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The research field of Information Retrieval (IR) has evolved significantly, expanding beyond traditional search to meet diverse user information needs. Recently, Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in text understanding, generation, and knowledge inference, opening up exciting avenues for IR research. LLMs not only facilitate generative retrieval but also offer improved solutions for user understanding, model evaluation, and user-system interactions. More importantly, the synergistic relationship among IR models, LLMs, and humans forms a new technical paradigm that is more powerful for information seeking. IR models provide real-time and relevant information, LLMs contribute internal knowledge, and humans play a central role of demanders and evaluators to the reliability of information services. Nevertheless, significant challenges exist, including computational costs, credibility concerns, domain-specific limitations, and ethical considerations. To thoroughly discuss the transformative impact of LLMs on IR research, the Chinese IR community conducted a strategic workshop in April 2023, yielding valuable insights. This paper provides a summary of the workshop's outcomes, including the rethinking of IR's core values, the mutual enhancement of LLMs and IR, the proposal of a novel IR technical paradigm, and open challenges., 17 pages

We prove the reducibility of 1D quantum harmonic oscillators in R perturbed by a quasi-periodic in time potential V(x, ωt) under the following conditions, namely there is a C > 0 such that | V ( x , θ ) | ⩽ C , | x ∂ x V ( x , θ ) | ⩽ C , ∀ ( x , θ ) ∈ R × T σ n . The corresponding perturbation matrix ( P i j ( θ ) ) is proved to satisfy ( 1 + | i − j | ) | P i j ( θ ) | ⩽ C and i j | P i + 1 j + 1 ( θ ) − P i j ( θ ) | ⩽ C for any θ ∈ T σ n and i, j ⩾ 1. A new reducibility theorem is set up under this kind of decay in the perturbation matrix element P i j ( θ ) as well as the discrete difference matrix element P i + 1 j + 1 ( θ ) − P i j ( θ ) . For the proof the novelty is that we use the decay in the discrete difference matrix element to control the measure estimates for the thrown parameter sets.

Ammonium bisulfate (ABS) is a viscous compound produced by the escape NH3 in the NO reduction process and SO3 in the flue gas at a certain temperature, which can cause the ash corrosion of the air preheater in coal-fired power plants. Therefore, it is essential to study the formation temperature of ABS to prevent the deposition of ABS in air preheaters. In this paper, the SO3 reaction kinetic model is used to analyze the SO3 generation process from coal combustion to the SCR exit stage, and the kinetic model of NO reduction is used to analyze the NH3 escape process. A prediction model for calculating the ABS formation temperature based on the S content in coal and NO reduction parameters of the selective catalytic reduction(SCR) is proposed, solving the difficulty of measuring SO3 concentration and NH3 concentration in the previous calculation equation of ABS formation temperature. And the reliability of the model is verified by the actual data of the power plant. Then the influence of S content in coal, NH3/ NOx molar ratio, different NOx concentrations at SCR inlet, and NO removal efficiency on the formation temperature of ABS are analyzed.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor with high recurrence and metastasis rates and poor prognosis. Basement membrane is a ubiquitous extracellular matrix and is a key physical factor in cancer metastasis. Therefore, basement membrane-related genes may be new targets for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC. We systematically analyzed the expression pattern and prognostic value of basement membrane-related genes in HCC using the TCGA-HCC dataset, and constructed a new BMRGI based on WGCNA and machine learning. We used the HCC single-cell RNA-sequencing data in GSE146115 to describe the single-cell map of HCC, analyzed the interaction between different cell types, and explored the expression of model genes in different cell types. BMRGI can accurately predict the prognosis of HCC patients and was validated in the ICGC cohort. In addition, we also explored the underlying molecular mechanisms and tumor immune infiltration in different BMRGI subgroups, and confirmed the differences in response to immunotherapy in different BMRGI subgroups based on the TIDE algorithm. Then, we assessed the sensitivity of HCC patients to common drugs. In conclusion, our study provides a theoretical basis for the selection of immunotherapy and sensitive drugs in HCC patients. Finally, we also considered CTSA as the most critical basement membrane-related gene affecting HCC progression. In vitro experiments showed that the proliferation, migration and invasion abilities of HCC cells were significantly impaired when CTSA was knocked down.

Objectives: This study aimed to prospectively investigate gender-specific relationship between hyperuricemia and all-cause mortality among Chinese older adults.Methods: The study was based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) 2008–2018, a prospective nationwide cohort of older adults in China. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for all-cause mortality. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were conducted to explore the dose-response relationship between SUA levels and all-cause mortality.Results: For older women, compared to the participants in the third quartile of SUA level, those in the highest quartile of SUA was associated with significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality in the fully adjusted model (HR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.03–1.92). No significant associations between SUA levels and all-cause mortality were observed in older men. The present study further found a U-shaped non-linear relationship between SUA levels and all-cause mortality in both sexes of older population (P for non-linear Conclusions: This study provided prospective epidemiological evidence for the predictive role of SUA on all-cause mortality among the Chinese aging population over 10 years of follow-up, while revealing considerable gender-related differences.

The segmentation of the lesion region in gastroscopic images is highly important for the detection and treatment of early gastric cancer. This paper proposes a novel approach for gastric lesion segmentation by using generative adversarial training. First, a segmentation network is designed to generate accurate segmentation masks for gastric lesions. The proposed segmentation network adds residual blocks to the encoding and decoding path of U-Net. The cascaded dilated convolution is also added at the bottleneck of U-Net. The residual connection promotes information propagation, while dilated convolution integrates multi-scale context information. Meanwhile, a discriminator is used to distinguish the generated and real segmentation masks. The proposed discriminator is a Markov discriminator (Patch-GAN), which discriminates each [Formula: see text] matrix in the image. In the process of network training, the adversary training mechanism is used to iteratively optimize the generator and the discriminator until they converge at the same time. The experimental results show that the dice, accuracy, and recall are 86.6%, 91.9%, and 87.3%, respectively. These metrics are significantly better than the existing models, which proves the effectiveness of this method and can meet the needs of clinical diagnosis and treatment.

When a sandstone reservoir enters the ultra-high water cut stage, the oil phase changes from continuous to discontinuous, which results in difficulties in the further development and utilization of the reservoir. It is important to clarify the flow law and distribution state of discontinuous oil phases to guide the remaining oil production. This study selected samples from sandstone reservoirs, accurately obtained oil and water phase information from digital core, and constructed matrix based on three-dimensional CT scanning to study the law of discontinuous oil phase distribution. We used digital cores to construct pore network models and calculate the pore radius, throat radius, pore-throat ratio, coordination number, and tortuosity to study the influence of pore structure on discontinuous oil phase flow law. A micro-displacement experiment consisting of two phases of simulated reservoir and development was designed. To improve the accuracy of the experiment, the related pressure was controlled to form bound water in the simulated reservoir formation stage. In the simulated reservoir development phase, in situ scanning of cores at different displacement stages was performed to obtain oil and water distributions at different stages in the same location. The number of oil droplets, 3D shape factor, Euler number, and saturation coefficient of the oil phase were calculated, and the micro-remaining oil clumps were quantitatively analyzed. According to the morphology and distribution characteristics, the remaining oil of the discontinuous phase was divided into the types of the throat, film, droplet, island, and corner. The results showed that the sample with a small pore-throat ratio, large coordination number, and small tortuosity was more likely to form dominant channels; moreover, the remaining oil was more concentrated in this state. In the remaining oil of the discontinuous phase, the number of droplets was the largest and had an obvious displacement effect. The island number was small because the selected samples had good connectivity and it is difficult to form large oil droplets in a single pore. In the ultra-high water cut stage, the throat number increased slowly, which was related to the formation of dominant channels. The corner and the film were difficult to displace; thus, their numbers increased steadily. The quantitative characterization of the discontinuous oil phase is helpful for further study of remaining oil at the pore scale.

In this paper we present concrete conditions in order to assess the applicability of BCS-BEC crossover theory in the cuprates. We aim to establish where within the BCS-BEC spectrum the cuprate superconductors should lie. This work amplifies the essential point made in a recent paper which claimed to observe absence of a BCS-BEC crossover in the cuprate superconductors. More precisely, this previous work presented data which established that the cuprates are far from the BEC limit, a conclusion with which the high-$T_c$ community is, presumably, in full agreement. Their analysis, however, was not inconsistent with a scenario in which these superconductors are somewhere \textit{intermediate} between BCS and BEC. Where precisely the cuprates sit within this spectrum is shown to be directly reflected in the superconducting coherence length near $T_c$. This work, which includes detailed predictions, calls attention to the importance of arriving at a systematic determination of this parameter throughout the $T_c$ dome for the entire class of cuprate superconductors., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

The main objective of this study is to examine the patterns of syntactic processing in bidialectalism through an event-related potential (ERP) approach. By analyzing the neural response patterns of bilectals during the processing of syntactic violations, we gained valuable insights into the characteristics of syntactic processing in bidialectalism. These characteristics were then compared to those of bilinguals based on previous research findings. We ultimately discovered that the syntactic processing patterns of bilectals and bilinguals overlapped significantly and that both their neural responses to syntactic violations are significantly influenced by cross-linguistic interference (CLI). In addition, several linguistic factors, such as nativeness, syntactic distance (typological distance) between languages/dialects, linguistic dominance, and linguistic exposure, were found to greatly influence the direction and extent of CLI transfer, particularly at the processing level. Overall, the present study primarily discusses the overlapping neural signatures of syntactic processing found between bilectals and bilinguals. These overlaps are connected to the sociolinguistic interpretation of bidialectalism, implying that there exists no intrinsic disparity between bidialectalism and bilingualism, but rather quantitative differences, suggesting that the boundaries between them are blurred. The present study is a quantitative study using a highly temporal-resolution electroencephalographic (EEG) technique to capture the brain activity of bilectals during sentence processing, and the obtained EEG signals were quantified and employed in regression analysis. Given that Norway has a dialectal usage profile that aligns well with the current study, 101 Norwegian bilectals are recruited for this study. In the experiment, the sentences presented to participants have manipulated in terms of gender or number agreement between subject nouns and predicate adjectives and presented in the form of visual stimuli. Participants’ neural responses during the processing of these sentences are quantified and serve as dependent variables to examine the impacts of various factors on bilectals’ syntactic processing. In conclusion, our main findings can be summarized as follows: a) both bilectals and bilinguals’ L2/D2 syntactic processing can achieve a native-like pattern with the modulation of linguistic exposure, b) bilectals exhibit two dialect-independent syntactic representations, c) the effects of CLI in bilectals are bidirectional and can be observed at a processing level, and d) the syntactic processing of bilectals can be influenced by the CLI transferred from official language, such as English. In summary, the syntactic processing between bidialectalism and bilingualism shows many overlaps at the level of online processing.

Additional file 1: Table S1 The basic information for each individual bat in this study. Table S2. Model selection based on the AICc assessing the influence of body mass, land use, elevation, road distance, village density, and insect diversity on spatial individual specializationof Ia io. Models were ranked according to AICc values from lowest to highest. The signs of the regression coefficients of the predictor variables are shown in parentheses.

Supplemental material, sj-doc-1-wmr-10.1177_0734242X231160091 for Effects of straw addition on the physicochemical and microbial features of black soldier fly larvae frass derived from fish meat and bone meal by Jiaqi Liang, Yixian Cheng, Ye Ma, Xiaohui Yu, Zhiqiang Wang, Nan Wu, Xiaobo Wang, Xinyuan Liu and Xiaoyan Xu in Waste Management & Research

Supplementary Material 1

Fix a positive integer $N$ and a real number $0< \beta < 1/(N+1)$. Let $\Gamma$ be the homogeneous symmetric Cantor set generated by the IFS $$ \Big\{ \phi_i(x)=\beta x + i \frac{1-\beta}{N}: i=0,1,\cdots, N \Big\}. $$ For $m\in\mathbb{Z}_+$ we show that there exist infinitely many translation vectors $\mathbf t=(t_0,t_1,\cdots, t_m)$ with $0=t_0, Comment: 22 pages. We gave a checkable condition for the admissibility of a translation vector

Acylated anthocyanins derived from dietary sources have gained significant attention due to their health-promoting properties and potential as natural colorants with high stability. However, exploration of the functional food products using acylated anthocyanins enriched in fruits and vegetables remains largely delayed in food industries. The black goji (Lycium ruthencium) fruit (LRF) is a functional food that is extensively used due to its exceptionally high levels of acylated anthocyanins, including petanin. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the functional properties and anthocyanin components of LRF. The stability, bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and bioactivities of petanin, the major anthocyanin component, are compared with those of LRF anthocyanin extracts and other food sources. Furthermore, the biosynthetic pathway and regulatory network of petanin in LRF are proposed and constructed, respectively. The key genes that could be potentially used for metabolic engineering to produce petanin are predicted. Finally, the potential application of petanin derivatives in the food industry is also discussed. This review presents comprehensive and systematic information about the dual-function of petanin as a bioactive component and a promising natural colorant for future food industrial applications.

Understanding the altitudinal patterns of plant stoichiometry in seeds is critical for characterizing important germination and dormancy strategies, soil seed bank composition, seed predation probability, efficiency of seed dispersal and seedling performance, and to predict how biodiversity might be influenced by climate change. However, our understanding of the altitudinal patterns of seed stoichiometry is extremely limited. In this study, we measured the concentrations of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the seeds of 253 herbaceous species along an altitudinal transect (2,000–4,200 m) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China, and further to characterize seed C:N:P stoichiometry. The geometric means of C, N, and P concentrations were 569.75 mg/g, 34.76 mg/g, and 5.03 mg/g, respectively. The C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios were 16.39, 113.31, and 6.91, respectively. The seed C, N, and P concentrations and C:N:P ratios varied widely among major plant groups and showed significant altitudinal trends. In general, C, N, and P concentrations increased, whereas seed C:N:P ratios decreased with elevation. These results inform our understanding of the altitudinal patterns of seed stoichiometry and how to model ecosystem nutrient cycling.

Background Previous studies have shown that the Kyoto classification of gastritis can accurately predict H. pylori infection status on conventional gastroscopy. The aim of this study was to test whether the Kyoto classification of gastritis applies well to magnetic controlled capsule endoscopy (MCCE). Methods We consecutively recruited 227 participants who underwent both MCCE and urea breath tests (UBTs). Two physicians who were blinded to the UBT results independently made the diagnosis of H. pylori infection status according to 10 findings listed in the Kyoto classification of gastritis after reviewing MCCE images. We also developed 2 predictive models to assess H. pylori infection status by combining these 10 findings. Results The MCCE’s overall diagnostic accuracy for H. pylori infection status was 80.2%. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) for current infection were 89.4%, 90.1% and 77.1, respectively. Major specific findings were mucosal swelling and spotty redness for current infection, regular arrangement of collecting venules (RAC), streak redness, fundic gland polyp (FGP) for noninfection, and map-like redness for past-infection. In the two prediction models, the area under the curve (AUC) values for predicting noninfection and current infection were 84.7 and 84.9, respectively. Conclusions The Kyoto classification of gastritis applied well to MCCE. H. pylori infection status could be accurately assessed on MCCE according to the Kyoto classification of gastritis.

Fusarium crown rot (FCR), caused by various Fusarium species, is a primary fungal disease in most wheat-growing regions worldwide. A. tauschii, the diploid wild progenitor of the D-genome of common wheat, is a reservoir of genetic diversity for improving bread wheat biotic and abiotic resistance/tolerance. A worldwide collection of 286 A. tauschii accessions was used to evaluate FCR resistance. Population structure analysis revealed that 115 belonged to the A. tauschii ssp. strangulata subspecies, and 171 belonged to the A. tauschii ssp. tauschii subspecies. Five accessions with disease index values lower than 20 showed moderate resistance to FCR. These five originated from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Turkey, all belonging to the tauschii subspecies. Genome-wide association mapping using 6,739 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed that two SNPs on chromosome 2D and four SNPs on chromosome 7D were significantly associated with FCR resistance. Almost all FCR resistance alleles were presented in accessions from the tauschii subspecies, and only 4, 11, and 19 resistance alleles were presented in accessions from the strangulata subspecies. Combining phenotypic correlation analysis and genome-wide association mapping confirmed that FCR resistance loci were independent of flowering time, heading date, and plant height in this association panel. Six genes encoding disease resistance-related proteins were selected as candidates for further validation. The identified resistant A. tauschii accessions will provide robust resistance gene sources for breeding FCR-resistant cultivars. The associated loci/genes will accelerate and improve FCR in breeding programs by deploying marker-assisted selection.

A middle-aged male received CT-guided lung nodule localization and segmentectomy for a 10-mm lesion in the right upper lung. He developed left side paralysis after surgery, which was proved to be cerebral artery air embolism caused by a CT-guided lung puncture. He achieved almost full recovery with hyperbaric oxygen therapy and intensive rehabilitation. This case highlights the possibility of cerebral artery air embolism during CT-guided lung nodule resection in hybrid theater, with emphasis on prevention and early detection of this life-threatening complication.

International audience; In the semiconductor industry, Failure Analysis (FA) is an investigation to determine the root causes of a failure. It also involves an intermediate analysis to build the steps of the failure analysis in order to mitigate future failures and to facilitate the future FA. In the framework of the FA 4.0 project, the reporting system records three items of information using natural language: the failure analysis request description (input space) and analysis steps (paths), as well as generic categories of root cause conclusion (output space). The main objective of this article is to develop a system which is able to automatically help industries carry out fault analysis diagnoses with Artificial intelligence (AI). This article extends and validates the adapted methodology proposed by [1] to transform text data into numeric data based on Natural Language Processing (NLP). It transforms the text data from the input space and output space. Different deep learning algorithms based on a Variational AutoEncoder (VAE) are applied to the output space to reduce the dimension of the numeric data, and the performance of each VAE is evaluated with different metrics. The Generalized-Controllable VAE (GCVAE) is the one best suited to our case. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is then used to perform clustering in the latent space generated by the GCVAE. A centroid analysis is also conducted to verify the similarity of each cluster.

The superconducting symmetry of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ remains a puzzle. Time-reversal symmetry breaking $d_{x^2-y^2} + ig_{xy(x^2-y^2)}$ pairing has been proposed for reconciling multiple key experiments. However, its stability remains unclear. In this work, we theoretically study the superconducting instabilities in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, including the effects of spin-orbit coupling (SOC), in the presence of both local and longer-range interactions within a random phase approximation. We show that the inclusion of second nearest neighbor repulsions, together with non-local SOC in the $B_{2g}$ channel or orbital-anisotropy of the non-local interactions, can have a significant impact on the stability of both $d_{x^2-y^2}$- and $g$-wave pairing channels. We analyze the properties, such as Knight shift and spontaneous edge current, of the realized $d_{x^2-y^2} + ig$, $s^{\prime}+id_{xy}$ and mixed helical pairings in different parameter spaces and find that the $d_{x^2-y^2} + ig$ solution is in better agreement with the experimental data.

The integration of culture and tourism makes the interaction between culture and tourism deeper and closer. After years of vigorous development, the tourism of county is no longer like before building infrastructure in the entire scenic area, and the economy of county no longer relies on hardware construction and a large investment. And now a new focus is needed to promote the economy and brand competitiveness of the county. Combining the IP (intellectual property) construction method in the Internet era with regional brands with local cultural characteristics, an innovative form of IP for county cultural and tourism brands at present is created, the Zigui County of Yichang City is the practical example of the innovative form. Combine with the unique culture of Qu Yuan, the Dragon Boat Festival, and navel orange specialty of Zigui, the IPs of brand of the county that are called “one da three xiao”, which are Qudafu, Chengxiaozi, Zongxiaogui, and Zhouxiaolong, were created. The IPs are deeply loved by tourists, and quickly stand out in the competition of tourism spread in the surrounding counties and cities. By energizing the competitiveness of brand of the county through IP, the new appearance of county brand of the Zigui, which effectively attracts traffic and drives the economic promotion of Zigui County, is displayed with affinity, sustainability and influence.

When the speed of permanent magnet motor is relatively high, the fundamental frequency of stator voltage and current will rise. However, due to the limitation of switching frequency of power electronic devices, the switching times of power devices will be greatly reduced in a fundamental cycle of stator voltage. For the traditional control method with constant switching frequency mode, the control algorithm is executed only once in a carrier wave cycle, which will result in a low control frequency operating condition for the PMSM control system. At this time, the dynamic and steady‐state control performance of stator current will be decreased. In response to above problem, this paper proposed a deadbeat predictive current control method based on oversampling scheme, which the core algorithm of current loop operated four times and updated the PWM duty twice in one switching cycle. The number of control times of the proposed method is greater than that of the conventional method when the conventional deadbeat method and the proposed method adopt the same switching cycle. Therefore, the control method does not increase the switching frequency of power devices, but improves the dynamic and stable performance of the system, especially under the high‐speed condition.

The conversion of CO2 into high value-added chemical products is the focus of current scientific research. We make use of the specific porous structure of nanosized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) loading the highly active yet metastable nano Cu2O to catalyze the conversion of CO2 into a series of high value-added bioactive pyridone/pyrone-3-carboxylic acid products via heterocyclic 4-hydroxy-2-pyridones/pyrones, which exhibit high activity, selectivity, and reusability. Nano MOF sponge-covered metastable nanoparticles (NPs) converting CO2 into high value-added bioproducts provide a facile "dual-side surfactant" strategy, a highly efficient composite catalyst, and a practicable pathway not only for the sustainable use of CO2 but also for environment-friendly production of bioproducts.

The spray behavior of a twin-fluid nozzle (TFN) can seriously affect lubrication performance, cutting fluid consumption and tool life during the manufacturing process. It is important to study the spray behavior and droplet size distribution characteristics of twin-fluid atomization to improve machining performance and reduce environmental pollution. In the current study, first, via a phase Doppler method, the spatial distribution of spray behavior of a TFN with and without a self-excited vibrating cavity (SVC) is analyzed and compared. Then, under various gas-to-liquid mass ratio values, the counts percent and cumulative distributions of droplets of a TFN with different SVC structures are further investigated. In addition, comparative investigations of the effects of different TFNs on the lubrication performance are conducted. The results show that the SVC structural parameter and gas-to-liquid mass ratio have an important influence on the secondary atomization of a TFN with an SVC, which significantly affects the spray behavior and droplet size distribution characteristics. The velocity differences between the gas-liquid two phases and the strong turbulence around the SVC are the key factors affecting the secondary atomization. The SVC can significantly increase the spatial coverage of droplets and improve the droplet spatial distribution characteristics of diameter and number concentration. The TFN with an improved SVC has better spray behavior and droplet size distribution characteristics, resulting in reductions in tool wear, cutting temperature and surface roughness of approximately 24.84 %, 21.24 % and 31.86 %, respectively, compared with the TFN without an SVC.

Tigecycline is one of important antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. However, the emergence and prevalence of plasmid-mediated tigecycline resistance gene tet(X4) are threatening human and animal health. Fitness cost elicited by resistance plasmids is a key factor affecting the maintenance and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the host. A comparative analysis of the fitness cost of different types of tet(X4)-positive plasmids is helpful to understand and predict the prevalence of dominant plasmids. In this study, we performed a large-scale analysis of fitness cost of tet(X4)-positive plasmids origin from clinical isolates. These plasmids were successfully electroporated into a reference strain Escherichia coli TOP10, and a series of transformants carrying the tet(X) gene were obtained. The effects of tet(X4)-positive plasmids on the growth rate, plasmid stability, relative fitness, biofilm formation, and virulence in a Galleria mellonella model were evaluated. Consequently, we found that these plasmids resulted in varying degrees of fitness cost on TOP10, including delayed bacterial growth and attenuated virulence. Out of these plasmids, tet(X4)-harboring IncFII plasmids showed the lowest fitness cost on the host. Furthermore, by means of experimental evolution in the presence of commonly used drugs in clinic, the fitness cost of tet(X4)-positive plasmids was substantially alleviated, accompanied by increased plasmid stability. Collectively, our data reveal the differential fitness cost caused by different types of tet(X4)-positive plasmids and suggest that the wide use of tetracycline antibiotics may promote the evolution of plasmids.

Dryopteris crassirhizoma rhizome (DCR) inhibits melanin production in B16F10 melanoma cells and tyrosinase activity. The melanin content and tyrosinase activity of DCR-treated zebrafish embryos were determined to evaluate the in vivo inhibitory effect of DCR on melanogenesis. Moreover, an off-line hyphenated method combining the high-speed counter-current chromatography, affinity-based ultrafiltration, and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry was used to identify and characterize the DCR compounds with tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Our results indicated that DCR significantly decreased the melanin content and tyrosinase activity in zebrafish embryos in a dose-dependent manner; moreover, 22 compounds in DCR presented tyrosinase inhibitory activity. In silico molecular docking prediction data indicated that the 22 compounds in DCR can form stable conformations in the active site pocket of tyrosinase.

In this paper we show that for any two coprime integers $p \ge 2, q\ge 3$ all possible digits in $\{0,1,\cdots, q-1\}$ occur in the $q$-ary expansion of $p^{-n}$ infinitely often for all sufficiently large $n$. As a result, there are only finitely many $n\in\mathbb{N}$ such that the ternary expansion of $2^{-n}$ omits the digit $2$. This is an analogue of the Erd\H{o}s' ternary conjecture, which says that there are only finitely many $n\in\mathbb{N}$ such that the ternary expansion of $2^n$ omits the digit $2$., Comment: 20 pages

Unlimited generation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) Tcells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is an attractive approach for "off-the-shelf" CAR Tcell immunotherapy. Approaches to efficiently differentiate iPSCs into canonical αβ Tcell lineages, while maintaining CAR expression and functionality, however, have been challenging. We report that iPSCs reprogramed from CD62L+ naive and memory Tcells followed by CD19-CAR engineering and 3D-organoid system differentiation confers products with conventional CD8αβ-positive CAR Tcell characteristics. Expanded iPSC CD19-CAR Tcells showed comparable antigen-specific activation, degranulation, cytotoxicity, and cytokine secretion compared with conventional CD19-CAR Tcells and maintained homogeneous expression of the TCR derived from the initial clone. iPSC CD19-CAR Tcells also mediated potent antitumor activity invivo, prolonging survival of mice with CD19+ human tumor xenografts. Our study establishes feasible methodologies to generate highly functional CAR Tcells from iPSCs to support the development of "off-the-shelf" manufacturing strategies.

The management and conversion of CO2 into high value-added and/or widely used products have been attracting considerable attention this century. However, new pathways for CO2 transformation have be...

Soil erosion is a major environmental problem in China. Planning for soil erosion control requires accurate soil erosion rate and spatial distribution information. The aim of this article is to present the methods and results of the national soil erosion survey of China completed in 2011. A multi-stage, unequal probability, systematic area sampling method was employed. A total of 32,948 sample units, which were either 0.2–3 km2 small catchments or 1 km2 grids, were investigated on site. Soil erosion rates were calculated with the Chinese Soil Loss Equation in 10 m by 10 m grids for each sample unit, along with the area of soil loss exceeding the soil loss tolerance and the proportion of area in excess of soil loss tolerance relative to the total land area of the sample units. Maps were created by using a spatial interpolation method at national, river basin, and provincial scales. Results showed that the calculated average soil erosion rate was 5 t ha−1 yr−1 in China, and was 18.2 t ha−1 yr−1 for sloped, cultivated cropland. Intensive soil erosion occurred on cropland, overgrazing grassland, and sparsely forested land. The proportions of soil loss tolerance exceedance areas of sample units were interpolated through the country in 250 m grids. The national average ratio was 13.5%, which represents the area of land in China that requires the implementation of soil conservation practices. These survey results and the maps provide the basic information for national conservation planning and policymaking.

We describe a tert-butyl nitrite-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenation of hydrazobenzenes for producing azobenzenes. This method proceeds at ambient temperature and under an atmospheric environment by employing eco-friendly EtOH as the medium, representing a mild, general route to the synthesis of various symmetrical and nonsymmetrical azobenzenes in excellent yields with broad functional group tolerance.

The droplet dynamic behavior of spraying during the manufacturing process affects tool life, cooling, and lubrication. A detailed understanding of droplet dynamic behavior is required to improve the surface quality while reducing the cutting fluid consumption. In this study, quantitative measurements for droplet diameter, number concentration, and axial velocity were carried out through a phase Doppler particle analyzer technique. The droplet characteristic spatial distributions of a standard twin-fluid nozzle (STN) and a novel twin-fluid nozzle (NTN) under different gas-to-liquid mass ratio (GLR) values were analyzed in detail. The results showed that the high-speed internal gas flow of an atomizing core has a significant effect on improving the synergistically enhanced atomization behavior, and more smaller droplets and an increased droplet momentum are easily obtained. Furthermore, a better spatial distribution of atomization characteristics can be achieved under a higher GLR of 4.3%. Furthermore, the effects of the novel atomizing core structural parameters on the droplet mean velocity spatial distribution, droplet turbulence, and root mean square velocity fluctuation were investigated. The results also showed that the improved NTN can effectively improve the spray atomization performance and droplet dynamic characteristics. In addition, comparative studies of the effect of the atomizing core structure on the machining performance were performed. Compared with the STN, the improved NTN achieves a significant reduction in cutting temperature, tool wear, and surface roughness of 17.25%, 33.96%, and 37.83%, respectively, owing to the better droplet dynamic characteristics and spatial distribution of spray atomization characteristics.

The effect of the particle size (50–325 mesh) and content (0–0.1 wt%) of metallic aluminum powder on the explosive spalling resistance of corundum-based refractory castables were investigated in this study based on air permeability, pore size distribution, heat release, fracture energy and microstructural analyses. The experimental results show that the addition of Al powder significantly improves their explosive spalling resistance. As observed, the explosive spalling resistance of the castables was mainly influenced by the permeability mechanism and the fracture energy. Permeable paths were generated in the microstructure of the sample during the overlapping period between the curing process and the H2 gas forming one, derived from the Al–H2O reaction. The highest permeability level was obtained when 0.075 wt % of Al powder with size of 100 mesh was incorporated into the corundum-based refractory castables. At the same time, the fracture energy of the castable samples was increased accordingly.

Yuan Liu,1– 3 Kangni Yang,1 Yuqian Jia,1 Jingru Shi,1 Ziwen Tong,1 Zhiqiang Wang1,2 1College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, The Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Comparative Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhiqiang Wang; Yuan Liu Email zqwang@yzu.edu.cn; liuyuan2018@yzu.edu.cnPurpose: Bacterial metabolism regulators offer a novel productive strategy in the eradication of antibiotic refractory bacteria, particularly bacterial persisters. However, the potential of amino acids in the fight against Gram-negative bacterial persisters has not been fully explored. The aim of this study is to investigate the potentiation of amino acids to antibiotics in combating Gram-negative bacterial persisters and to reveal the underlying mechanisms of action.Methods: Bactericidal activity of antibiotics in the absence or presence of amino acids was evaluated through detecting the reduction of bacterial CFUs. The ratio of NAD+/NADH in E. coli B2 persisters was determined using assay kit with WST-8. Bacterial respiration and ROS production were measured by the reduction of iodonitrotetrazolium chloride and fluorescent probe 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate, respectively.Results: In this study, we found that cysteine possesses excellent synergistic bactericidal activity with ciprofloxacin against multiple Gram-negative bacterial persisters. Furthermore, the potentiation of cysteine was evaluated in exponential and stationary-phase E. coli ATCC 25922 and E. coli B2. Interestingly, cysteine significantly improves three bactericidal antibiotics killing against stationary-phase bacteria, but not exponential-phase bacteria, implying that the effect of cysteine correlates with the metabolic state of bacteria. Mechanistic studies revealed that cysteine accelerates the bacterial TCA cycle and promotes bacterial respiration and ROS production. These metabolic regulation effects of cysteine re-sensitive bacterial persisters to antibiotic killing.Conclusion: Collectively, our study highlights the synergistic bactericidal activity of bacterial metabolism regulators such as cysteine with commonly used antibiotics against Gram-negative bacterial persisters.Keywords: amino acids, bacterial persisters, bactericidal antibiotics, cysteine, gram-negative bacteria

The measurement of dissolved oxygen content in water is of great significance to aquaculture. However, the dissolved oxygen sensors on the market in China are expensive, and are difficult to maintain continuous online measurement and update parts, so they cannot be widely applied in real production and play expected role in the aquaculture Internet of things(IoT). Based on the principle of fluorescence quenching, a low cost and easy maintenance of dissolved oxygen sensor was developed in this work based on the relationship between the concentration of dissolved oxygen in water and the phase difference of fluorescence signal. The self-made oxygen-sensitive membrane was used to generate red fluorescence which being excited by blue light, and the fluorescence life was regulated by the concentration of dissolved oxygen. Photoelectric conversion circuit with optical signal sensing device was designed to sense optical signal. The STM32F103 microprocessor was used as the main control chip, and the lower computer program was programmed to generate the excitation light pulse. The phase-sensitive detection principle and fast Fourier transform (FFT) were used to calculate the phase difference between the excitation light and the reference light, which was converted into the concentration of dissolved oxygen and realized the measurement of dissolved oxygen. The fluorescence detection part and the main control part of the system were designed as detachable independent modules, and shield lines were used to plug and pull directly, so as to facilitate replacement and maintenance and realize online remote measurement. The testing results showed that, the measurement range of the sensor was 0-20 mg/L, system time delay was less than 2 s, and the life time of the oxygen sensitive membrane would be about 1 year. The dissolved oxygen sensor has the characteristics of convenient measurement, stable result output, low cost and small volume, which will lay a good foundation for the development and marketization of low-cost dissolved oxygen sensors in aquaculture industry of China.

Objective The current study aims to explore the establishment of the patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDTX) model. Materials and methods Twenty patients with gastric cancer, 10 males and 10 females, were enrolled in the current study. Firstly, the volume, invasion and metastasis of the xenografts were observed. Subsequently, the correlation between tumor tissues of the PDTX mouse model and the patients' primary tumor tissues was evaluated by pathological H&E staining and immunohistochemistry. Results The results showed that the PDTX models corresponding to 15 of the 20 patients were successfully established, and the success rate of PDTX model establishment was 75%. Furthermore, the PDTX models maintained the differentiation degree, morphological characteristics and structural characteristics of tumor cells. Conclusion A PDTX model can be used as a substitute for cancer patients in clinical practice and may be suitable for clinical pharmacodynamic screening and new drug development.

This paper presents an investigation of the precise point positioning (PPP) performance of a combined solution from BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites. To simultaneously process different BDS signal observations, i.e., B1/B1C, B2/B2a and B3C, undifferenced and uncombined observations with ionosphere delay constrained by the deterministic plus stochastic ionosphere model are used in the basic model. Special attention is paid to code bias and receiver clock parameters in the derivation of the observation model. The analysis is carried out using more than one-month data for BDS-2 and BDS-3 collected at the CANB, DWIN, KNDY and PETH stations in the Asia-Pacific region. The results suggest that compared with BDS-2 alone, the BDS-2 and BDS-3 solution provides significantly more accurate PPP, with increases of 28%, 21% and 5% in the up, north and east directions, respectively. In addition, the average root mean square error decreases to 0·21, 0·13 and 0·16 m for the three directions. Furthermore, the PPP convergence time for BDS-2 and BDS-3 is about 1·5 h and less than 1 h for the horizontal and vertical components, respectively, whereas that for BDS-2 alone is about 2·3 h for both directions.

辽东半岛在中生代发生大规模的岩浆活动和金成矿作用，其中尤以白垩纪岩浆作用最为强烈。本文对早白垩世三股流岩体进行了锆石U-Pb年代学、全岩地球化学和Sr-Nd同位素研究。三股流岩体主要由似斑状角闪黑云花岗岩和细粒黑云母花岗岩组成，分别形成于125.1±1.2Ma和128.7±2.2Ma。穿切三股流岩体的闪长岩脉形成于125.1±2.4Ma。角闪黑云花岗岩具有准铝质、富水、高氧逸度特征，为高钾钙碱性Ⅰ型花岗岩。微量元素模拟和Sr-Nd同位素表明角闪黑云花岗岩可能来源于古元古代变基性岩和辽河群变中性岩的部分熔融。细粒黑云母花岗岩并非直接来源于中下地壳岩石的部分熔融，而是角闪黑云花岗岩分异演化的结果。岩相学和微量元素模拟表明，分离相主要为钾长石+斜长石+角闪石+黑云母+石英。细粒黑云母花岗岩亏损中稀土的特征表明榍石也是重要的分离相。随着岩浆的演化，粒间高硅熔体由于发生水饱和而快速结晶形成具有细粒结构的高硅黑云母花岗岩。闪长岩脉具有高Mg#（0.51~0.52）和高Sr/Y（83.3~85.5）特征，属于埃达克质高镁闪长岩。相对于三股流花岗岩，较低的87Sr/86Sr初始值（0.708723）、负的eNd（t）值（-14.1）指示闪长岩脉可能形成于幔源岩浆和壳源岩浆的混合作用。由于太平洋板块的俯冲造成华北克拉通的减薄，早白垩世辽东半岛处于强烈伸展体制，富集岩浆圈地幔部分形成的玄武质岩浆底侵下地壳，引起中下地壳发生部分熔融并发生强烈的结晶分异，形成三股流岩体。同时，玄武质岩浆在上升过程中与壳源花岗质岩浆发生一定程度的混合作用，形成埃达克质高镁闪长岩脉。

This paper presents a multichannel ultrasound focusing delay control method based on a variable-length shift register to solve the problem of using counters that occupy more resources. The proposed method can realize the delay control of the driving signal of each transducer of an ultrasound array and achieve ultrasound focusing. While collecting and storing the input data, the shift register moves the stored data to the right, and the delay control of driving signals of all the channels can start simultaneously by controlling the enabling time of the input signal of the shift register. Using experiments, it is verified that the error of the proposed method is related to the frequency of the delay control clock; the higher the frequency of the delay control clock is, the smaller the error and the diameter of the focal point are. The proposed method uses only one shift register to achieve ultrasound focusing without using additional hardware circuits and thus occupies fewer system resources. The proposed method can be applied in the human-computer interaction, virtual reality, and augmented reality fields.

Let $\{(N_j, B_j, L_j): 1 \le j \le m\}$ be finitely many Hadamard triples in $\mathbb{R}$. Given a sequence of positive integers $\{n_k\}_{k=1}^\infty$ and $\omega=(\omega_k)_{k=1}^\infty \in \{1,2,\cdots, m\}^\mathbb{N}$, let $\mu_{\omega,\{n_k\}}$ be the infinite convolution given by $$\mu_{\omega,\{n_k\}} = \delta_{N_{\omega_1}^{-n_1} B_{\omega_1}} * \delta_{N_{\omega_1}^{-n_1} N_{\omega_2}^{-n_2} B_{\omega_2}} * \cdots * \delta_{N_{\omega_1}^{-n_1} N_{\omega_2}^{-n_2} \cdots N_{\omega_k}^{-n_k} B_{\omega_k} }* \cdots. $$ In order to study the spectrality of $\mu_{\omega,\{ n_k\}}$, we first show the spectrality of general infinite convolutions generated by Hadamard triples under the equi-positivity condition. Then by using the integral periodic zero set of Fourier transform we show that if $\mathrm{gcd}(B_j - B_j)=1$ for $1 \le j \le m$, then all infinite convolutions $\mu_{\omega,\{n_k\}}$ are spectral measures. This implies that we may find a subset $\Lambda_{\omega,\{n_k\}}\subseteq \mathbb{R}$ such that $\big\{ e_\lambda(x) = e^{2\pi i \lambda x}: \lambda \in \Lambda_{\omega,\{n_k\}} \big\}$ forms an orthonormal basis for $L^2(\mu_{\omega,\{ n_k\}})$., Comment: 21 pages; add the detailed proof of Theorem 2.6

Backgrounds: Previous studies showed that Kyoto classification of gastritis could accurately predict H. pylori infection status on conventional gastroscope. The aim of this study was to testify whether Kyoto classification of gastritis applies well on magnetic controlled capsule endoscopy (MCCE).Methods: This study included two phases, both of which were basically a group of diagnostic tests. In phase one which included 35 participants who had undergone both conventional gastroscope and MCCE, we testified whether major findings documented in Kyoto classification of gastritis could be well recognized on MCCE. Then, in phase two, we consecutively recruited 227 participants who had under gone both MCCE and urea breath test (UBT). The diagnosis of H. pylori infection status was independently made by 2 physicians who were blinded to UBT results and well versed in Kyoto classification of gastritis after reviewing MCCE images. Results: In phase one, all of the 10 findings selected from Kyoto classification of gastritis could be well recognized on MCCE, when findings on conventional gastroscope were used as the gold standard, the overall diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were 96.6%, 84,7% and 100.0% respectively. In phase two, MCCE’s overall diagnostic accuracy on H. pylori infection status was 80.2%. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) for current-infection were 89.4%, 90.1% and 77.1 respectively. Major specific findings were mucosal swelling and spotty redness for current infection, regular arrangement of collecting venules (RAC), streak redness, fundic gland polyp (FGP) for non-infection, and map redness for past-infection.Conclusions: Kyoto classification of gastritis applied well on MCCE. H. pylori infection status could be accurately assessed on MCCE.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the mechanism of ovarian toxicity of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F. (TwHF) by network pharmacology and molecular docking. METHODS: The candidate toxic compounds and targets of TwHF were collected by the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). Then, the potential ovarian toxic targets were obtained from CTD, and the target genes of ovarian toxicity of TwHF were analyzed using the STRING database. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established by Cytoscape and analyzed by the cytoHubba plug-in to identify hub genes. Additionally, the target genes of ovarian toxicity of TwHF were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses by using the R software. Finally, Discovery Studio software was used for molecular docking verification of the core toxic compounds and the hub genes. RESULTS: Nine candidate toxic compounds of TwHF and 56 potential ovarian toxic targets were identified in this study. Further network analysis showed that the core ovarian toxic compounds of TwHF were triptolide, kaempferol and tripterine, and the hub ovarian toxic genes included TP53, MYC, PTEN, MAPK3, MTOR, STAT3, EGFR, KRAS, CDH1 and AKT1. Besides, the GO and KEGG analysis indicated that TwHF caused ovarian toxicity through oxidative stress, reproductive system development and function, regulation of cell cycle, response to endogenous hormones and exogenous stimuli, apoptosis regulation and aging. The docking studies suggested that 3 core ovarian toxic compounds of TwHF were able to fit in the binding pocket of the 10 hub genes. CONCLUSION: TwHF may cause ovarian toxicity by acting on 10 hub genes and 140 signaling pathways.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Primer for PCR assay. Primer for ChIP assay.

Polarization characteristics and microscope images of the mode converter.