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In modern society, in which e-commerce is advancing rapidly, conventional finance has begun to adopt the internet, and digital inclusive finance activity has emerged. In the e-commerce era, the use of massive data to digitally evaluate important issues remains promising. Against this background, this paper proposes a data-driven modeling framework for the impact of inclusive internet finance on the urban-rural income gap in the e-commerce era. Specifically, using 2011-2017 panel data on 204 prefecture-level cities in China, this paper visualizes statistical features needed to evaluate the rationality of the initial data samples. Then, the study sets up five basic explanatory variables and five control variables and establishes two regression models to map the relationship between the feature variables and the urban-rural income gap. Using several parameter estimation methods to fit the model parameters, the paper examines the impact of inclusive finance on the urban-rural income gap from multiple perspectives. Finally, based on the data-level analysis results, the paper proposes policy suggestions. &nbsp

The heritage of ancient buildings is an important part of the world's history and culture, which has an extremely rich historical-cultural value and artistic research value. Beijing has a large number of palace ancient buildings, and because of the age of their construction, many of them have problems of varying degrees of peeling and mold on the inner surfaces of the envelope. To solve the problems of the damp and moldy interior of palace buildings, a mathematical model of indoor heat and moisture transfer was established based on a wooden palace ancient building in Beijing. Through the indoor mold distribution validation model, the effects of outdoor humidity, soil moisture, wall humidity, and other factors on the indoor heat and moisture transfer of ancient buildings were simulated and analyzed by using the control variables method. The results showed that the molds were distributed at the indoor corners and floors, and the simulation of indoor humidity match the measured humidity. Thus, the simulation results were consistent with the actual situation. The variable trend of the relative humidity of the indoor environment with the outdoor humidity is inconsistent from plane to plane, i.e. it increases or remains constant with the increase of the outdoor humidity. The indoor ambient relative humidity increased with increasing the wall humidity. And the indoor average temperature is 23.3 ℃ and indoor relative humidity ranged between 90.9 % to 92.44 %. Soil moisture and wall humidity were the main factors affecting the indoor environmental relative humidity.

Increasing frequencies of heatwaves combined with simultaneous drought stress in Europe threaten the ecosystem water and carbon budgets of alpine grasslands. Dew as an additional water source can promote ecosystem carbon assimilation. It is known that grassland ecosystems keep high evapotranspiration as long as soil water is available. However, it is rarely being investigated whether dew can mitigate the impact of such extreme climatic events on grassland ecosystem carbon and water exchange. Here we use stable isotopes in meteoric waters and leaf sugars, eddy covariance fluxes for H2O vapor and CO2, in combination with meteorological and plant physiological measurements, to investigate the combined effect of dew and heat-drought stress on plant water status and net ecosystem production (NEP) in an alpine grassland (2000 m elevation) during the June 2019 European heatwave. Before the heatwave, enhanced NEP in the early morning hours can be attributed to leaf wetting by dew. However, dew benefits on NEP were cancelled out by the heatwave, due to the minor contribution of dew in leaf water. Heat-induced reduction in NEP was intensified by the combined effect of drought stress. The recovery of NEP after the peak of the heatwave could be linked to the refilling of plant tissues during nighttime. Among-genera differences of plant water status affected by dew and heat-drought stress can be attributed to differences in their foliar dew water uptake, and their reliance on soil moisture or the impact of the atmospheric evaporative demand. Our results indicate that dew influence on alpine grassland ecosystems varies according to the environmental stress and plant physiology., Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, ISSN:1664-462X

The quest for pragmatic room-temperature (RT) magnetic semiconductors (MSs) with a suitable bandgap constitutes one of the contemporary opportunities to be exploited. This may provide a materials platform for to bring new-generation ideal information device technologies into real-world applications where the otherwise conventionally separately utilized charge and spin are simultaneously exploited. Here we present RT ferromagnetism in an Fe-doped SnSe (Fe:SnSe) van der Waals (vdW) single crystalline ferromagnetic semiconductor (FMS) with a semiconducting bandgap of ~1.19 eV (comparable to those of Si and GaAs). The synthesized Fe:SnSe single crystals feature a dilute Fe content of less than 1.0 at%, a Curie temperature of ~310 K, a layered vdW structure identical to that of pristine SnSe, and the absence of in-gap defect states. The Fe:SnSe vdW diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) single crystals are grown using a simple temperature-gradient melt-growth process, in which the magnetic Fe atom doping is realized uniquely using FeI2 as the dopant precursor whose melting point is low with respect to crystal growth, and which in principle possesses industrially unlimited scalability. Our work adds a new member in the family of long-searching RT magnetic semiconductors, and may establish a generalized strategy for large-volume production of related DMSs., Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures

In this paper, we study the following coupled nonlinear logarithmic Hartree system \begin{align*} \left\{ \displaystyle \begin{array}{ll} \displaystyle -\Delta u+ \lambda_1 u =\mu_1\left( -\frac{1}{2\pi}\ln(|x|) \ast u^2 \right)u+\beta \left( -\frac{1}{2\pi}\ln(|x|) \ast v^2 \right)u, & x \in ~ \mathbb R^2, \vspace{.4cm}\\ -\Delta v+ \lambda_2 v =\mu_2\left( -\frac{1}{2\pi}\ln(|x|) \ast v^2 \right)v +\beta\left( -\frac{1}{2\pi}\ln(|x|) \ast u^2 \right)v, & x \in ~ \mathbb R^2, \end{array} \right.\hspace{1cm} \end{align*} where $\beta, \mu_i, \lambda_i \ (i=1,2)$ are positive constants, $\ast$ denotes the convolution in $\mathbb R^2$. By considering the constraint minimum problem on the Nehari manifold, we prove the existence of ground state solutions for $\beta>0$ large enough. Moreover, we also show that every positive solution is radially symmetric and decays exponentially.

Meiotic crossovers (COs) not only generate genetic diversity but also ensure the accuracy of homologous chromosome segregation. Here, we identified FIGNL1 as a new inhibitor for extra crossover formation in rice. The fignl1 mutant displays abnormal interactions between non-homologous chromosomes at diakinesis, and chromosome bridges and fragmentation at subsequent stages of meiosis, but shows normal homologous chromosome pairing and synapsis during early prophase I. FIGNL1 participates in homologous chromosome recombination and functions downstream of DMC1. Mutation of FIGNL1 increases the number of bivalents in zip4 mutants, but does not change the number of HEI10 foci, indicating that FIGNL1 functions in limiting class II CO formation. FIGNL1 interacts with MEICA1, and colocalizes with MEICA1 in a dynamic pattern as punctate foci located between two linear homologous chromosomes. The localization of FIGNL1 depends on ZEP1-mediated assembly of the synaptonemal complex. Based on these results, we propose that FIGNL1 inhibits non-homologous chromosome interaction and CO formation during rice meiosis.

The rapid growth of mobile data traffic, especially video streaming traffic, places a serious burden on cellular networks. D2D caching has emerged as a promising paradigm to alleviate network congestions, in which contents are cached at user terminals proactively and then shared among neighbor requesting users via D2D communications. In this paper, we study the content placement problem to maximize cache hit probability (i.e., the probability that contents requested by users are successfully served by neighbor helpers through D2D communications) in D2D underlaid cellular networks. To decide where to cache and which contents to be pushed, we formulate our problem considering D2D communication probability of helpers and preference probability of requesting users. Then our problem is proved to be a submodular function maximization problem under a matroid constraint. To solve this problem, we present an improved greedy algorithm which can achieve an approximation guarantee of ${\min \limits } (1, \linebreak \frac {1}{v_{0}+\frac {1}{t_{min}}} )$ , based on the classic $\frac {1}{2}$ -approximation algorithm. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme achieves higher cache hit probability and lower energy consumption compared with existing caching schemes.

Non-rainfall water (NRW), defined here as dew, hoar frost, fog, rime, and water vapour adsorption, might be a relevant water source for ecosystems, especially during summer drought periods. These water inputs are often not considered in ecohydrological studies, because water amounts of NRW events are rather small and therefore difficult to measure. Here we present a novel micro-lysimeter (ML) system and its application which allows us to quantify very small water inputs from NRW during rain-free periods with an unprecedented high accuracy of ±0.25 g, which corresponds to ±0.005 mm water input. This is possible with an improved ML design paired with individual ML calibrations in combination with high-frequency measurements at 3.3 Hz and an efficient low-pass filtering to reduce noise level. With a set of ancillary sensors, the ML system furthermore allows differentiation between different types of NRW inputs, i.e. dew, hoar frost, fog, rime, and the combinations among these, but also additional events when condensation on leaves is less probable, such as water vapour adsorption events. In addition, our ML system design allows one to minimize deviations from natural conditions in terms of canopy and soil temperatures, plant growth, and soil moisture. This is found to be a crucial aspect for obtaining realistic NRW measurements in short-statured grasslands. Soil temperatures were higher in the ML compared to the control, and thus further studies should focus on improving the thermal soil regime of ML. Our ML system has proven to be useful for high-accuracy, long-term measurements of NRW on short-statured vegetation-like grasslands. Measurements with the ML system at a field site in Switzerland showed that NRW input occurred frequently, with 127 events over 12 months with a total NRW input of 15.9 mm. Drainage-water flow of the ML was not measured, and therefore the NRW inputs might be conservative estimates. High average monthly NRW inputs were measured during summer months, suggesting a high ecohydrological relevance of NRW inputs for temperate grasslands., Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26 (1), ISSN:1027-5606, ISSN:1607-7938

Non-rainfall water (NRW), mainly dew and fog, have been identified as important water sources for many ecosystems. NRW, as an additional water source besides rainfall, is expected to become more important for regions suffering from longer and more frequent dry spells, as they are predicted with climate change. This also affects the midlatitudes, where regionally more frequent droughts and dry spells are expected during the warm season. Stable isotopes of water are an efficient and naturally available tracer to investigate hydrological processes. Differences in saturation vapor pressure and diffusivity of different water molecules inducing so-called isotopic fractionation during phase changes can be linked to the key processes in the hydrological cycle. Therefore, stable isotopes can be used for analyzing soil–plant–atmosphere interactions associated with NRW input related to dew and fog. My doctoral thesis aimed to investigate the effect of dew and fog on Swiss grasslands through event-based field campaigns at three temperate grassland sites (CH-CHA, CH-RHB, CH-FRU) and one alpine grassland site (CH-AWS) in 2018–2021. I explored the role of dew and fog in local water cycling, and the effect of dew and fog on plant water status and net ecosystem exchange (NEE). This was done by measuring the isotopic composition (δ18O and δ2H) in all relevant compartments of the hydrological cycle: (1) atmospheric water vapor, (2) NRW droplets on foliage, (3) leaf water, (4) root xylem water, and (5) soil water, combined with (6) eddy-covariance (EC) flux measurements of water vapor, (7) meteorological and (8) physiological measurements. The primary aim of this thesis is to emphasize the ecological importance of dew and fog for temperate and alpine grasslands during summer dry spells. The functions of NRW inputs have been rarely investigated in the past, because rainfall gain tends to exceed annual evapotranspiration loss in these regions during normal years. However, the fact that NRW inputs may play a key role at the event timescale in overcoming a dry spell without irreversible eco-hydrological damage has recently attracted more attention towards this important moisture source for plants in temperate regions. After a general introduction in Chapter 1, I illustrate in Chapter 2, the role of dew and fog in local water cycling through analyzing the isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor, and NRW droplets on foliage, complemented by EC and meteorological variables during three dew and fog events in summer 2018 at the CH-CHA site located in the bottom of a broad valley. The environmental conditions relevant for the formation of dew and fog are discussed. Deuterium excess (d = δ2H – 8δ18O) derived from δ18O and δ2H was employed to analyze the main drivers of diel water vapor isotope variability. Furthermore, a simple two-end-member mixing model based on an isotope mass balance was employed to partition the input pathways of NRW droplets on foliage into condensation from ambient water vapor and soil water distillation. The results in Chapter 2 showed that dew droplets on foliage were mixed with 9–42 % of condensate from soil vapor diffusion, and 52–91 % of condensate from atmospheric water vapor. The water vapor d was found to be strongly linked with local surface relative humidity, highlighting the dominant role of local moisture as a source for ambient water vapor in the synoptic context of the studied dry spells with very limited impact from large-scale advection. Chapter 2 underlines the importance of NRW inputs to temperate grasslands during dry spells and reveals the complexity of the local water cycle in such conditions. In Chapter 3, I focused on the complexity of water vapor isotopes in the near-surface atmosphere as affected by the temporal evolution of radiation fog and cloud coverage at the CH-CHA site, Water vapor isotopes were combined with EC and meteorological measurements, as well as COSMO-1 model (Consortium for Small-scale Modeling) output. Five events were selected: (1) event 1 with shallow radiation fog occurring around sunrise; (2) event 2 with the transition of fog from shallow radiation fog to deep radiation fog; (3) event 3 with the transition of fog from shallow radiation fog, and further to deep radiation fog, which persisted after sunrise with a low-level cloud cover aloft; (4) event 4 with midnight fog dissipation due to low-level clouds aloft; and (5) event 5 with low to mid-level frontal cloud coverage but without fog in the context of a cold frontal passage. The results in Chapter 3 showed that shallow radiation fog and deep radiation fog are associated with different characteristic signatures in the variability of the water vapor isotope signals depending on the relative strength of mixing, condensation, and deposition processes. Furthermore, Chapter 3 highlights the importance of cloud coverage on the temporal evolution of the isotope signals of fog events. The results reveal the highly variable isotopic composition in the near-surface atmosphere affected by land–atmosphere interactions relating to radiation fog evolution and cloud coverage. In Chapter 4, I investigated the effect of dew and fog on plants of a temperate grassland at the CH-CHA site through analyzing the isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor, NRW droplets on foliage, leaf water, root xylem water, and soil water, complemented by the changes of leaf water potential (LWP) and leaf relative water content (RWC), EC and meteorological measurements. The controls of radiative cooling and leaf wetting on nighttime stomatal opening were investigated. The physical prerequisite of dew and fog formation, with cooler leaf surface allowing for warmer atmospheric water vapor condensing on foliage, controlled the directions of water exchange from the atmosphere to the leaf. Leaf conductance computed from an isotopic mass balance model indicates nighttime stomatal opening, and minor influence of root water flux on leaf conductance during dew and fog formation. The results in Chapter 4 underline the ecological relevance of radiative cooling and leaf wetting for land–atmosphere interactions in natural temperate grasslands which is hardly considered in laboratory experiments, thereby complementing previous chamber experiment studies. In Chapter 5, I concentrated on the effect of dew water on plant water status and gross primary production (GPP) of ecosystem, and in an alpine grassland site CH-AWS during the June 2019 heatwave. GPP partitioned from net ecosystem CO2 flux was analyzed during no-rain period of the heatwave from 25 to 30 June 2019. To allow for natural drought treatment, at the end of the heatwave periods (28–30 June), the isotopic composition of atmospheric water vapor, NRW droplets on foliage, root xylem water, soil water, leaf water and leaf sugar, as well as leaf water potential (LWP) was measured. A chamber-tracer experiment in a custom-made canopy chamber was carried out on 28–29 June by amending isotopically depleted water on plant surfaces for leaf water and sugar isotopic analysis. The results indicate the suppression of CO2 uptake by heat-drought stress, and the promotion of dew water on CO2 uptake in the early morning hours. The effect of dew water on LWP varied by species and is related to species-specific dependences on soil water. In the chamber-tracer experiment, the leaf water isotopes were found to be depleted by the tracer, which could not be successfully transferred to leaf sugar, suggesting that the effect of dew water on GPP was not directly via influencing photosynthesis, but via indirectly benefiting CO2 uptake of plants suffering from drought and heat stress by suppressing atmospheric evaporative demand. Chapter 5 underlines the effect of dew on GPP of alpine grassland during the June 2019 heatwave. As synthesized in the conclusions in Chapter 6, this doctoral thesis used stable isotopes of water combined with site-based EC and meteorological measurements, regional-scale COSMO-1 model output at km resolution, and event-based physiological measurements to investigate the role of dew and fog in grassland–atmosphere water and carbon exchange. The results of this doctoral thesis contribute to advance our understanding on the complex ecologically relevant processes associated with the occurrences of dew and fog during droughts.

Two-dimensional electronic flat bands and their induced correlated electronic interactions have been discovered, probed, and tuned in interlayer regions of hexagonally shaped van der Waals moire superlattices. Fabrication of anisotropic one-dimensional correlated bands by moire interference of 2D, however, remains a challenge. Here, we report an experimental discovery of 1D electronic flat bands near the Fermi level in an anisotropic rectangular moire superlattice composed of in situ grown, vdW stacked two-atomic-layer thick Bi(110) well-aligned on a SnSe(001) substrate. The epitaxial lattice mismatch between the aligned Bi and SnSe zigzag atomic chains causes strong three-dimensional anisotropic atomic relaxations with associated one-dimensional out-of- and in-plane strain distributions that are expressed in electronic bands of the Bi(110) layer, which are characterized jointly by scanning probe microscopy and density functional theory. At the regions of the strongest out-of-plane shear strain, a series of 1D flat bands near the Fermi level are experimentally observed and defined in our calculations. We establish that 1D flat bands can arise in moir\'e superlattices in absence of the relative layer twist, but solely through the lattice strain. We generalize the strategy of utilizing strain in lattice mismatched rectangular hetero-bilayers for engineering correlated anisotropic electronic bands., Comment: 4 figures and 10 supplementary figures

In the data analysis of the existing short-term forecasting system, it lacks logic, and relies on artificial judgment, which leads to the large error of prediction results. Therefore, the short-term prediction system of power user interaction potential is designed based on artificial intelligence. In the hardware part, the high-precision processor d78f0537a-nec is used as the auxiliary processing system. Att7022bu is a special high-precision three-phase electric energy measuring chip. It is used in the three-phase three wire and three-phase four wire connection occasions when measuring the electrical energy information. In the software part, the response characteristics of user interaction potential are extracted, and the user interaction potential data management scheduling module is designed by artificial intelligence technology, and the data mining and logical analysis are carried out for data management scheduling. The prediction model is established to predict the potential of future user interaction by using the existing power data. The experimental results show that the overall prediction error of the system is 14.28% in the peak cutting scenario, 36.43% and 37.81% in the existing prediction system. In the case of reducing the wind abandonment, the overall prediction error of the system is 13.26%, and the overall prediction error of the existing forecasting system is 31.11% and 33.08%. The fitting effect of the predictive interactive capacity and the actual interactive capacity of the system is better than that of the existing prediction system, and has a good prospect in practical application.

The utilization of heterosis is an important way to improve wheat yield, and the production of wheat hybrid seeds mainly relies on male-sterile lines. Male sterility in line 15 Fan 03 derived from a cross of 72,180 and Xiaoyan 6 is controlled by a single recessive gene. The gene was mapped to the distal region of chromosome 4BS in a genetic interval of 1.4 cM and physical distance of 6.57 Mb between SSR markers Ms4BS42 and Ms4BS199 using an F2 population with 1205 individuals. Sterile individuals had a deletion of 4.57 Mb in the region presumed to carry the Ms1 locus. The allele for sterility was therefore named ms1s. Three CAPS markers were developed and verified from the region upstream of the deleted fragment and can be used for ms1s marker-assisted selection in wheat hybrid breeding. This work will enrich the utilization of male sterility genetic resources.

Background Environmental pollution from rare earth mining areas is of great concern, but the impact on microbial ecology and genomics has received little attention. In this study, the relationship between heavy metals and soil microbial community in the northern rare earth mining area was explored. Methods In order to study the detoxification mechanisms of heavy metals by microorganisms in this typical rare earth mining area, the study area was divided into three parts (mining area, residential area and control area). Analysis of microbial community diversity, structure and functional abundance using high-throughput sequencing techniques. Analysis of the effect of heavy metal pollution on the abundance of heavy metal resistance genes in soils of different regions using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. Results The results showed that the heavy metal pollution rules: mining area > residential area > control area. Under the condition of long-term heavy metal pollution, the original microbial community composition was changed, and the species richness and evenness of soil in mining areas were higher than that in residential areas. The high-throughput sequencing analysis showed that existed metal-resistant microbial communities such as Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Korarchaeota and so on under the stress of heavy metal. High concentrations of heavy metals can inhibit the activities of catalase and sucrase. According to Tax4Fun function prediction analysis, heavy metal accumulation increased the ABC transporter protein in microbial function. The results of fluorescence quantification experiments also demonstrated that the abundance of heavy metal resistance genes, czcA, czcB, czcC and czcD, encoding ABC transporter proteins, increased with increasing heavy metal concentrations. Conclusions In conclusion, the accumulation of heavy metals not only changed the soil physicochemical properties and the microbial community structure, but also decreased soil enzyme activities and increased the abundance of resistance genes, which activated the detoxification mechanism of heavy metals. which provided a reference for future ecological remediation.

In this study, a series of Cu–Fe based catalysts with Cr, Ni promoters and different supporters [activated carbon (AC), attapulgite (ATP), carbon nanotubes (CNTs)] were prepared by the co-precipitation method. The structure and surface properties of the catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), CO temperature-programmed desorption (CO-TPD), H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The catalysts were examined in a fixed bed for their ability to selectively convert syngas into higher alcohols. Results showed that CuFeCrNi/CNTs catalyst had the higher Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area (132.22 m2 g−1) and Cu–Fe alloy nanoparticle highly dispersed on the CNTs surface. Thus, the catalyst possessed the higher CO conversion (44.28%), excellent selectivity to higher alcohols (46.0%), and C2+OH/CH3OH reached 1.36 in the liquid product,which turned out to be one of the best catalysts for higher alcohol synthesis.

The performance of oil-impregnated paper significantly affects the safety and reliability of transformers. Previous studies on water reducing the breakdown strength of oil-impregnated paper have been mainly due to increasing charge carriers and conductivity. However, the influence of water on the cellulose crystal structure of oil-impregnated paper is still not clear; in particular, its role on breakdown strength remains ambiguous. In this study, the AC breakdown strength and crystal structure of vegetable and mineral oil-impregnated paper with different moisture contents were investigated. The results show that with increasing moisture content, the cellulose crystallinity and crystal size increases linearly, while the breakdown strength decreases. The breakdown strength of vegetable oil-impregnated paper is higher than that of mineral oil-impregnated paper and is less affected by moisture. Herein, a model is proposed on the effects of water on the crystal structure of oil-impregnated paper and the correlation of breakdown strength with crystal structure is reported.

Additional file 1. Supplementary Information.

Additional file 4: Table S4. Risk factor associated disease progression in COVID-19 patients in univariate Cox regression analysis.

Additional file 5: Table S5. Collinearity diagnosticsof variables in multivariate analysis.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Upper and lower limits of kidney function laboratory parameters in male and female patients with COVID-19.

Defects in the textile manufacturing process lead to a great waste of resources and further affect the quality of textile products. Automated quality guarantee of textile fabric materials is one of the most important and demanding computer vision tasks in textile smart manufacturing. This survey presents a thorough overview of algorithms for fabric defect detection. First, this review briefly introduces the importance and inevitability of fabric defect detection towards the era of manufacturing of artificial intelligence. Second, defect detection methods are categorized into traditional algorithms and learning-based algorithms, and traditional algorithms are further categorized into statistical, structural, spectral, and model-based algorithms. The learning-based algorithms are further divided into conventional machine learning algorithms and deep learning algorithms which are very popular recently. A systematic literature review on these methods is present. Thirdly, the deployments of fabric defect detection algorithms are discussed in this study. This paper provides a reference for researchers and engineers on fabric defect detection in textile manufacturing.

Additional file 6: Table S6.Associations of kidney function indexes with disease progression in COVID-19 patients by multivariate cox regression analyses.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Risk factors associated with disease progression in COVID-19 patients in univariate Cox regression analysis.

Additional file 3: Table S3. Summary and comparison of recent studies on kidney damage from COVID-19 patients.

Dirac nodal line semimetals (DNLSs) host relativistic quasiparticles in their one-dimensional (1D) Dirac nodal line (DNL) bands that are protected by certain crystalline symmetries. Their novel low-energy fermion quasiparticle excitations and transport properties invite studies of relativistic physics in the solid state where their linearly dispersing Dirac bands cross at continuous lines with four-fold degeneracy. In materials studied up to now, the four-fold degeneracy, however, has been vulnerable to suppression by the ubiquitous spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Despite the current effort to discover 3D DNLSs that are robust to SOC by theory, positive experimental evidence is yet to emerge. In 2D DNLSs, because of the decreased total density of states as compared with their 3D counterparts, it is anticipated that their physical properties would be dominated by the electronic states defined by the DNL. It has been even more challenging, however, to discover robust 2D DNLSs against SOC because of their lowered symmetry; no such materials have yet been predicted by theory. By combining molecular beam epitaxy growth, STM, nc-AFM characterisation, with DFT calculations and space group theory analysis, here we reveal a novel class of 2D crystalline DNLSs that host the exact symmetry that protects them against SOC. The discovered quantum material is a brick phase 3-AL Bi(110), whose symmetry protection and thermal stability are imparted by the compressive vdW epitaxial growth on black phosphorus substrates. The BP substrate templates the growth of 3-AL Bi(110) nano-islands in a non-symmorphic space group structure. This crystalline symmetry protects the DNL electronic phase against SOC independent of any orbital or elemental factors. We theoretically establish that this intrinsic symmetry imparts a general, robust protection of DNL in a series of isostructural 2D quantum materials., 32 pages, 4 figures, SI included

Impact strength of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), especially at low temperature, is crucial for its applications outdoors because of its poor impact strength. In order to improve the impact strength of HDPE, crosslinked HDPE was prepared by the addition of a peroxide crosslink agent, bis(tert-butyldioxyisopropyl)benzenehexane, and the effect of the crosslinking density on the microstructures and mechanical properties, especially impact strength between −60 °C and 23 °C, were investigated. The results show that the crosslinking density is controlled by varying the content of the crosslinking agent. It is found that, at room temperature, with increase in the content of crosslink agent from 0% to 0.5–0.7%, the impact strength increases from 4 kJ m−2 to about 80 kJ m−2 and the elongation at break increases from 20% to about 550%. With further increase in the content of crosslink agent to 1.5%, the impact strength and the elongation at break reduce to 64 kJ m−2 and 360% respectively. With increase in crosslink agent, the flexural modulus, yield strength, crystallinity, mean lamellar thickness, crystal size and spherulitic size and the brittle–ductile transition temperature (BDTT) decrease, and the gel content, impact strength of the HDPE at low temperature, intensity of β transition increase significantly. In considering both the room temperature mechanical properties and low temperature impact strength, the optimized content of the crosslink agent is about 0.7%. Overall, crosslinking significantly improves the toughness and impact strength of HDPE and extends its application, especially at low temperature.

Shujuan Wang,1,* Yu Zhang,1,* Yajun Liu,2 Ruyue Zheng,1 Zhenzhen Wu,1 Yi Fan,1 Mengya Li,1 Menglin Li,1 Tao Li,1 Yafei Li,1 Zhongxing Jiang,1 Chong Wang,1 Yanfang Liu1 1Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopaedics, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School/Rhode Island Hospital, Rhode Island, RI, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yanfang Liu; Chong WangDepartment of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1 Jianshe East Road, Erqi District, Zhengzhou 450052, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail fccliuyf1@zzu.edu.cn; fccwangc@zzu.edu.cnBackground: Relapse is a major obstacle in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Refinement of risk stratification may aid the identification of patients who are likely to relapse. Abnormal cysteine and glycine-rich protein 2 (CSRP2) has been implicated in various cancers, but its function remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of CSRP2 in predicting adult AML recurrence.Methods: RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of CSRP2 in 193 newly diagnosed adult AML patients and 44 healthy controls. The competitive risk model was used to calculate the cumulative incidence of relapse rate (CIR), Kaplan–Meier to calculate the relapse-free survival rate (RFS), and the Cox regression model to perform multivariate analysis. Viral transfection was used to construct AML cell lines with stable knockdown of CSRP2, CCK8 to detect proliferation and drug resistance, flow cytometry to detect cell cycle and apoptosis, and Western blot to detect key molecules in signaling pathways.Results: CSRP2 transcript levels were higher in 193 adult AML compared with 44 healthy controls. In 149 patients who achieved complete remission, those with high CSRP2 transcript levels displayed a lower 2-year CIR and higher 2-year RFS, especially when receiving only chemotherapy. In multivariate analysis, a high CSRP2 transcript level was independently associated with a better RFS. Knockdown of CSRP2 promoted proliferation and cell cycle progression, and reduced chemosensitivity. Western blot analysis showed upregulation of p-AKT and p-CREB in CSRP2-knockdown AML cell lines. Inhibition assays suggested these two signaling pathways participated in the CSRP2-mediated proliferation effects in AML cell lines.Conclusion: In summary, CSRP2 correlates with relapse in adult AML. Down-regulation of CSRP2 could promote the proliferation of AML cell lines by regulating the AKT and CREB signaling pathways. Therefore, CSRP2 may provide prognostic significance and potential therapeutic targets in the management of AML.Keywords: acute myeloid leukemia, relapse, cysteine and glycine-rich protein 2, proliferation, cAMP-regulatory element-binding protein

Considering the advantages of mobile edge computing (MEC), such as low latency, high bandwidth, etc., more and more mobile services are cached to mobile edge servers. However, due to limited computing resources and storage capacity of mobile edge servers, it is hard to guarantee that all services are cached and all computation offloading requests are satisfied. In this paper, we jointly optimize service caching and computation offloading to maximize system profits in mobile edge-cloud computing (MECC). The problem is formalized as a nonconvex optimization problem with discrete variables. We propose a Dynamic Joint computation Offloading and Service Caching algorithm (DJOSC) to solve the problem. Specifically, a regularization technique and Lyapunov optimization theory are used to transform the problem into two subproblems, which are solved by convex optimization techniques. Numerical evaluations show that the maximum system profits can be achieved under different computing resources, storage capacities and bandwidth capacities.

The shortage of traditional fossil energy and intensified ecological deterioration have made the utilization of renewable energy become an irresistible development trend and a global consensus. High penetration rate of distributed generations (DG) and the significant uncertainty of their output power pose a certain risk to the safe and stable operation of distribution networks, and the optimal capacity configuration needs to be further studied. This paper aims to establish a model to maximize the capacity penetration of DG considering operational risks. Probabilistic load flow based on the cumulant method is applied to deal with the randomness of wind power and load demand. On this basis, indices of node overvoltage risk (ROV), node undervoltage risk (RUV), and line overload risk (RLO) are established to assess the risk level of the distribution network. Then an optimal planning model which intends to maximize the penetrated capacity of wind power is presented considering multi-risk factors. The case study is conducted on the modified IEEE 33-bus radial test system and the results reveal that the proposed strategy is effective and practical.

The stall is an unsteady flow phenomenon that always causes instabilities and low efficiency for pumps. This paper focuses on the unsteady flow structures and evolutions under two types of stall conditions in centrifugal pump impellers. Two centrifugal pump impellers, one with 6 and another with 5 blades, are considered and a developed large-eddy simulation method is adopted. The results show that the alternative stall occurs in the impeller with 6 blades, while, the rotating stall is observed in that with 5 blades. The flow structure and the pressure fluctuation characteristics are further analyzed. For the alternative stall, the stall cells are fixed relative to the impeller, but a large vortex in the stalled passage is always swaying. The outlet vortex is generated from it, and then develops and sheds periodically. For the rotating stall, the stall cells first occur in the suction side of the blade. With the growth of the stall cells, the block area gradually increases until the inlet region is almost blocked, then moves to the pressure side with a continuous decay. When the rotating stall occurs, the amplitude of the pressure fluctuation is much larger than that under the alternative stall condition. The propagation of the stall cells has a significant effect on the pressure fluctuations in the impeller.

Due to the complexity of IC, electromagnetic immunity plays a critical role towards evaluating the EMC performance to avoid the high cost of redesign. This paper focuses on the Direct Power Injection (DPI) immunity of processor chips with different external double data rate3 (DDR3) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) in consumer electronics. To complete the DPI test, a test board complying with the standard IEC62132-4 and a dedicated test code have been designed. The effect of DC power injection interference on same DDR model but different DDR pins and the same DDR pin but different DDR models were analysed, the results can be used to locate the system-level EMC issues and optimize the design.

It remains a challenge to develop efficient and inexpensive catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, it is the first time to report a core-shell structured amorphous Fe-B alloy coupled with metal Fe nanoclusters as an efficient HER catalyst. The composite was fabricated via the transformation of the FeOOH coating on amorphous Fe-B alloy into metal Fe through a simple photoreduction approach. The Fe nanoclusters loaded on amorphous Fe-B alloy improve the catalytic HER. Thus, the as-prepared composite exhibits much better electrocatalytic and photocatalytic HER activities than single Fe and Fe-B alloy, that is, there is a synergic effect between Fe metal and amorphous Fe-B alloy. The highest apparent quantum yield (AQY) for photocatalytic HER reaches 34% at 470 nm with Eosin Y as a photosensitizer. The composite cocatalyst can be recovered by a magnetic field after the dye-sensitized photocatalytic HER. More interestingly, the electrocatalytic HER activity of Fe-B@Fe-10 in alkaline solution surpasses that of foam Ni used in industrial water electrolysis, and the core-shell composite shows excellent HER performance at high current density. The findings provide new insights to develop efficient and stable noble-metal-free HER catalysts.

Soil structure is an important index to evaluate soil quality; however, previous researchers have only paid attention to the effect and economic benefits of soil heavy metal remediation. In this study, microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology was used to remediate soil Pb pollution, and its effect on soil structure was studied by sieving and X-ray computed tomography techniques. The results showed that the leaching amount of heavy metals in soil decreased by 76.34% after remediation. Interestingly, due to the addition of organic matter and microorganisms, the soil particle size changed from microaggregates to large aggregates, and the large soil particle size (diameter > 2 mm) increased significantly by 71.43%. The soil porosity increased by 73.78%, which enhanced the soil permeability and increased the soil hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, MICP bioremediation not only remediated soil heavy metal pollution but also promoted the soil aggregation structure, which has important significance for soil remediation and improvement.

The main requirements of machine to machine (M2M) communication in 5G include support of a massive number of low-data-rate devices and very-low-latency data transfer. Addressing these requirements in 5G requires new methods and in this paper we focus on one of the paramount issues, i.e., secure and seamless IP communications for group-oriented M2M communications. We consider a heterogeneous network architecture based on 3GPP standard, in which the handover occurs between E-UTRAN and Non-3GPP access network. We first propose an improved Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) protocol, and further implement the improved PMIPv6 associated with the group-based lightweight authentication scheme to achieve secure and seamless IP communications, named SEIP, which improves handover latency, packet loss, and signaling overhead. Particularly, SEIP performs access authentication process before IP layer (L3) and link layer (L2) handover to reduce handover delay. In addition, it uses packet buffering and forwarding mechanisms to reduce packet loss during the handover period. SEIP can not only fulfill security requirements in previous protocols, but also can successfully resist some sophisticated attacks, such as redirection, DoS attacks, etc. The results of performance analysis illustrate that SEIP achieves better performance in terms of signaling cost on wireless link, handover latency and packet loss compared to several other schemes.

Tetrastigma hemsleyanum is a rare medicinal plant in China. Because it requires very strict environmental conditions to grow, it usually takes 3–5 years to form calabash-shaped roots and is difficult to meet the demand of Chinese medical market. Although it is known that endophytes can enhance the growth of the host plants, the molecular mechanism of the interplay between endophytes and their host plants growth is not completely understood yet. The aim of this study was to determine if endophytes can reduce the growth cycle and promote the medicinal ingredients in Tetrastigma hemsleyanum, and elucidate its underlying molecular mechanism. Endophytic fungi were isolated and identified from the calabash-shaped root of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum. The fermentation broth of 6 endophyte strains (named as TH09, TH12, TH14, TH15, TH17 and TH26) were added to the MS medium to culture axenic plantlets. After 30 days of culture, the net growth, expansin gene expression and the flavonoid content were measured. From the calabash-shaped roots, we isolated 31 endophytic fungi belonging to 10 genera: Fusarium, Rhizopycnis, Colletotrichum, Cylindrocarpon, Emericellopsi, Penicillium, Plectosphaerella, Aspergillus tubingensis, Alternaria and Sarocladium, of which Fusarium is the dominant genus. Addition of the fermentation broth from strains TH12, TH15 and TH26 significantly increased the plant growth. Strains TH15 and TH26’s fermentation broth increased the expression of Th-exp (an expansin gene), while addition of the fermentation broth from TH14 increased Th-exp expression in leaves and stems, but decreased Th-exp expression in the root. Flavonoid content was increased in the presence of fermentation broth from strains TH09, TH14, TH17 and TH26. Particularly, the fermentation broth from TH26 can promote plant growth, enhance Th-exp expression and increase the flavonoid content in Tetrastigma hemsleyanum. The results demonstrated that endophytic fungi from the calabash-shaped root of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum can regulate plant growth, expression of expansin gene and flavonoid content.

Recently, a large amount of power transformer dielectric failures caused by the copper sulfide (Cu 2 S) contaminant are reported, which is a semi-conductive black solid material produced by the reaction of DBDS additive and copper under certain temperatures. Irgamet 39 is used as metal passivator in transformer oil that can delay the corrosion process in laboratory investigations, which forms a protective layer on the copper surface to prevent the harmful reactions between the corrosive sulfur and copper. However, the inhibition effectiveness of Irgamet 39 on mildly corroded copper surface and its depletion characteristic are still not clear. Herein, corroded copper was treated with Irgamet 39 under different aging conditions, suggesting Irgamet 39 could dramatically improve the properties of copper strips as determined by EDX analysis. Evaluation of the stability of impermeable layer under continuous ageing processes suggests that maintenance of specific concentration of metal passivator is critical for the stability of protective layer. In addition, the depletion characteristic of Irgamet 39 was investigated under different ageing conditions with variables like temperature, copper, insulating paper and atmosphere factor. It indicates that oxygen plays an important role in consumption of the metal passivator.

Virulent strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes (A. rhizogenes) contain Ri plasmids responsible for hairy root development on susceptible plants. Ri plasmid possesses different gene segments. T-DNA region of Ri plasmid pRi2659 in A. rhizogenes strain K599 carries 11 functional genes/coding regions. In this study, we cloned a complete orf3-coding region in T-DNA of plasmid pRi2659, which is 1479 bp in length and encodes 492 amino acid residues. Then, we developed an orf3-containing expression vector named pRI101-AN-orf3 and generated the orf3-transgenic tobacco plants via A. tumefaciens-mediated method. The orf3-transgenic tobacco displayed altered morphological characters including shortened internodes, dwarfisms, more branches, shortened leaf blade length, early flowering, and weak roots. Compared to those of untransformed tobacco, the contents of two endogenous plant hormones, auxins (IAA) and abscisic acid, were decreased whereas the cytokinin content was increased but gibberellic acid content was not consistently obviously changed. Besides, we also transferred orf3 into Arabidopsis thaliana using floral-dip method and obtained orf3-transgenic Arabidopsis homozygous offspring. The orf3-transgenic Arabidopsis displayed morphological characters of dwarfism and more branches similar to those of the orf3-transgenic tobacco. Together, these results indicate that K599 orf3 possesses the functions of altering plant phenotypes and promotes plants to become dwarf and branch.

In order to optimize the adding scheme of metal passivator, this paper reported the effects of temperature, DBPC (2,6-di-tert- butyl-4-methyl phenol) concentration, DBDS (dibenzyl disulfide) concentration, copper surface area, paper surface area, oil state and copper corrosion degree on the consumption of metal passivator Irgamet 39 in transformer oil. Irgamet 39 concentration in transformer oil was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that the temperature is a key factor for Irgamet 39 consumption. Irgamet 39 concentration remains stable at low temperature (below 60 °C) and decreases rapidly at high temperature(above 90°C); paper, fresh copper, corroded copper, oil in service and DBDS increases the consumption rate of Irgamet 39; DBPC has little effect on the consumption of Irgamet 39. According to the protective mechanism of Irgamet 39, the transformer oil and insulation paper are important factors in the consumption of Irgamet 39.

Aiming at the problem of tracking bias and deteriorating robustness due to background interference and sudden change of object movement state in video tracking, this study proposed a new object tracking algorithm based on multichannel extraction of AHLBP texture features. This algorithm took into account the local visual information of the image, proposed an AHLBP texture extraction method with adaptive threshold. The method overcame the limitations caused by a single fixed threshold in texture extraction. In order to mine image texture information in depth, textures were extracted from the three color channels in the HSV color space. Then the paper fully used the texture to establish an accurate and complete object model as a description of the object, and achieved object tracking. Experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively improve the accuracy and stability of tracking and make the tracking algorithm has a better robustness.

The quality of image collected under severe weather such as fog and haze is badly damaged due to the atmospheric scattering. In order to solve the problem that image dehazing algorithms have poor adaptability, which will occur contrast distortion after restoration or cannot eliminating the influence of dense haze, a self-adaption single image dehaze method based on clarity evaluation is proposed to effectively recover the visual effects of the scene. The innovation points of this paper lied in that, first, the haze image is disposed separately according to average value, standard deviation, average gradient, information entropy and other clarity judgment features of the input image; then, the method of self-adaption image quality evaluation and coding decision is introduced to the dehaze results, to output the best effects obtained through comparison of many methods; finally, the clarity judgment is carried out again to output the final results. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve a better dehazing effect, and its chromaticity, luminance and contrast are improved to a certain extent. The universality of dehaze method is further improved.

Image defogging method based on non physical model (the image contrast enhancement method) and image dehazing method based on physical model (the atmospheric scattering model method), it is the two kinds of method that is focused on at present. The innovation of this article is: the estimation value of parameter achieved by atmospheric scattering model image dehazing method is not optimal; and the method of contrast enhancement makes the part of clear image and the depth of information distortion. On the basis of the theoretical analysis this paper gives an improved linear model which is proposed to describe the fog removal principle based on the atmospheric scattering model and the contrast enhancement method, and the fog removal problems of models were converted into the optimization searching in parameter space. Initial estimates parameters of atmospheric scattering model method based on linear model in the aspect of solving the problem, and the genetic algorithm and the clarity decision function are introduced to optimize the parameters. And then obtain defogging image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve a better dehazing effect and applicability compared to some state-of-the-art methods.

With the continued proliferation of smart mobile devices, Quick Response (QR) code has become one of the most-used types of two-dimensional code in the world. Aiming at beautifying the visual-unpleasant appearance of QR codes, existing works have developed a series of techniques. However, these works still leave much to be desired, such as personalization, artistry, and robustness. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a novel type of aesthetic QR codes, SEE (Stylize aEsthEtic) QR code, and a three-stage approach to automatically produce such robust style-oriented codes. Specifically, in the first stage, we propose a method to generate an optimized baseline aesthetic QR code, which reduces the visual contrast between the noise-like black/white modules and the blended image. In the second stage, to obtain art style QR code, we tailor an appropriate neural style transformation network to endow the baseline aesthetic QR code with artistic elements. In the third stage, we design an error-correction mechanism by balancing two competing terms, visual quality and readability, to ensure the performance robust. Extensive experiments demonstrate that SEE QR code has high quality in terms of both visual appearance and robustness, and also offers a greater variety of personalized choices to users., 14 pages

Complex flow processes exist in the primary convergent-divergent nozzle of a transcritical CO2 ejector because of the rapid expansion of the supercritical CO2 flow, which have a significant influence on the performance of a transcritical CO2 ejector expansion refrigeration system. A visualization experiment with the direct photography method was carried out to investigate the phase change phenomena in the primary convergent-divergent nozzle of a transcritical CO2 ejector. The visualization transcritical CO2 ejector was designed as a rectangular cross section to minimize the optical distortion. In order to better interpret the phase change phenomena of CO2 flow, four pressure measurement points were lumped in the convergent-divergent nozzle to get the pressure distribution along the convergent-divergent nozzle for various operating conditions. The results revealed that the phase change position in the convergent-divergent nozzle was closely related to the primary flow inlet conditions and the suction flow inlet pressure. .The results showed that the phase change could start after or before the nozzle throat, and the phase change position moved upstream by decreasing the primary flow inlet pressure and temperature simultaneously. As keeping the primary flow inlet pressure constant, the phase change position also moved upward by decreasing the suction flow inlet pressure. In addition, the measured pressure results indicated that the pressure differences in the convergent section of the primary convergent-divergent nozzle increased as the CO2 suction flow inlet pressure decreased because of more adequate expansion of the primary flow.