Search

Although Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is promising in solving Job Shop Scheduling Problems (JSPs), existing DRL-based methods still have large optimality gaps when learning job-to-machine solutions. This is mainly because: (i) existing state representations autonomously learned from graph-structured data cannot fully capture node information to support agents in making optimal decisions; and (ii) existing reward functions cannot accurately reflect some actions that will seriously worsen the current state. Aiming to address these issues, we propose a knowledge-based DRL method that selects nine well-known priority dispatching rules (PDRs) as state features, which can achieve effective model training. To avoid feature over-redundancy, we discard significantly correlated features based on the Pearson correlation relationship analysis, which can help to identify the key factors that affect the agents’ decision-making. Furthermore, since it is difficult to design a reward function that can accurately distinguish actions, we mask poor-performing actions based on problem-specific knowledge to prevent them from being selected at the current decision point. Comprehensive experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our approach over four PDRs and four state-of-the-art methods on various benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban water system theory is an extension of the basin water system science on an urban scale, providing a new systematic solution for the unbalanced human-water relationship and severe water challenges, such as waterlogging, black and odorous water, and ecological degradation caused by urbanization. Most existing studies on urban water systems have focused on individual water cycle processes linked with water supply and sewage treatment plants, but mutual feedback between the water cycle and its associated material circulation and water ecology, as well as human processes, still needs further exploration. In this paper, the concept, theory, and technical methodology of the urban water system were developed based on the water cycle and basin water system science. The Urban Water System 5.0 (UWS 5.0) model was developed by integrating the Time Variant Gain rainfall-runoff Model with Urban water system (TVGM_Urban) in different underlying surface conditions for analyzing the natural-social water cycle processes and their associated water environmental and ecological processes and the influence of multiscale sponge measures. Herein, five major simulation functions were realized: rainfall-runoff-nonpoint source pollutant load, water and pollutant transportations through the drainage network system, terminal regulation and purification, socioeconomic water cycle, and water system assessment and regulation. The location for the case study used in this paper was Wuhan City. The findings showed that the entire urban water system should consider the built-up area and its associated rivers and lakes as the research object and explore the integrations among the urban natural-social water cycle and river regulations inside and outside of the city as well as the effects of socioeconomic development and sponge measures on the water quantity-quality-ecology processes. The UWS 5.0 model efficiently simulated the urban rainfall-runoff process, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in water bodies, and characteristic indicators of socioeconomic development. For the rainfall-runoff simulations, the correlation coefficient and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) fall under the excellent and good classes, respectively. For the TN and TP concentration simulations, results exhibited good bias and the correlation coefficients exceeded 0.90 for 78.1% of the sampled sites. The simulation of 18 socioeconomic indicators provided excellent bias, correlation coefficient, and NSE values of 100%, 83.3%, and 69.4% to total indicators, respectively. Based on the well-calibrated UWS 5.0 model, the source sponge, artificial enhancement, and source reduction-path interception-terminal treatment measures were optimized, which considerably mitigated waterlogging, black and odorous water, and lake eutrophication, respectively. The mitigation performance revealed that the maximum inundated area for a once-in-10-year rainfall event was reduced by 32.6%, the removal ratio of the black and odorous water area was 65%, the comprehensive trophic state index of water bodies was reduced by 37%, and the green development level of Wuhan City in 2020 increased from 0.56 to 0.67. This study is expected to advance the intersection and development of multidisciplinary fields (e.g., urban hydrology, environmental science, and ecology) and offer an important theoretical and technical basis for solving urban complex water issues and promoting green development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) showing unusual expressions have been discovered in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD). However, the functions and underlying mechanisms of these circRNAs still remain largely unclear. Our current study discovered a notable increase in the expression of circRNA hsa_circ_0002395 (circ_0002395) in both PAAD tissues and cell lines. This up-regulation of circ_0002395 was found to be associated with larger tumor sizes and lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, our findings showed that circ_0002395 facilitated aerobic glycolysis and cell proliferation in PAAD cells by regulating the miR-548c-3p/PDK1 axis. Mechanistically, we identified circ_0002395 as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) that sponged miR-548c-3p, thereby promoting PDK1 expression and aerobic glycolysis, and ultimately resulting in the enhancement of cell proliferation. Our findings found that circ_0002395 promoted proliferation of PAAD cells by enhancing PDK1 expression and aerobic glycolysis by sponging miR-548c-3p. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground H2 storage (UHS), i.e., injecting H2 into subsurface geological formation and its withdrawal when needed, is identified as a promising solution for large-scale and long-term storage of H2. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed at a typical temperature 320 K with pressure up to 60 MPa to predict H2 transport properties and H2–H2O–rock interfacial properties, which are compared with those of CO2 and CH4. The MD results show that the CH4 profiles of property variations with pressure lie between those of H2 and CO2 and more comparable to CO2. The interaction of H2 with H2O/silica is much weaker than that of CH4 and CO2. It is found that the effect of H2 pressure on altering the water contact angle and interfacial tension is negligible under all conditions. Unlike the multi-adsorption layers of the confined CO2 and CH4, there is only one adsorption layer of H2 confined by silica nano-slit. The planar diffusion of H2 in the confined system is slower than that in the bulk system at pressures lower than 20 MPa. The data and findings of this study will be useful for modeling the multiphase flow dynamics of UHS on reservoir scale, optimizing UHS operation, and assessing the performance of a cushion gas, e.g., CO2 or CH4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, three tritopic carboxylic acids were used to construct three Zr-MOFs, HIAM-4033, HIAM-4034, and HIAM-4035, to investigate the effect of carboxyl position on the MOF structures. The results showed that HIAM-4033 and HIAM-4034 possess (3,9)-c models with different underlying nets, whereas HIAM-4035 exhibits the same underlying net as UiO-68. Nanosized HIAM-4033 exhibits excellent sensitivity and selectivity for detecting aromatic acids, such as benzoic acid and 2-fluorobenzoic acid, compared with aliphatic acids and inorganic acids. This study offers new insights into achieving an organic linker directed structure evolution of Zr-MOFs, which might facilitate the discovery of unprecedented underlying nets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the global water crisis and its impact on water security. It highlights the urgent need for sustainable water management strategies to address the challenges of water stress, extreme climate events, poor water quality, and loss of biodiversity. The article specifically focuses on China's unique case, including its spatially unmatched distribution of arable land and water resources, increasing water stress due to socio-economic development, and the impact of climate change. It also discusses China's water strategies and solutions, such as the implementation of the "Three Red Lines" policy and the development of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The article emphasizes the importance of science and technology in addressing the water crisis and calls for joint international efforts to achieve sustainable water resources management. [Extracted from the article]

Aims: To investigate the effectiveness, safety, optimal starting dose, optimal maintenance dose range, and target fasting plasma glucose of five basal insulins in insulin‐naïve patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched from January 2000 to February 2022. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) approach was adopted. The registration ID is CRD42022319078 in PROSPERO. Results: Among 11 163 citations retrieved, 35 publications met the planned criteria. From meta‐analyses and network meta‐analyses, we found that when injecting basal insulin regimens at bedtime, the optimal choice in order of most to least effective might be glargine U‐300 or degludec U‐100, glargine U‐100 or detemir, followed by neutral protamine hagedorn (NPH). Injecting glargine U‐100 in the morning may be more effective (ie, more patients archiving glycated hemoglobin < 7.0%) and lead to fewer hypoglycemic events than injecting it at bedtime. The optimal starting dose for the initiation of any basal insulins can be 0.10–0.20 U/kg/day. There is no eligible evidence to investigate the optimal maintenance dose for basal insulins. Conclusions: The five basal insulins are effective for the target population. Glargine U‐300, degludec U‐100, glargine U‐100, and detemir lead to fewer hypoglycemic events than NPH without compromising glycemic control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has altered the regional hydrological processes, posing a great challenge to the sustainable development of cities. The TVGM-USWM model, a new urban hydrological model considering the nonlinear rainfall-runoff relationship and the flow routing in an urban drainage system, was developed in this study. We employed this model in the Huangtaiqiao drainage basin of Jinan City, China, and examined the impact of land cover changes due to urbanization on rainfall-runoff processes. Two urbanization scenarios were set up in the TVGM-USWM model during the design rainfall events with different return periods. Results showed that (1) the TVGM-USWM model demonstrated good applicability in the study area, and the RNS values of the flood events are all greater than 0.75 in both calibration and validation periods; (2) the proportion of impervious areas increased from 44.65% in 1990 to 71.00% in 2020, and urbanization played a leading role in the process of land cover change and manifested itself as a circular extensional expansion; and (3) urbanization showed a significant amplifying effect on the design flood processes, particularly for relatively big floods with small frequency, and the impact of urbanization on the time-to-peak of the design flood gradually decreased as the frequency of the design rainfall decreased. The results of this study can provide technical support for flood mitigation and the construction of a sponge city in Jinan City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clarkson-McLeod solutions of the fourth Painlevé equation behave like κ D α − 1 2 2 (2 x) as x → + ∞ , where κ is some real constant and D α − 1 2 (x) is the parabolic cylinder function. Using the Deift-Zhou nonlinear steepest descent method, we derive the asymptotic behaviors for this class of solutions as x → − ∞. This completes a proof of Clarkson and McLeod's conjecture on the asymptotics of this family of solutions. The total integrals of the Clarkson-McLeod solutions and the asymptotic approximations of the σ -form of this family of solutions are also derived. Furthermore, we find a determinantal representation of the σ -form of the Clarkson-McLeod solutions via an integrable operator with the parabolic cylinder kernel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avian nephritis virus (ANV) infection is associated with diarrhea, uricosis, stunting, tubulonephrosis, interstitial nephritis, and mortality of chicken flocks, leading to economic losses in the poultry industry. In this study, an ANV strain designated as HNU-ANV-ML-2020 was identified in tissue samples collected from chickens with severe enteritis on a poultry farm in Hunan province, China, and analyzed. The genome of HNU-ANV-ML-2020 is 6943 nucleotides in length. It showed the highest sequence identity (88.1%) to ANV strain CHN/GXJL815/2017 (MN732559) from Guangxi province, China, while it showed less than 86% identity to other astrovirus (AstV) genome sequences available in the GenBank database. The capsid protein of this virus showed the highest sequence identity to ANV strains HQ330482 and HQ330498 from the UK (81.2% and 81.06%, respectively), while it showed only 73.9% identity to MN732559 and less than 80% identity to the capsid proteins of other AstVs available in GenBank. Further phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that HNU-ANV-ML-2020 belongs to group 4, together with ANV strains identified in Australia, Brazil, the UK, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, ANV strains identified in chickens in China were found to be separated into four distinct groups/genotypes, indicating substantial genetic divergence and a complex circulation pattern in China. The virus characterized in the present study is a novel ANV variant identified for the first time in Hunan province, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning (FL) has been recognized as a promising collaborative on-device machine learning method in the design of Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, most existing FL methods fail to deal with IoT applications that contain a variety of IoT devices equipped with different types of neural network (NN) models. This is because traditional FL methods assume that local models on devices should have the same architecture as the global model on cloud. To address this problem, we propose a novel framework named PervasiveFL that enables efficient and effective FL among heterogeneous IoT devices. Without modifying original local models, PervasiveFL installs one lightweight NN model named modellet on each device. By using the deep mutual learning (DML) and our entropy-based decision gating (EDG) method, modellets and local models can selectively learn from each other through soft labels using locally captured data. Meanwhile, since modellets are of the same architecture, the learned knowledge by modellets can be shared among devices in a traditional FL manner. In this way, PervasiveFL can be pervasively applied to any heterogeneous IoT system. Comprehensive experimental results on four well-known datasets show that PervasiveFL can not only pervasively enable FL among heterogeneous devices within a large-scale IoT system, but also significantly enhance the inference accuracy of heterogeneous IoT devices with low communication overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major capsid protein (MCP) can be used as a subunit vaccine against largemouth bass virus (LMBV). However, subunit vaccines usually have low immunogenicity. Here, to identify the major immunogenicity determinant region of the MCP gene, we truncated the MCP of the LMBV gene into four parts (MCP‐1, MCP‐2, MCP‐3 and MCP‐4). Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to identify the antigenicity of these four truncated MCP proteins. Then, the highly antigenic truncated protein was modified with mannose and connected with functionalized single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as carriers. Largemouth basses were immunized by bath immersion, challenged with LMBV on the 28th day after immunization and evaluated for related immune indicators. The results indicated that the MCP‐2 protein could induce a higher antibody titre than the other truncated MCP proteins. We found that the levels of immune‐related genes (TNF‐α, CD40, IgM, IFNγ and IL‐10) in the spleen and kidney were significantly increased in the MCP‐2 and MCP‐2‐Man groups. ELISA results showed that the antibody content in the serum increased significantly in the MCP‐2 group 7 days post‐vaccination and increased with days in all the vaccinated groups, with the highest observed on the 21st day. Notably, the MCP‐2‐Man vaccine (10 mg L−1) showed durability of immunoprotection efficacy that could protect largemouth basses from LMBV challenge, and the immune protection rate reached 78.94%. These results suggest that MCP‐2 might be the major immunogenicity determinant region of LMBV and that the mannose‐modified MCP‐2 vaccine can induce stronger adaptive immune responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acne vulgaris (AV) is a common dermatosis that causes psychological problems. Isotretinoin is the first-line treatment for moderate-to-severe AV, but its onset of effect is delayed. Although light-based therapy is widely used in the treatment of AV, there is a lack of reports on delicate pulsed light (DPL) which has a narrow therapeutic spectrum (500-600 nm). Low-level light therapy (LLLT) has shown an emerging role in anti-inflammatory effects and skin repair. This study investigates the efficacy and safety of low-dose oral isotretinoin combined with LLLT using DPL in patients with moderate-to-severe AV. Thirty-six patients with moderate-to-severe AV were enrolled and received low-dose oral isotretinoin (10-20 mg/day). The two sides of the face were randomly assigned to receive DPL (6-9 J/cm2) or not at an interval of 2 weeks for 4 treatment sessions (weeks 0, 2, 4, 6). Photos, GAGS score, counts of papules, pustules, comedones, TEWL, melanin and erythema index, side effects, efficacy, and satisfactory score were recorded at each visit and at 4 weeks after the final treatment (week 10). Thirty-three patients completed the study. DPL and oral isotretinoin combined therapy exhibited significantly improved GAGS score as well as the number of the lesions from week 2 and maintained until week 10. At the end of the observation, the improvement of GAGS was 70.88% on the DPL and isotretinoin combined side versus 62.12% on the side with isotretinoin monotherapy (p = 0.0009). The improvement for papule number was 61.58% on the DPL combined side versus 43.33% on the control side (p < 0.0001), for comedone was 63.15% versus 43.30% (p = 0.0008). TEWL and indexes of melanin and erythema also had better outcomes with DPL combined therapy at week 10. All the side effects were temporary and tolerable; no adverse effects were observed. Oral low-dose isotretinoin combined with LLLT by DPL offers a combination with reduced side effects and better outcomes within a limited treatment duration, which advances the onset of effect of isotretinoin monotherapy and improves lesion clearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomedical optical imaging is an important subdivision of optical imaging with the aim of understanding the anatomy and function of life. In principle, biomedical optical imaging systems form an image by manipulating the excitation light and detecting the signals originating from light and tissue interactions. Ever since the invention of the first optical microscope over 1000 years ago, biomedical optical imaging technologies have been steadily evolving to enable faster, deeper, and higher resolution imaging. These technologies have led to a more comprehensive understanding of life at the macro-, micro-, and nanoscales and have improved clinical diagnosis and treatment. This tutorial provides an overview of biomedical optical imaging techniques and their applications. Based on the imaging depth, this tutorial classifies the current optical imaging systems into two regimes: diffraction and diffusion. Within each regime, a few commonly used imaging techniques and their biological imaging applications are discussed. Finally, we provide an outlook of future biomedical optical imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online teaching is becoming familiar in recent days for bridging the educational gap and long-distance coverage. The online teaching modes provide better visualization and representation of different subjects, including sports and physical education classes. Data-to-representation provides a better teaching model without interrupting the knowledge-based performance. For leveraging this feature, this article introduces a Conveyance-dependent Teaching Mode (CTM) paradigm. The proposed paradigm employs neural learning to improve the performance of different online sports sessions. This learning assigns rewards for different training modes based on student assessment and data representation. The flawless data and student performance assessments are balanced for improving teaching modes. The reward is updated using the sports curriculum, teacher recommendations, and student interests. Based on the assessment, the rewards are identified using the activation function. This generates the rewards for different sports training sessions improving the data accuracy. Further metrics such as representation, analysis rate, and time factors are verified to improve the performance of the proposed paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of graphite carbon anodes due to their well-defined voltage plateaus at low potentials (0.2 V vs Li/Li+) and relatively high initial Coulombic Efficiency (CE) for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are an active area of research. However, the sluggish kinetics of lithium intercalation into conventional graphite anodes leads to metallic lithium plating phenomenon. Herein, the semi-graphitic nitrogen-doped carbon (SGNC) via one-step catalytic carbonization of cocoon silk was proposed to address the above challenges. By doping spiral semi-graphitic carbon materials with nitrogen, the SGNC exhibits an insertion peak of graphite carbon below 0.2 V, as well as an adsorption peak for lithium storage between 0.2 and 3.0V in hard carbon. The optimized nitrogen-doped spiral-like carbon shows an absorption-insertion lithium storage mechanism. As a result, the SGNC anode demonstrates high initial capacity (782 mAh g−1 at 500 mA g−1 and maintained 915 mAh g−1 even after 1200 cycles) and good rate performance. The combined N-doping and nanopore defects in the spiral semi-graphitic carbon can significantly enhance the binding ability for Li-ions, charge transfer ability, and thereby improve the charge transport kinetics of the SGNC, resulting in improved rate capability. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph neural network (GNN) based decision-making can easily capture edge and node traits to construct and extract relevant deep features, but domain shifts among graph data will remain particularly prominent when the amount of data decreases sharply. In this study, GNN based machinery prognostics is further explored with partial monitoring data for the first time, and the graph structure based few-shot prognostics framework is established to overcome the challenge of limited graph samples based predictions under variable operation conditions. In particular, spatial-temporal graph structure data that aggregate multi-source, multi-channel signals are first constructed. Then a novel graph prediction algorithm embedded in the meta-learning training model, named graph structure data enhanced meta-learning network, is proposed and has the functions of spatial-temporal graph data processing and cross-domain generalization under few-shot training mode. Finally, two real-measured run-to-failed mechanical durability tests are utilized to prove the superiority of the proposed prognostics method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viruses are important regulatory factors of the marine microbial community including microeukaryotes. However, little is known about their role in the northern Chukchi Sea in the Arctic basin, which has oligotrophic conditions in summer. To clarify the link between microbial eukaryotic communities and viruses as well as environmental conditions, we investigated the community structures of microeukaryotes (from 3 to144 μm and from 0.23 μm size bio‐particles collected from seawater) and Imitervirales (from 0.23 μm size bio‐particles collected from seawater), a dominant group of viruses infecting marine microeukaryotes. To the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated both Imitervirales and eukaryotic communities in the Arctic Ocean. Surface water samples were collected at 21 ocean stations located in the northeastern Chukchi Sea and an adjacent area outside the Beaufort Gyre (Adjacent Sea), and at two melt ponds on sea ice in the summer of 2018. At the ocean stations, nutrient concentrations were low in most of the locations, except the shelf in the adjacent sea. The community variations were significantly correlated between eukaryotes and Imitervirales, even within the northeastern Chukchi Sea characterized by relatively homogeneous environmental conditions. The association of the eukaryotic community with the viral community was stronger than that with geographical and physicochemical environmental factors. These results suggest that Imitervirales actively infect their hosts even in the cold and oligotrophic seawater in the Arctic Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the relationship between dispersion measures (DM) and redshifts, fast radio bursts (FRBs) are considered to be very promising cosmological probes. In this paper, we attempted to use the DM-z relationship of FRBs to study the helium abundance ( Y He ) in the universe. First, we used 17 current FRBs with known redshifts for our study. Due to their low redshifts and the strong degeneracy between Y He and Ω b h 2 , however, this catalog could not provide a good constraint on the helium abundance. Then, we simulated 500 low redshift FRB mock data with z ∈ [ 0 , 1.5 ] to forecast the constraining ability on Y He . In order to break the degeneracy between Y He and Ω b h 2 further, we introduced the shift parameters of the Planck measurement (R , l A , Ω b h 2) as a prior, where Ω b h 2 represents the baryon density parameter, and R and l A correspond to the scaled distance to recombination and the angular scale of the sound horizon at recombination, respectively. We obtained the standard deviation for the helium abundance: σ (Y He) = 0.025 . Finally, we considered 2000 higher redshift FRB data with the redshift distribution of [ 0 , 3 ] and found that the constraining power for Y He would be improved by more than 2 times, σ (Y He) = 0.011 , which indicates that the FRB data with high redshift can provide a better constraint on the helium abundance. Hopefully, large FRB samples with high redshift from the Square Kilometre Array can provide high-precision measurements of the helium abundance in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the possible cosmic anisotropy in 118 long GRBs with the Ep − E iso ('Amati') correlation by employing the dipole fitting (DF) and hemisphere comparison (HC) methods. The distribution of the GRB sample is nearly homogeneous in the sky. The dipole anisotropy is weak in the dipole-modulated |$\rm \Lambda$| CDM model and the Finslerian cosmological model. The dipole directions from the GRB sample are consistent with ones given by the Pantheon SNe-Ia sample, but with smaller uncertainties. We also investigate whether the GRB sample can reduce the anisotropic signal from inhomogeneous samples like the Pantheon one. The GRB sample is then combined with the Pantheon one, thus providing an SN-G sample. In the dipole-modulated |$\rm \Lambda$| CDM model, the dipole direction in the SN-G sample shows a considerable change from the one in the Pantheon sample. The angle between the two directions is 26 |${_{.}^{\circ}}$| 78. For the HC method, the result of maximum anisotropy level from the G-SN sample is 0.257 ± 0.060 at 68 per cent confidence level (CL) and the corresponding preferred direction is |$(l,b)=(82{_{.}^{\circ}}97^{+52{_{.}^{\circ}}73}_{~-61{_{.}^{\circ}}88}, -15{_{.}^{\circ}}09^{+60{_{.}^{\circ}}09}_{~-13{_{.}^{\circ}}54})$|⁠. The statistical significance of the |$\rm AL_{max}$| is 1.4 σ. The angle between the preferred direction and the one from the Pantheon sample is 44 |${_{.}^{\circ}}$| 40. Although the amount of data in the GRB sample is about a tenth of that in the Pantheon sample, the GRB sample can considerably impact the results from the Pantheon sample. Our results show that GRBs have the potential to search for a convincing cosmic anisotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports facilities have been acknowledged as one of the crucial environmental factors for children's physical education, physical fitness, and participation in physical activity. Finding a solution for the effective and objective evaluation of the condition of sports facilities in schools (SSFs) with the responding quantitative magnitude is an uncertain task. This paper describes the utilization of an unsupervised machine learning method to objectively evaluate the condition of sports facilities in primary school (PSSFC). The statistical data of 845 samples with nine PSSFC indicators (indoor and outdoor included) were collected from the Sixth National Sports Facility Census in mainland China (NSFC), an official nationwide quinquennial census. The Fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm was applied to cluster the samples in accordance with the similarity of PSSFC. The clustered data were visualized by using t-stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE). The statistics results showed that the application of t-SNE and FCM led to the acceptable performance of clustering SSFs data into three types with differences in PSSFC. The effects of school category, location factors, and the interaction on PSSFC were analyzed by two-way analysis of covariance, which indicated that regional PSSFC has geographical and typological characteristics: schools in the suburbs are superior to those in the inner city, schools with more grades of students are configured with better variety and larger size of sports facilities. In conclusion, we have developed a combinatorial machine learning clustering approach that is suitable for objective evaluation on PSSFC and indicates its characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high-speed rail networks, train units are scheduled to periodically meet all maintenance requirements while at the same time continuing to serve all scheduled passenger trips. Motivated by the trip demand variances on the days of every week in China, this paper studies a weekly rolling stock planning (W-RSP) problem that aims to optimize the rotation plan for the train units on each day of a week, so as to minimize their operating cost, including any (un)coupling costs and maintenance costs. We model the W-RSP on a newly developed rotation network by adopting particular nodes and arcs to address the (un)coupling operations of train units, and then propose an integer linear programming formulation for the problem. To solve this formulation, we develop a customized branch-and-price algorithm, which relies on a reduced linear programming relaxation for computing the lower bound, embeds a diving algorithm for computing the upper bound, and integrates advanced branching rules for effective explorations of the solution space. Computational results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed solution algorithm, which is able to solve large instances with up to 5034 trips to near-optimality. • A weekly rolling stock problem integrating rolling stock rotation and maintenance routing decisions. • A set-covering-like integer programming formulation based on a newly developed weekly rotation network. • A customized branch-and-price algorithm to solve the weekly rolling stock problem. • Conduct extensive numerical experiments to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the solution algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to global warming, global and regional extreme precipitation events occur frequently, causing severe drought and flood disasters. This has a significant impact on productivity and human life. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the characteristics of extreme precipitation and its spatiotemporal variation. In this study, we investigate the dominant variation patterns of extreme precipitation (EP), which is characterized by indices, and also analyze its potential causes in the Shandong province of China during 1961–2015 using the daily precipitation data from 123 metrological stations. The results show that there has been a dry trend in the Shandong Province in the past 55 years, that is, with the decrease in precipitation, most of the extreme precipitation index has basically showed a downward trend to varying degrees. In particular, the increase in the number of consecutive dry days (CDD) and the decrease in the number of consecutive wet days (CWD) can better explain the drought in this region. After the 1980s, the extreme precipitation index basically showed an upward trend to varying degrees, indicating that extreme precipitation events have shown an increasing trend in recent years. The spatial distribution of each extreme precipitation index generally increased from north to south. The mutation of each extreme precipitation index occurred in the 1970s and 1990s, and there was a main period of 0.9–2.2 years. In terms of influencing factors, the NINO3 area can be used as the critical sea area for the response of extreme precipitation to SSTAs in the Shandong Province. The research results are helpful to understand the temporal and spatial variations of extreme precipitation and have very important reference value for the prediction of and response to climate change and extreme events in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report describes the generation of acoustic signals via laser-interference-based heating. Sound signals of varying intensities were generated by modulating two continuous-wave (CW) laser beams interfering in air. In this study, we discovered that the acoustic signals generated by two spatial-frequency-modulated CW lasers scanning in air are significantly stronger than those of a single CW laser. The intensity of photoacoustic signals is proportional to the diameter of the laser beam. Furthermore, our investigation showed that modulating the spatial frequency of the two laser beams can change the intensity of the acoustic signal. In addition, we found that the two beams stack better against a single beam when scanned vertically in three dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Largemouth bass virus (LMBV), as a serious aquatic animal virus, has resulted in significant economic losses to the bass farming industry. Currently, vaccination is considered an effective measure for preventing LMBV infection and enhancing largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) production. In the study, we determined the targets of specific antibodies in serum from the LMBV survivors by panning a Ph.D.-12 phage library, and high-affinity targeted peptides (P1 and P2) were synthesized. Afterwards, the epitope vaccines were prepared by combining peptides with Freund's complete adjuvant, and inoculated into largemouth bass for in vivo validation. The results indicated that the specific phage enrichment rate was up to 487 times after four rounds of panning, and epitope vaccines showed a good immune response. Furthermore, immune-related parameters in largemouth bass immunized with Adjuvant-P1 and Adjuvant-P2 (20 μg/g) epitope vaccines were considerably greater than in those immunized with Adjuvant-P1 and Adjuvant-P2 (5 μg/g) epitope vaccines. During 14 days post infection, the survival of largemouth bass treated with Adjuvant-P1 and Adjuvant-P2 (20 μg/g) were 55.18% and 51.72%, respectively. These results indicated that P1 and P2 can serve as candidate antigens for the prevention and treatment of LMBV. • The simulated epitope peptides against LMBV were successfully screened from the Ph.D. -12 peptide library. • Anti-LMBV targets screened by phage display technology had significantly high affinity and repeatability. • Epitope vaccines (20 μg/g) can bring about significant protective to largemouth bass against LMBV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A low-loss and compact TM-pass polarizer is demonstrated based on improved hybrid plasmonic grating (HPG) on a Z-cut lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) platform. In this work, we introduced the silica partition structures surrounding an LN (LiNbO3) ridge waveguide to support two parallel metal gratings, achieving the optimal coupling coefficient for HPG. Compared with the traditional HPG structure, the transverse electric (TE) mode suffers a higher confinement and the transverse magnetic (TM) mode transmission loss exhibits a significant reduction in the improved HPG structure. The simulation shows that the polarizer achieves a broad bandwidth of 150 nm (1500 to 1650 nm) with an extinction ratio (ER) over 20 dB and an insertion loss varying from 0.18 to 0.3 dB, including a maximum ER of 36 dB at the wavelength 1550 nm. In addition, the length of the demonstrated polarizer is only 10 μm , making it compact for integration. The proposed polarizer shows a good application prospect for integrated photonics in LNOI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that affects the joints and produces pain, swelling, and stiffness. It has a lifetime prevalence of up to 1% worldwide. An extract of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF), a member of the Celastraceae herbal family widely available in south China, has been used for treatment of RA since 1960s. The current consensus practice guidance (CPG) aims to offer guidance on the application of TwHF in the clinical management of active RA. The CPG followed World Health Organisation (WHO)'s recommended process, carried out three systematic reviews to synthesize data from 19 randomised controlled trials (RCT) involving 1795 participants. We utilized Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) to evaluate certainty of evidence and derive recommendations. We rigorously followed The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) as conduct guides to minimise bias and promote transparency. There was no obvious difference between TwHF monotherapy and methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy on ACR20 (RCT = 2, N = 390, RR = 1.06, 95%CI 0.90–1.26, moderate certainty), ACR50 (RCT = 3, N = 419, RR = 1.03, 95%CI 0.80–1.34, moderate certainty), ACR70 (RCT = 2, N = 390, RR = 1.12, 95%CI 0.69–1.79, low certainty). TwHF monotherapy may be better than salicylazosulfapyridine monotherapy on ACR20 and the effect may be similar on ACR50 and ACR70. Seven RCTs compared MTX combined with TwHF versus MTX monotherapy, and the meta-analysis results favoured combination therapy group on ACR20 (RCT = 3, N = 470, RR = 1.44, 95%CI 1.28–1.62, moderate certainty), ACR50 (RCT = 4, N = 500, RR = 1.88, 95%CI 1.56–2.28, moderate certainty) and ACR70 (RCT = 2, N = 390, RR = 2.12, 95%CI 1.40–3.19, low certainty). We found no obvious difference between groups on critical safety outcomes, including infection (RCT = 3, N = 493, RR = 1.37, 95%CI 0.84–2.23), liver dysfunction (RCT = 5, N = 643, RR = 1.14, 95%CI 0.71–1.85), renal damage (RCT = 3, N = 450, RR = 2.20, 95%CI 0.50–9.72). Upon full review of the evidence, the guidance panel reached consensus on recommendations for the use of TwHF in people with active RA, either as monotherapy or as combination therapy with MTX. • This is the first evidence-based guidance following WHO guideline handbook to review the efficacy and safety of TwHF relative to other DMARDs. • Among herbal or conventional synthetic DMARDs, TwHF monotherapy may be similarly effective as other conventional synthetic DMARDs for active RA. • For people with active RA, particularly those who are MTX treatment naïve, adding TwHF to MTX may further improve clinical outcomes. • For people with gestation expectation, who places a higher value on the avoidance of reproductive toxicity, TwHF should be avoided. The participants in most studies were women over the age of 50, and there is a lack of evidence on reproductive toxicity in women of childbearing age. Thus, for people who place a higher value on the avoidance of reproductive toxicity, TwHF should be avoided in accordance with individual preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic agglomeration of magnetic particles under the influence of magnetic field plays a vital role in enhancing the separation of fine magnetic mineral particles. In this study, the major forces acting on weakly magnetic particles and the ratio between forces in high-gradient magnetic separators (HGMS) are investigated. A 3D high-gradient magnetic field based on HGMS was simulated, and the major forces (magnetic force F m , magnetic agglomeration force F mm , and gravity G) acting on weakly magnetic particles were calculated in the form of F m /F mm , F m /G by finite element method (FEM). The results show that the value of F m / F mm became lower as the increase of magnetic field intensity and the relative permeability of particles, higher as the increase of the magnetic field gradient, the particle size and the distance between particles. However, there was no correlation between the value of F m / F mm and the density of the magnetic particles. Furthermore, the value of F m / G was inversely proportional to the density of the particles and directly proportional to the relative permeability of particles, the magnetic field intensity and magnetic field gradient. Meanwhile, F m was at least 190 times greater than F mm in any case and F m was far bigger than G in most cases, indicating that the magnetic agglomeration is not significant in HGMS and gravity has little effect on high-gradient magnetic separation, and HGMS are destined to be a kind of high-efficiency magnetic separation equipment. [Display omitted] • A 3D high-gradient magnetic field based on high-gradient magnetic separators (HGMS) was established. • The magnetic force and magnetic agglomeration force in HGMS were accurately calculated using 3D FEM. • The magnetic force is much greater than the magnetic agglomeration force and gravity in HGMS. • Magnetic agglomeration is not significant in high-efficiency HGMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to population ageing as well as the high prevalence of hypertension and age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) in elderly individuals, and the relationship between hypertension and AMD is unclear. Our research aimed to investigate the association between hypertension, wet AMD (wAMD) and the treatment strategy of wAMD patients affected by hypertension. Methods: Data of wAMD patients at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat‐sen University, between 1 January 2002 and 30 June 2019, were extracted from the electronic healthcare information system. wAMD patients were divided into subgroups by hypertension status, age, sex, the need for vitrectomy surgery and the number of anti‐VEGF drug intravitreal injections that these were divided in 1–3 vs. >3 (available time from 1 January 2012 to 30 June 2019). Results: A total of 3096 wAMD patients (41.7% female, 58.3% male) with an age range of 50–96 years (68.7 (SD 9.42) years) were included. wAMD was significantly associated with hypertension (p < 0.001). After adjustment for sex and age, Cox regression model showed a significant association between hypertension in wAMD patients and the number of injections (RR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.13–1.50, p < 0.001). There was no significant association between hypertension and the need for vitrectomy (p = 0.82). Conclusions: wet AMD was associated with hypertension status, and after the regular series of three injections, wAMD patients with hypertension were more likely to receive anti‐VEGF drug intravitreal injections than those without hypertension. These results may facilitate prospective research on the prevention of wAMD and contribute to the management of wAMD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flash drought is distinguished with seasonal drought by its characteristics of sudden onset and rapid intensification, and has attracted increasing concern due to the severe negative impacts on socioeconomic development and ecosystems. To accurate identify the onset time and propagation of flash drought is still a big challenge, as it is influenced by many factors (e.g., deficit in precipitation, increase in evapotranspiration and temperature, shortage in soil moisture, and etc.). This study aims to develop a probabilistic and multivariable flash drought identification method (PMFDI) from the perspective of considering the interaction effects from different driving factors on flash drought occurrence and propagation with a multivariable statistical tool. The PMFDI uses the weekly standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index and the standardized soil moisture index to describe the abnormally changes in multiple hydrometeorological variables over a short duration. The linearly multivariable index (LMI) is employed to describe the correlation relationship between multiple hydrometeorological variables and to identify flash droughts from the aspects of sudden onset and rapid intensification. We select the Loess Plateau (LP) in China to verify the efficiency of the developed PMFDI with the comparison to the other two recently proposed flash drought identification methods. The results indicate that PMFDI can identify high‐ and low‐ frequency regions similar to those identified by the other two methods and can generally recognize actual flash droughts. In addition, the PMFDI can capture the comprehensive impact of multiple hydrometeorological variables as well as their interaction on flash drought occurrence, which provides a useful perspective to understand the propagation processes of the actual flash droughts in the LP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the cosmic anisotropy in the dipole-modulated Λ CDM model and Finslerian cosmological model with the recently-released quasar sample. Based on the redshift tomographic method, the quasar sample is divided into two subsets z ≤ z cut and z > z cut by different cutting redshifts. The dipole amplitudes of the two cosmological models from the subsets z ≤ z cut are very weak. We find that quasars at a higher redshift range may provide more detailed information about the dipole amplitude A D . The dipole directions of each cosmological model from the subsets z ≤ 1.1 and z > 1.1 are deviated by 1 σ level. The Pantheon sample is combined with the two subsets. The dipole amplitude from the two combined datasets is also very weak. In the dipole-modulated Λ CDM model, the dipole direction from the combined dataset quasar at z ≤ 1.1 and Pantheon sample is far away from the one given by the Pantheon sample. In the Finslerian cosmological model, the dipole directions from the two combined datasets are close to the one in the Pantheon sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 is often characterized by dysregulated inflammatory and immune responses. It has been shown that the Traditional Chinese Medicine formulation Qing‐Fei‐Pai‐Du decoction (QFPDD) is effective in the treatment of the disease, especially for patients in the early stage. Our network pharmacology analyses indicated that many inflammation and immune‐related molecules were the targets of the active components of QFPDD, which propelled us to examine the effects of the decoction on inflammation. We found in the present study that QFPDD effectively alleviated dextran sulfate sodium‐induced intestinal inflammation in mice. It inhibited the production of pro‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐6 and TNFα, and promoted the expression of anti‐inflammatory cytokine IL‐10 by macrophagic cells. Further investigations found that QFPDD and one of its active components wogonoside markedly reduced LPS‐stimulated phosphorylation of transcription factor ATF2, an important regulator of multiple cytokines expression. Our data revealed that both QFPDD and wogonoside decreased the half‐life of ATF2 and promoted its proteasomal degradation. Of note, QFPDD and wogonoside down‐regulated deubiquitinating enzyme USP14 along with inducing ATF2 degradation. Inhibition of USP14 with the small molecular inhibitor IU1 also led to the decrease of ATF2 in the cells, indicating that QFPDD and wogonoside may act through regulating USP14 to promote ATF2 degradation. To further assess the importance of ubiquitination in regulating ATF2, we generated mice that were intestinal‐specific KLHL5 deficiency, a CUL3‐interacting protein participating in substrate recognition of E3s. In these mice, QFPDD mitigated inflammatory reaction in the spleen, but not intestinal inflammation, suggesting CUL3‐KLHL5 may function as an E3 for ATF2 degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Amaranthus hypochondriacus (AH) inclusion in the diets of gestating and lactating sows on the lactational feed intake, nutrient digestibility, and growth performance of suckling piglets. During gestation, 40 multiparous Landrace sows were restrictively fed with either a control diet or a diet including 30% AH. Both diets had similar levels of digestible energy and crude protein, but the 30% AH diet had higher crude fibre levels than the control diet. After breeding, lactating sows were fed ad libitum with one of two isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets, either a control diet or a diet containing 10% AH. In gestating sows, AH supplementation was found to be associated with decreased digestibility of crude protein and dry matter (p <.001), resulting in lesser backfat depth (p <.001). However, in lactating sows, AH supplementation had little effect on digestibility and milk composition; moreover, it increased the feed intake (p <.001) and decreased backfat loss (p <.001) in sows. On the 21st day of lactation, suckling piglets in AH group showed significantly greater average daily gains (p <.001), and average body weight and litter weight significantly increased compared with sows fed the control diet. In conclusion, AH‐supplementation increased lactational feed intake in sows and improved the growth performance of suckling piglets. The feed intake of sows during lactation plays a major role in improving growth performance of suckling piglets. This study showed that feeding Amaranthus hypochondriacus during gestation and lactation increased lactation feed intake of sows and improved growth performance of pre‐weaning piglets. The mechanisms of these changes are still unknown, and more investigations are required to increase the understanding of interactions between diet composition and feed intake regulation of sows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting disease-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is beneficial to finding of new biomarkers for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of complex human diseases. In this paper, we proposed a machine learning techniques-based classification approach to identify disease-related lncRNAs by graph auto-encoder (GAE) and random forest (RF) (GAERF). First, we combined the relationship of lncRNA, miRNA and disease into a heterogeneous network. Then, low-dimensional representation vectors of nodes were learned from the network by GAE, which reduce the dimension and heterogeneity of biological data. Taking these feature vectors as input, we trained a RF classifier to predict new lncRNA-disease associations (LDAs). Related experiment results show that the proposed method for the representation of lncRNA-disease characterizes them accurately. GAERF achieves superior performance owing to the ensemble learning method, outperforming other methods significantly. Moreover, case studies further demonstrated that GAERF is an effective method to predict LDAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of different types of transverse sinus stenosis on blood flow patterns in the ipsilateral superior curve of the sigmoid sinus. Methods: According to the morphology of transverse and sigmoid sinus sections in pulsatile tinnitus patients, ten idealized models with different degrees and positions of transverse sinus stenosis were constructed. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to compare the hemodynamic characteristics among these models. Follow-up images of previous cases were included, which preliminarily confirmed the hypothesis that bone plate erosion of the sigmoid sinus sulcus is related to blood flow impingement. Results: Blood flow impingement on the superior curve of the sigmoid sinus wall intensified with increasing degree of stenosis and decreased with increasing distance between the stenosis and the sigmoid sinus. The impact zone was generally confined to the anterior and lateral walls of the superior curve of the sigmoid sinus. When the stenosis was located far from the middle of the transverse sinus, the blood flow impingement on the sigmoid sinus wall was very weak. Conclusions: When stenosis is located far from the sigmoid sinus, the causes of tinnitus should be comprehensively considered instead of assuming that stenosis is the main cause. Bone plate erosion of the sigmoid sinus sulcus was promoted by blood flow impingement. Key Points: • Ten idealized models with different degrees and positions of stenosis were constructed. • The causes of pulsatile tinnitus should be comprehensively considered. • Sigmoid sinus plate dehiscence was promoted by blood flow impingement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have witnessed a quick shift from pen-and-paper writing to computer keyboard writing. Corresponding to this shift in the writing medium are vigorous research efforts to understand new features of writing in computer keyboard settings. Using Inputlog7.0, this study investigated the writing process of 60 Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writers to determine how writing proficiency affected their management of writing time allocated to the prewriting planning, formulation and reviewing and revising processes, as well as their management of the production, pausing and revising behaviors. The quantitative Inputlog data sketched out the general writing patterns of L2 writers at different writing proficiency levels and the qualitative graphic portrait of the writing processes by process graph provided enriched understandings of L2 writing. While commending process graph as a learning and teaching tool to scaffold L2 writing development, this study also provides pedagogical implications on how to promote reflective writing by enhancing learner autonomy through process graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) probe the total column density of free electrons in the intergalactic medium (IGM) along the path of propagation through the dispersion measures (DMs) that depend on the baryon mass fraction in the IGM, i.e. f IGM. In this letter, we investigate the large-scale clustering information of DMs to study the evolution of f IGM. When combining with the Planck 2018 measurements, we could give tight constraints on the evolution of f IGM(z) from about 104 FRBs with the intrinsic DM scatter of |$30(1+z) \rm pc\, cm^{-3}$| spanning 80 per cent of the sky and redshift range z  = 0–3. First, we consider the Taylor expansion of f IGM(z) up to second order, and find that the mean relative standard deviation σ(f IGM) ≡ 〈σ[ f IGM(z)]/ f IGM(z)〉 is about 6.7 per cent. In order to alleviate the dependence on fiducial model, we also adopt non-parametric methods in this work, the local principle component analysis. We obtain the consistent, but weaker constraints on the evolution of f IGM(z), namely the mean relative standard deviation σ(f IGM) is 21.4 per cent. With the forthcoming surveys, this could be a complimentary method to investigate the baryon mass fraction in the IGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the monodromy and, in particular, the isomonodromy sets of accessory parameters for the Heun class equations. We show that the Heun class equations can be obtained as limits of the linear systems associated with the Painlevé equations when the Painlevé transcendents go to one of the actual singular points of the linear systems. The isomonodromy sets of accessory parameters for the Heun class equations are described by Taylor or Laurent coefficients of the corresponding Painlevé functions, or the associated tau functions, at the positions of the critical values. As an application of these results, we derive some asymptotic approximations for the isomonodromy sets of accessory parameters in the Heun class equations, including the confluent Heun equation, the doubly‐confluent Heun equation, and the reduced biconfluent Heun equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assemblies of pyrimidine‐2‐carboxylic acid (Hpmc) and samarium nitrate or europium nitrate in the presence of sodium dicyanamide (Na‐dca) under ambient conditions yielded two new coordination polymers, namely [Ln(pmc)2(dca)(H2O)2]n (Ln=Sm (1), Eu (2)). The complexes were characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis, elemental analysis, IR and fluorescence spectra. Structure analysis shows two complexes are isostructural with monoclinic (C2/c) symmetry. And each central metal atom is coordinated by three chelate pmc−, one terminal dca− and two water molecules to generate an infinite zigzag chain. Through Owater−H ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Ocarboxylate, Owater−H ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Npyrimidine hydrogen bonds, the chains are connected to a two‐dimensional net, which is furtherly extended to a three‐dimensional supramolecular structure by Owater−H ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Ncyano hydrogen bonds. Luminescent measurement of complex 2 shows the characteristic fluorescence of Eu3+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing greening of planet Earth to slow down the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentrations is certainly desirable; however, its consequences on water resources are less affirmative and thus are a matter of wide concern. China, as the largest and most successful country of the world in terms of artificial revegetation, is naturally the focus of the concerns and warnings. Based on previous studies, we analyzed the mechanism for the effects of climate and watershed characteristics on water resources, explained various hydrological results and phenomena, and considered the ways in which water consumption by artificial revegetation projects can be reduced. Moreover, some guidelines are suggested for artificial revegetation at watershed scale with consideration of water resource sustainability. The findings of this study highlight the need for more top-down approaches when studying the mechanism of "forest and water". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood control of the Yangtze River is an important part of China's national water security. In July 2020, due to continuous heavy rainfall, the water levels along the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River and major lakes constantly exceeded the warning levels, in which Taihu Lake exceeded its highest safety water level and some stations of Poyang Lake reached their highest water levels in its history. In August 2020, another huge flood occurred in the Minjiang River and the Jialing River in the upper Yangtze River, and some areas of Chongqing Municipality and other cities along the rivers were inundated, resulting in great pressure on flood control and high disaster losses. The 2020 Yangtze River flood has received extensive media coverage and raised concerns on the roles of the Three Gorges Dam and other large reservoirs in flood control. Here we analyze the changes in the pattern of the Yangtze River flood control by comparing the strategies to tackle the three heavy floods occurring in 1954, 1998, and 2020. We propose that the overall strategy of the Yangtze River flood control in the new era should adhere to the principle of "Integration of storage and drainage over the entire Yangtze River Basin, with draining floods downstream as the first priority" by using both engineering and non-engineering measures. On the basis of embankments, the engineering measures should use the Three Gorges Dam and other large reservoirs as the major regulatory means, promote the construction of key flood detention areas, keep the floodways clear, and maintain the ecosystem services of wetlands and shoals. In terms of non-engineering measures, we should strengthen adaptive flood risk management under climate change, standardize the use of lands in flood detention areas, give space to floods, and promote the implementation of flood risk maps and flood insurance policies. The ultimate goal of this new flood control system is to enhance the adaptability to frequent floods and increase the resilience to extreme flood disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant cancers worldwide. The prognosis of HCC remains poor. Currently, sorafenib is the first-line drug for advanced HCC. Although sorafenib's mechanism of action involving several established cancer-related protein kinase targets is well-characterized, the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. Here, we found that sorafenib inhibited viability, proliferation, and migration of HCC cells in a dose-dependent manner. Sorafenib treatment of HCC cells destroyed mitochondrial morphology, accompanied by decreased activity of oxidative phosphorylation, collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential, and reduced synthesis of ATP, with consequent cell death due to ferroptosis. Pharmacological utilization of glutathione (GSH) rescued the sorafenib-induced ferroptosis, eliminated the accumulation of cellular mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS), and lipid peroxide. GSH depletion through cysteine deprivation or cysteinase inhibition exacerbated sorafenib-induced ferroptotic cell death and lipid peroxides generation, and enhanced oxidative stress and mitochondrial ROS accumulation. Collectively, these findings indicate that depletion of cysteine acts synergistically with sorafenib and renders HCC cells vulnerable to ferroptosis, presenting the potential value of new therapeutic combinations for advanced HCC. • Sorafenib destroyed mitochondrial morphology, induced mitochondrial dysfunction, with consequent cell death due to ferroptosis. • GSH rescued the sorafenib-induced ferroptosis and eliminated the accumulation of ROS and lipid peroxidation. • GSH depletion exacerbated sorafenib-induced ferroptotic cell death and lipid ROS generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Overview of recent research advances in fiber-reinforced pervious concrete. • The manufacturing method of fiber-reinforced pervious concrete are summarized, including compacting, curing, and mixing processes. • The effect and optimum adding strategy of fiber addition in pervious concrete properties are explored in detail. • The empirical mechanism of fiber enhancement on PC is investigated. • The possible future development direction and research gaps are identified. Impermeable structures have replaced the original natural permeable structure, leading to frequent occurrences of urban runoff, flooding, and heat island effects. To address these issues, a new type of material that can function as a sponge city has been proposed - pervious concrete (PC). However, the performance of PC must be improved significantly. One potential solution is to incorporate fibers into the mixture, similar to those used in conventional concrete. This review aims to identify the optimal manufacturing methods, analyze the effectiveness of different fiber types, and determine the recommended dosage of fibers for improving PC's performance. The review focuses on fiber-reinforced pervious concrete (FPC), examining the current state of knowledge regarding mix design, mixing procedures, compaction techniques, and curing methods for fiber integration. By analyzing the available experimental data from published studies, recommendations are made for optimizing fiber usage in PC, including selecting suitable fiber types, lengths, aspect ratios, and volume fractions. Additionally, the latest findings from five distinct fiber types are summarized across five properties: compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, porosity, and permeability. Finally, potential research gaps are identified to guide future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Flow regime alteration caused by dam construction increased the vegetation coverage. • The maximum specific energy best reflected the flood-induced vegetation decay. • Flood duration significantly affected floodplain vegetation decay in the post-dam period. • Riparian vegetation area change at different elevation zones was affected by flood intensity. The impact of flood regimes on river floodplain vegetation within banks remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the monthly variation of river floodplain vegetation coverage (RFVC) at a typical reach of the Yangtze River with a 30-year Landsat record. We evaluated its relationships with 13 hydrodynamic characteristic indices. Our results showed that the flow regime alteration associated with dam construction led to an increase in the downstream RFVC every month throughout the year. The maximum specific energy, reflecting both physical and physiological damage effects to riparian plants, was most negatively related to the RFVC after floods (i.e., from September to October) in the whole 30-year period (Adj.R2 = 0.64, p < 0.05). The flood duration with water levels above floodplain vegetation had the most significant negative correlation with RFVC in the post-dam period (Adj.R2 = 0.84, p < 0.05). Also, the change of riparian vegetation area in different elevation zones before and after floods mainly depended on the combined effect of vegetation distribution and flood intensity. Our findings give insights into river floodplain vegetation dynamics and provide scientific support to riparian vegetation modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blade tip with conical holes is proposed in the current paper to improve the film cooling performance on the turbine blade tip. The film cooling performance of the blade tip with cylindrical holes is studied as a reference case. The pressure sensitive paint technique is adapted to obtain the tip film cooling effectiveness in transonic flow. The numerical simulation is used to obtain the tip flow field and aerodynamic loss. The cascade exit Mach number and inlet Reynolds number are 1.05 and 370000, respectively. The experiment and calculation are carried out at two tip clearance gaps of 0.7% and 1.5% and four mass-flow-ratios. The results show that at low mass flow ratios, the film cooling effectiveness of the blade tip with conical holes is significantly higher than that of the blade tip with cylindrical holes at the tip mid-chord region. Increasing the tip clearance gap from 0.7% to 1.5% shows a negative effect on the film cooling performance of the blade tip with conical holes in the tip mid-chord region, particularly for the low mass flow ratio. The pitch-wise averaged aerodynamic loss coefficient of the blade tip with cylindrical holes is lower than that of the blade tip with conical holes near the shroud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blade tip with conical holes is proposed in the current paper to improve the film cooling performance on the turbine blade tip. The film cooling performance of the blade tip with cylindrical holes is studied as a reference case. The pressure sensitive paint technique is adapted to obtain the tip film cooling effectiveness in transonic flow. The numerical simulation is used to obtain the tip flow field and aerodynamic loss. The cascade exit Mach number and inlet Reynolds number are 1.05 and 370000, respectively. The experiment and calculation are carried out at two tip clearance gaps of 0.7% and 1.5% and four mass-flow-ratios. The results show that at low mass flow ratios, the film cooling effectiveness of the blade tip with conical holes is significantly higher than that of the blade tip with cylindrical holes at the tip mid-chord region. Increasing the tip clearance gap from 0.7% to 1.5% shows a negative effect on the film cooling performance of the blade tip with conical holes in the tip mid-chord region, particularly for the low mass flow ratio. The pitch-wise averaged aerodynamic loss coefficient of the blade tip with cylindrical holes is lower than that of the blade tip with conical holes near the shroud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An urban hydrological model considering complicated overland flow processes is proposed. • The TVGM-USWM model demonstrated good applicability in the piedmont city. • Disconnected impervious area is an important factor in urban flood simulations. Urbanization has great potential to adversely affect the local hydrological cycle, as well as result in severe ecological and environmental problems. Piedmont cities have a special topography and complicated overland flow processes, thus creating challenges for the simulation of urban flooding/waterlogging processes. The TVGM-USWM model, a new distributed urban hydrological model that considers the flow routing in urban drainage systems and complicated overland flow processes, was developed in this study. We applied this model to the Huangtaiqiao drainage basin of Jinan City, China and set up two simulation scenarios. The spatial heterogeneity of the proportion of directly connected impervious area (DCIA) and disconnected impervious area (DIA) in sub-catchments was considered in scenario B, but not in scenario A. We conducted sensitivity analysis on model parameters by using the Sobol method. Results showed that: (1) model parameters have a certain degree of uncertainty, and the parameter characterizing the proportion of the DCIA and DIA showed a relatively high sensitivity under rainstorms of different levels and different accuracy assessment standards; (2) The simulation of scenario A was poor (with a mean Nash coefficient of 0.59), which ignored the different flow paths followed by runoff from DCIA and DIA; and (3) Considering the spatial differences in the overland flow process, the prediction accuracy of scenario B significantly increased (with a mean Nash coefficient of 0.82). This indicated the importance of the disconnected impervious area and the lateral water exchange across the impervious-pervious interface on the flood simulation in a piedmont city. Compared to most urban hydrological models, the TVGM-USWM model can represent complex rainfall-runoff mechanisms in urban areas with varied terrain. The findings of this study can provide scientific decision-making for the planning and construction of a sponge city in Jinan City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracting the bispectrum information from large-scale structure observations is challenging due to the complex models and the computational costs involved in measuring the signal and its covariance. Recently, the skew spectrum was proposed to access parts of the bispectrum information in a more effective manner and was confirmed to provide complementary information to that available in power spectrum measurements. In this work, we generalize the theory to apply the multitracer technique and explore its ability to constrain the local-type primordial non-Gaussianity. Using the spectra and their covariance estimated from N-body simulations, we find that the multitracer approach is effective in reducing the cosmic variance noise. The 1σ marginalized errors for , and are reduced by 50%, 52%, and 73% compared with the results achieved using only the power spectrum obtained from a single tracer. These results indicate that both the skew spectrum and the multitracer technique are useful in constraining the primordial non-Gaussianity with the forthcoming wide-field galaxy surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating internal-injector cavitating flow dynamics is difficult but important. The interaction of nozzle cavitation with the moving needle valve dictates the fuel mass flow rate and therefore spray combustion performance and emissions. In the present study, a two-dimensional low-Reynolds-number cavitating contracting-nozzle flow interacting with a moving valve is simulated using the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. The Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook algorithm coupled with the immersed boundary method and an improved pseudo-potential multiphase flow model are employed and further developed based on the open-source LB code PALABOS. The performance of the immersed boundary method is first verified in a case where an oscillating cylinder moves according to a sine function in water. In order to improve the pseudo-potential model on its limitation of the density ratio, so to be used in engineering multiphase flow, the Carnahan–Starling equation of state is incorporated together with the exact difference method force scheme and an upgraded interaction force term. The upgraded pseudo-potential model proves via validations to be effective in improving numerical stability at large density ratios. With a seamless cooperation of the improved Shan–Chen model and the immersed boundary method achieved in PALABOS, cavitation in a contracting nozzle is simulated for a whole cycle of the valve motion. Cavitation dynamics under different fuel mass flow rates is investigated. It is found that cavitation dynamics, including interface conditions, cavitation bubble distributions, and inside-bubble vapor-phase flow fields, is distinctly different when the flow path is widely open and completely shut by the valve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiesel consists of various fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) that are mainly produced through transesterification of plant oil or animal fat. It is essential for biodiesel to be purified utmostly to meet its product standard before being traded, while the universal purification method has been water washing. However, water washing inevitably causes the residual of FAMEs in wastewater, which represents a loss of industrial profits. For the purpose of determination and monitoring of the FAME profile in wastewater, there is a necessity to develop a fast and reliable approach with small volume of sample in need. Hence, in this study, a combination of dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) and microwave demulsification is applied for the enrichment of residual FAMEs in water, followed by qualitative and quantitative analyses using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The results indicate that the optimal extractant in DLLME approach is toluene. And the optimal parameters are 20 mL of water sample, 80 μL of toluene as the extractant, 60 s of ultrasonic irradiation duration, 200 W of microwave power and 2 min of microwave irradiation duration. The standard curves and linear equations obtained with these conditions are used for the quantitative analysis of biodiesel wastewater, which reveals that there was 50.35 mg·L−1 of the total FAME residuals in wastewater. To the best of our knowledge, it is for the first time that the combined technique of DLLME and microwave demulsification is applied in determination of residual FAMEs in water samples. The proposed method corresponds to small volumes of sample and extractant and short analytical period. It also has the potential to be extended to the analysis of other water pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]