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Abstract Plant height is a critical agronomic trait closely linked to yield, primarily regulated by Gibberellins (GA) and auxins, which interact in complex ways. However, the mechanism underlying their interactions remain incompletely understood. In this study, we identified a tomato mutant exhibiting significantly reduced plant height. Through gene cloning and bulked segregant analysis (BSA) sequencing, we found that the mutant gene corresponds to the tomato auxin response factor gene SlARF5/MP. Here, we show that overexpression of SlARF5/MP significantly enhances plant height. Additionally, treatment with GA3 restored the plant height of the mutant to wild-type (WT) levels, indicating that GA content is a key factor influencing plant height. We also observed significant upregulation of GA-biosynthesis genes, including GA2-oxidases GA20ox3 and GA20ox4, as well as the GA3 biosynthesis gene GA3ox1, in SlARF5-overexpressing plants. Furthermore, we demonstrated that SlARF5 directly binds to SlGA2ox3, which mediates the conversion of GA3 to inactive GA, therebyregulating its expression. Our findings suggest that SlARF5 modulates GA3 metabolism by regulating GA synthesis genes, ultimately leading to alterations in plant height.

The all-d-metal Ni–Mn–Ti Heusler alloy with its good mechanical properties and colossal caloric effects has attracted significant attention for mechanocaloric refrigeration. However, the phase stability of the B2-type disordered structure at finite temperatures and the physical origin of large phase transformation entropy change in theoretical calculation remain unclear. In view of thermal and strongly anharmonic effects, we combined the first-principles and temperature dependent effective potential calculations to systematically study the phase stability, martensitic transformation mechanism, and vibrational entropy properties of B2 partial disordered structures for Ni8Mn5Ti3 and Ni8Mn6Ti2. Our results showed the austenitic structures of Ni8Mn5Ti3 and Ni8Mn6Ti2 both exhibit antiferromagnetic interaction behaviors at targeted temperatures, resolving the contradiction between previous calculations and experiments. By the analysis of phonon dispersion relations and Helmholtz free energies at low and high temperatures, we provided a deeper explanation for the underlying mechanism of martensitic transformation. Meanwhile, the phase transformation temperatures and vibrational entropy changes were accurately predicted compared with the experiment results. Specifically, we demonstrated that the large vibrational entropy change of Ni–Mn–Ti material originates from the contributions of both the tetragonal distortion ratio and volume change, which provides important theoretical guidance and has great practical significance for designing the solid-state material with large vibrational entropy change in the application of solid-state refrigeration.

Abstract Recently, the Visual Image Transformer (ViT) has revolutionized various domains in computer vision. The transfer of pre‐trained ViT models on large‐scale datasets has proven to be a promising method for downstream tasks. However, traditional transfer methods introduce numerous additional parameters in transformer blocks, posing new challenges in learning downstream tasks. This article proposes an efficient transfer method from the perspective of neural Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) to address this issue. On the one hand, the residual connections in the transformer layers can be interpreted as the numerical integration of differential equations. Therefore, the transformer block can be described as two explicit Euler method equations. By dynamically learning the step size in the explicit Euler equation, a highly lightweight method for transferring the transformer block is obtained. On the other hand, a new learnable neural memory ODE block is proposed by taking inspiration from the self‐inhibition mechanism in neural systems. It increases the diversity of dynamical behaviours of the neurons to transfer the head block efficiently and enhances non‐linearity simultaneously. Experimental results in image classification demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively transfer ViT models and outperform state‐of‐the‐art methods.

Abstract Greenspaces are important for sustaining healthy urban environments and their human populations. Yet their capacity to support multiple ecosystem services simultaneously (multiservices) compared with nearby natural ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We conducted a global field survey in 56 urban areas to investigate the influence of urban greenspaces on 23 soil and plant attributes and compared them with nearby natural environments. We show that, in general, urban greenspaces and nearby natural areas support similar levels of soil multiservices, with only six of 23 attributes (available phosphorus, water holding capacity, water respiration, plant cover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and arachnid richness) significantly greater in greenspaces, and one (available ammonium) greater in natural areas. Further analyses showed that, although natural areas and urban greenspaces delivered a similar number of services at low (>25% threshold) and moderate (>50%) levels of functioning, natural systems supported significantly more functions at high (>75%) levels of functioning. Management practices (mowing) played an important role in explaining urban ecosystem services, but there were no effects of fertilisation or irrigation. Some services declined with increasing site size, for both greenspaces and natural areas. Our work highlights the fact that urban greenspaces are more similar to natural environments than previously reported and underscores the importance of managing urban greenspaces not only for their social and recreational values, but for supporting multiple ecosystem services on which soils and human well-being depends.

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the link between retinal vein occlusion (RVO), a blinding ocular condition, and alterations in gut microbiota composition, to offer insights into the pathogenesis of RVO. Fecal samples from 25 RVO patients and 11 non-RVO individuals were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Significant differences in the abundance of gut microbial species were noted between RVO and non-RVO groups. At the phylum level, the RVO group showed an elevation in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes. At the genus level, the RVO group showed higher abundance in Escherichia_Shigella (P < 0.05) and less abundance in Parabacteroides (P < 0.01) than the non-RVO group. Functional predictions indicated reduced folate synthesis, biotin metabolism, and oxidative phosphorylation, with an increase in butyric acid metabolism in the RVO group. LC-MS analysis showed significant differences in purine metabolism, ABC transporters, and naphthalene degradation pathways, especially purine metabolism. Pearson correlation analysis revealed significant associations between bacterial genera and fecal metabolites. Enrichment analysis highlighted connections between specific metabolites and bacterial genera. The findings showed that the dysregulation of gut microbiota was observed in RVO patients, suggesting the gut microbiota as a potential therapeutic target. Modulating the gut microbiota could be a novel strategy for managing RVO and improving patient outcomes. Furthermore, the study findings suggest the involvement of gut microbial dysbiosis in RVO development, underscoring the significance of understanding its pathogenesis for effective treatment development.IMPORTANCERetinal vein occlusion (RVO) is a blinding ocular condition, and understanding its pathogenesis is crucial for developing effective treatments. This study demonstrates significant differences in gut microbiota composition between RVO patients and non-RVO individuals, implicating the involvement of gut microbial dysbiosis in RVO development. Functional predictions and metabolic profiling provide insights into the underlying mechanisms, highlighting potential pathways for therapeutic intervention. These findings suggest that modulating the gut microbiota might be a promising strategy for managing RVO and improving patient outcomes.

Abstract The C-C motif chemokine receptor 8 (CCR8) is a class A G-protein coupled receptor that has emerged as a promising therapeutic target in cancer. Targeting CCR8 with an antibody has appeared to be an attractive therapeutic approach, but the molecular basis for chemokine-mediated activation and antibody-mediated inhibition of CCR8 are not fully elucidated. Here, we obtain an antagonist antibody against human CCR8 and determine structures of CCR8 in complex with either the antibody or the endogenous agonist ligand CCL1. Our studies reveal characteristic antibody features allowing recognition of the CCR8 extracellular loops and CCL1-CCR8 interaction modes that are distinct from other chemokine receptor - ligand pairs. Informed by these structural insights, we demonstrate that CCL1 follows a two-step, two-site binding sequence to CCR8 and that antibody-mediated inhibition of CCL1 signaling can occur by preventing the second binding event. Together, our results provide a detailed structural and mechanistic framework of CCR8 activation and inhibition that expands our molecular understanding of chemokine - receptor interactions and offers insight into the development of therapeutic antibodies targeting chemokine GPCRs.

Descurainia sophia L. Webb ex Prantl is used in traditional medicine globally. However, the lack of an efficient and reliable genetic transformation system has seriously limited the investigation of gene function and further utilization of D. sophia. In this study, a highly efficient, time-saving, and cost-effective Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation system has been developed in D. sophia. In this method, the transformation was accomplished by simply dipping developing D. sophia inflorescences for 45 s into an Agrobacterium suspension (OD600 = 0.6) containing 5% sucrose and 0.03% (v/v) Silwet L-77. Treated plants were allowed to set seeds which were then plated on a selective medium with hygromycin B (HygB) to screen transformants. Additionally, the CRISPR/Cas9 genomic editing system was validated by targeting phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene using this floral dip method, and mutant plants with the expected albino phenotype could be obtained in 2.5 months. This genetic transformation and targeted editing system will be a valuable tool for routine investigation of gene function and further exploitation in D. sophia.

In this research, a new eco-friendly collagen polypeptide-based foaming agent (CPFC) was prepared via a hydrophobic grafting modification of the collagen polypeptide (CP) from oily acrylic resin, in which the CP was extracted from leather wastes. The molecular structure of CPFC was characterized by FTIR, TGA, XRD, and laser particle size tests. The results showed that the oily acrylic acid molecular chain segments effectively copolymerized with CP, improving the hydrophilic and lipophilic balance of CP molecules. Given the increase of acrylic resin content in CPFC, the surface tension of CPFC at the critical micelle concentration gradually decreased and tended toward the critical value (30 mN/m). The foamability and foaming multiple of 9-CPFC and 7-CPFC reached 535 mL and 31.89 times, respectively. Next, we prepared a CPFC-based foam concrete with a dry density of 500 Kg/m3 via compounding a mechanical CPFC foaming agent with concrete. The resulting CPFC-based foam concrete was then characterized using a universal testing machine, thermal conductivity meter, ultra-depth 3d microscope, and other analysis techniques. The results indicated that the 5-CPFC foam concrete possessed good foam stability and compatibility. Moreover, the pore size distribution of the foam concrete was uniform, showing a less stringy pore structure, and the water absorption rate and thermal conductivity levels were 27.8 % and 0.61 W/m·K, respectively. The compressive strength of cement was approximately 1.37 MPa, which exceeds the national standard. Moreover, it was found that the CPFC possessed certain retarding properties that were similar to cement, suggesting that it is a highly suitable additive for foam concrete.

S32750 dual-phase stainless steel (DSS) wires were prepared by cold drawing with a strain of ε = 0~3.6. The mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution of these DSS wires at different strains were investigated. Specifically, the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of a S32750 DSS wire at a strain of ε = 3.6 reached 1771 MPa and 1952 MPa, respectively. The microstructure of the wire was transformed into a heterogeneous microstructure, which consisted of ferrite fiber grains and a nanofibrous grain structure consisting of austenite and strain-induced martensite nanofiber grains. A sub-grain structure was observed inside the ferrite fiber. The austenitic phase followed the evolutionary steps of stacking faults, twinning, ε-martensite, α-martensite, and, finally, austenite, before transitioning into a nanofibrous grain structure. This nanofibrous grain structure significantly contributed to the strength compared with the relatively coarse ferrite phase.

Abstract Machine learning (ML) has been extensively involved in assistant disease diagnosis and prediction systems to emancipate the serious dependence on medical resources and improve healthcare quality. Moreover, with the booming of pre-training language models (PLMs), the application prospect and promotion potential of machine learning methods in the relevant field have been further inspired. PLMs have recently achieved tremendous success in diverse text processing tasks, whereas limited by the significant semantic gap between the pre-training corpus and the structured electronic health records (EHRs), PLMs cannot converge to anticipated disease diagnosis and prediction results. Unfortunately, establishing connections between PLMs and EHRs typically requires the extraction of curated predictor variables from structured EHR resources, which is tedious and labor-intensive, and even discards vast implicit information.In this work, we propose an Input Prompting and Discriminative language model with the Mixture-of-experts framework (IPDM) by promoting the model’s capabilities to learn knowledge from heterogeneous information and facilitating the feature-aware ability of the model. Furthermore, leveraging the prompt-tuning mechanism, IPDM can inherit the impacts of the pre-training in downstream tasks exclusively through minor modifications. IPDM remarkably outperforms existing models, proved by experiments on one disease diagnosis task and two disease prediction tasks. Finally, experiments with few-feature and few-sample demonstrate that IPDM achieves significant stability and impressive performance in predicting chronic diseases with unclear early-onset characteristics or sudden diseases with insufficient data, which verifies the superiority of IPDM over existing mainstream methods, and reveals the IPDM can powerfully address the aforementioned challenges via establishing a stable and low-resource medical diagnostic system for various clinical scenarios.

Abstract The ARR3 gene, also known as cone arrestin, belongs to the arrestin family and is expressed in cone cells, inactivating phosphorylated-opsins and preventing cone signals. Variants of ARR3 reportedly cause X-linked dominant female-limited early-onset (age A, p.Tyr76*) in ARR3 gene that can cause early-onset high myopia (eoHM) limited to female carriers. Protan/deutan color vision defects were also found in family members, affecting both genders. Using ten years of clinical follow-up data, we identified gradually worsening cone dysfunction/color vision as a key feature among affected individuals. We present a hypothesis that higher visual contrast due to the mosaic of mutated ARR3 expression in cones contributes to the development of myopia in female carriers.

CoS2 can meet the strict requirements of high probability output capacity and high energy output capacity of thermal batteries in modern weaponry thanks to its advantages of low resistivity and high thermal decomposition temperature combined with a full Li+ conductive electrolyte. Nevertheless, CoS2 has the limitations of a low voltage platform and theorical capacity. In this case, Fe and Ni are doped into the CoS2 lattice through low-temperature solid-phase sintering to synthesize Fe0.1Co0.8Ni0.1S2 with a single-phase structure. Fe0.1Co0.8Ni0.1S2 generated by the solid phase method has higher thermal stability, which can reduce the high temperature thermal shock at the immediate start of the thermal battery and assure the safety of the thermal battery in operation. Meanwhile, the mass loss of Fe0.1Co0.8Ni0.1S2 at 615 °C is only 5 %, allowing it to discharge at the maximum effective mass at the normal operating temperature(∼500 °C). Because of the synergistic action of Fe2+, Ni2+, and Co2+ in the discharge process, the discharge voltage of CoS2 increases significantly, giving CoS2 higher specific energy. The simultaneous boost in specific energy and specific capacity indicates that doping has been highly successful in modifying CoS2, making CoS2 more appropriate for the use of high current and long-life thermal cell systems.

AbstractLow nutrient availability in sandy soils is a serious threat to crop productivity. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of cotton-sticks biochar, sugarcane press-mud, and vegetable compost on soil chemical properties and chickpea yield in sandy soils. Two chickpea varieties, Bittal-2016 and Noor-2019, were grown in soil amended with cotton-sticks biochar at 10 and 15 Mg ha−1; sugarcane press-mud at 10 and 15 Mg ha−1; vegetable compost at 10 and 15 Mg ha−1; cotton-sticks biochar at 10 and 15 Mg ha−1 plus loaded with Fe/Zn including no amendment. Cotton-sticks biochar at 15 Mg ha−1 loaded with Fe/Zn significantly increased chlorophyll (48.40), N (3.1, 2.5, and 3.9%), P (1.13%, 1.10, and 1.4%), and K (1.44, 2.26, and 1.27%) in root, shoot, and grains of var. Noor-2019. Soil amended with vegetable compost at 10 Mg ha−1 and Fe/Zn-loaded biochar at 15 Mg ha−1 exhibited a marked increase in shoot length (43.2 cm), root length (25.8 cm), root fresh weight (8.0 g), pods per plant (34), 100-grain weight (32.7 g), and grain yield (25.9 g) for var. Noor-2019. Amended soil with Fe/Zn-loaded biochar at 10 Mg ha−1 depicted a remarkable increase in soil EC, pH, OM, and N by 2.12 dS m−1, 8.4, 0.67% and 0.20%, respectively. Conclusively, Fe/Zn-loaded cotton-sticks biochar at 15 Mg ha−1 and vegetable compost at 10 Mg ha−1 effectively improved the soil chemical properties, nutrient uptake, and yield of var. Noor-2019. Hence, cotton-sticks biochar could be used as eco-friendly approach for improving chickpea production in coarse-textured soils.

Abstract Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes) across the globe. We reveal that human influence explained many forms of soil contamination worldwide. Socio-economic factors were integral to explaining the occurrence of soil contaminants worldwide. We further show that increased levels of multiple soil contaminants were linked with changes in microbial traits including genes associated with environmental stress resistance, nutrient cycling, and pathogenesis. Taken together, our work demonstrates that human-driven soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces globally, and highlights that soil contaminants have the potential to cause dire consequences for ecosystem sustainability and human wellbeing.

Abstract The study is to evaluate the performance of ocular biometric measures and uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) for detecting myopia among Chinese students. Among 5- to 18-year-old Chinese students from two cities of China, trained eye-care professionals performed assessment of ocular biometrics (axial length (AL), corneal curvature radius (CR), anterior chamber depth) under noncycloplegic conditions using NIDEK Optical Biometer AL-Scan, distance visual acuity using retro-illuminated logMAR chart with tumbling-E optotypes, and cycloplegic refractive error using NIDEK autorefractor with administration of 0.5% tropicamide. Spherical equivalent (SER) in diopters (D) was calculated as sphere plus half cylinder, and myopia was defined as SER ≤ − 0.5 D. Performances of ocular biometrics and UCVA (individually and in combination) for detecting myopia were evaluated using sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, and area under ROC curve (AUC) in both development dataset and validation dataset. Among 3436 students (mean age 9.7 years, 51% female), the mean (SD) cycloplegic SER was − 0.20 (2.18) D, and 1269 (36.9%) had myopia. Cycloplegic SER was significantly correlated with AL (Pearson Correlation coefficient r = − 0.82), AL/CR ratio (r = − 0.90), and UCVA (r = 0.79), but was not correlated with CR (r = 0.02, p = 0.15). The AL/CR ratio detected myopia with AUC 0.963 (95% CI 0.957–0.969) and combination with UCVA improved the AUC to 0.976 (95% CI 0.971–0.981). Using age-specific AL/CR cutoff (> 3.00 for age 3.06 for 10–14 years, > 3.08 for ≥ 15 years) as myopia positive, the sensitivity and specificity were 87.0% (95% CI 84.4–89.6%) and 87.8% (86.0–89.6%), respectively, in the development dataset and 86.4% (95% CI 83.7–89.1%) and 89.4% (95% CI 87.3–91.4%), respectively, in the validation dataset. Combining AL/CR and UCVA (worse than 20/32 for age

To address the heat transfer degradation that occurs in the top section of horizontal pipes when sCO2 fluid flows are heated, the upper half wall with higher temperatures is particularly roughened using uniform sand-grain roughness. The SST k−ω model is validated and used to simulate the horizontal sCO2 heat transfer involving a variety of operating parameters and roughness heights. Results indicate that the half-roughen scheme is effective in significantly reducing higher temperatures of the entire upper wall and improving heat transfer homogeneity. The roughness height plays a crucial role, and an optimal value exists, which is largely influenced by the buoyancy strength and its local variations of horizontal sCO2 flows under different conditions.

Due to the limited wear resistance, AISI 1045 steel has limited applications in harsh environments, and the friction effect leads to premature scrapping. In order to improve the mechanical properties of AISI1045 steel, in this study, WC-Co particles reinforced AISI 1045 steel composites were produced by selective laser melting (SLM), and mainly focused on the influence of laser line energy density (LED) on the microstructure and mechanical properties in detail. The Vickers hardness test and rotational friction test were conducted to determine the Vickers hardness and friction resistance properties of composites. Results demonstrated that the SLM 500 J/m WC-Co/AISI 1045 steel composites possesses higher Vickers hardness and wear resistance compared to that of other samples owing to the finer grains and higher relative density. Herein, the wear mechanism and the binding interface of the SLM composites was also deeply discussed in this paper.

Roots are the main organs through which plants absorb water and nutrients. As the key phytohormone involved in root growth, auxin functions in plant environmental responses by modulating auxin synthesis, distribution and polar transport. The Arabidopsis thaliana trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase gene AtTPPI can improve root architecture, and tppi1 mutants have significantly shortened primary roots. However, the mechanism underlying the short roots of the tppi1 mutant and the upstream signaling pathway and downstream genes regulated by AtTPPI are unclear. Here, we demonstrated that the AtTPPI gene could promote auxin accumulation in AtTPPI-overexpressing plants. By comparing the transcriptomic data of tppi1 and wild-type roots, we found several upregulations of auxin-related genes, including GH3.3, GH3.9 and GH3.12, may play an important role in the AtTPPI gene-mediated auxin transport signaling pathway, ultimately leading to changes in auxin content and primary root length. Moreover, increased AtTPPI expression can regulate primary root growth and lateral root elongation under different concentration of nitrate conditions. Overall, constitutive expression of AtTPPI increased auxin contents and improved lateral root elongation, constituting a new method for improving the nitrogen utilization efficiency of plants.

It has been generally accepted that the Permian shale is an important target for shale oil and gas exploration. In order to precisely predict the distribution of potential excellent source rocks of shale oil and gas, it is necessary to reveal the forming process and mechanism of high-quality source rocks, such as the Dalong Formation in the Scihuan Basin. In this study, 17 samples were collected from the Dalong Formation in Longfeng Quarry, Northwest Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province. The lithofacies, organic geochemistry, and pyrolysis of these samples were analyzed to evaluate the main factors controllingthe source rock formation. In particular, the influences of hydrothermal and paleoenvironmental conditions on the accumulation of organic matter were analyzed. The total organic carbon (TOC) content of the samples, which ranges from 0.05% to 12.21%, is closely related to the lithology. High TOC has been generally observed in rock intervals developed in a deep-water sedimentary environment, including siliceous rock, dark shale, and siliceous shale. The peak pyrolysis temperature of the samples ranges from 444°C to 462°C, indicating a mature stage. Thin-section observation, combined with the results of previous studies, has confirmed that the source of the organic matter is mainly marine phytoplankton, such as algae and radiolarians, ostracods, and other marine organisms, which consist of these high-quality source rocks. The ratio of trace elements, such as Ni/Co, V/Cr, U/Th, and V/(V + Ni) indicate that high-quality source rocks are mainly formed in anoxic restricted environments. The hydrothermal activity of submarine volcanoes provided many nutrients and compounds, resulting biological prosperity and improving primary productivity. This is simultaneously conducive to the formation of anoxic environments and the preservation of organic matter.

ObjectiveThis study analyzed the feasibility of upfront surgical resection for pediatric PRETEXT III and IV hepatoblastoma (HB).Summary Background DataNeoadjuvant chemotherapy is recommended for patients with PRETEXT III and IV HB to obtain a chance of curative surgery. However, chemotherapy can cause toxic side effects and adverse outcomes, and the PRETEXT staging system may overstage the patients. Therefore, whether preoperative chemotherapy is necessary for HB patients remains unclear.MethodsThe clinical data of 37 children who underwent surgical resection for PRETEXT III and IV HB at our hospital were obtained retrospectively. Patients were divided into the neoadjuvant chemotherapy group (NCG; n = 19) and the routine surgery group (RSG; n = 18). Clinicopathologic characteristics, treatment regimens, and outcomes were compared between the groups.ResultsThe RSG had a lower incidence of portal vein involvement than the NCG (p

Abstract Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a serious cardiovascular disease. The ACS risk prediction model is of great significance during the hospitalisation of ACS patients. However, traditional machine learning methods are not effective in predicting risk events in the ACS treatment process because of sample imbalance and noise. In this letter, the multilayer perceptron (MLP) and ensemble method are combined and then ensemble‐MLPs are proposed, which has made two innovations: 1) increase the diversity of the base MLP classifier at the data level, structure level, and parameter level and 2) improve the ensemble performance by proposing a new ensemble method using f1‐score weighted average. Experiments have shown that the proposed method outperforms conventional ensemble MLP method and other traditional machine learning methods on the task of predicting risk events in the ACS treatment process.

This paper rigorously validates the RANS models against the DNS on predicting turbulent flow and heat transfer of highly buoyant horizontal supercritical fluids. The low-Reynolds number turbulence models of RNG, AKN, V2F and (k−ω) SST that are recommended in literature are selected. Also, the LS model demonstrating good performance in some in-house CFD codes has been reimplemented via User-Defined Functions (UDFs) and examined for supercritical simulations, in particular with strong buoyancy effects. The results indicated that the AKN model works best among the tested models on the reproductions of some bulk parameters that are of interest (such as wall temperature, Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient) and the distortions of the turbulent velocity profile caused by the strong buoyancy, closely followed by the V2F model. The UDFs implemented LS model exhibits much better performances than the originally incorporated version in FLUENT, which is attributed to the more proper model implementation that leads to better treatments on the fluid flow and heat transfer, especially in the near-wall regions. Regarding the reproductions on the turbulence kinetic energy generations under the studied conditions, the RANS models are unable to give satisfactory results, the simulated suppression in the top half is more drastic. Similar to the vertical supercritical fluids, with quite high-strength buoyancy, the heat transfer recovers around the horizontal pipe top wall but the RANS models' response to the “recovery” is poor. The model performance on reproducing the turbulent statistics is closely related to the implementation of the vital structural parameters.

As the basic parameters of an earthquake，the reference place name of epicenter is the key geographical indication to understand the location of an earthquake，and the detailed reference place name is the clear direction of carrying out the work of rescue and intensity investigation. Using ArcGIS Engine secondary development component to develop a set of epicenter reference four-level place name query software，so as to quickly determine the four-level reference place names in Ningxia，make the relevant work carried out with more clear geographical location and target，and make the work efficiency significantly improved.

The forced condensation heat characteristics of vapour in the presence of noncondensable gas at high pressures are investigated. A three-dimensional computational model is proposed and the Lee condensation model is employed to simulate mass and energy transfer processes via interfaces. Numerical simulations are then performed to investigate flow and heat transfer characteristics of vapour in the presence of noncondensable gas at the operating pressure of 10 MPa. It is found that the buoyancy force influences the flow structure via the induced secondary circulation in a horizontal tube. The film thickness is increasing at the bottom wall, while the water film at the top wall first increases and then decreases downstream the tube due to gravity effects. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficient at the top wall is decreased along the tube due to reduced temperature difference. The decreasing heat transfer coefficient is also found at the bottom wall, however a roughly constant value is then attained downstream the tube. In addition, increasing the operating pressure attenuates the heat transfer performance of gas mixture. The work provides a new insight into flow and heat transfer characteristics of vapour in the presence of noncondensable gas in horizontal tubes at high pressures.

Abstract Background China has been undergoing dramatic economic development, accompanied by increased education load on the young children. This study is to investigate the prevalence, type, severity, and associated risk factors of astigmatism in school students in eastern China. Method In this cross-sectional school-based study, students underwent refraction using NIDEK non-cycloplegic autorefractor. Astigmatism was defined as cylinder 1.5 diopter (D) or greater, and high astigmatism was defined as cylinder 3.0 D or greaterMultivariate regression models were used to determine factors associated with astigmatism. Results Among 4801 children (55% male) with mean age (±standard deviation) 12.3 (±3.8) years, 680 (14.2, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 13.2–15.2%) had astigmatism (85% were with-the-rule) and 103 (2.2, 95% CI: 1.8–2.6%) had high astigmatism. The prevalence rate of astigmatism was 7–8% in grades 4 or below, 15–16% in grades 6–8, 20% in grade 9, and 20–25% in grade 10 or above. In multivariate analyses, higher grade and male gender were associated with higher prevalence of astigmatism (all p

Abstract Background Prevention of myopia has become a public health priority in China. This study is to investigate the prevalence of myopia and vision impairment, and their associated factors in school students in eastern China. Method In this cross-sectional school-based study of 4801 students from 16 schools ranging from kindergarten to high school, students underwent refraction using non-cycloplegic autorefractor and visual acuity testing using logMAR chart with tumbling E. Myopia was defined as spherical equivalent (SPHE) ≤ − 0.5 diopter (D) and uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) 20/25 or worse. High myopia was defined as SPHE ≤ − 6.0 D and UCVA 20/25 or worse. Vision impairment was defined as UCVA 20/40 or worse. Logistic regression models were used to determine factors associated with myopia and vision impairment. Results Among 4801 children (55% male) with mean age (standard deviation) 12.3 (3.8) years, 3030 (63.1, 95% CI: 61.7–64.5%) had myopia, 452 (9.4, 95% CI: 8.6–10.3%) had high myopia, and 2644 (55.1, 95% CI, 53.7–56.5%) had vision impairment. The prevalence rate of myopia increased with grade in a non-linear manner, 12% in kindergarten, 32% in grade 2, 69% in grade 5, and approximately 90% by grade 10 or above. The prevalence rate of high myopia was relatively low in grade 4 or below ( 20% in grade 10 to 12. The prevalence rate of vision impairment was 4% in kindergarten, 37% in elementary school, 77% in middle school and 87% in high school students. Higher grade (p

Airborne fungi are one of the most ubiquitous kinds of inhalant allergens which can result in allergic diseases. Fungi tend to grow in warm and humid environments with regional and seasonal variations. Their nomenclature and taxonomy are related to the sensitization of immunoglobulin E (IgE). Allergic cross-reactivity among different fungal species appears to be widely existing. Fungus-related foods, such as edible mushrooms, mycoprotein, and fermented foods by fungi, can often induce to fungus food allergy syndrome (FFAS) by allergic cross-reactivity with airborne fungi. FFAS may involve one or more target organs, including the oral mucosa, the skin, the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and the cardiovascular system, with various allergic symptoms ranging from oral allergy syndrome (OAS) to severe anaphylaxis. This article reviews the current knowledge on the field of allergic cross-reactivity between fungal allergens and related foods, as well as the diagnosis and treatment on FFAS.

Hydroxy-terminated oligomers with narrow molecular weight distribution using as soft segment of polyurethane can significantly increase the modulus, tensile strength, and elongation at break of the polyurethane. Thus, design and synthesis of new hydroxy-terminated oligomers having narrow molecular weight distribution can improve the properties of polyurethane and further expand the use range of polyurethane. A set of side-chain hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) derivatives were successfully synthesized by anionic polymerization and blue light photocatalytic thiol-ene reaction. Firstly, HTPB with narrow molecular weight distribution was synthesized via anionic polymerization using mono-lithium based initiator and followed by de-protection. Then, HTPB derivatives with different side-chains such as butyl, ethyl acetate, or myristyl, namely HTPBbut, HTPB eac and HTPBtet, were obtained by blue light photocatalytic thiol-ene reaction using Ru(bpy)3Cl2 as photoredox catalyst and HTPB as matrix polymer. Similar with HTPB, those HTPB derivatives also have narrow molecular weight distribution. Polyurethane elastomers (PUs) were synthesized with HTPB or HTPB derivatives as soft segment, toluene diisocynate (TDI) as hard segment, and 1, 4-butanediol as chain extender. Compared study the performances of polymers, the results showed that glass transition temperature (Tg) and viscosity of HTPB derivatives were increased when short-chain side groups were introduced. But instead, Tg and viscosity of HTPB derivatives was reduced following long-chain side groups being grafted. Through comparing research of properties for PUs, tensile strength is reduced and elongation at break is augmented, when side groups were introduced in HTPB backbone. Research on the contact angle tests of PUs indicated that the contact angle of PUs using HTPB, HTPBbut or HTPBeac as soft segment, is similar, and PUs using HTPBtet as soft segment has a larger contact angle about 137.2 °C.

Grassland is an important part of terrestrial ecosystems and contain substantial amounts of soil carbon. However, 90% of grasslands suffer from degradation in northern China, where soil inorganic carbon (SIC) is a major reservoir. Previous studies have focused primarily on soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, while the effects of grassland degradation in SIC stock remains largely unexplored. Therefore, accurate assessments of both SOC and SIC stocks and their profile distributions are necessary to fully understand the role of grassland degradation in China’s carbon budget. Here, we conducted an experiment to estimate the stocks, profile distributions, and environmental controls of both SOC and SIC in patchy saline-alkaline grasslands under three degraded degrees (non-degraded patches, ND; moderately degraded patches, MD, and heavily degraded patches, HD). Our results showed that grassland degradation destroys not only SOC but also SIC stocks in saline-alkaline grasslands. SIC is the main component of soil carbon in saline-alkaline grasslands, and their distributions changed dramatically. Compared with ND, SIC losses caused by degradation accounted for 84% and 86% of total carbon loss under MD and HD patches, respectively. SIC loss primarily occurred at the intermediate soil layers (30–70 cm), while the loss of SOC was mainly in the topsoil (0–40 cm). Moreover, the distributions of SIC from 20 to 60 cm were closely related to soil pH, while it is mainly regulated by EC from 60 to 100 cm. In addition, soil pH, EC, and above-ground biomass were important variables driving the profile distributions of SOC in the upper soil. Our work provides evidence that grassland degradation mainly damages the SIC stocks. Our findings, therefore, highlight the non-negligible role of SIC dynamics in the carbon budget of degraded grassland ecosystems and the need to consider these dynamics in terrestrial carbon cycle research.

Flavonoids as a class of important secondary metabolites are widely present in land plants, and chalcone isomerase (CHI) is the key rate-limiting enzyme that participates in catalyzing the stereospecific isomerization of chalcones to yield their corresponding flavanones. However, the phylogenetic dynamics and functional divergence of CHI family genes during the evolutionary path of green plants remains poorly understood. Here, a total of 122 CHI genes were identified by performing a genome-wide survey of 15 representative green plants from the most ancestral basal plant chlorophyte algae to higher angiosperm plants. Phylogenetic, orthologous groups (OG) classification, and genome structure analysis showed that the CHI family genes have evolved into four distinct types (types I–IV) containing eight OGs after gene duplication, and further studies indicated type III CHIs consist of three subfamilies (FAP1, FAP2, and FAP3). The phylogeny showed FAP3 CHIs as an ancestral out-group positioned on the outer layers of the main branch, followed by type IV CHIs, which are placed in an evolutionary intermediate between FAP3 CHIs and bona fide CHIs (including type I and type II). The results imply a potential intrinsic evolutionary connection between CHIs existing in the green plants. The amino acid substitutions occurring in several residues have potentially affected the functional divergence between CHI proteins. This is supported by the analysis of transcriptional divergence and cis-acting element analysis. Evolutionary dynamics analyses revealed that the differences in the total number of CHI family genes in each plant are primarily attributed to the lineage-specific expansion by natural selective forces. The current studies provide a deeper understanding of the phylogenetic relationships and functional diversification of CHI family genes in green plants, which will guide further investigation on molecular characteristics and biological functions of CHIs.

Although many studies have provided evidence that abstract knowledge can be acquired in artificial grammar learning, it remains unclear how abstract knowledge can be attained in sequence learning. To address this issue, we proposed a dual simple recurrent network (DSRN) model that includes a surface SRN encoding and predicting the surface properties of stimuli and an abstract SRN encoding and predicting the abstract properties of stimuli. The results of Simulations 1 and 2 showed that the DSRN model can account for learning effects in the serial reaction time (SRT) task under different conditions, and the manipulation of the contribution weight of each SRN accounted for the contribution of conscious and unconscious processes in inclusion and exclusion tests in previous studies. The results of human performance in Simulation 3 provided further evidence that people can implicitly learn both chunking and abstract knowledge in sequence learning, and the results of Simulation 3 confirmed that the DSRN model can account for how people implicitly acquire the two types of knowledge in sequence learning. These findings extend the learning ability of the SRN model and help understand how different types of knowledge can be acquired implicitly in sequence learning.

Survival analysis is important for guiding further treatment and improving lung cancer prognosis. It is a challenging task because of the poor distinguishability of features and the missing values in practice. A novel multi-task based neural network, SurvNet, is proposed in this paper. The proposed SurvNet model is trained in a multi-task learning framework to jointly learn across three related tasks: input reconstruction, survival classification, and Cox regression. It uses an input reconstruction mechanism cooperating with incomplete-aware reconstruction loss for latent feature learning of incomplete data with missing values. Besides, the SurvNet model introduces a context gating mechanism to bridge the gap between survival classification and Cox regression. A new real-world dataset of 1,137 patients with IB-IIA stage non-small cell lung cancer is collected to evaluate the performance of the SurvNet model. The proposed SurvNet achieves a higher concordance index than the traditional Cox model and Cox-Net. The difference between high-risk and low-risk groups obtained by SurvNet is more significant than that of high-risk and low-risk groups obtained by the other models. Moreover, the SurvNet outperforms the other models even though the input data is randomly cropped and it achieves better generalization performance on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) dataset.

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide. Automated ROP detection system is urgent and it appears to be a safe, reliable, and cost-effective complement to human experts. Methods: An automated ROP detection system called DeepROP was developed by using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). ROP detection was divided into ROP identification and grading tasks. Two specific DNN models, i.e., Id-Net and Gr-Net, were designed for identification and grading tasks, respectively. To develop the DNNs, large-scale datasets of retinal fundus images were constructed by labeling the images of ROP screenings by clinical ophthalmologists. Findings: On the test dataset, the Id-Net achieved a sensitivity of 96.62%(95%CI, 92.29%–98.89%) and a specificity of 99.32% (95%CI, 96.29%–9.98%) for ROP identification while the Gr-Net attained sensitivity and specificity values of 88.46% (95%CI, 96.29%–99.98%) and 92.31% (95%CI, 81.46%–97.86%), respectively, on the ROP grading task. On another 552 cases, the developed DNNs outperformed some human experts. In a clinical setting, the sensitivity and specificity values of DeepROP for ROP identification were 84.91% (95%CI, 76.65%–91.12%) and 96.90% (95%CI, 95.49%–97.96%), respectively, whereas the corresponding measures for ROP grading were 93.33%(95%CI, 68.05%–99.83%) and 73.63%(95%CI, 68.05%–99.83%), respectively. Interpretation: We constructed large-scale ROP datasets with adequate clinical labels and proposed novel DNN models. The DNN models can directly learn ROP features from big data. The developed DeepROP is potential to be an efficient and effective system for automated ROP screening. Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61432012 and U1435213.

Currently, much attention is given to the functionality and recyclability of waterborne polyurethane (WPU). Herein, ε-caprolactone was used as a chain extender for grafting onto perylene bisimide (PBI) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) via ring-opening reactions to obtain PBI-PCL and BDO- PCL. Then, two kinds of WPU, namely PBI-WPU (PWPU) and BDO-WPU (BWPU), were fabricated using PBI-PCL/polytetrahydrofuran ether glycol (PTMG) and BDO-PCL/PTMG, respectively, as mixed soft segments. The properties and appearance of PWPU and BWPU emulsions were analyzed in terms of particle size, zeta potential and TEM images, and the results showed that PWPU emulsions had uniform particle size distribution and decent storage stability. AFM and DMA results revealed that PWPU films possessed a more significant degree of microphase separation and a higher glass transition temperature (Tg) than BWPU films. The PWPU films displayed good shape-memory and mechanical properties, with tensile strength up to 58.25 MPa and elongation at break up to 1241.36%. TGA analysis indicated that PWPU films had better thermal stability than BWPU films. More importantly, the PWPU films could be dissolved in a mixed solvent of acetone/ethanol (v/v = 2:1) at room temperature. The dissolved PWPU could be dispersed in deionized water to prepare waterborne polyurethane again. After the recycling process was repeated three times, the recycled PWPU emulsion still exhibited good storage stability. The recycled PWPU films maintained their original thermal and mechanical properties. Comparing the properties of BWPU and PWPU showed that the soft segment structure had important influence on waterborne polyurethane performance. Therefore, PWPU may have great potential applications in making recycling and shape-memory coating or paint.

Understanding the regulation of islet cell mass has important implications for the discovery of regenerative therapies for diabetes. The liver plays a central role in metabolism and the regulation of endocrine cell number, but liver-derived factors that regulate α-cell and β-cell mass remain unidentified. We propose a nutrient-sensing circuit between liver and pancreas in which glucagon-dependent control of hepatic amino acid metabolism regulates α-cell mass. We found that glucagon receptor inhibition reduced hepatic amino acid catabolism, increased serum amino acids, and induced α-cell proliferation in an mTOR-dependent manner. In addition, mTOR inhibition blocked amino-acid-dependent α-cell replication ex vivo and enabled conversion of α-cells into β-like cells in vivo. Serum amino acids and α-cell proliferation were increased in neonatal mice but fell throughout postnatal development in a glucagon-dependent manner. These data reveal that amino acids act as sensors of glucagon signaling and can function as growth factors that increase α-cell proliferation.

In this work, we present a theoretical study for the collective oscillation modes, i.e. quadrupole, radial and axial mode, of a mixture of Bose and Fermi superfluids in the crossover from a Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluid to a molecular Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in harmonic trapping potentials with cylindrical symmetry of experimental interest. To this end, we start from the coupled superfluid hydrodynamic equations for the dynamics of Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures and use the scaling theory that has been developed for a coupled system. The collective oscillation modes of Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures are found to crucially depend on the overlap integrals of the spatial derivations of density profiles of the Bose and Fermi superfluids at equilibrium. We not only present the explicit expressions for the overlap density integrals, as well as the frequencies of the collective modes provided that the effective Bose–Fermi coupling is weak, but also test the valid regimes of the analytical approximations by numerical calculations in realistic experimental conditions. In the presence of a repulsive Bose–Fermi interaction, we find that the frequencies of the three collective modes of the Bose and Fermi superfluids are all upshifted, and the change speeds of the frequency shifts in the BCS–BEC crossover can characterize the different groundstate phases of the Bose–Fermi superfluid mixtures for different trap geometries.

Metal fiber porous materials with intrinsic properties of metal and functional properties of porous materials have received a great deal of attention in the fundamental research and industry applications. With developments of the preparation technologies and industrial requirements, porous fiber metals with excellent properties are developed and applied in many industry areas, e.g., sound absorption, heat transfer, energy absorption and lightweight structures. The applied research progress of the metal fiber porous materials in such application areas based on the recent work in our group was reviewed in this paper.

Let be a closed bounded convex subset of a real Banach space with as its interior and the Minkowski functional generated by the set . For a nonempty set in and , is called the generalized best approximation to from if for all . In this paper, we will give a distance formula under from a point to a closed hyperplane in determined by a nonzero continuous linear functional in and a real number α, a representation of the generalized metric projection onto , and investigate the continuity of this generalized metric projection, extending corresponding results for the case of norm.

Lymphotoxin-alpha (LTA) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in the inflammatory and immunologic response. Numerous studies have shown LTA polymorphisms as risk factors for cancers, but the results remain inconclusive. The goal of the present meta-analyses is to establish the associations between cancers and four LTA variants (rs1041981, rs2239704, rs2229094 and rs746868). A total of 30 case-control studies involving 58,649 participants were included in the current meta-analyses. Our results showed significant associations with increased cancer risk for rs1041981 (odd ratio (OR) = 1.15, 99% confidential interval (CI) = 1.07-1.25, P < 0.0001, I(2) = 12.2%), rs2239704 (OR = 1.08, 99% CI = 1.01-1.16, P = 0.021, I(2) = 0.0%) and rs2229094 (OR = 1.28, 99% CI = 1.09-1.50, P = 0.003, I(2) = 0.0%). No evidence was found for the association between rs746868 and cancer risk (OR = 1.01, 99% CI = 0.93-1.10, P = 0.771, I(2) = 0.0%). Subgroup meta-analysis suggested that rs2239704 was likely to increase the risk of hematological malignancy (OR = 1.10, 99% CI = 1.01-1.20, P = 0.023, I(2) = 0.0%), and rs2229094 was specific for the increased risk of adenocarcinoma (OR = 1.33, 99% CI = 1.11-1.59, P = 0.002, I(2) = 0.0%). In conclusion, our meta-analyses suggested that the LTA rs1041981, rs2239704 and rs2229094 polymorphisms contributed to the increased risk of cancers. Future functional studies were needed to clarify the mechanistic roles of the three variants in the cancer risk.