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Diamond is an ultrawide bandgap semiconductor with excellent electronic and photonic properties, which has great potential applications in microelectronic and optoelectronic devices. As an allotrope of diamond, graphene also has many fantastic properties like diamond, which caught much attention in combing them together. In this work, a direct sp3-to-sp2 conversion method was proposed to fabricate graphene layers on single crystal diamond by thermal treatment with Ni film catalyst. By optimizing the conversing conditions, a thin graphene layer with low sheet resistance was obtained on diamond. Based on this, an all-carbon sandwich structural graphene-diamond-graphene (GDG) detector was fabricated, which shows low dark current of 0.45 nA at 0.5 V μm−1 applied electric field. The maximum sensitivity of this detector is obtained when the incident X-ray is 12 keV, with the value of 2.88 × 10−8 C Gy−1. Moreover, the rise time and delay time of the GDG detector is about 1.2 and 22.8 ns, respectively, which are very close to that of diamond detector with Ti/Au electrode. The realization of the direct in-situ sp3-to-sp2 conversion on diamond shows a promising approach for fabricating diamond-based all-carbon electronic devices.

In this paper, we consider the deformed Fredholm determinant of the confluent hypergeometric kernel. This determinant represents the gap probability of the corresponding determinantal point process where each particle is removed independently with probability $1- \gamma$, $0 \leq \gamma, Comment: 49 pages, 6 figures. Typos corrected, references added

Within growing marketisation of publicly funded services, the internet has provided new opportunities for marketing, delivery, and coordination of those services. Using web scraping and hyperlink network analysis techniques, this paper examines the ways in which organisations operating in Australia’s evolving National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) system inter-connect online. Social media plays the most important role in the online network. Government agencies also play a central role, with many disability service organisations linking their web users to them. Government agency websites do not hyperlink to disability service providers, suggesting that governments do not see their role as assisting access to such services. Advocacy and peak disability organisations are important in online connections between the websites of government and service organisations. Innovative uses of the internet for online brokerage of disability services are evident. The implications of these findings for service delivery are discussed.

In this paper, we consider $N$ non-intersecting Bessel paths starting at $x=a\geq 0$, and conditioned to end at the origin $x=0$. We derive the explicit formula of the distribution function for the maximum height. Depending on the starting point $a>0$ or $a=0$, the distribution functions are also given in terms of the Hankel determinants associated with the multiple discrete orthogonal polynomials or discrete orthogonal polynomials, respectively., 21 pages, 2 figures

Aims Growing evidence have shown a significant relationship between gut microbiome and psoriasis vulgaris. But their causality has not been clarified. To investigate the causality and the direction and strength of the association between gut microbiome and psoriasis vulgaris, we performed an Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.Methods We obtained the summary statistics of gut microbiome and psoriasis vulgaris from the published genome-wide association study. The inverse-variance weighted model was the main analytical model for determining causal association in our MR analysis and was followed by multiple sensitivity analyses and reverse MR analysis to validate the robustness of MR results.Results 7 bacterial taxa related to psoriasis vulgaris were detected by the current MR analysis. In specific, the genus Eubacterium Fissicatena [P = 3.66×10− 5P = 0.040), genus Gordonibacter (P = 0.038), genus Lachnospira (P = 0.020), genus Odoribacter(P = 0.024), genus Terrisporobacter (P = 0.046), and phylum Actinobacteria (P = 0.042) were associate with a lower risk of psoriasis vulgaris. The reverse MR analysis suggest no evidence of causal association from psoriasis vulgaris to gut microbiome.Conclusion We validated the causalities between gut microbiome and psoriasis vulgaris and brought innovative insights into the therapy of psoriasis vulgaris: targeted regulating intestinal bacterial taxon to prevent and treat psoriasis vulgaris.

Zero-shot learning uses semantic attributes to connect the search space of unseen objects. In recent years, although the deep convolutional network brings powerful visual modeling capabilities to the ZSL task, its visual features have severe pattern inertia and lack of representation of semantic relationships, which leads to severe bias and ambiguity. In response to this, we propose the Graph-based Visual-Semantic Entanglement Network to conduct graph modeling of visual features, which is mapped to semantic attributes by using a knowledge graph, it contains several novel designs: 1. it establishes a multi-path entangled network with the convolutional neural network (CNN) and the graph convolutional network (GCN), which input the visual features from CNN to GCN to model the implicit semantic relations, then GCN feedback the graph modeled information to CNN features; 2. it uses attribute word vectors as the target for the graph semantic modeling of GCN, which forms a self-consistent regression for graph modeling and supervise GCN to learn more personalized attribute relations; 3. it fuses and supplements the hierarchical visual-semantic features refined by graph modeling into visual embedding. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches on multiple representative ZSL datasets: AwA2, CUB, and SUN by promoting the semantic linkage modelling of visual features., 15 pages, 11 figures, on IEEE Transactions on Multimedia

The reaction-diffusion process always behaves extremely magically, and any a differential model cannot reveal all of its mechanism. Here we show the patterns behavior can be described well by the fractional reaction-diffusion model (FRDM), which has unique properties that the integer model does not have. Numerical simulation is carried out to elucidate the attractive properties of the fractional (3+1)-dimensional Gray-Scott model, which is to model a chemical reaction with oscillation. The Fourier transform for spatial discretization and fourth-order Runge-Kutta method for time discretization are employed to illustrate the fractal reaction-diffusion process.

BackgroundGrowing evidence shows a significant association between intestinal flora and allergic diseases, specifically atopic dermatitis (AD), allergic rhinitis (AR), and allergic asthma (AA). However, the causality has not yet been clarified.ObjectiveWe conducted a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) analysis to study the causal relationships between intestinal flora classification and AD, AR, or AA.Materials and methodsWe obtained summary data of intestinal flora, AD, AR, and AA from a genome-wide association research. The inverse-variance weighted method is the primary method for analyzing causality in the TSMR analysis. Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine the stability of TSMR results. Reverse TSMR analysis was also performed to assess whether there was a reverse causality.ResultsA total of 7 bacterial taxa associated with AD, AR, and AA were identified by the current TSMR analysis. Specifically, the genus Dialister(P=0.034)and genus Prevotella(P=0.047)were associated with a higher risk of AD, whereas class Coriobacteriia (P=0.034) and its child taxon, order Coriobacteriales (P=0.034) and family Coriobacteriaceae (P=0.034), all had a protective effect on AR. In addition, the family Victivallaceae (P=0.019) was identified as a risk factor for AR. We also noticed a positive association between the genus Holdemanella (P=0.046) and AA. The reverse TSMR analysis didn’t suggest any evidence of reverse causality from allergic diseases to the intestinal flora.ConclusionWe confirmed the causal relationship between intestinal flora and allergic diseases and provided an innovative perspective for research on allergic diseases: targeted regulation of dysregulation of specific bacterial taxa to prevent and treat AD, AR, and AA.

The hickory (Carya cathayensis) nuts are considered as a traditional nut in Asia due to nutritional components such as phenols and steroids, amino acids and minerals, and especially high levels of unsaturated fatty acids. However, the edible quality of hickory nuts is rapidly deteriorated by oxidative rancidity. Deeper Masked autoencoders (DEEPMAE) with a unique structure for automatically extracting some features that could be scaleable from local to global for image classification, has been considered to be a state-of-the-art computer vision technique for grading tasks. This paper aims to present a novel and accurate method for grading hickory nuts with different oxidation levels. Owing to the use of self-supervised and supervised processes, this method is able to predict images of hickory nuts with different oxidation levels effectively, i.e., DEEPMAE can predict the oxidation level of nuts. The proposed DEEPMAE model was constructed from Vision Transformer (VIT) architecture which was followed by Masked autoencoders(MAE). This model was trained and tested on image datasets containing four classes, and the differences between these classes were mainly caused by varying levels of oxidation over time. The DEEPMAE model was able to achieve an overall classification accuracy of 96.14% on the validation set and 96.42% on the test set. The results on the suggested model demonstrated that the application of the DEEPMAE model might be a promising method for grading hickory nuts with different levels of oxidation.

Grifola frondosa (Dicks.) Gray, named “Maitake” in Japan, is mainly cultivated in China, Japan and Korea as a rare delicacy (Park et al. 2015). G. frondosa is a medicinal and edible mushroom that can enhance the human immunology system. In recent years, the production of G. frondosa has increased in China due to its high economic value and as a source of livelihood for small scale farmers. From August to September 2017, a serious slime mold disease was observed on G. frondosa under greenhouse conditions in Qingyuan County, Lishui city, Zhejiang Province, China. Incidence was 10 to 30% in most surveyed mushroom greenhouses, sometimes more than 80% in mushroom greenhouses without proper management. The disease reduced G. frondosa production by 10% on average, and over 80% in severe cases. Slime mold disease usually appeared after irrigation, the kelly plasmodia migrate firstly from the root of fruiting body to stem and finally to pileus, then the infected parts became soft and putrid with slime on the surface. Additionally, many other organisms grow on decayed fruiting bodies, such as bacteria, fungi, and insects. The disease can spread rapidly through soil to adjacent fruiting bodies resulting in yield reduction. Samples were collected and cultures were isolated by transferring diseased fruiting bodies with yellow green plasmodia onto 2% water agar medium. Plasmodia were purified through aseptically transferring their edge segment to a new sterile 2% water agar medium, and this procedure was repeated three or four times to free the isolate from contaminating organisms. Purified plasmodia were then placed on the solid bacteriological test medium (SGM), containing glucose, peptone, yeast extract, mineral salts and hematin used in the axenic culture of Physarum polycephalum (Daniel et al. 1964), to verify bacteria presence. Plasmodia were also induced to form sporocarps. Voucher specimens were deposited in the Fungarium of Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (FJAAS-M0001) and the Herbarium of the Mycology, Engineering Research Center of Edible and Medicinal Fungi, Chinese Ministry of Education, Jilin Agricultural University (HMJAU-M1561). Sporocarps were stalked, globose to discoid, golden-yellow, 0.9-1.8 mm in height, 0.28-0.55 mm in diameter. Hypothallus was small, thin, orange. Stalks were subulated, about twice to thrice the diameter of the sporotheca, bright orange below, yellow above, furrowed. Peridium was weak, thin, and plated with yellow calcareous flakes. Capillitium was a small meshed, persistent net of tubules with small and yellow angular lime nodes. Spores were globose, free, dark brown to black in mass, purplish brown in transmitted light, 8-10 μm in diameter, smooth under light microscopy. Irregular spinulose spores showed clusters of small warts that are conspicuous under scanning electron microscopy. Plasmodia were yellow green. The 18S ribosomal RNA gene was amplified with primer SMNUR101/NS4 (Rusk et al. 1995; White et al. 1990). The 18S rRNA gene sequence was submitted to GenBank (OP373728) and an 18S rRNA gene phylogenetic tree of Physarum obtained by maximum likelihood analysis (ML) and Bayesian inferences (BI) of 23 taxa and 1,608 aligned positions was produced. Based on sporocarps morphological characteristics, plasmodial cultural traits, and the sequence of 18S rRNA, the slime mold was identified as Physarum galbeum. A pathogenicity test was performed by gently inoculating a 12 mm diameter circinal patch of SGM with plasmodia on three healthy fruiting bodies of G. frondosa. All treatments were cultured in a mushroom-growing room with temperature 24 to 29 ℃ and relative humidity of 87 to 96%. Three fruiting bodies inoculated with a 12 mm diameter SGM served as controls. All fruiting bodies inoculated with plasmodia showed the same symptom. No symptoms developed on the controls. The pathogen was consistently reisolated from the symptomatic fruiting bodies of G. frondosa and confirmed to be P. galbeum based on cultural, morphological and molecular characteristics, thus fulfilling Kock’s postulates. This is the first report of P. galbeum causing yellow rot disease on cultivated G. frondosa. References: Daniel, J. W., et al. 1964. Page 9 in: Methods in Cell Biology. Academic Press, New York. Denchev, C. M. 2008. Mycologia Balc. 5:93. Park, H. S., et al. 2015. Biosci., biotechnol., and biochem. 79:147. Rusk, S. A., et al. 1995. Mycologia. 87:140. White, T. J., et al. 1990. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

In this paper, we consider the discrete Laguerre polynomials $P_{n, N}(z)$ orthogonal with respect to the weight function $w(x) = x^{\alpha} e^{-N cx}$ supported on the infinite nodes $L_N = \{ x_{k,N} = \frac{k^2}{N^2}, k \in \mathbb{N} \}$. We focus on the "band-saturated region" situation when the parameter $c > \frac{\pi^2}{4}$. As $n \to \infty$, uniform expansions for $P_{n, n}(z)$ are achieved for $z$ in different regions in the complex plane. Typically, the Airy-function expansions and Gamma-function expansions are derived for $z$ near the endpoints of the band and the origin, respectively. The asymptotics for the normalizing coefficient $h_{n, N}$, recurrence coefficients $\mathscr{B}_{n, N}$ and $\mathscr{A}_{n, N}^2$, are also obtained. Our method is based on the Deift-Zhou steepest descent method for Riemann-Hilbert problems., Comment: 37 pages, 6 figures

Kangxian ruangan (KXRG) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula consisting of 12 herbs. TCM syndrome differentiation proposes that KXRG exerts pharmacological effects against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) fibrosis. This work investigates the effect of KXRG on NAFLD fibrosis in vivo and in vitro. In vivo, the NAFLD fibrosis model was constructed in Wistar rats using methionine- and choline-deficient (MCD) diet, followed by KXRG (0.92 g/kg/d) treatment for 8 weeks. In vitro, primary hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) were activated using platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and treated with KXRG. Molecular mechanisms underlying fibrosis were investigated. After 8 weeks, compared with the control groups, the histological lesions, degree of fibrosis, and inflammatory reaction increased with the MCD diet as demonstrated by histological changes and increased fibrosis-related (α-SMA, TGF-β, COL1A1, and desmin, P < 0.01 ) and inflammation-related factors (TNF-α, MCP-1, and F4/80, P < 0.01 ), whereas they decreased with KXRG treatment ( P < 0.01 ). KXRG not only inhibited the proliferation of activated HSCs and promoted their apoptosis but also resulted in G0-G1 arrest. Furthermore, KXRG suppressed HSC activation ( P < 0.01 ), collagen synthesis ( P < 0.01 ), and α-SMA expression ( P < 0.01 ) with PDGF stimulation. In both the MCD diet-induced animal model and PDGF-induced cell model, KXRG inhibited TGF-β and TLR4 signaling ( P < 0.01 ), similar to corresponding small-molecule inhibitors. These results demonstrated that KXRG might exert suppressive effects against NAFLD fibrosis via regulating TGF-β and TLR4 signaling. KXRG may act as a natural and potent therapeutic agent against NAFLD.

The myxomycete life-cycle mainly consists of cellular uninucleate amoeboflagellates, stationary spore-bearing sporophores, and acellular multinucleate plasmodia. The plasmodium is able to regulate complex behavior, but no differentiated signaling structures have been detected. As a basal lineage eukaryote, research on any neuron-like substances may contribute to our understanding of the origin of the nervous system in complex organisms. We examined the expression and localization of the neuropeptide adreno-cortico-tropic-hormone (ACTH) and the neuroprokaryotic protein (NeuN) in two species of Physarum under different culture conditions were studied by immunofluorescence and western blotting. ACTH was expressed in the cytoplasm of the plasmodium of Physarum flavicomum, and NeuN was expressed in the nuclear membrane of the plasmodium of P. polycephalum and in the cytoplasm of that of P. flavicomum. This demonstrates the occurrence of neuropeptides in the myxomycete plasmodium for the first time and contributes to the understanding of intercellular communication in Myxomycetes.

Healthcare question answering (HQA) system plays a vital role in encouraging patients to inquire for professional consultation. However, there are some challenging factors in learning and representing the question corpus of HQA datasets, such as high dimensionality, sparseness, noise, nonprofessional expression, etc. To address these issues, we propose an inception convolutional autoencoder model for Chinese healthcare question clustering (ICAHC). First, we select a set of kernels with different sizes using convolutional autoencoder networks to explore both the diversity and quality in the clustering ensemble. Thus, these kernels encourage to capture diverse representations. Second, we design four ensemble operators to merge representations based on whether they are independent, and input them into the encoder using different skip connections. Third, it maps features from the encoder into a lower-dimensional space, followed by clustering. We conduct comparative experiments against other clustering algorithms on a Chinese healthcare dataset. Experimental results show the effectiveness of ICAHC in discovering better clustering solutions. The results can be used in the prediction of patients' conditions and the development of an automatic HQA system.

Aim: Psoriasis vulgaris (PV) is a complicated autoimmune disease characterized by erythema of the skin and a lack of available cures. PV is associated with an increased risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, which are both mediated by the interaction between systemic inflammation and aberrant metabolism. However, whether there are differences in the lipid metabolism between different levels of severity of PV remains elusive. Hence, we explored the molecular evidence for the subtyping of PV according to alterations in lipid metabolism using serum metabolomics, with the idea that such subtyping may contribute to the development of personalized treatment.Methods: Patients with PV were recruited at a dermatology clinic and classified based on the presence of metabolic comorbidities and their Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) from January 2019 to November 2019. Age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited from the preventive health department of the same institution for comparison. We performed targeted metabolomic analyses of serum samples and determined the correlation between metabolite composition and PASI scores.Results: A total of 123 participants, 88 patients with PV and 35 healthy subjects, were enrolled in this study. The patients with PV were assigned to a “PVM group” (PV with metabolic comorbidities) or a “PV group” (PV without metabolic comorbidities) and further subdivided into a “mild PV” (MP, PASI Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that patients with PV at different severity levels have distinct metabolic profiles, and that metabolic disorders complicate the disease development. These findings will help us understand the pathological progression and establish strategies for the precision treatment of PV.

This paper structures some new reproductive kernel spaces based on Legendre polynomials to solve time variable order fractional advection-reaction-diffusion equations. Some examples are given to show the effectiveness and reliability of the method.

The bipolar plate is the major component of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells and also a critical contributor to the fuel cell performance. Metallic bipolar plate (MBP) has high impact resistance but its poor chemical stability limits the service lifetime and stack stability. One of the feasible methods to enhance the corrosion resistance of MBPs is the formation of conductive protective coatings on the MBP surface. In this work, nanostructured carbon coatings were deposited on stainless steel by chemical vapor deposition using the substrate itself as catalysts. Under the optimized conditions, the corrosion potential of carbon coatings with dense spherical structure on stainless steel (2.1 VRHE) is much higher than that of uncoated one (1.2 VRHE), and even greater than that of commercial graphite bipolar plates (1.7 VRHE), showing 75% and 23.5% improvement in corrosion resistance, respectively. Moreover, the corrosion current density of stainless steel with dense sphere-assembled coatings decreases to 0.2 mA/cm2, which is two orders of magnitude lower than that of graphite bipolar plates (27.4 mA/cm2) at the same applied potential (2.2 VRHE). The coated stainless steel with excellent anticorrosion properties has potential applications for MBPs in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, electrochemical treatment of waste water, and current collectors in lithium-ion batteries.

The realization of good aqueous dispersibility of commercial graphene products composed of exfoliated graphene sheets is of significance for downstream applications. However, the tap density of commercial graphene powder is quite low (0.03–0.1 kg/m3), meaning that 1 kg graphene powder occupies about 10–30 m3 in volume during transportation. And, the available content of commercial graphene dispersion/slurry in aqueous medium cannot exceed 5 wt%, although the density is high (≈ 1050 kg/m3). In this work, a graphene monolith was prepared by oven-drying of graphene sheets prefunctionalized with poloxamer surfactants. Our graphene monoliths not only have a high density (1500 kg/m3) and high graphene content (≈ 10 wt%), but also a full capability to be completely redispersed (≈ 100%) in water by bath sonication to obtain solubilized graphene sheets, whose lateral size and thickness are unchanged compared to as-exfoliated ones. Moreover, a simple empirical method was proposed to predict the redispersion capability of graphene monoliths using different poloxamers by contact angle measurements. Our results provide a universal approach to make exfoliated graphene-based products with better downstream availability and lower transportation cost.

We consider a family of tronquee solutions of the Painleve II equation q ″ ( s ) = 2 q ( s ) 3 + s q ( s ) − ( 2 α + 1 2 ) , α > − 1 2 , which is characterized by the Stokes multipliers s 1 = − e − 2 α π i , s 2 = ω , s 3 = − e 2 α π i with ω being a free parameter. These solutions include the well-known generalized Hastings-McLeod solution as a special case if ω = 0 . We derive asymptotics of integrals of the tronquee solutions and the associated Hamiltonians over the real axis for α > − 1 / 2 and ω ≥ 0 , with the constant terms evaluated explicitly. Our results agree with those already known in the literature if the parameters α and ω are chosen to be special values. Some applications of our results in random matrix theory are also discussed.

China is facing great challenges to balance its natural water resource use and eco-environment protection, especially in the north semi-arid region with large water consumption due to the rapid economic growth. This highlights the urgency to use water resource carrying capacity (WRCC) as a measure to maintain the sustainable development of the human and natural water system. Here, we used a coupled model based on the system dynamics and cellular automaton models to assess the WRCC under the critical value of water resource withdrawal ratio (40%) and its sustainability in the Yongding River watershed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, where the water use highly depends on river flow and nonrenewable groundwater resources. The analytical results showed that the current regional WRCC is severely overloaded due to strong human activities. The predicted results based on four scenarios, i.e., existing development, water saving, industrial restructuring, and integrated development schemes, showed that although the improvement of water saving and water use efficiency has mitigated the regional water shortage, evidenced by the increased WRCC, the water shortage would continue due to the increased water demand. Under the integrated development scenario, it will need at least additional 7.1 × 108 m3 water per year (Beijing: 2.5 × 108 m3, Tianjin: 0.8 × 108 m3, Hebei: 3.8 × 108 m3) via the water transfer project to maintain the sustainability in the next decades. Our research provides recommendations for reasonable water utilization and supplementation under the severe water crisis.

Since impurities produced during walnut processing can cause serious harm to human health, strict quality control must be carried out during production. However, most detection equipment still uses photoelectric detection technology to automatically sort heterochromatic particles, which is unsuitable for detecting endogenous foreign bodies with similar colors. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved YOLOv4 deep learning object detection algorithm, WT-YOLOM, for detecting endogenous impurities in walnuts—namely, oily kernels, black spot kernels, withered kernels, and ground nutshells. In the backbone of the model, a lightweight MobileNet module was used as the encoder for the extraction of features. The spatial pyramid pooling (SPP) structure was improved to spatial pyramid pooling—fast (SPPF), and the model size was further reduced. Loss function was replaced in this model with a more comprehensive SIoU loss. In addition, efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanisms were applied after the backbone feature map to improve the model’s recognition accuracy. This paper compares the recognition speed and accuracy of the WT-YOLOM algorithm with the Faster R-CNN, EfficientDet, CenterNet, and YOLOv4 algorithms. The results showed that the average precision of this model for different kinds of endogenous impurities in walnuts reached 94.4%. Compared with the original model, the size was reduced by 88.6%, and the recognition speed reached 60.1 FPS, which was an increase of 29.0%. The metrics of the WT-YOLOM model were significantly better than those of comparative models and can significantly improve the detection efficiency of endogenous foreign bodies in walnuts.

A sensitive and selective electrochemical dopamine (DA) sensor has been developed using gold nanoparticles decorated marimo-like graphene (Au NP/MG) as a modifier of the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). Marimo-like graphene (MG) was prepared by partial exfoliation on the mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) through molten KOH intercalation. Characterization via transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the surface of MG is composed of multi-layer graphene nanowalls. The graphene nanowalls structure of MG provided abundant surface area and electroactive sites. Electrochemical properties of Au NP/MG/GCE electrode were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry techniques. The electrode exhibited high electrochemical activity towards DA oxidation. The oxidation peak current increased linearly in proportion to the DA concentration in a range from 0.02 to 10 μM with a detection limit of 0.016 μM. The detection selectivity was carried out with the presence of 20 μM uric acid in goat serum real samples. This study demonstrated a promising method to fabricate DA sensor-based on MCMB derivatives as electrochemical modifiers.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) complicated with dyslipidaemia is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular diseases. The Jiangtang Tiaozhi (JTTZ) recipe is a Chinese herbal formula that has been used to regulate the blood glucose and lipid levels for many years. Interestingly, a previous study has demonstrated its efficacy; however, the associated mechanism remains unclear. We hypothesised that the therapeutic effect of the JTTZ on patients with T2DM may be mediated by the modulation of metabolites secreted by the gut microbiota. This study aims to examine this mechanism.Methods and analysis: This study is a randomised, positive drug parallel-controlled, open-label clinical trial in patients with T2DM and dyslipidaemia. A total of 96 patients will be recruited and randomly assigned to treatment with JTTZ or metformin for 12 weeks. The primary outcome will be the rates of effectively regulated blood glucose and lipid levels (measured with the levels of glycated haemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, 2-h plasma glucose, triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol). The secondary outcomes will be the changes in body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference and Traditional Chinese Medicine symptom scores. In addition, 16S rRNA gene sequencing will be performed on the gut microbiota obtained from faeces, and metabolomics analysis will be performed based on blood and gut microbiota samples. Intention-to-treat, per-protocol analysis and safety analysis will be performed.Clinical trial registration number: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04623567

Renewable thermoplastic starch (TPS) was modified by poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with varying degrees of polymerization (DPs) or scCO2-assisted processing to prepare TPSxPVAyz or scCO2TPSxPVAyz fully biodegradable blends. The TPSxPVAyz (or scCO2TPSxPVAyz) films showed the smallest free volume characteristics and oxygen transmission rates (OTRs), as their PVA loadings approached an optimum value. The smallest free volume characteristics and OTRs evaluated for each optimal TPSxPVAyz (or scCO2TPSxPVAyz) films reduced noticeably as their DPs reduced from 2400 to 300. Considerably smaller OTRs and free volume characteristics were acquired for scCO2TPSxPVAyz films than those of corresponding TPSxPVAyz films prepared without the assistance of scCO2. An essential result is that the OTR of the optimal scCO2TPSxPVAyz film with a moisture content of 4wt% was merely 4.6 cm3/m2∙day∙atm. This OTR is as good as that of the polyvinylidene chloride oxygen barrier packaging. Dynamic mechanical relaxations and WAXD characterizations revealed that TPS and PVA are miscible, as PVA loadings were ≤ the optimum values. The enhanced oxygen barrier resistance and reduced free volume characteristics for optimal TPSxPVAyz and scCO2TPSxPVAyz films are partly ascribed to the strengthened molecular interactions between O–H groups of TPS and PVA, as they were processed with the assistance of scCO2, optimum PVA loadings or diminished DPs.

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated skin disorder involving hyperproliferation of the keratinocytes in the epidermis. As complex as its pathophysiology, the optimal treatment for psoriasis remains unsatisfactorily addressed. Though systemic administration of biological agents has made an impressive stride in moderate-to-severe psoriasis, a considerable portion of psoriatic conditions were left unresolved, mainly due to adverse effects from systemic drug administration or insufficient drug delivery across a highly packed stratum corneum via topical therapies. Along with the advances in nanotechnologies, the incorporation of nanomaterials as topical drug carriers opens an obvious prospect for the development of antipsoriatic topicals. Hence, this review aims to distinguish the benefits and weaknesses of individual nanostructures when applied as topical antipsoriatics in preclinical psoriatic models. In view of specific features of each nanostructure, we propose that a proper combination of distinctive nanomaterials according to the physicochemical properties of loaded drugs and clinical features of psoriatic patients is becoming a promising option that potentially drives the translation of nanomaterials from bench to bedside with improved transdermal drug delivery and consequently therapeutic effects.

Recently, the burden of lung cancer (LC) has attracted global attention. Meanwhile, LC has become the leading cause of death in China. Many studies found a strong link between air pollutants and the risk of LC mortality in some large cities, but the results have been inconsistent, and most studies have only focused on the daily effects of six pollutants in large cities, ignoring their potential cumulative effects. This study was to investigate the weekly effects of six air pollutants (CO, NO

A Cd(II)-based metal–organic framework as fluorescent chemical sensor, formulated as {[Cd3(bmipia)2]·10DMF·5H2O}n (FCS-2), was synthesized through a hydrothermal process and structurally characteri...

With the rapid growth in electronic device performance, there has been an increasing demand for thermally conductive polymer composites to handle the thermal management issue, thus contributing to the great importance to develop the graphene framework, which is evaluated as the most promising reinforcements for enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer. Vacuum filtration is a common method to fabricate graphene framework, whereas, it is available to prepare a framework with centimeter-scale thickness by filtrating the graphene-water dispersion, due to the fact of sample cracking caused by the mismatch of surface tension between graphene and water. In this work, a surfactant-assisted strategy was proposed by adjusting the surface tension of the water close to that of graphene first, then performing a conventional filtration process, to fabricate graphene framework. As a result, a thick graphene framework (thickness: 3 cm) was successfully prepared, and after embedding into epoxy, the framework endows the composite (13.6 wt%) with a high in-plane thermal conductivities of 12.4 W/mK, which is equivalent to ≈ 64 times higher than that of neat epoxy. Our method is simple and compatible with the conventional filtration process, suggesting great potential for the mass-production of graphene framework to meet the practical application requirements.

Myxogastria is a group of protozoa characterized by cellular uninucleate amoeboflagellates (myxamoebae and flagellated swarm cell), acellular multinucleate plasmodia, and stationary spore‐bearing sporocarps. The Stemonitales is a large order in the Myxogastria and contains approximately 230 species, but only 13 species have their completed life cycles observed so far. Here, we described the life cycles of two species in Stemonitales, Stemonitopsis typhina and Stemonitis fusca by culturing in water agar medium and observing the morphogenesis of their spore germination, plasmodium, and sporocarp development. The spore‐to‐spore life cycles of Ste. typhina and S. fusca were completed in approximately 67 and 12 d, respectively. Both species possessed an aphanoplasmodium. However, the spores of Ste. typhina and S. fusca germinated by the V‐shape split and pore methods, respectively. Unlike S. fusca with an evanescent peridium, Ste. typhina produced a shiny persistent peridium which was continuous with the membrane surrounding its stalk. The information will contribute to a better understanding of their taxonomy and phylogeny.

Classification of high-dimensional data with very limited labels is a challenging task in the field of data mining and machine learning. In this paper, we propose the multiobjective semisupervised classifier ensemble (MOSSCE) approach to address this challenge. Specifically, a multiobjective subspace selection process (MOSSP) in MOSSCE is first designed to generate the optimal combination of feature subspaces. Three objective functions are then proposed for MOSSP, which include the relevance of features, the redundancy between features, and the data reconstruction error. Then, MOSSCE generates an auxiliary training set based on the sample confidence to improve the performance of the classifier ensemble. Finally, the training set, combined with the auxiliary training set, is used to select the optimal combination of basic classifiers in the ensemble, train the classifier ensemble, and generate the final result. In addition, diversity analysis of the ensemble learning process is applied, and a set of nonparametric statistical tests is adopted for the comparison of semisupervised classification approaches on multiple datasets. The experiments on 12 gene expression datasets and two large image datasets show that MOSSCE has a better performance than other state-of-the-art semisupervised classifiers on high-dimensional data.

Application of multi-fractured horizontal wells has led to significant progress in the development of tight oil reservoirs. However, oil production rapidly decreases and the estimated ultimate recovery is still low when the well is in production and approaching depletion. Water huff-n-puff is regarded as a useful measure to improve oil recovery due to oil-water imbibition and drainage. Additionally, complex fracture networks consisting of natural fractures (NF) and hydraulic fractures can significantly enhance oil recovery in the process of water huff-n-puff after multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. However, there is a non-flowing thin film on the solid-liquid wall surface in the pore-throats of the matrix, and the so-called boundary layer effect (BLE) is quite significant at the nano-scale. This effect reduces the effective flow space and effective permeability of the reservoir, leading to production damage. To date, few numerical simulation studies have considered the impact of the BLE and complex fracture networks in water huff-n-puff process simulation studies. In this study, the process of water huff-n-puff is evaluated considering complex fracture networks and formation damage in a matrix. The embedded discrete fracture model (EDMF), validated by local grid refinement (LGR), is applied to describe the distribution of hydraulic fractures and NF. The well performance considering the BLE is analyzed by a vectorization programming. The results show that the BLE reduces production and accelerates the production decline, so the BLE should be considered in reservoir simulations and productivity evaluations of water huff-n-puff processes. A certain degree of natural fracture development is conducive to improving the sweep efficiency of the water huff-n-puff, which could significantly improve oil recovery compared to depletion. By considering the impact of the BLE in water huff-n-puff simulations in tight oil reservoirs, it is possible to accurately evaluate the well performance and provide a theoretical basis for the optimization of water huff-n-puff.

Based on mimetic Green element method (GEM), which synthesizes some typical advantages of boundary element method (BEM), finite element method (FEM) and mimetic finite difference method (mimetic FDM), This paper study the application of mimetic GEM in the system of partial differential equations (PDEs) of oil-water two-phase flow in porous media. It is the first time to apply GEM to solve numerically the system of PDEs, which is one of novelties in this paper. For numerical simulation of oil-water two-phase flow in porous media, this paper provides a novel numerical method based on mimetic GEM, which is the other novelty of this work.

Potassium (K+) ions are essential minerals that are important in maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in biological systems and regulating bodily functions. However, abnormal K+ concentration level will cause numerous health problems or diseases. Therefore, the effective detection of physiological K+ level is very important in the healthcare field. In this work, we designed, fabricated and characterized solution-gated field effect transistors (FETs) based on high quality CVD graphene for highly sensitive and selective detection of K+ ions. O2 plasma pre-processing for 10 s yielded a limit of detection (LOD) down to 0.058 pM, and a linear dynamic range spanning from sub-0.1 pM to 100 nM. Meanwhile, as the G-quadruplex conformation possesses strong affinity for K+, the FETs exhibit excellent discrimination against other common cations, such as Na+ and Fe3+. As a result, the solution-gated graphene FETs with enhanced sensitivity and selectivity for K+ can be applied to health monitoring and disease prevention.

IntroductionMetformin (MET) can regulate glucose and lipid levels, and the gut microbiota may be involved in the control of metabolism. We hypothesized that MET alleviates glucolipid metabolism disorder by modulating gut microbiota and microbial metabolites.Research design and methodsA total of 24 male C57BL/6 J mice were equally divided into three groups (normal control, model control (MC), and MET-treated groups). Model mice were established by feeding a high-fat diet for 6 weeks. The MET-treated group was administered MET solution (2.5 g/100 mL, 250 mg/kg). Fecal samples were collected to characterize the microbiota system using metagenomic shotgun sequencing and gas chromatography–time of flight–mass spectrometry analysis. Phenotypic and biochemical indices were obtained for further correlation analysis.ResultsCompared with the MC group, MET reduced the levels of weight, glucose, areas under the glucose curve in the glucose tolerance test, triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (TC). A decreasing abundance of bacteria, includingParabacteroides distasonis, and an increasing abundance of bacteria, includingBacteroides vulgatus, were observed in the MET-treated group. The 2-deoxytetronic acid declined after MET intervention and was positively correlated with species over-represented in the MC group and negatively correlated with species enriched in the MET-treated group. Additionally, species enriched in the MET-treated group negatively correlated with glucose, areas under the glucose curve in the glucose tolerance test, and TGs. Further, the correlation between the differential metabolites, which decreased after MET intervention, and the phenotypic indices was positive.ConclusionsMET-induced restoration of intestinal homeostasis correlates with the amelioration of host glucolipid metabolism.

Short video hot spot classification is a fundamental method to grasp the focus of consumers and improve the effectiveness of video marketing. The limitations of traditional short text classification are sparse content as well as inconspicuous feature extraction. To solve the problems above, this paper proposes a short video hot spot classification model combining latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) feature fusion and improved bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM), namely the LDA-BiLSTM-self-attention (LBSA) model, to carry out the study of hot spot classification that targets Carya cathayensis walnut short video review data under the TikTok platform. Firstly, the LDA topic model was used to expand the topic features of the Word2Vec word vector, which was then fused and input into the BiLSTM model to learn the text features. Afterwards, the self-attention mechanism was employed to endow different weights to the output information of BiLSTM in accordance with the importance, to enhance the precision of feature extraction and complete the hot spot classification of review data. Experimental results show that the precision of the proposed LBSA model reached 91.52%, which is significantly improved compared with the traditional model in terms of precision and F1 value.

The ecological health assessment of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands can provide decision-making basis for ecosystem restoration and management. We selected 20 typical lakes, reservoirs and wetlands sampling points in Tianjin, based on physical, chemical, and biological community indicators data (zooplankton, phytoplankton, benthos, fish, large aquatic plants, riparian plants) obtained during the survey from August to September 2018. We constructed an index of ecological integrity (IEI) including physical integrity, chemical integrity, and biological integrity to evaluate their ecological health. The reference points were selected based on three aspects using standardized methods: habitat environmental quality index (QHEI), water quality status, and disturbance of human activities. The analytic hierarchy process was used to calculate the weight of the three indicators. The evaluation results of the ecological integrity of typical lakes, reservoirs and wetlands in Tianjin were finally obtained. The results showed that: 1) Among all the samples, "healthy" points accounted for 5.0%, "good" points accounted for 20.0%, "general" points accounted for 35.0%, "worse" points accounted for 30.0%, and "poor" points accounted for 10.0%. Ecological health status of typical lakes, reservoirs and wetlands in Tianjin was at a general level, with a trend that the west was better than the east with significant spatial differences. 2) Reference points were selected based on the combination of habitat score, water quality conditions, and human activity disturbance. Water quality indicators could reduce subjectivity when selecting reference points and promote the application of ecological integrity evaluation. 3) The applicability verification results showed that IEI could better characterize the health status of each point, and the discrimination efficiency was obvious, which was suitable for evaluating the ecological health of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands.对湖库湿地进行生态健康评价,可为湖库湿地生态系统修复和管理提供决策依据。本文以天津市为例,选取20个典型的湖库湿地采样点,基于2018年8—9月期间调查获取的物理、化学和生物群落指标(浮游动物、浮游植物、底栖动物、鱼类、水生大型植物、河岸带植物)数据,构建包含物理完整性、化学完整性和生物完整性在内的生态完整性指数(IEI)对采样点生态健康状况进行评价。根据栖息地环境质量(QHEI)、水质状况和人类活动干扰3方面选取参照点,采用标准化方法筛选候选指标,应用层次分析法计算各指标权重,最终得出天津市典型湖库湿地生态完整性评价结果。结果表明: 1)所有样点中,“健康”点位占5.0%,“较好”点位占20.0%,“一般”点位占35.0%,“较差”点位占30.0%,“差”点位占10.0%。天津市典型湖库湿地生态健康状况整体处于一般水平,呈现出西部优于东部的趋势,空间差异显著;2)基于栖息地评分、水质状况与人类活动干扰相结合选取参照点是可行的,依据水质指标可降低选择参照点时的主观性;3)适用性验证结果表明,IEI可较好表征各点位的健康状况,区分效率明显,适用于评价研究区湖库湿地生态健康状况。.

In this study, Coprinopsisjilinensis and Coprinopsispusilla were introduced, based on their morphological characteristics, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit ribosomal (LSU) region sequences of nrDNA. These new psathyrelloid species were found in Jilin Province, China. Coprinopsisjilinensis has brown pileus, utriform pleurocystidia, brown, smooth, dextrinoid basidiospores and tiny pore. It mainly grows on humus. Coprinopsispusilla has small basidiomata, greyish-white pileus, thick and distinct veil at edges, subcolourless and verrucose basidiospores. It is poreless and it grows on the decaying wood of broad-leaved trees. Both of them belong to the C.sect.Melanthinae. A supplementary description of C.sect.Melanthinae was given in combination with the newly-discovered taxa and an identification key to the fourteen psathyrelloid species of Coprinopsis is provided. Coprinopsissect.Canocipes and C.sect.Quartoconatae were evaluated and the phylogenetic position of the psathyrelloid species of Coprinopsis was discussed. Psathyrellasubagraria, as a confusing species, was also discussed in this study.

A common approach to the problem of fruit detection in images is to design a deep learning network and train a model to locate objects, using bounding boxes to identify regions containing fruit. However, this requires sufficient data and presents challenges for small datasets. Transfer learning, which acquires knowledge from a source domain and brings that to a new target domain, can produce improved performance in the target domain. The work discussed in this paper shows the application of transfer learning for fruit detection with small datasets and presents analysis between the number of training images in source and target domains. This investigation is based on three datasets: two containing tomatoes and one containing strawberries. Experimental results indicate that transfer learning can enhance prediction with limited data.

We consider the singular linear statistic of the Laguerre unitary ensemble (LUE) consisting of the sum of the reciprocal of the eigenvalues. It is observed that the exponential generating function for this statistic can be written as a Toeplitz determinant with entries given in terms of particular [Formula: see text] Bessel functions. Earlier studies have identified the same determinant, but with the [Formula: see text] Bessel functions replaced by [Formula: see text] Bessel functions, as relating to the hard edge scaling limit of a generalized gap probability for the LUE, in the case of non-negative integer Laguerre parameter. We show that the Toeplitz determinant formed from an arbitrary linear combination of these two Bessel functions occurs as a [Formula: see text]-function sequence in Okamoto’s Hamiltonian formulation of Painlevé III[Formula: see text], and consequently the logarithmic derivative of both Toeplitz determinants satisfies the same [Formula: see text]-form Painlevé III[Formula: see text] differential equation, giving an explanation of a fact which can be observed from earlier results. In addition, some insights into the relationship between this characterization of the generating function, and its characterization in the [Formula: see text] limit, both with the Laguerre parameter [Formula: see text] fixed, and with [Formula: see text] (this latter circumstance being relevant to an application to the distribution of the Wigner time delay statistic), are given.

Cordyceps are notable medicinal fungi in China, which pathogenic on insects and with high biodiversity in tropical and subtropical regions. Recently, three new Cordyceps species, Cordyceps changchunensis and Cordyceps jingyuetanensis grow on pupae of Lepidoptera, and Cordyceps changbaiensis grows on larvae of Lepidoptera, and one new record of Northeast China, Cordyceps taishanensis, are found in Jilin Province, China and detailed descriptions were obtained based on morphological and ecological characteristics. These three new species are similar to Cordyceps militaris group but distinctly distinguishable from known species. Cordyceps changchunensis, characterised by its small and light yellow to orange stromata that forks-like occasionally, covered with white mycelium at base of stipe, globose to ovoid perithecia, is macroscopically similar to Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps changbaiensis clearly discriminated from other Cordyceps species by its white to orange and branched stromata, clavate to cylindrical fertile apical portion, immersed and globose to ovoid perithecia. Moreover, unbranched, clavate and orange to light red stromata, almond-shaped to ovoid and immersed perithecia differ Cordyceps jingyuetanensis from other Cordyceps species. ITS and nrLSU sequences are undertaken, and phylogenetic trees based on Maximum Likelihood analysis and Bayesian inference analysis confirmed the results of our morphological study. The phylogenetic result showed that the three new species gather with Cordyceps militaris but formed clades alone. Further analysis shows that the group of Cordyceps militaris mainly host on larvae of Lepidoptera.

Theoretical analysis and DEM simulations are combined to study the stress distribution in rhombic lattice packings of disks with friction. In theoretical study, the governing equations for stress transmission in the rhombic lattice packings are derived based on the hypothesis that the friction angles of different contacts have the same value. A method which is called simultaneous diagonalization is proposed to decouple the governing equations and the method of characteristic curves is used to derive the exact solutions. To investigate Janssen effect and the stress response of disk packings subjected to a point load in theory, the exact solutions are used to calculate the stress distribution in rhombic disk packings with lateral and top walls. The theoretical results show that the stress transmission in lattice packings can exhibit features of traveling wave with sources. The square root of Janssen coefficient plays a role of wave speed and the traveling stress wave will be reflected when it meets a wall and will be partially absorbed due to the friction between the wall and grains. DEM simulations show that our theoretical solutions could describe the main features of stress transmission in rhombic disk packings, but there are some differences between the DEM results and the theoretical results. The boundary conditions, the variation of friction angle with spatial position and the slightly distortion of rhombic structure are viewed as the main reasons for the differences.