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Abstract We study the structure of scattering amplitudes of massive Kaluza-Klein (KK) states under toroidal compactification. We present a shifting method to quantitatively derive the scattering amplitudes of massive KK gauge bosons and KK gravitons from the corresponding massless amplitudes in the noncompactified higher dimensional theories. With these we construct the massive KK scattering amplitudes by extending the double-copy relations of massless scattering amplitudes within the field theory framework, including both the BCJ and CHY methods, and build up their connections to the massive KK KLT relations. We present the massive BCJ-type double-copy construction of the N-point KK gauge boson/graviton scattering amplitudes, and as the applications we derive explicitly the four-point KK scattering amplitudes as well as the five-point KK scattering amplitudes. We further study the nonrelativistic limit of these massive scattering amplitudes with the heavy external KK states and discuss the impact of the compactified extra dimensions on the low energy gravitational potential. Finally, we analyze the four-point and N-point mass spectral conditions and newly propose a novel group theory approach to prove that only the KK theories under toroidal compactification can satisfy these conditions for directly realizing massive double-copy in the field theory framework.

Abstract We study the scattering amplitudes of massive Kaluza-Klein (KK) states of open and closed bosonic strings under toroidal compactification. We analyze the structure of vertex operators for the KK strings and derive an extended massive KLT-like relation which connects the N-point KK closed-string amplitude to the products of two KK open-string amplitudes at tree level. Taking the low energy field-theory limit of vanishing Regge slope, we derive double-copy construction formula of the N-point massive KK graviton amplitude from the sum of proper products of the corresponding KK gauge boson amplitudes. Then, using the string-based massive double-copy formula, we derive the exact tree-level four-point KK gauge boson amplitudes and KK graviton amplitudes, which fully agree with those given by the KK field-theory calculations. With these, we give an explicit prescription on constructing the exact four-point KK graviton amplitudes from the sum of proper products of the corresponding color-ordered KK gauge boson amplitudes. We further analyze the string-based double-copy construction of five-point and six-point scattering amplitudes of massive KK gauge bosons and KK gravitons.

Abstract We study the mechanism of topological mass-generation for 3d Chern-Simons (CS) gauge theories, where the CS term can retain the gauge symmetry and make gauge boson topologically massive. Without CS term the 3d massless gauge boson has a single physical transverse polarization state, while adding the CS term converts it into a massive physical polarization state and conserves the total physical degrees of freedom. We formulate the mechanism of topological mass-generation at S-matrix level. For this, we propose and prove a Topological Equivalence Theorem (TET) which connects the N-point scattering amplitude of the gauge boson’s physical polarization states ( A P a $$ {A}_{\mathrm{P}}^a $$ ) to that of the transverse polarization states ( A T a $$ {A}_{\mathrm{T}}^a $$ ) under high energy expansion. We present a general 3d power counting method on the leading energy dependence of the scattering amplitudes in both topologically massive Yang-Mills (TMYM) and topologically massive gravity (TMG) theories. With these, we uncover a general energy cancellation mechanism for N -gauge boson scattering amplitudes which predicts the cancellation E 4 → E 4−N at tree level. Then, we compute the 4-gauge boson amplitudes of A P a $$ {A}_{\mathrm{P}}^a $$ -states and A T a $$ {A}_{\mathrm{T}}^a $$ -states, with which we explicitly demonstrate the TET and establish such energy cancellations for N = 4. We further extend the double-copy approach to reconstruct the massive 4-graviton amplitude of TMG from the massive 4-gauge boson amplitude of TMYM. With these, we uncover striking large energy cancellations in the 4-graviton amplitude: E 12 → E 1, and establish its correspondence to the leading energy cancellation E 4 → E 0 in the 4-gauge boson amplitude of TMYM.

We study the mechanism of topological mass generation for 3-dimensional Chern–Simons gauge theories and propose a brand-new topological equivalence theorem to connect scattering amplitudes of the physical gauge boson states to that of the transverse states under high-energy expansion. We prove a general energy cancelation mechanism for N-point physical gauge boson amplitudes, which predicts large cancelations of E4 − L → E(4 − L) − N at any L-loop level (L ⩾ 0). We extend the double-copy approach to construct massive graviton amplitudes and to study their structures. We newly uncovered a series of strikingly large energy cancelations E12 → E1 of the tree-level 4-graviton scattering amplitude under high-energy expansion and establish a new correspondence between the 2 energy cancelations in the topologically massive Yang–Mills gauge theory and the topologically massive gravity theory. We further study the scattering amplitudes of Chern–Simons gauge bosons and gravitons in the nonrelativistic limit.

Abstract Background Phytophthora capsici root rot (PRR) is a disastrous disease in peppers (Capsicum spp.) caused by soilborne oomycete with typical symptoms of necrosis and constriction at the basal stem and consequent plant wilting. Most studies on the QTL mapping of P. capsici resistance suggested a consensus broad-spectrum QTL on chromosome 5 named Pc.5.1 regardless of P. capsici isolates and resistant resources. In addition, all these reports proposed NBS-ARC domain genes as candidate genes controlling resistance. Results We screened out 10 PRR-resistant resources from 160 Capsicum germplasm and inspected the response of locus Pc.5.1 and NBS-ARC genes during P. capsici infection by comparing the root transcriptomes of resistant pepper 305R and susceptible pepper 372S. To dissect the structure of Pc.5.1, we anchored genetic markers onto pepper genomic sequence and made an extended Pc5.1 (Ext-Pc5.1) located at 8.35 Mb–38.13 Mb on chromosome 5 which covered all Pc5.1 reported in publications. A total of 571 NBS-ARC genes were mined from the genome of pepper CM334 and 34 genes were significantly affected by P. capsici infection in either 305R or 372S. Only 5 inducible NBS-ARC genes had LRR domains and none of them was positioned at Ext-Pc5.1. Ext-Pc5.1 did show strong response to P. capsici infection and there were a total of 44 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), but no candidate genes proposed by previous publications was included. Snakin-1 (SN1), a well-known antimicrobial peptide gene located at Pc5.1, was significantly decreased in 372S but not in 305R. Moreover, there was an impressive upregulation of sugar pathway genes in 305R, which was confirmed by metabolite analysis of roots. The biological processes of histone methylation, histone phosphorylation, DNA methylation, and nucleosome assembly were strongly activated in 305R but not in 372S, indicating an epigenetic-related defense mechanism. Conclusions Those NBS-ARC genes that were suggested to contribute to Pc5.1 in previous publications did not show any significant response in P. capsici infection and there were no significant differences of these genes in transcription levels between 305R and 372S. Other pathogen defense-related genes like SN1 might account for Pc5.1. Our study also proposed the important role of sugar and epigenetic regulation in the defense against P. capsici.

Extracting geoscientific dataset names from the literature is crucial for building a literature–data association network, which can help readers access the data quickly through the Internet. However, the existing named-entity extraction methods have low accuracy in extracting geoscientific dataset names from unstructured text because geoscientific dataset names are a complex combination of multiple elements, such as geospatial coverage, temporal coverage, scale or resolution, theme content, and version. This paper proposes a new method based on the hierarchical temporal memory (HTM) model, a brain-inspired neural network with superior performance in high-level cognitive tasks, to accurately extract geoscientific dataset names from unstructured text. First, a word-encoding method based on the Unicode values of characters for the HTM model was proposed. Then, over 12,000 dataset names were collected from geoscience data-sharing websites and encoded into binary vectors to train the HTM model. We conceived a new classifier scheme for the HTM model that decodes the predictive vector for the encoder of the next word so that the similarity of the encoders of the predictive next word and the real next word can be computed. If the similarity is greater than a specified threshold, the real next word can be regarded as part of the name, and a successive word set forms the full geoscientific dataset name. We used the trained HTM model to extract geoscientific dataset names from 100 papers. Our method achieved an F1-score of 0.727, outperforming the GPT-4- and Claude-3-based few-shot learning (FSL) method, with F1-scores of 0.698 and 0.72, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the structure of scattering amplitudes of the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons and of the KK gravitational Goldstone bosons in the compactified 5d general relativity (GR). Using a general Rξ gauge fixing, we study the geometric Higgs mechanism for the massive spin-2 KK gravitons. We newly propose and prove a gravitational equivalence theorem (GRET) to connect the scattering amplitudes of longitudinal KK gravitons to that of the KK gravitational Goldstone bosons, which formulates the geometric gravitational Higgs mechanism at the scatteringS-matrix level. We demonstrate that the GRET provides a general energy cancellation mechanism guaranteeing the N-point longitudinal KK graviton scattering amplitudes to have their leading energy dependence cancelled down by a large power factor of E2NN≥4 up to any loop level. We propose an improved double-copy approach to construct the massive KK graviton (Goldstone) amplitudes from the KK gauge boson (Goldstone) amplitudes. With these, we establish a new correspondence between the two types of energy cancellations in the four-point longitudinal KK amplitudes at tree level: E4⟶E0 in the KK gauge theory and E10⟶E2 in the KK GR theory.

Chinese chives is a popular herb vegetable and medicine in Asian countries. Southwest China is one of the centers of origin, and the mountainous areas in this region are rich in wild germplasm. In this study, we collected four samples of germplasm from different altitudes: a land race of cultivated Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum), wide-leaf chives and extra-wide-leaf chives (Allium hookeri), and ovoid-leaf chives (Allium funckiaefolium). Leaf metabolites were detected and compared between A. tuberosum and A. hookeri. A total of 158 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAM) were identified by Gas Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Liquid Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS), among which there was a wide range of garlic odor compounds, free amino acids, and sugars. A. hookeri contains a higher content of fructose, garlic odor compounds, and amino acids than A. tuberosum, which is supported by the higher expression level of biosynthetic genes revealed by transcriptome analysis. A. hookeri accumulates the same garlic odor compound precursors that A. tuberosum does (mainly methiin and alliin). We isolated full-length gene sequences of phytochelatin synthase (PCS), γ-glutamyltranspeptidases (GGT), flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO), and alliinase (ALN). These sequences showed closer relations in phylogenetic analysis between A. hookeri and A. tuberosum (with sequence identities ranging from 86% to 90%) than with Allium cepa or Allium sativum (which had a lower sequence identity ranging from 76% to 88%). Among these assayed genes, ALN, the critical gene controlling the conversion of odorless precursors into odor compounds, was undetected in leaves, bulbs, and roots of A. tuberosum, which could account for its weaker garlic smell. Moreover, we identified a distinct FMO1 gene in extra-wide-leaf A. hookeri that is due to a CDS-deletion and frameshift mutation. These results above reveal the molecular and metabolomic basis of impressive strong odor in wild Chinese chives.

Introduction Stroke can lead to life-long disability and constitutes a huge financial burden on the family and society. Stroke survivors with cognitive impairment often experience considerable challenges in the process of recovery and returning to society. Interventions that effectively help individuals resume essential daily activities and return to active participation in their communities are lacking. This study examines the efficacy of a newly-developed intervention programme, the Optimising Participation after Stroke through Strategy-training (OPASS) programme, for improving community participation among stroke survivors with cognitive impairment.Methods and analysis A single-blind, parallel-group randomised controlled trial with allocation concealment and assessor blinding will be implemented to assess the efficacy of the OPASS programme. An expected 210 adults with cognitive impairment following stroke will be randomly assigned to either the experimental intervention (OPASS) group or the attention control group. In addition to their usual rehabilitation, both groups will receive 45 min sessions, twice weekly for a total of 12–15 sessions. The primary outcome is change in participation performance, which will be measured using the participation measure—three domains, four dimensions scale. Additional measures include the Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care generic outpatient short forms, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Stroop Test, Trail Making Test and General Self-Efficacy Scale. These scales will be administered at baseline, post-intervention, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up and 12-month follow-up. Their results will be analysed using multiple linear regression models and mixed-effects regression models. Further assessment of feasibility and acceptability of the intervention will be conducted through structured interviews with participants, caregivers and therapists. These interviews will be transcribed and thematically analysed.Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Taipei Medical University (approval number: N201804055). The findings will be disseminated through presentations at scientific conferences and through publication in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number NCT03792061; pre-results.

Objective: To identify predictors of admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation settings follow-ing acute care for stroke survivors in Taiwan. Design: Prospective observation study. Participants: Stroke survivors (n = 558) admitted to acute care wards for inpatient rehabilitation (62% male; mean age 60.0 ± 12.2 years). Methods: The primary outcome was whether survivors were admitted to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation settings after discharge from acute care wards. Logistic regression model was adopted to examine the predictors of admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation. A receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn to compute the ability of the predictors to discriminate the outcome. Results: Multivariate analysis results indicated Activity Measure Post-Acute Care “6-Clicks” Basic Mobility score to be the only significant predictor of admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation (odds ratio = 0.44, 95% confidence interval: 0.34–0.56). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis results indicated that the cut-off point for Basic Mobility was 13 (standardized score: 33.99). This yielded a sensitivity value of 0.98 and a specificity value of 0.96 for determining the admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation. Conclusion: Activity Measure Post-Acute Care “6-Clicks” Basic Mobility subscale scores at admission for acute care can predict admission to post-acute inpatient rehabilitation for stroke survivors in Taiwan. This tool can aid clinicians in formulating adequate discharge plans at an early stage, and thus improve the quality of care.

In this study, six strains of Lactobacillus exhibiting different regulatory effects on the tight junction (TJ) proteins of mammalian cells in vitro were used in the treatment of mice with colitis induced by dextran sodium sulphate (DSS). Consistent with the results in vitro, different strains displayed different effects on repairment of TJs in the intestinal barrier, as well as alleviation on symptoms of colitis including disease activity index, tissue damage and inflammation. The lactobacilli showed significant inter- and intra-species differences in their ability to relieve the syndrome of colitis in mice, which were highly correlated with their effects on TJ protein recovery, although the impacts of bacteria on immune system and SCFAs should also be considered. Therefore, probiotics associated with TJ recovery are potential candidates for the treatment of colitis. The capacity for TJ recovery should be one of the important targets in the screening of probiotics for colitis treatment.

Abstract Background The intent of this study was to examine and compare the ability to detect change of two patient reported outcome (PRO) instruments that use a computerized adaptive test (CAT) approach to measurement. The Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Physical Function scale is a generic PRO, while the Osteoarthritis Computerized Adaptive Test (OA-CAT) is an osteoarthritis-specific PRO. Methods This descriptive, longitudinal study was conducted in a community setting, involving individuals from the greater Boston area. Inclusion criteria: age > 50, self-reported doctor-diagnosed knee osteoarthritis (OA) and knee pain. The PROMIS® Physical Function CAT and OA-CAT Functional Difficulty scale were administered at baseline and at the conclusion of a 6-week exercise program. Effect sizes (ES) were calculated for both measures, and bootstrap methods were used to construct confidence intervals and to test for significant ES differences between the measures. Results The OA-CAT Functional Difficulty scale achieved an ES of 0.62 (0.43, 0.87) compared to the PROMIS® Physical Function CAT ES of 0.42 (0.24, 0.63). ES estimates for the two CAT measures were not statistically different. Conclusions The condition-specific OA-CAT and generic PROMIS® Physical Function CAT both demonstrated the ability to detect change in function. While the OA-CAT scale showed larger effect size, no statistically significant difference was found in the effect size estimates for the generic and condition-specific CATs. Both CATs have potential for use in arthritis research. Trial registration This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov on 6/21/11 (Identifier NCT01394874 )

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is an effective agent that induces differentiation, inhibits cell proliferation, and acts as an anticancer agent. ATRA was successfully conjugated with Pluronic F127 via esterification to enhance its anticancer effects. Pluronic-ATRA showed high cytotoxicity and inhibitory concentrations (IC50) 50% lower than those of ATRA in various breast cancer cell lines (4T1:31.16–8.57 μg/mL; EMT6: 50.48–7.08 μg/mL; MDA-MB-231:37.58–8.99 μg/mL; BT474:25.27–9.09 μg/mL). In combination with chemotherapy, Pluronic-ATRA synergistically enhanced the cytotoxic effects of cisplatin (CDDP). Pluronic-ATRA combined with CDDP effectively suppressed breast tumor growth in vivo. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of Pluronic-ATRA as an anticancer agent that can be used in combination therapy against solid tumors.

Bifidobacteria are among the first colonizers of the human gastrointestinal tract. Different bacterial species use different mechanisms for utilization of various carbon sources in order to establish themselves in the complex microbial ecosystem of the gut. However, these mechanisms still need to be explored. Here, a large gene–phenotype correlation analysis was carried out to explore the metabolic and genetic diversity of bifidobacterial carbohydrate utilization abilities. In this study, we used 21 different carbohydrates to determine the growth phenotypes, the distribution of glycoside hydrolases (GHs), and gene clusters related to the utilization of multiple carbon sources in six human-residential Bifidobacterium species. Five carbohydrates significantly stimulated growth of almost all strains, while the remaining sugars exhibited species- and strain-specificity. Correspondingly, different Bifidobacterium species also had specific GHs involved in fermentation of plant or host glycans. Moreover, we analyzed several carbohydrate utilization gene clusters, such as 2-fucosyllactose (2′FL), sialic acid (SA), and fructooligosaccharide (FOS). In summary, by using 217 bifidobacterial strains and a wide range of growth substrates, our research revealed inter- and intra-species differences in bifidobacterial in terms of carbohydrate utilization. The findings of this study are useful for the process of developing prebiotics for optimum growth of probiotics, especially Bifidobacterium species.

With the iron-fortified milk as research object, this paper makes a research on the influence of iron on the dielectric properties and wave absorption properties and effect of nutritional components, such as casein and whey protein in milk, and thermostability in the process of microwave heating, and rapid heat transfer method in ferrous gluconate–milk and ferrous chloride–milk, respectively. The results show that the iron of ionic form has greater influence to convert microwave to heat energy and the effect of microwave absorption properties was greater for ferrous chloride than for ferrous gluconate at high concentration. The effect of different forms of iron on the composition of milk was different, and the composition of milk systems was more stable by microwave heating, but the rapid heat transfer method is superior in the aim of increasing the nutritional value of milk. The ferrous gluconate–milk system has a better thermal stability than ferrous chloride–milk system. From the aspect of dielectric induction, the paper discovers the response rules of iron and evaluates the microwave thermal safety of the traditional and the iron-fortified products by microwave heating.

During heating, there are a lot of physical and chemical changes in milk components, which are mainly reflected in the changes of proteins. Calcium ions in milk react with proteins to precipitate or form gels, and the thermal stability of milk is affected by the type and content of calcium. In this study, different calcium-fortified milk systems were treated by rapid conventional heating (RCV) and microwave heating (MV) to evaluate the effects of forms and concentration of calcium in liquid milk on microwave absorption properties and thermal stability of milk. It was found that the concentration of calcium ions on microwave energy absorption is not a significant influence, while the forms affected the systems dramatically. The thermal stability of milk during MV is remarkably affected by the forms of calcium ions. When adding ionized calcium, the calcium-fortified milk systems had poor thermal stability and severe agglomeration of protein, while the addition of milk calcium had little effect and was almost free from protein coagulation. It could be speculated that the metal ions in the microwave field could create a strong vibration that could trigger protein agglomeration through the combination of the surrounding casein phosphorylates.

The paper introduced workflow and network model of automatic recycling and dispatching system for portable gas detectors, and described design and implementation of server software of the system. The software uses MySQL database to manage and maintain the data, uses Qt4.7 platform to develop graphical user interface, and achieves effective management of portable gas detector, instrument administrators and users.

Paenibacillus spp. BD3526, a bacterium exhibiting a protein hydrolysis circle surrounded with an obvious precipitation zone on skim milk agar, was isolated from raw yak (Bos grunniens) milk collected in Tibet, China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA and whole genome sequence comparison indicated the isolate belong to the genus Paenibacillus. The strain BD3526 demonstrated strong ability to produce protease with milk clotting activity (MCA) in wheat bran broth. The protease with MCA was predominantly accumulated during the late-exponential phase of growth. The proteolytic activity (PA) of the BD3526 protease was 1.33-fold higher than that of the commercial R. miehei coagulant. A maximum MCA (6470 ± 281 SU mL−1) of the strain BD3526 was reached under optimal cultivation conditions. The protease with MCA was precipitated from the cultivated supernatant of wheat bran broth with ammonium sulfate and purified by anion-exchange chromatography. The molecular weight of the protease with MCA was determined as 35 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and gelatin zymography. The cleavage site of the BD3526 protease with MCA in κ-casein was located at the Met106–Ala107 bond, as determined by mass spectrometry analysis.