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[Display omitted] Lignin upgrading to various functional products is promising to realize high-value utilization of low-cost and renewable biomass waste, but is still in its infancy. Herein, using industry waste lignosulfonate as the biomass-based carbon source and urea as the dopant, we constructed a heteroatom-doped porous carbon nanosheet structure by a simple NaCl template-assisted pyrolytic strategy. Through the synergistic effect of the NaCl template and urea, the optimized lignin-derived porous carbon catalyst with high content of active nitrogen species and large specific surface area can be obtained. As a result, the fabricated catalysts exhibited excellent electrocatalytic oxygen reduction activity, as well as good methanol tolerance and stability, comparable to that of commercial Pt/C. Moreover, rechargeable Zn-air batteries assembled with this electrocatalyst have a peak power density of up to 150 mW cm-2 and prominent long-term cycling stability. This study offers an inexpensive and efficient way for the massive production of highly active metal-free catalysts from the plentiful, inexpensive and environmentally friendly lignin, offering a good direction for biomass waste recycling and utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiered geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) retaining walls are becoming increasingly popular in earthquake-prone areas due to their excellent earthquake resistance. Typically, near-field strong ground motion is characterized by a significant vertical component and/or a long-period velocity pulse. However, this is seldom considered in the current design of tiered GRS walls. In this study, two centrifuge shaking table tests were conducted to investigate the earthquake performance of tiered GRS walls under bidirectional and pulse-like excitations. The results revealed that under bidirectional excitation, the wall model underwent significant deformation. The confining pressures in the soil increased due to vertical motion, resulting in notable changes in the shear modulus of the backfill. Due to large differential settlement and vertical excitation, the earth pressures were significantly impacted. In the second case, pulse-like motions induced considerable shear strains in the backfill, leading to significant alterations of the shear modulus and dynamic damping of the structure. The facing exhibited distinct deformation modes, with some sliding at the toe. The peak wall displacement and reinforcement strain were both notably higher than the residual values. However, in both cases, the connections between the reinforcements and the facing endured relatively large strains, and need to be considered in seismic design. • Seismic behavior of tiered GRS walls under near-field ground motions were tested. • The effect of vertical seismic motions on tiered walls is discussed. • Specific seismic response of tiered walls under pulse-like excitations is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with cancer have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Comparing tumor-specific VTE risk is complicated by factors such as surgery, disease stage, and chemotherapy. Network meta-analysis (NMA) using cancer types as network nodes enabled us to estimate VTE rates by leveraging comparisons across cancer types while adjusting for baseline VTE risk in individual studies. This study was conducted to estimate the risk of VTE by cancer type and factors influencing VTE risk. The Embase, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library repositories were systematically searched to identify clinical trials and observational studies published from 2005 to 2022 that assessed the risk of primary cancer-related VTE among two or more distinct cancer types. Studies with similar cancer populations and study methods reporting VTE occurring within 1 year of diagnosis were included in the NMA. Relative VTE rates across cancer types were estimated with random-effects Bayesian NMAs. Absolute VTE rates were calculated from these estimates using the average VTE incidence in lung cancer (the most frequently reported type) as the "anchor." From 2,603 records reviewed, 30 studies were included in this NMA. The general network described 3,948,752 patients and 18 cancer types: 3.1% experienced VTE within 1 year of diagnosis, with cancer-specific rates ranging from 0.7 to 7.4%. Consistent with existing VTE risk prediction tools, pancreatic cancer was associated with higher-than-average VTE risk. Other cancer types with high VTE risk were brain and ovarian cancers. The relative rankings of VTE risk for certain cancers changed based on disease stage and/or receipt of chemotherapy or surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant biomass is a kind of renewable, abundant, eco-friendly, and clean natural resource. Recent increase in industrial demand, coupled with development and utilization of biocatalysts for utilization and production of high value-added products from plant biomass have attracted numerous research interest. The ester bond, between plant cell wall polysaccharides and ferulic acid (FA), can be hydrolysed by feruloyl esterases (FAE), thereby destroying compactness of lignocellulosic materials, which is beneficial during utilization of biomass resources. This is this research focus. In this article, we reviewed classification, characteristics, and application of FAE from different species, then highlighted the synergistic effect of FAE action with other enzymes. The findings are considered to provide insights into role of FAE in functional research, biochemical properties, and industrial application, especially with focus on processing of lignocellulosic biomass, harnessing hydroxycinnamate from agricultural by-products, and production of biofuels among other industrial uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Antiplatelet therapies are recommended to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke in patients with ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (IS/TIA). This study evaluated outpatient antiplatelet treatment patterns and outcomes for secondary stroke prevention (SSP) among UK adults without atrial fibrillation who were hospitalized for IS/TIA. Methods: This retrospective observational study utilized data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked with Hospital Episode Statistics data (01/01/2011–30/06/2019). Treatment patterns included type and duration of treatments. Treatment outcomes included IS, myocardial infarction, major bleeding, and cardiovascular-related and all-cause mortality. Descriptive statistics were reported. Results: Of 9270 patients, 13.9% (1292) might not receive antithrombotic therapy within 90 days of hospital discharge. Of 7978 patients who received antiplatelet therapies, most used clopidogrel (74.8%) or aspirin (16.7%) single antiplatelet therapy and clopidogrel + aspirin dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT, 5.9%). At 1-year post-hospitalization, 36.9, 43.3, and 35.1% of those receiving these treatments discontinued them, respectively, and of the patients initiating DAPT, 62.3% switched to single antiplatelet therapy. At 1-year post-discharge, the incidence rate (per 100 person-years) of IS, myocardial infarction, major bleeding, cardiovascular-related mortality, and all-cause mortality among the treated were 6.5, 0.7, 4.1, 5.0, and 7.3, respectively, and among the untreated were 14.9, 0.7, 8.6, 28.1, and 39.8, respectively. Conclusions: In the United Kingdom, 13.9% of patients hospitalized for stroke might not have any antiplatelet treatment to prevent secondary stroke; among the treated, clopidogrel, aspirin, and DAPT were commonly used. These study findings suggest that improved anti-thrombotic therapies for long-term SSP treatment are needed, which may lead to higher treatment and persistence rates and, therefore, improved outcomes in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydroisomerization of n-alkanes is an important step in the production of high-quality bio-aviation kerosene. A SAPO-11 molecular sieve was synthesized using the hydrothermal synthesis method, and a 0.5 wt% Pt/SAPO-11 catalyst was prepared using the impregnation method. The crystal phase, pore structure, acidity, and morphology of Pt/SAPO-11 were characterized via X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption, NH3 temperature-programmed desorption, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The hydroisomerization performance of the catalyst was evaluated with bio-n-hexadecane as the model compound. The results showed that temperature and space velocity had significant effects. Under the conditions of 340 °C, 1.5 MPa, WHSV = 1.0 h−1, V(H2): V(n-hexadecane) = 1000:1, the conversion of n-hexadecane and the selectivity of i-hexadecane were 81.8% and 86.5%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation It has been proven that only a small fraction of the neoantigens presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on the cell surface can elicit T cells. This restriction can be attributed to the binding specificity of T cell receptor (TCR) and peptide-MHC complex (pMHC). Computational prediction of T cells binding to neoantigens is a challenging and unresolved task. Results In this paper, we proposed an attention-aware contrastive learning model, ATMTCR, to infer the TCR–pMHC binding specificity. For each TCR sequence, we used a transformer encoder to transform it to latent representation, and then masked a percentage of amino acids guided by attention weights to generate its contrastive view. Compared to fully-supervised baseline model, we verified that contrastive learning-based pretraining on large-scale TCR sequences significantly improved the prediction performance of downstream tasks. Interestingly, masking a percentage of amino acids with low attention weights yielded best performance compared to other masking strategies. Comparison experiments on two independent datasets demonstrated our method achieved better performance than other existing algorithms. Moreover, we identified important amino acids and their positional preference through attention weights, which indicated the potential interpretability of our proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rolling bearing is a critical part of rotating machinery and its condition determines the performance of industrial equipment; it is necessary to detect rolling bearing faults as early as possible. The traditional methods of fault diagnosis are not efficient and are time-consuming. With the help of deep learning, the convolution neural network (CNN) plays a huge role in the data-driven methods of bearing fault diagnosis. However, the vibration signal is non-stationary, contains high noise, and is one-dimensional, which is difficult to analyze directly by the CNN model. Considering the multi-domain learning as an advantage of deep learning, this paper proposes a novel rolling bearing fault diagnosis approach using an improved one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) convolution neural network (CNN) of two-domain information learning. The constructed fault diagnosis model combining 1D and 2D CNN extracts the fault features from the two-domain information of bearing fault samples. The padding and dropout technology are utilized to fully extract features from the raw data and reduce over-fitting. To prove the validity of the proposed method, this paper performs two tests with two bearing datasets, the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) bearing dataset and the Dalian University of Technology (DUT) vibration laboratory dataset. The experimental results show that our proposed method achieves high recognition accuracy of rolling bearing fault states via two-domain learning of monitoring data, and there is no manual experience necessary. Vibration data under strong noise were also used to test the method, and the results show the superiority and robustness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to characterize mechanical properties of five pecan oils and one olive oil using a texture analyzer compared to a rotational viscometer; the results were linked to fatty acid profile and total polyphenol content. The seven texture parameters (firmness, consistency, cohesiveness, viscosity index, and stickiness at 5 s, stickiness at 30 s, and delta stickiness) showed significant difference (p ≤.05) among the six oils. Overall, olive oil had higher texture analysis values and significantly higher rotational viscosity than pecan oils. Chemically, C18 fatty acids accounted for approximately 90% of the total fatty acids in the five pecan oils. Olive oil had a higher amount of long‐chain, unsaturated fatty acids. Total polyphenols in pecan oils were 8–15 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/100 g, while olive oil contained 27.2 mg GAE/100 g. Correlation analysis demonstrated a significant, positive relationship between "consistency" texture and rotational viscosity measurement. Mechanical properties (seven texture parameters and rotational viscosity) were partially correlated to fatty acid profile, though no universal pattern was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Drug combination therapy has become an increasingly promising method in the treatment of cancer. However, the number of possible drug combinations is so huge that it is hard to screen synergistic drug combinations through wet-lab experiments. Therefore, computational screening has become an important way to prioritize drug combinations. Graph neural network has recently shown remarkable performance in the prediction of compound–protein interactions, but it has not been applied to the screening of drug combinations. Results In this paper, we proposed a deep learning model based on graph neural network and attention mechanism to identify drug combinations that can effectively inhibit the viability of specific cancer cells. The feature embeddings of drug molecule structure and gene expression profiles were taken as input to multilayer feedforward neural network to identify the synergistic drug combinations. We compared DeepDDS (Deep Learning for Drug–Drug Synergy prediction) with classical machine learning methods and other deep learning-based methods on benchmark data set, and the leave-one-out experimental results showed that DeepDDS achieved better performance than competitive methods. Also, on an independent test set released by well-known pharmaceutical enterprise AstraZeneca, DeepDDS was superior to competitive methods by more than 16% predictive precision. Furthermore, we explored the interpretability of the graph attention network and found the correlation matrix of atomic features revealed important chemical substructures of drugs. We believed that DeepDDS is an effective tool that prioritized synergistic drug combinations for further wet-lab experiment validation. Availability and implementation Source code and data are available at https://github.com/Sinwang404/DeepDDS/tree/master [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global changes in precipitation and atmospheric N deposition affect the geochemical cycle of the element and its hydrological cycle in the ecosystem. It may also affect the relationship between plant water use efficiency (WUE) and nutrients, as well as the relationship between plant nutrients. Desert ecosystems are vulnerable to global changes. Haloxylon ammodendron is the dominant species in the Asian desert. Revealing the variations in these relationships in H. ammodendron with precipitation and N deposition will enhance our understanding of the responses of plants to global change in terms of trade-off strategies of nutrient absorption, water and element geochemical cycles in desert ecosystems. Thus, we conducted field experiments with different amounts of water and N. This study showed that WUE of H. ammodendron was not correlated with nitrogen content (N), phosphorus content (P), and potassium content (K) when water and N supply were varied (p > 0.05 for WUE vs. N, P, and K), suggesting lack of coupling between water use and nutrient economics. This result was associated with the lack of correlation between plant nutrients and gas exchang in H. ammodendron. However, water addition, N addition and the interaction between both of them all played a role in the correlation between plant N, P and K owing to their different responses to water and N supplies. This indicates that global changes in precipitation and N deposition will affect N, P and K geochemical cycles in the Asian deserts dominated by H. ammodendron, and drive changes in the relationships between plant nutrients, resulting in changes in the trade-off strategy of plant absorption of N, P, and K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the clinical and MRI features of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody‐positive cerebral cortical encephalitis. Methods: To summarize the clinical manifestations, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features, and diagnosis and treatment of two children diagnosed with MOG antibody‐positive cortical encephalitis in our hospital, and to analyze all of the literature on MOG antibody‐positive associated cerebral cortical encephalitis published in the last 10 years. Results: A total of 24 patients, 20 adults, and 4 children were included. The main symptoms of all observed patients were as follows: seizures 20/24 (83%), headache 18/24 (75%), fever 13/24 (54%), and increased cell number in cerebrospinal fluid 22/24 (92%). The main radiological sign was enhanced FLAIR signal in cortical 24/24 (100%), including enhanced fluid‐attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal in unilateral cortical 20/24 (83%). Conclusions: The clinical manifestations of MOG antibody‐positive cerebral cortical encephalitis are complex and varied, and long‐term follow‐up is needed to clarify the prognosis and recurrence, providing reference for the clinical treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the clinical management of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), the early identification of poor and good responders after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (N-CRT) is essential. Therefore, we developed and validated predictive models including MRI findings from the structured report template, clinical and radiomics parameters to differentiate between poor and good responders in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Methods: Preoperative multiparametric MRI from 183 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (122 in the training cohort, 61 in the validation cohort) was included in this retrospective study. After preprocessing, radiomic features were extracted and two methods of feature selection was applied to reduce the number of radiomics features. Logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF) machine learning classifiers were trained to identify good responders from poor responders. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to incorporate the radiomic signature and clinical risk factors into a nomogram. Classifier performance was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV). Results: For the differentiation of poor and good responders, the radiomics model with an LR classifier achieved AUCs of 0.869 and 0.842 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The nomogram showed the highest reproducibility and prognostic ability in the training and validation cohorts, with AUCs of 0.923 (95% confidence interval, 0.872–0.975) and 0.898 (0.819–0.978), respectively. Additionally, the nomogram achieved significant risk stratification of patients in respect to progression free survival (PFS). Conclusions: The nomogram accurately differentiated good and poor responders in patients with LARC undergoing N-CRT, and showed significant performance for predicting PFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteomics profiling disclosed the molecular mechanism underlying beef poor meat quality. This study aimed to identify protein markers indicating the quality of beef during postmortem storage at 4°C. Beef longissimus dorsi samples were stored at 4°C. The meat water holding capacity (WHC), pH value and moisture content were determined at different time points during the storage period. The iTRAQ MS/MS approach was used to determine the proteomics profiling at 0, 3.5 and 7 d during storage at 4°C. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to investigate the potential correlated proteins associated with meat quality. Storage at 4°C gradually decreased the pH value, WHC, and hence the moisture content. The iTRAQ proteomic analysis revealed that a cluster of glycolytic enzymes including malate dehydrogenase, cytoplasmic, L-lactate dehydrogenase, phosphoglycerate mutase and pyruvate kinase, and another cluster of proteins involved in oxygen transport and binding (myoglobin) and hemoglobin complex (including Globin A1 and hemoglobin subunit alpha) were decreased during the postmortem storage. These results suggest that the decreased glycolysis, oxygen, and heme-binding activities might be associated with the beef muscle low quality and the decline of tenderness during postmortem storage at 4°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective of the current study was to estimate productivity costs due to metastatic breast cancer (mBC) via productive time lost among survivors and potential life-years lost from premature mortality among 3 age groups: younger (aged 18-44 years), midlife (aged 45-64 years), and older (aged ≥65 years) women.Methods: The authors estimated the number of work and home productivity days missed due to mBC by age group using data from the 2000 to 2016 National Health Interview Survey. Years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to mBC were calculated for each age group using 2015 National Vital Statistics System data. The authors valued both sources of lost productivity time using the Current Population Survey and prior studies.Results: The per-woman value of lost productive days (work and home) due to mBC ranged from $680 for older women to $5169 for younger women. In 2015, the value of lost work and home productivity days associated with mBC nationally was $67 million for younger women, $246 million for midlife women, and $66 million for older women. YPLL were highest among midlife women (403,786 life-years), followed by older women (248,522 life-years) and younger women (95,943 life-years). Midlife women were found to have the highest market value of YPLL ($4.1 billion), followed by younger women ($1.6 billion) and older women ($527 million).Conclusions: The results of the current study demonstrated that mBC generates a high economic burden through lost productivity, especially among midlife women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of Weissella strains (Weissella cibaria X31 or Weissella confusa L2) as starters on the physicochemical, volatile, proteolytic, microbiological, and sensory properties of low-nitrite dry-fermented sausages were evaluated for 20 d. Results showed that the addition of 8 log CFU/g of Weissella strains increased the redness, hardness, adhesiveness, and chewiness, but decreased the pH, water activity, and nitrite content of sausages during processing. Morover, Weissella strains inhibited the growth of Salmonella enterica. Weissella strains also could hydrolyze myofibrillar proteins in sausages. The sausage inoculated with W. confusa L2 was more abundant in ester compared with the control. Sausages inoculated with W. cibaria X31 and W. confusa L2 and sodium nitrite (0.05 g) had more desirable characteristics, compared with other groups. W. cibaria X31 and W. confusa L2 show potential as multifunctional starters in low-nitrite fermented sausage, which is uniqueness and addressed the gap of Weissella in low nitrite sausages. This study is distinct in that Weissella strains were found to improve the redness of dry-fermented sausages and was effective at partly replacing nitrite in dry-fermented sausages, addressing the research gap regarding the application of Weissella in low-nitrite sausages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacuum counter-pressure casting (VCPC) process is an effective forming process of producing components with complex thin-walled characteristics. In this study, a surrogate-based optimization method with five process parameters is used to reduce the shrinkage porosity defect during the VCPC process of a complicated thin-walled aluminum alloy casing. The prediction of the shrinkage porosity defect is implemented by using the numerical simulation of the VCPC process. In general, performing the optimization directly based on the casting simulation may not be practical due to the computational and time constraints. To mitigate this problem, the response surface model (RSM) constructed via computer experiments is employed to accurately approximate the functional relationship between the process parameters and the response variable which is defined as the area of defects in the defect image generated from the casting simulation. To measure the area of defects in the image, a histogram-based threshold segmentation approach is proposed to recognize and quantify the defects from the image. The optimization problem is subsequently formulated using a desirability function-based optimization method, and the objective function is estimated using the built RSMs. The final results indicate that a set of optimal process parameters with minimum defects can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is only a sparse empirical literature that examines the emergence and growth of employment centres in large metropolitan areas. And only a few of the available studies analyse the determinants of the growth of centre(s) (and subcentres) over time. There are even fewer studies that compare different metropolitan regions in terms of how their employment centres grow or decay over several decades. This research aims to fill the gap by exploring changes in employment centres for two decades in two large US metropolitan areas of comparable size– Houston and Dallas. It employs 1990 and 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) data and American Community Survey (ACS) 2006–2010 5-year estimates to test factors suggested in the literature as possibly affecting the emergence and growth of employment centres. A revised two-stage minimum cut-off point approach is utilised to identify employment centres. We adopt an OLS model to find the driving forces for job changes in the employment centres of Houston and Dallas. A step-wise regression method is also adopted to find the major contributors to observed changes in job centres. Based on the results, it is possible to identify job changes and also a better understanding of the major factors associated with the changes. The findings are conceivably valuable for urban planners and policy makers to help them understand trends and allocate resources in an informed manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stringent emission controls during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC; November 5–11, 2014) provide a valuable opportunity to examine the impact of such measures on the chemical properties of PM 2.5 and other air pollutants. Here, we measured the water-soluble inorganic ions (WSII) and carbonaceous species in PM 2.5 , NH 3 and NO 2 at multiple sites in Beijing between September and November 2014. Relative to the pre-APEC period (September and October 2014), significant reductions in the average concentrations of WSII (69% for NO 3 −, 68% for SO 4 2−, 78% for NH 4 +, and 29–71% for other species), elemental carbon (EC, 43%) and organic carbon (OC, 45%) in PM 2.5 were found during the APEC period. The contributions of secondary inorganic ions (SIA, including SO 4 2−, NO 3 −, and NH 4 +) to PM 2.5 were significantly lower during the APEC period (9–44%), indicating a combination of lower gaseous precursor emissions and a relative weak secondary aerosol formation. Ion-balance calculations indicated that the PM 2.5 sample in the pre-APEC period was alkaline but was acidic during the APEC period. Relatively lower mean concentrations of EC (1.5 μg m−3), OC (10.5 μg m−3), secondary organic carbon (SOC, 3.3 μg m−3), secondary organic aerosol (SOA, 5.9 μg m−3) and primary organic aerosol (POA, 10.0 μg m−3) appeared during the APEC period. The average concentrations of NH 3 and NO 2 at all road sites were significantly reduced by 48 and 60% during the APEC period, which is consistent with clear reductions in satellite NH 3 columns over Beijing city in the same period. This finding suggests that reducing traffic emissions could be a feasible method to control urban NH 3 pollution. During the APEC period, concentrations of PM 2. 5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , SO 2 and CO from the Beijing city monitoring network showed significant reductions at urban (20–60%) and rural (18–57%) sites, whereas O 3 concentrations increased significantly (by 93% and 53%, respectively). The control measures taken in the APEC period substantially decreased PM 2.5 pollution but can increase ground O 3 , which also merits attention. • Concentrations of PM 2.5 and components reduced significantly during the APEC period. • Major components in PM 2.5 and other pollutants were comparable with other cities. • Vehicle restrictions could lower atmospheric NH 3 concentration over Beijing. • Emission control measures significantly increased ground-level O 3 concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generating action videos in future scenes based on static images can make computer vision systems to be better applied for video understanding and intelligent decision-making. However, current models pay more attention to the motion trend of the generated objects, and the processing effect on local details is not ideal. The local features of the generated video will have the problem of blurred frames and incoherent motion. This paper proposes a two-stage model, video spatio-temporal generative adversarial network (VSTGAN), which consists of two GAN networks, such as temporal network and spatial network (S-net). The model fully combines the advantages of CNNs, recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and GANs to decompose the complex spatiotemporal generation problem into temporal and spatial dimensions. Therefore, VSTGAN can focus on local features from the above dimensions respectively. In the temporal dimension, we propose an RNN unit, the convolutional attention unit (ConvAU), which uses the convolutional attention module to dynamically generate weights to update the hidden state. Thus, T-net uses the ConvAU to generate local dynamics. In the spatial dimension, S-net uses CNNs and attention modules to perform resolution reconstruction of the generated local dynamics for video generation. We build two small-sample datasets and validate our approach on these two new datasets and the KTH public dataset. The results show that our approach can effectively generate local details in future action videos and that the model performance on small-sample datasets is competitive with the state-of-the-art in video generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes whether China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a geopolitical strategy. Topics discussed are responsibility of China in reviving the ancient Silk Road and goal of BRI to promote inclusive development towards globalization, concept of Community of Shared Future as manifestation of Chinese Harmonious and Syncretic Culture that aims for geoeconomy and geocivilization, and misperceptions about the BRI.

Aiming at the phenomenon of plasma acoustic wave during laser shock processing, the online monitoring method of laser shock processing based on plasma acoustic wave signal energy is proposed. The TC4 titanium alloy samples, after the vibration stress relief treatment, were treated by a Nd:YAG laser system with a wavelength of 1064nm, a pulse width of 12–18 ns, and a single pulse energy of 0–7 J. The plasma acoustic wave in air is sampled, stored, digitally filtered, and analyzed by the laser shock processing online monitoring system during laser shock processing. Then the system gets the plasma acoustic wave signal energy. The surface residual stress of material after the treatment of laser shock processing were measured by a Photo-LXRD X-ray diffraction device. The experimental results show that the residual compressive stress is generated on the surface of material after laser shock processing. Both the surface residual stress of the material and the plasma acoustic wave signal energy are increased as the laser pulse energy increases from 3J to 7J, and their growth trend is consistent. Finally, the empirical formula between the surface residual compressive stress of the material and the plasma acoustic wave signal energy is obtained by polynomial fitting, which will provides a theoretical basis for the development of laser shock processing online monitoring technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to reveal the role of nitric oxide (NO) in substituting nitrite with lactic acid bacteria. Three lactic acid bacterial strains (L. fermentum JCM1173, L. fermentum IFO3956, Weissella cibaria X31) with nitrite substitution ability were inoculated into fermented sausages, respectively. Results indicated that the ratio of nitrosomyoglobin (NO-Mb) to total pigments was positively correlated with the substitution ability of the strain. UV-visible and resonance Raman spectroscopy suggested the NO-Mb was five-coordinated. In addition, the intracellular NO detected by fluorescent DAF-FM probe showed that W. cibaria X31 had the strongest NO-producing ability. Inhibitory experiments showed that both nitrate reductase and nitric oxide synthase-like protein participated in the NO production. These results indicated the vital role NO played in the substitution through the formation of NO-Mb and demonstrated the sources of NO in lactic acid bacteria preliminarily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a facile and effective aerosol-spray strategy toward high-performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries by incorporating mesoporous SnO2 spheres of high-capacity materials with surface-modified carbon nanotubes (MCNTs). SnO2 nanocrystals are self-assembled into mesoporous spheres, and MCNTs with abundant carboxylic groups serve as a conductive scaffold. Driven by the strong interaction between the surface of metal oxide and the carboxylic groups on CNTs, a robust nanocomposite architecture is in situ formed. Such nanocomposite architecture possesses several advantages as an anode for lithium-ion batteries. First, mesoporous SnO2 spheres inherit the advantageous features of conventional nanoparticles, such as the capability to accommodate volume expansion and reduce Li+ diffusion distance. Second, the robust interface between nanocrystals in the SnO2 spheres provides the high structural stability that would prolong the life span of the electrode. Third, MCNTs that strongly bind to SnO2 spheres serve as a three-dimensional network, offering both improved electronic transport and mechanical strength of the electrode. Therefore, as-prepared nanocomposite delivers high capacity of 963 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C and 701 mAh g−1 at 5 C, respectively. Significantly improved cycling performance is achieved over the bare SnO2 spheres counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We applied the adapted model VSD + to assess cropland acidification in four typical Chinese cropping systems (single Maize (M), Wheat-Maize (W-M), Wheat-Rice (W-R) and Rice-Rice (R-R)) on dominant soils in view of its potential threat to grain production. By considering the current situation and possible improvements in field (nutrient) management, five scenarios were designed: i) Business as usual (BAU); ii) No nitrogen (N) fertilizer increase after 2020 (N2020); iii) 100% crop residues return to cropland (100%RR); iv) manure N was applied to replace 30% of chemical N fertilizer (30%MR) and v) Integrated N2020 and 30%MR with 100%RR after 2020 (INMR). Results illustrated that in the investigated calcareous soils, the calcium carbonate buffering system can keep pH at a high level for > 150 years. In non-calcareous soils, a moderate to strong decline in both base saturation and pH is predicted for the coming decades in the BAU scenario. We predicted that approximately 13% of the considered croplands may suffer from Al toxicity in 2050 following the BAU scenario. The N2020, 100%RR and 30%MR scenarios reduce the acidification rates by 16%, 47% and 99%, respectively, compared to BAU. INMR is the most effective strategy on reducing acidification and leads to no Al toxicity in croplands in 2050. Both improved manure and field management are required to manage acidification in wheat-maize cropping system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep brain stimulation is a method that involves using an electric stimulus on a specific target in the brain with stereotaxis. It is a minimally invasive, safe, adjustable and reversible nerve involvement technology. At present, this technique is widely applied to treat movement disorders and has produced promising effects on mental symptoms, including combined anxiety and depression. Deep brain stimulation has therefore been employed as a novel treatment for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, habituation, Tourette's syndrome, presenile dementia, anorexia nervosa and other refractory mental illnesses. Many encouraging results have been reported. The aim of the present review was to briefly describe the mechanisms, target selection, side effects, ethical arguments and risks associated with deep brain stimulation. Although deep brain stimulation is a developing and promising treatment, a large amount of research is still required to determine its curative effect, and the selection of patients and targets must be subjected to strict ethical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The E26 transformation-specific (ETS) family is one of the largest families of transcription factors. Upon activation by MAPK pathway, ETS participates in cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, apoptosis, and metastasis. However, the mechanism by which ETS is deregulated in cancer is unclear. In this study, the authors investigated the role of ETS factor, ETS2, in hypopharyngeal cancer pathogenesis in hypopharyngeal cancer tissues (N = 20) and corresponding non-neoplastic tissues (N = 20). The results showed that expression of ETS2 was increased in cancer tissues as compared with the expression in corresponding non-neoplastic tissues. Analysis of clinicopathological characteristics showed that increased level of ETS2 is associated with III-IV tumor node metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis. In addition, knockdown of ETS2 by siRNA in pharyngeal cancer cell line, FaDu, significantly decreased cell's vitality and colony-forming ability by inducing caspase-3-dependent apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, inhibition of ETS2 could abrogate the migration, invasion, and transforming growth factor-β-induced epithelial mesenchymal transition through the upregulation of E-cadherin, zona occludens protein-1, together with downregulation of vimentin and α-sooth muscle actin. These functions of ETS2 could be associated with the activation of MAPK/p38/ERK/JNK signals. Taken together, the authors opined that ETS2 functions as an oncogene and plays a key role in the progression of hypopharyngeal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RORγt and RORα are transcription factors of the RAR-related orphan nuclear receptor (ROR) family. They are expressed in Th17 cells and have been suggested to play a role in Th17 differentiation. Although RORγt signature genes have been characterized in mouse Th17 cells, detailed information on its transcriptional control in human Th17 cells is limited and even less is known about RORα signature genes which have not been reported in either human or mouse T cells. In this study, global gene expression of human CD4 T cells activated under Th17 skewing conditions was profiled by RNA sequencing. RORγt and RORα signature genes were identified in these Th17 cells treated with specific siRNAs to knock down RORγt or RORα expression. We have generated selective small molecule RORγt modulators and they were also utilized as pharmacological tools in RORγt signature gene identification. Our results showed that RORγt controlled the expression of a very selective number of genes in Th17 cells and most of them were regulated by RORα as well albeit a weaker influence. Key Th17 genes including IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-23R, CCL20 and CCR6 were shown to be regulated by both RORγt and RORα. Our results demonstrated an overlapping role of RORγt and RORα in human Th17 cell differentiation through regulation of a defined common set of Th17 genes. RORγt as a drug target for treatment of Th17 mediated autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis has been demonstrated recently in clinical trials. Our results suggest that RORα could be involved in same disease mechanisms and gene signatures identified in this report could be valuable biomarkers for tracking the pharmacodynamic effects of compounds that modulate RORγt or RORα activities in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus receiving metformin treatment and to investigate the effects of metformin daily dose and treatment duration on the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency and peripheral neuropathy (PN). Materials and Methods: In this multicenter cross‐sectional study, 1027 Chinese patients who had been taking ≥1000 mg/day metformin for ≥1 year were enrolled using proportionate stratified random sampling based on daily dose and treatment duration. Primary measures included the prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency (<148 pmol/L), borderline B12 deficiency (148 pmol/L‐211 pmol/L), and PN. Results: The prevalence of vitamin B12 deficiency, borderline deficiency, and PN were 2.15%, 13.66%, and 11.59%, respectively. Patients receiving ≥1500 mg/day metformin had significantly higher prevalence of borderline vitamin B12 deficiency (16.76% vs. 9.91%, p =.0015) and serum B12 ≤221 pmol/L (19.25% vs. 11.64%, p <.001) than patients receiving <1500 mg/day metformin. No difference was found in prevalence of borderline vitamin B12 deficiency (12.58% vs. 15.49%, p =.1902) and serum B12 ≤221 pmol/L (14.91% vs. 17.32%, p =.3055) between patients receiving metformin for ≥3 and <3 years. Patients with vitamin B12 deficiency had numerically higher PN prevalence (18.18% vs. 11.27%, p =.3192) than patients without it. Multiple logistic analyses revealed that HbA1c and metformin daily dose were associated with the prevalence of borderline B12 deficiency and B12 ≤221 pmol/L. Conclusions: High daily dosage (≥1500 mg/day) played an important role in metformin‐associated vitamin B12 deficiency while not contributing to the risk of PN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing burden of the world’s population on agriculture necessitates the development of more robust crops. As the amount of information from sequenced crop genomes increases, technology can be used to investigate the function of genes in detail and to design improved crops at the molecular level. Recently, an RNA-programmed genome-editing system composed of a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-encoded guide RNA and the nuclease Cas9 has provided a powerful platform to achieve these goals. By combining versatile tools to study and modify plants at different molecular levels, the CRISPR/Cas9 system is paving the way towards a new horizon for basic research and crop development. In this review, the accomplishments, problems and improvements of this technology in plants, including target sequence cleavage, knock-in/gene replacement, transcriptional regulation, epigenetic modification, off-target effects, delivery system and potential applications, will be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) plays a key role in the atmospheric environment and its deposition has induced large negative impacts on ecosystem health and services. Five-year continuous in-situ monitoring of N deposition, including wet (total nitrogen ( W TN), total dissolved nitrogen ( W TDN), dissolved organic nitrogen ( W DON), ammonium nitrogen ( W AN) and nitrate nitrogen ( W NN)) and dry ( D NH 3 , D HNO 3 , D pNH 4 + , D pNO 3 − and D NO 2 ) deposition, had been conducted since August 2008 to December 2013 (wet) and May 2011 to December 2013 (dry) in Yan-ting, China, a typical agricultural area in the central Sichuan Basin. Mean annual total N deposition from 2011 to 2013 was 30.8 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , and speculated that of 2009 and 2010 was averaged 28.2 kg N ha −1 yr −1 , respectively. Wet and dry N deposition accounted for 76.3% and 23.7% of annual N deposition, respectively. Reduced N ( W AN, D NH 3 and D pNH 4 + ) was 1.7 times of oxidized N ( W NN, D HNO 3 , D NO 2 and D pNO 3 − ) which accounted for 50.9% and 30.3% of TN, respectively. Maximum loadings of all N forms of wet deposition, gaseous NH 3 , HNO 3 and particulate NH 4 + in dry deposition occurred in summer and minimum loadings in winter. Whether monthly, seasonal or annual averaged, dissolved N accounted for more than 70% of the total. N deposition in the central Sichuan Basin increased during the sampling period, especially that of ammonium compounds, and has become a serious threat to local aquatic ecosystems, the surrounding forest and other natural or semi-natural ecosystems in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cr 2 O 3 /MoN interface nanosheet electrocatalyst is facilely designed and synthesized. • The electronic structure of Mo atom is optimized by creating Cr 2 O 3 /MoN interface. • The constructed Cr 2 O 3 /MoN exhibits a promising HER activity alkaline environment. Hydrogen production from water splitting in alkaline solution has been hampered by the cleavage of strong OH-H bond with high energy barrier. Herein, we develop the Cr 2 O 3 /MoN interface nanosheets for hydrogen evolution in basic media. The creation of the interface between Cr 2 O 3 and MoN crystal effectively tunes the electronic structure of Mo atom, making it easier to accelerate the dissociation of water molecule. Consequently, the Cr 2 O 3 /MoN interface electrocatalyst delivers the current density of 10 mA cm−2 at the overpotential of 30 mV and the Tafel slope is 61.3 mV dec-1 together with robust durability, providing an efficient avenue to improve electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity in basic solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RNA-seq technology has become an important tool for quantifying the gene and transcript expression in transcriptome study. The two major difficulties for the gene and transcript expression quantification are the read mapping ambiguity and the overdispersion of the read distribution along reference sequence. Many approaches have been proposed to deal with these difficulties. A number of existing methods use Poisson distribution to model the read counts and this easily splits the counts into the contributions from multiple transcripts. Meanwhile, various solutions were put forward to account for the overdispersion in the Poisson models. By checking the similarities among the variation patterns of read counts for individual genes, we found that the count variation is exon-specific and has the conserved pattern across the samples for each individual gene. We introduce Gamma-distributed latent variables to model the read sequencing preference for each exon. These variables are embedded to the rate parameter of a Poisson model to account for the overdispersion of read distribution. The model is tractable since the Gamma priors can be integrated out in the maximum likelihood estimation. We evaluate the proposed approach, PGseq, using four real datasets and one simulated dataset, and compare its performance with other popular methods. Results show that PGseq presents competitive performance compared to other alternatives in terms of accuracy in the gene and transcript expression calculation and in the downstream differential expression analysis. Especially, we show the advantage of our method in the analysis of low expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept is introduced to fabricate flexible, on-chip supercapacitors by electrophoretically depositing highly dispersed reduced graphene oxide/polypyrrole on interdigital-like electrodes. By the unique method, the deposited films could construct on the substrate facilely and uniformly. The prepared all-solid-state device demonstrates high volumetric capacitance (about 147.9 F cm −3 ), high energy density (13.15 mWh cm −3 at a power density of 1300 mW cm −3 ) and excellent cycling stability (approximately 71.7% of the initial capacitance retained after 5000 cycles). Compared with other supercapacitor, the device demonstrated here is lightweight, flexible and inexpensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaves are vital plant organs, and a high level of variation in leaf shape, including the leaf lobes, is present in Brassica rapa. Based on a previously-constructed linkage map, QTL analysis of the leaf lobes was performed using the scores from an F population during the spring of 2010, and scores from an F family in the autumn of 2010, respectively. A total of nine QTLs were found to affect leaf lobes. Among these, a major QTL, lob 10.1, was mapped to the bottom of linkage group A10. To develop near iso-genic lines (NILs) for the identified major QTL, an F plant without leaf lobes that was homozygous in the targeted region for marker alleles from the male parent (08A061), was backcrossed to 09A001, the recurrent parent with leaf lobes. Two InDel marker loci, BrID10909 and BrID10233, which are closely linked to the major QTL peak position, and 166 SSR and InDel markers from non-targeted chromosomal regions, were used for foreground and background selection, respectively. Three sets of NILs were developed through four cycles of backcrossing followed by two cycles of self-pollination. Compared to 09A001, the recurrent parent, all the NILs showed the absence of leaf lobes and had no significant differences in other agriculturally important traits. NILs are the ideal genetic resource for QTL validation and fine-scale linkage mapping, and, ultimately, gene discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve the mutual enhancement between surveillance videos and 2D geo-spatial data, a modal including geometric and content mapping is proposed. Firstly, based on the pin-hole camera model of photogrammetry and computer vision, we assume the ground is composed of multiple planes and propose a mapping model. The mapping model has clear physical meaning, convenient and flexible. Through the model, the videos and 2D geospatial data can be mutually projected. Secondly, because the true ground is not flat, undulation has an impact on the mapping between videos and 2D geospatial data, a formula for the impact is provided. Thirdly, the objects in videos are larger nearby and smaller at far distances. In order to get the real space of each pixel, we propose an indicator, vide-o spatial resolution and discuss the spatial distribution. The model is suitable for multiple planes but not suitable for complex geographic scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) stabilized with intelligent poly( N, N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA). First, the dithioester-terminated PDMAEMA was prepared by the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer technique. Then, the dithioester-terminated PDMAEMA was reduced to a thiol-terminated polymer PDMAEMA-SH. PDMAEMA coated GNPs (Au@PDMAEMA NPs) were synthesized in situ from HAuCl aqueous solution by using NaBH as a reductant and thiolated PDMAEMA as a stabilizer through Au-S bond. The optical and physical properties of GNPs were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction as well as thermogravimetric analysis. The size and shape of GNPs could be controlled by tuning both the [PDMAEMA]:[HAuCl] molar ratio and the solution pH. It is believed that these highly biocompatible GNPs have potential biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species composition and productivity are influenced by water and N availability in semi-arid grasslands. To assess the effects of increased N deposition and water supply on plant species composition and productivity, two field experiments with four N addition treatments, and three N and water combination treatments were conducted in alpine grassland in the mid Tianshan mountains, northwest China. When considering N addition alone, aboveground biomass (AGB) of forbs (F) responded less to N addition than AGB of grasses (G). G increased as an effect of N combined with water addition but F did not show such an effect, reflecting a stronger response of grasses to the interaction of water availability and N than forbs. Under all treatments, N allocation to the aboveground tissue did not change for either forbs or grasses. N deposition and water addition did not alter species richness in the present study. These results suggest that N addition generally promoted AGB but had little effect on species richness in wet years. Snowfall in winter combined with rainfall in the early growing season likely plays a critical role in regulating plant growth of the subsequent year in the alpine grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important geometric feature, the uncertainty of polygon is the extension and the depth of line uncertainty. As for this problem, the uncertainty estimation of three-dimensional polygon is studied here, and based on the confidence domain model of line, the uncertainty of three-dimensional polygon is described and estimated from two aspects of the model and the measurement of confidence domain. And then, The acceptance specification for urban construction is chosen to prove that the research of this article is correct. Several conclusions can be got as follows: ➀ The uncertainty model of three-dimensional polygon is proposed here, referring to the derivation of line. ➁ The uncertainty model of three-dimensional polygon is estimated based on integral calculus. ➂ The uncertainty estimation model of three-dimensional polygon can be used to control quality in the field of engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two 3-D organic–inorganic hybrid mixed-valent polyoxovanadates [Ni(en) 2 ][V IV 4 V V 2 O 14 ] ( 1 ) and [Cu(en) 2 ][V IV 2 V V 3 O 12.5 ] ( 2 ) (en = ethylenediamine) have been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The common feature of 1 and 2 is that both exhibit the 3-D organic–inorganic hybrid framework. It should be pointed out that the 3-D hybrid architecture of 1 is constructed from planar 2-D vanadium(IV/V)–oxygen layers through [Ni(en) 2 ] 2+ bridges, whereas the 3D hybrid framework of 2 is built by wavy 2-D vanadium(IV/V)–oxygen layers via [Cu(en) 2 ] 2+ connectors. The magnetic properties of 1 have been investigated and 1 behaves as the dominant antiferromagnetic interactions within V IV centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the role of Brønsted acid for furfural production in biomass pyrolysis on supported sulfates catalysts was investigated. The introduction of Brønsted acid was shown to improve the degradation of polysaccharides to intermediates for furfural, which did not work well when only Lewis acids were used in the process. Experimental results showed that CuSO 4 /HZSM-5 catalyst exhibited the best performance for furfural (28% yield), which was much higher than individual HZSM-5 (5%) and CuSO 4 (6%). The optimum reaction conditions called for the mass ratio of CuSO 4 /HZSM-5 to be 0.4 and the catalyst/biomass mass ratio to be 0.5. The recycled catalyst exhibited low productivity (9%). Analysis of the catalysts by Py-IR revealed that the CuSO 4 /HZSM-5 owned a stronger Brønsted acid intensity than HZSM-5 or the recycled CuSO 4 /HZSM-5. Therefore, the existence of Brønsted acid is necessary to achieve a more productive degradation of biomass for furfural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Three-dimensional Ni-MoN nanorod array electrocatalyst is facilely designed and synthesized. • The nitridation process ensures the uniform distribution of active Ni sites across the robust MoN nanorods. • The constructed Ni-MoN nanorod array exhibits a promising electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation reaction. The development of direct methanol fuel cells requires low-cost, non-noble-metal electrocatalysts. However, it has not been widely used because of its limited activity, poor durability, and slow kinetics. Herein, the 3D nanostructured arrays of Ni-MoN composite nanorods were facilely prepared on the nickel foam (Ni-MoN NR/NF), which involves the direct hydrothermal synthesis of NiMoO 4 on NF and further nitridation treatment in the atmosphere of ammonia. The nitridation ensures the uniform distribution of active Ni sites across the robust MoN nanorods. Owing to the collaborative effect of Ni and the specific 3D MoN nanorod structure, the Ni-MoN NR/NF exhibits a promising electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), which shows excellent activity (374 mA cm−2@0.8 V vs. Hg/HgO), fast kinetics (40 mV dec−1 for the Tafel slope) and good stability. This work has shed light on the design of high-performance non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for MOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A post-marketing surveillance of blonanserin has been ongoing since September 2018. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of oral blonanserin in Chinese young and middle-aged female patients with schizophrenia in real clinical settings, using the data from the post-marketing surveillance. Methods: A 12-week, prospective, multi-center, open-label, post-marketing surveillance was conducted. Female patients aged 18–40 years were included in this analysis. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of blonanserin in improving psychiatric symptoms. The incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) such as of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), prolactin elevation and the weight gain were used to evaluate the safety profile of blonanserin. Results: A total of 392 patients were included both in the safety and full analysis sets, 311 patients completed the surveillance protocol. The BPRS total score was 48.8 ± 14.11 at the baseline, decreasing to 25.5 ± 7.56 at 12 weeks (P < 0.001, compared with baseline). EPS (20.2%) including akathisia, tremor, dystonia, and parkinsonism were found as the most frequent ADRs. The mean weight gain was 0.27 ± 2.5 kg at 12 weeks from the baseline. Four cases (1%) of prolactin elevation were observed during the period of surveillance. Conclusion: Blonanserin significantly improved the symptoms of schizophrenia in female patients aged 18–40 years; the drug was well tolerated and had a low tendency to cause metabolic side effects, including prolactin elevation in these patients. Blonanserin might be a reasonable drug for the treatment of schizophrenia in young and middle-aged female patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this current work, the electrochemical co-deposition of nickel sulfide/electrochemically reduced graphene oxide(ERGO) nanocomposites is presented. During the electrochemical process, the graphene oxide nanosheets loose their hydrophilicity and precipitate onto the electrode. In the meantime, nickel sulfide is also electrochemically deposited on the electrode. The porous structure with ERGO covered by nickel sulfide, which facilitates the charge and ion transport in the electrode, has been observed by a scanning electron microscope. The cycle voltammetry curves as well as the galvanostatic charge/discharge curves of the nickel sulfide/ERGO nanocomposites exhibit distinct pseudocapacitive characteristic. The nanocomposites maintain 66.8% of the initial specific capacitance for the first 500 cycles, and only 4.6% loss of the specific capacitance is experienced for the further 1500 cycles, evidently showing a relatively high cycling stability. The results suggest that the nickel sulfide/ERGO is a promising electrode material for supercapacitors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Simplified load spectrum is an effective method for shortening the time of fatigue test. A simplified load spectrum method is put forward with the advantages of three-parameter S-N curve of whole life adaptability, the simplicity and precision of DFR method and the invariance of the total damage of equal damage reduced method. Reduced load is determined by setting the ratio of damage threshold γac according to the ratio of damage between a certain load level and the maximum load level cycle time(γ). Considering spectral model for fatigue test, spectrum shape factor is introduced to reduce the effect on fatigue damage and dispersion fatigue life by changing the type of load spectrum. A set of simplified load spectrum method is formed combined with the handling of small loads under fatigue limit. Experiments prove that the damage of simplified load spectrum is close to the damage of original load spectrum, but the test time is greatly decreased. The validity and engineering usability of the load spectrum simplified method based on the DFR method with three-parameter S-N curve is well proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An electrical nonlinearity pre-compensation (ENPC) combined nonlinearity with chromatic dispersion method is introduced for coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) system. Comparing with existed only nonlinearity pre-compensation (NL Pre-comp) method, ENPC method is not only suitable for low-dispersion fiber system, but also effective for high dispersion fiber transmission system without optical dispersion compensation. For 40Gbit/s 20×80km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) system, ENPC method can improve the nonlinear threshold (NLT) (for Q >10dB) about 2.7, 1.2, and 1.0dB, and the maximum Q factor about 1.2, 0.4, and 0.3dB for 2, 8, and 16ps/nm/km fiber systems, respectively. The method allow the CO-OFDM system can avoid using optical dispersion compensation even for high dispersion fiber system with higher input power, and the 2-step ENPC solution does not increase more computation complexity compared with NL pre-comp method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: BER estimation method by Eb/No for CO-OFDM systems with QPSK mapping is studied in this paper. The relationships of BER vs. OSNR and Q factor vs. OSNR are firstly represented in detail. The comparisons between BER estimation by Eb/No and Monte-Carlo (MC) method with OSNR, chromatic dispersion (CD), laser linewidth and fiber nonlinearity impairments are also researched in this paper. Through simulation in 40Gb/s CO-OFDM systems with those impairments, BER based on Eb/No can estimate accurately 10−16 levels justly using 105 bits, while MC required at least 1018 bits in comparison. Eb/No is creditable and offers an alternative to the time-consuming MC method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many Chinese croplands are suffering from soil acidification, defined as a decrease in soil acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), due to over-application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and removal of base cations (BCs) in crop harvest. The contribution of fertilization and harvesting on soil acidification rates for different cropping systems is, however, seldom quantified under field conditions. Here, field experiments were conducted on a moderately acid silty clay soil in southwest China to quantify proton (H+) production rates under three fertilization management regimes, including control (non-N), optimized fertilization and farmers' practices (i.e. over fertilization), by measuring the inputs and outputs of major element in three cropping systems, i.e. rice-fallow, rice-wheat and maize-wheat. The maize-wheat cropping system had the highest proton production rates (2.3–10.2 kmol c H+ ha−1 yr−1), followed by rice-fallow (3.2–4.6 kmol c H+ ha−1 yr−1) and rice-wheat (2.2–4.5 kmol c H+ ha−1 yr−1) systems. Crop removal, dominated by straw removal, was the main driver of proton production in all three cropping systems, contributing over 50% of the total H+ production. Compared to the control, N fertilizer application enhanced soil acidification rates among three cropping systems, but had no significant effects on H+ production per kg grain in the rice-fallow and rice-wheat systems. The same was true for the maize-wheat system in case of optimized fertilization, but over fertilization increased both soil acidification rate and H+ production per kg grain, while grain yield was comparable to that with optimized fertilization. The change in soil ANC was dominated by accumulation of SO 4 2− (leading to potential soil acidification) that was mainly added to the soil with superphosphate containing high concentrations of both Ca2+ and SO 4 2− sometimes even causing an increase in the base cation pool, despite BC crop removal. The low contribution of N transformation processes to the total H+ production (3–47%) was due to high denitrification in this specific soil. The soil pH and base saturation did not change significantly among the three fertilization management regimes, largely due to the large BCs pools in the soil. Although the common farmers' practice does not strongly increase proton production in rice-fallow and rice-wheat systems, it still implies a waste of N fertilizer as the excess N input is either enhancing straw production or lost to air in this silty clay soil. Hence, optimized fertilization and localized BCs-rich straw return are suggested to reduce costs of N fertilizer without yield losses and mitigate soil acidification in those systems. [Display omitted] • Soil acidification rates were quantified in three cropping systems in China. • Maize-wheat rotations had higher acidification rates than rice-wheat and rice-fallow. • Optimized N fertilization reduced soil acidification rates without yield loss. • Base cation removal by crop harvesting was the main driver of soil acidification. • Low contribution of N cycle to soil acidification was due to high denitrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]