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In arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, sugars in root cortical cells could be exported as glucose or sucrose into peri‐arbuscular space for use by AM fungi. However, no sugar transporter has been identified to be involved in sucrose export. An AM‐inducible SWEET transporter, GmSWEET6, was functionally characterised in soybean, and its role in AM symbiosis was investigated via transgenic plants. The expression of GmSWEET6 was enhanced by inoculation with the cooperative fungal strain in both leaves and roots. Heterologous expression in a yeast mutant showed that GmSWEET6 mainly transported sucrose. Transgenic plants overexpressing GmSWEET6 increased sucrose concentration in root exudates. Overexpression or knockdown of GmSWEET6 decreased plant dry weight, P content, and sugar concentrations in non‐mycorrhizal plants, which were partly recovered in mycorrhizal plants. Intriguingly, overexpression of GmSWEET6 increased root P content and decreased the percentage of degraded arbuscules, while knockdown of GmSWEET6 increased root sugar concentrations in RNAi2 plants and the percentage of degraded arbuscules in RNAi1 plants compared with wild‐type plants when inoculated with AM fungi. These results in combination with subcellular localisation of GmSWEET6 to peri‐arbuscular membranes strongly suggest that GmSWEET6 is required for AM symbiosis by mediating sucrose efflux towards fungi. Summary statement: GmSWEET6 is localised to the peri‐arbuscular membranes and essential for stabilisation of AM symbiosis by mediating sucrose efflux towards AM fungi in soybean. Soybean growth and sugar allocation are affected by GmSWEET6 overexpression and RNA interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical characteristics of acute asthma exacerbations (AEs) with community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP) in adults and establish a CAP prediction model for hospitalized patients with AEs. Methods: We retrospectively collected clinical data from 308 patients admitted to Beijing Luhe Hospital, Capital Medical University, for AEs from December 2017 to August 2021. The patients were divided into CAP and non‐CAP groups based on whether they had CAP. We used the Lasso regression technique and multivariate logistic regression analysis to select optimal predictors. We then developed a predictive nomogram based on the optimal predictors. The bootstrap method was used for internal validation. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA) to assess the nomogram's discrimination, accuracy, and clinical practicability. Results: The prevalence of CAP was 21% (65/308) among 308 patients hospitalized for AEs. Independent predictors of CAP in patients hospitalized with an AE (P < 0.05) were C‐reactive protein > 10 mg/L, fibrinogen > 4 g/L, leukocytes > 10 × 109/L, fever, use of systemic corticosteroids before admission, and early‐onset asthma. The AUC of the nomogram was 0.813 (95% CI: 0.753–0.872). The concordance index of internal validation was 0.794. The calibration curve was satisfactorily consistent with the diagonal line. The DCA indicated that the nomogram provided a higher clinical net benefit when the threshold probability of patients was 3% to 89%. Conclusions: The nomogram performed well in predicting the risk of CAP in hospitalized patients with AEs, thereby providing rapid guidance for clinical decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining a high‐quality Al/Fe joint remains a challenging task, due to formation of the various defects associated with melting phenomenon. Herein, a new strategy, lowering of initial temperature of the welded plates, is proposed to suppress the undesirable melting zone. Contrast experiments are conducted at low temperature (−50 °C) and room temperature (25 °C), respectively, and the microstructures and mechanical properties of the achieved joints are carefully investigated. It is found that this strategy is an effective way to improve the quality of Al/Fe joint, where the melting‐related defects are significantly reduced, and the bonding strength is increased by 18% when compared to the traditional method. In addition, the lowering of initial temperature enables to preserve the original properties of the parent metals by mitigating the impact‐induced grain structure evolution. This phenomenon is first demonstrated in this work and can be employed as a processing strategy to develop an advanced Al/Fe joint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malignant spermatic cord tumors (SCT) are rare and currently, there is no consensus regarding the role of radiotherapy in their treatment. This study evaluated the effect of radiotherapy on the overall survival (OS) of patients with malignant SCT based on the large‐sample advantage of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Methods: Patients with malignant SCT recorded in the SEER database from 1975 to 2016 were included. All patients were divided into non‐radiation and radiation groups, and propensity score matching (PSM) (1:1) was performed for baseline covariates between the two groups. The overall survival rate between the two groups of patients was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier curve. The effects of radiotherapy on patient prognosis were analyzed using univariate and multivariate COX regression analyses. Results: In total, 389 patients with malignant SCT were included. There were 285 (73.26%) and 104 (26.74%) patients who either did or did not receive radiotherapy, respectively. Kaplan–Meier curves before and after PSM showed no significant differences in OS between the two groups. Similarly, multivariate COX regression models before and after PSM showed that radiotherapy was not an independent risk factor for OS in patients with malignant SCT. Conclusions: Radiotherapy has no obvious advantage in improving the survival time of patients with malignant SCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, hollow glass microspheres (HGM) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were prepared. The effects of the type and content of HGM on the mechanical properties of the composite materials were investigated. It is found that the introduction of HGM leads to a decrease in the density of the composites, where the smallest density is 0.85 g cm−3. The tensile, bending, and impact strengths of the HGM/PP composites are slightly lower than those of pure PP resin. For a given type of HGM, as the filler content increases, the tensile properties of the HGM/PP composite decrease. A similar trend is observed in the impact strength, however, it is not observed in the bending performance. The mechanical properties of the HGM/PP composites are not only affected by the density of HGM fillers, but also by its content. The maximum bending modulus of the composites could be 24 % higher than that of the pure PP resins. In addition, the PP sample with HGM modified with γ‐aminopropyl triethoxysilane (KH550) showed promising interfacial bonding strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a vehicle‐to‐vehicle (V2V) trajectory planning algorithm for two vehicles driving in an arc‐shaped road is represented, in which the characteristics of human drivers are taken into consideration. Safety constraints including vehicle stability, road boundaries, and vehicles collision avoidance are considered. The boundary constraint of the arc‐shaped road is realized with a potential field method. The potential field method is also employed to realize the vehicles collision avoidance constraint and vehicle distance margin. The concept of partial cooperative control is presented, which can depict the collaboration of the vehicles more accurately. The algorithm is designed with a partial cooperative control pattern, employing model predictive control (MPC). The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by software simulation in a scenario of overtaking in arc‐shaped roads. The algorithm can accomplish the V2V collaboration trajectory planning task successfully. The performance of the algorithm representing different collaboration degrees and phases grouping in complex scenarios is also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking air freezing (AF) as the reference, the effects of four types of multi‐compound freezing medium for cryogenic liquid quick‐freezing (immersion freezing, IF) on the freezing rate, quality and myofibrillar protein (MP) denaturation of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) fillets during frozen storage (−18°C) from days 0 to 90 were studied. Samples were gathered on days 0, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90 for analysis. The results showed that IF groups (IF‐1: 20% ethanol, 30% propylene glycol, 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution; IF‐2: 20% ethanol, 20% propylene glycol, 10% glycerol, 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution; IF‐3: 20% ethanol, 20% propylene glycol, 10% polyethylene glycol, 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution; IF‐4: 20% ethanol, 20% propylene glycol, 5% glycerol, 5% polyethylene glycol, 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution) significantly shortened the time to cross the formation zone of maximum ice crystals while the freezing rate was 6.13 times higher than the AF group after adding 30% propylene glycol as the freezing medium. Furthermore, compared with the AF group, the IF groups significantly reduced losses in the water‐holding capacity, the myofibrillar fragmentation index, microstructure damage, texture characteristics, drip loss and water migration (P < 0.05). In addition, the MP of IF groups had higher maximum transition temperatures (Tmax1 and Tmax2), total sulfhydryl content, Ca2+‐ATPase activity and relative α‐helix content compared with the AF group. In conclusion, IF could significantly increase the freezing rate of red drum fillets, and slow down quality deterioration and denaturation of MP during frozen storage for 90 days (−18°C). In particular, IF‐2 (20% ethanol, 20% propylene glycol, 10% glycerol, 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution) was found to be more suitable for the immersion freezing of marine fish among the four multi‐compound freezing medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CELL DIVISION CONTROL PROTEIN48 (CDC48) is essential for membrane fusion, protein degradation, and other cellular processes. Here, we revealed the crucial role of CDC48B in regulating periclinal cell division in roots by analyzing the recessive gen1 mutant. We identified the GEN1 gene through map‐based cloning and verified that GEN1 encodes CDC48B. gen1 showed severely inhibited root growth, increased periclinal cell division in the endodermis, defective middle cortex (MC) formation, and altered ground tissue patterning in roots. Consistent with these phenotypes, CYCLIND 6;1(CYCD6;1), a periclinal cell division marker, was upregulated in gen1 compared to Col‐0. The ratio of SHRpro:SHR‐GFP fluorescence in pre‐dividing nuclei versus the adjacent stele decreased by 33% in gen1, indicating that the trafficking of SHORT‐ROOT (SHR) decreased in gen1 when endodermal cells started to divide. These findings suggest that the loss of function of CDC48B inhibits the intercellular trafficking of SHR from the stele to the endodermis, thereby decreasing SHR accumulation in the endodermis. These findings shed light on the crucial role of CDC48B in regulating periclinal cell division in roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to previous studies of obesity, we found that the association between homocysteine concentrations and obesity was reported controversially. Thus, we carried out this meta‐analysis to investigate this association. We searched PubMed, The Cochrane library, and EMBASE database for studies that evaluate the relationship between homocysteine concentrations and obesity from inception to March, 2019. The quality of all included studies was assessed by the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ). The RevMan5.3 software and Stata12.0 software were used for conducting all data analyses. Standardized mean differences (SMD) with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used as a measure of effect size to assess the relationship between homocysteine concentrations and obesity through a meta‐analysis. The level of significance was set at P <.05. A total of 14 studies were ultimately included in our meta‐analysis. Meta‐analysis of the 14 studies found remarkable lower homocysteine concentrations in controls than in obese patients (SMD = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.25‐1.27, P <.01; I2 = 94% and P <.01 for heterogeneity), regardless of nutritional status, dietary habit, insulin resistance (IR) status, special disease history, history of medicine taken, genetic background, and so on. Homocysteine concentrations in nonobese patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were lower than obese patients with PCOS (SMD = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.20‐0.77, P <.01; I2 = 39% and P =.18 for heterogeneity). The result of our meta‐analysis showed that homocysteine concentrations were significantly elevated among obese patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of surgical treatment of tuberculosis destroyed lung (TDL), and the influence of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) on the outcomes of surgical treatment of TDL. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 113 patients with TDL who underwent surgical treatment from January 2005 to December 2019. Among them, 30 of these cases were complicated with CPA. The patients were divided into two groups: TDL group and TDL + CPA group. We analyzed the effectiveness and safety of surgical treatment of TDL, and further compared the effectiveness and safety of surgical treatment of TDL with or withoutthe presence of CPA. Results: The TDL + CPA group had a significantly higher age (P=0.003), symptoms of hemoptysis (P=0.000), and a higher proportion of patients with preoperative serum albumin <30 g/L (P=0.014) as compared with TDL group. For all enrolled patients, the incidence of severe postoperative complications was 12.4% (14/113) and the postoperative mortality within 30 days after discharge was 4.4% (5/113). 86.7% (98/113) of the patients recovered and discharged, the incidence of severe postoperative complications in the TDA + CPA group was higher than that of TDL group (23.3% vs 8.4%, P = 0.034), although there was no difference in mortality between the two groups (P = 1.000). A binary logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors for severe postoperative complications were male (OR 25.24, 95% CI 2.31–275.64; P = 0.008) and age ≥ 40 years (OR 10.34, 95% CI 1.56–68.65; P = 0.016). Conclusion: Surgical treatment for patients with TDL is effective with an acceptable mortality rate whether or not the disease is complicated with CPA. The independent risk factors identified for severe postoperative complications in patients with TDL were male and ≥ 40 years old. It implies that when treating patients with TDA + CPA, particular attention should be paid to these patients who have these independent risk factors to avoid a poor outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel algorithm for radar imaging of high‐speed manoeuvering target. It is based on the fact that the azimuth part of the echo is modelled as the superposition of multiple quadratic frequency modulated (QFM) signals, and the range–Doppler algorithm is inappropriate to generate a focused radar image in this case. In this study, the improved version of product high‐order ambiguity function (IPHAF) is proposed to estimate the parameters of multiple QFM signals. This estimator requires only one‐dimensional (1D) maximisations without the scaling operation compared with the traditional product high‐order ambiguity function. The radar image quality can be improved by the IPHAF technique, and the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the method presented in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a hierarchical coordinated control algorithm for integrating active front steering and four-wheel independently driving control. In the higher-level controller, an adaptive siding mode control law and a coordination law for adjusting the yaw rate and slip angle control priorities are applied to determine the desired front wheel steering angle and external yaw moment. In the lower-level controller, a control allocation algorithm with actuators and tyre forces constraint considerations is designed to assign the desired yaw moment to the front wheel steering system and four wheels. The weighting factors of tracking errors and control inputs in the cost function are online updated according to the vehicle stability index. Simulation results with a high-fidelity, CarSim, full-vehicle model show that handling and stability of the vehicle can be improved with the proposed controller. What is more, control of sideslip angle can be more focused when the vehicle is hitting the manoeuvring limitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaea can respond to changes in the environment by altering the composition of their membrane lipids, for example, by modification of the abundance and composition of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers ( GDGTs). Here, we investigated the abundance and proportions of polar GDGTs ( P- GDGTs) and core GDGTs ( C- GDGTs) sampled in different seasons from Tengchong hot springs ( Yunnan, China), which encompassed a pH range of 2.5-10.1 and a temperature range of 43.7-93.6° C. The phylogenetic composition of the archaeal community (reanalysed from published work) divided the Archaea in spring sediment samples into three major groups that corresponded with spring pH: acidic, circumneutral and alkaline. Cluster analysis showed correlation between spring pH and the composition of P- and C- GDGTs and archaeal 16 S rRNA genes, indicating an intimate link between resident Archaea and the distribution of P- and C- GDGTs in Tengchong hot springs. The distribution of GDGTs in Tengchong springs was also significantly affected by temperature; however, the relationship was weaker than with pH. Analysis of published datasets including samples from Tibet, Yellowstone and the US Great Basin hot springs revealed a similar relationship between pH and GDGT content. Specifically, low pH springs had higher concentrations of GDGTs with high numbers of cyclopentyl rings than neutral and alkaline springs, which is consistent with the predominance of high cyclopentyl ring-characterized S ulfolobales and T hermoplasmatales present in some of the low pH springs. Our study suggests that the resident Archaea in these hot springs are acclimated if not adapted to low pH by their genetic capacity to effect the packing density of their membranes by increasing cyclopentyl rings in GDGTs at the rank of community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes four companding transforms to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. The four companding transforms are obtained by transforming signal statistics into four trigonal distributions. Computer simulations show that the proposed schemes can effectively improve the PAPR performance and bit error rate performance of OFDM systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper proposes four companding transforms to reduce the peak-toaverage power ratio (PAPR) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The four companding transforms are obtained by transforming signal statistics into four trigonal distributions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In search for components of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades in maize ( Zea mays) involved in response to abscisic acid (ABA) stimulus, a novel MAPK gene, ZmMPK3, from ABA-treated maize leaves cDNA was isolated and characterized. The full length of the ZmMPK3 gene is 1 520 bp and encodes a 376 amino acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 43.5 kD and a pI of 5.83. ZmMPK3 contains all 11 MAPK conserved subdomains and the phosphorylation motif TEY. Amino acid sequence alignment revealed that ZmMPK3 shared high identity with group-A MAPK in plants. A time course (30–360 min) experiment using a variety of signal molecules and stresses revealed that the transcripts level of ZmMPK3 accumulated markedly and rapidly when maize seedlings were subjected to exogenous signaling molecules: ABA, H2O2, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, various abiotic stimuli such as cold, drought, ultraviolet light, salinity, heavy metal and mechanical wounding. Its transcription was also found to be tissue-specific regulated. Here, we show that ABA and H2O2 induced a significant increase in the ZmMPK3 activity using immunoprecipitation and in-gel kinase assay. Furthermore, the results showed that the ZmMPK3 protein is localized mainly to the nucleus. These results suggest that the ZmMPK3 may play an important role in response to environmental stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iodine‐based Sn‐Pb mixed perovskite single crystals (SCs) are promising candidates for near‐infrared (NIR) narrowband photodetectors due to their low bandgaps. However, they are highly defective when grown in ambient air due to the extremely poor air stability of Sn2+ ions in precursor solutions. It is discovered that the oxidation of Sn2+ to Sn4+ ions not only consumes Sn2+ ions but also increases the precursor solution viscosity. The increased viscosity slows down the solute diffusion and hinders the anisotropic growth of SCs, leading to Sn‐Pb perovskite SCs with curved convex surfaces and unevenly distributed composition. By preventing the solute‐diffusion‐limited growth mode with hypophosphorous acid (H3PO2), high‐quality Sn‐Pb perovskite SCs can be robustly grown in ambient air with low trap density of 6.58 × 109 cm−3 and high carrier mobility‐lifetime product (µτ) of 1.5 × 10−3 cm2 V−1. Accordingly, a series of filterless NIR narrowband photodetectors with gradually tuned detection centers and dual detection modes has been achieved, delivering a maximum external quantum efficiency of 15.2% and detectivity of 1.19 × 1010 Jones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface index of copper can be obtained by monitoring its color evolution with time during mild heating in air. The color evolution manner is a fingerprint for each surface index, which is determined by the surface index dependent oxidization barrier. This is reported by Zhibin Zhang, Kaihui Liu, and co‐workers in article number 1800377. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of 2D materials, copper (Cu) is revealed as good surface catalyst, especially in the self‐limited growth of graphene. In the regime of surface catalyst, the catalytic activities and functionalities of Cu should be highly dependent on its surface type. Traditional methods to determine the surface index are mainly high‐vacuum based surface science techniques and are typically of low throughput and in small scale. A method to fast detect the surface index of Cu in large scale is still lacking. Here, the authors report an effective optical contrast method to identify the Cu surface index in large area. This method is based on the Cu2O‐thickness dependent color of Cu surface after a mild oxidation in hot air. It is revealed that different Cu surfaces (Cu(111), Cu(100), and Cu(110) as examples) have various oxidation barriers and would exhibit distinct color evolution with heating time. It is also showed that graphene grown on Cu surfaces with varied orientations has totally different growth behaviors. The results would greatly facilitate the high‐throughput determination of Cu surface index and accelerate the large‐scale facet‐dependent catalytic research of Cu, such as in single‐crystal graphene growth. An effective optical contrast method is demonstrated to determine the copper surface index in scale up to meter size, utilizing the Cu2O‐thickness dependent color of Cu surface during a mild oxidation in hot air. This propagable, high‐throughput, and easy technique will accelerate the large‐scale facet‐dependent catalytic research of Cu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]