worldwide. When facing extreme floods, they are also used to store floodwater temporarily. This function shift significantly affects nutrient dynamics and transport process, which, however, remains poorly understood. This study used field investigation and high-frequency monitoring to examine the nutrient dynamics modulated by agricultural polders in Lake Chaohu Basin, China when facing the extreme 2020 Yangtze River flood. New hydrological insight for the region: The results highlight the retention-reaction-remobilization function of agricultural polders to reduce nutrient pollution under extreme flooding. Inundated polders had lower concentrations of nitrogen (N) than protected polders, indicating the retention and reaction of N during inundation. Drained polders exhibited poorer water quality than inundated polders in terms of dissolved oxygen, N and phosphorus (P) concentrations, suggesting an increase of pollution during remobilization of the floodwater. However, such increase had little impact on the water quality of receiving rivers which showed generally better water quality than in early flood rising period. The above results indicated the buffering role of agricultural polders to mitigate nutrient pollution when facing extreme flooding. The outcomes from this study provide new insights into flood control strategies to integrate water quality restoration and sustainable agriculture in lowland areas.

Abstract Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in young children and the elderly. There are currently no approved RSV-specific therapeutic small molecules available. Using high-throughput antiviral screening, we identified an oral drug, the prenylation inhibitor lonafarnib, which showed potent inhibition of the RSV fusion process. Lonafarnib exhibited antiviral activity against both the RSV A and B genotypes and showed low cytotoxicity in HEp-2 and human primary bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC). Time-of-addition and pseudovirus assays demonstrated that lonafarnib inhibits RSV entry, but has farnesyltransferase-independent antiviral efficacy. Cryo-electron microscopy revealed that lonafarnib binds to a triple-symmetric pocket within the central cavity of the RSV F metastable pre-fusion conformation. Mutants at the RSV F sites interacting with lonafarnib showed resistance to lonafarnib but remained fully sensitive to the neutralizing monoclonal antibody palivizumab. Furthermore, lonafarnib dose-dependently reduced the replication of RSV in BALB/c mice. Collectively, lonafarnib could be a potential fusion inhibitor for RSV infection.

A comparison was conducted on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance of the fusion zone (FZ) in Zr R60702 laser lap joints prepared under air-cooled and water-cooled conditions. The results reveal that the upper and lower regions of the FZ in the welded joint consist of dendritic structure and α′ martensite, respectively. When water-cooled forced cooling is applied, α′ martensite emerges in the upper region of the FZ, with a few dendrites exhibiting an isoaxial distribution. Furthermore, the α′ martensite in the lower region becomes noticeably refined. The utilization of water-cooling triggers multiple strengthening mechanisms that, through synergistic interactions, enhance the microhardness, strength, and plasticity of the welded joints. The improved corrosion resistance within the FZ of the welded joint is attributed to the formation of a more stable passivation film.

Hyperlipidemia is a chronic disease that is difficult to cure, and long-term pharmacotherapy may have negative consequences. Dietary therapy is a very promising strategy, and Chinese rice wine (Huangjiu) will play an important role because of its many biologically active components. In this work, the alleviating effect of Stachys sieboldii Miq. Huangjiu (CSCHJ) on high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemia in mice was investigated, which is brewed from the wheat Qu with the addition of Stachys sieboldii Miq. and contains 15.54 g/L of polysaccharides. The experimental results showed that CSCHJ inhibited appetite, reduced body weight and blood sugar levels, and downregulated the serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) while concurrently upregulating high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in the high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemia mice. At the same time, it was discovered that alcohol worsens hyperlipidemia symptoms and related physiological markers, implying that CSCHJ polysaccharides may play a role in hyperlipidemia treatment. Through the assessment of organ indices, liver and kidney function, and tissue staining, CSCHJ demonstrated efficacy in repairing liver, kidney, and colon mucosal damage in hyperlipidemic mice. Furthermore, 16S rDNA sequencing and gas chromatography studies revealed that CSCHJ effectively restored the intestinal microbial structure and enhanced the quantity of fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in hyperlipidemic mice. Therefore, the alleviating effect of CSCHJ on hyperlipidemia in mice may be attributed to its regulation of energy metabolism by repairing liver, kidney, and colon mucosal damage and restoring the gut microbiota structure, among other mechanisms. Overall, our findings provide evidence that CSCHJ contains active ingredients capable of alleviating hyperlipidemia, thereby laying a theoretical foundation for the extraction of bioactive substances from Huangjiu for future medical or dietary use.

The diversity and internationalization of academia enable U.S. higher education to acquire professionals from a global pool. However, few have researched whether levels of self-perceived efficacy in teaching, language, and technology differ in academic and personal identities. Moreover, less is known about their acquisition and improvement of pedagogical strategies. The current research used a mixed methods study to explore the complexity of instruction-related efficacy and experiences. A total of 113 international faculty (IF) completed an anonymous online Qualtrics survey between 2021 and 2022. The survey measured teaching, English, and technology efficacy. Five semi–structured interviews and classroom observations were also conducted. Results showed that: (1) Cultural and policy English efficacy, not course-related English or technology efficacy, significantly influenced their teaching efficacy. (2) Novice and non-tenure groups showed disadvantages in teaching and language. (3) IF exhibit a dynamic pedagogical approach, iteratively refining teaching beliefs and strategies based on feedback. The growth pattern of IF shows consistent themes across individual trajectories. This evolution can be categorized into three layers, beginning with a foundational layer, striving to convey course content effectively. In the relationship layer, they focus on fostering connections with students. Finally, in the desirable layer, IF are geared towards guiding students to derive maximum benefit from the classroom experience and enhance their future career prospects. Ensuring a better cultural and policy understanding in the U.S. is crucial to IF's early career success. The current research suggests that universities in the U.S. offer training programs to help IF, especially novice and non-tenure track IF, prepare to adapt to departmental and institutional cultures, policies, and standards.

The brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) have been extensively explored due to their advantages in terms of high communication speed and smaller calibration time. The visual stimuli in the low- and medium-frequency ranges are adopted in most of the existing studies for eliciting SSVEPs. However, there is a need to further improve the comfort of these systems. The high-frequency visual stimuli have been used to build BCI systems and are generally considered to significantly improve the visual comfort, but their performance is relatively low. The distinguishability of 16-class SSVEPs encoded by the three frequency ranges, i.e., 31-34.75 Hz with an interval of 0.25 Hz, 31-38.5 Hz with an interval of 0.5 Hz, 31-46 Hz with an interval of 1 Hz, is explored in this study. We compare classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) of the corresponding BCI system. According to the optimized frequency range, this study builds an online 16-target high frequency SSVEP-BCI and verifies the feasibility of the proposed system based on 21 healthy subjects. The BCI based on visual stimuli with the narrowest frequency range, i.e., 31-34.5 Hz, have the highest ITR. Therefore, the narrowest frequency range is adopted to build an online BCI system. An averaged ITR obtained from the online experiment is 153.79 ±6.39 bits/min. These findings contribute to the development of more efficient and comfortable SSVEP-based BCIs.

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have received significant attention owing to their high information transfer rate (ITR) and low training requirements. Previous SSVEP-based BCIs mostly adopt the stationary visual flickers where only a few studies have explored the effect of moving visual flickers on the SSVEP-BCI. In this study, a novel stimulus encoding method based on the simultaneous modulation of luminance and motion was proposed. We adopted the sampled sinusoidal stimulation method to encode the frequencies and phases of stimulus targets. In addition to luminance modulation, at the same time, visual flickers also moved horizontally towards right and left at different frequencies (i.e., 0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 Hz) following a sinusoidal function. Accordingly, a nine-target SSVEP-BCI was built to evaluate the influence of motion modulation on the BCI performance. Filter bank canonical correlation analysis (FBCCA) approach was adopted to identify the stimulus targets. Offline experimental results of 17 subjects revealed that the system performance decreased with the increase of superimposed horizontal periodic motion frequency. Our online experimental results showed that the subjects achieved 85.00 ± 6.77 % and 83.15 ± 9.88 % accuracy for the superimposed horizontal periodic motion frequencies of 0 and 0.2 Hz, respectively. These results verified the feasibility of the proposed systems. In addition, the system with 0.2 Hz horizontal motion frequency provided the best visual experience for subjects. These results indicated that moving visual stimulus can provide an alternative option for SSVEP-BCIs. Furthermore, the proposed paradigm is expected to develop a more comfortable BCI system.

Background To investigate the clinical and kidney pathological features and prognosis of idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) with kidney tubulointerstitial damage (TID).Methods Based on the presence or absence of kidney TID by kidney biopsy, 300 patients diagnosed with IMN were categorized into non-TID (TID−) and tubulointerstitial injury (TID+) groups. The clinical and pathological data were analyzed retrospectively. All patients were followed up for 6–24 months after treatment with glucocorticoids (GCs) combined with cyclophosphamide or GCs combined with calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) to observe treatment effects on patient prognosis.Results The patients in the TID + group were older and more likely to be male. The 24-h urine protein, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, cystatin C, β2-microglobulin, and antiphospholipase A2 receptor antibody levels were higher than those in the TID − group and the pathological manifestations were more severe. After 1 year of follow-up, the overall response rate (complete response + partial response) in the TID + group was lower (66.67% vs. 80.89%, p = .022) than in the other. After combined GC and CNI therapy, the complete remission rate in the TID + group was significantly lower than that in the TID − group (13.79% vs. 35.46%, p = .022). The 24-h urine protein level was an independent risk factor for worsening kidney condition (p = .038).Conclusion Patients with IMN with TID have more severe clinical manifestations and pathological damage and lower remission rates. IMN with TID is a risk factor for worsening kidney condition; however, it is not an independent risk factor.

A chemselective catalyst-free three-component 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition has been described. The unique polycyclic THPI and THIQs were creatively employed as dipolarophiles, which led to the formation of functionalized β-tetrahydrocarboline- and tetrahydroisoquinoline-fused spirooxindoles in 60–94% of yields with excellent diastereoselectivities (10: 1−>99: 1 dr). This reaction not only realizes a concise THPI- or THIQs-based 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, but also provides a practical strategy for the construction of two distinctive spirooxindole skeletons.

In order to analyze the change rule of the pore structure of different thermal treated granites and quantitatively characterize the distribution characteristics of effective pores, the pore structure characteristics of high-temperature granites under different cooling modes are tested based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology. It is found that when the temperature is 150 °C, water-cooling will reduce the number of rock pores, and the phenomenon of “thermal hardening” is obvious. When the temperature is 300 °C, the micropore diameter increases and part of it changes into mesopore pores. When the temperature is 450 °C, the mesopore pores occupy the dominant position, and the pore types are relatively concentrated. When the temperature is 600 °C, exceeding the quartz phase change temperature (573 °C), the number and pore diameter of rock pores increase dramatically, and even macropores appear. The pore size of rocks under different heat treatments has fractal characteristics, and fractal dimension models related to pore size can be established. Based on the fractal dimension model, the thermal storage properties of different thermal treated granites are discussed, and the optimal temperature conditions (450 °C and 600 °C) for the thermal storage properties of macroporous and mesoporous pores are found.

BackgroundRituximab (RTX) is gaining increasing clinical acceptance in the treatment of primary membranous nephropathy (PMN), with demonstrated efficacy and safety. However, there are few clinical studies on RTX for PMN in Asian populations, especially in China.MethodsTo observe and analyse the efficacy and safety of RTX treatment, 81 patients with PMN suffering from nephrotic syndrome (NS) were enrolled and divided into an initial therapy group, a conventional immunosuppressive therapy relapse group, and a conventional immunosuppressive therapy ineffective group according to their pre-RTX treatment background. Patients in each group were followed up for 12 months. The primary outcome was clinical remission at 12 months, and the secondary outcomes were safety and the occurrence of adverse events.ResultsAt 12 months, 65 of 81 (80.2%) patients achieved complete (n=21, 25.9%) or partial (n=44, 54.3%) remission after rituximab treatment. Thirty-two of 36 (88.9%) patients in the initial therapy group, 11 of 12 (91.7%) patients in the relapse group and 22 of 33 (66.7%) patients in the ineffective group achieved clinical remission. All 59 patients with positive anti-PLA2R antibodies showed a decreasing trend in antibody levels after RTX treatment, and 55 (93.2%) of them achieved antibody clearance (

Abstract In the process design and reuse of marine component products, there are a lot of heterogeneous models, causing the problem that the process knowledge and process design experience contained in them are difficult to express and reuse. Therefore, a process knowledge representation model for ship heterogeneous model is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the multi-element process knowledge graph is constructed, and the heterogeneous ship model is described in a unified way. Then, the multi-strategy ontology mapping method is applied, and the semantic expression between the process knowledge graph and the entity model is realized. Finally, by obtaining implicit semantics based on case-based reasoning and checking the similarity of the matching results, the case knowledge reuse is achieved, to achieve rapid design of the process. This method provides reliable technical support for the design of ship component assembly and welding process, greatly shortens the design cycle, and improves the working efficiency. In addition, taking the double-deck bottom segment of a ship as an example, the process knowledge map of the heterogeneous model is constructed to realize the rapid design of ship process, which shows that the method can effectively acquire the process knowledge in the design case and improve the efficiency and intelligence of knowledge reuse in the process design of the heterogeneous model of a ship.

This paper examines the relationship between local venture capital (VC) funds and portfolio enterprise internationalization from the perspective of limited partners (LPs). Based on a sample consist of 581 listed enterprises invested by local VC funds in China during 2009–2021, it’s found that, compared to the VC funds invested by local LPs completely (LLP_VC), the VC funds with foreign LP investment (FLP_VC) are more likely to help portfolio enterprises list overseas. If FLP_VC syndicates or act as a major investor, it will have a greater role in promoting the internationalization of enterprises.

The overuse of antibiotics and the pollution of the ecological environment caused by their emissions had attracted widespread attention. There was little information on the detection and distribution characteristics of antibiotics in coastal environments with complex water-suspended particles interactions and significant salinity changes. In this study, the occurrence, source, and ecological risk of 26 antibiotics, as well as their response mechanisms to anthropogenic activities were studied. Water samples along a typical silty mud coastal area were collected. The total concentration of antibiotics in the coastal water ranged from 8.5 to 132 ng/L. Spatially, the total concentration showed a downward trend along the canal. The results of offshore samples showed that the highest concentrations occurred near the small estuaries and the northwestern sampling sites. This indicated that the small canals provided a large source of pollutants and the antibiotic distribution were also dominated by local hydrodynamic conditions. Based on the results of principal component analysis-multiple linear regression, the domestic sewage and livestock and poultry farming were identified as the predominant sources of antibiotics. The results of the ecological risk assessment showed that 56.8 % sampling sites were in low-risk. The effect of intensity of anthropogenic disturbance on the distribution of antibiotics was represented by the distance between the sampling site and the city center, and the distance value showed a significant negative correlation with the total concentration of antibiotics. However, different kinds of antibiotics showed different patterns: concentrations of tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones had no significant relationship with distance values; sulfonamides, lincosamides, and macrolides decreased with the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance. This study presented a method to quantify the effect of anthropogenic activities, thus provided a new insight of adjust measures to local conditions for the pollution prevention and ecological risk assessment of antibiotics in coastal areas.

In recent years, venture capital (VC) cross-border syndication has shown an obvious growth trend. Based on the existing studies, this paper explores the impact of VC cross-border syndication on corporate innovation. We also examine the mediating roles of cross-border quadratic relationship closure (CBQRC) formed by the strategic cooperation relationship between the respective portfolio companies of domestic and foreign VCs. This paper conducted an empirical analysis to test our hypotheses using a sample of first-round investments in domestic firms by domestic VC firms from 2014 to 2016. Results show that the more investment events of VC cross-border syndication or the more partners of VC cross-border syndication, the more likely it is to have a significant positive impact on the innovation of domestic portfolio companies. CBQRC plays a mediating role between VC cross-border syndication on corporate innovation. Results remain robust after removing endogeneity using the instrumental variables approach and removing sample selection bias using Heckman two-stage regression. Results deepen the understanding of the relationship between VC cross-border syndication and corporate innovation and provide essential guidance to domestic VC firms promoting corporate innovation in open partnerships.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between factors in the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) model and teachers' self-efficacy in remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the authors sought to listen to classroom teachers as they expressed their unbiased views of the advantages, disadvantages and challenges of teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was employed to examine the relationship between factors in the extended TAM model and teachers' self-efficacy in remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic using the 49-item questionnaire. A multiple regression analysis using a stepwise procedure was used to examine the relationship between factors in the extended TAM model and teachers' self-efficacy. Three open-ended questions closely examined remote teaching during the pandemic, related to challenges, advantages and disadvantages. Findings – Qualitative findings challenges included Internet connection, lack of interaction and communication and challenges with motivation and student engagement. Disadvantages included teachers’ level of self-efficacy in using technology to teach, lack of support and resources to teach online and the struggle to motivate and engage students. Perceived benefits included flexibility for the teacher and differentiation, rich resources and a way to support learners when in-person instruction is not possible. Research limitations/implications – The data suggest that instead, during COVID-19, many teachers were learning about the platforms simultaneously as they were instructing students. Practical implications – To ensure quality remote instruction and that students receive the support to make instruction equitable, teachers need to perceive that their instructional technology needs are met to focus on teaching, learning and needs of their students. Social implications – Teachers need opportunities to explore the platforms and to experience success in this environment before they are exposed to the high stakes of preparing students to meet K-12 standards. Originality/value – Instructional delivery has not explored teacher motivational and instructional teaching self-efficacy related to satisfaction with the learning management system (LMS).

As an important means to realize intelligent manufacturing, a digital twin is a digital expression of physical entities, which realizes virtual–real interaction and the iterative optimization of product design and manufacturing by constructing a bridge of information mapping between the physical world and the virtual world. Resistance spot welding technology is widely used in automotive manufacturing, aerospace and other fields as a spot linking process for the manufacture of thin sheet structures. The fusion nugget growth process of resistance spot welding is particularly important for its joint quality. Resistance spot welding is a highly nonlinear coupled process, and physical models make it difficult to accurately monitor its quality. Taking 2219/5A06 aluminum plates with different thicknesses as the research object, digital twin technology is applied to monitor the welding process of aluminum plate. In order to improve the key technologies such as information interaction in the digital twin system, a data acquisition system for resistance spot welding process is established and a real-time data processing technology based on wavelet threshold analysis is proposed. Based on real-time data, the processed process parameters are tested in twin space to validate the feasibility of the solution.

In this paper, a Divide-and-Cooperate Machine Learning Model (DCML) based Radial Basis Function Network (RBF) is constructed. This DCML is composed of several sub-RBF networks that take some variables as their inputs. The output of DCML is the sum of sub-RBF networks' outputs. The analysis of VC dimension of DCML shows in theory that its structural complexity is less than conventional Extended Radial Basis Function Network (ENRBF). The experimental results have verified that the DCML outperforms conventional ENRBF.

Estimations of antibiotic emission and fate and thereby ecological risk in rural catchments still lack feasible methods due to data scarcity. This study developed a new framework to evaluate the emission and fate of typical antibiotics for data-scarce catchments with uncertainty analysis. We estimated antibiotic discharge through questionnaire surveys; predicted antibiotic fate in air, water, soil, and sediment phases using a multimedia fugacity model; and analyzed the uncertainties of predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) and ecological risks of antibiotics. The developed method was tested in the Meijiang River catchment in China, and the uncertainty was systematically analyzed. Results showed that the discharge of tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) in the studied watershed was 8.56 t/a, with approximately 93% from veterinary medicine. TCs existed dominantly in the soil phase, accounting for 87.3% of total discharge. TC levels at the equilibrium states were the highest in sediment and soil, followed by water and air. The emission levels of TCs may cause slight risk to algae, daphniids, and fish in the receiving water based on the ecological risk evaluation of PECs. Despite of some uncertainties, the developed method provided an effective alternative to evaluate the ecological risks of antibiotics in catchments where sufficient monitored data are unavailable. Keywords: Antibiotics, Tetracyclines, Environmental fate, Data-scarce catchments

Understanding the relation between landscape pattern and water quality is essential to making a master plan for restoration of regional lake and wetland clusters, which has not yet been well resolved. Here, we studied the impacts of landscape pattern changes on water quality over lake clusters, taking the aquaculture area in the Lixia River hinterland of China as a case. Multi-temporal Landsat series of remote sensing data from 1985 to 2018 was used and space-for-time substitution (SFTS) method was applied to explore the relationship between landscape pattern and water quality. Results showed that wetland and free water surface were the dominant classes of the lake cluster in 1985 and 1990, but they began to rapidly decrease from 1995 to 2000. The enclosure aquaculture increased rapidly since 1995 and became the dominant class between 1995 and 2018. The patch density of aquaculture water (PD_A) increased from 0.09n/km2 in 1985 to 0.34n/km2 in 2018, with the largest degree of fragmentation in 2000. However, the growth rate of PD_A declined significantly after the enactment of the lake ecological protection policies. The SFTS results showed that PD_A had positive correlation with total nitrogen (TN) (r = 0.26), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) (r = 0.21), and Chlorophyta (r = 0.33), and the water quality degraded with increasing PD_A. Hence, PD_A could be a water quality indicator of lakes in the Lixia River hinterland. The study is expected to provide a viable method to design regional restoration plan for degraded and over-developed wetland areas.

The stress intensity factor is an important parameter to study the fracture problem. The occurrence and development of gear cracks can be measured and controlled， which is of great significance for studying the fatigue damage of cracks and predicting life. In order to study the variation law of three-dimensional crack stress intensity factor of spur gears， a three-dimensional finite element model with initial semi-elliptical cracks is established by Abaqus software. The stress intensity factor of the semi-elliptical crack front is calculated， and the influence of crack size， shape and load variation on the stress intensity factor at the leading edge is analyzed. The results show that the cracks of the roots of the teeth mainly manifested as open cracks during the expansion process. As the load increases， stress intensity factor KI also increases， but its distribution rules remain unchanged. With constant load， KI increases with the increase of crack size. In the establishment of semi-elliptical cracks， as the long axis increases， the KI fluctuations on the crack front gradually become smaller.

Pre-Bötzinger complex is considered to have a closely relationship with the respiratory rhythms. In this paper, we investigate the bursting phenomena of the pre-Bötzinger complex respiratory neuron with periodic slow stimulation. Since the external forcing visit the spiking and rest areas in different ways, thus the system could generate various complex bursting patterns. With the external forcing is taken as a slow variable that modulates the dynamics of the system, different types of bursting are distinguished and the generation mechanism is explored by using the combination of two parameter bifurcation analysis and fast slow decomposition. Our results show that both the external forcing and the neural intrinsic property play an important role in neural activities.

The general shallow wave equation can be used to describe the fluid motion which own uniform density and nearly uniform speed. In fact, these problems we face in nature do not satisfy these conditions, for example, the motion system of nonlinear rotation fluid governed by the frictional dissipation as well as the atmosphere system with greater viscosity. In these conditions, we need to amend the general shallow wave equation and consider the dissipative and viscous effect. In this article, starting from the shallow wave equation with dissipative and viscous effects in the horizontal direction, by virtue of β plane approximation and quasi-geostrophic approximation of large-scale motion, we derive the dissipative Petviashvili equation to describe the two-dimensional Rossby waves. Based on the ansatz function method, we obtain the exact analytical solutions of dissipative Petviashvili equation and discuss the influence of dissipation on the two-dimensional Rossby waves.

Titanium alloy possesses high strength, good corrosion resistance, and high heat resistance; thus, it is widely used in the aerospace and other fields. Blades of titanium alloy are important components of aero-engines and are essential to the engines operation. In this work, a Ti-6Al-4V blade was formed by cross wedge rolling (CWR) to realize the near net-shape of an aero-engine blade. First, thermal simulation experiments of Ti-6Al-4V were carried out to obtain the thermal deformation constitutive equation of the alloy. The finite element software Deform-3D was then used to simulate the thermodynamic coupling of the forming process, and the metal flow, temperature, and stress⁻strain distribution laws during the forming process were analyzed. Finally, experimental verification of the Ti-6Al-4V blade was carried out by using an H500 CWR mill. The results revealed the feasibility of applying CWR to preform Ti-6Al-4V blades.

PURPOSE:To study whole-brain microstructural alterations in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and examine the relationship between brain microstructure and physiological indictors in the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Diffusion tensor imaging data were collected from 35 patients with ESRD (28 men, 18-61 years) and 40 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs, 32 men, 22-58 years). A voxel-wise analysis was then used to identify microstructural alterations over the whole brain in the ESRD patients compared with the HCs. Multiple biochemical measures of renal metabolin, vascular risk factors, general cognitive ability and dialysis duration were correlated with microstructural integrity for the patients. RESULTS:Compared to the HCs, the ESRD patients exhibited disrupted microstructural integrity in not only white matter (WM) but also gray matter (GM) regions, as characterized by decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD). Further correlation analyses revealed that the in MD, AD and RD values showed significantly positive correlations with the blood urea nitrogen in the left superior temporal gyrus and significantly negative correlations with the calcium levels in the left superior frontal gyrus (orbital part) in the patients. CONCLUSION:Our findings suggest that ESRD is associated with widespread diffusion abnormalities in both WM and GM regions in the brain, and microstructural integrity of several GM regions are related to biochemical alterations in the disease.

PURPOSE:To investigate the aberrant functional connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and their clinical relevance. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Resting-state functional MRI data were collected from 31 patients with ESRD (24 men, 24-61 years) and 31 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs, 21 men, 26-61years). A whole-brain seed-based functional connectivity analysis of these collected R-fMRI data was performed by locating the seeds in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to investigate the functional connectivity of the posterior and anterior DMN over the whole brain, respectively. RESULTS:Compared to the HCs, the patients exhibited significantly decreased functional connectivity with the PCC in the left middle temporal gyrus, the right anterior cingulate gyrus, and the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus. For the vmPFC seed, only the right thalamus showed significantly decreased functional connectivity in the patients with ESRD compared to HCs. Interestingly, functional connectivity between the PCC and right medial superior frontal gyrus exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the hemoglobin level in the patients. CONCLUSION:Our findings suggest a spatially specific disruption of functional connectivity in the DMN in patients with ESRD, thereby providing novel insights into our understanding of the neurophysiology mechanism that underlies the disease.

We show the existence of solutions for mixed boundary-value problems that model quantum hydrodynamics in thermal equilibrium. Also we find the semi-classical limit of the solutions.