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In the recent digitization era, knowledge management plays a significant role in the teaching and learning process. Collaborative learning is becoming a trending technology in enhancing the learning process by the concept of “learning through working together.” This learning methodology will make the students learn the courses faster. This research work focuses on applying collaborative learning tools in the learning process of English education in classrooms. Also, knowledge management is focused on in this research work. Multiprocessor learning algorithm (MLA) with support vector machine (SVM) is implemented over the student response. The students’ responses indicate that the students have gained much knowledge with the English education-learning technology from collaborative learning compared to the traditional learning method.

We aimed to explore the association between urinary tract infection (UTI) in adults and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), which was used to access vitamin D status.Serum levels of 25OHD were retrospectively analyzed in 234 subjects (190 females and 44 males): 120 UTI patients (females = 103) and 114 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (females = 87). Serum 25OHD concentrations were categorized as follows: (1) 20 ng/mL, 20 to 30 ng/mL, and ≥ 30 ng/mL; (2) 20 ng/mL and ≥ 20 ng/mL.Serum 25OHD levels were lower in patients with UTI (p 0.01). Women with UTI presented significantly lower 25OHD concentrations than those without UTI (p 0.01). No association between serum 25OHD levels and UTI in men was found (p 0.05). The multivariable logistic regression models showed significant associations between UTI and 25OHD, female sex, neutrophilic lymphocyte ratio and C-reactive protein (p 0.05).Lower 25OHD concentrations associated with UTI were most prominent among women. The associations between UTI and low serum 25OHD levels as well as female sex were independent of each other.

Random forest (RF) is one of the most classic machine learning methods, which has been widely used. However, although there are many two-view data in reality and extensive analytical research has been carried out, the RF construction for two-view scenarios is little. The only RF method for two-view learning first generates RF for each view respectively, and then merges the view information when making decisions. Therefore, it turns out an obvious disadvantage that the correlation between views is not utilized effectively during the RF construction stage, which undoubtedly wastes information resources. In order to make up for this disadvantage, an improved two-view RF (ITVRF) is proposed in this paper. Specifically, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is used for view fusion in the process of generating decision trees, and the information interaction between views is embedded into the tree construction stage, realizing the utilization of complementary information between views in the entire RF generation process. In addition, ITVRF also generates discriminant decision boundaries for decision trees through discriminant analysis and thus makes it more suitable for classification. Experimental results show that ITVRF achieves better accuracy than existing two-view RF (TVRF).

Biomarkers of oxidative stress (OS) have been poorly explored in fungal peritonitis (FP). Potassium is a regulator of pro-oxidants and antioxidants. Albumin and vitamin B12 (B12) are vital antioxidant agents in the circulatory system. This study aimed to investigate the antioxidative role of serum potassium, albumin and B12 in FP. Serum levels of potassium, albumin and B12 were retrospectively analyzed in 21 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of FP, 105 bacterial peritonitis (BP) patients and 210 patients receiving peritoneal dialysis without peritonitis. Serum levels of potassium, albumin and B12 were lower in FP patients than in BP patients. Serum potassium concentration was statistically related to albumin concentration in peritonitis patients. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis suggested that serum level of potassium and albumin were independent risk factors of FP when compared with BP. Lower potassium and B12 levels were independently associated with higher rates of technique failure in peritonitis. These findings suggest lower serum potassium, albumin and B12 as potential oxidative stress markers of FP and raise the hypothesis that an increased level of OS could contribute to FP.KEY MESSAGESFP remains a serious complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD), with higher morbidity (1–23.8%) and mortality (2–25%), and oxidative stress plays a role in it.Our study suggested serum potassium, albumin and vitamin B12 as potential oxidative stress markers of fungal peritonitis. FP remains a serious complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD), with higher morbidity (1–23.8%) and mortality (2–25%), and oxidative stress plays a role in it. Our study suggested serum potassium, albumin and vitamin B12 as potential oxidative stress markers of fungal peritonitis.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and primary glomerular disease (PGD) are the main causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This study was conducted to compare the characteristics of ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring (ABPM) and its relationship with target-organ damage (TOD) in patients with DKD and PGD matched by propensity score. The assessment of TOD included macroalbuminuria, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and macrovascular disease. Propensity-score weighting (PSW) was used in stratified analysis. Results: Patients with DKD had a higher prevalence of abnormal blood-pressure patterns such as reversed dipper pattern, nocturnal hypertension, and sustained hypertension and had a higher prevalence of TOD than did patients with PGD. Logistic regression indicated that patients with DKD were more related to TOD than to PGD. The stratified analysis indicated that DKD patients with white-coat hypertension, masked hypertension and sustained hypertension had closer relationships with TOD compared with PGD patients. Conclusion: Patients with type 2 diabetic kidney disease had more abnormal blood-pressure patterns and were more closely related to target organ damage than were patients with primary glomerular disease.

Both morning hypertension (MH) and nocturnal hypertension (NH) are associated with severe target organ damage in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the isolated or combined effects of MH and NH on target organ damage are less well‐defined. A cross‐sectional study was conducted among 2386 non‐dialysis CKD patients with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. The authors categorized patients into four groups based on the presence or absence of MH and NH. Multivariate logistic analyses were used to evaluate the correlation between hypertension subtypes and target organ damage, including left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), abnormal carotid intima‐media thickness (CIMT), low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and albuminuria. The percentages of isolated MH, isolated NH, and combined MH and NH were 2.3%, 24.0%, and 49.3%, respectively. Compared to patients without MH and NH, isolated MH was only related to low eGFR (2.26 [95% confidence interval: 1.00–5.09]) and albuminuria (2.17 [95% CI: 1.03–4.54]). Meanwhile, combined MH and NH group compared to the group without MH and NH had a higher risk of LVH (2.87 [95% CI: 2.01–4.09]), abnormal CIMT (2.01 [95% CI: 1.47–2.75]), low eGFR (3.18 [95% CI: 2.23–4.54]), and albuminuria (1.79 [95% CI: 1.33–2.40]), even in patients without daytime hypertension. The risk of cardiovascular and renal damage was also observed in the isolated NH group. In conclusion, morning hypertension is associated with kidney dysfunction and has combined effects with nocturnal hypertension on cardiovascular damage in chronic kidney disease patients., We have highlighted the different risk for target organ damage conferred by isolated and combined morning hypertension and nocturnal hypertension in non‐dialysis CKD patients. Patients with isolated morning hypertension could be related to renal dysfunction. And the combined effect of morning hypertension and nocturnal hypertension on the serious cardiac and carotid damage also apparently deserves attention.

Background Blood pressure is an important and modifiable cardiovascular risk factor. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) provides valuable prognostic information in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), yet little is known about the association of various types of BP measurements with target organ damage (TOD) in patients with primary glomerular disease. The goal of this study was to investigate whether ambulatory blood pressure is better associated with TOD than clinic blood pressure in patients with primary glomerular disease. Methods 1178 patients with primary glomerular disease were recruited in this cross-sectional study. TOD were assessed by the following 4 parameters: left ventricular mass index (LVMI or LVH, left ventricular hypertrophy), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR2), albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR ≥ 30 mg/g) and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) or plaque. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between ambulatory or clinic systolic blood pressure (SBP) indexes and TOD. Results Among 1178 patients (mean age, 39 years,54% men), 116, 458, 1031 and 251 patients had LVH, eGFR 2, ACR ≥ 30 mg/g and cIMT≥0.9 mm or plaque respectively. Area under ROC curves for TOD in ambulatory SBP, especially nighttime SBP, was greater than that in clinic SBP (P 2 and ACR ≥ 30 mg/g after adjustment for clinic SBP, while the association of clinic SBP was attenuated after further adjustment for nighttime SBP. Conclusions Ambulatory blood pressure, especially nighttime blood pressure, is probably superior to clinic blood pressure and has a significant association with TOD in primary glomerular disease patients.

The area of karst terrain in China covers 3.63×106 km2, with more than 40% in the southwestern region over the Guizhou Plateau. Karst comprises exposed carbonate bedrock over approximately 1.30×106 km2 of this area, which suffers from soil degradation and poor crop yield. This paper aims to gain a better understanding of the environmental controls on crop yield in order to enable more sustainable use of natural resources for food production and development. More precisely, four kinds of artificial neural network were used to analyse and simulate the spatial patterns of crop yield for seven crop species grown in Guizhou Province, exploring the relationships with meteorological, soil, irrigation and fertilization factors. The results of spatial classification showed that most regions of high-level crop yield per area and total crop yield are located in the central-north area of Guizhou. Moreover, the three artificial neural networks used to simulate the spatial patterns of crop yield all demonstrated a good correlation coefficient between simulated and true yield. However, the Back Propagation network had the best performance based on both accuracy and runtime. Among the 13 influencing factors investigated, temperature (16.4%), radiation (15.3%), soil moisture (13.5%), fertilization of N (13.5%) and P (12.4%) had the largest contribution to crop yield spatial distribution. These results suggest that neural networks have potential application in identifying environmental controls on crop yield and in modelling spatial patterns of crop yield, which could enable local stakeholders to realize sustainable development and crop production goals.

Wearable energy harvesters and sensors have recently attracted significant attention with the rapid development of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT). Compared to high-output bulk materials, these wearable devices are mainly fabricated by thin-film-based materials that limit their application. Therefore, the enhancement of output voltage and power for these devices has recently become an urgent topic. In this paper, the lead-free bismuth titanate-barium titanate (0.93(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-0.07BaTiO3(BNBT)) nanoparticles and nanofibers were embedded into the PVDF nanofibers. They produced high inorganic electrical voltage coefficients, high electromechanical coupling coefficients, and environmentally friendly properties that enhance the electromechanical performance of pure PVDF nanofibers, and they are all the critical requirements for modern flexible pressure sensors. In detail, PVDF and PVDF-based composites nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning, and different flexible sandwich composite devices were fabricated by the PDMS encapsulation method. As a result, the six-time enhancement maximum output voltage was obtained in a PVDF-BNBT (fiber)-based composite sensor compared to the pure PVDF one. Our results indicate that the output voltage of the pressure sensors has been significantly enhanced, and the development gate is enabled by analyzing the related physical process and influence mechanism.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy. Because of the lack of specific clinical symptoms, approximately 70% of women diagnosed with the disease have metastases beyond the regional lymph nodes. The most common metastatic sites of ovarian cancer are peritoneum, liver and lung, while brain metastasis that indicates a worse prognosis is rarely seen. This is a case report of a 73-year-old woman who was initially diagnosed with stage IIIC ovarian cancer and developed brain metastasis 10 years later. After surgical treatment and chemotherapy, the quality of life of the patient was significantly improved, and the survival time was prolonged.

Autumn phenological variation of temperate and northern ecosystems plays a major but poorly defined role in the global carbon cycle. Constructing robust process-based autumn phenology models is key for improving current ecosystem models to accurately simulate ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration. In this study, we developed a new process-based autumn phenology model. The model was fitted and validated using 67 leaf coloration and brown-down time series collected for 27 woody and herbaceous species at 18 stations on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau from 1981 to 2012. Then, we used the model to analyze the spatial and interspecific differentiation of driving factors of leaf senescence. Moreover, we compared fitting and validation precisions of the new model and previously published models. Results show that leaf senescence processes were triggered by photoperiod shortening in 61.2% of time series but by daily minimum temperature decrease in 38.8% of time series. Photoperiod control of the leaf senescence start occurs predominantly at stations with shorter annual maximum daylength (88.9%), while daily minimum temperature control of the leaf senescence start appears mainly at stations with longer annual maximum daylength (71.0%), especially for the native species. The new model reveals coupling effects of shortened photoperiod and decreased daily minimum temperature on leaf senescence processes. Comparing with the representative existing process-based autumn phenology models, the new model is a more general model and more robust in fitting and predicting leaf coloration and brown-down dates. Our study has provided a new insight on the understanding of leaf senescence mechanisms in winter deciduous trees and herbaceous plants, and significantly improved the ability to predict climate change impacts on vegetation growth and carbon balance in the sensitive biogeographical region of global climate change.

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) plays an important role in global climate change and air quality. PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameters ≤2.5 μm) samples were collected at a mountainous forest site (Mt. Wuyi) in southeastern China between November 2015 and July 2016. Fourteen PM2.5-bound SOA tracers, including isoprene, α/β‑pinene, β‑caryophyllene, and toluene, were measured using the gas-chromatography–mass-spectrometry method. The total concentrations of the isoprene, α/β‑pinene, β‑caryophyllene, and toluene SOA tracers were 45.28 ± 65.52, 30.66 ± 24.44, 5.99 ± 7.25, and 0.62 ± 0.72 ng m−3, respectively. The isoprene SOA tracers exhibited the highest concentration (145.97 ± 53.78 ng m−3) and accounted for 76 ± 9% of the total concentration of SOA tracers in summer. In fall-winter, the mass fraction of 2‑methylglyceric acid was significantly enhanced because of the lower temperature and higher NOx level. As later-generation products of α/β‑pinene tracers, high proportions of 3‑hydroxyglutaric acid and 3‑methyl‑1,2,3 butanetricarboxylic acid were observed on Mt. Wuyi, suggesting that the aerosols were highly oxidized. Biomass burning events affected by local and regional sources were identified by analyzing typical SOA tracers. Significant positive correlation (R2 = 0.74) was found between the β‑caryophyllene tracer and levoglucosan. The average concentration of secondary organic carbon (SOC) as estimated from SOA tracers was 1.46 μgC m−3. The isoprene SOC accounted for 70% of the total SOC in summer, whereas the β‑caryophyllene SOC was the predominant component in winter. Meanwhile, the estimated toluene SOC accounted for 11.6% of the total SOC during the study period. The study helps understanding the characteristics and the formation of SOA in a mountainous forest area of southeastern China.

Current process-based models of autumn phenophases are generally based on autumn temperature and/or photoperiod cues. The dependence of autumn phenology on environmental conditions occurring throughout the leafy season has been overlooked. In this study, we incorporated the effect of leafy season temperature and precipitation in process-based models with the aim to improve the modelling of autumn phenology. We tested the ability of three existing and three new autumn phenology models in predicting the occurrence of leaf coloration of four deciduous tree species during 1981–2012 across temperate China. The results show that the models taking the effects of both the leafy season temperature and low precipitation into account performed best over both calibration and validation data. Compared with existing autumn phenological models, the best models predict that the potential delay of autumn phenology in a warmer world is modulated by the impact of leafy season climate on leaf senescence in a complex way: increased leafy season temperature tends to hasten the occurrence of leaf coloration while low leafy season precipitation tends to delay it. Additionally, we tested the hypothesis of a local adaptation of tree phenology through the evaluation of site-specific model parameterizations. Local fittings of the critical temperature sums in all models did not improve the model ability to simulate the occurrence of leaf coloration, which suggests either that local adaptation of leaf senescence process is virtually non-existent across the populations considered or that the genetic variation of leaf coloration traits among populations cannot be detected by our models. Our findings highlighted the importance of leafy season climate in autumn phenology modelling and its possible offset effect in the response of autumn senescence to future warming.

Excessive mitochondrial fission plays a key role in podocyte injury in diabetic kidney disease (DKD), and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important in the development and progression of DKD. However, lncRNA regulation of mitochondrial fission in podocytes is poorly understood. Here, we studied lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (Meg3) in mitochondrial fission in vivo and in vitro using human podocytes and Meg3 podocyte-specific knockdown mice. Expression of lncRNA Meg3 in STZ-induced diabetic mice was higher, and correlated with the number of podocytes. Excessive mitochondrial fission of podocytes and renal histopathological and physiological parameters were improved in podocyte-specific Meg3 knockdown diabetic mice. Elongated mitochondria with attenuated podocyte damage, as well as mitochondrial translocation of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), were decreased in Meg3 knockout podocytes. By contrast, increased fragmented mitochondria, podocyte injury, and Drp1 expression and phosphorylation were observed in lncRNA Meg3-overexpressing podocytes. Treatment with Mdivi1 significantly blunted more fragmented mitochondria and reduced podocyte injury in lncRNA Meg3-overexpressing podocytes. Finally, fragmented mitochondria and Drp1 mitochondrial translocation induced by high glucose were reduced following treatment with Mdivi1. Our data show that expression of Meg3 in podocytes in both human cells and diabetic mice was higher, which regulates mitochondrial fission and contributes to podocyte injury through increased Drp1 and its translocation to mitochondria.

Background: Blood pressure is an important and modifiable cardiovascular risk factor. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) provides valuable prognostic information in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), yet little is known about the association of various types of BP measurements with target organ damage (TOD) in patients with primary glomerular disease. The goal of this study was to investigate whether ambulatory blood pressure is better associated with TOD than clinic blood pressure in patients with primary glomerular disease. Methods: 1178 patients with primary glomerular disease were recruited in this cross-sectional study. TOD were assessed by the following 4 parameters: left ventricular mass index (LVMI or LVH, left ventricular hypertrophy), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR

In this paper, cross-spectrum analysis was used to verify the agreement of periodicity between the global LAI (leaf area index) and climate factors. The results demonstrated that the LAI of deciduous forests and permanent wetlands have high agreement with temperature, rainfall and radiation over annual cycles. A low agreement between the LAI and seasonal climate variables was observed for some of the temperate and tropical vegetation types including shrublands and evergreen broadleaf forests, possibly due to the diversity of vegetation and human activities. Across all vegetation types, the LAI demonstrated a large time lag following variation in radiation (>1 month), whereas relatively short lag periods were observed between the LAI and annual temperature (around 2 weeks)/rainfall patterns (less than 10 days), suggesting that the impact of radiation on global vegetation growth is relatively slow, which is in accord with the results of previous studies. This work can provide a benchmark of the phenological drivers in global vegetation, from the perspective of periodicity, as well as helping to parameterize and refine the DGVMs (Dynamic Global Vegetation Models) for different vegetation types.

supplementary_material for Analysing and simulating spatial patterns of crop yield in Guizhou Province based on artificial neural networks by Boyi Liang, Hongyan Liu, Timothy A Quine, Xiaoqiu Chen, Paul D Hallett, Elizabeth L Cressey, Xinrong Zhu, Jing Cao, Shunhua Yang, Lu Wu and Iain P Hartley in Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

In this work, a high efficient mechano-/pyro- bi-catalysis for dye wastewater decomposition is found in the hydrothermally-synthesized NaNbO3 nanofibers through piezoelectrically and pyroelectrically harvesting vibration and cold-hot energy. In response to vibration together with 15–50 °C cold-hot cycles, the bi-catalytic decomposition ratio of NaNbO3 nanofibers can be up to 86.5%, which is higher than that of the pyro-catalysis of ~ 63.3% or the mechano-catalysis of ~ 75.8%. Such mechano-/pyro- bi-catalysis of NaNbO3 nanofibers possesses the advantages of high efficiency, environmental benignity and being easily scaled up. Therefore, NaNbO3 may become a potential candidate for mechano-/pyro- bi-catalysis through utilizing ubiquitous vibration and thermal energy.

Pb-Based piezoelectric materials such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 have been the mainstay for electromechanical devices; however, they encounter the challenge of sustainable environmental development, which requires Pb-free piezoelectric counterparts. The foremost obstacles in developing Pb-free piezoceramics are their low piezoresponse and inferior temperature stability. In this work, we reported Mn-modified ⟨00 l⟩c-textured (K,Na)NbO3-based ceramics to achieve thermally stable piezoelectric properties and enhanced fatigue resistance in conjunction with high piezoelectricity of d33 ∼ 560 pC/N. The in situ d33 measurement reveals that the temperature stability of the small signal d33 is mainly dependent on temperature-induced phase transition. However, the local piezoresponse force microscopy measurements imply that the excellent temperature stability of the large signal d33* (field-induced strain) benefits from the stable domain response to applied electric field at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the good fatigue resistance is proposed to be associated with the decreased defect concentration by Mn doping, based on the analyses of dielectric loss, leakage current, and thermally stimulated depolarization current.

Autumn phenology remains a relatively neglected aspect in climate change research, which hinders an accurate assessment of the global carbon cycle and its sensitivity to climate change. Leaf coloration, a key indicator of the growing season end, is thought to be triggered mainly by high or low temperature and drought. However, how the control of leaf coloration is split between temperature and drought is not known for many species. Moreover, whether growing season and autumn temperatures interact in influencing the timing of leaf coloration is not clear. Here, we revealed major climate drivers of leaf coloration dates and their interactions using 154 phenological datasets for four winter deciduous tree species at 89 stations, and the corresponding daily mean/minimum air temperature and precipitation data across China's temperate zone from 1981 to 2012. Results show that temperature is more decisive than drought in causing leaf coloration, and the growing season mean temperature plays a more important role than the autumn mean minimum temperature. Higher growing season temperature and lower autumn minimum temperature would induce earlier leaf coloration date. Moreover, the mean temperature over the growing season correlates positively with the autumn minimum temperature. This implies that growing season mean temperature may offset the requirement of autumn minimum temperature in triggering leaf coloration. Our findings deepen the understanding of leaf coloration mechanisms in winter deciduous trees and suggest that leaf life-span control depended on growing season mean temperature and autumn low temperature control and their interaction are major environmental cues. In the context of climate change, whether leaf coloration date advances or is delayed may depend on intensity of the offset effect of growing season temperature on autumn low temperature.

In present work, a multifunctional piezoelectric/photoluminescence effect, which originated from the combination of the piezoelectric properties and the photoluminescence effect, was realized in one-dimensional Er 3 + doped lead-free BaTiO 3 nanofibers prepared by a sol-gel based electrospinning method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were utilized to characterize the morphologies and phase structures. The effect of the host crystallization and rare-earth concentration on the structure and photoluminescence properties was studied. In addition, temperature-dependent PL spectrum exhibited a piezoelectric/photoluminescence coupling effect, characterized by the enhanced photoluminescence intensity around the ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition temperature of BaTiO 3 .