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Background and Purpose Experimental Approach Key Results Conclusions and Implications Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes lifelong physical and psychological dysfunction in affected individuals. The current study investigated the effects of chronic nicotine exposure via E‐cigarettes (E‐cig) (vaping) on TBI‐associated behavioural and biochemical changes.Adult C57/BL6J male mice were subjected to controlled cortical impact (CCI) followed by daily exposure to E‐cig vapour for 6 weeks. Sensorimotor functions, locomotion, and sociability were subsequently evaluated by nesting, open field, and social approach tests, respectively. Immunoblots were conducted to examine the expression of mature brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (mBDNF) and associated downstream proteins (p‐Erk, p‐Akt). Histological analyses were performed to evaluate neuronal survival and neuroinflammation.Post‐injury chronic nicotine exposure significantly improved nesting performance in CCI mice. Histological analysis revealed increased survival of cortical neurons in the perilesion cortex with chronic nicotine exposure. Immunoblots revealed that chronic nicotine exposure significantly up‐regulated mBDNF, p‐Erk and p‐Akt expression in the perilesion cortex of CCI mice. Immunofluorescence microscopy indicated that elevated mBDNF and p‐Akt expression were mainly localized within cortical neurons. Immunolabelling of Iba1 demonstrated that chronic nicotine exposure attenuated microglia‐mediated neuroinflammation.Post‐injury chronic nicotine exposure via vaping facilitates recovery of sensorimotor function by upregulating neuroprotective mBDNF/TrkB/Akt/Erk signalling. These findings suggest potential neuroprotective properties of nicotine despite its highly addictive nature. Thus, understanding the multifaceted effects of chronic nicotine exposure on TBI‐associated symptoms is crucial for paving the way for informed and properly managed therapeutic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhizosphere and phyllosphere of plants are home to a diverse range of microorganisms that play pivotal roles in ecosystem services. Consequently, plant growth‐promoting bacteria (PGPB) are extensively utilized as inoculants to enhance plant growth and boost productivity. Despite this, the interactions between the rhizosphere and phyllosphere, which are influenced by PGPB inoculation, have not been thoroughly studied to date. In this study, we inoculated Bacillus velezensis SQR9, a PGPB, into the bulk soil, rhizosphere or phyllosphere, and subsequently examined the bacterial communities in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere using amplicon sequencing. Our results revealed that PGPB inoculation increased its abundance in the corresponding compartment, and all treatments demonstrated plant growth promotion effects. Further analysis of the sequencing data indicated that the presence of PGPB exerted a more significant impact on bacterial communities in both the rhizosphere and phyllosphere than in the inoculation compartment. Notably, the PGPB stimulated similar rhizosphere‐beneficial microbes regardless of the inoculation site. We, therefore, conclude that PGPB can promote plant growth both directly and indirectly through the interaction between the rhizosphere and phyllosphere, leading to the enrichment of beneficial microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive fossil fuel use has caused substantial climate change that induces various environmental and economic concerns. Developing clean and renewable energy is critical to mitigating such climate impacts. Manure-based biopower is attractive because the application is not complicated, and the biomass is generally supplied constantly. This study employs a lifecycle framework to evaluate the power potential, economic profits, and environmental benefits of manure application in Taiwan. The results show that (1) Up to 2,304 GWh can be generated annually, in which hog manure contributes the most, (2) Profits of hog manure range from $104-$119 million and up to $59 million for cattle manure energy sale. Using chicken manure is less profitable but could still be a valuable addition to biopower production. (3) Promoting green finance could partly eliminate the investment risk of large-scale manure applications. • Manure application would provide up to 2,304 GWh of electricity annually. • Low energy and emission prices would increase investment risk. • Establishing a local emission trade mechanism encourages biogas power development. • The gain of digestate application on cropland is as important as energy sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the effects of principal transformational leadership on teachers' inclusive teaching behaviour, with a particular inquiry into the mediating effects of teachers' inclusive role identity and efficacy for inclusive practice, as informed by identity theory and social cognitive theory. Structural equation modelling with bootstrapping estimation was conducted using data from 712 teachers delivering inclusive teaching in primary or secondary schools in China. The results revealed the sequentially mediating mechanisms of teachers' inclusive role identity and efficacy underlying the principal transformational leadership effects on teachers' inclusive teaching behaviour. Research implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Stainless-clad bimetallic steels (SCBS) are widely investigated in some extremely environmental applications areas, such as polar sailing area and tropical oil and gas platforms areas, because of their excellent anticorrosion performance and relatively lower production costs. However, the properties of SCBS, including the mechanical strength, weldability and the anticorrosion behavior, have a direct relation with the manufacturing process and can affect their practical applications. This paper aims to review the application and the properties requirements of SCBS in marine environments to promote the application of this new material in more fields. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the manufacturing process, welding and corrosion-resistant properties of SCBS were introduced systematically by reviewing the related literatures, and some results of the authors' research group were also introduced briefly. Findings: Different preparation methods, such as rolling composite, casting rolling composite, explosive composite, laser cladding and plasma arc cladding, as well as the process parameters, including the vacuum degree, rolling temperature, rolling reduction ratio, volume ratios of liquid to solid, explosive ratio and the heat treatment, influenced a lot on the properties of the SCBS through changing the interface microstructures. Otherwise, the variations in rolling temperature, pass, reduction and the grain size of clad steel also brought the dissimilarities of the mechanical properties, microhardness, bonding strength and toughness. Another two new processes, clad teeming method and interlayer explosive welding, deserve more attention because of their excellent microstructure control ability. The superior corrosion resistance of SCBS can alleviate the corrosion problem in the marine environment and prolong the service life of the equipment, but the phenomenon of galvanic corrosion should be noted as much as possible. The high dilution rate, welding process specifications and heat treatment can weaken the intergranular corrosion resistance in the weld area. Originality/value: This paper summarizes the application of SCBS in marine environments and provides an overview and reference for the research of stainless-clad bimetallic steel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The B-box (BBX) proteins are a class of zinc finger transcription factors and play critical roles in plant development and growth. However, they have not been systematically characterized in Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima), an important nut with rich nutrition and high economic value. Here, 18 BBX genes were identified in Chinese chestnut genome and divided into five groups through phylogenetic analysis, with members in the same group containing the same conserved domain organization. The collinearity analysis showed that dispersed duplication played a major role in the expansion of CmBBX gene family inferred to have evolved through purifying selection. Transcriptome analysis and qRT-PCR experiments suggested that CmBBX genes showed different expression patterns in different Chinese chestnut tissues, and revealed some CmBBXs may have potential functions in the development of Chinese chestnut buds, nuts, fertile/abortive ovules. Combined with the analysis of conserved domain, motif, cis-elements, expression level and protein three-dimensional structure, the lack of cis-acting elements related to meristem expression and gibberellin-responsiveness may lead to the no-expression of CmBBX9 in Chinese chestnut. The systematic analysis of Chinese chestnut BBX genes provides a basis for further understanding the characteristics and potential functions of BBX gene family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to 80% of the electrical energy is consumed by pump groups in water purification plants. Optimizing the scheduling of water intake-supply pump groups is crucial for saving electrical energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions while ensuring water supply and security requirements are met. Herein, an intelligent collaborative optimal scheduling method is proposed for the water intake pump groups, clean-water reservoirs, and water supply pump groups. A long short-term memory (LSTM) network is applied to predict the flow of the water supply pump group, and a data-driven approach is used to plan the flow of the water intake pump group and model the working characteristics of working pump configurations. Furthermore, based on the dynamic programming (DP) algorithm, the optimal scheduling scheme of the water intake-supply pump groups as well as the working pump configuration at each moment can be obtained. The proposed approach dynamically updates data on an hourly basis to enhance the precision of collaborative optimal scheduling outcomes. The experimental results of long-term operation showed that pump efficiency was increased by 10.68% and 10.70% of electric energy was effectively saved as compared to the results of previous manual scheduling. This study provides a solution for energy conservation and efficiency enhancement of multiple energy-consuming equipment and carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the need for urgent actions in response to the exacerbated inequalities in mental health resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a significant gap in research into the relationships and underlying mechanisms between socioeconomic status (SES) and various mental health outcomes among students during the COVID-19 university closure. With a sample of 839 students from a university in Lanzhou, the capital city of China's Gansu Province, which was closed during the 2022 autumn semester due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this study examined the relationships between SES and both the negative and positive mental health outcomes, with a particular inquiry into the mediating roles of perceived social support and self-efficacy. The results show that SES had significant and negative total associations with psychological distress (β = −0.119, p < 0.001) and loneliness (β = −0.132, p < 0.001), while having significant and positive total associations with life satisfaction (β = 0.90, p < 0.01) and affective well-being (β = 0.108, p < 0.01). Moreover, perceived social support and self-efficacy independently and sequentially mediated the associations between SES and various mental health outcomes. Research implications for the design and improvement of university measures to reduce the socioeconomic inequalities in students' mental health are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodegradable magnesium (Mg) and its alloys show tremendous potential as orthopedic materials. Nevertheless, the fast degradation and insufficient osteogenic properties hinder their applications. In this study, mesoporous bioglass (MBG) with an ordered branch-like structure was synthesized via a modified sol–gel method and showed a high specific surface area of 656.45 m2/g. A Mg-based composite was prepared by introducing the MBG into a Mg matrix via powder metallurgy. Degradation tests showed that the introduction of MBG increased the adsorption sites for Ca and P ions, thus promoting the formation of a Ca-P protective layer on the Mg matrix. The Ca-P protective layer became thick and dense with an increase in the immersion time, improving the protection ability of the Mg matrix, as proven by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. Meanwhile, the Mg-based composite also exhibited excellent biocompatibility and osteogenic properties. This study demonstrated the advantages of MBG in the preparation of Mg-based bone implants and validated the feasibility of improving Mg matrix corrosion resistance and enhancing osteogenesis by introducing MBG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a sample of 651 university students experiencing emergency online learning during COVID-19, this study constructed a structural equation modelling to examine the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and student engagement. The results show that teacher support had significant total influences on university students' academic achievement. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy and student engagement, respectively, mediated the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement. In addition, academic self-efficacy and student engagement sequentially mediated the effects of teacher support on students' academic achievement. Research implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing research on pavement mechanics was rarely conducted from the perspective of the spatial stress state. In this research, by utilizing analytical solutions, a three-dimensional space calculation program for asphalt pavement was developed to study the spatial distributions of the stress state and damage risk of the pavement structure. First, this study selected various types of pavement structures to analyze the spatial distribution of the stress state. The results indicated that the important influence factors are the order and quantity of asphalt-bound material, chemically stabilized material, and granular material in the structure. In contrast, the thicknesses of these materials have a limited effect. Then, the stress states of the asphalt pavements in winter and summer were compared. The results demonstrated that the tensile region bulges upward at low temperatures, and the structure is more inclined to experience tension and compression simultaneously. In addition, the failure criterion suitable for asphalt mixture materials was applied, and a strength conversion coefficient between different temperatures was proposed to calculate the damage situations of asphalt mixture layers. Three-dimensional images were generated to display the differences in the dangerous positions and damage forms for different structural types and temperature conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a very useful catalytic material for energy storage. However, the design and synthesis of special morphologies is required to overcome the poor cycle stability of such materials. We synthesized MoS2 composites embedded with silica using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique and silica nanotemplates and obtained a honeycomb MoS2 nanomaterial with a stable structure and extremely thin single walls. Results of methods including SEM and XRD revealed that honeycomb MoS2 formed a three-dimensional hollow structure in the bulk phase. With this structure, more spatial positions are exposed during lithium-ion storage, meaning it can accommodate higher energy and facilitate the transmission of lithium ions. The honeycomb MoS2 developed in this study was demonstrated to have a high capacity and structural stability. The reversible capacity was as high as 680 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles, which is still higher than the theoretical capacity of MoS2 (670 mA h g−1), with the coulombic efficiency exceeding 99%. Furthermore, the capacity remained at ∼600 mA h g−1 at the 2C rate, demonstrating a superior rate capability. Our study will provide a contribution for studies including the synthesis of MoS2 with special morphology and the optimization of nanomaterials for energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nanyuan Formation contains information related to the Mesozoic tectonic transformation. In this study, three representative profiles were surveyed from the Nanyuan Formation, and multiple analyses were conducted. Zircon U‐Pb dating yielded their ages as approximately 158–146 Ma. The volcanic rocks are enriched in Rb, Th, U, K, and Pb and depleted in Nb, Ta, P, and Ti, implying their affinity for I‐type granites. The εNd(t) values (–8.3 to −6.0), (87Sr/86Sr)i values (0.7077–0.7094) of the volcanic rock, and εHf(t) values (–8.71 to 0.12) of the Mesozoic zircons suggest that the Nanyuan Formation magma originated in the lower crust with the involvement of depleted mantle materials. The parent rocks of the rhyolitic and dacitic volcanic rocks formed by partial melting of basement rocks in South China and the andesitic volcanic rocks were derived from partial melting of the metasomatites generated by slab‐mantle interaction. The fractional crystallization also played an important role in later stage. Discrimination diagrams of the volcanic rocks indicated that they formed in a volcanic arc environment. Combined with previous data, the Nanyuan Formation recorded subduction of the Paleo‐Pacific Plate before regional tectonic transformation. The compressive stress field endured until the end of the Late Jurassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Input ground motions have significant impacts on the uncertainty of structural responses in time-history analysis. In this study, records were selected and scaled for the evaluation of mean structural responses according to the target spectrum. The Newmark-Hall spectrum is closely related to seismic response of short, medium and long-period structures, so it was taken as the target spectrum here. The nonlinear time-history analyses of 9-story and 20-story steel moment-resisting frame structures were carried out as examples. They represent medium and long-period buildings, respectively. Three target spectra with risk of 50%, 10% and 2% probabilities for exceedance in 50 years were calculated by the average Newmark-Hall spectrum method for three ground motion sets developed in the SAC Steel Project. The predicted structural mean responses of these Newmark-Hall spectra were compared with those calculated by the average spectral acceleration method for the same record set. It is found that both methods have similar accuracy for estimating the structural mean response. However, the method proposed herein is more effective in reducing the variability of the structural responses. Also, the proposed method is more advantageous for the time-history analysis of long-period structures or structures with more severe nonlinear responses under strong seismic excitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of eutrophication of water bodies has attracted worldwide attention. Ecological restoration is a promising method to prevent and control eutrophic water bodies. Submerged macrophytes are widely used in the restoration processes. It can not only provide abundant food and habitat for zooplankton, but also inhibit the growth of algae through allelopathy or nutrient competition. This article provides a comprehensive review on research status on the remediation of eutrophic water by submerged macrophytes, with emphasis on the main affecting factors for their growth, including nutrients, light, water depth, sediment, temperature, biochar, transparency, and water flow. The optimum growth conditions of submerged macrophytes are further analyzed to provide guide for further studies and rear applications on the remediation of eutrophic water by submerged macrophytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, pre‐trained language models (PLM), such as Roberta and SimCSE, demonstrate strengths in many natural language understanding (NLU) tasks. However, there are few works on applying PLM to neural machine translation (NMT). Motivated by alleviating the data scarcity issue of low‐resource NMT, here incorporating sentence embeddings from SimCSE into the Transformer network is explored and SE‐Former model is proposed. In this model an embed‐fusion module is designed to utilize the output of SimCSE for NMT. Specifically, the outputs of encoder and SimCSE are fed into embed‐fusion module, attention network learns the relationship of sentence embedding and corresponding word embeddings. After addition, concatenation and linear transformation operations, the tensor fused with sentence embedding is obtained. The size of tensor output by embed‐fusion module is the same as original encoder. Finally, embed‐fusion module is connected to Transformer decoder. On IWSLT En‐Es, En‐Zh and En‐Fr tasks, SE‐Former obtains 42.13, 29.32 and 39.21 bilingual evaluation understudy (BLEU) points, respectively. Experimental results show the superiority of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries adopt the mechanical theory of a layered elastic system under vertical load as the design method for asphalt pavement. This calculation theory does not consider the influence of the horizontal force of the vehicle load, and it is also unable to calculate the creep, relaxation, and other behaviors of the pavement material under repeated loads. To overcome these limitations, this research derived the analytical solution of the layered viscoelastic system under horizontal and vertical loads and developed a numerical calculation program for viscoelastic half-space and multilayer system. The accuracy, efficiency, and stability of the calculation program were tested to meet the requirements. The viscoelastic mechanical responses of the checkpoints in structural design under different horizontal load factors were calculated through the program. The results showed that the horizontal load significantly affects the distribution of stress and displacement of the pavement structure and the extent of the horizontal load impact varies in different positions. The horizontal load should be considered in pavement mechanics analysis and structural design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to develop a probability method that can identify the flexure, shear or flexural-shear failure of RC columns. A total of 336 columns of cyclic load test results were collected, and a probabilistic model was constructed using the Bayesian procedure. Then, the model was simplified by Bayesian updating. The boundaries for each failure mode were selected through an internal search optimization. The results show that the Bayesian methodology can accurately predict the seismic failure modes of RC columns and the comparison of the identification with other methods underscore the validity of Bayesian method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exercise can improve people's physical health and strengthen their body bones. But the physique of college students is generally too poor. The enhancement of College Students' physique cannot be completed in a day. This study aims to explore the best sports nutrition intervention scheme for strengthening college students' physique from the construction of sports nutrition dynamic intervention mechanism, so as to provide theoretical reference for public physical education teaching and students' independent exercise. In this study, 100 full-time associate students in our university were selected as the research objects. Before the experiment, the subjects' body shape, body function, and physical quality were tested. Based on the random mathematical method, the full-time associate students were randomly divided into four groups: control group, exercise intervention group, nutrition intervention group, and sports nutrition intervention group, with 25 people in each group. After the experiment, the body shape, body function, and physical quality of the four groups were tested. The results show that exercise and nutrition intervention have little effect on college students' height, but have great influence on body mass index, vital capacity and 800 meter running. Especially after the experiment, the vital capacity of the exercise group and the sports nutrition group increased by nearly 250 ml and 500 ml, respectively, and the 800 m running time increased by nearly 10 s and 18 s, respectively. Strengthening exercise and increasing nutritional intake can effectively improve the institutional health of college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The siloxane-based Gemini surfactant exhibits a synergistic effect with four types of hydrocarbon surfactants in surface activity, reducing the surface tension of the mixed system. • The siloxane-based Gemini surfactant could enhance the foamability for the four types of hydrocarbon surfactants. • The mixed system of siloxane-based Gemini surfactant with AOS and APG0180 showed better foam stability. • The relationship between the average bubble area and time during coarsening conforms to the power function law. Aiming to explore the potential of siloxane-based Gemini surfactants in the development of environmentally friendly foam extinguishing agent to address the pollution caused by traditional fluorinated ones. A crucial step is to study the performance of binary mixed systems of siloxane-based Gemini and hydrocarbon surfactants in terms of surface activity, foamability, and foam stability. In this study, binary mixed systems of two types of siloxane-based Gemini surfactants and one siloxane surfactant with four different hydrocarbon surfactants are prepared. Parameters such as surface tension, foam height, drainage time, and coarsening rate are tested. The results show that the siloxane-based Gemini surfactant HY-4000 with double silane chains could effectively reduce the surface tension of hydrocarbon surfactants. In addition, the two types of Gemini surfactants performed better in enhancing the foamability of hydrocarbon surfactants. The siloxane OFX0193 even inhibits the foaming of cationic hydrocarbon surfactant CATC. Besides the HY-4000/APG0180 mixed system, the binary mixed systems of three silicone surfactants with AOS and APG0180 exhibit better foam stability, particularly the systems containing TEGO4100. For the coarsening process of foam bubbles, we develop a predictive model based on previous studies, where the relationship between bubble area and time follows a power function law. The findings of this study could provide guidance for the development of green foam extinguishing agent with siloxane-based Gemini and hydrocarbon surfactants as core components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the evolution of the twenty-first century, the increase in people's material life level has also brought an increase in mental stress. For college students, not only need to bear heavy academic pressure, but also face the market competition after entering the society. Therefore, the psychological fitness instruction for undergraduate students has become an inseparable part of college education. However, in the current stage of mental health education, the quality of teaching is often difficult to guarantee. For the purpose of promoting the in-depth implementation of mental health education in colleges and universities and improving teaching effectiveness, one needs to analyze the quality of teaching in great details and understand the factors affecting the quality of teaching. In this paper, the mathematical programming algorithm is used to analyze the quality of college students' Psychological Wellness Instruction. It deeply studies the development status of psychological wellness training and the basic composition and algorithm principle of mathematical programming algorithm. It integrates it into the practice of teaching quality analysis on the basis of linear regression algorithm theory. The experimental results show that the highest confidence interval of teachers' teaching organization, cognitive level, and students' participation level in the mental health course has reached more than 80.00%. This shows the importance of these three factors to the improvement of teaching quality. In order to enhance the quality of college students' psychological wellness training, it is necessary to innovate the form of classroom organization and the degree of interaction between students and the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A weighted scaling method (WSM) is developed for the selection and modification of structure-specific earthquake records in time-history analysis. The matching errors and scaling factors are calculated by weighted least-squares method to match with target spectrum. The weight factors are determined by the modal-mass participation factors. The 3-, 9-, and 20-story steel moment-resisting frame structures are used as examples. Their mean structural responses were calculated by the WSM and the unweighted scaling method (USM). WSM is as accurate as USM for estimating mean structural responses, but WSM has a better capacity for reducing the variability of structural responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autolysis is a common physiological process in eukaryotic cells that is often prevented or applied, especially in yeast expression systems. In this study, an antimicrobial peptide from chicken (AMP) was recombinantly expressed in the Pichia pastoris expression system, which induced a series of cellular autolysis phenotypes after methanol treatment, such as the aggregated, lysed, irregular, and enlarged cell morphology, while the cells expressing a recombinant aflatoxin-detoxifizyme (ADTZ) were not autolyzed. A comparative transcriptomic analysis showed that the transcriptomic profiles of cells derived from the autolysis and non-autolysis groups were well discriminated, suggesting that the mechanisms of autolysis were at the transcriptional level. A further differential expression gene (DEG) analysis showed that the DEGs from the two groups were involved mainly in autophagy, the MAPK signaling pathway, transcriptional factors, the central carbon metabolism, anti-stress functions, and so on. In the autolysis group, the cell activity was significantly reduced with the MAPK signaling pathway, the central carbon metabolism was down-regulated, and components of the cytoplasm-to-vacuole targeting (CVT) and mitophagy pathways were up-regulated, suggesting that the autophagy involved in the trafficking of intracellular molecules in the vacuole and mitochondrion contributed to autolysis, which was regulated by transcriptional factors and signal pathways at the transcriptional level. This study provides a theoretical basis for genetic modifications to prevent or utilize cell autolysis in the recombinant protein expression system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid pool fires may represent the initiating fire hazard in many risk assessments associated with industrial plants. As real industrial fire scenarios generally include numerous obstructions, a pool fire burning behind an obstruction is a challenging task in the industrial risk assessment. A systematic investigation was conducted on the flame characteristics of a pool fire sheltered by a plate obstacle with different heights and geometrical dimensions, where the flame morphology, flame height, flame width and flame radiation flux were recorded and studied. The results show that the flame morphology for a pool fire sheltered by a plate obstacle can be divided in three types. For the radiation heat flux evolution over the entire burning process, it was found that the plate obstacle above the fuel pool would lead to a larger peak value of the radiation heat flux. Using a physical and dimensionless method, prediction models for flame characteristics including flame width, flame height and maximum value of radiation heat flux were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial co-location pattern (SCP) mining aims to mine the implicit relationships between different spatial features. These features often have certain connections and co-occur in close geographical proximity. Regional co-location pattern (RCP) mining is a branch of SCP mining, which is usually used to discover some sets of spatial features that do not often co-occur in large spatial scales but co-occur in local regions. Discovering RCPs is still very challenging, because different RCPs will be obtained under different region partitions. However, existing region division methods still suffer from ignoring the influence of the density of individual feature instances, low recognition rate of regions with low density distribution but containing RCPs, and lack of semantic information in the delineated regions. To this end, first, we propose a novel multi-density clustering method based on maximal cliques (MCs) during the partitioning phase of RCP mining. Second, we design a two-stage mining algorithm based on MCs in the mining phase, which fully exploits the advantages of the MC to improve the mining efficiency, and the algorithm can quickly obtain new mining results when changing the prevalence threshold. Third, regional similarity is defined based on RCPs over regions to merge similar sub-regions. Finally, the proposed method is compared with a state-of-the-art method on both synthetic and real datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed method can not only effectively solve the issues of existing methods to make the divided sub-regions more closely matched with the real spatial distribution, but also quickly obtain new mining results when changing the prevalence threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly efficient and stable Cu-MOF/BiOCl heterojunction was developed for the photocatalytic removal of rhodamie B in aqueous media under white light irradiation. [Display omitted] • An enhanced Cu-MOF/BiOCl heterojunction is explored. • This heterojunction significantly promotes the carriers transfer and ROS generation. • This Cu-MOF/BiOCl exhibits a high photocatalytic acitivity for RhB degradation. Environmental pollution caused by organic dyes has attracted increasing attention and prompts people to develop an effective treating method. Photocatalysis is regarded as one of the most promising treatment methods owing to low cost, flexibility, and high efficiency. Herein, we reported a copper-based metal–organic frameworks (Cu-MOF) modified BiOCl heterojunction Cu-MOF/BiOCl (CMB) to treat organic dye rhodamine B (RhB) under white light illumination. The optimal photodegradation efficiency is shown to be 97 % within 40 min, exhibiting a higher photocatalytic ability than individual BiOCl and Cu-MOF. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to the formation of CMB heterojunction improving the visible light utilization efficiency and promoting significantly the separation/transfer of carriers. This study highlights the importance of combining narrow band gap nanomaterial with wide counterpart in environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To accurately predict the ultimate drift capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns failed in flexure mode under seismic loading, a probabilistic methodology is proposed to correct the biases in deterministic models and establish probabilistic models. Probabilistic correction models are constructed based on Bayesian updating, which can consider potential critical influences and also yield probability distribution associated with the model parameters and predictions. The probabilistic models are simplified to identify the significant informative terms by Bayesian updating. Then, the influences of the physical properties and size of the sample on the probabilistic models are discussed. The results show that the Bayesian-based correction method can increase the accuracy of predictions and quantify uncertainties. Additionally, adding new samples with different physical properties in Bayesian updating can expand the scope of application of probabilistic models, and the sample size should be at least two times the number of variables involved in Bayesian updating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health depends on indoor air quality (IAQ), hence soft measurement techniques must be implemented in the subway environment for more precise and reliable monitoring of indoor particulate matter concentration levels. Adaptive boosting (AdaBoost), an ensemble learning technique, is simple to code and less prone to overfitting. Compared to a single model, it is better able to take into consideration the intricate elements included in air quality data. It is suggested to use an adaptive boosting of long short-term memory (AdaBoost-LSTM) model and kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) for ensemble learning. The kernel function and PCA are first coupled to create KPCA, which is a nonlinear dimensionality reduction method for IAQ. This removes the negative impacts of noise interference. The learning performance of LSTM is then enhanced using AdaBoost as an ensemble learning technique. The KPCA-AdaBoost-LSTM model can deliver higher modeling performance, according to the results. The R2 reached 0.9007 and 0.8995 when predicting PM 2.5 in the hall and platform. SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis was used to interpret the input contributions of the model, enhancing the interpretability and transparency of the proposed soft sensor. [Display omitted] • Using the MIC for correlation analysis of data and selecting input features. • KPCA method for dimensionality reduction of data. • Adaptive boosting deep learning for subway indoor PM 2.5 prediction. • KPCA-AdaBoost-LSTM has the best prediction performance compared to baseline models. • SHAP analysis for enhancing the transparency and interpretability of soft sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through first-principles investigations, we examine variations in the atomic crystal structure, thermal stability, electronic structure, and piezoelectric properties of wurtzite ZnS and CdS under in-plane strain. We specifically aim to elucidate the distinct effects arising from two relaxation modes: elastic and non-elastic. Our analyses reveal that the in-plane strain-induced deformation behaviors and performance changes in these sulfides are remarkably similar, attributable to the similar atomic arrangements, anionic sulfur elements, and analogous cation electronic configurations. However, following non-elastic relaxation, enhanced robustness emerges in the lattice volume and chemical bonding, alongside stronger thermal stability and attenuated modifications in the piezoelectric coefficient. We posit that these marked discrepancies from elastic relaxation may originate from subtle differences in the electronegativities and d -orbital electron configurations between the Zn2+ and Cd2+ cations. By offering fundamental new insights into the atomic-scale relaxation phenomena in wurtzite binaries, this work significantly furthers the fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships in these materials. Moreover, delineating the precise impacts of elastic versus non-elastic relaxation serves as an effective tuning methodology to engineer the piezoelectric and electronic traits of sulfide compounds for cutting-edge applications. [Display omitted] • In-plane strain causes prominent changes in atomic arrangement, electronic and piezoelectric properties of wurtzite Zn(Cd)S. • Cation's electronegativity and electron configurations relate to responses of wurtzite Zn(Cd)S to in-plane strain. • Non-elastic relaxation leads to higher robustness in volume, chemical bond, thermal stability and piezoelectric coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-earthquake surveys show that fault-crossing simply supported beam bridges or continuous beam bridges suffer from severe seismic damage, such as falling beams and even collapse. Currently, there is a lack of understanding of the seismic performance of fault-crossing prestressed concrete rigid-frame bridges (PCRFBs). In this study, a representative PCRFB was used as a case study, and typical strike-slip fault cases were discussed, including fault-crossing angles and permanent displacement. The results revealed that different from other bridge structure types, the mid-span section was prone to yield failure because of the significant plastic deformation demands when the fault crossed the middle span. Positive and negative moment failures of the mid-span girder occurred when the fault-crossing angle was greater than or less than 90°, respectively. The fault-crossing angle is an important factor that affects the seismic performance of PCRFBs. A value of 90° is a favorable fault-crossing angle with minimal damage. The deformation demands of the mid-span were larger than the internal force effects when there was an increase in the permanent ground displacement of the fault. The proposed shock-absorbing hinge system (SAHS) can effectively reduce the vertical displacement of the girder and can significantly avoid the occurrence of plastic hinges, so the main girder is protected. • The failure modes with the strike-slip fault crossing the middle span of PC rigid-frame bridges (PCRFB) were studied. • The mid-span section was prone to yield failure when the fault crossed the middle span. • The setting shock-absorbing hinge system (SAHS) in the mid-span for adapting to fault displacement was provided. • The proposed SAHS can effectively avoid the occurrence of plastic hinges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the petrogenesis and age of meta-sedimentary rocks plays a crucial role in enhancing our understanding of regional tectonic evolution. In this study, we conducted comprehensive geochemical, zircon U-Pb, and Sm-Nd isotope dating analyses of the biotite gneiss of the Changjiaoba group to investigate the tectonic evolution of the South Qinling belt. The age range of detrital zircons from the biotite gneiss was estimated to be 446–2798 Ma, with prominent peaks observed at approximately 454, 660, 790, 1998, and 2770 Ma. The earliest data indicate that the final sedimentary age of the Changjiaoba group corresponds to the late Ordovician. The protoliths of the biotite gneiss were argillaceous rocks, classified as parametamorphic rock. The chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) diagram exhibited right-inclined patterns with negative Eu anomalies. The upper continental crust (UCC)-normalized trace element patterns exhibited insignificant enrichment of Ba, Sr, and K; negative anomalies of Hf, Th, U, and Ti; and depletion of Cr and Ni. Geochemical indicators suggest that the precursor sediments are felsic rocks that have undergone moderate weathering. The ε Nd (t) values of the biotite gneiss (−10.2 to −3.4) suggest a mixture of a few juvenile crust components and abundant ancient material, indicating an arc-realted setting. Collectively, our findings suggest that the primary material sources of the Changjiaoba group were predominantly the North Qinling belt during the Paleozoic and the Yangtze block during the Neoproterozoic. The tectonic setting discrimination diagrams imply that the biotite gneiss were formed in an active continental margin environment, supporting the notion of the northward oceanic subduction during the early Paleozoic. In conclusion, our study provides valuable insights into the composition and deposition history of the Changjiaoba group in the South Qinling belt, contributing to our understanding of the regional geology. • Determining the petrogenesis and age of biotite gneiss underpins local tectonic evolution. • The sedimentary age of the Changjiaoba group corresponds to the late Ordovician. • Biotite gneiss protoliths were argillaceous rocks with felsic geochemical characteristics. • Biotite gneiss formed in an active continental margin with northward oceanic subduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the dynamic occurrence and vertical distribution of three types of rice planthoppers (Nilaparvata lugens, Sogatella furcifera, and Laodelphax striatellus) in Shanghai, China. Our results showed that S. furcifera and L. striatellus infested the lower part of rice plants in the early development stage, S. furcifera and L. striatellus inhabited every part of rice in the middle development stage, and L. striatellus and N. lugens formicated in the upper part of the rice plant in the posterior development stage. The populations of rice planthoppers were larger in July and September, Where more than 600 adult and nymphal planthoppers, per a hundred hills of rice, were found in late July, and out of the 600, the majority were the nymphs of S. furcifera and L. striatellus. S. furcifera was mainly found from July to October, L. striatellus during the rice development, and N. lugens after September, during which their maximal individual number, per a hundred hills of rice, was 480, 220, less than 50, respectively. In addition, our results showed that adult rice planthoppers were mostly observed from late August to mid‐October with the highest population being found during mid to late September. The adult S. furcifera, L. striatellus, and N. lugens were mostly observed in August and September, from August to October, and past mid‐September, respectively. Moreover, the number of adult L. striatellus that were sticking to yellow sticky card was significantly higher than that of S. furcifera and N. lugens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3), a key member of the MMPs family, is involved in the modulation of endometrial inflammation and innate immunity. However, the role of MMP3 in bovine endometritis remains unknown. To investigate the role of MMP3 in bovine endometritis, endometrial MMP3 expression were determined in uterine biopsies from twenty 40–60 days postpartum dairy cows, which six were healthy cows and fourteen were endometritic cows. Moreover, MMP3 expression were also detected at different intensity of inflammatory response, which was induced by graded concentrations (0, 1, 5, 10 μg/ml) of LPS in bovine endometrial epithelial cells (BEECs) in vitro. RT-qPCR was used to test the mRNA levels of MMP3 in tissues or cells. Western blot was conducted to measure protein levels, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for TNF-α and IL-1β in cell supernatant. Results showed that MMP3 mRNA and protein levels significantly increased and positive correlative with severity of endometritis in vivo. Likewise, MMP3 expression also positive correlative with intensity of LPS inflammatory response in BEECs in vitro. These results indicate that increasing of MMP3 directly correlates with bovine endometritis, and its increasing may contribute to progression of bovine endometritis. • Gene and protein levels of MMP3 were up-regulated in bovine endometrium with endometritis. • Increasing of MMP3 were positive correlative with severity of bovine endometritis. • Elevated MMP3 was positive correlative with inflammatory intensity in bovine endometrial epithelial cells induced by LPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Co/CoO@NC hybrid material with high specific surface area and ultrafine particle size was prepared using a novel Co-MOF as a sacrificial template. The Co/CoO@NC shows excellent performance in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and recyclability, the reaction rate constant k = 0.0139 s−1 (0.2 mg, 298 K) is better than some reported precious metal catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reasonable design of the precursor of a carbon‐based nanocatalyst is an important pathway to improve catalytic performance. In this study, a simple solvothermal method was used to synthesize [Cu(TPT)(2,5‐tdc)] ⋅ 2H2O (Cu‐MOF), which contains N and S atoms, in one step. Further in‐situ carbonization of the Cu‐MOF as the precursor was used to synthesize Cu/CuxS‐embedded N,S‐doped porous carbon (Cu/CuxS/NSC) composites. The catalytic activities of the prepared Cu/CuxS/NSC were investigated through catalytic reduction of 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) to 4‐aminophenol (4‐AP). The results show that the designed Cu/CuxS/NSC has exceptional catalytic activity and recycling stability, with a reaction rate constant of 0.0256 s−1, and the conversion rate still exceeds 90 % after 15 cycles. Meanwhile, the efficient catalytic reduction of dyes (CR, MO, MB and RhB) confirmed its versatility. Finally, the active sites of the Cu/CuxS/NSC catalysts were analyzed, and a possible multicomponent synergistic catalytic mechanism was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major tectonic unit along the southwestern rim of the Central Qilian Belt, the Lajishan region plays an important role in the amalgamation of continental plates in the Qilian Orogenic Belt. In this study, zircon laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for U–Pb dating and Hf isotope analysis, as well as geochemical analysis of intermediate‐acid intrusive rocks from the Lajishan area were conducted. Results show that formation ages of the intermediate‐acid intrusive rocks are 438–452 Ma. Whole‐rock geochemistry results show that the diorite and monzodiorite are metaluminous, low‐ to medium‐K series, and characterized by obvious Nb, Ta, and Ti depletions as well as large‐ion lithophile element and light rare earth element enrichments. The εHf(t) values of zircons from monodiorite range from +2.71 to +10.59 and the two‐stage model ages range from 751 to 1,253 Ma. A large transversal span of εHf(t) values suggests that the source of depleted mantle was mixed with a small amount of older crustal material. The diorite and monzodiorite show a covariant relationship between εHf(t) values and Th/U ratios, which imply the existence of source heterogeneity. The diorites and monzodiorites were most likely produced in an arc setting. The granites are low K in composition and metaluminous to weakly peraluminous. In view of obvious Nb, Ta, and Ti depletions as well as large‐ion lithophile element and light rare earth element enrichments, parent magmas of the granites are suggested to have formed with the participation of crustal source materials. The εHf(t) values of zircons from granite range from +5.82 to +8.90, and the two‐stage model ages range from 861 to 1,057 Ma, indicating that magmas of the granites were mainly derived from partial melting of depleted mantle or juvenile thickened lower crust. The granites were most likely produced in an arc setting and share a similar source with the diorite and monzodiorite. Correlation between major oxides and SiO2 show that during the formation of the three kinds of rocks, crystallization and differentiation both played important roles. Combined with published data from the Central Qilian Belt and its vicinity, our results conclude that the northward subduction of oceanic crust contributed to the formation of an Early Palaeozoic subduction–accretion system in the Lajishan region. This model reveals a tectonic–magmatic thermal event and provides important insights into the tectonic evolution process in the Qilian region, as well as the Central Orogenic Belt during the Early Palaeozoic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoparticle growth during laser remelting was studied to provide references for optimizing technological parameters. The variations of nanoparticle sizes during laser remelting plasma-sprayed presetting of nanostructured Al 2 O 3 -13 wt%TiO 2 coating were investigated on the basis of the classical theories of grain growth and by combining the temperature courses of nanoparticles at different positions, which were obtained from laser remelting finite element numerical simulation of the temperature field. Moreover, the effects of initial nanoparticle size and different remelting positions on grain growth were analyzed. A laser remelting test was conducted on the corresponding plasma-sprayed nanostructured coating. Results show that the overall trend of nanoparticle growth in the laser remelting test is consistent with theoretical calculation results, indicating that the classical theory of grain growth can offer some theoretical guidance to understanding nanoparticle growth during laser remelting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intel software guard extensions (SGX) increase the security of applications by enabling them to be performed in a highly trusted space (called enclave). Most state-of-the-art attacks on SGX focus on either mining the software vulnerabilities in the enclave or speculating the secret data with side channels. In this study, we report our recent work on breaking SGX by inducing voltage-oriented hardware faults. The novelty and importance of this attack are that it is completely controlled by software and does not require any security vulnerability in the software. Our proposed attack, called VoltJockey, exploits a vulnerability in the implementation of dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) that achieves energy saving by dynamically adjusting the processor’s operating voltage and thus clock frequency. However, if the operating voltage is lower than a certain critical level, the circuit’s timing constraint will fail and hardware fault would be created. We propose to deliberately trigger such voltage-oriented hardware faults by a loadable kernel module that can set the processor’s voltage through Intel’s undocumented model-specific register (MSR). We first utilize the module to furnish the processor with a transient low voltage with controlled timing to inject a temporal fault into the target location of the program running in the enclave. Then, we perform a differential fault attack on the outputs before and after the injection of faults. For demonstration, we successfully deploy the proposed attack to extract the key of an AES executed in the enclave and lead an SGX-protected RSA to output our specified result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The flower colour of H. syriacus 'Qiansiban' transitions from fuchsia to pink–purple and finally to pale purple, thereby enhancing the ornamental value of the cultivars. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this change in flower colour in H. syriacus has not been elucidated. In this study, the transcriptomic data of H. syriacus 'Qiansiban' at five developmental stages were analysed to investigate the impact of flavonoid components on flower colour variation. Additionally, five cDNA libraries were constructed from H. syriacus 'Qiansiban' during critical blooming stages, and the transcriptomes were sequenced to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying changes in flower colouration. Results: High-performance liquid chromatography‒mass spectrometry detected five anthocyanins in H. syriacus 'Qiansiban', with malvaccin-3-O-glucoside being the predominant compound in the flowers of H. syriacus at different stages, followed by petunigenin-3-O-glucoside. The levels of these five anthocyanins exhibited gradual declines throughout the flowering process. In terms of the composition and profile of flavonoids and flavonols, a total of seven flavonoids were identified: quercetin-3-glucoside, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, Santianol-7-O-glucoside, kaempferol-O-hexosyl-C-hexarbonoside, apigenin-C-diglucoside, luteolin-3,7-diglucoside, and apigenin-7-O-rutinoside. A total of 2,702 DEGs were identified based on the selected reference genome. Based on the enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes, we identified 9 structural genes (PAL, CHS, FLS, DRF, ANS, CHI, F3H, F3'5'H, and UFGT) and 7 transcription factors (3 MYB, 4 bHLH) associated with flavonoid biosynthesis. The qRT‒PCR results were in good agreement with the high-throughput sequencing data. Conclusion: This study will establish a fundamental basis for elucidating the mechanisms underlying alterations in the flower pigmentation of H. syriacus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial oxygen-free copper sheets were cold-rolled with reduction rates ranging from 20% to 87% and annealed at 400, 500 and 600 °C. The microstructure and texture evolution during the cold-rolling and annealing processes were studied using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD). The results show that the deformation textures of {123}<634> (S), {112}<111> (Copper) and {110}<112> (Brass) were continuously enhanced with the increase in cold-rolling reduction. The orientations along the α-oriented fiber converged towards Brass, and the orientation density of β fiber obviously increased when the rolling reduction exceeded 60%. The recrystallization texture was significantly affected by the cold-rolling reduction. After 60% cold-rolling reduction, Copper and S texture components gradually decreased, and the {011}<511> recrystallization texture component formed with the increase in annealing temperature. After 87% cold-rolling reduction, a strong Cube texture formed, and other textures were inhibited with the increase in annealing temperature. The strong Brass and S deformation texture was conducive to the formation of a strong Cube annealing texture. The density of the annealing twin boundary decreased with the increase in annealing temperature, and more annealing twin boundaries formed in the oxygen-free copper sheets with the increase in cold-rolling reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To investigate the relationship between lymph node micrometastasis (LNMM) and clinicopathological factors and to evaluate the prognostic effects of LNMM in pN0 gastric cancer (GC) patients. Methods. One hundred and seventy-two GC patients who received radical gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection were enrolled in the present study. 1371 negative lymph nodes from level 2 station confirmed by pathology were examined. The LNMM was diagnosed by telomeric repeat amplification protocol/enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (TRAP-ELISA). The relationship between clinicopathological factors and LNMM was investigated by multivariate analysis. Survival analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of LNMM on prognosis. Results. LNMM was detected in 423 lymph nodes from 72 patients. The results showed that invasion depth (OR = 3.755 , P = 0.004), TNM staging (OR = 3.152 , P = 0.002), lymphatic invasion (OR = 2.178 , P = 0.009), and tumor differentiation (OR = 1.266 , P = 0.013) were independent risk factors associated with LNMM. Survival analysis showed that patients with LNMM had significantly worse 5-year survival compared with those without LNMM (42% vs. 76.4%, P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that LNMM, tumor size, Lauren type, invasion depth, and lymphatic invasion (P < 0.05) were independently factors associated with 5-year survival. Conclusions. The findings showed that tumor invasion depth, TNM staging, lymphatic invasion, and tumor differentiation were independent risk factors associated with LNMM occurrence. Moreover, LNMM is a clinically negative prognostic factor in pN0 GC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to form a method for recognizing the degree of infiltration of a tunnel lining. To solve this problem, we propose a recognition method by using a deep convolutional neural network. We carry out laboratory tests, prepare cement mortar specimens with different saturation levels, simulate different degrees of infiltration of tunnel concrete linings, and establish an infrared thermal image data set with different degrees of infiltration. Then, based on a deep learning method, the data set is trained using the Faster R-CNN+ResNet101 network, and a recognition model is established. The experiments show that the recognition model established by the deep learning method can be used to select cement mortar specimens with different degrees of infiltration by using an accurately minimized rectangular outer frame. This model shows that the classification recognition model for tunnel concrete lining infiltration established by the indoor experimental method has high recognition accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endometritis is a prevalent reproductive disease in dairy cows, and is a superficial inflammation of the endometrium. S100 calcium-binding protein A4 (S100A4) is suggested to be implicated in the progression of inflammation. However, to our knowledge, no study has reported the changes of S100A4 during bovine endometritis. The objective of this study was to investigate S100A4 gene expression and protein levels in the uterus with endometritis in dairy cows. Vaginal mucus samples were collected for diagnosis of the severity degree of endometritis and the detection of S100A4 protein content. Blood samples and endometrial biopsies were collected and divided into the control (CN), mild endometrtis (M), and severe endometritis (S) groups according to the characteristics of the vaginal mucus type. The isolated bovine endometrial epithelial cells (BEECs) were challenged with E. coli (2 × 106 CFU/mL, 2 × 107 CFU/mL) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 3 and 10 μg/mL) as an inflammatory model. RT-qPCR was used to detect the gene expression levels of S100A4 and cytokines, including interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), in tissues or cells. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for S100A4 protein level detection in tissues, cells, cell supernatant, vaginal mucus, and serum samples. The results showed that S100A4 gene and protein levels decreased in bovine endometrium with endometritis and in E. coli - or LPS-stimulated BEECs. We failed to detect S100A4 in the cell supernatant, vaginal mucus, and serum samples. This study suggested that S100A4 is a pathogenesis-related protein of endometritis, and decreased expression of S100A4 may pave the way for the development of endometritis in dairy cows. • S100A4 was decreased in bovine endometrium with endometritis. • S100A4 was decreased in bovine endometrial epithelial cells challenged with E.coli or LPS. • S100A4 decreasing may play an important role in the development of bovine endometritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a noninvasive optical modality that holds promise for early detection of tongue lesions. Spectral signatures generated by HSI contain important diagnostic information that can be used to predict the disease status of the examined biological tissue. However, the underlying pathophysiology for the spectral difference between normal and neoplastic tissue is not well understood. Here, we propose to leverage digital pathology and predictive modeling to select the most discriminative features from digitized histological images to differentiate tongue neoplasia from normal tissue, and then correlate these discriminative pathological features with corresponding spectral signatures of the neoplasia. We demonstrated the association between the histological features quantifying the architectural features of neoplasia on a microscopic scale, with the spectral signature of the corresponding tissue measured by HSI on a macroscopic level. This study may provide insight into the pathophysiology underlying the hyperspectral dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, immunotherapy targeting immune checkpoints has become an important component of the treatment paradigm for numerous malignancies, especially PD-1/PD-L1 blockade which was demonstrated to rejuvenate disabled T cells in cancer patients to achieve long-term remissions. However, the clinical outcome of PD-1/PD-L1 targeted monotherapy against solid malignancies is not satisfactory which may be related with the intricate tumor microenvironment. As a vital suppressive immunocyte in tumor microenvironment, Tregs are characterized by PD-1 and PD-L1 and demonstrated to contribute to the tumor progression. The latest studies have suggested that Tregs might be involved in the treatment of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade and PD-1/PD-L1 axis could influence Treg differentiation and function. However, the complicated relationship between PD-1/PD-L1 pathway and Tregs has not been fully clarified. Here, we explored the role of PD-1/PD-L1 axis in Treg development and function, as well as the potential mechanisms of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade resistance related with Tregs. Meanwhile, we discussed the combination therapy aimed at targeting PD-1/PD-L1 axis and Tregs, hoping to provide novel insights for the future cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf surface fertilization with liquid fertilizer produced from amino acids constitutes a potentially important source of nitrogen and is important for plant production. However, few reports have focused on the plant growth promotion by novel liquid fertilizers created by new amino acid resources, let alone the influence on leaf microbiota. In this study, the effects of liquid fertilizer, created by amino acids hydrolyzed from animal hairs with or without the PGPR strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SQR9, on crop yield and leaf microbiota were investigated. The results showed that leaves sprayed with amino acid liquid fertilizer (AA) and liquid biological fertilizer (AA9) persistently increased cowpea yields compared to the control amended with chemical fertilizer (CF). Fertilization with amino acid fertilizer showed no significant difference in microbial composition compared with the CF treatment; however, the introduction of functional microbes altered the microbial composition. Pearson correlation analysis, VPA analysis and SEM models all revealed that the amino acids liquid fertilizer application, but not the functional strain or the altered microbiota, performed as the direct driver attributing to yield enhancement. We conclude that leaf fertilization with a novel amino acid liquid fertilizer can greatly enhance the crop yield and that the addition of beneficial microbes may perform the role in further altering the composition of leaf microbiota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and construction of appropriate photocatalysts in heterojunction mode is an effective way to improve photocatalytic performance. Herein, a metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) fabricated heterojunction constructed by MOF-902(Ti) and BiOCl (noted as TB) was developed to treat efficiently antibiotic tetracycline (TC) under visible light irradiation. TB exhibits a higher photodegradation ability than MOF-902(Ti) and BiOCl. Various characterization including X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and scanning electron microscope (SEM), etc. verify the formation of TB heterojunction, which improves significantly the visible light response, increases the specific surface area/pore volume, promotes effectively charged carriers separation and transfer, and ultimately enhances greatly the photocatalytic performance. Reactive species trapping demonstrates that·O 2 -, e-, and h+ participate cooperatively in the photodegradation of TC. A possible mechanism for the enhanced photocatalytic activity of TB heterojunction is proposed. [Display omitted] • A metal organic frameworks fabricated BiOCl heterojunction is facilely constructed. • This heterojunction is suitable for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline. • This heterojunction improves significantly the visible light response. • This heterojunction promotes effectively charged carriers separation and transfer. • A possible mechanism for enhanced photocatalytic activity is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The mathematical models, Prony series and power law, of four types asphalt mixture were investigated. • Two numerical integration methods were used to convert the relaxation modulus of asphalt mixture form creep compliance. • The formula for calculating relaxation modulus in Laplace domain was proposed. • The Laplace transform method was implemented to calculate the relaxation modulus from Laplace domain to time domain. Abstract The relaxation modulus of an asphalt mixture is adopted for evaluation of pavement structural soundness. However, it is difficult to perform a strain-controlled relaxation test on an asphalt mixture to obtain the relaxation modulus. The aim of this paper is to obtain the relaxation modulus expression in the Laplace transform domain and then perform a Laplace transform to derive the relaxation modulus from creep compliance. A uniaxial static creep test was conducted on four types of asphalt mixtures at 20 °C, 30 °C, and 40 °C and under a load of 0.3 MPa. The Prony series and power law were used to model creep compliance with good fitting of R 2 > 0.95. Because the Laplace transform of the power law was a gamma function, the Prony series was used to simulate creep compliance and then applied to interconverting the viscoelastic functions. The Simpson and Gauss methods were used to convert the relaxation modulus from creep compliance based on a convolution formula and the calculation results from the two methods were shown to be equivalent. Based on the Laplace transform formula for creep compliance and the relaxation modulus, an equation for calculating the relaxation modulus in the Laplace domain was proposed. Numerical inversion of the Laplace transform, using the fixed Talbot method, was implemented to compute the relaxation modulus in the time domain and the results were compared with those derived by using the Gauss method. The average error is less than 10−4 and the computational speed of the fixed Talbot method is a factor of 25 faster than that of the Gauss method, demonstrating the high precision and high efficiency of the Laplace transform method for computing the relaxation modulus. The method developed in this study provides an effective tool for interconverting viscoelastic functions of asphalt mixtures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]