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The architectural design and fabrication of low‐cost, high‐performance organic scintillators are critical for medical imaging and material/device analysis. However, achieving large‐area and high‐transparency organic scintillators in a low‐cost and easy‐to‐implement method remains a challenge. Herein, a new design strategy for regulating the side chain length of maleimide derivatives is demonstrated to develop organic scintillators for achieving low‐cost, large‐area, and high spatial resolution in X‐ray imaging. The effective intermolecular interactions and relatively twisted molecular structure endow PAM‐M4 molecule with outstanding scintillator properties. More importantly, as demonstrated for the first time, pure organic glassy films with a diameter over 10 cm and high optical transparency can be prepared by the developed melt‐quenched method using PAM‐M4 crystal powder as a raw material. This glassy film exhibits excellent X‐ray imaging ability with a spatial resolution as high as 27.0 lp mm−1 at MTF = 0.20, which is one of the best results among reported organic scintillators. The results of this work not only develop a new design strategy for high‐performance organic scintillators but also demonstrate a reliable approach to fabricating large area screens with superior spatial resolution for medical or industrial X‐ray imaging applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of high-entropy carbide ceramics with high-performance were successfully prepared by SPS using self-synthesized fine high-entropy carbides powders as hard phase and metal Co as the binder. The effects of Ti and/or Mo addition on densification, grain size and mechanical properties of (ZrHfTaNb)C–10Co ceramic were investigated. The results showed that the addition of Mo improved the wettability between the ceramic phase and Co phase, and significantly increased the densification degree of the ceramics. In addition, the average grain size decreased and the microstructure became more uniform after adding Ti and/or Mo. Compared with the mechanical properties of (ZrHfTaNb)C–10Co ceramic, those of (ZrHfTaNbTiMo)C–10Co ceramic were greatly enhanced under the action of high-entropy effect and solid solution strengthening. The hardness and fracture toughness of the (ZrHfTaNbTiMo)C–10Co ceramic achieved the satisfactory values of 20.37 GPa and 8.59 MPa m1/2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cryopreservation and transplantation of ovarian tissue underscore its paramount importance in safeguarding reproductive capacity and ameliorating reproductive disorders. However, challenges persist in ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation (OTC-T), including the risk of tissue damage and dysfunction. Consequently, there has been a compelling exploration into the realm of nanoregulators to refine and enhance these procedures. This review embarks on a meticulous examination of the intricate anatomical structure of the ovary and its microenvironment, thereby establishing a robust groundwork for the development of nanomodulators. It systematically categorizes nanoregulators and delves deeply into their functions and mechanisms, meticulously tailored for optimizing ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation. Furthermore, the review imparts valuable insights into the practical applications and obstacles encountered in clinical settings associated with OTC-T. Moreover, the review advocates for the utilization of microbially derived nanomodulators as a potent therapeutic intervention in ovarian tissue cryopreservation. The progression of these approaches holds the promise of seamlessly integrating nanoregulators into OTC-T practices, thereby heralding a new era of expansive applications and auspicious prospects in this pivotal domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation of dense single-phase boride ceramics has always been a challenge. In this paper, single-phase W 2 B 5 ceramic with excellent performance was successfully prepared using W 2 B 5 powder and SPS-HF technology. Under the sintering condition of 1800 °C and 50 MPa, a nearly dense W 2 B 5 ceramic material with excellent mechanical properties was obtained. The relative density of the as-sintered W 2 B 5 ceramic achieved 96.72 % without any sintering additive. Additionally, the Vickers hardness, fracture toughness as well as bending strength were 30 GPa (9.8 N), 5.39 MPa·m1/2 and 522.7 MPa, respectively. The outstanding hardness and bending strength of W 2 B 5 ceramic could be attributed to its monophase W 2 B 5 structure and high densification degree. The primary fracture mode of W 2 B 5 ceramic was transgranular fracture, and the toughening mechanisms included crack deflection, crack bridging, and crack branching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic compression anastomosis (MCA) is a new method that provides sutureless passage construction for tubular organs. Due to the high recurrence rate of conventional endoscopic treatment and the high morbidity and mortality of surgical procedures, the MCA technique shows promise. The aim of this review is to comprehensively examine the literature related to the use of MCA in different gastrointestinal diseases over the past few years, categorizing them according to the anastomotic site and describing in detail the various methods of magnet delivery and the clinical outcomes of MCA. MCA is an innovative technique, and its use represents an advancement in the field of minimally invasive interventions. Comparison studies have shown that the anastomosis formed by MCA is comparable to or better than surgical sutures in terms of general appearance and histology. Although most of the current research has involved animal studies or studies with small populations, the safety and feasibility of MCA have been preliminarily demonstrated. Large prospective studies involving populations are still needed to guarantee the security of MCA. For technologies that have been initially used in clinical settings, effective measures should also be implemented to identify, even prevent, complications. Furthermore, specific commercial magnets must be created and optimized in this emerging area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we mainly investigate the dynamics of traveling wavefronts for a model describing host tissue degradation by bacteria. We first establish the existence of spreading speed, and show that the spreading speed coincides with the minimal wave speed of traveling wavefronts. Moreover, a lower bound estimate of the spreading speed is given. Then, we prove that the traveling wavefronts with large speeds are globally exponentially stable, when the initial perturbation around the traveling wavefronts decays exponentially as x → − ∞ , but the initial perturbation can be arbitrarily large in other locations. The adopted methods are the weighted energy and the squeezing technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of camrelizumab combined with docetaxel and carboplatin as a neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Fifty-one patients with OSCC, treated from July 2020 to October 2022, were analyzed. Of them, 41 patients underwent surgery 4–8 weeks after undergoing two cycles of camrelizumab (200 mg IV Q3W) combined with docetaxel (75 mg/m2 IV Q3W) and carboplatin (area under the curve = 5–6 IV Q3W). The primary endpoint was the pathological complete response rate. All 51 patients (100%) experienced treatment-related grades 1–2 adverse events, and 2 patients (3.9%) experienced grade 4 events (including elevated alanine transaminase/aspartate transferase levels and Guillain–Barre syndrome). Fifty patients were evaluated for the treatment efficacy. Of them, 13 achieved complete response, and the objective response rate was 74%. Only 41 patients underwent surgical treatment. The pathological complete response rate was 17.1%, the major pathological response rate was 63.4%, and the R0 resection rate was 100%. Approximately 22% of the patients had tumor regression grades 0. Eight patients (19.5%) developed surgery-related complications. The median follow-up time was 18 months (range: 3–29 months). Four patients experienced disease progression, while four died. The median disease-free survival and overall survival were not reached. Camrelizumab combined with docetaxel and carboplatin is an effective and safe neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced OSCC. This regimen may afford a potential strategy to treat patients with locally advanced OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diamond wire cutting polysilicon waste powder is a potential raw material for the preparation of α-Si3N4 fibers with its ultra-fine particle size and high reactivity. In this study, a new method for the preparation of α-Si3N4 fibers by additive-assisted nitridation was proposed, and the effects of type and content of additives, temperature and time on the nitridation of polysilicon waste powder were investigated in detail. The experimental results showed that compared to the samples without additive assistance, the samples containing 50 wt.% additive can obtain silicon nitride powders dominated by α-Si3N4 fibers after nitriding at 1250 °C for 8 h. Moreover, the growth of α-Si3N4 fibers obeys the VS mechanism. The decomposition of urea and melamine at low temperature produces a large number of pores, which in turn promotes the nitridation of polysilicon waste powder. The addition of α-Si3N4 acts as a diluent on the one hand, and provides nucleation conditions for the growth of α-Si3N4 fibers on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porphyrins have been widely used in designing photocatalyst systems. However, finding an effective strategy to improve the intrinsic photocatalytic activity of porphyrin molecules remains a challenge. Here, two new porphyrins, meso-tetra(5-carboxyfuryl)porphyrin (H2TCFP) and meso-tetra(5-carboxythienyl)porphyrin (H2TCTP), were successfully synthesized and compared with meso-tetra(m-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (H2TmCPP), to clarify the influence of the organic unit bridging the carboxyl acid group with the porphine ring on the photocatalytic activity of porphyrin for H2 evolution from water splitting. The H2 evolution rates of 10.8 mmol g−1 h−1 observed for H2TCFP and 9.7 mmol g−1 h−1 for H2TCTP are both larger than 8.0 mmol g−1 h−1 observed for H2TmCTP under optimal conditions. The best photocatalytic activity observed for H2TCFP was investigated through experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations and was interpreted in terms of the combined effect of several key factors of the entire photocatalytic process, including the high absorptivity of UV light, high separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers, and low Gibbs energy required for associated water splitting. Meanwhile, the concentration-dependent performance of photocatalytic activity was analyzed and attributed to the aggregation and light-bleaching effect exerted on porphyrins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the existence of traveling wave solutions for a nonlocal evolution equation with delayed nonlocal response and sign-changing kernel. By constructing a new pair of upper-lower solutions and applying Schauder’s fixed point theorem, we first prove that there exists a number c # > 0 such that when c > c # , the nonlocal evolution equation admits a semi-wave solution with wave speed c, which connects the trivial equilibrium 0 at negative infinity. Then, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of wave profile at positive infinity and obtain the existence of a traveling wave solution with speed c and connecting the trivial equilibrium 0 and the positive equilibrium 1, when the wave speed c is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of whole-rock compositions to trace magma evolution or crystal-melt equilibrium may be called into question when foreign crystals are incorporated into host magmas. To address this challenge, establishing the origins (orthocrysts, antecrysts, xenocrysts, etc.) of minerals with variable textures in magmatic plumbing systems is necessary. In this paper, we describe complex oscillatory zoning patterns of clinopyroxenes (Cpx) from the Miocene Majuangou (MJG) alkali basalts from West Qinling, China. Our detailed petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical analyses unravel the origins of various Cpx crystals with distinct textural patterns, thereby providing information about magma storage, recharging and/or mixing, and transportation, as well as the reactions between crystals and melts/fluids. Based on textural patterns, Cpx may be divided into four types: normal (Type-1 Cpx), simple oscillatory (Type-2 Cpx), complex oscillatory (Type-3 Cpx), and grains that lack zoning (Type-4 Cpx, suggested to be orthocrysts). Through the textural characterization of Cpx, the comparison between different types of Cpx, and the relationships between Cpx major compositions from different lithologies, we concluded that Type-1–3 Cpx cores are antecrysts or xenocrysts with diverse origins: primitive magma (Type-1 Cpx cores), magma mush (Type-2 Cpx cores), and crustal granulite (Type-3 Cpx cores). The zoning patterns and the compositions of these Cpx crystals indicate at least three batches of magmatic activity, i.e., the Batch-1 low-Mg# magma (Mg#: 47.4–53.3), the Batch-2 primitive magma (Mg#: 57.2–64.5), and the Batch-3 low-Mg# host alkali magma (Mg#: 47.2–54.6). Cpx-melt thermobarometry demonstrates that at least two crustal magma reservoirs existed in the magma plumbing system at depths of 30.1 and 40.9 km. The antecrystic/xenocrystic Cpx cores were captured by, continued to grow in, and subsequently reacted with ascending K-rich melt/fluid. The spongy textures in Cpx cores/mantles are attributed to this reaction, which may be expressed as: Melt 1 (primitive or evolved) + K-rich melts/fluids + Cpx (CaMgSi2O6) = K-feldspar (KAlSi3O8) + ilmenite (FeTiO3) + Melt 2 (derivative). The products of this reaction (K-feldspar and ilmenite) filled the sieves in the spongy zones of Type-1–3 Cpx. This detailed investigation of compositional and textural features of Cpx antecrysts/xenocrysts suggests that the interactions between various interconnected magma reservoirs are widespread beneath the magmatic plumbing system. Our study emphasizes the importance of the incorporation of foreign crystals and the Cpx-melt/fluid reaction in magmatic plumbing system, which can significantly modify the whole-rock compositions and lead to the formation of spongy textures without the need for fractures and cracks in minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the success of deep learning in land cover classification, high-resolution (HR) land cover mapping remains challenging due to the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of collecting training samples. Many global land cover products (LCP) can reflect the low-level commonality (LLC) knowledge of land covers, such as basic shape and underlying semantic information. Therefore, we expect to use LCP as weakly supervised information to guide the semantic segmentation of HR images. We regard high-level specialty (HLS) knowledge as HR information unavailable in the LCP. We believe LLC knowledge can gradually evolve into HLS knowledge through self-active learning. Hence, we design a knowledge evolution learning strategy from LLC to HLS knowledge and correspondingly devise a knowledge evolution weakly supervised learning framework (KE-WESUP) based on LCP. KE-WESUP mainly includes three tasks: (1) Abstraction of LLC knowledge. KE-WESUP first adopts a training method based on superpixel to alleviate the inconsistency between LCP and HR images and directly learns the LLC knowledge from LCP according to the feature-fitting capacity of convolutional neural networks. (2) Automatic exploration of HLS knowledge. We propose a dynamic label optimization strategy to obtain a small number of point labels with high confidence and encourage the model to automatically mine HLS knowledge through the knowledge exploration mechanism, which prompts the model to adapt to complexHR scenes. (3) Dynamic interaction of LLC and HLS knowledge. We adopt the consistency regularization method to achieve further optimization and verification of LLC and HLS knowledge. To verify the effectiveness of KE-WESUP, we conduct experiments on USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (1 m) and GaoFen-2 (1 m) data using WolrdCover (10 m) as labels. The results show that KE-WESUP achieves outstanding results in both experiments, which has significant advantages over existing weakly supervised methods. Therefore, the proposed method has great potential in utilizing the prior information of LCP and is expected to become a new paradigm for large-scale HR land cover classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A copper‐catalyzed α,β‐regioselective (2+4) cycloaddition of propargylic esters with o‐hydroxyphenyl substituted secondary phosphine oxides (SPOs) was established, which afforded a series of phosphorus‐containing six‐membered heterocycles in high yields. This reaction represents the first α,β‐regioselective (2+n) cycloaddition of propargylic esters via the intermediates of copper‐allenylidenes, which will enrich the chemistry of propargylic esters and copper‐allenylidenes. Moreover, this work also represents the first application of o‐hydroxyphenyl substituted SPOs as 1,4‐dinucleophiles in (2+4) cycloadditions, which provides a useful protocol for the synthesis of phosphorus‐containing six‐membered heterocycles with potential bioactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen-rich syngas, produced from biomass-based feedstocks, is a promising alternative energy source. However, its combustion characteristics are completely different from those of typical hydrocarbon fuels due to the presence of hydrogen. As a result, the kinetic mechanism of hydrogen-rich syngas premixed flame (HRSPF) propagation is very complex. In this work, the propagation of HRSPF was investigated employing different fan speeds (0–4273 rpm), hydrogen fractions (55%–95%), pressures (1.0 bar–3.0 bar), and equivalence ratios (0.6–1.0). It was found that the propagation speed of turbulent HRSPF increased when the mixing process of turbulent flow was enhanced or the stretching effect of flame front was weakened. When the turbulence intensity increased, the effect of flame inherent instability on the propagation speed of HRSPF was weakened. When the relative changes of thermal diffusion and mass diffusion of flame front were considerable, the effect of diffusional-thermal instability on flame acceleration process was more significant. On the contrary, the effect of hydrodynamic instability on flame acceleration process was more significant. [Display omitted] • The stretching effect of flame front on flame propagation was studied. • Effect of both turbulence and flame inherent instabilities on the u t were evaluated. • Self-similar propagation coupled with diffusional-thermal instability was analyzed. • Effect of accelerated propagation process of the HRSPF was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, ultrafine borides powders including (W,Mo)B, (W,Mo)B 2.5 and (Mo,W)AlB were successfully fabricated via boronizing ultrafine W-Mo solid solution composite powder with B 4 C as the boron source under the assistance of Ca melt or Al melt. Ultrafine W-Mo solid solution powder was obtained by using a two-stage reduction route to reduce the precursor powder synthesized by spray drying. Meanwhile, the effects of Mo/W ratio on the phase composition, morphological characteristics and particle size distribution of boride solid solution composite powder were thoroughly investigated. The shift of diffraction peak in the XRD spectrum, the linear change of lattice constant and the homogeneous distributions of W, Mo, B and Al in the EDS energy spectrum comprehensively confirmed that the boride solid solution with different Mo/W ratios could be prepared. Due to the essentially insolubilities of W and Mo in Ca melt, the (W, Mo)B grains grew following a template growth mechanism, and inherited the nearly spherical morphology feature of ultrafine W-Mo solid solution composite powder with a particle size of approximately 200 nm. Nonetheless, as a result of the high solubilities of W, Mo, and B in Al melt, the process of dissolution-precipitation led to the formations of flaky (W, Mo)B 2.5 and short rod-shaped (Mo, W)AlB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the existence and stability of traveling wavefronts for a nonlocal delay Belousov–Zhabotinskii system. We first introduce the new variable and change the two-dimensional system with nonlocal delay into a three-dimensional system without delay. Then the existence of traveling wavefronts is obtained by constructing a pair of suitable super- and sub-solutions and applying Schauder's fixed point theorem. Finally, we establish the exponential stability of traveling wavefronts with large speed by the weighted energy method together with the comparison principle, when the initial perturbation around the traveling wavefront decays exponentially as x → − ∞ , but can be arbitrarily large in other locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Ferroptosis, a new regulated cell death pathway, plays a crucial part in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the precise underlying mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate this. Methods: Herein, an erastin-induced H9C2 cell ferroptosis in vitro model and a myocardial infarction murine model, which was created by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery, were established. Ferroptosis-related indicators, myocardial injury-related indicators, and Nrf2 signaling-related proteins expression were analyzed to explore the potential mechanism underlying cardiomyocyte ferroptosis-mediated cardiovascular disease development. Results: We demonstrated that Nrf2 downregulation in myocardial tissue, accompanied by ferroptotic events and changes in xCT and GPX4 expressions, induced cardiomyocyte ferroptosis and myocardial injury after myocardial infarction. These events, including ferroptosis and changes in Nrf2, xCT, and GPX4 expressions, were improved by ferrostatin-1 in vivo and in vitro. Besides, Nrf2 deficiency or inhibition aggravated myocardial infarction-induced cardiomyocyte ferroptosis by decreasing xCT and GPX4 expressions in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, ferrostatin-1 directly targeted Nrf2, as evidenced by surface plasmon resonance analysis. Conclusions: These results indicated that myocardial infarction is accompanied by cardiomyocyte ferroptosis and that Nrf2 signaling plays a crucial part in regulating cardiomyocyte ferroptosis after myocardial infarction. Graphical Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously reported that REBACIN effectively eliminates persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) infection. Here, we conducted a prospective multicenter cohort study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of REBACIN, taking into account factors such as specific hrHPV subtype and patient's age. According to inclusion/exclusion criteria and participant willingness, 3252 patients were divided into REBACIN group while 249 patients into control group. Patients in REBACIN group received one course treatment of intravaginal administration of REBACIN while no treatment in control group. After drug withdrawal, participants in both groups were followed up. The clearance rate of persistent hrHPV infection in REBACIN group was 60.64%, compared to 20.08% in control group. Specifically, the clearance rates for single-type infection of HPV16 or HPV18 were 70.62% and 69.23%, respectively, which was higher than that of HPV52 (59.04%) or HPV58 (62.64%). In addition, the single, double, and triple/triple+ infections had a clearance rate of 65.70%, 53.31%, and 38.30%, respectively. Moreover, 1635 patients under 40 years old had a clearance rate of 65.14%, while it was 55.08% for 1447 patients over 40 years old. No serious adverse effects were found. This study confirmed that REBACIN can effectively and safely eliminate persistent hrHPV infection, which the clearance rate of HPV16/18 is higher than that of HPV52/58, the clearance rate of single-type infection is higher than that of multiple-type infections, and the clearance rate in young patients is higher than that in elder patients, providing a guidance for REBACIN application in clearing hrHPV persistent infection in real-world settings. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Registration Number: ChiCTR1800015617 http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=26529 Date of Registration: 2018-04-11 • REBACIN is safe and effective for eliminating persistent high-risk HPV infection in a real-world clinical setting. • HPV16/18 is cleared more easily than HPV52/58. • Single-type infections are cleared more easily than multiple-type infections. • Young patients have a higher clearance rate than older patients. • Providing valuable guidance for clinical use of REBACIN while also suggesting potential areas for future basic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ligustilide (LIG) and n-butylphthalide (NBP) have neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemia; however, their roles in gliomas are not well-known.This study aimed to explore the anti-glioma effects of LIG and NBP individually and the synergistic effects of temozolomide (TMZ) via the PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway.Materials and Methods: Cytotoxicity of LIG and NBP alone and in combination with TMZ in U251 cells was determined using the CCk-8. The effect of compounds alone or in combination on cell migration was detected using the wound healing assay, and the invasion was evaluated by transwell assays, respectively. Cell apoptosis was quantified by flow cytometry and the changed expressions of proteins were detected by Western blotting.Results: The results showed that LIG and NBP significantly inhibited the growth of U251 cells at concentrations of 4– 10 μg/mL and 1.5– 6 μg/mL in a dose-dependent manner (p< 0.05, p< 0.01). The combination of 20 μg/mL TMZ with LIG in the concentration range of 4– 10 μg/mL or with NBP of 0.5– 6 μg/mlachieved synergistic effect towardsU251 cells. LIG and NBP, alone or in combination with TMZ, markedly inhibited cell invasion (p< 0.001) and enhanced apoptosis (p< 0.05). The combination of TMZ with LIG or NBP markedly inhibited cell migration (p< 0.001). Western blot analysis showed that LIG, NBP, and TMZ, alone and in combination, significantly decreased the expression of Bcl-2, p-PI3K, and p-Akt, and increased the expression of Bax.Conclusion: Both LIG and NBP exert anti-glioma effects on their own through the PI3K/Akt pathway and enhance TMZ-mediated anti-glioma efficiency via the same pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of suspension bridges' span makes vortex-induced vibration (VIV) appears more and more frequently, and once it occurs the closure of the bridge results in considerable economic losses. Investigating the dynamic behavior of the bridge experiencing VIV and the vehicles running on it is thus imperative for providing a reliable guidance for the managers to make operation decisions. Nevertheless, most of the existing studies focus on VIV of bridges subjected to smooth winds, but a certain level of turbulence always exists in reality. The effects of turbulence on vortex-induced dynamic response of the bridge and ride comfort of the vehicles are not clear. This study thus develops a coupled vortex-vehicle-bridge system applicable to the multi-mode lock-in regions of a twin-box deck subjected to both vortex-induced forces and buffeting forces in a turbulent flow. The system is then applied to a real long suspension bridge with three types of vehicles subjected to either smooth or turbulent winds. The results from the case study show that the increasing turbulence mitigates vortex-induced responses of both the bridge and the vehicles and reasonably improves the vehicles' ride comfort. However, the buffeting forces induced by turbulent wind component should not be ignored when turbulence intensity becomes high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, for the Allen–Cahn equation, we obtain the error estimate of the temporal semi-discrete scheme, and the fully-discrete finite element numerical scheme, both of which are based on the invariant energy quadratization (IEQ) time-marching strategy. We establish the relationship between the L 2 -error bound and the L ∞ / H 2 -stabilities of the numerical solution. Then, by converting the numerical schemes to a form compatible with the original format of the Allen–Cahn equation, using mathematical induction, the superconvergence property of nonlinear terms, and the spectrum argument, the optimal error estimates that only depends on the low-order polynomial degree of − 1 instead of e T / 2 for both of the semi and fully-discrete schemes are derived. Numerical experiment also validates our theoretical convergence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a clean fuel with low carbon emissions, hydrogen-rich syngas has higher flame propagation speed and higher adiabatic flame temperature than other gaseous fuels, so its local flame propagation characteristics are also different from other fuels. In this paper, an experimental study on the hydrogen-rich syngas turbulent premixed flame was carried out at different pressures [101–303 kPa (1.0–3.0 bar)] when the hydrogen fraction was 65%, the fan speed was 3,559 revolutions/min (rpm), and the equivalence ratio was 1.0. The results show that with the propagation of the flame or the increase in pressure, the fluctuation amplitude of flame local radius and flame local pulsation radius becomes smaller. Similarly, the flame local propagation speed increases with the increase of pressure. By analyzing the correlation between the turbulent premixed flame front structure and the turbulent premixed flame propagation process in hydrogen-rich syngas, it is found that when the pressure increases, the correlation between the flame local pulsation propagation speed and the flame local pulsation radius weakens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the propagation dynamics of a discrete diffusive equation with non‐local delay. First of all, by exploring the asymptotic behavior of the solution of the upper system corresponding to the perturbation equation, we obtain the global stability of semi‐wavefronts. It is noteworthy that the kernel function β(k)$$ \beta (k) $$ can be asymmetric (i.e., β(k)≠β(−k)$$ \beta (k)\ne \beta \left(-k\right) $$). Secondly, we estimate the level set of the equation on the basis of the above stability. In particular, the results show that the solution of the compact supported initial value problem is not persistent in special case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal inflammatory disease that involves host genetics, the microbiome, and inflammatory responses. The current consensus is that the disruption of the intestinal mucosal barrier is the core pathogenesis of IBD, including intestinal microbial factors, abnormal immune responses, and impaired intestinal mucosal barrier. Cumulative data show that nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors (NLRs) are dominant mediators in maintaining the homeostasis of the intestinal mucosal barrier, which play critical roles in sensing the commensal microbiota, maintaining homeostasis, and regulating intestinal inflammation. Blocking NLRs inflammasome activation by botanicals may be a promising way to prevent IBD progression. In this review, we systematically introduce the multiple roles of NLRs in regulating intestinal mucosal barrier homeostasis and focus on summarizing the activities and potential mechanisms of natural products against IBD. Aiming to propose new directions on the pathogenesis and precise treatment of IBD [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scene matching plays a vital role in the visual positioning of aircraft. The position and orientation of aircraft can be determined by comparing acquired real-time imagery with reference imagery. To enhance precise scene matching during flight, it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the reference imagery's matchability beforehand. Conventional approaches to image matchability analysis rely heavily on features that are manually designed. However, these features are inadequate in terms of comprehensiveness, efficiency, and taking into account the scene matching process, ultimately leading to unsatisfactory results. This paper innovatively proposes a core approach to quantifying matchability by utilizing scene information from imagery. The first proposal for generating image matchability samples through a simulation of the matching process has been developed. The RSPNet network architecture is designed to effectively leverage regional scene perception in order to accurately predict the matchability of reference imagery. This network comprises two core modules: saliency analysis and uniqueness analysis. The attention mechanism employed by saliency analysis module extracts features at different levels and scales, guaranteeing an accurate and meticulous quantification of image saliency. The uniqueness analysis module quantifies image uniqueness by comparing neighborhood scene features. The proposed method is compared with traditional and deep learning methods for experiments based on simulated datasets, respectively. The results demonstrate that RSPNet exhibits significant advantages in terms of accuracy and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this work is to investigate the existence and stability of traveling wavefronts for a three‐species competitive‐cooperative system with nonlocal dispersal. By applying monotone iteration method combining with a pair of suitable super‐ and sub‐solutions, we establish the existence of traveling wavefronts. The nonexistence of traveling wavefronts is obtained by a contradiction argument. Finally, by using the weighted energy method together with the comparison principle, we prove that the traveling wavefronts with relatively large speeds are exponentially stable as perturbation in some exponentially weighted spaces, when the difference between initial data and traveling wavefronts decays exponentially at negative infinity, but in other locations, the initial data can be very large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the two mainstream medical practices in China's healthcare system. Postgraduate students largely determine the development and advancement of TCM; therefore, their mental health and academic achievement are vital to their performance as practitioners. We conducted a longitudinal study to provide information on the changes in mental health before and after TCM training and the relationship between mental health and academic performance among postgraduate students. All participants were enrolled in full-time programs at a TCM university in China, and they completed our questionnaire in the first month of registering as postgraduate students and at the end of training 3 years later. The results showed that the rate of positive symptoms for mental distress among TCM postgraduates was higher (12.2%) at the beginning of the first postgraduate year than at the end of training (10.4%). Previous mental health status and comprehensive academic performance were predictors of mental health status at the second measurement. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of bubble structure and electron injection in laser wakefield acceleration with different optical cycles is investigated through three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Under fixed transverse and longitudinal ponderomotive force, the effect of optical cycles on the evolution of bubble structure and electron injection is studied by changing the laser wavelength. For a multi-cycle laser, electron acceleration is dominated by the ponderomotive force that produces symmetrical bubble and continuous injection. As the optical cycles decrease, the dominant effect of the electron acceleration can transition from the ponderomotive force to the carrier wave, and the carrier envelope phase shift can cause transverse oscillation of the bubble and periodic electron injection in the direction of laser polarization. The criterion for the dominant acceleration mechanism and the dependence of transition distance on the optical cycles and pulse width are obtained. The results are beneficial for manipulating electron acceleration and betatron radiation generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the study of traveling wavefronts for a three-component Lotka–Volterra system with nonlocal dispersal. This system arises in the study of three-species competition model in which there is no competition between two of these three species. It has been shown that this system admits a bistable traveling wavefront. In this paper, we further investigate the stability of bistable traveling wavefronts. By constructing suitable super- and sub-solutions and using a dynamical system approach, we obtain the globally asymptotic stability of the bistable traveling wavefronts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, first we propose a general modulus-based matrix splitting iteration method for solving horizontal linear complementarity problems. In order to improve the computing efficiency, we further propose a preconditioned general modulus-based matrix splitting iteration method. We establish the convergence theorems when the coefficient matrices are (symmetric) positive definite matrices and H+-matrices, respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed preconditioned general modulus-based matrix splitting iteration method is superior than some existing methods and the general modulus-based matrix splitting iteration method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a modified monoclinic metastable β-MoO 3 (identified as N-doped β-MoO 3- θ) submicrospheres (SMSs) were prepared by the method of sublimation with using industrial MoO 3 as the raw material in the range of 1173–1373 K. Various technologies such as XRD, SEM, FE-SEM, TEM, Raman, and XPS spectra were adopted to characterize the as-prepared product. The result showed that the phase composition of the as-prepared product had no obvious relationship with the reaction temperature and cooling condition, while the pumping speed of the system exerted important roles on it. When the pumping speeds were low (4 and 15 cm/s), uniform N-doped β-MoO 3- θ SMSs were prepared; increasing the pumping speeds to 20 cm/s or higher, both N-doped β-MoO 3- θ SMSs and α-MoO 3 nanoplates (NPs) were appeared. Optimum conditions for the controllable preparation of N-doped β-MoO 3- θ SMSs were recognized as 1273 K, water cooling, and with a pumping speed of 4–15 cm/s. The growth mechanism of large MoO 3 spherical-shaped particles were due to the collision and gases deposition effects. This work also discovered that the cracking phenomena were often occurred on the surface of large MoO 3 particles obtained under the air cooling and high pumping speed conditions, and the possible cracking mechanisms were illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a modified generalized SOR-like (MGSOR) method for solving an absolute value equation (AVE), which is obtained by reformulating equivalently AVE as a two-by-two block nonlinear equation and by introducing the transformation P y := | x | with a general nonsingular matrix P. The convergence results of the MGSOR method are obtained under certain assumptions imposed on the involved parameters. Furthermore, the optimal parameters minimizing the convergence rate of the MGSOR method for solving AVE are studied in detail. Numerical experiments further illustrate that the MGSOR method is efficient and has better performance than some existing iteration methods in aspects of the number of iteration steps and CPU time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the exponential stability of traveling wavefronts for a system modeling the geographic spread of black-legged tick Ixodes scapularis. It is shown in a recent work (Lai and Zou in J Differ Equ 269: 6400-6421, 2020) that this system admits traveling wavefronts when the basic reproduction number is greater than one and the wave speeds are larger than or equal to the asymptotic speed of spread. In this paper, we further study the asymptotic stability of traveling wavefronts. Applying the techniques of weighted energy method and the comparison principle, we prove that the traveling wavefronts with relatively large speed are exponentially stable, when the initial perturbation around the traveling wavefronts decays exponentially as x → - ∞ , but can be arbitrarily large in other locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Internet of Vehicles scenario, the in-vehicle terminal cannot meet the requirements of computing tasks in terms of delay and energy consumption; the introduction of cloud computing and MEC is an effective way to solve the above problem. The in-vehicle terminal requires a high task processing delay, and due to the high delay of cloud computing to upload computing tasks to the cloud, the MEC server has limited computing resources, which will increase the task processing delay when there are more tasks. To solve the above problems, a vehicle computing network based on cloud-edge-end collaborative computing is proposed, in which cloud servers, edge servers, service vehicles, and task vehicles themselves can provide computing services. A model of the cloud-edge-end collaborative computing system for the Internet of Vehicles is constructed, and a computational offloading strategy problem is given. Then, a computational offloading strategy based on the M-TSA algorithm and combined with task prioritization and computational offloading node prediction is proposed. Finally, comparative experiments are conducted under task instances simulating real road vehicle conditions to demonstrate the superiority of our network, where our offloading strategy significantly improves the utility of task offloading and reduces offloading delay and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of the powerful building block is of great significance to construct materials with advanced properties. Herein, for the first time, a triazole‐based luminescent core with balanced twist and conjugation is reported, which is explored to construct a D‐A near‐infrared (NIR) aggregation‐induced emission luminogens (TPT‐DCM) with high molar extinction coefficient, good brightness and excellent reactive oxygen species generation rate. These features enable it to function as a nanoprobe with ultralong NIR afterglow luminescence (up to 20 days) and ultrahigh tumor‐to‐liver signal ratio (up to 187) for in vivo deep‐tissue afterglow imaging (with depth reaching 1.6 cm), in combination with chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer aided by active Schaap's dioxetane. Moreover, thanks to the excellent properties of the nanoprobe, the afterglow imaging‐guided surgery navigation can be successfully conduced to remove the tumors especially with tiny size of < 1 mm. This is particularly useful to eliminate tumor residuals and prevent the cancer recurrence after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of appropriate grapevine trellis systems is of great importance for regulating vine vigor, forming grape yield, improving fruit quality, and labor-saving field management in the North China Plain. The effects of two trellis systems on the viticultural characteristics and fruit quality of three table grape cultivars: RuiduHongyu (RDHY), RuiduXiangyu (RDXY), and Red Globe (RG) were investigated. The two trellis systems were: (i) T trellis, with shoots positioned horizontally and downwards; and (ii) V trellis, with shoots positioned upright with an inclined angle. Headspace-solid-phase micro-extraction combined with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was used to determine the compositions and contents of the monoterpenes in the fruit. The results showed that for RDHY and RG, the T trellis showed better shoot growth consistency. The sugar–acid ratios of RDHY in 2019 and RDXY in 2021 under the T trellis were significantly higher than those under the V trellis. In 2020 and 2021, RDHY showed significantly higher total anthocyanin, flavonoid, and proanthocyanidin concentrations under the T trellis. The total monoterpene content in RDHY berries was significantly higher under the T trellis. The aromatic profiles of RDHY and RDXY grapes were similar and were mainly composed of citrus, other floral, other fruit, and rose aromatic characteristics. Among them, the main aromatic characteristics varied greatly among the different treatments. In conclusion, the Eurasian table grape cultivars with muscat flavor showed a more moderate and controllable vine vigor, consistent shoot growth, better fruit quality and taste, and greater accumulation of polyphenolic compounds and monoterpenes under the T trellis system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background or Purpose: A practical noninvasive method to identify sentinel lymph node (SLN) status in breast cancer patients, who had a suspicious axillary lymph node (ALN) at ultrasound (US), but a negative clinical physical examination is needed. To predict SLN metastasis using a nomogram based on US and biopsy‐based pathological features, this retrospective study investigated associations between clinicopathological features and SLN status. Methods: Patients treated with SLN dissection at four centers were apportioned to training, internal, or external validation sets (n = 472, 175, and 81). Lymph node ultrasound and pathological characteristics were compared using chi‐squared and t‐tests. A nomogram predicting SLN metastasis was constructed using multivariate logistic regression models. Results: In the training set, statistically significant factors associated with SLN+ were as follows: histology type (p < 0.001); progesterone receptor (PR: p = 0.003); Her‐2 status (p = 0.049); and ALN‐US shape (p = 0.034), corticomedullary demarcation (CMD: p < 0.001), and blood flow (p = 0.001). With multivariate analysis, five independent variables (histological type, PR status, ALN‐US shape, CMD, and blood flow) were integrated into the nomogram (C‐statistic 0.714 [95% CI: 0.688–0.740]) and validated internally (0.816 [95% CI: 0.784–0.849]) and externally (0.942 [95% CI: 0.918–0.966]), with good predictive accuracy and clinical applicability. Conclusion: This nomogram could be a direct and reliable tool for individual preoperative evaluation of SLN status, and therefore aids decisions concerning ALN dissection and adjuvant treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the entire solutions of a discrete diffusive equation with inhomogeneous bistable nonlinearity. Here, the inhomogeneous nonlinearity consists of two spatially independent bistable nonlinearities, which are connected by a compact transition region. An entire solution means a classical solution defined for all space and time variables. It is known that the homogeneous bistable equation has unique bistable traveling wavefront. We first give the asymptotic estimates of the bistable traveling wavefront of the homogeneous bistable equation and then establish the comparison principle for the inhomogeneous bistable equation. Next, based on the bistable traveling wavefront of homogeneous equation, we construct some suitable super- and sub-solutions. By applying the comparison principle and the super- and sub-solutions method, we prove the existence of entire solutions. Moreover, the strict monotonicity in time and uniqueness of entire solutions are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-source land cover products (LCPs) are essential for many areas of scientific research. However, they have deficiencies such as low accuracy, low resolution, and poor timeliness when applied to a specific area. Therefore, we developed WESUP-LCP, a novel two-stage weakly supervised semantic segmentation framework to improve the resolution of LCPs without any manual labeling cost. In the first stage, we designed a sample transferring module to transfer accurate and representative training samples from low-resolution LCPs. In the second, partially labeled superpixels generated from the transferred labels were used to train the weakly supervised learning network and pseudo-labels were generated through dynamic label propagation during the training process. We designed two experiments to verify the performance of the proposed method, including the experiment on improving the resolution of LCP in specific areas (improving 30 m LCP to 10 m resolution) and the experiment on the public dataset of the multi-temporal semantic change detection task of 2021 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest (improving 30 m LCP to 1 m resolution). The results showed that our method has remarkable advantages over other methods, demonstrating the applicability of WESUP-LCP to improve LCP resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oilfield water-flooding has been treated by electro coagulation technique using aluminum electrode. The results show that the electrocoagulation has a good removal effect on removing oil in oilfield water-flooding. The influences of the factors on the removal efficiency were investigated, such as electrode material, electrolysis time, current density, pH and electrode plate spacing. The experimental results showed that when using aluminum electrode plate, electrolytic time was 8 min, electrode plate spacing was 20 mm, current density was 5 mA/cm², oilfield water injection can meet the enterprise standard of oilfield water-flooding. At the same time, the electro coagulation technology has high efficiency in the treatment of oilfield water-flooding, and the cost of the aluminum electrode plate is low, so it has a good application prospect in the treatment of oilfield water-flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three kinds of free base meso‐carboxyphenylporphyrins were compared about their photocatalytic activity to elucidate the role of −COOH group playing in H2 evolution from water splitting. Meso‐tetra(3,5‐dicarboxyphenyl)porphyrin (H2TDCPP) gives a much larger H2 evolution rate than other two porphyrins, attributable to more −COOH groups involved that may interact with H2O. This interaction, as revealed by DFT calculation, initiates H2 evolution from the splitting of associated H2O under ultraviolet light irradiation resulted by effective transfer of photogenerated electron from central porphine ring to meso‐substituents and then further to the interacted water. Improving the accessibility of −COOH groups to water molecule by optimizing H2TDCPP dosage induces an H2 evolution rate around 31.21 mmol ⋅ h−1 ⋅ g−1 (pH=7, full‐spectrum light), which is unprecedented for free based porphyrin photocatalysts without metal‐cocatalysts. This work clarifies the active site role of −COOH groups and paves a new way to design high‐performed organic photocatalysis by introducing polar groups‐based active sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abnormality in the regulation of adenosine deaminase acting on RNA (ADAR) enzymes, which catalyzed adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing, was closely associated with the highly aggressive biologic behavior and poor prognosis in many malignancies. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the relationship among transcript factors-microRNAs regulatory network, immune environment, and ADAR gene in colorectal carcinoma (CRC). The association among the expression levels of ADAR mRNA and copy number variation, methylation, and mutation status were comprehensively analyzed using cBioPortal, Wanderer, and UALCAN databases in CRC datasets. ADAR-transcript factors (TFs) and ADAR-miRNA regulation networks were constructed by Cistrome Cancer and miRWalk2.0, respectively. The full network and subnetworks for ADAR coexpression genes were constructed using the STRING database and visualized by the MCODE module of the Cytoscape app. The relationship between ADAR mRNA expression and the abundance of infiltrating immune cells in CRC patients was explored by the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource, CIBERSORT, and single-gene gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). ADAR mRNA was elevated and was a cancer essential gene in CRC. ADAR mRNA and transcripts P110 were significantly elevated in CRC compared to normal controls. Low-level methylation in the promoter region and high copy number amplification of ADAR were responsible for high levels of ADAR mRNA expression. ADAR coexpression genes were mainly involved in immunoregulation, especially T-lymphocyte activation. Hub genes, including CD2, CD274, and FASLG, were also significantly upregulated in the ADAR-high group compared to the control group. Besides, M1 macrophages were enriched in the ADAR-high group compared to the control group. This study demonstrated that ADAR, a new essential gene, was involved in the immune regulator and was a novel immune treatment target in CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic and high-precision extraction of buildings from remote sensing images has a wide range of application and importance. Optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are typical types of multimodal remote sensing data with different imaging methods. To bridge the huge gap between them and achieve high-precision joint semantic segmentation, this study proposes a progressive fusion learning framework. The framework explicitly extracts the shared features (that is, modal invariants) of multimodal images as the information medium and realizes information fusion through multistage learning. Based on this framework, we design a network called the multistage multimodal fusion network (MMFNet), which uses phase as a modal invariant to joint optical and SAR images to achieve high-precision building extraction. We conducted experiments with the Multi-Sensor All-Weather Mapping aerial dataset and the WHU-OPT-SAR_WuHan satellite dataset. This study shows MMFNet has a significant extraction effect and yields more optimized extraction of the edge details of buildings, which is improved by 0.2% to 9.5% compared to other multimodal joint segmentation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent pharmacological studies have shown that dragon's blood has an anti-cerebral ischemia effect. Loureirin C (LC), a kind of dihydrochalcone compound in dragon's blood, is believed to be play an important role in the treatment of ischemia stroke, but fewer studies for LC have been done. In this paper, we report the first experimental and theoretical studies on the antioxidation mechanism of LC by radical scavenging. The experimental studies show that LC has almost no effect on cell viability under 15 μM for the SH-SY5Y cells without any treatments. For the SH-SY5Y cells with oxygen and glucose deprivation-reperfusion (OGD/R) treatment, LC increased the viability of SH-SY5Y cells. The results of 2′,7′-Dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) and MitoSox Red experiments indicate that LC is very efficient in inhibiting the generation of the intracellular/mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) or removing these two kinds of generated ROS. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations allowed us to elucidate the antioxidation mechanisms of LC. Fukui function analysis reveals the radical scavenging of LC by hydrogen abstraction mechanism, the complex formation by e-transfer, and radical adduct formation (RAF) mechanism. Among the H-abstraction, the complex formation by e-transfer, and radical adduct formation (RAF) reactions on LC, the H-abstraction at O-H35 position by OH• is favorable with the smallest energy difference between the product and two reactants of the attack of OH• to LC of −0.0748 Ha. The bond dissociation enthalpies (BDE), proton affinities (PA), ionization potential (IP), proton dissociation enthalpy (PDE), and electron transfer enthalpy (ETE) were calculated to determine thermodynamically preferred reaction pathway for hydrogen abstraction mechanism. In water, IP and the lowest PDE value at O3-H35 position are lower than the lowest BDE value at O3-H35 position; 41.8986 and 34.221 kcal/mol, respectively, indicating that SEPT mechanism is a preferred one in water in comparison with the HAT mechanism. The PA value of O3-H35 of LC in water is −17.8594 kcal/mol, thus the first step of SPLET would occur spontaneously. The minimum value of ETE is higher than the minimum value of PDE at O3-H35 position and IP value, 14.7332 and 22.4108 kcal/mol, respectively, which suggests that the SEPT mechanism is a preferred one in water in comparison with the SPLET mechanism. Thus, we can draw a conclusion that the SEPT mechanism of is the most favorite hydrogen abstraction mechanism in water, and O-H35 hydroxyl group has the greatest ability to donate H-atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Didymodon Hedw., with approximately 140 species in the family Pottiaceae, is distributed nearly throughout the world, with the greatest diversity and important ecological functions in drought lands and alpine ecosystems. Several studies involving morphology, molecular systematics, and macro‐systematic analysis have addressed the infrageneric classification of Didymodon, but controversy over the position of the infrageneric and species classification remains due to its high degree of morphological variation in micro‐habitats and strong sensitivity to climate change at regional and global scale. To date, only a few phylogenetic studies have been conducted with an incomplete number of Didymodon species; further, there is no study published regarding the divergence time of Didymodon. Consequently, we conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Didymodon species, sampling a total of 107 species, based on one nuclear (ITS) and five chloroplast DNA. Moreover, divergence time analysis was conducted to infer the age of origin and divergence of Didymodon species. Our results presented the largest scale phylogenetic relationship of Didymodon to date and resolved the phylogenetic status of some controversial taxa and the new species. The divergence time estimation showed that Didymodon species originated around the early Cretaceous, and the diversification was concentrated in the Cretaceous and Eocene. Paleoclimate and environmental change have a direct impact on the origin and divergence of Didymodon species by shaping their morphology, resource availability and ecological niche. Our study will help understand species origin and speciation of Didymodon as well as reflecting species adaptability and experience to historical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we develop the first and second order unconditionally energy stable schemes for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations and design robust preconditioners for these schemes. Inspired by operator preconditioning ideas, appropriate parameter‐dependent norms on function spaces are subtly defined to uniformly bound the bilinear and trilinear terms, which implies the uniform well‐posedness of the schemes under the newly defined norms. Then robust block preconditioners are constructed using the Riesz operators. We prove that, if time step size k≤C$$ k\le C $$, the proposed preconditioners are uniformly robust with respect to physical parameters and discrete parameters. Various numerical experiments, including energy stability tests, Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and magnetic driven cavity physical benchmark problems, are presented to manifest unconditional energy stability of the schemes and robustness of our preconditioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-entropy (HE) ceramics nanoparticles have received much attention due to their interesting properties. However, very limited studies have been conducted on their sintering. Here, we report the sintering behavior of HE A 2 B 2 O 7 type rare earth oxide nanoparticles obtained by polyol process. HE cerate (HECe) (La 0.2 Y 0.2 Nd 0.2 Sm 0.2 Gd 0.2) 2 Ce 2 O 7-δ is chosen as an exemplary case, which is considered as a good candidate for thermal insulation. HECe nanoparticles with size of 2.6–7.1 nm can be synthesized through polyol process followed by annealing in air at 300–700 °C. HECe nanoparticle compact can be densified by directly sintering at 1500 °C. The sintering temperature could be further decreased using a two-step sintering process, i.e., 1500 °C 5 min-1300 °C 5 h. Our results show that fine particle and abundant oxygen vacancies probably dominate the densification process. By controlling the sintering regime, we can tune the microstructure of HECe ceramics and thermal conductive properties accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disordered lipid metabolism plays an essential role in both the initiation and progression of alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD), and fatty acid β-oxidation is increasingly considered as a crucial factor for controlling lipid metabolism. Hif-2α is a member of the Hif family of nuclear receptors, which take part in regulating hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation. However, its functional role in AFLD and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Results: Hif-2α was upregulated in EtOH-fed mice and EtOH-treated AML-12 cells. Inhibition or silencing of Hif-2α led to increased fatty acid β-oxidation and BNIP3-dependent mitophagy. Downregulation of Hif-2α activates the PPAR-α/PGC-1α signaling pathway, which is involved in hepatic fatty acid β-oxidation, by mediating BNIP3-dependent mitophagy, ultimately delaying the progression of AFLD. Conclusions: Hif-2α induces liver steatosis, which promotes the progression of AFLD. Here, we have described a novel Hif-2α-BNIP3-dependent mitophagy regulatory pathway interconnected with EtOH-induced lipid accumulation, which could be a potential therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of AFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fractional Black-Scholes (FBS) equation has been widely applied in options pricing problems. However, most of the literatures focus on pricing the single-asset option using the FBS model, and research on time-space FBS with multiple assets has remained vacant. Option pricings are always governed by multiple assets. Under the assumption that fluctuation of asset price is regarded as a fractal transmission system and follows two independent geometric Lévy processes, 2D time-space fractional Black-Scholes equation (TDTSFBSE) is proposed to describe the instantaneous price in the financial market. In this work, we discrete the TDTSFBSE with implicit finite difference and present a fast parallel all-at-once iterative method for the resulting linear system. The proposed method can greatly reduce the storage requirements and computational cost. Theoretically, we discuss the convergence property of the fast iterative method. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sanguisorba is a small genus which consists of about 15 species widely distributed in North America and Eurasia. Previous studies on Sanguisorba are useful for understanding its phylogeny and chloroplast (cp) genome evolution, however, the cp genome resources of Sanguisorba are still limited, and the phylogeny and molecular dating for Sanguisorba and its relatives still need to be further explored. Here, we report four cp genomes of Sanguisorba and conduct comparative analysis of these four Sanguisorba cp genomes plus five previously published ones. The nine cp genomes have a typical quadripartite structure with a total length of 154 282–155 730 bp and their gene content, gene structure and gene order are relatively conserved. Analysis of single copy (SC)/inverted repeat (IR) boundaries shows only very slight boundary differences among the Sanguisorba cp genomes. Eight variation hotspots were screened as excellent candidate markers for future studies in Sanguisorba. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that Sanguisorba is monophyletic and a member of Agrimonieae subtribe Sanguisorbinae. Within Sanguisorba, S. filiformis is the sister group of the six other taxa in the present sampling. Estimation of divergence times indicates that the subtribes Agrimoniinae and Sanguisorbinae diverged at the transition between the Oligocene and the Miocene, and divergent times of Agrimonieae genera ranged from the late Miocene to the Middle Pleistocene. This study enriches the available cp genome resources of Sanguisorba, and it is of great significance to further study of the phylogeny and evolution of Sanguisorba and its relatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]