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Abstract Wearable visual bionic devices, fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence, are making remarkable progress. However, traditional silicon vision chips often grapple with high energy losses and challenges in emulating complex biological behaviors. In this study, we constructed a van der Waals P3HT/GaAs nanowires P-N junction by carefully directing the arrangement of organic molecules. Combined with a Schottky junction, this facilitated multi-faceted birdlike visual enhancement, including broadband non-volatile storage, low-light perception, and a near-zero power consumption operating mode in both individual devices and 5 × 5 arrays on arbitrary substrates. Specifically, we realized over 5 bits of in-memory sensing and computing with both negative and positive photoconductivity. When paired with two imaging modes (visible and UV), our reservoir computing system demonstrated up to 94% accuracy for color recognition. It achieved motion and UV grayscale information extraction (displayed with sunscreen), leading to fusion visual imaging. This work provides a promising co-design of material and device for a broadband and highly biomimetic optoelectronic neuromorphic system.

Abstract Inorganic semiconductors typically have limited p-type behavior due to the scarcity of holes and the localized valence band maximum, hindering the progress of complementary devices and circuits. In this work, we propose an inorganic blending strategy to activate the hole-transporting character in an inorganic semiconductor compound, namely tellurium-selenium-oxygen (TeSeO). By rationally combining intrinsic p-type semimetal, semiconductor, and wide-bandgap semiconductor into a single compound, the TeSeO system displays tunable bandgaps ranging from 0.7 to 2.2 eV. Wafer-scale ultrathin TeSeO films, which can be deposited at room temperature, display high hole field-effect mobility of 48.5 cm2/(Vs) and robust hole transport properties, facilitated by Te-Te (Se) portions and O-Te-O portions, respectively. The nanosphere lithography process is employed to create nanopatterned honeycomb TeSeO broadband photodetectors, demonstrating a high responsibility of 603 A/W, an ultrafast response of 5 μs, and superior mechanical flexibility. The p-type TeSeO system is highly adaptable, scalable, and reliable, which can address emerging technological needs that current semiconductor solutions may not fulfill.

Abstract The acceleration of global climate change poses enormous challenges to the automotive manufacturing industry, a key sector in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Particularly, Scope 3 emissions, encompassing indirect emissions, often constitute the largest carbon footprint component in this sector, yet their quantification and management remain challenging. This paper proposes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates cloud computing, text analysis, and machine learning, and systematically details its implementation, key benefits, and potential applications. Through this methodology, the paper seeks to provide the automotive industry with innovative and actionable insights to tackle the complexities of Scope 3 emissions. It focuses on enhancing the accuracy of emission quantification and optimizing supply chains, aiming to reduce the overall carbon footprint. Moreover, this paper outlines the future challenges and directions for these technologies and methodologies in sustainable development and environmental management. This work underlines the critical role of interdisciplinary approaches in resolving environmental challenges, setting the stage for the automotive industry to forge paths towards a greener future. Graphical Abstract

Abstract High synthesis temperatures and specific growth substrates are typically required to obtain crystalline or oriented inorganic functional thin films, posing a significant challenge for their utilization in large-scale, low-cost (opto-)electronic applications on conventional flexible substrates. Here, we explore a pulse irradiation synthesis (PIS) to prepare thermoelectric metal chalcogenide (e.g., Bi2Se3, SnSe2, and Bi2Te3) films on multiple polymeric substrates. The self-propagating combustion process enables PIS to achieve a synthesis temperature as low as 150 °C, with an ultrafast reaction completed within one second. Beyond the photothermoelectric (PTE) property, the thermal coupling between polymeric substrates and bismuth selenide films is also examined to enhance the PTE performance, resulting in a responsivity of 71.9 V/W and a response time of less than 50 ms at 1550 nm, surpassing most of its counterparts. This PIS platform offers a promising route for realizing flexible PTE or thermoelectric devices in an energy-, time-, and cost-efficient manner.

Abstract Background Endometrial carcinoma is a common malignant tumor in female reproductive system. At present, there is no effective and economic prognostic index. This study aimed to investigate the effect of serum ferritin levels on the prognosis of endometrial carcinoma. Methods Data of 367 patients who diagnosed with endometrial carcinoma at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between January 2012 and August 2018 was retrospectively analyzed. The prediction accuracy was evaluated by receiver operating characteristics curves and Youden's J statistics. Hosmer–lemeshow test was used to confirm the goodness of fit of the model. The prognostic value of serum ferritin on disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of endometrial carcinoma was evaluated by univariate log-rank tests and multivariate cox regression models. Results Preoperative high serum ferritin was correlated with older age, high grade, specific histological subtypes and recurrence of endometrial carcinoma (P

Organic-inorganic halide perovskite, as a low-cost, solution-processable material with remarkable optoelectronic properties, is ideal candidate to fabricate high-performance photodetectors and is expected to significantly reduce device costs. Compared to the common Dion-Jacobson and Ruddlesden-Popper two-dimensional (2D) layered hybrid perovskite compounds, the perovskites with alternating cations in the interlayer (ACI) phase show higher crystal symmetry and narrower optical bandgaps, which exhibit great potential for excellent photodetection performance. Herein, we report a high-performance photodetector based on the 2D bilayered hybrid lead halide perovskite single crystal with the ACI phase (GAMA2Pb2I7; GA = C(NH2)3 and MA = CH3NH3). The single-crystal photodetector exhibits high photoresponsivity of 1.56, 2.54, and 2.60 A/W for incident light wavelengths of 405, 532, and 635 nm under 9.82 nW, respectively, together with the correspondingly high detectivity values of 1.86 × 1012, 3.04 × 1012, and 3.11 × 1012 Jones under the same operating conditions. Meanwhile, a high-resolution imaging sensor is built based on the GAMA2Pb2I7 single-crystal photodetector, confirming the high stability and photosensitivity of the imaging system. These results show that the 2D hybrid lead halide perovskites with alternating interlayer cations are promising for high-performance visible light photodetectors and imaging systems.

ABSTRACTPharmaceutical companies have recently focused on accelerating the timeline for initiating first-in-human (FIH) trials to allow quick assessment of biologic drugs. For example, a stable cell pool can be used to produce materials for the toxicology (Tox) study, reducing time to the clinic by 4–5 months. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the anti-COVID drugs timeline from DNA transfection to the clinical stage was decreased to 6 months using a stable pool to generate a clinical drug substrate (DS) with limited stability, virus clearance, and Tox study package. However, a lean chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) package raises safety and comparability risks and may leave extra work in the late-stage development and commercialization phase. In addition, whether these accelerated COVID-19 drug development strategies can be applied to non-COVID projects and established as a standard practice in biologics development is uncertain. Here, we present a case study of a novel anti-tumor drug in which application of “fast-to-FIH” approaches in combination with BeiGene’s de-risk strategy achieved successful delivery of a complete CMC package within 10 months. A comprehensive comparability study demonstrated that the DS generated from a stable pool and a single-cell-derived master cell bank were highly comparable with regards to process performance, product quality, and potency. This accomplishment can be a blueprint for non-COVID drug programs that approach the pace of drug development during the pandemic, with no adverse impact on the safety, quality, and late-stage development of biologics.

ABSTRACTAspartic acid (Asp) isomerization is a spontaneous non-enzymatic post-translation modification causing a change in the structure of the protein backbone, which is commonly observed in therapeutic antibodies during manufacturing and storage. The Asps in Asp–Gly (DG), Asp–Ser (DS), and Asp–Thr (DT) motifs in the structurally flexible regions, such as complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) in antibodies, are often found to have high rate of isomerization, and they are considered “hot spots” in antibodies. In contrast, the Asp-His (DH) motif is usually considered a silent spot with low isomerization propensity. However, in monoclonal antibody mAb-a, the isomerization rate of an Asp residue, Asp55, in the aspartic acid-histidine-lysine (DHK) motif present in CDRH2 was found to be unexpectedly high. By determining the conformation of DHK motif in the crystal structure of mAb-a, we found that the Cgamma of the Asp side chain carbonyl group and the back bone amide nitrogen of successor His were in proximal contact, which facilitates the formation of succinimide intermediate, and the +2 Lys played an important role in stabilizing such conformation. The contributing roles of the His and Lys residues in DHK motif were also verified using a series of synthetic peptides. This study identified a novel Asp isomerization hot spot, DHK, and the structural-based molecular mechanism was revealed. When 20% Asp55 isomerization in this DHK motif occurred in mAb-a, antigen binding activity reduced to 54%, but the pharmacokinetics in rat was not affected significantly. Although Asp isomerization of DHK motif in CDR does not appear to have a negative impact on PK, DHK motifs in the CDRs of antibody therapeutics should be removed, considering the high propensity of isomerization and impact on antibody activity and stability.

Ecosystem services are the environmental basis of human living and sustainable development, and the coupled matching of ecosystem service supply and demand (ESSD) plays an important role in socioeconomic and eco-environmental development. As one of the major regions supplying ecological products in China, the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration (SPUA) has unique geographical advantages and a strategic position. Based on high-resolution land-use and regional socioeconomic development data in SPUA, this study used value quantity assessment and an ecosystem service demand model to quantify ecosystem service supply (ESS) and ecosystem service demand (ESD) at both the city and county scale in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Meanwhile, the CA-Markov model was used to predict the potential land-use, the Moran index and Getis-Ord Gi* index were used to analyze spatial clusters of ESS and ESD, and a coupling coordination degree model and matching index were used to analyze the relationship between ESS and ESD. The results show that: (1) The most prominent land-use change in SPUA from 2000 to 2020 was the conversion of cropland to other land-use types; the process of land-use change was more intense from 2010 to 2020 than from 2000 to 2010; and the center of city activities might expand by 2030, which is related to the regional development plan. (2) The ESS was related to the regional natural conditions. Coastal regions or regions with abundant natural resources in SPUA had higher ESS, and the southwest region had lower ESS in SPUA. The ESS presented high–high clusters, low–low clusters and hot spots, and the cluster phenomena gradually diminished from 2000 to 2020. (3) The ESD was related to the regional location and economic development, with the southwest region of SPUA having a higher ESD than the northeast. The ESD presented low–low clusters, and Jinan and Qingdao had hot spots, which are the most developed cities in SPUA. (4) The study scale had impacts on coupled matching of ESSD. Coupled matching of ESSD was found to be unbalanced at the county scale from 2000 to 2020, but tended to be balanced at the city scale, which was related to resource management at different spatial scales. This study reveals the evolution and coupled matching of ESSD at different scales, which has important implications for the sustainable development of regional urban agglomerations.

Abstract Chemical bonds, including covalent and ionic bonds, endow semiconductors with stable electronic configurations but also impose constraints on their synthesis and lattice-mismatched heteroepitaxy. Here, the unique multi-scale van der Waals (vdWs) interactions are explored in one-dimensional tellurium (Te) systems to overcome these restrictions, enabled by the vdWs bonds between Te atomic chains and the spontaneous misfit relaxation at quasi-vdWs interfaces. Wafer-scale Te vdWs nanomeshes composed of self-welding Te nanowires are laterally vapor grown on arbitrary surfaces at a low temperature of 100 °C, bringing greater integration freedoms for enhanced device functionality and broad applicability. The prepared Te vdWs nanomeshes can be patterned at the microscale and exhibit high field-effect hole mobility of 145 cm2/Vs, ultrafast photoresponse below 3 μs in paper-based infrared photodetectors, as well as controllable electronic structure in mixed-dimensional heterojunctions. All these device metrics of Te vdWs nanomesh electronics are promising to meet emerging technological demands.

IntroductionHospital meals potentially influence patients’ nutritional, physical, and emotional well-being during their admission. Patients on pureed diets report poorer meal satisfaction, due to taste, appearance, and recognisability, potentially impacting on their nutritional status. This study compared whether a moulded pureed diet made from modified maize starch led to improved taste, appearance, recognisability, and overall liking, compared to an unmoulded pureed diet made from potato starch in an acute hospital.MethodsPatients on texture-modified diets were recruited and presented with two pureed diets – unmoulded and moulded. Participants were asked to identify meat and vegetable dishes prior to eating. After the meal, participants indicated their diet preference in terms of appearance, taste, and overall liking.Results145 participants were recruited, of which 126 completed data collection. 86% correctly identified moulded meat dishes, 69% correctly identified moulded vegetable dishes, with an overall 77% accuracy in identifying moulded puree side dishes. On unmoulded puree side dishes, participants correctly identified 25% of meat dishes, 4% of vegetable dishes, with an overall accuracy of 14%. In terms of preference, the moulded puree was preferred, with 81% for appearance, 76% for taste and 75% for overall preference. When participants had differing preferences for appearance and taste (e.g., prefers unmoulded puree appearance and moulded puree taste), 95% of them subsequently aligned their overall preference with their taste preference (i.e., overall preferred moulded pureed diet). This suggests that taste has a stronger influence on overall preference compared to appearance.DiscussionFindings indicate that a moulded pureed diet made from modified maize starch led to improved recognisability, taste, appearance, and overall liking compared to an unmoulded pureed diet made from potato starch. Taste had a stronger influence on overall preference compared to appearance. These findings capture patient preferences and may have implications on how hospital pureed diets may be improved, potentially improving patient nutrition and health outcomes.

As global warming continues, extreme precipitation events occur frequently in inland areas, seriously affecting human security and the ecological environment. Spatiotemporal evolution of extreme precipitation as well as response of extreme precipitation to climatic warming and its mechanism were investigated by considering the Weihe river basin in a monsoon transition zone of China as a research object. The results indicate that while the annual average temperature of the Weihe river basin increased with fluctuations from 1966 to 2017, except for the consecutive dry days (CDD) and simple daily intensity index that increased slightly, the other extreme precipitation indices (consecutive wet days, R25, and Rx5day) tended to decrease. Moreover, except for the CDD, the other four indices gradually increased from the northwest to the southeast, showing a similar trend to the temperature. The relationship between the 95th percentile threshold and temperature (hereinafter referred to as the P 95d–T relationship) in the Weihe river basin demonstrates the hook structure and its strength in terms of response is mainly dominated by the super-Clausius–Clapeyron (C–C) and C–C scaling. Furthermore, the peak temperature rises gradually from the northwest to the southeast. The results can provide important reference for the prediction of climate change and future studies of disaster risk in the Weihe river basin.

To evaluate the role of serum human epididymis secretory protein 4 (HE4) and carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) levels for predicting and monitoring the recurrence of endometrial endometrioid carcinoma (EEC) and assessing preoperative risk stratification in EEC patients. A total of 434 EEC patients were selected for this retrospective study between May 2011 and August 2018. Serum HE4 and CA125 levels were analyzed before the initial treatment, at the first postoperative follow-up, and at recurrence or the last follow-up. Patients were risk stratified according to the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) and European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) guideline. We compared the ability of these biomarkers for prediction and monitoring by performing receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and identified optimal cut-off values by determining the Youden index. Kaplan-Meier analyses were also performed to determine prognostic value. Preoperative serum HE4 was identified as a significant predictor for the recurrence of EEC (p = 0.014). Preoperative serum HE4 and CA125 levels were related to depth of myometrial invasion, lymph node status and FIGO stage. Serum HE4 and CA125 levels were both statistically significant markers for monitoring the recurrence of EEC (P = 0.000 for each biomarker). When combined, the two markers showed higher levels of sensitivity and specificity. The two biomarkers were also significant biomarkers for evaluating the risk stratification of patients undergoing lymphadenectomy (P = 0.000 for each biomarker). For premenopausal stage I patients, preoperative serum HE4 and CA125 levels were significant predictors of the need for ovarian preservation (P = 0.000 and P = 0.002, respectively). For premenopausal patients with stage I intramucosal differentiation, preoperative serum levels of HE4 were significant predictors for fertility preservation (P = 0.024). Preoperative serum HE4 level can be used to predict the recurrence of EEC. Postoperative serum HE4 and CA125 levels can be used to monitor the recurrence of EEC and are more sensitive when combined. Preoperative serum levels of CA125 and HE4 levels are of significant value for risk stratification in EEC patients.

The interaction between vector beams and atoms under a weak magnetic field could induce spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). Based on such a coherence effect, we propose a method for manipulating vector beams carrying spiral varying phases in hot rubidium atoms. When a transverse magnetic field (TMF) is applied, the transparent regions of the transmitted beam are strongly depend on the beam’s polarization distribution. In addition to the intensity modulation, the alignment of the TMF is reflected in the rotation of the central symmetric transmission patterns. In theory, we discuss the physical mechanism of the spiral EIT region generated by the phase profile, and analyze the influence of system parameters on this coherent process. Our work confirms that introducing additional radial phases can also lead to spatially dependent EIT, which extends another degree of freedom to manipulate atomic polarization. This will provide potential applications in light field manipulation and multi-dimensional quantum storage.

Abstract Quantum incompatibility is a fundamental property in quantum physics and is considered as a resource in quantum information processing tasks. Here, we construct a framework based on the incompatibility witness originated from quantum state discrimination. In this framework, we discuss the geometrical properties of the witnesses with noisy mutually unbiased bases and construct a quantifier of quantum incompatibility associated with geometrical information. Furthermore, we explore the incompatibility of a pair of positive operator valued measurements, which only depends on the information of measurements, and discuss the incompatibility of measurements which can be discriminated by mutually unbiased bases. Finally, if we take a resource-theory perspective, the new-defined quantifier can characterize the resource of incompatibility. This geometrical framework gives the evidence that vectors can be utilized to describe resourceful incompatibility and make a step to explore geometrical features of quantum resources.

Objective To investigate the significance of transcription factor LIM domain only 3 (LMO3) expression level in the prognosis of patients with endometrial carcinoma (EC). Methods The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), GeneMANIA and STRING databases were used to analyze the relationship between LMO3 expression in EC tissues and the prognosis of patients, as well as the genes interacting with LMO3, and the correlation of LMO3 with TP53 mutation. The paraffin sections and clinical information of 51 patients with EC who underwent surgery in our hospital from March 2011 to December 2014 were collected. Immunohistochemical staining was subsequently performed to determine the expression of LMO3 in EC tissues and its association with the clinicopathological features of patients. SPSS was used to plot the survival curve, and COX multivariate regression analysis was also adopted. In addition, LMO3 overexpression was conducted in EC cells to verify its effect on tumor cell migration. Results According to the analysis of TCGA database, the overall survival and disease-free survival of patients with high LMO3 expression were significantly shorter than those of low LMO3 expression(P < 0.05), and the expression level of LMO3 in patients with TP53 mutation was remarkably higher than that in TP53 wild-type patients. GeneMANIA and STRING analyses showed that the main genes interacting with LMO3 included NHLH2 and LDB2. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining also indicated that patients with higher LMO3 expression level had shorter disease-free survival (P=0.005), and multivariate COX analysis suggested LMO3 as a prognostic factor for EC. Finally, overexpression of LMO3 enhanced the migration of EC cells. Conclusion EC patients with high LMO3 level have a poor prognosis, which may be related to the migration of EC cells promoted by LMO3 overexpression.

Abstract To describe the perinatal outcomes of twin pregnancies with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) before 34 weeks’ gestation and identify factors associated with discharge without severe or moderate-severe neonatal morbidity. This study was conducted as a retrospective analysis of twin pregnancies with PPROM occurring at 24 0/7 to 33 6/7 weeks’ gestation. Perinatal outcomes were assessed by gestational age (GA) at PPROM and compared between PPROM and non PPROM twins. Factors associated with discharge without severe or moderate-severe neonatal morbidity were identified using logistic regression analysis. Of the 180 pregnancies (360 foetuses), only 17 (9.4%) women remained pregnant 7 days after PPROM. There were 10 (2.8%) cases of prenatal or neonatal death; 303 (84.2%) and 177 (49.2%) neonates were discharged without severe or moderate-severe morbidity, respectively. As GA at PPROM increased, the adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes decreased, especially after 32 weeks. There was no significant difference in general neonatal outcomes between PPROM and non PPROM twins. The GA at PPROM and latency period were both significantly associated with discharge without severe or moderate-severe neonatal morbidity. Pregnancy complications and 5-min Apgar score

Developing bioactive materials for bone implants to enhance bone healing and bone growth has for years been the focus of clinical research. Barium titanate (BT) is an electroactive material that can generate electrical signals in response to applied mechanical forces. In this study, a BT piezoelectric ceramic coating was synthesized on the surface of a TC4 titanium alloy, forming a BT/TC4 material, and low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) was then applied as a mechanical stimulus. The combined effects on the biological responses of MC3T3-E1 cells were investigated. Results of scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction showed that an uniform nanospheres -shaped BT coating was formed on TC4 substrate. Piezoelectric behaviors were observed using piezoelectric force microscopy with the piezoelectric coefficient d33 of 0.42 pC/N. Electrochemical measures indicated that LIPUS-stimulated BT/TC4 materials could produce a microcurrent of approximately 10 μA/cm2. In vitro, the greatest osteogenesis (cell adhesion, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation) was found in MC3T3-E1 cells when BT/TC4 was stimulated using LIPUS. Furthermore, the intracellular calcium ion concentration increased in these cells, possibly because opening of the L-type calcium ion channels was promoted and expression of the CaV1.2 protein was increased. Therefore, the piezoelectric BT/TC4 material with LIPUS loading synergistically promoted osteogenesis, rending it a potential treatment for early stage formation of reliable bone-implant contact.

Abstract There is no recognized serum biomarker to predict the recurrence of endometrial carcinoma (EC). We aimed to explore serum human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) and cancer antigen 125 (CA125) as the biomarkers to predict and monitor recurrence of type II EC. 191 patients diagnosed with type II EC were involved for this retrospective study. Comparing recurrent with non-recurrent patients, HE4 levels resulted a statistically significant difference at primary diagnosis and recurrence, respectively (P = 0.002 and P =

Cryptanalysts have been looking for differential characteristics in ciphers for decades and it remains unclear how the subkey values and more generally the Markov assumption impacts exactly their probability estimation. There were theoretical efforts considering some simple linear relationships between differential characteristics and subkey values, but the community has not yet explored many possible nonlinear dependencies one can find in differential characteristics. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of cryptanalysis works still assume complete independence between the cipher rounds. We give here a practical framework and a corresponding tool to investigate all such linear or nonlinear effects and we show that they can have an important impact on the security analysis of many ciphers. Surprisingly, this invalidates many differential characteristics that appeared in the literature in the past years: we have checked differential characteristics from 8 articles (4 each for both SKINNY and GIFT) and most of these published paths are impossible or working only for a very small proportion of the key space. We applied our method to SKINNY and GIFT, but we expect more impossibilities for other ciphers. To showcase our advances in the dependencies analysis, in the case of SKINNY we are able to obtain a more accurate probability distribution of a differential characteristic with respect to the keys (with practical verification when it is computationally feasible). Our work indicates that newly proposed differential characteristics should now come with an analysis of how the key values and the Markov assumption might or might not affect/invalidate them. n this direction, more constructively, we include a proof of concept of how one can incorporate additional constraints into Constraint Programming so that the search for differential characteristics can avoid (to a large extent) differential characteristics that are actually impossible due to dependency issues our tool detected.

Two‐dimensional (2D) heterostructures, typically integrating two or more different components with well‐defined interfaces, have shown great prospects in energy storage and conversion applications owing to their unique structural merits and synergistic interface effects. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the rational construction of 2D heterostructures pertaining to electrocatalytic water‐splitting applications. The unique emphasis is given to the state‐of‐the‐art progress on synthesized strategies of various well‐organized 2D heterostructures. Moreover, the review offers insights into 2D heterostructures in electrocatalytic water splitting from the viewpoint of the structure–activity relationship using progressive examples. Finally, this review concludes with the potential challenges and prospects in the field, which may provide a guideline for developing more efficient 2D heterostructures to incentivize commercial implementation in this exciting research field.

BackgroundThere is a lack of literature on short latency period (SLP) in twin pregnancies with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the clinical factors and perinatal outcomes associated with SLP in twin pregnancies with PPROM and to establish a predictive model to identify SLP.MethodsTwin pregnancies with PPROM between 24 0/7 and 33 6/7 weeks were included and a retrospective analysis was performed. Patients were divided into two groups based on the latency period after PPROM: Group 1 ≤24 h (defined as SLP) and Group 2 >24 h (defined as long latency period, LLP), the clinical factors and perinatal outcomes were compared between the two groups. Binary logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to identify the independent clinical factors associated with latency period after PPROM and assess the predictive accuracy for SLP.Results98 and 92 pregnant women had short and long latency period, respectively. Prolonged latency significantly increased the occurrence of chorioamnionitis. Neonatal outcomes were not affected by latency duration after PPROM. Binary regression analysis revealed that higher gestational age (GA) at PPROM (P = 0.038), presence of uterine contractions (P < 0.001), Bishop score > 4 (P = 0.030), serum procalcitonin levels ≥0.05 ng/mL upon admission, and absence of use of tocolytic agents (P < 0.001) were significant independent predictors of a SLP. A predictive model developed using these predictors had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.838, and the presence of uterine contractions alone had an AUC of = 0.711.ConclusionUterine contraction was the most important prognosticator for a SLP. A latency period of >24 h was associated with chorioamnionitis, but adverse neonatal outcomes were not observed.

CsPb2Br5/CsPbBr3 composite systems have received considerable attention among numerous lead halide perovskite materials due to their significantly enhanced photoluminescence intensity and stability against moisture. However, the luminescence mechanism of CsPb2Br5 based materials remains controversial, which significantly hinders the further material design and utilization for optoelectronic devices. In this work, to deconvolute their luminescent mechanisms, high-quality CsPb2Br5 crystals without any undesired by-products and impurities have been first prepared by a microwave-assisted synthesis method. The luminescence-inactive characteristics of the material are then confirmed by the steady-state absorption, photoluminescence, transient absorption spectra, and time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy. The prepared CsPb2Br5 crystals exhibit excellent crystallinity and enhanced thermal stability, particularly that they can maintain their crystalline structures in polar organic solvents. By simply manipulating the ratios of different precursor materials, it is witnessed that the green emission comes from the CsPbBr3 adhered, nucleated, and grown on the CsPb2Br5 crystals. Ultrafast transient absorption measurements in visible and terahertz spectral regions reveal that with the help of phonon scattering-assisted hopping at interfacial states, intersystem crossing dominates the electron transfer process in the composite crystals. As a result, the CsPb2Br5 and CsPbBr3 interact extensively with each other. Meanwhile, the Auger recombination rate and the defect-related non-radiative process are suppressed in the composite crystals, thereby enhancing the fluorescence of composite crystals. This work has not only deconvoluted the controversial and unclear luminescent mechanisms of CsPb2Br5 materials but also established a pathway to design and enhance the fluorescence of materials for technological applications.

ObjectivesTo evaluate the role of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value in the individualized management of stage I endometrial carcinoma (EC).MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 180 patients with stage I EC who underwent 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging. The mean ADC (mADC), minimum ADC (minADC), and maximum ADC (maxADC) values of each group were measured and compared. We analyzed the relationship between ADC values and stage I EC prognosis by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards analysis.ResultsPatients with lower ADC values were more likely to be characterized by higher grades, specific histological subtypes and deeper myometrial invasion. The mADC, minADC and maxADC values (×10-3 mm2/s) were 1.045, 0.809 and 1.339, respectively, in grade 1/2 endometrioid carcinoma with superficial myometrial invasion, which significantly differed from those in grade 3 or nonendometrioid carcinoma or with deep myometrial invasion (0.929, 0.714 and 1.215) (P=

ObjectiveThe Ki-67 index is used to evaluate cell proliferation activity, which is related to tumor progression, metastasis, and prognosis. We aimed to explore the prognostic value of Ki-67 index in endometrial stromal sarcoma and to explore the optimal cut-off value of Ki-67 index for predicting recurrent endometrial stromal sarcoma.MethodsA total of 82 patients with endometrial stromal sarcoma who were treated in our hospital were collected. Clinicopathological data of these patients were retrospectively analyzed. Ki-67 index was detected by the immunohistochemical method. Receiver operating characteristic curve and the Youden index were performed to determine the optimal cut-off value of Ki-67 index for predicting recurrent endometrial stromal sarcoma. The Cox regression was performed to analyze risk factors affecting prognosis of endometrial stromal sarcoma. The Kaplan–Meier method and Log-rank test were performed to analyze the survival of patients.ResultsThe optimal cut-off value of Ki-67 index for predicting recurrent endometrial stromal sarcoma was 35%. The results of univariate analysis showed that high Ki-67 index (≥35%) was statistically significantly bound up with shorter progress free survival and overall survival. The results of multivariate analysis showed that Ki-67 index (P = 0.001) and ovarian preservation (P = 0.040) were independent prognostic factors of progress free survival.ConclusionsA Ki-67 index cut-off of 35% was optimal for predicting recurrent endometrial stromal sarcoma. Ki-67 index may be a useful prognostic marker in endometrial stromal sarcoma.

With the rapid development of economy and information technology, traditional manufacturing industry is facing severe challenges. Enterprises need to rectify the traditional manufacturing industry and realize the transformation from traditional manufacturing industry to intelligent manufacturing industry. In order to adapt to market demand, enterprises need to constantly integrate resources to improve the competitiveness of enterprise supply chain. Based on the background of suppliers in intelligent manufacturing enterprises, the evaluation method of supplier efficiency was studied by using machine learning. In this paper, based on the traditional backpropagation (BP) neural network, combined with the improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, and on the basis of the supplier evaluation index system, the supplier efficiency evaluation model of intelligent manufacturing enterprises based on DPMPSO-BP neural network is constructed. Through the collected sample data, the network is trained and simulated, and the results are analyzed. Finally, the designed model is applied to a large battery manufacturing enterprise, and the supplier efficiency evaluation method based on DPMPSO-BP neural network is validated and analyzed. Compared with the traditional BP neural network method, the supplier efficiency evaluation method is effective and feasible.

Warming can affect soil microbial respiration by changing microbial biomass and community composition. The responses of soil microbial respiration to warming under experimental conditions are also related to background conditions and the experimental setup, such as warming magnitude, duration, and methods. However, the global pattern of soil microbial respiration in response to warming and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis of the response of soil microbial respiration to warming by synthesizing data from 187 field experiments. We found that experimental warming significantly increased soil microbial respiration and microbial biomass carbon by 11.8% and 6.4%, respectively. The warming-induced increase in microbial carbon decomposition was positively correlated with increased microbial biomass carbon, but not community composition. Moreover, the positive response of soil microbial respiration marginally increased with warming magnitude, particularly in short-term experiments, but soil microbial respiration adapted to higher warming at longer timescales. Warming method did not significantly affect the response of microbial respiration, except for a significant effect with open top chamber warming. In addition, the impact of warming on soil microbial respiration was more pronounced in wetter sites and in sites with lower soil pH and higher soil organic carbon. Our findings suggest that warming stimulates microbial respiration mainly by increasing microbial biomass carbon. We also highlight the importance of the combination of warming magnitude and duration in regulating soil microbial respiration responses, and the dependence of warming effects upon background precipitation and soil conditions. These findings can advance our understanding of soil carbon losses and carbon-climate feedbacks in a warm world.

Automated methods have become crucial components when searching for distinguishers against symmetric-key cryptographic primitives. While MILP and SAT solvers are among the most popular tools to model ciphers and perform cryptanalysis, other methods with different performance profiles are appearing. In this article, we explore the use of Constraint Programming (CP) for differential cryptanalysis on the Ascon authenticated encryption family (first choice of the CAESAR lightweight applications portfolio and current finalist of the NIST LWC competition) and its internal permutation. We first present a search methodology for finding differential characteristics for Ascon with CP, which can easily find the best differential characteristics already reported by the Ascon designers. This shows the capability of CP in generating easily good differential results compared to dedicated search heuristics. Based on our tool, we also parametrize the search strategies in CP to generate other differential characteristics with the goal of forming limited-birthday distinguishers for 4, 5, 6 and 7 rounds and rectangle attacks for 4 and 5 rounds of the Ascon internal permutation. We propose a categorization of the distinguishers into black-box and non-black-box to better differentiate them as they are often useful in different contexts. We also obtained limited-birthday distinguishers which represent currently the best known distinguishers for 4, 5 and 6 rounds under the category of non-black-box distinguishers. Leveraging again our tool, we have generated forgery attacks against both reduced-rounds Ascon-128 and Ascon-128a, improving over the best reported results at the time of writing. Finally, using the best differential characteristic we have found for 2 rounds, we could also improve a recent attack on round-reduced Ascon-Hash.

Vegetation dynamics are often affected by climate variability, but the past state of vegetation has a non-negligible impact on current vegetation growth. However, seasonal differences in the effects of these drivers on vegetation growth remain unclear, particularly in ecologically fragile areas. We used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), gross primary productivity (GPP), and leaf area index (LAI) to describe the vegetation dynamic in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River basin (YRB). Three active vegetation growing seasons (early, peak, and late) were defined based on phenological metrics. In light of three vegetation indicators and the climatic data, we identified the correlation between the inter-annual variation of vegetation growth in the three sub-seasons. Then, we quantified the contributions of climate variability and the vegetation growth carryover (VGC) effect on seasonal vegetation greening between 2000–2019. Results showed that both the vegetation coverage and productivity in the study area increased over a 20-year period. The VGC effect dominated vegetation growth during the three active growing seasons, and the effect increased from early to late growing season. Vegetation in drought regions was found to generally have a stronger vegetation carryover ability, implying that negative disturbances might have severer effects on vegetation in these areas. The concurrent seasonal precipitation was another positive driving factor of vegetation greening. However, sunshine duration, including its immediate and lagged impacts, had a negative effect on vegetation growth. In addition, the VGC effect can sustain into the second year. The VGC effect showed that initial ecological restoration and sustainable conservation would promote vegetation growth and increase vegetation productivity. This study provides a comprehensive perspective on understanding the climate–vegetation interactions on a seasonal scale, which helps to accurately predict future vegetation dynamics over time in ecologically fragile areas.

Abstract Background Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is an endemic osteoarthropathy, and its pathogenesis is still not entirely clear. Pathologically, many KBD changes are similar to those of osteoarthritis (OA). Therefore, this study aimed to identify changes in the levels of potential urinary biomarkers for OA, including C-telopeptide of type II collagen (uCTX-II), type II collagen cleavage neoepitope (uC2C), pyridinoline (uPYD), and uHelix-II, among adults with KBD. Methods Urinary samples of 83 external control (EC) subjects, 91 KBD patients, and 86 internal control (IC) subjects were tested by ELISA after the subjects completed a questionnaire and X-ray examination. Results The medians of the four markers in the KBD group were higher than those in the EC group and those in the IC group. The medians in the grade II KBD group were higher than those in the grade I group but were not statistically significant (P = 0.301, P = 0.408, P = 0.204, and P = 0.898 for uCTX-II, uC2C, uPYD, and uHelix-II, respectively). The area under the curve (AUC) of uCTX-II (0.775) was higher than that of the others (0.672, 0.639, and 0.628 for uC2C, uPYD, and uHelix-II, respectively). Conclusion The levels of uCTX-II, uC2C, uPYD, and uHelix-II were elevated in adults with KBD and showed an increasing trend as the severity of KBD increased. The prediction accuracy of uCTX-II was more useful than that of the others for assisting in the diagnosis of KBD.

The effects of drought, a devastating natural disaster, have expanded due to intense global warming. Therefore, studying the spatio-temporal evolution and formation mechanism of drought is urgent and important. In this paper, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) of the source region of Yellow River was calculated for the years 1961–2015, and the heuristic segmentation and Modified Mann-Kendall methods were used to study the change points and trends of precipitation, temperature, and SPEI. The empirical orthogonal function was used to study the major modes of the SPEI, and cross wavelet analysis was used to demonstrate the relationship between SPEI and large-scale climate factors. The results initially demonstrated no change point and an insignificant positive trend in precipitation. Temperature revealed a significant increasing trend, and a change point was detected in 1997. SPEI indicated a change point in 1993, and a significant increasing trend was observed thereafter. These findings reveal that drought in the study area is highly related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The North Atlantic and Arctic oscillations caused similar impacts on drought. By comparison, changes in SPEI were slightly related to the Pacific decadal oscillation. These results provide useful information for evaluating drought changes in the study area, early warning of drought, and water resource management.

Wetlands are vulnerable to plant invasions and the decomposition of invasive plant litter could make impacts on the ecosystem services of wetlands including nutrient cycle and carbon sequestration. However, few studies have explored the effects of nutrient enrichment and water level change on the decomposition of invasive plant litter. In this study, we conducted a control experiment using the litterbag method to compare the decomposition rates and nutrient release in the litter of an invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides in three water levels and two nutrient enrichment treatments. This study found that the water level change and nutrient enrichment showed significant effects on the litter decomposition and nutrient dynamic of A. philoxeroides. The increase of water level significantly reduced the decomposition rate and nutrient release of litter in the nutrient control treatment, whereas no clear relationship was observed in the nutrient enrichment treatment, indicating that the effect of water level change on litter decomposition might be affected by nutrient enrichment. At the late stage of decomposition, the increase of phosphorus (P) concentration and the decrease of the ratio of carbon to P suggested that the decomposition of invasive plant litter was limited by P. Our results suggest that controlling P enrichment in water bodies is essential for the management of invasive plant and carbon sequestration of wetlands. In addition, the new index we proposed could provide a basis for quantifying the impact of invasive plant litter decomposition on carbon cycle in wetlands.

Wetlands have been considered as a vital reservoir of global carbon and are vulnerable to plant invasion. However, the influence mechanism of plant invasion on soil organic carbon (SOC) in wetlands remains unclear. In this study, we investigated SOC, soil physicochemical properties, and soil microbes in the invaded and non-invaded sites in Xinxue River and Xinxue River Constructed Wetland to research the effects of Alternanthera philoxeroides invasion on SOC and explore the related mechanisms. The invasion of A. philoxeroides increased SOC content and density in both the river and the constructed wetland. SOC in the two types of wetlands was positively correlated with moisture content and negatively correlated with bulk density, dissolved oxygen, water temperature, soil temperature, and pH. The invasion decreased the dissolved oxygen in the river and the soil temperature in the constructed wetland which might be the explanation for the increase of SOC in the two types of wetlands. In the river, the decrease of dissolved oxygen caused by plant invasion could alter the microbial community and limit the decomposition of SOC by microbes, which was confirmed by the increase of microbial α diversity indices and the correlations between soil microbial community in the river and dissolved oxygen showed by RDA analysis. The invasion of A. philoxeroides significantly shifted the soil microbial community in the constructed wetland. Redundancy analysis showed that the variation of soil microbial community structure in the constructed wetland could be mainly explained by soil pH and soil temperature. The decrease of soil temperature in the constructed wetland might inhibit microbial activities and result in the accumulation of SOC. In addition, the indicator species reflecting soil microbial community shifted by plant invasion were highly correlated with SOC, suggesting that the variation of indicator species between invaded sites and non-invaded sites might be another reason for the difference in SOC. The study indicates that A. philoxeroides invasion might increase the carbon storage in rivers and constructed wetlands with different mechanisms.

Genome editing technology represented by CRISPR-Cas9 had been widely used in many biological fields such as gene function analysis, gene therapy, and crop improvement. However, in the face of the complexity of the eukaryotic genome, the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tools have shown an unstable editing efficiency with large variability at different target sites. It was important to further improve the editing efficiency of the CRISPR-Cas9 system among the whole genome. In this study, based on the previous single transcription unit genome editing system (STU-SpCas9), using the ubiquitin-associated domain (UBA) to enhance the stability of Cas9 protein, we constructed three Cas9-UBA fusion systems (SpCas9-SD01, SpCas9-SD02, and SpCas9-SD03). Four different target sites of rice OsPDS, OsDEP1 and OsROC5 genes were chosen to evaluate the genome editing efficiency in rice protoplasts and stable transformed rice plants. The results showed that the fusion of UBA domains did not affect the cleavage mode of Cas9 protein, and effectively increase the editing efficiency of STU-SpCas9 at the target sites. This new CRISPR-Cas9-UBA system provided a new strategy and tool for improving the genome editing efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9 in plants.

In order to handle undesirable failures of a multicopter, which occurs in either the pre-flight process or the in-flight process, a failsafe mechanism design method based on supervisory control theory (SCT) is proposed for the semi-autonomous control mode. The failsafe mechanism is a control logic that guides what subsequent actions the multicopter should take, by taking account of real-time information from guidance, attitude control, diagnosis and other low-level subsystems. In order to design a failsafe mechanism for the multicopters, safety issues of the multicopters are introduced. Then, user requirements including functional requirements and safety requirements are textually described, where functional requirements guide the modelling of a general multicopter plant, and safety requirements cover the failsafe measures dealing with the presented safety issues. Based on these requirements, several multicopter modes and events are defined. On this basis, the multicopter plant and control specifications are modelled by automata. Then, a supervisor is synthesized by using SCT. In addition, the authors present three examples to demonstrate the potential conflicting phenomena due to the inappropriate design of control specifications. Finally, based on the obtained supervisor, an implementation method suitable for multicopters is presented, in which the supervisor is transformed into decision-making codes.

In this article, we propose new heuristics for minimising the amount of XOR gates required to compute a system of linear equations in GF(2). We first revisit the well known Boyar-Peralta strategy and argue that a proper randomisation process during the selection phases can lead to great improvements. We then propose new selection criteria and explain their rationale. Our new methods outperform state-of-the-art algorithms such as Paar or Boyar-Peralta (or open synthesis tools such as Yosys) when tested on random matrices with various densities. They can be applied to matrices of reasonable sizes (up to about 32 × 32). Notably, we provide a new implementation record for the matrix underlying the MixColumns function of the AES block cipher, requiring only 94 XORs.

Abstract Background Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is an endemic, chronic, degenerative osteoarthropathy. KBD is usually diagnosed by using X-ray image and clinical symptoms, lacking of serological biomarkers. The serum level of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP can specifically reflect the damage of the cartilage. So, in this study, the serum levels of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP were detected in order to determine whether they can be used as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of KBD. Method Using a status survey, the survey sites were selected in the KBD historical endemic areas and non-endemic areas in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. All local residents have undergone clinical examination, X-ray examination of the hands and knees, and questionnaire survey. A total of 554 people were surveyed, and 184 residents who are eligible for inclusion criteria were selected as our subjects. Fifty-six cases were diagnosed as KBD and 63 individuals were included as internal control and 65 subjects were included as external control. And blood samples of surveyed subjects were collected, and the serum was separated to detect the levels of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP by ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS software. Results There were no statistically significant differences in age and sex among the three groups. The Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that the serum levels of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP were significantly different among the three groups. Multiple comparisons using Dunnett’s T3 test revealed that serum levels of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP were significantly lower in KBD patients than in internal and external control. However, there was no significant difference between the internal and external control. Conclusions The results preliminarily indicated that the levels of PIICP, PIIANP, and PIIBNP in serum could reflect the abnormal synthesis of type II collagen in KBD patients and suggested that these indicators might be used as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of KBD.