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This study investigates the interwoven relationship between the metadiscourse of (im)politeness, language ideologies, and identity. It examines YouTube comments on a video recording of a controversial incident in Taiwan in which a Taiwanese American, J, insulted a bus driver in English, a marked language choice in the local context. It was found that J’s abusive language and his language choice being English were the top sources of offense as expressed in the comments, and four main strands of language ideologies are identified accordingly. We see the taking of offense in the critical comments as social actions in two senses: each comment is an individual pragmatic act sanctioning a perceived moral transgression, while, collectively, the comments serve as a discursive space where language ideologies are shaped, contested, and reinforced. We further explore how various identities, such as “foreigner”, “ABC”, and “Taiwanese” are discursively constructed in the process of impoliteness assessment and how the perceived attack on the driver’s social identity face is motivated by J’s perceived identities and presumed language proficiency. We argue that the shift in focus to the evaluativity of (im)politeness makes it possible to bring (im)politeness research and sociolinguistics closer to each other.

The interface coupling ability of inorganic–organic nanocomposites affects their energy storage performance directly. It can be adjusted by altering the structure at the interface, offering a practical and effective way to achieve energy storage applications in the future.

CCCH (C3H) Zinc finger (Znf) transcription factors (TFs), as a novel type of Znf gene, regulate the expression of genes by binding to their mRNAs and play important roles in plant growth and development and abiotic stress resistance. Longan (Dimocarpous longan) is a tropical/subtropical fruit tree of great economic importance in Southeast Asia. However, genomic information on C3H and their functions in longan are still unknown. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the longan C3H (DlC3H) gene family was carried out. A total of 49 DlC3H genes in three clades were identified from the longan genome database. Characteristics of the genes were analyzed with respect to gene structure, motif composition, phylogenetic tree and potential functions. The analysis of alternative splicing (AS) events suggested that AS events in DlC3H genes were related to the transformation from longan non-embryonic to embryonic cultures. Promoter analysis indicated that most of the DlC3H genes included cis-acting elements associated with hormones and stresses responses. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that 26 of the 49 DlC3Hs, which possess methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and abscisic acid (ABA) responsive cis-acting elements, showed differential expression patterns under treatment with ABA, MeJA and their endogenous inhibitors, suggesting that DlC3Hs might be involved in the ABA and MeJA signaling pathways. The expression profiles of 17 of the 49 DlC3Hs in non-embryonic callus and three tissues of embryonic cultures showed that only five of the 17 DlC3Hs had the same expression trends as the FPKM trends in transcriptome data; the expression levels of DlC3H07/14/16/36/49 in embryogenic callus and DlC3H04/38 in globular embryos were high, suggesting that they have different functions in embryonic development. Further, we verified that DlC3H01/03/05/11/19/39 were regulated by sRNAs by a modified 5′ RLM-RACE method. This study provides the first systematic analysis of C3H genes in longan, and found that C3H genes may be involved in hormone and stress responses, and somatic embryogenesis. Our preliminary investigation may provide clues to further studies on the characteristics and functions of this family in longan.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of Apatinib anti-bladder cancer via network pharmacology and experimental verification. Methods: Network pharmacology was used to screen the possible signaling pathways of Apatinib in bladder cancer, and the most likely pathway was selected for in vitro validation. CCK8 and colony formation assay were used to detect the effect of Apatinib on the proliferation of bladder cancer cells. Hoechst staining and flow cytometry detected apoptosis of bladder cancer cells induced by Apatinib. Western blot was performed to distinguish the effect of Apatinib on the expression levels of key targets. Results: Apatinib can affect many signaling pathways and the correlation of the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway was the greatest. In vitro experiments showed that Apatinib could inhibit bladder cancer cell proliferation, induce apoptosis, and up-regulate the expression of apoptosis-related proteins Cleaved-PARP and down-regulate the expression of Bcl-2. Furthermore, Apatinib could decrease the protein expression of VEGFR2, P-VEGFR2, P-PI3K and P-Akt. Conclusions: Apatinib could promote apoptosis of bladder cancer cells by inhibiting the VEGFR2-PI3K-AKT signaling pathway.

To determine the reasonable rate of straw return and nitrogen (N) fertilizer use which may maintain soil ecosystem health, we analyzed their soil microbial biomass and composition in a 10-year field experiment with different rates of straw return (50%, 100%) and N fertilizer (270, 360, 450, 540 kg N ha−1 yr−1) by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and high-throughput sequencing. A rate of 50% straw return combined with 450 or 540 kg N ha−1 yr−1 effectively increased the soil available nutrient contents mainly for total nitrogen, available potassium, and available phosphorus. Total PLFAs indicated that straw return combined with N fertilizer promoted soil microbial growth and increased biomass. A rate of 100% straw return with 450 kg N ha−1 yr−1 was not conducive to the stability of the soil ecosystem according to the ratio of fungi to bacteria (F:B). The similar rate of straw returning and the similar level of nitrogen fertilizer application will be divided into the same cluster using a heatmap analysis. Some saprophytic fungi or pathogens became the dominant fungi genera, such as Gibberella, Sarocladium, Pseudallescheria, and Mycosphaerella, in the treatments with 100% straw returning combining higher N fertilizer (>450 kg ha−1 yr−1 yr−1 added). The relative abundances of some heavy metal-tolerant bacteria, such as those in Proteobacteria and Chlorobi, increased in the soils in the 100% straw return treatments. Therefore, the combined application of 100% straw returning and higher N fertilizer (>450 kg ha−1 yr−1) added long-term was not appropriate for soil health, which will lead to the risk of disease and pollution in soil.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-imj-10.1177_10815589231167359 for Development and validation of a scoring system incorporating tumor growth pattern and perineural invasion for risk stratification in colorectal cancer by Yulin Liu, Yiting Wang, Su Yao, Changhong Liang, Qian Li, Zaiyi Liu, Yaxi Zhu, Yanfen Cui and Ke Zhao in Journal of Investigative Medicine

To investigate the influencing factors of ultrasound-guided HIFU (USgHIFU) ablation for adenomyosis with a non-perfused volume ratio (NPVR)≥50%. A total of 299 patients with adenomyosis who underwent USgHIFU ablation were enrolled. Quantitative signal intensity (SI) analysis was performed on T2WI and dynamic enhancement type. The energy efficiency factor (EEF) was defined as the ultrasound energy delivered for ablating 1 mm3 of tissue. NPVR ≥ 50% was used as the criterion for technical success. Adverse effects and complications were recorded. Logistic regression analyses of variables were conducted to identify the factors affecting NPVR ≥ 50%. The median NPVR was 53.5% (34.7%). There were 159 cases in the NPVR ≥ 50% group and 140 cases in the NPVR < 50% group. The EEF in NPVR < 50.0% group was significantly higher than that in NPVR ≥ 50% group (p < 0.05). The incidence of intraoperative adverse effects and postoperative adverse events in the NPVR < 50% group were higher than those in the NPVR ≥ 50% group (p < 0.05 for both). Logistic regression analysis showed that abdominal wall thickness, SI difference on T2WI between adenomyosis and rectus abdominis, and enhancement type on T1WI were protective factors for NPVR ≥ 50% (p < 0.05), while the history of childbirth was an independent risk factor (p < 0.001). Compared with NPVR < 50%, NPVR ≥ 50% did not increase the intraprocedural and postprocedural adverse reactions. The possibility of NPVR ≥ 50% was higher in patients with thinner abdominal walls, showed slight enhancement of adenomyosis on T1WI, with a history of childbirth, or in whom the SI difference on T2WI between adenomyosis and rectus abdominis was more minor.

A high-performance, degradable flexible PNG for human motion status monitoring was manufactured from 2D plate-like BT embedded in PLA, where the high output voltage of the PNG was realised by mechanical impact deformation.

The efficient removal of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in natural waters is vital for human survival and sustainable development. Photocatalytic degradation is a feasible and cost-effective strategy to completely disintegrate POPs at room temperature. Herein, we develop a series of direct Z-scheme BiOIO

To investigate lattice distortion evolutions of CrCoNi medium-entropy alloy (MEA), CrFeCoNi, and CrMnFeCoNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) with temperature increasing from 300 to 1323 K, we conduct in situ synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray diffraction experiments. Electron backscattering diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge fine structure spectra (XANES) are further carried out to uncover variations of microstructure, morphology and oxidation resistance. Generally, the lattice will expand continuously with temperature increasing, however, the expansion rate is affected by grain growth and oxidation. The oxidation resistance of CrCoNi MEA is slightly higher than CrFeCoNi HEA, and much higher than CrMnFeCoNi HEA. The XANES spectra demonstrate higher oxidation resistance of Ni, Co, and Fe than Cr and Mn. Formation of local short-range order structures around Ni and Co is observed, but no such features are observed around Fe and Mn. The present findings are significant on deepening the understandings of correlations between atomic structure and mechanical properties in advanced HEAs.

Multirotor copters with full six Degree of Freedom (DoF) maneuvering are often overactuated. The control allocation of overactuated UAV platforms can have an infinite number of solutions due to their redundancy. The most common allocation framework is based on Force Decomposition (FD), which provides a robust least-square solution and is easy to implement, but it does not account for input constraints. A control allocation framework based on Quadratic Programming (QP) can take input constraints; however, it will introduce linear approximation error and it has not been formulated and implemented on physical systems. In this letter, we propose a nullspace-based allocation framework for overactuated UAV platforms that combines the advantages of the FD-based framework and QP-based framework. Our proposed nullspace-based framework can take input constraints while eliminating the linear approximation error in the control allocation. It is also robust against controller sampling frequency and measurement noise. These three allocation frameworks are implemented and compared on our novel overactuated UAV platform in simulation to evaluate the robustness of the proposed method and in experiment for a vertical rotation trajectory to demonstrate its performance.

Intrinsic dinitrogen (N2) fixation by diazotrophic bacteria in termite hindguts has been considered an important pathway for nitrogen acquisition in termites. However, studies that supported this claim focused on measuring instant N2 fixation rates and failed to address their relationship with termite colony growth and reproduction over time. We here argue that not all wood-feeding termites rely on symbiotic diazotrophic bacteria for colony growth. The present study looks at dietary nitrogen acquisition in a subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae, Coptotermes). Young termite colonies reared with wood and nitrogen-rich organic soil developed faster, compared to those reared on wood and inorganic sand. More critically, further colony development was arrested if access to organic soil was removed. In addition, no difference of relative nitrogenase expression rates was found when comparing the hindguts of termites reared between the two conditions. We therefore propose that subterranean termite (Rhinotermitidae) colony growth is no longer restricted to metabolically expensive intrinsic N2 fixation, as the relationship between diazotrophic bacteria and subterranean termites may primarily be trophic rather than symbiotic. Such reliance of Rhinotermitidae on soil microbial decomposition activity for optimal colony growth may also have had a critical mechanistic role in the initial emergence of Termitidae.

Fully-actuated multi-rotor aerial platforms are receiving increasing research interests for the capability of six degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions such as hovering at non-horizontal attitude angles. Existing real world hardware and experiments have demonstrated such capability for a limited range of angles. This letter presents an aerial platform that achieves maneuvering at arbitrary attitudes with uniformly high thrust efficiencies. We propose a novel vectoring thrust force actuator by mounting a regular quadcopter on a passive mechanical gimbal mechanism. The UAV platform achieves full six-DOF motion with redundancies from four of these vectoring thrust actuators. We present the hierarchical controller, which generates high-level virtual wrench commands, allocations to actuators, and low-level actuator controls. We demonstrate the first real-world experiments of any pose maneuver over 360 degrees without requiring unwrapping rotations.

Controllable mass production of monodisperse droplets plays a key role in numerous fields ranging from scientific research to industrial application. Microfluidic ladder networks show great potential in mass production of monodisperse droplets, but their design with uniform microflow distribution remains challenging due to the lack of a rational design strategy. Here an effective design strategy based on backstepping microflow analysis (BMA) is proposed for the rational development of microfluidic ladder networks for mass production of controllable monodisperse microdroplets. The performance of our BMA rule for rational microfluidic ladder network design is demonstrated by using an existing analogism-derived rule that is widely used for the design of microfluidic ladder networks as the control group. The microfluidic ladder network designed by the BMA rule shows a more uniform flow distribution in each branch microchannel than that designed by the existing rule, as confirmed by single-phase flow simulation. Meanwhile, the microfluidic ladder network designed by the BMA rule allows mass production of droplets with higher size monodispersity in a wider window of flow rates and mass production of polymeric microspheres from such highly monodisperse droplet templates. The proposed BMA rule provides new insights into the microflow distribution behaviors in microfluidic ladder networks based on backstepping microflow analysis and provides a rational guideline for the efficient development of microfluidic ladder networks with uniform flow distribution for mass production of highly monodisperse droplets. Moreover, the BMA method provides a general analysis strategy for microfluidic networks with parallel multiple microchannels for rational scale-up.

Background: Bone was the most common site of metastasis in prostate cancer(PCa) patients and was correlated with poor prognosis and increasing economicalburden. Studies were limited on the prognostic prediction for metastatic PCapatients with the assistance of neural network. Methods: Four convolutional neural network (CNN) models were developed andevaluated to predict overall survival (OS) of PCa patients with bone metastasis.All the CNN models were first trained with 64 samples and evaluated with 10samples, two models used only bone scan images and two models used both bonescan images and clinical parameters (CPs). Predictions of the best models werecompared with those of two urology surgeons on 20 test samples. Results: Our best models could predict OS of PCa patients with bone metastasiswith AUC = 0.8022 by using only bone scan images and AUC = 0.8132 by usingboth bone scan image and CPs on 20 test samples. When the sensitivities(specificities) set equal to average level of urology surgeons, their specificities(sensitivities) were 0%(7.2%) and 30.77%(7.7%) higher, which showedsignificant advantages of CNN models. Conclusion: The CNN models were suitable to predict OS in PCa patients withbone metastasis using bone scan images and CPs. Our models showed betterperformance in terms of accuracy and stability than urology surgeons. Keywords: Bone Metastasis; Bone Scan; Convolutional Neural Network;Prostate Cancer; Overall Survival

From the perspective of FDR (fault detection rate), which is an indispensable component in reliability modeling, this paper proposes two kinds of reliability models under imperfect debugging. This model is a relatively flexible and unified software reliability growth model. First, this paper examines the incomplete phenomenon of debugging and fault repair and established a unified imperfect debugging framework model related to FDR, which is called imperfect debugging type I. Furthermore, it considers the introduction of new faults during debugging and establishes a unified imperfect debugging framework model that supports multiple FDRs, called imperfect debugging type II. Finally, a series of specific reliability models are derived by integrating multiple specific FDRs into two types of imperfect debugging framework models. Based on the analysis of the two kinds of imperfect debugging models on multiple public failure data sets, and the analysis of model performance differences from the perspective of fitting metrics and prediction research, a fault detection rate function that can better describe the fault detection process is found. By incorporating this fault detection rate function into the two types of imperfect debugging models, a more accurate model is obtained, which not only has excellent performance and is superior to other models but also describes the real testing process more accurately and will guide software testers to quantitatively improve software reliability.

In order to reduce the influence of multi-path effects on the measurement results of wideband antennas, this paper proposes a method for suppressing interference in wideband antenna measurements based on modal filtering technology. This paper introduces the theory and operation process of modal filtering, establishes the relationship between the distribution of modal coefficient terms and the location of the antenna and external interference sources, and clearly reveals the principle of filtering interference through modal filtering. It is pointed out that each location of interference sources corresponds to different pattern items. Filtering out the power of the pattern term generated by the interference source is equivalent to filtering out the interference caused by the interference source. The sources filtered by this technology are external sources that are spatially separated from the antenna, including external sources, environmental reflections, and device reflections, among others. This feature makes it possible to be used for testing in a non-absorbent environment. Its ability to operate at almost any frequency makes it ideal for suppressing interference effects in wideband antenna measurement. This paper demonstrates a recent advance wherein modal filtering techniques are used in interference suppression for wideband antenna non-absorbent measurement. In the full bandwidth range of the wideband antenna, we verify the method through numerical simulation analysis and practical measurement. In the numerical simulation, we obtain that 15 dB interference can be filtered out at the −25 dB level and 5 dB interference can be filtered out at the −35 dB level. In the experiments, within the broadband antenna bandwidth, we found that 2.5 dB can be filtered at the −10 dB level at 4 GHz, 3 dB is filtered at the −10 dB level at 6 GHz, and 5 dB is filtered at the −10 dB level at 7.5 GHz. All of the above results prove that the proposed method can effectively suppress the multi-path interference in wideband non-absorbent antenna measurement and improve the measurement results.