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Wensu Yang,1,2 Zhaoxin Xia,1,2 Yi Zhu,1,2 Hao Tang,1,2 Huaming Xu,1,2 Xinyi Hu,1,2 Chunhui Lin,1,2 Tong Jiang,1,2 Pei He,1,2 Jilu Shen1,2 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 23001, People’s Republic of China; 2Anhui Public Health Clinical Center Hefei, Anhui, 230012, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jilu Shen, Tel +86-15155152963, Email shenjilu@ahmu.edu.cnBackground: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has emerged as a new therapy targeting gastrointestinal microbiota for the treatment of a growing number of diseases in recent years. Previous studies have suggested that FMT may be a potential therapy for type 2 diabetes (T2D), but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of FMT in T2D and its underlying mechanisms.Methods: To induce T2D, mice were fed a high-fat diet and injected with low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) for four weeks. The mice were then randomly divided into four groups: control group (n = 7), T2D group (n = 7), metformin (MET)-treated group (n = 7), and FMT group (n = 7). The MET group was orally administered 0.2 g/kg MET, the FMT group was orally administered 0.3 mL of bacterial solution, and the other two groups were orally administered the same volume of saline for four weeks. Serum and fecal samples were collected for non-targeted metabolomics, biochemical indicators, and 16S rRNA sequencing, respectively.Results: Our results demonstrated that FMT had a curative effect on T2D by ameliorating hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia. Using 16S rRNA sequencing and serum untargeted metabolomic analysis, we found that FMT could restore the disorders of gastrointestinal microbiota in T2D mice. Moreover, corticosterone, progesterone, L-urobilin, and other molecules were identified as biomarkers after FMT treatment. Our bioinformatics analysis suggested that steroid hormone biosynthesis, arginine, proline metabolism, and unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis could be potential regulatory mechanisms of FMT.Conclusion: In summary, our study provides comprehensive evidence for the role of FMT in the treatment of T2D. FMT has the potential to become a promising strategy for the treatment of metabolic disorders, T2D, and diabetes-related complications.Keywords: type 2 diabetes, fecal microbiota transplantation, gastrointestinal microbiota, untargeted metabolomics, 16S rRNA, corticosterone

In Arabidopsis thaliana, female gametophyte (FG) development is accompanied by the formation and expansion of the large vacuole in the FG; this is essential for FG expansion, nuclear polar localization, and cell fate determination. Arabidopsis VACUOLELESS GAMETOPHYTES (VLG) facilitates vesicular fusion to form large vacuole in the FG, but the regulation of VLG remains largely unknown. Here, we found that gain-of-function mutation of BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE2 (BIN2) (bin2-1) increases VLG abundance to induce the vacuole formation at stage FG1, and leads to abortion of FG. Loss-of-function mutation of BIN2 and its homologs (bin2-3 bil1 bil2) reduced VLG abundance and mimicked vlg/VLG phenotypes. Knocking down VLG in bin2-1 decreased the ratio of aberrant vacuole formation at stage FG1, whereas FG1-specific overexpression of VLG mimicked the bin2-1 phenotype. VLG partially rescued the bin2-3 bil1 bil2 phenotype, demonstrating that VLG acts downstream of BIN2. Mutation of VLG residues that are phosphorylated by BIN2 altered VLG stability and a phosphorylation mimic of VLG causes similar defects as did bin2-1. Therefore, BIN2 may function by interacting with and phosphorylating VLG in the FG to enhance its stability and abundance, thus facilitating vacuole formation. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into how the BIN2-VLG module regulates the spatiotemporal formation of the large vacuole in FG development.

The lateral loading of a plate anchor is a complicated process that involves complex anchor-soil interactions. The deformation characteristics of the soil around an anchor have an important effect on its lateral bearing capacity. In this paper, the noncontact digital image correlation (DIC) technique is used to study the distribution and variation of the soil deformation field under a laterally loaded anchor in sandy soil. The results show that the sand density and embedment ratio significantly affect the distribution and influence range of the active and passive zones around the anchor. The active zone behind the rod gradually decreases with increasing sand density until ultimately disappearing, and the passive zone increases. The maximum influence height occurs in the passive zone behind the rod in dense sand, and the influence range of the passive zone in front of the rod expands with an increasing embedment ratio. Shear bands form during the lateral loading process, which are accompanied by dilatancy in the shear process. The motion path of the rotation center in loose and medium sand is initially rigid translational and then becomes rigid rotational, while the opposite trend occurs in compact dense sand. The results provide important guidance for the development of predictive models for anchor lateral loading and design.

The transition metal iron plays a crucial role in living cells. However, high levels of iron are potentially toxic through the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), serving as a deterrent to the commensal fungus Candida albicans for colonization in the iron-rich gastrointestinal (GI) tract. We observe that the mutant lacking an iron-responsive transcription factor Hap43 is hyper-fit for colonization in murine gut. We demonstrate that high iron specifically triggers multiple post-translational modifications (PTMs) and proteasomal degradation of Hap43, a vital process guaranteeing the precision of intestinal ROS detoxification. Reduced levels of Hap43 de-repress the expression of antioxidant genes and therefore alleviate the deleterious ROS derived from iron metabolism. Our data reveal that Hap43 functions as a negative regulator for oxidative stress-adaptation of C. albicans to gut colonization and thereby provide a new insight into understanding the interplay between iron homeostasis and fungal commensalism.

Background Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are important biological indicators of the lung cancer prognosis, and CTC counting and typing may provide helpful biological information for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Methods The CTC count in blood before and after radiotherapy was detected by the CanPatrol™ CTC analysis system, and the CTC subtypes and the expression of hTERT before and after radiotherapy were detected by multiple in situ hybridization. The CTC count was calculated as the number of cells per 5 mL of blood. Results The CTC positivity rate in patients with tumors before radiotherapy was 98.44%. Epithelial–mesenchymal CTCs (EMCTCs) were more common in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma than in patients with small cell lung cancer (P = 0.027). The total CTCs (TCTCs), EMCTCs, and mesenchymal CTCs (MCTCs) counts were significantly higher in patients with TNM stage III and IV tumors (P 1 (P = 0.022 and P = 0.024, respectively). The TCTCs and EMCTCs counts before and after radiotherapy affected the overall response rate (ORR) (P hTERT expression were associated with the ORR of radiotherapy (P = 0.002 and P = 0.038, respectively), as were TCTCs with high hTERT expression (P = 0.012). ECOG score (P = 0.006) and post-radiation TCTCs count (P = 0.011) were independent factors for progression-free survival (PFS) and TNM stage (P = 0.054) and pre-radiation EMCTCs count (P = 0.009) were independent factors of overall survival (OS). Conclusion This study showed a high rate of positive CTC detection in patients with lung cancer, and the number, subtype, and hTERT-positive expression of CTCs were closely related to patients’ ORR, PFS, and OS with radiotherapy. EMCTCs, hTERT-positive expression of CTCs are expected to be important biological indicators for predicting radiotherapy efficacy and the prognosis in patients with lung cancer. These results may be useful in improving disease stratification for future clinical trials and may help in clinical decision-making.

The boom in ultra-thin electronic devices and the growing need for humanization greatly facilitated the development of wearable flexible micro-devices. But the technology to deposit electrode material on flexible substrate is still in its infancy. Herein, the flexible symmetric micro-supercapacitors made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on commercial printing paper as electrode materials were fabricated by combining tetrahedral preparator auxiliary coating method and laser-cutting interdigital configuration technique on a large scale. The electrochemical performance of the obtained micro-supercapacitors can be controlled and tuned by simple choosing different models of tetrahedral preparatory to obtain CNTs film of different thicknesses. As expected, the micro-supercapacitor based on CNTs film can deliver an areal capacitance up to 4.56 mF/cm2 at current of 0.02 mA. Even if, micro-supercapacitor undergoes continuous 10000 cycles, the performance of device can still remain nearly 100%. The as-demonstrated tetrahedral preparator auxiliary coating method and laser-cutting interdigital configuration technique provide new perspective for preparing microelectronics in an economical way. The paper electrode appended by CNTs achieves steerable areal capacitance, showing broad application prospect in fabricating asymmetric micro-supercapacitor with flexible planar configurations in the future.

The tailwater tunnel of the Wuyue pumped storage power station is located in bedrock and extends to depths between tens and hundreds of meters. It is impossible to analyze and evaluate the whole engineering area from geological exploration data, and the hydrogeological conditions are complicated. In the early stages of the tailwater tunnel’s construction, the drinking water wells in four villages dried up. This paper reports the results from a field investigation, in situ tests, laboratory tests, and numerical simulation carried out to determine how the groundwater was affected when the tunnel was excavated. A hydrogeological model of the region was established from the inverted regional natural flow field parameters. The model was validated, and an analysis of the errors showed that there was an average error of 1.98% between the natural flow field and the hydrogeological survey flow field. The model was then used to simulate the three-dimensional transient seepage fields under normal seepage conditions and limited seepage conditions, as far as was practical. The results showed that, as the excavation of the tailwater tunnel advanced, the water inflow to the tunnel also increased. When the water inflow increased from 1000 to 5000 m3/d, the water level at a distance of 100 m from the axis of the tunnel dropped from −0.956 to −1.604 m. We then analyzed how the water level changed as the water inflow varied and proposed a formula for calculating the extent of the influence on the groundwater. We studied how the water level changed at different well points to ascertain how a groundwater well became depleted and determined the factors that influenced seepage in the regional flow field. The water level in different areas of the project area was simulated and analyzed, and the extent of the groundwater area affected by the tunnel construction was clarified. We then studied how the groundwater in different areas of, and distances from, the project area was influenced by normal seepage conditions and limited seepage conditions and proposed a formula for calculating the extent of the influence on groundwater for different water inflows. We constructed a ‘smart site’ for visualizing data, sharing information, and managing the project. Time–frequency domain analysis was applied to explore the extent of the impacts and range of the vibration effects on residential housing at different distances from the project area caused by the different methods for excavating the tailwater tunnel. The results from this analysis will provide useful insights into how the excavation of this tailwater tunnel will impact the local residents and living areas.

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have gained widespread commercial use, yet there is a continuous need to identify innovative emitters that offer higher efficiency and broader color gamut. To effectively screen out promising OLED molecules that are yet to be synthesized, we perform a representation learning aided high throughput virtual screening (HTVS) over millions of Ir(III) complexes, a prototypical type of phosphorescent OLED material, constructed via a random combination of 278 reported ligands. We successfully screen out a decent amount of promising candidates for both display and lighting purposes, which are worth further experimental investigation. The high efficiency and accuracy of our model are largely attributed to the pioneering attempt of using representation learning to organic luminescent molecules, which is initiated by a pre-training procedure with over 1.6 million 3D molecular structures and frontier orbital energies predicted via semi-empirical methods, followed by a fine-tune scheme via the quantum mechanical computed properties over around 1500 candidates. Such workflow enables an effective model construction process that is otherwise hindered by the scarcity of labeled data, and can be straightforwardly extended to the discovery of other novel materials.

Understanding the brittle fracture behavior of rock is crucial for engineering and Earth science. In this paper, based on acoustic emission (AE) and laser Doppler vibration (LDV) monitoring technology, the staged damage behaviors of rock-like materials with different brittleness degrees under uniaxial compression are studied via multiple parameters. The results show that the brittleness degree determines the fracture mode. As the specimen’s brittleness degree increases, the tensile failure increases and shear failure decreases. AE activity is enhanced at the crack damage point. With an increasing specimen brittleness degree, different instability precursor information is shown during the unstable crack growth stage: the AE b value changes from the fluctuating to continuously decreasing state, and the natural frequency changes from the stable fluctuation to upward fluctuation state. The AE b value near the stress drop is the smallest, and it decreases with an increasing brittleness degree. The natural frequency reduction indicates the rock-like fracture. The natural frequency is a symbolic index that reflects staged damage characteristics and predicts the amount of energy released by brittle failure. These findings provide guidelines for rock stability monitoring and provide support for better responses to stability evaluations of rock slopes, rock collapses, and tunnel surrounding rock in engineering.

The generation of terahertz (THz) waves by focusing a femtosecond pulsed laser beam at a distance is able to overcome the strong absorption properties of air and has rapidly attracted the attention of the industry. However, the poor directionality of the THz wave radiation generated by this method is not conducive to THz wave applications. By controlling the morphology of the ultrafast laser-excited plasma filament and its electron density distribution through coherent beam combining (CBC) technology, we achieve direct THz beam shaping and are able to obtain THz wave radiation of Gaussian or arbitrary transverse distribution. The novel experimental approach proposed in this paper opens up the research field of direct THz wave shaping using plasma. Moreover, it innovates multi-parameter convergence algorithms and, by doing so, has the potential to find beam patterns with higher energy conversion efficiency and break the energy limit of THz waves emitted by lasers at high power.

PurposeClostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection is the most common cause of nosocomial infection, which is a severe challenge in modern medical care. Currently, many laboratory diagnostic methods for C. difficile are available, such as PCR, culture-based tests, and antigen-based tests. However, these methods are not suitable for rapid point-of-care testing (POCT). Therefore, it is of great significance to develop a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method to detect C. difficile toxin genes.MethodsRecently, the development of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technology has emerged as a promising tool for rapid POCT. In this study, we developed a rapid and specific detection platform for dual C. difficile toxins by combining recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and CRISPR/Cas12a.ResultsThe platform includes multiplex RPA-cas12a-fluorescence assay and multiplex RPA-cas12a-LFS (Lateral flow strip) assay, through which the detection limit for tcdA and tcdB was 10 copies/μL and 1 copy/μL, respectively. The results can be more clearly distinguished using a violet flashlight, which realized a portable visual readout. The platform can be tested within 50 min. Furthermore, our method did not cross-react with other pathogens that cause intestinal diarrhea. The results of 10 clinical samples using our method was 100% consistent with those from real-time PCR detection.ConclusionIn conclusion, the CRISPR-based double toxin gene detection platform for C. difficile is an effective, specific, and sensitive detection method, which can be used as a powerful on-site detection tool for POCT in the future.

Cracks in rock mass have adverse effects on its mechanical characteristics and the stability of rock mass engineering. In this paper, cement mortar is used to make specimens with prefabricated cracks with different dip angles, and uniaxial compression, true triaxial compression and true triaxial unloading tests are carried out. The stress-strain curves under uniaxial compression and true triaxial compression have 4 and 5 stages, respectively. The strength of the specimen is the lowest as the dip angle of the crack is 45 °. Under uniaxial compression, the failure mode is mainly tensile failure, accompanied by a few shear cracks. With the increase of the crack dip angle of the specimen, the types of cracks generated at the tip of the prefabricated crack increase and change from shear crack to tensile crack. The distance between the crack tip and the loading end affects the failure degree of the specimen. Under true triaxial compression, the confining pressure significantly improves the strength and deformation characteristics of the specimen, and weakens the influence of the crack dip angle on the strength. The failure mode as a crack dip angle of 15 ° is mainly tensile, accompanied by tensile-shear composite and shear. The failure mode as crack dip angles of 45 ° and 75 ° is mainly tensile-shear composite, accompanied by tensile failure and shear failure. With the increase of the crack dip angle, the surface spalling of the specimen is more obvious, and the damage degree of the specimen is more severe. Under the triaxial unloading confining, the failure mode is mainly shear, accompanied by tensile and tensile-shear composite, more than two shear cracks through the top and bottom of the specimen lead to the failure. Compared with uniaxial compression, the damage degree of specimen is more severe under true triaxial compression and true triaxial unloading.

As an internal forcing of the earth climate system, soil moisture (SM) significantly influences the water and energy cycle by controlling evapotranspiration and terrestrial solar energy. The current study used observed precipitation, remotely sensed SM, and reanalysis of atmosphere and land parameters to assess the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) precipitation variability due to meridional SM oscillations across China. A generalized linear method, namely coupled manifold technique (CMT) for assessing the reciprocal forcing between two climate fields and numerical simulations are applied to SM and EAM precipitation. We find that the EAM precipitation interannual variability between north and south China significantly correlates with SM meridional oscillation. The CMT results further showed that SM forcing has a significant (99% confidence) influence on the EAM precipitation explaining about 0.40 of the variance ratio in north and south China. The EAM and SM composite analysis show that the wetter (drier) north (south) oscillates the EAM precipitation over the north (south) of China and vice versa due to SM thermal controls. We then used control and sensitivity simulations with SM observations to further validate the findings implying that SM can potentially improve the interannual EAM forecast skills. The model results show that a wetter (drier) north (south) results in negative (positive) sensible heat (latent heat) anomalies that impact the boundary layer and propagate to change the meridional atmospheric heating profile. When positive (negative) SM anomalies exist over northern (southern) China, the zonal easterlies and extratropical westerlies move to north China causing above-normal precipitation that descends into southern China, suppressing subtropical westerlies and precipitation in southern China. On the contrary, a dry (wet) north (south) favors intensified subtropical westerlies and precipitation in southern China. The findings have dire implications for the water and energy cycle of the region in the projected wetting and drying patterns of the north (south).

Ground water inflow from an overlying aquifer happens frequently in underground engineering; for properly controlling ground water during construction, the most important tasks are to assess the possibility and the probable water inflow, which depends on the ground water recharge characteristics. However, less work has been carried out on this topic. In order to study the water inflow variation characteristics including dynamic replenishment and static reserve release from a submersible aquifer, sand-tank seepage experiments on a dewatering well seepage from an aquifer bottom under the conditions of different water pressure heads insides the dewatering well ( P ) were designed and performed. The results show that (1) when the dewatering beginning, the water inflow increases to a peak value rapidly and then decreases following a first-order exponential decay function. In the initial phase, the water inflow is mainly composed of static reserve release, which decreases quickly with time also following a first-order exponential decay function. Meanwhile, the recharge of dynamic replenishment quickly increases with time following a first-order exponential growth function, which mainly forms the water inflow in the quasi-steady state. (2) The equal time of dynamic and static reserve release and the quasi-steady state time both present a first-order exponential decay function with the decrease of P . (3) The peak water inflow should perform at the beginning of dewatering which presents a little late after the beginning of dewatering and increases with the decreasing of P following a linear function. The results will play important references for water inflow prediction and calculation from overlying aquifers for underground projects.

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a finely-regulated process in which cytoplasm encapsulated within transient organelles termed autophagosomes is delivered to lysosomes or vacuoles for degradation. Phospholipids, particularly phosphatidic acid (PA) that functions as a second messenger, play crucial and differential roles in autophagosome formation; however, the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. Here we demonstrated that PA inhibits autophagy through competitive inhibition of the formation of ATG3 (autophagy-related)-ATG8e and ATG6-VPS34 (vacuolar protein sorting 34) complexes. PA bound to GAPC (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) or PGK (phosphoglycerate kinase) and promoted their interaction with ATG3 or ATG6, which further attenuated the interactions of ATG3-ATG8e or ATG6-VPS34, respectively. Structural and mutational analyses revealed the mechanism of PA binding with GAPCs and PGK3, and that GAPCs or ATG8e competitively interacted with ATG3, and PGK3 or VPS34 competitively interacted with ATG6, at the same binding interface. These results elucidate the molecular mechanism of how PA inhibits autophagy through binding GAPC or PGK3 proteins and expand the understanding of the functional mode of PA, demonstrating the importance of phospholipids in plant autophagy and providing a new perspective for autophagy regulation by phospholipids.

Ovule initiation is a key step that strongly influences ovule number and seed yield. Notably, mutants with enhanced brassinosteroid (BR) and cytokinin (CK) signaling produce more ovules and have a higher seed number per silique (SNS) than wild-type plants. Here, we crossed BR- and CK-related mutants to test whether these phytohormones function together in ovule initiation. We determined that simultaneously enhancing BR and CK contents led to higher ovule and seed numbers than enhancing BR or CK separately, and BR and CK enhanced each other. Further, the BR-response transcription factor BZR1 directly interacted with the CK-response transcription factor ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR1 (ARR1). Treatments with BR or BR plus CK strengthened this interaction and subsequent ARR1 targeting and induction of downstream genes to promote ovule initiation. Enhanced CK signaling partially rescued the reduced SNS phenotype of BR-deficient/insensitive mutants whereas enhanced BR signaling failed to rescue the low SNS of CK-deficient mutants, suggesting that BR regulates ovule initiation and SNS through CK-mediated and CK-independent pathways. Our study thus reveals that interaction between BR and CK promotes ovule initiation and increases seed number, providing important clues for increasing the seed yield of dicot crops. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Yi Zhu,1,2 Chunhui Lin,1,2 Huaming Xu,3 Zhaoxin Xia,1,2 Wensu Yang,1,2 Hao Tang,4 Xinyi Hu,1,2 Tong Jiang,1,2 Zhen Liu,1,2 Jilu Shen1,2 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of China; 2Anhui Public Health Clinical Center, Hefei, People’s Republic of China; 3The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, People’s Republic of China; 4The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jilu Shen, Tel +86 151 5515 2963, Email shenjilu@ahmu.edu.cn; 1464675852@qq.comIntroduction: More than half of the world’s people are infected or have been infected with Helicobacter pylori. This infection is related to many diseases, with its pathogenicity related to virulence factors. Therefore, the rapid diagnosis of H. pylori and genotyping of virulence genes play an extremely important role in the clinical treatment and control of transmission.Methods: To this end, we developed a molecular detection method based on RPA- CRISPR-Cas12a technology for the specific genes 16S rDNA gene, cytotoxin associated gene A(cagA), and vacuolating cytotoxin A (vacA) of H. pylori.Results: The results of which were displayed by lateral flow strips. Macroscopic observation takes only about 25 minutes and the sensitivity is 2ng/microliter.Discussion: The method is simple, convenient to operate and has low costs, and can therefore be applied widely to the detection and typing of H. pylori in various environments such as primary hospitals, community clinics, outdoors, and large medical institutions.Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, virulence genes, recombinase polymerase amplification, CRISPR-Cas12a, lateral flow immunochromatographic strip

Candida albicans, the primary etiology of human mycoses, is well-adapted to catabolize proline to obtain energy to initiate morphological switching (yeast to hyphal) and for growth. We report thatput1-/-andput2-/- strains, carrying defectiveProlineUTilization genes, display remarkable proline sensitivity withput2-/- mutants being hypersensitive due to the accumulation of the toxic intermediate P5C, which inhibits mitochondrial respiration. Theput1-/- andput2-/-mutations attenuate virulence inDrosophilaand murine candidemia models. Using intravital 2-photon microscopy and label-free non-linear imaging, we visualized the initial stages ofC. albicanscells colonizing a kidney in real-time, directly deep in the tissue of a living mouse, and observed morphological switching of wildtype but not ofput2-/-cells. Multiple members of theCandidaspecies complex, includingC. auris, are capable of using proline as a sole energy source. Our results indicate that a tailored proline metabolic network tuned to the mammalian host environment is a key feature of opportunistic fungal pathogens.

Viruses often establish their own infection by altering host metabolism. How viruses co-opt plant metabolism to support their successful infection remains an open question. Here, we used untargeted metabolomics to reveal that lactate accumulates immediately before and after robust sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) infection. Induction of lactate-involved anaerobic glycolysis is beneficial to SCMV infection. The enzyme activity and transcriptional levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were up-regulated by SCMV infection, and LDH is essential for robust SCMV infection. Moreover, LDH relocates in viral replicase complexes (VRCs) by interacting with SCMV-encoded 6K2 protein, a key protein responsible for inducing VRCs. Additionally, lactate could promote SCMV infection by suppressing plant defense responses. Taken together, we have revealed a viral strategy to manipulate host metabolism to support replication compartment but also depress the defense response during the process of infection.

The instability of perilous rock is mostly manifested as sudden collapse and failure without obvious displacement characteristics. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the purpose of monitoring and early warning by conventional displacement monitoring. But the existing stability monitoring indicators are mostly deformation, stress, and strain. There is a problem that the stability evaluation parameters are inconsistent with the monitoring parameters. Taking sliding-type perilous rock as the research object, the structural plane is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic, and linear elastic deformation in the amplitude range. Based on the dynamic theory and limit equilibrium model, the quantitative relationship model can be established involving safety factors, natural vibration frequency, structural surface bonding area, elastic modulus, and mass. The remote laser vibrometer is used to monitor the natural vibration frequency of the sliding-type perilous rock on the slope of the Huangzangsi Hydrojunction, and the stability evaluation of the perilous rock is achieved based on the quantitative relationship model between the safety factor and the natural vibration frequency. In this way, the frequency of slipping perilous rock stability evaluation and safety factor can be monitored. The results are basically the same with the safety factor calculated by the limit equilibrium method, indicating that the method is correct and feasible. The research has high theoretical significance and practical value for the safety monitoring and advanced warning of sliding perilous rock.

Objective To identify the research on “hot spots” and frontiers of self-management in patients with breast cancer. Methods We searched the Web of Science database for articles associated with keywords, and used CiteSpaceIII to analyze the data. Results A total of 958 documents were included. High-frequency keywords covered “quality of life (QOL),” “randomized controlled trial,” “depression,” “fatigue,” and “meta-analysis.” Research on self-management by patients with breast cancer has mainly been conducted in the United States of American (USA) and other western countries, whereas the Asian country, China ranked eighth among the top 10 countries. Conclusions The analysis revealed research on “hot spots” particularly research on psychological health and QOL. Promoting clinical research, encouraging evidence-based practice, and developing nursing specialization may improve research on self-management interventions for patients with breast cancer.

Abstract. Although offering gifts to encourage prosocial behaviors is a popular daily strategy, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. This study investigated the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving in laypeople’s beliefs ( N = 1,293). Study 1 showed that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase charitable giving. Study 2 found that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase both charitable giving and positive emotions of donors. Study 3 further showed that laypeople’s anticipation of donors’ emotional gain might play a mediating role in the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving. Study S1 found that participants’ donated amounts in the benefit-to-others thank-you gifts condition exceeded other conditions on actual donation behavior. These findings emphasize the emotional value of the gift in laypeople’s beliefs.

RNA silencing is an evolutionarily homology-based gene inactivation mechanism and plays critical roles in plant immune responses to acute or chronic virus infections, which often pose serious threats to agricultural productions. Plant antiviral immunity is triggered by virus-derived small interfering RNAs (vsiRNAs) and functions to suppress virus further replication via a sequence-specific degradation manner. Through plant-virus arms races, many viruses have evolved specific protein(s), known as viral suppressors of RNA silencing (VSRs), to combat plant antiviral responses. Numerous reports have shown that VSRs can efficiently curb plant antiviral defense response via interaction with specific component(s) involved in the plant RNA silencing machinery. Members in the family Closteroviridae (closterovirids) are also known to encode VSRs to ensure their infections in plants. In this review, we will focus on the plant antiviral RNA silencing strategies, and the most recent developments on the multifunctional VSRs encoded by closterovirids. Additionally, we will highlight the molecular characters of phylogenetically-associated closterovirids, the interactions of these viruses with their host plants and transmission vectors, and epidemiology.

In this study, through simple ammonia impregnation, more amine functional groups could be introduced into the zeolite 4A synthesized using fly ash, which efficiently improved the mercury ion removal capacity of modified zeolites. The impregnation-modification mechanism of NH3·H2O, ammonium chloride, and silane coupling agent (KH792) for zeolite 4A, and the Hg2+ ion removal-efficiency by aminated zeolites, were studied and compared. Through ion exchange and hydroxyl reactions, NH3·H2O impregnation introduced the same kinds of nitrogen-containing groups into zeolite as KH792 grafting, which was more than the NH4Cl modification. The Hg2+ ion adsorption capacity of NH3·H2O-zeolite was higher than those of KH792-zeolite and NH4Cl-zeolite through ion exchange and the complexation of nitrogen-containing groups. When coexisting with Pb2+, Cu2+, and Zn2+ ions, the Hg2+ ion removal rate of NH3·H2O-zeolite was still higher than 99%. After five adsorption and desorption cycles, the Hg2+ ion removal rate of NH3·H2O-zeolite was 72.03%. When NH3·H2O-zeolite was added to the leaching of mercury-contaminated soil, the content of soluble mercury significantly decreased. Therefore, we synthesized a potential cheap and safe adsorbent using fly ash as the main raw material through the simple NH3·H2O impregnation modification for the treatment of mercury-contaminated water and soil.

Object detection algorithms based on deep learning are widely used in industrial detection.The RetinaNet algorithm has attracted much attention because of its advantages in both speed and accuracy.However,for small objects smaller than 32*32 pixels,the detection accuracy of this algorithm cannot meet the requirements of industrial detection.To this end,this article takes the enhancement of small object training as the basic idea,and makes the following improvements to the RetinaNet algorithm:in the sampling phase,the low-level feature map P2 is added to the FPN to ensure that the small object can be fully sampled,and adaptive training sample selection(ATSS) strategy is introduced to ensure that the detection speed is still fast enough after the feature layer is increased;the loss weight adjustment strategy is adopted in the later training stage to improve the fit of difficult samples in small objects.For the public data set MS COCO 2017 and the LED dispensing industrial data set in practical applications,the detection accuracy of this method for objects smaller than 32*32 increases by 4.1% and 10.7%,respectively,indicating that this method can significantly improve the detection ability of small objects.

We propose a method for calculating the non-radiative decay rates for polyatomic molecules including anharmonic effects of the potential energy surface (PES) in the Franck-Condon region. The method combines the n-mode representation method to construct the ab initio PES and the nearly exact time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method (TD-DMRG) to simulate quantum dynamics. In addition, in the framework of TD-DMRG, we further develop an algorithm to calculate the final-state-resolved rate coefficient which is very useful to analyze the contribution from each vibrational mode to the transition process. We use this method to study the internal conversion (IC) process of azulene after taking into account the anharmonicity of the ground state PES. The results show that even for this semi-rigid molecule, the intramode anharmonicity enhances the IC rate significantly, and after considering the two-mode coupling effect, the rate increases even further. The reason is that the anharmonicity enables the C–H vibrations to receive electronic energy while C–H vibrations do not contribute on the harmonic PES as the Huang-Rhys factor is close to 0.

1) Background Hollow nanostructures have gained great attention due to their excellent performance and wide range of applications. In this paper, a hollow nanoreactant is fabricated for investigating the chemisorption of antimony in water. 2) Methods We constructed the hierarchical LDH grown on hollow carbon spheres via the in-situ etching-growth from MOF precursor. The synthesized nanoreactant was evaluated with the adsorption of Sb, which shows ultra-smooth kinetics curves at various conditions, including five different initial concentrations and three different temperatures. Combining the characterizations of XPS, FT-IR and the results of adsorption, the chemisorption of antimony was illustrated that the inner-sphere complexation, hydrogen bonding and dehydration, as well as redox reaction may play important roles in the immobilization process of antimony. 3) Significant Findings This material exhibits a steady interaction between the adsorbent and antimony species, which suggests the dominant chemisorption procedure. In addition, the as prepared HCSs@Mn/Co-LDH has high adsorption capacities, especially at low antimony concentrations. The excellent performance is benefited by the construction of the hollow structure and the synergistic interaction between the components of the composite.

The norm N(G) of a group G is the intersection of the normalizer of every subgroup of G. In this paper, we generalize Ito’s theorem and prove that the p-length of a p-soluble group is not greater t...

Disturbed blood flow induces endothelial pro-inflammatory responses that promote atherogenesis. Nanoparticle-based therapeutics aimed at treating endothelial inflammation in vasculature where disturbed flow occurs may provide a promising avenue to prevent atherosclerosis. By using a vertical-step flow apparatus and a microfluidic chip of vascular stenosis, herein, it is found that the disk-shaped versus the spherical nanoparticles exhibit preferential margination (localization and adhesion) to the regions with the pro-atherogenic disturbed flow. By employing a mouse model of carotid partial ligation, superior targeting and higher accumulation of the disk-shaped particles are also demonstrated within disturbed flow areas than that of the spherical particles. In hyperlipidemia mice, administration of disk-shaped particles loaded with hypomethylating agent decitabine (DAC) displays greater anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic effects compared with that of the spherical counterparts and exhibits reduced toxicity than "naked" DAC. The findings suggest that shaping nanoparticles to disk is an effective strategy for promoting their delivery to atheroprone endothelia.