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In this paper, we propose and analyze two highly efficient compact finite difference schemes for coupled nonlinear wave equations containing coupled sine-Gordon equations and coupled Klein-Gordon equations. To construct energy-preserving, high-order accurate and linear numerical methods, we first utilize the scalar auxiliary variable (SAV) approach and introduce three auxiliary functions to rewrite the original problem as a new equivalent system. Then we make use of the compact finite difference method and the Crank-Nicolson method to propose an efficient fully-discrete scheme (SAV-CFD-CN). The modified energy conservation and the convergence of the SAV-CFD-CN scheme are proved in detail, which has fourth-order convergence in space and second-order convergence in time. In order to preserve the discrete energy of original system, we further combine Lagrange multiplier approach, compact finite difference method and the Crank-Nicolson method to propose the second fully-discrete scheme (LM-CFD-CN). The proposed two schemes are high-order accurate, linear and highly efficient, only four symmetric positive definite systems with constant coefficients are required to be solved at each time level. Numerical experiments for the coupled nonlinear wave equations are given to confirm theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfide all‐solid‐state battery (SASSB) with ultrahigh‐nickel layered oxide cathode (LiNixCoyMn1‐x‐yO2, NCM, x ≥ 0.9) offers the potential of high energy density and safety for superior energy storage systems. However, stable cycling is difficult to realize due to adverse interfacial reactions, space charge layer (SCL), and elemental diffusion. Herein, a straightforward solid‐phase coating strategy is exploited to synthesize Ni90‐S cathode, which greatly improves the charge transmission capability of the composite cathode and suppresses interfacial reactions in SASSB. The consequent SC‐Ni90‐0.2%S/Li6PS5Cl/Li4Ti5O12 SASSB exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance, including a long life of 500 cycles with 87% capacity retention at 1C, high areal capacity of 11.44 mAh cm−2, and excellent rate performance at 20 C. These results promise an efficient strategy for designing cathode materials for SASSBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Seed aging, a natural and inevitable process occurring during storage. Oats, an annual herb belonging to the Gramineae family and pooideae. In addition to being a healthy food, oats serve as ecological pastures, combating soil salinization and desertification. They also play a role in promoting grassland agriculture and supplementing winter livestock feed. However, the high lipid and fat derivatives contents of oat seeds make them susceptible to deterioration, as fat derivatives are prone to rancidity, affecting oat seed production, storage, development, and germplasm resource utilization. Comparative studies on the effects of aging on physiology and cytological structure in covered and naked oat seeds are limited. Thus, our study aimed to determine the mechanism underlying seed deterioration in artificially aged 'LongYan No. 3' (A. sativa) and 'BaiYan No. 2' (A. nuda) seeds, providing a basis for the physiological evaluation of oat seed aging and serving as a reference for scientifically safe storage and efficient utilization of oats. Results: In both oat varieties, superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in seeds showed increasing and decreasing trends, respectively. Variance analysis revealed significant differences and interaction in all measured indicators of oat seeds between the two varieties at different aging times. 'LongYan No. 3' seeds, aged for 24–96 h, exhibited a germination rate of < 30%, Conductivity, malondialdehyde, soluble sugar, and soluble protein levels increased more significantly than the 'BaiYan No. 2'. With prolonged aging leading to cell membrane degradation, reactive oxygen species accumulation, disrupted antioxidant enzyme system, evident embryo cell swelling, and disordered cell arrangement, blocking the nutrient supply route. Simultaneously, severely concentrated chromatin in the nucleus, damaged mitochondrial structure, and impaired energy metabolism were noted, resulting in the loss of 'LongYan No. 3' seed vitality and value. Conversely, 'BaiYan No. 2' seeds showed a germination rate of 73.33% after 96 h of aging, consistently higher antioxidant enzyme activity during aging, normal embryonic cell shape, and existence of the endoplasmic reticulum. Conclusions: ROS accumulation and antioxidant enzyme system damage in aged oat seeds, nuclear chromatin condensation, mitochondrial structure damage, nucleic acid metabolism and respiration weakened, oat seed vigor decreased. 'LongYan No. 3' seeds were more severely damaged under artificial aging than 'BaiYan No. 2' seeds, highlighting their heightened susceptibility to aging effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The length of hypocotyl affects the height of soybean and lodging resistance, thus determining the final grain yield. However, research on soybean hypocotyl length is scarce, and the regulatory mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, we identified a module controlling the transport of sucrose, where sucrose acts as a messenger moved from cotyledon to hypocotyl, regulating hypocotyl elongation. This module comprises four key genes, namely MYB33, SWEET11, SWEET21 and GA2ox8c in soybean. In cotyledon, MYB33 is responsive to sucrose and promotes the expression of SWEET11 and SWEET21, thereby facilitating sucrose transport from the cotyledon to the hypocotyl. Subsequently, sucrose transported from the cotyledon up‐regulates the expression of GA2ox8c in the hypocotyl, which ultimately affects the length of the hypocotyl. During the domestication and improvement of soybean, an allele of MYB33 with enhanced abilities to promote SWEET11 and SWEET21 has gradually become enriched in landraces and cultivated varieties, SWEET11 and SWEET21 exhibit high conservation and have undergone a strong purified selection and GA2ox8c is under a strong artificial selection. Our findings identify a new molecular pathway in controlling soybean hypocotyl elongation and provide new insights into the molecular mechanism of sugar transport in soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the three-year survey data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database, in combination with the environmental statistical data of 122 cities, this study empirically tests the effect of air pollution on the labor participation of the elderly and the mechanism. Using the panel data model, two-way fixed effect method, and instrumental variable method, the results show that air pollution significantly reduces the labor participation of the elderly, with a decrement of 0.43%. With the respect of transmission mechanisms, air pollution affects the overall labor participation behavior of the elderly mainly through the number of working days per week and working hours per day. At the same time, along with the cumulating of the days of Air Quality Index (AQI) ≥100, the labor participation of the elderly is significantly reduced. In addition, the impact of air pollution on the labor participation of the elderly shows apparent heterogeneity divided by the gender, education level, urban-rural, and regional economic-level, and there are obvious substitution effects and income effects. This study confirms that air pollution affects the total labor participation of the elderly through the number of working days per week and working hours per day, and this impact reaches a peak when AQI is in the range from 100 to 150. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In plants, pollen–pistil interactions during pollination and fertilization mediate pollen hydration and germination, pollen tube growth, and seed set and development. Cell wall invertases (CWINs) help provide the carbohydrates for pollen development; however, their roles in pollination and fertilization have not been well established. In cucumber (Cucumis sativus), CsCWIN3 showed the highest expression in flowers, and we further examined CsCWIN3 for functions during pollination to seed set. Both CsCWIN3 transcript and CsCWIN3 protein exhibited similar expression patterns in the sepals, petals, stamen filaments, anther tapetum, and pollen of male flowers, as well as in the stigma, style, transmitting tract, and ovule funiculus of female flowers. Notably, repression of CsCWIN3 in cucumber did not affect the formation of parthenocarpic fruit but resulted in an arrested growth of stigma integuments in female flowers and a partially delayed dehiscence of anthers with decreased pollen viability in male flowers. Consequently, the pollen tube grew poorly in the gynoecia after pollination. In addition, CsCWIN3-RNA interference plants also showed affected seed development. Considering that sugar transporters could function in cucumber fecundity, we highlight the role of CsCWIN3 and a potential close collaboration between CWIN and sugar transporters in these processes. Overall, we used molecular and physiological analyses to determine the CsCWIN3-mediated metabolism during pollen formation, pollen tube growth, and plant fecundity. CsCWIN3 has essential roles from pollination and fertilization to seed set but not parthenocarpic fruit development in cucumber. Cell wall invertase 3 hydrolyzes sucrose into hexoses in male and female cucumber flowers to provide sugars during pollination and fertilization for seed set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We aimed to explore the relationship between clinical characteristics and circulating lymphocyte profiles in Chinese male patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). Method: Data from 397 patients with pSS were analyzed retrospectively. 37 were male, which is a prevalence of 9.3%. The clinical, laboratory, and immunophenotypic profiles of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets were compared between male and female pSS patients. Results: Male patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome have unique clinical manifestations and circulating lymphocyte profiles. Male patients complained more about xerophthalmia and presented with more extra-glandular manifestations as compared with female patients. The CD4+/CD8+ ratio (P = 0.030), the prevalence of CD4−CD8− T cells in lymphocytes (P = 0.020), the absolute number of CD4−CD8− T cells (P = 0.035), the prevalence of CD4+ T cells in lymphocytes (P < 0.001), and the absolute number of CD4+ T cells (P = 0.023) were significantly lower in male patients compared to female patients. On the other hand, the prevalence of CD8+CD28+ T cells (P = 0.030) and CD4+CD25high T cells (P = 0.040) in lymphocytes was significantly higher in male patients than in female patients. Moreover, compared to females with pSS, an elevated serum IgG level, low C3 and C4 levels, anti-SSB positivity, and ANA titers of ≥ 1:160 positivity were more frequent in male with pSS. Conclusions: Male patients with pSS have distinctive peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations, present with more severe clinical symptoms and immunological features, and have an unfavorable prognosis. Key Points • Male patients with pSS have more severe clinical symptoms and specific characteristics of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets. • Male pSS patients exhibit a higher intensity of the disease (as evaluated by ESSDAI). • Male patients with pSS require individualized treatment regimens and closer follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, multiple higher-order pole solutions of spinor Bose–Einstein condensates are explored by means of the inverse scattering transform, which are associated with different higher-order pole pairs of the transmission coefficient and give solutions to the spin-1 Gross–Pitaevskii equation. First, a direct scattering problem is introduced to map the initial data to the scattering data, which includes discrete spectrums, reflection coefficients, and a polynomial that replaces the normalized constants. In order to analyze symmetries and discrete spectra in the direct scattering problem, a generalized cross product is defined in four-dimensional vector Space. The inverse scattering problem is then characterized in terms of the 4 × 4 matrix Riemann–Hilbert problem that is subject to the residual conditions of these higher-order poles. In the reflectionless case, the Riemann–Hilbert problem can be converted into a linear algebraic system, which has a unique solution and allows us to explicitly obtain multiple higher-order pole solutions to the spin-1 Gross–Pitaevskii equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In garnet phase ceramics Y 2.9 M 0.1 Al 4.9 Si 0.1 O 12 (M = Mg2+, Co2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+), rattling effects occur when M = Mg2+, Co2+, Zn2+, Mn2+ ions with smaller ionic radius (<1Å) occupy the dodecahedron lattice lattices. This results in an abnormally high dielectric constant, in contrast to the larger ionic radius (>1 Å) of M = Ca2+, Sr2+ and Ba2+, which deviate from the theoretical values calculated using the Clausius-Mosotti formula according to each ion's polarizability. The optimal microwave dielectric properties for Y 2.9 Mg 0.1 Al 4.9 Si 0.1 O 12 was obtained by sintering at 1575 °C for 5 h (Q × f = 51,382 GHz, ε r = 9.74, and τ f = −30.12 ppm/°C). Additionally, a thermal stable Y 2.9 Mg 0.1 Al 4.9 Si 0.1 O 12 -6 wt%TiO 2 composite ceramic was developed. Based on this composite, a Wifi6E/7 patch antenna operating at 6.3 GHz and a millimeter-wave resonant antenna functioning at 27.1 GHz were designed and validated. This indicates the potential application prospects of garnet ceramics in 5G/6G radio communication technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Background Design Methods Results Conclusion Impact Examine profiles of safety attitudes among novices and explore whether profiles moderate the occupational identity–turnover pathway.Novice nurses face unique challenges in adopting positive safety attitudes, which influence outcomes like turnover. However, past research found only average levels of safety attitudes among novices, ignoring possible heterogeneity. Exploring whether meaningful subgroups exist based on safety perspectives and factors shaping them can provide insights to improve safety attitudes and retention.This study was designed as a cross‐sectional investigation.Data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were first conducted, followed by latent profile analysis. We then carried out univariate analysis and ordinal multinomial regression to explore the factors shaping the different profiles. Finally, we examine the moderating effect of nurses' safety attitudes with different latent profiles on the relationship between professional identification and turnover intention.A total of 816 novice nurses were included. Three profiles were identified: high, moderate and low safety attitudes – higher attitudes were associated with lower turnover intention. Interest in nursing, health status, identity and turnover predicted profile membership. Moderate profile had a stronger buffering effect on the identity–turnover link versus high profile.Multiple safety attitude profiles exist among novice nurses. Certain factors like interest in nursing and occupational identity are associated with more positive safety profiles. Targeting these factors could potentially improve safety attitudes and reduce turnover among novice nurses. The moderating effects suggest that tailored interventions matching specific subgroups may maximize impact.Assessing subgroup attitudes enables tailored training for novices' specific needs, nurturing continuous improvement. Supporting early career development and role identity may strengthen retention intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Hydrogel microneedle patches have emerged as promising platforms for painless, minimally invasive, safe, and portable transdermal drug administration. However, the conventional mold-based fabrication processes and inherent single-functionality of such microneedles present significant hurdles to broader implementation. Herein, we have developed a novel approach utilizing a precursor solution of robust nanocomposite hydrogels to formulate photo-printable inks suitable for the direct 3D printing of high-precision, triple-responsive hydrogel microneedle patches through digital light processing (DLP) technology. The ink formulation comprises four functionally diverse monomers including 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate, N -isopropylacrylamide, acrylic acid, and acrylamide, which were crosslinked by aluminum hydroxide nanoparticles (AH NPs) acting as both reinforcing agents and crosslinking centers. This results in the formation of a nanocomposite hydrogel characterized by exceptional mechanical strength, an essential attribute for the 3D printing of hydrogel microneeedle patches. Furthermore, this innovative 3D printing strategy facilitates facile customization of microneedle geometry and patch dimensions. As a proof-of-concept, we employed the fabricated hydrogel microneedles for transdermal delivery of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Importantly, these hydrogel microneedles displayed no cytotoxic effects and exhibited triple sensitivity to pH, temperature and glucose levels, thereby enabling more precise on-demand drug delivery. This study provides a universal method for the rapid fabrication of hydrogel microneedles with smart responsiveness for transdermal drug delivery applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binderless cemented carbide has garnered attention for its exceptional hardness and suitability in extreme service conditions. The absence of a metal binder, however, leads to inadequate fracture toughness, which limits its broader application. This study explores the influence of SiC whisker on the microstructure and mechanical properties of WC-Al 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 binderless cemented carbide, utilizing a combination of experimental method and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. The inclusion of 1 wt% SiC whisker resulted in a notable increase in fracture toughness, reaching an impressive toughness of 16.4 ± 0.5 MPa⋅m1/2, while maintaining a high Vickers hardness of 19.4 GPa. DFT calculations provided insights into the interface energy, cohesive energy, and charge density differences at the WC/SiC interface. This work also presents two models depicting the behavior of whiskers during fracture, based on the observed microstructure and computational findings. Overall, the present work offers significant insights and practical guidance for advancing binderless cemented carbide technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the probable existence of a causal relationship between sleep phenotypes and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with sleep phenotypes were selected as instrumental variables at the genome-wide significance threshold (P < 5 × 10−8). Inverse‐variance weighted was applied as the primary Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis method, and MR Egger regression, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode methods were used as complementary analysis methods to estimate the causal association between sleep phenotypes and PDR. Results indicated that genetically predicted sleep phenotypes had no causal effects on PDR risk after Bonferroni correction (P = 0.05/10) [Chronotype: P = 0.143; Daytime napping: P = 0.691; Daytime sleepiness: P = 0.473; Insomnia: P = 0.181; Long sleep duration: P = 0.671; Morning person:P = 0.113; Short sleep duration: P = 0.517; Obstructive sleep apnea: P = 0.091; Sleep duration: P = 0.216; and snoring: P = 0.014]. Meanwhile, there are no reverse causality for genetically predicted PDR on sleep phenotypes [Chronotype: P = 0.100; Daytime napping: P = 0.146; Daytime sleepiness: P = 0.469; Insomnia: P = 0.571; Long sleep duration: P = 0.779; Morning person: P = 0.040; Short sleep duration: P = 0.875; Obstructive sleep apnea: P = 0.628; Sleep duration: P = 0.896; and snoring: P = 0.047]. This study's findings did not support the causal effect of between sleep phenotypes and PDR. Whereas, longitudinal studies can further verify results validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by synovial inflammation, causing substantial disability and reducing life quality. While macrophages are widely appreciated as a master regulator in the inflammatory response of RA, the precise mechanisms underlying the regulation of proliferation and inflammation in RA-derived fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLS) remain elusive. Here, we provide extensive evidence to demonstrate that macrophage contributes to RA microenvironment remodeling by extracellular vesicles (sEVs) and downstream miR-100-5p/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) axis. Results: We showed that bone marrow derived macrophage (BMDM) derived-sEVs (BMDM-sEVs) from collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice (cBMDM-sEVs) exhibited a notable increase in abundance compared with BMDM-sEVs from normal mice (nBMDM-sEVs). cBMDM-sEVs induced significant RA-FLS proliferation and potent inflammatory responses. Mechanistically, decreased levels of miR-100-5p were detected in cBMDM-sEVs compared with nBMDM-sEVs. miR-100-5p overexpression ameliorated RA-FLS proliferation and inflammation by targeting the mTOR pathway. Partial attenuation of the inflammatory effects induced by cBMDM-sEVs on RA-FLS was achieved through the introduction of an overexpression of miR-100-5p. Conclusions: Our work reveals the critical role of macrophages in exacerbating RA by facilitating the transfer of miR-100-5p-deficient sEVs to RA-FLS, and sheds light on novel disease mechanisms and provides potential therapeutic targets for RA interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, population aging is the main trend of population development. Home-based care is mainly adopted in Chinese society, and scholars have paid ample attention to the effect of intergenerational support on the mental health of older people. However, research conclusions differ. This study uses data from the 2018 China Health and Pension Tracking Survey (CHARLS), which we analyzed with STATA software to construct least squares regression and two-stage least squares regression models. The regression model included 6,647 respondents to investigate the mental health status of older people based on depression status. Intergenerational support was defined as economic support, emotional support, and daily care provided by the children of older people. We studied the impact of three aspects of intergenerational support on the mental health of the elderly. We performed a robustness test using the variable replacement and propensity score matching methods, and analyzed age, gender, and urban-rural heterogeneity. The results showed that economic support had no significant impact on the mental health of older people, while emotional support and daily care had a positive effect. The heterogeneity results indicated that the relationship between intergenerational support and mental health of older people differed significantly based on age, gender, and urban and rural areas. Therefore, children should raise their awareness of supporting their parents, pay attention to their parents' mental health, and provide emotional support and daily care. Furthermore, community work improves family relations, creates a good social environment, and encourages young people to respect and be filial to older people. The government should improve the medical security system and old-age service system, and provide policy support to help the mental health of older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder characterized by synovial inflammation, causing substantial disability and reducing life quality. While macrophages are widely appreciated as a master regulator in the inflammatory response of RA, the precise mechanisms underlying the regulation of proliferation and inflammation in RA-derived fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLS) remain elusive. Here, we provide extensive evidence to demonstrate that macrophage contributes to RA microenvironment remodeling by extracellular vesicles (sEVs) and downstream miR-100-5p/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) axis. Results: We showed that bone marrow derived macrophage (BMDM) derived-sEVs (BMDM-sEVs) from collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice (cBMDM-sEVs) exhibited a notable increase in abundance compared with BMDM-sEVs from normal mice (nBMDM-sEVs). cBMDM-sEVs induced significant RA-FLS proliferation and potent inflammatory responses. Mechanistically, decreased levels of miR-100-5p were detected in cBMDM-sEVs compared with nBMDM-sEVs. miR-100-5p overexpression ameliorated RA-FLS proliferation and inflammation by targeting the mTOR pathway. Partial attenuation of the inflammatory effects induced by cBMDM-sEVs on RA-FLS was achieved through the introduction of an overexpression of miR-100-5p. Conclusions: Our work reveals the critical role of macrophages in exacerbating RA by facilitating the transfer of miR-100-5p-deficient sEVs to RA-FLS, and sheds light on novel disease mechanisms and provides potential therapeutic targets for RA interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The support properties can be tuned through changing the addition amount of Zr. As a result, the formation and stability of Co species can be regulated, then, the relationships between different Co species and reaction pathways have been revealed. [Display omitted] TiO 2 , ZrO 2 and a series of TiO 2 -ZrO 2 (TxZ1, x means the atomic ratio of Ti/Zr = 10, 5, 1, 0.2 and 0.1) composite oxide supports were prepared through co-precipitation, and then 3 wt% Co was loaded through wetness impregnation methods. The obtained 3 wt% Co/TiO 2 (3CT), 3 wt% Co/ZrO 2 (3CZ) and 3 wt% Co/TxZ1 (3CTxZ1) catalysts were evaluated for the oxidative ethane dehydrogenation reaction with CO 2 (CO 2 -ODHE) as a soft oxidant. 3CT1Z1 catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic properties, with C 2 H 4 yield, C 2 H 6 conversion and CO 2 conversion about 24.5 %, 33.8 % and 18.0 % at 650 °C, respectively. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), in-situ Raman, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–vis DRS), H 2 temperature-programmed reduction (H 2 -TPR), Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and quasi in-situ X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) have been utilized to thoroughly characterize the investigated catalysts. The results revealed that 3CT1Z1 produced TiZrO 4 solid solution with more metal defect sites and oxygen vacancies (Ov), promoting the formation of Co2+-TiZrO 4 structure. Furthermore, the presence of Ov and Ti3+can facilitate the high dispersion and stabilization of Co2+, as well as suppressing the severe reduction of Co2+, leading to superior ethane oxidative dehydrogenation activity. Besides, less Co0 is beneficial to ODHE reaction, because of its promotion effects for reverse water gas shift reaction; however, more Co0 results in dry reforming reaction (DRE). This work will shed new lights for the design and preparation of highly efficient catalysts for ethylene production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐cleaning and anti‐biofouling are both advantages for lotus‐leaf‐like superhydrophobic surfaces. Methods for creating superhydrophobicity, including chemical bonding low surface energy molecular fragments and constructing surface morphology with protrusions, micropores, and trapped micro airbags by traditional physical strategies, unfortunately, have encountered challenges. They often involve complex synthesis processes, stubborn chemical accumulation, brutal degradation, or infeasible calculation and imprecise modulation in fabricating hierarchical surface roughness. Here, a scalable method to prepare high‐quality, breathable superhydrophobic membranes is proposed by developing a successive roll‐to‐roll laser manufacturing technique, which offers advantages over conventional fabrication approaches in enabling automatically large‐scale production and ensuring cost‐effectiveness. Nanosecond laser writing and femtosecond laser drilling produce surface microstructures and micropore arrays, respectively, endowing the membrane with superior antiwater capability with hierarchical microstructures forming a barrier and blocking water infiltration. The membrane's breathability is carefully optimized by tailoring micropore arrays to allow for the adequate passage of water vapor while maintaining superhydrophobicity. These membranes combine the benefits of anti‐aqueous corrosive liquid behaviors, photothermal effects, thermoplastic properties, and stretchable performances as promising comprehensive materials in diverse scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Class I Bragg resonance excited by five types of finite periodic array of widely spaced bars (rectangular, parabolic, rectified cosinoidal, trapezoidal, and triangular bars), the average phase velocity between any two adjacent bars in each type of bar field has been specifically calculated by employing a mathematical transformation, and therefore, the excitation condition of Class I Bragg resonance excited by each bar field is clarified and the modified Bragg's law established by Xie and Liu becomes a quantitative form. On one hand, if the incident surface wavelength, L, is fixed in advance, then according to the excitation condition, we can directly obtain the critical bar spacing, d, at which Class I Bragg resonance occurs. On the other hand, if the bar spacing, d, is fixed, then according to the excitation condition, we can use an iteration scheme to find out the critical surface wavelength, L, at which Class I Bragg resonance will be excited. In comparison with existing experimental, numerical, and analytical results of Bragg resonance excited by the five types of bar fields, it is shown that the modified Bragg's law is much more accurate than the Bragg's law, and the phenomenon of phase downshift can be well explained. In the linear long-wave limit, owing to the simple dispersion relation, the modified Bragg's law becomes an explicit expression and coincides with Liu's approximate law very well, although the former is a straight line segment while the latter is a curved line segment. Finally, it is shown that the phase downshift of Bragg resonance becomes more significant as the cross-sectional area of bars increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microneedle patches are emerging multifunctional platforms for transdermal diagnostics and drug delivery. However, it still remains challenging to develop smart microneedles integrated with customization, sensing, detection and drug delivery by 3D printing strategy. Here, we present an innovative but facile strategy to rationally design and fabricate multifunctional eutectogel microneedle (EMN) patches via multi-material 3D printing. Polymerizable deep eutectic solvents (PDES) were selected as printing inks for rapid one-step fabrication of 3D printing functional EMN patches due to fast photopolymerization rate and ultrahigh drug solubility. Moreover, stretchable EMN patches incorporating rigid needles and flexible backing layers were easily realized by changing PDES compositions of multi-material 3D printing. Meanwhile, we developed multifunctional smart multi-material EMN patches capable of performing wireless monitoring of body movements, painless colorimetric glucose detection, and controlled transdermal drug delivery. Thus, such multi-material EMN system could provide an effective platform for the painless diagnosis, detection, and therapy of a variety of diseases. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zn metal is a promising anode material in aqueous batteries, but the direct use of Zn foil encounters severe issues of dendrite formation and side reactions, causing short cycle life. Conventional thick and rigid insulating protection layers may impede Zn ion diffusion and detach during mechanical deformation of the battery. Herein, a dendrite‐free zinc anode is demonstrated by grafting a thin (≈10 nm) Ti3C2Tx MXene functional membrane which is formed via Marangoni‐driven self‐assembly. The thin MXene membrane initiates uniform nucleation and promotes deposition of (002)‐oriented Zn in a lateral growth mode. Meanwhile, the membrane functions as a soft, stress‐adaptive, and protective layer to the underneath active zinc. This functional membrane renders Zn anode with improved cycling stability without notable dendrite formation or side‐reaction products. Flexible Zn─I2 pouch cells fabricated from the MXene‐covered Zn foil (20 µm thick) anode and a modified ZnI2 cathode demonstrate stable capacity up to 1500 cycles and unchanged voltage upon various mechanical deformations. This work affords new insights into designing functional soft membranes for constructing flexible Zn‐based energy devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of bank market structure on firm innovation in China using a two-way fixed effects model. Our analysis is based on a dataset comprising 2,412,316 firm-city level observations. Our findings suggest that there exists a U-shaped relationship between bank market structure and firm innovation in China. Specifically, we identify that the financing channel is a crucial pathway through which bank market structure influences firm innovation. Moreover, our results indicate that this relationship is mainly driven by small firms and innovative firms, and is more pronounced in regions with stronger intellectual property rights protection or greater openness to foreign markets. In sum, this study contributes to the existing literature by advancing our understanding of the impact of bank market structure on innovation in Chinese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most previous advanced backbones usually ignore the requirements on real-time and speed, which are directly affected by model size. In our study, we present a light-weight model, IDPNet. We design a dense layer and identity block parallel block as the basic block of the backbone. And we introduce an intra-level block fusion representation head to fuse high-resolution. As a result, our IDPNet decreases the number of parameters by 85.3% on both two datasets, and the GFLOPs by 80.4% and 60.7%, respectively. To extend the usability, we propose two extra variant networks IDPNet-Balance and IDPNet-Precision. We train and test our IDPNet over the COCO keypoint detection dataset and the MPII human pose dataset without pretrain. The best accuracy in both datasets is prior than previous networks. During testing process, all models can predict per image at the speed of 13 ms, 20 ms and 21 ms, respectively, and they also achieve real-time fundamentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The whole-process people's democracy empowered by digital technology is a new form of democracy that conforms to the trend of the times. It has rich internal logic, mainly including the value logic of exploring the democratic field, democratic mechanism and democratic political literacy, the institutional logic of exploring the digital democratic system and its operation mechanism, the technological logic of exploring big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. However, in the process of empowering people's democracy through digital technology, there are also difficulties such as the increasing imbalance of democratic development, the increasing instability of democratic operation, and the loss of the authenticity of democratic development. To alleviate the above difficulties, effective measures should be taken from various aspects, including realizing the equality of multiple participants, strengthening the mechanism construction in the process of democratic operation, cultivating Internet users' political literacy and awareness, and creating a healthy and orderly democratic operation environment, so as to realize the sound operation of whole-process people's democracy under the digital technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-supported FcNi-BDC-H 2 O 2 electrocatalysts were synthesized on nickel foam via a one-step solvothermal technique. The electrocatalysts demonstrated improved performance in both OER and UOR, attributed to the ligands competition and H 2 O 2 etching. [Display omitted] Two-dimensional metal–organic frameworks are considered to be promising electrocatalytic materials due to their ultrathin lamellar structure, ultrahigh porosity and large surface area, but there are still many challenges such as the embedding of organic ligands leading to low density of active sites and poor conductivity. Herein, we synthesize two-dimensional ferrocene-based metal–organic frameworks nanosheet electrocatalysts via the one-step hydrothermal hydrogen peroxide etching method. The prepared FcNi-BDC-H 2 O 2 /NF exhibits excellent oxygen evolution reaction performance with a current density of 100 mA·cm-2 at only 258 mV and a small driving potential of 1.542 V (10 mA·cm-2) is required to achieve overall water splitting. Significantly, an overall water-cracked cell using a solar cell assembly achieves the solar hydrogen conversion efficiency of 19.5%. The introduction of high electronegativity ferrocene and the etching of H 2 O 2 increase the Ni3+ content of FcNi-BDC-H 2 O 2 , and expose more unsaturated active sites, which improve the intrinsic activity of the catalysts and the mass transfer rate during the catalytic process. Moreover, the FcNi-BDC-H 2 O 2 /NF demonstrates significant urea oxidation reaction performance, achieving a potential of 1.35 V and producing 10 mA·cm-2. This study presents a viable approach to investigating highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction and urea oxidation reaction using MOF-based bifunctional catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing carbon productivity (CP) is key to achieving carbon reduction goals while maintaining economic growth. Digital technology plays a significant role in improving CP. Based on panel data from 136 countries worldwide from 2000 to 2020, this study empirically examines the impact of digitalization on CP and its mechanisms using fixed-effects and mediation models. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Overall, digitalization significantly enhances CP. (2) In terms of the mechanism, digitalization primarily improves CP through technological innovation and mitigating income inequality. (3) In terms of the quantile regression results, as the quantile level of CP increases, the promoting effect of digitalization on CP gradually strengthens. (4) From the perspective of heterogeneity among regions, income levels and human capital levels, digitalization has the greatest promotion effect on carbon productivity in European countries, high-income countries and high human capital countries. This study provides a reference for policymakers worldwide to use digital technology in achieving carbon emission reduction targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) are gaining popularity for their cost‐effectiveness, safety, and utilization of abundant resources. MXenes, which possess outstanding conductivity, controllable surface chemistry, and structural adaptability, are widely recognized as a highly versatile platform for AZIBs. MXenes offer a unique set of functions for AZIBs, yet their significance has not been systematically recognized and summarized. This review article provides an up‐to‐date overview of MXenes‐based electrode materials for AZIBs, with a focus on the unique functions of MXenes in these materials. The discussion starts with MXenes and their derivatives on the cathode side, where they serve as a 2D conductive substrate, 3D framework, flexible support, and coating layer. MXenes can act as both the active material and a precursor to the active material in the cathode. On the anode side, the functions of MXenes include active material host, zinc metal surface protection, electrolyte additive, and separator modification. The review also highlights technical challenges and key hurdles that MXenes currently face in AZIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the role of K and steam in upgrading syngas quality over biochar in a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. The integration of K-char catalyst and steam greatly increased syngas (H 2 +CO) and H 2 production. The syngas products yield (19.76 mmol/g biomass) and a H 2 yield (11.14 mmol/g biomass) were achieved when K-char was used as catalyst in the presence of steam. In general, four ways could be concluded to promote volatiles reforming to improve syngas quality by K and steam: Firstly, K and steam interaction with biochar increased the surface area and developed the porous structure of biochar, providing the pyrolytic intermediates with full complete contact with the char surface, and improving the chance of contact with the active sites. Secondly, the condensation reactions of biochar were inhibited by K and steam, thus preventing the reduction of active groups on the aromatic ring of biochar. Thirdly, K and steam promoted the formation of O-containing groups with high reactive activity on the char surface, such as –COO and –CO. Moreover, volatile K migrated in biochar matrix during catalytic reforming, and steam inhibited the release of K in biochar, resulting in more K retaining on the char surface in the form of -COK and -COOK acting as the active sites, which ultimately improved the catalytic activity of biochar, and promoted tar destruction and hydrocarbon reforming. [Display omitted] • K-form char combined with steam greatly increased syngas (H 2 +CO) and H 2 production. • Steam, carbon skeleton and K in biochar improved the secondary catalytic reforming reaction efficiency. • The catalytic effect of biochar is related to its surface area, O-containing groups and K migration. • Mechanism of K-form char combined with steam to improve syngas quality is well discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Rosa roxburghii and Rosa sterilis, two species belonging to the Rosaceae family, are widespread in the southwest of China. These species have gained recognition for their remarkable abundance of ascorbate in their fresh fruits, making them an ideal vitamin C resource. In this study, we generated two high‐quality chromosome‐scale genome assemblies for R. roxburghii and R. sterilis, with genome sizes of 504 and 981.2 Mb, respectively. Notably, we present a haplotype‐resolved, chromosome‐scale assembly for diploid R. sterilis. Our results indicated that R. sterilis originated from the hybridization of R. roxburghii and R. longicuspis. Genome analysis revealed the absence of recent whole‐genome duplications in both species and identified a series of duplicated genes that possibly contributing to the accumulation of flavonoids. We identified two genes in the ascorbate synthesis pathway, GGP and GalLDH, that show signs of positive selection, along with high expression levels of GDP‐d‐mannose 3′, 5′‐epimerase (GME) and GDP‐l‐galactose phosphorylase (GGP) during fruit development. Furthermore, through co‐expression network analysis, we identified key hub genes (MYB5 and bZIP) that likely regulate genes in the ascorbate synthesis pathway, promoting ascorbate biosynthesis. Additionally, we observed the expansion of terpene synthase genes in these two species and tissue expression patterns, suggesting their involvement in terpenoid biosynthesis. Our research provides valuable insights into genome evolution and the molecular basis of the high concentration of ascorbate in these two Rosa species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High dense Al 4 SiC 4 –SiC ceramic composites with different SiC contents were hot pressed using self-synthesized Al 4 SiC 4 and commercial SiC powders without any sintering additives. The effect of SiC contents on the densification, microstructure, and mechanical properties of Al 4 SiC 4 -based ceramics was investigated. The anisotropic growth of Al 4 SiC 4 grains was inhibited by the pinning effect of the introduced SiC particles, while the weakly bonded interfaces were formed due to the thermal expansion mismatch between Al 4 SiC 4 and SiC. As a consequence, the mechanical properties of Al 4 SiC 4 -based ceramics were improved significantly. With the SiC contents increasing from 0 to 30 wt%, the flexural strength increased from 314 ± 7 to 466 ± 18 MPa and the fracture toughness increased from 4.8 ± 0.4 to 7.3 ± 0.3 MPa m1/2, respectively. The flexural strengths of Al 4 SiC 4 –SiC composites at elevated temperatures were also tested under an argon atmosphere. No strength degradation of Al 4 SiC 4 –SiC composites was observed at 1200 °C and a high strength retention rate of 96.3 % at 1400 °C was obtained. The above results demonstrate the application prospects of Al 4 SiC 4 –SiC ceramics as high-temperature structural materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD]) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH, formerly known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis [NASH]) are leading chronic liver diseases, driving cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and mortality. MASLD/MASH is associated with increased senescence proteins, including Activin A, and senolytics have been proposed as a therapeutic approach. To test the role of Activin A, we induced hepatic expression of Activin A in a murine MASLD/MASH model. Surprisingly, overexpression of hepatic Activin A dramatically mitigated MASLD, reducing liver steatosis and inflammation as well as systemic fat accumulation, while improving insulin sensitivity. Further studies identified a dramatic decrease in the lipid-associated macrophages marker glycoprotein NMB (Gpnmb) by Activin A, and Gpnmb knockdown in the same model produced similar benefits and transcriptional changes to Activin A expression. These studies reveal a surprising protective role for Activin A in MASLD and the potential for SASP proteins to have context-specific beneficial effects. Moreover, they implicate both Activin A and Gpnmb as potential therapeutic targets for this condition. Article Highlights: Cellular senescence may promote metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease/ metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASLD/MASH), leading to chronic liver diseases associated with obesity and metabolic disease with no approved medical treatment. Circulating Activin A, a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) protein, increases in MASLD/MASH patients. Surprisingly, hepatic Activin A overexpression or Gpnmb knockdown dramatically mitigated MASLD phenotypes and fat accumulation, SASP gene expression, and dysglycemia, underscoring the need for nuanced understanding of SASP biology. Hepatic Activin A overexpression dramatically decreased liver Gpnmb, a lipid-associated macrophage upregulated in MASLD, and Gpnmb knockdown produced similar benefits and transcriptional changes to Activin A overexpression, identifying Gpnmb as a tractable potential therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum simulation of chemical Hamiltonians enables the efficient calculation of chemical properties. Mapping is one of the essential steps in simulating fermionic systems on quantum computers. In this work, a unified framework of transformations mapping fermionic systems to qubit systems is presented and many existing transformations—such as Jordan–Wigner, Bravyi–Kitaev, and parity transformations—are included in this framework. Based on this framework, the Multilayer Segmented Parity (MSP) transformation is proposed. The MSP transformation is a general mapping with an adjustable parameter vector, which can be viewed as a generalization of the above-mentioned mappings. Furthermore, the MSP transformation can adjust flexibly when dealing with different systems. Applying these mappings to the electronic structure Hamiltonians of various molecules, the MSP transformation is found to perform better on a number of Pauli operators and gates needed in the circuit of Hamiltonian simulation. The MSP transformation will reduce the qubit gate requirement for Hamiltonian simulation on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices, and it will provide a much wider choice of mappings for researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large‐scale deployment of aqueous Zn‐ion batteries is hindered by Zn anode instability including surface corrosion, hydrogen gas evolution, and irregular Zn deposition. To tackle these challenges, a polyhydroxylated organic molecular additive, trehalose, is incorporated to refine the solvation structure and promote planar Zn deposition. Within solvation structure regions involving trehalose, the hydroxy groups participate in the reconstruction of hydrogen bond networks, which increases the overpotential for water decomposition reaction. Moreover, at the Zn metal–molecule interface, the chemisorption of trehalose onto the surface of the zinc anode enhances corrosion resistance and facilitates the deposition of zinc in a planar manner. The optimized electrolyte significantly improves Zn striping/plating reversibility and maintains stable potentials over 1600 h at 5 mA cm−2 with a cutoff capacity of 1 mA h cm−2 in symmetric cells. When combined with the MnO2 cathode, the assembled coin cell retains ≈89% of its capacity after 1000 cycles. This organic molecule additive, emphasizing the role of polyhydroxylated organic molecules in fine‐tuning solvation structures and anode/electrolyte interfaces, holds promise for enhancing various aqueous metal batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrocatalytic splitting of water to produce hydrogen is regarded as an efficient and promising strategy but is limited by its large overpotential; thus, a highly efficient electrocatalyst is urgently needed. Mixed metal doping is an important strategy in defect engineering because the heteroatoms can change the intrinsic structure to form defects by affecting the atomic coordination mode and adjusting the electronic structure, which is often accompanied by morphological changes. Herein, two-dimensional layered bimetallic Co–pydc containing axially coordinated water molecules was selected by producing surface defects through Fe doping in Co centers as bifunctional electrocatalysts for OER and HER. The optimized Co0.59Fe0.41–pydc possesses outstanding OER performance with the lowest overpotential of 262 mV to reach j = 10 mA cm−2, and Co0.75Fe0.25–pydc possesses superior HER performance with the lowest overpotential of 96 mV at j = 10 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the overall water splitting device assembled with Co0.59Fe0.41–pydc@NF//Co0.59Fe0.41–pydc@NF affords a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at only 1.687 V. This work emphasizes the surface defects formed by tuning the electronic structure of metal centres accompanied with morphological changes of bimetallic dopants for efficient overall water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inorganic phosphate–solubilizing bacteria (IPB) in the rhizosphere of Hydrilla verticillata can convert insoluble inorganic phosphorus in the environment into soluble phosphorus that can be directly absorbed and utilized by Hydrilla verticillata. In this research, the roots and rhizosphere sediments of Hydrilla verticillata were collected from high–organic matter urban landscape water. The National Botanical Research Institute's Phosphate growth medium (NBRIP medium) was used to screen for efficient cultivable IPB. The 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis was used to determine the taxonomic affiliation of the strains, and ammonium molybdate spectrophotometry was used to detect the phosphate-solubilizing ability of the strains. The results show that a total of 28 IPB strains with good phosphate-solubilizing effect are obtained from the roots and rhizosphere sediments of Hydrilla verticillata. These IPB strains belong to two phyla, four orders, seven classes, nine families, and nine genera. Among these, Bacillus and Acinetobacter are the dominant genera, and the strains SWIH-7, SWIP-6, SWIP-7, SWIP-13, SWIP-15 and SWIP-16 are potential new species. The IPB strains isolated and screened in this research are rich in diversity, with potential new species and stable phosphate-solubilizing characteristic. These IPB strains are suitable for further development as microbial bacterial agents, which can be applied to promote the recovery of submerged plants in polluted water with high–organic matter, treatment of polluted water and ecological restoration of water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T-2 toxin and deoxynivalenol (DON) are two prevalent mycotoxins that cause cartilage damage in Kashin–Beck disease (KBD). Cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation in chondrocytes is a significant pathological feature of KBD. It has been shown that the Hippo pathway is involved in cartilage ECM degradation. This study aimed to examine the effect of YAP, a major regulator of the Hippo pathway, on the ECM degradation in the hiPS-derived chondrocytes (hiPS-Ch) model of KBD. The hiPS-Ch injury models were established via treatment with T-2 toxin/DON alone or in combination. We found that T-2 toxin and DON inhibited the proliferation of hiPS-Ch in a dose-dependent manner; significantly increased the levels of YAP, SOX9, and MMP13; and decreased the levels of COL2A1 and ACAN (all p values < 0.05). Immunofluorescence revealed that YAP was primarily located in the nuclei of hiPS-Ch, and its expression level increased with toxin concentrations. The inhibition of YAP resulted in the dysregulated expression of chondrogenic markers (all p values < 0.05). These findings suggest that T-2 toxin and DON may inhibit the proliferation of, and induce the ECM degradation, of hiPS-Ch mediated by YAP, providing further insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms contributing to cartilage damage caused by toxins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To analyze the clinical efficacy of K-wire placement guided technology in paediatric supracondylar humerus fractures. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 105 patients who underwent closed reduction and percutaneous pinning surgeries in our hospital from June 2019 to August 2022. 54 patients treated with a assisted reduction fixation device to assist in closed reduction and percutaneous K-wire cross-fixation were allocated into the Non-guided group, and 51 patients with K-wire placement guided technology to guide K-wire placement were assigned into the Guided group. The operation duration, number of disposable K-wire placement, intraoperative fluoroscopy frequency, Baumann angle, carrying angle, fracture healing time and Flynn score of elbow joint function at the final follow-up were compared between two groups. The postoperative complications of two groups were recorded. Results: There were significant differences between two groups in terms of operation duration, intraoperative fluoroscopy frequency, and disposable K-wire placement rate (p < 0. 05), while no significant differences of Baumann angle, carrying angle and the fracture healing time between two groups were observed (p > 0. 05). In the control group, ulnar nerve injury in 2 case, pin site infection in 4 cases, mild cubitus varus in 2 cases and loss of reduction in 4 cases were detected. In the study group, ulnar nerve injury in 1 case, pin site infection in 2 cases and loss of reduction in 1 case was observed. There was no significant difference in Flynn scores between two groups. Conclusion: K-wire placement guided technology is simple and convenient. The application of K-wire placement guided technology could relatively improved disposable K-wire placement rate, shorten the intraoperative fluoroscopy frequencies and reduce complication rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of infrared surveillance technologies has attracted great attention for scientists to design advanced functional materials with prominent infrared stealth and thermal camouflage effectiveness. In the current study, a sandwich‐like functional composite based on a crosslinked polyimide aerogel, a meso‐erythritol (mE)‐based phase‐change composite, and an MXene film has been developed to achieve long‐term thermal camouflage at elevated temperatures. In this composite system, the lower aerogel layer can act as a barrier to insulate heat transfer through its layer‐stacking structure under ultralow directional thermal conduction. The introduction of the middle phase‐change composite layer ensures that the composite system obtains a dynamical temperature‐regulation capability through sensible and latent heat absorption of mE as a phase change material, while the upper MXene layer provides a very low emissivity surface for the system. As a result, the developed composite achieves a significant reduction in the thermal radiation temperature of a high‐temperature target. Moreover, the MXene film exhibits good electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness, making the sandwich‐like composite obtain a thermal camouflage capability in various complicated scenarios. This work provides a promising approach for the design of advanced functional materials to realize long‐term infrared stealth and thermal camouflage of high‐temperature targets in security protection and counter‐surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in situ monitoring of toxic volatile organic compound gases using metal oxide-based gas sensors is still challenging. Herein, mesoporous In2O3 nanoparticles, assembled using smaller nanoparticles, were synthesized via a facile solvothermal method and used to load Au nanoparticles to prepare mesoporous Au/In2O3 for ethanol detection. The obtained In2O3 and Au/In2O3 were meticulously analysed by XRD, SEM, BET, TEM and XPS techniques. It was revealed that Au nanoparticles were uniformly distributed on mesoporous In2O3 nanoparticles. Notably, the obtained mesoporous 1% Au/In2O3 is highly sensitive to ethanol gas at an optimal working temperature of 180 °C, showing a response of 55 to 50 ppm of ethanol, which is considerably higher compared to that of In2O3 nanoparticles. The significantly enhanced sensitivity results from the electronic and chemical sensitization effects of Au nanoparticles. Moreover, the mesoporous Au/In2O3 nanoparticles also showed eminent selectivity, short response/recovery time, low detection limit, good linear relationship, superb repeatability, and wonderful long-term stability, suggesting that Au/In2O3 nanoparticles have great potential application for in situ monitoring of ethanol gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation In bioinformatics, multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is a crucial task. However, conventional methods often struggle with aligning ultralong sequences. To address this issue, researchers have designed MSA methods rooted in a vertical division strategy, which segments sequence data for parallel alignment. A prime example of this approach is FMAlign, which utilizes the FM-index to extract common seeds and segment the sequences accordingly. Results FMAlign2 leverages the suffix array to identify maximal exact matches, redefining the approach of FMAlign from searching for global chains to partial chains. By using a vertical division strategy, large-scale problem is deconstructed into manageable tasks, enabling parallel execution of subMSA. Furthermore, sequence-profile alignment and refinement are incorporated to concatenate subsets, yielding the final result seamlessly. Compared to FMAlign, FMAlign2 markedly augments the segmentation of sequences and significantly reduces the time while maintaining accuracy, especially on ultralong datasets. Importantly, FMAlign2 enhances existing MSA methods by conferring the capability to handle sequences reaching billions in length within an acceptable time frame. Availability and implementation Source code and datasets are available at https://github.com/malabz/FMAlign2 and https://zenodo.org/records/10435770. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the essential requirement of socialism, achieving common prosperity is one of the intrinsic goals of the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is also the most significant feature that distinguishes Chinese modernization from Western capitalist modernization and it fully demonstrates the deep logic of Chinese modernization. From the perspective of historical logic, common prosperity shows the socialist path followed by the Chinese development of modernization. From the perspective of value logic, common prosperity demonstrates the Chinese style modernization development abide by the people-oriented stance. From the perspective of realistic logic, common prosperity captures the realistic task facing the development of Chinese modernization. From the perspective of world logic, common prosperity highlights the far-reaching significance of Chinese modernization development for the world. The current comprehensive analysis of common prosperity reveals the development logic of Chinese modernization, which is of great theoretical and practical significance to the new stage of development to open up a new realm of Chinese modernization in the process of promoting common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disulfidptosis is a novel form of cell death, whose modulation in tumor cells may present a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. However, the role of disulfidptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) remains poorly elucidated. This study aims to investigate the prognostic significance of disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs (DRLs) and reveal their relationship to the immune microenvironment of NSCLC. DRLs were identified through co-expression analysis of NSCLC transcriptomic data obtained from the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) data portal. The DRLs prognostic signature (DRLPS) was established using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and Cox regression analyses. Samples were separated into high-DS and low-DS groups based on the median disulfidptosis score (DS) of DRLPS. Integrated analyses were then implemented to unveil the association between DRLs and NSCLC microenvironment. These involved the evaluation of functional enrichments, immune cell infiltrations, genetic alterations, and drug sensitivity. A prognostic signature was developed based on six prognostic DRLs, which are AL606489.1, LINC00857, AP003555.1, AP000695.1, AC113346.1, and LINC01615. The Kaplan–Meier survival curves demonstrated the significant association between DRLPS and NSCLC prognosis. The functional enrichment assessment revealed the pivotal involvement of DRLs in immune regulation and metabolism in NSCLC. The low-DS and high-DS subgroups of NSCLC patients exhibited distinct differences in terms of immune infiltration and tumor mutation burden. The potential to predict immunotherapy benefit and drug sensitivity in NSCLC treatments was observed in DRLPS. In this study, disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs were identified and their roles in NSCLC were revealed. A novel prognostic signature with the potential to predict drug response in NSCLC treatment was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New ultra-low loss, temperature-stable composite ceramics, (1- x) Mg 1.99 Ga 0.01 Si 0.99 Al 0.01 O 4 - x CaTiO 3 , have been developed with a view to expanding the portfolio of low-cost, MW dielectrics available for 5 G/6 G telecommunications, currently dominated by 95 wt%MgTiO 3 -5 wt%CaTiO 3 , (Mg,Ca)TiO 3 (relative permittivity, ε r ∼ 21, quality factor, Q × f ∼ 56,000 GHz and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency, τ f ∼ 0 ppm/°C). Compared with (Mg,Ca)TiO 3 , 89 wt%Mg 1.99 Ga 0.01 Si 0.99 Al 0.01 O 4 -11 wt%CaTiO 3 ceramics are also temperature stable (τ f = −2.72 ppm/°C) but have lower ε r (∼8.55) and a higher Q × f (∼ 72,900 GHz @ 12 GHz and 80,900 GHz @ 26 GHz), better suited to the higher frequencies earmarked for 6 G millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications. To demonstrate its potential for 5 G/6 G telecommunications, a waveguide filter with novel negative coupling structure was fabricated based on simulated results. The filter had low insertion loss (0.43 dB) at the center frequency (4.8 GHz) and high selectivity with a roll-off rate of 576/375 dB/GHz. The S-parameters matched well at 25 °C and 85 °C, demonstrating that the filter had excellent temperature stability and was therefore suitable for future 5 G/6 G microwave and mm-wave communication devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought an overwhelming impact on China's hospital system and health care workers, which can lead to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Previous research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic had long-term adverse effects on the mental health of health care workers. Indeed, PTSD symptoms have emerged as one of the significant mental health issues for health care workers arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we conducted this cross-sectional survey to investigate the prevalence of PTSD symptoms in health care workers and its relationship with the fear of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 burden after the full liberalization of COVID-19 prevention and control policy in China. Methods: This study was conducted three years after the global COVID-19 pandemic (January 15 to January 16, 2023). This study was conducted via the Wenjuanxing platform and used the Chinese versions of the scales PC-PTSD-5, COVID-19 Anxiety Scale (FCV-19S), Social Support Scale, COVID-19 Stress Scale, GAD-2, and PHQ-2. Results: The prevalence of PTSD symptoms in health care workers was 24.3% (232/955). depression(P < 0.001), anxiety(P < 0.05), the fear of COVID-19(P < 0.001), and COVID-19 burden(P < 0.001) were highly correlated with PTSD symptoms in health care workers. Social support(P < 0.05) was a protective factor of PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: This survey shows that PTSD symptoms were highly prevalent among Chinese health care workers after the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments and leaders of medical institutions should, through psychological interventions, address the current situation of PTSD symptoms among health care workers and develop targeted programs and strategies to reduce their psychological problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiment was to research the effect of adding different levels of protein mulberry silage to the diet on the growth performance, serum biochemical index and breeding economic benefit of mutton sheep. A total of 100 healthy sheep of similar weight were selected and randomly divided them into five groups with 20 replicates in each group. The mutton sheep in control group were fed a basic feed, while the mutton sheep in experimental groups were fed a experimental feed containing 4%, 8%, 16% and 32% protein mulberry silage, respectively. The pre-feeding period was one week and the formal experimental period was eight weeks. The results showed that compared with the control group, adding 8% and 16% protein mulberry silage to the diet could significantly reduced the serum urea nitrogen, cholesterol, triglyceride level and rumen acetic acid/propionic acid level of the mutton sheep ( P<0.05), significantly increased the concentration of propionic acid in the rumen of the mutton sheep, as well as the weight gain income and breeding profit of the mutton sheep ( P<0.05). The experiment indicates that adding less than 16% protein mulberry silage can improve some serum biochemical indxes and rumen fermentation function of mutton sheep and increase breeding profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This study aims to identify the factors that influence humanistic practice ability, validate the relationship among social support, empathy, self-efficacy, and humanistic practice, and provide reference basis for developing intervention measures. Background. Cultivating humanistic practice ability in clinical nurses is essential for improving the quality of nursing care. Methods. From February to March 2022, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in top three hospitals in central China. The study used a self-designed questionnaire to ascertain the general characteristics of the participants. The Nurses' Humanistic Practice Ability Scale, Jefferson Empathy Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, and General Self-Efficacy Scale were used. Data were analyzed using Spearman's correlation and a structural equation model through statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) and analysis of moment structure (AMOS). Results. A total of 650 clinical nurses were included in this study. The average age was 32.35 ± 8.35 years. The Nurses' Humanistic Practice ability Scales score was 107.49 ± 19.32. Nurses' humanistic practice ability showed a positive correlation with social support (r = 0.455), self-efficacy (r = 0.369), and empathy (r = 0.375) (all p < 0.001). Empathy totally mediated the relationship between social support and humanistic practice ability. In addition, self-efficacy and empathy served as sequential mediators in the association. Conclusion. Social support can influence the humanistic practice ability through self-efficacy. In addition, the higher the level of social support, the higher the level of self-efficacy, which further promotes the improvement of their empathy and eventually leads to stronger humanistic practice ability. Therefore, the corresponding measures to promote the humanistic practice ability of nurses can be formulated from the abovementioned three aspects. Implications for Nursing Management. We recommend that hospital administrators provide nurses with more comprehensive social support and develop intervention strategies to enhance nurses' self-efficacy and empathy, which help to improve the nurse's humanistic practice ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadband photodetectors capable of detecting light across a wide spectrum ranging from visible to short wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths have significant relevance in various fields, including space technology and civil applications. HgTe quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as a promising candidate for the development of low-cost broadband photodetectors. In this study, a photodetector based on a layered structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/HgTe QD film/gold (Au) was designed and fabricated using a layer-by-layer spin coating method. The fabricated photodetector exhibited a broadband response from 400 nm to 2000 nm, covering the visible and SWIR regions. Its broad spectral range makes it suitable for a wide range of applications. Additionally, the photodetector demonstrated a fast response time of approximately 300 μs, enabling rapid detection and data acquisition. These results highlight the potential of HgTe QDs as a promising material for the development of advanced broadband photodetectors with fast response times. The simplicity of the device structure, combined with the low-cost fabrication technique, makes it an attractive option for commercialization and integration into various optoelectronic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authentic SARS-CoV-2 requires to be handled in Biosafety Level 3 laboratories, which restrains investigation by the broader scientific community. Here, we report the development of a novel SARS-CoV-2 viral vector composed of all 4 SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins, the packaging signal sequence of SARS-CoV-2, a reporter gene, and an RNA amplification component of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV). This VEE-SARS-CoV-2 viral vector transduces target cells in an ACE2-dependent manner, and all 4 structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 are indispensable for its transduction activity. Comparative studies show that the incorporation of the VEEV self-amplification mechanism increases the gene expression level by ~ 65-fold and extends the transgene expression up to 11 days in transduced cells. Additionally, we demonstrated the significant applications of this new VEE-SARS-CoV-2 vector for neutralizing antibody quantification and antiviral drug testing. The VEE-SARS-CoV-2 vectors developed will be an important and versatile tool for investigating SARS-CoV-2 molecular virology, developing antiviral agents targeting receptor binding, and studying RNA genome packaging and function of the essential but not well studied structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LaMn 0.3 Co 0.7 O 3-δ Perovskite nanofibers with oxygen-deficient structure have been used as dual-function oxygen catalysts for rechargeable zinc-air batteries with high high specific capacity of 811.54 mAh g−1 and good cycling stability. [Display omitted] The development and design of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are crucial for rechargeable Zinc-air batteries (ZABs). Optimizing the d-band structure of active metal center in perovskite oxides is an effective method to enhance ORR/OER activity by accelerating the rate-determining step. Herein, we report a deficient method to optimize the d-band structure of Co ions in LaMn 0.3 Co 0.7 O 3-δ (LMCO-2) perovskite nanofibers, which regulates the mutual effect between B-site Co ions and reactive oxygen intermediates. It is proved by experiment and theoretical calculation that the d-band center (M d) of transition metal ions in LMCO-2 is moved up and the electron filling number of e g orbital in B site is 1.01, thus leading to the reduction of Gibbs free energy required for ORR rate-determining step (OH*→H 2 O*) to 0.22 eV and promoting reaction proceeds. In this manner, LMCO-2 showed good bifunctional oxygen electrocatalytic activity, with a half-wave potential of 0.71 V vs. RHE. Furthermore, the high specific capacity of 811.54 mAh g−1 and power density of 326.56 mW cm−2 were obtained by using LMCO-2 as the cathode catalyst for ZABs. This study proved the feasibility of d-band structure regulation to enhance the electrocatalytic activity of perovskite oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modules, toolboxes, and synthetic biology systems may be designed to address environmental bioremediation. However, weak and decentralized functional modules require complex control. To address this issue, an integrated system for toxicant detection and biodegradation, and subsequent suicide in chronological order without exogenous inducers is constructed. Salicylic acid, a typical pollutant in industrial wastewater, is selected as an example to demonstrate this design. Biosensors are optimized by regulating the expression of receptors and reporters to get 2‐fold sensitivity and 6‐fold maximum output. Several stationary phase promoters are compared, and promoter Pfic is chosen to express the degradation enzyme. Two concepts for suicide circuits are developed, with the toxin/antitoxin circuit showing potent lethality. The three modules are coupled in a stepwise manner. Detection and biodegradation, and suicide are sequentially completed with partial attenuation compared to pre‐integration, except for biodegradation, being improved by the replacements of ribosome binding site. Finally, a long‐term stability test reveals that the engineered strain maintained its function for ten generations. The study provides a novel concept for integrating and controlling functional modules that can accelerate the transition of synthetic biology from conceptual to practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]