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This letter presents a convenient approach based on the two-port kQ-product theory to analyze the influence of interwinding capacitive coupling on the efficiency of the transformer. It is demonstrated that a transformer with proper size can benefit from the interwinding capacitive coupling to maximize its efficiency at a desired frequency. The proposed design approach is used in a W-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) fabricated with the 40-nm CMOS process to optimize the insertion loss of the input transformer-based balun. Thanks to the approach, the W-band LNA achieves a minimum noise figure of 5.7 dB, a maximum gain of 18.5 dB, and a 3-dB bandwidth of 76.5-92.6 GHz, while consuming 23.4 mW from a 0.9-V supply.

Cantharidin (CTD), extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine mylabris, has shown significant curative effects against a variety of tumors, but its clinical application is limited by its nephrotoxicity, and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the toxic effects in mouse kidneys following CTD treatment by pathological observations, biochemical index detection, and transcriptomics, and explored the underlying molecular mechanisms by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). The results showed that after CTD exposure, the kidneys had different degrees of pathological damage, altered uric acid and creatinine levels in serum, and the antioxidant indexes in tissues were significantly increased. RNA-seq analysis revealed 674 differentially expressed genes compared with the control group, of which 131 were upregulated and 543 were downregulated. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses showed that many differentially expressed genes were closely related to the stress response, the CIDE protein family, and the transporter superfamily, as well as the MAPK, AMPK, and HIF-1 pathways. The reliability of the RNA-seq results was verified by qRT-PCR. These findings offer new insight into the molecular mechanisms of renal toxicity caused by CTD.

Harmonics produced by residential loads have become an increasing concern in recent years due to the extensive adoption of power-electronic-based home appliances. Harmonic modeling of aggregate residential loads (ARLs) is of great significance since it is the prerequisite for harmonic evaluation and necessary mitigation measures in the residential areas. In this paper, a piecewise probabilistic harmonic model is proposed to analyze the aggregate harmonics of residential loads. Based on the field measurement data, a unified dominant harmonic coupled matrix model (UD-HCMM) is established. This model directly exhibits the coupled relationship between the harmonic voltages and currents of residential loads. In view of the random and fluctuating harmonic characteristics of home appliances, the multi-Gaussian curve fitting method is used to fit the UD-HCMM parameters. Thereafter, the probabilistic UD-HCMMs are reconstructed using the Newton-Raphson method. Finally, a piecewise UD-HCMM is derived to characterize the time-varying harmonics of ARLs. The accuracy and validity of the proposed method are verified through simulations and field measurements. In addition, the proposed method is applied to evaluate the harmonics of a medium voltage distribution system with massive residential loads.

Infertile women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) confront an increased miscarriage rate in assisted reproductive technology (ART). Genetic abnormality is the most important factor. However, the effects of DOR and female age on the molecular karyotype of products of conception (POCs) remain unknown. We analyzed POCs using a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray from women with DOR who experienced first-trimester miscarriage in IVF/ICSI cycles. The SNP microarray revealed chromosomal abnormalities in 74.6% (47/63) of POCs, including trisomy in 83.0% (39/47). Chromosomal aberrations were more frequent in women older than 32 years old with DOR than in young women aged 20-32 years old (86.7% vs. 44.4%, P = 0.001). Univariate and multivariable analyses identified advanced age as a risk factor for chromosomal aberration-related miscarriage in women with DOR, with odds ratios of 8.125 (95% CI: 2.291-28.820, P = 0.001) and 5.867 (95% CI: 1.395-24.673, P = 0.016), respectively. The results showed that older women (older than 32 years old) with DOR had a high risk of miscarrying a chromosomally aberrant embryo/fetus, regardless of basal follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), antral follicle count (AFC) and previous reproductive history. This finding indicates a novel cut-off value of age for women with DOR related to chromosomal aberration-related miscarriage.

Backgroud: Male sperm quality has declined as a whole in the last 30 years and our previous study found that there are many specific variations in male sperm mitochondria, including MT-COX1. In this study we attempted to explore the correlation between human sperm MT-COX1 gene variations and male semen quality in a Chinese Han population. Methods and results: There were 477 male patients from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from 2010 to 2021, of whom 331 were retrospective studies and 146 were prospective studies. And 4 oligoasthenoteratospermia samples and 13 normal sperm samples were collected for low-throughput sequencing of the whole human genome. The semen samples were divided into three groups according to the types of genetic variation at the m.6023G>A locus: G/G genotype (wild type), G/A genotype and A/A genotype. The results of a prospective study show that the A/A genotype had higher sperm density and motility than the G allele carrier (G/G+G/A). And DNAAF6 gene variation may be associated with oligoasthenoteratospermia, the upstream of the 107243978 position of DNAAF6 gene variation might have the binding of hsa-miR-4311 to the 3'UTR of DNAAF6 gene. Conclusions: We first found that the MT-COX1 gene of spermatozoa of the Chinese Han population has varied since 2014. Furthermore, the A/A genotype had better sperm quality than the G allele carriers (G/G+G/A), and the 107243978 position variation of the DNAAF6 gene might affect the gene expression by affecting the stability of transcripts.

This letter presents a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) vector-modulated phase shifter (VMPS) for phased-array applications. To improve the phase-shift accuracy without drastically increasing design complexity, the proposed VMPS structure employs variable-gain amplifiers (VGAs) that offer 2× better resolution at their low-gain states compared to their high-gain states. A two-stage current-reused structure is also proposed to implement the desired VGAs with minimal layout complexity, negligible gain penalty, and no extra power. Moreover, the proposed VMPS can maintain its phase-shift accuracy even at lower voltage gains. Fabricated in 40-nm CMOS, the prototype core consumes 11 mW from a 1.1-V supply and occupies a core area of 0.19 mm2. At 28 GHz, with a phase resolution of 0.61°, the measured RMS phase error is 0.23° at the maximum gain and remains

This paper compares energy consumption (electricity, gasoline, and gas) by rural migrant workers and urban residents with a hukou (a China-specific household registration system) and influential factors (including quality-of-life [QOL]-related factors, built environment, and individual and household attributes) in China. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Dalian (a coastal city) in 2014 and in Guiyang (an inland city) in 2015, respectively. A zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model was applied to understand whether and how much people consume a certain type of energy. The results showed that built environment explains 8.4–21.8% and 6.3–41.4% of the total variance in energy consumption by rural migrant workers and urban residents with a hukou. The corresponding variance related to QOL-related factors was 9.1–15.8% and 4.1–22.6%, respectively. The built environment was mostly associated with electricity consumed by urban residents with a hukou, while its influences on other types of energy consumption were moderate. Mixed effects of both built environment and QOL-related factors on reducing energy consumption were observed. Thus, it is context-sensitive whether and how much compact city development and social security policy affect residents’ energy consumption.

GPUs have become important solutions for accelerating scientific applications. Most of the existing work on climate models now use code rewritten using CUDA to achieve a limited speedup. This restriction also greatly limits followup development and applications. In this paper, we designed and implemented a GPU-based acceleration of the LASG/IAP climate system ocean model (LICOM) version 2, called LICOM2-GPU. Considering the extremely large codebase of the model and the occasional need to modify the code, we implemented the model completely in OpenACC. Several accelerated methods, including OpenACC data locality optimization, loop optimization, and interprocess communication optimization are presented. Developing for GPUs using OpenACC is substantially simpler than using the CUDA port. Thus, the OpenACC is a suitable GPU programming model for complex systems, such as the earth system model and its components. Our experimental results using 4 NVIDIA K80 cards achieved up to a 6.6$ \times $ speedup compared with 4 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2690 v2 GPUs.

This paper uses a generalized structural equation model (GSEM) to examine the relationships between a social network, the perception of social sustainability, and the future business intentions of small tourism enterprises, in the context of a developing country, Lao PDR. The data were derived from 177 such enterprises located in two destinations in 2016. Initiatives in building social networks and the provision of training and employment of local residents are identified as the key determinants of success in social sustainability, while specific attempts to create brands congruent with local culture are also important. Undifferentiated policies, while useful to the business expansion of small tourism enterprises, are less successful in generating local social sustainability.

Helicobacter pylori neutrophil-activating protein A subunit (NapA) has been identified as a virulence factor, a protective antigen and a potent immunomodulator. NapA shows unique application potentials for anti-H. pylori vaccines and treatment strategies of certain allergic diseases and carcinomas. However, appropriate production and utilization modes of NapA still remain uncertain to date. This work has established a novel efficient production and utilization mode of NapA by using L. lactis as an expression host and delivery vector, and demonstrated immune protective efficacy and immune modulatory activity of the engineered L. lactis by oral vaccination of mice. It was observed for the first time that H. pylori NapA promotes both polarized Th17 and Th1 responses, which may greatly affect the clinical application of NapA. This report offers a promising anti-H. pylori oral vaccine candidate and a potent mucosal immune modulatory agent. Meanwhile, it uncovers a way to produce and deliver the oral vaccine and immunomodulator by fermentation of food like milk, which might have striking effects on control of H. pylori infection, gastrointestinal cancers, and Th2 bias allergic diseases, including many food allergies.

This study examines how Chinese rural migrant workers’ energy consumption is affected by various factors of living conditions, together with residential behaviors, ownership of both in-home and out-of-home energy-consuming end uses, and the built environment. Such a social perspective is emphasized because of the existence of the China-unique household registration system (hukou), which does not allow rural migrant workers to have an equal access to many public services in cities as residents with an urban hukou. Such a troublesome situation may discourage the migrants to own and use more energy-consuming electronic appliances and vehicles, leading to less energy consumption. This has however remained unknown. To this end, this study implemented a questionnaire survey in three Chinese cities in 2014 and 2015 and estimated a structural equation model. It is found that living conditions have much smaller effects on energy consumption than residential behavior, ownership of end uses, and the built environment. Policy implications and future research issues are extensively discussed.

The growth of tourism sector has caused the increase of energy consumption and concerns about its sustainability. This chapter examines the relationships between tourism energy consumption, sustainable tourism, and destination management based on literature review. A systematic framework is proposed to combine energy consumption studies and stakeholder theory within sustainable goals. Based on this framework, existing studies of tourism energy from different stakeholders’ behavioral perspectives are summarized. At each level of the framework, there are studies related to energy consumption and sustainability studies. Then, the links between tourism energy consumption, sustainable tourism, and destination management are discussed. Policy implications related to sustainable energy consumption and future directions on tourism energy-related problems are given in the last part.

The impacts of built environment on travel behavior have been widely examined in the transportation literature. However, insights from the perspective of young people are very limited. This study focuses on high school students in depopulated areas of Japan. The aim of this study is to measure the interrelationships between the built environment, travel behavior, life satisfaction, and future life plans. The focus on future life plans makes this study unique. Data from 1,104 high school students in Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan were collected in 2016. Analyses based on a structural equation model found that the built environment associated with high school students' study life and non-study life can be barriers to making future life plans. The built environment and travel behavior have negative effects on life satisfaction. Thus, the development of depopulated areas should consider young people's needs from a variety of perspectives.

With expansion of the urban population, the power consumed by Chinese residential load is increasing rapidly. At the same time, power-electronic devices are widely adopted in home appliances, injecting a great amount of harmonics into the power system, which makes the harmonic problem in residential areas more serious than ever before. In this paper, a bottom-up approach is proposed to evaluate the harmonics of residential energy use. Firstly, a harmonic coupled model is proposed to calculate the harmonics generated by individual nonlinear home appliance. The model directly exhibits the couplings between different order harmonic voltages and currents. Secondly, based on the Markov chain Monte Carlo method, a random usage model is established to determine the usage pattern of home appliances. Various behavioral factors that affect the domestic use of energy in China are considered, and corresponding correction factors are proposed to improve the model accuracy. Thirdly, based on the proposed electrical and random usage models, a bottom-up approach is used to evaluate the harmonics and power of large-scale residential loads. Simulation results are compared with field measurements to verify the accuracy and validity of the proposed method. Furthermore, the proposed methodologies are applied to predict the harmonic generation and power consumption of some rapidly developing harmonic sources such as electric vehicles.

Highly social activities like leisure and tourism are considered to have positive effects on the elderly&rsquo, s mental health. Taking Japan as a case study, this research aims to clarify how leisure and tourism contribute to the elderly&rsquo, s quality of life (QOL) in the domains of leisure and intimacy by comparing populated and depopulated areas. Such research has strong implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through healthy aging, but relevant efforts are quite limited. In this study, leisure and tourism behaviors are captured by visit frequency, travel party and expenditure. Quality of life is measured by happiness and life satisfaction in different life domains, in line with the life-oriented approach. Data were collected in 2014 via a nationwide online survey in Japan. Applying a structural equation model (SEM) approach, it is found that leisure behavior contributes to maintaining the elderly&rsquo, s QOL in leisure life and intimacy domains. Tourism behavior only contributes to QOL in populated areas. Leisure activities strongly enhance QOL in terms of intimacy and improve the neighborhood relationship of the elderly in depopulated areas and family life in populated areas. Enriching daily leisure activities for the elderly would improve their intimate relationships in depopulated areas.