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Abstract Pathological myopia (PM) is one of the leading causes of blindness, especially in Asia. To identify the genetic risk factors of PM, a two‐stage genome‐wide association study (GWAS) and replication analysis in East Asian populations is conducted. The analysis identified LILRB2 in 19q13.42 as a new candidate locus for PM. The increased protein expression of LILRB2/Pirb (mouse orthologous protein) in PM patients and myopia mouse models is validated. It is further revealed that the increase in LILRB2/Pirb promoted fatty acid synthesis and lipid accumulation, leading to the destruction of choroidal function and the development of PM. This study revealed the association between LILRB2 and PM, uncovering the molecular mechanism of lipid metabolism disorders leading to the pathogenesis of PM due to LILRB2 upregulation.

BackgroundThe occurrences of occupational stress and sleep disorders are closely related. As a high-risk group of occupational stress, the sleep quality of locomotive engineers is of great significance for road traffic safety. ObjectiveTo explore the direction and degree of occupational stress affecting the sleep quality among locomotive engineers, and to analyze potential mediating and moderating roles of response strategy and overcommitment in the relationship. MethodsFrom July 1st to July 31st, 2022, a total of 6219 locomotive engineers from three locomotive depots of China Railway Lanzhou Group Corporation were selected. We conducted an online survey on occupational stress, overcommitment, response strategy and sleep quality using the Effort-Reward Imbalance, Personal Resources Questionnaire, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Single factor analysis and correlation analysis were conducted using SPSS 25.0 software, mediation and moderation models were constructed using the Process V3.3 macro program plugin, and Harman's single factor test was used for common method bias testing. ResultsA total of 6219 questionnaires were distributed, and 5738 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective response rate of 92.27%. The average locomotive engineers' occupational stress score (1.22±0.29), overcommitment score (16.38±3.55), response strategy score (50.00±10.00), and sleep quality score (11.51±3.95) were calculated. The Pearson correlation analysis results showed that occupational stress was positively correlated with overcommitment and sleep quality (r=0.435, 0.321, P

Abstract Background Qingyang is located in the northwest of China. By analyzing the current situation and risk factors of bullying in junior high schools in Qingyang City, and identify relevant data for formulating prevention and control measures of bullying in western backward areas. Methods Qingyang City is divided into four regions based on economic level and population quality. One junior high school is randomly selected from each region, a total of 1200 students from 4 junior high schools of different levels in Qingyang City were randomly selected, and the “Questionnaire on Middle School Students’ School bullying” was administered between December 2021 and February 2022. Results The reporting rate of bullying in junior high schools in Qingyang was 47.35%. The incidence of campus bullying among urban-rural integration junior high schools, senior students, and male students is higher than that of municipal -level junior high schools, junior students, and female students (P

Abstract An emerging challenge of integrated communication and sensing is the extraction of weak sensing signals transmitted through an unknown non-stationary channel. In this work, we propose a weak signal extraction method with weak measurement. Taking advantage of time division multiplexing, we preliminarily estimate the channel via adjustable finite impulse response filter, further suppressing the interfering signal caused by background noises via spectrum shift. By subsequently using the time-varying phase estimation method via weak measurement, the real-time detection of weak signals in the non-stationary channel is achieved. We demonstrate via theoretical analysis and confirmatory experiment that our method is able to amplify the phase shift, to suppress technical noise and to improve detection resolution limit, while proving robust against light source fluctuations, initial phase differences and detector saturation. The method hence enables weak sensing signal extraction with a low signal-to-noise ratio non-stationary channel. Furthermore, we interface our measurement method to squeezed light sources, offering the possibility of surpassing standard quantum limit.

Objective To assess the correlation between the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) and sleep quality among railway locomotive stewards.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting Lanzhou Bureau Group, China Railway, between July and August 2022.Participants Railway locomotive stewards.Primary and secondary outcome measures Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scale (PSQI), categorising scores of >14 as poor, 8–14 as fair and

Fushi-tarazu factor 1 (FTZ-F1) is a class of transcription factors belonging to the nuclear receptor superfamily and an important molting regulator in insects; however, its detailed function in the molting process of Locusta migratoria is still unclear. This study identified two FTZ-F1 transcripts (LmFTZ-F1-X1 and LmFTZ-F1-X2) in L. migratoria. The classical domains of FTZ-F1 were present in their protein sequences and distinguished based on their variable N-terminal domains. Reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that LmFTZ-F1-X1 and LmFTZ-F1-X2 were highly expressed in the integument. RNA interference (RNAi) was used to explore the function of LmFTZ-F1s in the molting of the third-instar nymph. Separate LmFTZ-F1-X1 or LmFTZ-F1-X2 silencing did not affect the normal development of third-instar nymphs; however, the simultaneous RNAi of LmFTZ-F1-X1 and LmFTZ-F1-X2 caused the nymphs to be trapped in the third instar stage and finally die. Furthermore, the hematoxylin-eosin and chitin staining of the cuticle showed that the new cuticles were thickened after silencing the LmFTZ-F1s compared to the controls. RNA-seq analysis showed that genes encoding four cuticle proteins, two chitin synthesis enzymes, and cytochrome P450 303a1 were differentially expressed between dsGFP- and dsLmFTZ-F1s-injected groups. Taken together, LmFTZ-F1-X1 and LmFTZ-F1-X2 are involved in the ecdysis of locusts, possibly by regulating the expression of genes involved in cuticle formation, chitin synthesis, and other key molting processes.

In quantum multiparameter estimation, achieving the best precision for each parameter is hindered by the Heisenberg principle. Here, the authors demonstrate how to mitigate this problem by using appropriate probe states.

Abstract Quantum simulation is a technology of using controllable quantum systems to study new quantum phases of matter. Certification for quantum simulators is a challenging problem whereas identification and properties estimation are two crucial approaches that can be resorted to. In this work, we propose Ab initio end-to-end machine learning certification protocol briefly named MLCP. The learning protocol is trained with a million-level size of randomized measurement samples without relying on the assistance of quantum tomography. In the light of MLCP, we can identify different types of quantum simulators to observe their distinguishability hardness. We also predict the physical properties of quantum states evolved in quantum simulators such as entanglement entropy and maximum fidelity. The impact of randomized measurement samples on the identification accuracy is analyzed to showcase the potential capability of classical machine learning on quantum simulation results. The entanglement entropy and maximum fidelity with varied subsystem partitions are also estimated with satisfactory precision. This work paves the way for large-scale intelligent certification of quantum simulators and can be extended onto an artificial intelligence center to offer easily accessible services for local quantum simulators in the noisy intermediate-size quantum (NISQ) era.

Grain size is one of the most important factors affecting rice grain quality and yield, and attracts great attention from molecular biologists and breeders. In this study, we engineered a CRISPR/Cas9 system targeting the miR396 recognition site of the rice GS2 gene, which encodes growth-regulating factor 4 (OsGRF4) and regulates multiple agronomic traits including grain size, grain quality, nitrogen use efficiency, abiotic stress response, and seed shattering. In contrast to most previous genome editing efforts in which indel mutations were chosen to obtain null mutants, a mutant named GS2E carrying an in-frame 6-bp deletion and 1-bp substitution within the miR396-targeted sequence was identified. GS2E plants showed increased expression of GS2 in consistent with impaired repression by miR396. As expected, the gain-of-function GS2E mutant exhibited multiple beneficial traits including increased grain size and yield and bigger grain length/width ratio. Thousand grain weight and grain yield per plant of GS2E plants were increased by 23.5% and 10.4%, respectively. These improved traits were passed to hybrids in a semi-dominant way, suggesting that the new GS2E allele has great potential in rice improvement. Taken together, we report new GS2 germplasm and describe a novel gene-editing strategy that can be widely employed to improve grain size and yield in rice. This trait-improvement strategy could be applied to other genes containing miRNA target sites, in particular the conserved miR396-GRF/GIF module that governs plant growth, development and environmental response.

In this article, several spectral models describing the stationary stochastic process of earthquake ground motion are explored and compared. The Hu-Zhou spectrum, which is regarded as an improved model of the Kanai-Tajimi spectrum, is concerned. It is proven that the earthquake-induced ground acceleration process described by the Hu-Zhou spectrum is a twice filtered white noise process in essence, and two filters for modifying low-frequency components and moderate- and high-frequency components respectively are investigated. A total of 1946 strong earthquake records at different sites were employed to determine the parameters of spectral models, including the Kanai-Tajimi spectrum, the Clough-Penzien spectrum and the Hu-Zhou spectrum. The results showed that the Hu-Zhou spectrum fits well with the actual observed ground motions over the whole frequency range, and that it is not only distinct in physical meaning and concise in mathematical expression, but also reasonable in practice.

Abstract Background The rice Waxy (Wx) gene plays a major role in seed amylose synthesis and consequently controls grain amylose content. Wx gene expression is highly regulated at the post-transcriptional level. In particular, the GT/TT polymorphism at the 5′splicing site of its 1st intron greatly affects this intron’s splicing efficiency and defines two predominant Wx alleles, Wx a and Wx b . Wx a rice often harbours intermediate to high amylose contents, whereas Wx b rice exhibits low to intermediate amylose contents. By deleting the Wx 1st intron using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we generate a completely novel Wx allele and further investigate how intron removal affects Wx gene expression and rice grain amylose content. Results CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted deletion of the Wx 1st intron was performed on 4 rice inbred lines: KY131 (Wx b ), X32 (Wx b ), X35 (Wx a ) and X55 (Wx lv ). Deletion of the 1st intron occurred in 8.6–11.8% of the primary transformants of these 4 inbred lines. Compared to wild-type plants, amylose content was significantly increased from 13.0% to approximately 24.0% in KY131 and X32 mutant lines, which both carried the Wx b allele. However, no significant difference in amylose content was observed between wild-type plants and X35 and X55 mutant lines, which carried the Wx a and Wx lv alleles, respectively. Wx gene expression analysis of wild-type plants and mutants yielded results that were highly consistent with amylose content results. KY131 and X32 mutants accumulated increased levels of steady mRNA transcripts compared with wild-type plants, whereas steady mRNA levels were not altered in X35 and X55 mutants compared with wild-type plants. Grain quality, including appearance quality and eating and cooking quality, which are tightly associated with amylose content, was also assessed in wild-type and mutant plants, and data were presented and analysed. Conclusions This study presents a novel and rapid strategy to increase amylose content in inbred rice carrying a Wx b allele. Our data strongly suggest that the 1st intron of the Wx gene regulates Wx gene expression mainly at the post-transcriptional level in rice. This finding is in contrast to a previous hypothesis suggesting that it influences Wx gene transcription. In addition, removal of the first intron generates a completely novel Wx allele. Further studies on this new Wx allele will provide invaluable insights into the regulation of Wx gene expression, which will help researchers engineer new Wx alleles to facilitate the breeding of rice cultivars with better eating and cooking quality.

Abstract Background We aim to develop a population pharmacokinetics (PopPK) model of vancomycin for the treatment of septicemia in infants younger than one year. Factors influence of the PK was investigated to optimize vancomycin dosing regimen. Methods The nonlinear mixed effects modelling software (NONMEM) was used to develop the PopPK model of vancomycin. The stability and predictive ability of the final model were assessed by using normalized prediction distribution errors (NPDE) and bootstrap methods. The final model was subjected to Monte Carlo simulation in order to determine the optimal dose. Results A total of 205 trough and peak concentrations in 94 infants (0–1 year of age) with septicemia were analyzed. The interindividual variability of the PK parameter was described by the exponential model. Residual error was better described by the proportional model than the mixed proportional and addition models. Serum creatinine concentration and body weight are the major factors that affect the PK parameters of vancomycin. The clearance was shown to be higher when ceftriaxone was co-treated. More than two model evaluation methods showed better stability than the base model, with superior predictive performance, which can develop individualized dosing regimens for clinical reference. Through prediction of final model, the trough concentration was more likely

Controlling the twist angle between double stacked van der Waals (vdW) crystals holds great promise for nanoscale light compression and manipulation in the mid-infrared (MIR) range. A lithography-free geometry has been proposed to mediate the coupling of phonon polaritons (PhPs) in double-layers of vdW α-MoO3. The anisotropic hyperbolic phonon polaritons (AHPhPs) are further hybridized by the anisotropic substrate environment of magneto-optic indium arsenide (InAs). The AHPhPs can be tuned by twisting the angle between the optical axes of the two separated layers and realize a topological transition from open to closed dispersion contours. Moreover, in the presence of external magnetic field, an alteration of the hybridization of PhPs will be met, which enable an efficient way for the control of light-matter interaction at nanoscale in the MIR region.

The characteristics of Baiyun Obo niobium-bearing minerals are complex physicochemical properties that make the beneficiation of niobium minerals extremely difficult. In this paper, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and mineral liberation analyzer (MLA) systems were used to study the niobium occurrence state and distribution of niobium-bearing minerals in the samples from Baiyun Obo. The results show that the chemical and mineral compositions of the sample are complex, with a Nb2O5 grading of 0.24%. There are many kinds of niobium minerals, including ilmenorutile, nioboaeschynite-Nd, baotite, latrappite, euxenite-Y, fergusonite and columbite-Mn, and the highest mass fraction of 0.55% is achieved with Nb in nioboaeschynite-Nd, followed by the mass fraction of ilmenorutile (0.33%). All of the niobium-containing minerals demonstrate a low degree of dissociation. Flotation experiments explored the optimal flotation conditions for HOBA (1-hydroxyoctyl-1,1-bisphosphonic acid) as a flotation collector for Baiyun Obo niobium minerals, which is able to increase the grade of Nb2O5 in the concentrate to 1.31%. The optimal use conditions of the reagent are pH 3.5–4.5, and the amount of the collector is 1000 g/t. By further optimizing the beneficiation process and reagent system, ilmenorutile and nioboaeschynite-Nd were significantly enriched in the concentrate, which suggested that HOBA can efficiently increase the grade of Nb2O5 in the concentrate.

Investigating quantum advantage in the NISQ era is a challenging problem whereas quantum machine learning becomes the most promising application that can be resorted to. However, no proposal has been investigated for arguably challenging inverse reinforcement learning to demonstrate the potential advantage. In this work, we propose a hybrid quantum–classical inverse reinforcement learning algorithm based on the variational quantum circuit with the generative adversarial framework. We find an important connection between the quantum gradient anomaly and the performance degradation, which suggest a gradient clipping strategy to stabilize the training process. In light of the algorithm, we study three classic control problems and the Hamiltonian parameter estimation in quantum sensing with shallow quantum circuits. The numerical results showcase that the control-enhanced quantum sensor can saturate quantum Cramér-Rao bound only with a single variational layer, empirically demonstrating a parameter complexity advantage over the classical learning control. The proposed generative adversarial reinforcement learning algorithm achieves state-of-the-art performance in classical and quantum sensor control in terms of required number of parameters.

People’s increasing attention towards environmental issues and carbon emission level per capita of consumption has made the influencing factors of low-carbon consumption behavior a research hotspot. In this study, a random sample of tourists in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China were surveyed by questionnaire to examine the impact of tourists’ perceived value and sense of social responsibility on the low-carbon consumption behavior intention. Results suggest that tourists’ perceived value has a direct and significant positive effect on the sense of social responsibility and low-carbon consumption behavior intention. Tourists’ sense of social responsibility demonstrates a significant positive impact on consumption attitude, with the latter having a positive impact on tourists’ low-carbon consumption behavior intention. A sense of social responsibility and the consumption attitude are found to play an important intermediary role between perceived value and tourists’ low-carbon consumption behavior intention. Some suggestions for managing and promoting tourists’ low-carbon consumption behavior intention are also put forward in this paper.

Bloch surface waves (BSWs) with Bi2Se3 in a composite structure consisting of a coupling prism, distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and cavity layer have been demonstrated. The design relies on the confinement of surface waves that originates from the coupling between the defective layer of plasmonic material (Bi2Se3) and DBR. The presence of the cavity layer modifies the local effective refractive index, enabling direct manipulation of the BSWs. The transfer matrix method (TMM) is used to evaluate the reflectance and absorptance responses in the spectral domain for various angles of incidence, demonstrating the presence of sharp resonances associated with the BSW. With an optimal thickness of DBR bilayers, the energy of an evanescent wave can be transferred into the periodic stack resulting in the excitation of waveguide modes (WGMs). It is believed that the proposed design possesses the advantage in terms of easy fabrication to develop integrated photonic systems, especially for biological and chemical sensing.

Based on the differential cubature (DC) principle, a dynamic procedure for simultaneous discretization of time and space is developed. A spatial–temporal differential cubature analysis method for dynamic problems is established with the Timoshenko shear beam; the reliability of analysis results obtained by which is verified, and the stability of the numerical scheme is studied. This method is extended to the two-dimensional structure, and the forced vibration analysis is carried out with the thin plate as an example. The research shows that the method can acquire highly accurate numerical results, and the calculated time-history numerical solution of beam displacement is extremely consistent with the analytical solution, which can adopt to the changes in beam properties and load parameters. With fewer nodes and longer time step than the finite element method (FEM), the method in this paper can still obtain stable and accurate results when solving displacement responses of plate under forced vibration. The numerical stability of this method is closely related to the grid form and the size of time step, and the increase in the number of nodes in the time domain is conducive to increasing the stability range.

Arthritis is caused by inflammation, infection, degeneration, trauma, or other factors that affect approximately 250 million people all over the world. Early diagnosis and prediction are essential for treatment. Exosomes are nanoscale vesicles that participate in the process of joint disease. Serum is the mainly used sources in the study of arthritis-related exosomes, while whether serum exosomes can reflect the contents of synovial fluid exosomes is still unknown. In this work, we separated exosomes from serum and the synovial fluid of osteoarthritis patients and compared their miRNA expression utilizing miRNA sequencing. The results revealed that 31 upregulated and 33 downregulated miRNAs were found in synovial fluid compared to serum. Transcriptome analysis showed that these differentially expressed miRNAs were mainly associated with intercellular processes and metabolic pathways. Our results show that serum-derived exosomes cannot fully represent the exosomes of synovial fluid, which may be helpful for the study of joint diseases and the discovery of early diagnostic biomarkers of arthritis.

Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies and the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Although many factors associated with breast cancer have been identified, the definite etiology of breast cancer is still unclear. In addition, early diagnosis of breast cancer remains challenging. Exosomes are membrane-bound nanovesicles secreted by most types of cells and contain a series of biologically important molecules, such as lipids, proteins, and miRNAs, etc. Emerging evidence shows that exosomes can affect the status of cells by transmitting substances and messages among cells and are involved in various physiological and pathological processes. In breast cancer, exosomes play a significant role in breast tumorigenesis and progression through transfer miRNAs which can be potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of breast cancer. This review discusses the potential utility of exosomal miRNAs in breast cancer progression such as tumorigenesis, metastasis, immune regulation and drug resistance, and further in breast cancer diagnosis.

Exosomes are membrane-bound nanovesicles secreted by most types of cells, which contain a series of biologically important molecules, such as miRNAs, proteins, and lipids, etc. Emerging evidence show that exosomes can affect the physiological status of cells and are involved in various pathological processes. However, due to their small size and density close to body fluids, it is challenging to separate exosomes from a small volume of biological samples in a simple manner. Herein, we propose a new strategy for isolating circulating exosomes from biological samples in a portable device. This method synergistically integrates chitosan electrostatic-adsorption, scaffold substrates, and shuttle flow to enable the highly effective capture of circulating exosomes with a recovery rate of over 80% within 20 min, which is much better than the performance of traditional ultracentrifugation (5–25%, 3 h). Besides, the isolated exosomes from samples could be lysed in situ and further subjected to RNA concentration detection and protein analysis. In particular, all the necessary procedures for exosome separation could be integrated into a single device without the need for bulky equipment. This established device is portable and easy to operate, which provides a promising platform for the study of exosome biology and clinical diagnosis.

Abstract Hollow structure LiNb3O8 photocatalysts were prepared by a hydrothermal method assisting sintering process. The particles’ aggregation to form hollow structures with obvious cavities can be attributed to the Li element volatilization during calcination process. All the LiNb3O8 powders show high photocatalytic efficiency of degradation of methylene blue (MB), especially for the sample calcined at 700 °C (LNO700), with only 3 h to completely decompose MB. The photo-degradation of MB follows the pseudo-first-order kinetics, and the obtained first-order rate is 0.97/h. The larger degradation rate of LNO700 can be attributed to its hollow structure which provides a larger specific surface area and more active sites to degrade the MB molecules. The cycling test of photo-degradation and adsorption of MB over LNO700 powder indicates that the hollow structure of the LiNb3O8 photocatalyst is stable and the LiNb3O8 photocatalyst is an efficient photocatalyst with good reusability, confirmed by the XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy tests before and after photo-degradation of MB.

Abstract The effects of Li/Nb ratio on the preparation of Li-Nb-O compounds by a hydrothermal method were studied deeply. Li/Nb ratio has a great impact on the formation of LiNbO3; the ratio smaller than 3:1 is beneficial to the formation of LiNbO3, while larger than 3:1, forms no LiNbO3 at all and the morphology and chemical bond of Nb2O5 raw material are totally modified by Li ions. The reason can be attributed to the large content of LiOH, which is beneficial to form Li3NbO4 not LiNbO3, and also, even if LiNbO3 particle locally forms, it is easily dissolved in LiOH solution with strong alkalinity. Pure LiNb3O8 powders are obtained with two absolutely opposite Li/Nb ratios: 8:1 and 1:3; the former shows a unique porous and hollow structure, quite different from the particle aggregation (the latter shows). Compared with Li/Nb = 1:3, the 4.2 times higher photocatalytic performance of LiNb3O8 (Li/Nb = 8:1) are observed and it can be attributed to the unique porous and hollow structure, which provides a high density of active sites for the degradation of MB. Compared to LiNbO3, the improved photocatalytic performance of LiNb3O8 can be attributed to its layered structure type with the reduced symmetry enhancing the separation of electrons and holes.

Abstract Porous- and hollow-structured LiNb3O8 anode material was prepared by a hydrothermal-assisted sintering strategy for the first time. The phase evolution was studied, and the formation mechanism of the porous and hollow structure was proposed. The formation of the unique structure can be attributed to the local existence of liquid phase because of the volatilization of Li element. As the anode material, the initial discharge capacity is 285.1 mAhg−1 at 0.1 C, the largest discharge capacity reported so far for LiNb3O8. Even after 50 cycles, the reversible capacity can still maintain 77.6 mAhg−1 at 0.1 C, about 2.5 times of that of LiNb3O8 samples prepared by traditional solid-state methods. The significant improvement of Li storage capacity can be attributed to the special porous and hollow structure, which provides a high density of active sites and short parallel channels for fast intercalation of Li+ ions through the surface.

Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/polycarbonate (PZT/PC) composite films with different concentration of PZT ferroelectric nanocrystals are prepared. The polarization and dielectric relaxation behavior of PZT ferroelectric nanocrystals are characterized using in situ transmittance and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements for the first time. It’s found that 10% PZT/PC composite film has the largest orientation change and negligible dielectric relaxation after poling (the φ value of 13.8% is almost constant with time even for 168 h). Based on the XRD results, we consider that the preferential orientation of PZT nanocrystals to align in PC matrix after poling is [001] direction.