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Rock discontinuity information plays a key role in engineering activities. In severely fragmented and discontinuous samples, the identification accuracy of rock discontinuities can be improved with the help of geologic knowledge with identified spatial features and geoscience interaction mechanisms. Therefore, we proposed a new method – a knowledge-based intelligent recognition method for rock discontinuities that used point cloud data – to correct inaccurate identification by considering the spatial relationships of rock discontinuities. This paper integrated the geologic knowledge bases in rock discontinuity information extraction rules and combined the generative rule inference model with the region growing method for intelligent extraction. In the case study, we developed four typical rule sets as examples based on the constructed rule system to group rock discontinuities and subsume the fractured rock discontinuities. Results show that this new method is effective in identifying and classifying rock discontinuities of complex areas with a greater reduction in manual intervention.

Abstract Background Medullary sponge kidney (MSK)is rare in association with glomerulonephritis. We report a patient with medullary sponge kidney, and the kidney biopsy revealed a diagnosis of IgA nephropathy. Case presentation A 27-year-old female presented with hematuria and proteinuria, and imaging studies indicated the presence of medullary spongy kidney. With appropriate preparation, a kidney biopsy was performed. Considering the patient’s clinical and pathological characteristics, the final diagnosis was determined to be medullary sponge kidney associated by IgA nephropathy. The combination of corticosteroids and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) proved to be significantly effective in reducing proteinuria in the current case. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case that demonstrates the coexistence of MSK and IgA nephropathy. Conclusions Administering precise therapy based on renal pathology can potentially enhance outcomes for patients with renal conditions, necessitating the need for clinicians to be vigilant about differential diagnosis in order to reduce the rates of missed diagnoses and misdiagnosis.

Abstract The SiO2–H2O binary system serves as a basis for understanding complex silicate-water systems. In this study, based on limited existing experimental data of solubility, we propose a new thermodynamic model for SiO2–H2O fluid by modifying the traditional non-random two-liquid model with a simplified polymerization reaction. This model is applicable from 773 K to the anhydrous quartz melting temperature and from 0.5 GPa to at least 2 GPa across the critical conditions. It can predict solid–liquid equilibrium and vapor–liquid equilibrium in good agreement with available experiments. The upper critical endpoint of the SiO2–H2O system is predicted to be at ~ 1.14 ± 0.18 GPa and 1344 ± 87 K. With the new model, we obtain a quantitative three-dimensional pressure–temperature–composition phase diagram of the SiO2–H2O fluid, which greatly facilitates the understanding of the complex phase behavior of this binary around the upper critical endpoint. In addition, since the model is based on the Gibbs free energy foundation, we further discuss the derived density variations of SiO2–H2O fluid along with its complex phase changes in typical geochemical processes.

Thermal stratification phenomena in SFRs and machine learning applications in nuclear system R&D have captured the community's attention. Existing methods, such as CFD, demand significant time and computational resources, hindering the timely prediction and management of thermal stratification in reactors. In response, this paper introduces a novel approach employing data-driven models for super real-time prediction of thermal stratification. Themodel aims to enhance the efficiency and speed of thermal stratification predictions. Refined flow field data were first obtained via CFD, revealing the transition mechanism between the dominant roles of inertial and buoyancy forces during thermal stratification formation. To select the optimal data-driven model, this paper employs the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method to evaluate three algorithms - k-nearest neighbor (KNN), classification and regression tree (CART), and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) - basedon temperature data from a temperature probe. Evaluation reveals that the POD-KNN model offers notable improvements in prediction speed while ensuring consistent accuracy, outperforming traditional numerical simulation methods for super real-time thermal stratification prediction.

Purpose: Intravascular tumor emboli in axillary soft tissue (ITE) is a rare pathologic finding in breast cancer and is associated with higher axillary nodal disease burden. The independent prognostic and predictive value of this entity is unknown, as is the role of radiation therapy for ITE. Methods and Materials: We analyzed a prospectively maintained database of breast cancer patients treated from 1992 to 2020. Patients with ITE were matched to those without (1:2) based on propensity scores to control for potential confounding factors. Locoregional (LRR) and distant recurrence (DR) were evaluated using competing risks methods accounting for death as a competing event. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were evaluated by Cox regression models. Among patients with ITE, we also evaluated whether RT improved outcomes. Results: Among 2377 total patients, 129 had ITE, of whom 126 were propensity score matched to 252 without ITE. Median follow-up from time of surgery was 5.5 years (IQR 2.3, 9.7). There were no statistically significant differences in the 5-year incidence of LRR between groups (5.4% [95% CI, 1.6%-13%] with ITE vs 10% [95% CI, 6.7%-15%] without, P = .53) or DR (24% [95% CI, 15% 35%] with ITE vs 21% [95% CI, 16%-27%] without, P = .51). Five-year OS and DFS did not differ between groups (P > .9 for both comparisons, patients with ITE vs without ITE). In analyzing the effect of RT among patients with ITE, receipt of RT was associated with significantly improved DFS (HR, 0.34, 95% CI, 0.12-0.93, P = .04). Conclusions: Patients with ITE do not exhibit significantly worse LRR, DR, DFS, or OS compared with a propensity-score-matched cohort without ITE. However, among patients with ITE, those who received RT demonstrated significantly improved DFS. Larger studies with longer follow-up are needed to evaluate the prognostic and predictive implications of ITE.

BackgroundShort stature is one of the most prevalent endocrine disorders in children, and its genetic basis is a complex and actively researched subject. Currently, there is limited genetic research on exome sequencing for short stature, and more large-scale studies are necessary for further exploration.MethodsThe retrospective study entailed investigation of 98 Chinese children with short statures (height SDS ≤ −2.5) of unknown etiologies recruited between 2017 and 2021. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on these patients to identify the potential genetic etiologies. The clinical data were reviewed retrospectively to assess the pathogenicity of the identified mutations. Additionally, 31 patients consented to and received recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy for 12 months. The short-term effects of rhGH treatment were evaluated across different etiologies of patients with short statures.ResultsThe WES results were used to identify 31 different variants in 18 genes among 24 (24.5%) patients. Individuals with more severe short statures were more likely to have underlying genetic etiologies. Short stature accompanied by other phenotypes had significantly higher diagnostic yields than simple severe short stature. The rhGH therapy demonstrated efficacy in most children. Nevertheless, the treatment response was suboptimal in a boy diagnosed with 3M syndrome.ConclusionWES is an important approach for confirming genetic disorders in patients with severe short statures of unknown etiologies, suggesting that it could be used as a primary diagnostic strategy. The administration of rhGH may not be suitable for all children with short statures, and the identification of the genetic cause of short stature by WES has significant guidance value for rhGH treatment.

An improved YOLOv8 detection method is proposed for detecting distracted driving behavior and driver’s emotion. Unlike the commonly used YOLOv8 method, an attention mechanism named MHSA and a CNN module are synthesized to ensure improved performance in terms of accuracy and convergence, where MHSA is used to detect distracted driving behavior and CNN is used to detect driver’s emotion. The FER2013 dataset and collected dataset are used to train the improved YOLOv8. The training results show that the proposed YOLOv8 demonstrates improved performance compared with the commonly used YOLO based methods. Finally, the validity of the proposed YOLOv8 method is illustrated through implementations in Jetson Nano platform, where the TensorRT and DeepStream methods in the Jetson Nano device are used to optimize the volume and operational speed of the proposed YOLOv8 method, respectively. Test results show that the proposed YOLOv8 method can yield better real-time and accuracy properties.

Abstract A large amount of pumping in the deep foundation pit will reduce the groundwater level and lead to surface cracking, building settlement, ground collapse and spring water cut-off. And the groundwater recharge is a good control measure. An integrated system of dewatering and recharge for the deep foundation pit is developed, and it is mainly composed of a pumping system, an assembled water tank, a variable frequency pressure system, a cleaning and filtering system, a recharge pressure tank, a recharge well system and a central control system. This system can realize intelligent automatic control according to the monitoring data. It does not require staff to operate on site and can be remotely adjusted by computer or mobile phone. Taking a subway station under construction in Jinan as the background, the single well recharge test and the multiple wells recharge test were carried out. It can be found that with the increase of recharge pressure, the recharge volume gradually increases, but the increasing trend is smaller and smaller. The relationship between the groundwater level and the recharge volume is a logarithmic function. Blindly increasing recharge wells may not improve the overall reinjection volume, and the relationship between the number of recharge wells, the diameter of reinjection pipes and the maximum recharge capacity of the variable frequency pressure system needs to be comprehensively considered.

Purpose: Regional nodal irradiation (RNI) for breast cancer yields improvements in disease outcomes, yet comprehensive target coverage often increases cardiac radiation therapy (RT) dose. Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) may mitigate high-dose cardiac exposure, although it often increases the volume of low-dose exposure. The cardiac implications of this dosimetric configuration (in contrast to historic 3D conformal techniques) remain uncertain. Methods and Materials: Eligible patients receiving adjuvant RNI using VMAT for locoregional breast cancer were prospectively enrolled in an IRB-approved study. Echocardiograms were performed prior to RT, at the conclusion of RT, and 6 months following RT. Echocardiographic parameters were measured by a single reader and measures were compared pre- and post-RT via the signed-rank test. Changes in echocardiographic parameters over time were compared to mean and max heart doses via the Spearman correlation test. Results: Among 19 evaluable patients (median age 38 years), 89% (n = 17) received doxorubicin and 37% (n = 7) received trastuzumab/pertuzumab combination therapy. All patients received VMAT-based whole-breast/chest wall and RNI. The average mean heart dose was 456 cGy (range, 187-697 cGy) and the average max heart dose was 3001 cGy (1560-4793 cGy). Among salient echocardiographic parameters, no significant decrement in cardiac function was observed when comparing pre-RT to 6 months post-RT: mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 61.8% (SD 4.4%) pre-RT and 62.7% (SD 3.8%) 6 months post-RT (P = .493); mean global longitudinal strain (GLS) was –19.3% (SD 2.2%) pre-RT and –19.6% (SD 1.8%) 6 months post-RT (P = .627). No individual patient exhibited reduced LVEF or sustained decrement in GLS. No correlations were observed for changes in LVEF or GLS when compared to mean or maximum heart doses (P > .1 for all). Conclusions: VMAT for left-sided RNI yielded no significant early decrement in echocardiographic parameters of cardiac function, including LVEF and GLS, within this limited cohort. No patient exhibited significant LVEF changes, and none exhibited sustained decrements in GLS. VMAT may be a reasonable approach to cardiac avoidance in patients requiring RNI, including those receiving anthracyclines and HER2-directed therapy. Larger cohorts with longer follow-ups will be needed to validate these findings.

Numerous demand-side resources possess significant potential to offer substantial flexible reserves and ancillary services, thereby enhancing the economic and technical performance of power systems within the demand response domain. A novel approach to aggregating the energy flexibility of buildings based on the virtual battery model is proposed in the smart microgrid, employing predictive control techniques while ensuring consumer privacy. The individual approximation process is implemented to extract the flexible capacity of local resources while protecting information privacy. Subsequently, the aggregator collects the flexibility information to develop an optimization strategy for maximum flexibility aggregation at the upper level, enabling the broader exploitation of global flexibility. The feasibility of power disaggregation is guaranteed according to the aggregation procedure. Furthermore, the comprehensive framework accommodates temporal preferences for flexibility requests from the aggregator. Numerical simulations are conducted to perform a comparative analysis with existing state-of-the-art methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach exhibits improved adaptability in characterizing the aggregate flexibility from buildings, effectively managing the heterogeneity of load characteristics and the variability in the collected flexibility information. Microgrids can realize cost savings and achieve dynamic flexibility utilization. This methodology can be extended and applied to diverse types of flexible resources.

Numerous qualitative review studies have been conducted to enhance the understanding of current research status of green buildings (GBs). Green building assessment methods (GBAMs) are crucial to the development of GBs and relevant research works has received wide attention. However, there are very few reviews to quantitively explore these studies. Therefore, this paper aims to systematically review literatures on GBAMs, and visually analyzes them through CiteSpace and HistCite. The article identified the most influential journals, contributors, representative institutions and regions. The knowledge bases of this area focus on “triple bottom line”, “indicator”, “building design”, “life cycle costing”, “life cycle sustainability assessment”, “tropical climate”, “building information modelling” and “Chinese green building label”. Through citation analysis, “updating existing GBAMs by scheme comparison”, “updating existing GBAMs by GB case analysis”, “establishment of new GBAMs” and “incorporation of BIM in GBAMs” were found as the main research themes. “Design”, “LCA”, “model”, “energy”, “management”, “residential buildings” and “office buildings” are high-frequency keywords. Future research directions were finally proposed as “more investigation on the other types of GBs”, “incorporation of cost-related criteria”, “enhancing health-related indicators” and“integrating with BIM technology”. The results could provide a useful reference to industry practitioners and scholars interested in GBAMs.

In order to obtain candidate strains with strong colonization ability and excellent fermentation performance of goji berry juice, 3 strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated and screened from human intestinal tract. They were identified by morphological, physiological and biochemical, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenetic tree construction, and their acid resistance, bile salt resistance, artificial gastric fluid, intestinal fluid resistance and fermentation performance were studied. The results showed that all three strains were identified as Pediococcus lactis, numbered NXU_220218, NXU_220219 and NXU_220220, respectively. The growth rate from 2 to 8 h, the ability of NXU 220218 to produce acid was stronger, and the tolerance to acid, bile salt and artificial gastric juice was better than NXU 220219 and NXU 220220. The survival rate of NXU_220218 was 67% at pH2, 65% in bovine bile salt at 0.3% concentration, 72% tolerance to artificial gastric juice, and 95% tolerance to artificial intestinal juice. Finally, the NXU_220218 strain was inoculated and used in the preparation of fermented goji berry juice. It was found that the reducing sugar content and the free radical scavenging rate in the fermented goji berry juice were significantly reduced and increased, respectively, compared with the unfermented goji berry juice, indicating that the NXU_220218 strain had good fermentation performance for goji berry juice and could be used as a candidate strain of lactic acid bacteria for the fermentation of goji berry juice.

Abstract Oncogenic viruses have developed various strategies to antagonize cell death and maintain lifelong persistence in their host, a relationship that may contribute to cancer development. Understanding how viruses inhibit cell death is essential for understanding viral oncogenesis. Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is associated with three different cancers in the human population, including Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), the most common cancer in HIV patients. Previous studies have indicated that the KSHV-encoded viral protein kinase (vPK) impacts many processes dysregulated in tumorigenesis. Here, we report that vPK protects cells from apoptosis mediated by Caspase-3. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) expressing vPK (HUVEC-vPK) have a survival advantage over control HUVEC under conditions of extrinsic- and intrinsic-mediated apoptosis. Abolishing the catalytic activity of vPK attenuated this survival advantage. We found that KSHV vPK-expressing HUVECs exhibited increased activation of cellular AKT kinase, a cell survival kinase, compared to control cells without vPK. In addition, we report that vPK directly binds the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of AKT1 but not AKT2 or AKT3. Treatment of HUVEC-vPK cells with a pan-AKT inhibitor Miransertib (ARQ 092) reduced the overall phosphorylation of AKT, resulting in the cleavage of Caspase-3 and the induction of apoptosis. Furthermore, vPK expression activated VEGF/VEGFR2 in HUVECs and promoted angiogenesis through the AKT pathway. vPK expression also inhibited the cytotoxicity of cisplatin in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that vPK’s ability to augment cell survival and promote angiogenesis is critically dependent on AKT signaling, which is relevant for future therapies for treating KSHV-associated cancers.

To explore the effects of crushing processes on the rheological properties and edible quality of minced meat, blunt cutting tool and sharp cutting tool on two devices of beating machine and chopping machine were used to prepare minced meat. The pH value, salt soluble protein content, protein secondary structure, particle size distribution, color, stability and cooking loss, water holding capacity, texture characteristics and microstructure of minced meat gel were investigated. The results showed that the four crushing processes had different degrees of muscle fiber fragmentation, resulting in different properties of the low-fat minced meat and the resulting gel. Compared with the beater, the low-fat minced meat treated by the chopper had a higher G′ value in the temperature scanning. The low-fat minced meat beaten with blunt knife had the lowest viscosity and showed poor stability in frequency scanning. The high intensity cutting action of the chopper resulted in a lower end temperature and smaller particle size of the broken low-fat minced meat, and higher water holding capacity of the low-fat minced meat gel. Compared with the other three processes, the blunt knife chopped low-fat minced meat had the highest redness value (15.95), pH value (6.66), salt-soluble protein content (77.05 mg/mL), relative content of β-fold (43.71%), and the low-fat minced meat gel had the lowest cooking loss (17.48%), the highest hardness (4147.72 g), gumminess (2883.72), chewiness (2496.02 g), sensory scores, which may be attributed to the tighter microstructure of low-fat minced meat gel formed by this treatment with moderate muscle fragmentation. Therefore, the blunt chopping is suitable for the crushing production of low-fat minced meat, which can improve its salt-soluble protein content, relative content of β-sheet, redness, water holding capacity and texture properties.

Abstract Background This multi-center study aimed to identify factors affecting fever and delayed defervescence in bacterial meningitis (BM) patients under 3 years of age because of the variability of fever in this patient population. Methods Only BM patients under 3 years treated at 49 centers in China from November 2018 to end-April 2021 were included in the study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine factors associated with afebrile presentation and fever of delayed defervescence. Results A total of 863 BM patients under 3 years were included in the study. Coagulase negative staphylococcus was associated with afebrile presentation (OR = 1.176), while septicaemia and ear-nose-throat infections were associated with fever (P

Characterized as a climatologically sensitive region, the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (STP) is an ideal location for dendrochronological research. Here, five tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies were developed: three for Picea likiangensis along altitudinal gradients from 3600 to 4400 m a.s.l. and two for Sabina saltuaria and Abies squamata from 4200 m a.s.l. Significant differences in the growth rates and age composition of Picea likiangensis were observed at various elevation gradients. The chronology statistics (mean sensitivity, etc.) fluctuated with the elevation gradient. Picea likiangensis showed distinct growth patterns in response to climatic variability along the altitude gradient: the minimum temperature influenced tree growth at lower and middle altitudes, while higher altitudes were affected by precipitation. The radial growth of different tree species growing in the same region is controlled by the same climatic factors. Sabina saltuaria and Abies squamata exhibited similar growth responses to Picea likiangensis. Stand conditions (wind speeds, slope, and elevation) and biotic factors (the depth of root, forest type, tree age, and sensitivity) can partially explain why the ring width–climate relationships change with altitude.

Short-wave communication, operating within the frequency range of 3–30 MHz, is extensively employed for long-distance communication because of its extended propagation range and robustness. The ionosphere undergoes complex transformations when influenced by the geomagnetic field, evolving into an uneven and anisotropic electromagnetic medium. This complex property makes the transmission of electromagnetic fields within the ionosphere extremely complex, posing significant challenges for accurately evaluating electromagnetic scattering phenomena. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper proposes a new method for calculating short-wave ionospheric scattering based on a complex anisotropic multilayer medium transmission matrix. Firstly, by utilizing the characteristic changes of ionospheric electron density with height, the ionization layer is divided into multiple horizontal thin layers, each with an approximately uniform electron density, forming a multilayer horizontal anisotropic structure. Subsequently, the scattering characteristics of electromagnetic waves in the ionosphere were calculated using the transmission matrix approach. The results calculated using this method are consistent with actual measurement values and superior to traditional short-wave ionospheric transmission calculation methods.

The stability performance of the buoy is an important parameter that should be taken into account when designing marine buoys. This paper introduces a theoretical and numerical analysis method to examine the stability of marine buoys, including analysis of the initial stability and large inclination stability by calculating the natural period, metacentric height, static stability, and dynamic stability, deriving the calculation process of the static stability lever in detail to obtain the righting moment, and so on, showing that the designed buoy in this paper has sufficient stability performance with theoretically excellent resistance performance to the wind and waves. Additionally, the hydrodynamic performance of the buoy at different heights is also further analyzed for structural optimization, which concluded that the buoy would have a more balanced stability performance when the buoy’s width-to-height ratio is 0.375–0.5, hoping that the computational model and ideas used in this paper can provide a reference for the theoretical stability analysis and buoy design of other types of buoys.

ABSTRACTThe emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) caused by the overuse of antibiotics severely threatens human health. Hospital sewage may be a key transmission hub for ARB. However, the complex link between the microbiome and resistomeresistance in hospital sewage remains unclear. In this study, metagenomic assembly and binning methods were used to investigate the microbial community, resistome, and association of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) with ARB in sewage from 10 representative sites (outpatient building, surgery building, internal medicine buildings [IMB1-4], staff dormitory, laboratory animal building, tuberculosis building [TBB], and hospital wastewater treatment plant) of a hospital in Shanghai from June 2021 to February 2022. A total of 252 ARG subtypes, belonging to 17 antibiotic classes, were identified. The relative abundance of KPC-2 was higher at IMBs and TBB than at other sites. Of the ARG-carrying contigs, 47.3%-62.6% were associated with mobile genetic elements, and the proportion of plasmid-associated ARGs was significantly higher than that of chromosome-associated ARGs. Although a similar microbiome composition was shared, certain bacteria were enriched at different sites. Potential pathogens Enterococcus B faecium and Klebsiella pneumoniae were primarily enriched in IMB2 and IMB4, respectively. The same ARGs were identified in diverse bacterial hosts (especially pathogenic bacteria), and accordingly, the latter possessed multiple ARGs. Furthermore, gene flow was frequently observed in the sewage of different buildings. The results provide crucial information on the characterization profiles of resistomes in hospital sewage in Shanghai.IMPORTANCEEnvironmental antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) play a critical role in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance, which poses a global health threat. Wastewater from healthcare facilities serves as a significant reservoir for ARGs. Here, we characterized the microbial community along with the resistome (comprising all antibiotic resistance genes) in wastewater from a specialized hospital for infectious diseases in Shanghai. Potential pathogenic bacteria (e.g., Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus B faecium) were frequently detected in hospital wastewater and carried multiple ARGs. A complex link between microbiome and resistome was observed in the wastewater of this hospital. The monitoring of ARGs and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in hospital wastewater might be of great significance for preventing the spread of ARB.

Swelling of anhydrite rock causes serious damage to the tunnel and generates high additional costs in the process of tunnel construction and operation and has gradually become one of the main factors that threaten the safety of the tunnel. It is extremely difficult to predict swelling pressures and deformations accurately based on conventional swelling constitutive models. Thus, a new practical swelling constitutive model of anhydrite for tunnel engineering has been developed. First, swelling tests of natural anhydrite samples focusing on the time effect have been designed and conducted, whose test results show that swelling strain-time can be described by the S-curve model and that swelling stress-strain can be described by the quadratic model. Second, a swelling constitutive model with considering the time effect has been developed to reproduce the swelling behavior of anhydrite observed in swelling tests. This model can track the evolution of swelling activity in tunneling, which has practical significance for process simulation and process control of swelling disaster. Then, this model has been implemented within ANSYS for numerical simulation of the Lirang tunnel. Based on simulation results, useful measures have been proposed. Satisfactory results have been achieved according to the feedback from the site.

The high strength ECC normally contains high cement amount due to the absence of coarse aggregate, which negatively impact its environmental friendliness. In this paper, the limestone powder (LP) was utilized to partially substitute cement in high strength ECC, and thus improve its tensile performance and sustainability. The experimental results show that the substitution of cement by LP decreased the hydration products in ECC upon the reduced cement usage; as a result, the compressive and first tensile cracking strength of ECCs was diminished, however, the finer LP can compensate the above negative effect. Nevertheless, the LP addition is profitable to the tensile strain capacity of ECC since it can be increased to 7.83 % as compared with 3.29 % that of control ECC mixture, moreover, this positive effect can be further enhanced as the usage of finer LP. In another aspect, the increased LP-to-cement replacement ratio tended to lower tensile strength of ECC, except for the ECC mixture with replacement ratio of 20 %, in which the tensile strength was enhanced by 11.9 % owing to the dilution effect upon the increased water-to-cement ratio. In addition, the incorporation of LP can effectively reduce the environmental impact of ECCs.

In this study, the reinforced concrete (RC) beams were strengthened by use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and engineering cementitious composite (ECC). The flexural behavior of the strengthened RC beams was investigated experimentally, and analytical prediction methods were used to verify the experimental results. The experimental results showed that, the premature delamination between CFRP plate and concrete occurred if the beam was solely reinforced by CFRP, nevertheless, this can be effectively prevented by the composite use of CFRP and ECC. Compared with reference beam, the CFRP-ECC composite strengthened technique significantly enhanced the cracking load, yield load, and ultimate load of beams up to 23–31 %, 4–6 %, and 5–10 %, respectively, in addition, the stiffness, ductility, and energy absorption capacity (EAC) can also be enhanced upon the composite strengthening. In final, the prediction model has high accuracy, and the error variation within 5 % when comparing the predicted and tested values of flexural bearing capacity.

Introduction: The rate of isolated locoregional recurrence after surgery for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) approaches 25%. Ablative radiation therapy (A-RT) has improved outcomes for locally advanced disease in the primary setting. We sought to evaluate the outcomes of salvage A-RT for isolated locoregional recurrence and examine the relationship between subsequent patterns of failure, radiation dose, and treatment volume. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all consecutive participants who underwent A-RT for an isolated locoregional recurrence of PDAC after prior surgery at our institution between 2016 and 2021. Treatment consisted of ablative dose (BED10 98–100 Gy) to the gross disease with an additional prophylactic low dose (BED10 < 50 Gy), with the elective volume covering a 1.5 cm isotropic expansion around the gross disease and the circumference of the involved vessels. Local and locoregional failure (LF and LRF, respectively) estimated by the cumulative incidence function with competing risks, distant metastasis-free and overall survival (DMFS and OS, respectively) estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method, and toxicities scored by CTCAE v5.0 are reported. Location of recurrence was mapped to the dose region on the initial radiation plan. Results: Among 65 participants (of whom two had two A-RT courses), the median age was 67 (range 37–87) years, 36 (55%) were male, and 53 (82%) had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy with a median disease-free interval to locoregional recurrence of 16 (range, 6–71) months. Twenty-seven participants (42%) received chemotherapy prior to A-RT. With a median follow-up of 35 months (95%CI, 26–56 months) from diagnosis of recurrence, 24-month OS and DMFS were 57% (95%CI, 46–72%) and 22% (95%CI, 14–37%), respectively, while 24-month cumulative incidence of in-field LF and total LRF were 28% (95%CI, 17–40%) and 36% (95%CI 24–48%), respectively. First failure after A-RT was distant in 35 patients (53.8%), locoregional in 12 patients (18.5%), and synchronous distant and locoregional in 10 patients (15.4%). Most locoregional failures occurred in elective low-dose volumes. Acute and chronic grade 3–4 toxicities were noted in 1 (1.5%) and 5 patients (7.5%), respectively. Conclusions: Salvage A-RT achieves favorable OS and local control outcomes in participants with an isolated locoregional recurrence of PDAC after surgical resection. Consideration should be given to extending high-dose fields to include adjacent segments of at-risk vessels beyond direct contact with the gross disease.

Background: Electromagnetic transponders bronchoscopically implanted near the tumor can be used to monitor deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) for thoracic radiation therapy (RT). The feasibility and safety of this approach require further study. Methods: We enrolled patients with primary lung cancer or lung metastases. Three transponders were implanted near the tumor, followed by simulation with DIBH, free breathing, and 4D-CT as backup. The initial gating window for treatment was ±5 mm; in a second cohort, the window was incrementally reduced to determine the smallest feasible gating window. The primary endpoint was feasibility, defined as completion of RT using transponder-guided DIBH. Patients were followed for assessment of transponder- and RT-related toxicity. Results: We enrolled 48 patients (35 with primary lung cancer and 13 with lung metastases). The median distance of transponders to tumor was 1.6 cm (IQR 0.6–2.8 cm). RT delivery ranged from 3 to 35 fractions. Transponder-guided DIBH was feasible in all but two patients (96% feasible), where it failed because the distance between the transponders and the antenna was >19 cm. Among the remaining 46 patients, 6 were treated prone to keep the transponders within 19 cm of the antenna, and 40 were treated supine. The smallest feasible gating window was identified as ±3 mm. Thirty-nine (85%) patients completed one year of follow-up. Toxicities at least possibly related to transponders or the implantation procedure were grade 2 in six patients (six incidences, cough and hemoptysis), grade 3 in three patients (five incidences, cough, dyspnea, pneumonia, and supraventricular tachycardia), and grade 4 pneumonia in one patient (occurring a few days after implantation but recovered fully and completed RT). Toxicities at least possibly related to RT were grade 2 in 18 patients (41 incidences, most commonly cough, fatigue, and pneumonitis) and grade 3 in four patients (seven incidences, most commonly pneumonia), and no patients had grade 4 or higher toxicity. Conclusions: Bronchoscopically implanted electromagnetic transponder–guided DIBH lung RT is feasible and safe, allowing for precise tumor targeting and reduced normal tissue exposure. Transponder–antenna distance was the most common challenge due to a limited antenna range, which could sometimes be circumvented by prone positioning.

Abstract Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common chronic liver disease, had no approved pharmacological agents yet. Obeticholic acid (OCA), a novel bile acid derivative, was demonstrated to ameliorate NAFLD-related manifestations. Regarding the role of gut-liver axis in liver disease development, this study aimed to explore the potential role of gut microbiota in the treatment of OCA in NAFLD mice induced by the high-fat diet (HFD). Antibiotic-induced microbiome depletion (AIMD) and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) confirmed the critical role of gut microbiota in OCA treatment for NAFLD by effectively alleviating histopathological lesions and restoring liver function impaired by HFD. Metagenomic analysis indicated that OCA intervention in HFD mice remarkably increased the abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila, Bifidobacterium spp., Bacteroides spp., Alistipes spp., Lactobacillus spp., Streptococcus thermophilus, and Parasutterella excrementihominis. Targeted metabolomics analysis indicated that OCA could modulate host bile acids pool by reducing levels of serum hydrophobic cholic acid (CA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), and increasing levels of serum-conjugated bile acids, such as taurodeoxycholic acid (TDCA) and tauroursodesoxycholic acid (TUDCA) in the HFD-fed mice. Strong correlations were observed between differentially abundant microbes and the shifted bile acids. Furthermore, bacteria enriched by OCA intervention exhibited much greater potential in encoding 7alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (7α-HSDs) producing secondary bile acids rather than bile salt hydrolases (BSHs) mainly responsible for primary bile acid deconjugation. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that OCA intervention altered gut microbiota composition with specially enriched gut microbes modulating host bile acids, thus effectively alleviating NAFLD in the mice.

Abstract Tibetan pigs (TPs) can adapt to the extreme environments in the Tibetan plateau implicated by their self-genome signals, but little is known about roles of the gut microbiota in the host adaption. Here, we reconstructed 8210 metagenome-assembled genomes from TPs (n = 65) living in high-altitude and low-altitude captive pigs (87 from China—CPs and 200 from Europe—EPs) that were clustered into 1050 species-level genome bins (SGBs) at the threshold of 95% average nucleotide identity. 73.47% of SGBs represented new species. The gut microbial community structure analysis based on 1,048 SGBs showed that TPs was significantly different from low-altitude captive pigs. TP-associated SGBs enabled to digest multiple complex polysaccharides, including cellulose, hemicellulose, chitin and pectin. Especially, we found TPs showed the most common enrichment of phyla Fibrobacterota and Elusimicrobia, which were involved in the productions of short- and medium-chain fatty acids (acetic acid, butanoate and propanoate; octanomic, decanoic and dodecanoic acids), as well as in the biosynthesis of lactate, 20 essential amino acids, multiple B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B7 and B9) and cofactors. Unexpectedly, Fibrobacterota solely showed powerful metabolic capacity, including the synthesis of acetic acid, alanine, histidine, arginine, tryptophan, serine, threonine, valine, B2, B5, B9, heme and tetrahydrofolate. These metabolites might contribute to host adaptation to high-altitude, such as energy harvesting and resistance against hypoxia and ultraviolet radiation. This study provides insights into understanding the role of gut microbiome played in mammalian high-altitude adaptation and discovers some potential microbes as probiotics for improving animal health.

Abstract Background Neuroinflammation is closely related to the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). Because of the extensive sources, non-invasive and periodical collection method, human menstrual blood-derived endometrial stem cells (MenSCs) have been explored as a promising tool for treatment of PD. This study aimed to investigate if MenSCs could inhibit neuroinflammation in PD rats by regulating M1/M2 polarization and to excavate the underlying mechanisms. Methods MenSCs were co-cultured with 6-OHDA-exposed microglia cell lines. Then the morphology of microglia cells and the level of inflammatory factors were assessed by immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR. After MenSCs were transplanted into the brain of PD rats, animal motor function, the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase, and the level of inflammatory factors in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum were detected to evaluate the therapeutic potential of MenSCs. Meanwhile, the expression of M1/M2 phenotype related genes was detected by qRT-PCR. One protein array kit containing 1000 kinds of factors was used to detect the protein components in the conditioned medium of MenSCs. Finally, bioinformatic analysis was performed to analyze the function of factors secreted by MenSCs and the signal pathways involved in. Results MenSCs could suppress 6-OHDA-induced microglia cell activation and significantly decrease inflammation in vitro. After transplantation into the brain of PD rats, MenSCs improved animal motor function, which was indicated by the increased movement distance, ambulatory episodes, exercise time on the rotarod, and less contralateral rotation. Additionally, MenSCs reduced the loss of dopaminergic neurons and down-regulated the level of pro-inflammatory factors in the CSF and serum. Moreover, q-PCR and WB results showed the transplantation of MenSCs significantly down-regulated the expression of M1 phenotype cell markers and meanwhile up-regulated the expression of M2 phenotype cell markers in the brain of PD rats. 176 biological processes including inflammatory response, negative regulation of apoptotic process, and microglial cell activation were enriched by GO-BP analysis. 58 signal pathways including PI3K/Akt and MAPK were enriched by KEGG analysis. Conclusions In conclusion, our results provide preliminary evidence for the anti-inflammation capacity of MenSCs by regulating M1/M2 polarization. We firstly demonstrated the biological process of factors secreted by MenSCs and the signal pathways involved in using protein array and bioinformatic analysis.

Abstract Colonocyte metabolism shapes the microbiome. Metabolites are the main mediators of information exchange between intestine and microbial communities. Arachidonic acid (AA) is an essential polyunsaturated fatty acid and its role in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unexplored. In this study, we show that AA feeding promotes tumor growth in AOM/DSS and intestinal specific Apc −/− mice via modulating the intestinal microecology of increased gram-negative bacteria. Delta-5 desaturase (FADS1), a rate-limiting enzyme, is upregulated in CRC and effectively mediates AA synthesis. Functionally, FADS1 regulates CRC tumor growth via high AA microenvironment-induced enriched gram-negative microbes. Elimination of gram-negative microbe abolishes FADS1 effect. Mechanistically, gram-negative microbes activate TLR4/MYD88 pathway in CRC cells that contributes FADS1-AA axis to metabolize to prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Cumulatively, we report a potential cancer-promoting mechanism of FADS1-AA axis in CRC that converts raising synthesized AA to PGE2 via modulating the intestinal microecology of gram-negative.

Synthetic chemicals have been widely used in modern agriculture as fertilizer, plant growth regulators and pesticides. Although the chemical inputs improved the crop production, it is well known about their negative effects, such as environmental residues in water, soil and animals, pest resistance and resurgence and the residues in agricultural produces. The demands for safer food and more friendly environment are now more preferred by humankind in the world. Microbes have already become an alternate for chemical inputs in some aspects in agriculture. The microbes can produce very diverse volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) which play important roles in the interactions between plant and microbes, or among intraspecies or interspecies of microbes. Many mVOCs showed diverse agroactivities, such as insecticidal, bactericidal, fungicidal, herbicidal, plant growth promotion and abiotic stress-tolerance inducing activities. The agroactive mVOCs have diverse structure-types, such as alkane, alkenes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acid, esters and lactones, ethers, aromatic ring, terpenes, heterocycles, sulphur-containing VOCs. The promising agroactive properties make it possible to apply mVOCs and their producing microorganisms or synthetic mimics or agroactive mVOCs in crop protection, and so this review focuses on the chemical diversity, agroactivities, and potential application of mVOCs.

How to deal with the ever more complex religious relationships is not only a significant issue for Chinese central government and the Communist Party but also a cutting-edge topic for the religious academy at home and abroad. Based on the review of the latest internationally acknowledged four theoretical orientations, namely religious market model, religious ecological model, religious compatibilism, and religious praxism, this article proposes an innovated framework, positive orientating theory of Chinese religious relations. The author intends to explore more active thoughts on theories and policies that would particularly reflect on and align with the typical characteristics of religious relationships in Chinese context. Contribution: Based on the review of the latest internationally acknowledged four theoretical orientations, namely religious market model, religious ecological model, religious compatibilism, and religious praxism, this article proposes an innovated framework, positive orientating theory of Chinese religious relations.

Broken cane and impurities such as top, leaf in harvested raw sugarcane significantly influence the yield of the sugar manufacturing process. It is crucial to determine the breakage and impurity ratios for assessing the quality and price of raw sugarcane in sugar refineries. However, the traditional manual sampling approach for detecting breakage and impurity ratios suffers from subjectivity, low efficiency, and result discrepancies. To address this problem, a novel approach combining an estimation model and semantic segmentation method for breakage and impurity ratios detection was developed. A machine vision-based image acquisition platform was designed, and custom image and mass datasets of cane, broken cane, top, and leaf were created. For cane, broken cane, top, and leaf, normal fitting of mean surface densities based on pixel information and measured mass was conducted. An estimation model for the mass of each class and the breakage and impurity ratios was established using the mean surface density and pixels. Furthermore, the MDSC-DeepLabv3+ model was developed to accurately and efficiently segment pixels of the four classes of objects. This model integrates improved MobileNetv2, atrous spatial pyramid pooling with deepwise separable convolution and strip pooling module, and coordinate attention mechanism to achieve high segmentation accuracy, deployability, and efficiency simultaneously. Experimental results based on the custom image and mass datasets showed that the estimation model achieved high accuracy for breakage and impurity ratios between estimated and measured value with R2 values of 0.976 and 0.968, respectively. MDSC-DeepLabv3+ outperformed the compared models with mPA and mIoU of 97.55% and 94.84%, respectively. Compared to the baseline DeepLabv3+, MDSC-DeepLabv3+ demonstrated significant improvements in mPA and mIoU and reduced Params, FLOPs, and inference time, making it suitable for deployment on edge devices and real-time inference. The average relative errors of breakage and impurity ratios between estimated and measured values were 11.3% and 6.5%, respectively. Overall, this novel approach enables high-precision, efficient, and intelligent detection of breakage and impurity ratios for raw sugarcane.

Tripterygium hypoglaucum (Levl.) Hutch (THH) has long been used as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China. However, it is unclear whether the anti-RA mechanism of THH is associated with inflammasome or gut-joint axis. In this study, we aimed to explore the critical role of NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3) and bile acid (BA) in the anti-RA mechanism. Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)-injected mice were treated with THH extract (250 mg/kg/d) for 35 days, and joint swelling and disease scores were measured. After THH treatment, the joint swelling and RA disease score in CFA-treated mice significantly subsided. The increased ratios of lymphocytes, monocytes, and white blood cells were attenuated by THH treatment. Notably, THH treatment blocked the inflammation in both joints and colons by suppressing the NLRP3-mediated inflammasome, as indicated by NLRP3, interleukin 1beta (IL-1β), and Caspase-1. Meanwhile, THH significantly remodeled the bile acid (BA) profiles in RA mice. Spearman’s analysis shed light on the close link between BAs, NLRP3 inflammasome, and RA indicators. However, THH treatment failed to improve inflammasome activation, snoptivis, and joint swelling in RA mice with gut microbiota depletion. In summary, we revealed the pivotal role of BA-mediated gut-joint axis and inflammasome in THH’s RA amelioration. In the future, more work should be done to explain the in-depth mechanism between altered BAs and inflammasome.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) has been confirmed as a disease with a high incidence and low cure rate worldwide. In severe cases, UC can develop into colon cancer. Modern research has confirmed that berberine (BBR) can treat UC by inhibiting the expressions of inflammatory factors. However, the contribution of gut microbiota and flora metabolites in treating UC with BBR remains unclear. In this study, the ameliorative effects of BBR on gut microbiota dysbiosis and flora metabolites were investigated in a dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced UC rodent model. We found that BBR significantly improved the pathological phenotype, attenuated intestinal barrier disruption, and mitigated colonic inflammation in DSS mice. By 16 S rDNA sequencing, BBR alleviated gut microbiota dysbiosis in UC mice. Moreover, the gut microbiota depletion experiment confirmed that the therapeutic effect of BBR was inextricably correlated with the gut microbiota. Besides, the flora metabolites (e.g., short-chain fatty acids, bile acids, and 5-hydroxytryptamine) were studied using HPLC-MS. The results suggested that BBR ameliorated the bile acid imbalance induced by DSS in the liver and gut. Furthermore, BBR treatment repaired gut barrier damage. The above results revealed that BBR alleviated DSS-induced UC in mice by restoring the disturbed gut microbiota, elevating unconjugated and secondary bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract, and activating the FXR and TGR5 signal pathway. This study provides novel insights into the mechanism of BBR in treating UC.

Purpose: Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) after breast-conserving surgery offers a well-tolerated adjuvant radiation therapy option for patients with breast cancer. We sought to describe patient-reported acute toxicity as a function of salient dosimetric parameters during and after an APBI regimen of 40 Gy in 10 once-daily fractions. Methods and Materials: From June 2019 to July 2020, patients undergoing APBI were assigned a weekly, response-adapted, patient reported outcomes-common terminology criteria for adverse events-based acute toxicity assessment. Patients reported acute toxicity during treatment and for up to 8 weeks after treatment. Dosimetric treatment parameters were collected. Descriptive statistics and univariable analyses were used to summarize patient-reported outcomes and their correlation to corresponding dosimetric measures, respectively. Results: Overall, 55 patients who received APBI completed a total of 351 assessments. Median planning target volume was 210 cc (range, 64-580 cc), and median planning target volume:ipsilateral breast volume ratio was 0.17 (range, 0.05-0.44). Overall, 22% of patients reported moderate breast enlargement and 27% reported maximum skin toxicity as severe or very severe. Furthermore, 35% of patients reported fatigue, and 44% of patients reported pain in the radiated area as moderate to very severe. Median time to first report of any moderate to very severe symptom was 10 days (interquartile range, 6-27 days). By 8 weeks after APBI, most patients reported resolution of symptoms, with 16% reporting residual moderate symptoms. Upon univariable analysis, none of the ascertained salient dosimetric parameters were associated with maximum symptoms or with the presence of moderate to very severe toxicity. Conclusions: Weekly assessments during and after APBI showed that patients experienced moderate to very severe toxicities, most commonly skin toxicity, but that these typically resolved by 8 weeks after radiation therapy. More comprehensive evaluations among larger cohorts are warranted to define the precise dosimetric parameters that correspond to outcomes of interest.

Purpose: Radiation therapy (RT) after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) reduces invasive and in situ recurrences. Whereas landmark studies suggest that a tumor bed boost improves local control for invasive breast cancer, the benefit in DCIS remains less certain. We evaluated outcomes of patients with DCIS treated with or without a boost. Methods and Materials: The study cohort comprised patients with DCIS who underwent BCS at our institution from 2004 to 2018. Clinicopathologic features, treatment parameters, and outcomes were ascertained from medical records. Patient and tumor characteristics were evaluated relative to outcomes using univariable and multivariable Cox models. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) estimates were generated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: We identified 1675 patients who underwent BCS for DCIS (median age, 56 years; interquartile range, 49-64 years). Boost RT was used in 1146 cases (68%) and hormone therapy in 536 (32%). At a median follow-up of 4.2 years (interquartile range, 1.4-7.0 years), we observed 61 locoregional recurrence events (56 local, 5 regional) and 21 deaths. Univariable logistic regression demonstrated that boost RT was more common among younger patients (P < .001) with positive or close margins (P < .001) and with larger tumors (P < .001) of higher grade (P = .025). The 10-year RFS rate was 88.8% among those receiving a boost and 84.3% among those without a boost (P = .3), and neither univariable nor multivariable analyses revealed an association between boost RT and locoregional recurrence. Conclusions: Among patients with DCIS who underwent BCS, use of a tumor bed boost was not associated with locoregional recurrence or RFS. Despite a preponderance of adverse features among the boost cohort, outcomes were similar to those of patients not receiving a boost, suggesting that a boost may mitigate risk of recurrence among patients with high-risk features. Ongoing studies will elucidate the extent to which a tumor bed boost influences disease control rates.

Barrier-to-autointegration factor 1 (BAF) is a DNA binding protein involved in numerous pathways including transcriptional regulation, DNA damage response and nuclear assembly. Here, Broussard and colleagues characterise its role in gammaherpesvirus reactivation.

We demonstrate a 783 MHz fundamental repetition rate mode-locked Er-doped all-fiber ring laser with a pulse width of 623 fs. By using carbon nanotubes saturable absorber, a relatively low self-starting pump threshold of 108 mW is achieved. The laser has a very compact footprint less than 10 cm × 10 cm, benefiting from the all-active-fiber cavity design. The robust mode-locking is confirmed by the low relative intensity noise and a long-term stability test. We propose a new scheme for generating high repetition rate femtosecond optical pulses from a compact and stable all-active-fiber ring oscillator.

In order to enhance the efficiency of agricultural machinery in orchard rows and minimize harm to personnel caused by pesticide spraying, this study developed a GNSS-based (Global Navigation Satellite System) automatic navigation driving system for tracked orchard sprayers. The tracked sprayer was used as a platform for this research. We constructed both a crawler hydraulic platform and spraying working parts based on orchard operation requirements. Additionally, we designed the hydraulic and electrical sub-control process of the crawler platform. By utilizing the motion model of the tracked mobile platform, we designed a linear path tracking control method using position deviation and heading deviation as state quantities. This allows the research platform to automatically initiate and terminate, travel in a straight line between rows, and complete spraying operations. Experimental verification confirmed that the tracked sprayer designed in this study successfully achieves automatic driving. The best automatic driving performance is achieved at a speed of 1.0 m/s. When the sprayer’s speed is 1.2 m/s, the maximum value of the straight-line path tracking accuracy of the platform’s automatic driving is better than 5.6 cm, with a standard deviation of 2.8 cm. This system effectively meets the requirements of automatic operation for an automatic spraying machine, thereby establishing a foundation for the implementation of automatic spraying operations in orchards.

The twisted wind flow (TWF), referring to the phenomenon of wind direction varying with height, is a common feature of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds, noticeably affecting the wind-resistant structural design and the wind environment assessment. The TWF can be effectively simulated by a guide vane system in wind tunnel tests, but the proper design and configuration of the guide vanes pose a major challenge as practical experience in using such devices is still limited in the literature. To address this issue, this study aims to propose an approach to determining the optimal wind tunnel setup for TWF simulations using a numerical wind tunnel, which is a replica of its physical counterpart, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. By analyzing the mechanisms behind guide vanes for generating TWF based on CFD results, it was found that the design must take into account three key parameters, namely, (1) the distance from the vane system to the side wall, (2) the distance from the vane system to the model test region, and (3) the separation between the vanes. Following the optimal setup obtained from the numerical wind tunnel, TWF profiles matching both the power-law and Ekman spiral models, which, respectively, reflect the ABL and wind twist characteristics, were successfully generated in the actual wind tunnel. The findings of this study provide useful information for wind tunnel tests as well as for wind-resistant structural designs and wind environment assessment.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has become a popular approach to genome editing. Compared with the plasmid-dependent CRISPR system, the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex formed by the in vitro assembly of Cas9 and single-guide RNA (sgRNA) has many advantages. However, only a few examples have been reported and the editing efficiency has been relatively low. In this study, we developed and optimized an RNP-mediated CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system for the monokaryotic strain L1 from the Ganoderma lucidum cultivar ‘Hunong No. 1’. On selective media containing 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA), the targeting efficiency of the genomic editing reached 100%. The editing efficiency of the orotidine 5′-monophosphate decarboxylase gene (ura3) was greater than 35 mutants/107 protoplasts, surpassing the previously reported G. lucidum CRISPR systems. Through insertion or substitution, 35 mutants introduced new sequences of 10–569 bp near the cleavage site of ura3 in the L1 genome, and the introduced sequences of 22 mutants (62.9%) were derived from the L1 genome itself. Among the 90 mutants, 85 mutants (94.4%) repaired DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), and five mutants (5.6%) through microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ). This study revealed the repair characteristics of DSBs induced by RNA-programmed nuclease Cas9. Moreover, the G. lucidum genes cyp512a3 and cyp5359n1 have been edited using this system. This study is of significant importance for the targeted breeding and synthetic metabolic regulation of G. lucidum.

ABSTRACT Pollination services provided by wild insect pollinators are critical to natural ecosystems and crops around the world. There is an increasing appreciation that the gut microbiota of these insects influences their health and consequently their services. However, pollinator gut microbiota studies have focused on well-described social bees, but rarely include other, more phylogenetically divergent insect pollinators. To expand our understanding, we explored the insect pollinator microbiomes across three insect orders through two DNA sequencing approaches. First, in an exploratory 16S amplicon sequencing analysis of taxonomic community assemblages, we found lineage-specific divergences of dominant microbial genera and microbiota community composition across divergent insect pollinator genera. However, we found no evidence for a strong broad-scale phylogenetic signal, which we see for community relatedness at finer scales. Subsequently, we utilized metagenomic shotgun sequencing to obtain metagenome-assembled genomes and assess the functionality of the microbiota from pollinating flies and social wasps. We uncover a novel gut microbe from pollinating flies in the family Orbaceae that is closely related to Gilliamella spp. from social bees but with divergent functions. We propose this novel species be named Candidatus Gilliamella eristali. Further metagenomes of dominant fly and wasp microbiome members suggest that they are largely not host-insect adapted and instead may be environmentally derived. Overall, this study suggests selective processes involving ecology or physiology, or neutral processes determining microbe colonization may predominate in the turnover of lineages in insect pollinators broadly, while evolution with hosts may occur only under certain circumstances and on smaller phylogenetic scales. IMPORTANCE Wild insect pollinators provide many key ecosystem services, and the microbes associated with these insect pollinators may influence their health. Therefore, understanding the diversity in microbiota structure and function, along with the potential mechanisms shaping the microbiota across diverse insect pollinators, is critical. Our study expands beyond existing knowledge of well-studied social bees, like honey bees, including members from other bee, wasp, butterfly, and fly pollinators. We infer ecological and evolutionary factors that may influence microbiome structure across diverse insect pollinator hosts and the functions that microbiota members may play. We highlight significant differentiation of microbiomes among diverse pollinators. Closer analysis suggests that dominant members may show varying levels of host association and functions, even in a comparison of closely related microbes found in bees and flies. This work suggests varied importance of ecological, physiological, and non-evolutionary filters in determining structure and function across largely divergent wild insect pollinator microbiomes.

In this paper, a highly ductile PE fiber reinforced engineered geopolymer composites (EGC) was developed with metakaolin as main ingredient, and the mechanical properties of EGC after thermal exposures were investigated experimentally. The results showed that the compressive strength of EGC was gradually increased to 78.2 MPa as exposure temperature increased to 140 ℃ from 54.7 MPa at ambient environment, while it reduced to 72.0 MPa at 200 ℃ probably due to the voids left by melted fiber and formation of micro-cracks on specimens. In addition, thermal exposures likely refined the microstructures of EGC within 20–140 ℃. However, as the exposure temperature exceeds to 400 ℃, EGC completely loss its strength performance because of the severely cracking. Under tensile/flexural loadings, the EGC behaved high ductility within 20–140 ℃, and the tensile and flexural properties of EGC exhibited the similar tendency, that is, the strength and deformability increased gradually as exposure temperature increased from 20 ℃ to 120 ℃, and then appears a slight reduction at 140 ℃. For instance, the tensile strength and strain capacity of EGC was increased to 7.29 MPa and 5.18% at 120 ℃ as compared with 6.20 MPa and 3.73% that at 20 ℃, respectively; at 140 ℃, the value was decreased to 5.55 MPa and 4.15%, respectively, but was still comparable to that of 20 ℃ scenario. Moreover, the thermal exposures likely widen crack width on EGC howbeit retaining within 80 µm even the exposure temperature approaches the melting point of PE fiber.

The flexural behaviour is investigated in this paper for engineered cementitious composite (ECC)-reinforced concrete (RC) composite beams. The thickness and shape of the ECC layer are the variables studied. ECC has proved to be one of the ideal construction materials for improving the flexural capacity of reinforced conventional concrete beams. When the composite beam specimens reached the load-bearing limit state, only dense micro-cracks appeared in the ECC layer in the tensile zone, and no local fracture was observed in the test, reflecting the high ductility of ECC. The load values for all phases of the ECC-RC composite beams are higher than those of the RC beams, suggesting that the composite beams have better ductility and energy absorption capacity. In addition, the ability of the U-shaped ECC layer composite beam to limit crack development and the synergistic effect with the reinforcement is superior compared to the other tested beams. Finally, considering the strain-hardening characteristics of ECC, based on the force equilibrium conditions, the formulae are derived for the flexural capacity of ECC-RC composite beams.

In this paper, the mechanical performance of high-strength ECC with hybriding steel and PE fibers (HF-ECC) was investigated experimentally; meanwhile, the effects of ultra-fine fly ash and crumb rubber on the properties of HF-ECC were also researched. Based on experimental findings, partial substitution of PE fibers by steel fibers or using ultra-fine fly ash can enhance the compressive strength and tensile modulus of ECC mixtures. For instance, as compared with that of mono PE fiber reinforced ECC (P2.0S0), admixing steel fiber at 1.0% improved the compressive strength and tensile modulus of P1.0S1.0 series ECC by 18.1% and 37.9%, which reached 79.98 MPa and 27.34 GPa, respectively. The compressive strength and tensile modulus of HFR0 series ECC are increased by 9.5% and 10.8% after employing ultra-fine fly ash, reaching 82.11 MPa and 29.41 GPa, respectively. Nevertheless, the incorporation of steel fibers or ultra-fine fly ash had the side effect on ductility of ECC, however, it can be remediated by incorporating crumb rubber, in which the strain capacity can even exceed that of reference one (P2.0S0). Additionally, the utilization of steel fiber or crumb rubber can reduce the material cost of ECC. At micro-scale level, the HF-ECC matrix containing ultra-fine fly ash notably enhanced fracture toughness and friction bond between PE fiber and matrix. Interestingly, the rubberized HF-ECC matrix obtained relatively lower fracture toughness and higher PSH value to that of reference mix.

Purpose: Although hydrogel spacer placement (HSP) minimizes rectal dose during prostate cancer radiation therapy, its potential benefit for modulating rectal toxicity could depend on the achieved prostate-rectal separation. We therefore developed a quality metric associated with rectal dose reduction and late rectal toxicity among patients treated with prostate stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Methods and Materials: A quality metric consisting of prostate-rectal interspace measurements from axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging simulation images was applied to 42 men enrolled in a multi-institutional phase 2 study using HSP with prostate SBRT (45 Gy in 5 fractions). A score of 0, 1, or 2 was assigned to a prostate-rectal interspace measurement of

For noncompact composite girders widely employed in bridge structures, the design can be more reasonable and economical if the shear contribution of concrete slabs is considered. In this study, the ultimate shear resistance of composite girders with noncompact sections under positive moments was investigated using the finite element method (FEM). The validity of the FEM was verified using existing test data. Subsequently, parametric studies were performed using the validated FEM. It was shown that the concrete slab thickness and web height-to-thickness ratio had notable effects on the shear resistance of the slab; the concrete slab width had a negligible effect on the shear resistance if its value exceeded twice the web height; the web aspect ratio mainly affected the shear resistance of the web. The numerical results indicated that the shear resistance of the composite girder was 1.02–1.63 times of that calculated using the ASSHTO code, and 1.12–1.55 times of that calculated using the EC4 code. After comprehensively considering the effects of these parameters, a design equation for predicting the shear resistance of noncompact composite girders under positive moments was suggested and verified using numerical and test data.

ABSTRACTCisplatin is widely employed in clinical oncology as an anticancer chemotherapy drug in clinical practice and is known for its severe ototoxic side effects. Prior research indicates that the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays a pivotal role in cisplatin's inner ear toxicity. Hesperidin is a flavanone glycoside extracted from citrus fruits that has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Nonetheless, the specific pharmacological actions of hesperidin in alleviating cisplatin-induced ototoxicity remain elusive. The transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a critical mediator of the cellular oxidative stress response, is influenced by hesperidin. Activation of Nrf2 was shown to have a protective effect against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity. The potential of hesperidin to stimulate Nrf2 in attenuating cisplatin's adverse effects on the inner ear warrants further investigation. This study employs both in vivo and in vitro models of cisplatin ototoxicity to explore this possibility. Our results reveal that hesperidin mitigates cisplatin-induced ototoxicity by activating the Nrf2/NQO1 pathway in sensory hair cells, thereby reducing ROS accumulation, preventing hair cell apoptosis, and alleviating hearing loss.

A [3 ​+ ​2] cyclization reaction of acylacetonitriles and hydroxyacetone was developed by using Sc(OTf)3 as a catalyst to synthesize some furan derivatives. Bifunctional C2-based acetals, such as α-bromoacetaldehyde acetal, 1,4-dithiane-2,5-diol and glycolaldehyde diethyl acetal, also reacted readily as alternative counterpart reagents to acylacetonitriles. The established reactions can be used to synthesize a well-known fungicide, fenfuram. Antifungal activity investigation against four common plant funguses indicated that some of the obtained furan products furnish general and high biological activities.