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The natural gas hydrate, plentifully distributed in ocean floor sediments and permafrost regions, is considered a promising unconventional energy resource. The investigation of hydrate dissociation mechanisms in porous media is essential to optimize current production methods. To provide a microscopic insight in the hydrate dissociation process, we developed a Lattice Boltzmann (LB) model to investigate this multi–physicochemical process, including mass transfer, conjugate heat transfer, and gas transport. The methane hydrate dissociation is regarded as the reactive transport process coupled with heat transfer. The methane transport in porous media is modelled by the generalized LB method with the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) collision model. The mass transfer from hydrate to fluid phase is described by the hydrate kinetic and thermodynamic models. Finally, the conjugate heat transfer LB-model for heterogeneous media is added for solving the energy equation.In the numerical experiments, we primarily investigated the effects of different hydrate distribution morphologies such as pore–filling, grain–coating, and dispersed on the hydrate dissociation process. From simulations, we found that in general, the dissociation rate and the methane average density rapidly approached the maximum value and then decreased with fluctuation during the dissociation process. This trend is due to that the endothermic reaction heat decreased the temperature, resulting in decelerating the dissociation. The average temperature decreased to minimum value instantaneously as hydrate started to dissociate. After the minimum value, the average temperature would increase slowly, accompanied by the thermal stimulation and hydrate consumption, displaying a valley shape of the temperature curve. We also found that the whole dissociation process and permeability–saturation relations are significantly affected by the hydrate morphologies. Under the same hydrate saturation, the dispersed case dissolves the fastest, whereas the grain–coating case is the slowest. Furthermore, we proposed a general permeability–saturation relation applicable for three cases, filling the gap in the current relative permeability models. The LB model proposed in this study is capable to simulate the complex physicochemical hydrate dissociation process. Considering the impacts of thermodynamic conditions (P,T), we investigated their influences on the coupled interaction between dissociation and seepage under three different morphologies and proposed a general permeability–saturation relationship. The results can be applied as input to adjust parameters in the continuum model, and provide instructions for exploring clean energy with environmental considerations.

Background DNA binding with one finger (Dof) proteins are plant-specific transcription factors playing vital roles in developmental processes and stress responses in plants. Nevertheless, the characterizations, expression patterns, and functions of the Dof family under drought stress (a key determinant of plant physiology and metabolic homeostasis) in woody plants remain unclear. Methods The birch (Betula platyphylla var. mandshuric) genome and plant TFDB database were used to identify Dof gene family members in birch plants. ClustalW2 of BioEdit v7.2.1, MEGA v7.0, ExPASy ProtParam tool, Subloc, TMHMM v2.0, GSDS v2.0, MEME, TBtools, KaKs Calculator v2.0, and PlantCARE were respectively used to align the BpDof sequences, build a phylogenetic tree, identify the physicochemical properties, analyze the chromosomal distribution and synteny, and identify the cis-elements in the promoter regions of the 26 BpDof genes. Additionally, the birch seedlings were exposed to PEG6000-simulated drought stress, and the expression patterns of the BpDof genes in different tissues were analyzed by qRT-PCR. The histochemical staining and the evaluation of physiological indexes were performed to assess the plant tolerance to drought with transient overexpression of BpDof4, BpDof11, and BpDof17 genes. SPSS software and ANOVA were used to conduct all statistical analyses and determine statistically significant differences between results. Results A total of 26 BpDof genes were identified in birch via whole-genome analysis. The conserved Dof domain with a C(x)2C(x)21C(x)2C zinc finger motif was present in all BpDof proteins. These birch BpDofs were classified into four groups (A to D) according to the phylogenetic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana Dof genes. BpDof proteins within the same group mostly possessed similar motifs, as detected by conserved motif analysis. The exon–intron analysis revealed that the structures of BpDof genes differed, indicating probable gene gain and lose during the BpDof evolution. The chromosomal distribution and synteny analysis showed that the 26 BpDofs were unevenly distributed on 14 chromosomes, and seven duplication events among six chromosomes were found. Cis-acting elements were abundant in the promoter regions of the 26 BpDof genes. qRT-PCR revealed that the expression of the 26 BpDof genes was differentially regulated by drought stress among roots, stems, and leaves. Most BpDof genes responded to drought stress, and BpDof4, BpDof11, and BpDof17­ were significantly up-regulated. Therefore, plants overexpressing these three genes were generated to investigate drought stress tolerance. The BpDof4-, BpDof11-, and BpDof17­-overexpressing plants showed promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capabilities and less severe cell damage, suggesting that they conferred enhanced drought tolerance in birch. This study provided an in-depth insight into the structure, evolution, expression, and function of the Dof gene family in plants.

In this paper, we study the restriction estimate for a certain surface of finite type in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and partially improves the results of Buschenhenke-M\"{u}ller-Vargas. The key ingredients of the proof include the so called generalized rescaling technique based on a decomposition adapted to finite type geometry, a decoupling inequality and reduction of dimension arguments., Comment: 22 pages

To better understand the psychological and physiological basis of human emotion, increasing interest has been drawn towards ambulatory recordings of emotion-related data beyond the laboratories. By employing smartphones-based ambulatory assessment and wrist-worn physiological recording devices, the Daily Ambulatory Psychological and Physiological recording for Emotion Research (DAPPER) dataset provides momentary self-reports and physiological data of people’s emotional experiences in their daily life. The dataset consists of ambulatory psychological recordings from 142 participants and physiological recordings from 88 of them over five days. Both the experience sampling method (ESM) and the day reconstruction method (DRM) were employed to have a comprehensive description of the participants’ daily emotional experiences. Heart rate, galvanic skin response, and three-axis acceleration were recorded during the day time. By including multiple types of physiological and self-report data at a scale of five days with 100+ participants, the present dataset is expected to promote emotion researches in real-life, daily settings., Measurement(s) Heart Rate • Galvanic Skin Response • Emotion Technology Type(s) photoplethysmography • Surface Electrode • Day Reconstruction Method • Experience Sampling Method Sample Characteristic - Organism Homo sapiens Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.13803185

In China today, as well as other areas of the world, new technologies that apply multi-energy cooperative utilization and seek commercialization face the challenge of economic uncertainty. In this context, business models have a significant influence on the techno-economic performance of the technology projects. By using the solar-heat pump water heater as a case study example, the aim of this study is to develop a techno-economic model to evaluate and compare the techno-economic performance of multi-energy cooperative utilization under different business models to be able to recommend steps for improved commercialization going forward. The results indicate that in the model called “no third party intervention,” where the transaction is solely between a single enterprise operator and the user, the investment value of this technology is weak from the user's point of view. Therefore, government incentive is needed at a high ratio of subsidy to entice the user to purchase it (or this technology). When energy service companies become involved in the transaction, third party firms that purchase the products and basically lease them to customers not only avoid any high initial investment cost but also improve the economics of the project by receiving additional value-added services. In this circumstance, only a reasonable government subsidy is needed and then, the project has an investment value and benefits for all stakeholders which are involved.

Urban agglomerations (UAs) are an outcome of regional urbanization reaching relatively advanced stages of development. The advancement of UAs in regional-spatial organization has been recognized worldwide. However, due to dense regional urbanization, UAs are threatened by various regional eco-environmental stresses. The topic of UAs is a hotspot of geo-science and sustainability science, which seek to analyse whether UAs may be a solution to regional eco-environmental problems. This study proposes a new method of analysing the regional thermal environment (RTE) of 3 world-class UAs in China based on Remote sensing and Geographic Information System (RS&GIS) technology using the metropolitan area (MA) as the basic unit and by using data obtained from MODIS land surface temperature (LST) products from 2000 to 2015. The results showed that MAs caused the LST of their influenced range (including the interior of the MA and its surface urban heat island footprint (FP)) to increase from 0.45 to 2.23 °C with a few built-up areas. The threat of the FP to the RTE was caused mainly by large-area warming areas, but the threat was small in terms of the temperature increase. We found that 23% of the influence of MAs on the RTE was caused by fringe areas and that this heat was superimposed on the FPs of core areas, which caused FPs to significantly increase in capacity of heat island and area. In this study, the influence of the spatial organization of UAs was emphasized. We believe that this result is more consistent with actual conditions in research on the thermal environment of UAs. Meanwhile, the authors hope that these findings will serve as a reference for sustainable development research on UAs all over the world.

Lysine acetylation is critical in regulating important biological processes in many organisms, yet little is known about acetylome evolution and its contribution to phenotypic diversity. Here, we compare the acetylomes of baker’s yeast and the three deadliest human fungal pathogens, Cryptococcus neoformans, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus fumigatus. Using mass spectrometry enriched for acetylated peptides together with public data from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we show that fungal acetylomes are characterized by dramatic evolutionary dynamics and limited conservation in core biological processes. Notably, the levels of protein acetylation in pathogenic fungi correlate with their pathogenicity. Using gene knockouts and pathogenicity assays in mice, we identify deacetylases with critical roles in virulence and protein translation elongation. Finally, through mutational analysis of deactylation motifs we find evidence of positive selection at specific acetylation motifs in fungal pathogens. These results shed new light on the pathogenicity regulation mechanisms underlying the evolution of fungal acetylomes., Yanjian Li and Hailong Li, et al. report interspecific comparisons of the acetylomes of yeast and three human fungal pathogens. Through evolutionary analysis and experimental validation, they show that pathogen-specific aceylation motifs and deacetylase genes are required for normal virulence in an animal infection model.

Objective: We present a new type of brain-computer interface (BCI) that utilizes the retinotopic mapping of motion-onset visual evoked potentials (mVEP) to accomplish four control channels using a single motion stimulus. Methods: Participants selected a BCI command by fixating one of four target locations around a centrally presented visual motion stimulus. A template-matching method was employed to recognize the users’ intention by decoding the position of the motion stimulus in the peripheral visual field, and classification performances were evaluated in an offline manner. The motion stimulus eccentricity between the targets and the visual motion stimulus varied among 5.1°, 6.7°, 9.8°, and 13.0°. Results: Distinct N200 spatial patterns were elicited when participants directed attention overtly to the target locations. A four-class classification accuracy of 72.2 ± 5.05% was achieved with a distance of 5.1° visual angle between the targets and the visual motion stimulus. The classification accuracies decreased with increasing motion stimulus eccentricities but remained separable well above the chance level at 13.0° (47.3 ± 8.54%). Conclusion: Our results support the feasibility of a single-stimulus, multitarget mVEP BCI. Significance: The proposed system can simplify the visual stimulation of mVEP BCIs, improve user experience and pave the way for simple yet efficient BCI communication.

The synthesized imidazoline phosphate quaternary ammonium salt has low stability, which is spontaneously and rapidly hydrolyzed to the long-chain fatty acid amide (LFA). The hydrolysate (LFA) has been found to be an efficient inhibitor for Q235 steel against CO2 corrosion, which yields a maximum value above 90% at a concentration of 1000 mg L−1. The LFA inhibitor acts as an anodic type inhibitor and its inhibition mechanism is a “negative catalysis effect”. The heteroatoms in the acyl, amine and phosphate groups in the LFA molecule are the active centers to bond with Fe atoms to form a chemisorbed film on the steel surface.

Radiomics is a quantitative method to extract medical features that can extend to details that are invisible to human eyes. Studies have suggested that radiomics of the hippocampus is a potential imaging biomarker for several diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, and multiple sclerosis. This study investigates the test-retest reproducibility of radiomics features of the hippocampus. For this purpose, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and overall concordance correlation coefficient (OCCC) of the radiomics features of the hippocampus were well studied in four datasets consisting of 15, 19, 23, and 3 subjects who were scanned three, two, four, and forty times, respectively. The results highlight that the hippocampal texture features are the most repeatable, and that texture features are a possible neuroimaging biomarker for clinical studies.

Exploring the coordinated development of rural characteristic industries and agricultural economic management is helpful to solve the problem of agricultural economic management Based on the theory of coordinated development, thearticle discusses the coordinated development of our country's rural characteristic agriculture and agricultural economic management by using the method of case analysis, and puts forward the optimization strategy of agricultural economicmanagement under the new rural construction environment.

While Internet of Things (IoT) services are becoming pervasive, the cyber-attacks against IoT devices are in a sharp rise as well. Tailored for IoT devices, a low-cost, universal and real-time malware detection system is proposed that audits the side-channel power consumption data and extracts the distinguishable power features to detect malicious behaviors. In this paper, a new design of smart plug which is a core component of the system is designed, developed and prototyped to enable real-time power data collection, preprocessing and streaming for IoT malware detection on the fly. Our results demonstrate the promising performance of the smart plug in achieving real-time power auditing and high accuracy malware detection.

Manglietia longirostrata Sima is a rare and endemic species in China. The complete chloroplast genome (cpDNA) of M. longirostrata was sequenced and assembled in this study. The cpDNA is 160,049 bps in length, contains a large single-copy region (LSC) of 88,098 bp and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 18,861 bp, separated by a pair of identical inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,571 bp, each. The genome contains 123 genes, including 73 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 transfer RNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis of cp genome of M. longirostrata with 11 chloroplast genomes previously reported in the Magnoliaceae shows that M. longirostrata is close to Manglietia megaphylla with high bootstrap value.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Primers for qPCR experiments. Sequences of primers used in qPCR experiments.

Neurons undergo substantial morphological and functional changes during development to form precise synaptic connections and acquire specific physiological properties. What are the underlying transcriptomic bases? Here, we obtained the single-cell transcriptomes ofDrosophilaolfactory projection neurons (PNs) at four developmental stages. We decoded the identity of 21 transcriptomic clusters corresponding to 20 PN types and developed methods to match transcriptomic clusters representing the same PN type across development. We discovered that PN transcriptomes reflect unique biological processes unfolding at each stage—neurite growth and pruning during metamorphosis at an early pupal stage; peaked transcriptomic diversity during olfactory circuit assembly at mid-pupal stages; and neuronal signaling in adults. At early developmental stages, PN types with adjacent birth order share similar transcriptomes. Together, our work reveals principles of cellular diversity during brain development and provides a resource for future studies of neural development in PNs and other neuronal types.

Industrial Internet is becoming a topic of immense interest in the industrial sector. Talented workers possessing the relevant skills and capacities are the key to the development of Industrial Internet. This study investigated Industrial Internet talent cultivation in China from the perspective of undergraduate majors. Two experiments were conducted to this end. In Experiment 1, industry experts (N = 4) were invited to select Industrial Internet-related majors. In Experiment 2, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to teachers (N = 49) across 38 universities in China. Our results indicated that there was no Industrial Internet major in China, but there existed 43 undergraduate majors that were significantly relevant to this field. The core relevant majors were found to be (1) Internet of Things Engineering, (2) Artificial Intelligence, (3) Data Science and Big Data Technology, (4) Intelligence Science and Technology, and (5) Big Data Management and Application. We also proposed that Industrial Internet talents should master information technology, operation technology, and communication technology with the percentage of technologies required being 41.82%, 32.33%, and 25.86%, respectively. Information-related departments and Industrial Internet-related departments in universities were found to be the most preferred for Industrial Internet talent cultivation. Furthermore, our research revealed that Chinese universities were facing a shortage of textbooks, teachers, practice bases, courses, funds, and equipment for cultivating the necessary Industrial Internet talent and needed to work on these aspects.

Impaired wound healing presents great health risks to patients. While encouraging, the current clinical successes of mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based therapies for tissue repair have been limited. Genetic engineering could endow MSCs with more robust regenerative capacities. Here, we identified that C-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) overexpression enhanced the targeted migration and immunoregulatory potential of MSCs in response to C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in vitro. Intravenously infusion of CCR2-engineered MSCs (MSCsCCR2) exhibited improved homing efficiencies to injured sites and lungs of diabetic mice. Accordingly, MSCCCR2 infusion inhibited monocyte infiltration, reshaped macrophage inflammatory properties, prompted the accumulation of regulatory T cells (Treg cells) in injured sites, and reshaped systemic immune responses via the lung and spleen in mouse diabetic wound models. In summary, CCR2-engineered MSCs restore immunological homeostasis to accelerate diabetic wound healing via their improved homing and immunoregulatory potentials in response to CCL2. Therefore, these findings provide a novel strategy to explore genetically engineered MSCs as tools to facilitate tissue repair in diabetic wounds.

ETV5 is an ETS transcription factor which has been associated with obesity in genomic association studies. However, little is known about the role of ETV5 in hepatic lipid metabolism and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In the present study, we found that ETV5 protein expression was increased in diet- and genetic-induced steatotic liver. ETV5 responded to the nutrient status in an mTORC1 dependent manner and in turn regulated mTORC1 activity. Both viral-mediated and genetic depletion of ETV5 in mice led to increased lipid accumulation in the liver. RNA sequencing analysis revealed that PPAR signaling and fatty acid degradation/metabolism pathways were significantly downregulated in ETV5 deficient hepatocytes in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, ETV5 could bind to the PPRE region of PPAR downstream genes and enhance its transactivity. Collectively, our study identifies ETV5 as a novel transcription factor for the regulation of hepatic fatty acid metabolism which is required for the optimal β oxidation process. ETV5 may provide a therapeutic target for the treatment of hepatic steatosis.

Neurons undergo substantial morphological and functional changes during development to form precise synaptic connections and acquire specific physiological properties. What are the underlying transcriptomic bases? Here, we obtained the single-cell transcriptomes of Drosophila olfactory projection neurons (PNs) at four developmental stages. We decoded the identity of 21 transcriptomic clusters corresponding to 20 PN types and developed methods to match transcriptomic clusters representing the same PN type across development. We discovered that PN transcriptomes reflect unique biological processes unfolding at each stage—neurite growth and pruning during metamorphosis at an early pupal stage; peaked transcriptomic diversity during olfactory circuit assembly at mid-pupal stages; and neuronal signaling in adults. At early developmental stages, PN types with adjacent birth order share similar transcriptomes. Together, our work reveals principles of cellular diversity during brain development and provides a resource for future studies of neural development in PNs and other neuronal types.

Neurons undergo substantial morphological and functional changes during development to form precise synaptic connections and acquire specific physiological features. What are the underlying transcriptomic bases? Here, we obtained the single-cell transcriptomes ofDrosophilaolfactory projection neurons (PNs) at four developmental stages. We decoded the identity of 21 transcriptomic clusters corresponding to 20 PN types and developed methods to match transcriptomic clusters representing the same PN type across development. We discovered that PN transcriptomes reflect unique biological processes unfolding at each stage—neurite growth and pruning during metamorphosis at an early pupal stage; peaked transcriptomic diversity during olfactory circuit assembly at mid-pupal stages; and neuronal signaling in adults. At early developmental stages, PN types with adjacent birth order share similar transcriptomes. Together, our work reveals principles of cellular diversity during brain development and provides a resource for future studies of neural development in PNs and other neuronal types.

Polysaccharide biopolymers are biomacromolecules derived from renewable resources with versatile functions including thickening, crosslinking, adsorption, etc. Possessing high efficiency and low cost, they have brought wide applications in all phases of petroleum recovery, from well drilling to wastewater treatment. The biopolymers are generally utilized as additives of fluids or plugging agents, to correct the fluid properties that affect the performance and cost of petroleum recovery. This review focuses on both the characteristics of biopolymers and their utilization in the petroleum recovery process. Research on the synthesis and characterization of polymers, as well as controlling their structures through modification, aims to develop novel recipes of biopolymer treatment with new application realms. The influences of biopolymer in many petroleum recovery cases were also evaluated to permit establishing the correlations between their physicochemical properties and performances. As their performance is heavily affected by the local environment, screening and testing polymers under controlled conditions is the necessary step to guarantee the efficiency and safety of biopolymer treatments.

Both cuticle and membrane lipids play essential roles in quality maintenance and disease resistance in fresh fruits. Many reports have indicated the modification of alternative branch pathways in epicuticular wax mutants; however, the specific alterations concerning lipids have not been clarified thus far. Here, we conducted a comprehensive, time-resolved lipidomic, and transcriptomic analysis on the “Newhall” navel orange (WT) and its glossy mutant (MT) “Gannan No. 1”. The results revealed severely suppressed wax formation accompanied by significantly elevated production of 36-carbon plastid lipids with increasing fruit maturation in MT. Transcriptomics analysis further identified a series of key functional enzymes and transcription factors putatively involved in the biosynthesis pathways of wax and membrane lipids. Moreover, the high accumulation of jasmonic acid (JA) in MT was possibly due to the need to maintain plastid lipid homeostasis, as the expression levels of two significantly upregulated lipases (CsDAD1 and CsDALL2) were positively correlated with plastid lipids and characterized to hydrolyze plastid lipids to increase the JA content. Our results will provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the natural variation of plant lipids to lay a foundation for the quality improvement of citrus fruit.

The design and development of thermal insulation materials is very important for the treatment of offshore oil pipelines. Understanding thermal energy transport in thermal insulation materials and predicting their thermal conductivities have important theoretical and practical value for the design of thermal insulation materials. In this work, lightweight and thermally insulated (LWTI) composites with the desired mechanical strength for offshore oil pipelines applications were prepared using epoxy resin (EP) as the matrix and hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) as the filler. The morphology, density, and mechanical properties of HGM/EP LWTI composites were studied first. The flexural strength and the flexural modulus of HGM/EP LWTI composites could still be as high as 22.34 &plusmn, 2.75 Mpa and 1.34 &plusmn, 0.03 GPa, respectively, while the density was only 0.591 g/cm3. The relationship between the effective thermal conductivity of HGM/EP LWTI composites and material parameters (sizes and contents together) has been studied systematically. A three-phase prediction model was built using the self-consistent approximation method to predict the effective thermal conductivity of HGM/EP LWTI composites, and the resin matrix, the wall thickness, the HGM particle size, and other parameters (such as air) were fully considered during the derivation of this three-phase thermal conductivity model. Finally, the insulation mechanism of HGM/EP LWTI composites was systematically analyzed. The thermal conductivities of HGM/EP LWTI composites with different diameters and HGM contents calculated by the three-phase prediction model agreed well with the experimental test results, with a minimum error of only 0.69%. Thus, this three-phase thermal conductivity model can be used to theoretically simulate the thermal conductivity of epoxy resin-based LWTI composites and can be the theoretical basis for the design and prediction of the thermal conductivity of other similar hollow spheres filled materials.

Bacterial flagella are nanomachines that drive bacteria motility and taxis in response to environmental changes. Whether flagella are permanent cell structures and, if not, the circumstances and timing of their production and loss during the bacterial life cycle remain poorly understood. Here we used the single polar flagellum of Vibrio alginolyticus as our model and implementing in vivo fluorescence imaging revealed that the percentage of flagellated bacteria (PFB) in a population varies substantially across different growth phases. In the early-exponential phase, the PFB increases rapidly through the widespread production of flagella. In the mid-exponential phase, the PFB peaks at around 76% and the partitioning of flagella between the daughter cells are 1:1 and strictly at the old poles. After entering the stationary phase, the PFB starts to decline, mainly because daughter cells stop making new flagella after cell division. Interestingly, we observed that bacteria can actively abandon flagella after prolonged stationary culturing, though cell division has long been suspended. Further experimental investigations confirmed that flagella were ejected in V. alginolyticus, starting from breakage in the rod. Our results highlight the dynamic production and loss of flagella during the bacterial life cycle. IMPORTANCE: Flagella motility is critical for many bacterial species. The bacterial flagellum is made up of about 20 different types of proteins in its final structure and can be self-assembled. The current understanding of the lifetime and durability of bacterial flagella is very limited. In the present study, we monitored Vibrio alginolyticus flagellar assembly and loss by in vivo fluorescence labeling, and found that the percentage of flagellated bacteria varies substantially across different growth phases. The production of flagella was synchronized with cell growth but stopped when cells entered the stationary phase. Surprisingly, we observed that bacteria can actively abandon flagella after prolonged stationary culturing, as well as in the low glucose buffering medium. We then confirmed the ejection of flagella in V. alginolyticus started with breakage of the rod. Our results highlight the dynamic production and loss of flagella during the bacterial life cycle.

In this study, the morphological changes in the central sulcus between children with isolated growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) and those with idiopathic short stature (ISS) were analyzed. Thirty children with IGHD (peak growth hormone 5 µg/L) and 30 children with ISS (peak growth hormone 10.0 µg/L) were included. Morphological measurements of the central sulcus were obtained from T1-weighted MRIs using BrainVISA, including the average sulcal width, maximum depth, average depth, top length, bottom length, and depth position-based profiles (DPPs). The bilateral average width of the central sulci was significantly wider, while the left maximum depth and right average depth of the central sulcus were significantly smaller, in children with IGHD than in children with ISS. There were no significant differences in the right maximum depth, left average depth, or bilateral top length and bottom length of the central sulcus between groups. The DPPs of the middle part of both central sulci (corresponding to the hand motor activation area) and the inferior part of the right central sulcus (corresponding to the oral movement area) near the Sylvian fissure were significantly smaller in children with IGHD than in controls before false discovery rate (FDR) correction. However, all the above significant DPP sites disappeared after FDR correction. There were significant morphological changes in the three-dimensional structure of the central sulcus in children with IGHD, which were the outcome of other more essential cortical or subcortical changes, resulting in their relatively slower development in motor, cognitive, and linguistic functional performance.

As a widely used antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole (SMX) has attracted increasing research attention. However, acidic condition was normally required for efficient SMX removal, and the energy variation of adsorption system is not fully elucidated. In this study, based on a typical mineral adsorbent of volcanic rock (VR), anion exchange was introduced by Polypyrrole (PPy) modification to overcome the electrostatic repulsion in alkaline environment, and site energy distribution (SED) theory was applied to explore adsorption behavior and mechanism on SMX from an energy perspective. The batch adsorption experiments and a series of complementary characterization were combined, confirming that pore filling and hydrogen bonding are the dominant adsorption mechanisms for SMX removal by VR. While the adsorption distinction between PPy supported VR (PPy-VR) and VR could be explained by electrostatic attraction, π-π electron donor-acceptor interaction (π-π EDA) and ion exchange, which further explained the wide pH application potential of modified sorbent. Moreover, Dubinin-Ashtakhov (DA) model was used to calculate the energy distribution, and PPy-VR exhibited a stronger adsorption affinity (Em=8.55-11.57KJ/mol) and energy heterogeneity (δe*=2.15-2.57) for SMX. The high-energy adsorption centers increased significantly (92.63%) after modification, which mainly attributed to π-π EDA and ion exchange introduced by PPy loading. The surface modification method provides a feasible idea for the improvement of application environment of adsorbents, and the analysis of SED is expected to promote the understanding of the connection between site energy and adsorption mechanism.

In this paper, a multi-level grey cluster decision method is proposed for the synthetic evaluation of operation schemes of natural gas pipelines with inexact data and insufficient information. A four-level index system is built as the synthetic evaluation criterion, aiming in balancing transmission volume, economic profit, and safety of the pipeline. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is applied to calculate the weights of indexes. In order to assess the pipeline’s operation schemes with multi-level index, the principle of AHP method and the conventional grey cluster decision method are incorporated into a new multi-level grey evaluation method. The essential procedures of the method are illustrated in details, including computations of the grey class, whitenization weight function, decision coefficient matrix, weighted normalized decision coefficient matrix and synthetic evaluation score. Finally, this method is applied to seven operation schemes of Se–Ning–Lan gas pipeline in China. The results demonstrate that synthetic prior order of each scheme is not dependent on any one evaluation index, but on the comprehensive performance of the transmission volume, economic profit and pipeline safety. The application proves that the pipeline’s operation schemes can be reasonably evaluated even if insufficient data are used. The achievement of this paper provides a new analytical method as well as a powerful tool for the synthetic evaluation of operation schemes for natural gas pipelines.

The perceived speech quality is one of the main issues in VoIP communications. Packet loss concealment (PLC) is among the best techniques to recover the lost packets over IP networks in order to improve the speech quality. In this paper, a double-side waveform similarity overlap and add(WSOLA) technique has been proposed in which both previously received packets and future packets involve in recovering the lost packets by using WSOLA technique. To overcome energy decrease that occurs during the waveform reconstruction, a gated recurrent unit (GRU) based gain control approach has been introduced to maintain the energy of a reconstructing waveform with the prediction of the lost packets gain by learning the previously received packets gain. The proposed algorithm has shown the outperformance to the standard WSOLA and double-side WSOLA without gain control at both random and burst packet loss according to the obtained perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) results.

Currently, there has been significant attention towards 360-degree videos delivery and immersive technology like Virtual Reality (VR). Streaming 360○ video in tile-based method faces stalling and border effect of mixed bitrate tile due to small playback buffer and spatial partition of video with different bitrates tile respectively, which tend to deteriorates the end users Quality of Experience (QoE) significantly. In this paper, we study the impact of various stalling events occurs in 360○ VR video on users QoE in virtual reality. We also investigate the interaction between the stalling event and bitrate level. Besides, we analyze the impact of stalling on the users presence and immersion in a virtual environment. To aim this, we created a database of 360○ video with 4K resolutions and encoded the videos in three different bitrate levels (1Mbps, 5Mbps, and 15Mbps). We then simulate the stalling events at the start and in the middle of the video to conduct a subjective experiment. The subjective study finds that there is a strong dependency between stalling and bitrate. Stalling always impact the QoE of 360-degree videos but the strength of this negative impact depends on the video bitrate level, and the adverse effect of stalling event is more profound when the bitrate level approaches to the high and low end.

A high-efficiency brazing method was developed to join Cf/Al composites to TiAl alloys with the assistance of laser-induced exothermic reaction of a Ni-Al-Zr interlayer. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the Cf/Al-TiAl joint were investigated. The joint interfacial structure represented TiAl alloys/Al3NiTi2/NiAl+Ni-Al-Zr+Al-Cu-Ti+Ag(s,s)/(Ni,Ti,Zr)Al3/Cf/Al composites. A ∼ 400 nm thick Ti and Zr rich layer was formed around carbon fibers, largely enhancing the bonding quality on the Cf/Al side. The thickness of AgCu foils on each side and the brazing pressure influenced the interfacial reactions and the joint morphology. When the thickness of AgCu foils was 100 μm and the brazing pressure was 4 MPa, the joint was free of defects, and had a maximum shear strength of 71.6 MPa.

The application of an electric field promoted the migration of Na+ ions on the glass substrate. A sodium-depleted layer was formed on the glass surface, playing a key role in a successful bonding. Al accumulated at the glass/solder interface and enhanced the interfacial reactions. Al2O3 + Al2SiO5 + SnO, Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn reaction layers were respectively detected on both sides. The electric field and bonding temperature were varied to illustrate their impact on the interfacial bonding. The joint formation mechanism is discussed. When the bonding voltage was 1400 V and the bonding temperature was 400 °C, the glass/copper joint was free of cracks, and had a maximum shear strength of 11.5 MPa.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections, caused by a build-up of biofilm on the catheter surface, are one of the most common nosocomial infections. For this work, we prepared a compositional variant of Tecoflex®, a commercial thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), with peptide-like cationic pendant functional groups to study their effect on biofilm growth. Tecoflex® is used for fabrication of catheters and therefore a variant that shows decreased biofilm accumulation could have the potential to combat nosocomial infections. The cationic pendant groups were incorporated into the polyurethane composition similar to Tecoflex® by copolymerization of an amine functionalized N-substituted diol to give a cationic polyurethane (Tecoflex-NH3+). The antimicrobial properties of this cationic polyurethane were investigated using Escherichia coli, a Gram-negative bacterium and as confirmed by microscopy studies and bactericidal assays, the cationic polyurethane coating exhibited a contact-killing mechanism, and it significantly slowed down the build-up of biofilm compared to Tecoflex® coating. Moreover, the cationic polyurethane demonstrated minimal toxicity towards mammalian cells.

CTCF is an essential epigenetic regulator mediating chromatin insulation, long-range regulatory interactions, and the organization of large topological domains in the nucleus. Phenotypes of CTCF haploinsufficient mutations in humans, knockout in mice, and depletion in cells are often consistent with impaired genome stability, but a role of CTCF in genome maintenance has not been fully investigated. Here, we report that CTCF maintains genome stability, is recruited to sites of DNA damage, and promotes homologous recombination repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). CTCF depletion increased chromosomal instability, marked by chromosome breakage and end fusions, elevated genotoxic stress-induced genomic DNA fragmentation, and activated the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase. We show that CTCF could be recruited to drug-induced 53BP1 foci and known fragile sites, as well as to I-SceI endonuclease-induced DSBs. Laser irradiation analysis revealed that this recruitment depends on ATM, Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), and the zinc finger DNA-binding domain of CTCF. We demonstrate that CTCF knockdown impaired homologous recombination (HR) repair of DSBs. Consistent with this, CTCF knockdown reduced the formation of γ-radiation-induced Rad51 foci, as well as the recruitment of Rad51 to laser-irradiated sites of DNA lesions and to I-SceI-induced DSBs. We further show that CTCF is associated with DNA HR repair factors MDC1 and AGO2, and directly interacts with Rad51 via its C terminus. These analyses establish a direct, functional role of CTCF in DNA repair and provide a potential link between genome organization and genome stability.