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Robust generalization aims to tackle the most challenging data distributions which are rare in the training set and contain severe noises, i.e., photon-limited corruptions. Common solutions such as distributionally robust optimization (DRO) focus on the worst-case empirical risk to ensure low training error on the uncommon noisy distributions. However, due to the over-parameterized model being optimized on scarce worst-case data, DRO fails to produce a smooth loss landscape, thus struggling on generalizing well to the test set. Therefore, instead of focusing on the worst-case risk minimization, we propose SharpDRO by penalizing the sharpness of the worst-case distribution, which measures the loss changes around the neighbor of learning parameters. Through worst-case sharpness minimization, the proposed method successfully produces a flat loss curve on the corrupted distributions, thus achieving robust generalization. Moreover, by considering whether the distribution annotation is available, we apply SharpDRO to two problem settings and design a worst-case selection process for robust generalization. Theoretically, we show that SharpDRO has a great convergence guarantee. Experimentally, we simulate photon-limited corruptions using CIFAR10/100 and ImageNet30 datasets and show that SharpDRO exhibits a strong generalization ability against severe corruptions and exceeds well-known baseline methods with large performance gains., CVPR 2023

Additional file 2: Table S1. Amplicon sequences for technical replication of methylation profiling. Table S2. Chlorpromazine equivalent doses for the antipsychotic drugs (mg, mean±SD). Table S3. Top 20 risk-DMRs. Table S4. Top 20 RES-DMRs. Table S5. Enrichment analysis of gene ontology and biological pathways for ASM genes (Top 20 terms in each category). Table S6. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs11125746 from LINC01795. Table S7. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs12674515 from DDHD2. Table S8. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs28759130 from SBNO1. Table S9. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs498541 from KCNG2. Table S10. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs56370020 from RUFY1. Table S11. Linkage disequilibrium analysis of rs72728886 from SEMA7A. Table S12. Pearson correlation of methylation levels from proxy-model CpG sites between blood and brain tissues. Table S13. Evaluation of methylation proxy models. Table S14. Performance evaluation for RES-prediction models. Fig.S1. Statistical power of samples. Fig.S2. Technical replication of methylation profiling. Fig.S3. Correlations between PRSs. Fig.S4. Relationship between treatment response and PRSs. Fig.S5. Variable importance plot of PRSs. Fig.S6. Correlation of PMS to PANSS reduction rate. Fig.S7. Correlation of epigenetic clocks and PANSS reduction rate. Fig.S8. Heatmap for the distribution of CpG sites from meQTLs, risk-DMRs, RES-DMRs, and ASM genes. Fig.S9. Enrichment analysis of gene ontology and biological pathways for ASM genes. Fig.S10. Comparison between peripheral blood and brain tissues in transcription, methylation, and chromatin interaction of RUFY1. Fig.S11. Performance of the optimal proxyDNAm models.

Additional file 1. Supplementary methods.

Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are typical endocrine disruptors which are ubiquitous contaminants. Human exposure to PAEs is through multiple routes of which the diet is recognised as the main source of daily intake. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary exposure to PAEs of residents in Shenzhen (China) through a total diet study and assess the potential health risk. A total of 16 different phthalate esters in samples of 12 composite food groups were determined by GC–MS. The main dietary sources of PAE exposure among adult residents in Shenzhen were potatoes (21%), eggs (21%), meat (15%) and aquatic products (14%). The median total dietary exposure to PAEs in Shenzhen residents was 7780 ng kg−1 bw d−1, and the hazard quotients (HQ) of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-isobutyl phthalate (DIBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) were 0.09, 0.06, 0.07, 0.10 and 0.03, respectively. Therefore, the risks from dietary PAE exposure were low. However, with the increasing use of PAEs and their accumulation in the environment, the probability of PAEs entering the food chain is gradually increasing and, therefore, PAEs should be strictly controlled and regularly monitored.

Machine learning models are vulnerable to Out-Of-Distribution (OOD) examples, and such a problem has drawn much attention. However, current methods lack a full understanding of different types of OOD data: there are benign OOD data that can be properly adapted to enhance the learning performance, while other malign OOD data would severely degenerate the classification result. To Harness OOD data, this paper proposes a HOOD method that can leverage the content and style from each image instance to identify benign and malign OOD data. Particularly, we design a variational inference framework to causally disentangle content and style features by constructing a structural causal model. Subsequently, we augment the content and style through an intervention process to produce malign and benign OOD data, respectively. The benign OOD data contain novel styles but hold our interested contents, and they can be leveraged to help train a style-invariant model. In contrast, the malign OOD data inherit unknown contents but carry familiar styles, by detecting them can improve model robustness against deceiving anomalies. Thanks to the proposed novel disentanglement and data augmentation techniques, HOOD can effectively deal with OOD examples in unknown and open environments, whose effectiveness is empirically validated in three typical OOD applications including OOD detection, open-set semi-supervised learning, and open-set domain adaptation., ICLR 2023

Many studies have addressed the needs and challenges of international students in their host countries; however, there is relatively less work on the potential contributions these students make to their curricula. This article presents a bibliographic analysis of the academic references (n=7,273) used by Chinese students to construct their final essays on the theme of education and international development at a leading global university based in the United Kingdom. It examines (1) what knowledge resources are used in their essays; and (2) what the characteristics and patterns of these choices are. When allowed to construct their own essays, Chinese students appear to choose to use a significant proportion of Chinese knowledge resources within English academic essays. This use increases when their lecturers and tutors explain and accept the value of non-English academic resources. This article then discusses the implications of this result for lecturers.

A sensitivity study of the unbinned angular analysis of the $B\to D^*(D\pi)\ell \nu_\ell$ decay is presented. In the analysis, it is shown that the Wilson coefficient of the right-handed vector current, $C_{V_R}$, can be measured to precision of 2-4$\%$ using either the full set of normalised angular observables or the forward-backward asymmetry $A_{FB}$ of the charged lepton in 10 $w$ bins. Such angular measurements are independent of the $V_{cb}$ puzzle., Comment: 5 pages and 1 figure; Contribution to the proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lepton Photon Interactions at High Energies, hosted by the University of Manchester, 10-14 January 2022

We perform a global analysis of the $b\to c\tau\nu$ data using the recent lattice results on the $B_c\to J/\psi$ vector and axial-vector form factors. To explore the effects from the tensor operator of new physics beyond the standard model, we determine the tensor form factors by using the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) relations between tensor and (axial-)vector form factors. Based on the lattice+NRQCD form factors, we fit the Wilson coefficients and the new physics couplings in $R_2$, $S_1$ and $U_1$ leptoquark models by including the recently measured $R(\Lambda_c)$ and imposing the relaxed constraint $\mathcal B(B_c\to J/\psi), Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures and 6 tables

Introduction Bladder cancer (BC) is the fourth-commones cancer and the sixth-leading cause of cancer-related death among men. However, a lack of reliable biomarkers remains a problem forprognosis and treatment of BC. lncRNAs have been shown to play important roles in various cancers, and have emerged as promising biomarkers for cancer prognosis and treatment. Methods In this study, using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, we examined the differential expression profiles of 1,651 lncRNAs in the TCGA BLCA cohort and created a prognostic gene signature composed of six lncRNAs (for SNHG12, MAFG-DT, ASMTL-AS1, LINC02321, LINC01322, and LINC00922), designed the SMALLL signature. Results The SMALLL signature displayed significant prognostic power for overall survival for BC patients in multiple cohorts. Gene Ontology analysis showed that genes coexpressed with the SMALLL signature were associated with the extracellular matrix network, and immune cell–infiltration analysis showed that activated naïve B cells, regulatory T cells, M0 macrophages, eosinophils, resting memory CD4 T cells and resting NK cells were significantly different in high- and low-risk groups. We also confirmed differential expression of the lncRNAs of the SMALLL signature in BC tissue and paracancer normal tissue by qRT-PCR analysis. Cell-invasion and -migration experiments showed that MAFG-AS1, ASMTL-AS1, LINC02321, and LINC00922 significantly affected cell invasion and migration. Conclusion Our study revealed that the lncRNA signature is an important predictive factor of prognosis and provides a promising biomarker for BC.

International audience; Solid State Devices (SSDs) have been widely adopted in con- tainerized cloud platforms as they provide parallel and high- speed data accesses for critical data-intensive applications. Unfortunately, the I/O stack of the physical host overlooks the layered and independent nature of containers, thus I/O operations require expensive file redirect (between the stor- age driver, Overlay2/EXT4, and the virtual file system, VFS) and are scheduled sequentially. Moreover, containers suffer from significant I/O contention as resources at the native file system are shared between them. This paper presents a Container-aware I/O stack (CAST). CAST is made up of Layer-aware VFS (LaVFS) and Container-aware Native File System (CaFS). LaVFS locates files based on layer information and enables simultaneous Copy-on-Write (CoW) operations and thus avoids the overhead of searching and modifying files. CaFS, on the other hand, provides contention-free ac- cess by designing fine-grain resource allocation at the native file system. Experimental results using a NVMe SSD with micro-benchmarks and real-world applications show that CAST achieves 216%-219% (38%-98%, respectively) improve- ment over the original I/O stack.

A sensitivity study of the unbinned angular analysis of the $B\to D^*(Dπ)\ell ν_\ell$ decay is presented. In the analysis, it is shown that the Wilson coefficient of the right-handed vector current, $C_{V_R}$, can be measured to precision of 2-4$\%$ using either the full set of normalised angular observables or the forward-backward asymmetry $A_{FB}$ of the charged lepton in 10 $w$ bins. Such angular measurements are independent of the $V_{cb}$ puzzle., 5 pages and 1 figure; Contribution to the proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lepton Photon Interactions at High Energies, hosted by the University of Manchester, 10-14 January 2022

Conventional theoretical studies on the ground-state laser cooling of a trapped ion have mostly focused on the weak sideband coupling (WSC) regime, where the cooling rate is inverse proportional to the linewidth of the excited state. In a recent work~[New J. Phys. 23, 023018 (2021)], we proposed a theoretical framework to study the ground state cooling of a trapped ion in the strong sideband coupling (SSC) regime, under the assumption of a vanishing carrier transition. Here we extend this analysis to more general situations with nonvanishing carrier transitions, where we show that by properly tuning the coupling lasers a cooling rate proportional to the linewidth can be achieved. Our theoretical predictions closely agree with the corresponding exact solutions in the SSC regime, which provide an important theoretical guidance for sideband cooling experiments., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

We perform a global analysis of the $b\to cτν$ data using the recent lattice results on the $B_c\to J/ψ$ vector and axial-vector form factors. To explore the effects from the tensor operator of new physics beyond the standard model, we determine the tensor form factors by using the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) relations between tensor and (axial-)vector form factors. Based on the lattice+NRQCD form factors, we fit the Wilson coefficients and the new physics couplings in $R_2$, $S_1$ and $U_1$ leptoquark models by including the recently measured $R(Λ_c)$ and imposing the relaxed constraint $\mathcal B(B_c\to J/ψ), 19 pages, 10 figures and 6 tables

In this work, sodium aluminate alkaline solution was used to capture CO2 in a continuous bubble column scrubber and aluminum tri-hydrate (ATH) precipitates were produced. As the sodium carbonate could be recycled after the filtrated solution was crystallized by evaporation, a novel CO2 capture process was developed successfully. There were five experimental operation variables, including solution flow rate (A), concentration of the solution (B), gas flow rate (C), CO2 gas concentration (D), and liquid temperature (E), with four levels to each variable. The influence of each variable on absorption efficiency (EF), absorption rate (RA), absorption factor (φ), mass transfer coefficient (KGa), and precipitation rate (RP) in a steady state was explored in this study. The Taguchi experimental design was adopted, and 16 experiments were performed; as the optimum operating conditions found in Taguchi analysis required further verification, there were a total of 21 experiments in the end. According to S/N analysis, the overall order of importance was D > A = B > C > E, meaning D (CO2 concentration) was most important and E (liquid temperature) was least important. In addition, the result also showed that the Rp was 1.25–2.0 times higher than the RA. The obtained powder was mainly ATH according to XRD analysis, with the crystal size ranging between 8.14 and 27.97 nm. However, the BET analysis showed its particle size range being 17.6–283.7 nm, indicating agglomeration for primary particles. The SEM analysis showed that there were flower-like, irregular, urchin-like, elongated, and amorphous particles. The solutions from five groups of optimum conditions were used to recycle the sodium carbonate experiments. After evaporation and crystallization of the filtrated solutions, the energy loading was found to be 1.70–2.56 GJ/t-solvent, illustrating the superiorities of low energy consumption. The precipitated powders were verified to be sodium carbonate by FTIR, which is a valuable constituent.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Primary and second antibodies used in the study. Table S2. PCR primers used in the study. Figure S1. (A���C���) Gross appearances of mandibular molars and incisors of control (A���C) and MycnK14 mutant (A������C���) mice at PN6W; scale bars: 200 ��m. (D) Quantification of tooth volume from Micro-CT scans of mandibular first molar of controls and MycnK14 mutant mice; n = 4; ns = not statistically significant. Figure S2. Proliferation and apoptosis showed no significant difference between the MycnOsr2 mutant mice and the controls. (A���B���) Immunofluorescence staining showing BrdU (red) (A, A���) and Ki67 (green) (B, B���) positive cells in the mandibular first molar tooth germs of E15.5 mice. (C���C���) Immunofluorescence staining showing cleaved Caspase 3 (green) positive cells in the mandibular first molar tooth germs of E15.5 mice. (A������, B������ and C������) Graphs showing percentages of BrdU (A������), Ki67 (B������) and cleaved Caspase 3 (C������) positive cells within the mesenchyme of tooth germs in controls and mutants; n > 3; ns = not statistically significant. Figure S3. Images used for western blotting quantitative analysis.

In this article, we discuss how, as supervisors in largely Anglophone university contexts in England, we are trying to develop supervisory practices informed by the discussions of epistemic (in)justice and the languaging of research. Having rehearsed these discussions, and considered the opportunities provided by research integrity policy formulations in our context, we conceptualise doctoral supervision critically, interculturally, and ecologically. We then report our efforts to shape the supervisory agenda so that, in the local spaces available to us, the shaping influences of the epistemic and linguistic in the wider research environment are problematised. In particular, we focus on two strands of our thinking, namely: a) the implications of epistemic hierarchies and the value of an intercultural ethic for the transknowledging at the heart of doctoral research; and b) the role of language(s) in research and the value of a translingual researcher mindset. In both strands, our thinking has moved from a more instrumental to a more critical stance regarding research, researcher thinking, and supervision. This development highlights some of the complexities involved in developing critical intercultural praxis for doctoral supervision. We conclude with recommendations—aimed at all those involved in doctoral supervision—to facilitate a critical intercultural supervisory culture.

A reversed migration capillary electrophoresis (RMCE) has been developed to determine linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS). The sample stacking and separation conditions have been systematically investigated and optimized under reversed separation voltage at a low pH value. The separation effect of LAS homologs has been greatly improved based on the relative motion of electrophoresis and electroosmotic flow. RMCE demonstrates a good linear range of 0.1 mg/l to 10.0 mg/l, and the detection limit of LAS homologs reaches 0.001–0.004 mg/l. The relative standard deviations (n=6) of peak area and migration time were 2.25–4.40% and 0.67–0.75%, respectively. RMCE has also been applied for LAS detection in practical wastewater. The results show RMCE exhibits easy pretreatment, fast detection, high sensitivity, good peak shapes and resolution, and less solvent consumption, compared with the established high-performance liquid chromatography method.

In this article, we perform a sensitivity study of an unbinned angular analysis of the $B\to D^*\ell \nu_\ell$ decay, including the contributions from the right-handed current. We show that the angular observable can constrain very strongly the right-handed current without the intervention of the yet unsolved $V_{cb}$ puzzle., Comment: 7 pages,2 figures; version accepted by PRD

Background Ananas comosus var. bracteatus is a colorful plant used as a cut flower or landscape ornamental. The unique foliage color of this plant includes both green and red leaves and, as a trait of interest, deserves investigation. In order to explore the pigments behind the red section of the chimeric leaves, the green and red parts of chimeric leaves of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus were sampled and analyzed at phenotypic, cellular and molecular levels in this study. Results The CIELAB results indicated that the a* values and L* values samples had significant differences between two parts. Freehand sections showed that anthocyanin presented limited accumulation in the green leaf tissues but obviously accumulation in the epidermal cells of red tissues. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were performed by RNA-seq and LC-ESI-MS/MS. Among the 508 identified metabolites, 10 kinds of anthocyanins were detected, with 6 significantly different between the two samples. The cyanidin-3,5-O-diglucoside content that accounts for nearly 95.6% in red samples was significantly higher than green samples. RNA-Seq analyses showed that 11 out of 40 anthocyanin-related genes were differentially expressed between the green and red samples. Transcriptome and metabolome correlations were determined by nine quadrant analyses, and 9 anthocyanin-related genes, including MYB5 and MYB82, were correlated with 7 anthocyanin-related metabolites in the third quadrant in which genes and metabolites showing consistent change. Particularly, the PCCs between these two MYB genes and cyanidin-3,5-O-diglucoside were above 0.95. Conclusion Phenotypic colors are closely related to the tissue structures of different leaf parts of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus, and two MYB transcription factors might contribute to differences of anthocyanin accumulation in two parts of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus chimeric leaves. This study lay a foundation for further researches on functions of MYBs in Ananas comosus var. bracteatus and provides new insights to anthocyanin accumulation in different parts of chimeric leaves.

Previous studies have shown that wetland plants can treat wastewater in a cost-effective and sustainable way, however, the studies on the performance of ornamental wetland plant diversity in treating urban sewage were scarce. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess and select wetland polyculture combination that was effective in urban sewage treatment in subtropical areas. We formed five combinations out of six ornamental wetland plant species including Thalia dealbata, Cyperus alternifolius, Iris pseudacorus, Lythrum sastlicaria, Nymphaea tetragona, and Zantedeschia aethiopica. The growth state and removal effects of each plant combination were systematically measured and assessed. The results indicated all the combinations exhibited remarkable total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), ammonium nitrogen (NH­4+-N), and chemical oxygen demand chromium (CODcr) removal rate of 70.75%-77.67%, 63.86%-73.71%, 69.73%-76.85%, and 57.28%-75.69%, respectively. Additionally, pH was reduced to 7.54-8.00 in the sewage. The purification effect reached the best during 30-36th day. The comprehensive assessment showed the mixture of Thalia dealbata + Cyperus alternifolius, closely followed by Thalia dealbata + Cyperus alternifolius+ Lythrum sastlicaria, was highly effective at extracting various pollutants, and both of them could be used as favorable combinations to convert eutrophication and purify municipal wastewater. Linear regression showed that TP, TP, NH­4+-N, and CODcr. were significantly related to plant biomass, indicating that plant biomass essential indicator for screening purification plants. Our study highlighted the importance of plant diversity in biological wastewater treatment, however the competition between plants was suggested to take into consideration in future studies.

The resurrection plants Myrothamnus flabellifolia can survive long term severe drought and desiccation conditions and soon recover after rewatering. However, few genes related to such excellent drought tolerance and underlying molecular mechanism have been excavated. WRKY transcription factors play critical roles in biotic and abiotic stress signaling, in which WRKY70 functions as a positive regulator in biotic stress response but a negative regulator in abiotic stress signaling in Arabidopsis and some other plant species. In the present study, the functions of a dehydration-induced MfWRKY70 of M. flabellifolia participating was investigated in the model plant Arabidopsis. Our results indicated that MfWRKY70 was localized in the nucleus and could significantly increase tolerance to drought, osmotic, and salinity stresses by promoting root growth and water retention, as well as enhancing the antioxidant enzyme system and maintaining reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis and membrane-lipid stability under stressful conditions. Moreover, the expression of stress-associated genes (P5CS, NCED3 and RD29A) was positively regulated in the overexpression of MfWRKY70 Arabidopsis. We proposed that MfWRKY70 may function as a positive regulator for abiotic stress responses and can be considered as a potential gene for improvement of drought and salinity tolerance in plants.

Indoor plants can positively impact physical and mental health in daily life. However, the benefits of viewing indoor plants may be enhanced if the plants emit a fragrant aroma. In this crossover-design study, we measured the physiological and psychological effects of fragrant and non-fragrant Primula plants on 50 female college students, and explored whether aroma stimulation had additive benefits for this group. Non-fragrant Primula malacoides Franch was used as a control stimulus, and Primula forbesii Franch, which has a floral fragrance, was used as an experimental stimulus. We measured blood pressure, pulse rate, and electroencephalogram (EEG) to evaluate physiological responses, and used a mood state profile and the semantic differential (SD) method to evaluate psychological responses. We found that mean blood pressure and pulse rate decreased significantly after the experiment in both conditions. EEGs showed that the mean values of high alpha waves, high beta waves, and relaxation scores were significantly higher in the experimental vs. control condition. The average scores on each subscale of the psychological questionnaire improved after the experiment in both conditions, and the vitality (V) subscale and total emotional state scores were significantly better in the experimental vs. control condition. The results of the SD method showed that the sense of relaxation and comfort were significantly higher in the experimental vs. control condition. Compared with the non-fragrant Primula, the fragrant Primula induced relatively better physiological and psychological effects.

We introduce a new volatility model for option pricing that combines Markov switching with the Realized GARCH framework. This leads to a novel pricing kernel with a state-dependent variance risk premium and a pricing formula for European options, which is derived with an analytical approximation method. We apply the Markov switching Realized GARCH model to S&P 500 index options from 1990 to 2019 and find that investors' aversion to volatility-specific risk is time-varying. The proposed framework outperforms competing models and reduces (in-sample and out-of-sample) option pricing errors by 15% or more.

In this article, we perform a sensitivity study of an unbinned angular analysis of the $B\to D^*\ell ��_\ell$ decay, including the contributions from the right-handed current. We show that the angular observable can constrain very strongly the right-handed current without the intervention of the yet unsolved $V_{cb}$ puzzle., 7 pages,2 figures; version accepted by PRD

We study financial volatility during the global financial crisis and use the largest volatility shocks to identify major events during the crisis. Our analysis makes extensive use of high frequency (HF) financial data to model volatility and, importantly, to determine the timing within the day when the largest volatility shocks occurred. The latter helps us identify the events that may be associated with each of these shocks, and serves to illustrate the benefits of using high-frequency data. Some of the largest volatility shocks coincide, not surprisingly, with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 and Congress’s failure to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act on September 29, 2008. The day with the largest volatility shock was February 27, 2007, the date when Freddie Mac announced a stricter policy for underwriting subprime loans and a date that was marked by a crash on the Chinese stock market. However, the intraday HF data shows that the main culprit was a computer glitch in the trading system. The days with the largest drops in volatility can in most cases be related to interventions by governments and central banks. The ADEMU Working Paper Series is being supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 European Union funding for Research & Innovation, grant agreement No 649396.

The fast pace of work life has resulted in increased attention toward the rural landscape. Most research on rural landscapes has focused on visual preferences based on public consensus, but in-depth studies assessing a broad range of individual factors influencing visual and auditory preferences are still lacking. This study assessed the influence of 6 social/demographic/health factors and 7 visit-related factors on the preference for 11 visual and auditory elements of rural environments. Visit-related factors had a more significant impact on landscape preference than social/demographical/health factors. Length of stay was the most important factor, associated with 5 visual elements and 4 sounds. Females and older people showed greater preference for biological sounds. Thus, it is necessary to pay attention to the influence of individual factors on landscape preference and strengthen the support of rural internal and external environment to people���s needs to provide more rich and satisfying experiences in rural areas.

We perform an analysis of the $b\to c\tau\nu$ data, including $R(D^{(*)})$, $R(J/\psi)$, $P_\tau(D^{*})$ and $F_L^{D^*}$, within and beyond the Standard Model (SM). We fit the $B\to D^{(*)}$ hadronic form factors in the HQET parametrization to the lattice and the light-cone sum rule (LCSR) results, applying the general strong unitarity bounds corresponding to $J^P=1^-$, $1^+$, $0^-$ and $0^+$. Using the obtained HQET relations between helicity amplitudes, we give the strong unitarity bounds on individual helicity amplitudes, which can be used in the BGL fits. Using the fitted form factors and taking into account the most recent Belle measurement of $R(D^{(*)})$ we investigate the model-independent and the leptoquark model explanations of the $b\to c\tau\nu$ anomalies. Specifically, we consider the one-operator, the two-operator new physics (NP) scenarios and the NP models with a single $R_2$, $S_1$ or $U_1$ leptoquark which is supposed to be able to address the $b\to c\tau\nu$ anomalies, and our results show that the $R_2$ leptoquark model is in tension with the limit $\mathcal B(B_c\to \tau\nu), Comment: 35 pages, 5 figures and 14 tables; Matches the published version in NPB

A Ce–Bi@CeBiOx/C with core–shell structure has been synthesized by pyrolysis of cerium doped bismuth-based metal–organic frameworks. This novel catalyst exhibits excellent performance for electrochemical CO2 reduction to formate with a maximum faradaic efficiency of 96% and a maximum partial current density of 15.2 mA cm−2, which could be attributed to the synergistic effects of electronic structure modification of Bi as well as the enrichment of oxygen vacancies on catalyst surfaces.

Based on a brief description of predictive maintenance, current status of power equipment operation and maintenance, and edge computing technology, this paper makes a full prerequisite analysis from the aspects of basic environment, key elements of edge computing and key steps of predictive maintenance. For the architecture design of edge computing in predictive maintenance in power field, it is deeply integrated with the related architecture in Edge Computing Reference Infrastructure 3.0 to guide predictive maintenance in the field of edge computing, expand the application ideas, Under the background of vigorously constructing of electric Internet of Things (EIoT) and integration of transformer-substation & IDC-station for SGCC, guide the research and practical application of predictive maintenance of power field in the environment of edge computing.

Background The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins, a large transcription factors family, are involved in plant growth and development, and defensive response to various environmental stresses. The resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia is known for its extremely strong drought tolerance, but few bHLHs taking part in abiotic stress response have been unveiled in M. flabellifolia. Results In the present research, we cloned and characterized a dehydration-inducible gene, MfbHLH38, from M. flabellifolia. The MfbHLH38 protein is localized in the nucleus, where it may act as a transcription factor. Heterologous expression of MfbHLH38 in Arabidopsis improved the tolerance to drought and salinity stresses, as determined by the studies on physiological indexes, such as contents of chlorophyll, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline (Pro), soluble protein, and soluble sugar, water loss rate of detached leaves, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, as well as antioxidant enzyme activities. Besides, MfbHLH38 overexpression increased the sensitivity of stomatal closure to mannitol and abscisic acid (ABA), improved ABA level under drought stress, and elevated the expression of genes associated with ABA biosynthesis and ABA responding, sucha as NCED3, P5CS, and RD29A. Conclusions Our results presented evidence that MfbHLH38 enhanced tolerance to drought and salinity stresses in Arabidopsis through increasing water retention ability, regulating osmotic balance, decreasing stress-induced oxidation damage, and possibly participated in ABA-dependent stress-responding pathway.

This study used the solvent monoethylamine (MEA)/CaCl2/H2O to investigate CO2 absorption and CaCO3 crystallization in a bubble column scrubber. The variables explored were pH, gas flow rate, gas concentration, the liquid flow rate of the solution to absorb CO2, and CaCO3 crystallization. Under a continuous mode, the solution of CaCl2 was fed continuously, and the pH dropped after CO2 absorption. To maintain the set pH value, there was an automatic input of the MEA solvent into the bubble column. In addition to maintaining the pH, the solution could also absorb CO2 and produce CaCO3 crystals, which served two purposes. The results showed that there were mainly vaterite crystals. At different pH values, the lower the pH, the higher the precipitation rate of vaterite (Fp), and vice versa. However, under different gas flow rates, the Fp decreased as the pH value increased. Additionally, the process variables also affected the absorption rate (RA) and the overall mass-transfer coefficient (KGa) generally increased with increasing pH, gas concentration, and gas flow rate. However, it slowed down under operating conditions at high pH and high gas flow rate. Finally, correlation equations for RA, KGa, and Fp were also obtained and discussed in the study.

Background Lysine succinylation, an important protein posttranslational modification (PTM), is widespread and conservative. The regulatory functions of succinylation in leaf color has been reported. The chimeric leaves of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus are composed of normal green parts and albino white parts. However, the extent and function of lysine succinylation in chimeric leaves of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus has yet to be investigated. Results Compared to the green (Gr) parts, the global succinylation level was increased in the white (Wh) parts of chimeric leaves according to the Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis. Furthermore, we quantitated the change in the succinylation profiles between the Wh and Gr parts of chimeric leaves using label-free LFQ intensity. In total, 855 succinylated sites in 335 proteins were identified, and 593 succinylated sites in 237 proteins were quantified. Compared to the Gr parts, 232 (61.1%) sites in 128 proteins were quantified as upregulated targets, and 148 (38.9%) sites in 70 proteins were quantified as downregulated targets in the Wh parts of chimeric leaves using a 1.5-fold threshold (P Conclusions Our results suggested that the changed succinylation level in proteins might function in the main energy metabolism pathways—photosynthesis and respiration. Succinylation might provide a significant effect in the growth of chimeric leaves and the relationship between the Wh and Gr parts of chimeric leaves. This study not only provided a basis for further characterization on the function of succinylated proteins in chimeric leaves of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus but also provided a new insight into molecular breeding for leaf color chimera.

As the only woody resurrection plant, Myrothamnus flabellifolia has a strong tolerance to drought and can survive long-term in a desiccated environment. However, the molecular mechanisms related to the stress tolerance of M. flabellifolia are largely unknown, and few tolerance-related genes previously identified had been functionally characterized. WRKYs are a group of unique and complex plant transcription factors, and have reported functions in diverse biological processes, especially in the regulation of abiotic stress tolerances, in various species. However, little is known about their roles in response to abiotic stresses in M. flabellifolia. In this study, we characterized a dehydration-inducible WRKY transcription factor gene, MfWRKY17, from M. flabellifolia. MfWRKY17 shows high degree of homology with genes from Vitis vinifera and Vitis pseudoreticulata, belonging to group II of the WRKY family. Unlike known WRKY17s in other organisms acting as negative regulators in biotic or abiotic stress responses, overexpression of MfWRKY17 in Arabidopsis significantly increased drought and salt tolerance. Further investigations indicated that MfWRKY17 participated in increasing water retention, maintaining chlorophyll content, and regulating ABA biosynthesis and stress-related gene expression. These results suggest that MfWRKY17 possibly acts as a positive regulator of stress tolerance in the resurrection plant M. flabellifolia.

The Coleman-Weinberg (CW) renormalization scheme for the effective potential is particularly valuable for CW symmetry-breaking mechanisms, which in general more easily lead to the strong first-order phase transition necessary for stochastic gravitational wave signals. A full understanding of the CW-MS scheme transformation thus becomes important in the era of gravitational wave detection and precision coupling measurements. A generalized Coleman-Weinberg (GCW) renormalization scheme is formulated and methods for transforming scalar self-couplings between the GCW and MS (minimal-subtraction) renormalization schemes are developed. Scalar $\lambda\Phi^4$ theory with global $O(4)$ symmetry is explicitly studied up to six-loop order to explore the magnitude of this scheme transformation effect. The dynamical rescaling of renormalization scales between the GCW and MS schemes can lead to significant (order of 10%) differences in the coupling at any order, and consequently GCW-MS scheme transformation effects must be considered within precision measurements of scalar couplings.

Semi-Supervised Learning (SSL) with mismatched classes deals with the problem that the classes-of-interests in the limited labeled data is only a subset of the classes in massive unlabeled data. As a result, the classes only possessed by the unlabeled data may mislead the classifier training and thus hindering the realistic landing of various SSL methods. To solve this problem, existing methods usually divide unlabeled data to in-distribution (ID) data and out-of-distribution (OOD) data, and directly discard or weaken the OOD data to avoid their adverse impact. In other words, they treat OOD data as completely useless and thus the potential valuable information for classification contained by them is totally ignored. To remedy this defect, this paper proposes a "Transferable OOD data Recycling" (TOOR) method which properly utilizes ID data as well as the "recyclable" OOD data to enrich the information for conducting class-mismatched SSL. Specifically, TOOR firstly attributes all unlabeled data to ID data or OOD data, among which the ID data are directly used for training. Then we treat the OOD data that have a close relationship with ID data and labeled data as recyclable, and employ adversarial domain adaptation to project them to the space of ID data and labeled data. In other words, the recyclability of an OOD datum is evaluated by its transferability, and the recyclable OOD data are transferred so that they are compatible with the distribution of known classes-of-interests. Consequently, our TOOR method extracts more information from unlabeled data than existing approaches, so it can achieve the improved performance which is demonstrated by the experiments on typical benchmark datasets.

We perform an analysis of the $b\to c����$ data, including $R(D^{(*)})$, $R(J/��)$, $P_��(D^{*})$ and $F_L^{D^*}$, within and beyond the Standard Model (SM). We fit the $B\to D^{(*)}$ hadronic form factors in the HQET parametrization to the lattice and the light-cone sum rule (LCSR) results, applying the general strong unitarity bounds corresponding to $J^P=1^-$, $1^+$, $0^-$ and $0^+$. Using the obtained HQET relations between helicity amplitudes, we give the strong unitarity bounds on individual helicity amplitudes, which can be used in the BGL fits. Using the fitted form factors and taking into account the most recent Belle measurement of $R(D^{(*)})$ we investigate the model-independent and the leptoquark model explanations of the $b\to c����$ anomalies. Specifically, we consider the one-operator, the two-operator new physics (NP) scenarios and the NP models with a single $R_2$, $S_1$ or $U_1$ leptoquark which is supposed to be able to address the $b\to c����$ anomalies, and our results show that the $R_2$ leptoquark model is in tension with the limit $\mathcal B(B_c\to ����), 35 pages, 5 figures and 14 tables; Matches the published version in NPB

We study the Standard Model and the new physics predictions for the lepton-flavour-universality violating (LFUV) ratios in various $b\to s \ell^+\ell^-$ channels with scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, axial-vector, and $\Lambda$ baryon final states, considering both unpolarized and polarized final state hadrons. In order to formulate physical observables, we use the model independent effective Hamiltonian approach and employ the helicity formalism. We provide the explicit expressions of the helicity amplitudes in terms of the Wilson coefficients and the hadronic form factors by using the same kinematical configuration and polarization conventions for all the decay channels.We perform the numerical analysis with new physics scenarios selected from the recent global fits to $b\to s\ell^+\ell^-$ data, having specific new physics model interpretations. We find that some of the LFUV ratios for these complementary channels in different kinematical regions have high sensitivity to new physics and the future measurements of them in Belle II and LHCb experiments, along with testing new physics/LFUV, can help to distinguish among some of the different new physics possibilities., Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures, 13 tables; version accepted for publication in NPB

Lead (Pb) is a major anthropogenic contaminant that can be devastating on both animals and plants. It is essential to develop methods to decrease the Pb contaminant in soil by phytoremediation using plants that are tolerance to Pb. In this study, we investigated the tolerance of bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) and the role of exogenous application of melatonin for improving its tolerance to Pb. Bermudagrass growing in soil treated with Pb at 1,000 or 2,000 mg kg

Phylogenetic relationships among the six Iris subgenera were reconstructed by chloroplast trnL-F sequences data using maximum likelihood. The entire matrix of aligned bases analyzed includes 1043 characters and the length of all sequences varied from 747 bp to 893 bp, and mutation sites accounted for 18.79% of the total length. The cluster analysis results accorded well with the subgeneric classification of Chinese Iris species. Results suggested rhizomes and sepals lacking ornament are ancestral characters, and subg. Xyridion and subg. Limniris are more primordial than another four subgenera. Subgenus Nepalensis and subg. Xyridion were resolved as monophyletic.

Protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation is a major signalling event induced by abiotic stresses in plants. Sucrose nonfermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) plays important roles in response to osmotic stress. In the present study, four SnRK2s, TpSnRK2.1/3/7/8, were cloned and characterized from Triticum polonicum L. (dwarf Polish wheat, DPW, AABB). All of these were individually located on 2AL, 1AL, 2AL, and 5BL. Two spliced isoforms of TpSnRK2.8 (TpSnRK2.8a and TpSnRK2.8b) were observed. TpSnRK2.1 and TpSnRK2.3 were classified into the group II; TpSnRK2.7 was classified into the group I; and TpSnRK2.8a/b were classified into the group III. Expression patterns revealed that TpSnRK2.1 responded to cold, NaCl, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and abscisic acid (ABA) in both roots and leaves; TpSnRK2.3 was strongly regulated by cold, NaCl, and ABA in both roots and leaves, and by PEG in roots; TpSnRK2.7 was induced by NaCl and PEG in roots, but was not activated by ABA; and TpSnRK2.8s were significantly activated by cold, NaCl, PEG, and ABA in both roots and leaves. From the above results, we inferred that TpSnRK2.1/3/8 may participate in the responses to environmental stresses in ABA-dependent signal transduction pathway but TpSnRK2.7 is possibly involved in responses to environmental stresses in a non-ABA-dependent manner. They play important roles in specific tissues under different stresses.

The measurements of RK(*)=B(B→K(*)μ+μ−)/B(B→K(*)e+e−) in recent years have hinted lepton flavor nonuniversality and thus drawn widespread attentions. If these anomalies are induced by new physics (NP), deviations from the SM predictions may also be found in other channels via the same process at the quark level. In this work, we study in B→K1(1270,1400)μ+μ− decays the effects of two popular classes of NP models which can address the b→s anomalies, i.e., the leptoquark models and the Z′ models. By assuming that NP only affects the b→sμ+μ− transition, we find that the unpolarized and polarized lepton flavor universality (LFU) ratios RK1(L,T)(1270) are useful to distinguish among the NP models (scenarios) and the SM because they are sensitive to the NP effects and insensitive to the mixing angle θK1, while the RK1(L,T)(1400) are sensitive to both NP and θK1. Another ratio Rμ(K1)=B(B→K1(1400)μ+μ−)/B(B→K1(1270)μ+μ−) is shown to depend weekly on the effects from the NP models (scenarios) under consideration, and thus can be used to determine the θK1 and complement the RK1(L,T) in the probe for NP.

Background Ananas comosus var. bracteatus has high ornamental value due to its chimeric leaves. However, the chimeric trait is very unstable in red pineapple plants, and transcriptional variation between the two types of cells (white/green cells) and the molecular mechanism responsible for their albino phenotype remain poorly understood. Methods Comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the white parts (Whs) and green parts (Grs) of chimeric leaves were performed. Results In total, 1,685 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (712 upregulated and 973 downregulated) and 1,813 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) (1,018 with low abundance and 795 with high abundance) were identified. Based on Gene Ontology (Go) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses, the DEGs were mostly involved in carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation, while proteomic analysis revealed that DAPs were mostly related to ribosomes, photosynthesis, photosynthesis antennas, and porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism. Combined analysis showed increased mRNA levels but low abundance of nine proteins level in Whs /Grs related to photosynthetic pigment and photosynthesis. Transcriptional changes, posttranscriptional regulation and translational alterations of key enzymes involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthesis may play important roles in the albino parts of chimeric leaves.

Background Ananas comosus var. bracteatus is an herbaceous perennial monocot cultivated as an ornamental plant for its chimeric leaves. Because of its genomic complexity, and because no genomic information is available in the public GenBank database, the complete structure of the mRNA transcript is unclear and there are limited molecular mechanism studies for Ananas comosus var. bracteatus. Methods Three size fractionated full-length cDNA libraries (1–2 kb, 2–3 kb, and 3–6 kb) were constructed and subsequently sequenced in five single-molecule real-time (SMRT) cells (2 cells, 2 cells, and 1 cell, respectively). Results In total, 19,838 transcripts were identified for alternative splicing (AS) analysis. Among them, 19,185 (96.7%) transcripts were functionally annotated. A total of 9,921 genes were identified by mapping the non-redundant isoforms to the reference genome. A total of 10,649 AS events were identified, the majority of which were intron retention events. The alternatively spliced genes had functions in the basic metabolism processes of the plant such as carbon metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and glycolysis. Fourteen genes related to chlorophyll biosynthesis were identified as having AS events. The distribution of the splicing sites and the percentage of conventional and non-canonical AS sites of the genes categorized in pathways related to the albino leaf phenotype (ko00860, ko00195, ko00196, and ko00710) varied greatly. The present results showed that there were 8,316 genes carrying at least one poly (A) site, which generated 21,873 poly (A) sites. These findings indicated that the quality of the gene structure and functional information of the obtained genome was greatly improved, which may facilitate further genetic study of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus.

Lead is one of the most hazardous pollutants to both the environment as well as human beings. As one of the approaches to enhance phytoremediation, brassinosteroids are predicted as a potential candidate phytohormone for assisted phytoremediation. Few studies have focused on the physiological regulations of tall fescue plants (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), a potential phytoremediation species, for its responses to applications of brassinosteroids under lead stress. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of foliar application of 24-epibrassinolide, a brassinosteroids analogue, on reactive oxygen species accumulation and antioxidative defense systems of tall fescue when exposed to lead, and ultimately its potential to be used in phytoremediation. When exposed to lead (1000 mg/kg) for 80 d, decreases in shoot and root biomass of tall fescue biomass as well as chlorophyll and carotenoid productions were found. Foliar application of 24-epibrassinolide at three rates and five applications every 7 d improved the biomass of both shoots and roots, and increased the photosynthetic pigments. The improved lead tolerance in tall fescue plants after 24-epibrassinolide applications was associated with reduced H2O2 and O2.- accumulations and increased antioxidative enzyme activities including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and guaiacol peroxidase. Additionally, osmoprotectants increased and lipid peroxidation decreased. Ultimately, foliar applications of 24-epibrassinolide enhanced the lead recovery rate of tall fescue plants, proving its potential role in phytoremediation for soil contaminated with heavy metals such as lead.

We used machine learning methods to predict NaV1.7 inhibitors and found the model RF-CDK that performed best on the imbalanced dataset. Using the RF-CDK model for screening drugs, we got effective compounds K1. We use the cell patch clamp method to verify K1. However, because the model evaluation method in this article is not comprehensive enough, there is still a lot of research work to be performed, such as comparison with other existing methods. The target protein has multiple active sites and requires our further research. We need more detailed models to consider this biological process and compare it with the current results, which is an error in this article. So we want to withdraw this article., Comment: The evaluation of the model in the results section of this article is not comprehensive enough.We will carry out further work. The article needs to be polished. There are certain disadvantages to the molecular optimization method. The discussion part is not deep enough, so withdraw is needed