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Transfer of elite lines across maturity zones is important because it facilitates the exploitation of indirect selection gain. The main goal of this study was to investigate strategies to guide the transfer of elite lines from Southern Europe to the U.S. Corn Belt. Testcrosses of progenies of six biparental populations derived from a diallel cross of four Southern European elite lines were evaluated together with adapted commercial checks in 10 Southern European and six U.S. Corn Belt environments in 2007 for grain yield and grain moisture when crossed to adapted testers. Moreover, the 788 genotypes were fingerprinted with 857 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and multiple-line cross quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping was performed. Some testcross progenies in the U.S. Corn Belt reached grain yield performance comparable to the best check, which suggests that direct use of Southern European lines is promising. The success of using grain yield or grain moisture data determined in Southern Europe to preselect Southern European lines for use in the U.S. Corn Belt is limited. Moreover, we observed a complex genetic architecture of adaptation with absence of major QTL and strong QTL by background interactions. We found evidence that epistasis influences adaptation, additionally hampering the success of marker-guided transfer of germplasm from Southern Europe to the U.S. Corn Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folic acid and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) may affect the development of human cancer. However, few studies have evaluated folate intake and MTHFR in susceptibility to and prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. We conducted a prospective case-control study in 215 ovarian cancer patients and 218 controls (all Chinese) between Jan. 2004 and Jan. 2007. MTHFR C677T genotyping was done by PCR-RFLP. All patients were followed up until Dec. 2010. We found a 2.43-fold increased risk of ovarian cancer among MTHFR 677TT carriers, and a decreased risk of ovarian cancer in individuals with high folate intake (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.32-0.94). Cox regression survival analysis showed that among the ovarian cancer patients, those carrying the 677TT genotype had a higher risk of death (HR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.20-4.79), while high folate intake was associated with a lower risk of death (HR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.33-0.88). Moreover, MTHFR 677CC carriers with higher folate intake showed a lower risk of death from ovarian cancer (HR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.27-0.82). In summary, high folate intake may lessen susceptibility and improve the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients, while the MTHFR 677TT genotype appears to increase ovarian cancer risk and worsen its prognosis in a Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighty eight surface soil samples were collected from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) for determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and metabolites (DDXs) and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs). The measured concentrations were 51.8 ± 38.5 ng g−1, 0.329 ± 0.818 ng g−1, and 0.467 ± 0.741 ng g−1as means and standard deviations of PAHs, DDXs, and HCHs, respectively, which were 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than those reported for eastern China. Significant differences were also revealed among four sub-areas within QTP. PAHs detected in the samples from the remote sub-areas of T’ang-ku-la/Hoh Xil Mountains and along the Qinghai-Tibet highway in the west and northwest of QTP were 1 order of magnitude lower than those from Lhasa and east Qinghai. The differences in soil OCPs among the sub-areas were 2–7 times. Soil PAHs were significantly correlated with emission density and soil organic carbon content (SOC), while OCPs were correlated significantly with the population density and SOC. Based on the calculated backward air mass trajectories and geographical distributions of emission and population, it was revealed that PAHs and OCPs accumulated in the soils in the west and northwest QTP were primarily from long-range transport and may represent the background levels of East Asia. This part of QTP can also serve as an important receptor area for regional or even global long-range transport study. The elevated concentrations of PAHs and OCPs in Lhasa and east Qinghai were mainly from local sources, while PAHs from adjacent Lanzhou area also contributed considerably to the accumulation of PAHs in east Qinghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epistatic interactions may contribute substantially to the hybrid performance of sugar beet. The main goal of our study was to dissect the genetic basis of eight important physiological and agronomic traits using two different biometrical models for joint linkage association mapping. A total of 197 genotypes of an elite breeding population were evaluated in multi-location trials and fingerprinted with 194 SNP markers. Two different statistical models were used for the genome-wide scan for marker-trait associations: Model A, which corrects for the genetic background with markers as cofactors and Model B, which additionally models a population effect. Based on the extent of linkage disequilibrium in the parental population, we estimated that for a genome-wide scan at least 100 equally spaced markers are necessary. We mapped across the eight traits 39 QTL for Model A and 22 for Model B. Only 11% of the total number of QTL were identified based on Models A and B, which indicates that both models are complementary. Epistasis was detected only for two out of the eight traits, and contributed only to a minor extent to the genotypic variance. This low relevance of epistasis implies that in sugar beet breeding the prediction of performance of three-way hybrids is feasible with high accuracy based on the means of their single crosses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microgrids are a new concept for future energy distribution systems that enable renewable energy integration and improved energy management capability. Microgrids consist of multiple distributed generators (DGs) that are usually integrated via power electronic inverters. In order to enhance power quality and power distribution reliability, microgrids need to operate in both grid-connected and island modes. Consequently, microgrids can suffer performance degradation as the operating conditions vary due to abrupt mode changes and variations in bus voltages and system frequency. This paper presents controller design and optimization methods to stably coordinate multiple inverter-interfaced DGs and to robustly control individual interface inverters against voltage and frequency disturbances. Droop-control concepts are used as system-level multiple DG coordination controllers, and L1 control theory is applied to device-level inverter controllers. Optimal control parameters are obtained by particle-swarm -optimization algorithms, and the control performance is verified via simulation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach to the enhancement of terahertz radiation from a grating waveguide by two-stream instability (TSI) is presented in this paper. The grating waveguide composed of a planar metallic grating and an opposite plate is driven by two electron beams with a velocity separation. The dispersion equation is derived with the linearized fluid theory and solved numerically. Also, the numerical results show that a considerable enhancement of growth rate is possible at an optimized velocity separation. With the help of 2-D particle-in-cell simulations, the improvement of radiation performance induced by the TSI is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three approaches were applied and compared to evaluate additive toxic effects of eight PAHs to aquatic organisms in rivers in the Tianjin area. Although the toxicity of the studied PAH compounds did not significantly increase the risk to aquatic organisms, the results of all three approaches indicated that the additive effect of the eight PAHs was significantly stronger than any individual compound acting alone, which indicated the applicability of the approaches. Further, of the compounds studied, anthracene was the major contributor to the overall toxic effect of the mixture. The calculated geometric means of the hazard quotient for the additive effect varied from 0.00055 to 0.00062, compared to the hazard quotient of individual PAHs which ranged from 5.1 × 10 -6 to 0.00053. The hazard quotient distribution geometric mean was 0.00058, with 95% of the quotient between 6.6 × 10 -5 and 0.051. Overlapping areas varied from 0.00015 to 0.02 for individual PAHs and was 0.03 for additive toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) listed as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) priority pollutants from major sources in China were compiled. Geographical distribution and temporal change of the PAH emission, as well as emission profiles, are discussed. It was estimated that the total PAH emission in China was 25 300 tons in 2003. The emission profile featured a relatively higher portion of high molecular weight (HMW) species with carcinogenic potential due to large contributions of domestic coal and coking industry. Among various sources, biomass burning, domestic coal combustion, and coking industry contributed 60%, 20%, and 16% of the total emission, respectively. Total emission, emission density, emission intensity, and emission per capita showed geographical variations. In general, the southeastern provinces were characterized by higher emission density, while those in western and northern China featured higher emission intensity and population-normalized emission. Although energy consumption in China went up continuously during the past two decades, annual emission of PAHs fluctuated depending on the amount of domestic coal consumption, coke production, and the efficiency of energy utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power system stabilizers (PSSs) are used to generate supplementary control signals for the excitation system in order to damp the low-frequency power system oscillations. To overcome the drawbacks of a conventional PSS (CPSS), numerous techniques have been proposed in the literature. Based on the analysis of existing techniques, a novel design based on heuristic dynamic programming (HDP) is presented in this paper. HDP, combining the concepts of dynamic programming and reinforcement learning, is used in the design of a nonlinear optimal power system stabilizer. Results show the effectiveness of this new technique. The performance of the HDP-based PSS is compared with the CPSS and the indirect-adaptive-neurocontrol-based PSS under small and large disturbances. In addition, the impact of different discount factors in the HDP PSS's. performance is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsurface tow constructed wetlands (CWs) wastewater treatment typically results in satisfactory organics removal. However, the removal of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, is often unreliable, and typically less than desired, and nitrogen transformations in wetlands systems are not well-understood. The principal objective of this study was to establish a basis for quantification of nitrogen transformations through subsurface flow CW systems. Actual performance data from a full-scale facility located near Lincoln, Nebraska, were used to calibrate a proposed nitrogen transformations model, which, in turn, was used to replicate and predict the wetlands performance. To realize this objective, a compartmental analysis technique, which uses a set of differential equations and nonlinear optimization numerical methods, was used for solving nitrogen transformation rates and for predicting wetland performance. The model satisfactorily reproduced the mean effluent concentrations for organic nitrogen, ammonium-nitrogen, and nitrate-nitrogen, but with lesser accuracy with respect to peak high and low effluent concentrations. Nitrogen mass balance in the wetland was used to identify likely nitrogen transformation pathways. Generally, it was found that approximately one third of the influent nitrogen mass was removed through nitrification and denitrification, one third was removed through vegetative assimilation, and the remainder was discharged in the wetland effluent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explore the interaction and spatial spillover effects between industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and high‐quality development of agriculture and rural areas, formulate appropriate industrial and environmental policies for different regions, guide the orderly agglomeration of agricultural sectors, and adjust the intensity of environmental regulation, which will help achieve high‐quality development. This manuscript firstly deconstructs the internal logic among industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and high‐quality development. Secondly, the Super‐SBM model is used to calculate the high‐quality development efficiency in rural China from 2000 to 2020. Finally, the Spatial Dubin Model (SDM) is used to analyze the spatial spillover effects and regional differences of industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and their integration impact on high‐quality development in rural China. The results show that: ① From 2000 to 2020, the high‐quality development efficiency shows a downward trend in fluctuation, and high‐quality development needs to be improved. ② There are significant regional differences in the effects of industrial agglomeration and environmental regulation on the high‐quality development efficiency. Industrial specialization agglomeration can effectively improve the high‐quality development efficiency, while industrial diversification agglomeration has uncertain effects. ③ The integration of environmental regulation and diversification agglomeration inhibits the high‐quality development efficiency, while the integration with specialization agglomeration has a stronger effect on improving high‐quality development efficiency. It is necessary to further enhance the effect of diversification agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which investigates the total concentration and fractions of aluminum in water samples collected from the Le An River, China through the use of polyvinyl chloride complex colorimetry. Materials and methods; Results and discussions; Conclusion.

Assesses heavy metal contamination in surface sedimental samples, taking advantage of index of geoaccumulation combined with modified multivariate graphical method-face graph. Materials and methods used in the study; Findings and analysis of results; Conclusions.

This article discusses a case of pulmonary mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection, in an 18-year-old man who had previously recovered from COVID-19. The patient experienced cardiac arrest after developing severe coughing and losing consciousness. The diagnosis was made through imaging and biopsy, and the patient was treated with intravenous amphotericin B. The article also provides information on the imaging characteristics, diagnosis, treatment, and mortality rates of mucormycosis. It emphasizes the importance of awareness of this infection, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. [Extracted from the article]

Although the use of heterosis in maize breeding has increased crop productivity, the genetic causes underlying heterosis for nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) have been insufficiently investigated. In this study, five N-response traits and five low-N-tolerance traits were investigated using two inbred line populations (ILs) consisting of recombinant inbred lines (RIL) and advanced backcross (ABL) populations, derived from crossing Ye478 with Wu312. Both populations were crossed with P178 to construct two testcross populations. IL populations, their testcross populations, and the midparent heterosis (MPH) for NUE were investigated. Kernel weight, kernel number, and kernel number per row were sensitive to N level and ILs showed higher N response than did the testcross populations. Based on a highdensity linkage map, 138 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were mapped, each explaining 5.6%-38.8% of genetic variation. There were 52, 34 and 52 QTL for IL populations, MPH, and testcross populations, respectively. The finding that 7.6% of QTL were common to the ILs and their testcross populations and that 11.7% were common to the MPH and testcross population indicated that heterosis for NUE traits was regulated by non-additive and non-dominant loci. A QTL on chromosome 5 explained 27% of genetic variation in all of the traits and Gln1-3 was identified as a candidate gene for this QTL. Genome-wide prediction of NUE traits in the testcross populations showed 14%-51% accuracy. Our results may be useful for clarifying the genetic basis of heterosis for NUE traits and the candidate gene may be used for genetic improvement of maize NUE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate flight trajectory predictions can help air traffic management systems make warnings for potential hazards and effectively provide guidance for safe travel.However,the atmospheric situation in which the planes flying is complicated and changeable.The flight track is affected by external factors such as atmospheric disturbance,the air cloud,making prediction difficult.In addition,due to the harsh ground environment where some flight areas are located,it is impossible to deploy enough signal base stations,while the flight signals in some flight areas are collected and combined by multiple signal base stations,resulting in sparse and noisy aircraft track data,which further increases the difficulty of flight track prediction.This paper proposes a technically enhanced self-supervision flight trajectory learning method.This method uses a regularization-based data enhancement mode to extend the sparse track data and process the abnormal values included in the dataset.It provides a self-supervised learning diagram by maximizing mutual information to dig the mobility pattern contained in the flight trajectory.The method employs a multi-head self-attention model with a distillation mechanism as a fundamental model to solve the long-term dependence problem of the recurrent neural network.In addition,the approach uses the distillation mechanism to reduce the complexity of the model and utilizes the generating decoding method to accelerate the speed of its training and prediction.The evaluation results on the flight trajectory dataset show that our method has a significant increase in the results of trajectory prediction compared with the state-of-the-art method that our approach reduces the root mean square error of the prediction results in latitude,longitude,and altitude by 20.8%,26.4%,and 25.6%,respectively.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of niraparib (a poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase [PARP] inhibitor) maintenance therapy among patients with uterine serous carcinoma (USC) who achieved complete remission (CR) or partial remission (PR) to the last line of platinum-based chemotherapy. Methods: In this open-label, multi-center, prospective, exploratory clinical study in China, the maintenance therapy cohort patients with USC (stage I-IV) with CR or PR to 1 line or first-time recurrent platinum-based therapy were received niraparib once-daily. A starting dose of 200 mg once daily (QD) was used, except in patients with a baseline body weight of =77 kg and platelet count =150,000/µL who received 300 mg QD. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) rate at 12 months assessed by Investigator and analyzed using Kaplan-Meir method with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) (NCT04716686). Results: From August 24, 2021, to August 31, 2023, a total of 23 patients were enrolled at 5 clinical centers. median followup for PFS was 16.3 months (95% CI=11.2-21.5). At baseline, 78.2% (18/23) were International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage III or IV. The 95.6% (22/23) patients undergone cytoreductive surgery. The 39.1% (9/23) patients had undergone radiotherapy. Among patients who evaluated (n=21), the PFS rate at 12 months in niraparib maintenance therapy was 84.7% (95% CI=59.5%-94.8%). The safety profile of niraparib was consistent with previous studies. Conclusion: It was first time to investigate the efficacy and safety of niraparib monotherapy as maintenance therapy in Chinese patients with USC. PFS rates at 12 months (84.7%) showed a clinically meaningful improvement in patients receiving niraparib maintenance therapy. Niraparib was generally well tolerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic selection is a well-investigated approach that facilitates and supports selection decisions for complex traits and has meanwhile become a standard tool in modern plant breeding. Phenomic selection has only recently been suggested and uses the same statistical procedures to predict the targeted traits but replaces marker data with near-infrared spectroscopy data. It may represent an attractive low-cost, high-throughput alternative but has not been sufficiently studied until now. Here, we used 400 genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) comprising elite lines of the Flint and Dent heterotic pools as well as 6 Flint landraces, which were phenotyped in multienvironment trials for anthesis-silking-interval, early vigor, final plant height, grain dry matter content, grain yield, and phosphorus concentration in the maize kernels, to compare the predictive abilities of genomic as well as phenomic prediction under different scenarios. We found that both approaches generally achieved comparable predictive abilities within material groups. However, phenomic prediction was less affected by population structure and performed better than its genomic counterpart for predictions among diverse groups of breeding material. We therefore conclude that phenomic prediction is a promising tool for practical breeding, for instance when working with unknown and rather diverse germplasm. Moreover, it may make the highly monopolized sector of plant breeding more accessible also for low-tech institutions by combining well established, widely available, and cost-efficient spectral phenotyping with the statistical procedures elaborated for genomic prediction - while achieving similar or even better results than with marker data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer has the highest mortality among cancers worldwide due to its high incidence and lack of the effective cures. We have previously demonstrated that the membrane ion channel TMEM16A is a potential drug target for the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma and have identified a pocket of inhibitor binding that provides the basis for screening promising new inhibitors. However, conventional drug discovery strategies are lengthy and costly, and the unpredictable side effects lead to a high failure rate in drug development. Therefore, finding new therapeutic directions for already marketed drugs may be a feasible strategy to obtain safe and effective therapeutic drugs. Here, we screened a library of over 1400 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs through virtual screening and activity testing. We identified a drug candidate, Zafirlukast (ZAF), clinically approved for the treatment of asthma, that could inhibit the TMEM16A channel in a concentration-dependent manner. Molecular dynamics simulations and site-directed mutagenesis experiments showed that ZAF can bind to S387/N533/R535 in the nonselective inhibitor binding pocket, thereby blocking the channel pore. Furthermore, we demonstrate ZAF can target TMEM16A channel to inhibit the proliferation and migration of lung adenocarcinoma LA795 cells. In vivo experiments showed that ZAF can significantly inhibit lung adenocarcinoma tumor growth in mice. Taken together, we identified ZAF as a novel TMEM16A channel inhibitor with excellent anticancer activity, and as such, it represents a promising candidate for future preclinical and clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus is the second most important macronutrient after nitrogen and it has many vital functions in the life of plants. Most soils have a low available P content, which has become a key limiting factor for increasing crop production. Also, low P use efficiency (PUE) of crops in conjunction with excessive application of P fertilizers has resulted in serious environmental problems. Thus, dissecting the genetic architecture of crop PUE, mining related quantitative trait loci (QTL) and using molecular breeding methods to improve high PUE germplasm are of great significance and serve as an efficient approach for the development of sustainable agriculture. In this review, molecular and phenotypic characteristics of maize inbred lines with high PUE, related QTL and genes as well as low-P responses are summarized. Based on this, a breeding strategy applying genomic selection as the core, and integrating the existing genetic information and molecular breeding techniques is proposed for breeding high PUE maize inbred lines and hybrids.

The article reports that the net effect of migration in China has been a reduction of PM2.5, ambient fine particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 2.5 mm, exposure due to an unequal distribution of residential and transportation energy consumption (RTC) energy mixes between urban and rural areas. It is said that population and pollutant emissions from RTC have evolved in terms of magnitude and geographic distribution.

An objective understanding of the current situation and influencing factors of rural green development in China is an important prerequisite for effective formulation making of green development policies. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces of China from the year 1997 to 2017, this paper constructs and measures the rural green development efficiency (RGDE) based on Driving-Force, Pressure, State, Influence, Response (DPSIR) model and super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model. The results show that, the overall RGDE in China is fluctuating and rising from 1997 to 2017, and there are some differences between and within regions. The RGDE in developed areas is higher than that in developing areas, and coastal areas are higher than that in inland areas. The entire country, eastern, central, and western regions show σ convergence, which indicates that the RGDE is getting better, but there is no absolute β convergence, that means there is no "catch-up effect" between regions, but the gradient divergence showed central > eastern > western. At the same time, there is no conditional β convergence; the initial RGDE has a positive impact on the growth rate of RGDE, and the financial self-sufficiency rate promotes the growth of RGDE of the whole country and the western region, but inhibits the improvement of RGDE of the eastern region. The per capita GDP, mechanization degree, and agricultural industrial structure in rural areas did not promote the growth of RGDE. Based on the results, this paper puts forward some policy suggestions, such as promoting the classified implementation of rural green development policies, strengthening the top-level design, optimizing the existing agricultural mechanism and system, and guiding and standardizing the farmers' green production behavior.