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Recently, novel 2D InGeTe3 has been successfully synthesized and attracted attention due to its excellent properties.

In this paper, we investigate the possible deviations of the cosmic distance duality relation (CDDR) using the combination of the largest SNe Ia (Pantheon) and compact radio quasar (QSO) samples through two model-independent approaches. The deviation of CDDR is written as $D_L(z)/D_A(z)(1+z)^{-2}=\eta(z)$ and $\eta(z)=e^{\tau(z)/2}$, with the parameterizations of $F_1$ ($\tau(z) = 2\epsilon_1 z$) and $F_2$ ($\tau(z) = (1+z)^{2\epsilon_2}-1$). Furthermore, in order to compare the two resulting distances, two cosmological-model-independent methods, i.e., the nearby SNe Ia method and the GP method are employed to match the two distinct data at the same redshift. Our findings indicate that, compared with the results obtained in the literature, there is an improvement in precision when the latest SNe Ia and QSO samples are used. Specially, in the framework of nearby SNe Ia method, the CDDR would be constrained at the precision of $\Delta\epsilon_{1} = 0.013$ in Model $F_1$ and $\Delta\epsilon_{2}=0.018$ in Model $F_2$. Regarding the GP method, one observes that a larger data size would produce more stringent constraints on the CDDR parameters. Therefore, accompanied by further developments in cosmological observations and the analysis methods, our analysis provides an insight into the evidence for unaccounted opacity sources at an earlier stage of the universe, or at the very least the new physics involved., Comment: Accepted by CJP, 10 pages, 9 figures

Many studies emphasize the need of verbally representing pictorial metaphors, but few have empirically investigated whether and how the particular verbalization form match different types of pictorial metaphors. Using evoked response potentials (ERP), a 3 (pictorial structure: fusion, juxtaposition, literal image) × 2 [verbalization form: A是(is) B, A像(is like) B] within-group experiment was conducted among 36 participants. ERPs were time-locked to the onset of the verb [是/像(is/is like)] of the metaphor sentence that follows a pictorial metaphor to detect the verbo-pictorial incongruity in metaphor comprehension. The incongruity-based ERP analysis showed that pictorial metaphors, when verbalized in two forms, all induced frontal N1 effect, regardless of pictorial structures, only with a larger N1 amplitude for literal images in “A是(is) B.” A central stronger P2 was observed in “A像(is like) B” for three structures. Despite a general elicitation of posterior P3 in all conditions, a larger P3 was found for juxtapositions verbalized in “A像(is like) B” and for literal images verbalized in “A是(is) B.” There was no significant difference between two verbalization forms for fusion-structured pictorial metaphors. These findings suggest: (1) verbo-pictorial metaphors could induce incongruity-based attention; (2) higher verbo-pictorial semantic congruity and relatedness, indexed by stronger P2 and P3, confirmed “A像(is like) B” to be the more effective verbalization form in representing pictorial metaphors, specifically for juxtaposition-structured pictorial metaphors; (3) for non-metaphor advertising pictures, verbal metaphor showed an interference effect. The study not only reveals the neuro-cognitive mechanism of processing verbo-pictorial metaphors, but also offers neural reference for the design of effective multi-modal metaphor by finding an optimal match between PMs and verbalization forms.

Along with the intensification of global warming, severe desertification has already impaired human sustainable development. In a near-future greenhouse world, the total area of the desert will increase, and new types of deserts may emerge. During the “greenhouse” Cretaceous, conventional large paleo-deserts developed in broad topographic basins, and many possible deserts developed in small-scale intermontane basins, which are unusual in near-modern times and less studied. A comprehensive study of their sedimentology, mechanisms, and provenance would refine our interpretation of desertification and improve our understanding of the potential impact of future climate in arid and semi-arid regions in a near-future “greenhouse” world. The Xinjiang Basin is a typical intermontane basin in Southeast China that formed >300 m of successive aeolian deposits during the early Late Cretaceous, making it an ideal place to investigate the Sedimentological characteristics and formation mechanisms of intermontane deserts. In this study, we applied detailed sedimentary analyses to the aeolian deposits throughout the Xinjiang Basin and reconstructed a three-dimensional sedimentary model for the intermontane deserts. We confirmed the existence of the typical intermontane paleo-desert and summarized in detail the differences between intermontane deserts and broad topographic deserts. We noticed that the “greenhouse” state during the Late Cretaceous seems to have been suitable for the development of deserts in intermontane basins due to the hot, arid climate conditions and penetrating winds with sufficient transport capacity. In addition, the provenance analysis of the intermontane desert proved the ultra-long-distance aeolian sediment transport, and it may enable by the strengthening of intermittent westerly winds during short-lived glacial episodes and the presence of a low-relief corridor that served as a transport pathway from source to sink. Therefore, we suggest the emergence and development of intermontane deserts in a near-future “greenhouse” world would contribute to the global desert expansion and massive desertification.

Climate paleogeography refers to adding climatic information to traditional paleogeographic maps by using paleoclimate classifications. Here we present a series of global paleo-Köppen climate maps from 250 Ma to 0 Ma (per 10 million years) with a high resolution based on the quantitative paleoclimate data simulated by Li et al. (2022). Based on these maps, we evaluate the areal and latitudinal evolutions of paleo-Köppen climate belts during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic. Based on an updated classification that divides “Hothouse”, “Greenhouse”, and “Icehouse” states by global average temperature, we evaluate the areal, latitudinal, and altitudinal characteristics of the paleo-Köppen climate belts for different climate states.

Quantum coherence is the basic concept of superposition of quantum states and plays an important role in quantum metrology. We show how a pair of uniformly accelerated observers with a local two-mode Gaussian quantum state affects the Gaussian quantum coherence. We find that the quantum coherence decreases with increasing acceleration, which is due to the Unruh effect that destroys the quantum resource. Essentially, the variation of quantum coherence is caused by the modes mismatch between the input and output mode. Through 2000 randomly generated states, we demonstrate that such mismatch is dominated by the acceleration effect and mildly affected by the waveform parameters. Moreover, the squeezing parameter acted as a suppressor of the reduced coherence, but it tended to be invalid in the high squeezing. In addition, the squeezing parameter can act as a suppressor of the reduced coherence, but the effect of the squeezing parameter tends to be ineffective under high squeezing conditions., 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The European Physical Journal Plus

The possibility that primordial black holes (PBHs) form a part of dark matter has been considered over a wide mass range from the Planck mass ($10^{-5}~\rm g$) to the level of the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. Primordial origin might be one of the most important formation channel of supermassive black holes. We use the non-detection of lensing effect of very long baseline interferometer observations of compact radio sources with extremely high angular resolution as a promising probe to constrain the abundance of intergalactic PBHs in the mass range $\sim10^4$-$10^9~M_{\odot}$. For a sample of well-measured 543 flat-spectrum compact radio sources, no milli-lensed images are found with angular separations between $1.5$ milli-arcseconds and $50$ milli-arcseconds. From this null search result, we derive that the fraction of dark matter made up of supermassive PBHs in the mass range $\sim10^6$-$10^8~M_{\odot}$ is $\lesssim1.48\%$ at $95\%$ confidence level. This constraints would be significantly improved due to the rapid increase of the number of measured compact radio sources. For instance, on the basis of none confirmed milli-lensing candidate in the latest $\sim14000$ sources, we derive the abundance of supermassive PBHs and obtain that it is $\lesssim0.06\%$ at $95\%$ confidence level., 8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by MNRAS

Prepositions are the most active words in English. Since the late 20th century, linguists have made some deep and comprehensive studies about the polysemy of prepositions. Especially, the emergency of cognitive linguistics offers a new perspective for the study of prepositions. Under the framework of cognitive linguistics, this paper will analyze the preposition “through” from six domains by means of cognitive theories, including prototype theory, image schema theory and conceptual metaphor. It is found that the prototypical meaning of “through” is its spatial meaning. And the extension of the word is achieved with the aid of source-path-goal schema and spatial metaphor from the spatial domain to non-spatial domains. Based on these findings, a conclusion is drawn that all the non-prototypical meanings of one particular preposition are derived from its prototypical meaning and the study of the prototypical meaning is of great significance to the acquisition of English preposition meaning.

A 3D N-doped ordered honeycomb nanostructure with Pt active sites (Pt/N-OHC), precisely controlled by the self-assembly of a block copolymer, provides a four-electron (4-e) transfer pathway and improved activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).

Deserts are among the most important terrestrial sedimentary environments and have existed in all periods throughout Earth’s history. In contrast to modern deserts, the ability to quantitatively evaluate the area and desertification degrees of ancient deserts is limited due to the lack of unambiguous proxies. Dune morphology and their spatial arrangements directly reflect the degree of desertification of deserts. Recently, a methodology for obtaining the morphological parameters of dunes was established, although it has not been applied to ancient dunes and deserts in deep time. In the Ordos Basin, both the Early Cretaceous desert and modern deserts (Hobq Desert and Mu Us Desert) were well developed and exposed, which makes the Ordos Basin an ideal place to quantitatively evaluate the paleo-desert based on the proposed methodology. In this study, a total of 698 and 1,490 morphological parameters reflecting the Early Cretaceous desert and modern deserts in the Ordos Basin were obtained, respectively. For the Ordos paleo-desert, our results show that its area was larger and its degree of desertification was more severe than those of modern mid-latitude deserts, including the modern desert in the Ordos Basin, but were similar to those of the modern low-latitude deserts. Our results, therefore, suggest that the Ordos paleo-desert was a non-negligible and large desert during an interval of Earth’s history. Since the other controlling factors, such as regional geography and sources of both the ancient and modern deserts in the Ordos Basin, have remained nearly unchanged, we speculate that it may have been the relatively high temperature, high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and relatively low precipitation during the greenhouse period (i.e., Early Cretaceous) that led to the large area and severe degree of desertification of the Ordos paleo-desert.

The recently proposed Skordis-Z\l{}o\'{s}nik theory is the first relativistic MOND theory that can recover the success of the standard $\Lambda$CDM model at matching observations of the cosmic microwave background. This paper aims to revisit the Newtonian and MOND approximations and the gravitational wave analysis of the theory. For the local gravitational parameters, we show that one could obtain both time-varying effective Newtonian gravitational \textit{constant} $G_\textrm{N}$ and time-varying characteristic MOND acceleration scale $a_\textrm{MOND}$, by relaxing the static assumption extensively adopted in the literature. Specially, we successfully demonstrate how to reproduce the redshift dependence of $a_\textrm{MOND}$ observed in the \textit{Magneticum} cold dark matter simulations. For the gravitational waves, we show that there are only two tensor polarizations, and reconfirm that its speed is equal to the speed of light., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, published in Phys. Rev. D. This version corrects the footnote citation numbers [48,49,63] in the main text. The PRD published version also misquotes the relevant citation numbers

Kiwifruit is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop with extremely high contents of vitamin C. However, the previously released versions of kiwifruit genomes all have a mass of unanchored or missing regions. Here, we report a highly continuous and completely gap-free reference genome of Actinidia chinensis cv. ‘Hongyang’, named Hongyang v4.0, which is the first to achieve two de novo haploid-resolved haplotypes, HY4P and HY4A. HY4P and HY4A have a total length of 606.1 and 599.6 Mb, respectively, with almost the entire telomeres and centromeres assembled in each haplotype. In comparison with Hongyang v3.0, the integrity and contiguity of Hongyang v4.0 is markedly improved by filling all unclosed gaps and correcting some misoriented regions, resulting in ~38.6–39.5 Mb extra sequences, which might affect 4263 and 4244 protein-coding genes in HY4P and HY4A, respectively. Furthermore, our gap-free genome assembly provides the first clue for inspecting the structure and function of centromeres. Globally, centromeric regions are characterized by higher-order repeats that mainly consist of a 153-bp conserved centromere-specific monomer (Ach-CEN153) with different copy numbers among chromosomes. Functional enrichment analysis of the genes located within centromeric regions demonstrates that chromosome centromeres may not only play physical roles for linking a pair of sister chromatids, but also have genetic features for participation in the regulation of cell division. The availability of the telomere-to-telomere and gap-free Hongyang v4.0 reference genome lays a solid foundation not only for illustrating genome structure and functional genomics studies but also for facilitating kiwifruit breeding and improvement.

The ω-phase precipitates in β-Ti alloys increase the strength but significantly degrade the ductility of the alloys. In the present work, the mechanism of ω-strengthening and embrittlement is investigated by using a first principles method based on density functional theory. The generalized stacking fault energies of various slip systems in both the β and ω phases are calculated. The strengthening and embrittlement effects of the ω phase are discussed by comparing the slip energy barriers of slip systems in the β and ω phases with different orientation relationships. It is found that the slip energy barriers of slip systems in the ω phase, except for $$(\bar 2020){[0001]_\omega },$$ are much higher than those of slip systems in the β phase, which explains the ω-strengthening and embrittlement effects. The slip energy barrier of the most active slip system in the phase, $$(\bar 2020){[0001]_\omega },$$ increases with the depletion of Mo and increasing extent of structure collapse, suggesting that aging treatment enhances the -strengthening and embrittlement effects.

Compared to the processing of the words alone, the processing of Chinese two-character words in sentences will be closer to a natural scenario, and the understanding of the sentence will be influenced by both linguistic contexts and the non-linguistic contexts. This study, in a moving-window self-paced word-by-word sentence reading task, experimentally explored the processing of Chinese sentences with emotional two-character words using reversible words and reaction time as materials and index respectively. The experimental results showed that emotional words may facilitate the processing of its following two words; there might exist subsequent processing in the third word behind the emotional word; there might exist lexical access and whole-word access, processing of morpheme positioned information in the processing of Chinese two-character words in sentence reading; the processing of Chinese two-character words may be similar with that of word alone. This study expands the research of Chinese emotional two-character words processing.

In this paper, we present a model-independent approach to calibrate the largest quasar sample. Calibrating quasar samples is essentially constraining the parameters of the linear relation between the $\log$ of the ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray luminosities. This calibration allows quasars to be used as standardized candles. There is a strong correlation between the parameters characterizing the quasar luminosity relation and the cosmological distances inferred from using quasars as standardized candles. We break this degeneracy by using Gaussian process regression to model-independently reconstruct the expansion history of the Universe from the latest type Ia supernova observations. Using the calibrated quasar dataset, we further reconstruct the expansion history up to redshift of $z\sim 7.5$. Finally, we test the consistency between the calibrated quasar sample and the standard $\rm{\Lambda}CDM$ model based on the posterior probability distribution of the GP hyperparameters. Our results show that the quasar sample is in good agreement with the standard $\rm{\Lambda}CDM$ model in the redshift range of the supernova, despite of mildly significant deviations taking place at higher redshifts. Fitting the standard $\rm{\Lambda}CDM$ model to the calibrated quasar sample, we obtain a high value of the matter density parameter $\Omega_m = 0.382^{+0.045}_{-0.042}$, which is marginally consistent with the constraints from other cosmological observations., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

The invariance of the speed of light in the distant universe has profound significance for fundamental physics. In this paper, we propose a new model-independent method to test the invariance of the speed of light $c$ at different redshifts by combining the strong gravitational lensing (SGL) systems and the observations of type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). All the quantities used to test the deviation of $c$ come from the direct observations, and the absolute magnitudes of SNe Ia need not to be calibrated. Our results show that the speed of light in the distant universe is no obvious deviation from the constant value $c_0$ within the uncertainty based on current observations. Moreover, we conclude that the currently compiled SGL and SNe Ia Pantheon samples may achieve much higher precision $\Delta c/c\sim10^{-2}$ for the deviation of $c$ than all previously considered approaches. The forthcoming data from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time and Wide-Field InfraRed Space Telescope will achieve more stringent testing for deviation of the SOL (at the level of $\Delta c/c \sim10^{-3}$) by using our model-independent method. Finally, we discuss the potential ways in which our technique might be improved, focusing on the treatment of possible sources of systematic uncertainties., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Objective: To report concave-side distraction technique to treat congenital cervical scoliosis in lower cervical and cervicothoracic spine. To evaluate and compare clinical and radiographic results of this procedure with classic hemivertebra resection procedure.Methods: This study reviewed 29 patients in last 13 years. These patients were divided into convex-side resection group (group R) and concave-side distraction group (group D). Radiographic assessment was based on parameter changes preoperatively, postoperatively and at last follow-up. Demographic data, surgical data and complications were also evaluated and compared between the 2 groups.Results: In group R, mean age was 8.9 ± 3.3 years and follow-up was 46 ± 18 months. Operation time and blood loss averaged 500 ± 100 minutes, 703 ± 367 mL. In group D, mean age was 9.9 ± 2.8 years and follow-up was 34 ± 14 months. Operation time and blood loss averaged 501 ± 112 minutes, 374 ± 181 mL. Structural Cobb angle was corrected from 29.4° ± 12.5° to 5.3° (2.1°–18.1°) (p = 0.001) and 33.7° ± 14.1° to 12.8° ± 11.4° (p < 0.001) in groups R and D. Compensatory Cobb angle had a spontaneous correction rate of 59.6% (40.0%–80.8%) and 59.7% ± 23.0% in groups R and D. Mandibular incline, clavicle angle and spine coronal balance were significantly improved at last follow-up in both groups. All correction rates were not statistically different between groups. However, group D had significant less blood loss (p < 0.001) and operation time (p = 0.004) per vertebra than group R. Seven patients developed C5 nerve root palsy and recovered by 6 months of follow-up.Conclusion: Both surgical procedures are safe and effective in correcting congenital cervical scoliosis. But concave-side distraction technique has less blood loss and time-consuming during surgery, which provides a better option for the treatment of congenital cervical scoliosis.

Apomixis, or asexual seed formation, is prevalent in Citrinae via a mechanism termed nucellar or adventitious embryony. Here, multiple embryos of a maternal genotype form directly from nucellar cells in the ovule and can outcompete the developing zygotic embryo as they utilize the sexually derived endosperm for growth. Whilst nucellar embryony enables the propagation of clonal plants of maternal genetic constitution, it is also a barrier to effective breeding through hybridization. To address the genetics and evolution of apomixis in Citrinae, a chromosome-level genome of the Hongkong kumquat (Fortunella hindsii) was assembled following a genome-wide variation map including structural variants (SVs) based on 234 Citrinae accessions. This map revealed that hybrid citrus cultivars shelter genome-wide deleterious mutations and SVs into heterozygous states free from recessive selection, which may explain the capability of nucellar embryony in most cultivars during Citrinae diversification. Analyses revealed that parallel evolution may explain the repeated origin of apomixis in different genera of Citrinae. Within Fortunella, we found that apomixis of some varieties originated via introgression. In apomictic Fortunella, the locus associated with apomixis contains the FhRWP gene, encoding an RWP-RK domain-containing protein previously shown to be required for nucellar embryogenesis in Citrus. We found the heterozygous SV in the FhRWP and CitRWP promoters from apomictic Citrus and Fortunella, due to either two or three miniature inverted transposon element (MITE) insertions. A transcription factor, FhARID, encoding an AT-rich interaction domain-containing protein binds to the MITEs in the promoter of apomictic varieties, which facilitates induction of nucellar embryogenesis. This study provides evolutionary genomic and molecular insights into apomixis in Citrinae and has potential ramifications for citrus breeding.

In this paper, we quantify the ability of multiple measurements of high-redshift quasars (QSOs) to constrain several theories of modified gravity, including the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati braneworld scenario, generalized Chaplygin gas, $f(T)$ modified gravity, and Modified Polytropic Cardassian model. Recently released sample of 1598 quasars with X-ray and UV flux measurements in the redshift range of $0.036\leq z \leq 5.1003$, as well as a compilation of 120 intermediate-luminosity radio quasars covering the redshift of $0.46 < z < 2.76$ are respectively used as standard probes at higher redshifts. For all considered modified gravity theories, our results show that there is still some possibility that the standard $��$CDM scenario might not be the best cosmological model preferred by the current quasar observations. In order to improve cosmological constraints, the quasar data are also combined with the latest observations of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), which strongly complement the constraints. Finally, we discuss the support given by the data to modified gravity theories, applying different information theoretic techniques like the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD)., 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term clinical and radiographic outcomes of cervical arthroplasty using the ProDisc-C Vivo prosthesis. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Previous reports have shown that cervical arthroplasty with ProDisc-C artificial disc has acceptable clinical outcomes at 5-year and 10-year follow-ups. METHODS Clinical and radiographic evaluations, including dynamic flexion-extension lateral images, were performed at baseline and at the 5-year follow-up. RESULTS Twenty-eight patients who underwent single-level ProDisc-C Vivo arthroplasty were followed-up for a mean period of 65 months. The range of motion at the operated level was 8.9 ± 2.3° at baseline and 8.3 ± 4.8° at the final follow-up (p = 0.494). Fourteen of 28 levels (50%) developed heterotopic ossification (HO). According to McAfee's classification, one level was classified as grade I, nine levels as grade II, two levels as grade III, and two levels as grade IV. Only four of 28 levels (14.3%) had severe HO. Among patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy, mJOA score was 13.9 ± 2.5° at baseline and 15.9 ± 1.0° at the final follow-up (p = 0.001

Fabricating conductive graphene films by assembling graphene oxide (GO) sheets is highly desired for many applications, however a very high temperature around 3000 K is usually required to repair the sp2 structure for traditional thermal annealing. Here, an electric field assisted Joule heating method was developed to repair the sp2 structure in GO at a temperature lower than 1500 oC. The resulting free-standing graphene film shows a high electrical conductivity (~ 1840 S/cm) and high C/O ratio (132), both of which are much higher than those of thermally reduced GO films under the same temperature. These findings provide new possibilities for fabricating high-quality graphene films in an energy-efficient and low-cost manner.

Although investigating metaphors in advertising is gaining in popularity, there are still certain unresolved arguments, such as the interaction between elements of different modalities. This study, composed of three behavioral experiments, aims to identify how verbal anchoring (literal anchoring, metaphor anchoring and unrelated anchoring) influences the processing of pictorial metaphors in advertising, by observing the cognitive and affective indicators, advertising comprehension and advertising likeability. The results showed 1) that metaphors in pictorial modality were recognized more quickly than those in verbal modality, 2) that verbal anchoring facilitated participants ’ comprehending and appreciating of pictorial metaphors and 3) that literally-anchored metaphors with a moderate level of novelty yielded the most favorable cognitive responses. The study not only enriches the existing theoretical framework of multimodal metaphors in advertising, but also proposes an optimal match between pictorial metaphors and verbal elements, for advertisers and manufacturers to design effective multimodal advertisements.