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The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a cathodic reaction of water splitting which is crucial in energy conversion. However, its wide-scale industrial applicability is limited by the slow reaction kinetics and complex diffusion of generated gas bubbles. In this study, we chose the readily available, low-cost stainless steel as a conductive substrate and feasibly in-situ developed the active phase ZnIn 2 S 4 and Ni-doped ZnIn 2 S 4 on it as a high-rate cathode for HER in acidic, alkaline, and neutral conditions. The Ni-doped electrocatalysts, when compared to bare ZnIn 2 S 4 , have higher electrocatalytic activity for HER, with low overpotentials of only 259 mV and 224 mV, to generate a high current density of 100 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 and 1 M KOH, respectively, exhibiting obviously enhanced performance. The presence of Ni atoms is evident in EDS mapping, TEM analysis, and ICP technique. A detailed analysis of the electrochemical characteristics of the generated electrocatalysts was carried out to gain a better understanding of the effect of additional doping atoms. We not only demonstrate a feasible method for developing unique, stable and efficient HER electrocatalysts in all pH settings by comprehending the collaborative effect of the active phase, doped Ni atoms, and affordable stainless-steel substrate, but also point out new avenue to branch out self-standing HER electrocatalyst categories. • An appropriate large-scale industrial production method. • A simple and universal strategy for increasing HER activity. • Competitive overpotentials in a wide pH range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fees of different certification services are charged in different ways: For example, T-mall.com (one of the leading e-commerce platforms in China) uses a total certification service, where each type of seller participating in the platform must purchase certification services; Pinduoduo.com (another Chinese e-commerce platform) uses an alternative certification service, where after paying a transaction fee, each seller participating in the platform can choose whether to purchase certification services. This paper studies how the choice of certification services affects the participation decisions of both sellers and buyers, as well as the revenue and quality level (the proportion of high-quality sellers of all participating sellers) of a platform. According to previous research, network externalities also affect sellers’ and buyers’ participation strategies. Studies on the effectiveness of different certification services for e-commerce platforms have rarely considered both positive and negative network externalities. The results of constructed game-theoretic models show that both the certification capability and the certification cost play critical roles in determining which certification services can generate more revenue. If a platform provides certification services, the total certification service always generates a higher quality level than the alternative certification service. Furthermore, the applicable scope of certification services (defined as the certification strategy space), can be broadened by increasing both the profit ratio (the ratio between the profit of H-type sellers and L-type sellers) and the value ratio (the ratio between the value of H-type sellers and L-type sellers). Counterintuitively, a higher certification capability does not always yield a higher certification fee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: There is a need to explore alternative feed ingredients to reduce feed costs in the context of international maize price fluctuation. Rice is a staple cereal grain for human consumption. Currently, the self-sufficiency rate for rice is close to 100% in China. Due to the high yield production and poor taste quality, there is a serious backlog of early indica rice in China, especially in the southern rice-producing provinces. Thus, rice may have the potential to be used as an alternative energy source for pigs in the context of international maize price fluctuation. As a result of evaluating the effects of replacing corn with paddy rice in pig diets, using paddy rice in swine diets at up to 15% for growing pigs, 20% for early-finishing pigs, and 30% for late-finishing pigs did not cause adverse impacts on growth performance. Therefore, paddy rice can be evaluated as a valuable feed ingredient for swine diets during the growing–finishing period, if favorably priced. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate paddy rice as an alternative energy feedstuff in low-protein diets for pigs. In Experiment 1, a total of 400 growing pigs (20.68 ± 0.29 kg initial bodyweight), were randomly allocated four dietary treatments with 0, 10, 15, and 20% paddy rice for 30 days. Feeding 10% or 15% paddy rice had no adverse impacts on average daily gain (ADG) and feed to gain ratio (F:G), while the inclusion of 20% rice in diets significantly influenced the growth performance of pigs. In Experiment 2, 364 early-finishing pigs (42.25 ± 0.47 kg) were divided into four treatments with 0, 15, 20, and 25% paddy rice for 35 days. Feeding 15% or 20% paddy rice had no negative consequences on growth performance, while pigs fed with 25% rice had the lowest ADG and the greatest F:G. In Experiment 3, 364 late-finishing pigs (79.52 ± 1.28 kg) were divided into four treatments with 0, 20, 25, and 30% paddy rice for 60 days. Paddy rice can be included at up to 30% in diets without compromising growth performance, while feeding with 25% rice significantly improved the performance for pigs compared with the corn-fed control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptions of neural metabolism and function occur in parallel during Alzheimer's disease (AD). While many studies have shown diverse metabolic‐functional relationships in specific brain regions, much less is known about how large‐scale network‐level functional activity is associated with the topology of metabolism in AD. In this study, we took the advantages of simultaneous PET/MRI and multivariate analyses to investigate the associations between AD‐related stereotypical spatial patterns (topographies) of glucose metabolism, measured by fluorodeoxyglucose PET, and functional connectivity, measured by resting‐state functional MRI. A total of 101 participants, including 37 patients with AD, 25 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 39 cognitively normal controls, underwent PET/MRI scans and cognitive assessments. Three pairs of distinct but optimally correlated metabolic and functional topographies were identified, encompassing large‐scale networks including the default‐mode, executive and control, salience, attention, and subcortical networks. Importantly, the metabolic‐functional associations were not only limited to one‐to‐one‐corresponding regions, but also occur in remote and non‐overlapping regions. Furthermore, both glucose metabolism and functional connectivity, as well as their linkages, exhibited various degrees of disruptions in patients with MCI and AD, and were correlated with cognitive decline. In conclusion, our results support distributed and heterogeneous topographic associations between metabolism and function, which are jeopardized by AD. Findings of this study may deepen our understanding of the pathological mechanism of AD through the perspectives of both local energy efficiency and long‐term interactions between synaptic disruption and functional disconnection contributing to the clinical symptomatology in AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) has been widely used for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in recent years. However, the role of hemoadsorption in ARDS patients requiring VV ECMO is unclear. Methods: Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to describe the effect of hemoadsorption on outcomes of ARDS patients requiring VV ECMO and elucidate the risk factors for adverse outcomes. We conducted and reported a systematic literature review based on the principles derived from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The systematic review searched Embase, CINHAL, and Pubmed databases for studies on ARDS patients receiving hemoadsorption and VV ECMO. The demographic data, clinical data and biological data of the patients were collected. Results: We ultimately included a total of 8 articles including 189 patients. We characterized the population both clinically and biologically. Our review showed most studies described reductions in inflammatory markers and fluid resuscitation drug dosage in ARDS patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or sepsis after hemoadsorption. Conclusion: Because most of the studies have the characteristics of high heterogeneity, we could only draw very cautious conclusions that hemoadsorption therapy may enhance hemodynamic stability in ARDS patients with COVID-19 or sepsis receiving VV ECMO support. However, our results do not allow us to draw conclusions that hemoadsorption could reduce inflammation and mortality. Prospective randomized controlled studies with a larger sample size are needed in the future to verify the role of hemoadsorption in ARDS patients requiring VV ECMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altered network organization and aberrant neurometabolic levels have been associated with schizophrenia. However, modular alterations of functional-neurometabolic coupling in various stages of schizophrenia remain unclear. This longitudinal study enrolled 34 drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and 30 healthy controls (HC). The FES patients underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at baseline, 2 months, and 6 months of treatment. For 1H-MRS, the concentrations of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and glutamate + glutamine in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex region were measured. A graph theoretical approach was applied for functional connectivity-based modular parcellation. We found that intra-default mode network (DMN) connectivity, inter-modular connectivity between the DMN and the hippocampus, and inter-modular connectivity between the DMN and the frontoparietal module were significantly different across 6-month treatment in the FES patients. The inter-module connectivity of the DMN and hippocampus correlated positively with NAA concentration in the HC group, while this correlation was absent in FES patients. This exploratory study suggests an altered modular connectivity in association with neurometabolite concentrations in FES patients and provides insights into multimodal neuroimaging biomarkers in schizophrenia. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to consolidate our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the satisfaction and acceptance of automatic driving, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based autonomous car-following (CF) decision-making strategy using naturalist driving data (NDD). This study examines the traits of CF behavior using 1341 pairs of CF events taken from the Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) data. Furthermore, in order to improve the random exploration of the agent's action, the dynamic characteristics of the speed-acceleration distribution are established in accordance with NDD. The action's varying constraints are achieved via a normal distribution 3σ boundary point-to-fit curve. A multiobjective reward function is designed considering safety, efficiency, and comfort, according to the time headway (THW) probability density distribution. The introduction of a penalty reward in mechanical energy allows the agent to internalize negative experiences. Next, a model of agent-environment interaction for CF decision-making control is built using the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) method, which can explore complicated environments. Finally, extensive simulation experiments validate the effectiveness and accuracy of our proposal, and the driving strategy is learned through real-world driving data, which is better than human data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the advantages of high specific strength, specific stiffness, and excellent fatigue resistance, carbon fiber reinforced braided composites have been widely applied in engineering. Since the molding process of braided composites is complex and immature, substantial variability of the internal geometry exists in composites, in which the yarn path with uncertainty is a main factor, so it is necessary to establish an uncertainty model to study the influence of randomness of the yarn path on mechanical properties, which is significantly related to the fatigue resistance properties of composite. An uncertain mesoscopic model with uniform distribution of yarn paths is proposed. Assuming the yarn path is spatially varying in interval range, the variability of yarn path is represented geometrically in the unit cell of composite. The three-dimensional coordinates of the yarn trajectory are calculated, the meso-uncertainty models of 2-D and 2.5-D braided composites are established. The equivalent elastic parameters and the thermal expansion coefficients are obtained by applying homogenization method and temperature field boundary conditions to the mesoscopic model. The effect of yarn path uncertainty on the statistical characteristics of elastic and thermal parameters of braided composites was studied by using Monte-Carlo simulation. A simulation method for modeling yarn path uncertainty of braided composites is provided in this paper for predicting the statistical characteristics of the equivalent elastic and thermal parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Photocatalytic acylmethylation of quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones with sulfoxonium ylides. • Method efficient for a wide range of substituted quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones. • Reaction may proceed via two mechanisms: single-electron and energy transfer. • Synthesized products can be further transformed into furan derivatives. • Method has potential for applications in drug development and materials science. We have developed a method for the acylmethylation of quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones under visible light utilizing sulfoxonium ylides for the first time. This method proves effective not only for 1-methylquinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones but also for quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones, yielding a series of novel dual acylmethylation products, namely 3-(γ -dicarbonyl)-quinoxalinones, at room temperature. These target products exhibit potential for further transformation into furan derivatives, thereby enhancing the versatility and applicability of this strategy. Mechanistic studies suggest that this reaction may proceed via two mechanisms: single-electron transfer and energy transfer. This method offers a practical and efficient approach for the acylmethylation of quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones, yielding valuable 3-(γ -dicarbonyl)-quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones under mild reaction conditions, thus expanding the toolbox of synthetic strategies for the functionalization of quinoxalin-2(1 H)-ones. The findings hold implications for drug development, organic synthesis, and materials science, providing a versatile platform for the synthesis of structurally diverse compounds with potential biological and material applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis is a common critical clinical disease with high mortality that can cause approximately 10 million deaths worldwide each year. Acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common clinical complication of sepsis, which occurs primarily as diffuse alveolar injury, hypoxemia, and respiratory distress. The mortality rate of ALI/ARDS is as high as 30%-40%, which greatly endangers human health. Due to the unclear pathogenesis of ALI/ARDS, its treatment is still a worldwide problem. At present, clinical treatment mainly relies on lung-protective ventilation, prone position ventilation, and fluid management. However, there is a lack of effective and specific treatment measures. In recent years, domestic and foreign scholars have committed to basic research on ALI/ARDS, trying to further clarify its pathogenesis and find new targets and methods for the treatment of ALI/ARDS. In this review, we summarize the signaling pathways related to alveolar injury and repair in sepsis-induced ALI/ARDS and their latest research progress. They include the NF-κB, JAK2/STAT3, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), mTOR, and Notch signaling pathways. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of these signaling pathways in sepsis-induced ALI/ARDS may provide new targets and ideas for the clinical treatment of this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Reduced substrates produced by the serpentinization reaction under hydration of olivine may have fuelled biological processes on early Earth. To understand the adaptive strategies and carbon metabolism of the microbes in the serpentinizing ecosystems, we reconstructed 18 draft genomes representing dominant species of Omnitrophicaeota, Gammaproteobacteria and Methanobacteria from the Manleluag serpentinizing spring in Zambales, Philippines (hyperalkaline and rich in methane and hydrogen). Phylogenomics revealed that two genomes were affiliated with a candidate phylum NPL‐UPA2 and the references of all our genomes were derived from ground waters, hot springs and the deep biosphere. C1 metabolism appears to be widespread as most of the genomes code for methanogenesis, CO oxidation and CO2 fixation. However, likely due to the low CO2 concentration and election acceptors, the biomass in the spring was extremely low (<103 cell/ml). Various Na+ and K+ transporters and Na+‐driving ATPases appear to be encoded by these genomes, suggesting that nutrient acquisition, bioenergetics and normal cytoplasmic pH were dependent on Na+ and K+ pumps. Our results advance our understanding of the metabolic potentials and bioenergetics of serpentinizing springs and provide a framework of the ecology of early Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-throughput transcriptomics has revolutionised the field of transcriptome research by offering a cost-effective and powerful screening tool. Standard bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) enables characterisation of the average expression profiles for individual samples and facilitates identification of the molecular functions associated with genes differentially expressed across conditions. RNA-Seq can also be applied to disentangle splicing variants and discover novel transcripts, thus contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the transcriptome landscape. A closely related technique, single-cell RNA-Seq, has enabled the study of cell-type-specific gene expressions in hundreds to thousands of cells, aiding the exploration of cell heterogeneity. Nowadays, bulk RNA-Seq and single-cell RNA-Seq serve as complementary tools to advance and accelerate the development of transcriptome-based resources. This Collection illustrates how the current global research community makes use of these techniques to address a broad range of questions in life sciences. It demonstrates the usefulness and popularity of high-throughput transcriptomics and presents the best practices and potential issues for the benefit of future end-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synthesis of 2-substituted quinazolines using (PhSe) 2 as catalyst in visible light. • A best yield of 97 % was achieved in 3 h without strong oxidants. • Light catalyzes the reaction and temperature reduces the reaction time. • Replacing benzylamine with benzaldehyde extended the substrate scope. Herein, a method for the synthesis of 2-substituted quinazoline derivatives from 2-aminobenzylamines and benzylamines using the synergistic action of visible light and organoselenium catalysts was established. Under visible light, the process employs diphenyl diselenide (PhSe) 2 as a photocatalyst to achieve the best yield of 97 % in 3 h without the use of other powerful oxidants or selective fluorine excitation, and tolerated a variety of substrates with yields ranging from 60 % to 97 %. Moreover, substitution of benzylamine with benzaldehyde, benzoylformic acid or mandelic acid expanded the substrate scopes for synthesis of 2-substituted quinazolines and quinazolinones. This opens new avenues for further study of the catalytic reaction of organic selenium and promotes the development of green synthetic chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), which is endangering human health worldwide, especially in Africa, Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of KSHV in Xinjiang. Three KSHV recombinant proteins (ORF65, ORF73, and K8.1) were used to detect KSHV infection. The serum samples to be tested were detected by an indirect ELISA method. The overall infection rate of KSHV in Xinjiang was 25.60%, with a higher infection rate in the Uygur population of 29.79%. After adjusting for possible confounders, Uygur (OR = 3.95, 95% CI 2.64–6.12, P < 0.001), agriculture and livestock (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.20–2.17, P = 0.002), age ≤ 50 years (OR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.13–2.00, P = 0.006), and predominantly meat-based diet (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.11–2.78, P = 0.018) were significantly associated with the odds of KSHV seropositivity correlation. Three unique sequences of KSHV were obtained in this study; genotypic analysis showed that the three unique sequences were all subtype A2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmission mechanisms of the servo drive system are not a pure rigid body, and the existence of the elastic transmission mechanisms will make the system generate mechanical resonance. Aiming at mechanical resonance of the servo drive system, the resonance generation mechanism is analyzed, the four-mass model considering the time-varying meshing stiffness of the gear is established, and the influence of different stiffness parameters on the mechanical resonance of the system is researched in this paper. The composite controller of Model Predictive Control (MPC) with Notch Filter is used to simulate the mechanical resonance suppression of the four-mass servo system considering time-varying meshing stiffness, and it is compared with the mechanical resonance suppression method based on Model Predictive Control. The simulation results show that when the step speed is 200 r/min, the overshoot is reduced from 11.6 r/min to 1.1 r/min, which is reduced by 90.5%. Under the impact load condition, from 10 Nm to 30 Nm, overshoot is reduced from 34.3 r/min to 12.8 r/min, reduced by 62%, and torque oscillation is reduced by 81.5%. Therefore, the composite controller of Model Predictive Control with Notch Filter can suppress the mechanical resonance problem effectively, caused by elastic transmission, and improve the robustness of servo drive system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activated carbon (AC) has been widely used in the prevention and control of air and water pollution due to its excellent adsorption ability. However, the adsorption capacity of AC for targeting organic compounds is reduced because of the competitive adsorption of water molecules. The current study proposes hydrophobic modification and regeneration of waste AC as a solution to these issues. Using waste AC as raw material, SiO2 particles were introduced to increase its surface roughness and micropores of AC. Nonpolar alkyl chain groups were grafted on the surface of AC to improve its hydrophobic performance, and high-temperature regeneration was used to increase its specific surface area. The experimental results showed that the water contact angle of AC increased from 30° (hydrophilic) to 142° (hydrophobic) after modification, and it maintained an angle of 139° even after high-temperature regeneration. The specific surface area of hydrophobic AC increased from 290 to 1075 m2 g−1 and the equilibrium adsorption capacity of hydrophobic AC for methylene blue is 425.4 mg g−1 after regeneration. AC-adsorbed methylene blue also has excellent hydrophobicity (145°) and high specific surface area (1250 m2 g−1) after being modified and regenerated by the same methods. After being exposed to air for 600 days, the modified AC still has good hydrophobicity (125°). This indicates that our method of hydrophobic modification combined with regeneration has great significance to the recovery and utilization of waste AC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has been given to the effect of positional variation of gene expression in the mammary gland. However, more research is shedding light regarding the physiological differences that mammary gland location can have on the murine mammary gland. Here we examined the differentially expressed genes between mammary gland positions under either a low-fat diet (LFD) or a high-fat diet (HFD) in the mid-lactation mammary gland (lactation day 11; L11). Three-week old WT C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to either a low-fat diet (LFD) or high fat diet (HFD) (n = 3/group) and either the right thoracic mammary gland (TMG) or inguinal mammary gland (IMG) was collected from each dam for a total of 12 unique glands. Within each diet, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were first filtered by adjusted p-value (cutoff ≤ 0.05) and fold-change (FC, cutoff ≥2). Genes were further filtered by mean normalized read count with a cutoff≥10. We observed that mammary gland position had a significant impact on mammary gland gene expression with either LFD or HFD diet, with 1264 DEGs in LFD dams and 777 DEGs in HFD dams. We found that genes related to snRNP binding and translation initiation were most significantly altered between the TMG and IMG. Although we were not able to discern a molecular mechanism, many small nuclear RNAs and small nucleolar RNAs were differentially expressed between the TMG and IMG responsible for cellular functions such as splicing and ribosome biogenesis, which provides and interesting avenue for future research. Our study supports the hypothesis that collection of the mammary gland from a particular location influences mammary gland gene expression, thereby highlighting the importance for researchers to be vigilant in documenting and reporting which mammary gland they are using for their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review essay synthesizes recent literature on the issue of parental migration and children. In particular, we highlight the contributions of six papers published in October 2020 of this journal and other relevant studies. To advance the field, we also take the first steps to suggest a future research agenda. The new research agenda includes a comparative perspective, attention to long-term consequences of migration for children, and some innovative methodological approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a predominant internal modification of RNA in various cancers. We obtained the expression profiles of m6A-related genes for HCC patients from the International Cancer Genome Consortium and The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets. Most of the m6A RNA methylation regulators were confirmed to be differentially expressed among groups stratified by clinical characteristics and tissues. The clinical factors (including stage, grade, and gender) were correlated with the two subgroups (cluster 1/2). We identified an m6A RNA methylation regulator-based signature (including METTL3, YTHDC2, and YTHDF2) that could effectively stratify a high-risk subset of these patients by univariate and LASSO Cox regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated that the signature had a powerful predictive ability. Immune cell analysis revealed that the genes in the signature were correlated with B cell, CD4 T cell, CD8 T cell, dendritic cell, macrophage, and neutrophil. Functional enrichment analysis suggested that these three genes may be involved in genetic and epigenetic events with known links to HCC. Moreover, the nomogram was established based on the signature integrated with clinicopathological features. The calibration curve and the area under ROC also demonstrated the good performance of the nomogram in predicting 3- and 5-year OS in the ICGC and TCGA cohorts. In summary, we demonstrated the vital role of m6A RNA methylation regulators in the initial presentation and progression of HCC and constructed a nomogram which would predict the clinical outcome and provide a basis for individualized therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, laser cladding has been widely investigated for the preparation of Co-based coatings for high-temperature applications. However, there is a highly cracking tendency in Co-based alloys due to the reinforcing hard phases. In this work, a single layer of CoCrMoSi coating was prepared with laser cladding on 304 stainless steel. By proper preheating, cracking was avoided during deposition. The high-temperature wear behaviors of the coating were evaluated by ball-on-disk test. In terms of morphology and chemical composition, the coating exhibited a gradient microstructure across the section. From the interface with the substrate to the top surface, the structure was characterized with three types of morphology in sequence, i.e., coarse cellular crystals in the interdiffusion zone, nanosized lamellar eutectic and Laves-phase dendrites embedded within nanosized lamellar eutectic. The surface hardness of the coating is 835HV0.3, which was mainly attributed to the Laves phase. Compared with the 304 stainless steel, the volume loss of the coating decreased by 76.5%at 400°C. The wear mechanisms of the coating were oxidation wear and abrasive wear. The excellent coating wear resistance at high-temperature can be traced to the microstructure of Laves phase embedded within the nanosized eutectic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing is a crucial issue for the cure of different kinds of diseases. Here, we computationally explored the effect of DNA nucleobases on the electronic properties and electrical conductivity of a zigzag (10,0) C3N nanotube (C3NNT) at B3LYP-gCP-D3 level of theory. Our calculations revealed that the binding energy of nucleobases shows the order of guanine (G) > cytosine (C) > thymine (T) > adenine (A). Based on the energy decomposition analysis (EDA), the G, C, and T strongly interact with the C3NNT, but the A nucleobase adsorbed mainly via electrostatic attraction and dispersion forces. We exposed that the nucleobase size and its carbonyl group determine its adsorption behavior. The DNA nucleobase adsorption meaningfully increased the electrical conductivity of C3NNT. The C3NNT sensing response toward G, C, T, or A was predicted to be 131, 66, 60, or 10. Therefore, the C3NNT might be applied to selectively detect the G, C, T, and A. Our findings expose the usefulness of C3NNT as a next-generation DNA sequencer, suggesting new leads for future progresses in sustainable designs, superior sensing architectures, and bioelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematically explored the effects of molecular structure on the foaming behavior of poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBA) and its influence on foam cyclic compression properties. It was demonstrated that increasing the hard segment (HS) content of PEBA not only improved crystallization and melting strength, but also narrowed the melting peak and shifted it to higher temperatures. In contrast to other thermoplastic elastomers such as TPU, PEBA with a higher HS content showed a lager foam expansion ratio but a narrower foaming window. Increasing HS content improved compression strength but deteriorated resilience of PEBA foams. As the expansion ratio increased to 5-fold, there was no significant reinforcing effect of HS on strength and modulus of PEBA foams, while the resilience of the foams increased constantly with decreasing HS content and increasing expansion ratio. [Display omitted] • Structure-tunable PEBA foams with various HS contents were prepared. • Melting peak of PEBA with more HS narrowed and shifted to higher temperatures. • Increasing HS content broadened foam expansion ratio but narrowed foaming window. • Reinforcement of HS on strength was limited as expansion ratio increased. • Resilience increased with decreasing HS content and increasing expansion ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study generate a range of quinazoline derivatives via co-catalysis using visible light and an enzyme. • The reaction system required only mild conditions, avoiding oxidants or metal catalysts and provides an environmentally friendly reaction. • This reaction can be successfully applied to the synthesis of quinazolinone and quinoxolone. Herein, a novel one-pot strategy combining an enzyme and visible-light catalysis for the synthesis of quinazoline derivatives from 2-aminobenzylamine and methyl benzoylformate is described for the first time. The reaction comprises enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis, visible-light-activated decarboxylation, and oxidation cyclization. A series of reactions between 2-aminobenzylamine and different methyl benzoylformates afforded the corresponding products. This strategy was successfully applied to the reaction of 2-aminobenzamide and o-phenylenediamine with methyl benzoylformate. This method has the advantages of not requiring additional additives or transition metals, providing an efficient and environmentally friendly approach for synthesizing quinazoline compounds. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Simultaneous product and service delivery vehicle routing problem with time windows and release dates. • Mathematical formulation provided and improved. • Designed an adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm(ALNS) with three new customized removal operators. • Conducted numerical experiments and validated the effectiveness of the algorithm. • Compared simultaneous and separate modes of delivery and identify favorable conditions for choosing one mode over the other. In this paper, a new variant of the well-known vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) called as the simultaneous product and service delivery problem with order release dates is studied. The problem is motivated by the operations of a 3PL service provider who manages the last mile delivery of electrical and electronic home appliances of a large retailing company based out of China. Apart from the usual constraints on time windows and vehicle capacities, an interesting characteristic of this problem is that the product and service delivery has to happen simultaneously with the explicit consideration of order release dates. This situation necessitates the presence of a skilled service technician at the time of product delivery itself. Being a proven NP -hard problem, we propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for the problem. For solving large problem instances, an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is developed with three new customized removal operators. The proposed approaches are validated using real-life data as well as benchmark problem instances available in the literature. The computational results are quite encouraging and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of computational time as well as the quality of the solutions generated. We also analyze the effect of length of time windows and compare simultaneous and separate modes of delivery and identify favorable conditions for choosing one mode over the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The world is facing the global spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). T cell-induced immune responses during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection have rarely been reported.Methods: We use cell counting chips and PCR arrays to offer the first insights into the T cell involved in the course of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. All consecutive patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection treated at the designated hospital between January 2020 and February 2020 were recruited for the study, and cases were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. Baseline characteristics for inpatients were prospectively collected and analyzed.Results: 96 patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection in our center were screened for inclusion in the study. The median age of the patients was 39.0 years, and 47 (49.0%) were female. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only the CD4+ cell counts were significantly lower in the infection group and slightly higher in the control group. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed good discrimination power between subjects with and subjects without infection.Limitations: This is a single-center study of patients with a specific ethnic background and lacks a mechanism.Conclusions: These findings imply the importance of CD4+ T cells (but not CD8+ and CD3+ T cells) in SARS-CoV-2 infection associated pneumonia and indicate that CD4+ T cells might be important for the control of SARS-CoV-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermocatalytic decomposition of methane is proposed to be an economical and green method to produce CO x -free hydrogen and carbon nanomaterials. In this work, the catalytic performance of Ni–Mn–Ru/Al 2 O 3 catalyst under different reaction parameters (such as, pre-reduction temperature, reaction temperature, space velocity, etc.) were investigated to obtain optimum reaction conditions. The catalysts were characterized by N 2 adsorption/desorption, X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer and hydrogen temperature programmed reduction. For the 60 wt% Ni-5 wt% Mn-10 wt% Ru/Al 2 O 3 catalyst using Ru(NO)(NO 3) x (OH) y (x + y = 3) as Ru precursor, the methane conversion rate obtained is high as 93.76% under optimum reaction conditions (reduction at 700 °C for 1 h, reaction at 750 °C, GSHV = 36,000 mL/g cat h). Carbon nanomaterials formed during the process of methane thermocatalytic decomposition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analyzer and Raman spectroscopy. Carbon nanofibers were formed over all the Ni–Mn–Ru/Al 2 O 3 catalysts. • Performance of Ni–Mn–Ru/Al 2 O 3 catalyst for TCD of CH 4 was studied. • The CH 4 conversion rate was 93.76% under optimum reaction conditions. • Carbon nanofibers were formed on all Ni–Mn–Ru/Al 2 O 3 catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of a properly functioning gastrointestinal tract (GIT) at an early age is critical for the wellbeing and lifetime productivity of dairy cattle. The role of early microbial colonization on GIT development in neonatal cattle and the associated molecular changes remain largely unknown, particularly for the small intestine. In this study, we performed artificial dosing of exogenous rumen fluid during the early life of the calf, starting at birth through the weaning transition at 8 wk. Six calves were included in this study. At 8 wk of age, tissue from the ileum was collected and subjected to host transcriptome and microbial metatranscriptome analysis using RNA sequencing. A total of 333 genes showed significant differential expression (DE) (fold-change ≥2; adjusted P < 0.1, mean read-count ≥10) between the treated and control calves. Gene ontology analysis indicated that these DE genes are predominantly associated with processes related to the host immune response (P < 0.0001). Association analysis between the host gene expression and the microbial genus abundance identified 57 genes as having significant correlation with the ileum microbial genera (P < 0.0001). Of these, three genes showed significant association with six microbial genera: lysozyme 2 (LYZ2), fatty acid binding protein 5 (FABP5), and fucosyltransferase (FUT1). Specifically, the profound increase in expression of LYZ2 in treated calves suggests the initiation of antibacterial activity and innate response from the host. Despite the limitation of a relatively small sample size, this study sheds light on the potential impact of early introduction of microbes on the small intestine of calves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies a new variant of the vehicle routing problem known as the multi-trip vehicle routing problem with order release time. This problem frequently arises in the context of last-mile delivery in e-commerce. The order release time represents the time at which the customers' goods become available at the depot for final distribution. Vehicles attached to the depot are used to perform multiple trips owing to the relatively short delivery distance. In this work, firstly, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated. As the problem is a proven NP-hard problem, for solving large-sized instances quickly, an adaptive large neighbourhood search algorithm combined with a labelling procedure (ALNS-L) is proposed. The performance of the algorithm is further augmented by incorporating an optimal serving sequence property. The effectiveness of both the mathematical model and ALNS-L framework is verified by conducting extensive computational experiments on existing benchmark problems and real-life data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical property of advanced ceramics by additive manufacturing through layer‐by‐layer processing and subsequent sintering has been employed as a key basis for optimizing the processing and developing future application. 3Y‐TZP ceramic was fabricated by stereolithography‐based additive manufacturing, and the mechanical properties were investigated by nanoindentation and microscratch testing. The microscopic mechanism and evolution of surface deformation and damage induced by scratching were revealed by scanning electron microscopy and surface interferometer. Results showed that the nanoindentation hardness and elastic modulus were comparable to those of conventional process. With the increase in the applied normal load, the scratch‐induced damage followed three sequential stages, that is, plastic plowing, microcracking and surface spalling. The magnitude of the microcracks nucleated during scratching depended on the applied normal load. Concerning the homogeneity and integrity with the sintered parts without delaminated cracks and pores, the evolution of surface damage was discussed in different stages. It was concluded that the layer‐by‐layer process did not affect the characteristic of microcracking evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine circulating follicular T helper (Tfh) cell precursor and its relationship with clinical characteristics in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). Methods: The study population included 47 patients with IIM and 30 healthy controls. Circulating CD4+CXCR5+CCR7loPD‐1hi T cells and intracellular interleukin (IL)‐21 were assessed by flow cytometry. Serum IL‐21 levels were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. The disease activity was evaluated using myositis disease activity assessment visual analog scales (VAS) as well as muscle and physician global assessment (PGA). Results: The percentage of the CCR7loPD‐1hi subset cells within CD4+CXCR5+ T cells was significantly increased in patients with IIM compared to that in healthy controls (14.3 ± 6.5 vs 11.4 ± 2.6, P =.009). Patients with higher percentages of CCR7loPD‐1hi subsets presented with higher PGA VAS (P =.000), muscle VAS (P =.000), as well as serum creatinine kinase (CK) levels (P =.000) than those with lower percentages of CCR7loPD‐1hi subsets. IL‐21 expression significantly increased in CD4+CXCR5+CCR7loPD‐1hi T cells in patients with IIM compared to that in healthy controls (26.07 ± 7.38 vs 19.25 ± 5.67, P =.001). Meanwhile, both the CCR7loPD‐1hi subset and intracellular IL‐21 expression in IIM patients showed significantly positive correlation with PGA VAS, muscle VAS and serum CK levels. Circulating CD4+CXCR5+CCR7loPD‐1hi T cells and intracellular IL‐21 decreased significantly when disease was improved (P =.018; P =.028). Conclusion: The percentage of circulating CCR7loPD‐1hi subset among total CD4+CXCR5+ T cells and intracellular IL‐21 expression expanded and showed significant correlation with disease activity in IIM. The circulating follicular helper T cell precursor may be involved in the pathogenesis, especially muscle injury in IIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To avoid tooth edge contact of high contact ratio spiral bevel gear under misalignment or heavy load, a tooth surface modification method based on cutter blade profile correction is proposed. Generally, an arc blade is used to substitute the straight blade of cutter-head to get the ideal tooth surface. Firstly of all, the mathematical model of the cutter blade profile is established. Secondly, the computational method of the unknown parameters used to determine the cutter blade profile is presented in details. Thirdly, the modified tooth surfaces of pinion and gear are deduced based on the principle of gear mesh and the theory of differential geometry. Finally, a numerical example is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the tooth surface modification method with the method of finite element analysis (FEA) and tooth contact analysis (TCA). The TCA result shows that the tooth surface modification method can effectively reduce tooth edge contact without affecting the location of contact path. It can also ensure the symmetry of geometric transmission error curve. The results of the FEA show that the tooth surface modification method can not only effectively avoid tooth edge contact but can also reduce the maximum contact stress on the tooth surface. It can also reduce the adverse effects of misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common management practices of dairy calves leads to increased starch concentration in feed, which subsequently may cause rumen acidosis while on milk and during weaning. Until recently, few attempts were undertaken to understand the health risks of prolonged ruminal acidosis in post weaning calves. Resultantly, the molecular changes in the digestive tracts in post-weaning calves with ruminal acidosis remain largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated the liver transcriptome changes along with its correlation with the rumen microbial rRNA expression changes in young calves using our model of feed induced ruminal acidosis. In this model, new born calves were fed a highly processed, starch-rich diet starting from one week of age through 16 weeks. A total of eight calves were involved in this study. Four of them were fed the acidosis-inducing diet (Treated) and the rest of the four were fed a standard starter diet (Control). Liver and rumen epithelial tissues were collected at necropsy at 17 weeks of age. Transcriptome analyses were carried out in the liver tissues and rRNA meta-transcriptome analysis were done using the rumen epithelial tissues. The correlation analysis was performed by comparing the liver mRNA expression with the rumen epithelial rRNA abundance at genus level. Calves with induced ruminal acidosis had significantly lower ruminal pH in comparison to the control group, in addition to significantly less weight-gain over the course of the experiment. In liver tissues, a total of 428 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (fold-change, FC ≥ 1.5; adjusted P ≤ 0.1) were identified in treated group in comparison to control. Biological pathways enriched by these DEGs included cellular component organization, indicating the impact of ruminal acidosis on liver development in young calves. Specifically, the up-regulated genes were enriched in acute phase response (P < 0.01), pyruvate metabolic process (P < 0.01) and proton-acceptors (P ≪ 0.001), indicating the liver's response to feed induced acidosis at the transcriptome level. Twelve transferase activity related genes had significant correlation with rumen microbial rRNA expression changes. Among these genes, two up-regulated genes were reported with involvement in lipid metabolism in the liver, implying the direct effect of feed-induced acidosis on both the rumen microbial community and liver metabolism. Our study provides insight into the physiological remodeling in the liver resultant from the prolonged acidosis in post weaning calves, which may facilitate future RNA-seq based diagnosis and precision management of rumen acidosis in dairy calves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens poses a severe threat to public health. This problem becomes even worse with a coincident decline in the supply of new antibiotics. Conventional bioactivity-guided natural product discovery has failed to meet the urgent need for new antibiotics, largely due to limited resources and high rediscovery rates. Recent advances in cultivation techniques, analytical technologies, and genomics-based approaches have greatly expanded our access to previously underexploited microbial sources. These strategies will enable us to access new reservoirs of microorganisms and unleash their chemical potentials, thus opening new opportunities for the discovery of next-generation drugs to address the growing concerns of antimicrobial resistance. Microorganisms from new sources, such as those from extreme terrestrial environments and marine ecosystems, as well as those in association with mammals, invertebrates, and plants, hold great promise for the discovery of novel drugs. High-throughput miniaturized culture methods may facilitate the culture of the vast majority of uncultivated microorganisms. Metabolomics and metabologenomics enable high-throughput screening of natural products from diverse environmental samples. Large-scale genome mining offers unprecedented opportunities for exploitation of uncharacterized biochemical pathways embedded in cultivated and as-yet-uncultivated microorganisms. Pathway refactoring represents a versatile strategy for the discovery, combinatorial biosynthesis, and titer improvement of new bioactive natural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global warming continues to worsen, the balance between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth has received increasing attention and carbon-reduction comes to be an urgent task in many countries. In literature, various regression models have been developed to investigate the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, such as the inverted U-shaped EKC model, inverted N-shaped model, etc., which play critical roles in analyzing the relationships. Existing studies suggest that some countries follow similar models to describe the relationships, while others employ different ones. Regarding the interplay between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, there lacks a cluster analysis to systematically uncover the similarity of countries that employ models more similar to each other than to the countries in other clusters. In this paper, a novel clustering approach is proposed to identify clusters of 67 countries from the spatial, temporal, and descriptive dimensions. Unlike the traditional clustering technique, in which clusters are determined by geometric distances, the clusters in this research are obtained based on the differences between the fitting models of the countries in each cluster. The first step of the approach is to find clusters of countries sharing similar models in a given year based on the symbolic regression method, and the second step is to determine the countries that frequently cooccur in the same cluster by the Apriori algorithm. The results present two high-order clusters with different dynamic features during the period between 1971 and 2010. One high-order cluster mainly consists of countries in higher level of income while the other contains lower income level countries, and the carbon intensities of the two high-order clusters have distinct differences. The findings suggest that the countries within the same cluster could learn more lessons from each other, while countries belonging to different clusters should not be examined together indiscriminately. Several policy implications are provided, which may inform decision-making for policymakers when choosing proper learning objects and help researchers with designing optimal models for specific countries. ● Conduct a cluster analysis of the nexus between CO 2 emissions and economic growth. ● A novel data-driven clustering approach based on symbolic regression is proposed. ● Intelligently discover the underlying models and extract the dynamic clusters. ● Countries that frequently cooccur in the same cluster are identified. ● Environmental policymaking is not "one size fits all" and clusters will be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems provide users with suggestions and selections. Hybrid approaches which combine the neighborhood-based methods and the model-based methods have become popular when building collaborative filtering recommenders, but similarity is established between users/items only by rating information which is just numerical value and does not contain any semantic information, leading to the loss of flexibility. To address this problem, a probabilistic matrix factorization recommendation approach fusing neighborhood selection based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation is proposed. In the proposed approach, users' and items' neighbors are selected through users' interests distribution and items' attributes distribution. Then the approach incorporates similarity matrix into probabilistic matrix factorization to obtain users' feature vectors and items' feature vectors to make recommendations. The experimental results show that our approach is effective to improve recommendation performance and to solve data sparsity problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The determination of micromechanical properties of additive manufactured ceramics is essential to address reliability issues in engineering application. Alumina ceramics were fabricated by stereolithography-based additive manufacturing with different layer thickness. The microstructure and micro-mechanical properties were investigated systematically, by means of scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation and micro-scratch tests. The characteristics of alumina ceramic green bodies mainly depended on the layer thickness, while scratch morphologies was discussed in terms of the integrity and homogeneity of microstructure. The results indicated that scratch damage evolution was independent of layer thickness since no correlation between cracking and layering characteristic was verified under all scratch tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scene images generally show the characteristics of large intra-class variety and high inter-class similarity because of complicated appearances, subtle differences, and ambiguous categorization. Hence, it is difficult to achieve satisfactory accuracy by using a single representation. For solving this issue, we present a comprehensive representation for scene recognition by fusing deep features extracted from three discriminative views, including the information of object semantics, global appearance, and contextual appearance. These views show diversity and complementarity of features. The object semantics representation of the scene image, denoted by spatial-layout-maintained object semantics features, is extracted from the output of a deep-learning-based multi-classes detector by using spatial fisher vectors, which can simultaneously encode the category and layout information of objects. A multi-direction long short-term memory-based model is built to represent contextual information of the scene image, and the activation of the fully connected layer of a convolutional neural network is used to represent the global appearance of scene image. These three kinds of deep features are then fused to draw a final conclusion for scene recognition. Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed comprehensive representation on three benchmarks scene image database. The results show that the three deep features complement to each other strongly and are effective in improving recognition performance after fusion. The proposed method can achieve scene recognition accuracy of 89.51% on the MIT67 database, 78.93% on the SUN397 database, and 57.27% on the Places365 databases, respectively, which are better percentages than the accuracies obtained by the latest reported deep-learning-based scene recognition methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an empirical investigation of employees' extra-role behaviour in the information security context based on person – organisation fit theory. The perspective of fit evaluates the differences and similarities between information security policy makers and practitioners to provide employees with an approach to decide whether and how to participate in the implementation of extra security actions. We developed a research model and then conducted a survey and PLS-SEM analysis to test the corresponding hypothesis. The results illustrate that perceived demand – ability fit, perceived need – supply fit, and perceived value fit are effective in motivating security commitment. The empirical evidence shows that security commitment is a partial mediator between complementary fits (demand-ability fit and need-supply fit) and participation intention and is a full mediator between supplementary fit (value fit) and participation intention. In addition, apathy reduces motivation to engage in extra-role behaviour, while value fit and security commitment eliminate such apathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The most robust endpoint of acute lung edema in animals is lung gravimetry. • Protein in bronchoalveolar lavage is a poor predictor of pulmonary fluid imbalance. • Surrogate endpoints for lung edema in rats match increased extravascular lung water in humans. • Relative to dogs, rats are biased to overestimate edema formation. • Dogs appear to be the species of choice for setting human thresholds for pulmonary edema. Abstract Phosgene-induced acute lung injury (ALI) is characterized by a concentration x time (Cxt)-dependent increased pulmonary vascular permeability, phenotypically manifested as potentially life-threatening acute lung edema. In contemporary animal bioassays, the quantification of protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) is taken as an unequivocal endpoint suggestive of disruption of alveolar barrier function. However, extravasated protein can only be a surrogate endpoint for assessing the extravascular fluid dynamics of the lung. This pathophysiological hallmark of ALI is diagnosed and quantified in vivo in humans by assessing the accumulation of excess extravascular lung water (EVLW). The Point of Departure (POD) of the Cxt relationship of this adverse outcome pathway should also constitute the basis for setting safe occupational and emergency response values. Unlike the EVLW approach, toxicology-based animal models utilize postmortem analyses of total protein in BAL and lung weights as the basis for human risk assessment. With either approach, it remains difficult to unequivocally evaluate pulmonary edema in terms of etiopathology and specificity, i.e., cardiogenic and hydrostatic versus increased permeability edema. The objective of this paper is to retrospectively analyze the clinical scoring of the severity grades of in vivo EVLWs from humans with the respective postmortem biomarkers BAL protein and collagen versus wet lung weights in rats and dogs exposed by inhalation to phosgene gas. Despite the different methodological approaches taken in humans and animals, the EVLW-based predicted thresholds for the onset of pulmonary edema and potentially life-threatening severe pulmonary edema were in remarkable agreement. Data from dogs appear to more aptly reflect the human etiopathology and should be given preference over data from rodents. Especially in rats, elevations in BAL protein may lead to a marked overestimation of the edematous potency of phosgene due to secreted protein into airways. In summary, increased lung weight in rats and dogs scaled favorably with the human-EVLW and was shown to be the biomarker of choice for the scaling lung edema. Caution is advised when using BAL protein in isolation as a surrogate endpoint of pulmonary edema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to characterize differences in gene content, regulation and structure between taurine cattle and river buffalo (one subspecies of domestic water buffalo) using the extensively annotated UMD3.1 cattle reference genome as a basis for comparisons. We identified 127 deletion CNV regions in river buffalo representing 5 annotated cattle genes. We also characterized 583 merged mobile element insertion (MEI) events within the upstream regions of annotated cattle genes. Transcriptome analysis in various tissue types on river buffalo confirmed the absence of four cattle genes. Four genes which may be related to phenotypic differences in meat quality and color, had upstream MEI predictions and were found to have significantly elevated expression in river buffalo compared with cattle. Our comparative alignment approach and gene expression analyses suggested a functional role for many genomic structural variations, which may contribute to the unique phenotypes of river buffalo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Given the fast-paced world economy, increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions have caused serious concern regarding global warming. Many studies have examined the nexus between CO 2 emissions and economic growth and inconsistent results are provided. Limited evidence suggests that different time periods under investigation could be a source of inconsistency, but there lacks of a thorough analysis. This paper systematically focuses on the evolutionary characteristics of the nexus to explore the influence of time periods. The panel data are reorganized by considering different time periods in various countries, and an intelligent data-driven approach, symbolic regression, is applied to discover models for each period without predefined structure and parameters. Three issues (Does the time period matter? What are the trends in different time periods? What are the applicable scopes of the models?) have been addressed in this paper. The results reveal the evolutionary nature of the nexus and it is verified that an intrinsic time period distinction does generate extrinsic inconsistency. The detailed dynamics of models indicate that the optimal models tend to be more complex as the time periods are extended. For countries with different locations and income levels, the applicable scopes of the four superior models (monotonically increasing, inverted U-shaped, inverted N-shaped, and M-shaped) vary in different time periods. The findings highlight that the effect of time periods cannot be ignored and the models should not be applied unconditionally when conducting empirical research. Finally, several policy implications are provided, which are critical for the balance of economic growth and CO 2 emissions, particularly in some developing countries. Highlights • The inconsistency of nexus between CO 2 emissions and economic growth is examined. • The intrinsic time period difference does generate extrinsic nexus inconsistency. • The effect of time period is verified from geographic and socioeconomic aspects. • Rich evidence is revealed for the evolutionary nature of the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Gut microbial colonization and establishment are vital to ruminant health and production. This review article focuses on current knowledge and methods used to understand and manipulate the gut microbial community in ruminant animals, with a special focus on probiotics treatment. This review highlights the most promising of studies in this area, including gut microbial colonization and establishment, effect of gastrointestinal tract microbial community on host mucosal innate immune function, impact of feeding strategies on gut microbial community, current probiotic treatments in ruminants, methods to manipulate the gut microbiota and associated antimicrobial compounds, and models and cell lines used in understanding the host immune response to probiotic treatments. As a lot of work in this area was done in humans and mice, this review article also includes up-to-date knowledge from relevant studies in human and mouse models. This review is a useful resource for scientists working in the areas of ruminant nutrition and health, and to researchers investigating the microbial ecology and its relation to animal health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares two previously published 13-week inhalation studies with poorly soluble, low-toxicity particles (PSLTs) in rats to identify the unifying key metric of kinetic lung overload. The PSLTs compared are Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) and black iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 , magnetite). Their material densities and related displacement volumes differ approximately 30-fold. This offers an opportunity for analyzing the impact of the PSLT-density of agglomerates on endpoints currently conceived to be involved in kinetic lung overload. Corpuscular volumes and counts of cells retrieved by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) are analyzed to interrelate modeled cumulative lung burdens of solid aerosol to predict the no observed adverse effect concentration (NOAEC) and range of conditions causing various degrees of kinetic lung overload up to and beyond the maximum tolerated cumulative dose (MTD). Both descriptors are a reflection of accumulated lung burdens and, by design, bracket repeated exposure inhalation studies with PSLTs. This comparative analysis of high- and low-density PSLTs reveals that the leading adverse outcome pathway (AOP) is caused by a markedly increased pool-size of BAL-cells rather than any increased corpuscular volume of cells. The overload-related increased pool-size of BAL-cells is shown to be the dependent variable for the prorated increased elimination half-time of PSLTs. This interrelationship was used to predict the exposure concentrations for attaining a NOAEC and MTD of guideline-based repeated exposure inhalation studies with PSLTs. Earlier approaches suggesting a loss of the migratory capabilities of particle-laden, enlarged alveolar macrophages to be the cause for any increased elimination half-time of PSLTs could not be confirmed. In summary, kinetic modeling provides a versatile means to predict the cornerstones of repeated inhalation studies with PSLTs on rats. Such possibilities leverage adjustment of studies from different sources to identical degrees of kinetic overload. They also facilitate and foster AOP-facilitated read-across approaches. The course taken enables risk assessors to better differentiate lung pathologies caused by generic lung overload and substance-specific pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the running noise and vibration of spiral bevel gears, we present a novel method for designing high-contact-ratio spiral bevel gears with the higher-order transmission error (HTE) based on the function-oriented design. According to the design HTE curve and contact path, the pinion target tooth surface can be acquired by correcting the conjugated tooth surface derived from the mating gear. We establish a mathematical model for the computerized numerically controlled cradle-style pinion generator with the following design parameters: tool parameters, initial machine settings, and polynomial coefficients of the auxiliary tooth surface correction motion. An optimal model was developed to solve for the polynomial coefficients. TCA and LTCA results show that the HTE spiral bevel gears designed with the auxiliary tooth surface correction motion meets the design requirements. The meshing quality of the HTE spiral bevel gears is also better than that of gears designed using the parabolic transmission error (PTE). The tooth surface correction method proposed in this paper can serve as a basis for modifying high-contact-ratio (HCR) spiral bevel gears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While population aging has sharply increased the demand for nursing staff, it has also increased the workload of nursing staff. Although some nursing homes use robots to perform part of the work, such robots are the type of robots that perform set tasks. The requirements in actual application scenarios often change, so robots that perform set tasks cannot effectively reduce the workload of nursing staff. In order to provide practical help to nursing staff in nursing homes, we innovatively combine the LightGBM algorithm with the machine learning interpretation framework SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) and use comprehensive data analysis methods to propose a service demand prediction model Fidan (Forecast service demand model). This model analyzes and predicts the demand for elderly services in nursing homes based on relevant health management data (including physiological and sleep data), ward round data, and nursing service data collected by IoT devices. We optimise the model parameters based on Grid Search during the training process. The experimental results show that the Fidan model has an accuracy rate of 86.61% in predicting the demand for elderly services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider transcendental meromorphic function for which the set of finite singularities of its inverse is bounded. Bergweiler and Kotus gave bounds for the Hausdorff dimension of the escaping sets if the function has no logarithmic singularities over ∞, the multiplicities of poles are bounded and the order is finite. We study the case of infinite order and find gauge functions for which the Hausdorff measure of escaping sets is zero or ∞. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between coherent Ag particles and Cu grain boundaries (GBs) has been investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Through measuring GB energy evolution as a function of GB position during the interaction, the maximum pinning force was directly determined and found to agree well with theoretical predictions. The relationship between the maximum pinning force and the pinning efficiency for different GBs has been discussed. It is concluded that the two parameters are irrelative to each other, as also observed in experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present theoretical study of the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction catalyzed by ruthenium halogen carbonyl complexes. Three mechanisms, including hydrogen chloride, formic acid and oxidation-reduction mechanism, have been explored by density functional theory. The calculations indicate that the oxidation-reduction mechanism contributes to the TDI and TDTS in the ESM TOF calculations. Bimetallic catalysts would be likely to be more highly active than monometallic catalyst for the RWGS reaction. Among bimetallic catalysts studied, both bimetallic catalysts [Ru(μ-Cl)Cl(CO)] and [Ru(μ-CO)Cl(CO)] shows higher activity than [Ru(μ-Cl)(CO)] catalyst with [Ru(μ-CO)Cl(CO)] considering as the most efficient catalyst for RWGS reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

publisher‐imprint‐name Springer volume‐issue‐count 1 issue‐article‐count 0 issue‐toc‐levels 0 issue‐pricelist‐year 2017 issue‐copyright‐holder The Author(s) issue‐copyright‐year 2017 article‐contains‐esm No article‐numbering‐style Unnumbered article‐registration‐date‐year 2017 article‐registration‐date‐month 5 article‐registration‐date‐day 22 article‐toc‐levels 0 toc‐levels 0 volume‐type Regular journal‐product ArchiveJournal numbering‐style Unnumbered article‐grants‐type OpenChoice metadata‐grant OpenAccess abstract‐grant OpenAccess bodypdf‐grant OpenAccess bodyhtml‐grant OpenAccess bibliography‐grant OpenAccess esm‐grant OpenAccess online‐first false pdf‐file‐reference BodyRef/PDF/40169_2017_Article_149.pdf target‐type OnlinePDF issue‐type Regular article‐type ReviewPaper journal‐subject‐primary Medicine & Public Health journal‐subject‐secondary Medicine/Public Health, general journal‐subject‐collection SC11 open‐access true --> Background: Phosgene (carbonyl dichloride) gas is an indispensable chemical inter‐mediate used in numerous industrial processes. There is no clear consensus as to its time‐ and inhaled‐dose‐dependent etiopathologies and associated preventive or therapeutic treatment strategies. Methods: Cardiopulmonary function was examined in rats exposed by inhalation to the alveolar irritant phosgene or to the airway irritant chlorine during and following exposure. Terminal measurements focused on hematology, protein extravasation in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and increased lung weight. Noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic endpoints in exhaled breath (carbon dioxide and nitric oxide) were used to detect the clinically occult stage of pulmonary edema. Results: The first event observed in rats following high but sublethal acute exposure to phosgene was the stimulation of alveolar nociceptive vagal receptors. This afferent stimulation resulted in dramatic changes in cardiopulmonary functions, ventilation: perfusion imbalances, and progressive pulmonary edema and phospholipoproteinosis. Hematology revealed hemoconcentration to be an early marker of pulmonary edema and fibrin as a discriminating endpoint that was positive for the airway irritant chlorine and negative for the alveolar irritant phosgene. Conclusions: The application of each gas produced typical ALI/ARDS (acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome) characteristics. Phosgene‐induced ALI showed evidence of persistent apnea periods, bradycardia, and shifts of vascular fluid from the peripheral to the pulmonary circulation. Carbon dioxide in expired gas was suggestive of increased ventilation dead space and appeared to be a harbinger of progressively developing lung edema. Treatment with the iNOS inhibitor aminoguanidine aerosol by inhalation reduced the severity of phosgene‐induced ALI when applied at low dose‐rates. Symptomatic treatment regimens were considered inferior to causal modes of treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four different mechanistic pathways for Mo(CO) and a reaction mechanism for the binuclear species Mo(CO) catalyzed water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) have been analyzed using density functional method. It turned out that the binuclear catalyst provides more facile transformations through lower barriers in comparison to the mononuclear catalyst, which is explained by the metal-metal cooperativity between the two Mo centers. The energy span model indicates that the higher the TOF calculated, the faster the catalytic rate and the higher the catalytic efficiency. The bimetallic catalyst (Mo(CO)) with the highest value of the calculated TOF (2.60 × 10 s), which is higher than that of Fe(CO) (8.96 × 10 s) (see Kuriakose et al. in Inorg Chem 51: 377, 2012). The later prove the WGSR catalyst with high performance. Our conclusions will be useful for the design of improved WGSR catalysts in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]