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Abstract The practical application of rechargeable zinc-air batteries faces challenges stemming from inadequate bifunctional catalysts, contradictory gas-liquid-solid three-phase interfaces, and an ambiguous fundamental understanding. Herein, we propose a chameleon-like bifunctional catalyst comprising ruthenium single-atoms grafted onto nickel-iron layer double hydroxide (RuSA-NiFe LDH). The adaptive oxidation of RuSA-NiFe LDH to oxyhydroxide species (RuSA-NiFeOOH) during charging exposes active sites for the oxygen evolution reaction, while reversible reduction to NiFe LDH during discharge exposes active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction. Additionally, a hierarchical air cathode featuring hydrophilic and hydrophobic layers facilitates the reversible conversion between RuSA-NiFe LDH and RuSA-NiFeOOH, expedites oxygen bubble desorption, and suppresses carbon corrosion. Consequently, our zinc-air batteries demonstrate a high charge/discharge capacity of 100 mAh cm−2 per cycle, a voltage gap of 0.67 V, and an extended cycle life of 2400 h at 10 mA cm−2. We comprehensively elucidate the catalytic reaction thermodynamics and kinetics for the air cathode through electrode potential decoupling monitoring, oxygen bubble desorption tracking, and carbon content quantification.

Abstract Objective This study aims to explore the association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and vitamin D status to enhance our understanding of how vitamin D status relates to metabolic health and to provide evidence for the early diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) using the TyG index. Methods We conducted a comprehensive search in various databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine disc, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and Wanfang Data to gather articles published from the inception of these databases until February 19, 2024. We assessed the quality of included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for case-control studies and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) methodology checklist for cross-sectional studies. Statistical analyses in this study were conducted using conversion methods for non-standard data formats and consolidation techniques for combining multiple groups. The Fisher transformation method was used for correlation coefficients. We used a random-effects model considering the inherent clinical heterogeneity among the studies, and assessed statistical heterogeneity with the Cochrane Q test and I2 statistic, complemented by subgroup analyses and sensitivity analysis. Results Our meta-analysis selected a total of nine studies. The analysis revealed that patients with vitamin D deficiency (VDD group) exhibited a significantly higher TyG index than those without deficiency (no-VDD group), with a mean difference (MD) of 0.16 (95% CI: 0.10 to 0.23, I2 = 93%). This association was particularly pronounced among patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), showing an MD of 0.15 (95% CI: 0.05 to 0.26, I2 = 55%). Additionally, a negative correlation was observed between the TyG index and vitamin D levels, with a correlation coefficient (r) of -0.236 (95% CI: -0.310 to -0.159, I2 = 91%). Excluding each study sequentially in the sensitivity analyses did not significantly alter the outcomes. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate a significant association between the TyG index and vitamin D status across diverse populations, including those with T2DM, subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), and metabolic associated fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Our results reveal a notable disparity in the TyG index between vitamin D deficient and non-deficient groups, suggesting that vitamin D may play a critical role in metabolic health. These findings highlight the need for further research to explore the underlying mechanisms and clinical implications of vitamin D in the context of various metabolic disorders.

Abstract Single‐image rain removal is an important problem in the field of computer vision aimed at recovering clean images from rainy images. In recent years, data‐driven convolutional neural network (CNN)‐based rain removal methods have achieved significant results, but most of them cannot fully focus on the contextual information in rain‐containing images, which leads to the failure of recovering some of the background details of the images that have been corrupted due to the aggregation of rain streaks. With the success of Transformer‐based models in the field of computer vision, global features can be easily acquired to better help recover details in the background of an image. However, Transformer‐based models often require a large number of parameters during the training process, which makes the training process very difficult and makes it difficult to apply them to specific devices for execution in reality. The authors propose a Recursive Attention Collaboration Network, which consists of a recursive Swin‐transformer block (STB) and a CNN‐based feature fusion block. The authors designed the Recursively Integrate Transformer Block (RITB), which consists of several STBs recursively connected, that can effectively reduce the number of parameters of the model. The final part of the module can integrate the local information from the STBs. The authors also design the Feature Enhancement Block, which can better recover the details of the background information corrupted by rain streaks of different density shapes through the features passed from the RITB. Experiments show that the proposed network has an effective rain removal effect on both synthetic and real datasets and has fewer model parameters than other mainstream methods.

A miniature on-chip laser is an essential component of photonic integrated circuits for a plethora of applications, including optical communication and quantum information processing. However, the contradicting requirements of small footprint, robustness, single-mode operation, and high output power have led to a multi-decade search for the optimal on-chip laser design. During this search, topological phases of matter—conceived initially in electronic materials in condensed matter physics—were successfully extended to photonics and applied to miniature laser designs. Benefiting from the topological protection, a topological edge mode laser can emit more efficiently and more robustly than one emitting from a trivial bulk mode. In addition, single-mode operation over a large range of excitation energies can be achieved by strategically manipulating topological modes in a laser cavity. In this Perspective, we discuss the recent progress of topological on-chip lasers and an outlook on future research directions.

We present optical observations and analysis of the bright type Iax supernova SN 2020udy hosted by NGC 0812. The evolution of the light curve of SN 2020udy is similar to that of other bright type Iax SNe. Analytical modeling of the quasi-bolometric light curves of SN 2020udy suggests that 0.08 ± 0.01 M _⊙ of ^56 Ni would have been synthesized during the explosion. The spectral features of SN 2020udy are similar to those of the bright members of type Iax class, showing a weak Si ii line. The late-time spectral sequence is mostly dominated by iron group elements with broad emission lines. Abundance tomography modeling of the spectral time series of SN 2020udy using TARDIS indicates stratification in the outer ejecta; however, to confirm this, spectral modeling at a very early phase is required. After maximum light, uniform mixing of chemical elements is sufficient to explain the spectral evolution. Unlike in the case of normal type Ia SNe, the photospheric approximation remains robust until +100 days, requiring an additional continuum source. Overall, the observational features of SN 2020udy are consistent with the deflagration of a carbon–oxygen white dwarf.

Owning to merits such as bandgap tunability, solution processability, large absorption coefficients, and high photoluminescence quantum yields, colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) emerged as a promising gain material to make on-chip micro/nanoscale lasers with high silicon compatibility. In this paper, we review the recent progress in CQD on-chip micro/nanoscale lasers, with a special focus on the physical properties achieved through field manipulation schemes in different types of cavities. Key aspects include manipulating and engineering wavelength, polarization, and direction as well as coupling and light extraction. Finally, we give our prospects for future research directions toward the integration of robust CQD nano/microscale lasers with photonic integrated circuits.

We present the discovery and studies of the helium-rich, fast-evolving supernova (SN) 2021agco at a distance of ∼40 Mpc. Its early-time flux is found to rise from half peak to the peak of −16.06 ± 0.42 mag in the r band within ${2.4}_{-1.0}^{+1.5}$ days, and the post-peak light curves also decline at a much faster pace relative to normal stripped-envelope supernovae (SNe) of Type Ib/Ic. The early-time spectrum of SN 2021agco ( t ≈ 1.0 days after the peak) is characterized by a featureless blue continuum superimposed with a weak emission line of ionized C iii , and the subsequent spectra show prominent He i lines. Both the photometric and spectroscopic evolution show close resemblances to SN 2019dge, which is believed to have an extremely stripped progenitor. We reproduce the multicolor light curves of SN 2021agco with a model combining shock-cooling emission with ^56 Ni decay. The best-fit results give an ejecta mass of ≈0.3 M _⊙ and a synthesized nickel mass of ≈2.2 × 10 ^−2 M _⊙ . The progenitor is estimated to have an envelope radius of R _env ≈ 80 R _⊙ and a mass of M _env ≈ 0.10 M _⊙ . All these suggest that SN 2021agco can be categorized as an ultra-stripped SN Ib, representing the closest object of this rare subtype. This SN is found to explode in the disk of a Sab-type galaxy with an age of ∼10.0 Gyr and low star-forming activity. Compared to normal SNe Ib/c, the host galaxies of SN 2021agco and other ultra-stripped SNe tend to have relatively lower metallicity, which complicates the properties of their progenitor populations.

Fish-like robot is a special autonomous underwater vehicle with broad application prospects. Some previous studies concentrated on the hydrodynamics of free-swimming fish-like robots. But the hydrodynamic performance of fish-like robot swimming with a tilt angle in constrained space has not been well studied, and the influence of environmental wave and current on its is also still unclear. In this paper, the experiment devices, including a physical fish-like robot, a hydrodynamics measurement platform, and a six-axis force sensor, are used to study the effect of attack angle and environmental condition on the hydrodynamics of near-surface swimming fish-like robot. Nine attack angles, five oscillating amplitudes, and three environmental conditions are analyzed in the experiments. It shows that thrust force decreases when caudal fin passes above water surface, but the increased difference between gravity force and buoyancy force will compensate the decreased force generated by caudal fin when fish-like robot swims with certain dive angle. The extra reaction force generated by solid bottom boundary will promote the thrust force and vertical force. The surface water wave condition or surface water current condition also has obvious effects on hydrodynamic performance. This paper provides a new perspective to the research on the hydrodynamic performance of fish-like robot and will do favor in the development of fish-like robot.

IntroductionAnaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) plays a vital role in the global nitrogen cycle by oxidizing ammonium to nitrogen under anaerobic environments. However, the existence, abundance, and diversity of anammox bacteria between different temperatures are less studied, particularly in purple paddy soils.Methods13C-DNA stable-isotope probe combined with Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing was employed to explore soil abundance and diversity of anammox bacteria. In doing so, 40–60 cm depth soils from typical purple paddy soils in Chongqing, southwest China, were cultured under 12CO2-labeled and 13CO2-labeled at 35°C, 25°C, 15°C, and 5°C for 56 days.Results and DiscussionAnammox bacteria were not labeled at all by 13CO2 at 5°C. The highest abundance of anammox bacteria was found at 25°C (3.52 × 106~3.66 × 106 copies·g−1 dry soil), followed by 35°C and 15°C (2.01 × 106~2.37 × 106 copies·g−1 dry soil) and almost no increase at 5°C. The relative abundance of Candidatus Jettenia sp. was higher at 25°C and 15°C, while Candidatus Brocadia sp. was higher at 35°C and 5°C. Our results revealed differences in anammox bacteria at different temperatures in purple paddy soils, which could provide a better understanding of soil N cycling regulated by anammox bacteria.

BackgroundContemporary data on atrial cardiomyopathy (ACM) markers and ischemic cerebrovascular events (ICVE) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is lacking. We aimed to examine whether ACM markers predict ICVE among AMI patients.Materials and methodsA total of 4,206 AMI cases diagnosed in clinical examinations between January 2016 and June 2021 were assessed for markers of ACM including B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), P-wave terminal force in ECG lead V1 (PTFV1), and left atrium diameter (LAD). Left atrial enlargement (LAE) and abnormal PTFV1 were defined by previously published cut-off points. The primary outcome was incident ICVE composed of ischemic stroke (IS) and transient ischemic attack (TIA). Receiver operating curve analyses were used to compare the predictive performance of the CHA2DS2-VASc score combined with ACM markers to the CHA2DS2-VASc score alone.ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 44.0 months, 229 (5.44%) ICVE occurred. Of these, 156 individuals developed IS and the remaining 73 cases were diagnosed with TIAs. The ICVE group showed larger PTFV1 and increased LAD as well as elevated BNP levels at baseline. In the multivariate analysis, we found significant associations with ICVE for PTFV1 (HR per 1,000 μV*ms, 1.143; 95% CI, 1.093–1.196), LAD (HR per millimeter, 1.148; 95% CI, 1.107–1.190), but not BNP after adjusting for known ICVE risk factors and interim atrial fibrillation (AF). The addition of abnormal PTFV1 and LAE improved the predictive accuracy of the CHA2DS2-VASc score with C-statistic increasing from 0.708 to 0.761 (p < 0.001).ConclusionAtrial cardiomyopathy markers including PTFV1 and LAD were associated with incident ICVE independent of well-established risk factors and AF occurrence. The addition of ACM markers with CHA2DS2-VASc score may well discriminate individuals at high risk of ICVE in AMI patients.

BackgroundThe occurrence of new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associated with worse outcomes. In this study, we sought to assess the predictive effect of stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) to predict NOAF in patients with AMI.Materials and methodsWe recruited 3,194 individuals with AMI but free of atrial fibrillation (AF). AMI cases were stratified into groups according to SHR and NLR quartiles and were further categorized based on diabetes status. High SHR and high NLR were defined as the highest quartile of SHR and NLR. A nomogram incorporating risk factors for NOAF was constructed using multivariate logistic regression analyses. The performance of the novel nomogram was tested for predictive performance, agreement between the actual and predicted probability, and clinical utility using area under the curve (AUC), bootstrapped calibration curves, and decision curve analysis, respectively.ResultA total of 245 (7.67%) patients developed NOAF post-AMI. The NOAF cases had higher values of SHR and NLR than non-NOAF patients after AMI regardless of diabetes status. After adjusting for potential confounders, high SHR and NLR were independently associated with NOAF post-AMI. Moreover, the novel nomogram incorporating high NLR and high SHR for NOAF risk estimation in patients with AMI showed satisfactory performance assessed by the AUC, calibration curves, decision curve analysis.ConclusionSHR and NLR were independently associated with NOAF in AMI patients. The constructed novel nomogram that incorporates SHR and NLR might assist in NOAF risk stratification post-AMI.

ObjectiveThe study aims to assess two refractive instrument-based methods of vision screening (SureSight and PlusoptiX) to detect refractive amblyopia risk factors (ARFs) and significant refractive errors in Chinese preschool children and to develop referral criteria according to the 2021 AAPOS guidelines.MethodsEye examinations were conducted in children aged 61 to 72 months (n = 1,173) using a PlusoptiX photoscreener, SureSight autorefractor, and cycloplegic retinoscopy (CR). The Vision Screening Committee of AAPOS's preschool vision screening guidelines from 2021 were adopted for comparison. Paired t-test analysis and Bland–Altman plots were used to assess the differences and agreement between the PlusoptiX photoscreener, SureSight autorefractor, and CR. In addition, the validity of the cut-off values of the several ARFs measured with the SureSight and PlusoptiX was estimated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and compared to the age-based 2021 AAPOS examination failure levels.ResultsA total of 1,173 children were tested with comprehensive eye examinations. When the referral numbers based on the 2013 (43/3.67%) and 2021 (42/3.58%) AAPOS guidelines were compared, significant differences between the values of astigmatism (72.09 vs. 52.38%) and anisometropia (11.63 vs. 38.10%) were found. The 95% limits of agreement (LOA) of the spherical value and the cylindrical value between PlusoptiX and CR were 95.08 and 96.29%. It was 93.87 and 98.10% between SureSight and CR. Considering refractive failure levels, the ROC curves obtained the optimal cut-off points. However, the PlusoptiX and the SureSight showed lower efficiency in hyperopia (Youden index, 0.60 vs. 0.83) and myopia (Youden index, 078 vs. 0.93), respectively. After adjusting the above cut-off points, the optimized NES (Nanjing Eye Study) referral criteria for myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and anisometropia were –0.75, 1.25, –1.0, and 0.5 with PlusoptiX and –1.25, 2.75, –1.5, and 0.75 with SureSight.ConclusionsSureSight and PlusoptiX showed a good correlation with CR and could effectively detect refractive ARFs and visually significant refractive errors. There were obvious advantages in detecting hyperopia using SureSight and myopia using PlusoptiX. We proposed instrumental referral criteria for age-based preschool children based on AAPOS 2021 guidelines.

Elastic strain sensor nanocomposites are emerging materials of high scientific and commercial interest. This study analyzes the major factors influencing the electrical behavior of elastic strain sensor nanocomposites. The sensor mechanisms were described for nanocomposites with conductive nanofillers, either dispersed inside the polymer matrix or coated onto the polymer surface. The purely geometrical contributions to the change in resistance were also assessed. The theoretical predictions indicated that maximum Gauge values are achieved for mixture composites with filler fractions slightly above the electrical percolation threshold, especially for nanocomposites with a very rapid conductivity increase around the threshold. PDMS/CB and PDMS/CNT mixture nanocomposites with 0–5.5 vol.% fillers were therefore manufactured and analyzed with resistivity measurements. In agreement with the predictions, the PDMS/CB with 2.0 vol.% CB gave very high Gauge values of around 20,000. The findings in this study will thus facilitate the development of highly optimized conductive polymer composites for strain sensor applications.

BackgroundRecurrence after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation is still common.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the predictive abilities of AF duration and early recurrence (ER) to discriminate high-risk patients for recurrence.MethodsWe enrolled 1,763 consecutive patients with AF who were scheduled to receive the index radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) from January 2016 to August 2021 in Dalian, China. Long AF duration (LAFD) was considered if the course of AF lasted for ≥ 12 months. ER was defined as any atrial tachycardia (AT) or AF event longer than 30 s occurring within a 3-month post-RFCA.ResultsLate recurrence occurred in 643 (36.5%) of the 1,763 patients at a median of 35 months after RFCA. Multivariate analysis identified LAFD (hazard ratio (HR): 1.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.38–2.35, p < 0.001) and ER (HR: 2.34, 95% CI: 1.82–3.01, p < 0.001) as strong independent predictors of late recurrence in non-paroxysmal AF. Similarly, LAFD (HR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.20–1.84, p < 0.001) and ER (HR: 3.40, 95% CI: 2.68–4.30, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with late recurrence in paroxysmal AF. Receiver operating curve analyses revealed that the CAAP-AF (CAD, Atrial diameter, Age, Persistent or longstanding AF, Antiarrhythmic drugs failed, Female) had the highest predict power [area under ROC curve (AUC) 0.586]. The addition of ER and LAFD to the CAAP-AF score significantly improved risk discrimination for late recurrence after AF ablation from 0.586 to 0.686.ConclusionLong AF duration and ER were independently associated with late recurrence. The prediction performance of the CAAP-AF model for recurrence was improved by the addition of LAFD and ER.

We have conducted photometric and spectroscopic observations of the peculiar Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2016ije that was discovered through the Tsinghua-NAOC Transient Survey. This peculiar object exploded in the outskirts of a metal-poor, low-surface brightness galaxy (i.e., M _g = −14.5 mag). Our photometric analysis reveals that SN 2016ije is subluminous ( ${M}_{B,\max }$ = −17.65 ± 0.06 mag) but exhibits relatively broad light curves (Δ m _15 ( B ) = 1.35 ± 0.14 mag), similar to the behavior of SN 2002es. Our analysis of the bolometric light curve indicates that only 0.14 ± 0.04 M _⊙ of ^56 Ni was synthesized in the explosion of SN 2016ije, which suggests a less energetic thermonuclear explosion when compared to normal SNe Ia, and this left a considerable amount of unburned materials in the ejecta. Spectroscopically, SN 2016ije resembles other SN 2002es-like SNe Ia, except that the ejecta velocity inferred from its carbon absorption line (∼4500 km s ^−1 ) is much lower than that from silicon lines (∼8300 km s ^−1 ) at around the maximum light. Additionally, most of the absorption lines are broader than other 02es-like SNe Ia. These peculiarities suggest the presence of significant unburned carbon in the inner region and a wide line-forming region along the line of sight. These characteristics suggest that SN 2016ije might originate from the violent merger of a white dwarf binary system, when viewed near an orientation along the iron-group-element cavity caused by the companion star.

Background: The predictive power of the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores for the presence of Left atrial thrombus (LAT)/ spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) is modest. The aim of this analysis is to define clinical and ultrasonic variables associated with LAT/SEC and to propose nomograms for individual risk prediction.Methods: Data on 1,813 consecutive NVAF patients who underwent transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) from January 2016 to January 2021 were collected. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to construct a nomogram. We examined the predictive ability of the risk scores by calculating the area under the curve (AUC). Moreover, the performance of the nomogram was assessed with respect to calibration, discrimination, and clinical usefulness.Results: LAT/SEC was found in 260 (21.0%) and 124 (21.6%) patients in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. On multivariate analysis, independent factors for LAT/SEC were Age, left atrial diameter (LAD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), hypertension (HTN), previous stroke or transient ischemic attack, Non-paroxysmal AF and a nomogram was built based on these variables. The calibration curve for the probability of LAT/SEC showed good prediction agreement with actual observation. The nomogram achieved good concordance indexes of 0.836 and 0.794 in predicting LAT/SEC in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Decision curve analysis demonstrated that the nomogram would be clinically useful.Conclusions: In this study, a nomogram was constructed that incorporated six characteristics of NVAF patients. The nomogram may be of great value for the prediction of LAT/SEC in NVAF patients.

In this study, a model test system of shield driving adjacent to pile is realized to study the response of surrounding rock and pile induced by an advanced shield tunnel in silty clay layer in a coastal area. The function of automatic pushing and the synchronous grouting of the shield were partially simulated. Similar materials of lining, soft rock and pile, were developed. A total of 33 sets of orthogonal model tests were designed to study the progressive failure caused by excavation in silty clay and the change in stratum displacement and soil pressure; the displacement and internal force response of the pile were also analyzed. The following conclusions can be given: (1) the best grouting filling coefficient range of the shield test for the case study is 1.4 to 1.6; (2) the fitting of the experimental data to obtain the settlement through the width parameter suggests that the K value of the surrounding rock is decreased by 0.075 at least, and the K value increases with the increase in pile-tunnel distance and decreases with the increase in pile depth; and (3) the weak surrounding rock in the tunnel system can be divided into five zones according to the displacement and pressure change in soft surrounding rock and the pile response in the case study. The key condition control factor was also determined.

In order to improve the trajectory tracking accuracy of an Underwater Vehicle Manipulator System (UVMS) under uncertain disturbance conditions of ocean current, a Model-free Adaptive Control (MFAC) method was used. Combined with Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN), the RBFNN-MFAC method is proposed to improve the performance of the controller. A hydrodynamic model of UVMS was defined in the commercial software, Fluent, to calculate hydrodynamics disturbance, and the mechanism of the dynamic model of UVMS was defined in the commercial software, Adams, to simulate the motion of UVMS. The trajectory tracking performance with various control schemes, including PID (Proportional Integral Derivative), MFAC and RBFNN-MFAC, were analyzed with the Adams and Simulink joint simulation model. The results show that the position tracking accuracy and the speed tracking accuracy with the MFAC control scheme were 68.1% and 81.0% better, respectively, than those with PID control scheme. The position tracking accuracy and the speed tracking accuracy with the RBFNN-MFAC control scheme were 66.3% and 43.1% better, respectively, than those with the MFAC control scheme. The MFAC control scheme and the RBFNN-MFAC control scheme proposed in this paper exhibit good trajectory tracking performance without the precise dynamic model of UVMS, which is of great importance to applications in engineering.

Nitrogen is the most essential element for plant growth and development. Amino acids, serving as the main organic nitrogen source in tissue culture media, provide for shoot and root elongation. Glutamine has been widely used in tissue culture for dedifferentiation and re-differentiation processes. Experiments were conducted to assess the effects of glutamine in comparison to some commonly used plant growth regulators (PGRs) on the growth of Hibiscus moscheutos propagated via tissue culture. An initial study suggested that 10 mg L-1 glutamine in MS basal medium was optimal for shoot elongation. At this optimal rate, glutamine showed superiority over other PGRs. No difference was found between glutamine treatments and the control in a later study. When comparing glutamine with arginine, shoots cultured on media with arginine displayed slightly greater growth. With arginine containing two extra nitrogen groups in its molecular structure, the higher percentage of nitrogen may have resulted in improved growth.

We survey expressions of the effective modal volume, Veff, commonly used in the literature for nanoscale photonic and plasmonic cavities. We apply different expressions of Veff to several canonical cavities designed for nanoscale near-infrared light sources, including metallo-dielectric and coaxial geometries. We develop a metric for quantifying the robustness of different Veff expressions to the different cavities and materials studied. We conclude that no single expression for Veff is universally applicable. Several expressions yield nearly identical results for cavities with well-confined photonic-type modes. For cavities with poor confinement and a low quality factor, however, expressions using the proper normalization method need to be implemented to adequately describe the diverging behavior of their effective modal volume. The results serve as a practical guideline for mode analysis of nanoscale optical cavities, which show promise for future sensing, communication, and computing platforms.

Human babesiosis, caused by several Babesia parasites and transmitted by tick bites and other blood-associated containments, has emerged as a major public health threat around the world. In the absence of readily discernible clinical manifestations, the diagnosis of human babesiosis has been contingent upon the identification of Babesia parasites through the utilization of detection arrays. Nevertheless, cases of persistent and relapsing babesiosis with low-grade parasitemia have been sporadically observed in patients with and without immunosuppression, prompting a challenge to the reliability of routine clinical laboratory tests and efficient anti-babesial therapy. In such instances, it is essential to implement repeated and prolonged monitoring until complete eradication of the parasites is achieved. This review presents an overview of the epidemiology of persistent and relapsing human babesiosis, current diagnostic techniques, the mechanism of persistent relapse and practical clinical management strategies. In order to respond effectively to the challenge of low-grade parasitemia infection in the aforementioned patients, it is essential to prioritize the development and validation of rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective point-of-care diagnostic techniques, as well as the development of novel pharmaceutical agents and their combinations.

Introduction: Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) plays a vital role in the global nitrogen cycle by oxidizing ammonium to nitrogen under anaerobic environments. However, the existence, abundance, and diversity of anammox bacteria between different temperatures are less studied, particularly in purple paddy soils. Methods: 13C-DNA stable-isotope probe combined with Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing was employed to explore soil abundance and diversity of anammox bacteria. In doing so, 40-60 cm depth soils from typical purple paddy soils in Chongqing, southwest China, were cultured under 12CO2-labeled and 13CO2-labeled at 35°C, 25°C, 15°C, and 5°C for 56 days. Results and Discussion: Anammox bacteria were not labeled at all by 13CO2 at 5°C. The highest abundance of anammox bacteria was found at 25°C (3.52 x 106 -3.66 x 106 copies·g-1 dry soil), followed by 35°C and 15°C (2.01 x 106 -2.37 x 106 copies·g-1 dry soil) and almost no increase at 5°C. The relative abundance of Candidatus Jettenia sp. was higher at 25°C and 15°C, while Candidatus Brocadia sp. was higher at 35°C and 5°C. Our results revealed differences in anammox bacteria at different temperatures in purple paddy soils, which could provide a better understanding of soil N cycling regulated by anammox bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meta-analysis is to evaluate the predictive value of the blood urea nitrogen / creatinine ratio (BCR) for long-term outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane library, and Web of Science were searched for relevant studies from inception to October 2023. STATA SE 14.0 software was used for statistical analysis. A total of 2036 reports were identified with 14 studies meeting pre-designed inclusion criteria. Three long-term outcomes were investigated. In patients with HF, the increase of BCR level indicated a greater risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.38-2.00; I2 = 90.8%, P = 0.000). The acute HF (AHF) subgroup demonstrated a higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.15-2.79; I2 = 93.9%, P = 0.000) as did the non-AHF subgroup (HR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.34-1.71; I2 = 37.1%, P = 0.122). The subgroup (≤ 70 years old) demonstrated a lower risk of all-cause mortality in patients with HF (HR = 1.62, 95% CI 1.35-1.94; I2 = 68.3%, P = 0.004) as did the subgroup (> 70 years old) (HR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.19-2.34; I2 = 88.3%, P = 0.000). In addition, this study did not support the predictive value of BCR in CVD mortality (HR = 1.48, 95% CI 0.91-2.43; I2 = 63%, P = 0.100) and HF hospitalization (HR = 1.28, 95% CI 0.73-2.24; I2 = 77.5%, P = 0.035). Sensitivity analysis showed that all the results were robust. In summary, the results showed that the blood urea nitrogen / creatinine ratio (BCR) had a significant predictive value for all-cause mortality in patients with heart failure and was a fairly promising predictor obviously. Moreover, more studies are needed to further determine the predictive value of BCR in other long-term outcomes such as CVD mortality, HF hospitalization or aborted cardiac arrest.

The profiling float is the crucial component of global ocean observation system. Considering the excessive change rate of motion speed and energy consumption issues during the ascending process of the float, this paper proposes two sets of the piecewise oil-pumping control strategies based on speed closed-loop (SCL) and speed-acceleration double closed-loop (SADCL) respectively. The kinematic model and energy consumption model of the 4000-meter profiling float during the ascending process are established, then the simulation and analysis were made to study the operational stability and energy consumption of the float. By comparing the influence of SCL and SADCL control strategies with that of traditional control strategy for pumping (TCS) on the performance of the float, the results are as follows: SCL and SADCL control strategies can effectively improve the float operational stability and lessen the energy consumption. The amplitude of velocity fluctuation decreased by 65.44% compared with the traditional strategy. When the setting value of feedback speed uset is 1m/s, the SCL control strategy is more efficient, saving 18% energy than TCS. However, optimized control strategies will no longer have the advantage of energy saving at the speed uset below 0.050 m/s. The conclusion drawn in this paper is beneficial for the further study of the profiling float oil-pumping control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater vehicles are widely used in underwater detection, and bionic design, e.g. imitating fish, is an important way to improve their hydrodynamic performance. Most research is on the mechanical structure and kinematics of fish-like models, while evolvement rules and hydrodynamic effects of fluid field around fish have not been studied adequately. In this paper, a kinematic model to simulate the swimming motion of fish is established according to the actual movement of tuna, and the model is optimized to achieve convenient adjustment in the initial oscillating position and maximum oscillating amplitude. A numerical simulation model is established and the boundary condition is verified by experiments with a physical fish-like prototype and a set of force measuring devices. The evolvement rule of the fluid field around the fish-like model from starting to cruising is determined and the hydrodynamic effect is analyzed. The issue of the effect of fluid fields with various averaged fish-like model densities in the buoyancy regulating process is discussed. Finally, a novel way to calculate the Strouhal number is proposed. The results show that the averaged drag force coefficient decreases as the fish-like model speeds up, because the water pressure near the fish head strengthens to generate a larger resistance force and the vortex in the wake field disperses to produce a less positive effect. The viewpoint that the superposition of vortices will benefit the fish-like model instead of weakening the positive effect is confirmed. The width value of the reversed Kármán vortex street can be connected with the Strouhal number, and the Strouhal number can be calculated by the evolvement rule of the fluid field. This research will contribute to bionic autonomous underwater vehicle design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neutral-point (NP) voltage of three-phase three-level NP-clamped converters is needed for balance. To maintain NP potential and suppress ripple, a novel NP voltage balancing strategy is proposed in this work. The mechanism of NP voltage variation is studied first. Then, the relationship between the disassembly of zero level (O level) and NP current is studied comprehensively. On these bases, two methods for selecting one of three output phases for the disassembly of its O level are presented. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the validity and practicability of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundA wide range of bacterial pathogens have been identified in ticks, yet the diversity of viruses in ticks is largely unexplored.MethodsHere, we used metagenomic sequencing to characterize the diverse viromes in three principal tick species associated with pathogens, Haemaphysalis concinna, Dermacentor silvarum, and Ixodes persulcatus, in North China.ResultsA total of 28 RNA viruses were identified and belonged to more than 12 viral families, including single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses (Flaviviridae, Picornaviridae, Luteoviridae, Solemoviridae, and Tetraviridae), negative-sense RNA viruses (Mononegavirales, Bunyavirales, and others) and double-stranded RNA viruses (Totiviridae and Partitiviridae). Of these, Dermacentor pestivirus-likevirus, Chimay-like rhabdovirus, taiga tick nigecruvirus, and Mukawa virus are presented as novel viral species, while Nuomin virus, Scapularis ixovirus, Sara tick-borne phlebovirus, Tacheng uukuvirus, and Beiji orthonairovirus had been established as human pathogens with undetermined natural circulation and pathogenicity. Other viruses include Norway mononegavirus 1, Jilin partitivirus, tick-borne tetravirus, Pico-like virus, Luteo-like virus 2, Luteo-likevirus 3, Vovk virus, Levivirus, Toti-like virus, and Solemo-like virus as well as others with unknown pathogenicity to humans and wild animals.ConclusionIn conclusion, extensive virus diversity frequently occurs in Mononegavirales and Bunyavirales among the three tick species. Comparatively, I. persulcatus ticks had been demonstrated as such a kind of host with a significantly higher diversity of viral species than those of H. concinna and D. silvarum ticks. Our analysis supported that ticks are reservoirs for a wide range of viruses and suggested that the discovery and characterization of tick-borne viruses would have implications for viral taxonomy and provide insights into tick-transmitted viral zoonotic diseases.

Fusobacterium nucleatum is a strictly anaerobic, Gram-negative bacterial species that is a member of the commensal flora in the oral cavity and gut. Recent studies suggested that the increase of abundance is associated with the development of various diseases, among which colorectal cancer is of the biggest concerns. Phage therapy is regarded as a potential approach to control the number of F. nucleatum, which may contribute to the prevention and treatment of related diseases. In this study, we isolated five isolates of bacteriophage targeting F. nucleatum. The morphological, biological, genomic and functional characteristics of five bacteriophages were investigated. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that JD-Fnp1 ~ JD-Fnp5 are all myoviruses. The size of the JD-Fnp1 ~ JD-Fnp5 genomes was 180,066 bp (JD-Fnp1), 41,329 bp (JD-Fnp2), 38,962 bp (JD-Fnp3), 180,231 bp (JD-Fnp4), and 41,353 bp (JD-Fnp5) respectively. The biological features including pH and heat stability, host range, growth characteristics of JD-Fnp1 ~ JD-Fnp5 displayed different patterns. Among them, JD-Fnp4 is considered to have the greatest clinical application value. The identification and characterization of JD-Fnp1 ~ JD-Fnp5 provides a basis for subsequent therapeutic strategy exploration of F. nucleatum-related diseases.

Football is one of the most popular sports in the world, arousing a wide range of research topics related to its off- and on-the-pitch performance. The extraction of football entities from football news helps to construct sports frameworks, integrate sports resources, and timely capture the dynamics of the sports through visual text mining results, including the connections among football players, football clubs, and football competitions, and it is of great convenience to observe and analyze the developmental tendencies of football. Therefore, in this paper, we constructed a 1000,000-word Chinese corpus in the field of football and proposed a BiLSTM-based model for named entity recognition. The ALBERT-BiLSTM combination model of deep learning is used for entity extraction of football textual data. Based on the BiLSTM model, we introduced ALBERT as a pre-training model to extract character and enhance the generalization ability of word embedding vectors. We then compared the results of two different annotation schemes, BIO and BIOE, and two deep learning models, ALBERT-BiLSTM-CRF and ALBERT BiLSTM. It was verified that the BIOE tagging was superior than BIO, and the ALBERT-BiLSTM model was more suitable for football datasets. The precision, recall, and F-Score of the model were 85.4%, 83.47%, and 84.37%, correspondingly.

Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common reason of acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI can progress to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in some survivors. Inflammation is considered the first-line response to early-stage IRI. We previously reported that core fucosylation (CF), specifically catalyzed by α-1,6 fucosyltransferase (FUT8), exacerbates renal fibrosis. However, the FUT8 characteristics, role, and mechanism in inflammation and fibrosis transition remain unclear. Considering renal tubular cells are the trigger cells that initiate the fibrosis in the AKI-to-CKD transition in IRI, we targeted CF by generating a renal tubular epithelial cell (TEC)-specific FUT8 knockout mouse and measured FUT8-driven and downstream signaling pathway expression and AKI-to-CKD transition. During the IRI extension phase, specific FUT8 deletion in the TECs ameliorated the IRI-induced renal interstitial inflammation and fibrosis mainly via the TLR3 CF-NF-κB signaling pathway. The results firstly indicated the role of FUT8 in the transition of inflammation and fibrosis. Therefore, the loss of FUT8 in TECs may be a novel potential strategy for treating AKI-CKD transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Compared with traditional craniotomy, the expanded endoscopic endonasal approach (EEEA) may have some advantages for tuberculum sellae meningioma (TSM) treatment. We described our experience of the therapeutic effect of endoscopic TSM treatment. From August 2015 to December 2019, 40 patients with a TSM were treated by the EEEA in our institution. EEEA outcome in TSM treatment was analyzed. Among 39 patients with visual impairment, 38 (97.4%) improved their visual function to some extent after the EEEA, and one case had no significant change in visual acuity. Among all patients, 38 (95.0%) achieved gross total resection (GTR) and 2 (5.0%) achieved near-total resection (NTR). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage occurred in three patients (7.5%) and meningitis (post-CSF leakage) in two patients (5.0%). Eight patients (20.0%) suffered postoperative hyposmia, three of whom developed long-term hyposmia. One patient (2.5%) suffered from bleeding of the branch of the anterior cerebral artery intraoperatively leading to postoperative acute cerebral infarction. The EEEA is a safe and reliable minimally invasive method for TSM removal. Compared with traditional craniotomy, the EEEA may have better visual outcomes and a higher prevalence of GTR, but carries the risk of CSF leakage.

Hibiscus moscheutos L. is an herbaceous hibiscus native to eastern North America that has been a popular landscape and container plant exhibiting large and colorful flowers in the summer. However, unsightly fruit develop and remain on the stalks at the end of the blooming season, which greatly decreases the ornamental value. Thus, breeding for sterility was attempted through ploidy level manipulation to reduce formation and growth of seed stalks, and to improve blooming vigor and longevity. Colchicine and oryzalin were used as mitotic inhibitors to induce tetraploid breeding lines that could be used to develop sterile triploids. Germinated seedlings of 'Luna Red' were soaked in three concentrations of each doubling agent for three different durations. Exposure to a low concentration of colchicine solution for a long time or to a low concentration of oryzalin for a short period was found to be effective in yielding a high number of tetraploids with a low rate of mortality. Triploids were obtained from the traditional method of crossing tetraploids with diploids. Triploid and tetraploid plants showed a decrease in height with a more compact form. Leaves of tetraploid plants were more ruffled, with an increase in overall leaf thickness, but were not different from leaves of diploids and triploids in regard to leaf mass per area (LMA). Triploid plants bloomed longer but had smaller flowers than diploid plants. Although the whole planting was infected by aerial phytophthora, diploid, tetraploid, and triploid plants were significantly different in their tolerances: all diploid branches were infected, but only a minor infection occurred on one triploid branch, and the transmission remained slow. Flowers of tetraploid plants failed to produce pollen, whereas flowers of triploid plants produced only nonviable pollen grains and fruits aborted after pollination, which led to infertility of induced triploids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coxiella burnetii and Coxiella -like endosymbionts (CLEs) have been widely discovered in various ticks, animals, and even human beings. To estimate the possible origin of C. burnetii and its relatives CLEs, the prevalence of C. burnetii and CLEs has been intensively surveyed all over the world. In the present study, the possible infection of C. burnetii and CLEs in host-seeking Haemaphysalis concinna was performed with meta-transcript analysis with tick specimens harvested from Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang province, China. The meta-transcript results were subsequently confirmed by the specific sequence of partial 16S rRNA. A total of three arrays of gene transcripts were harvested, including pyrophosphate-fructose 6-phosphate 1-phosphotransferase- eda -thiol-disulfide isomerase and thioredoxin- greA , carB - carA-DnaJ-DnaK-grpE-ppnk , ropC-ropB , and ubiA- non-canonical purine NTP pyrophosphatase- hemK-prfA , which suggest the infection of Candidatus Coxiella mudorwiae in H. concinna . The high identity of the 16S rRNA gene of Candidatus C. mudorwiae achieved in our study strongly supports our meta-transcripts analysis. The prevalence of Candidatus C. mudorwiae in hard ticks has been discovered in China. More detailed surveys are imperative to clarify the emergence of CLEs and their implication in the epidemiologic characteristics of Q fever.

In this study, anti-diabetic activity and potential mechanism of sea cucumber hydrolysates (SCH) were investigated in type II diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin. Results showed that SCH alleviated body weight loss, oral glucose tolerance and insulin resistance in diabetic rats. The fasting blood glucose level was markedly decreased by 40.39% after SCH administration. Moreover, lipid metabolism disorders in diabetic rats were attenuated to near normal after SCH treatment. Mechanism studies showed that the expressions of PI3K, p-Akt, p-GSK-3β and GLUT2/GLUT4 were significantly increased and the expression of p-IRS1 was significantly decreased after SCH treatment in liver and skeletal muscle tissues of diabetic rats. In addition, 25 peptides were screened as potential bioactive peptides by analyzing the intensity of mass spectra combined with PeptideRanker prediction. In summary, these findings suggested that SCH improved insulin resistance in diabetic rats via triggering PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, indicating that SCH may possess anti-diabetic effects.

The pollution status of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in the sediment of the Yangtze River Basin, Asia’s largest river basin, was estimated. The total concentrations of PCNs (mono- to octa-CNs) ranged from 0.103 to 1.631 ng/g. Mono-, di-, and tri-PCNs—consisting of CN-1, CN-5/7, and CN-24/14, respectively, as the main congeners—were the dominant homolog groups. Combustion indicators and principal component analysis showed that the emissions from halowax mixtures were the main contributor to PCNs in sediment, among most of the sampling sites. The mean total toxic equivalent (TEQ) was calculated to be 0.045 ± 0.077 pg TEQ/g, which indicates that the PCNs in sediments were of low toxicity to aquatic organisms. This work will expand the database on the distribution and characteristics of PCNs in the river sediment of China.

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs), an unusual class of electromagnetic metamaterials, have found important applications in various fields due to their distinctive properties. A surprising feature of HMMs is that even continuous HMMs can possess topological edge modes. However, previous studies based on equal-frequency surface (analogy of Fermi surface) may not correctly capture the topology of entire bands. Here we develop a topological band description for continuous HMMs that can be described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian formulated from Maxwell's equations. We find two types of three-dimensional non-Hermitian triply degenerate points with complex linear dispersions and topological charges ±2 and 0 induced by chiral and gyromagnetic effects. Because of the photonic nature, the vacuum band plays an important role for topological edge states and bulk-edge correspondence in HMMs. The topological band results are numerically confirmed by direct simulation of Maxwell's equations. Our work presents a general non-Hermitian topological band treatment of continuous HMMs, paving the way for exploring interesting topological phases in photonic continua and device implementations of topological HMMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]