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Rivers in karst areas face increased risks from persistent growth in human activity that leads to changes in water chemistry and threatens the water environment. In this study, principal component analysis (PCA), ion ratio measurements, and other methods were used to study the water chemistry of the Qingshuijiang River Basin over the past 10 years. The results showed that the main ions in the river were Ca2+ and HCO3–, with a cation order of Ca2+ (mean: 0.93 mmol/L) > Mg2+ (mean: 0.51 mmol/L) > Na+ (mean: 0.30 mmol/L) > K+ (mean: 0.06 mmol/L) and HCO3– (mean: 2.00 mmol/L) > SO42– (mean: 0.49 mmol/L) > Cl– (mean: 0.15 mmol/L) > NO3– (mean: 0.096 mmol/L) > F– (mean : 0.012 mmol/L). In the past 10 years, the concentration of major ions in the river water in the basin has increased significantly. The weathering input of rock (mainly upstream carbonate) was the main source of Mg2+, Ca2+, and HCO3−, though sulfuric acid was also involved in this process. While K+ and Na+ were affected by the combination of human activity and the weathering input of silicate rock in the middle and lower reaches of the river, human activity was the main source of SO42−, NO3−, and F− ions. Irrigation water quality and health risks were evaluated by calculating the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), soluble sodium percentage (Na%), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), and hazard quotient (HQ). The findings indicated that the river water was generally safe for irrigation and drinking, and the health risks were gradually reduced over time. However, long-term monitoring of the river basin is still essential, especially for the risk of excessive F− in a few tributaries in the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial community in wetland soils is crucial for maintaining the stability of the wetland ecosystem. Nevertheless, the soil microbial community is sensitive to the environmental stress in wetlands. This leads to the possibility that the microbial community structure may be influenced by environmental factors. To gain an in-depth understanding in the response of microbial community structure in wetland soils under different environmental factors, this review comprehensively explores the factors of natural conditions (e.g., different types of wetland, soil physical and chemical properties, climate conditions), biological factors (e.g., plants, soil animals), and human activities (e.g., land use, soil pollution, grazing). Those factors can affect microbial community structure and activities in wetland soils through different ways such as (i) affecting the wetland soil environment in which soil microorganisms survived in, (ii) influencing the available nutrients (e.g., carbon, nitrogen) required for microbial activity, and (iii) the direct effects on soil microorganisms (toxicity or promotion of resistant species). This review can provide references for the conservation of microbial diversity in wetland soils, the maintenance of wetland ecosystem balance, and the wetland ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cerebral lymphatic drainage plays an important role in the occurrence and development of central nervous system diseases. Recent studies have shown that cerebral lymphatic drainage is regulated by circadian rhythm and anesthesia state; however, the regulating mechanism is still unclear. In this study, we used the second near-infrared region in vivo imaging to explore the regulation of cerebral lymphatic drainage in mice at different states. At first, by injection of a tracer at different times, we confirmed that the drainage of the meningeal lymphatic system was the fastest at zeitgeber time 2, while the internal flow of the glymphatic system was the slowest. Under anesthesia with isoflurane, administration of dexmedetomidine, an anesthetic that inhibits norepinephrine (NE) release, enabled mice to enter the stage of non-rapid eye movement sleep, at which time the influx of the glymphatic system increased, the efflux of the meningeal lymphatic system decreased, and the clearance rate of the brain parenchyma decreased. However, following the exogenous NE supplement, mice quickly changed from a non-rapid eye movement stage into an awake state with the meningeal lymphatic drainage retrieval. The results showed whether the drainage of the glymphatic system and meningeal lymphatic vessels, or parenchymal clearance, has made rapid adjustments based on sleep status that is regulated by NE. This study reveals that the NE-regulated sleep–wake cycle is a powerful regulator of cerebral lymphatic drainage and provides a potential therapeutic target for related central nervous system diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin aging is a complex physiological process, in which cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) interreact, which leads to a change in the mechanical properties of skin, which in turn affects the cell secretion and ECM deposition. The natural skin microrelief that exists from birth has rarely been taken into account when evaluating skin aging, apart from the common knowledge that microreliefs might serve as the starting point or initialize micro-wrinkles. In fact, microrelief itself also changes with aging. Does the microrelief have other, better uses? In this paper, owing to the fast-developing 3D printing technology, skin wrinkles with microrelief of different age groups were successfully manufactured using the Digital light processing (DLP) technology. The mechanical properties of skin samples with and without microrelief were tested. It was found that microrelief has a big impact on the elastic modulus of skin samples. In order to explore the role of microrelief in skin aging, the wrinkle formation was numerically analyzed. The microrelief models of different age groups were created using the modified Voronoi algorithm for the first time, which offers fast and flexible mesh formation. We found that skin microrelief plays an important role in regulating the modulus of the epidermis, which is the dominant factor in wrinkle formation. The wrinkle length and depth were also analyzed numerically for the first time, owing to the additional dimension offered by microrelief. The results showed that wrinkles are mainly caused by the modulus change of the epidermis in the aging process, and compared with the dermis, the hypodermis is irrelevant to wrinkling. Hereby, we developed a hypothesis that microrelief makes the skin adaptive to the mechanical property changes from aging by adjusting its shape and size. The native-like skin samples with microrelief might shed a light on the mechanism of wrinkling and also help with understanding the complex physiological processes associated with human skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liver and kidney are the major detoxifying organs in the human body and play an important role in pharmacokinetics. Drug-induced hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity can cause irreversible damage to the liver and kidney and are a major cause of drug failure in later stages. Both animal models and conventional cell culture have a number of limitations, such as animal ethics and gene mismatching and there is an urgent need to develop a new drug toxicity evaluation approach. In this paper, a 3D liver–kidney on a chip with a biomimicking circulating system (LKOCBCS) was constructed to obtain kidney and liver models in vitro for drug safety evaluation. LKOCBCS, which has a parallel circulating system mimicking biological circulation, consists of 3D biomimetic tissue of liver lobules similar to that of the human liver constructed by 3D bioprinting and renal proximal tubule barriers fabricated by ultrafast laser assisted etching. The proposed LKOCBCS facilitates the communication between the liver and the kidney, including the exchange of nutrients, compounds, and metabolites. The results revealed that the glucose concentration and cell metabolism stabilized after 7 days. A dynamically repeated low-dose administration of cyclosporine A (CsA) was fed to the system, and hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity were observed on day 3 according to the changes in toxicity markers. The high levels of drug induced biomarkers expressed in LKOCBCS indicate that this system is more sensitive than the monoculture liver chip and it is highly potential in replacing animal models for effective drug toxicity screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meningeal lymphatic vessels (mLVs) have been shown to be involved in amyloid beta (Aβ) clearance, which is considered as a potential therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, based on the superficial spatial distribution of mLVs, a near-infrared light is employed to modulate lymphatic drainage, significantly improving cognition of both aged and AD (5xFAD and APP/PS1) mice, and alleviating AD-associated pathology by reducing Aβ deposition, neuroinflammation and neuronal damage. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy imaging and RNA sequencing data indicate amelioration of mitochondrial metabolism and cellular junction of meningeal lymphatic endothelial cells (mLECs) by light modulation. These studies collectively suggest that near-infrared light treatment can improve cognitive function by strengthening scavenging ability of mLVs through restoring mLEC function. In conclusion, lymphatic drainage potentiation by light promotes pathological remission and cognitive enhancement in aging and AD mouse models, which offers a potential amelioration strategy for neurodegenerative diseases. Meningeal lymphatic vessels have been associated with amyloid beta clearance, which is considered as a modulation target for Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment. Here, the authors show that transcranial light treatment can enhance meningeal lymphatic drainage in aged and AD model mice and improve AD-associated pathology and cognitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meningeal lymphatic vessels (mLVs) have been shown to be involved in amyloid beta (Aβ) clearance, which is considered as a potential therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, based on the superficial spatial distribution of mLVs, a near-infrared light is employed to modulate lymphatic drainage, significantly improving cognition of both aged and AD (5xFAD and APP/PS1) mice, and alleviating AD-associated pathology by reducing Aβ deposition, neuroinflammation and neuronal damage. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy imaging and RNA sequencing data indicate amelioration of mitochondrial metabolism and cellular junction of meningeal lymphatic endothelial cells (mLECs) by light modulation. These studies collectively suggest that near-infrared light treatment can improve cognitive function by strengthening scavenging ability of mLVs through restoring mLEC function. In conclusion, lymphatic drainage potentiation by light promotes pathological remission and cognitive enhancement in aging and AD mouse models, which offers a potential amelioration strategy for neurodegenerative diseases. Meningeal lymphatic vessels have been associated with amyloid beta clearance, which is considered as a modulation target for Alzheimer's disease (AD) treatment. Here, the authors show that transcranial light treatment can enhance meningeal lymphatic drainage in aged and AD model mice and improve AD-associated pathology and cognitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes one-dimensional cluster state-based multipartite quantum communication networks (QCNs). We describe an approach that enables us to entangle multiple nodes in a one-dimensional chain structure. We also describe a dialogue protocol of QCN based on partially entangled Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) states. The numerical results indicate that one-dimensional cluster state-based QCN has better quantum teleportation fidelity and lower transmission capacity than partially entangled GHZ state-based QCN. Finally, we describe the advantages, disadvantages, and application scenarios of these two types of QCNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining an indicator system developed based on existence–relatedness–growth (ERG) needs and multiple weighting approaches, this paper evaluates the level of high-quality economic development (HQED) in Chinese provinces from the perspective of human well-being from 2007 to 2020. Spatial analysis, Dagum's Gini coefficient (DGC), and spatial econometric modeling were employed to investigate the spatial–temporal evolutionary characteristics, regional differentiation, and driving factors of HQED in China. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) During the period of 2007–2019, the level of Chinese HQED showed a stable upward trend, and gradually produced the development characteristics of "only super power and multi-great power" and spatial features of "point, line and plane", with Beijing as the absolute leader, the southeastern coastal region as the advantageous belt, and the relatively advantageous plane in central and western areas with Shaanxi as the core. (2) The degree of spatial differentiation in Chinese provincial HQED narrowed year by year, with intra-regional differentiation organized as follows: eastern > northeastern > western > central; inter-regional differentiation was concentrated in the development gaps across the other three major regions and the eastern areas. (3) Chinese provincial HQED had a significant spatial autocorrelation characteristic, which was further revealed by the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to be a siphon effect at the national and regional levels, i.e., the plundering of the resources and development opportunities of weaker provinces by stronger ones. (4) Driving factors such as economic scale, urbanization level, resource endowment, government size, green technological innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and environmental regulations affected HQED at the national level and in the four major regions to varying degrees. These findings could contribute to policymakers' efforts to design targeted regional development policies during the transition period of China's economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Textile-based pressure sensors have attracted considerable attention due to their potential to detect vital signals in humans, enhance sports performance, and facilitate human–machine interactions. However, practical challenges, such as unstable assembly structures, weak interfacial bonds with functional materials, and incompatibility with current established finishing technologies in production, remain significant obstacles to their widespread applications. This research explores commercially available suede fabric as a promising substrate for pressure sensing. The conductive suede sensor was readily by integrating carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (C-MWCNTs) and polydopamine (PDA) and subsequently modifying it with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane to achieve a superhydrophobic surface. The resulting suede sensor, featuring a robust PDA-(C-MWCNTs)-HDTMS chemical configuration, exhibited satisfactory hydrophobicity, excellent stability, and repeatability, capable of detecting pulse, throat movement, and daily human motions. Furthermore, the properties of the suede sensor can be well preserved after 60 min of machine washing and ultrasonic cleaning, highlighting its potential in practical applications. This study provides an environmentally stable, lightweight, and well-structured substrate for high-performance electronic textiles suitable for large-scale production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently, a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental drivers on the abundance and structure of the microbial community in typical forest soils has not been thoroughly conducted. In this study, the typical forest soils (Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) soil, MOS; white birch (Betula platyphylla) soil, WBS; and white poplar (Populus davidiana) soil, WPS) in the Sanjiang Plain were selected to ascertain the differences and the major environmental factors driving soil microbial community abundance and structure. Results indicated that differences existed in the abundance and structure of the bacterial, archaeal, and fungal community. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that the bacterial and fungal networks were more complex than those of archaeal networks. Unclassified Acidobacteria and unclassified Pyrinomonadaceae were the keystone taxa in the bacterial networks, while Pleotrichocladium and Leotia were the keystone taxa in the fungal networks. Among all environmental factors, pH, SOM, and total N exhibited dominant roles in affecting the abundance of bacteria, archaea, and fungi. The redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that pH was the vital environmental factor responsible for driving the structure of the bacterial, archaeal, and fungal community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of fixing timing violations, static timing analysis (STA) of full-corners is repeatedly executed, which is time-consuming. Given a timing path, timing results at some corners ("dominant corners") are utilized to predict timing at other corners ("non-dominant corners"), which can greatly shorten the runtime of STA. However, the huge number of combinations of the dominant corners and the wide difference in prediction accuracy make it difficult to apply multi-corner timing prediction to chip industrial design. In this paper, we propose a dominant corner selection strategy to quickly determine the dominant corner combination with high prediction accuracy, along with which a new multi-corner timing prediction process is established to speed up STA. Experimental results show that our method can not only effectively accelerate STA, but also ensure the high prediction accuracy of the prediction timing. On the public ITC'99 benchmark, the prediction accuracy of the dominant corner combination selected by the proposed method is up to 98.2%, which is an improvement of 15% compared to the state-of-the-art method. For industrial application, we apply our method by using timing results on only 2 dominant corners to predict the other 12 non-dominant corners, which accelerates the runtime of the timing closure process by more than 2×. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: The docking simulators are significant ground test equipment for aerospace projects. The fidelity of docking simulation highly depends on the accuracy performance. This paper investigates the kinematic accuracy for the developed docking simulator. A novel kinematic calibration method which can reduce the number of parameters for error modeling is presented. The principle of parameters separation is studied. A simplified error model is derived based on Taylor series. This method can contribute to the simplification of the error model, fewer measurements, and easier convergence during the parameters identification. The calibration experiment validates this method for further accuracy enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Mg-xLi (x = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 wt%) alloys have been extruded to examine the role of Li content on microstructures and tensile properties. The results revealed that Li addition increased the grain size and led to the formation of the transverse direction (TD)-split texture. These were mainly attributed to the promoted DRX process and the increased activity of prismatic 〈a〉 slip during extrusion. Tensile tests revealed that the elongation of Mg-5Li sheet reached ~ 22.4% along the ED. Moreover, it exhibited a higher elongation of ~ 27.3%, three times than pure Mg, along the TD. During tension along the ED, with increasing Li content, more prismatic 〈a〉 slip and preferable intergranular strain coordination ability to accommodate the plastic strain, leading to the enhanced room-temperature ductility. In contrast, more basal 〈a〉 slips and extension twins were also activated along the TD, which further contributed to the enhanced ductility. Therefore, the ductility of Mg sheets at room temperature gradually improved with Li addition due to the combining effects of basal 〈a〉 slip, prismatic 〈a〉 slip, extension twin and preferable intergranular strain coordination ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key early sign of degenerative disc disease (DDD) is the loss of nucleus pulposus (NP) cells (NPCs). Accordingly, NPC transplantation is a treatment strategy for intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. However, in advanced DDD, due to structural damage of the IVD and scaffold mechanical properties, the transplanted cells are less viable and secrete less extracellular matrix, and thus, are unable to efficiently promote NP regeneration. In this study, we evaluated the encapsulation of NPCs in a photosensitive hydrogel made of collagen hydrolysate gelatin and methacrylate (GelMA) to improve NP regeneration. By adjusting the concentration of GelMA, we prepared hydrogels with different mechanical properties. After examining the mechanical properties, cell compatibility and tissue engineering indices of the GelMA‐based hydrogels, we determined the optimal hydrogel concentration of the NPC‐encapsulating GelMA hydrogel for NP regeneration as 5%. NPCs effectively combined with GelMA and proliferated. As the concentration of the GelMA hydrogel increased, the survival, proliferation and matrix deposition of the encapsulated NPCs gradually decreased, which is the opposite of NPCs grown on the surface of the hydrogel. The controllability of the GelMA hydrogels suggests that these NPC‐encapsulating hydrogels are promising candidates to aid in NP tissue engineering and repairing endogenous NPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging effect induced by negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is a universal issue existing in electronic equipments. NBTI aging effect can increase the path delay of network-on-chip (NoC) device, resulting in the decreased frequency of processor core and in turn its performance degradation. Under this circumstance, aging-aware task scheduling becomes a complex and challenging problem in advanced multicore systems. This paper presents an aging-aware scheduling method that incorporates NBTI aging effect into the task scheduling framework for mesh-based NoCs. The proposed method relies on a NBTI aging model to evaluate the degradation of core's operating frequency to establish the task scheduling model under aging effect. Taking into account core performance degradation and the communication overheads among cores, we develop a meta-heuristic scheduling strategy based on particle swarm optimization algorithm to minimize the total execution time of all tasks. Experimental results show that the schedule obtained by the aging-aware algorithm has shorter completion time and higher throughput compared with the nonaging-aware case. On average, the makespan can be reduced by 13.55% and the throughput can be increased by 21.73% for a variety of benchmark applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved multicomponent evaporation model was developed to study the evaporation characteristics of the pure diesel and alcohol (C2–C9) as well as their blended droplets. In this model, the Predictive Soave–Redlich–Kwong (PSRK) equation of state (EOS) was employed to evaluate the vapor–liquid equilibrium for pure and blended droplets. The results indicated that the model predictions agree very well with the experimental measurements. The evaporation characteristics of different pure alcohol droplets were analyzed, and the influence of the addition of alcohols in diesel on the evaporation behavior of droplets under various conditions was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact multi-functional, fully variable valve actuation system for six-cylinder engines was proposed. The system can run in both the drive mode and the brake mode of internal-combustion engines. With the help of a distributor, fully variable valve events were achieved with two oil-supply sets, two solenoid valves and one drain valve. The operational parameters of the valve can be adjusted independently for individual cylinders. A numerical study on the controllability of the system was carried out with AVL Hydsim. The calculation results revealed that the timing of the valve opening, the maximum lift, the duration and the time–area value can be adjusted independently or synchronously by controlling the solenoid valves and/or the drain valve. Further correlation analysis results revealed that all the operational parameters of the valve had approximately linear relationships with the corresponding control parameters, and all the correlation coefficients were larger than 0.95, indicating good controllability of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical dry transfer of large‐area graphene is increasingly applied in fabrication of graphene‐based electronic devices, and adhesion energy of graphene/substrate interface is a key factor affecting reliability and performance of these devices. Herein, the adhesion energy of a graphene/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) interface is measured by widely adopted double cantilever beam (DCB) fracture tests. Results show that the apparent adhesion energy of sandwiched interface is highly rate‐dependent. When separation rate increases from 20 to 150 µm s−1, apparent adhesion energy increases by an order of magnitude. By examining fractured interfaces after DCB tests with micro‐Raman spectroscopy, the graphene is found to be fractured and transferred in fragments, with residual tensile strain up to 3% for high separation rates. The results are contrary to earlier reports, where higher separation rate in dry‐transfer process would typically enhance the dry transfer of graphene, resulting in better integrity and performance. Based on Raman spectroscopy measurements, three distinct decohesion modes are identified for PET‐/graphene‐/adhesive‐sandwiched interface, which consistently explain the rate‐dependent apparent adhesion energy. The complicated decohesion modes also suggest that an optimal separation rate should be used to properly measure the adhesion energy and improve the dry‐transfer technique of graphene with minimum damage and residual strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-temperature combustions (LTCs), such as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), could achieve high thermal efficiency and low engine emissions by combining the advantages of spark-ignited (SI) engines and compression-ignited (CI) engines. Robust control of the ignition timing, however, still remains a hurdle to practical use. A novel technology of jet-controlled compression ignition (JCCI) was proposed to solve the issue. JCCI combustion phasing was controlled by hot jet formed from pre-chamber spark-ignited combustion. Experiments were done on a modified high-speed marine engine for JCCI characteristics research. The JCCI principle was verified by operating the engine individually in the mode of JCCI and in the mode of no pre-chamber jet under low- and medium-load working conditions. Effects of pre-chamber spark timing and intake charge temperature on JCCI process were tested. It was proven that the combustion phasing of the JCCI engine was closely related to the pre-chamber spark timing. A 20 °C temperature change of intake charge only caused a 2° crank angle change of the start of combustion. Extremely low nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission was achieved by JCCI combustion while keeping high thermal efficiency. The JCCI could be a promising technology for dual-fuel marine engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]