A dense particle suspension under shear may lose its uniform state to large local density and stress fluctuations, which challenge the mean-field description of the system. Here, we explore the novel dynamics of a non-Brownian suspension under orbital oscillations, where localized density waves along the flow direction appear beyond an excitation frequency threshold and self-organize into a hexagonal pattern across the system. The spontaneous occurrence of the inhomogeneity pattern arises from a coupling between particle advection and the shear-thickening nature of the suspension. Through linear stability analysis, we show that they overcome the stabilizing effects of particle pressure at sufficient particle volume fraction and oscillation frequency. In addition, the long-standing density waves degenerate into random fluctuations when replacing the free surface with rigid confinement. It indicates that the shear-thickened state is intrinsically heterogeneous, and the boundary conditions are crucial for developing local disturbance.

Canadian neurology residency programs recently transitioned to Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME). Iterative evaluation is required to optimize CBME implementation. This study aimed to examine the variability and challenges in uptake of CBME in neurology residency programs and identify its benefits and pitfalls. Neurology residents and faculty participated in respective anonymous surveys. Common barriers to uptake were identified from both perspectives. Orientation to CBME was adequate, but workload was increased and contributed to burnout for faculty and residents. It is premature to draw conclusions regarding benefits of CBME. Future research considerations include standardization of entrustment scales and reduction of stakeholder burden.

Coastal eutrophication and hypoxia remain a persistent environmental crisis despite the great efforts to reduce nutrient loading and mitigate associated environmental damages. Symptoms of this crisis have appeared to spread rapidly, reaching developing countries in Asia with emergences in Southern America and Africa. The pace of changes and the underlying drivers remain not so clear. To address the gap, we review the up-to-date status and mechanisms of eutrophication and hypoxia in global coastal oceans, upon which we examine the trajectories of changes over the 40 years or longer in six model coastal systems with varying socio-economic development statuses and different levels and histories of eutrophication. Although these coastal systems share common features of eutrophication, site-specific characteristics are also substantial, depending on the regional environmental setting and level of social-economic development along with policy implementation and management. Nevertheless, ecosystem recovery generally needs greater reduction in pressures compared to that initiated degradation and becomes less feasible to achieve past norms with a longer time anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems. While the qualitative causality between drivers and consequences is well established, quantitative attribution of these drivers to eutrophication and hypoxia remains difficult especially when we consider the social economic drivers because the changes in coastal ecosystems are subject to multiple influences and the cause–effect relationship is often non-linear. Such relationships are further complicated by climate changes that have been accelerating over the past few decades. The knowledge gaps that limit our quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the human-coastal ocean nexus are identified, which is essential for science-based policy making. Recognizing lessons from past management practices, we advocate for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework with optimal modules of human dimensions to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

Electromagnetic simulation software has become an important tool for antenna design. However, high-fidelity simulation of wideband or ultra-wideband antennas is very expensive. Therefore, antenna optimization design by using an electromagnetic solver may be limited due to its high computational cost. This problem can be alleviated by the utilization of fast and accurate surrogate models. Unfortunately, conventional surrogate models for antenna design are usually prohibitive because training data acquisition is time-consuming. In order to solve the problem, a modeling method named progressive Gaussian process (PGP) is proposed in this study. Specially, when a Gaussian process (GP) is trained, test sample with the largest predictive variance is inputted into an electromagnetic solver to simulate its results. After that, the test sample is added to the training set to train the GP progressively. The process can incrementally increase some important trusted training data and improve the model generalization performance. Based on the proposed PGP, two monopole antennas are optimized. The optimization results show effectiveness and efficiency of the method.

The present study investigated the effects of Porphyra yezoensis enzyme degradation extract (PYEDE) on the brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases due to oxidative stress. We used in vitro antioxidant systems to verify the antioxidant potential of PYEDE. The results indicated that the PYEDE alleviated weight loss and organ atrophy, reduced the levels of lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation and elevated reduced glutathione (GSH) content in the serum and brains of the d-galactose-induced ageing model mice. The PYEDE also renewed the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capability activities, down-regulated the inducible nitric oxide synthase activity and nitric oxide levels, normalised the hippocampal neurons and modulated multiple neurotransmitter systems by inhibiting the activities of acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase in the up-regulation of acetylcholine, dopamine and noradrenaline levels. Overall, the PYEDE is a promising supplement for the alleviation of oxidative stress and age-associated brain diseases.

Previous studies have demonstrated adverse mental health effects of Pb exposure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between consumption of preserved egg (PE), a high-Pb-containing food and depressive symptoms among adults in China. A sample of 25 213 adults (mean age 41·4 (sd 11·8) years; males, 53·9 %) in Tianjin, China, was studied in a cross-sectional analysis. Dietary intake including PE was assessed using a valid self-administered FFQ. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). The association was estimated by OR using logistic regression models adjusted for multiple confounders. The prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms was 6·6 % (SDS≥50). Compared with the least frequent PE consumption (<once/week), multivariable adjusted OR for elevated depressive symptoms were 1·52 (95 % CI 1·28, 1·81), 2·24 (95 % CI 1·76, 2·81) and 3·31 (95 % CI 2·52, 4·30) for consumption of once, 2–3 times and ≥4 times/week, respectively (Pfor trend<0·0001), indicating a clear dose–response relationship. The results suggested that higher consumption of PE was strongly associated with depressive symptoms among adults in China. These findings underscore the need to consider dietary Pb exposure as a risk factor for psychological distress.

Previous studies have supported the theory that there is a positive association between ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis in Western people. Diet plays an important role in determining serum ferritin concentration. Asian dietary patterns are different from Western dietary patterns, implying that there may be a difference in the association of ferritin with carotid atherosclerosis between Asian and Western people. However, few studies focus on the association between ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis among Asians. The aim of this study was to investigate how serum ferritin levels are associated with carotid atherosclerosis in an Asian adult population. A cross-sectional assessment was performed in 8302 adults in Tianjin, China. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaques were assessed using ultrasonography, and serum ferritin was measured using the protein chip-chemiluminescence method. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between quartiles of serum ferritin concentration and carotid atherosclerosis. In the present study, the overall prevalence of IMT and carotid plaques in participants is 29·2 and 22·7 %, respectively. In women, after adjustments for potentially confounding factors, the OR of IMT and carotid plaques by increasing serum ferritin quartiles were 1·00, 1·39 (95 % CI 0·98–1·99), 1·39 (95 % CI 0·99–1·97), 1·81 (95 % CI 1·30–2·55) (Pfor trend<0·001) and 1·00, 1·24 (95 % CI 0·89–1·73), 1·18 (95 % CI 0·85–1·65), 1·59 (95 % CI 1·15–2·20) (Pfor trend<0·01), respectively. However, no association was found between serum ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis in men. The study demonstrated that increased serum ferritin levels are independently associated with IMT and carotid plaques in Asian women but not in Asian men.

An effective multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the simultaneous detection of three major pathogens, Nosema bombycis Nägeli (Microsporidia: Nosematidae), Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (Baculoviridae: genus Alphabaculovirus) (NPV), and Bombyx mori densovirus (Parvoviridae: genus Iteravirus) (DNV), in silkworms (Bombyx mori (Linnaeus); Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) was developed in this study. Polymerase chain reaction and real-time PCR tests and basic local alignment search tool searches revealed that the primers and probes used in this study had high specificities for their target species. The ability of each primer/probe set to detect pure pathogen DNA was determined using a plasmid dilution panel, in which under optimal conditions the multiplex real-time PCR assay showed high efficiency in the detection of three mixed target plasmids with a detection limit of 8.5×103 copies for N. bombycis and Bombyx mori NPV (BmNPV) and 8.5×104 copies for Bombyx mori DNV (BmDNV). When the ability to detect these three pathogens was examined in artificially inoculated silkworms, our method presented a number of advantages over traditional microscopy, including specificity, sensitivity, and high-throughput capabilities. Under the optimal volume ratio for the three primer/probe sets (3:2:2=N. bombycis:BmNPV:BmDNV), the multiplex real-time PCR assay showed early detection of BmNPV and BmDNV by day 1 post inoculation using DNA templates of the three pathogens in various combinations from individually infected silkworms; the early detection of N. bombycis was possible by day 3 post inoculation using the DNA isolated from the midgut of N. bombycis-infected silkworms.

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of chitosan (CS)-Zn on intestinal morphology, mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis and mucosal immune function in weanling pigs. A total of 150 weanling barrows with a body weight of 7·2 kg were randomly allocated into five groups. A basal diet without Zn supplementation was used as the control and other four groups were fed the control diet supplemented with 50 or 100 mg/kg of Zn as CS-Zn, 100 mg/kg of Zn as ZnSO4 and 3000 mg/kg of Zn as ZnO, respectively. The feeding trial lasted for 28 d. The results showed that serum diamine oxidase activities, d-lactate levels and endotoxin contents were lower in pigs fed dietary 100 mg/kg of Zn as CS-Zn or 3000 mg/kg of Zn as ZnO than in pigs fed the control or 100 mg Zn/kg as ZnSO4 diet. The ratios of the villus height:crypt depth of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum were higher in pigs that received 100 mg/kg of Zn as CS-Zn or a high level of Zn as ZnO than in pigs fed the control diet. Moreover, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate-biotin nick end labelling (TUNEL)-stained ileal epithelial cells were found in the control group, and apoptotic cells did not appear prominently in pigs that received the 100 mg/kg of CS-Zn or ZnO diet. Secretory IgA concentration in ileal mucus was increased in the dietary group that received 100 mg/kg of CS-Zn or ZnO. These results indicated that dietary 100 mg CS-Zn/kg had similar biological effects to dietary 3000 mg ZnO/kg on intestinal morphology, mucosal epithelial cell apoptosis and mucosal immune function.

Great research efforts to investigate the glass-forming ability (GFA) in alloys have been made, leading to an observation that a pinpoint composition produces the best glass-forming characteristics. The reason for this observation is still unknown, limiting the development of bulk metallic glasses (MGs) with a relatively large size. In this work, systematic experimental measurements coupled with calculations were performed to address this issue using the NiNb binary alloy system. It is found that the atomic-level packing efficiency and the clusters-level regularity parameters strongly contribute to their GFA. In particular, the best glass former found in a pinpoint composition possesses the local maximum of the atomic-packing efficiency and the highest degree of the cluster regularity. This work provides an understanding of GFA from atomic and cluster levels and will shed light on the development of more MGs with relatively large critical casting sizes.