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Previous studies posited the effectiveness of stimulated recall. However, few studies explored how SR is implemented in a relatively static context, for example, online self-directed learning, or took human factors, for example, cognitive style and gender, into consideration in such a context. To fill this gap, the current study, aims to introduce biofeedback as a stimulus for learners to engage in retrospection regarding their learning behavior. A quasi-experimental design study was carried out over a 12-week set of EFL self-regulated online reading activities. Pretest and posttest on reading performance and their cognitive taxonomy were assessed through a developed scale instrument, whereas physiological signals (e.g., gazing duration, verbal fixation, and brain wave) were captured via eye-tracking and electroencephalograph (EEG) technology. The results emphasized that (a) students' reading ability and cognitive hierarchy significantly improved through biofeedback stimulation. Moreover, (b) learners in single level-one cognitive hierarchic groups had significant improvements in both cognitive abilities and reading comprehension, whereas learners in multilevel hierarchic groups had no significant enhancements. Finally, (c) the optical data results and EEG reports showed that males favor procedural feedback and females have a preference for a conclusive assessment.

Both electric vehicles and Tokamak power supply use multiple parallel converters to realize high current operation in four quadrants. A finite‐time current sharing control algorithm based on disturbance compensation is proposed to improve the converter system's dynamic and steady‐state performance so that the system can achieve the required load current and branch‐current sharing in a finite time. In the proposed algorithm, this paper adopts a finite‐time observer for unknown disturbances in the converter system and load circuit due to disturbances, such as unknown inductance and resistance in the converter system. The results show that the load current control overshoot is minimal, and the dynamic performance of each branch current is higher than the traditional control algorithm. A finite‐time current sharing control algorithm based on disturbance compensation is proposed so that the converter system can achieve the required load current and branch current sharing in a finite time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonies of the invasive subspecies of common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud) were found in Alberta in 2016. To facilitate the rapid subspecies identification necessary to support management of this invasive subspecies, a simple and time-saving protocol was developed to differentiate the invasive from the native subspecies. This protocol was based on the RNase-H-dependent PCR (rhPCR) technique, which utilizes the DNA polymorphism found in two chloroplast DNA regions. Compared with the widely used restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) protocol, the rhPCR had the same level of accuracy for subspecies identification, but is simpler and less time-consuming. Using both the rhPCR and RFLP techniques, 27 samples of P. australis derived from 21 colonies in nine Alberta counties were tested to determine their subspecies identity. Fourteen colonies were identified as invasive subspecies, and seven were native subspecies. Based on these preliminary data, we concluded that the invasive subspecies has established across Alberta, and now may be more common than the native subspecies. In addition, RFLP results confirmed that the rhPCR was accurate and could be used independently to identify P. australis subspecies in future studies. Key words: rhPCR, RFLP, haplotypes, DNA polymorphism, RNase-H-dependent. Des colonies de la sous-espece envahissante du roseau commun (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud) ont ete trouvees en Alberta en 2016. Afin de faciliter l'identification rapide de sous-especes necessaire au soutien de la gestion des sous-especes envahissantes, un protocole rapide permettant un gain de temps a ete developpe pour differencier la forme envahissante de la sous-espece indigene. Ce protocole etait base sur une technique de PCR dependante de la RNase H (rhPCR) qui utilise le polymorphisme de l'ADN trouve dans deux regions de l'ADN chloroplastique. Comparativement au protocole largement utilise du polymorphisme de longueur des fragments de restriction (RFLP), la rhPCR presente le meme niveau de fiabilite d'identification des sous-especes mais elle est plus simple et plus rapide. À l'aide de ces deux techniques de rhPCR et de RFLP, 27 echantillons de P. australis provenant de 21 colonies de neuf comtes de l'Alberta ont ete testes pour determiner leur identite de sous-espece. Quatorze colonies ont ete identifiees comme sous-espece envahissante et sept, comme sous-espece indigene. Sur la base de ces resultats preliminaires, les auteurs concluent que la sous-espece envahissante s'est etablie a travers l'Alberta et peut etre maintenant plus frequente que la sous-espece indigene. De plus, les resultats en RFLP ont confirme que la rhPCR etait exacte et qu'elle pouvait etre utilisee de maniere independante pour identifier les sous-especes de P. australis lors d'etudes futures. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: rhPCR, RFLP, haplotypes, polymorphisme de l'ADN, dependant de la RNase H., Introduction Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud is an emergent aquatic species with a perennial growth habit (Mal and Narine 2004). A native subspecies, P. australis subsp. americanus Saltonstall, P.M. [...]

Water repellency has a great influence on water infiltration into soil. Currently, there is no modified correlation model that is applicable to the water infiltration of water-repellent soils (WRS). In order to better construct a model suitable for water infiltration in water-repellent soil, our objectives are to validate the effect of a modified Green-Ampt model. We modified the model by assuming that the saturated and unsaturated zones had the same thickness and by combining three formulas of the suction head (Sf VG, Sf BC, Sf GP) and the average saturated hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, we obtained three modified models: the Green-Ampt-VG, Green-Ampt-BC, and Green-Ampt-GP models. Indoor one-dimensional water infiltration experiments were conducted to simulate the cumulative infiltration (CI), the distance of the wetting front (Zf), and the infiltration rate of a hydrophilic treatment and repellent treatments. The results showed that as the degree of repellency increased, the soil suction head decreased, and the relationship between the value of the soil suction head and the degree of WRS was exponential. In addition, the simulated values of the modified CI formula highly fit the measured values of all treatments in the three models (RMSE: 1.696, 1.812, and 0.694). The modified Green-Ampt-VG model had the best simulation effect on the infiltration rate (RMSE: 0.036) and Zf (RMSE: 3.976). The results indicated that the suction head values obtained from the parameters of the VG model were closest to the actual values compared the other models. These results can provide a reference for the solution of problems involving the suction head and water infiltration into WRS in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network visualizations are commonly used to analyze relationships in various contexts, such as social, biological, and geographical interactions. To efficiently explore a network visualization, the user needs to quickly navigate to different parts of the network and analyze local details. Recent advancements in display and interaction technologies inspire new visions for improved visualization and interaction design. Past research into network design has identified some key benefits to visualizing networks in 3D versus 2D. However, little work has been done to study the impact of varying levels of embodied interaction on network analysis. We present a controlled user study that compared four network visualization environments featuring conditions and hardware that leveraged different amounts of embodiment and visual perception ranging from a 2D visualization desktop environment with a standard mouse to a 3D visualization virtual reality environment. We measured the accuracy, speed, perceived workload, and preferences of 20 participants as they completed three network analytic tasks, each of which required unique navigation and substantial effort to complete. For the task that required participants to iterate over the entire visualization rather than focus on a specific area, we found that participants were more accurate using a VR HMD and a trackball mouse than conventional desktop settings. From a workload perspective, VR was generally considered the least mentally demanding and least frustrating to use in two of our three tasks. It was also preferred and ranked as the most effective and visually appealing condition overall. However, using VR to compare two side-by-side networks was difficult, and it was similar to or slower than other conditions in two of the three tasks. Overall, the accuracy and workload advantages of conditions with greater embodiment in specific tasks suggest promising opportunities to create more effective environments in which to analyze network visualizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innate immune signaling in macrophages during viral infection is regulated by ISGylation, the covalent attachment of the ubiquitin-like protein interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) to protein targets. Here, we explored the role of ISGylation in the macrophage response to infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In human and mouse macrophages, the E3 ubiquitin ligases HERC5 and mHERC6, respectively, mediated the ISGylation of the phosphatase PTEN, which promoted its degradation. The decreased abundance of PTEN led to an increase in the activity of the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, which stimulated the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines. Bacterial growth was increased in culture and in vivo when human or mouse macrophages were deficient in the major E3 ISG15 ligase. The findings expand the role of ISGylation in macrophages to antibacterial immunity and suggest that HERC5 signaling may be a candidate target for adjunct host-directed therapy in patients with tuberculosis. Editor's summary: The antimicrobial response in macrophages is regulated in part by a protein modification called ISGylation. Du et al. found that ISGylation mediated by the protein HERC5 (or the functional equivalent in mice, HERC6) enabled macrophages to respond to infection with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. HERC5- or HERC6-mediated ISGylation of the phosphatase PTEN induced its degradation, thus alleviating its suppression of the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway and promoting the production of cytokines that facilitated clearance of the bacteria. The findings reveal a host-response mechanism against tuberculosis that might inform the development of improved treatments for patients. —Leslie K. Ferrarelli [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“People-oriented” and “Energy saving” are the two major themes of current social development. In the field of thermal comfort, establishment of thermal comfort model based on physiological parameters plays an important role in meeting the needs of human health and comfort, optimizing the design of building environment and building energy saving. In this paper, three types of physiological signals (skin temperature, skin conductance and heart rate) were collected through comfort physiological experiments. The changes of the three types of physiological signals under environmental temperature were analyzed. Furthermore, subjective questionnaire survey of human thermal comfort under five experimental conditions was performed. In addition, the thermal comfort evaluation model based on individual differences was established by partial least squares regression and ELM-RBF neural network. The established models were compared with the classical PMV model to analyze the superiority of the model. The results show that the thermal comfort evaluation model based on individual differences established by ELM-RBF neural network can better predict the trend of people's thermal comfort and satisfy the individual's demand for thermal comfort. Meanwhile, it can achieve the goal of building energy saving. Therefore, it has high practical and social significance.

Background: 5‐Methylcytosine (m5C) methylation is a major epigenetic RNA modification and is closely related to tumorigenesis in various cancers. This study aimed to explore the prognostic value of m5C‐related lncRNAs in breast cancer. Methods: Clinical characteristics and RNA‐seq expression data from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) were used in the study. First, we performed differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis and constructed a PPI network for the 12 m5C regulators. Then, we identified the m5C‐related LncRNAs by the "cor. test." An m5C‐related lncRNA prognostic risk signature was developed using univariate Cox regression and Lasso‐penalized Cox regression analyses. The model's performance was determined using Kaplan–Meier (KM) survival analysis and ROC curves. Finally, a nomogram was constructed for clinical application in evaluating patients with BRCA. We also researched the drug sensitivity of signature lncRNAs and immune cell infiltration. Finally, we validated the expression of the signature lncRNAs through qRT–PCR in a breast cancer cell line and a breast epithelial cell line. Results: Overall, we constructed an 11‐lncRNA risk score signature based on the lncRNAs associated with m5C regulators. According to the median risk score, we divided BRCA patients into high‐ and low‐risk groups. The prognostic risk signature displayed excellent accuracy and demonstrated sufficient independence from other clinical characteristics. The immune cell infiltration analysis showed that the prognostic risk signature was related to the infiltration of immune cell subtypes. Drug sensitivity proved that our prognostic risk signature potentially has therapeutic value. Conclusions: The m5C‐related lncRNA signature reliably predicted the prognosis of breast cancer patients and may provide new insight into the breast cancer tumor immune microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BIM is one of the main technical ways to realize building informatization, and the model's texture is essential to its style design during BIM construction. However, the texture maps provided by mainstream BIM software are not realistic enough and monotonous to meet the actual needs of users for the model style. Therefore, an interior furniture BIM style restoration method was proposed based on image retrieval and object location using convolutional neural network. First, two types of furniture images, namely grayscale contour images from BIM software and real images from the Internet, were collected to train the following network model. Second, a multi-feature weighted fusion neural network model based on an attention mechanism (AM-rVGG) was proposed, which focused on the structural information of furniture images to retrieve the most similar real image, and then some furniture image patches from the retrieved one were generated with object location and random cropping techniques as the candidate texture maps of the furniture BIM. Finally, the candidate ones were fed back into the BIM software to realize the restoration of the furniture BIM style. The experimental results showed that the average retrieval accuracy of the proposed network model was 83.1%, and the obtained texture maps could effectively restore the real style of the furniture BIM. This work provides a new idea for restoring the realism in other BIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the indoor thermal condition on people's stress and thermal comfort under acute stress. Therefore, an experiment was carried out on 20 human subjects in the climate chamber. Three thermal conditions (PMV = −1, PMV = 0 and PMV = 1) were created. Trier social stress test was used as the program to stimulate acute stress and was divided into three stages: Pre-stressor, Stressor task and Post-stressor under each thermal condition. To analyse stress and thermal sensation, a survey was conducted and human subjects completed questionnaire provided about their responses. Furthermore, the psychophysiological responses of subjects were measured by electroencephalogram at different thermal conditions. The results indicate that subject's stress is not significantly related to the thermal environment conditions in the stage of Pre-stressor. However, a neutral and slightly cold environment can reduce the stress of the subjects in the Stressor task, while a slightly warm environment would increase more acute stress. The thermal environment and psychological stress were found to have a combined effect, which could affect the thermal sensation, thermal comfort and acceptability of the environment when subjects were under acute stress stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of infrastructure construction in China, the number of bridges is increasing rapidly, putting a strain on operation management and structural maintenance. Bridge Information Management System (BIMS) uses information and digital technology to ensure the maintenance of the bridge in long-term operation. However, large-scale bridge models are large in size, complex in structure, rich in information and occupy more computer resources, which harms performance of the BIMS. This paper aims to design and develop a bridge information visualization management system based on Building Information Model (BIM). The geometry and material information for the model is extracted from the IFC by the secondary development of Revit. The lightweight method of the bridge model is studied and implemented, and the model volume is reduced to less than 20% by using the lightweight algorithm. Also, a Web-BIM-oriented model visualization scheme is proposed to render the lightweight model into the browser. This system integrates BIM with the Internet of Things (IoT) and contains information visualization, human-computer interaction and user collaboration. Such a BIMS can effectively relieve the pressure of bridge operation and maintenance, while also providing managers with a safe and reliable platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel adaptive second-order sliding mode (2-SM) control approach, based on online zero-crossing detection, was proposed to solve the problems of the chattering and fixed control gain for buck converters with multi-disturbances. In modeling, the possible parameter perturbations and external disturbances of the converter system were contained. Instead of the traditional first-order sliding mode (1-SM), the twisting algorithm with 2-SM was adopted for the controller design, which could overcome the chattering problem and realize control continuity. Meanwhile, a novel adaptive mechanism was introduced to replace the conventional fixed control gain by time-varying control gain, the idea of which is to calculate the number of the zero-crossing points of the sliding surface online. As a result, the control magnitude of the improved controller could be reduced to a minimal admissible level, and the steady error of the output voltage could converge to the expected value. Furthermore, the robust stability of the converter system with multi-disturbances wads investigated. Comparative simulations and experiments validated the advantages of this paper as offering better robustness and control performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the leading malignancy among women worldwide. Aim: This work aimed to present a comprehensively bioinformatic analysis of gene expression profiles and to identify the hub genes during BC tumorigenesis, providing potential biomarkers and targets for the diagnosis and therapy of BC. Materials & Methods: In this study, multiple public databases, bioinformatics approaches, and online analytical tools were employed and the real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was implemented. Results: First, we identified 10, 107, and 3869 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from three gene expression datasets (GSE9574, GSE15852, and GSE42568, covering normal, para‐cancerous, and BC samples, respectively), and investigated different biological functions and pathways involved. Then, we screened out 8, 16, and 29 module genes from these DEGs, respectively. Next, 10 candidate genes were determined through expression and survival analyses. We noted that seven candidate genes JUN, FOS, FOSB, EGR1, ZFP36, CFD, and PPARG were downregulated in BC compared to normal tissues and lower expressed in aggressive types of BC (basal, HER2+, and luminal B), TP53 mutation group, younger patients, higher stage BC, and lymph node metastasis BC, while CD27, PSMB9, and SELL were upregulated. The present study discovered that the expression levels of these candidate genes were correlated with the infiltration of immune cells (CD8+ T cell, macrophage, natural killer [NK] cell, and cancer‐associated fibroblast) in BC, as well as biomarkers of immune cells and immune checkpoints. We also revealed that promoter methylation, amplification, and deep deletion might contribute to the abnormal expressions of candidate genes. Moreover, we illustrated downstream‐targeted genes of JUN, FOS, FOSB, EGR1, and ZFP36 and demonstrated that these targeted genes were involved in "positive regulation of cell death", "pathways in cancer", "PI3K‐Akt signaling pathway", and so on. Discussion & Conclusion: We presented differential gene expression profiles among normal, para‐cancerous, and BC tissues and further identified candidate genes that might contribute to tumorigenesis and progression of BC, as potential diagnostic and prognostic targets for BC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As deubiquitinases (DUBs), ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH)-L1 has been shown to play a crucial role in regulating diverse biological processes. However, its function in macrophage polarization remains unclear. Methods: We performed in vivo and in vitro experiments to investigate the role of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), a kind of DUBs, in macrophage differentiation by using UCHL1-deficiency mice. Results: We demonstrated that LPS stimulation induced UCHL1 expression in macrophages. The deficiency of UCHL1 expression decreased the expression of CD80 and CD86 but increased the expression of CD206. The expression of TNF-α, IL-6, iNOS, and IL-10 was downregulated, while that of Arg1, Ym1, and Fizz1 was upregulated in UCHL1 deficient macrophages. Moreover, we observed that UCHL1 promoted the degradation of p110α through autophagy, but paradoxically increased the activity of AKT, thereby promoting polarization of macrophages into pro-inflammatory states. Conclusion: In this study, we identified UCHL1 as a positive regulator of M1 macrophage polarization. Our findings may help in developing therapeutic interventions for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and pathogenic infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell migration-inducing hyaluronidase 1 (CEMIP), a Wnt-related protein and also known as KIAA1199, is implicated in the process of metastatic colonization in a variety of malignant tumors, including breast cancer (BC), which is one of the most frequently diagnosed tumors in women worldwide. In this study, multiple public databases, online analytical tools, and bioinformatics approaches were applied to explore the expression levels, regulatory mechanisms, and biological functions of CEMIP in BC. We illustrated that CEMIP was highly expressed in various kinds of carcinomas, including BC, especially advanced subtypes, and predicted less favorable prognosis (negatively associated with overall survival) in BC patients, which might be an independent prognostic factor. Then, we revealed that the mutation and high expression of CEMIP might lead to it as an oncogene. We also demonstrated that TP53 mutation, DNA hypo-methylation, and the expression changes of three potential upstream transcription factors (EZH2, EGR1 , and JUN) of CEMIP were likely to cause the hyperexpression of CEMIP in BC. Moreover, our findings suggested that CEMIP might exert its carcinogenic roles in the tumor microenvironment via participation in the extracellular matrix formation, increasing cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF), M2 macrophage, and neutrophil infiltration and decreasing CD8+ T cell infiltration. In summary, our study provided more solid evidence for CEMIP as a prognostic and metastatic biomarker and a potential therapeutic target in BC. Of course, these findings also need more confirmations of basic experiments and further clinical trials in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce Tilt Map, a novel interaction technique for intuitively transitioning between 2D and 3D map visualisations in immersive environments. Our focus is visualising data associated with areal features on maps, for example, population density by state. Tilt Map transitions from 2D choropleth maps to 3D prism maps to 2D bar charts to overcome the limitations of each. Our article includes two user studies. The first study compares subjects’ task performance interpreting population density data using 2D choropleth maps and 3D prism maps in virtual reality (VR). We observed greater task accuracy with prism maps, but faster response times with choropleth maps. The complementarity of these views inspired our hybrid Tilt Map design. Our second study compares Tilt Map to: a side-by-side arrangement of the various views; and interactive toggling between views. The results indicate benefits for Tilt Map in user preference; and accuracy (versus side-by-side) and time (versus toggle). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present how to integrate Design Sprints and project-based learning into introductory visualization courses. A design sprint is a unique process based on rapid prototyping and user testing to define goals and validate ideas before starting costly development. The well-defined, interactive, and time-constrained design cycle makes design sprints a promising option for teaching project-based and active-learning-centered courses to increase student engagement and hands-on experience. Over the past five years, we have adjusted the design sprint methodology for teaching a range of visualization courses. We present a detailed guide on incorporating design sprints into large undergraduate and small professional development courses in both online and on-campus settings. Design sprint results, including quantitative and qualitative student feedback, show that design sprints engage students and help practice and apply visualization and design skills. We provide design sprint teaching materials, show examples of student-created work, and discuss limitations and lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important food legume worldwide, providing a source of high-quality protein. Fifteen chickpea samples showing leaf yellowing and root rot were obtained from southern Alberta, Canada, in 2018. Twenty single-spore Fusarium isolates were obtained from those samples. Based on the morphological characteristics, five species of Fusarium were identified, with F. redolens as the predominant species (11 isolates), followed by F. culmorum (3), F. sporotrichioides (3), F. oxysporum (2) and F. equiseti (1). The identification of each isolate was confirmed using partial sequences of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (EF-1α) gene. Each EF-1α sequence displayed 99.54% to 100% similarity to sequences for each corresponding species in the GenBank database. The Fusarium isolates were tested for pathogenicity on chickpea 'CDC Frontier' in a greenhouse. Isolates recovered from inoculated plants were confirmed as the respective Fusarium species, fulfiling Koch's postulates. Selected isolates of each Fusarium species were able to infect common crops including barley, corn, canola, and lentil in Alberta. This is the first report of F. redolens on chickpea in Alberta, F. equiseti on chickpea in Canada, and F. culmorum and F. sporotrichioides on chickpea in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys visualization and interaction techniques for geospatial networks from a total of 95 papers. Geospatial networks are graphs where nodes and links can be associated with geographic locations. Examples can include social networks, trade and migration, as well as traffic and transport networks. Visualizing geospatial networks poses numerous challenges around the integration of both network and geographical information as well as additional information such as node and link attributes, time and uncertainty. Our overview analyses existing techniques along four dimensions: (i) the representation of geographical information, (ii) the representation of network information, (iii) the visual integration of both and (iv) the use of interaction. These four dimensions allow us to discuss techniques with respect to the trade‐offs they make between showing information across all these dimensions and how they solve the problem of showing as much information as necessary while maintaining readability of the visualization. https://geonetworks.github.io. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HYDRUS‐1D has been extensively applied to the simulation of wettable soil infiltration, but very few studies have explored its applicability to the infiltration of water‐repellent soil (WRS) at different depths. To this end, HYDRUS‐1D was used to simulate water movement of layered soil with a surface repellent thickness of 10 cm. The parameters of the van Genuchten model were calibrated and validated using cumulative infiltration (CI), distance of the wetting front (Zf) and volumetric water content (θv) through five respective treatments. Another 10 tilled scenarios were selected to simulate water movement of tilled WRS. RRMSE (relative root mean square error) and CRM (coefficient of residual mass) were adopted to evaluate simulation accuracy. For the calibration and validation, the RRMSE values ranged from 0.04 to 0.251 and 0.042 to 0.101, respectively, indicating that HYDRUS‐1D could effectively simulate water movement of WRS. Furthermore, for layered treatments, the simulation accuracy of θv, CI and Zf decreased with the increase of the degree of repellency and thickness. The treatments with the repellent thickness of 10 cm had higher simulation accuracy than that with repellent thickness of 5 cm when the top layer had the same WRS. The results revealed HYDRUS‐1D was effective in the simulation of water movement in repellent clay loam with different degrees of repellency and depths. Highlights: The applicability of HYDRUS‐1D to the infiltration of water‐repellent soil (WRS) at different depths was explored.The simulation of different degrees of repellency and depths was first conducted.Simulation accuracy decreased with the increase of degree of repellency and thickness.HYDRUS‐1D was effective in simulating water movement of repellent soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Node-link diagrams are widely used to visualise networks. However, even the best network layout algorithms ultimately result in ‘hairball’ visualisations when the graph reaches a certain degree of complexity, requiring simplification through aggregation or interaction (such as filtering) to remain usable. Until now, there has been little data to indicate at what level of complexity node-link diagrams become ineffective or how visual complexity affects cognitive load. To this end, we conducted a controlled study to understand workload limits for a task that requires a detailed understanding of the network topology-finding the shortest path between two nodes. We tested performance on graphs with 25 to 175 nodes with varying density. We collected performance measures (accuracy and response time), subjective feedback, and physiological measures (EEG, pupil dilation, and heart rate variability). To the best of our knowledge this is the first network visualisation study to include physiological measures. Our results show that people have significant difficulty finding the shortest path in high density node-link diagrams with more than 50 nodes and even low density graphs with more than 100 nodes. From our collected EEG data we observe functional differences in brain activity between hard and easy tasks. We found that cognitive load increased up to certain level of difficulty after which it decreased, likely because participants had given up. We also explored the effects of global network layout features such as size or number of crossings, and features of the shortest path such as length or straightness on task difficulty. We found that global features generally had a greater impact than those of the shortest path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract data has no natural scale and so interactive data visualizations must provide techniques to allow the user to choose their viewpoint and scale. Such techniques are well established in desktop visualization tools. The two most common techniques are zoom+pan and overview+detail. However, how best to enable the analyst to navigate and view abstract data at different levels of scale in immersive environments has not previously been studied. We report the findings of the first systematic study of immersive navigation techniques for 3D scatterplots. We tested four conditions that represent our best attempt to adapt standard 2D navigation techniques to data visualization in an immersive environment while still providing standard immersive navigation techniques through physical movement and teleportation. We compared room-sized visualization versus a zooming interface, each with and without an overview. We find significant differences in participants' response times and accuracy for a number of standard visual analysis tasks. Both zoom and overview provide benefits over standard locomotion support alone (i.e., physical movement and pointer teleportation). However, which variation is superior, depends on the task. We obtain a more nuanced understanding of the results by analyzing them in terms of a time-cost model for the different components of navigation: way-finding, travel, number of travel steps, and context switching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vitamin B6 is necessary to maintain normal metabolism and immune response, especially the anti‐inflammatory immune response. However, the exact mechanism by which vitamin B6 plays the anti‐inflammatory role is still unclear. Here, we report a novel mechanism of preventing excessive inflammation by vitamin B6 via reduction in the accumulation of sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) in a S1P lyase (SPL)‐dependent manner in macrophages. Vitamin B6 supplementation decreased the expression of pro‐inflammatory cytokines by suppressing nuclear factor‐κB and mitogen‐activated protein kinases signalling pathways. Furthermore, vitamin B6–reduced accumulation of S1P by promoting SPL activity. The anti‐inflammatory effects of vitamin B6 were inhibited by S1P supplementation or SPL deficiency. Importantly, vitamin B6 supplementation protected mice from lethal endotoxic shock and attenuated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis progression. Collectively, these findings revealed a novel anti‐inflammatory mechanism of vitamin B6 and provided guidance on its clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]