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Abstract Enhancing drought tolerance in crops and understanding the underlying mechanisms have been subject of intense research. The precise function and molecular mechanisms of B-box zinc finger proteins (BBX) remain elusive. Here, we report a natural allele of BBX18 (BBX18 TT ) that encodes a C-terminal truncated protein. While most wild tomato germplasms contain the BBX18 CC allele and show more drought tolerant, modern cultivated tomatoes mostly carry BBX18 TT allele and are more drought sensitive. Knockout of BBX18 leads to improved drought tolerance in transgenic plants of cultivated tomato. Ascorbate peroxidase 1 (APX1) is identified as a BBX18-interacting protein that acts as a positive regulator of drought resistance in tomato. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing analyses reveal that BBX18 binds to a unique cis-acting element of the APX1 promoter and represses its gene expression. This study provides insights into the molecular mechanism underlying drought resistance mediated by the BBX18-APX1 module in plants.

Objective(s): To study the anti-aging effect of (-)-α-bisabolol ((-)-α-bis) on the skin and preliminarily clarify its mechanism. Materials and Methods: Human skin fibroblasts (HSF) were induced senescence by D-Galactose. Senescence β-galactosidase staining was utilized to evaluate the senescence of HSF. TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, CCL-2, CCL-5, and MMP-9 in senescence-as-sociated secretory phenotype (SASP) were detected by RT-qPCR. Meanwhile, aged BALB/c mice were applied topically with 0.5% and 2%(-)-α-bis gel for 30 days continuously to evaluate anti-aging parameters on the skin such as surface measurement, the Trans Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL), and skin barrier index of dorsal skin. Then, HE staining, Masson staining, and IHC were applied to measure epidermal thickness, collagen fiber content in the dermis, and content of dermal collagen I, respectively. Last, SOD, MDA, and HYP contents of the back skin tissue of mice were also detected. Results: (-)-α-Bis reduced the expression of senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) and expression levels of SASP in HSF cells stimulated by D-Gal (P

Abstract Background Chronic stress induces cognitive deficits. There is a well-established connection between the enteric and central nervous systems through the microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis. However, the effects of the gut microbiota on cognitive deficits remain unclear. The present study aimed to elucidate the microbiota composition in cognitive deficits and explore its potential in predicting chronic stress-induced cognitive deficits. Methods Mice were randomly divided into control and chronic restraint stress (CRS) groups. The mice subjected to CRS were further divided into cognitive deficit (CRS-CD) and non-cognitive deficit (CRS-NCD) groups using hierarchical cluster analysis of novel object recognition test results. The composition and diversity of the gut microbiota were analyzed. Results After being subjected to chronic restraint distress, the CRS-CD mice travelled shorter movement distances (p = 0.034 vs. CRS-NCD; p

ABSTRACT Background Bullous pemphigoid (BP) and atopic dermatitis (AD) are currently thought to be tightly related, yet studies of the mechanisms of co‐morbidities are lacking. Methods We obtained GWAS data for BP (N = 376,274) and AD (N = 796,661) from the Finnish Genetic Research Program dataset and the UK Biobank, separately. Then, the following four analyses were performed: (1) cross‐trait linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) to assess the genetic correlation between BP and AD, (2) cross‐phenotype association analysis (CPASSOC) to identify multiple effector loci shared by BP and AD, (3) transcriptome‐wide association study (TWAS) to determine whether their cross‐organizational expression patterns share genes with a common biological mechanism of relevance, and (4) bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to assess bidirectional causal effects of BP and AD. Results We found a positive genetic association between BP and AD (rg = 0.5476, p = 0.0495) as well as identified four pleiotropic loci and 59 common genes affecting BP and AD. Bidirectional MR analysis suggested that BP promotes the risk of AD. Conclusions We revealed a genetic link between BP and AD, which is associated with biological pleiotropy and causality. Awareness of the association between BP and AD helps dermatologists manage patients with these illnesses.

Clubroot caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae is a devastating disease of Cruciferous crops. Developing cultivars with clubroot resistance (CR) is the most effective control measure. For the two major Brassica vegetable species B. rapa and B. oleracea, several commercial cultivars with unclear CR pedigrees have been intensively used as CR donors in breeding. However, the continuous occurrence of CR-breaking makes the CR pedigree underlying these cultivars one of the breeders' most urgent concerns. The complex intraspecific diversity of these two major Brassica vegetables has also limited the applicability of CR markers in different breeding programs. Here we first traced the pedigree underlying two kinds of CR that have been widely applied in breeding by linkage and introgression analyses based on public resequencing data. In B. rapa, a major locus CRzi8 underlying the CR of the commercial CR donor ‘DegaoCR117’ was identified. CRzi8 was further shown to have been introgressed from turnip (B. rapa ssp. rapifera) and that it carried a potential functional allele of Crr1a. The turnip introgression carried CRbc, sharing the same coding sequence with the CRb that was also identified from chromosome C07 of B. oleracea CR cultivars with different morphotypes. Within natural populations, variation analysis of linkage intervals of CRzi8, PbBa8.1, CRb, and CRbc yielded easily resolved InDel markers (> 20 bp) for these fundamental CR genes. The specificity of these markers was tested in diverse cultivars panels, and each exhibited high reliability in breeding. Our research demonstrates the value of the practice of applying resequencing big data to solve urgent concerns in breeding programs.

BackgroundThe advent of immunotherapy has changed the landscape of SCLC treatment, although the identification of reliable prognostic biomarkers remains a formidable challenge. Our objective was to investigate the prognostic implications of obesity and body composition in SCLC immunotherapy while seeking a straightforward anthropometric measure.MethodsThis retrospective study analyzed data from patients with SCLC who underwent immunotherapy between 2019 and 2023. Body composition and waist circumference (WC) were analyzed using 3D slicer software on baseline CT images. Quantitative measures, including skeletal muscle index (SMI), total adipose tissue index (TATI), and other indicators at the L3 level, along with body shape index (BSI) and additional indicators based on WC, were obtained. The relationships between these indicators, response, PFS, OS, and their interconnections were examined.ResultsA total of 145 SCLC patients who received immunotherapy were identified, of whom 133 met the inclusion criteria. In univariate analysis, a BMI≥28 kg/m2 was associated with a PFS advantage (HR 0.42, p=0.04), but this trend vanished in multivariate analysis. Body measurements exhibited stronger correlations with adipose tissue content, with BSI showing the highest correlation with muscle. In multivariate analysis, lower BSI was associated with poorer OS (HR 1.79, p=0.02). The association between muscle composition and prognosis was robust in univariate analysis but dissipated in multivariate analysis. However, accounting for a high TATI background significantly heightened the adverse effect of SMI on prognosis in the multivariate model.ConclusionNo clear association between BMI and SCLC immunotherapy prognosis was observed. However, high adiposity exacerbated the adverse effects of sarcopenia in SCLC immunotherapy, and BSI demonstrated potential as a straightforward prognostic measure.

The transverse leaf spring (TLS) suspensions are a promising option for van vehicles due to their high load-carrying capacity and excellent handling stability. However, its ride comfort remains a major challenge. This paper investigates and compares the effects of semi-active and active control strategies to enhance the ride comfort of TLS suspensions. Firstly, a four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) half-car model and a multi-body dynamics (MBD) model of the TLS suspensions are established. The MBD model has higher accuracy and can describe the medium and high frequency characteristics of the TLS suspensions, such as the suspension offset frequency and the frequency response function of the body vertical acceleration (BVA). Therefore, based on the MBD half-car model with TLS suspensions, this paper proposes an optimal fuzzy PID active control strategy considering the left and right suspension coupling. The optimization objectives are the BVA, the left and right suspensions dynamic deflection, and the left and right wheels dynamic displacement. The integral absolute error is used as the evaluation criterion. The left and right fuzzy PID controllers’ parameters are obtained through particle swarm optimization. Simulation results demonstrate that the particle swarm optimization fuzzy PID active control strategy effectively controls the low-frequency vibration of the TLS suspensions and suppresses the medium- and high-frequency vibration characteristics compared with the traditional skyhook semi-active control strategy. This technology provides a reference for improving the ride comfort of the TLS suspensions.

In this study, a method is proposed to obtain the initial voltage of the capacitor and the initial relative position of the projectile of a reluctance coil gun using a genetic algorithm to make the projectile launch at a specified muzzle velocity with high efficiency. Firstly, the equivalent inductance change during the launching process is used as a link for multi-physics field analysis, and a set of electromagnetic dynamics equations is derived to correct the effect of magnetic saturation on the inductance according to the current value in the coil. Further the set of equations is constructed as a Simulink discretized numerical computational program and called by a genetic algorithm written in MATLAB to approximate the optimal solution by generation-by-generation optimization. When the specified projectile muzzle velocity is set to 10 m/s, the initial voltage of the capacitor calculated using the genetic algorithm is 156 V, and the initial position of the projectile is −14.3 mm. We input the parameters into the finite element analysis model and the launch experiment platform, and the obtained projectile muzzle velocity is 9.67 m/s and 9.8 m/s respectively, and the efficiency is close to the optimal value, also the comparison of voltage and current waveforms show that the method proposed in this study is effective.

The calmodulin-binding transcriptional activator (CAMTA) is a small, conserved gene family in plants that plays a crucial role in regulating growth, development, and responses to various abiotic stress. Given the significance of the CAMTA gene family, various studies have been dedicated to uncovering its functional characteristics. In this study, genome-wide identification and bioinformatics analysis were conducted to explore CAMTAs in Phoebe bournei. A total of 17 CAMTA genes, each containing at least one domain from CG-1, TIG, ANK, or IQ, were identified in the P. bournei genome. The diversity of PbCAMTAs could be varied depending on their subcellular localization. An analysis of protein motifs, domains, and gene structure revealed that members within the same subgroup exhibited similar organization, supporting the results of the phylogenetic analysis. Gene duplications occurred among members of the PbCAMTA gene family. According to the cis-regulatory element prediction and protein–protein interaction network analysis, eight genes were subjected to qRT-PCR under drought, heat, and light stresses. The expression profiles indicated that PbCAMTAs, particularly PbCAMTA2, PbCAMTA12, and PbCAMTA16, were induced by abiotic stress. This study provides profound insights into the functions of CAMTAs in P. bournei.

The health monitoring and fault diagnosis of heavy-duty engines are increasingly important for energy storage ecosystem. During operation, vibration characters corresponding to the specific fault need to be extracted from the overall system vibration. Faulty characteristics emanating from one single cylinder are also mixed with those from other cylinders. Besides, the change of working condition brings strong nonlinearities in surface vibration. To solve these problems, an improved deep residual shrinkage network (IDRSN) is developed for detecting diverse engine faults at various degrees using single channel surface vibration signal. Within IDRSN, a wide convolution kernel is utilized in first convolution layer to capture the long-term fault-related impacts and eliminate the short-time random impact. The residual network module is adopted to enhance the focus the relevant components of vibration signals. Mini-batch training strategy is used to improve the model stability. Meanwhile, Gradient-weighted class activation map is adopted to assess the consistency between the learned knowledge and the fault-related information. The IDRSN is implemented to diagnosing a diesel engine under various faults, faulty degrees and operating speeds. Comparisons with existing models are analyzed in terms of hyper-parameters, training samples, noise resistance, and visualization. Results demonstrate the proposed IDRSN's superior performance on fault diagnosis accuracy, stability, anti-noise performance, and anti-interference performance. An average accuracy rate of 98.38 % was achieved by the proposed IDRSN, in comparison to 96.64 % and 93.56 % achieved by the DRSN and the wide-kernel deep convolutional neural network respectively. These results highlight the proposed IDRSN's superiority in diagnosing multiple faults under various working conditions, offering a low-cost, highly effective, and applicable approach for complex fault diagnosis tasks.

Abstract Background This study aimed to assess the prevalence and the gender-specific risk factors of alcohol abuse/dependence among medical undergraduates during the post-COVID‑19 pandemic period in China. Method The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) was used to identify respondents with alcohol abuse/dependence. A questionnaire on basic demographics and mental distresses (learning burnout, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, excessive daytime sleepiness, and history of mental disorders) was used. The logistic regression model was used to explore the associations between the above characteristics and alcohol abuse/dependence. Results A total of 3,412 medical undergraduates were included in the analysis. Males showed a higher prevalence of alcohol abuse/dependence than females (16.6% vs 7.4%, p

Abstract Energy attenuation behavior on propane premixed combustion on account of nonmetallic spherical spacers (NSSs) was investigated in a constant volume combustion bomb with two accelerative perforated plates. The flame evolution process is captured by a photography device with schlieren. Energy attenuation effects of NSSs were explored on flame propagation, overpressures, and pressure oscillation. Normal combustion accomplished with flame acceleration, jet autoignition, deflagration, and weak detonation is observed, respectively. NSSs show a good energy attenuation effect on propane normal combustion, jet autoignition, and deflagration evolution behavior, however, during the evolution of weak detonation, the attenuation effect is relatively weak. The mean velocities difference, as well as explosion overpressure decay rate caused by NSSs, decreases from (45.70 m/s and 26.48%) to (2.70 m/s and 18.15%) when the initial pressure increases from 0.1 to 0.5 MPa, namely, attenuation effect of NSSs on propane explosion decreases with increasing initial pressure.

Abstract The interfacial phenomenon between liqiuid iron and coke is important for determining the melting efficiency in the blast furnace iron-making process. In this study, the interaction observed in the case of the iron-carbon (Fe–C) melt on coke substrate was investigated using a high-temperature vacuum wettability test equipment. The Fe–C melt did not wet and spread on the coke substrate with different graphitization degrees (r 0) at a high temperature of 1450 °C. The contact angles changed from 124.5° to 105.3°, and the r 0 increased from 9.30 to 50.00%, thus indicating a nonwetting state. The deepening of graphitization decreased the contact angle. Thereby, increasing the contact area between liquid iron and the carbonaceous material, which facilitated carbon dissolution. The irregular movements of Fe–C melt were observed in situ during the wetting process. The horizontal force of the droplet caused by interfacial tension and the contact angle; the Marangoni convection owing to the gradient of carbon concentration; and the impulse force caused by the generation, aggregation, and release of SiO bubbles at the interface were attributed to the driving force.

As urbanization progresses and city populations grow, river-crossing tunnels assume a crucial role in transportation networks, with the maximum scour depth constituting a critical parameter influencing tunnel safety. Using Line 6 of the Nanning Metro in Guangxi, China as a case study, a two-dimensional hydrosediment mathematical model was employed to investigate variations in maximum bedrock scouring. This study introduces the concept of critical frequency floods and compares it with urban flood control standards to determine the appropriate flood frequency for calculating maximum bedrock scour depth. The impact of bed sediment particle size on maximum scour depth is quantified, revealing a decrease in scour depth of 0.3 to 0.6 m for every 1 mm increase in particle size. The relationship between bed sedimentation and the Froude number demonstrates an upward-opening parabolic symmetry: lower Froude numbers correspond to relatively stable beds, while higher numbers correlate with an increased amplitude of bed erosion or deposition. The curve’s nadir identifies the critical threshold of the Froude number, facilitating calculation of the channel’s critical water depth. In practical engineering applications, a bed under conditions of critical water depth tends to be more stable, thereby favoring the selection of sites for river-crossing tunnels.

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of precision hepatectomy in the treatment of primary liver cancer. Methods An randomized controlled trial of 98 patients with primary liver cancer admitted to our hospital from February 2020 to February 2021 were analyzed for the study, and they were divided into 49 cases each in the control group (conventional hepatectomy) and the study group (precision hepatectomy) according to the different surgical methods. The surgical condition, complications and follow-up results of the two groups were counted, and the liver function and immune function of the two groups were observed before and 1 week after surgery. Results The operation time, intraoperative bleeding, hospitalization time and anal venting time in the study group were less than those in the control group (P 0.05). Conclusion Precision hepatectomy can effectively treat primary liver cancer with high safety and could be promoted in clinical practice.

Phoebe bournei is one of the main afforestation tree species in subtropical regions of China and is famous for its timber. Its distribution and growth are significantly impaired by water conditions. Thus, it is essential to understand the mechanism of the stress response in P. bournei. Here, we analyzed the phenotypic changes and transcriptomic rearrangement in the leaves and roots of P. bournei seedlings grown for 0 h, 1 h, 24 h, and 72 h under simulated drought conditions (10% PEG 6000). The results showed that drought stress inhibited plant photosynthesis and increased oxidoreductase activity and abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation. Spatio-temporal transcriptomic analysis identified 2836 and 3704 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in leaves and roots, respectively. The responsive genes in different organs presented various expression profiles at different times. Gene co-expression network analysis identified two core transcription factors, TGA4 and APRR2, from two modules that showed a strong positive correlation with ABA accumulation. Our study investigated the different responses of aboveground and belowground organs of P. bournei to drought stress and provides critical information for improving the drought resistance of this timber species.

AbstractBackground Workplace violence in healthcare settings is a significant public concern that profoundly impacts healthcare workers. However, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the prevalence of workplace violence and its correlation with suicidal ideation among undergraduate medical students in China during their clinical training. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of workplace violence inflicted by patients or their family members/visitors and to assess its association with suicidal ideation among undergraduate medical students.Method The snowballing sampling technique was used to recruit Chinese medical students. A question designed by the research team was used to ask medical students about their encounters with workplace violence. Students’ basic demographic information and mental distresses (learning burnout, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, alcohol abuse/dependence, excessive daytime sleepiness and history of mental disorders) were also assessed. As appropriate, the data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, independent-sample t-tests and multiple logistic regression.Results Out of the 1402 undergraduate medical students who participated, 493 (35.2%) reported having experienced workplace violence inflicted by patients or their family members/visitors, of which 394 (28.1%) were verbal abuse, 14 (1.0%) were physical aggression, and 85 (6.1%) were suffered from both verbal abuse and physical aggression. Furthermore, students exposed to workplace violence were more likely to report suicidal ideation and had a higher prevalence of learning burnout, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, alcohol abuse/dependence and excessive daytime sleepiness. Depression symptoms, history of mental disorders, learning burnout and having a partner were significantly associated with suicidal ideation in this population.Conclusion The prevalence of workplace violence inflicted by patients or their family members/visitors was high among undergraduate medical students in China. This may be associated with their mental distress and suicidal ideation. Consequently, it is crucial to strengthen workplace safety measures and promptly implement interventions to mitigate the potentially serious consequences.

Abstract Background Renal fibrosis is the late stage of many chronic kidney diseases (CKD). Clinically, there is almost no effective treatment for renal fibrosis except dialysis. Renshen Guben oral liquid (RSGB) is a Chinese patent medicine approved by National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), which is suitable for clinical patients with chronic nephritis. Currently, the chemical constituents of RSGB remains unclear, and its efficacy and mechanism on renal fibrosis have not been reported. Methods In our research, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) was employed to describe the chemical profile of RSGB, unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model in mice was established to evaluate the beneficial effect of RSGB on renal fibrosis by biochemical indexes, HE and Masson staining. RNA sequencing and “constituents-targets-pathways” multi-dimensional network was established to mine the mechanisms of RSGB. Key targets were verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and western bolt (WB). Results A total of 201 constituents were identified or tentatively characterized, 15 of which were confirmed with standards. The number of triterpenes was the highest with 49, followed by phenols with 46. RSGB ameliorated the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and serum creatinine (Scr) levels in serum, normalizing pathological structure of kidney tissue. RNA sequencing revealed that RSGB regulates 226 differential genes, which were involved in kidney development. According to the “constituents-targets-pathways” network, 26 key active constituents may mainly regulate the inflammatory immune system through 88 corresponding targets. qRT-PCR and WB results showed that RSGB inhibited the activation of the Tgfβ1/Smad2/3 pathway, Wnt4/β-Catenin pathway and NGFR/NF-κB pathway. Conclusions Overall, our study, for the first time, characterized 201 chemical constituents in RSGB, and 26 of them were screened out to alleviates renal fibrosis mainly through Tgfβ1/Smad2/3 pathway, Wnt4/β-catenin pathway and NGFR/NF-κB pathway, which may provide a new research strategy for research on the mechanism of traditional Chinese Medicine.

Abstract Elucidation of individual Notch protein biology in specific cancer is crucial to develop safe, effective, and tumor-selective Notch-targeting therapeutic reagents for clinical use [1]. Here, we explored the Notch4 function in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We found that silencing Notch4 enhanced tumorigenic ability in TNBC cells via upregulating Nanog expression, a pluripotency factor of embryonic stem cells. Intriguingly, silencing Notch4 in TNBC cells suppressed metastasis via downregulating Cdc42 expression, a key molecular for cell polarity formation. Notably, downregulation of Cdc42 expression affected Vimentin distribution, but not Vimentin expression to inhibit EMT shift. Collectively, our results show that silencing Notch4 enhances tumorigenesis and inhibits metastasis in TNBC, indicating that targeting Notch4 may not be a potential strategy for drug discovery in TNBC.

Rayleigh damping is proportional to the combination of the structural mass matrix and stiffness matrix and is widely used in structural seismic analysis. The accuracy of seismic analysis of nuclear power structures directly depends on the value of the Rayleigh damping parameters. However, the stiffness component of Rayleigh damping is not included in the explicit integral, so the Rayleigh damping in the explicit and implicit integrals needs to be handled differently. LS-DYNA R11.1.0 software provides various calculation methods for the value of the Rayleigh damping parameter in the explicit integral. To investigate the influence of the value of the Rayleigh damping parameter in the explicit and implicit integrals on the results of the dynamic analysis of a nuclear power plant, the AP1000 nuclear island plant is taken as an example, and the explicit and implicit dynamic calculation are carried out respectively for the nuclear power plant, considering the soil–structure interaction. The results show that the Rayleigh damping parameter calculated by different methods in the explicit integral has a large influence on the results of seismic analysis of nuclear power plants. The mass component of Rayleigh damping in the explicit and implicit integrals takes the same value, and the stiffness component of Rayleigh damping in the explicit integrals is taken as the negative of the stiffness component in the implicit integrals. Thus, the results of the two dynamic analyses can be in good agreement. The results provide a reference for the application of Rayleigh damping in the explicit integral for the seismic analysis of nuclear power structures.

To reduce the friction loss and the piston-knocking noise from the perspective of the design of the cylinder bore profile, the piston-ring cylinder bore (PRCB) dynamic model of an L6 diesel engine was developed using AVL-Excite-Piston & Rings. Based on the full-scale test method, the effects of bore taper, starting height of tapered profile, and ellipticity on the friction power and knocking energy of the PRCB system were investigated, and the optimization of the design of the bore profile was carried out with the objectives of minimizing the system’s friction power and the peak knocking kinetic energy. The results showed that the taper of the cylinder bore has the greatest influence on the system’s friction power and the peak knocking kinetic energy, followed by the starting height of the conical profile. For the peak knocking kinetic energy of the piston, there was an obvious interaction between the taper and the starting height of the conical profile. When the taper was 35 μm and 45 μm, the peak knocking kinetic energy showed a decreasing and then increasing trend with the increase in the starting height of the profile, and when the taper was 55 μm the peak knocking kinetic energy monotonically was decreased with the increase in the starting height of the conical profile. The optimization results showed that the system’s friction power was decreased by 15.05% and the peak knocking kinetic energy was decreased by 21.41% for a taper degree of 55 μm, a tapered profile starting height of 31 mm, and an ellipticity of 50 μm compared to the initial cylindrical cylinder bore.

In vehicle multi-body dynamics (MBD) modeling, the stiffness parameterization of leaf spring (LS) is an unavoidable challenge regardless of the selection of modeling methods. On the contrary, the parameterization of Coil Spring (CS) stiffness is easy to achieve by adjusting the scale factor. Therefore, a novel LS stiffness parameterization method by treating the suspension stiffness as an intermediate variable through a CS stiffness is proposed based on the virtual displacement theory. The proposed method is then implemented in the vehicle-level modeling of a commercial Van with front transverse leaf spring suspensions and rear longitudinal parabolic leaf spring suspensions. The MBD model is validated by natural frequency tests and suspension stiffness simulations. Furthermore, the vertical acceleration of the car body is also verified. Results show that the root mean square (RMS) values of body vertical acceleration in the equivalent CS model are just slightly lower than that in the LS suspensions. The applicability and capability of the proposed method are proven to address the limitation of LS stiffness parameterization in MBD modeling. It lays the groundwork for efficiently simulating the LS suspension in vehicle ride and handling design and optimization.

Leaf-color mutations have been studied extensively in plants. However, to better understand the complex mechanisms underlying the formation of leaf color, it is essential to continue discover novel genes involved in the process of leaf color development. In this study, we identified a variegated-leaf (vg) mutant in tomato that exhibited defective phenotypes in thylakoids and photosynthesis. To clone the vg locus, an F2 population was constructed from the cross between the vg mutant (Solanum lycopersicum) and the wild tomato LA1589 (S. pimpinellifolium). Using the map-based cloning approach, the vg locus was mapped on chromosome 7 and narrowed down to a 128 kb region that contained 21 open reading frames (ORFs). The expression levels of ORF9, ORF10, and ORF13 were significantly lower in vg than in the wild-type plants, while the ORF11 transcript level was elevated in vg. We then mutagenized ORF9, ORF10, and ORF13 by the CRISPR/Cas9 system in the wild-type tomato background and found that only the ORF10 mutation reproduced the phenotype of variegated leaves, indicating that ORF10 represents VG and its down-regulated expression was responsible for the variegated leaf phenotype. ORF10 encodes a thylakoid formation protein and its mutant lines showed reduced levels of chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesis. Taken together, these results suggest that VG is necessary for chloroplast development, chlorophyll synthesis, and photosynthesis in tomato.

WUSCHEL-related homeobox (WOX) transcription factor (TF)-encoding genes play crucial roles during embryo development. The function of WOX genes in embryonic development has been thoroughly studied in Arabidopsis thaliana, but little is known about their function in woody species, especially Phoebe bournei, an endemic and endangered species in China. In the present study, a total of 15 WOX genes were identified in P. bournei, and phylogenetic analysis resulted in their assignment to three typical clades: an ancient clade, an intermediate clade, and a modern/WUS clade. The gene structure and sequence characteristics and the physicochemical properties of WOX proteins were also analyzed. Promoter prediction indicated that WOX genes are likely involved in plant growth and development and hormone responses. Subsequently, we evaluated the expression patterns of WOX genes in response to auxin (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatments. According to tissue-specific expression patterns, we screened nine WOX genes that were present in embryonic calli and that might participate in the somatic embryogenesis (SE) of P. bournei. Furthermore, the expression profiles of these nine WOX genes during three phases of embryogenic calli development and three phases of somatic embryo development, namely, spheroid embryogenesis, immature cotyledon-producing embryogenesis and mature cotyledon-producing embryogenesis, were monitored. Overall, we systematically analyzed the expression patterns of WOX genes in P. bournei during SE, the information of which provides a basis for further elucidating the molecular mechanism through which WOX TFs function in P. bournei embryo development.

There are possible non-convergence problems at load power critical value while using conventional continuous power flow methods. Generally, the step control method is used in the calculation to perform the calculation in small steps at the convergence to the load power critical value, and this method sacrifices the speed of the calculation although the calculation accuracy is high. In this paper, the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is used to search for the load power critical value firstly, and after that the step control algorithm is designed to perform fast power flow finding with known load power critical value, which takes into account the computational accuracy and computational efficiency. The case shows that the fast calculation method for continuous power flow of microgrid based on Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm proposed in this paper can guarantee the accuracy while effectively improving the calculation speed, and is suitable for online real-time evaluation of voltage stability and preventive control aided decision online calculation of isolated microgrid with high requirements for real-time.

Abstract Background Growing evidence shows that C-Type Lectin Domain Containing 7A (Clec7a) may be involved into neuroinflammatory injury of various neurological diseases. However, its roles in neuropathic pain remain unclear. Methods A chronic constriction injury (CCI) rat model was constructed, and gene expression profilings in spinal cord tissues of CCI-insulted rats were detected by both microarray and RNA-seq studies. A series of bioinformatics analyses identified C/EBPβ-Clec7a to be a candidate axis involved into neuropathic pain. Then, its roles in mechanical allodynia, and pathological and molecular changes during CCI progression were determined by various gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments in vivo and in vitro. Results Significant upregulation of Clec7a at both mRNA and protein levels were verified in spinal cord tissues of CCI-insulted rats. Clec7a knockdown markedly attenuated CCI-induced mechanical allodynia, obstructed Syk, ERK and JNK phosphorylation, inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome and caspase-1 activation, GSDMD cleavage, and consequently reduced the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (all P

While auxin has been implicated in the development of tomato fruit with pointed tips, the mechanism are largely unknown. Here, the authors report variation of a C2H2-type zinc finger transcription factor affects transcription of FUL2, which consequently regulates auxin transport and distribution to determine tomato fruit shape.

In this paper, the different dumping process (0, 3, 7, 15, 30 d) of Zhenjiang vinegar was studied in order to better control the quality. The contents of total acid, reducing sugar, nonvolatile acid, amino acid nitrogen, organic acid, amino acid and volatile substances in different dumping processes were analyzed. The results showed that the contents of total acid, nonvolatile acid and lactic acid in vinegar were significantly (P

Abstract Background CONSTANS (CO) and CONSTANS-LIKE (COL) transcription factors have been known to regulate a series of cellular processes including the transition from the vegetative growth to flower development in plants. However, their role in regulating fruit yield in tomato is poorly understood. Result In this study, the tomato ortholog of Arabidopsis CONSTANS, SlCOL1, was shown to play key roles in the control of flower development and fruit yield. Suppression of SlCOL1 expression in tomato was found to lead to promotion of flower and fruit development, resulting in increased tomato fruit yield. On the contrary, overexpression of SlCOL1 disturbed flower and fruit development, and significantly reduced tomato fruit yield. Genetic and biochemical evidence indicated that SlCOL1 controls inflorescence development by directly binding to the promoter region of tomato inflorescence-associated gene SINGLE-FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) and negatively regulating its expression. Additionally, we found that SlCOL1 can also negatively regulate fruit size in tomato. Conclusions Tomato SlCOL1 binds to the promoter of the SFT gene, down-regulates its expression, and plays a key role in reducing the fruit size.

Introduction: Previous studies indicated that Wuda Granule (WDG) has been applied in the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorder (GMD), but the effect and underlying mechanisms is yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to explore the mechanism and pharmacological effect of WDG for GMD via network analysis, verification of animal experiments and clinical experiments.Methods: The chemical components of WDG were identified from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database (TCMSP, http://lsp.nwu.edu.cn/index.php), and the Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM, http://www.tcmip.cn/ETCM/index.php/Home/Index/) according to oral bioavailability (OB) ≥ 20% and drug-likeness (DL) ≥ 0.10. The targets of WDG compounds were retrieved from the Swiss Target Prediction database (http://www.swisstargetprediction.ch/) and targets related to GMD were retrieved from GeneCards database (https://www.genecards.org/). Network analysis were performed to screen the key active compounds of WDG and its hub targets. Then the pharmacological effect of WDG were verified via vivo experiments in rats and clinical experiments.Results: The results showed that 117 effective active compounds of WDG were screened and 494 targets of WDG compounds targeting GMD were selected. These targets were involved in the biological process of inflammatory regulation and the regulation of gastrointestinal motility. The mechanism was mainly involved in the regulation of PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and Rap1 signaling pathway. In addition, molecular docking analysis suggested that eight key active compounds of WDG may be mainly responsible for the effect of WDG on GMD by targeting HARS, AKT, and PIK3CA, respectively. Animal experiments and clinical trials both suggested that WDG could exert therapeutical effect on GMD via inhibiting inflammation and promoting gastrointestinal motility, it could also improve digestive function of patients with laparoscopic colorectal cancer after surgery.Conclusion: This study was the first to demonstrate that WDG improved GMD mainly via inhibiting inflammatory level and promoting gastrointestinal motility, providing new insights for the understanding of WDG for GMD, inspiration for future research and reference for clinical strategy in terms of the treatment of GMD.

Solanum torvum (Swartz) (2n = 24) is a wild Solanaceae plant with high economic value that is used as a rootstock in grafting for Solanaceae plants to improve the resistance to a soil-borne disease caused by root-knot nematodes (RKNs). However, the lack of a high-quality reference genome of S. torvum hinders research on the genetic basis for disease resistance and application in horticulture. Herein, we present a chromosome-level assembly of genomic sequences for S. torvum combining PacBio long reads (HiFi reads), Illumina short reads and Hi-C scaffolding technology. The assembled genome size is ~1.25 Gb with a contig N50 and scaffold N50 of 38.65 Mb and 103.02 Mb, respectively as well as a BUSCO estimate of 98%. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis of the unique S. torvum genes, including NLR and ABC transporters, revealed that they were involved in disease resistance processes. RNA-seq data also confirmed that 48 NLR genes were highly expressed in roots and fibrous roots and that three homologous NLR genes (Sto0288260.1, Sto0201960.1 and Sto0265490.1) in S. torvum were significantly upregulated after RKN infection. Two ABC transporters, ABCB9 and ABCB11 were identified as the hub genes in response to RKN infection. The chromosome-scale reference genome of the S. torvum will provide insights into RKN resistance.

Intense burning phenomena (fire disasters) need to be prevented in the combustible gas utilization and transportation processes to ensure industrial safety. Nonmetallic spherical spacers (NSSs) have been investigated and applied in lots of explosive atmospheres to prevent explosion execution in a confined space. In this work, a novel fuzzy-based analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is developed to take into account the uncertainty in decision-making and effectively solve the problem of factor weight allocation in multi-objective optimization. Optimal Latin Hypercube Design (Opt LHD), Chebyshev Orthogonal Polynomials (COP), and Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA) were combined. A multi-objective optimization method is proposed for the structural parameter optimization problem on NSSs in order to achieve conflicting multiple-objective optimization of low displacement rate and minimal deformation. That is to say, the small volume (low displacement rate) and high explosion-suppression performance (minimal deformation) of NSSs were optimized simultaneously. The results show that, compared with the original NSS model’s deformation (2.85 mm) and displacement rate (3.63%), the optimized NSSs with weight allocation had optimized the deformation by 12.98% and displacement rate by 6.1%. Compared with the optimized design model of NSSs without weight allocation with a deformation of 2.75 mm and a displacement rate of 3.48%, the deformation has been optimized by 9.82%, and the displacement rate has been optimized by 2.0%. It was verified that the proposed method is effective. At the same time, it was verified that the suppression effect of NSSs can be enhanced by changing the shape of the NSS spacer reasonably by experimental verification.

This experiment was conducted in weaned piglets to determine the effects of exogenous protease to low soybean meal (SBM) diets on growth performance, diarrhea rate, nutrient digestibility, and intestinal morphology. Seventy-two Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire weaned barrows (21-day-old, 5.88 ± 0.95 kg) were randomly divided into four treatments with six replicates in each following a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of SBM levels (0 to 14 d, 9%, 7.5%; 15 to 42 d, 20%, 18.5%) and protease (0 or 150 mg/kg) for a 42-day trial. Fecal samples were collected on days 11 to 14 and 38 to 42 of the experiment, and serum, intestinal tissue, and chyme samples were taken at the end of the experiments. Adding protease in low SBM diets had a significant increase in ADG (p < 0.05) and a decrease in F/G (p < 0.05). Protease significantly reduced the diarrhea rate (p < 0.05). Low SBM level decreased the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of crude protein (CP) and ash (p < 0.05) but increased the ATTD of dry matter (DM), ash, organic matter (OM), and CP after the addition of protease (p < 0.05). The apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of aspartic acid (Asp), threonine (Thr), serine (Ser), alanine (Ala), lysine (Lys), and total amino acids (AAs) were significantly increased by protease supplementation (p < 0.05). Both the SBM-reduced and protease-added diets lead to lower albumin (ALB), albumin/globulin (A/G), and urea nitrogen (UREA) (p < 0.05), but greater globulin (GLOB) with low SBM diets (p < 0.05). The SBM-reduced and protease-added diets decreased the duodenum pH, respectively (p < 0.05). The protease increased the villus:crypt (V:C) in the duodenum and ileum, and ileal villus length (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the dietary supplementation of 150 mg/kg protease improved the intestinal health and performance of the weaned piglets and reversed the negative effect of a 1.5% SBM reduction in nutrient utilization, intestinal pH, and intestinal morphological parameters of weaned piglets.

Calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are major Ca2+ sensors involved in the regulation of plant development and stress responses by converting Ca2+ signals into appropriate cellular responses. However, characterization and expression analyses of CaM/CML genes in the precious species, Phoebe bournei, remain limited. In this study, five PbCaM and sixty PbCML genes were identified that only had EF-hand motifs with no other functional domains. The phylogenetic tree was clustered into 11 subgroups, including a unique clade of PbCaMs. The PbCaMs were intron-rich with four EF-hand motifs, whereas PbCMLs had two to four EF-hands and were mostly intronless. PbCaMs/CMLs were unevenly distributed across the 12 chromosomes of P. bournei and underwent purifying selection. Fragment duplication was the main driving force for the evolution of the PbCaM/CML gene family. Cis-acting element analysis indicated that PbCaMs/CMLs might be related to hormones, growth and development, and stress response. Expression analysis showed that PbCaMs were generally highly expressed in five different tissues and under drought stress, whereas PbCMLs showed specific expression patterns. The expression levels of 11 candidate PbCaMs/CMLs were responsive to ABA and MeJA, suggesting that these genes might act through multiple signaling pathways. The overexpression of PbCaM3/CML13 genes significantly increased the tolerance of yeast cells to drought stress. The identification and characterization of the CaM/CML gene family in P. bournei laid the foundation for future functional studies of these genes.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze local autoignition induced by secondary flame acceleration. The secondary flame acceleration process and the local autoignition formation mechanism at the condition of the secondary flame acceleration propagation were investigated by utilizing an improved designed constant volume combustion bomb (CVCB) with two perforated plates. Primary flame and secondary flame propagation were recorded via high‐speed schlieren photography. The results showed that there were three distinct stages in the process of flame propagation through two perforated plates, which were the primary jet flame stage, secondary jet flame stage, and flame‐shock interaction stage. The morphologies of the flame were analyzed by high‐speed Schlieren images, flame velocities, and pressure oscillation including primary jet propagation, secondary flame formation and acceleration, and location autoignition. Results show the effect of initial pressure on flame propagation, flame velocity, and pressure oscillation. Acceleration of secondary flame and local autoignition phenomenon was more precisely demonstrated as unburnt gases were compressed by flame waves (different velocities) with initial pressure increasing. Based on the morphology of flame, three different types of flame combustion modes were captured at different initial pressure involving turbulent flame, deflagration, and quasi‐detonation. The present work might provide a new insight for combustion science in a confined space, such as autoignition due to compression effect of secondary jet flame and primary flame interaction. It also provides the theory guidance and research direction towards further studies on propane storage vessel deflagration.

【Objective】The study evaluated the land ecological security in Shannan City of Tibet Autonomous Region, revealed the main factors affecting the land ecological security, with a view to providing reasonable suggestions for the realization of ecological environment protection and sustainable land use in Shannan City, and promoting the sustainable and healthy economic development on the premise of ensuring the land ecological security.【Method】An evaluation index system of land ecological security was established based on Pressure-State-Response (PSR) Model to evaluate the state of land ecological security in the city from 2010 to 2020, and the main factors affecting land ecological security were identified by Obstacle Degree Model (ODM).【Result】From 2010 to 2016, the land ecological security index of Shannan City was between 0.41 and 0.50, showing a slight fluctuation. It continued to decrease from 2016 to 2018, and decreased to 0.44. From 2018 to 2020, the land ecological security index increased rapidly from 0.44 to 0.69, which was closely related to the economic development and ecological environment protection strategies of Shannan City. Among the pressure, state and response indexes, the impact of pressure index on ecological security had little change, and its proportion in ecological security index increased from 29.19% in 2010 to 31.46% in 2020. The influence of state index decreased significantly from 41.62% in 2010 to 29.39% in 2020. The influence of response index increased significantly, from 29.19% in 2010 to 39.16% in 2020. The main influencing factors of land ecological security in Shannan City from 2010 to 2020 were per capita GDP, per capita rural disposable income, annual expenditure of environmental protection and fixed-asset investment.【Conclusion】In order to en sure the land ecological security of Shannan City, it is suggested to increase the annual expenditure of environmental protection and optimize the investment structure of fixed assets in a coordinated way while developing economy rapidly and increasing per capita GDP and rural per capita disposable income in the future.

Abstract In order to accurately predict the damping characteristics of a hydraulic shock absorber under piston inclination and eccentricity conditions, especially, considering effects of piston surface construction. In present work, taking account of piston slight inclination and eccentricity, a more detailed mathematical model was developed to estimate effects of piston texture on damping characteristics. Based on the mathematical models of reservoir and compression stroke coupled with Reynolds equation, a new damping force model was developed, which analyzed effects of piston structure on damping characteristics. The mathematical models of piston texture, piston slight inclination, piston eccentricity and combinations of three cases are developed to analyzed in detailed effects of piston texture at different work conditions on damping characteristics. The results shown that the friction force of piston increases parabolically with increasing depth ratio, and that of piston increases linearly with increasing area ratio. Piston textures have little effects on damping characteristics at specific structural parameters conditions when piston normal operation, however, textures of slight inclined and eccentric piston have great effects. As a result, piston textures might cause high damping force, destroyed comfort and safety. Therefore, it is necessary that effects of piston surface construction were precisely predicted on damping characteristics under different work conditions. The results might provide a new insight for the design of hydraulic shock absorber and investigation of vehicle system dynamics.

Due to complicated transfer paths and strong background noise interference, the fault pattern information deeply hides in common features of the vibration signal at the engine surface. In this study, the refined composite multiscale fuzzy entropy (RCMFE) used to measure the irregularity and self-similarity of time series is proposed to quantify the feature of various fault patterns. Followed by RCMFE, the features dug out are recognized by a parameter-adaptive support vector machine based on the firefly algorithm (FASVM). After putting forward the diagnosing schematics, the RCMFE-FASVM is applied to a fault diagnosis case of a diesel engine on a test rig. A comparative analysis of the four methods to extract features and the four methods to recognize fault patterns are conducted. Results indicate the proposed method has superior recognition performance and can effectively identify the working states of the diesel engine, contrasting the existing methods. Under the small samples and features task of identifying the working states of a diesel engine, the recognition rate of the proposed method with more stability can reach 98.2%, which is larger than other methods. Given the superior performance of the proposed method, the number of input features and training samples should vary from 8 to 20 and from 35 to 50.

Cell cycle regulation plays a critical role in plant growth and development. In this study, the role of a tomato cell cycle gene SlCycB1 has been characterized. Expression analysis revealed that SlCycB1 was mostly expressed in stem, root, and leaves, with relative lower expression in flower and fruit. Tomato plants overexpressing SlCycB1 exhibited a reduction in cell number and increased cell size leading to the growth retardation. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid analysis and bimolecular fluorescence complementation revealed that SlCycB1 interacted with histone H3.2, an essential component of the nucleosome. Histone H3.2 was transcriptionally up-regulated in the SlCycB1 overexpressing tomato lines. Furthermore, the overexpression of histone H3.2 in transgenic plants showed similar phenotypes to SlCycB1 overexpressing lines. Based on these findings, we concluded that SlCycB1 overexpression altered tomato architecture in association with histone H3.2.

Abstract Background Over 100 mutations in the SRD5A2 gene have been identified in subjects with 46,XY disorder of sex development (DSD). Exploration of SRD5A2 mutations and elucidation of the molecular mechanisms behind their effects should reveal the functions of the domains of the 5α-reductase 2 enzyme and identify the cause of 46,XY DSD. Previously, we reported a novel compound heterozygous p.Q6X/p.H232R mutation of the SRD5A2 gene in a case with 46,XY DSD. Whether the compound heterozygous p.Q6X/p.H232R mutation in this gene causes 46,XY DSD requires further exploration. Methods The two 46,XY DSD cases were identified and sequenced. In order to identify the source of the compound heterozygous p.Q6X/p.H232R mutation, the parents, maternal grandparents, and maternal uncle were sequenced. Since p.Q6X mutation is a nonsense mutation, p.H232R mutation was transfected into HEK293 cells and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) production were analyzed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) for 5α-reductase 2 enzyme activities test. Apparent michaelis constant (Km) were measured of p.H232R mutation to analyze the binding ability change of 5α-reductase 2 enzyme with testosterone (T) or NADPH. Results The sequence results showed that the two 46,XY DSD cases were the compound heterozygous p.Q6X/p.H232R mutation, of which the heterozygous p.Q6X mutation originating from maternal family and heterozygous p.H232R mutation originating from the paternal family. The function analysis confirmed that p.H232R variant decreased the DHT production by LC–MS test. The Km analysis demonstrated that p.H232R mutation affected the binding of SRD5A2 with T or NADPH. Conclusions Our findings confirmed that the compound heterozygous p.Q6X/p.H232R mutation in the SRD5A2 gene is the cause of 46,XY DSD. p.H232R mutation reduced DHT production while attenuating the catalytic efficiency of the 5α-reductase 2 enzyme.

A low-cost and high-efficiency solid reaction method has been reported as an effective technology to synthesize manganese ferrite MnFe2O4 with a spinel crystal structure. This work clarified the underlying reason for the influence mechanism of SiO2 and Al2O3 on the synthesis of MnFe2O4. Synthetic MnFe2O4 polyhedral microparticles with a saturated magnetization of 71.19 emu/g, a ratio of saturation magnetization to residual magnetization (Ms/Mr) of 0.062 and a coercivity (Hc) of 6.50 Oe were successfully obtained at an oxidization roasting temperature of 1100 °C for 60 min. The experimental results indicate that the tetrahedral Mn2+ ions and octahedral Mn3+ ions in the crystal structure of manganese ferrite MnFe2O4 were replaced by tetrahedral Si2+ ions and octahedral Al3+ ions from (Mn2+)x(Fe2+)y(Si2+)1−x−y[Fe3+]2O4 and (Mn2+)[Fe3+]2−x[Al3+]xO4, respectively. In addition, hercynite FexMn1−xAl2O4 with a spinel crystal structure and olivine MnxFe2−xSiO4 with an orthorhombic crystal structure were partially formed in the synthesis of manganese ferrite MnFe2O4, in which some Fe2+ ions were easily replaced by Mn2+ ions to form stable hercynite MnAl2O4 and olivine Mn2SiO4 in these crystal structures. The current research work provides comprehensive insights for synthesizing manganese ferrite MnFe2O4 and continuously advances its technical progress.

As one of the most important influencing factors, inter-basin water resource development has been exerting an increasingly evident impact on the hydro-environment of river basins. The Han River was selected as a case study to reveal the hydro-environmental response to China's inter-basin water resource development. The hydrological changes and water-quality variations resulted from the middle route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) and the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) operation were examined based on a hydro-environmental model. The results indicated that the runoff reduction is obvious after the SNWTP operation, and the low-flow duration significantly increased by 4–5 months. Consequently, the flow decrease significantly contributed to the water quality deterioration in the middle and lower Han River, while the Yangtze-Han Water Diversion Project (YHWDP) can not alleviate the situation completely. Moreover, the nutrient assimilative capacity decreased after water diversion, which agrees with the hydrological changes along the middle and lower Han River. The quantitative analysis performed in this study distinguishes the spatiotemporal variation in water quality variables using the integrated model. It provides insights into water quality management under the influences of inter-basin water resource development. HIGHLIGHTS A coupled hydro-environmental model was set up to evaluate the river health.; Long low-flow duration was examined along the lower Han River.; Water quality of the middle and lower Han River deteriorated after the TGR and SNWTP operation.; SNWTP significantly contributed to the water environment deterioration.; YHWDP can not completely offset the adverse environmental influences resulted from the SNWTP operation.;

Conventional direct lift control (DLC) design in carrier landing is not accepted by pilots since it is not fully decoupled and has heavy control burden. Nevertheless, when using dynamic inversion, developed in recent years as the baseline control framework, the control architecture can dynamically decouple control state channels and simplify control logic. In this study, the incremental dynamic inversion control (INDI) method is used to realize the DLC of the carrier-based aircraft precision landing control law and compare the dynamic inversion control (NDI). Meanwhile, the robustness of the INDI control framework is analyzed. A landing simulation system is completed to verify that using the NDI/INDI+DLC framework can fully exploit and reflect the advantage of DLC in carrier landing. The results show that the proposed NDI/INDI+DLC, i.e., the precision landing control architecture, can use the rapidity of DLC to correct minor errors of landing and improve landing accuracy quickly. At the same time, decoupling of DLC based on INDI can also reduce the complexity of the landing operation and improve the landing success rate.

Melatonin is a multifunctional molecule that has been widely discovered in most plants. An increasing number of studies have shown that melatonin plays essential roles in plant growth and stress tolerance. It has been extensively applied to alleviate the harmful effects of abiotic stresses. In view of its role in regulating aspects of plant growth and development, we ponder and summarize the scientific discoveries about seed germination, root development, flowering, fruit maturation, and senescence. Under abiotic and biotic stresses, melatonin brings together many pathways to increase access to treatments for the symptoms of plants and to counteract the negative effects. It has the capacity to tackle regulation of the redox, plant hormone networks, and endogenous melatonin. Furthermore, the expression levels of several genes and the contents of diverse secondary metabolites, such as polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids, were significantly altered. In this review, we intend to examine the actions of melatonin in plants from a broader perspective, explore the range of its physiological functions, and analyze the relationship between melatonin and other metabolites and metabolic pathways.

Biochar, a cost-effective amendment, has been reported to play pivotal roles in improving soil fertility and immobilizing soil pollutants due to its well-developed porous structure and tunable functionality. However, the properties of biochar and soils can vary inconsistently after field application. This may affect the remediation of biochar on heavy metal (HM)-contaminated soil being altered. Therefore, we selected lettuce as a model crop to determine the effects of short-term, long-term, and reapplication of biochar on soil physicochemical properties, microbial community, HM bioavailability, and plant toxicity. Our investigation revealed that the long-term application of biochar remarkably improved soil fertility, increased the relative abundance of the phylum Proteobacteria which was highly resistant to HMs, and reduced the abundance of phylum Acidobacteria. These changes in soil properties decreased the accumulation of Cd and Pb in lettuce tissues. The short- and long-term applications of biochar had no substantial effects on biomass, quality, and photosynthesis of lettuce. Moreover, the short-term and reapplication of biochar had no significant effects on soil bacterial communities but decreased the accumulation of Cd and Pb in lettuce tissues. It showed that the changes in the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil after long-term application of biochar promoted the remediation of HM-contaminated soil. Furthermore, microbial community compositions varied with metal stress and biochar application, while the relative abundance of the phylum Actinobacteria in HM-contaminated soil with long-term biochar application was markedly higher than in HM-contaminated soil without biochar application.

Background A high attrition rate in medical students has exacerbated the physician shortage in China. However, few studies have explored the risk factors of dropout intention in medical postgraduates. This study compared the prevalence of dropout intention and mental distress between medical and non-medical postgraduates in China and investigated risk factors for dropout intention. This study also explored the impact of medical postgraduates’ perception of the Chinese healthcare environment on their mental status and dropout intention.Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted using online questionnaires from October 2020 to April 2021. Convenience sampling was used to recruit postgraduates in different majors. Outcomes included dropout intention and potential risk factors, including mental distress, quality of life, and fatigue. Medical postgraduates were additionally assessed for healthcare environment satisfaction, burnout, career choice regret, and experiences of workplace violence. A logistic regression model was constructed to evaluate the association between dissatisfaction, mental distress, and turnover intention.Results A total of 740 medical and 670 non-medical postgraduates participated in the survey. The rates of depression symptoms (33.8% vs. 39.0%, p

Human activities and climate change have led to significant changes in the flow and sediment of sandy rivers in northern China. The key work to reveal the changes of river water and sediment conditions is to quantitatively study the changes of precipitation, water and soil conservation in river basins, and the effect of reservoirs on sediment containment. Taking the Yongding River as a case study, we analyze the changing trend of the water and sediment into the Yongding River and find that their amount has greatly decreased. In particular, the sediment yield has decreased by more than 90% and its trend has changed, and the turning point occurred in the 1980s. Based on the statistical data analysis model, the influences of human activities on the sediment inflow of the Guanting Reservoir were quantitatively evaluated. The results show that sand retention of the upper cascade reservoirs is the main reason for the sharp reduction in sediment loads, but the sand retention effect of reservoirs has a certain time limit. Water and soil conservation played a vital role in the sediment loads reduction during the present stage. The present studies may provide insights into understanding the integrated reclamation of the river basin. HIGHLIGHTS Influences evaluation of human activities on water and sediment transport.; Reservoir regulation Influences were found evident only before sedimentation balance.; Erosion and torrent control works were found as the principal cause of recent hydrological variations.; Time-effect of different factors on hydrological changes was evaluated.; Ecological restoration was considered as a sustainable sediment reduction measure.;

Abstract Background Previous studies have demonstrated the preclinical pharmacological and toxicological consistency, and clinical pharmacokinetic equivalence of bevacizumab biosimilar LY01008 with reference bevacizumab (Avastin). This randomized controlled trial aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of LY01008 with Avastin in first‐line treatment of Chinese patients with advanced or recurrent non‐squamous non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Stage IIIB‐IV NSCLC patients with evaluable lesions, good physical status, and adequate organ functions from 67 centers across China were randomized in a ratio of 1:1 to receive LY01008 or Avastin 15 mg/kg intravenously in combination with paclitaxel/carboplatin (combined treatment) for 4‐6 cycles, followed by maintenance monotherapy with LY01008 until disease progression, intolerable toxicity, or death. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) in accordance with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1 confirmed by independent radiological review committees (IRRC). Secondary endpoints included disease control rate (DCR), duration of response (DoR), progression‐free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety. This study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03533127). Results Between December 15th, 2017, and May 15th, 2019, a total of 649 patients were randomized to the LY01008 (n = 324) or Avastin (n = 325) group. As of September 25th, 2019 for primary endpoint analysis, 589 patients received ORR evaluation, with a median number of combined treatment cycles of 5 (range 1‐6) and median duration of treatment of 3.0 (range 0.0‐5.1) months. ORR of response‐evaluable patients in the LY01008 and Avastin groups were 48.5% and 53.0%, respectively. The stratified ORR ratio was 0.91 (90% CI 0.80‐1.04, within the prespecified equivalence margin of 0.75‐1.33). Up to May 15th, 2020, with a median follow‐up of 13.6 (range 0.8‐28.4) months, no notable differences in DCR, median DoR, median PFS, median OS, and 1‐year OS rate were observed between the LY01008 and Avastin groups. There were no clinically meaningful differences in safety and immunogenicity across treatment groups. Conclusions LY01008 demonstrated similarity to Avastin in terms of efficacy and safety in Chinese patients with advanced or recurrent non‐squamous NSCLC. LY01008 combined with paclitaxel/carboplatin is expected to become a new treatment option for unresectable, metastatic, or recurrent non‐squamous NSCLC patients in the first‐line setting.

BackgroundNurses are at high risk for depression and anxiety symptoms after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the network structure of anxiety and depression symptoms among Chinese nurses in the late stage of this pandemic.MethodA total of 6,183 nurses were recruited across China from Oct 2020 to Apr 2021 through snowball sampling. We used Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale-7 (GAD-7) to assess depression and anxiety, respectively. We used the Ising model to estimate the network. The index “expected influence” and “bridge expected influence” were applied to determine the central symptoms and bridge symptoms of the anxiety-depression network. We tested the stability and accuracy of the network via the case-dropping procedure and non-parametric bootstrapping procedure.ResultThe network had excellent stability and accuracy. Central symptoms included “restlessness”, “trouble relaxing”, “sad mood”, and “uncontrollable worry”. “Restlessness”, “nervous”, and “suicidal thoughts” served as bridge symptoms.ConclusionRestlessness emerged as the strongest central and bridge symptom in the anxiety-depression network of nurses. Intervention on depression and anxiety symptoms in nurses should prioritize this symptom.

NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) is one of the most common and lethal malignant tumors, with low 5-year overall survival rate. Curcumol showed antitumor activity in several cancers, but evidence about its effect on NSCLC remains unclear. In the present study, we found that Curcumol markedly inhibited NSCLC cells proliferation, migration and invasion. Endothelial cells are an important part of tumor microenvironment. Tube formation assay and wound healing assay indicated that A549 derived conditioned medium affected HUVECs (human umbilical vein endothelial cells). Mechanistically, Curcumol downregulated the expression of SP1 (specificity protein 1) while upregulated miR-125b-5p, followed by decreasing VEGFA expression in NSCLC cells. Furthermore, overexpression of SP1 partially reversed the inhibitory effect of Curcumol on A549 and H1975 cell viability and VEGFA expression. Inhibition of miR-125b-5p presented similar effect. Interestingly, there was mutual modulation between SP1 and miR-125b-5p. Collectively, our study revealed that Curcumol inhibited cell growth and angiogenesis of NSCLC in vitro and in vivo, possibly through SP1/miR-125b-5p/VEGFA regulatory mechanism. These findings may provide effective therapy strategies for NSCLC treatment.