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As a neutron shielding material for spent fuel storage， Ni-Cr-Mo-Gd alloy has broad application prospects， but it is prone to cracking during thermal working. In order to optimize the hot deformation process parameters of the alloy，this paper focuses on the study of Ni-Cr-Mo alloy， investigating the microstructural changes induced by the addition of Gd. Isothermal hot compression experiments were conducted at deformation temperatures of 1000 ℃-1200 ℃ and strain rates of 0.01 s-1-5 s-1 to calculate the relevant material constants and the activation energy for thermal deformation. Thermal working map was established to determine thermal deformation window， while the influence of Gd element on the thermal deformation behavior of the alloy was analyzed in conjunction with the microstructure. The results indicate that the addition of 1.2% Gd to the Ni-Cr-Mo alloy reduces the deformation activation energy from 472.15 kJ/mol to 422.9 kJ/mol. This results in higher energy consumption efficiency during thermal deformation and more comprehensive microstructure evolution. The plastic instability zone gradually shifts from high to low temperatures， expanding the safe deformation zone of the alloy at low temperatures of 1 000 ℃-1 060 ℃ and low strain rates of 0.01 s-1-0.32 s-1. Optimal thermal deformation zone for alloy is determined to be a true strain of 0.5 at temperatures of 1 113 ℃-1 164 ℃ and strain rates of 0.01 s-1-0.2 s-1. Gd precipitates as the intermetallic compound GdNi5 at grain boundaries or dendrite interfaces. The presence of GdNi5， as a hard brittle phase， leads to significant strain accumulation during the thermal deformation process， resulting in higher stored energy in the microstructure， thereby promoting recrystallization of the surrounding deformed grains and reducing the residual strain in the microstructure.

BackgroundCMRtools is a software package that can be used to measure T2* values to diagnose liver iron overload, however, its accuracy in terms is affected by multiple factors, including goodness-of-fit (R2 value), the number of echo time (TE) images, and the liver iron concentration (LIC). To investigate the effects of the R2 value, the number of TE images, and the LIC on the accuracy of CMRtools software for measuring T2* values to diagnose liver iron overload (LIO).Materials and methodsCMRtools software was used to measure liver T2* values among 108 thalassemia patients via the truncation method, and the R2 values, the number of TE images, and T2* values were recorded. These values were subsequently converted into liver iron concentration (LICT) values. The LICF (derived from MRI-R2/FerriScan) was used as a reference, and the diagnostic accordance rate (DAR) was compared between R2 value subgroups, between TE image number subgroups, and between LIC subgroups.ResultsThe greater the R2 value was, the greater the standardized DAR (SDAR) was (p 0.05). However, the relationship between TE image number subgroups and SDAR was analysed using Spearman’s correlation, and it was found to be positively correlated (rs = 0.729, p = 0.017). The SDAR are not identical between each LIC subgroup (p > 0.05), furthermore, the relationship between LIC subgroup and SDAR was found irrelevant (p = 0.747).ConclusionThe accuracy of CMRtools software for diagnosing LIO in patients with thalassemia can be improved by artificially controlling the number of TE images to be fitted and selecting higher R2 values.

PURPOSETo characterize the pattern of post-treatment quality of life (QoL) for esophageal cancer (EC) survivors and construct models predicting their long-term QoL.METHODSOn the basis of a randomized trial in an EC high-risk region in China, we interviewed 363 EC survivors and 25,245 permanent residents matched with the survivors on age, sex, and township as the baseline. QoL was measured using three-level version of European Quality of Life 5-Dimensions instrument. We constructed piecewise mixed models estimating the QoL of EC survivors that varied by age, sex, patient type, hospital level, and therapy to ascertain QoL determinants.RESULTSThe post-treatment QoL of EC survivors dropped by 15.7% within the first year and recovered by 9.3% between 1 and 9 years compared with the baseline. Therapy was found to be a determinant of QoL, and a series of therapy-specific models were fitted accordingly, which all showed the pattern of decreasing rapidly and recovering gradually. Endoscopic treatment had the least impact on post-treatment QoL (7.5% drop within 5 years) compared with esophagectomy (12.2% drop within 1 year) and chemoradiotherapy (37.8% drop within 2 years). The usual activities dimension showed the greatest impairment among those patients (34.4% drop within 1 year).CONCLUSIONThis community-based study described the long-term QoL trajectory for EC survivors after different therapeutic modalities and constructed models to predict therapy-specific QoL at different time points after treatment. It provided new insights into decision making in treatment for EC from the perspective of QoL protection, offering a convenient tool for estimating quality-adjusted life-years.

BackgroundTumor markers are routinely used in clinical practice. However, for resectable patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), they are applied infrequently as their prognostic significance is incompletely understood.MethodsThis historical cohort study included 2769 patients with resected ESCC from 2011 to 2018 in a high-risk area in northern China. Their clinical data were extracted from the Electronic Medical Record. Survival analysis of eight common tumor markers was performed with multivariable Cox proportional hazards regressions.ResultsWith a median follow-up of 39.5 months, 901 deaths occurred. Among the eight target markers, elevated postoperative serum SCC (Squamous cell carcinoma antigen) and CEA (Carcinoembryonic antigen) predicted poor overall survival (SCC HRadjusted: 2.67, 95% CI: 1.70-4.17; CEA HRadjusted: 2.36, 95% CI: 1.14-4.86). In contrast, preoperative levels were not significantly associated with survival. Stratified analysis also demonstrated poorer survival in seropositive groups of postoperative SCC and CEA within each TNM stage. The above associations were generally robust using different quantiles of concentrations above the upper limit of the clinical normal range as alternative cutoffs. Regarding temporal trends of serum levels, SCC and CEA were similar. Their concentrations fell rapidly after surgery and thereafter remained relatively stable.ConclusionPostoperative serum SCC and CEA levels predict the overall survival of ESCC surgical patients. More importance should be attached to the use of these markers in clinical applications.

Geocoding converts unstructured geographic text into structured spatial data, which is crucial in fields such as urban planning, social media spatial analysis, and emergency response systems. Existing approaches predominantly model geocoding as a geographic grid classification task but struggle with the output space dimensionality explosion as the grid granularity increases. Furthermore, these methods generally overlook the inherent hierarchical structure of geographical texts and grids. In this paper, we propose a hierarchy-aware geocoding model based on cross-attention within the Seq2Seq framework, incorporating S2 geometry to model geocoding as a task for generating grid labels and predicting S2 tokens (labels of S2 grids) character-by-character. By incorporating a cross-attention mechanism into the decoder, the model dynamically perceives the address contexts at the hierarchical level that are most relevant to the current character prediction based on the input address text. Results show that the proposed model significantly outperforms previous approaches across multiple metrics, with a median and mean distance error of 41.46 m and 93.98 m, respectively. Furthermore, our method achieves superior results compared to others in regions with sparse data distribution, reducing the median and mean distance error by 16.27 m and 7.52 m, respectively, suggesting that our model has effectively mitigated the issue of insufficient learning in such regions.

Geocoding is a fundamental component of geographic information science that plays a crucial role in various geographical studies and applications involving text data. Current mainstream geocoding methods fall into two categories: geodesic-grid prediction and address matching. However, the geodesic-grid-prediction method’s localization accuracy is hindered by the density of grid partitioning, struggling to strike a balance between prediction accuracy and grid density. Address-matching methods mainly focus on the semantics of query text. However, they tend to ignore keyword information that can be used to distinguish candidates and introduce potential interference, which reduces matching accuracy. Inspired by the human map-usage process, we propose a two-stage address-matching approach that integrates geodesic-grid prediction and text-matching models. Initially, a multi-level text-classification model is used to generate a retrieval region proposal for an input query text. Subsequently, we search for the most relevant point of interest (POI) within the region-proposal area using a semantics-based text-retrieval model. We evaluated the proposed method using POI data from the Beijing Chaoyang District. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method provides high address-matching accuracy, increasing Recall@1 by 0.55 to 1.56 percentage points and MRR@5 by 0.54 to 1.68 percentage points.

Black Carbon (BC), the second-largest contributor to global warming, has detrimental effects on human health and the environment. However, the accurate quantification of BC poses a significant challenge, impeding the comprehensive assessment of its impacts. Therefore, this paper aims to critically review three quantitative methods for measuring BC: Thermal Optical Analysis (TOA), the Optical Method, and Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII). The determination principles, available commercial instruments, sources of deviation, and correction approaches associated with these techniques are systematically discussed. By synthesizing and comparing the quantitative results reported in previous studies, this paper aims to elucidate the underlying relationships and fundamental disparities among Elemental Carbon (EC), Equivalent Black Carbon (eBC), and Refractory Black Carbon (rBC). Finally, based on the current advancements in BC quantification, recommendations are proposed to guide future research directions.

Furfural residue (FR), a solid waste, was applied as the precursor to prepare activated carbon by steam activation. The Box-Behnken design (BBD) approach-based response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize the preparation conditions to evaluate their effects on the performance of activated carbon from furfural residue (FRAC). The optimum preparation conditions of FRAC were found as follows: activation temperature of 922 °C, activation time of 62 min, and the mass ratio of char to H2O of 1:4.5, resulting in 1,501.84 mg/g of iodine adsorption capacity and 1,662.41 m2/g of specific surface area. The FRAC was characterized and then the adsorption performance of bisphenol S (BPS) on FRAC was investigated. Langmuir and Koble-Corrigan isotherm models were well fitted to the experimental data, and the adsorption kinetics process was perfectly described by the pseudo-second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of BPS was a spontaneous exothermic process. Besides, the regeneration efficiency of FRAC was over 97% after five consecutive cycles. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of FRAC for BPS was 3.2848 mmol/g at 298 K, indicating that the FRAC was an excellent adsorbent for the removal of BPS from aqueous solutions. HIGHLIGHTS Activated carbon derived from solid waste furfural residue (FRAC) by steam activation displayed high surface area up to 1662.41 m2/g.; Response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was applied to optimize the preparation conditions of FRAC.; The maximum adsorption capacity of FRAC for Bisphenol S (BPS) was 3.2848 mmol/g at 298 K.;

ObjectivesAssisted reproductive technology (ART) is an important part of reproductive medicine, whose possible effects on offspring’s health have drawn widespread attention in recent years. However, relevant studies are limited to postnatal short-term follow-up and lack of diverse sample sources analysis other than blood.MethodsIn this study, a mouse model was used to explore the effects of ART on fetal development and gene expression in the organs of offspring in the adulthood using next-generation sequencing. The sequencing results were then analyzed.ResultsThe results showed that it caused abnormal expression in 1060 genes and 179 genes in the heart and spleen, respectively. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the heart are mainly enriched in RNA synthesis and processing, and the cardiovascular system development also shows enrichment. STRING analysis identified Ccl2, Ptgs2, Rock1, Mapk14, Agt, and Wnt5a as the core interacting factors. DEGs in the spleen are significantly enriched in anti-infection and immune responses, which include the core factors Fos, Jun and Il1r2. Further exploration revealed the abnormal expression of 42 and 5 epigenetic modifiers in the heart and spleen, respectively. The expression of the imprinted genes Dhcr7, Igf2, Mest and Smoc1 decreased in the hearts of ART offspring, and the DNA methylation levels of Igf2- and Mest-imprinting control regions (ICRs) increased abnormally.ConclusionIn the mouse model, ART can interfere with the gene expression pattern in the heart and spleen of the adult offspring and that these changes are related to the aberrant expression of epigenetic regulators.

Objective: To explore the feasibility and accuracy of liver iron deposition based on dual-energy CT in thalassemia patients. Materials and methods: 105 thalassemia patients were examined with dual-energy CT and MR liver scanning. Dual-energy CT was performed to measure CT values on 80kVp, 140kVp and virtual iron content (VIC) imaging, ΔH was figured out by the difference CT values between 80kVp and 140kVp. Using the liver iron concent (LIC) obtained by FerriScan as standard setting, the correlation between CT measurements and LIC was compared. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance for dual-energy CT in liver iron quantification and stratification. Results: The correlation analysis between CT measurements and LIC showed that 80kVp, 140kVp, VIC and ΔH all had a high-positive correlation with LIC (P0.05). ROC analysis revealed that the corresponding optimal cutoff value of VIC were -2.8, 6.3,11.9 HU (corresponds to 3.2,7.0,15.0 mg/g dry weight) respectively, while the ΔH were 5.1, 8.4, 17.8HU, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for both VIC and ΔH increased with the increase of LIC thresholds. Conclusion: Dual-energy CT can accurately evaluate liver iron deposition quantification and stratification, which contribute to predict the status of liver iron deposition of thalassemia patients.

Coastal downwelling is generally considered to have a limited biological effect compared with coastal upwelling. In this study, downslope transport of nearshore, nutrient-enriched waters during downwelling is found to induce distinct biological productivity in the water column over the northeastern South China Sea (NSCS). By conducting a process-driven study over a widened shelf with intensified downwelling in the NSCS, we investigated the biophysical processes associated with strong nutrient enrichment in the water column of downwelled waters. These processes and underlying mechanisms are largely unreported and remain unclear. Field measurements and a three-dimensional coupled physical-biological model incorporating nitrate (N), phytoplankton (P), zooplankton (Z), and detritus (D) were utilized to investigate distinct cross-shore nutrient transport over the uniquely widened NSCS shelf. We revealed that intensified downwelling circulation, dynamically induced by the widened shelf topography, enhanced chlorophyll a and biological productivity in a strip of well-mixed water over the inner shelf as well as in the downwelled water over the mid-shelf. Strong time lags and spatial differences existed among N, P, and Z because of the physical transport and the ensuing biogeochemical response. The intensified downslope transport of nutrient-rich coastal water formed distinct cross-shore wedge-shaped P, Z, and D structures, while N was rapidly consumed in the water column. This study illustrates the underlying coupled physical-biogeochemical processes associated with the observed biogeochemical response to wind-driven downwelling circulation over the variable shelf, which are commonly found in coastal oceans worldwide.

Actual high saline wastewater containing concentrated organics and sodium chloride is a bioenergy and renewable resource. This study compared two different bipolar membrane electrodialysis membranes from two companies’ stacks to recover HCl and NaOH from sodium chloride solution and actual chemical wastewater. The results demonstrated that the electrolysis rates were around 1.5 kg/m2h, the HCl and NaOH production rates were about 0.9 kg/m2h, energy consumption was in the range of 1.05–1.27 kWh/kg, and the economic benefits were above 1 yuan/h in BMED systems. From analyzing the performance of seven different BMED membrane stacks, the B2 stack was chosen for electrolyzing actual high salt wastewater to observe the effect of chemical oxygen demand on BMED systems, where electrolytic salt performance, HCl-NaOH alkali production rates, and energy consumption show linear dependence on time for 5000 mg/L chemical oxygen demand wastewater. It illustrated chemical oxygen demand can enhance energy consumption and reduce electrolytic salt performance and the acid and alkali production rates, due to improving the membrane area resistance. In this study, the effect of high COD saline wastewater on the performance of a BMED membrane stack was clarified and the mechanism was analyzed for its practical application in treating chemical high salt wastewater.

Objective: The objective was to compare the long-term overall survival (OS) of right versus left thoracic esophagectomy, and to evaluate whether surgical quality impacts comparison result. Background: Controversy regarding the optimal thoracic esophagectomy approach persists for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). No study has assessed the effect of surgical quality in comparison between right and left approaches. Methods: The authors consecutively recruited 5556 operable ESCC patients from two high-volume centers in China, of whom 2220 and 3336 received right and left thoracic esophagectomy, respectively. Cumulative sum was used to evaluate the learning curve for operation time of right approach, as the indicator of surgical proficiency. Results: With a median follow-up of 83.1 months, right approach, harvesting more lymph nodes, tended to have a better OS than left approach (Mean: 23.8 vs. 16.7 nodes; adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.85-1.02). Subset analysis by the extent of lymphadenectomy demonstrated that right approach with adequate lymphadenectomy (= 15 nodes) resulted in statistically significant OS benefit compared with left approach (adjusted HR= 0.86, 95% CI: 0.77-0.95), but not with limited lymphadenectomy. Subset analysis by surgical proficiency showed that proficient right approach conferred a better OS than left approach (adjusted HR =0.75, 95% CI: 0.64-0.88), but improficient right approach did not have such survival advantage. Conclusions: Surgical quality plays a crucial role in survival comparison between surgical procedures. Right thoracic esophagectomy performed with adequate lymphadenectomy and surgical proficiency, conferring more favorable survival than left approach, should be recommended as the preferred surgical procedure for localized ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is of great concern to both air quality and the ecosystem, particularly in northern China, which covers one-quarter of China’s cultivated land and has many heavily air polluted cities. To understand the characteristics of wet N deposition at rural sites in northern China, one-year wet deposition samples were collected in the Daheitin reservoir region. Due to the intense emissions of gaseous nitrogen compounds from heating activities during cold seasons and distinct dilution effects under different rainfall intensities and frequencies, the volume weighted mean concentrations of wet N deposition showed higher levels in dry seasons but lower levels in wet seasons. In contrast, the wet N deposition rates varied consistently with precipitation, i.e., high during the wet season and lower during the dry season. The annual wet deposition rate of total inorganic ions (the sum of NO3−–N and NH4+–N) at the rural site in North China from July 2019 to June 2020 was observed at 18.9 kg N ha−1 yr−1, still remained at a relatively high level. In addition, biomass burning activities are ubiquitous in China, especially in northern China; however, studies on its impact on wet N deposition are limited. Non-sea salt potassium ion (nss-K+) was employed as a molecular tracer to investigate the characteristics of biomass burning activities as well as their impact on the chemical properties of wet N deposition. Three precipitation events with high nss-K+ levels were captured during the harvest season (June to July). The variations in the patterns of nss-K+, deposited N species, and ratios of nss-K+ to nitrogen species as well as their relationships all indicated that biomass burning emissions contributed remarkably to NO3−–N but had a minor influence on NH4+–N.

Fungal secondary metabolites play important roles not only in fungal ecology but also in humans living as beneficial medicine or harmful toxins. In filamentous fungi, bZIP-type transcription factors (TFs) are associated with the proteins involved in oxidative stress response and secondary metabolism. In this study, a connection between a bZIP TF and oxidative stress induction of secondary metabolism is uncovered in an opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus flavus, which produces carcinogenic and mutagenic aflatoxins. The bZIP transcription factor AflRsmA was identified by a homology research of A. flavus genome with the bZIP protein RsmA, involved in secondary metabolites production in Aspergillus nidulans. The AflrsmA deletion strain (ΔAflrsmA) displayed less sensitivity to the oxidative reagents tert-Butyl hydroperoxide (tBOOH) in comparison with wild type (WT) and AflrsmA overexpression strain (AflrsmAOE), while AflrsmAOE strain increased sensitivity to the oxidative reagents menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) compared to WT and ΔAflrsmA strains. Without oxidative treatment, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production of ΔAflrsmA strains was consistent with that of WT, but AflrsmAOE strain produced more AFB1 than WT; tBOOH and MSB treatment decreased AFB1 production of ΔAflrsmA compared to WT. Besides, relative to WT, ΔAflrsmA strain decreased sclerotia, while AflrsmAOE strain increased sclerotia. The decrease of AFB1 by ΔAflrsmA but increase of AFB1 by AflrsmAOE was on corn. Our results suggest that AFB1 biosynthesis is regulated by AflRsmA by oxidative stress pathways and provide insights into a possible function of AflRsmA in mediating AFB1 biosynthesis response host defense in pathogen A. flavus.

An intensive sampling of PM2.5 was conducted at a rural site (Gucheng) in the North China Plain from 22 October to 23 November 2016. A total of 25 elements (Al, Na, Cl, Mg, P, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Sr, Cd, Ba, Pb, and Sb) from PM2.5 filter samples collected daily were measured using a wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Cl, S, and K were the most abundant elements, with average concentrations of 2077.66 ng m−3 (range 118.88−4638.96 ng m−3), 1748.78 ng m−3 (range 276.67−4335.59 ng m−3), and 1287.07 ng m−3 (range 254.90−2748.63 ng m−3), respectively. Among noncrustal trace metal elements, the concentration of Zn was the highest, with an average of 397.74 ng m−3 (range 36.45−1602.96 ng m−3), followed by Sb and Pb, on average, of 299.20 ng m−3 and 184.52 ng m−3, respectively. The morphologies of PM2.5 samples were observed using scanning electron microscopy. The shape of the particles was predominantly spherical, chain-like, and irregular. Positive matrix factorization analysis revealed that soil dust, following by industry, secondary formation, vehicle emissions, biomass and waste burning, and coal combustion, were the main sources of PM2.5. The results of cluster, potential source contribution function, and concentration weighted trajectory analyses suggested that local emissions from Hebei Province, as well as regional transport from Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, and Shanxi Province, and long-range transport from Inner Mongolia, were the main contributors to PM2.5 pollution.

Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) mediates vascular maturation and immune response. Diabetes decreases Ang1 expression and disrupts Ang1/Tie2 signaling activity. Vasculotide is an Ang1 mimetic peptide, and has anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we test the hypothesis that vasculotide treatment induces neuroprotection and decreases inflammation after stroke in type 1 diabetic (T1DM) rats. T1DM rats were subjected to embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) and treated with: 1) phosphate buffered saline (PBS); 2) vasculotide (3µg/kg, i.p. injection) administered half an hour prior to MCAo and at 8 and 24 hours after MCAo. Rats were sacrificed at 48 h after MCAo. Neurological function, infarct volume, hemorrhage, blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability and neuroinflammation were measured. Vasculotide treatment of T1DM-MCAo rats significantly improves functional outcome, decreases infarct volume and BBB permeability, but does not decrease brain hemorrhagic transformation compared with PBS-treated T1DM-MCAo rats. In the ischemic brain, Vasculotide treatment significantly decreases apoptosis, number of cleaved-caspase-3 positive cells, the expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α). Western blot analysis shows that vasculotide significantly decreases expression of receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), MCP-1 and TNF-α in the ischemic brain compared with T1DM-MCAo rats. Vasculotide treatment in cultured primary cortical neurons (PCN) significantly decreases TLR4 expression compared with control. Decreased neuroinflammation and reduced BBB leakage may contribute, at least in part, to vasculotide-induced neuroprotective effects after stroke in T1DM rats.