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The 6D pose estimation based on RGB-D data holds significant application value in computer vision and related fields. Currently, deep learning methods commonly employ convolutional networks for feature extraction, which are sensitive to keypoints at close distances but overlook information related to keypoints at longer distances. Moreover, in subsequent stages, there is a failure to effectively fuse spatial features (depth channel features) and color texture features (RGB channel features). Consequently, this limitation results in compromised accuracy in existing 6D pose networks based on RGB-D data. To solve this problem, a novel end-to-end 6D pose estimation network is proposed. In the branch of depth data processing network, the global spatial weight is established by using the attention mechanism of mask vector to realize robust extraction of depth features. In the phase of feature fusion, a symmetric fusion module is introduced. In this module, spatial features and color texture features are self-related fused by means of cross-attention mechanism. Experimental evaluations were performed on the LINEMOD and LINEMOD-OCLUSION datasets, and the ADD(-S) scores of our method can reach 95.84% and 47.89%, respectively. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, our method demonstrates superior performance in pose estimation for objects with complex shapes. Moreover, in the presence of occlusion, the pose estimation accuracy of our method for asymmetric objects has been effectively improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chlorophenoxy compounds represent a group of selective herbicides widely used around the world. Chlorophenoxy herbicides are toxic, chemically stable, and can migrate into groundwater through soil leaching, posing a significant threat to drinking water safety and human health. Chlorophenoxy herbicides in groundwater aquifers are subject to anaerobic processes; however, the pathway and microbiology involved in the attenuation of chlorophenoxy herbicides under anaerobic condition are largely unknown. Here, the anaerobic degradation process of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), a typical chlorophenoxy herbicide, was investigated. Results: The initial 52.5 ± 2.3 μM 2,4,5-T was completely degraded by a sediment-derived microbial consortium, with 3,4-dichlorophenol, 2,5-dichlorophenol, 3-chlorophenol (3-CP) and phenol being identified as the intermediate products. Reductive dechlorination of 3-CP to phenol and the subsequent elimination of phenol were the key transformation steps in the overall degradation process of 2,4,5-T. Amplicon sequencing suggested that Dehalobacter, Sulfuricurvum, Bacteroides, Acetobacterium, and Clostridium sensu stricto 7 might contribute to the transformation of 2,4,5-T to phenol, and Smithella, Syntrophorhabdus, Methanofollis and Methanosaeta likely cooperated to accomplish the complete mineralization of phenol. Conclusions: This study reported the anaerobic degradation of 2,4,5-T via reductive dechlorination and the subsequent syntrophic metabolization of phenol, an intermediate product transformed from 2,4,5-T. Dehalobacter was identified as the organohalide-respiring population catalyzing the reductive dechlorination reaction. Syntrophorhabdus and methanogenic populations were likely involved in anaerobic phenol oxidation and facilitated the complete mineralization of 2,4,5-T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tandem repeats (TRs) are genomic regions that tandemly change in repeat number, which are often multiallelic. Their characteristics and contributions to gene expression and quantitative traits in rice are largely unknown. Here, we survey rice TR variations based on 231 genome assemblies and the rice pan-genome graph. We identify 227,391 multiallelic TR loci, including 54,416 TR variations that are absent from the Nipponbare reference genome. Only 1/3 TR variations show strong linkage with nearby bi-allelic variants (SNPs, Indels and PAVs). Using 193 panicle and 202 leaf transcriptomic data, we reveal 485 and 511 TRs act as QTLs independently of other bi-allelic variations to nearby gene expression, respectively. Using plant height and grain width as examples, we identify and validate TRs contributions to rice agronomic trait variations. These findings would enhance our understanding of the functions of multiallelic variants and facilitate rice molecular breeding. Tandem repeats (TRs) have unique ability to drive a range of phenotype variations. Here, the authors survey rice TR variations based on 231 genome assemblies and the rice pan-genome graph, identify TR variations associated with expressed genes, and reveal expression TRs contributed to rice agronomic trait variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the issue of robust control based on interval observers for continuous-time linear time-invariant (LTI) systems with input saturation and disturbances. Firstly, an interval observer is derived by resorting to the system's output information and the interval bounds on the disturbances. Then, a parametric Lyapunov equation (PLE)-based low-gain feedback control method is introduced to guarantee semi-global boundedness. In contrast to the current parametric algebraic Riccati equation (PARE)-based method that requires an iterative approach to solve the PARE online, all relevant parameters in the adopted low-gain design approach are offline determined a priori. Moreover, considering the characteristics of the interval observer, a new stability analysis architecture is given by using a Lyapunov function with a mixture of quadratic and copositive types. Finally, two numerical examples are employed as a means of substantiating the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a nonlinear energy sink (NES) is used to suppress the nonlinear aeroelastic response of graphene platelet reinforced composite (GPLRC) lattice sandwich plates in a supersonic airflow for the first time. The face sheets and lattice core trusses of lattice sandwich plates were reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs). The effective elastic modulus of the GPLRC was solved using the Halpin–Tsai micromechanical model, and Poisson's ratio, mass density, and coefficient of thermal expansion were calculated using the rule of mixtures. Kirchhoff plate and first-order shear deformation theories were used separately to model the face sheets and lattice core layer of the structure. The nonlinear strain–displacement relationship was derived using the von Karman large-deformation theory. The aerodynamic load was simulated using the piston theory. The motion equations of the supported GPLRC lattice sandwich plates with an NES under supersonic flow were derived using the Lagrange equation and the assumed mode method. The nonlinear aeroelastic responses of the GPLRC lattice sandwich plate system coupled with an NES were solved using Newmark direct integration combined with the Newton–Raphson iteration technique. Finally, a detailed study of the effects of the NES on the suppression of the flutter behavior of GPLRC lattice sandwich plates was carried out. The results showed that within specific mass, damping, and nonlinear stiffness ranges, the NES could effectively suppress the nonlinear aeroelastic response of the GPLRC lattice sandwich plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding the release characteristics of soil colloids is a prerequisite for studying the co-transport of colloids and pollutants in subsurface environment. As a crucial agricultural management measure, fertilization not only alters the material composition of farmland soil, but also significantly regulates the properties and release patterns of soil colloids. This study systematically investigated the regulatory mechanism of short-term cattle manure fertilization on the macroscopic release and microscopic properties of soil colloids with different particle sizes, providing a theoretical foundation for subsequent research on the fate and transport of agricultural non-point source pollutants. Results: The colloids in natural agricultural soil primarily consist of inorganic components. Graded extraction of the colloids has revealed that the combined proportion of colloids with particle sizes of 1–2 μm and 0.45–1 μm accounts for approximately 80.5%. Applying cattle manure inhibits the release of soil colloids, and the content of large particle size (1–2 μm) components increases. The content of organic colloids is increased due to the high total organic carbon (TOC) in cattle manure, particularly those with a particle size less than 1 μm. The characterization of organic colloid components revealed a significant increase in aromatic carbon and oxygen-containing functional groups, while the aliphatic content decreased. The response sequence regarding changes in functional groups within organic colloids induced by fertilization was as follows: –CH3, –CH2 > C–O > –OH > C=C. Fertilization promotes the release of 1:1-type inorganic mineral colloids, increasing the content of poorly crystalline minerals. The retention of aromatic carbon and oxygen-containing functional groups by poorly crystalline mineral colloids served as the primary mechanism leading to their increased content levels. Changes in environmental factors significantly impacted the release and properties of soil colloids. Conditions such as low cationic valence, high ionic strength, and high pH promoted the release of soil colloids. Conclusions: The short-term fertilization resulted in a reduction in the release of soil colloids and brought about significant alterations in their particle size composition and properties. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into understanding the impact of fertilization-induced colloid release on the environmental behavior of agricultural non-point source pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its exceptional mechanical properties, 18CrNiMo7-6 alloy steel is one of the preferred materials for producing critical components, such as high-speed heavy-duty gearboxes. To study the relationship between cylindrical grinding parameters (e.g., workpiece speed, wheel speed, and grinding depth) and responses (i.e., grinding force, temperature, and surface residual stress), dimensional analysis and finite element simulation of cylindrical grinding were performed in this paper. A mathematical model for predicting the grinding force and residual stress of cylindrical grinding was proposed, and numerical and experimental verifications of cylindrical 18CrNiMo7-6 alloy steel were carried out. The numerical verification results showed that the maximum relative errors of the model for predicting the grinding force and residual stress were 7.9% and 11.2%, respectively. The experimental results revealed that the maximum absolute errors were 1.31 N and 33.7 MPa, respectively. To consider the simplification between finite element simulation and experiments, a modified model was proposed, with the errors of 5.4% and 8.6% for grinding force and residual stress, respectively. The results of this study indicate that the proposed model can guide practical grinding operations and help optimize machining parameters, improve production efficiency, and achieve high-quality machining results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued spread of SARS-CoV-2 has presented unprecedented obstacles to the worldwide public health system. Especially, individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at a heightened risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their pre-existing respiratory symptoms that are not well-managed. However, the viral mechanism of affecting the expression of host genes, COPD progression, and prognosis is not clear yet. This study integrated the differential expression information of COPD patients and then calculated the correlation between mRNAs and miRNAs to construct a COPD-specific ceRNA network. The DEGs of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection and anticipated miRNAs and their targets were analyzed in 9 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from different geographic locations. Furthermore, combining the experimentally validated miRNAs and genes, the regulatory miRNA-mRNA relationships were identified. All the regulatory relationships were integrated into the COPD-specific network and the network modules were explored to get insight into the functional mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection in COPD patients. A higher proportion of DEGs compete with the same miRNA suggesting a higher expression of genes in the COPD-specific ceRNA network. Hsa-miR-21-3p is the largest connected point in the network, but the proportion of genes upregulated by hsa-miR-21-3p is low (P = 0.1406). This indicates that the regulatory relationship of competitive inhibition has little effect on has-miR-21, and the high expression pattern is a poor prognostic factor in COPD. Hsa-miR-15a-5p is the most significant miRNA with the highest proportion of DEGs. And ANXA2P3 is the only gene in the COPD ceRNA network that interferes with hsa-miR-15a-5p. In addition, we found that has-miR-1184- and has-miR-99-cored modules were significant, and genes ZDHHC18, PCGF3, and KIAA0319L interacting with them were all associated with COPD prognosis, and high expression of these genes could lead to poor prognosis in COPD. The key regulators such as miR-21, miR-15a, ANXA2P3, ZDHHC18, PCGF3, and KIAA0319L can be used as prognostic biomarkers for early intervention in COPD with SARS-CoV-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Bayer red mud (RM) and lotus leaf powder (LL) were used as the main materials, and KH2PO4 was added to modify the material. Under the condition of high-temperature carbonization, RMLL was prepared and phosphate modified red mud matrix composite (PRMLL) was prepared based on KH2PO4 modification, which can effectively remove Pb2+ from water. The optimum preparation and application conditions were determined through orthogonal experiment: dosage 0.1g, ratio 1:1, and temperature 600 °C. The effects of pH, dosage, and initial concentration on the adsorption of Pb2+ were studied. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and Elovich kinetic models were fitted to the experimental data. It was found that RMLL and PRMLL were more consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and chemisorption. Langmuir, Freundlich, Timkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isothermal adsorption models were used to fit the experimental data. It was found that RMLL and PRMLL were more consistent with Langmuir model. In addition, the maximum adsorption capacity of RMLL and PRMLL was 188.1 mg/g and 213.4 mg/g, respectively. It is larger than the adsorption capacity of their monomers. Therefore, the use of RMLL and PRMLL as the removal of Pb2+ from water is a potential application material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the nonlinear aeroelastic properties of graphene platelet-reinforced composite (GPLRC) lattice sandwich plates under general boundary conditions in supersonic airflow is investigated for the first time by considering temperature-dependent properties. Face sheets are reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs) uniformly or linearly distributed in the thickness direction. Similarly, the lattice core trusses are reinforced with GPLs. The Halpin–Tsai model is used to calculate the effective elastic modulus of GPLRCs; Poisson’s ratio, mass density, and thermal expansion coefficient are determined by the rule of mixture. The face sheets and lattice core layer are modeled separately using the Kirchhoff plate and first-order shear deformation theories. The nonlinear strain–displacement relationship is derived by the von Karman large deformation theory. The aerodynamic load on the structure is expressed by the piston theory. The motion equations of are calculated using the Lagrange equation. Fourier series combined with auxiliary functions is used to describe the displacement components of sandwich plates. The Newmark direct integration combined with the Newton–Raphson iteration technique is employed to solve the nonlinear aeroelastic response. Finally, the influences of boundary condition, thermal load, GPL distribution pattern, and weight fraction, on the nonlinear aeroelastic properties of lattice sandwich plates are analyzed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-volume SiCp/Al (65%) composite material possesses excellent properties of both aluminum alloy and SiC. Its drilling process is widely utilized in various fields such as the national defense industry, electronic communication, aerospace, etc. Drilling with ultrasonic vibrations has shown promising results when used for high-volume drilling in SiCp/Al. Because of the strong correlation between drilling force and hole quality, it is very important to predict the drilling force to optimize the drilling parameters to improve the processing quality and efficiency. However, the prediction of drilling force for high volume fraction SiCp/Al in UVAD is still a problem. This study establishes a theoretical mechanical model that considers ultrasonic vibration and undeformed cutting thickness. Especially, the main cutting edge and the transverse edge of the drill bit are divided into several small units. The cutting force and torque of each unit are solved using oblique cutting theory and orthogonal theory, and the axial force and torque of the drill bit as a whole are calculated using the integration method. This model not only considers the influence of ultrasonic vibration on drilling force but also introduces a new reference, undeformed cutting thickness. In addition, a three-dimensional simulation model was established. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical drilling force model and simulation model in predicting axial force and torque during the drilling process of SiCp/Al composite materials was verified through experiments. The average error of the three-dimensional model in predicting axial force was 7.11%, and the average error of torque was 7.19%. The average error of the mechanical model in predicting axial force was 10.49%, and the average error of torque was 13.05%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a reference derived some new higher-order output tracking properties for direct model reference adaptive control (MRAC) of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems: limt→∞e(i)(t) = 0, i = 1,…, n* − 1, where n* and e(i)(t) denote the relative degree of the system and the i-th derivative of the output tracking error, respectively. However, a naturally arising question involves whether indirect adaptive control (including indirect MRAC and indirect adaptive pole placement control) of LTI systems still has higher-order tracking properties. Such properties have not been reported in the literature. Therefore, this paper provides an affirmative answer to this question. Such higher-order tracking properties are new discoveries since they hold without any additional design conditions and, in particular, without the persistent excitation condition. Given the higher-order properties, a new adaptive control system is developed with stronger tracking features. (1) It can track a reference signal with any order derivatives being unknown. (2) It has higher-order exponential or practical output tracking properties. (3) Finally, it is different from the usual MRAC system, whose reference signal’s derivatives up to the n* order are assumed to be known. Finally, two simulation examples are provided to verify the theoretical results obtained in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical glass is an isotropic amorphous solid material; due to its excellent performance, it has been widely used in various fields. However, during the milling process, the optical glass will have defects such as edge break damage and cracks on the surface, import and export, and side edges; these defects seriously affect the application of optical glass. In order to study the formation mechanism of defects such as edge break damage and cracks during optical glass processing and experimental and theoretical study of optical glass milling using ultrasonic vibration-assisted milling (UVAM), the edge break damage depth model of the export edge collapse was established. The results show that the main reason for the edge break damage is that the optical glass will crack on the subsurface during processing; the propagation of these cracks causes the amorphous material to tear and crumble. By comparing and analyzing the results of ultrasonic vibration milling and ordinary milling, ultrasonic vibration can significantly reduce this phenomenon, and it is found that the cutting depth and feed per tooth have a great influence on the export edge break damage value, and the influence of spindle speed is less. In addition, when the amplitude of the ultrasonic wave is applied, not only the import and export edge break damage phenomenon can be significantly improved, but also the surface quality can be significantly improved. Therefore, the application of ultrasonic vibration-assisted milling to the processing of optical glass can improve the surface and edge quality, which is help improve the application range of optical glass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spherical heterojunction Bi2O2CO3/NH2-MIL-125(Ti)(BOC/NMLT) composite photocatalytic materials were prepared by hydrothermal method. Under simulated visible light conditions, Bi2O2CO3/NH2-MIL-125(Ti)-5 (BOC/NMLT-5) had the best degradation performance of tetracycline (TC), and the degradation rate of TC reached 85.6% within 90 min, which was 10.4 times and 3.2 times that of pure NMLT and Bi2O2CO3, respectively. The characterization results show that Bi2O2CO3/NH2-MIL-125(Ti)-5 has a larger specific surface area, a wider light corresponding range, and a higher electron–hole transfer efficiency than the monomer Bi2O2CO3. The results of free radical quenching experiments show that h+ and ·O2− are the main active substances for the degradation of TC by Bi2O2CO3/NH2-MIL-125(Ti)-5, and the Z-type electron transfer mechanism of TC degradation in BOC/NMLT system is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a polyaniline/mesoporous silica (PANI/MCM-41) composite material that can be used as a filler for permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was prepared by in situ polymerization. Firstly, the adsorption capacity of PANI/MCM-41 on Cr (VI) in solution was investigated. The results show that the prepared PANI/MCM-41 exhibits a significant Cr (VI) adsorption capacity (~ 340 mg/g), and the adsorption process is more accurately described by the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic functions evidenced that the Cr(VI) adsorption was an endothermic spontaneous process. In addition, adsorption–desorption cycle experiments proved the excellent reusability of the material. Subsequently, the material was utilized as a filler in the PRB for the remediation of Cr(VI)-contaminated soil using electrokinetic-permeable reactive barrier (EK-PRB) technology. The results show that compared with traditional electrokinetic remediation, the use of PANI/MCM-41 as an active filler can enlarge the current during remediation and enhance the conductivity of soil, which increases the removal rates of total Cr and Cr(VI) in soil (17.4% and 10.2%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban railways in coastal areas are exposed to the risk of extreme weather conditions. A cost-effective and robust wind monitoring system, as a vital part of the railway infrastructure, is essential for ensuring safety and efficiency. However, insufficient sensors along urban rail lines may result in failure to detect local strong winds, thus impacting urban rail safety and operational efficiency. This paper proposes a hybrid method based on historical wind speed data analysis to optimize wind monitoring system deployment. The proposed methodology integrates warning similarity and trend similarity with a linear combination and develops a constrained quadratic programming model to determine the combined weights. The methodology is demonstrated and verified based on a real-world case of an urban rail line. The results show that the proposed method outperforms the single similarity-based method and spatial interpolation approach in terms of both evaluation accuracy and robustness. This study provides a practical data-driven tool for urban rail operators to optimize their wind sensor networks with limited data and resources. It can contribute significantly to enhancing railway system operational efficiency and reducing the hazards on rail infrastructures and facilities under strong wind conditions. Additionally, the novel methodology and evaluation framework can be efficiently applied to the monitoring of other extreme weather conditions, further enhancing urban rail safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of geological disasters can have a large impact on urban safety. Protecting people's safety is the most important concern when disasters occur. Safety improvement requires a large amount of comprehensive and representative risk analysis and a large collection of information related to geological hazards, including unstructured knowledge and experience. To address the relevant information and support safety risk analysis, a geological hazard knowledge graph is developed automatically based on computer vision and domain-geoscience ontology to identify geological hazards from input images while obeying safety rules and regulations, even when affected by changes. In the implementation of the knowledge graph, we design an ontology schema of geological disasters based on a top-down approach, and by organizing knowledge as a logical semantic expression, it can be shared using ontology technologies and therefore enable semantic interoperability. Computer vision approaches are then used to automatically detect a set of entities and attributes, using the data from input images, and object types and their attributes are identified so that they can be stored in Neo4j for reasoning and searching. Finally, a reasoning model for geological hazard identification was developed using the Neo4j database to create nodes, relationships, and their properties for modeling, and geological hazards in the images can be automatically identified by searching the Neo4j database. An application on geological hazard is presented. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of identifying possible potential hazards in geological hazards and assisting in formulating targeted preventive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative behavior exists widely in nature and social life, and the delays generated during the transmission of information have an important effect on the dynamic evolution of cooperation. To this end, the effect of delays in the control channel (from decision-making to action) on network evolutionary games is explored, and the strategy synthesis problem is also investigated using semi-tensor products of matrices. Firstly, the dynamics of network evolutionary games with delays in control transmission can be converted into an algebraic expression. Secondly, a reachable set approach is introduced to analyze the closed-loop dynamics with control delay, and some sufficient and necessary conditions for the existence of strategy convergence are derived. Meanwhile, an improved algorithm is developed to design the feedback control law, which guarantees that all the strategy trajectories are stable to the desired profile. Finally, two illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the results obtained. The current method will help to devise a favorable framework for designing just-in-time strategies in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The machining accuracy and service life of ordinary carbide milling cutters has a great influence on the surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of metal matrix composites used in the manufacturing of aerospace, automotive equipment, and other fields. Micron diamond film (MCD film), nanocrystalline diamond film (NCD film), and different types of boron-doped diamond films (BDD film) were prepared on cemented carbide milling cutters by bias-enhanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition (BEHFCVD). The surface morphology, composition, and bonding strength of different types of diamond films were analyzed and studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), and indentation test respectively. In addition, the milling experiments of 40% SiCp/Al composites were carried out using the above-coated milling cutters to study the milling performance of different coated milling cutters. The results show that the boron-doped micro-nanocry composite diamond coating has a good surface finish and film-based bonding strength. The milling test shows that the wear of the BDM-NCD-coated milling cutter is the smallest, the life of the milling cutter is strengthened, and the cutting performance is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize the simultaneous removal of nine metal ions from water, in this study, an excellent flocculant suitable for the simultaneous removal of multiple metal ions in water was developed by using the excellent flocculation properties of graphene oxide (GO) combined with biological flocculants. First, this study investigated the concentrations and pollution levels of nine metal pollutants in surface water and groundwater of a typical city in central China. The maximum concentrations of these nine metal ions were Al 0.29, Ni 0.0325, Ba 0.948, Fe 1.12, As 0.05, Cd 0.01, Zn 1.45, Mn 1.24, and Hg 0.16 (in mg/L). Second, the three-dimensional structure diagram of GO was established. Gaussian16W software and the pm6D3 semi-empirical method were used to analysis the structure and the vibration of GO. The B3LYP function and basis set DEF2SVP was used to calculate the single point energy. Third, with varying the flocculation time, it was found that the maximum flocculation efficiency could reach more than 80.00% under the optimal conditions, that is, with a metal ion mixture of 20 mg/L. The optimal dosage of GO was 15 mg/L. The optimal time for bioflocculation efficiency was 2.5 h, and the optimal concentration of bioflocculant was 3 mg/L. The optimal flocculation efficiency was 82.01% under the optimal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Fifty-three shade tolerance genes with 281 alleles in the SCSGP were identified directly using gene–allele sequence as markers in RTM GWAS, from which optimized crosses, evolutionary motivators, and gene–allele networks were explored. Shade tolerance is a key for optimal cultivation of soybean inter/relay-cropped with corn. To explore the shade tolerance gene–allele system in the southern China soybean germplasm, we proposed using gene–allele sequence markers (GASMs) in a restricted two-stage multi-locus model genome-wide association study (GASM-RTM-GWAS). A representative sample with 394 accessions was tested for their shade tolerance index (STI), in Nanning, China. Through whole-genome re-sequencing, 47,586 GASMs were assembled. From GASM-RTM-GWAS, 53 main-effect STI genes with 281 alleles (2–13 alleles/gene) (totally 63 genes with 308 alleles, including 38 G × E genes with 191 alleles) were identified and then organized into a gene–allele matrix composed of eight submatrices corresponding to geo-seasonal subpopulations. The population featured mild STI changes (1.69 → 1.56–1.82) and mild gene–allele changes (92.5% alleles inherited, 0% alleles excluded, 7.5% alleles emerged) from the primitive (SAIII) to the derived seven subpopulations, but large transgressive recombination potentials and optimal crosses were predicted. The 63 STI genes were annotated into six biological categories (metabolic process, catalytic activity, response to stresses, transcription and translation, signal transduction and transport and unknown functions), interacted as gene networks. From the STI gene–allele system, 38 important alleles of 22 genes were nominated for further in-depth study. GASM-RTM-GWAS performed powerful and efficient in germplasm population genetic study comparing to other procedures through facilitating direct and thorough identification of its gene–allele system, from which genome-wide breeding by design could be achieved, and evolutionary motivators and gene–allele networks could be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Early biochemical recurrence (eBCR) indicated a high risk for potential recurrence and metastasis in prostate cancer. The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation modification played an important role in prostate cancer progression. This study aimed to develop a m6A lncRNA signature to accurately predict eBCR in prostate cancer. Methods: Pearson correlation analysis was first conducted to explore m6A lncRNAs and univariate Cox regression analysis was further performed to identify m6A lncRNAs of prognostic roles for predicting eBCR in prostate cancer. The m6A lncRNA signature was constructed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analysis (LASSO) in training cohort and further validated in test cohort. Furthermore, half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were utilized to explore potential effective drugs for high-risk group in this study. Results: Five hundred and thirty-eighth m6A lncRNAs were searched out through Pearson correlation analysis and 25 out of 538 m6A lncRNAs were identified to pose prediction roles for eBCR in prostate cancers. An m6A lncRNA signature including 5 lncRNAs was successfully built in training cohort. The high-risk group derived from m6A lncRNA signature could efficiently predict eBCR occurrence in both training (p < 0.001) and test cohort (p = 0.002). ROC analysis also confirmed that lncRNA signature in this study posed more accurate prediction roles for eBCR occurrence when compared with PSA, TNM stages and Gleason scores. Drug sensitivity analysis further discovered that various drugs could be potentially utilized to treat high-risk samples in this study. Conclusions: The m6A lncRNA signature in this study could be utilized to efficiently predict eBCR occurrence, various clinical characteristic and immune microenvironment for prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the remarkable rise in the efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells, the stress-induced intrinsic instability of perovskite active layers is widely identified as a critical hurdle for upcoming commercialization. Herein, a long-alkyl-chain anionic surfactant additive is introduced to chemically ameliorate the perovskite crystallization kinetics via surface segregation and micellization, and physically construct a glue-like scaffold to eliminate the residual stresses. As a result, benefiting from the reduced defects, suppressed ion migration and improved energy level alignment, the corresponding unencapsulated perovskite single-junction and perovskite/silicon tandem devices exhibit impressive operational stability with 85.7% and 93.6% of their performance after 3000 h and 450 h at maximum power point tracking under continuous light illumination, providing one of the best stabilities to date under similar test conditions, respectively. Stress-induced instability of perovskite layers is a critical hurdle for commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors introduce a long-alkyl-chain anionic surfactant additive to chemically ameliorate crystallization kinetics and demonstrate devices with long operational stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine aerosol, containing an enormous source of chloride, coupled with severe environmental conditions (e.g., high temperature, high relative humidity), poses a threat to the durability of concrete exposed to the marine atmospheric zone. The distribution of marine aerosol is spatial and temporal dependent, and thus, the deposition rate of airborne chlorides Ddep can vary a lot with geological and environmental factors. Chloride profile in concrete exposed to marine aerosol is a two-zone profile due to the wetting/drying action. The peak chloride concentration Cmax and depth of the convection zone Δx are largely affected by time, materials, environmental conditions which usually is less than 10 mm. Many models based on Fick’s law are developed to predict chloride transport in unsaturated concrete under wetting–drying cycles. However, the prediction of marine aerosol penetration into concrete is far from satisfactory, due to lack of enough experimental and theoretical researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-tail recommendations have garnered considerable attention due to their potential economic impact and their capability to offer unexpected yet reasonable experiences. However, the limited availability of interaction data for long-tail items and the pervasive popularity bias in recommender systems cause existing recommendation approaches to lean towards suggesting short-head items (i.e., popular items), resulting in a detrimental cycle for long-tail recommendation. To this end, leveraging the rich semantic information in the knowledge graph (KG), we propose a Knowledge-enhanced Representation Aggregation for Long-tail Recommendation (KRALR). KRALR is able to recommend as many satisfactory long-tail items as possible to target users while maintaining the accuracy of recommendation. Firstly, KRALR presents a popularity constraint-based long-tail neighbor selector to capture the representation of long-tail interests for target users through random walks on the KG under item popularity constraints. Subsequently, KRALR introduces a co-occurrence neighbor selector to extract co-occurrence neighbors from the co-occurrence enhanced KG for each long-tail item, which can enhance the representation quality of long-tail items effectively. Finally, KRALR calculates prediction scores through high-order knowledge aggregation for non-interacted items and recommends the top N non-interacted items with the highest prediction scores to target users. Experimental results on real-world datasets suggest that KRALR outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in terms of long-tail recommendation. Code is available at https://github.com/ZZP-RS/KRALR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular conformations induced by the rotation about single bonds play a crucial role in chemical transformations. Revealing the relationship between the conformations of chiral catalysts and the enantiodiscrimination is a formidable challenge due to the great difficulty in isolating the conformers. Herein, we report a chiral catalytic system composed of an achiral catalytically active unit and an axially chiral 1,1′-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) unit which are connected via a C–O single bond. The two conformers of the catalyst induced by the rotation about the C–O bond, are determined via single-crystal X-ray diffraction and found to respectively lead to the formation of highly important axially chiral 1,1′-binaphthyl-2,2′-diamine (BINAM) and 2-amino-2′-hydroxy-1,1′-binaphthyl (NOBIN) derivatives in high yields (up to 98%), with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 98:2 e.r.) and opposite absolute configurations. The results highlight the importance of conformational dynamics of chiral catalysts in asymmetric catalysis. Molecular flexiblity and conformational dynamics of chiral catalysts are not often taken into account in models of enantiodiscrimination. Here the authors design a catalytic system in which two conformers of the same catalyst can lead to axially chiral products of opposite absolute configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the linear and nonlinear instability of a smooth Rayleigh–Taylor steady state solution to the three-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes–Korteweg equations in the presence of a uniform gravitational field. We first analyze the linearized equations around the steady state solution and find that for any capillary coefficient κ > 0 , we can construct the solutions of the linearized problem that grow in time in Sobolev space H m , thus leading to the linear instability. However, with the help of the constructed unstable solutions of the linearized problem, we just establish the nonlinear instability for small enough capillary coefficient κ > 0 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although multiple emissive phosphors are of great fundamental interest and practical importance, it is still challenging to achieve full-color tunable luminescence in a single-component material. Herein, we present an antimony-doped lead halide single crystal (C10NH22)2PbBr4: Sb3+ with widely tunable red/green/blue/white luminescence. Extrinsic Sb3+ dopants provide host another active sites to capture photo-generated excitons, thus triggering blue/red dual emission. Moreover, a reversible thermal-induced phase transition transforms blue/red emission into green/red dual emission. Both two phases exhibit intriguing excitation-wavelength dependent emission, affording a whole color gamut covering the red-green-blue (RGB) color triangle on the CIE 1931 diagram. Experimental and theoretical calculation studies reveal two emitters work independently, which paves the way for the multimode optical control and promotes the development of multifunctional luminescent materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sorghum is a high-quality raw material for brewing white wine, and the starch content in seeds has a large impact on brewing quality. Transcriptomic data obtained from a glutinous variety (Liaonian3) and a non-glutinous variety (Liaoza10) at 3, 18, and 30 days after pollination were analyzed to identify genes associated with starch accumulation. The amylopectin content was significantly higher in Liaonian3 compared to Liaoza10, but the amylose content and total starch content were lower. There were 6634 differentially expressed genes found in Liaoza10 between 3 and 18 d after pollination, and 779 differentially expressed genes between 18 and 30 d after pollination. In Liaonian3, there were 6768 differentially expressed genes between 3 and 18 d after pollination, and 7630 differentially expressed genes between 18 and 30 d after pollination. Genes were grouped by expression profiles over the three time points and the profiles were analyzed for enrichment of gene ontology terms and biochemical pathways. Profile 1 (decreasing expression from 3 to 30 d) for Liaoza10 was enriched in ribosomes, metabolic pathways, and carbon metabolic pathways. Profile 0 (decreasing expression from 3 to 18 d and consistent expression from 18 to 30 d) was enriched in pathways related to sugar or starch metabolism. Although the starch accumulation rate in Liaonian3 and Liaoza10 showed a profile of increasing and then decreasing, the expression of genes related to starch synthesis gradually decreased with time since pollination, demonstrating the complexity of starch synthesis. According to orthologous gene alignment and expression analysis, 19 genes such as entrzID_8068390 and entrzID_8066807 were found to be the key genes for starch synthesis and glutinous and non-glutinous differentiation in sorghum grains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies need to innovate quickly to adapt to the current rapidly changing market environment. Therefore, methods to support the computer-aided creative design process have become a hot research topic, and a variety of methods to support research on creative systems have been derived on the basis of the designer's cognition. This study establishes a general parametric design cognitive model to support the computer-aided creative process of directed design. First, this model divides a large amount of stimulus knowledge into corresponding levels through considers multiple dimensions of inspiration and stimulus factors. Second, this model develops and validates a form-generating design technology to replace a designer's hand-drawn sketches. This technology can quickly obtain many effective product 3D models to further increase the speed of creative realization. Finally, this study verifies the model through a case study. Through the analysis of the case output results, we found that the model can quickly generate a three-dimensional sketch plan that meets the desired goals. In turn, the generated results can stimulate the designer to generate broader inspiration. Therefore, the computer-supported creative generation model established by this research has a certain degree of scientificity and feasibility. Its novelty lies in the method can liberate the designer's labor to a certain extent and replace the designer in completing the directed creative generation process and the plan sketch process. And the verification process reflects certain cognitive mechanisms of the human brain, Therefore, this method can be applied to some specific design propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the stability and instability of the steady state (0 , p s) ( p s is a constant) for the 3D homogeneous incompressible viscous flow in a bounded simply connected domain with a smooth boundary where the velocity satisfies the Navier boundary conditions. It is shown that there exists a critical slip length - C r μ , where C r > 0 is an explicit generic constant depending only on the domain (given in (1.7)) and μ > 0 is the viscosity coefficient, such that when the slip length ζ is less than - C r μ , the steady state (0 , p s) is linearly and nonlinearly unstable; and conversely, the steady state (0 , p s) is linearly and nonlinearly stable when ζ > - C r μ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a unified object-aware temporal learning framework for multi-view 3D detection and tracking tasks. Having observed that the efficacy of the temporal fusion strategy in recent multi-view perception methods may be weakened by distractors and background clutters in historical frames, we propose a cyclic learning mechanism to improve the robustness of multi-view representation learning. The essence is constructing a backward bridge to propagate information from model predictions (e.g., object locations and sizes) to image and BEV features, which forms a circle with regular inference. After backward refinement, the responses of target-irrelevant regions in historical frames would be suppressed, decreasing the risk of polluting future frames and improving the object awareness ability of temporal fusion. We further tailor an object-aware association strategy for tracking based on the cyclic learning model. The cyclic learning model not only provides refined features, but also delivers finer clues (e.g., scale level) for tracklet association. The proposed cycle learning method and association module together contribute a novel and unified multi-task framework. Experiments on nuScenes show that the proposed model achieves consistent performance gains over baselines of different designs (i.e., dense query-based BEVFormer, sparse query-based SparseBEV and LSS-based BEVDet4D) on both detection and tracking evaluation. Codes and models will be released. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of nitrogen fertilizer green and efficient application technology by exploring the mechanism of efficient sorghum N use is important for sustainable development of sorghum industry as well as barren marginal land development and utilization. This study was conducted in 2018, 2019, and 2020 at Shenyang, China, using the nitrogen-efficient sorghum variety Liaonian No. 3 as material. The correlation between soil microbial species, diversity, and metabolic pathways with photosynthetic parameters and yield traits was analyzed to elucidate the mechanisms of nitrogen utilization and photosynthetic material production in sorghum under four fertilizer application patterns. The results showed that 17 populations of soil inter-root microorganisms were active in the organic fertilizer + 0 kg per hm2 of nitrogen (N0Y) model, and the abundance of two key populations, Comamonadaceae and Ellin5301, was significantly increased. Soil microorganisms regulated sorghum growth mainly through 30 pathways, focus including ko00540, ko00471, ko00072 and ko00550, of which ko02030 (Bacterial chemotaxis) and ko00072 (Synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies) played the most critical role. The functional analysis of soil microbial populations revealed that N0Y fertilizer model significantly reduced the intracellular trafficking, secretion. In addition, vesicular transport of microorganisms, amino acid transport and metabolism and nucleotide transport and metabolism played a key role in the regulation of population function. Overall, the N0Y model of N-efficient sorghum can achieve high levels of photosynthetic material production and higher yield formation through regulation of population activities and metabolic pathways of loamy microorganisms, resulting in reduced chemical N application and efficient green production of sorghum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the principle of the energy conservation for the weak solutions of the incompressible inhomogeneous Euler–Korteweg equations. We provide two sufficient conditions on the regularity of the weak solutions in Besov space to ensure the energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic patterning of soft materials in a fully reversible and programmable manner with light enables applications in anti-counterfeiting, displays and labelling technology. However, this is a formidable challenge due to the lack of suitable chiral molecular photoswitches. Here, we report the development of a unique intrinsic chiral photoswitch with broad chirality modulation to achieve digitally controllable, selectable and extractable multiple stable reflection states. An anti-counterfeiting technique, embedded with diverse microstructures, featuring colour-tunability, erasability, reversibility, multi-stability and viewing-angle dependency of pre-recorded patterns, is established with these photoresponsive superstructures. This strategy allows dynamic helical transformation from the molecular and supramolecular to the macroscopic level using light-activated intrinsic chirality, demonstrating the practicality of photoprogramming photonics. Chiral liquid-crystal materials with optical properties that can be tuned, erased and reversed offer new opportunities in labelling, displays and anti-counterfeiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State estimation is the primary concern in system analysis and control issues, especially for complex networked systems. This paper explores the influence of communication delays on the initial-state detectability of networked discrete event systems (NDESs). Firstly, the communication delays are hypothesized to be upper bounded through the observation channel, and the notion of networked initial-state (NI) detectability is proposed and lucubrated. Subsequently, according to the semi-tensor product (STP) of matrices, the dynamics affected by bounded delays could be perfectly depicted by a reachable matrix. Then, these algebraic criteria of NI detectability: strongly NI and weakly NI detectability, can be converted into checking some constructed matrix. Meanwhile, two algorithms are developed to verify the detectability based on a novel algebraic framework. Lastly, one prototypical numeric example is provided to validate the effectiveness of our theoretical approach. Note that the current results will help us to further investigate the detectability-based enforcement of networked systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are a class of short peptides, which have the ability of intracellular delivery. CPPs can also be used as an ideal transfection tool whereby biomacromolecules can be transferred as cargo into recipient cells. Here, a synthesized cell-penetrating peptide (R9)-mediated DNA-free transfection is presented. DNA sequences of nine tandem arginine (R9), one cysteine (cys), reporter mCherry, and histidine label were sequentially constructed into pET-45b(+) expression vector and transformed into the Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) strain. The R9-cys-mCherry fusion protein was obtained by prokaryotic expression. The Arabidopsis root tips, Chinese cabbage microspores, and 3-wk-old microspore embryos (MDEs) were used as transfected recipients. With a working concentration of R9-cys-mCherry ranging from 10 to 100 μg mL−1 and overnight incubation, R9-cys-mCherry protein can be translocated into the recipient mentioned above. The transfection efficiency of root tips reached 100%, and that of microspores and MDEs was 8.13% and 94.79%, respectively. A CPP-mediated DNA-free transfection system was built in dicots providing a technical basis for DNA-free CRISPR RNP (ribonucleoprotein) intracellular delivery in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the low Mach number limit of the compressible Euler–Cattaneo–Maxwell (ECM) equations with small variations of density, temperature and heat flux. For well-prepared initial data, we prove that, in the framework of classical solutions, the solution of the compressible ECM equations converges to that of the incompressible Euler–Maxwell equations as the Mach number tends to zero. We also obtain the convergence rate and establish the local existence of classical solution to the limit equations. Furthermore, we discuss briefly the low Mach limits of the isentropic Euler–Maxwell equations, the non-isentropic Euler–Maxwell equations without heat conduction, the Euler–Maxwell equations with linear Cattaneo's heat transfer law and the Euler–Fourier–Maxwell equations. We find that they share the same limit equations, i.e., the incompressible Euler–Maxwell equations. This confirms a physical fact that for the well-prepared initial data and considering small variations of density, temperature and heat flux, the various types of non-isentropic Euler–Maxwell equations have the similar incompressibility as the isentropic equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrobrachium nipponense is an economically important freshwater prawn that is often threatened by many aquatic pathogens. In this study, comparative transcriptomic analysis was firstly used to explore the transcriptional response of M. nipponense to Aeromonas veronii or Staphylococcus aureus stimulation. A total of 400.19 million clean reads were obtained and assembled into 56 944 unigenes with an average length of 1 253 bp. A total of 1 857 differentially expressed genes were found after A. veronii infection, including 677 genes that were up-regulated and 1 180 genes that were down-regulated, while 1 061 significant differentially expressed genes were identified after S. aureus infection, including 390 up-regulated and 671 down-regulated genes. Many immune-related genes including Spaetzle, prophenoloxidase activating factor, C-type lectin, anti-lipopolysaccharide factor, and inhibitor of apoptosis 2 protein were commonly up-regulated after A. veronii or S. aureus infection. This study will enrich our understanding of the immune response to gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria infection in crustaceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing popularity of Apache Spark has attracted many users to put their data into its ecosystem. On the other hand, it has been witnessed in the literature that Spark is slow when it comes to distributed machine learning (ML). One resort is to switch to specialized systems such as parameter servers, which are claimed to have better performance. Nonetheless, users have to undergo the painful procedure of moving data into and out of Spark. In this paper, we investigate performance bottlenecks of MLlib (an official Spark package for ML) in detail, by focusing on analyzing its implementation of stochastic gradient descent (SGD)—the workhorse under the training of many ML models. We show that the performance inferiority of Spark is caused by implementation issues rather than fundamental flaws of the bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) model that governs Spark's execution: we can significantly improve Spark's performance by leveraging the well-known "model averaging" (MA) technique in distributed ML. Indeed, model averaging is not limited to SGD, and we further showcase an application of MA to training latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) models within Spark. Our implementation is not intrusive and requires light development effort. Experimental evaluation results reveal that the MA-based versions of SGD and LDA can be orders of magnitude faster compared to their counterparts without using MA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish embryos are widely used as models in toxicology, drug development, and human disease research because of their high sensitivity, observability, and operability, providing the basis for an in-depth understanding of the embryogenesis. Increasing studies have indicated that birth defects are hereditary. In this study, we used Oryzias melastigma as a model to conduct a study of 185-day embryogenesis and observed self-induced non-pathological abnormal embryogenesis. O. melastigma experienced pre-puberty stage, adolescence stage, and senescence stage, and individuals produced up to 102 eggs per day. However, the fecundity was markedly reduced during the senescent stage. During the active egg and blastodisc stages, pseudo-fertilization and pseudo-blastocysts were observed. During cleavage at the 4- to 32-cell stages, we observed blastomeres separation or dislocation. Excessively separated blastomeres formed double blastoderms, eventually resulting in conjoined twins. During the blastula stage, we observed abnormally increased cell volume, narrowed and elongated blastocysts, and abnormally coated blastoderms. At the organogenesis stage, we observed abnormal numbers of Kupffer's vesicles and conjoined twins. Abnormality in the location and number of oil droplets were observed in various development stages. Abnormal development was more commonly observed in fertilized eggs produced by broodstock in prepuberty or senescence stages, which is probably related to the age of fish and the egg quality. This study can provide the materials for comparative analysis in toxicological and molecular studies of O. melastigma, and may provide evidence for other economic fish that produce sticky eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions is an important environmental index in the cement production process. The purpose of predicting NOx emission concentration during cement production is to optimize the denitration process to reduce NOx emission. However, due to the problems of time delay, nonlinearity, uncertainty, and data continuity in the cement production process, it is difficult to establish an accurate NOx concentration prediction model. In order to solve the above problems, a NOx emission concentration prediction model using a deep belief network with clustering and time series features (CT-DBN) is proposed in this paper. Particularly, to improve data sparsity and enhance data characteristics, a clustering algorithm is introduced into the model to process the original data of each variable; the time series containing delay information are introduced into the input layer, which combines previous and current variable data into time series data to eliminate the influence of the time delay on the prediction of NOx emission concentration. In addition, restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) is used to extract data features, and a gradient descent algorithm is used to reversely adjust network parameters to establish a deep belief network model (DBN). Experiments prove that the method in this paper has higher accuracy, stronger stability, and better generalization ability in predicting NOx emission concentration in cement production. The CT-DBN model realizes the accurate prediction of NOx emission concentration, provides guidance for denitration control, and reduces NOx emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: As an emerging interventional technique to treat resistant hypertension, renal denervation (RDN) has also attracted considerable attention due to its potential beneficial effects on glucose and lipid metabolism. Given that inconsistent results were documented among studies, we aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to elaborate on this issue. Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science (SCI) and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were comprehensively searched from their inception date to June 18, 2020, for relevant clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of RDN on glucose and lipid levels. The outcomes of interest were changes in fasting glucose, insulin, C-peptide, hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), cholesterol and triglyceride (TG) levels before versus after RDN and also RDN versus the control group. The mean differences (MDs) of the outcomes measured before versus after RDN and RDN versus the control group were pooled by a randomized effects model. Heterogeneity was quantified with Chi-square (χ2) and inconsistency index (I2). Assessment of publication bias was performed by the funnel plot and Egger's test. Results: A total of 1600 studies were initially identified. Nineteen of the identified studies (six randomized controlled studies, one non-randomized controlled studies and 12 observational cohort studies) involving 2245 subjects were included in the final analysis. No significant change was observed after RDN in fasting glucose (weighted mean difference [WMD] − 0.19 mmol/L; 95% CI − 0.37, 0.00 mmol/L), insulin (standardized mean difference [SMD] − 0.01; 95% CI − 0.41, 0.39), C-peptide (SMD − 0.05; 95% CI − 0.30, 0.21), HbA1C (SMD − 0.05; 95% CI − 0.17, 0.07), HOMA-IR (SMD − 0.29; 95% CI − 0.72, 0.14), total cholesterol (TC) (WMD − 0.11 mmol/L; 95% CI − 0.37, 0.15 mmol/L), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (WMD − 0.18 mmol/L; 95% CI − 0.59, 0.24 mmol/L) during follow-up. Changes in fasting glucose, insulin, HbA1C and TC levels in RDN groups were not significantly different from those in the control group. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and TG were slightly improved after RDN (WMD 0.07 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.01, 0.14 mmol/L; WMD − 0.26 mmol/l, 95% CI − 0.51, − 0.01 mmol/L, respectively). The funnel plot and Egger's test demonstrated the absence of potential publication bias. Conclusions: Catheter-based RDN appeared to have no impact on glucose metabolism. There was a statistically significant but clinically negligible improvement in HDL-C and TG levels based on the current evidence. Future research with more rigorous designs is warranted to draw definitive conclusions. Registration details: The protocol of this meta-analysis was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020192805). (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=192805) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of tensile cracks on loess slope top surface is of major concern to researchers and engineers, as this phenomenon is typically considered to be an early indication of instability and potential landslides. In this study, formulas for the depth of vertical tensile cracks were derived within the framework of limit equilibrium. A new parameter, the crack depth coefficient, was introduced for evaluating the sensitivity of crack depth to the parameters of slopes. The results indicated that the crack depth coefficient is not only related to the position of the tension crack relative to the slope face, but also closely related to other geometric and mechanical parameters of the slope. In addition, the accuracy of the equation was then verified through application in a case study. Hence, the outcomes of this study are significant for improving stability analyses, instability prediction, and the early warning of instability for such landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]