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The ultrafast modulation of terahertz (THz) waves is essential for numerous applications, such as high-rate wireless communication, nonreciprocal transmission, and linear frequency conversion. However, high-speed THz devices are rare due to the lack of materials that rapidly respond to external stimuli. Here, we demonstrate a dynamic THz metasurface by introducing an ultrathin superconducting microbridge into metallic resonators to form a superconductor-metal hybrid structure. Exploiting the susceptibility of superconducting films to external optical and THz pumps, we realized resonance mode switching within a few picoseconds. The maximum on/off ratio achieved is 11 dB. The observed periodic oscillation of transmission spectra both in the time and frequency domain under intense THz pump pulse excitation reveals the excitation of Higgs amplitude mode, which is used to realize picosecond scale THz modulation. This study opens the door to ultrafast manipulation of THz waves using collective modes of condensates, and highlights an avenue for developing agile THz modulation devices.

CSF-1 and CSF-1R have been well demonstrated in humans, regulating the differentiation, proliferation and survival of the mononuclear phagocyte system. However, the functional study on MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R from blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) is still unknown. In the present study, we cloned and functionally characterized MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that both MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R were mostly close to the grass carp counterparts. Tissue distribution analysis showed that both MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R were widely distributed in all examined tissues, dominantly distributed in spleen, blood and head kidney tissues. Furthermore, confocal microscopy assay and flow cytometry assay showed that MaCSF-1R was the marker on the surface of macrophages. Recombinant MaCSF-1 promoted macrophage proliferation, phagocytosis and the production of IL-10. Through the pull-down experiments and indirect immunofluorescence experiments, the interaction between MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R was confirmed. To explore the relationship between MaCSF-1 and its receptor, MaCSF-1R and MaCSF-1R antibody was prepared. Then the MaCSF-1R blockage assay indicated that the role of MaCSF-1 on the macrophages proliferation and phagocytosis was weakened, leading the reduction of IL-10 expression level. In conclusion, MaCSF-1R is the marker on the surface of macrophage membrane; and MaCSF-1 promotes macrophage proliferation, phagocytosis, and significantly increased the expression levels of IL-10 depended on the interacting with MaCSF-1R. This study provides basal data for the biological function of MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R, and is valuable for the exploration of MaCSF-1 and MaCSF-1R molecular interactions.

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory and demyelinating disorder that can lead to serious disability and mortality. Humoral fluid biomarkers with specific, convenient, and efficient profiles that could characterize and monitor disease activity or severity are very useful. We aimed to develop a sensitive and high-throughput liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS)/MS-based analytical method for novel biomarkers finding in NMOSD patients and verified its function tentatively.Methods: Serum samples were collected from 47 NMOSD patients, 18 patients with other neurological disorders (ONDs), and 35 healthy controls (HC). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were collected from 18 NMOSD and 17 OND patients. Three aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan) and nine important metabolites that included phenylacetylglutamine (PAGln), indoleacrylic acid (IA), 3-indole acetic acid (IAA), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (HIAA), hippuric acid (HA), I-3-carboxylic acid (I-3-CA), kynurenine (KYN), kynurenic acid (KYNA), and quinine (QUIN) were analyzed by using the liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based method. The profile of IA was further analyzed, and its function was verified in an astrocyte injury model stimulated by NMO-IgG, which represents important events in NMOSD pathogenesis.Results: In the serum, tyrosine and some of the tryptophan metabolites IA and I-3-CA decreased, and HIAA increased significantly in NMOSD patients. The CSF levels of phenylalanine and tyrosine showed a significant increase exactly during the relapse stage, and IA in the CSF was also increased markedly during the relapse and remission phases. All conversion ratios had similar profiles with their level fluctuations. In addition, the serum IA levels negatively correlated with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and neurofilament light (NfL) levels in the serum of NMOSD patients were measured by using ultra-sensitive single-molecule arrays (Simoa). IA showed an anti-inflammatory effect in an in vitro astrocyte injury model.Conclusion: Our data suggest that essential aromatic amino acid tryptophan metabolites IA in the serum or CSF may serve as a novel promising biomarker to monitor and predict the activity and severity of NMOSD disease. Supplying or enhancing IA function can promote anti-inflammatory responses and may have therapeutic benefits.

HYPOTHESIS: Lipases are widely used in the detergent industry and must withstand harsh conditions involving both anionic and zwitterionic surfactants at alkaline pH. Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TlL) is often used and stays active at high concentrations of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at pH 8.0, but is sensitive to SDS at pH 6.0 and below. We propose that enhanced stability at pH 8.0 results from a structurally distinct complex formation with SDS.EXPERIMENTS: We use small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to elucidate structures of TlL:SDS at pH 4.0, 6.0, and 8.0 and further investigate the complexes at pH 8.0 using hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS).FINDINGS: At pH 4.0, large dense aggregates are formed at low [SDS], which become gradually less dense at higher [SDS], resulting in a core-shell structure. At pH 6.0, SDS induces a TlL dimer and forms a hemi-micelle along the side of the dimer. At higher [SDS], TlL adopts a core-shell structure. At pH 8.0, TlL forms a dimer with a SDS hemi-micelle but avoids a core-shell structure and maintains activity. Three helices are identified as SDS anchor points. This study provides important structural insight into the stability of TlL towards SDS under alkaline conditions.

IntroductionAquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G (AQP4-IgG)-induced astrocytes injury is a key mechanism in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis spectrum disorder (NMOSD), and although CCL2 is involved, its specific role has not been reported. We aimed to further investigate the role and potential mechanisms of CCL2 in AQP4-IgG-induced astrocyte injury.MethodsFirst, we evaluated CCL2 levels in paired samples of subject patients by automated microfluidic platform, Ella®. Second, we knock down astrocyte's CCL2 gene in vitro and in vivo to define the function of CCL2 in AQP4-IgG-induced astrocyte injury. Third, astrocyte injury and brain injury in live mice were assessed by immunofluorescence staining and 7.0T MRI, respectively. Western blotting and high-content screening were conducted to clarify the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways, and changes in CCL2 mRNA and cytokine/chemokines were measured by qPCR technique and flow cytometry, respectively.ResultsThere were greatly higher CSF-CCL2 levels in NMOSD patients than that in other non-inflammatory neurological diseases (OND) groups. Blocking astrocyte CCL2 gene expression can efficiently mitigate AQP4-IgG-induced damage in vitro and in vivo. Interestingly, prevention of CCL2 expression could decrease other inflammatory cytokines released, including IL-6 and IL-1β. Our data suggest that CCL2 involves in the initiation and plays a pivotal role in AQP4-IgG-damaged astrocytes.DiscussionOur results indicate that CCL2 may serve as a promising candidate target for inflammatory disorder therapy, including NMOSD.

BackgroundPrimary angiitis of the central nervous system (PACNS) is a severe inflammatory disease, and soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2) has been reported to be associated with inflammation of the CNS. However, the role of sTREM2 in PACNS remains unknown.MethodsWe obtained serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 18 patients diagnosed with PACNS, as well as 14 patients diagnosed with other neurological disorders with no evidence of inflammation. sTREM2 concentrations in the samples were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. And routine CSF measurements of PACNS patients were analysed, including number of White Blood Cells (WBC), protein, Immunoglobulin G (IgG) index and CSF/serum quotients. Levels of inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and complement C4, also were tested. The modified Rankin scale (mRS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and activities of daily living (ADL) scores were obtained as indicators of disease severity. In PACNS patients, cerebral lesion volume was evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging.ResultssTREM2 levels in serum and CSF were significantly elevated in PACNS patients and significantly associated with the mRS, NIHSS and ADL scores as well as inflammatory cytokine levels. Additionally, positive correlations were observed between the cerebral lesion volume and the sTREM2 levels in both blood and CSF. Higher sTREM2 levels in either the blood or CSF seemed to predict a good prognosis in PACNS patients.ConclusionOur results indicate an association between serum and CSF sTREM2 levels and the severity of neurological damage. Thus, sTREM2 represents a potential biomarker for monitoring disease and potentially predicting the prognosis of PACNS patients.

Background Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is an autoimmune disease characterized by complex neuropsychiatric syndrome and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) NMDAR antibodies. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) has been reported to be associated with inflammation of the CNS. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) and the cluster of differentiation (CD44) were measured to evaluate the blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability of anti-NMDAR encephalitis. The roles of the microglia activation and disruption of BBB in anti-NMDAR encephalitis are not well known. Findings: In this work, we detected the increased expression level of CSF sTREM2, CSF and serum CD44, and serum MMP9 in anti-NMDAR encephalitis patients, compared with control groups. CSF sTREM2 levels were positively related to both the CSF CD44 levels (r = 0.702, p

Given the importance of data safety for psychology, the present study investigated the influence of data leaking scandal on campus customers’ financial consumption behaviors at intelligent tourism platforms in China, and explored the roles that individual characteristics play in this process by focusing on a set of participants from colleges. Data were collected through sending out an online questionnaire, where respondents were asked to finish a series of questions about their background information, their trust, future consuming intention, and defensive behaviors toward intelligent platforms. After they finished these questions, a short description about an online tourism platform leaking customers’ personal information was presented to the respondents, following which they were asked to report about their future consuming intentions and defensive behaviors again. In total, 236 participants of college students and teachers were recruited. Paired samples mean comparison showed that after the stimulus was presented, the respondents had a significant decrease in future financial consumption intention, and a significant increase in defensive behaviors toward online tourism platforms due to risks perceived. Multiple regression analysis was conducted subsequently to investigate individual characteristics that may account for part of the decrease (increase) in consuming intention (defensive behaviors). Results showed that, customers with higher level of trust and monthly income, as well as older customers, tend to experience higher level of decrease in consuming intention, and increase in defensive behaviors. These findings highlighted the importance of online tourism platforms guaranteeing data security of their customers.

Radar system simulation usually needs to consider not only the modeling work of its static system structure but also the representation of dynamic behaviors. Traditionally, the standard Simulation Model Portability (SMP) published by European Space Agency is very suitable to build the structure of entities and their internal and external static relationships as well, but it shows pale to specify complex dynamic behaviors, such as that of radar system. To describe the behavioral aspect, we applied Synchronous data flow (SDF) and combined SMP with it. If so, one can benefit from a loose coupling way to design radar system in two different kinds of formalisms, and can simultaneously support structural modeling and behavioral modeling. For this purpose, the goal of this paper is to design a mechanism of how to combine and use these two formalisms together to form a novel simulation language. As a proof of concept, we built a set of functional models of a general radar system by using this new language and simulation results show its proper availability.

Baculoviruses are virulent pathogens that infect a wide range of insects. They initiate infections via specific interactions between the structural proteins on the envelopes of occlusion-derived virions (ODVs) and the midgut cell surface receptors in hosts. However, host factors that are hijacked by baculoviruses for efficient infection remain largely unknown. In this study, we identified a membrane-associated protein sucrose hydrolase (BmSUH) as an ODV binding factor during Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) primary infection. BmSUH was specifically expressed in the midgut microvilli where the ODV-midgut fusion happened. Knockout of BmSUH by CRISPR/Cas9 resulted in a significantly higher survival rate after BmNPV orally infection. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis and co-immunoprecipitation analysis demonstrated that PIF protein complex required for ODV binding could interact with BmSUH. Furthermore, fluorescence dequenching assay showed that the amount of ODV binding and fusion to the midgut decreased in BmSUH mutants compared to wild-type silkworm, suggesting the role of BmSUH as an ODV binding factor that mediates the ODV entry process. Based on a multilevel survey, the data showed that BmSUH acted as a host factor that facilitates BmNPV oral infection. More generally, this study indicated that disrupting essential protein-protein interactions required for baculovirus efficient entry may be broadly applicable to against viral infection.

Artificial spin ices are engineered arrays of dipolarly coupled nanobar magnets. They enable direct investigations of fascinating collective phenomena from their diverse microstates. However, experimental access to ground states in the geometrically frustrated systems has proven difficult, limiting studies and applications of novel properties and functionalities from the low energy states. Here, we introduce a convenient approach to control the competing diploar interactions between the neighboring nanomagnets, allowing us to tailor the vertex degeneracy of the ground states. We achieve this by tuning the length of selected nanobar magnets in the spin ice lattice. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by realizing multiple low energy microstates in a Kagome artificial spin ice, particularly the hardly accessible long range ordered ground state - the spin crystal state. Our strategy can be directly applied to other artificial spin systems to achieve exotic phases and explore new emergent collective behaviors., To appear in Physical Review Letters

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays an important role in evolutionary processes as organisms adapt to their environments, and now cases of gene duplication after HGT in eukaryotes are emerging at an increasing rate. However, the fate and roles of the duplicated genes over time in eukaryotes remain unclear. Here we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of cysteine synthase (CYS) in lepidopteran insects. Our results indicate that HGT-derived CYS genes are widespread and have undergone duplication following horizontal transfer in many lepidopteran insects. Moreover, lepidopteran CYS proteins not only have β-cyanoalanine synthase activity but also possess cysteine synthase activity that is involved in sulfur amino acid biosynthesis. Duplicated CYS genes show marked divergence in gene expression patterns and enzymatic properties, suggesting that they probably have undergone subfunctionalization and/or neofunctionalization in Lepidoptera. The gene transfer of CYS genes and subsequent duplication appears to have facilitated the adaptation of lepidopteran insects to different diets and promoted their ecological diversification. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the ecological and evolutionary contributions of CYS in lepidopteran insects.

We show the diffuse and specular reflection images of defective foams placed on iron plates, which are obtained by a bifocal active imaging system at 0.22 THz. Foam materials studied are extruded polystyrene boards and acetate copolymer boards with artificially embedded defects. In the field of view of approximately 50 × 90 cm2, the incident angle of the emitting and receiving cochannel system affects the reflected signal intensity and the imaging method. We build a light reflection model, which corrects the angle-dependent intensity behavior, to make the imaging results more intuitive. Experimental results show that large-angle imaging, which collects mainly diffuse reflection light, can be used to detect defects and is actually more suitable for detecting small defects than small-angle imaging, which mainly collects specular reflection light.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a potentially critical source of material for ecological adaptation and the evolution of novel genetic traits. However, reports on posttransfer duplication in organism genomes are lacking, and the evolutionary advantages conferred on the recipient are generally poorly understood. Sucrase plays an important role in insect physiological growth and development. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of insect β-fructofuranosidase transferred from bacteria via HGT. We found that posttransfer duplications of β-fructofuranosidase were widespread in Lepidoptera and sporadic occurrences of β-fructofuranosidase were found in Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. β-fructofuranosidase genes often undergo modifications, such as gene duplication, differential gene loss, and changes in mutation rates. Lepidopteran β-fructofuranosidase gene (SUC) clusters showed marked divergence in gene expression patterns and enzymatic properties in Bombyx mori (moth) and Papilio xuthus (butterfly). We generated SUC1 mutations in B. mori using CRISPR/Cas9 to thoroughly examine the physiological function of SUC. BmSUC1 mutant larvae were viable but displayed delayed growth and reduced sucrase activities that included susceptibility to the sugar mimic alkaloid found in high concentrations in mulberry. BmSUC1 served as a critical sucrase and supported metabolic homeostasis in the larval midgut and silk gland, suggesting that gene transfer of β-fructofuranosidase enhanced the digestive and metabolic adaptation of lepidopteran insects. These findings highlight not only the universal function of β-fructofuranosidase with a link to the maintenance of carbohydrate metabolism but also an underexplored function in the silk gland. This study expands our knowledge of posttransfer duplication and subsequent functional diversification in the adaptive evolution and lineage-specific adaptation of organisms.

PurposeThis paper analyzes the effect of corporate tax cuts on the competitiveness of the tax-cutting countries and neighbor countries.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes four significant corporate tax reforms among the OECD countries in Europe that offer a one-time tax cut of 6% or more. The short-term event study approach examines the stock index reactions for both the tax-cutting countries and the other countries. Multivariate fixed-effect regressions are employed to study the cross-sectional variations in the non-tax-cut countries.FindingsThis paper finds positive excess returns for Slovakia and Germany around the tax-cut passage. Multivariate analysis of stock market reactions of the non-tax-cutting countries reveals some evidence supporting both the positive spillover effect and the negative competitive loss effect. More advanced countries are more likely to experience higher abnormal returns, while higher tax countries are more likely to suffer lower abnormal returns. Other factors identified that might have influenced the effect of a foreign tax cut include the existing trade flows with the tax-cutting countries, whether the country has a common currency and the export orientation of the economy.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are subject to sample-size issues. The lack of results for the other two countries is due to complicating events, as suggested by the further investigation of concurrent news events around the event days.Practical implicationsThe simultaneous analysis of the reform countries and the other countries in the region suggests that policymakers need to consider the relative positioning of their country vs the other countries in terms of economic development and current tax burdens when determining the optimal policy for their country or to respond to the tax policy changes in the other countries.Originality/valueThis study offers empirical evidence regarding the effect of corporate tax changes on competitiveness through the lens of stock markets' reactions, which depend on the net results of the spillover gain vs the competitive loss.

Subwavelength-sized metallic structures exhibit extraordinary responses to electromagnetic waves due to their geometry, generating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the metal–dielectric interface. The development and application of terahertz (THz) science, which is an emerging science, can be advanced by studying SPPs in the THz band. Because the field strength of SPPs gradually weakens in the propagation direction, a coherent phase-matched THz SPP enhancement structure was designed. Here, we demonstrated an asymmetrical circular groove structure. And using this structure, THz SPPs can be excited and can be focused and enhanced under the illumination of linearly polarized THz pulses, generating a subwavelength-sized focal spot. These functions are achieved via phase matching. Furthermore, the original structure was modified by controlling the propagation phase of the THz SPPs and a periodic enhancement structure was designed. Compared to the original structure, the periodic enhancement structure has a stronger focusing effect on THz SPPs. Moreover, we imaged the THz SPPs by using a THz real-time near-field spectral imaging system and verified the feasibility of the designed structure by comparing with the simulation results. The study results are of great significance to the application of THz SPPs and the fabrication of related devices.

High quality Nb films were successfully prepared on both flexible polyimide (PI) and rigid Al2O3 substrates and their transport properties were systematically studied at various applied currents, external magnetic fields, and sample orientations. It is found that a curved Nb/PI film exhibits quite different superconducting transition and vortex dynamics compared to the flat Nb/Al2O3 film. For the curved Nb/PI film, smooth superconducting transitions were obtained at low currents, while unexpected cascade structures were revealed in the ρ(T) curves at high currents. We attribute this phenomenon to the gradient distribution of vortex density together with a variation of superconductivity along the curved film. In addition, reentrant superconductivity was induced in the curved Nb/PI thin film by properly choosing the measurement conditions. We attribute this effect to the vortex pinning from both in-plane vortices and out-of-plane vortices. This work reveals the complex transport properties of curved superconducting thin films, providing important insights for further theoretical investigations and practical developments of flexible superconductors.

We propose a frequency-tunable source to emit entangled microwave photons on the platform of a superconducting circuit, in which two superconducting transmission-line resonators are coupled via a capacitor and one resonator is inserted with a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) in the center. By pumping the circuit appropriately with an external coherent microwave signal through the SQUID, microwave photons are emitted in pairs out of the circuit. The entanglement between the two modes is demonstrated by numerically calculating the second-order coherence function and the logarithmic negativity of the output microwave signals. Due to the tunability of SQUID’s equivalent inductance, the frequencies of the entangled microwave photons can be tuned by an external flux bias in situ. Our proposal paves a new way for obtaining entangled frequency-tunable two-mode microwave photons.

Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ(BSCCO) single crystals are promising for high-temperature superconducting electronic devices with ultimate performance. Recently, tailoring superconductivity in ultra-thin BSCCO locally has received wide attention and interest. In this work, we focus on controlling the superconductivity of the uppermost CuO2double layer of the BSCCO crystal. Gold electrodes are deposited onto the freshly cleaved BSCCO surface by a high-vacuum in situ evaporation technique at room temperature, and then surface Josephson junctions (SJJs) between the two outermost superconducting CuO2double layers are fabricated as a probe to evaluate the superconductivity of the uppermost double layer. We find that the junction transition temperature Tc′ as well as its critical current density jcdepend systematically and reproducibly on the deposition rate of the gold electrode. The electric properties of the SJJs, spanning the range from completely degraded to almost as good as the intrinsic Josephson junctions inside the bulk, systematically reveal the evolutionary process of superconductivity of the uppermost BSCCO layer, extending the range for practical applications.

A compact cryogenic terahertz emitter is highly desired for applications in terahertz astronomy with a broad frequency range of emissions and relatively high emission power. In this paper, we report on a terahertz emitter based on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 + δ (BSCCO) intrinsic Josephson junctions, with a frequency range from 0.15 to 1.01 THz. The emitter is a square gold-BSCCO-gold mesa on a sapphire substrate fabricated by a simple and efficient method. The highest emission power of 5.62 μW at 0.35 THz was observed at 50 K. A record low emission frequency of 0.15 THz was achieved at 85 K, extending the applicability of BSCCO terahertz emitters in the low-frequency range.

The ability to control the potential landscape in a medium of interacting particles could lead to intriguing collective behavior and innovative functionalities. Here, we utilize spatially reconfigurable magnetic potentials of a pinwheel artificial spin ice structure to tailor the motion of superconducting vortices. The reconstituted chain structures of the magnetic charges in the artificial pinwheel spin ice and the strong interaction between magnetic charges and superconducting vortices allow significant modification of the transport properties of the underlying superconducting thin film, resulting in a reprogrammable resistance state that enables a reversible and switchable vortex Hall effect. Our results highlight an effective and simple method of using artificial spin ice as an in-situ reconfigurable nanoscale energy landscape to design reprogrammable superconducting electronics, which could also be applied to the in-situ control of properties and functionalities in other magnetic particle systems, such as magnetic skyrmions., Comment: To appear in Nano Letters

In order to accelerate the execution of streaming applications on multi-core systems, this article studies the scheduling problem of synchronous data flow graphs (SDFG) on homogeneous multi-core systems. To describe the data flow computation process, we propose the SDAG (Super DAG) computation model based on the DAG model combined with data-driven thoughts. Further, we analyze the current common SDFG scheduling algorithms and propose an improved SDFG scheduling algorithm, LSEFT (level-shortest-first-earliest-finish time). The LSEFT algorithm uses an inverse traversal algorithm to calculate the priority of tasks in the task-selection phase; the shortest-job-priority earliest-finish-time policy is used in the processor selection phase to replace the original long job priority policy. In the experimental part, we designed an SDFG random generator and generated 958 SDFGs with the help of the random generator as test cases to verify the scheduling algorithm. The experimental results show that our improved algorithm performs well for different numbers of processor cores, especially for 8 cores, where the speedup of our improved algorithm improves by 10.17% on average.

Mechanical oscillators can be implemented to store and transfer information or to build hybrid systems. In order to couple a mechanical oscillator to a superconducting qubit, we fabricate a superconducting capacitor, in which diluted photoresist or electron beam photoresist is used as sacrificial layers. The upper plate of the capacitor, a suspended membrane, acts as a mechanical oscillator. We obtain its mechanical resonant frequency and response to the input microwave. Such mechanical oscillators can be used as the capacitor of a superconducting qubit to form a coupled system. In order to control the resonant frequency of the mechanical oscillator and the microwave resonator, we introduce a dc voltage bias between the upper and lower plates of the capacitor. We analyze the electromechanical coupling such as pull-in effect and experimentally demonstrate the dependence of the resonant frequency on the applied dc voltage. These results will contribute to the design and fabrication of hybrid systems comprising voltage-controlled mechanical oscillators and other systems.

This study examines the relation between the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) oil forecasts and analyst earnings forecasts for oil firms. Analyst forecast biases (revisions) are positiv...

This study examines whether signing auditors from rice planting regions affect audit quality. Using a sample of 12,223 firm-year observations from the Chinese stock market over the period of 2004–2015, our findings reveal that signing auditors from rice regions are significantly negatively associated with the likelihood of unclean audit opinions, suggesting that signing auditors with rice culture are more likely to succumb to the managers and hamper independence, and thus are more inclined to issue favorable audit opinions, and eventually impair audit quality. Furthermore, audit firm size and industry expertise attenuate the negative relation between signing auditors with rice culture and audit quality. In addition, above findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests using different measures of audit quality and signing auditors from rice cultivating areas and our conclusions still stand after using the Heckman two-step approach, placebo test and differences-in-differences method to address the potential endogeneity problem.

Insects evolved adaptive plasticity to minimize the effects of the chemical defenses of their host plants. Nevertheless, the expressional response and adaptation of phytophagous specialists for long‐term adaption and short‐term response to host phytochemicals remains largely unexplored. The mulberry (Morus alba)–silkworm (Bombyx mori) interaction is an old and well‐known model of plant–insect interaction. In this study, we examined the long‐term adaption and short‐term response of the mulberry‐specialist silkworm to two sugar‐mimic alkaloids in mulberry: the commonly encountered 1‐deoxynojirimycin (1‐DNJ) and occasionally encountered 1,4‐dideoxy‐1,4‐imino‐D‐arabinitol (D‐AB1), respectively. Global transcriptional patterns revealed that the physiological responses induced by the selective expression of genes involved in manifold cellular processes, including detoxification networks, canonical digestion processes, target enzymes, and other fundamental physiological processes, were crucial for regulating metabolic homeostasis. Comparative network analysis of the effects of exposure to D‐AB1 and 1‐DNJ supported the contention that B. mori produced similar and specific trajectories of changed gene expression in response to different sugar‐mimic alkaloids. D‐AB1 elicited a substantial proportion of downregulated genes relating to carbohydrate metabolism, catabolic process, lipid metabolism, and glycan biosynthesis and metabolism. This study dramatically expands our knowledge of the physiological adaptations to dietary sugar‐mimic alkaloid intake and uncovered both metabolic evolutionarily responses and unique adaptive mechanisms previously unknown in insects., Insects evolved adaptive plasticity to minimize the effects of the chemical defenses of their host plants. In this study, we found that the transcriptional plasticity in genes related to metabolism, detoxification, digestion, and general cellular processes played a key role in both long‐term adaptation and short‐term responses of the mulberry‐specialist insect to changing sugar‐mimic alkaloids.

This study offers a global perspective on the relationship between statutory corporate tax changes and country equity index returns for 54 countries for 2002–2017. Using fixed-effect models for cou...

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that frequently affects the optic nerve and spinal cord. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is considered a key cytokine in the pathogenesis of NMOSD, and the level of IL-6 is significantly increased in the sera and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with NMOSD. We have reported that the production of IL-6 depends on the JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway. However, it is not clear whether the NF-κB-dependent inflammatory response stimulated by neuromyelitis optica IgG (NMO-IgG) could also drive the production of IL-6 in astrocytes. In this study, we used an in vitro model of primary rat astrocytes stimulated by NMO-IgG to study the role of the NF-κB signaling pathway in mediating the release of IL-6. First, we confirmed that the level of IL-6 was significantly higher in the sera of NMOSD patients than that of healthy people by humoral fluid analysis and that NMO-IgG can significantly induce the release of IL-6 from astrocytes by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry. Then, Western blotting and immunocytochemistry showed that NMO-IgG can activate the intracellular NF-κB signaling pathway. Finally, it was found that S3633, an inhibitor of the NF-κB signaling pathway, can effectively inhibit the increase in IL-6 levels. These results prove that the production of IL-6 is partly mediated by the NF-κB signaling pathway, providing a potential effective strategy for targeted treatment of NMOSD.

Magnonics, which employs spin-waves to transmit and process information, is a promising venue for low-power data processing. One of the major challenges is the local control of the spin-wave propagation path. Here, we introduce the concept of writable magnonics by taking advantage of the highly flexible reconfigurability and rewritability of artificial spin ice systems. Using micromagnetic simulations, we show that globally switchable spin-wave propagation and the locally writable spin-wave nanochannels can be realized in a ferromagnetic thin film underlying an artificial pinwheel spin ice. The rewritable magnonics enabled by reconfigurable spin wave nanochannels provides a unique setting to design programmable magnonic circuits and logic devices for ultra-low power applications., Comment: To appear in Applied Physics Letters

Follicular carcinoma originating from struma ovarii is a clinically rare low-grade malignant tumor. The pathological diagnosis of ovarian thyroid follicular carcinoma is predominantly based on the infiltrative growth and vascular involvement of tumor cell nests of different sizes in the ovarian parenchyma.Here we present a case of this malignancy in which the bilateral ovaries, right oviduct wall, myometrial surface, omentum, and bladder reflex were extensively involved Microscopically, the thyroid follicles in this case showed infiltrative growth of nodules of different sizes in the ovarian stroma.The epithelial layer of the follicles was atypical, but with no nuclear features of papillary thyroid carcinoma such as nuclear groove and nuclear pseudoinclusions. Immunohistochemistry showed positive expression of thyroglobulin, thyroid transcription factor-1, and cytokeratin19, with a Ki-67 index of 5% +. Immunohistochemical results combined with microscopic morphology allowed a diagnosis of follicular carcinoma originating from struma ovarii.After exclusion of contraindications to surgery, the patient underwent surgical exploration on July 26, 2022, during which frozen pathological examination was performed.The patient recovered well and was discharged. At the first follow-up visit in October 2022, the patient had an excellent survival.The analysis of the microscopic morphological characteristics and immunohistochemistry deepened our understanding of the pathological characteristics of ovarian and thyroid follicular carcinoma, and further provides a diagnostic reference for other clinicians who will encounter these conditions in the future.

The high- T c superconducting (HTS) bicrystal YBa2Cu3O7–δ (YBCO) zero-bias-operation Josephson junction (JJ) harmonic mixer coupled with a bowtie loaded meander antenna (BLMA) is proposed and studied at 0.21 THz. When the JJ mixer coupled with the BLMA, the maximal harmonic number increases up to 146 with the conversion efficiency of −63.6 dB at the bath temperature around 4.6 K compared to a mixer coupled with a log-periodic antenna (LPA) of only a maximal harmonic number of 46 with the conversion efficiency of −71.6 dB. The mixer coupled with the BLMA has a higher order harmonic mixing with a lower local oscillator (LO) power of 1.26 dBm, which further illustrates its superiority to that coupled with a LPA with the LO power of 5.59 dBm. The experiment verifies the merits of the JJ harmonic mixer operating at zero bias as a promising device in terahertz regions.

Chitooligosaccharide (COS) is an important immune enhancer and has been proven to have a variety of biological activities. Our previous research has established an M1 polarization mode by COS in blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) macrophages, but the mechanism of COS activation of blunt snout bream macrophages remains unclear. In this study, we further explored the internalization mechanism and signal transduction pathway of chitooligosaccharide hexamer (COS6) in blunt snout bream macrophages. The results showed that mannose receptor C-type lectin-like domain 4-8 of M. amblycephala (MaMR CTLD4-8) could recognize and bind to COS6 and mediate COS6 into macrophages by both clathrin-dependent and caveolin-dependent pathways. In the inflammatory response of macrophages activated by COS6, the gene expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) was significantly inhibited after MaMR CTLD4-8-specific antibody blockade. However, even if it was blocked, the expression of these inflammation-related genes was still relatively upregulated, which suggested that there are other receptors involved in immune regulation. Further studies indicated that MaMR CTLD4-8 and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) cooperated to regulate the pro-inflammatory response of macrophages caused by COS6. Taken together, these results revealed that mannose receptor (MR) CTLD4-8 is indispensable in the process of recognition, binding, internalization, and immunoregulation of COS in macrophages of blunt snout bream.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown great success in a variety of real-world applications and the outstanding performance of the state-of-the-art CNNs is primarily driven by the elaborate architecture. Evolutionary convolutional neural network (ECNN) is a promising approach to design the optimal CNN architecture automatically. Nevertheless, most of the existing ECNN methods only focus on improving the performance of the discovered CNN architectures without considering the relevance between different classification tasks. Transfer learning is a human-like learning approach and has been introduced to solve complex problems in the domain of evolutionary algorithms (EAs). In this paper, an effective ECNN optimization method with cross-tasks transfer strategy (CTS) is proposed to facilitate the evolution process. The proposed method is then evaluated on benchmark image classification datasets as a case study. The experimental results show that the proposed method can not only speed up the evolutionary process significantly but also achieve competitive classification accuracy. To be specific, our proposed method can reach the same accuracy at least 40 iterations early and an improvement of accuracy for 0.88% and 3.12% on MNIST-FASHION and CIFAR10 datasets compared with ECNN, respectively.

High-efficiency terahertz (THz) emission and detection are of great interest because of their promising applications in high-speed communications, biomedicine, and imaging. A previous study has achieved efficient room-temperature THz emission at ∼360 GHz by green-light exciting the lattice symmetric stretching vibrations of ZnO nanoplates self-assembled into ZnO microspheres (MSs). Herein, we explore resonant THz radiation of this kind of ZnO MSs under around 360 GHz excitation. A Fabry–Perot resonant cavity is designed and used to obtain the resonant THz signal. Compared to the case without the ZnO MSs, the THz output powers are enhanced by 1.5 and 3.2 times under two excitations of 356.1 and 375.8 GHz with an input power of 6.5 mW, respectively. Furthermore, it is shown that when a wide frequency THz wave irradiates on the ZnO MSs in the cavity, the output THz signal strength shows an obvious variation with frequency and can thus be utilized to detect the presence of some THz waves with specific frequencies. This work indicates that such self-assembled MSs can not only radiate the enhanced THz waves via a resonator, but also effectively apperceive some specific THz signals as a detector.

Circulating T helper cells with a type 17-polarized phenotype (TH17) and expansion of aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-specific T cells are frequently observed in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). However, naive T cell populations, which give rise to T helper cells, and the primary site of T cell maturation, namely the thymus, have not been studied in these patients. Here, we report the alterations of naive CD4 T cell homeostasis and the changes in thymic characteristics in NMOSD patients. Flow cytometry was performed to investigate the naive CD4+ T cell subpopulations in 44 NMOSD patients and 21 healthy controls (HC). On immunological evaluation, NMOSD patients exhibited increased counts of CD31+thymic naive CD4+ T cells and CD31-cental naive CD4+ T cells along with significantly higher fraction and absolute counts of peripheral blood CD45RA+ CD62L+ naive CD4+ T cells. Chest computed tomography (CT) images of 60 NMOSD patients and 65 HCs were retrospectively reviewed to characterize the thymus in NMOSD. Thymus gland of NMOSD patients exhibited unique morphological characteristics with respect to size, shape, and density. NMOSD patients showed exacerbated age-dependent thymus involution than HC, which showed a significant association with disease duration. These findings broaden our understanding of the immunological mechanisms that drive severe disease in NMOSD.

Negative magnetoresistances (NMRs) have been widely observed in two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs). However, their origins are under debate. Here, we report on NMRs in the 2DEG in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, aiming to uncover their origins by utilizing electric field gating. We systematically measured the magnetoresistances in magnetic fields up to 12 T and at temperatures between 3 and 260 K and observed NMRs over a wide range of temperatures from 3 to 170 K, which become more pronounced with decreasing temperature. We conducted electric field gating experiments to correlate the occurrence of NMRs with the relationship between electron mobility and density. The latter is governed by defect scattering sources in the sample and can be theoretically modeled. Comparison of the measured electron mobility and electron density relationship with theory reveals that interface roughness scattering plays a crucial role in obtaining large NMRs. Our work demonstrates that electric field gating provides a means not only to tune the values of NMRs but also to uncover their mechanisms.

For passive bistatic radar (PBR), it is convenient to use software method to realise the signal processing. However, because of the huge amount of data computing, it is difficult to achieve the real-time signal processing by software method only with server that uses CPU for calculation. To solve the problem, the PBR signal processing method with multi-CPUs based on pipeline processing is studied. The key point of the method is to improve the parallelism of the signal processing algorithm and to use all the CPU cores efficiently for parallel computing. The whole PBR signal processing is divided into several steps, such as clutter cancellation, correlation processing, CFAR detection and so on, and each step employs different CPU resources that contain many cores. The data processed in each steps is also divided into several pieces to fully use all the CPU cores. At last, the signal processing in software for digital television terrestrial broadcasting (DTTB) signal is achieved based on the method. The experiment is carried out to verify the method. In the experiment, the whole signal processing time for DTTB signal is much less than the time of signal to be processed, and the signal processing output is continuous.

The actual light absorption photovoltaic responses realized in three-dimensional (3D) radial junction (RJ) units can be rather different from their planar counterparts and remain largely unexplored. We here adopt a laser excitation photoelectric microscope (LEPM) technology to probe the local light harvesting and photoelectric signals of 3D hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) RJ thin film solar cells constructed over a Si nanowire (SiNW) matrix, with a high spatial resolution of 600 nm thanks to the use of a high numerical aperture objective. The LEPM scan can help to resolve clearly the impacts of local structural damages, which are invisible to optical and SEM observations. More importantly, the high-resolution photoelectric mapping establishes a straightforward link between the local 3D geometry of RJ units and their light conversion performance. Surprisingly, it is found that the maximal photoelectric signals are usually recorded in the void locations among the standing SiNW RJs, instead of the overhead positions above the RJs. This phenomenon can be well explained and reproduced by finite element simulation analysis, which highlights unambiguously the dominant contribution of inter-RJ-unit scattering against direct mode incoupling in the 3D solar cell architecture. This LEPM mapping technology and the results help to achieve a straightforward and high-resolution evaluation of the local photovoltaic responses among the 3D RJ units, providing a solid basis for further structural optimization and performance improvement.

This paper introduces a direct sputtering technology for fabricating flexible and transparent microwave microstrip line. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used as the substrate, to realize the characteristics of flexible, stretchable, and transparent microwave circuit, and the solid metallic lines are replaced by the mesh metal. In particular, direct sputtering technology is used on the PDMS substrate to fabricate these transmission lines, which is an efficient candidate for fabrication of microwave or millimeter-wave circuits and is potentially a significant method for multilayer circuits. The fabricated transmission lines with different metallic meshes are measured under conditions of the normal state, 30° inside bending, and 130% stretch, respectively, with acceptable electrical performances up to a frequency of 20 GHz.

Glyphodes pyloalisWalker (Lepidoptera: Pyralididae) is a common pest in sericulture and has developed resistance to different insecticides. However, the mechanisms involved in insecticide resistance ofG. pyloalisare poorly understood. Here, we present the first whole-transcriptome analysis of differential expression genes in insecticide-resistant and susceptibleG. pyloalis. Clustering and enrichment analysis of DEGs revealed several biological pathways and enriched Gene Ontology terms were related to detoxification or insecticide resistance. Genes involved in insecticide metabolic processes, including cytochrome P450, glutathione S-transferases and carboxylesterase, were identified in the larval midgut ofG. pyloalis.Among them,CYP324A19,CYP304F17,CYP6AW1,CYP6AB10,GSTs5, andAChE-likewere significantly increased after propoxur treatment, whileCYP324A19,CCE001c, andAChE-likewere significantly induced by phoxim, suggesting that these genes were involved in insecticide metabolism. Furthermore, the sequence variation analysis identified 21 single nucleotide polymorphisms withinCYP9A20,CYP6AB47,andCYP6AW1. Our findings reveal many candidate genes related to insecticide resistance ofG. pyloalis. These results provide novel insights into insecticide resistance and facilitate the development of insecticides with greater specificity toG. pyloalis.

Sucrose is the main product of photosynthesis in plants, providing a rich carbon and energy source for the physiological growth and development of insects. In a previous study, we identified a novel sucrose hydrolase (SUH) in the larval midgut of moths. Intriguingly, there are two copies of Suh, namely Suh1 and Suh2, in several species of butterflies. However, the biochemical characteristics of SUHs in butterflies remain unclear. In this study, we found that this duplication and subsequent diversification produced two Suh genes in Papilio xuthus. These two PxSuh genes were significantly divergent in terms of their expression pattern and enzyme properties. PxSuh messenger RNA expression was highest during the larval stage, reduced in the prepupal and pupal stages and, for PxSuh1, slightly increased again in the adult. The observed levels of PxSuh2 were overall below those of PxSuh1 amongst the development stages examined. Compared with PxSUH2, which has maintained the original gene function of maltose hydrolysis, PxSUH1 exhibits substrate specificity for sucrose with an optimum enzyme activity occurring at an alkaline pH. The data show that PxSuh1 is evolutionarily adapted for effective functioning in an alkaline digestive system. Furthermore, we find that functional diversification of Suh facilitates P. xuthus to digestive carbohydrate of host plants. Thus, our findings offer new insights into the ecological and evolutionary adaptation of digestive enzymes in butterflies.

By measuring the dependence of transverse (Hall) and longitudinal magnetoresistance on temperature, the vortex easy-flow channel effect in an YBCO microbridge with an inclined GB was studied when the magnetic field was rotated in the ac plane of the film. In addition, the magnetic field angular dependence of critical current density in an YBCO microbridge with a GB perpendicular to bridge was measured when the magnetic field was rotated in the ab plane of the film. These measurement results demonstrate that there still can be vortex components moving inside and along the plane of the GB even though the vortices diagonally cross the GB.

Chitooligosaccharide (COS) is an important immune enhancer and has been proven to have a variety of biological activities. Our previous research has established an M1 polarization mode by COS in blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) macrophages, but the mechanism of COS activation of blunt snout bream macrophages remains unclear. In this study, we further explored the internalization mechanism and signal transduction pathway of chitooligosaccharide hexamer (COS6) in blunt snout bream macrophages. The results showed that mannose receptor C-type lectin-like domain 4-8 of M. amblycephala (MaMR CTLD4-8) could recognize and bind to COS6 and mediate COS6 into macrophages by both clathrin-dependent and caveolin-dependent pathways. In the inflammatory response of macrophages activated by COS6, the gene expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) was significantly inhibited after MaMR CTLD4-8-specific antibody blockade. However, even if it was blocked, the expression of these inflammation-related genes was still relatively upregulated, which suggested that there are other receptors involved in immune regulation. Further studies indicated that MaMR CTLD4-8 and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) cooperated to regulate the pro-inflammatory response of macrophages caused by COS6. Taken together, these results revealed that mannose receptor (MR) CTLD4-8 is indispensable in the process of recognition, binding, internalization, and immunoregulation of COS in macrophages of blunt snout bream.

A superconducting diode is an electronic device that conducts supercurrent and exhibits zero resistance primarily for one direction of applied current. Such a dissipationless diode is a desirable unit for constructing electronic circuits with ultralow power consumption. However, realizing a superconducting diode is fundamentally and technologically challenging, as it usually requires a material structure without a centre of inversion, which is scarce among superconducting materials. Here, we demonstrate a superconducting diode achieved in a conventional superconducting film patterned with a conformal array of nanoscale holes, which breaks the spatial inversion symmetry. We showcase the superconducting diode effect through switchable and reversible rectification signals, which can be three orders of magnitude larger than that from a flux-quantum diode. The introduction of conformal potential landscapes for creating a superconducting diode is thereby proven as a convenient, tunable, yet vastly advantageous tool for superconducting electronics. This could be readily applicable to any superconducting materials, including cuprates and iron-based superconductors that have higher transition temperatures and are desirable in device applications., 25 pages, 4 figures

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (NLMR) has been reported in a variety of materials and has attracted extensive attention as an electrotransport hallmark of topological Weyl semimetals. However, its origin is still under debate. Here, we demonstrate that the NLMR in a two-dimensional electron gas can be influenced by the measurement current. While the NLMR persists up to 130 K, its magnitude and magnetic field response become dependent on the applied current below 60 K. The tunable NLMR at low and high currents can be best attributed to quantum interference and disorder scattering effects, respectively. This work uncovers non-Ohmic NLMR in a non-Weyl material and highlights potential effects of the measurement current in elucidating electrotransport phenomena. We also demonstrate that NLMRs can be a valuable phenomenon in revealing the origins of other properties, such as negative MRs in perpendicular magnetic fields.