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Abstract The recent worldwide outbreaks of mpox prioritize the development of a safe and effective mRNA vaccine. The contemporary mpox virus (MPXV) exhibits changing virological and epidemiological features, notably affecting populations already vulnerable to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Herein, we profile the immunogenicity of AR-MPXV5, a penta-component mRNA vaccine targeting five specific proteins (M1R, E8L, A29L, A35R, and B6R) from the representative contemporary MPXV clade II strain, in both naive and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected nonhuman primates. Immunization with two doses of AR-MPXV5 to cynomolgus macaques effectively elicits antibody responses and cellular responses. Importantly, based on the challenge model with a contemporary MPXV clade II strain, AR-MPXV5 demonstrates effective efficacy in preventing skin lesions, eliminating viremia and reducing viral loads in multiple tissues after challenge in naive male animals. More importantly, AR-MPXV5 is well-tolerated in stable chronic SIV-infected rhesus monkeys, while eliciting comparable MPXV-specific humoral and cellular responses in both naive and SIV-infected monkeys. Together, these results support further clinical development of the AR-MPXV5 vaccine.

Coarse austenite grains are unavoidable in the low carbon steels processed by twin-roll strip casting. Unfortunately, the polygonal ferrite (PF) grains cannot be refined by conventional on-line cooling process, resulting in low strength. In this work, an on-line heat treatment including reaustenitizing and subsequent controlled cooling was performed in laboratory to form heterogeneous microstructures composed of PF and acicular ferrite (AF). It has been founded that increased prior austenite grain size and the cooling rate led to more AF laths, which inhibited the growth of PF grains. When the prior austenite grain size is less than 60 μm, the formation of AF is suppressed. The tensile tests indicate that the heterostructured steels exhibited higher yield strength than the samples without AF. The improvement of yield strength can be attributed to the grain boundary strengthening, dislocation strengthening and back stress strengthening. The higher AF volume fraction leads to higher dislocation density in PF grains, and more AF/PF interfaces may increase the amount of accumulated geometrically necessary dislocations. Therefore, the contributions of dislocation and back stress strengthening increase with the increase of AF volume fractions. High dislocation density and the generation of back stress contribute a high strain hardening rate to delay the necking and sustain good plasticity. Moreover, the heterostructured steels exhibit the two-stage work hardening behavior during tensile test, which indicates that plastic deformation starts in PF grains while the AF laths remain in elastic state, and then plastic deformation occurs in both strain hardened PF grains and AF laths.

The grain refinement and texture regulation mechanism of spin-formed commercially pure titanium (CP–Ti) cathode during annealing were studied by electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the CP-Ti is seriously deformed after spinning, and the internal strain forms are mainly tension in spinning direction (SD), compression in normal direction (ND), and shear in transverse direction (TD). The dynamic recrystallization occurs during the spinning process, and the recrystallization nucleation mechanism is mainly subgrain nucleation. When spin-formed CP-Ti is annealed at 500 °C, the well-defined substructures generated by fragmentation of primary grains during deformation, as well as the cellular substructures formed by rearrangement of high-density entangled dislocations during annealing can evolve into a large number of fine equiaxed and randomly oriented recrystallized grains. In this case, the subgrain nucleation-dominated recrystallization nucleation mechanism can significantly refine grains. When annealed at 560 °C, a large number of tongue-shaped nuclei with similar orientation to the original grain generated at the grain boundaries, the recrystallization nucleation is inferred to be dominated by grain boundary bulge mechanism. Different recrystallization nucleation mechanisms result in different annealing texture evolution behaviors. When annealed at 500 °C, in the rapid nucleation stage of recrystallization (before 30 min), the texture strength is gradually weakened due to many randomly oriented recrystallized nuclei. With increasing the time from 30 min to 60 min, the recrystallization nucleation and growth reach a dynamic equilibrium, the texture strength tends to be stable. When annealed at 560 °C, a large number of recrystallized grains with similar orientation to the original deformed grains are formed. Oriented nucleation results in a strong texture at the short annealing time (5 min), but the competitive growth of different orientations makes the texture strength gradually decrease with the prolongation of annealing time. In any case, the overall texture strength annealed at 560 °C is higher than that annealed at 500 °C under the same annealing time.

Introduction Quitting smoking, the critical path to reach the global targets of reducing tobacco use, can bring major and immediate health benefits to smokers. Exploring factors that help individuals to quit smoking is of great importance. The present study explored influencing factors on smoking cessation, in order to provide comprehensive reference for tobacco control policies. Methods Ex-smokers and current smokers were recruited online in this crosssectional survey, from 1 October to 31 November 2022, in China. The observational data were collected using a questionnaire to collect information with respect to sociodemographic characteristics of smokers, attitudes towards smoking cessation, details of smoking cessation, and different potential factors related to smoking cessation through open-ended questions. Results A total of 638 smokers from 30 provinces were recruited as eligible respondents, with a mean age of 37.3 ± 11.7 years and a mean smoking history of 15.9 ± 13.7 years. The percentage of males was 92.3%. Of the 638 respondents, only 3.9% had no intention to stop smoking. Among 155 subjects who had quitted smoking successfully, willpower (55.5%) was considered as the most important contributing factor. Among 365 subjects who tried to quit but failed, lack of willpower (28.2%), tobacco dependence (16.2%), influence of surrounding smokers or smoking environments (15.9%), bad moods (9.9%), stress from work or life (7.9%), habits (7.1%), socialization (4.1%), and easy availability of tobacco (2.7%) were considered as the adverse factors leading to failure in quitting smoking. Conclusions Willpower and support from family members were the vital factors that lead to successful smoking cessation. Future tobacco control policies should also focus on addressing withdrawal symptoms and creating smoke-free environments as well as other factors.

AbstractObjective: To investigate the effect of different bladder filling states on positioning errors in radiotherapy for cervical cancer and obtain the reference range of bladder filling consistency during radiotherapy.Methods: Patients who underwent postoperative radiotherapy for cervical cancer in Nantong Tumor Hospital from October 2018 to December 2019 were selected. According to the bladder filling deviation, they were divided into group A1 (deviation < 20%) and group B1 (deviation ≥ 20%). The bladder filling variations of the two groups were compared with different positioning errors. Group A2 has a positioning error of

The effects of CeCu6 and Cu2S on microstructure, electrical conductivity and mechanical properties in as-cast pure copper were investigated by utilizing the microstructure analysis, conductivity test and tensile test with adding 300 ppm Ce and S elements in pure copper ingot (Ce and S elements, mainly existed in the form of CeCu6 and Cu2S). The results showed that the average grain sizes of as-cast pure copper, Cu-0.03Ce and Cu-0.03S were 376, 159 and 193 μm, respectively. The grain refining mechanism of the two phases (CeCu6 and Cu2S) were quite different. The grain refining mechanism of CeCu6 mainly rely on component supercooling; The grain refining mechanism of Cu2S mainly rely on inhibiting grain growth. After hot extrusion, the conductivity of as-cast pure copper, Cu-0.03Ce and Cu-0.03S were increased from 100.1, 100.2 and 95.5 to 101.3, 100.9 and 99.4 %IACS; and the elongation were 66.59, 49.17 and 34.23%, respectively. The disregistry between CeCu6/Cu2S and copper matrix was 10.24% (0 2 10¯)CeCu6‖(4¯ 11)Cu, 24.91% (14¯ 6 12)Cu2S‖(1¯ 31)Cu, respectively. The disregistry between CeCu6 and copper matrix was smaller than that between Cu2S and copper matrix, leading to the wettability, conductivity and interfacial bonding strength between CeCu6 and copper matrix were better. The conductivity of Cu-0.03S could be improved after hot extrusion, which attributed to the gap at the interface could be partially reduced by hot extrusion.

BackgroundStructural autografts harvested from the iliac bone have been used in atlantoaxial fusion; they have been the gold standard for years. However, emerging occipital bone grafts have the advantage of avoiding donor-site morbidity and complications. Thus, we compared the clinical outcomes of structural autografts from the occipital bone or iliac crest and discussed the clinical significance of occipital bone grafts in pediatric patients.MethodsPediatric patients who underwent posterior fusion using occipital bone grafts (OBG) or iliac bone grafts (IBG) between 2017 and 2021 were included in this study. Data on clinical outcomes, including operation time, estimated blood loss, length of hospitalization, complications, fusion rate, and fusion time, were collected and analyzed. Additionally, 300 pediatric patients who underwent cranial computed tomography scans were included in the bone thickness evaluation procedure. The central and edge thicknesses of the harvested areas were recorded and analyzed.ResultsThirty-nine patients were included in this study. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics between the OBG and IBG groups. Patients in both groups achieved a 100% fusion rate; however, the fusion time in the OBG group was significantly longer than that in the IBG group. Estimated blood loss, operation time, and length of hospitalization were significantly lower in the OBG group than those in the IBG group. The surgery-related complication rate was lower, but not significantly, in the OBG group than that in the IBG group. For occipital bone thickness evaluation, a significant difference in the central part of the harvesting area was found between the young and old groups, with no significant sex differences.ConclusionThe use of OBG for atlantoaxial fusion is acceptable for pediatric patients with atlantoaxial dislocation, avoiding donor-site morbidity and complications.

Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) is a progressive genetic disease that causes a deficiency in lysosomal enzymes, which play an important role in the degradation pathway of glycosaminoglycans. As a result of enzyme defects, mucopolysaccharides cannot be metabolized and thus accumulate. The cervical spine is one of the most commonly involved sites; thus, prompt surgical management before the onset of severe neurological deterioration is critical. However, because of the rarity of the disease, there is no standard treatment. In this review, we characterize the cervical spinal involvement in pediatric patients with MPS, describe the useful imaging technologies for diagnosis, and provide screening procedure for children with MPS. Surgical managements, including indications, surgical methods, possible difficulties, and solutions, are reviewed in detail.

Cadmium (Cd) is a dispensable element that can be absorbed by crops, posing a threat to human health through the food chains. Melatonin (MT), as a plant growth regulator, has been used to alleviate Cd toxicity in many plant species; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for Cd toxicity in wheat are still poorly understood. In this study, the suitable exogenous MT concentration (50 μM) was screened to mitigate Cd toxicity of wheat plants by increasing the plant height, root length, fresh or dry weight and chlorophyll content, or decreasing the malondialdehyde (MDA) content. In addition, MT application significantly increased ascorbic acid (ASA) and glutathione (GSH) content by reducing ROS production, especially in roots, further decreasing Cd content in fraction of organelles. Moreover, the expression levels of ASA-GSH synthesis genes, APX, GR, and GST were significantly increased by 171.5%, 465.2%, and 256.8% in roots, respectively, whereas GSH, DHAR, or MDHAR were significantly decreased by 48.5%, 54.3%, or 60.0% in roots under MT + Cd stress. However, the expression levels of Cd-induced metal transporter genes TaNramp1, TaNramp5, TaHMA2, TaHMA3, and TaLCT1 were significantly decreased by 53.7%, 50.1%, 86.5%, 87.2%, and 94.5% in roots under MT + Cd stress compared with alone Cd treatment, respectively. In conclusion, our results suggesting that MT alleviate Cd toxicity in wheat by enhancing ASA-GSH metabolism, suppressing Cd transporter gene expression, and regulating Cd uptake and translocation in wheat plants.

Most plants of Ligusticum have an important medicinal and economic value with a long history, Ligusticum sinense and L. jeholense (“Gaoben”) has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of carminative, dispelling cold, dehumidification, and analgesia. While in the market Conioselinum vaginatum (Xinjiang Gaoben) is substitution for Gaoben, and occupies a higher market share. These three Gaoben-related medicinal materials are similar in morphology, and are difficult to distinguish from each other by the commonly used DNA barcodes. The chloroplast genome has been widely used for molecular markers, evolutionary biology, and barcoding identification. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome sequences of C. vaginatum, L. sinense, and L. jeholense were reported. The results showed that the complete chloroplast genomes of these three species have typical quadripartite structures, which were comprised of 148,664, 148,539, and 148,497 bp. A total of 114 genes were identified, including 81 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 29 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. Our study indicated that highly variable region ycf2-trnL and accD-ycf4 that can be used as specific DNA barcodes to distinguish and identify C. vaginatum, L. sinense, and L. jeholense. In addition, phylogenetic study showed that C. vaginatum nested in Ligusticum and as a sister group of L. sinense and L. jeholense, which suggested these two genera are both in need of revision. This study offer valuable information for future research in the identification of Gaoben-related medicinal materials and will benefit for further phylogenetic study of Apiaceae.

Schisandra chinensis owes its therapeutic efficacy to the dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans, which are limited to the Schisandraceae family and whose biosynthetic pathway has not been elucidated. Coniferyl alcohol is the synthetic precursor of various types of lignans and can be acetylated to form coniferyl acetate by coniferyl alcohol acyltransferase (CFAT), which belongs to the BAHD acyltransferase family. This catalytic reaction is important because it is the first committed step of the hypothetical biosynthetic pathway in which coniferyl alcohol gives rise to dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans. However, the gene encoding CFAT in S. chinensis has not been identified. In this study, firstly we identified 37 ScBAHD genes from the transcriptome datasets of S. chinensis. According to bioinformatics, phylogenetic, and expression profile analyses, 1 BAHD gene, named ScBAHD1, was cloned from S. chinensis. The heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and in vitro activity assays revealed that the recombinant enzyme of ScBAHD1 exhibits acetyltransferase activity with coniferyl alcohol and some other alcohol substrates by using acetyl-CoA as the acetyl donor, which indicates ScBAHD1 functions as ScCFAT. Subcellular localization analysis showed that ScCFAT is mainly located in the cytoplasm. In addition, we generated a three-dimensional (3D) structure of ScCFAT by homology modeling and explored the conformational interaction between protein and ligands by molecular docking simulations. Overall, this study identified the first enzyme with catalytic activity from the Schisandraceae family and laid foundations for future investigations to complete the biosynthetic pathway of dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans.

Abstract. Background. Blood purification (BP) is one of the most important rescue measures for patients with critical illness in the intensive care unit (ICU), especially for those with acute kidney injury. The purpose of this nationwide survey was to reveal the real world of current BP practice in different ICUs all over China. This study was designed to be a multi-center cross-sectional study. Methods. All adult patients (over 18 years of age), who were admitted to ICU and required BP in 35 sub-centers across China were included during 30-day survey period in 2018. Demographic characteristics and clinical data were recorded including the timing of treatment initiation, indications, modality, relative contraindication, establishment of vascular access, selection of filter/membrane, settings, anti-coagulation, executive department, complication, intake, and output. Discussion. This nationwide survey may contribute to reveal the real world of current BP practice in different ICUs all over China. Trial registration. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-EOC-17013119; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=22487.

This study investigated the tensile properties and deformation behavior of an aged Fe-26Mn-6Al-1C (mass%) alloy with a stacking fault energy of approximately 60 mJ·m−2. The results show that an ordered phase with a “short-range ordering” (SRO) structure formed after aging at 550°C for 10 h, further increasing the aging time to 48 h. Lamellar second-phase precipitates appeared at the austenitic grain boundaries. The aged sample at 550°C for 10 h exhibited an enhanced tensile strength (∼898 MPa) without notably sacrificing uniform elongation (∼46.3%), which was mainly attributed to the relatively high strain hardening in the entire plastic deformation due to the synergistic effects of planar slip, twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP), microband-induced plasticity (MBIP), and especially the formation of short-range ordering.

Background: Studies have shown that plasma donor–derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) can predict renal allograft antibody-mediated rejection. This study was performed to evaluate the value of urine dd-cfDNA concentration and dd-cfDNA fraction (%) for discriminating BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy (BKPyVAN) in kidney transplant recipients with urinary BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) infection.Methods: In this retrospective single-center observational study, we enrolled kidney transplant recipients who were diagnosed with urine BKPyV infection between August 2018 and May 2019 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Urine dd-cfDNA was measured by using a novel target region capture sequencing methodology. The pathological diagnosis of BKPyVAN was confirmed by anti-SV40-T immunohistochemical staining and classified using the American Society for Transplantation schema. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to investigate the relations of urine dd-cfDNA and dd-cfDNA% to intrarenal allograft BKPyV infection states.Results: In total, 93 patients were enrolled, including 40 cases of proven BKPyVAN, seven cases of probable BKPyVAN, 23 cases of possible BKPyVAN, and 23 cases of resolving BKPyVAN. Urine dd-cfDNA level in proven BKPyVAN (22.09 ± 21.27 ng/ml) was comparable to that in probable BKPyVAN (15.64 ± 6.73 ng/ml, P = 0.434) but was significantly higher than that in possible BKPyVAN (5.60 ± 3.53 ng/ml) and resolving BKPyVAN (5.30 ± 3.34 ng/ml) (both Ps < 0.05). Urine dd-cfDNA% of proven BKPyVAN (0.71 ± 0.21) was lower than that of probable BKPyVAN (0.91 ± 0.04, P < 0.001), but was significantly higher than that of possible BKPyVAN (0.56 ± 0.30) and resolving BKPyVAN (0.46 ± 0.28) (both Ps < 0.05). For distinguishing biopsy-proven BKPyVAN from biopsy-excluded BKPyVAN, the discrimination capacity of urine dd-cfDNA (AUC: 0.842, 95% CI: 0.735, 0.918) was superior to that of plasma BKPyV DNA load (AUC: 0.660, 95% CI: 0.537, 0.769) with 0.181 (95% CI: 0.043, 0.319) difference between areas under ROC curves (P = 0.010).Conclusion: The elevated urine dd-cfDNA level may help discriminate BKPyVAN in kidney transplant recipients with BKPyV viruria.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are being found to play an increasingly important role in the development of tumors. However, their biological functions and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Using information from GEO Datasets, we found that the lncRNA LINC00588 was downregulated in osteosarcoma (OS) in bone but was upregulated in the metastatic tumor present in the lung. We assessed the function of LINC00588 using both overexpression and knock-out studies. We performed colony formation assay, CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, wound healing assay, transwell assay, and RT-qPCR assay and used a xenograft model to investigate the influence of LINC00588 on cell proliferation, viability, cell apoptosis and cycle, migration, invasion, endothelial cell function, EMT (epithelial to mesenchymal transition), and tumor growth, respectively. Overexpression of LINC00588 appeared to inhibit cell proliferation, viability, migration, invasion, endothelial cell function, EMT, and tumor growth but not apoptosis, while we got the opposite result when we knocked down LINC00588. Next, we predicted that LINC00588 bound to miRNA-1972 and significantly downregulated its expression, which we then verified through a luciferase reporter assay. Subsequently, we knocked down miR1972 and performed CCK-8 and transwell assays to demonstrate that downregulation of miRNA-1972 could substantially inhibit the viability and invasion of osteosarcoma cells. The expression of TP53 was downregulated at the protein level but not at the mRNA level after the overexpression of miRNA-1972. Taken together, our findings indicate that LINC00588 plays a role in OS development by downregulating the expression of miRNA-1972, which can, in turn, inhibit the expression of TP53. Hence, we believe that the LINC00588/miRNA-1072/TP53 axis could potentially serve as a therapeutic target or diagnostic biomarker for osteosarcoma.

The leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase flagellin-sensing 2 gene (MdFLS2; Gene ID: MDP0000254112) was cloned from Royal Gala apple (Malus×domestica Borkh.). This gene contained a complete open reading frame of 3474 bp that encoded 1158 amino acids. The phylogenetic tree indicated that Prunus persica FLS2 exhibited the highest sequence similarity to MdFLS2. The PlantCare database suggests that the promoter sequence of MdFLS2 contains several typical cis-acting elements, including ethylene-, gibberellin-, salicylic acid-, and drought-responsive elements. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that MdFLS2 was widely expressed in the different tissues of the apple and most highly expressed in the leaves. Furthermore, MdFLS2 was significantly induced by the flagellin elicitor peptide flg22. Treatment of the apple seedling leaves with flg22 resulted in an increase in leaf callose levels with increased treatment duration. An increase in the production of O2– along with the expression of disease-related genes was also observed. An oxidative burst was detected in the treated seedlings, but not in the control seedlings, indicating that flg22 had stimulated the expression of the MdFLS2 gene and its downstream target genes. Furthermore, the ectopic expression of MdFLS2 complemented the function of the Arabidopsis fls2 mutant and conferred enhanced flg22 tolerance to the transgenic Arabidopsis, suggesting that MdFLS2 acts as a positive regulator in the response to pathogens in apple.

Guaico Culex virus (GCXV) is a newly identified segmented Jingmenvirus from Culex spp. mosquitoes in Central and South America. The genome of GCXV is composed of four or five single-stranded positive RNA segments. However, the infection kinetics and transmission capability of GCXV in mosquitoes remain unknown. In this study, we used reverse genetics to rescue two GCXVs (4S and 5S) that contained four and five RNA segments, respectively, in C6/36 cells. Further in vitro characterization revealed that the two GCXVs exhibited comparable replication kinetics, protein expression and viral titers. Importantly, GCXV RNAs were detected in the bodies, salivary glands, midguts and ovaries of Culex quinquefasciatus at 4-10 days after oral infection. In addition, two GCXVs can colonize Cx. quinquefasciatus eggs, resulting in positive rates of 15%-35% for the second gonotrophic cycle. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that GCXVs with four or five RNA segments can be detected in Cx. quinquefasciatus eggs during the first and second gonotrophic cycles after oral infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify Kadsura interior (Dian Ji Xue Teng, Schisandraceae) by using DNA barcoding.

The 2-μm thulium laser resection of the prostate-tangerine technique (TmLRP-TT) has been introduced as a minimally invasive treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This study was undertaken to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of TmLRP-TT for the treatment of BPH patients with previously negative transrectal prostate biopsy. A prospective analysis of 51 patients with previously negative transrectal prostate biopsy who underwent surgical treatment using TmLRP-TT was performed from December 2011 to December 2013. Preoperative status, surgical details, and perioperative complications were recorded. The follow-up outcome was evaluated with subjective and objective tests at 1 and 6 months. TmLRP-TT was successfully completed in all patients. Mean prostate volume, operative duration, and catheterization time were 93.3 ± 37.9 ml, 69.5 ± 39.5 min, and 6.5 ± 1.3 days, respectively. The mean International Prostate Symptom Score, quality of life score, maximum urinary flow rate, and post-void residual urine volume changed notably at 6-month follow-up (22.5 ± 6.9 vs 6.1 ± 3.2, 4.8 ± 1.3 vs 1.1 ± 0.9, 7.3 ± 4.5 vs 18.9 ± 7.1 ml s−1 , and 148.7 ± 168.7 vs 28.4 ± 17.9 ml). Two (3.9%) patients required blood transfusion perioperatively, while 3 (5.9%) patients experienced transient hematuria postoperatively, and 2 (3.9%) patients received 3 days recatheterization due to clot retention. TmLRP-TT is a safe and effective minimally invasive technique for patients with previously negative transrectal prostate biopsy during the 6-month follow-up. This promising technology may be a feasible surgical method for previously negative transrectal prostate biopsy in the future.

The North China Plain (NCP) is one of major breadbaskets in China. Crop growth and grain yield differ significantly with spatial variations of soil properties. This study aims to identify the key soil properties in relation to the grain yield for the winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-maize (Zea mays L.) cropping system in a high-productivity farmland of the NCP. The field trials were conducted in three fields with different grain yield levels in Tai'an City, Shandong Province, China, during the 2009–2012 period. Consistent field management strategies were applied in the three fields. Fifty-one physical and chemical indicators of the soil profile as related to grain yield were evaluated. An approximate maximum of 17.8% annual average grain yield difference was observed in the fields during the period of 2009–2012. The soil indicators were classified into three clusters with specific functions using cluster analysis, and three key indicators were extracted from each cluster to characterize the different soil properties of three fields. The first cluster represented soil water retention capacity, and the key indicator was available soil water (ASW), which ranged from 153 to 187 mm in the 1.2 m profile and was correlated positively with grain yield. The second cluster represented soil water conductivity, as measured by saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). The higher yield field had a greater capacity to retain topsoil water for its lower Ks (1.9 cm d−1) in the 30–70 cm soil layer as compared to the lower yield field. The third cluster represented nutrient storage and supply, as indicated by the ratio of nutrient content to silt+clay content of the top soil layer. The ratio of soil organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), available P, exchangeable K+ to silt+clay content in the 0–20 cm soil layer were 19.0 g kg−1, 1.6 g kg−1, 94.7 mg kg−1, 174.3 mg kg−1 in the higher yield field, respectively, and correlated positively with the grain yield. By characterizing the differences in soil properties among fields with different yield levels, this study offers the scientific basis for increasing grain yield potential by improving the soil conditions in the NCP.

The intrinsic factors (IF) influencing visual attention performance (VAP) might cause potential human errors, such as "error/mistake", "forgetting" and "omission". It is a key issue to develop a systematic assessment of IF in order to distinguish the levels of VAP. Motivated by the Stimulus-Response (S-R) model, we take an interactive cancellation test-Neuron Type Test (NTT)-to explore the IF and present the corresponding systematic assessment. The main contributions of this work include three elements: a) modeling the IF on account of attention span, attention stability, distribution-shift of attention with measurable parameters by combining the psychological and statistical concepts; b) proposing quantitative analysis methods for assessing the IF via its computational representation-intrinsic qualities (IQ)-in the sense of computational model; and c) clustering the IQ of air traffic control (ATC) students in the feature space of interest. The response sequences of participants collected with the NTT system are characterized by three parameters: Hurst exponent, normalized number of decisions (NNoD) and error rate of decisions (ERD). The K-means clustering is applied to partition the feature space constructed from practical data of VAP. For the distinguishable clusters, the statistical inference is utilized to refine the assessment of IF. Our comprehensive analysis shows that the IQ can be classified into four levels, i.e., excellent, good, moderate and unqualified, which has a potential application in selecting air traffic controllers subject to reducing the risk of the inadequacy of attention performances in aviation safety management.

A phytochemical investigation of the stems of Kadsura interior has led to an isolation of four new lignans, named kadsutherin E–H (1–4), together with two known lignans (5–6). The structures of the four new compounds were established on the basis of comprehensive spectroscopic analyses. Compounds 1–6 exhibited inhibition against adenosine diphosphate (ADP) induced platelet aggregation. Among the isolated compounds, kadsutherin F (2) showed the strongest anti-platelet aggregation activity with an inhibition of 49.47%.

With the rapid increase of urban population and eeonomic development, the scale of cities has been expanding, and the amount of water and wastewater in cities has been increasing. This phenomenon is more serious in water-deficient cities. Combined with the urban layout, development planning, geography and hydrology of water-deficient cities, it is of great significance to rationally plan and centrally deal with the reclaimed construction of water-deficient urban sewage resources. Therefore, this study combines the status quo of water-deficient urban water resources to comprehensively analyze the balance of water supply and demand in water-deficient cities. Explore the impact of water shortage, the way to solve water shortages and the feasibility and urgency of recycling of water-deficient urban sewage resources. At the same time, this study also analyzes the field and scope of water-based urban sewage resource recycling based on the balance of water supply and demand, and determines the optimization scheme of reclaimed water in terms of water use, income, water quality and treatment process. And taking Yinchuan City as an example, the city's sewage resource recycling service is optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three different SiC powders with average particle sizes of 0.45, 3.5 and 10 μm were used to prepare ZrC-20vol.-% SiC ceramics by hot pressing. The effects of SiC particle size on the densification, microstructure, mechanical properties and thermal properties of ZrC-SiC ceramics were studied. Ceramics prepared from SiC with finer particle sizes exert higher bending strength, hardness and lower thermal conductivity. The ZrC-SiC ceramics with a starting SiC particle size of 3.5 μm has relative high fracture toughness than others. Analysis indicates that SiC grain size and the grain boundaries control the thermal conductivity ZrC-SiC ceramics. Ceramics prepared from SiC with the particle size of 10 μm exhibits the highest thermal conductivity due to the larger grains and less grain boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the electromechanical behavior of two parallel cracks in functionally graded piezoelectric materials (FGPMs) by using non-local theory is investigated under the electric permeable boundary conditions. To overcome the mathematical difficulty, a one-dimensional non-local kernel is used instead of a two-dimensional one for the fracture problem to obtain the stress and the electric displacement fields near the crack tips. The effects of the crack length, the distance between two parallel cracks, the functionally graded parameter and the lattice parameter of the FGPMs on the stress and the electric displacement fields at the crack tips are discussed. The present solution exhibit no stress and electric displacement singularities at the crack tips. The non-local solutions yield a finite hoop stress and electric displacement at the crack tips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLDH) is a multifunctional oxidoreductase and is well known as an essential component of four mammalian mitochondrial multienzyme complexes: pyruvatedehydrogenase, a-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, branched-chain a-keto acid dehydrogenase, and the glycine cleavage system. In the previous study, we described the cloning, purification, and oxidoreductase activity of recombinant silkworm, Bombyx mori DLDH (BmDLDH) expressed in Escherichia coli. In the present work, the result showed that 1) BmDLDH was present in both mitochondria and cytoplasm, but BmDLDH in mitochondria was more abundant than that in cytoplasm, which indicated the BmDLDH could be dual localized. 2) Both the expression levels and diaphorase activity of BmDLDH in silkworm first instars and moth were higher than those in other development stages. The transcript levels of BmDLDH were not different in developmental stages. 3) The transcription, expression, and activity of BmDLDH in Malpighian tubule were higher than those in other tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]