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The aim of the paper was to optimize the settings of the material properties of a computer model describing heat transfer in a wooden beam exposed to thermal loading from a porcelain radiation panel. The methodology was based on performing medium-scale fire tests as a basis for a creation of finite element model with 6 different setups of material characteristics based on the outputs of tests. When adjusting the settings, the T-history method was used to determine a beginning and end of a phase change of the water content in the wood, a thermal conductivity was adjusted based on a density and a moisture content, and enthalpy was used instead of a specific heat. The results of the simulations were compared with the real medium-scale fire tests, which showed the importance of adjusting the input data. Based on the T-history method, the setting with a thermal conductivity value of 0.35 W·m-1·K-1 at a temperature of 114.8 °C was shown to be the best, with a coefficient of determination 98.7%.The results of the simulations showed that there could be a correlation between the moisture content of the wood and the maximum value of the thermal conductivity of the wood in the phase change of water.

Biosafety hazards can trigger a host immune response after infection, invasion, or contact with the host. Whether infection with a microorganism results in disease or biosafety concerns depends to a large extent on the immune status of the population. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the immunological characteristics of the host and the mechanisms of biological threats and agents to protect the host more effectively. Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, have raised concerns regarding both biosafety and immunology worldwide. Interdisciplinary studies involved in biosafety and immunology are relevant in many fields, including the development of vaccines and other immune interventions such as monoclonal antibodies and T-cells, herd immunity (or population-level barrier immunity), immunopathology, and multispecies immunity, i.e., animals and even plants. Meanwhile, advances in immunological science and technology are occurring rapidly, resulting in important research achievements that may contribute to the recognition of emerging biosafety hazards, as well as early warning, prevention, and defense systems. This review provides an overview of the interdisciplinary field of biosafety and immunology. Close collaboration and innovative application of immunology in the field of biosafety is becoming essential for human health.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB), one of the deadliest infectious diseases globally, is increasingly exacerbated in China by the emergence of resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains. Drug-resistant TB, including mono-drug-resistant TB, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), presents significant public health challenges. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review from January 2010 to February 2024 using databases such as PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Our focus was on empirical data related to drug resistance patterns in newly diagnosed TB cases. Non-empirical studies were excluded through meticulous filtering. For the meta-analysis, we used Review Manager (RevMan) 5.2 and assessed evidence quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Results: Our search strategy identified 40 studies that met the inclusion criteria, encompassing a total sample size of 87,667 participants. Among new TB cases, the estimated prevalence of MDR-TB in China was 6.9% (95% CI: 5.6–8.1%). Prevalence rates for mono-drug resistance to first-line anti-TB medications were as follows: isoniazid at 18.2% (95% CI: 16.4–20.6%), rifampicin at 10.5% (95% CI: 8.6–12.8%), and ethambutol at 5.7% (95% CI: 4.1–7.3%). The prevalence of streptomycin resistance, a former first-line anti-TB drug, was 17.1% (95% CI: 14.6–19.1%). The prevalence of other types of mono-drug resistance was 15.2% (95% CI: 13.9–17.3%), and for XDR-TB, it was 0.9% (95% CI: 0.6–1.4%). Conclusions: The high prevalence of drug-resistant TB in China poses a significant public health challenge. There is an urgent need for targeted interventions and continued surveillance to combat the spread of drug-resistant TB.

This study compared an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) with a multi-staged UASB (MS-UASB) to investigate the effects of loading shocks on the anaerobic digestion in both reactors. Both reactors were subjected to five hydraulic/organic loading shocks, each lasting 3 days. During the hydraulic shock with the highest organic loading rate (OLR) (OLR of 24 g COD L−1 d−1), MS-UASB and ABR exhibited minimum effluent COD removal efficiency of 90.9 and 73.0%, with average methane concentrations decreasing to 62.4 ± 0.9% and 59.8 ± 3.0%. Under the highest organic shock (OLR of 12 g COD L−1 d−1), the minimum effluent COD removal efficiency of MS-UASB and ABR was 81.5 and 73.4%, with average methane concentrations decreasing to 60.4 ± 1.1% and 58.6 ± 0.8%. After the hydraulic and organic shock phase, the biomass concentration in the MS-UASB reached 159 and 130% of the ABR, respectively. The reason for the improved operational stability of the MS-UASB is due to the presence of the solid/liquid/gas separator, which promotes the formation of granular sludge and reduces biomass washout. In addition, MS-UASB exhibited a higher abundance of the syntrophic bacterium Candidatus cloacamonas, which plays a crucial role in maintaining the stability of anaerobic digestion systems. HIGHLIGHTS Application of MS-UASB to treat leachate from refuse transfer stations and comparison with ABR treatment performance.; The analysis of the sludge characteristics of ABR and MS-UASB revealed the reasons behind the stronger shock resistance of MS-UASB.; Changes in microbial populations before and after the shocks were explored.;

Abstract Background The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of zoledronic acid for reducing the incidence of cage subsidence and enhancing interbody fusion rates following oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) surgery, particularly as the first reported evidence of the role of zoledronic acid combined with OLIF. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 108 elderly patients treated for degenerative lumbar diseases using OLIF combined with bilateral pedicle screw fixation from January 2018 to December 2021. Patients were divided into the zoledronic acid (ZOL) group (43 patients, 67 surgical segments) and the control group (65 patients, 86 surgical segments). A comparative analysis of the radiographic and clinical outcomes between the groups was performed, employing univariate and multivariate regression analyses to explore the relationships between cage subsidence and the independent variables. Results Radiographic outcomes, including anterior height, posterior height, disc height, coronal disc angle, foraminal height, and lumbar lordosis, were not significantly different between the two groups. Similarly, no statistically significant differences were noted in the back visual analog scale (VAS) scores and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores between the groups. However, at the 1-year follow-up, the leg VAS score was lower in the ZOL group than in the control group (P = 0.028). The ZOL group demonstrated a notably lower cage subsidence rate (20.9%) than did the control group (43.0%) (P

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of developmental and emotional/behavioural concerns in maltreated children and to examine the impact of adverse family/caregiver risk factors on these outcomes. Method: We analysed family demographic and baseline data of 132 maltreated children and their caregivers from a family support programme in Singapore. We examined the associations of 3 main risk factors (i.e. caregiver mental health, educational attainment and family socio-economic status [SES]) with developmental/behavioural outcomes using multivariable logistic regression, controlling for caregiver relationship to the child. Caregiver mental health was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) tools. Developmental/behavioural outcomes were assessed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3), ASQ-Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE), and the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). Results: The children ranged in age, from 2 months to 3 years 11 months (median age 1.7 years, interquartile range [IQR] 0.9–2.6). Among caregivers, 86 (65.2%) were biological mothers, 11 (8.3%) were biological fathers, and 35 (26.5%) were foster parents or extended family members. Low family SES was associated with communication concerns on the ASQ-3 (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.04, 95% CI 1.08-8.57, P=0.04). Caregiver mental health concerns were associated with increased behavioural concerns on the CBCL (AOR 6.54, 95% CI 1.83–23.33, P=0.004) and higher scores on the ASQ-SE (AOR 7.78, 95% CI 2.38–25.38, P=0.001). Conclusion: Maltreated children with caregivers experiencing mental health issues are more likely to have heightened emotional and behavioural concerns. Those from low SES families are also at increased risk of language delay, affecting their communication.

Abstract Differentiable architecture search requires a larger computational consumption during architecture search, and there exists the depth gap problem under deeper network architecture. In this paper, we propose an attention-based progressive partially connected neural architecture search method (PPCAtt-NAS) to address these two issues. First, we introduce a progressive search strategy in the architecture search phase, build up the sophistication of the architecture gradually and perform path-level pruning in stages to bridge the depth gap. Second, we adopt a partial search scheme that performs channel-level partial sampling of the network architecture to further reduce the computational complexity of the architecture search. In addition, an attention mechanism is devised to improve the architecture search capability by enhancing the relevance between the feature channels. Finally, we conduct extensive comparison experiments with state-of-the-art methods on several public datasets, and our method is able to present higher architecture performance.

Schistosomiasis, a parasite infectious disease caused by Schistosoma japonicum, often leads to egg granuloma and fibrosis due to the inflammatory reaction triggered by egg antigens released in the host liver. This study focuses on the role of the egg antigens CP1412 protein of S. japonicum (SjCP1412) with RNase activity in promoting liver fibrosis. In this study, the recombinant egg ribonuclease SjCP1412, which had RNase activity, was successfully prepared. By analysing the serum of the population, it has been proven that the anti-SjCP1412 IgG in the serum of patients with advanced schistosomiasis was moderately correlated with liver fibrosis, and SjCP1412 may be an important antigen associated with liver fibrosis in schistosomiasis. In vitro, the rSjCP1412 protein induced the human liver cancer cell line Hep G2 and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells apoptosis and necrosis and the release of proinflammatory damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). In mice infected with schistosomes, rSjCP1412 immunization or antibody neutralization of SjCP1412 activity significantly reduced cell apoptosis and necroptosis in liver tissue, thereby reducing inflammation and liver fibrosis. In summary, the SjCP1412 protein plays a crucial role in promoting liver fibrosis during schistosomiasis through mediating the liver cells apoptosis and necroptosis to release DAMPs inducing an inflammatory reaction. Blocking SjCP1412 activity could inhibit its proapoptotic and necrotic effects and alleviate hepatic fibrosis. These findings suggest that SjCP1412 may be served as a promising drug target for managing liver fibrosis in schistosomiasis japonica.

Abstract. Background:. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine can induce a potent cellular and humoral immune response to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it was unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 vaccination can induce effective natural killer (NK) cell response in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) and healthy individuals. Methods:. Forty-seven PLWH and thirty healthy controls (HCs) inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine were enrolled from Beijing Youan Hospital in this study. The effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on NK cell frequency, phenotype, and function in PLWH and HCs was evaluated by flow cytometry, and the response of NK cells to SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Spike (SARS-2-OS) protein stimulation was also evaluated. Results:. SARS-CoV-2 vaccine inoculation elicited activation and degranulation of NK cells in PLWH, which peaked at 2 weeks and then decreased to a minimum at 12 weeks after the third dose of vaccine. However, in vitro stimulation of the corresponding peripheral blood monocular cells from PLWH with SARS-2-OS protein did not upregulate the expression of the aforementioned markers. Additionally, the frequencies of NK cells expressing the activation markers CD25 and CD69 in PLWH were significantly lower than those in HCs at 0, 4 and 12 weeks, but the percentage of CD16+ NK cells in PLWH was significantly higher than that in HCs at 2, 4 and 12 weeks after the third dose of vaccine. Interestingly, the frequency of CD16+ NK cells was significantly negatively correlated with the proportion of CD107a+ NK cells in PLWH at each time point after the third dose. Similarly, this phenomenon was also observed in HCs at 0, 2, and 4 weeks after the third dose. Finally, regardless of whether NK cells were stimulated with SARS-2-OS or not, we did not observe any differences in the expression of NK cell degranulation markers between PLWH and HCs. Conclusion:. s:SARS-CoV-2 vaccine elicited activation and degranulation of NK cells, indicating that the inoculation of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine enhances NK cell immune response.

ABSTRACT: Objectives: The incidence of Helicobacter pylori (HP) is 25–50% in developed countries and 80% in developing countries, including 56.2% in China. However, antibiotic resistance of HP is a threat to HP control. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate primary drug resistance of HP in China. Methods: The full text of reports of the primary antibiotic resistance prevalence of HP was obtained from multiple databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Evimed, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Internet). Review Manager 5.2 was adopted for meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, and bias analysis. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the article quality. Results: In total, 38804 HP samples from 22 trials were extracted. The results suggested that the overall prevalence of amoxicillin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, and levofloxacin resistance among HP in adults was as follows: mean difference (MD) = 1.35%, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.03%, 1.68%]; MD = 23.76%, 95% CI [20.23%, 27.3%]; MD = 69.32%, 95% CI [64.85%, 73.8%]; and MD = 29.45%, 95% CI [4.90, 176.96], respectively. From the results of sensitivity and publication bias, we find that these results are robust and had little publication bias. Conclusion: Our research showed that in China, the prevalence of HP resistance to primary antibiotics warrants attention, especially with regard to metronidazole, levofloxacin, and clarithromycin.

With the flourishing development of video-based information dissemination, audio and video synchronization is gradually becoming an important standard for measuring video quality.Deep synthesis technology has been entering the public's view in the international communication field, and lip-sync technology integrating audio and video synchronization has attracted more and more attention.The existing lip-synthesis models are mainly based on lip-synthesis of static images, which are not effective for synthesis of dynamic videos, and most of them use English datasets for training which results in poor synthesis of Chinese Mandarin.To address these problems, this paper conducted optimization experiments on the Wav2Lip lip synthesis model in Chinese context based on its research foundation, and tested the effect of different routes of training models through multiple sets of experiments, which provided important reference values for the subsequent Wav2Lip series research.This study realized lip synthesis from speech-driven to text-driven, discussed the application of lip synthesis in multiple fields such as virtual digital human, and laid the foundation for the broader application and development of lip synthesis technology.

Abstract Objective To explore the forewarning immunological indicators during periodontal attachment loss progression in American adults. Methods A total of 5744 participants with periodontal attachment loss were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2009–2014. In which, dependent variable was the counts of teeth with severe attachment loss (depth of periodontal probing was above 5 mm). Independent variables were circulatory immunological indexes, including counts of white blood cells (WBC), Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Neutrophils, Eosinophils, and Basophils. The association among variables was examined using multivariable linear regression models, fitting with smoothing curves, and generalizing additive models. Results Based on the indicators of 5744 subjects, we found that severe attachment loss tended to occur in the elderly or males and was accompanied by higher WBC, Monocytes, and Neutrophils, as well as lower poverty-income ratio and educational qualification. WBC (above the inflection point: 6200 cells/µL) and Neutrophils (above the inflection point: 3300 cells/µL) counts were positively associated with attachment loss progression in each multivariable linear regression model. On subgroup analyses, stratified by sex and race, the positive correlation of WBC or Neutrophils with severe attachment loss was stable in both men and women, as well as in all races except blacks (WBC β = − 0.0576, 95% CI − 0.1945 to 0.0793, Neutrophils β = − 0.0527, 95% CI − 0.2285 to 0.1231). Conclusion Increasing WBC (above 6200 cells/µL) and Neutrophils (above 3300 cells/µL) counts were risk indicators of severe periodontal attachment loss among all races, except in blacks.

Zero-shot learning recognizes the unseen samples via the model learned from the seen class samples and semantic features. Due to the lack of information of unseen class samples in the training set, some researchers have proposed the method of generating unseen class samples by using generative models. However, the generated model is trained with the training set samples first, and then the unseen class samples are generated, which results in the features of the unseen class samples tending to be biased toward the seen class and may produce large deviations from the real unseen class samples. To tackle this problem, we use the autoencoder method to generate the unseen class samples and combine the semantic features of the unseen classes with the proposed new sample features to construct the loss function. The proposed method is validated on three datasets and showed good results.

No novel biomarkers are currently available for evaluating immune reconstitution among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) receiving combined antiretroviral treatment (cART). The objective of this study was to analyze the expression patterns of interferon-stimulating genes (ISGs) in PLWH with the aim of identifying potential biomarkers for immune reconstitution. Study samples were collected from 105 PLWH, including 47 immunological non-responders (INRs) and 58 immunological responders (IRs). The expression of eight ISGs in the peripheral blood in INRs and IRs were detected by RT-qPCR. Expression differences between groups were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test, and a logistic regression model was developed to predict immune reconstitution. Among eight ISGs, the expression levels of IFI27 and IFI6 were significantly higher in INRs than IRs ( P =0.001 and 0.005, respectively). The model combining age, CD4 + T/CD8 + T ratio, IFI27, and IFI6 had the highest diagnostic value (AUC=0.836), with an optimal cut-off value of 0.6, sensitivity of 60.5%, and specificity of 98.1%. No significant change in the expression of IFI27 and IFI6 was observed in samples collected 3 years apart ( P =0.1232 and 0.4877, respectively), and the model score negatively correlated with ΔCD4 + T cells (r=−0.2888, P =0.0465). Enhanced expression of IFI27 and IFI6 in INRs are important characteristics that may serve as biomarkers of immune reconstitution after cART. The combination of age, CD4 + T/CD8 + T ratio, IFI27, and IFI6 was highly effective in discriminating INRs.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increasingly recognized as cis- and trans-acting regulators of protein-coding genes in plants, particularly in response to abiotic stressors. Among these stressors, high soil salinity poses a significant challenge to crop productivity. Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a prominent root vegetable crop that exhibits moderate susceptibility to salt stress, particularly during the seedling stage. Nevertheless, the precise regulatory mechanisms through which lncRNAs contribute to salt response in radish remain largely unexplored. In this study, we performed genome-wide identification of lncRNAs using strand-specific RNA sequencing on radish fleshy root samples subjected to varying time points of salinity treatment. A total of 7,709 novel lncRNAs were identified, with 363 of them displaying significant differential expression in response to salt application. Furthermore, through target gene prediction, 5,006 cis- and 5,983 trans-target genes were obtained for the differentially expressed lncRNAs. The predicted target genes of these salt-responsive lncRNAs exhibited strong associations with various plant defense mechanisms, including signal perception and transduction, transcription regulation, ion homeostasis, osmoregulation, reactive oxygen species scavenging, photosynthesis, phytohormone regulation, and kinase activity. Notably, this study represents the first comprehensive genome-wide analysis of salt-responsive lncRNAs in radish, to the best of our knowledge. These findings provide a basis for future functional analysis of lncRNAs implicated in the defense response of radish against high salinity, which will aid in further understanding the regulatory mechanisms underlying radish response to salt stress.

Deep learning neural networks based on the manual design for image classification tasks usually require a large amount of a priori knowledge and experience from experts; thus, research on designing neural network architectures automatically has been widely performed. The neural architecture search (NAS) method based on the differentiable architecture search (DARTS) ignores the interrelationships within the searched network architecture cells. The optional operations in the architecture search space lack diversity, and the large parametric and non-parametric operations in the search space make the search process inefficient. We propose a NAS method based on a dual attention mechanism (DAM-DARTS). An improved attention mechanism module is introduced to the cell of the network architecture to deepen the interrelationships between the important layers within the architecture by enhancing the attention between them, which improves the accuracy of the architecture and reduces the architecture search time. We also propose a more efficient architecture search space by adding attention operations to increase the complex diversity of the searched network architectures and reduce the computational cost consumed in the search process by reducing non-parametric operations. Based on this, we further analyze the impact of changing some operations in the architecture search space on the accuracy of the architectures. Through extensive experiments on several open datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed search strategy, which is highly competitive with other existing neural network architecture search methods.

Abstract The production of traditional Peking opera facial masks often relies on hand painting by experienced painters, which restricts the inheritance and development of this intangible cultural heritage. Current research mainly focuses on the digital reconstruction and storage of existing Peking opera facial masks, while high-quality facial mask generation technology is still in an infancy stage. In this paper, different deep learning frameworks are improved for learning features of Peking opera facial masks and generating new masks, which can effectively promote the creative application of Peking opera facial masks. First, using different data enhancement methods, an improved Style Generative Adversarial Network-2 (StyleGAN2) can learn implicit and explicit features of Peking opera facial masks and automatically generate new facial masks. In addition, an image translation framework for joint cross-domain communication under weak supervision is used to translate face sketches and color reference maps to an intermediate feature domain, and then synthesize new facial masks through an image generation network. The experimental results show that the generated Peking opera facial masks have good local randomness and excellent visual quality.

Natural gas hydrate is a new energy source with great potential. Studying the seismic response characteristics of natural gas hydrate in permafrost area is crucial to the exploration and development of natural gas hydrate in China's land area. Based on the Kelvin viscoelastic media model, our work establishes a theoretical geological-geophysical model based on the actual geological and stratigraphic conditions of the Qilian Mountain permafrost, uses the staggered-grid finite difference method to perform forward numerical simulation, and performs wave field characteristic analysis and instantaneous seismic attribute extraction of self-excitation and self-receiving seismic records. The results show that the reflected amplitude energy is weaker when the seismic wave passes through the gas hydrate formation. In the range where the instantaneous frequency attribute profile can distinguish the layer thickness, the instantaneous frequency decreases marginally with the increase of the layer thickness. When seismic waves pass through natural gas-bearing formations, the reflected waves show strong reflection characteristics, and the instantaneous frequency energy increases. The instantaneous seismic attribute has better resolution for the wave-impedance interface, especially the instantaneous phase attribute profile. Therefore, the comprehensive analysis of the instantaneous attribute characteristics can provide a basis for the identification and prediction of terrestrial gas hydrates.

Abstract In recent years, there has been a national craze for metaverse concerts. However, existing meta-universe concert efforts often focus on immersive visual experiences and lack consideration of the musical and aural experience. But for concerts, it is the beautiful music and the immersive listening experience that deserve the most attention. Therefore, enhancing intelligent and immersive musical experiences is essential for the further development of the metaverse. With this in mind, we propose a metaverse concert generation framework — from intelligent music generation to stereo conversion and sound field design for virtual concert stages. First, combining the ideas of reinforcement learning and value functions, the Transformer-XL music generation network is improved and used in training all the music in the POP909 dataset. Experiments show that both improved algorithms have advantages over the original method in terms of objective evaluation and subjective evaluation metrics. In addition, this paper validates a neural rendering method that can be used to generate spatial audio based on a binaural-integrated neural network with a fully convolutional technique. And the purely data-driven end-to-end model performs to be more reliable compared with traditional spatial audio generation methods such as HRTF. Finally, we propose a metadata-based audio rendering algorithm to simulate real-world acoustic environments.

Abstract Background We present a case of pelvic paraganglioma that presented with heart failure as the primary symptom. Case presentation A 35-year-old man was admitted to hospital due to heart failure. Contrast-enhanced pelvic CT showed mass shadows in the posterior wall of the bladder and multiple enlarged lymph nodes in the retroperitoneal area. Ultrasound-guided puncture was performed, and the pathologic diagnosis was extra-adrenal paraganglioma. The patient refused any chemotherapy and died within six months of diagnosis. Conclusion The possibility of neuroendocrine-related tumors, for example paragangliomas, should be considered in young patients with heart failure, especially those with concomitant hypertension and diabetes.

IntroductionA growing number of Taiwanese teachers are choosing to teach at universities in mainland China, but their jobs are not always stable. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors infuencing young teachers from Taiwan to teach in universities in China.MethodsTwenty-seven young teachers from Taiwan with master’s or doctoral degrees who were willing to apply to work at universities in China and who were already teaching in China were invited to conduct in-depth interviews to collect research data.The interview data were coded and analyzed according to the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) Model.Results and discussionThe results showed that the understanding of mainland Chinese universities among young Taiwanese teachers is not entirely consistent. Taiwanese teachers who previously studied in mainland China have a more comprehensive understanding of mainland Chinese universities, and some teachers have gained a superfcial understanding through academic exchanges between the two sides and information shared by friends.However,still,7% of the teachers have no understanding at all. Most young Taiwanese teachers indicate that they do not understand the talent recruitment policies of mainland Chinese universities. The push factors that infuence young teachers from Taiwan to teach at mainland universities are: Oversupply of teachers in Taiwan, poor environment for higher education in Taiwan, poor articulation of the cross-strait academic system, and four aspects of teacher retirement and re-employment in Taiwan. The pull factors are: Benefcial policies, salary, living environment, educational advantages and cultural dissemination in 5 areas. Mooring factors are divided into 3 aspects: personal factors, environmental factors and social factors.

Abstract This study proposes a new generation network based on transformers and guided by the music theory to produce high‐quality music work. In this study, the decoding block of the transformer is used to learn the internal information of single‐track music, and cross‐track transformers are used to learn the information amongst the tracks of different musical instruments. A reward network based on the music theory is proposed, which optimizes the global and local loss objective functions while training and discriminating the network so that the reward network can provide a reliable adjustment method for the generation of the network. The method of combining the reward network and cross entropy loss is used to guide the training of the generator and produce high‐quality music work. Compared with other multi‐track music generation models, the experimental results verify the validity of the model.

The changes in functionality (solubility, emulsification, gelation) and digestibility of quercetin-soy protein isolate and rutin-soy protein isolate complexes were analyzed in this paper. The interaction was studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The mechanism, the type of fluorescence quenching, the number of binding sites and thermodynamic parameters were analyzed. The results showed that quercetin and rutin could improve the functional properties of SPI. When the addition of quercetin and rutin were 8%, the hardness of SPI gel could be increased by 23.23% and 187.18%, respectively. The EAI, ESI and solubility of SPI increased first and then tended to level off. When the addition amount was 6% and 4%, the emulsifying activity and solubility reached the highest respectively, which were increased by 20.84% and 10.06% compared with SPI. With the increase of rutin addition, the EAI, ESI and solubility of SPI first increased and then decreased slightly. When the addition amount was 4% and 6%, the emulsifying activity and solubility reached the highest respectively, which was 26.17% and 19.27% than that of SPI. In addition, the interaction of quercetin and rutin with SPI could also improve the bioavailability of the protein. Further research on the interaction mechanism between the two flavonoid polyphenols and SPI showed that the fluorescence spectra of the two interacting complexes were blue-shifted, quercetin, rutin and SPI spontaneously combine, and mainly acted through hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces. The interaction mechanism of quercetin, rutin and SPI was dynamic quenching and static quenching, respectively.

Invertebrates play vital roles in maintaining biodiversity and food web structure. However, it is difficult to identify invertebrate taxa across complex habitats due to the limitation of traditional morphology. In subtropical wetlands, environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding was used to characterize the composition and diversity of aquatic invertebrates and analyze the environmental impacts on invertebrate community structure. According to the relative abundance (%) of invertebrate OTU richness, 30 sampling sites in wetlands were clustered into six zones, which exhibited significant spatial (i.e., wetland type-specific) differences in taxonomic composition. The relative OTU abundance (%) at the phylum level showed that Cnidaria (48.5%) > Porifera (19.4%) > Rotifera (11.0%) > Mollusca (9.2%) > Annelida (5.3 ± 2.8%) > others (less than 2.2%). Of the five alpha diversity indexes, ‘Simpson’ was the most effective index to distinguish the spatial differences in invertebrate diversity, and the class-level alpha diversity showed higher recognition than other taxonomic levels. The class-level biomarkers that could indicate the habitat-specific composition of local invertebrates were Insecta, Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, and Gastropoda in the inflow river; Ascidiacea and Demospongiae in the fluvial wetland; Clitellata, Gymnolaemata, and Monogononta in the lacustrine wetland; and Echinoidea in the estuarine wetland. The associations between environmental factors and invertebrate OTU richness based on redundancy analysis showed the taxon-level tendency of phylum (78.5%) > class (73.4%) > order (69.3%) > family (64.9%) > genus (61.2%). Our results demonstrated that aquatic invertebrate diversity profiling by environmental DNA metabarcoding can effectively reflect the composition, diversity and biomarkers of invertebrate communities. In the future, because of its great application potential, the eDNA technique may play an important role in biomonitoring complex water environments.

The marine talent cultivation and output in higher vocational colleges is an important support to build a strong maritime country and ensure the steady development of the shipping business industry. Vocational colleges should ensure effective career preparation and career guidance education for their students, and train them to acquire the professional abilities to work and adapt effectively and quickly in the future. Some studies show that many crew members experience a decline in job satisfaction, a low sense of achievement, and a series of negative subjective career feelings. Even more, some crew members have poor work performance or unsuccessful career development behaviors such as career change or resignation. This study examined the causes and influencing factors of these circumstances and might be a reference for schools to strengthen the quality of their training programs in the future. In-depth interviews with 12 vocational marine navigation college graduates were conducted, and grounded theory was used to code and analyze the collected interview information. Four types of influencing factors were identified: adaptation preparation, career adaptability, adaptation action, and the situational factor. The adaptation preparation factor could be categorized into psychology, determination, lack of certificates, and simple work; the career adaptability factor could be categorized into boring work, busyness, a big gap between expectations and reality, danger, promotion difficulty, poor interpersonal relationships, high pressure, and maladaptation to the surroundings; the adaptation action factor could be categorized into passive fatigue, lack of training, competition, confidence, and planning; while the situational factor could be categorized into the impact of the epidemic, low social status, lack of support from family, and advantages of living on land. To help the marine navigation students better adapt to their jobs and avoid subjective career unsuccessfulness, higher vocational colleges need to strengthen students’ mental health education, consolidate knowledge and skills training, encourage students to obtain more vocational competency certificates, enhance their interpersonal communication skills, do effective career planning, pay attention to physical exercise and safety awareness training, and adopt other career management and counseling suggestions.

Abstract Background Heterotrimeric G-proteins, composed of Gα, Gβ and Gγ subunits, are important signal transmitters, mediating the cellular response to multiple stimuli in animals and plants. The Gγ subunit is an essential component of the G-protein, providing appropriate functional specificity to the heterotrimer complex and has been well studied in many species. However, the evolutionary history, expression pattern and functional characteristics of Gγ subunits has not been explored in the Rosaceae, representing many important fruit crops. Results In this study, 35 Gγ subunit genes were identified from the eight species belonging to the Rosaceae family. Based on the structural gene characteristics, conserved protein motifs and phylogenetic analysis of the Gγ subunit genes, the genes were classified into three clades. Purifying selection was shown to play an important role in the evolution of Gγ subunit genes, while a recent whole-genome duplication event was the principal force determining the expansion of the Gγ subunit gene family in the subfamily Maloideae. Gγ subunit genes exhibited diverse spatiotemporal expression patterns in Chinese white pear, including fruit, root, ovary and bud, and under abiotic stress conditions, the relative expression of Gγ subunit genes were up-regulated or down-regulated. In addition, seven of the Gγ subunit proteins in pear were located on the plasma membrane, in the cytoplasm or nucleus. Conclusion Overall, this study of the Gγ subunit gene family in eight Rosaceae species provided useful information to better understand the evolution and expression of these genes and facilitated further exploration of their functions in these important crop plants.

Abstract Recently some evidence has demonstrated the significance of PSMB8 in various malignancies. Nevertheless, PSMB8 (proteasome subunit beta 8), more familiar in the field of immunology contributing to the process of antigen presentation, is indeterminate in the role as a survival predictor of human pan-cancer. Besides, how PSMB8 interacts with immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment requires further research. We then penetrated into the analysis of the PSMB8 expression profile among 33 types of cancer in the TCGA database. The results show that overexpression of PSMB8 was associated with poor clinical outcomes in overall survival (Sartorius et al. in Oncogene 35(22):2881–2892, 2016), disease-specific survival (DSS), disease-free interval (DFI), and progression-free interval (PFI) in most cancer varieties. In addition, there existed distinctly positive correlations between PSMB8 and immunity, reflected straightforwardly in the form of immune scores, tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) abundance, microsatellite instability, tumor mutation burden, and neoantigen level. Notably, specific markers of dendrite cells exhibited the tightest association with PSMB8 expression in terms of tumor-related immune infiltration patterns. Moreover, gene enrichment analysis showed that elevated PSMB8 expression was related to multiple immune-related pathways. We finally validated the PSMB8 expression in our local breast samples via quantitative PCR assays and concluded that PSMB8 appeared to perform well in predicting the survival outcome of BRCA patients. These findings elucidate the pivotal role of the antigen presentation-related gene PSMB8, which could potentially serve as a robust biomarker for prognosis determination in multiple cancers.