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When a cubic lattice is confined by a surface layer, the effective thermoelastic properties can be tailored by the prestress produced by the surface. The thermal expansion coefficient, temperature derivative of elasticity, and the equation of state (EOS) of the solid depend on the potential of each bond and the lattice structure, which can be predicted by the recently developed singum model. This paper first uses a granular lattice confined by a spherical shell to demonstrate singum modeling of the thermoelastic behavior of the cubic lattices and then extends it to atomic crystal lattices by considering the surface tension and long-range interactions. Given the elasticity and the EOS of a cubic crystal, the interatomic potential can be inversely derived. As the bond length changes with thermal expansion and pressure, the singum model predicts the temperature- and pressure-dependent elasticity. Using the orientational average, isotropic elastic constants can be obtained for polycrystals. The case study of copper (Cu) demonstrates the versatility of the model for different cubic lattices and predicts the experimental results of pressure- and temperature-dependent elasticity. The singum model is general for different lattice types and EOS forms and provides clear physical and mechanical meanings to correlate the interatomic potential, EOS, and elasticity in the closed-form formulation, which is very useful in engineering design and analysis of metal structural members in fire, geothermal, and space applications without the needs of large-scale numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, the second-harmonic generation and slow light of multi-band topological edge states (TESs) have been studied separately. Therefore, the influence of simultaneous slow light and topology protection on second-harmonic generation (SHG) is deficient. Here, we propose a high-efficiency SHG using dual-frequency TESs in topological photonic crystals (TPCs) with slow-light conditions. The wave vector matching condition and energy conservation condition (frequency doubling) can be achieved by adequately adjusting the overall structural parameters of TPCs. The double-resonant nonlinear interaction between two TESs is enabled using a square lattice TPC. Due to the topological localization of the TES and the long interaction time of slow-light effect, the energy densities of the fundamental wave and SHG are significantly increased. Consequently, the high intrinsic efficiency of SHG can be obtained in the order of 7.40 × 10−4. Our work opens new avenues for using topological protected and slow light enhanced nonlinear frequency conversion in a TPC system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered oxide cathode materials have good structural stability and high capacity, making them ideal cathode materials of Na-ion batteries (SIBs). Nonetheless, the irreversible phase transitions and metal dissolution often result in poor cycling stability. Here, a simple strategy was developed to Na 2 MoO 4 and MoO 3 coated Na 0.67 Fe 0.15 Cu 0.1 Mn 0.65 Ni 0.1 O 2 (NFCMN-M) as cathode material of SIBs with ultrahigh cycling stability caused by the enhanced kinetic. The formed Na 2 MoO 4 layer on the surface of Na 0.67 Fe 0.15 Cu 0.1 Mn 0.65 Ni 0.1 O 2 (NFCMN) particles supplies a good conductive connection, and inhibits side effects between cathode material and electrolyte. Thanks to the unique component, the as-prepared NFCMN-M shows a good rate performance with a reversible discharge capacity of 132.4, 112.6, 102.3, 87.1 and 79.3 mAh g−1 at 0.1, 0.5, 1, 3 and 5C, respectively. The NFCMN-M also delivers an initial capacity of 73.7 mAh g−1 at 10C and an ultrahigh cycling stability with a capacity retention rate of about 80 % after 1000 cycles. The result confirms that the Na 2 MoO 4 modification is a direct and effective strategy to improve the capacity and enhance cycling stability of NFCMN at high charge-discharge rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relatively poor antibacterial capability of intrinsic hydrophilic zirconia ceramics limits its wide applications in the field of biological implants. To further exploit and enhance the biocompatibility of zirconia ceramics, a facile silicone oil-assisted laser-heat process was developed to prepare the superhydrophobic zirconia ceramic surface with microcolumn array structure and low surface energy. The characterization results indicated that the micro/nano hierarchical structure was induced by laser texturing on the zirconia ceramic surface, and part of the crystal structure was transformed from tetragonal phase to monoclinic phase. The deposition of carbon-containing hydrophobic functional groups and silicon atoms on the surface was accelerated and the surface energy was significantly reduced by silicone oil-assisted heat treatment. The surface wettability was transitioned from hydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity after the silicone oil-assisted laser-heat process. The bacterial adhesion can be effectively blocked due to the air layer trapped by the surface micro/nanostructures, and the surface antibacterial rate was increased by more than 80%. The ionic corrosion was also slowed down under the combination of the air layer and the reduced solid-liquid contact area on the superhydrophobic surface, which improved the corrosion resistance of the surface. The enhanced antibacterial capability and corrosion resistance on the superhydrophobic zirconia ceramic surfaces prepared by the developed process are expected to provide a key avenue for biomedical applications. [Display omitted] • A laser-based process was developed to fabricate superhydrophobic zirconia ceramic. • Superhydrophobic surface was achieved by altering surface structure and chemistry. • The underlying mechanism of surface wettability transition was analyzed. • Surface antibacterial capability can be enhanced due to superhydrophobicity. • Surface corrosion resistance can be improved due to superhydrophobicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lifting permanent magnet is a new type of magnetic transport device consisting of a mechanical driving mechanism and a permanent magnet system. It can reduce power consumption as opposed to lifting electromagnet. However, the single-drive mechanism could not be used in the inclined condition, and how to calculate the balance working point of the magnetic circuit with several permanent magnet limits its application and development. In this paper, an anti-inclined mechanism with double drive mechanism was designed and implemented. The concentric shafts and the reversing gear were adopted to realise synchronous rotation. For the permanent magnet system, the iteration method for multi-magnets balance working point analysis is proposed and implemented. Based on the prototype experiment, the anti-inclined lifting permanent magnet hoisted a 1 ton weight workpiece successfully at an inclination angle of 30 degrees. And the measurement experiment proved that the iteration method is more precise than the conventional isolated method and is a better preparation for analysing the magnetic force and residual magnetic field strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedload sediment transport plays an important role in the evolution of rivers, marshes and deltas. In these aquatic environments, vegetation is widespread, and plant species have unique morphology. However, the impact of real plant morphology on flow and sediment transport has not been quantified. This study used model plants with real plant morphology, based on the aquatic species Phragmites australis, Acorus calamus and Typha latifolia. The frontal area of these species increases away from the bed, which leads to higher near‐bed velocity than would be predicted from depth‐average frontal area. A plant morphology coefficient was defined to quantify the impact of vertically‐varied plant frontal area. Laboratory experiments confirmed that the plant morphology coefficient improved the prediction of near‐bed velocity, near‐bed turbulent kinetic energy and bedload transport rate in canopies with realistic morphology. Plant morphology can alter transport rates by up to an order of magnitude, relative to the assumption of uniform morphology. Plain Language Summary: Aquatic vegetation is a crucial component of river, marsh and delta ecosystems. It has a significant impact on landscape evolution by altering sediment transport. Each vegetation species has a unique shape, but the impact of plant shape on sediment transport has not been previously investigated. This study explained how plant shape impacts sediment transport. Results show that differences in plant shape can change velocity and turbulence close to the channel bed, and thus alter sediment transport rate by an order of magnitude. Plants with greater vertical variation in shape, and specifically less plant volume near the channel bed, produced greater sediment transport. A parameter was defined to quantify the impact of plant shape on flow and sediment transport. By incorporating this parameter, our new model improves the prediction of sediment transport in vegetated regions. This study provides a method for describing the impact of plant shape on flow and sediment transport, which is important to the management and restoration of rivers, marshes and deltas. Key Points: Plant morphology influences the near‐bed velocity, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and bedload transport rate inside emergent canopiesA new model accounts for plant morphology in the prediction of near‐bed velocity and TKE and bedload transportFor each canopy solid volume fraction, plants with greater vertical variation in frontal area produce greater bedload transport [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate extent of the disc in both vertical and radial directions by separately analysing the density and azimuthal velocity distributions using 31116 M giant stars selected from LAMOST DR5. We first measure the metallicities, radial velocities, and the distances with precision of 0.26 dex, 5.01 km s−1, and 20.8 per cent, respectively. Then, a Bayesian method is applied to model the distributions of the outer Galaxy including components of the thin, thick discs and the halo, to obtain the scale height and azimuthal velocity distributions for the thin and thick discs as a function of galactocentric distance R. The density profile of the thin disc shows that it extends out to R ∼ 35 kpc, beyond which there are no M giant stars in the halo except for Sagittarius Stream members. By using azimuthal velocity to trace the thin disc out to 26 kpc from the Galactic Centre, we show that both the density profile and azimuthal velocity decrease with Galactocentric distance R. In both the density and azimuthal velocity distributions, there is a significant breakpoint at a galactocentric distance of R ∼ 14 kpc. The scale height distribution shows that the thin disc is significantly flared, consistent with previous works. We also find that there is no significant thick disc (as traced by M giant stars) in the outer region beyond R ∼ 15.5 kpc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study on the explosion protection of prestressed concrete box girder, which is a commonly used in concrete bridges. The explosion protection tests of four prestressed box beams were designed with 1:5 scale. In order to evaluate the explosion performance of different protective layers, steel plate, ultra‐high‐performance concrete (UHPC) layer, and composite protective layer were used to protect the box girder. The experimental results revealed that under the effect of deck explosion, local penetrating failure occurred in the top plate of the box girder, which exhibited characteristics of punching failure. The web and bottom plate of the box girder as a whole exhibited bending characteristic. Compared with the unprotected box girder, the damage of the top plate of the protected box girder was less severe, whereas the damage of the bottom plate was greater. In working conditions 2–4, the UHPC protective box girder suffered less damage to the top plate, whereas the other protective box girders suffered more. The explosion dynamic responses of the box girder were compared, and the influences of different protective layers on the explosion dynamic response of box girder were studied. Based on the box girder damage, the protective efficiency of each protective layer under near‐explosion was studied. Based on the explosion tests, three‐dimensional numerical analysis model of box girder explosion was established. The accuracy of the numerical simulations of the box girder explosion were verified by comparing with the experimental failure data. Through the numerical results, the explosive energy dissipation capacity of different protective materials was compared and analyzed. Finally, based on the dynamic response of the box girder under different working conditions, the sensitivity of the protective layer to the dynamic responses of the box girder were studied. The analysis showed that the UHPC layer was sensitive to the change of prestress and explosion damage area of the box girder but had little influence on the rebars stress and the overall response of the box girder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the generalized parabolic Cahn–Hilliard equation ut=−ΔΔu−W′(u)+W′′(u)Δu−W′(u),∀(t,x)∈R̂×Rd,$$\begin{align*} u_t &= -\Delta {\left[\Delta u-W^{\prime }(u)\right]}+W^{\prime \prime }(u){\left[\Delta u -W^{\prime }(u)\right]}, \\ &\quad \forall \, (t,x)\in \widehat{\mathbb {R}}\times {\mathbb {R}^d}, \end{align*}$$where d=1,3$d=1, 3$, the function W(·)$W(\cdot)$ is the standard double‐well potential and the time region R̂:=(0,∞),ifd=1,(−∞,0),ifd=3.$$\begin{equation*} \widehat{\mathbb {R}}:={\left\lbrace \def\eqcellsep{&}\begin{array}{ll}(0, \infty), & \quad \mbox{if } d=1, \\[3pt] (-\infty, 0), & \quad \mbox{if } d=3. \end{array} \right.} \end{equation*}$$For d=1$d=1$ and any given integer k⩾2$k\geqslant 2$, we construct a solution u(t,x)$u(t,x)$ with k$k$ interfaces, which has the form u(t,x)≈∑j=1k(−1)j+1ωx−γj(t)−12[1+(−1)k]ast→+∞,$$\begin{align*} u(t,x) &\approx \sum \limits _{j=1}^{k}(-1)^{j+1}\omega {\left(x-\gamma _j(t)\right)}-\frac{1}{2}[1+(-1)^{k}] \\ &\quad \text{as}\ t\rightarrow +\infty, \end{align*}$$where ω$\omega$ is the solution to the Allen–Cahn equation ω′′−W′(ω)=0andω′(y)>0inR,ω(0)=0,ω(±∞)=±1.$$\begin{align*} \omega ^{\prime \prime }-W^{\prime }(\omega) &= 0\quad \mbox{and}\quad \omega ^{\prime }(y)>0\ \mbox{in }{\mathbb {R}}, \quad \omega (0)=0,\\ &\quad \omega (\pm \infty)=\pm 1. \end{align*}$$The dynamics of the interfaces are determined by a Toda system and the functions γj(t)$\gamma _j(t)$ with j=1,...,k$j=1,\ldots,k$ have the forms γj(t)=122j−k+12lnt+O(1),j=1,...,k.$$\begin{equation*} \gamma _j(t)=\frac{1}{2\sqrt {2}}{\left(j-\frac{k+1}{2}\right)}\ln t +O(1), \quad j=1,\ldots,k. \end{equation*}$$For d=3$d=3$ and any integer m⩾1$m\geqslant 1$, we construct an ancient radial solution of the form u(t,x)≈∑l=1m(−1)l+1ωx−ρl(t)−121+(−1)mast→−∞,$$\begin{align*} u(t,x) &\approx \sum _{l=1}^m(-1)^{l+1}\omega {\left({\left|x\right|}-\rho _l(t)\right)}-\frac{1}{2}{\left[1+(-1)^m\right]}\\ &\quad \text{as}\ t\rightarrow -\infty, \end{align*}$$where all ρ1(t),...,ρm(t)$\rho _1(t), \ldots, \rho _m(t)$ satisfy another Toda system and have the forms ρl(t)=12l−12lntlnt2+O(1),l=1,...,m.$$\begin{equation*} \rho _l(t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt {2}}{\left[l-\frac{1}{2}\right]}\ln {\left(\frac{{\left|t\right|}}{{\left[\ln {\left|t\right|}\right]}^2}\right)}+O(1),\quad l=1,\ldots,m. \end{equation*}$$In particular, these Toda systems are totally different from those driving the multiple interfaces of solutions to the parabolic Allen–Cahn equation established by M. del Pino and K. Gkikas [Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. Sect. A, 148 (2018), 6: 1165–1199; and Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire 35 (2018), 1: 187–215]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral self‐assembly has often been found to be an efficient strategy for the development of high‐performance circularly polarized luminescent (CPL) materials, through the regulation of the ordered helical superstructure blocks in liquid crystal media. Here, the design and synthesis of two pairs of axially chiral emitters (BBXT‐3‐Br and BOHXT‐3‐Br) are reported based on bromoxanthone. And the chiral self‐assembled liquid crystal polymer (LCP) framework (PRM257) is demonstrated by mixing of the emitters with liquid crystal monomer (RM257) through thermal annealing and photoinitiated polymerization. Both BBXT‐3‐Br@PRM257 and BOHXT‐3‐Br@PRM257 exhibited excellent room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) properties. In addition, BBXT‐3‐Br@PRM257 enantiomers showed afterglow with an average lifetime (τ) of 162.41 ms and emitted blue CPL (λem = 450 nm, ΦFL = 1.3%, |gFL| = 0.071), although weak circularly polarized RTP (CP‐RTP) is observed. Interestingly, BOHXT‐3‐Br@PRM257 with a less conjugated system emits red RTP (τ = 98.83 ms) and also intense CP‐RTP (λem = 612 nm, ΦPhos = 0.45%, |gRTP| = 0.057). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The magnetic couplers play an important role in electric vehicle (EV) wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. Conversational coupling structures are mainly based on unipolar, bipolar, and quadrupole coils, and the interoperability among them cannot be achieved. To solve the interoperability problem in the coupling structure, a novel bipolar coil structure is proposed in this paper. Energy transfer with unipolar and bipolar coils is achieved by interconnecting unipolar and bipolar types crosswise in the same plane and combining them with the corresponding topologies. They are connected in series on the dc side. An experimental prototype is built to verify the interoperability performance of the proposed novel bipolar coil structure. The proposed novel bipolar coil structure can be compatible with unipolar, bipolar, and quadrupole coils and achieve a maximum dc‐dc efficiency of more than 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights The cure‐induced residual stresses have a significant influence on the deformation and mechanical properties of composites. Moreover, the cure‐induced residual stresses exhibit multi‐level and multiscale distributions due to the complexity of micro‐structure of composites and anisotropic characteristics. In this paper, a computationally efficient multiscale procedure is proposed to predict the microscopic residual stresses induced by cure temperature, cure shrinkage and macroscopic residual stresses, which is based to the linear viscoelastic theory combined with the micro‐mechanics method. The instantaneous microscopic residual stresses are expressed as a linear combination of the instantaneous temperature increment, degree of cure increment and macroscopic strain increment at all times of the cure process until to the current time. The proposed method is verified in comparison with the published results in literature and the microscale FEA at different length scales, respectively. The results show that the proposed method is about a thousand times faster than directly using FEA in the microscale RVE model once the influence coefficient matrices are determined. At length, the microscale stresses of all nodes of the entire macroscale model are examined by using the proposed method. It is found that the thermal‐chemical‐mechanical loads lead to serious microscopic stresses for the matrix and interphase constituents, especially for those due to the macroscopic residual stresses. Microscale residual stress is written as a linear combination of macroscale loads. Applying macroscale loads on microscale FEA model to obtain influence matrices. The presented model avoids repeatedly FEA microscopic to improve the efficiency. The online time required for the proposed model is much less than microscale FEA. The microscale stress increases the risk of matrix cracking and interface bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezoelectric quasicrystals have attracted the tremendous attention of researchers for their unique properties. In this paper, the semi-analysis solutions of the functionally graded multilayered two-dimensional decagonal piezoelectric quasicrystal plates are investigated for mixed boundary-value problems. Based on the quasicrystal linear elastic theory, the state-space method is employed to derive the state equations composed of partial differential along the thickness direction. The differential quadrature method is utilized to discretize state variables to satisfy the mixed boundary conditions in the horizontal plane. Different from the conventional propagator matrix, a new propagator relationship is proposed to study numerical instability caused by extensive discrete points. Comprehensive numerical results are shown for the sandwich quasicrystal plate with four different stacking sequences. The numerical results reveal the effect of the functional gradient index factors, and boundary conditions on the electric potential, electric displacements, stresses, and displacements under the mechanical/electric loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaporation‐driven electricity generators have been proposed to generate electricity by water interacting with nanostructured materials. However, several proposed mechanisms, such as intrinsic gradient of polar functional groups principle and electrokinetic effect perspective, are in wide discrepancy. Here, through the combination of theoretical calculations involving time dimension on material's moisturizing process and experimental analyses, it is revealed the working principle through the water molecule triple roles in driving moisture electric generators (MEGs): 1) intrinsic H2O absorption on the material surface and splitting into hydroxy group and proton due to the polarizability of the material surface determined by the static electric potential of the materials. This process induces the electrochemical potential difference of the materials via the work function changes; 2) freely diffused protons derived from the H2O splitting work as the ions charge carriers; 3) via the hydrogen bond of the water molecules to drive charge carriers diffuse between opposite electrodes, maintaining the internal circuit current flow. It is successfully unveiled that anatase TiO2 based materials for output voltage changes correlated to the domains’ work function's difference, tuning by the surface adsorption species (H, Cl, OH) and anisotropic exposed crystal facets of the material. This work unveils MEG's general working principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the swiftly progressing landscape of wearable electronics and the Internet of Things (IoTs), there is a burgeoning demand for devices that are lightweight, cost‐effective, and self‐powered. In this study, a self‐powered bidirectional knee joint motion monitoring system is introduced, leveraging a dual ratchet sensing (DRS) system fabricated using 3D printing technology. This approach offers substantial economic and portability benefits. The DRS system is engineered to harness the negative work generated from knee joint movements to power commercial electronic devices, obviating the need for additional metabolic energy from the human body. By synergizing the DRS with virtual reality technology, it becomes feasible to monitor knee joint movements in real‐time with remarkable accuracy, presenting a novel avenue for the integration of digital twin technology. Through the amalgamation of convolutional neural network machine learning algorithms with Bayesian optimization techniques, the DRS system can discern up to 97% of knee joint movements, paving the way for innovative applications in smart rehabilitation and healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study investigated the effects of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) on doctors' communication anxiety, trust, calling, and defensive medicine practice. Methods: This study recruited 94 doctors from a hospital in China, randomized them to an LKM group (n = 47), and waited for the control group (n = 47). The experimental group accepted an 8-week LKM interference while the waiting for the control group underwent no interference. Researchers measured four major variable factors (communication anxiety, trust, calling, and defensive medicine practice) before and after the LKM intervention. Results: In the experimental group, trust, and calling were significantly higher, and communication anxiety, and defensive medicine practice were significantly lower than in the control group. In the control group, there were no noticeable differences in any of the four variables between the pre-test and post-test. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that LKM may help to improve trust, and calling, and reduce communication anxiety and defensive medicine practice. The finding of LKM's effect extends the understanding of the integrative effects of positive psychology on the decrease of defensive medicine practice. Trial registration: ChiCTR2300074568. Registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), 9 August, 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employed Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate diversity and community structure of endophytic bacteria in wild D. asperoides growing in three distinct regions. The study analyzed the impact of region on endophytic bacteria, uncovered the core bacterial community, and furnished valuable insights for the screening of endophytic bacteria. This study identified 6,540 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) coexisting with D. asperoides roots. These ASVs belong to 35 phyla, 84 classes, 204 orders, 365 families, and 708 genera. At the phylum level, the dominant phyla were Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, while at the genus level, Acidothermus, Acidibacter, Bradyrhizobium, Frankia, and Pseudomonas emerged as the dominant genera. Furthermore, noticeable differences in endophytic bacterial communities were observed between the Yunnan and Guizhou regions. These findings can serve as a reference for the authentication of medicinal materials from various origins and the selection of active strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon uptake of vegetation is controlled by phenology and photosynthetic carbon uptake capacity. However, our knowledge of the seasonal responses of vegetation productivity to phenological and physiological changes in alpine ecosystems is still weak. In this study, we quantified the spatio-temporal variations of vegetation phenology and gross primary productivity (GPP) across the source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) by analyzing MODIS-derived vegetation phenology and GPP from 2001 to 2019, and explored how vegetation phenology and maximum carbon uptake capacity (GPPmax) affected seasonal GPP over the region. Our results showed that the SRYR experienced significantly advanced trends (p < 0.05) for both start (SOS) and peak (POS) of the growing season from 2001 to 2019. Spring GPP (GPPspr) had a significantly increasing trend (p < 0.01), and the earlier SOS had obvious positive effects on GPPspr. Summer GPP (GPPsum) was significantly and negatively correlated to POS (p < 0.05). In addition, GPPmax had a significant and positive correlation with GPPsum and GPPann (p < 0.01), respectively. It was found that an earlier spring-summer phenology and higher photosynthetic peak enhanced the photosynthetic efficiency of vegetation in spring and summer and altered the seasonal patterns of vegetation productivity in the SRYR under warming and wetting climates. This study indicated that not only spring and autumn phenology but also summer phenology and maximum carbon uptake capacity should be regarded as crucial indicators regulating the carbon uptake process in alpine ecosystems. This research provides important information about how changes in phenology affect vegetation productivity in alpine ecosystems under global climate warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the four-dimensional layered quantum states and the delegating quantum computation (DQC) model, a new quantum private comparison (QPC) protocol is designed to compare private information between two participants with the help of a semi-honest third party (TP). The TP may misbehave on his own, though he enables to perform the protocol loyally. Benefiting from the properties of 4D layered quantum states in quantum secure communication, the QPC protocol performs the comparison of secrets better. The proposed QPC protocol based on a DQC scheme can be realized by the participants with insufficient capacity. The security of the proposed protocol is ensured by the usage of decoy photons and location obfuscation technique of sequences. The correctness of the proposed protocol is validated by simulations on the IBM's qiskit. The performance of the protocol against the external and internal attacks is also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principal stress rotation is often studied by considering the uniaxial rotation of principal stress. In this paper, the stress path on biaxial rotation of principal stresses is considered. The hollow cylindrical apparatus was used to achieve the principal stress rotation around the second stress principal axis. A novel specimen preparation device was developed, which was used to achieve the principal stress rotation around the third principal stress axis. The influence of principal stress biaxial rotation on the dense sand behavior was investigated under undrained conditions. The results revealed that the deformation properties of dense sand were closely associated with the stress direction dependence of the soil. An increase in the inherent anisotropy changed the slope of the effective stress path and the phase transition pore pressure, influenced the shear dilatancy and shear shrinkage characteristic of sand. Likewise, an increase in the stress-induced anisotropy changed the shape of the effective stress path, the development of pore pressure, the shear dilatancy and shear shrinkage characteristic of sand. More importantly, deformation properties of sand were affected by the coupling of the two factors, which was predominantly controlled by stress-induced anisotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a burgeoning knowledge economy, enterprise intellectual capital has emerged as a pivotal asset for organizational growth. Evaluating it requires a comprehensive and robust index, yet there is no standard methodology for such assessments. Here, we propose an index for evaluating enterprise intellectual capital. We use the Delphi method to delineate a scientific decision structure. A grey-based decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is coupled with an analytic network process (ANP)—i.e., grey DEMATEL-based ANP (GDANP)—to determine the relative weight of indicators. Then, we use the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution to validate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed evaluation index based on data on thirty new-technology companies in China. This study bridges a critical gap in academic discourse, and we discuss the practical implications for the strategic management of intellectual capital in corporate settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been widely applied in the therapy of malignant tumors, the efficacy and safety of ICIs in patients with tumors and pre-existing CAD, especially chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) or their risk factors (CRF), is not well identified. Methods: This was a nationwide multicenter observational study that enrolled participants who diagnosed with solid tumors and received ICIs therapy. The main efficacy indicators were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), followed by objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). Safety was assessed by describing treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) during ICIs therapy evaluated by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events 5.0 (CTCAE 5.0). Results: In the current research, we retrospectively analyzed the data of 551 patients diagnosed with solid tumors and received ICIs therapy, and these patients were divided into CCS/CRF group and non-CCS/CRF group. Patients with CCS/CRF had more favorable PFS and OS than patients without CCS/CRF (P < 0.001) and the pre-existing CCS/CRF was a protective factor for survival. The ORR (51.8% vs. 39.1%) and DCR (95.8% vs. 89.2%) were higher in CCS/CRF group than in non-CCS/CRF group (P = 0.003, P = 0.006). In this study, there was no significant difference in treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), including immune-related adverse events (irAEs), between the two groups. Conclusions: We concluded that ICIs appear to have better efficacy in malignant solid tumor patients with pre-existing CCS/CRF and are not accompanied by more serious irAEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable hemicellulose with a unique structure exhibits a wide range of potential applications. However, it has been a formidable challenge to isolate hemicellulose with an intact structure from lignocellulosic materials. In this study, LiBr·3H2O (LBTH) was used as a green solvent for the effective fractionation of hemicellulose from bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP) under mild conditions (25–85 °C). It was found that hemicellulose in BHKP can be dissolved in LBTH with ease and high selectivity owing to the breaking of hydrogen bonds between hemicellulose and cellulose, and the dissolved hemicellulose can be regenerated with a high degree of polymerization (DP) in the range of 240–264 using ethanol precipitation. The highest removal rate of hemicellulose from BHKP was as high as 95.2%, and the corresponding yield of pure hemicellulose reached 84.3%. Moreover, simultaneously obtained undissolved cellulose pulp through LBTH treatment had a high content of α-cellulose (96.7%), high DP (880), and trace levels of Fe (2 ppm), which met the standard requirement for dissolving pulp for the production of lyocell. In addition, LBTH can be easily recycled to guarantee a green and sustainable process. This work provides a new approach for highly selective fractionation of hemicellulose and cellulose from commercial BHKP based on an efficient and environmentally friendly LBTH treatment, which could be very promising for better valorization of hemicellulose and cellulose in many advanced applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A higher incidence of chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is generally considered as a precancerous lesion in gastric cancer (GC). The aim of this study was to identify potential molecules involved in the pathogenesis of CAG in the Tibetan plateau, hoping to help the diagnosis and management of the disease. Atrophic and non-atrophic gastric mucosal tissue samples were collected from seven patients with chronic gastritis (CG). Differentially expressed lncRNAs, circRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs between CAG and chronic non-atrophic gastritis (CNAG) groups were identified based on DNBSEQ-G99 RNA sequencing. Subsequently, competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory networks (lncRNA/circRNA-miRNA-mRNA networks) were constructed. Two datasets (GSE153224 and GSE163416), involving data from non-Tibetan plateau areas, were used to further screen out Tibetan plateau key mRNAs, followed by the common genes of Tibetan plateau key and ferroptosis-related mRNAs were also identified. Functional enrichment analyses were performed to investigate the biological functions of Tibetan plateau mRNAs in the CAG. A total of seven lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA relationship pairs and 424 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA relationship pairs were identified in this study. The relationship pairs of hsa_circ_0082984-hsa-miR-204-5p-CACNG8, lncRNA DRAIC/has_circ_0008561-hsa-miR-34a-5p-AR/GXYLT2, lncRNA GAS1RR/RGMB-AS1/hsa_circ_0008561-hsa-miR-3614-5p-TMEM216/SUSD5, and LINC00941/hsa_circ_0082984-hsa-miR-873-3p-TMC5 can be involved in the pathogenesis of CAG. Additionally, eight common genes of Tibetan plateau key and ferroptosis-related differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) (CBS, SLC2A4, STAT3, ALOX15B, ATF3, IDO1, NOX4, and SOCS1) were identified in CAG. The common genes of Tibetan plateau key and ferroptosis-related DEmRNAs can play a role in the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. This study identified important molecular biomarkers that may be involved in regulating the pathological mechanisms of CAG in the Tibetan plateau, which provides potential research directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid changes, including increasing disturbance by herbivore populations, which can affect plant species coexistence and community assemblages. Although the significance of mosses in Arctic wetlands is well recognized, the long‐term influence of medium‐sized herbivores on the composition of moss communities has received limited attention. We used data from a long‐term (25 years) Greater Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens atlanticus) exclusion experiment in Arctic tundra wetlands to assess changes in the composition of moss communities at multiple spatial scales (cell, 4 cm2; quadrat, 100 cm2; exclosure, 16 m2). We investigated how snow goose grazing and grubbing can alter the composition of the moss community by measuring changes in alpha and beta diversity, as well as in the strength of plant interspecific interactions between moss species. Our results indicate that goose foraging significantly increased species diversity (richness, evenness, and inverse Simpson index) of moss communities at the cell and quadrat scales but not the exclosure scale. Goose foraging reduced the dissimilarity (beta diversity) of moss communities at all three scales, mainly due to decreased species turnover. Furthermore, goose foraging increased positive interaction between moss species pairs. These findings emphasize the critical role of geese in promoting moss species coexistence and increasing homogeneity in Arctic wetlands. This study illustrates how top‐down regulation by herbivores can alter plant communities in Arctic wetlands and highlights the importance of considering herbivores when examining the response of Arctic plant biodiversity to future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work provides an efficient method to synthesize Ge nanorods through the reaction between intermetallic compound CaGe and ZnCl 2. By controlling the reaction temperature, Ge nanorods with different morphologies and crystallinity can be obtained. Particularly, the nanorods exhibit remarkable cycling stability and capacity retention even at −20 °C. These findings open up avenues for utilizing Ge nanomaterials in high-performance LIBs. [Display omitted] Germanium (Ge) nanomaterials have emerged as promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their higher capacity compared to commercial graphite. However, their practical application has been limited by the high cost associated with harsh preparation conditions and the poor electrode cycling stability in charging and diacharging. In this study, we successfully synthesized crystalline Ge nanorods through the reaction of intermetallic compound CaGe and ZnCl 2. Ge nanorods with different morphologies and crystallinity can be obtained through precisely controlling the reaction temperature. When employed as electrodes for LIBs, the Ge nanorods demonstrate exceptional long-term cyclic stability. Even after 1000 cycles at a high rate of 2C (1C = 1600 mA g−1), it exhibits a remarkable reversible capacity of around 1000 mAh/g. Furthermore, such Ge electrode displays excellent cycling performance across a wide temperature range. And it could achieve reversible capacities of 1267, 832, and 690 mAh/g, with the rate of 1C, at temperatures of 20, 0, and −20 °C, respectively. Above all, our study offers a cost-effective approach for the synthesis of crystalline Ge nanorods, addressing the concerns associated with high production costs. And the application of Ge nanorods as anode materials in LIBs over a wide temperature range opens up new possibilities for the development of advanced energy storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the precise astrometric measurements of proper motions by the Gaia mission, a new tidal stellar stream has been discovered in the northern hemisphere. The distribution of star count shows that the stream is approximately 80° long and 1.°70 wide. Observations of 21 member stars, including 14 RR Lyrae stars, indicate that the stream has an eccentric and retrograde orbit with e = 0.58. The low metallicity, high total energy, and large angular momentum suggest that it is associated with the merging event Sequoia. This discovery suggests the possibility of finding more substructures with high eccentricity orbits, even in the inner halo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously a ring finger protein 20 (RNF20) is found to be essential for meiotic recombination and mediates H2B ubiquitination during spermatogenesis. However, its role in meiotic division is still unknown. Here, it is shown that RNF20 is localized at both centromeres and spindle poles, and it is required for oocyte acentrosomal spindle organization and female fertility. RNF20‐depleted oocytes exhibit severely abnormal spindle and chromosome misalignment caused by defective bipolar organization. Notably, it is found that the function of RNF20 in spindle assembly is not dependent on its E3 ligase activity. Instead, RNF20 regulates spindle assembly by recruiting tropomyosin3 (TPM3) to both centromeres and spindle poles with its coiled‐coil motif. The RNF20‐TPM3 interaction is essential for acentrosomal meiotic spindle assembly. Together, the studies uncover a novel function for RNF20 in mediating TPM3 recruitment to both centromeres and spindle poles during oocyte spindle assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Staphylococcus aureus secretes a variety of proteins including virulence factors that cause diseases. PrsA, encoded by many Gram-positive bacteria, is a membrane-anchored lipoprotein that functions as a foldase to assist in post-translocational folding and helps maintain the stability of secreted proteins. Our earlier proteomic studies found that PrsA is required for the secretion of protein A, an immunoglobulin-binding protein that contributes to host immune evasion. This study aims to investigate how PrsA influences protein A secretion. Results: We found that in comparison with the parental strain HG001, the prsA-deletion mutant HG001ΔprsA secreted less protein A. Deleting prsA also decreased the stability of exported protein A. Pulldown assays indicated that PrsA interacts with protein A in vivo. The domains in PrsA that interact with protein A are mapped to both the N- and C-terminal regions (NC domains). Additionally, the NC domains are essential for promoting PrsA dimerization. Furthermore, an immunoglobulin-binding assay revealed that, compared to the parental strain HG001, fewer immunoglobulins bound to the surface of the mutant strain HG001ΔprsA. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that PrsA is critical for the folding and secretion of protein A. The information derived from this study provides a better understanding of virulent protein export pathways that are crucial to the pathogenicity of S. aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf senescence, a pivotal process in plants, directly influences both crop yield and nutritional quality. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is a C4 model crop renowned for its exceptional nutritional value and stress tolerance characteristics. However, there is a lack of research on the identification of senescence-associated genes (SAGs) and the underlying molecular regulatory mechanisms governing this process. In this study, a dark-induced senescence (DIS) experimental system was applied to investigate the extensive physiological and transcriptomic changes in two foxtail millet varieties with different degrees of leaf senescence. The physiological and biochemical indices revealed that the light senescence (LS) variety exhibited a delayed senescence phenotype, whereas the severe senescence (SS) variety exhibited an accelerated senescence phenotype. The most evident differences in gene expression profiles between these two varieties during DIS included photosynthesis, chlorophyll, and lipid metabolism. Comparative transcriptome analysis further revealed a significant up-regulation of genes related to polysaccharide and calcium ion binding, nitrogen utilization, defense response, and malate metabolism in LS. In contrast, the expression of genes associated with redox homeostasis, carbohydrate metabolism, lipid homeostasis, and hormone signaling was significantly altered in SS. Through WGCNA and RT-qPCR analyses, we identified three SAGs that exhibit potential negative regulation towards dark-induced leaf senescence in foxtail millet. This study establishes the foundation for a further comprehensive examination of the regulatory network governing leaf senescence and provides potential genetic resources for manipulating senescence in foxtail millet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are products of alternative splicing with roles as competitive endogenous RNAs or microRNA sponges, regulating gene expression and biological processes. However, the involvement of circRNAs in herpes simplex keratitis remains largely unexplored. This study examines circRNA and miRNA expression profiles in primary human corneal epithelial cells infected with HSV-1, compared to uninfected controls, using microarray analysis. Bioinformatic analysis predicted the potential function of the dysregulated circRNAs and microRNA response elements (MREs) in these circRNAs, forming an interaction network between dysregulated circRNAs and miRNAs. A total of 332 circRNAs and 16 miRNAs were upregulated, while 80 circRNAs and six miRNAs were downregulated (fold change ≥2.0 and p < 0.05). Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analyses were performed on parental genes of dysregulated circRNAs to uncover potential functions in HSV-1 infection. Notably, miR-181b-5p, miR-338-3p, miR-635, and miR-222-3p emerged as pivotal miRNAs interacting with multiple dysregulated circRNAs. This comprehensive study offers insights into differentially expressed circRNAs and miRNAs during HSV-1 infection in corneal epithelial cells, shedding light on circRNA-miRNA interactions' potential role in herpes simplex keratitis pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Besides the hallmark of H3K27M mutation, aberrant amplifications of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are commonly observed in diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a highly malignant brain tumor with dismal prognosis. Here, we intended to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a multitarget RTK inhibitor anlotinib in patients with H3K27M‐DMG. Methods: A total of 40 newly diagnosed H3K27M‐DMG patients including 15 with anlotinib and 25 without anlotinib treatment were retrospectively enrolled in this cohort. Progression‐free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicities were assessed and compared. Results: The median PFS and OS of all patients in this cohort were 8.5 months (95% CI, 6.5–11.3) and 15.5 months (95% CI, 12.6–17.1), respectively. According to the Response Assessment in Neuro‐Oncology (RANO) criteria, the disease control rate in the anlotinib group [93.3%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 70.2–98.8] was significantly higher than those without anlotinib (64%, 95% CI: 40.5–79.8, p = 0.039). The median PFS of patients with and without anlotinib was 11.6 months (95% CI, 7.8–14.3) and 6.4 months (95% CI, 4.3–10.3), respectively. Both the median PFS and OS of DMG patients treated with anlotinib were longer than those without anlotinib in the infratentorial patients (PFS: 10.3 vs. 5.4 months, p = 0.006; OS: 16.6 vs. 8.7 months, p = 0.016). Multivariate analysis also indicated anlotinib (HR: 0.243, 95% CI: 0.066–0.896, p = 0.034) was an independent prognosticator for longer OS in the infratentorial subgroup. In addition, the adverse events of anlotinib administration were tolerable in the whole cohort. Conclusions: This study first reported that anlotinib combined with Stupp regimen is a safe and feasible regimen for newly diagnosed patients with H3K27M‐DMG. Further, anlotinib showed significant efficacy for H3K27M‐DMG located in the infratentorial region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Words are essential parts for understanding classical Chinese poems. We report a collection of 32,399 classical Chinese poems that were annotated with word boundaries. Statistics about the annotated poems support a few heuristic experiences, including the patterns of lines and a practice for the parallel structures (對仗), that researchers of Chinese literature discuss in the literature. The annotators were affiliated with two universities, so they could annotate the poems as independently as possible. Results of an inter-rater agreement study indicate that the annotators have consensus over the identified words 93 per cent of the time and have perfect consensus for the segmentation of a poem 42 per cent of the time. We applied unsupervised classification methods to annotate the poems in several different settings, and evaluated the results with human annotations. Under favorable conditions, the classifier identified about 88 per cent of the words, and segmented poems perfectly 22 per cent of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid changes, including increasing disturbance by herbivore populations, which can affect plant species coexistence and community assemblages. Although the significance of mosses in Arctic wetlands is well recognized, the long‐term influence of medium‐sized herbivores on the composition of moss communities has received limited attention. We used data from a long‐term (25 years) Greater Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens atlanticus) exclusion experiment in Arctic tundra wetlands to assess changes in the composition of moss communities at multiple spatial scales (cell, 4 cm2; quadrat, 100 cm2; exclosure, 16 m2). We investigated how snow goose grazing and grubbing can alter the composition of the moss community by measuring changes in alpha and beta diversity, as well as in the strength of plant interspecific interactions between moss species. Our results indicate that goose foraging significantly increased species diversity (richness, evenness, and inverse Simpson index) of moss communities at the cell and quadrat scales but not the exclosure scale. Goose foraging reduced the dissimilarity (beta diversity) of moss communities at all three scales, mainly due to decreased species turnover. Furthermore, goose foraging increased positive interaction between moss species pairs. These findings emphasize the critical role of geese in promoting moss species coexistence and increasing homogeneity in Arctic wetlands. This study illustrates how top‐down regulation by herbivores can alter plant communities in Arctic wetlands and highlights the importance of considering herbivores when examining the response of Arctic plant biodiversity to future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to guide orchard management robots to realize some tasks in orchard production such as autonomic navigation and precision spraying, this research proposed a deep-learning network called dynamic fusion segmentation network (DFSNet). The network contains a local feature aggregation (LFA) layer and a dynamic fusion segmentation architecture. The LFA layer uses the positional encoders for initial transforming embedding, and progressively aggregates local patterns via the multi-stage hierarchy. The fusion segmentation module (Fus-Seg) can format point tags by learning a multi-embedding space, and the generated tags can further mine the point cloud features. At the experimental stage, significant segmentation results of the DFSNet were demonstrated on the dataset of orchard fields, achieving an accuracy rate of 89.43% and an mIoU rate of 74.05%. DFSNet outperforms other semantic segmentation networks, such as PointNet, PointNet++, D-PointNet++, DGCNN, and Point-NN, with improved accuracies over them by 11.73%, 3.76%, 2.36%, and 2.74%, respectively, and improved mIoUs over the these networks by 28.19%, 9.89%, 6.33%, 9.89, and 24.69%, respectively, on the all-scale dataset (simple-scale dataset + complex-scale dataset). The proposed DFSNet can capture more information from orchard scene point clouds and provide more accurate point cloud segmentation results, which are beneficial to the management of orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The sustainable supply of medicinal plants is important, and cultivating and domesticating them has been suggested as an optimal strategy. However, this can lead to a loss of genetic diversity. Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. is a medicinal plant commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, but its wild populations are dwindling due to excessive harvesting. To protect the species and meet the increasing demand, it is urgent to cultivate it on a large scale. However, distinguishing between T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum, two similar species with different medicinal properties, is challenging. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of these species for their sustainable utilization. Results: In this study, we investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of the two traditional medicinal semiwoody vines plant species, Tripterygium wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum, including wild and cultivated populations using chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences and microsatellite loci. Our results indicated that the two species maintain a high level of genetic divergence, indicating possible genetic bases for the different contents of bioactive compounds of the two species. T. wilfordii showed lower genetic diversity and less subdivided population structures of both markers than T. hypoglaucum. The potential factors in shaping these interesting differences might be differentiated pollen-to-seed migration rates, interbreeding, and history of population divergence. Analyses of cpDNA and microsatellite loci supported that the two species are genetically distinct entities. In addition, a significant reduction of genetic diversity was observed for cultivated populations of the two species, which mainly resulted from the small initial population size and propagated vegetative practice during their cultivation. Conclusion: Our findings indicate significant genetic divergence between T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum. The genetic diversity and population structure analyses provide important insights into the sustainable cultivation and utilization of these medicinal plants. Accurate identification and conservation efforts are necessary for both species to ensure the safety and effectiveness of crude drug use. Our study also highlighted the importance of combined analyses of different DNA markers in addressing population genetics of medicinal plants because of the contrasts of inheritance and rates of gene flow. Large-scale cultivation programs should consider preserving genetic diversity to enhance the long-term sustainability of T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum. Our study proposed that some populations showed higher genetic diversity and distinctness, which can be considered with priority for conservation and as the sources for future breeding and genetic improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solvents play a critical role in the lignin hydrogenation process. However, elucidating the role of solvents in lignin hydrogenation solely through experimental methods presents considerable challenges. The present report integrates experimental results, quantum chemical calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations to study the effect of solvents on the hydrogenation of lignin on Ru/C to produce phenolic compounds. Solvents not only disperse the substrate and promote the mass transfer process in the hydrogenation reaction, but also significantly affect the hydrogenation reaction rate of lignin. We show that the hydrogenation reaction rates of lignin in different solvents differ by an order of magnitude (isopropanol > methanol > water > γ-valerolactone > tetrahydrofuran). By innovatively combining quantum chemical calculations with experimental results, it was reported for the first time that solvent affects the free energy barrier by regulating the properties of the transition state (C–O bond strength), thereby affecting the lignin hydrogenolysis reaction rate. Based on molecular dynamics simulations, this study investigated the interaction between lignin and various solvent molecules. The research results confirmed that solvent molecules regulate the solvent shell on the surface of lignin, thereby influencing the mechanism of the hydrogenation reaction process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The sustainable supply of medicinal plants is important, and cultivating and domesticating them has been suggested as an optimal strategy. However, this can lead to a loss of genetic diversity. Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. is a medicinal plant commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, but its wild populations are dwindling due to excessive harvesting. To protect the species and meet the increasing demand, it is urgent to cultivate it on a large scale. However, distinguishing between T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum, two similar species with different medicinal properties, is challenging. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of these species for their sustainable utilization. Results: In this study, we investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of the two traditional medicinal semiwoody vines plant species, Tripterygium wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum, including wild and cultivated populations using chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences and microsatellite loci. Our results indicated that the two species maintain a high level of genetic divergence, indicating possible genetic bases for the different contents of bioactive compounds of the two species. T. wilfordii showed lower genetic diversity and less subdivided population structures of both markers than T. hypoglaucum. The potential factors in shaping these interesting differences might be differentiated pollen-to-seed migration rates, interbreeding, and history of population divergence. Analyses of cpDNA and microsatellite loci supported that the two species are genetically distinct entities. In addition, a significant reduction of genetic diversity was observed for cultivated populations of the two species, which mainly resulted from the small initial population size and propagated vegetative practice during their cultivation. Conclusion: Our findings indicate significant genetic divergence between T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum. The genetic diversity and population structure analyses provide important insights into the sustainable cultivation and utilization of these medicinal plants. Accurate identification and conservation efforts are necessary for both species to ensure the safety and effectiveness of crude drug use. Our study also highlighted the importance of combined analyses of different DNA markers in addressing population genetics of medicinal plants because of the contrasts of inheritance and rates of gene flow. Large-scale cultivation programs should consider preserving genetic diversity to enhance the long-term sustainability of T. wilfordii and T. hypoglaucum. Our study proposed that some populations showed higher genetic diversity and distinctness, which can be considered with priority for conservation and as the sources for future breeding and genetic improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper proposes a zero‐input‐current‐ripple (ZICR) high‐voltage‐gain dc‐dc converter with an integrated Y‐source network. It achieves zero input current ripple by introducing a parallel branch of an extra inductor, a coupled winding, and a capacitor at the input port. The voltage of the added inductor is opposite to that of the coupled winding. By adding the Y‐source coupled inductor, the boost capability of the converter is improved. The unique boost circuit structure makes that one winding in the three‐winding coupling inductance is step‐down type (the turns ratio n2 < 1) while the other winding is step‐up type (the turns ratio n1 > 1). In such a case, high voltage gain can be obtained under a lower turn ratio of the coupled inductor. The inherent passive clamping circuit clamps the spike voltage noises of the main switch to a low level and improves the efficiency. All the diodes have achieved ZCS (zero current switching) turn‐off. By comparing with several new converters, the advantages of this converter are proved. Finally, a 200‐W, 48‐ to 380‐V, 50‐kHz experimental prototype is built based on the theoretical research. At the rated power, the measured efficiencies with and without ZICR are 95.2% and 95.6%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • FC@NF and T@CF were prepared by LBL self-assembly and soaking methods, respectively. • Fire-retardant performance and mechanism of FC@NF were investigated. • FCF-TENG was fabricated for self-powered sensing in fire scenarios. The fabrics commonly used in architectural decorative materials pose significant fire hazards due to their flammability and rapid fire spread. Moreover, the traditional fire-alarm systems may fail to function properly in complex fire environments owing to power supply disruptions. In this study, we developed a low-cost and eco-friendly flame-retardant conductive fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerator (FCF-TENG) by integrating flame-retardant conductive nylon fabric and polytetrafluoroethylene soaked cotton fabric. This nanogenerator exhibits excellent flame-retardant properties and remarkable energy-harvesting capabilities. The nylon fabric, treated with layer-by-layer self-assembly method, possesses outstanding self-extinguishing capability and melt-dripping resistance. Additionally, the electrical performance of FCF-TENG significantly improves, with a 10-fold boost in conductivity, and the open-circuit voltage increases by 84% to 92 V. Besides, by incorporating the rectifier circuit, the FCF-TENG is capable of completely charging a 1 μF capacitor within 30 s. Furthermore, the FCF-TENG was successfully applied as a self-powered sensor in the fire-alarm system and served as a safety exit indicator for evacuees and fire rescue. This work presents an effective and innovative application of multifunctional smart textiles for energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peptidomimetics have been extensively explored in many area due to their ability to improve pharmacological qualities and interesting biological activities. Cycles could be incorporated in peptides to reduce their flexibility, often enhancing the affinity for a certain receptor. Many efforts have been made to synthesize various peptidomimetics. Among them, the Ugi reaction is a popular way for the synthesis of peptidomimetics because it provides peptide‐like products. The Ugi reaction consists of the condensation of an aldehyde or ketone, a carboxylic acid, an amine, and an isocyanide usually giving a linear peptidomimetic. In order to obtain other linear, cyclic or polycyclic peptidomimetics, the acyclic products have to undergo additional transformations or cyclizations. This review covers the years from 2018–2023, regarding the synthesis of linear, cyclic and polycyclic peptidomimetics, employing Ugi reactions eventually followed by post‐Ugi transformations. Organo‐catalyzed reactions, base‐promoted reactions, and metal‐free reactions toward peptidomimetics are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the relationship between frailty and social activity of the elderly in China, and to study the influencing factors of frailty in the elderly, so as to provide scientific basis for the healthy life of the elderly. Methods Based on 43 health related variables in China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2018 database, the frailty index (FI) was constructed to evaluate the frailty of the elderly. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the effect of social activity on the frailty of the elderly. Results A total of 1 519 elderly people aged 60 and above were included in the CHARLS 2018 database, including 401 frail elderly, with a frailty rate of 26.4%. The participation rate of the elderly in social activities was 48.5%, and there were 439 elderly people with high level of social activity, accounting for 28.9% of the total. After adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of debilitation in the elderly with high level of social activity was 41.9%, lower than that in those with medium and low level of social activity (0fl=0.581, 95%CH: 0.439-0.77). Conclusion The degree of social activity affects the frailty of the elderly, and the social activity of the elderly in China is generally low. The elderly should be encouraged to participate in social activities, and attention should be paid to the older and female elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) demand both high drug loading capacity and efficient delivery. In order to improve both simultaneously, this study aims to develop a novel rhamnose-induced pressure-sensitive adhesive (HPR) by dispersing the drug in the supramolecular helical structure. Ten model drugs, categorized as acidic and basic compounds, were chosen to understand the characteristics of the HPR and its inner mechanism. Notably, it enhanced drug loading by 1.41 to 5 times over commercially available pressure-sensitive adhesives Duro-Tak@ 87–4098 and Duro-Tak@ 87–2287, in addition to increasing drug release efficiency by a factor of about 5. Pharmacokinetic evaluation demonstrated that the HPR group had >4-fold (Tulobuterol TUL) and 3-fold (Diclofenac DIC) more area under the blood drug concentration curve (AUC) than the commercial TUL and DIC patches in the absence of added excipients and a significantly prolonged mean residence time (MRT) of >4-fold (TUL) and 3-fold (DIC), demonstrating the potential for highly efficacious and prolonged dosing. Furthermore, its safety and mechanical properties meet the requisite standards. Mechanistic inquiries unveiled that both acidic and basic drugs establish hydrogen bonds with HPR and become encapsulated within supramolecular helical structures. The supramolecular helical structures, significantly elevated both the enthalpy of the drug-HPR and entropy of the drugs release, thereby substantially enhancing drug delivery efficiency. In summary, HPR enabled a significant simultaneous enhancement of drug loading and drug delivery, which, together with its unique spatial structure, would contribute to the development of TDDS. In addition, the establishment of rhamnose-induced supramolecular helical structures would provide innovative pathways for different drug delivery systems. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By exploring equivalent acoustic path length between inhomogeneous medium and homogenous curved geometry, we present a broadband acoustic bend composed of homogeneous curved waveguides in quasi-two-dimensional space. Simultaneous control of the wavefront and phase accumulation of acoustic waves is achieved by designing the embedding geometry of homogeneous curved waveguides with subwavelength ports, guaranteeing both the bending effect and extremely high transmission. Unlike metamaterials-based wave bends, homogeneous curved waveguides, filled with background air, exhibit promising broadband properties. Moreover, we propose a broadband acoustic splitter by mirroring the acoustic bend. Simulation results demonstrate functionalities of our designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The occurrence of multidrug-resistant and hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (MDR-hvKp) worldwide poses a great challenge for public health. Few studies have focused on ST218 MDR-hvKp. Methods: Retrospective genomic surveillance was conducted at the Peking University Third Hospital from 2017 and clinical information was obtained. To understand genomic and microbiological characteristics, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, plasmid conjugation and stability, biofilm formation, serum killing, growth curves and whole-genome sequencing were performed. We also assessed the clinical and microbiological characteristics of ST218 compared with ST23. Results: A total of eleven ST218 Kp isolates were included. The most common infection type was lower respiratory tract infection (72.7%, 8/11) in our hospital, whereas ST23 hvKp (72.7%, 8/11) was closely associated with bloodstream infection. Notably, nosocomial infections caused by ST218 (54.5%, 6/11) was slightly higher than ST23 (36.4%, 4/11). All of the ST218 and ST23 strains presented with the virulence genes combination of iucA + iroB + peg344 + rmpA + rmpA2. Interestingly, the virulence score of ST218 was lower than ST23, whereas one ST218 strain (pPEKP3107) exhibited resistance to carbapenems, cephalosporins, β-lactamase/inhibitors and quinolones and harbored an ~ 59-kb IncN type MDR plasmid carrying resistance genes including blaNDM-1, dfrA14 and qnrS1. Importantly, blaNDM-1 and qnrS1 were flanked with IS26 located within the plasmid that could successfully transfer into E. coli J53. Additionally, PEKP2044 harbored an ~ 41-kb resistance plasmid located within tetA indicating resistance to doxycycline. Conclusion: The emergence of blaNDM-1 revealed that there is great potential for ST218 Kp to become a high-risk clone for MDR-hvKp, indicating the urgent need for enhanced genomic surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Driver fatigue was significantly suppressed after manual dexterity gymnastics. • Manual dexterity gymnastics improved vigilance accessed by assessment of reaction time. • Drivers reported significantly lower subjective fatigue after manual dexterity gymnastics. Driver fatigue remains a critical concern in the realm of traffic safety. In particular, passive driver fatigue, promoted by prolonged exposure to low-workload driving and boredom, not only poses threats to daily driving but also may compromise the effectiveness of takeover in future autonomous driving. Commonly adopted strategies involve activities that drivers can engage in to awaken their bodies and minds, or in-vehicle interactive systems implemented by manufacturers to alleviate boredom. However, there is currently limited focus given to user-accessible in-vehicle physical activities aimed at addressing passive fatigue. Therefore, this study proposed manual dexterity gymnastics as finger exercises that are conveniently implemented against passive driver fatigue. The finger exercises consisted of tapping the fingertip, pressing nail roots, flicking fingers, pressing the sides of fingertips, and closing and opening the fingers. To evaluate this countermeasure, eighteen participants performed a monotonous driving task using a driving simulator. The driving sessions each lasted 90 min. Each participant drove in two sessions consisting of either manual dexterity gymnastics or watching videos. Passive driver fatigue was assessed by physiological indexes, driving performance analysis, vigilance assessment, and subjective evaluation. The manual dexterity gymnastics significantly suppressed driver fatigue according to the percentage of eyelid closure, blink frequency, and steering reversal rate. Furthermore, vigilance was also improved, and the subjective evaluation showed that fatigue was significantly lower. The experimental results suggested that manual dexterity gymnastics may be regarded as an effective countermeasure to suppress the deterioration of passive driver fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technology has been developing rapidly in recent years. Electric Vehicles (EVs), as an emerging mode of transport, also benefit from the WPT technology. Various EV manufacturers have different coupling structures, which can lead to incompatibility problems between the coils. Meanwhile, due to the human parking, misalignment between the transmitting and receiving coils may occur. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a reconfigurable bipolar coil structure with both interoperability and misalignment tolerance. A 200-W experimental prototype is built, which can achieve 84.33% and 84.76% system transmission efficiency with vertical and horizontal bipolar coils. The effectiveness of the proposed reconfigurable bipolar coil is finally verified by comparing the computational and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotions are highly dynamic and social in nature. Traditional approaches to studying emotion expression face obstacles such as substantial time investments, susceptibility to human biases, and limited capacity to capture nuanced emotional patterns. To address these challenges, this research leveraged text mining and sentiment analysis to explore the dynamic patterns of emotion expression within the context of mother‐child interactions. We analyzed 8,841 conversation transcripts involving 1,462 mother‐child dyads, sourced from the Child Language Data Exchange System. Polarity scores were calculated and analyzed to uncover the temporal patterns of mother and child emotional sentiment. Our findings revealed that mothers tended to exhibit heightened levels of positive emotion at the beginning and conclusion of conversations, whereas children displayed a more linear positive trend. Using model‐based cluster analysis, we identified two distinct clusters of mothers characterized by varying degrees of emotion expression variation and two clusters of children showing different rates of elevation in positive emotion. At the dyadic level, the differences between mother and child polarity scores varied as a function of time, with an increase of difference from the beginning to the 20th percentile point, a decrease until the 90th percentile, and then an increase again towards the end of the conversation. This study demonstrates the utility of text mining and sentiment analysis in developmental studies, particularly in the context of parent‐child interactions. The findings hold informative implications for interventions that focus on fostering healthy parent‐child relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequent magmatism was a major event causing the mass extinction across the Permian/Triassic Boundary. In the current study, we determined magmatism characteristics from the Pingdingshan section at the Permian/Triassic Boundary using conodont-based geochemical proxies at a high-resolution scale (~ 50 kyr). Integrated trace elements (Mn, Sr, Rb, and Th) and stable/radioactive isotopes (δ18O, δ13C, and 87Sr/86Sr) revealed that conodonts provided an ideal proxy for chemostratigraphic signatures of ancient seawater. The conodont-based, high-resolution 87Sr/86Sr isotopes from the studied interval (250.50–252.00 Ma) displayed three decreasing cycles upwardly against a long-term increasing background, reflecting three episodes of magmatism. As a contrast, the conodont-based, high-resolution δ18O isotopes from this interval exhibited no episodic pattern, indicating that the δ18O isotopes of conodonts were limitedly influenced by marine magmatism. The high-resolution δ13C values of micrites displayed a pattern consistent with the trend of long-term background, revealing that the δ13C signatures of episodic magmatism were not inherited by micrites. The magmatism associated with the EPME event exerted great influences upon the Chihsian source rocks by introducing massive heat through hydrothermal fluids and causing pervasive oceanic anoxia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]