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This study examines the production of third language (L3) German consonant clusters by 26 L1 Cantonese–L2 English bilinguals, with the aim of uncovering the possible cross-linguistic influences on L3 pronunciation. Learners' production of 17 onset and 21 coda German consonant clusters were auditorily analysed with respect to accuracy and error type. Findings showed that L3 pronunciation accuracy was affected by the similarities between each individual L3 consonant cluster and its possible correspondences in L1 Cantonese and L2 English. An L3 German consonant cluster that contained more Cantonese and English consonants would be produced more accurately, whereas an L3 consonant cluster that looked similar to English but mismatched with English orthography would generate production errors (e.g. kn [kn] → kn [n]). Individual variation between different L3 consonant clusters suggests that cross-linguistic influences on the L3 can occur from both the L1 and the L2 at the feature level and can be both positive and negative. At the same time, the study also shows that L3 speech is significantly influenced by markedness and language experience factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explores whether watching subtitled videos could facilitate L1 Chinese-L2 English speakers' perception of L2 English connected speech. Three hundred ninty seven Chinese college students of L2 English completed a video-based spot dictation task after watching English videos with or without L1/L2 subtitles, featuring various connected speech types (e.g., linking, deletion, and their combinations). Results suggested an overall facilitation effect of watching videos on L2 connected speech perception, which was modulated by proficiency, subtitle form, and the complexity of connected speech. First, subtitled videos were more facilitative than non-subtitled videos in L2 perception. Second, participants with higher L2 proficiency better perceived English connected speech than those with lower proficiency. Third, the more connective devices an item used, the more difficult it was for L2 perception. When this complexity was controlled, the L2 perception was not influenced by connected speech type. Finally, the complexity of connected speech also mediated the subtitle facilitation effects. When the connected speech involved triple connective devices, L2 speakers benefited more from L1 subtitles than L2 subtitles. The findings can provide insights into multi-modal speech perception and English connected speech learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a review of studies that have provided evidence supporting metaphorical embodiment. These studies are divided into three categories of behavioral, neuroimaging, and corpus studies. After summing up the findings of these studies, it is concluded that metaphorical embodiment is supported by these three lines of research. This is followed by a review of a number of studies that have measured sensorimotor and action effector strengths of various concepts. Then, the idea of sensorimotor and action effector strength of concepts is linked to metaphorical embodiment to present the main idea of the paper. Based on the findings of studies that have measured sensorimotor and action effector strengths of concepts, it is suggested that the degree of involvement of sensorimotor systems in mental simulation of metaphoric actions may not be at the same level in all metaphors. It depends on the sensorimotor strength of the base of the metaphor in various modalities. If the base of a metaphor has a high degree of perceptual strength in a certain modality, that modality plays the most important role in the processing of that metaphor, while other modalities take less important roles. In other words, depending on the sensorimotor strengths of the base of a metaphor in various modalities, those modalities have various levels of importance in the processing of that metaphor. If the base of the metaphor is weak in all modalities, modal resources can come into play to process that metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource utilization of a circular economy should reflect both economic and environmental values. Resource utility can be measured by GDP in the short term, while environmental value is challenging to measure; that is, the improvement in air quality is not effectively evaluated. In order to examine this initiative, using China's pilot cities of circular economy as a quasi-natural experiment, we construct a difference-in-difference (DID) strategy for estimation. The results demonstrate the following: (1) the pollutant emissions of pilot cities decline by 2.92 percentage points (p < 0.01) compared to unpiloted cities, (2) the policies on pilot cities more rapidly enhanced air quality for central cities and those with a low level of economic development, and (3) pilot cities significantly enhance air quality by decreasing energy consumption per unit of GDP. We provide the first empirical evidence of the effectiveness of circular economy pilot cities in improving air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TGF-β signaling pathway plays an important role in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation, embryonic development, bone formation, etc. LTBP1, THBS1, SMAD4 and other genes are important members of TGF-β signaling pathway. LTBP1 binds to TGF-β, while THBS1 binds to LTBP1, which is an important signal transduction molecule in the TGF-β pathway. In order to explore the effects of the insertion/deletion variation of three genes (LTBP1, THBS1, SMAD4) in the TGF-β signaling pathway on the growth traits such as body length and body weight of sheep, a total of 625 healthy individuals from 4 breeds of the Tong sheep, Hu sheep, small-tail Han sheep and Lanzhou fat-tail sheep were identified and analyzed. In this study, we identified 4 InDel loci: one loci of LTBP1, two loci of THBS1, and one loci of SMAD4, respectively named as: InDel-1 (deletion 13 bp), InDel-2 (deletion 16 bp), InDel-3 (deletion 22 bp), InDel-4 (deletion 7 bp). Among the 4 analyzed breeds, association analysis showed that all new InDel polymorphisms were significantly associated with 10 different growth traits (p < 0.05), which may provide a theoretical basis for sheep breeding to accelerate the progression of marker-assisted selection in sheep breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on bilingual visual word recognition have been mainly based on European participants, while less is understood about Asian populations. In this study, the recognition of German-English cognates and interlingual homographs in lexical decision tasks was examined in the two non-native languages of Cantonese-English-German trilinguals. In the L2 English task, cognates were reacted to faster and more accurately than their matched non-cognates, while in the equivalent L3 German task, no cognate facilitation effect was found. However, cognate facilitation effects on response time and accuracy were observed in another L3 German task including cognates and interlingual homographs. The study suggests that Asian trilinguals access L2 and L3 in a language non-selective manner, despite their low proficiency in the recently acquired L3. Meanwhile, lexical processing in a non-proficient L3 is to a great extent affected by multiple contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC) is an ideal repair material due to its rapid curing advantages, but the setting time is too short to be applied in practical applications. In this work, FeCl3⋅6H2O was incorporated to MKPC to reduce the hydration temperature and prolong the setting time. Comprehensive investigation was performed on the influence of FeCl3⋅6H2O on the hydration temperature, setting time, mechanical properties, water resistance and microstructure of MKPC. The results showed that during the hydration process, FeCl3⋅6H2O underwent a phase transition and absorbed part of the hydration heat, which delayed the hydration heat release rate and effectively extended the setting time. In addition, the incorporation of FeCl3⋅6H2O with suitable contents had a positive impact on the compressive strength and water resistance. Finally, the optimal content of FeCl3⋅6H2O was determined to be 1.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h‐BNNSs) refer to a class of two‐dimensional materials with promising applications. However, the current method of exfoliating hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) into h‐BNNS limits its large‐scale application. Herein, a method was developed to exfoliate h‐BN through sucrose assisted discontinuous, multiple ball milling. A series of defect‐free, ultra‐thin large lateral‐size h‐BNNSs were successfully obtained, with a yield as high as 85 wt %. Finally, the membranes of BNNS obtained by vacuum filtration displayed a good separation performance in different organic pigment solutions. The separation rates of BNNS‐20 membranes for methylene blue and Congo red reached 87 % and 95 %, respectively. The results show that the functionalized h‐BNNSs obtained by sucrose‐assisted discontinuation, multiple ball milling have good stability in water, and hence can be applied to wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aberrant expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) leads to the development of chemoresistance by regulating a series of biological processes, which is one of the major obstacles in the cancer treatment. This study aimed to identify some key lncRNAs that are associated with platinum-based chemoresistance in multiple cancers. Regulating the expression levels of these lncRNAs can enhance the sensitivity of patients to chemotherapy drugs and improve the therapeutic effect of cancer. By systematically analyzing 648 samples regarding platinum drug response from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we have identified 32 dysregulated lncRNAs across 11 cancer types that could affect platinum-based chemotherapy response, of which 78.125% (25/32) were significantly down-regulated in drug-resistant samples. Drug response prediction model that had been constructed based on the expression pattern of these dysregulated lncRNAs could accurately predict the chemotherapy response of tumor patients, and the area under the curve (AUC) was between 0.8034 and 0.9984. In particular, all of these dysregulated lncRNAs that we identified were cancer-specific. They were significantly associated with the survival of tumor patients and could serve as cancer-specific biomarkers for prognosis. In conclusion, this study will contribute to improving the drug resistance of tumor patients during chemotherapy, and it is of real significance for selecting effective chemotherapy drugs and achieving precision medicine. • Investigating the effect of lncRNAs on the response to platinum drugs is crucial in avoid the emergence of drug resistance. • We have identified 32 dysregulated lncRNAs across 11 cancer types that could affect platinum-based chemotherapy response. • Drug response prediction model can accurately predict the chemotherapy response of tumor patients. • All of 32 dysregulated lncRNAs are cancer-specific and have potential diagnostic and prognostic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, Tong sheep (TS) and Lanzhou fat-tailed sheep (LFTS) are two closely relative endanger breeds for low meat production and low fecundity, finding some marker-assisted selected (MAS) is our first priority for improving their growth traits. For this purpose, Hu sheep (HS) and small-tailed Han sheep (STHS) were compared with two endangered breeds (TS and LFTS). Paired-liked homeodomain transcription factor 2 (PITX2) gene was the important member of PITX family, which could adjust animal growth through hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. During the past years, insertion/deletion (indel) has become increasingly popular in application as MAS. In this study, two novel indel loci were identified, and five significant differences, including chest width, hip width, chest depth, chest circumference, and body height, were found between different breeds. Interestingly, there was no DD genotype and smaller number of ID genotye. All the ID genotypes were significantly greater than II genotype, which was to say the allele of “D” was dominant variation and its frequency was lower, which demonstrated that it has huge space for selection. Briefly, the two indel were potential and useful DNA markers for selecting excellent individuals in relation to growth traits in sheep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence indicates that mRNAs and noncoding RNAs act as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) and play a key role in tumorigenesis. However, the complex competitive relationship among genes remains unknown. In the present study, the long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), pseudogenes and mRNAs that compete with common microRNAs are defined as lncRNA–pseudogene–mRNA competitive triples. We find that some candidate ceRNAs, modules and triples are associated with cancers and can significantly divide patients into high‐risk and low‐risk groups; thus, they may serve as potential cancer biomarkers. In sum, the present study systematically analyzes the association between competitive triples and cancer, which provides a reference for a deeper understanding of cancer progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to be vital players in a majority of physiological and pathological processes, including tumorigenesis and tumor progression. The aim of this study was to identify lncRNAs that can serve as biomarkers for cancer prognosis. Based on dosage sensitivity, we utilized the biological features of known cancer-related lncRNAs, and identified microRNA and transcription factor (miRNA-TF) co-regulatory motifs in an effort to establish a holistic analysis framework and predict new cancer prognosis-associated lncRNAs. We found that lncRNAs with low dosage sensitivity regulated by more than 3 types of co-regulatory motifs were more likely to be associated with cancer. By the use of the integrative analysis of 3035 tumor samples across 9 types of cancer, a total of 33 cancer prognosis-associated lncRNAs were identified. Additionally, on the basis of the miRNA-TF co-regulatory network, we also predicted potential small molecule drugs such as Glucocorticoid and Ginsenoside Rh2 for treating KIRC by targeting miRNA. This study explains the causes of abnormalities in the genome from a new perspective, and provides new clues for cancer diagnosis and prognosis, and research for anti-cancer drugs.