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The common presence of glycidyl esters (GEs) in refined vegetable oils has been a concern for food safety. The present study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of three carotenoids derived from Haematococcus pluvialismicroalga on GE formation in both rice oil and a chemical model during heating. The addition of astaxanthin (AS), lutein (LU), and β-carotene (CA) at 0.6 mg/g in rice oil can reduce GE formation by 65.0%, 57.1%, and 57.5%, respectively, which are significantly higher than those achieved by common antioxidants such as l-ascorbyl palmitate (39.0%), α-tocopherol (18.5%), tert-butyl hydroquinone (42.7%), and quercetin (26.2%). UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS analysis showed that two new compounds, that is, propylene glycol monoester and diester of palmitic acid, were formed in the CA-added chemical model, which provided direct experimental evidence for the inhibition of antioxidants including AS, LU, and CA against GE formation not only by indirect antioxidative action but also by direct radical reactions to competitively prevent the formation of cyclic acyloxonium intermediates. Furthermore, it was interestingly found that only AS could react with the GEs. The adduct of AS with GEs, astaxanthin-3-O-propanetriol esters, was preliminarily identified using Q-TOF-MS/MS in the heated AS-GE model, suggesting that reacting with GEs might represent another distinct mechanism of AS to eliminate GEs.

We report 1 kV vertical P-i-N power diodes (PNDs) based on ultra-wide bandgap high-Al-composition (HAC) Al0.47Ga0.53N heterostructures grown on sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). A p-type AlGaN layer with linearly graded Al composition is inserted between the p-type Al0.47Ga0.53N and p-GaN layer to leverage the polarization-enhanced p-doping effect and alleviate the fast strain relaxation during the growth of p-GaN on lattice mismatched HAC p-AlGaN layer. The vertical HAC AlGaN PNDs exhibit a low ideality factor of 2.3, a high on/off ratio (ION/I $_{\text {OFF}}\text {)}$ of $\sim 10^{{9}}$ and a remarkable reverse breakdown voltage of 1032 V, which is significantly enhanced compared to the reported AlGaN-based vertical PNDs. These results provide compelling evidence and significant potential of utilizing ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN material in the fabrication of high-voltage and high-power vertical devices.

This paper reports a strong robustness MEMS QMG with the parallel coupled structure design, for the first time. The motions of the four masses of the gyroscope in the drive and sense directions are coupled and connected through different rings to achieve the parallel coupled effect. We demonstrated that the parallel coupled QMG has stronger robustness by numerical analysis, FEA and experiments. We study the kinematic equations of the parallel coupled QMG and compare it with the serial coupled QMG to analyze the effect of the difference in stiffness matrices and damping mismatch on the gyroscope performance and carry out numerical analyses under the conditions of stiffness mismatch and external vibration, and the results show that the parallel coupled QMG has stronger stiffness robustness and vibration robustness. We applied accelerations of different magnitudes and directions to the parallel and serial QMG to simulate the external loads, and the results show that the bandwidth of the parallel QMG is almost unaffected by the acceleration. We fabricated the parallel coupled QMG prototype using the SOG process, and designed circuits to test the performance. The results indicate that the gyroscope is sensitive to small input angles with $\mathrm {0.0603 ^{\circ }/s/\surd Hz}$ ARW and 0.0135∘/s BI at 162 Hz frequency mismatch and $30~^{\circ }$ C temperature compensation. Moreover, the frequency and quality factor of the parallel QMG are little affected by temperature and the bandwidth remains almost constant with good temperature robustness. These results indicate that the parallel structure has the potential to deliver better performance. [2024-0021]

Due to their programmable stimuli-responsiveness, excellent biocompatibility, and water-rich and soft structures similar to biological tissues, smart DNA hydrogels hold great promise for biosensing and biomedical applications. However, most DNA hydrogels developed to date are composed of randomly oriented and isotropic polymer networks, and the resulting slow response to biotargets and lack of anisotropic properties similar to those of biological tissues have limited their extensive applications. Herein, anisotropic DNA hydrogels consisting of unidirectional void channels internally oriented up to macroscopic length scales were constructed by a directional cryopolymerization method, as exemplified by a DNA-incorporated covalently cross-linked DNA cryogel and a DNA duplex structure noncovalently cross-linked DNA cryogel. Results showed that the formation of unidirectional channels significantly improved the responsiveness of the gel matrix to biomacromolecular substances and further endowed the DNA cryogels with anisotropic properties, including anisotropic mechanical properties, anisotropic swelling/shrinking behaviors, and anisotropic responsiveness to specific biotargets. Moreover, the abundant oriented and long macroporous channels in the gel matrix facilitated the migration of cells, and through the introduction of aptamer structures and thermosensitive polymers, an anisotropic DNA cryogel-based platform was further constructed to achieve the highly efficient capture and release of specific cells. These anisotropic DNA hydrogels may provide new opportunities for the development of anisotropic separation and biosensing systems.

•Infection with drug-resistant bacteria decreased IMI and MEM PK/PD target attainment.•IMI concentration was associated with the ICU stay.•MEM concentration was not associated with ICU stay but associated with effectiveness.•Elevated doses of IMI and MEM should be given to patients with drug-resistant bacteria infection.

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Environmental remediation based on persulfate (i.e., peroxomonosulfate (PMS) and peroxydisulfate (PDS))-activation-enabled radical and non-radical oxidation has captured growing interest due to the strong oxidation power, long life of reactive oxygen species, and wide pH adaptability. While metal-based catalysts suffer from environmental problems (e.g., metal ion leaching), metal-free carbocatalysts become the focus of current activities for establishing environmentally benign and efficient carbocatalyst-driven PMS/PDS-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). However, the complex structure and nonstoichiometry of carbocatalysts cause the decoding of their active sites and associated pathways in activating persulfates and degrading pollutants to be challenging. Moreover, the ambiguous active sites and structure–activity–performance relationships, as well as the inability to differentiate the oxidation capabilities based on different reaction pathways, present an enormous obstacle to designing and fabricating highly active and durable carbocatalysts for PMS/PDS-based AOPs. Hereby, this paper makes an effort to unravel the catalytic sites of carbocatalysts and their associated pathways in PMS/PDS-based AOPs. Apart from various non-doped active sites, we summarize the diverse active sites induced by single-doping, dual-doping, and tri-doping carbon substrates with different kinds of heteroatoms. Meanwhile, the relationships between these active sites and associated pathways in PMS/PDS-based AOPs are simultaneously analyzed before presenting the challenges and future perspectives.

Multihop question answering (QA) over knowledge graph (KG) poses significant challenges in the context of industrial processes, due to the intricate semantics of natural language queries and the obscure relationships among triples in the KG. This article presents a multihop fault diagnosis (FD) QA framework based on KG reasoning and decision, called KG-MQA. It consists of three modules: 1) the embedding module is designed to learn representations of queried questions and encode entities and relationships within the input FD KG; 2) the KG reasoning module is proposed to learn to reason candidate answers based on query entities and context; and 3) the answer decision module is applied to obtain final answer by leveraging the attention mechanism to compute the attention scores between the input question and candidate answers. Extensive experiments have been conducted on the dataset from a hot rolling line, and our KG-MQA achieves an average accuracy of 95.7%, surpassing other state-of-the-art models. Ablation studies demonstrate the efficiency of KG-MQA in helping users obtain equipment fault-related information from massive data through the professional knowledge structure. It facilitates reasoning during data queries to efficiently provide multiple rounds of QA for equipment FD in hot rolling lines.

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Water injection and oil production often lead to significant surface deformations in oilfields. Such geological hazards are substantial potential threats to both the oilfield and its surrounding infrastructure. Liaohe oilfield is China’s largest production base for heavy and high-viscosity oil. It has a long history of surface deformation in its core production area near the Bohai Bay. Multitemporal synthetic aperture radar interferometry (MT-InSAR) offers long-term monitoring capabilities and has previously been used to monitor deformations in Liaohe oilfield. However, quantitative analysis of deformation-driving factors is less common in previous studies, and investigations are limited to data up until 2021. Continuous monitoring and analysis of deformation patterns and influencing factors in this region are of crucial practical importance. In this study, we acquired the latest long-term deformation data and the driving factors in Liaohe oilfield via MT-InSAR. For the first time, a quantitative analysis of deformation-driving factors was performed, and the ultra-long-term (from 1958 to 2023) deformation data with respect to Liaohe oilfield were collected and analyzed to interpret the deformation characteristics, variation tendency, and influencing factors. We employed 217 Sentinel-1A/B SAR images from 2019 to 2023 to calculate the deformation rates and cumulative deformations in this area. The results revealed three subsidence funnels and one uplift area, with deformation rates ranging from [−152, 41] mm/year and [−182, 51] mm/year (negative values indicating subsidence and positive values indicating uplift) for the ascending and descending datasets, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the cumulative deformation sequence for extracting the primary components. The PCA results, groundwater data, and precipitation data were utilized for a quantitative analysis of primary deformation-driving factors. The analysis results indicate that the surface deformations exhibit a strongly linear trend mainly due to oilfield exploitation, coupled with slight variations related to precipitation and groundwater extraction. By integrating historical deformation information with the monitored results, the development process of the surface deformation was investigated and divided into six stages. This process was related to the oil energy demand, extraction techniques, and reservoir compaction phases. This study contributes to understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of surface deformation in the Liaohe oilfield and the driving factors, and it provides valuable insights for similar research in other oilfields.

There is increasing interest in developing quinoa products due to their unique nutritional value. Starch and protein are the primary components in quinoa, and the interaction between them affects the quality of quinoa products. This study extracted the starch and protein from quinoa and simulated the thermal processing of quinoa to investigate the effects of starch on the solubility and structure of quinoa protein isolates during heat treatment. The structure of quinoa protein isolates was characterized by fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, laser particle size analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that starch decreased protein solubility, and the maximum solubility was obtained after heating for 5 min. After starch addition during heat treatment, the surface charge distribution of protein changed, the degree of protein aggregation increased, the particle size of proteins increased, the thermal stability increased, and the β-sheet ratio of the proteins increased, suggesting that the protein structure is more ordered, which is the structural foundation of protein solubility decreasing. The research about the interaction between starch and protein and the effects on the solubility of protein could provide a reference for quinoa products processing.

Women with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) receive less guideline-recommended therapy and experience worse quality of life than men.

Cuttings particles of different sizes in the drilling fluid are the leading cause of wear at the casing and drill pipe joints, and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have excellent research potential in reducing tool wear due to their ultra-low friction coefficient and high wear resistance. In this paper, a corresponding molecular dynamics model was developed using LAMMPS to investigate the effect of silica particles of different particle sizes on the friction and wear mechanisms of Fe/DLC friction pairs at the microscale. The results show that small cuttings particles in a dry environment are more likely to cause interface wear between the casing and drill pipe joint, while in a water environment, the opposite is true. The main reason is that small particles in a dry environment have smaller contact areas and greater indentation depth, leading to greater wear at the friction interface. The movement of water molecules in the water environment will promote the composite movement of large particles, thereby exacerbating the wear of the interface. Moreover, the relevant research results at the micro-scale indicate that DLC films can effectively reduce wear, which provides theoretical support for its application in drill pipe joints.

In this paper, the frictional behaviors of Fe–Cr alloys in the lubricating effect of oil-based lubricant are investigated through reactive molecular dynamics. It is shown that the oil-based lubricant achieves ultralow friction through hydrodynamic lubrication by linear alpha olefin (C8H16) and passivation of the friction pairs by hydrogen gas (H2) and free H atoms generated by the friction chemistry. Moreover, there is a critical value for the transition of the crystal structure of Fe–Cr alloy from body-centered cubic (Bcc) to amorphous structure (Other), leading to a dramatic change in friction. Meanwhile, a sliding interface consisting of a large number of amorphous structures is formed near the rigid layer, which keeps the friction force stable.

Pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment is currently a hot spot in food science research. The improvement and regulation of protein structure and physicochemical properties after PEF treatment are a new development in its processing technology. This study aimed to clarify the effects of moderate‐intensity PEF treatment on the structure and physicochemical properties of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) prolamin and its action rules. PEF treatment changed the spatial conformation of millet prolamin, increased its hydrophobicity and solubility in alcohol solution, but did not change the subunit composition distribution. It also promoted the increase in soluble aggregates, resulting in an increase in protein particle size. The α‐helix content of the protein decreased, the β‐sheet content increased, the number of disulfide bonds increased, and the protein structure became more orderly after treatment. The results showed that the structure and physicochemical properties of millet prolamin significantly changed after the moderate‐intensity PEF treatment. The increased hydrophobicity of prolamin makes it a strong future candidate in medicinal excipients, food packaging materials, and biodegradable polymers.

The Chinese economy upheld a frail recovery in 2022 under the triple superposition of contraction of demand, disruption in supply, and weakening expectations, aggravated by unanticipated adverse shocks in the midst of global turmoil. Over the year, rising income uncertainty set off by the pandemic shock continued depressing household consumption and housing demand. Trade also saw slowing growth, along with consumption and investment, with sluggish residential investment awaiting policy stimulus to take force. Unemployment rate remained high, and was much higher for youth engendered by severe structural imbalances in the labor market. Local government debt burden worsened while revenue shrinking, only to exacerbate the local fiscal financial risk. It fared better on the price side. While growth in producer price index kept falling, consumer price index maintained steady growth. Renminbi depreciated against USD through fluctuations with larger swings, but the exchange rate remained in a manageable band. The Institute for Advanced Research‐China Macroeconomic Model projects the baseline growth rate in real gross domestic product to be 5.4% in 2023. We have also used the model to conduct alternative scenario analyses and policy simulations to assess the impacts of potential downside risks or favorable situations. Our findings call for a focus on economic construction with deepening reform and opening up more comprehensively and initiatively. Only by doing so can China spur market vitality, strengthen business confidence, and forge competitive advantages.

Whether a graphitization mechanism can control the low-friction behavior of DLC films is still controversial. In this paper, we establish the molecular dynamics model of the DLC film with graphene (DLC-GR-DLC) by LAMMPS and study the influence of the graphitization mechanism on the friction and wear behavior of the DLC film. The friction force of the DLC-GR-DLC model in the running-in stage is significantly smaller than that of the DLC film and then gradually increases to the same size as that of the DLC film. Further analysis indicates that the graphitization mechanism could indeed reduce the shear stress of the friction interface when graphene remains intact. However, the curling and breaking of the graphene structure will lead to an increase in shear force at the friction interface.

Ensartinib (X-396) is a second-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) indicated for the treatment of ALK-positive patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small cell lung cancer. Although in vitro experiments and molecular docking suggested its potential as a cytochrome P450 inhibitor, no further investigation or clinical trials have been conducted to assess its drug–drug interaction (DDI) risk. In this study, we conducted a series of in vitro experiments to elucidate the inhibition mechanism of ensartinib. Furthermore, a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was developed based on in vitro, in silico, and in vivo parameters, verified using clinical data, and applied to predict the clinical DDI mediated by ensartinib. The in vitro incubation experiments suggested that ensartinib exhibited strong time-dependent inhibition. Simulation results from the PBPK model indicated a significant increase in the exposure of CYP3A substrates in the presence of ensartinib, with the maximal plasma concentration and area under the plasma concentration-time curve increasing up to 12-fold and 29-fold for sensitive substrates. Based on these findings, it is evident that co-administration of ensartinib and CYP3A substrates requires careful regulatory consideration.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTEnsartinib was found to be a strong time-dependent inhibitor of CYP3A for the first time based on in vitro experiments, but there was no research conducted to estimate the risk of drug–drug interaction (DDI) of ensartinib in clinic. Therefore, the first ensartinib physiologically based pharmacokinetic model was developed and applied to predict various untested scenarios. The simulation result indicated that the exposure of CYP3A substrate increased significantly and urged the further clinical DDI study.:

Ionospheric phase delay is a critical error source in time series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (TS-InSAR) for the purpose of monitoring ground surface deformation with SAR data obtained from low-frequency radar systems. Recently, the range split-spectrum interferometry (RSSI) method has been employed to estimate and rectify ionospheric errors in TS-InSAR. However, the performance of the RSSI method is largely restricted by the significant linear scale factors resulting from the current small SAR bandwidth. In this study, we propose a reformulating RSSI (Re-RSSI)-based method for correcting the ionospheric error in TS-InSAR by optimizing the linear scale factors, with the aim of improving the accuracy of TS-InSAR measurements. We evaluate the Re-RSSI method using 121 ALOS-1 PALSAR images that cover two distinct regions: the low-latitude Lazufre volcano region and the high-latitude Anaktuvuk River tundra fire region. Our results demonstrate that the Re-RSSI method can effectively remove time series ionospheric errors at both test sites, where we detected ionospheric delays of approximately 2.5 cm/year (yr) and 2.0 cm/yr, respectively. Using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements as ground truth, we achieved an 86.59% improvement rate in the root-mean-square error (RMSE) with the Re-RSSI method, which is significantly higher than the 66.40% improvement rate achieved with the traditional RSSI method.

The increased power demand incurred by electric vehicles (EVs) has imposed new challenges on the distribution network. One significant responsibility of the distribution network operator (DNO) is to design and expand the distribution network periodically to accommodate the ever-increasing demand. The previous researches mainly use relaxation techniques to enhance the problem tractability, which would involve additional binary variables and incur computation burden to the optimization problem, or even worse, may lead to an intractable problem. This paper develops a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) model considering various network constraints for the distribution network expansion planning under a high penetration level of EVs. The stochastic characteristics of demands are addressed through set of scenarios. A distributed biased min-consensus algorithm based approach is proposed to solve the MINLP model. Finally, comparison tests are conducted on three different scales of distribution networks to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Simulation results demonstrate that the computation time of the proposed approach is reduced by 42.46% on average for different systems compared with that of the traditional shortest path algorithm based approach.

To more fully assess the far-reaching effects of fossil fuel combustion on humanity, it is necessary to gain an in-depth understanding of the full impact of fossil fuels on human health and lifetime potential. However, current knowledge of the long-term consequences of fossil fuel use on health damage in early life, such as human capital impacts in adulthood, is still insufficient. This paper aims to summarize the current evidence on the health effects of fossil fuel-driven air pollution and climate change on children and the consequent effect on human capital stemming from these early health damages. Evidence indicates that climate change and air pollution not only deteriorate children's health but also affect the entire human capital in their adulthood and can be deeply affected through damaged early-life health. Fossil fuel combustion can significantly impact the lifelong health and human capital for generations. We call for a more holistic assessment of the full range of impacts borne by children, including direct damages to children's health, losses of human capital, and associated economic costs. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is vital to facilitate research on such assessments, thereby enriching our understanding of the multifaceted impact of fossil fuel combustion on the early life and its long-term implications on human capital and economic potential.

A detection method of carbofuran (CBF) in water samples was reported using deep eutectic solvent (DES)-based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) combined with digital image colorimetry (DIC), which was environmentally friendly, solvent-saving, rapid, and convenient. Under alkaline conditions, the green and multifunctional extractant DESs dissociated into linalool and heptanoic acid, and CBF was hydrolyzed to 2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranol and further coupled with fast blue BB salt to form an azo derivative. Heptanoic acid led to the dispersion of linalool to extract the orange-red azo derivative; DIC was used for quantitative analysis using a smartphone with its associated ease of data-acquisition. This experiment optimized the types, molar ratios, and volumes of DESs and the amounts of sodium carbonate and sodium chloride. Under optimal conditions, the limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) were 0.024–0.032 mg L−1and 0.081–0.108 mg L−1, respectively. The extraction recoveries in real samples (tap, pond, and river water) were 92.4–101.0% with a relative standard deviation below 4.6%. This method has successfully analyzed CBF in different water samples and shows prospects for the monitoring and control of CBF residues in other environmental samples.

AbstractFrom the perspective of spatial interaction, the impact of the modern service industry’s agglomeration on today’s increasingly connected cities is worth studying. This study uses a spatial econometric model to test the development trends and factors influencing the modern service industry’s agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta city group. The results show that the industry has the highest agglomeration in leasing and business and the lowest in education. The overall concentration of the industry is generally low, implying a more fragmented distribution. Moreover, the agglomeration has a significant positive spatial correlation with economic development, knowledge intensity, and city size. However, it has a negative correlation with information technology level and transportation infrastructure, inconsistent with existing research. This study argues that the development of the information technology level and transportation infrastructure in a city could lead to the ‘virtual agglomeration’ of the modern service industry and gradual decentralisation in geographical distribution. This is a new paradox that city groups may face when improving their infrastructure and developing modern services. This study uses the spatial interaction perspective to propose policy recommendations for promoting the modern service industry’s agglomeration and coordinated regional development.

With the popularization of social media, the way of information transmission has changed, and the prediction of information popularity based on social media platforms has attracted extensive attention. Feature fusion-based media popularity prediction methods focus on the multi-modal features of social media, which aim at exploring the key factors affecting media popularity. Meanwhile, the methods make up for the deficiency in feature utilization of traditional methods based on information propagation processes. In this paper, we review feature fusion-based media popularity prediction methods from the perspective of feature extraction and predictive model construction. Before that, we analyze the influencing factors of media popularity to provide intuitive understanding. We further argue about the advantages and disadvantages of existing methods and datasets to highlight the future directions. Finally, we discuss the applications of popularity prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey reporting feature fusion-based media popularity prediction methods.

12 μm thick rolled copper foil is the thinnest rolled copper foil that can be stably produced at present, which can be used for the production of high-end Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) boards. With the miniaturized and multi-functional of various electronic components in the age of 5th Generation (5G) communication, higher requirements have been put forward for the etching performance of rolled copper foil. The microstructure of 12 μm thick rolled copper foil was obtained through thermal treatment at 180 °C for different times, and then the relationship between microstructure and etching performance was systematically studied. The research results show that the etching performance of rolled copper foil improves with the increasing of annealing time. But the etching performance of copper foil annealed for 10 min is better than that annealed for 30 min. Due to the low energy of Low Angle Grain Boundaries (LAGBs), the etching performance of copper foil gradually becomes better with the decreasing of LAGBs proportion. The etching performance of copper foil improves with the decreasing of work-hardening and dislocation density. The lower proportion of {001} crystal planes is the key reason for higher etching rate. The etching performance of copper foil is better with higher Random High Angle Grain Boundaries Network (RHGBN). The amount of grain boundaries decreases with the increasing of grain size, resulting in the decreasing of etching performance. In addition, it is found that the release of residual compressive stress on copper foil surface can also obviously improve the etching performance.

Alkylation performance of isobutane with propene catalyzed by composite ionic liquid (CIL) was deeply investigated. Critical components of alkylate were C7 isoparaffins, which were mainly 2,3-dimethylpentane and 2,4-dimethylpentane. The optimal reaction conditions were as follows: reaction temperature of 15 °C, reaction time of 5 s, stirring rate of 1500 rpm, IL/HC ratio of 1.0, and I/O ratio of 68. Under these conditions, the yield of C7 isoparaffins was 78.9 wt %, and the research octane number of alkylate was 86.2. The reaction mechanism and pathway of isobutane/propene alkylation were proposed on the basis of component distribution. C7 isoparaffins were mainly from direct alkylation, and C8 isoparaffins were mainly from disproportionation. Compared with traditional concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid catalysts, more direct alkylation and less self-alkylation occurred, and the yield of propane was much lower when CIL was used. It was also proved that propene could be used in the CIL-catalyzed alkylation industrial unit due to the low propane production.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a tremendous impact on the global medical system. The development of private hospitals is an important measure to deepen the reform of China’s medical and health system, and an important driving force to improve the effective supply of medical services. This study aims to compare the performance of China’s private hospitals before and during COVID-19 and determine the factors that affect hospital profitability between the 2 periods. Data are collected from 10 private listed hospitals from 2017 to 2022, and ratio analysis is used to measure hospital performance in 5 aspects, namely profitability, liquidity, leverage, activity (efficiency), and cost coverage. Multiple regression analysis is used to determine the influencing factors of hospital profitability. The results show a negative impact of COVID-19 on private hospital performance. Specifically, regardless of region, hospital profitability, liquidity, and cost coverage were reduced due to COVID-19, while hospital leverage was increased. COVID-19 had also an impact on hospital efficiency. In addition, before COVID-19, current ratio and cost coverage ratio were the determinants of hospital profitability, while only cost coverage ratio affected hospital profitability during the COVID-19 outbreak. We provide evidence that COVID-19 had an impact on China private hospitals, and the findings will aid private hospitals in improving their performance in the post-COVID-19 era.

The instability of saline soil foundation affects the safety of artificial construction, and may cause ground collapse, building destruction and road damage. It is fundamental to reduce the potential engineering geological disasters by exploring the dynamic evolution of saline soil. Most of the previous researches of saline soil were conducted by simulated experiments and traditional geodetic surveying methods. Restricted to the limited sampling points, the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of saline soil were difficult to find out in a large scale. This paper exploited SBAS-InSAR method to extract the deformation of the Qarhan Salt Lake (in Qinghai, China) section along Qinghai-Tibet railway, based on 119 image data acquired by Sentinel-1A from 2015 to 2020. The results showed that the deformation trends varied frequently in this saline mud flat. Between the adjacent areas with different deformation trends along Qinghai-Tibet railway, discontinuities caused by uplift and subsidence were very obvious. Besides, among the areas with brine exploitation or artificial construction, the maximum subsidence rate reached50 mm/yr, and the maximum cumulative subsidence exceeded 320 mm in the latest 5 years. In the saline mud flat closed to the rivers and lakes, the deformation trend was continuous uplift. Nevertheless, there were obvious seasonal deformation characteristics in those areas far away from the water body. Further analysis found out a sharply subsidence caused by the salt collapsibility appeared in rainy seasons. While an uplift trend induced by the salt swelling or frost heave was remarkable in dry seasons. Subsequently, the relationships were analyzed between the time series deformation and external environmental factors. Furthermore, the deformation mechanism of saline soilin the Qarhan Salt Lake region was interpreted then. In general, this study provides complete spatiotemporal evolution information of saline soil, and demonstrates the deformation characteristics of saline soil in the Qarhan Salt Lake region successfully. Related results would contribute to the safety monitoring for large-scale infrastructure construction in the saline soil areas.

ABSTRACTEntrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a major strategy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Prior studies have focused mainly on the EO-performance relationship in the traditional market. This article investigates the EO of online SMEs using a panel of secondary data for 149 SMEs from Alibaba.com over a three-month period. The results suggest that proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness have significant effects on online performance for SMEs in the business-to-business (B2B) electronic market. Online credibility plays an important role when SMEs adopt a strategy of proactiveness in the electronic market, but does not enhance the effectiveness of competitive aggressiveness. These findings offer managerial implications for online SMEs and suggestions for future research.

Cells are the basic structural and functional units of living organisms. However, conventional cell analysis only averages millions of cell populations, and some important information is lost. It is essential to quantitatively characterize the physiology and pathology of single-cell activities. Precise single-cell capture is an extremely challenging task during cell sample preparation. In this review, we summarize the category of technologies to capture single cells precisely with a focus on the latest development in the last five years. Each technology has its own set of benefits and specific challenges, which provide opportunities for researchers in different fields. Accordingly, we introduce the applications of captured single cells in cancer diagnosis, analysis of metabolism and secretion, and disease treatment. Finally, some perspectives are provided on the current development trends, future research directions, and challenges of single-cell capture.

A rapid and convenient analytical procedure (evaporation-assisted dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction with solidification of floating organic droplets) is advanced for determining the concentrations of triazine herbicide residues (e.g.simazine and atrazine) in fruit juices viaHPLC-DAD. The technique involves adding 1-dodecanol (low density) and dichloromethane (high density) to the test solution to act as the extraction and volatile solvents, respectively. Calcium oxide is added to generate heat to accelerate the evaporation of dichloromethane, whereupon the 1-dodecanol quickly disperses into small droplets to complete the microextraction process. Thus, there is no need to use a dispersive solvent and heating equipment is also not required. The floating 1-dodecanol is subsequently frozen using an ice bath to facilitate its separation from the sample. Under optimal conditions (250 μL of 1-dodecanol (extraction solvent), 150 μL of CH2Cl2(volatile solvent), 1250 mg of CaO, and an extraction time of 60 s) the detection procedure is linear over the range 0.05–5 μg mL−1(with R> 0.99). The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were determined to be 0.0022–0.0034 μg mL−1and 0.0073–0.0113 μg mL−1, respectively. The recovery of simazine and atrazine in three fruit juices ranged between 78.5% and 96.4% with a relative standard deviation <8.2%. Therefore, the proposed approach can be effectively adopted to analyze the triazine herbicide content in fruit juices. The method has been proved to be simple, reliable, and remarkably efficient.

ObjectiveTo examine whether the relationship between smoking cessation and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) was modified by weight gain.MethodsA total of 69 910 participants (29 650 men and 46 260 women) aged 45–74 years were grouped into six groups by smoking status in the first and 5-year surveys: sustained smokers, recent quitters according to postcessation weight gain (no weight gain, 0.1–5.0 kg, >5.0 kg), long-term quitters and never smokers. Quitting smoking within and longer than 5 years were defined as recent and long-term quitters, respectively. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the HR for incident CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.ResultsWe identified 4023 CVDs (889 CHDs and 3217 strokes) during a median of 14.8 years of follow-up. Compared with sustained smokers, the multivariable HR (95% CI) for CVD was 0.66 (0.52 to 0.83) for recent quitters without weight gain, 0.71 (0.55 to 0.90) for recent quitters with weight gain of 0.1–5.0 kg, 0.70 (0.44 to 1.10) for recent quitters with weight gain of >5.0 kg, 0.56 (0.49 to 0.64) for long-term quitters, and 0.60 (0.55 to 0.66) for never smokers. The analysis restricted to men showed a similar association. Prespecified analysis by age suggested that recent quitters overall had a lower HR for CVD among those aged <60 years vs ≥60 years. Similar patterns of association were observed in CHD and stroke.ConclusionsPostcessation weight gain did not attenuate the protective association between smoking cessation and risk of CVD.

Kidney disease is manifested in a wide variety of phenotypes, many of which have an important hereditary component. To delineate the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of pediatric nephropathy, a multicenter registration system is being implemented based on the Chinese Children Genetic Kidney Disease Database (CCGKDD). In this study, all the patients with kidney and urological diseases were recruited from 2014 to 2020. Genetic analysis was conducted using exome sequencing for families with multiple affected individuals with nephropathy or clinical suspicion of a genetic kidney disease owing to early-onset or extrarenal features. The genetic diagnosis was confirmed in 883 of 2256 (39.1%) patients from 23 provinces in China. Phenotypic profiles showed that the primary diagnosis included steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS, 23.5%), glomerulonephritis (GN, 32.2%), congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT, 21.2%), cystic renal disease (3.9%), renal calcinosis/stone (3.6%), tubulopathy (9.7%), and chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu, 5.8%). The pathogenic variants of 105 monogenetic disorders were identified. Ten distinct genomic disorders were identified as pathogenic copy number variants (CNVs) in 11 patients. The diagnostic yield differed by subgroups, and was highest in those with cystic renal disease (66.3%), followed by tubulopathy (58.4%), GN (57.7%), CKDu (43.5%), SRNS (29.2%), renal calcinosis /stone (29.3%) and CAKUT (8.6%). Reverse phenotyping permitted correct identification in 40 cases with clinical reassessment and unexpected genetic conditions. We present the results of the largest cohort of children with kidney disease in China where diagnostic exome sequencing was performed. Our data demonstrate the utility of family-based exome sequencing, and indicate that the combined analysis of genotype and phenotype based on the national patient registry is pivotal to the genetic diagnosis of kidney disease.

It is an urgent need to tackle the global crisis of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. We report here an innovative strategy for large-scale screening of new antibacterial agents using a whole bacteria-based DNA-encoded library (DEL) of vancomycin derivatives via peripheral modifications. A bacterial binding affinity assay was established to select the modification fragments in high-affinity compounds. The optimal resynthesized derivatives demonstrated excellently enhanced activity against various resistant bacterial strains and provided useful structures for vancomycin derivatization. This work presents the new concept in a natural product-templated DEL and in antibiotic discovery through bacterial affinity screening, which promotes the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.

This study aimed to investigate the developmental change of body growth and gene expression related to fatty acid uptake and oxidation in the yolk sac membrane (YSM) and jejunum during embryogenesis in Muscovy ducks. The weights of embryos and yolk sac (5 embryos per replicate, n = 6) were recorded on embryonic days (E)16, E19, E22, E25, E28, E31, and the day of hatch. The fat and fatty acid contents in YSM, jejunal histology, and gene expression related to fatty acid metabolism in YSM and jejunum were determined in each sampling time. Among the nonlinear models, the maximum growth is estimated at 2.83 (E22.5), 2.67 (E22.1), and 2.60 (E21.3) g/d using logistic, Gompertz, and Von Bertalanffy models, respectively. The weight of YS, and ether extract-free YS as well as the amounts of fat and fatty acids in YS decreased (P <0.05) linearly, whereas the villus height, crypt depth, villus height/crypt depth, and musculature thickness in jejunum increased (P <0.05) linearly during embryogenesis. The mRNA expression of CD36, SLC27A4,and FABP1related to fatty acid uptake as well as the mRNA and protein expressions of PPARα and CPT1 related to fatty acid oxidation increased in a quadratic manner (P <0.05) in both YS and jejunum, and the maximum values were achieved during E25-E28. In conclusion, the maximum growth rate of Muscovy duck embryos was estimated at 2.60-2.83 g/d on E21.3-E23.5, while the accumulations of lipid and fatty acid in YS were decreased in association with the increased absorptive area of morphological structures in jejunum. The gene and protein expression involved in fatty acid metabolism displayed a similar enhancement pattern between YSM and jejunum during E25-E28, suggesting that fatty acid utilization could be strengthened to meet the energy demand for embryonic development.

Lamellar metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted significant attention in the field of electrochemical sensing due to their abundant open active sites and specific electron conductivity. Herein, by employing a bottom-up synthesis strategy, rhombic lamellar heterometallic CoNi-MOFs with varying thicknesses are constructed. This is achieved by using 4-methylpyridine as a capping agent based on the (4,6)-linked Co2(azpy)2(bptc) (azpy = 4,4′-azopyridine, bptc = 3,3′,5,5′-biphenyltetracarboxylic acid) structure with a fsctopology and by introducing Ni species simultaneously. To mitigate sulfur deposition on electrodes, the triple pulse amperometry (TPA) method is employed. Among the synthesized lamellar CoNi-MOFs, lamellar CoNi-MOF-3 with the minimum thickness exhibits an optimal electrochemical sensing performance toward hydrogen sulfide, with a sensitivity of 119.3 μA·mM–1·cm–2in the linear range of 2–2000 μM. This study pioneers a new approach to the controlled construction and electrochemical activity modification of lamellar MOF materials.

The aim of this study is to explore how parenthood and birth rate is manifested in Finnish society and citizens as revealed by automated mining of news articles from Finland News API. Several levels of analysis were conducted using natural language processing and text mining techniques to unfold relevant insights from the collected News API. This includes surface-level analysis, word frequency-based analysis, topic-based analysis, and health ontology mapping. In total, 1621 news articles were selected and analyzed from the collected dataset. The surface-level analysis revealed the capacity of imminent health researchers to gain public audience and interest. Content-based analysis revealed the importance of family, employment, and health issues. Topical analysis stressed on the dominance of family issues during corona time, followed by public services and employment issues. Finally, the health ontology mapping revealed the quasi dominance of mental health and development disorders concerns. The research work provides a general framework for analyzing unstructured text to extract useful insights that can help policymakers to positively impact the existing policy in health and social policy development.

It is widely acknowledged that doping silicon can significantly enhance the friction performance of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films in a water environment. However, the mechanism of low friction caused by doped silicon is still highly controversial. Therefore, this article compares the interface interaction between DLC and Si-DLC films in a water environment through first-principles calculations of physisorption and chemisorption effects. The results indicate that water molecules are predominantly chemically adsorbed rather than physically adsorbed on the Si-DLC surface. Further study reveals that when OH-termination is formed on the Si-DLC surface, water molecules are predominantly physically adsorbed rather than chemically adsorbed on the Si-DLC hydroxylation surface. Consequently, a more stable hydration layer is formed on the surface through the hydrogen bond network formed by Si–OH groups, ultimately leading to lower friction. Moreover, molecular dynamics simulations further suggest that the lower friction coefficient of Si-DLC films in a water environment may be due to more water molecules at the friction interface and fewer interface covalent bonds. In short, the low-friction coefficient of the Si-DLC film in a water environment may be caused not only by the chemisorption of water molecules on its surface but also by the physisorption of water molecules on the Si-DLC film after surface hydroxylation.

This paper makes a comprehensive investigation and comparison of the prosodic and perceptual performance of the interrogative pronoun "shen me" when indicating question, free reference and negation. The results show that the prosodic performance of the sentence using "shen me" to indicate a question is similar to the prosody of an interrogative sentence; the sentence using "shen me" to indicate free reference has the intonation of a declarative sentence with the focus stress on “dou”; and the sentence using "shen me" to indicate negation has the intonation of an exclamatory sentence with focus stress on "shen me" or the predicative verb “suan”. The results of these perceptual experiments show that the acoustic differences of "shen me" won’t affect the listener’s judgement of the mood of the original sentence, but will affect the judgement of its naturalness to a certain extent. Combining acoustic and perceptual performance, “shen me” indicating a question and free reference carries natural stress, and "shen me" indicating negation carries emphatic stress. The three functions of "shen me" should be discriminated using multi-dimensional standards, that is, both prosody and perception. Additionally, the prosodic standard should include pitch, duration and intensity.

Ordered mesoporous MCM-41 (two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal pore arrangement) and MCM-48 (three-dimensional (3D) cubic channel arrangement) with similar pore sizes and surface areas were selected for comparison when used as support for Zn-based sorbents for hot coal gas desulfurization. Compared to that of Zn/M48 (MCM-48-supported desulfurizer), the adsorption capacity of Zn/M41 (MCM-41-supported sorbent) increases by 24.4–56.3%. The initial reaction rate constants of Zn/M41 are 1–13 times greater than those of Zn/M48. These are correlated to the structural features of sorbents. Zn/M41 has a large wall thickness of the framework, suggesting higher thermal stability. Furthermore, the sorbent particles and ZnO grains in Zn/M41 are both smaller in size, which facilitates contact between H2S and ZnO. Additionally, Zn/M41 possesses a large surface area and pore volume, beneficial for the diffusion of H2S through sorbents. The analysis of the atmospheric effects reveals that there is a stronger synergistic effect of CO and H2on desulfurization over Zn/M41.