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Abstract Background Numerous observational studies consistently highlight a strong association between serum uric acid (sUA) levels and atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the causal relationship and the direction of this association remain elusive, despite extensive research efforts. Objective This study aimed to investigate the bidirectional causal relationships between sUA, gout, and the risk of AF using the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. Methods We conducted a comprehensive analysis utilizing publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics, employing stringent criteria to meticulously select genetic variants associated with sUA, gout, and AF. Our primary analytical approach was the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method, complemented by some sensitivity analyses, including MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode, to estimate the causal effects. To identify potential violations, we conducted Egger regression and leave-one-SNP-out analyses. We assessed the strength of instrumental variables using F values to evaluate weak instruments. Additionally, we referenced the Phenoscanner database to exclude single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with confounding factors or outcomes. Results Our forward Mendelian randomization analysis suggests that there is no causal relationship between UA levels/gout from different populations and the risk of AF [IVW OR 1.03, 95% CI: 0.97–1.08; p = 0.335; IVW OR 0.99, 95% CI: 0.97–1.02; p = 0.583; and IVW OR 1.07, 95% CI: 0.84–1.37; p = 0.575], respectively. We did not detect significant heterogeneity or potential pleiotropy, and we also excluded the possibility of weak instrumental variables. Furthermore, we did not find any reverse causal effects of AF on sUA levels and gout risk. Conclusion Our findings challenge the widely held belief that lowering urate levels is uniformly effective in reducing the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Our study fails to substantiate the existence of a causal link between uric acid (UA) levels or gout and the development of AF, regardless of direction.

BackgroundEvidence shows that the total flavonoids of Rhizoma Drynariae (TFRD) can improve bone mineral density (BMD). However, there is no evidence to summarize the improvement of biochemical indicators of bone metabolism (BIBM).MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, Chongqing VIP Information Database (VIP) and SinoMed were searched from inception to 6 May 2024. The final included studies performed meta-analyses using RevMan 5.3.ResultsNine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were ultimately included. The TFRD group had higher bone gla protein (BGP) and type I procollagen-N-propeptide (PINP) compared to the Other therapies (WMD: 5.11; 95% CI: 3.37, 6.84; p < 0.00001; WMD: 13.89; 95% CI: 11.81, 15.97; p < 0.00001). The tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP) decreased significantly (WMD: −1.34; 95% CI: −1.62, −1.06; p < 0.00001). The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) increased significantly (WMD: 7.47; 95% CI: 6.29, 8.66; p < 0.00001). There were no significant differences in serum calcium (SC) or serum phosphorus (SP) levels between the TFRD and control groups (WMD: 0.08; 95% CI: −0.04, 0.20; p = 0.17; WMD: 0.02; 95% CI: −0.02, 0.05; p = 0.36).ConclusionTFRD can stimulate bone formation and prevent bone resorption in osteoporosis (OP) patients, but it has no effect on SC and SP.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/.

This study included 468 patients and aimed to use multimodal ultrasound radiomic technology to predict the malignancy of TI-RADS 4-5 thyroid nodules. First, radiomic features are extracted from conventional two-dimensional ultrasound (transverse ultrasound and longitudinal ultrasound), strain elastography (SE), and shear-wave-imaging (SWE) images. Next, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) is used to screen out features related to malignant tumors. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) is used to predict the malignancy of thyroid nodules. The Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) method was used to intuitively analyze the specific contributions of radiomic features to the model’s prediction. Our proposed model has AUCs of 0.971 and 0.856 in the training and testing sets, respectively. Our proposed model has a higher prediction accuracy compared to those of models with other modal combinations. In the external validation set, the AUC of the model is 0.779, which proves that the model has good generalization ability. Moreover, SHAP analysis was used to examine the overall impacts of various radiomic features on model predictions and local explanations for individual patient evaluations. Our proposed multimodal ultrasound radiomic model can effectively integrate different data collected using multiple ultrasound sensors and has good diagnostic performance for TI-RADS 4-5 thyroid nodules.

Organic carbon in grassland mainly exists in the soil, and root production and turnover play important roles in carbon input into the soil. However, the effects of climate change on plant root dynamics in desert steppe are unknown. We conducted an experiment in a desert steppe, which included ambient temperature (T0); temperature increased by 2 °C (T1); temperature increased by 4 °C (T2); natural precipitation (P0); precipitation increased by 25% (P1); precipitation increased by 50% (P2); and the interaction between warming and increased precipitation. Plant community aboveground characteristics; root production; and root turnover were measured. We found that the root length production of the T0P2; T1P1; T2P0; and T2P1 treatments were significantly higher than that of the T0P0 treatment, with an increment of 98.70%, 11.72%, 163.03%, and 85.14%, respectively. Three treatments with temperature increased by 2 °C (T1P0; T1P1; and T1P2) and significantly increased root turnover rate compared to the T0P0 treatment, with increases of 62.53%, 42.57%, and 35.55%, respectively. The interaction between warming and increased precipitation significantly affected the root production of the community (p < 0.01), but this interaction was non-additive. Future climate warming will benefit the accumulation of root-derived carbon in desert steppe communities.

The external bonding (EB) of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) is a usual flexural reinforcement method. When using the technique, premature debonding failure still remains a factor of concern. The effect of incorporating multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in epoxy resin on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) sheets was investigated through four-point bending beam tests. Experimental results indicated that the flexural behavior was significantly improved by the MWCNT-modified epoxy. The BFRP sheets bonded by the MWCNT-modified epoxy more effectively mitigated the debonding failure of BFRP sheets and constrained crack development as well as enhanced the ductility and flexural stiffness of strengthened beams. When the beam was reinforced with two-layer BFRP sheets, the yielding load, ultimate load, ultimate deflection, post-yielded flexural stiffness, energy absorption capacity and deflection ductility of beams strengthened using MWCNT-modified epoxy increased by 7.4%, 8.3%, 18.2%, 22.6%, 29.1% and 14.3%, respectively, in comparison to the beam strengthened using pure epoxy. It could be seen in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images that the MWCNTs could penetrate into concrete and their pull-out and crack bridging consumed more energy, which remarkably enhanced the flexural behavior of the strengthened beams. Finally, an analytical model was proposed for calculating characteristic loads and characteristic deflections of RC beams strengthened with FRP sheets, which indicated a reasonably good correlation with the experimental results.

Background: Here we analyzed mid-term data of thoracic endovascular aneurysm repair (TEVAR) surgery with Castor single-branched stent graft placement for the management of Stanford type B aortic dissection (STBAD) involving the left subclavian artery (LSA). Methods: Between April 2014 and February 2019, 32 patients with STBAD involving a Castor single-branched stent graft were included. We analyzed their outcomes, including technical success rate (TSR), surgical duration (SD), presence of ischemia, perioperative complications, LSA patency, and survival rate (SR), using computed tomography angiography and clinical evaluation during mid-term follow-up. Results: The mean patient age was 54.63 ​± ​12.37 years (range, 36–83 years). The TSR was 96.88% (n ​= ​31/32). The mean SD was 87.44 ​± ​10.89 with a mean contrast volume of 125.31 ​± ​19.30 ​mL. No neurological complications or deaths occurred during the study period. The patients had a mean hospital stay of 7.84 ​± ​3.20 days. At a mean follow-up of 68.78 ​± ​11.26 months, four non-aortic deaths (12.5%) were observed. The LSA patency rate was 100% (n ​= ​28/28). There was only one case of type I endoleak immediately after surgery (3.12%) (type I from LSA). However, none of the patients experienced type II endoleaks, and there were no cases of retrograde type A aortic dissection or stent graft-driven new distal entry. Finally, all patients exhibited good LSA patency. Conclusion: TEVAR using a Castor single-branched stent graft may be a highly feasible and efficient procedure for the management of STBAD involving the LSA.

Global climate change has greatly altered plant community composition and affected ecosystem carbon exchange of grasslands. However, the influences of long-term increasing temperature and precipitation on the composition of plant community and the ecosystem carbon exchange in degraded desert steppe remain unclear. After seven years of simulated climate warming (ambient temperature, W0, 2 ℃ and 4 ℃ increase in temperature, W1 and W2) and increasing precipitation (plant growing season precipitation, P0, 25% and 50% increase in precipitation, P1 and P2), we recorded the composition of plant community, the moisture and temperature of soil and calculated net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE). Results showed that 1) long-term warming and increasing precipitation improved the cover and height of C4 plants in the plant community, while decreasing the cover and density of C3 plants. 2) Climate warming and increasing precipitation significantly increased NEE. Compared with W0P0, the mean NEE in the plant growing season increased by 115% in W2P2. 3) Redundancy analysis showed that soil moisture content and the height and density of C4 plants significantly explained ecosystem carbon exchange (P 0.01). Therefore, our research revealed that warming and increasing precipitation positively affected ecosystem carbon exchange in degraded desert steppe through changes in plant community composition, and C4 plants will play a vital role in ecosystem carbon exchange in desert steppe under climate change.

Point cloud object detection is a pivotal technology in autonomous driving and robotics. Currently, the majority of cutting-edge point cloud detectors utilize Bird’s Eye View (BEV) for detection, as it allows them to take advantage of well-explored 2D detection techniques. Nevertheless, dimensionality reduction of features from 3D space to BEV space unavoidably leads to information loss, and there is a lack of research on this issue. Existing methods typically obtain BEV features by collapsing voxel or point features along the height dimension via a pooling operation or convolution, resulting in a significant decrease in geometric information. To tackle this problem, we present a new point cloud backbone network for grid-based object detection, MDRNet, which is based on adaptive dimensionality reduction and multi-level spatial residual strategies. In MDRNet, the Spatial-aware Dimensionality Reduction (SDR) is designed to dynamically concentrate on the essential components of the object during 3D-to-BEV transformation. Moreover, the Multi-level Spatial Residuals (MSR) strategy is proposed to effectively fuse multi-level spatial information in BEV feature maps. Our MDRNet can be employed on any existing grid-based object detector, resulting in a remarkable improvement in performance. Numerous experiments conducted on nuScenes, KITTI and DAIR-V have shown that MDRNet surpasses existing SOTA approaches. In particular, on the nuScenes dataset, we attained an impressive 7.2% mAP and 5.0% NDS enhancement compared with CenterPoint.

It is vital to employ efficient methods to calculate and determine the threshold of river ecological flow. These methods help to get the river ecological status control countermeasures in the plain river networks and construct a flawless long-term mechanism of ecological flow control (water level). According to the river's current environment and the actual circumstances surrounding its operation and administration, the upper, middle, and lower reaches make up the three sections of the Zong-Liutang River in the Plain of Northern Jiangsu. Furthermore, the ecological water level governing factor for each reach was analyzed and studied. The ecological water level threshold in the upper and lower reaches of the Zong-Liutang River adopted the specified values of Jiangsu Provincial Department of water resources. The threshold of the middle reach was thoroughly analyzed by using the determination method with multi-criteria, which consisted of the hydrological and hydraulic methods (including yearly minimum water level with a 90% assured rate method; wetted perimeter method; minimum monthly average water level method), aquatic living conditions method, and river landscape entertainment factor method. Taking into account the hydrological and hydrodynamic characteristics, observed hydrological data conditions of rivers, and the actual operation rules of rivers and water projects regulations in the Northern Jiangsu plain. Through comparing and contrasting actual operation and management plans, the target values of the ecological water level for the river's upper, middle, and lower reaches were 17.4 m, 8.96 m, and 7.5 m, respectively. Based on the river's ecological water level's control value, which was found through a thorough analysis, and the river's real operation and management conditions, specific measures to protect the river's ecological water level were suggested. These included developing a perfect and workable ecological flow control method, speeding up the development of an ecological water level goal assurance early warning system, and an ecological flow and inlet system.

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can cause difficulty with communication and social interactions as well as complicated family dynamics. Digital health interventions can reduce treatment costs and promote healthy lifestyle changes. These therapies can be adjunctive or replace traditional treatments. However, issues with cooperation and compliance prevent preschool patients with ASD from applying these tools. In this open-label, randomized controlled trial, we developed a nonwearable digital therapy called virtual reality–incorporated cognitive behavioral therapy (VR-CBT). ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the adjunctive function of VR-CBT by comparing the effects of VR-CBT plus learning style profile (LSP) intervention with those of LSP-only intervention in preschool children with ASD. MethodsThis trial was performed in China on 78 preschool children (age 3-6 years, IQ>70) diagnosed with ASD who were randomized to receive a 20-week VR-CBT plus LSP intervention (intervention group, 39/78, 50%) or LSP intervention only (control group, 39/78, 50%). The primary outcome was the change of scores from baseline to week 20, assessed by using the parent-rated Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC). Secondary outcomes included the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-RS-IV), and behavioral performance data (accuracy and reaction time) in go/no-go tasks. All primary and secondary outcomes were analyzed in the intention-to-treat population. ResultsAfter the intervention, there was an intervention effect on total ABC (β=–5.528; P

BackgroundDesert steppe, as an ecotone between desert and grassland, has few species and is sensitive to climate change. Climate change alters species diversity and the stability of functional groups, which may positively or negatively affect community stability. However, the response of plant community stability in the desert steppe to experimental warming and increasing precipitation remains largely unexplored.MethodsIn a factorial experiment of warming and increasing precipitation for five to seven years (ambient precipitation (P0), ambient precipitation increased by 25% and 50% (P1 and P2), ambient temperature (W0), ambient temperature increased by 2°C and 4°C (W1 and W2)), we estimated the importance value (IV) of four functional groups (perennial grasses, semi-shrubs, perennial forbs and annual herbs), species diversity and community stability.ResultsCompared to W0P0, the IV of perennial grasses was reduced by 37.66% in W2P2, whereas the IV of perennial forbs increased by 48.96%. Although increasing precipitation and experimental warming significantly altered species composition, the effect on species diversity was insignificant (P > 0.05). In addition, increasing precipitation and experimental warming had a significant negative impact on community stability. The stability of perennial grasses significantly explained community stability.ConclusionOur results suggest that the small number of species in desert steppe limits the contribution of species diversity to regulating community stability. By contrast, maintaining high stability of perennial grasses can improve community stability in the desert steppe.

Soil microbes play vital roles in mediating the functions and services of terrestrial ecosystems in the context of ongoing climate change and human disturbance. There are complex interactions between soil microbial taxa. However, research on the drivers of soil microbial network complexity and stability based on microbial taxa interactions is still in its infancy. We examined network structure and the complexity and stability of soil microbial communities across a large-scale environmental gradient in semi-arid grasslands of northern China by combining network theory and high-throughput sequencing. We found that aridity was the strongest driver of soil microbial network structure. Increasing aridity directly reduced the complexity and stability of soil microbial networks by decreasing the ratio of microbial taxa that participated in network construction and the ratio of potential positive and negative interactions of networks. Soil heterogeneity enhanced microbial network complexity and stability by potentially promoting diverse host plants and mediating uneven distribution of soil resources. These findings suggest that aridity and decreasing soil heterogeneity may have detrimental influences on soil microbial functions and the associated plant performance. This study provides new insights into the controls of climatic and/or edaphic variables in regulating soil microbial networks and highlights the importance of environmental heterogeneity in community assembly mechanisms of soil microbes.

Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the pregnancy complications, leading to major maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality; however, the underlying mechanisms of PE still remain unclear. We aimed to explore the role of apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1) in the pathophysiology of PE. The expression of APOA1 was elevated in both plasma and placental tissues, as detected by Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and a qRT-PCR assay. Importantly, we detected the concentration of APOA1 using the ELISA assay in normal control women (n = 30) and women with preeclampsia (n = 29) from a prospective cohort study. The concentration of APOA1 was not significantly altered in plasma during early and mid-term gestation of the PE patients compared to the NP patients; however, it was elevated during late gestation. Additionally, the concentration of APOA1 was positively associated with systolic blood pressure during late gestation. The proliferation and invasion of trophoblast were all increased in HTR8/SVneo cells transfected with APOA1 siRNA and decreased in HTR8/SVneo cells treated with the recombinant human APOA1 protein (rhAPOA1). Additionally, we used public datasets to investigate the downstream genes of APOA1 and qRT-PCR for validation. Furthermore, we explored the transcriptional activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) in APOA1 by using a luciferase assay, which showed that the APOA1 promoter was activated by PPARγ. Additionally, the inhibitory effect of rhAPOA1 on the ability of trophoblast invasion and proliferation can be rescued by the PPARγ inhibitor. Our findings suggest the crucial role of APOA1 in PE, which might provide a new strategy for the prevention and treatment of PE.

The B oilfield is a large integrated oilfield in the Middle East. Asphaltene precipitates from crude oil and deposits on solid surfaces, affording considerable blockages of the formation, wellbore, and production equipment. To fully understand the asphaltene precipitation trend and deposition mechanism deeply, and solve the abovementioned problems in the B oilfield, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and isothermal depressurization experiments (IDEs) have been conducted to predict the asphaltene precipitation trend of an oil sample. According to the experiments, the saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene ratios were 5.6%, 37.4%, 33.1%, and 15.9%, respectively. The calculated colloidal instability index reached 0.88, indicating a risk of asphaltene precipitation. Based on IDEs, asphaltene precipitation was observed in the view cell window at 3196, 3545, and 3750 psi at different temperatures. Furthermore, the asphaltene deposition mechanism was studied on a string surface at the microscale based on molecular simulations and control measures were proposed. According to the simulations, the deposition process is found to be spontaneous. Asphaltene molecules were self-assembled and formed nanoaggregates in the form of a π–π conjugation. They were deposited parallelly on the string with a “face-to-face” pattern. When the simulation temperature reached 325 K, asphaltene deposition reached the maximum under the simulation conditions. Compared with omitting dispersants, the average distance between the asphaltene molecules and string mass center improved and the energy of the system had considerably lowered after adding dispersants, implying that dispersants can effectively weaken the asphaltene deposition process. This paper provides some suggestions for preventing and removing blockages of electric pumps caused by asphaltene deposition.

Plant photosynthesis has a non-negligible influence on forage quality and ecosystem carbon sequestration. However, the influence of long-term warming, increasing precipitation, and their interactions on the photosynthesis of dominant species in desert steppe remains unclear, and the main factors regulating plant photosynthesis in desert steppes have remained unrevealed. Therefore, we measured the photosynthetic parameters and specific leaf area of the dominant species and calculated the water and nitrogen content of leaves and soil in a desert steppe after long-term warming and increasing precipitation (air temperature, W0, air temperature increases of 2 °C and 4 °C, W1 and W2; natural precipitation, P0, natural precipitation increases of 25% and 50%, P1 and P2). Results showed that warming and increasing precipitation significantly enhanced photosynthesis in C3 and C4 species (p < 0.05). Compared to W0P0, the net photosynthetic rate of C3 and C4 species in W2P2 increased by 159.46% and 178.88%, respectively. Redundancy analysis showed that soil water content significantly explained the photosynthesis of C3 and C4 plants (the degree of explanation was 48% and 67.7%), followed by soil-available nitrogen content (the degree of explanation was 19.6% and 5.3%). Therefore, our study found that climate change enhanced photosynthesis in C3 and C4 plants, and soil water content plays a critical role in regulating photosynthesis in desert steppes.

Location-based services make life easier, but they also involve privacy leakage issues. Many location privacy protection algorithms have been proposed to protect the privacy of users. However, these algorithms are usually based on theoretical data, and there are no actual user data to support studies of location privacy protection. To address this problem, we introduce a credit value, convert credit data from users into credit values using the multiple-attribute decision making (MADM) algorithm, store the credit values and transaction information from the anonymous zone construction process in conjunction with a blockchain, and propose a credit value reward and punishment mechanism that treats anonymous zone construction as a two-party game between the requestor and participant. In this game, a credit value reward and punishment mechanism is used to constrain undesirable behaviors. Through simulation experiments, it is verified that the method can be applied in practical scenarios, effectively constrain undesirable user behaviors, quickly construct anonymous zones, and reduce the probability of user location leakage issues.

The distributed photovoltaic power generation is an important way to make use of solar energy in cities. China issues a series of policies to support the development of distributed photovoltaics in law, electricity price, grid connection standard, project management, financial support and so on. However, there are still some defects in policies and market mechanism. China creates a competitive market with a significant number of projects of distributed photovoltaic power through the reform of the electricity market, yet substantial drawbacks of the corresponding investment subsidies prevent distributed photovoltaic power from rapidly developing. This paper summarizes the status quo of China’s distributed photovoltaic power development, given its long-term plan, presents excellences and shortcomings of the existing policy system, and looks into the supporting policies and implementation paths for China’s distributed photovoltaic power in different stages. Innovative business models and financial support models are conducive to the development of distributed photovoltaic power. Financial innovation methods such as crowd funding and asset securitization should be encouraged to develop a sound risk assessment mechanism for projects, involve insurance institutions, and establish a risk sharing mechanism. In the context of a series of supporting policies, the distributed photovoltaic power in China will move towards market-oriented standardization for a healthier and more stable development.

In this study, to develop a benefit-allocation model, in-depth analysis of a distributed photovoltaic-power-generation carport and energy-storage charging-pile project was performed; the model was developed using Shapley integrated-empowerment benefit-distribution method. First, through literature survey and expert interview to identify the risk factors at various stages of the project, a dynamic risk-factor indicator system is developed. Second, to obtain a more meaningful risk-calculation result, the subjective and objective weights are combined, the weights of the risk factors at each stage are determined by the expert scoring method and entropy weight method, and the interest distribution model based on multi-dimensional risk factors is established. Finally, an example is used to verify the rationality of the method for the benefit distribution of the charging-pile project. The results of the example indicate that the limitations of the Shapley method can be reasonably avoided, and the applicability of the model for the benefit distribution of the charging-pile project is verified.

Climate change affects the structure and composition of a plant community and the stability and service functions of grassland ecosystems. However, the influence of warming, increased precipitation and their interaction on plant functional traits in the desert steppe are unclear. Therefore, after simulating warming (ambient temperature, warming 2℃ and warming 4℃) and increasing precipitation (natural precipitation, precipitation increased by 25% and 50%) for 6 years, we measured the morphological characteristics, photosynthesis parameters, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents of leaves of Stipa breviflora Griseb. (S. breviflora), a constructive species in the desert steppe. Results showed that both warming and increased precipitation reduced the importance value (IV) of S. breviflora, while the IV of annual herbs significantly increased (P

Among perovskites, the research on cesium lead iodides (CsPbI3) has attracted a large research community, owing to their all-inorganic nature and promising solar cell performance. Typically, the CsPbI3 solar cell devices are prepared at various heterojunctions, and working at fluctuating temperatures raises questions on the material stability-related performance of such devices. The fundamental studies reveal that their poor stability is due to a lower side deviation from Goldschmidt’s tolerance factor, causing weak chemical interactions within the crystal lattice. In the case of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites, where their stability is related to the inherent chemical nature of the organic cations, which cannot be manipulated to improve the stability drastically whereas the stability of CsPbI3 is related to surface and lattice engineering. Thus, the challenges posed by CsPbI3 could be overcome by engineering the surface and inside the CsPbI3 crystal lattice. A few solutions have been proposed, including controlled crystal sizes, surface modifications, and lattice engineering. Various research groups have been working on these aspects and had accumulated a rich understanding of these materials. In this review, at first, we survey the fundamental aspects of CsPbI3 polymorphs structure, highlighting the superiority of CsPbI3 over other halide systems, stability, the factors (temperature, polarity, and size influence) leading to their phase transformations, and electronic band structure along with the important property of the defect tolerance nature. Fortunately, the factors stabilizing the most effective phases are achieved through a size reduction and the efficient surface passivation on the delicate CsPbI3 nanocrystal surfaces. In the following section, we have provided the up-to-date surface passivating methods to suppress the non-radiative process for near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield, while maintaining their optically active phases, especially through molecular links (ligands, polymers, zwitterions, polymers) and inorganic halides. We have also provided recent advances to the efficient synthetic protocols for optically active CsPbI3 NC phases to use readily for solar cell applications. The nanocrystal purification techniques are challenging and had a significant effect on the device performances. In part, we summarized the CsPbI3-related solar cell device performances with respect to the device fabrication methods. At the end, we provide a brief outlook on the view of surface and lattice engineering in CsPbI3 NCs for advancing the enhanced stability which is crucial for superior optical and light applications.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of grazing on soil gross nitrification (GN) and denitrification (DN) rates and soil environmental factors on GN and DN in the desert grassland of northern China. Soil samples were collected from July to November in 2017 and March to June in 2018, with 5-5 soil samples taken from three enclosures (CK) vs. three heavy-grazing (G) randomized treatment blocks. We determined: (1) the soil moisture (SM), pH, bulk density (BD), total nitrogen (TN), soil organic carbon (SOC), and inorganic nitrogen (IN, NH4+-N, and NO3−-N) content, and (2) GN and DN. The relationship between the changes in GN, DN, and the soil environment was analyzed using stepwise multiple-regression analysis. Gross nitrification, DN, pH, BD, C/N, SM, IN, and NO3−-N varied significantly by month. Grazing induced significant increases in SM and NO3− only. GN in the CK treatment was related to NH4+-N and NO3−-N, while GN in the G treatment was related to NH4+-N and SM. DN in the CK treatment was related to NH4+-N, while DN in the G treatment was related to C/N. Additionally, GN and DN had obvious seasonal variations and reached a maximum in July. This highlights the different underlying mechanisms that affect soil GN and DN and the dynamics, particularly in the desert grassland system.

The PROSPECT leaf optical radiative transfer models, including PROSPECT-MP, have addressed the contributions of multiple photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoids) to leaf optical properties, but photo-protective pigment (anthocyanins), another important indicator of vegetation physiological and ecological functions, has not been simultaneously combined within a leaf optical model. Here, we present a new calibration and validation of PROSPECT-MP+ that separates the contributions of multiple photosynthetic and photo-protective pigments to leaf spectrum in the 400–800 nm range using a new empirical dataset that contains multiple photosynthetic and photo-protective pigments (LOPEX_ZJU dataset). We first provide multiple distinct in vivo individual photosynthetic and photo-protective pigment absorption coefficients and leaf average refractive index of the leaf interior using the LOPEX_ZJU dataset. Then, we evaluate the capabilities of PROSPECT-MP+ for forward modelling of leaf directional hemispherical reflectance and transmittance spectra and for retrieval of pigment concentrations by model inversion. The main result of this study is that the absorption coefficients of chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, and anthocyanins display the physical principles of absorption spectra. Moreover, the validation result of this study demonstrates the potential of PROSPECT-MP+ for improving capabilities in remote sensing of leaf photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoids) and photo-protective pigment (anthocyanins).

A method for analyzing the influence of velocity changes on metal signals of different materials in oil detection technology is proposed. The flow rate of metal contaminants in the oil will have a certain impact on the sensitivity of the output particle signal in terms of electromagnetic fields and circuits. The detection velocity is not only related to the sensitivity of the output particle signal, but also to the adaptability of high-speed and high-throughput in oil online monitoring. In this paper, based on a high-sensitivity inductive bridge, the eddy current effect of velocity in a time-harmonic magnetic field is theoretically analyzed and experimentally verified, the phenomenon of particle signal variation with velocity for different materials is analyzed and discussed, and finally the effect of velocity on the output signal of the processing circuit is also elaborated and experimentally verified. Experiments show that under the influence of the time-harmonic magnetic field, the increase of the velocity enhances the detection sensitivity of non-ferromagnetic metal particles and weakens the detection sensitivity of non-ferromagnetic particles. Under the influence of the processing circuit, different velocities will produce different signal gains, which will affect the stability of the signal at different velocities.

Pre-eclampsia is a severe hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP), mainly characterized by new-onset hypertension with proteinuria after 20-week gestation. Sirtuin1 (SIRT1), a class III histone deacetylase, is associated with the regulation of various pathophysiological processes, including inflammation, immune response, metabolism, and autophagy. However, the effect of SIRT1 in the pathogenesis of pre-eclampsia remains to be elucidated. In this study, we found that the expression of SIRT1 was relatively lower in the placentas and serum samples of pre-eclampsia patients. Typical pre-eclampsia-like symptoms, such as hypertension, proteinuria, fetal growth restriction, kidney injury, and a narrow placental labyrinth layer, were observed in SIRT1 knockdown (SIRT1+/−) mice. Of note, these performances could be improved after the intraperitoneal injection of SIRT1 agonist SRT2104. More importantly, we found that the efficacy of progesterone on attenuating symptoms of PE was profoundly better than that of metformin in SIRT1+/− mice. In addition, our results suggested that progesterone can promote the invasion and inhibit the apoptosis of trophoblasts. These data suggest that SIRT1 plays an important role in pre-eclampsia and that progesterone alleviates pre-eclampsia-like symptoms mediated by SIRT1 deficiency.

Metallic contaminants (solid) are generated by friction pair, causing wear of equipment by enters the lubricating system. This poses a great potential threat to the normal operation of such machines. The timely analysis and detection of debris can lead to the avoidance of mechanical failures. Abnormal wear in machinery may produce debris exceeding 10 μm. The traditional inductance detection method has low sensitivity and cannot meet the actual detection requirements. To boost the sensitivity of the inductance sensor, the mutual inductance of coils and the strong magnetic conductivity of permalloy was utilized to design a high sensitivity inductance sensor for the detection of debris in lubricating oil. This design was able to detect 10–15 μm iron particles and 65–70 μm copper particles in the oil. The experimental results illustrate that low-frequency excitation is the best for detecting ferromagnetic particles, while high-frequency excitation has the best effect for detecting non-ferromagnetic particles. This paper demonstrates the significant advantages of coil mutual inductance, and strong magnetic conductivity of permalloy in improving the detection sensitivity of oil debris sensors. This will provide technical support for wear detection in mechanical equipment and fault diagnosis.

Abstract Background The effects of grazing on soil methane (CH4) uptake in steppe ecosystems are important for understanding carbon sequestration and cycling because the role of grassland soil for CH4 uptake can have major impacts at the global level. Here, a meta-analysis of 27 individual studies was carried out to assess the response patterns of soil CH4 uptake to grazing in steppe ecosystems of China. The weighted log response ratio was used to assess the effect size. Results We found that heavy grazing significantly depressed soil CH4 uptake by 36.47%, but light and moderate grazing had no significant effects in grassland ecosystem. The response of grassland soil CH4 uptake to grazing also was found to depend upon grazing intensity, grazing duration and climatic types. The increase in soil temperature and reduced aboveground biomass and soil moisture induced by heavy grazing may be the major regulators of the soil CH4 uptake. Conclusions These findings imply that grazing effects on soil CH4 uptake are highly context-specific and that grazing in different grasslands might be managed differently to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The impacts of large herbivores on plant communities differ depending on the plants and the herbivores. Few studies have explored how herbivores influence root biomass. Root growth of vegetation was studied in the field with four treatments: sheep grazing alone (SG), cattle grazing alone (CG), mixed grazing with cattle and sheep (MG) and no grazing (CK). Live and total root biomasses were measured using the root ingrowth core and the drilling core, respectively. After 2 years of grazing, total root biomass showed a decreasing trend while live root biomass increased with time during the growing seasons. Belowground net primary production (BNPP) among the treatments varied from 166 ± 32 to 501 ± 88 g m−2 and root turnover rates (RTR) varied from 0.25 ± 0.05 to 0.70 ± 0.11 year−1. SG had the greatest BNPP and RTR, while the CG had the smallest BNPP and RTR. BNPP and RTR of the MG treatment were between those of the CG and SG treatments. BNPP and RTR of the CK were similar to MG treatment. Compared with other treatments, CG had a greater impact on dominant tall grasses species in communities. SG could decrease community diversity. MG eliminated the disadvantages of single-species grazing and was beneficial to community diversity and stability.

An inductive oil pollutant detection sensor based on a high-gradient magnetic field structure is designed in this paper, which is mainly used for online detection and fault analysis of pollutants in hydraulic and lubricating oil systems. The innovation of the sensor is based on the inductance detection method. Permalloy is embedded in the sensing region of the sensor, so that the detection area generates a high gradient magnetic field to enhance the detection accuracy of the sensor. Compared with traditional inductive sensors, the sensor has a significant improvement in detection accuracy, and the addition of permalloy greatly improves the stability of the sensor’s detection unit structure. The article theoretically analyzes the working principle of the sensor, optimizes the design parameters and structure of the sensor through simulation, determines the best permalloy parameters, and establishes an experimental system for verification. Experimental results show that when a piece of permalloy is added to the sensing unit, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of iron particles is increased by more than 20%, and the signal-to-noise ratio of copper particles is increased by more than 70%. When two pieces of permalloy are added, the signal-to-noise ratio for iron particles is increased by more than 70%, and the SNR for copper particles is increased several times. This method raises the lower limit of detection for ferromagnetic metal particles to 20 μm, and the lower limit for detection of non-ferromagnetic metal particles to 80 μm, which is the higher detection accuracy of the planar coil sensors. This paper provides a new and faster online method for pollutant detection in oil, which is of great significance for diagnosing and monitoring the health of oil in mechanical systems.

Grassland soils represent a significant potential pool for the sequestering of atmospheric CO _2 ; however, the magnitude of this pool depends to a certain extent on the grazing management of the grassland. Whether different herbivore species and combinations (herbivore assemblage) influence the soil organic carbon (SOC) in various grasslands remains unclear. Here we have investigated the impacts of herbivore assemblages (NG, no grazing; SG, sheep grazing; CG, cattle grazing; and MG, mixed grazing of sheep and cattle) under moderate grazing intensity on a shallow layer of SOC storage across the three different grassland types (meadow steppe, typical steppe, and desert steppe) in the temperate steppes of Eastern Eurasia. We found that herbivore-species-specific effects on SOC storage depended on the grassland type. In mesic grasslands (i.e. meadow steppe and typical steppe), CG enhanced SOC storage, but there were no effects from SG. In contrast, SG in the xeric grassland (i.e. desert steppe) dramatically increased SOC storage while no effects were observed for CG. Importantly, MG of sheep and cattle consistently increased SOC storage across all grassland types. We suggest that adopting herbivore-type-specific stewardship in different grasslands could assist with the enhancement of ecosystem C functionality and services; large herbivores and small herbivores are suitable for grazing in mesic grasslands and xeric grasslands, respectively. Moreover, MG with diverse herbivores may be the optimal moderate grazing mode for soil C sequestration in most grasslands of northern China.

The in vivo features of the absorption of leaf photosynthetic and photo-protective pigments are closely linked to the leaf spectrum in the 400–800 nm regions. However, this information is difficult to obtain because the overlapping leaf pigments can mask the contribution of individual pigments to the leaf spectrum. Here, to limit the masking phenomenon between these pigments, the separation technology for leaf spectral overlapping was employed in the PROSPECT model with the ZJU dataset. The main results of this study include the following aspects: (1) the absorption coefficients of separated chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids and anthocyanins in the leaf in vivo display the physical principles of forming an absorption spectrum similar to those in an organic solution; (2) the differences in the position of each absorption peak of pigments between the leaf in vivo and in an organic solution can be described by a spectral displacement parameter; and (3) the overlapping characteristics between the separated pigments in the leaf in vivo are clearly drawn by a range of absorption feature (RAF) parameter. Moreover, the absorption coefficients of the separated pigments were successfully applied in leaf spectral modeling and pigment retrieval. The results show that the separated multiple pigment absorption coefficients from the leaf spectrum in vivo are effective and provide a framework for future refinements in describing leaf optical properties.

In order to improve the throughput and sensitivity of the inductive metal micro-abrasive particle detection sensor, this paper uses microfluidic detection technology to design a high-throughput abrasive particle detection sensor based on PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane). Theoretical modeling analyzes the magnetization of metal abrasive particles in the coil’s time-harmonic magnetic field, and uses COMSOL simulation to calculate the best performance parameters of the sensor. Through the experiment of the control variable method, the corresponding signal value is obtained and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is calculated. The SNR value and error value are calculated, and the SNR is corrected. The detection limit of the sensor is determined to be 10 μm iron particles and 60 μm copper particles. The optimal design parameters of the 3-D solenoid coil and the frequency characteristics of the sensor are obtained. Finally, through high-throughput experiments and analysis, it was found that there was a reasonable error between the actual throughput and the theoretical throughput. The design ideas suggested in this article can not only improve the sample throughput, but also ensure the detection accuracy. This provides a new idea for the development of an inductive on-line detection method of abrasive particle technology.

Reliable manipulation of magnetic droplets is of immense importance for their applications in spin torque oscillators. Using micromagnetic simulations, we find that the antiphase precession state, which originates in the dynamic dipolar interaction effect, is a favorable stable state for two magnetic droplets nucleated at two identical nano-contacts. A magnetic field pulse can be used to destroy their stability and merge them into a big droplet. The merging process strongly depends on the pulse width as well as the pulse strength.

Chemical foaming concrete is a kind of new building material. In this paper, the quasi-static conditions of foam concrete and dynamic mechanical properties under impact dynamic conditions are studied. This paper also analyzes in detail the damage mechanism, deformation characteristics and energy absorption characteristics of the foam concrete under compression and stretch conditions. The results indicate that, the lower the density is, the less the cells on the surface and the inside of the concrete material is, and the larger the diameter of the pores is. When the density increases, the number of cells increases as well, and the diameter of the pores decrease gradually. The whole process of uniaxial compression of foam concrete is divided into three stages, that is, the material's elasticity and plasticity stage, platform stage and material densification stage. In the initial stage of stretch and compression, the stress-strain curve of foam concrete increases linearly basically. In platform stage, the foam concrete is mainly absorbing the energy, and there are both strain- softening and strain-hardening behaviors in this stage at the same time. The greater the density of the concrete, the earlier the densification stage occurs. The research on the impact dynamic properties of foam concrete shows that the dynamic strain rate is obviously positively correlated with the impact velocity, i.e., the greater the impact velocity, the greater the strain rate. The dynamic stress-strain curve of foam concrete is almost the same as that of static curve. It is also divided into three stages: linear elastic stage, material yield stage and material failure stage.

Manipulating dissipative magnetic droplet is of great interest for both the fundamental and technological reasons due to its potential applications in the high frequency spin-torque nano-oscillators. In this paper, a magnetic droplet pair localized in two identical or non-identical nano-contacts in a magnetic thin film with perpendicular anisotropy can phase-lock into a single resonance state by using an oscillating microwave magnetic field. This resonance state is a little away from the intrinsic precession frequency of the magnetic droplets. We found that the phase-locking frequency range increases with the increase of the microwave field strength. Furthermore, multiple droplets with a random initial phase can also be synchronized by a microwave field.

The optimization design of a robot was usually conducted by the sequential design, which, however, neglected the interactive impacts of different disciplines. To address this shortage, this article presents a design multidisciplinary optimization procedure for a 2-degree-of-freedom robot. In the proposed design optimization, four disciplines are involved, which are composed of kinematics, dynamics, structure, and control. The coupling relationship among the four disciplines is analyzed based on variable sensitivity analysis. A collaborative optimization is proposed to obtain the optimum values of the system-level optimization. With the method of a genetic algorithm, the individual discipline optimization is executed to obtain the subsystem optimum values. The optimized 2-degree-of-freedom robot is able to synthesize an optimum function value and simultaneously shows a good satisfaction to the requirement of all constraints. The structural analysis results demonstrate that the multidisciplinary design optimization is successfully applied to the multi-degree-of-freedom robot design and provides a beneficial reference for the design of more complicated mechanical system.

The effects of sheep urine and dung patches on methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes were investigated during the summer-autumn in 2010, to evaluate their contribution to climate change in a desert grassland in Inner Mongolia, China. Results indicate that the cumulative CH4 emissions for dung patches, urine patches and control plots were − −0.076, −0.084, and −0.114 g/m2 and these were net CH4 sinks during the measured period. The level of CH4 intake from urine and dung plots decreased 25.7%, and 33.3%, respectively, compared with a control plot. CO2 fluxes differed (p