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The rotational speed of the hydrodynamic shaft is the key factor affecting the performance of the hydrodynamic rotary spray dust suppression device. In order to increase the rotational speed of the hydrodynamic shaft to improve the dust suppression effect of the device, the relationship between the rotational speed of the hydrodynamic shaft and the water supply pressure, the spray amount and the internal flow field structure was studied, and the mathematical model of the correlation between the spray amount and the hydrodynamic shaft speed was obtained. The results show that the speed of hydrodynamic shaft increases with the increase of water supply pressure, but the increase rate becomes smaller. The increase rate at water pressure of 3 MPa is 35.8% of that at water pressure of 0.6 MPa. When the water supply pressure is less than 3 MPa, the speed can be directly increased by increasing the water pressure. When the water supply pressure is higher than 3 MPa, the water pressure has little effect on the speed of the hydrodynamic shaft, and the speed can be increased by improving the flow field structure of the hydrodynamic shaft to reduce local resistance.

Abstract Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a versatile technique for parallel and field-programmable control of individual droplets. Given the high level of variability in droplet manipulation, it is essential to establish self-adaptive and intelligent control methods for DMF systems that are informed by the transient state of droplets and their interactions. However, most related studies focus on droplet localization and shape recognition. In this study, we develop the AI-assisted DMF framework μDropAI for multistate droplet control on the basis of droplet morphology. The semantic segmentation model is integrated into our custom-designed DMF system to recognize the droplet states and their interactions for feedback control with a state machine. The proposed model has strong flexibility and can recognize droplets of different colors and shapes with an error rate of less than 0.63%; it enables control of droplets without user intervention. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the volumes of split droplets can be limited to 2.74%, which is lower than the CV of traditional dispensed droplets, contributing to an improvement in the precision of volume control for droplet splitting. The proposed system inspires the development of semantic-driven DMF systems that can interface with multimodal large language models (MLLMs) for fully automatic control.

As vilas urbanas são um tipo de área urbana em declínio na China, marcada por aluguéis de baixo custo e por sua localização favorável a uma população flutuante. No entanto, essas vilas apresentam condições de habitação inferiores, externalidades negativas substanciais e um elevado potencial que motiva os governos a desenvolverem ações de requalificação urbana. Este estudo explora o modelo de governança cooperativa entre a requalificação de “vilas urbanas” e a habitação da população flutuante, centrando-se no bem-estar de tais populações por meio de um estudo de caso utilizando dados de entrevistas e análise de cenários. Os resultados observados no estudo de caso mostram que um modo de requalificação adequada tem o potencial de reduzir as dificuldades habitacionais das populações flutuantes, tais como poupar até 154 minutos de tempo de deslocamento por dia de trabalho e 150 dólares em custos mensais de habitação para cada migrante. Finalmente, sugere-se que o modo de requalificação inclusivo seja adotado para todas as futuras intervenções nas vilas urbanas. Considerando as diferentes características dessas vilas e os desejos dos proprietários, o governo pode seguir o modo de requalificação que envolve “requalificação abrangente + locação unificada + gestão de propriedade” ou “aluguel governamental + sistema de previdência social + locação de habitação pública para arrendamento”.

Effectively monitoring pest-infested areas by computer vision is essential in precision agriculture in order to minimize yield losses and create early scientific preventative solutions. However, the scale variation, complex background, and dense distribution of pests bring challenges to accurate detection when utilizing vision technology. Simultaneously, supervised learning-based object detection heavily depends on abundant labeled data, which poses practical difficulties. To overcome these obstacles, in this paper, we put forward innovative semi-supervised pest detection, PestTeacher. The framework effectively mitigates the issues of confirmation bias and instability among detection results across different iterations. To address the issue of leakage caused by the weak features of pests, we propose the Spatial-aware Multi-Resolution Feature Extraction (SMFE) module. Furthermore, we introduce a Region Proposal Network (RPN) module with a cascading architecture. This module is specifically designed to generate higher-quality anchors, which are crucial for accurate object detection. We evaluated the performance of our method on two datasets: the corn borer dataset and the Pest24 dataset. The corn borer dataset encompasses data from various corn growth cycles, while the Pest24 dataset is a large-scale, multi-pest image dataset consisting of 24 classes and 25k images. Experimental results demonstrate that the enhanced model achieves approximately 80% effectiveness with only 20% of the training set supervised in both the corn borer dataset and Pest24 dataset. Compared to the baseline model SoftTeacher, our model improves mAP@0.5 (mean Average Precision) at 7.3 compared to that of SoftTeacher at 4.6. This method offers theoretical research and technical references for automated pest identification and management.

The subgenus Loxocera (Loxocera Meigen, 1803) (Diptera, Brachycera, Psilidae) in China is reviewed. Six species are recognized, including four new species: L. (L.) chikuni sp. nov., L. (L.) lonsdalei sp. nov., L. (L.) maculithorax sp. nov., and L. (L.) obscura sp. nov. Two species originally placed in the subgenus Loxocera, L. anulata Wang & Yang, 1998 and L. tianmuensis Wang & Yang, 1998, are transferred to the subgenus Loxocera (Imantimyia Frey, 1925). A key to the species of the subgenus Loxocera occurring in China is provided.

Abstract Background Nme2ABE8e has been constructed and characterized as a compact, accurate adenine base editor with a less restrictive dinucleotide protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM: N4CC) but low editing efficiency at challenging loci in human cells. Here, we engineered a subset of domain-inlaid Nme2Cas9 base editors to bring the deaminase domain closer to the nontarget strand to improve editing efficiency. Results Our results demonstrated that Nme2ABE8e-797 with adenine deaminase inserted between amino acids 797 and 798 has a significantly increased editing efficiency with a wide editing window ranging from 4 to 18 bases in mammalian cells, especially at the sites that were difficult to edit by Nme2ABE8e. In addition, by swapping the PAM-interacting domain of Nme2ABE8e-797 with that of SmuCas9 or introducing point mutations of eNme2-C in Nme2ABE8e-797, we created Nme2ABE8e-797Smu and Nme2ABE8e-797−C, respectively, which exhibited robust activities at a wide range of sites with N4CN PAMs in human cells. Moreover, the modified domain-inlaid Nme2ABE8e can efficiently restore or install disease-related loci in Neuro-2a cells and mice. Conclusions These novel Nme2ABE8es with increased on-target DNA editing and expanded PAM compatibility will expand the base editing toolset for efficient gene modification and therapeutic applications.

The species belonging to the Strongylophthalmyia coarctata subgroup of the S. punctata group (Diptera: Brachycera: Strongylophthalmyiidae) from China are reviewed. Six species are recognized, including three new species: S. corniculata sp. nov., S. flagellicornis sp. nov., and S. tangwangana sp. nov. Strongylophthalmyia narwhal Evenhuis, 2020 and S. raricornis Shatalkin, 1981 are recorded from China for the first time, and S. raricornis is also recorded from South Korea for the first time. An identification key to the Asian species of the S. coarctata subgroup is provided.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) represents the most abundant modification of messenger RNA (mRNA) and is regulated by methyltransferases (writers), demethylases (erasers), and m6A-binding proteins (readers). A dynamic modification process is implicated in nearly every critical stage of RNA metabolism, including mRNA stability, transcription, translation, splicing, nuclear export, and decay. Notably, m6A methylation is significantly enriched in the brain and has recently been shown to be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). In this review, we summarize the proteins involved in the process of m6A modification and elucidate the emerging role of m6A modification in PD, which could illuminate alternative strategies for the prevention and treatment of PD.

Three full-scale composite bridge deck segments with various steel-to-UHPC area ratios, as well as free shrinkage specimens, were tested to investigate the restrained shrinkage and cracking behaviors. Based on the measured UHPC strain and temperature, the variations in shrinkage strain were analyzed, and a time-varying analysis theory for calculating elastic modulus and shrinkage stress during UHPC curing process was proposed. The results revealed that UHPC free shrinkage strain (after 30 days) was within 700–750 με. The variation trend in UHPC elastic modulus and shrinkage stress were basically consistent the development of shrinkage strain. The shrinkage tensile stress at UHPC upper surface was approximately 2 MPa, equaling to the difference between cracking stress and axial tensile strength. Based on the free and restrained strains, a time-dependent equivalent stress method was found to be effective for calculating UHPC elastic modulus and shrinkage stress in the composite deck.

This study investigates the effectiveness of flanges with various types of stirrup and cross-sectional dimensions on the torsional behaviors of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) hollow beams. A finite element model was developed and validated for simulating the torsional behavior. The impact of the essential parameters of flanges was investigated through experimental and numerical methodologies. The results showed that the inclusion of flanges substantially influenced the torsional strength of UHPFRC hollow beams, attributed to the section torsional plastic resistance moment and UHPFRC tensile capacity in flanges. The effectiveness of flange plates was considerably influenced by the web wall thickness. The stirrup type and the increase in flange reinforcement ratio, flange width, and thickness had a favorable effect on the torsional behaviors of thick-walled UHPFRC beams but minimal effect on thin-walled UHPFRC beams. The failure of thin-walled beams was determined by the web thickness and web reinforcements.

Coal and electricity integration plays an important role in ensuring national energy security, but it still faces the challenge of carbon emission reduction. The development of in-situ CO2 sequestration and utilization technology for pithead power plants is an effective way to achieve low-carbon and efficient utilization of coal power. The preparation of foam concrete for mining using CO2 is a type of carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology featuring in-situ CO2 sequestration and utilization in pithead power plants and mine filling and sequestration. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the basic performance and carbon sequestration potential of Portland cement-based CO2 foam concrete (PC-CFC) as a mining material. In this study, PC-CFC was prepared through physical foaming and the carbonation pretreatment cement process. The influence of carbonation pretreatment time and CO2 foam content on density, strength, and carbon sequestration of PC-CFC was investigated. The experimental results showed that carbonation pretreatment could enhance the stability of CO2 foam in Portland cement and improve the CO2 foaming performance. With the extension of carbonation pretreatment time, the extend of dry density reduction decreases from 16.6% to 0.8%. A 60 min–90 min of carbonation pretreatment can achieve the best treatment performance. Carbonation pretreatment and CO2 foam can promote the degree of cement hydration, optimize the PC-CFC pore structure, and improve the compressive strength of PC-CFC. However, the PC-CFC material strength owing to the extended carbonation treatment time, which leads to well-developed vesicle distribution, has an overall decreasing trend. In addition, the 7 day (d) compressive strength of PC-CFC can reach more than 60% of the 28 d compressive strength, which has evident early strength characteristics. Extending the carbonation pretreatment time and CO2 foam content increased the PC-CFC carbon sequestration that ranged from 61.0 kg/ton to 85.7 kg/ton. The dry density of the PC-CFC material was significantly and positively correlated to the 28 d compressive strength and negatively correlated to the amount of carbon sequestration. In the case in which the best carbon sequestration effects is achieved, a single filling of the working face end can store ∼3929.31 kg of CO2; in the most economical condition, it can store ∼3642.79 kg of CO2. The conducted research provides new ideas for the low-carbon and green development of coal and electricity integration.

Breast cancer is a global health concern, emphasizing the need for early detection. However, current mammography struggles to effectively image dense breasts. Breast ultrasound can be an adjunctive method, but it is highly dependent on operator skill. Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) reflection imaging provides high-quality 3D images, but often uses delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming, which limits its image quality. This article proposes the integration of coherence-factor (CF) beamforming into ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) reflection imaging to enhance image quality. CF assesses the focus quality of beamforming by analyzing the signal coherence across different channels, assigning higher weights to high-quality focus points and thereby improving overall image quality. Numerical simulations and phantom experiments using our built USCT prototype were conducted to optimize the imaging parameters and assess and compare the image quality of CF and DAS beamforming. Numerical simulations demonstrated that CF beamforming can significantly enhance image quality. Phantom experiments with our prototype revealed that CF beamforming significantly improves image resolution (from 0.35 mm to 0.14 mm) and increases contrast ratio (from 24.54 dB to 63.28 dB). The integration of CF beamforming into USCT reflection imaging represents a substantial improvement in image quality, offering promise for enhanced breast cancer detection and imaging capabilities.

Understanding the time–space coupling characteristics of the surrounding rock temperature field in high geothermal roadways is essential for controlling heat damage in mines. However, current research primarily focuses on individually analyzing the temperature changes in the surrounding rock of roadways, either over time or space. Therefore, the Gauss–Newton iteration method is employed to model the coupling relationship between temperature, time, and space. The results demonstrate that the dual coupling function describing the temperature field of the surrounding rock in both time and space provides a more comprehensive characterization of the temperature variations. Over time, as ventilation duration increases, the fitting degree of the characteristic curve steadily rises, and the characteristic curve descends overall. In the spatial dimension, the fitting degree of the characteristic curve gradually decreases with the rise of the dimensionless radius, and the characteristic curve ascends overall. Additionally, as thermal conductivity increases, the fitting degree of the characteristic curve steadily rises.

Abstract Purpose To report the clinicopathological features and mid- to long-term oncologic results of Xp11.2 translocation/transcription factor E3 (TFE3) gene fusion renal cell carcinomas (Xp11.2 translocation RCCs) in a single large-volume centrecentre. Methods Clinical and follow-up data of 46 patients who were diagnosed with Xp11.2 translocation RCC and underwentunderwent surgical intervention were retrospectively reviewed. Result Forty-six Xp11.2 translocation RCC patients were identified from 4218 renal tumour patients who were underwentunderwent surgery in our centrecentre from Jan. 2014 to Apr. 2020. The incidence of Xp11.2 translocation RCCs in our centre was 1.09%. During a median follow-up period of 30.5 months, 4 patients died of the disease. The total median overall survival and cancer specific survival were 30.0 months and 24.0 months, respectively. The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year OS rates were 97.4%, 88.8%, and 88.8%, respectively. In multivariable analysis, displaying symptoms when diagnosed (p = 0.019), lymph node metastasis (p = 0.002) and distal metastasis (p = 0.020) were identified as risk factors for poor prognosis. Conclusion Xp11.2 translocation RCC is a type of renal cell carcinoma with a relatively low incidence and various prognoses. Early-stage Xp11.2 translocation RCCs have a similar prognosis to most typical RCCs, but late-stage Xp11.2 translocation RCCs can lead to poor oncological outcomes.

Abstract Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants is of great significance for wastewater remediation but is still hindered by the poor catalytic efficiency of the catalysts. Herein, we report a strategy to simultaneously introduce piezocatalysis and to enhance the intrinsic photocatalysis in a single catalyst, which improved the performance for catalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) significantly. Specifically, piezoelectric BiFeO3 (BFO) nanotube doped with different contents of Gd and La (Bi0.9(Gd x La1−x )0.1FeO3) were produced by electrospinning. The doping led to a higher concentration of surface oxygen vacancy (OV) in Bi0.9Gd0.07La0.03FeO3, which effectively increased the piezoelectric field due to the deformation of BFO, and suppressed the recombination of photon-generated electron-hole pairs. The Bi0.9Gd0.07La0.03FeO3 nanotube showed excellent catalytic performance under simultaneous light irradiation and ultrasonic excitation, giving an extraordinary 95% degradation of MB within 90 min. These findings suggest that the piezoelectric effect combined with defect engineering can enhance the catalytic performance of Bi0.9Gd0.07La0.03FeO3 nanotube. This could potentially be extended to other catalytic systems for high-performance pollutant treatment.

Abstract Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a lethal urinary malignancy. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) contribute to the malignant phenotype and progression of several types of human cancers, including RCC. In this study, we identified relatively low hsa_circ_0060927 (circCYP24A1) expression in RCC tissue through high-throughput sequencing and RT–qPCR. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to validate the expression and subcellular localization of circCYP24A1 in RCC tissues. CCK-8, Transwell, EdU, and wound-healing assays indicated that circCYP24A1 overexpression inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of RCC cells. Dual-luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), FISH, and RNA-pulldown assays verified that circCYP24A1 inhibited RCC progression by sponging miR-421, thus inducing CMTM-4 expression. Xenograft assays and metastasis models further indicated that circCYP24A1 significantly inhibited the metastasis and proliferation of RCC cells in vivo. Taken together, circCYP24A1 is a prognosis-related circRNA in RCC that functions through the circCYP24A1/miR-421/CMTM-4 axis to modulate RCC progression.

Knowledge graph technology has important guiding significance for efficient and orderly fault diagnosis of robot transmission system. Taking the historical robot maintenance logs of robot transmission system as the research object, a top-down fault diagnosis event logic knowledge graph construction method is proposed. Firstly, we define event arguments of fault phenomenon and fault cause events, define event argument classes and relation between classes, and construct an event logic knowledge ontology model. According to the event logic knowledge ontology, the fault diagnosis event argument entity and relation in the corpus are labeled, and an event logic knowledge extraction dataset is formed. Secondly, an event argument entity and relation joint extraction model is proposed. Using stacked bidirectional long short-term memory(BiLSTM) to obtain deep context features of text. As a supplement to stacked BiLSTM, self-attention mechanism extracts character dependency features from multiple subspaces, and uses conditional random field(CRF) to realize entity recognition. The character dependency features are mapped to the entity label weight embedding, and spliced with deep context features to extract relations. Bidirectional graph convolutional network(BiGCN) is introduced for relation inference, graph convolution features are used to update deep context features to perform joint extraction in the second phase. Experimental results show that this method can improve the effect of event argument entity and relation joint extraction and is better than other methods. Finally, an event logic knowledge graph of robot transmission system fault diagnosis is constructed, which provides decision support for autonomous fault diagnosis of robot transmission system.

Abstract Graphene provides thermal and electrical conductivity to polymer composites, which significantly improves the properties of heat dissipation and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. However, due to the low concentration and stability of graphene dispersion, its industrial application is greatly hindered. In this work, graphite nanosheet (GNS) paste was successfully fabricated from the expanded graphite through wet ball‐milling technology in a one pot process. The ultrahigh GNS concentration is up to 59.4 mg mL−1, and exhibits high stability for 6 months. Furthermore, the average thickness of GNS is less than 10 layers. The GNS paste could mix uniformly with polymer dispersion to obtain large‐area and flexible films by the doctor‐blading process. The composites containing 80 wt% GNS exhibit layered structure, leading to high thermal conductivities with an in‐plane value of 71.18 W m−1 K, far surpassing the pristine polymer material (0.19 W m−1 K), and reveal an efficient total electromagnetic shielding (SEtot≈ 45 dB in the range of 8.2 to 12.4 GHz). This work provides a direct route to prepare composites with high thermal conductivity and EMI shielding from ultrahigh concentration GNS paste.

Abstract Background Many upper respiratory pathogens cause similar symptoms. In China, routine molecular tests for upper respiratory pathogens are not widely performed and antibiotics abuse in treating upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) is a major public health concern. Methods We performed qualitative real-time PCR tests to detect common upper respiratory tract pathogens including 9 viruses and 3 bacteria in 1221 nasopharyngeal swabs from patients with fever and influenza-like symptoms in a Chinese city. A quantitative real-time PCR was also performed to measure the bacterial density of the colonizing Streptococcus pneumoniae in these samples. Results We found very diverse pathogens including 81.7% viruses, 11.6% bacteria and 6.7% mixed viruses and bacteria. S. pneumoniae colonization was found in 8.0% of the cases but most of them had low bacterial density (Mean = 3.9 log cfu/ml). We also discovered an increase of S. pneumoniae colonization frequency (but not the density) in patients with detectable upper respiratory tract pathogens, in a pathogen variety-dependent manner. Conclusions Our study provided strong evidence against empiric antibiotic use for treating URTIs, and highlighted a strong need for improving the diagnostic capacity for URTIs by using more molecular testing in China.

Photothermal therapy is a promising treating method for cancers since it is safe and easily controllable. Black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets have drawn tremendous attention as a novel biodegradable thermotherapy material, owing to their excellent biocompatibility and photothermal properties. In this study, silk fibroin (SF) was used to exfoliate BP with long-term stability and good solution-processability. Then, the prepared BP@SF was introduced into fibrous membranes by electrospinning, together with SF and polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA). The SF/PLGA/BP@SF membranes had relatively smooth and even fibers and the maximum stress was 2.92 MPa. Most importantly, the SF/PLGA/BP@SF membranes exhibited excellent photothermal properties, which could be controlled by the BP@SF content and near infrared (NIR) light power. The temperature of SF/PLGA/BP@SF composite membrane was increased by 15.26 °C under NIR (808 nm, 2.5 W/cm2) irradiation for 10 min. The photothermal property of SF/PLGA/BP@SF membranes significantly killed the HepG2 cancer cells in vitro, indicating its good potential for application in local treatment of cancer.

Psilidae (Diptera: Brachycera) is a moderate-sized family currently placed in the superfamily Diopsoidea and contains some destructive agricultural and forestry pests. The systematic position and intrafamilial classification of rust flies are in need of further study, and the available molecular data of Psilidae are still limited. In this study, we present the mitochondrial genomes of 6 Psilidae species (Chamaepsilatestudinaria Wang and Yang, Chyliza bambusae Wang and Yang, Chy. chikuni Wang, Loxocera lunata Wang and Yang, L. planivena Wang and Yang and L. sinica Wang and Yang). Comparative analyses show a conserved genome structure, in terms of gene composition and arrangement, and a highly Adenine plus Thymine biased nucleotide composition of the 6 psilid mitogenomes. Mitochondrial evolutionary rates vary among the 6 species, with species of Chylizinae exhibiting a slower average rate than species of Psilinae. The length, the nucleotide composition, and the copy number of repeat units of the control region are variable among the 6 species, which may offer useful information for phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of Psilidae. Phylogenetic analyses based on 4 mitogenomic datasets (AA, PCG, PCG12RNA, and PCGRNA) support the monophyly of Psilidae, and the sister relationship between Chylizinae and Psilinae, while Diopsoidea is suggested to be non-monophyletic. Our study enlightens the future application of mitogenomic data in the phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of Psilidae, based on denser taxon sampling.

Glued-laminated timber arches are widely used in gymnasiums, bridges, and roof trusses. However, studies on their mechanical behaviours and design methods are still insufficient. This paper investigates the in-plane loading capacity of circular glued-laminated timber arches made of Douglas fir. Experiments were conducted on four timber-arch models with different rise-to-span ratios under concentrated loads at mid-span and quarter-point locations. The structural responses, failure modes, and loading capacity of the timber arch specimens were obtained. The results show that the timber arches presented symmetric and antisymmetric deformation under mid-point and quarter-point loading conditions, respectively. The downward shifting of the neutral axis of the cross section was observed under mid-point loading condition, which contributes to higher loading capacity compared to that under quarter-point loading condition. The loading condition significantly affects the ultimate loads and the strain distribution in the cross section. Based on the design formula in current standards for timber structures, an equivalent beam-column method was introduced to estimate the loading capacity of the laminated timber arches under vertical concentrated loads. The moment amplification factor in the formula was compared and discussed, and the value provided in the National Design Specification for Wood Construction was recommended with acceptable accuracy.

The subgenus Empis (Xanthempis) is newly recorded from South Korea with the following two species: E. (X.) sesquata (Ito, 1961) and E. (X.) suhi sp. n. A key to the known species of Xanthempis from Eastern Asia is presented. The distribution of Xanthempis in eastern Asia is briefly discussed.

We report a rare case of culture negative L4-L5 discitis and epidural abscess in an immunocompetent child who had dry cupping therapy performed to treat low back strain. The causative pathogen was identified as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia by shotgun metagenomic sequencing of spinal cord aspirate after more than one month of unsuccessful empirical treatment with 6 different antibiotics. The patient was successfully treated with Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim and minocycline. Cupping therapy is a very popular medical procedure widely used in China, but the potential risk for severe infections such as discitis and epidural abscess described in this case should be recognized. Keywords: Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Discitis, Epidural abscess, Shotgun metagenomic sequencing, Dry cupping therapy

Population urbanization is crucial to establishing a harmonious society. However, the phenomenon of population semi-urbanization is becoming an issue of ever-increasing concern in China. More and more immigrants from rural areas work and live in the city, but their roots remain in the rural area. This paper aims to analyze the influence mechanism of government competition on population semi-urbanization through land supply structure. The study’s theoretical analysis and empirical analysis results are based on the panel data of 105 key prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2017. The results demonstrate that: (1) land finance and land-motivated investment engendered by government competition lead to an imbalance in the land price structure, further increasing the rate of population semi-urbanization; (2) land finance does not lead to population semi-urbanization through the land area structure; and (3) land-motivated investment aggravates the imbalance in the land area structure, further leading to population semi-urbanization. It is found that government competition in terms of achieving performance indicators affects population semi-urbanization by adjusting the land supply structure. Efforts should be made to achieve the coordinated development of urbanization, given that the increasing rate of population semi-urbanization will almost certainly aggravate social instability.

The mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Nothybus sumatranus is described in the present paper, representing the first mitogenome reported from the family Nothybidae. The nearly complete mitochondrial genome is 16,128 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and two rRNA genes. Genome organization, nucleotide composition and codon usage of the mitogenome are noted, and secondary structures of all tRNAs are predicted. The sister relationship between Diopsoidea and Nerioidea was supported by the phylogenetic tree based on Bayesian inference (BI) method.

The dance fly Chelipoda sp. belongs to the subfamily Hemerodromiinae of Empididae. The mitogenome (GenBank accession number: MT396991) of Chelipoda sp. was sequenced, the first representative of the mitogenome of the subfamily. The nearly complete mitogenome is 14,976 bp totally, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, and 22 transfer RNAs. All genes have the similar locations and strands compared with that of other published species of Empididae. The nucleotide composition biases toward A and T, which together made up 77.2％of the entirety. Bayesian inference analysis strongly supported the monophyly of Empidoidea, Empididae and Dolichopodidae. The phylogenetic relationship within Empidoidea is as follows: (Dolichopodinae + Neurigoninae) + (((Empidinae + Hemerodromiinae) + (Trichopezinae + Oreogetoninae)) + Ocydromiinae) in this study.

The mitochondrial genome of Prosthiochaeta sp. was sequenced and annotated as a new representative of family Platystomatidae. The nearly complete mitochondrial genome of Prosthiochaeta sp. is 16,169 bp totally, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, and 22 transfer RNAs, which gene frame is similar with other dipteran mitogenomes. The nucleotide composition biases toward A and T is 70.8% of the entirety. IQ-tree analysis revealed that Tephritoidea including Prosthiochaeta sp. was monophyletic as a sister group to Opomyzoidea and Syrphoidea. Tephritoidea as well as Syrphoidea and Opomyzoidea were nested in Ephydroidea, while Lauxanioidea and Sciomyzoidea were assigned to be sister groups. Platypezoidea was monophyletic as a basal clade of phylogenetic tree.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and its biofilms infection is still a serious threat to global health. It is urgent to develop efficient drugs by repositioning or designing drugs to solve this problem. In this study, the antibacterial/biofilm activity and mechanisms of ivermectin (D) and its 4″-position amino substitution derivative (D4) against MRSA were investigated. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of D was 20 μg/mL, which is four times higher than D4 (MIC = 5 μg/mL). The mechanism research demonstrated that D4 was more potent than D at destroying bacterial cell wall, permeating cell membrane (6.25–36.0% vs 1.92–6.04%) and binding to MRSA genomic DNA. Moreover, after incubation with 10–40 μg/mL D4 for 24 h, the percentages of biofilm decreased by 21.2–92.9%, which was more effective than D (no significant change at 40 μg/mL). The antibiofilm effect is achieved by regulating the expression of related genes (RSH, relQ, rsbU, sigB, spA, and icaD). Additionally, though the higher hemolysis makes D4 a safety risk for intravenous injection, other administration options could be considered as well. Therefore, all the results have indicated that D4 may be a potential candidate compound for the treatment of MRSA and its biofilm infections.

The dance fly Trichoclinocera yixianensis Li et Yang belongs to the subfamily Clinocerinae of Empididae. The mitogenome of T. yixianensis was sequenced, the first representative of the mitogenome of the subfamily. The nearly complete mitogenome is 15,595 bp totally, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, and 22 transfer RNAs. All genes have the similar locations and strands with that of other published species of Empididae. The nucleotide composition biases toward A and T, which together made up 80.1% of the entirety. Bayesian inference analysis strongly supported the monophyly of Empididae and Dolichopodidae. It suggested that Empididae is the sister group to the clade of Dolichopodidae and Empidinae is the sister group to the clade of Clinocerinae + Trichopezinae.

A new single-phase transformerless current source inverter is proposed in this paper. The proposed inverter can achieve leakage current reduction, which is crucial for the conventional current source inverter. The basic concept of the proposed solution is to develop the new inverter by the duality principle from the voltage source inverter. The theoretical analysis is carried out to determine the switching states of the proposed inverter for the leakage current reduction. Also, a new modulation strategy is presented to achieve the optimized switching states. Finally, the experimental results are presented. Comparing with conventional single-phase current source inverter, the leakage current can be significantly reduced by the proposed inverter, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

Nanopore has developed into an indispensable tool for single molecules experiments, where useful information about the characteristics of DNA/RNA can be obtained from the flowing of ionic current elicited by individual molecules as they traverse a single nanometer-scale aperture. However, due to the relatively high background current noise and low measurement bandwidth, it is difficult to distinguish the molecule-specific signals from the intrinsic noises of the nanopore recording systems, which impeded its application in DNA sequencing. In this paper, we present a novel consensus filter-based noise reduction approach, which considerably improves the accuracy of the noise-filtered current traces and the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The new approach is compared to the conventional Bessel filters and validated by analyzing simulated representative translocation data as well as alpha-Hemolysin (α-HL) nanopore experimental data. It is demonstrated that the high frequency noise generated by the voltage noise of the amplifier and Analog-to-Digital converter circuits (ADC) can be significantly reduced and some hidden short-lived translocation events can be recovered with satisfying accuracy beyond the conventional limitations of the Bessel filters.

The blue osmotic energy harvesting based on the nanofiber-based layered membranes has received tremendous attention. However, the most nanofiber-based ion-selective membranes are suffering from uneconomical, environmentally unfriendly characteristics and a long growth cycle, as well as insufficient power density. In this work, kelp cellulose nanofibers (KCNFs) from green and inexpensive kelp with short growth cycle are compounded with hydrophilic MXene nanosheets to prepare KCNF/MXene nanofluidic membranes. Notably, the KCNF/MXene-40 (40 is the mass fraction of KCNF) membrane with an aligned nacre-like nanostructure achieves 3.03-fold increase in mechanical strength compared to the pure MXene membrane. The ingenious combination of the surface charge of the MXene nanosheets and the space charge formed by negatively charged KCNFs endows the KCNF/MXene-40 membrane with enhanced cation selectivity (≈0.85), high energy conversion efficiency of 24.04% and high power density of 66.23 W m[sup -2] in a 500-fold concentration gradient, which has exceeded most reported state-of-the-art 2D nanofluidic membranes. More importantly, the membrane exhibits the exceptional long-term stability with relatively unchanged power density within 6000 s. Under the conditions of the natural seawater and simulated river water, the KCNF/MXene-based generator deliveries an output power density of ≈10.56 W m[sup -2]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal models are extensively used in all aspects of biomedical research, with substantial contributions to our understanding of diseases, the development of pharmaceuticals, and the exploration of gene functions. The field of genome modification in rabbits has progressed slowly. However, recent advancements, particularly in CRISPR/Cas9-related technologies, have catalyzed the successful development of various genome-edited rabbit models to mimic diverse diseases, including cardiovascular disorders, immunodeficiencies, agingrelated ailments, neurological diseases, and ophthalmic pathologies. These models hold great promise in advancing biomedical research due to their closer physiological and biochemical resemblance to humans compared to mice. This review aims to summarize the novel gene-editing approaches currently available for rabbits and present the applications and prospects of such models in biomedicine, underscoring their impact and future potential in translational medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]