Search

Electroacupuncture (EA) can protect against acute urinary retention (AUR); however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Non-vesicular ATP release mediated by transient receptor potential (TRP) channels were identified as a key contributor to signaling in urothelial cells. In this study, the AUR model was established by urethral outlet obstruction in female Sprague-Dawley rats. EA was performed at SP6 and BL32 for 0.5 h prior to induction of AUR. EA reduced TRPV1 expression and urinary ATP concentrations in rat bladder, decreased the peak intravesical pressure during AUR, and attenuated abnormal voiding patterns and bladder pathological injury induced by AUR. Besides, 179 patients who experienced postoperative urinary retention were recruited and found that EA reduced urinary ATP concentrations and accelerated the recovery of spontaneous voiding. These observations indicate that EA exerts protection against AUR-induced bladder dysfunction by reducing urinary ATP concentrations through the regulation of TRPV1.

Port-A-Cath systems (PCS) are safe and convenient devices for long-term infusion in patients with malignant tumors. This study retrospectively analyzed the complications from PCS and their management.Data of 1695 adults (641 males and 1054 females) with malignant tumors who underwent PCS implantation in our center from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2019 who had complete follow-up records were collected in this study. The early and late complications and corresponding treatments were studied.A total of 1716 PCSs were implanted; 21 patients underwent 2 implantations each. The success rate was 100% and no severe complications occurred during implantation. The overall occurrence rate of post-implantation complications was 18.5% (318/1716); 5.5% (94/1716) were early complications and 13.0% (224/1716) were late complications. A total of 451 PCSs were removed, of which 398 were removed due to the end of chemotherapy, while 53 were removed because of complications. A total of 4 deaths occurred from these complications.The incidence of intra- and post-operative complications is low. In most cases, complications can be effectively controlled without the removal of the PCS and regular follow-up and maintenance are critical.

Rational fabrication of high performance electrocatalysts materials is of great significance to efficiently accomplish energy conversion. In this work, taking the advantage of the remarkable features of nickel foam, a holey branch-like structure of NiCoS deposition supported on nickel foam (NF) was obtained via altering the current density in the whole electrolytic process for gradient electrodeposition. Benefiting from the three-dimension porous structure of nickel foam skeleton connected by spherical particles of irregular size and the strong synergistic effect among Ni, Co and S elements, NiCoS/NF only needed overpotential of 287 mV, Tafel slope of 64.74 mV dec−1 and an excellent stability of 25 h in 1.0 M KOH at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and 100 mA cm−2. Importantly, originated from the interconnected nanoparticles, this branchlike structure and the Co-doping-optimized electronic structure are responsible for the rapidly enlarged ECSA value 19,650 cm−2 of deposition and the TOF value 2.2704 s−1. This work will provide a constructive idea for enhancing the efficiency of hydrogen production through water splitting.

Sepsis caused acute lung injury (ALI) is a kind of serious disease in critically ill patients with very high morbidity and mortality. Recently, it has been demonstrated that Golgi is involved in the process of oxidative stress. However, whether Golgi stress is associated with oxidative stress in septic induced acute lung injury has not been elucidated. In this research, we found that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced oxidative stress, apoptosis, inflammation and Golgi morphology changes in acute lung injury both in vivo and in vitro. The knockout of heme oxygenase-1(HO-1) aggravated oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis and reduced the expression of Golgi matrix protein 130 (GM130), mannosidase Ⅱ, Golgi-associated protein golgin A1 (Golgin 97), and increased the expression of Golgi phosphoprotein 3 (GOLPH3), which caused the fragmentation of Golgi. Furtherly, the activation of hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α)/HO-1 pathway, attenuates Golgi stress and oxidative stress by increasing the levels of GM130, mannosidase Ⅱ, Golgin 97, and decreasing the expression of GOLPH3 both in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, the activation of HO-1 plays a crucial role in alleviating sepsis-induced acute lung injury by regulating Golgi stress, oxidative stress, which may provide a therapeutic target for the treatment of acute lung injury., Graphical abstract Image 1

Our research mainly evaluates the clinical efficacy of two surgical methods in the treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) at ARCO stage II, aiming to provide optimal hip-preserving treatment of ONFH.From October 2018 to September 2020, 48 patients (59 hips) met the inclusion criteria and randomized. 24 cases (29 hips) in experimental group were treated with minimally-invasive fibular supporting of T-type; 24 cases (30 hips) in control group were treated with traditional bloody iliac flap metastasis. We will compare some intraoperative and postoperative conditions.The operation time in experimental group was 37 (6) minutes, in control group was 130 (21.75) minutes; the length of surgical incision in two groups was 3.7 (0.7) cm and 12.85 (2.68) cm. The intraoperative blood loss in two groups was 69 (21) ml and 363 (87) ml; the postoperative VAS score of the experimental group on day 1, day 3, day 7 after surgery was 5.5 (2), 3.5 (1), 0 (1); the control group was 6 (1.75), 4 (1), 3 (1). The data differences between above groups have statistically significant. The follow-up time of two groups was (33.86 ± 5.66) months and (35.67 ± 4.69) months. The bone graft healing time in two groups was (14.21 ± 1.93) months and (13.83 ± 2.34) months. The Harris hip scores of two groups at the last follow-up were 90 (7.5) and 86.5 (8.5). The survival rates of two groups were 79.31% (23/29) and 76.67% (23/30). The difference was no statistically significant in above groups (P0.05).The two different bone graft implantation showed satisfactory early outcomes. Compared to the control group, the experimental group has the advantages of lesser pain, lesser blood loss, lesser trauma and shorter operation time. It may be a choice as bone graft for the treatment of ONFH at early stage.

How to choose technology type in a competitive environment is an important and challenging problem, which has received little attention from scholars. To fill this gap, this paper builds a game-theoretic model to examine whether a firm should choose to adopt a risky new technology or to adopt a safe new technology to reduce its marginal cost. I find that the result that each firm should always choose the risky technology in a duopoly may be invalid when more firms enter the market. In this scenario, some firms should adopt the safe technology for relatively high product substitutability because the advantage of employing the risky technology is threatened by the business stealing externality, finally forming heterogeneous equilibria in which both types of technologies are present. Furthermore, I show that the heterogeneous technology choice equilibria are more likely to arise when increasing number of firms enter the market, and that in these equilibria more firms always choose the risky technology than the safe technology. This study conveys relevant economic insights for competitive firms confronted with a dilemma between taking risks in pursuit of greater technology rewards and taking no risks for conservative technology returns.

Fast pyrolysis has been recognized as an efficient and feasible way to produce liquid fuels from biomass. For the aim to upgrade the products from fast pyrolysis of hemicellulose, reduced graphene oxide supported Pt nanoparticles (Pt/RGO) was adopted as catalyst for in situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP). Pt/RGO was prepared by one-step thermal reduction method, and further employed as catalyst for in situ CFP of xylan. Online single-photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was employed to detect the volatile products, and furans were chosen as the model compounds. The experimental results showed that Pt/RGO distinctly increased the intensity of furans products from xylan pyrolysis, as the increase rates were respectively 80.5%, 64.4% and 50.2% in 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C. Furthermore, Pt/RGO can accelerate the process of xylan pyrolysis and be effective in eliminating oxygen for furans products. With addition of Pt/RGO, O/C ratio for furans products decreased from 0.38 to 0.32 in 400 °C, 0.37 to 0.32 in 500 °C, and 0.35 to 0.32 in 600 °C, respectively. This work proved that Pt/RGO had the potential to be a highly efficient catalyst for upgrading of the volatile products from in situ CFP of biomass.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with high mortality (12%–30%). The mechanism by which the SFTS bunyavirus (SFTSV) causes severe illness remains unclear. To evaluate the phenotypic and functional characteristics of the NK cell subsets in SFTS patients, twenty-nine SFTS patients were sequentially sampled from admission until recovery. Phenotypic and functional characteristics of NK cell subsets in circulating blood were analysed via flow cytometry. Then, correlations between NK cell subset frequencies and the SFTS index (SFTSI) were evaluated in all SFTS patients (15 mild, 14 severe) upon admission. The frequencies of CD56dimCD16+ NK cells were greatly decreased in early SFTSV infection and were negatively correlated with disease severity. Additionally, higher Ki-67 and granzyme B expression and relatively lower NKG2A expression in CD56dimCD16+ NK cells were observed in acute infection. Moreover, the effector function of CD56dim NK cells was increased in the acute phase compared with the recovery phase in nine severe SFTS patients. Additionally, interleukin (IL)-15, interferon (IFN)-α, IL-18 and IFN-γ secretion was markedly increased during early infection. Collectively, despite depletion of CD56dimCD16+ NK cells, activation and functional enhancement of CD56dimCD16+ NK cells were still observed, suggesting their involvement in defence against early SFTSV infection.

This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation for treatment of painful osteolytic bone metastases. A total of 26 patients (36 bone metastases) treated with CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation between May 2012 and June 2016 were enrolled in this retrospective study. All procedures were performed under local anesthesia. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used to evaluate pain before the procedure and at 1 day, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after the procedure. Complications during and after the procedure were recorded and graded by the Clavien-Dindo classification. The mean VAS pain score was 7.1 ± 1.1 (range, 4-10) before cryoablation. It was significantly lower at all timepoints after treatment: 2.1 ± 1.7 (P 0.0001) at 1 day after treatment, 1.3 ± 1.8 (P 0.0001) at 1 month, 1.6 ± 1.7 (P 0.0001) at 3 months, and 1.8 ± 1.3 (P 0.0001) at 6 months. The response rates were 91.7%, 94.4%, 91.7%, and 94.4%, respectively, at 1 day, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after cryoablation; the complete response rates were 22.2%, 41.7%, 36.1%, and 22.2%, respectively. Adverse events (skin frostbite, nerve injury, pathologic fracture) occurred in 3 patients. CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation under local anesthesia appears to be a safe and effective treatment for painful osteolytic bone metastases. Prospective clinical trials on large samples needed to confirm this conclusion.

This paper focuses on the influences of minimum quality standards (MQS) on entry decisions for two firms located in different countries. More precisely, when each firm sells its product only in its domestic market, there is no restriction on its product’s quality. However, when choosing to enter its foreign market, the quality is required to be no less than a specified MQS. A multi-stage game is established to examine the effects of such MQS on firms’ strategic choices of entry into their respective foreign markets. It shows that strategic choices cause the emergence of heterogeneous equilibria in which both firms make different entry decisions and thus produce products with distinct qualities provided that the MQS lies in an intermediate range. If the MQS is relatively low, both firms are willing to enter their respective foreign markets so that they coexist in each market. A relatively high MQS induces each firm to stay only in its domestic market. Furthermore, firms never have more incentive to open a new foreign market compared to the socially efficient configuration. Compared to strong competition, weak competition causes that the equilibrium behavior privately by firms is too far from the allocation that is efficient for society.

ODV-E66 is a major envelope proteins of baculovirus occlusion derived virus (ODV) with chondroitinase activity. Here, we studied the roles of ODV-E66 during Helicoverpa armigera nucleopolyhedrovirus (HearNPV) primary infection. ODV-E66 is a late viral protein dispensable for BV production and ODV morphogenesis. Deletion of odv-e66 had a profound effect on HearNPV oral infectivity in 4th instar larvae with a 50% lethal concentration (LC50) value of 26 fold higher than that of the repaired virus, compared to in 3rd instar larvae. Calcofluor white, an agent which destroys the peritrophic membrane (PM), could rescue the oral infectivity of odv-e66 deleted HearNPV, implying the PM may be the target of ODV-E66. In vitro assays showed HearNPV ODV-E66 has chondroitinase activity. Electron microscopy demonstrated that odv-e66 deletion alleviated the damage to the PM caused by HearNPV infection. These data suggest an important role of ODV-E66 in the penetration of the PM during oral infection.

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are important endogenous substances that affect heart function in human body. Animal models of cytochrome P450 (CYP) and soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) related cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have revealed the physiological effects of EETs, mainly including vascular function regulation, angiogenesis, myocardial fibrosis, myocardial hypertrophy, and cardiovascular inflammation. At the same time, clinical studies have found that most of the substrates and inhibitors of CYP2J2 affect the content of EETs, resulting in cardiotoxicity of drugs. Therefore, the regulation of CYP and sEH enzymes on EETs points out the direction for exploring EET-mediated cardiac protection. The metabolic pathway of EETs is not only an important target for the development of new drugs for CVD but also an important factor in preventing drug cardiotoxicity. The development and clinical application of sEH inhibitors and EETs analogues provide broad prospects for the treatment of CVD.

Market-oriented instruments are expected to minimize energy costs and carbon abatement, but interactions among them may create challenges. The Chinese government issued a pilot energy-consumption permit trading scheme (ECPTS) in Fujian Province, where the carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) is in operation, thus providing an opportunity to analyze the interactions between two related market instruments. Based on the game-fixed cost allocation model and leader-follower game model, this paper designed an allocation scheme of energy-consumption permits (ECPs) based on coordination, efficiency and equity, and compared the differences in the caps, allocation structure and regional economic inequity among cities. The results of the Fujian case study show that when considering the optimal cross efficiency, the allocation of ECPs and carbon allowances are dominated by coastal cities with booming economies, which may entrench economic inequality between cities in Fujian. By introducing the equity principle, the allocation structure of ECPs among cities will change significantly, especially in underdeveloped cities. With the coordination mechanism of the ECPTS and ETS, the inequity in the distribution of economic development rights among cities can be moderated, which indicates that the designed approach has advantages in resource allocation. In addition, it is more conducive to energy saving and emission reduction if the provincial government prioritizes the allocation efficiency of ECPs instead of carbon allowances.

The Chinese government implemented the energy-consumption permit trading scheme (ECPTS) pilot program in 2016, in order to achieve energy saving and carbon reduction. Based on the PSM-DID model, we attempt to test the effects of the ECPTS on energy consumption and energy intensity. With a counterfactual simulation, this paper also evaluates the potential gains and different mechanisms of this policy. The results show that, under the constraints of the established resources and policy efficiency, there is a positive relationship between the ECPTS and low-carbon economic transformation; the implementation of the above policy in the pilot provinces brought about an average energy saving of 43 Mtce during the period of 2016–2019. However, the potential gains of this policy need to be further increased to meet China’s energy control targets. Additionally, a complete mediating effect of the energy structure indicates that the impact of the ECPTS on energy consumption and energy intensity depends significantly on energy structure adjustments. Finally, this paper highlights the key policy implications associated with the empirical results.

While the retirement of fossil fuel capacity is an inevitable consequence of the energy transition to carbon neutrality, policymakers face challenges in setting the pace in order that the energy transition policies do not significantly damage the economy. This paper designs a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine the macroeconomic effects of coal capacity cut policy (CCP) shocks on the Chinese economy. The results show that: firstly, an energy policy shock can distort the transmission effect of coal supply and demand and other factors on coal prices. Secondly, the impact of different policy tools is significantly different on the macroeconomic system, in which the economic effect of advanced capacity replacement is the weakest. Thirdly, in the short term, no matter which policy tool is adopted, the CCP will inevitably lead to a reduction in social welfare levels. The study suggests that in the short term, the Chinese government can further release more replacement quotas of capacity with advanced production efficiency, and innovate other policy tools for coal industrial structural optimization and synergistic effects with environmental regulation. In addition, the results highlight the need for market mechanisms to further accelerate the energy transition over the long run.

The currently circulating Omicron sub-variants are the SARS-CoV-2 strains with the highest number of known mutations. Herein, we found that human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) binding affinity to the receptor-binding domains (RBDs) of the four early Omicron sub-variants (BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3) follows the order BA.1.1 BA.2 BA.3 ≈ BA.1. The complex structures of hACE2 with RBDs of BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3 reveal that the higher hACE2 binding affinity of BA.2 than BA.1 is related to the absence of the G496S mutation in BA.2. The R346K mutation in BA.1.1 majorly affects the interaction network in the BA.1.1 RBD/hACE2 interface through long-range alterations and contributes to the higher hACE2 affinity of the BA.1.1 RBD than the BA.1 RBD. These results reveal the structural basis for the distinct hACE2 binding patterns among BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3 RBDs.

According to the cancer burden report released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2020, the mortality rate of lung cancer is 18%, ranking first in the world, and its morbidity and mortality rates are highest in China. Pneumonectomy is the preferred treatment for lung cancer patients, but surgery carries a significant risk of perioperative complications, which may affect the patient's functional recovery and quality of life. So, the rehabilitation of the large number of lung cancer patients in China requires greater attention. A number of studies have shown that the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol can reduce the risk of death, readmission rate, adjuvant chemotherapy time, postoperative pain level, anesthesia medication amount, length of stay, and hospitalization expenses. Foreign literature has successively issued guidelines to improve recovery among lung cancer patients, but Chinese-specific literature for patients undergoing lung cancer surgery or thoracic surgery remains inadequate. Some Chinese expert consensus have only considered part of the content of ERAS in thoracic surgery. To summary the evidence of the ERAS program for lung cancer surgery patients at home and abroad basing on evidence-based medicine is necessary. Therefore, this study used evidence-based practical thinking as a guide to (1) evaluate, integrate, and summarize relevant evidence guidelines and data resources at home and abroad so as to construct an enhanced recovery program for lung cancer patients suitable for Chinese national conditions and (2) provide a scientific basis for future research and practice in related fields.

Fundamental understanding of heterogeneously catalyzed aerobic, base-free oxidation of glycerol is highly desirable for sustainable and highly efficient chemical synthesis. In this work, Pt/CNTs catalyzed base-free oxidation of glycerol is investigated by combining experiments, DFT calculations and kinetics analysis. The solvent effects and kinetic isotope effects measurements as well as DFT calculations reveal that water-assisted O2 activation to form active OH∗ intermediates is not in rate-determining step (RDS) but in equilibrium. Then, Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models are developed and fitted with the experimental data. The OH∗-assisted C H bond cleavage of glycerol is discriminated as the RDS for the two parallel oxidation pathways of glycerol via primary or secondary hydroxyl groups, where the former case exhibits lower activation energy. The insights revealed here could guide the design and optimization of this catalytic process to generate the targeted products.

Due to the dominance of coal in China’s energy mix, coal prices have always been a challenging part of pricing reform. The recent frequent government interventions raise the key research questions: what is the actual impact of price policies on coal price fluctuations, and how can forward-looking pricing policies be made. By proposing a novel classification of coal pricing policies and introducing an expectation and forward-looking coefficient, the paper examines the relationship between coal price fluctuations and pricing policies using the generalized method of moments (GMM) method. It shows that the lagging coal price and coal demand play a positive role in regulating coal prices, while coal supply and marketization have significantly negative effects on coal price fluctuations. The heterogeneous impacts of price policies are due to differences in market players’ expectations, policy instruments and the methods of policy release. In addition, China’s coal pricing policy portfolio from 2013 to 2016 exerted synergy effects on the restraint of coal price fluctuations. As the forward-looking coefficient was considerably low, the government's intervention behaviors were obviously biased towards ex post facto responses. The paper suggests short run and long run policies to advance marketization of coal prices amid the energy transition.

While biological systems are typically studied under isobaric (constant pressure) conditions, recent reports on the bio-thermodynamics of isochoric (constant volume) systems point to their potential for subfreezing-temperature preservation of biological matter. This preliminary study, in which we report that pancreatic islets can survive multi-day preservation at high subfreezing temperatures in an isochoric chamber without osmotic cryoprotective agents (CPA), highlights the potential of isochoric cryopreservation in an application of clinical value.

This study examined the temporal physiological and molecular events following the treatment of the liver with a tissue ablation modality that combined electroporation with electrolysis (E2). Rat liver was treated with an E2 waveform and the tissue examined, 1 h, 3 h, 6 h and 24 h with: HE, Masson Trichrome, TUNEL stains and Western blot. HE and TUNEL stains have shown that cell death began to be evident 3 h and hepatocyte regeneration was seen 24 h after treatment. HE and Masson trichrome have shown that the extracellular matrix and the large lumens, appeared intact after E2. Western blot has shown the following molecular events after E2: cleaved caspase 3-downgraded at 1 h, upgraded at 24 h (apoptosis); cleaved Caspase 1 and cleaved GSDMD-upgraded at 6 h (pyroptosis), RIP3-upgraded at 1 h, MLKL-upgraded at 3 h (necroptosis). The mechanism of cell death was possible initiated by necroptosis pathway. Pyroptosis pathway was also activated. The observation that cell death from E2 was by programed necrosis and the details on the temporal molecular pathways, may have value for the recent attempt to combine electroporation mediated ablation with immunological treatment, by demonstrating that the cell death from E2 involves an inflammatory response and by providing data that could be used to design the optimal timing for the injection of immunological adjuvants.

This paper conducts a further analysis concerning equilibrium selection in a widely-studied nonlinear Cournot duopoly game, where each firm is capable to forecast its rival's output in the near future through a straightforward extrapolative foresight technology. Compared with the prior related work in which just one firm can implement such technology, this newly developed adjustment mechanism is endowed with more rationality in the sense that there appear more intelligent firms. It turns out this more rational adjustment mechanism does lead to more convergence to asymmetric equilibrium behavior for a weak foresight ability. Our finding shows that some undesirable complex behavior such as fluctuations and divergent trajectories can be inhibited by increasing the number of such rational firms.

Glucose oxidase (GOx) can catalyze the oxidization of β-D-glucose in the mild conditions, which has wide applications in the biofuel cells and monitoring of diabetes. However, the detailed catalytic mechanisms of GOx are ambiguous up to now. A series of protein models containing different micro-surroundings of the active center of GOx were examined through ONIOM calculations. The work reveals that not only the three intimate residues near the active center of GOx (containing His505, His548 and Glu399) are crucial for modulating the dehydrogention of β-D-glucose but also a remote residue (Arg210) play an important role in promoting proton/electron transfer from glucose to isoalloxazine ring of flavin adenine dinucleotide. The change in the protonation state of the three intimate residues causes the change from a double-proton-coupled double-electron transfer mechanism (dPCdET) to a single-proton-coupled double-electron transfer mechanism (sPCdET) for the proton/electron transfer from glucose to GOx. The sPCdET reaction is more favorable in energy than the dPCdET mechanism. In addition, the presence of Arg210 in the other side of isoalloxazine ring relative to glucose can sharply reduce the energy barrier of proton/electron transfer from glucose to FAD. This is because that the positive Arg210 indirectly interact with the isoalloxazine ring through the long-range electrostatic attraction, which can facilitate proton/electron transfer from glucose to the isoalloxazine ring.

Background: Maternal near miss (MNM) is one of the most vital health indicators reflecting the quality of obstetric care. The aim of this study was to explore the causes and change patterns in the maternal near miss ratio (MNMR) during the era of the two-child policy in Jiangsu Province, China. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study of 247,261 women who were pregnant in 11 hospitals in Jiangsu Province between January 2012 and December 2018 was conducted. The study period was divided into 3 stages: baseline, from January 2012 to June 2014; stage 1, from July 2014 (time of selective two-child policy begins to take effect) to June 2016; and stage 2, from July 2016 (time of universal two-child policy begins to take effect) to December 2018. Findings: Over seven years, a total of 883 mothers were identified as maternal near miss (MNM), yielding an overall MNMR of 3·70/1000 live births (LBs) (95% CI, 3·52-4·01). The MNMR slightly fluctuated around a mean of 2·75/1000 LBs at baseline and stage 1, and leveled at an additional 2·67/1000 LBs (95% CI 1·08-4·25, P = 0·001) at stage 2. We further investigated what conventional factors were the main determinants of the increase in the MNMR. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the MNM-related risk factors: advanced maternal age (OR=1·55 and 1·82 for aged 30~35 and aged ≥35), multipara (OR=1·24), cesarean section (OR=3·22), abortion (OR=4·42), no antenatal visits (OR=1·99) and multiple births (OR=7·05). Among the identified MNM-related risk factors, the monthly percentage of multiparity pregnancy, advanced maternal age (≥35) and multiple births accumulated over time were positively related to the increasing monthly MNMR (r=0·54, 0·61, 0·31, respectively). We further evaluated that the accumulation of multiparas and mothers with advanced maternal age accounted for 71·75% of the increase in the MNMR. We then revealed that haemorrhagic disorder was the leading cause of MNM (n = 613, 69·42%). The heamorrhage-caused MNMR increased over seven years (Ptrend < 0·001), and the accumulation of multiparas and mothers with advanced maternal age were also main determinants of the increase (75·62%). Interpretation: Overall, the MNMR considerably increased from 2012 to 2018, which was largely driven by the increase of multiparas and advanced age. More attention needs to be paid to the health of mothers with advanced age and multiple pregnancies, including improving the referral system for pregnant women and raising the quality and standard of obstetric care. Funding Statement: This work was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, the State Key Program of National Natural Science of China, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Medical Board, WHO, UNICEF, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. Declaration of Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee of the West China Second University Hospital (protocol ID, 2012008). Informed consent was obtained for each participant.

Rational design and fabrication of electrocatalysts with low-cost and high efficiency is highly desired. In this paper, a hierarchical honey-comb catalyst NiSP supported on nickel foam (NF) was synthesized by a facile gradient electrodeposition method. Attributed to the presence of Ni2P and NiS and the synergistic effect among phosphide and sulphide, NiSP /NF catalyst exhibited a low overpotential value of 281 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2 and the Tafel value of 68.51 mV dec−1 in 1 M KOH. Benefited from the gradient electrodeposition process resulting in the nanoparticles decorate honey-comb structure, the electrochemical active surface area reaches to 3571.5 cm2, and the turnover frequency (TOF) value is 2.0781 s−1. Due to the good electric conductivity of phosphide and sulphide, NiSP /NF electrode kept to exhibit excellent stability for 60 h. Therefore, the electrode obtained by our gradient electrodeposition method was expected to be a promising candidate catalyst.

In this paper, a method for calculating the dielectric constant of non-polar/polar block copolymers is proposed, which combines the group contribution (GC) method, correlativity index (CI) method, and dipole moment fluctuation (DMF) method. The CI method and the DMF method are used to calculate the non-polar and polar repeating units' dielectric constants, respectively. The Vogel model and GC method are used to convert the dielectric constant of the repeating unit to that of the block copolymer. The Vogel model is a formula describing the relationship between the molar polarizability, which participates in the calculation in the GC method, and dielectric constant. We also designed two other methods, CI-GC and DMF-GC, as a comparison. We selected seven typical polymers for the validation of this calculation method and found that CI/DMF-GC has the best accuracy by comparing it with the experimental values. This new method can calculate the dielectric constant of a new block copolymer without the help of experiments. It is of great significance for improving the development efficiency of new block copolymers.

The robustness of the oil import network is critical to energy security, as approximately 70% of the oil consumed in China is obtained from other countries. However, during long-distance transportation, external shocks constantly threaten the imported network because of the particular commodity nature of oil. To explore the network's resistance to external shocks, namely the robustness, we made the following efforts. Firstly, Combined with the complex network, China's oil import network (COIN) was constructed. Then the robustness of the network under two nodes failures, random attacks and malicious attacks, was simulated and measured. Finally, a virtual network was constructed to verify the effect of structural change on improving robustness. The research conclusions are as follows: (1) Overall, the robustness of COIN is relatively poor. The robustness of the network under malicious attacks is much lower than that of random attacks. (2) The performance curves of COIN under external shocks were almost identical, and there was no year in which COIN was more resistant to external shocks from 2011 to 2019. (3) The new nodes and edges have greatly improved the network robustness, even though the scale-free characteristics of the network have not been changed.

The recent emergence of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in China has caused significant public health concerns. Recently, ACE2 was reported as an entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we present the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2-CTD) spike (S) protein in complex with human ACE2 (hACE2), which reveals a hACE2-binding mode similar overall to that observed for SARS-CoV. However, atomic details at the binding interface demonstrate that key residue substitutions in SARS-CoV-2-CTD slightly strengthen the interaction and lead to higher affinity for receptor binding than SARS-RBD. Additionally, a panel of murine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) against SARS-CoV-S1/receptor-binding domain (RBD) were unable to interact with the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, indicating notable differences in antigenicity between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. These findings shed light on the viral pathogenesis and provide important structural information regarding development of therapeutic countermeasures against the emerging virus.

We study an oligopolistic market in which boundedly rational firms compete in quantities adopting either best response or gradient-based decision mechanisms. In particular, we examine the impact of Local Monopolistic Approximation (LMA) on local stability of Cournot equilibrium. It finds that under the best response dynamic with inertia, the LMA increases (decreases) the local stability if the inverse demand function is concave (convex). It is surprising to find that the LMA always implies more local stability under the gradient adjustment dynamic.