Tremendous progress has been made in the field of ferroptosis since this regulated cell death process was first named in 2012. Ferroptosis is initiated upon redox imbalance and driven by excessive phospholipid peroxidation. Levels of multiple intracellular nutrients (iron, selenium, vitamin E and coenzyme Q10) are intimately related to the cellular antioxidant system and participate in the regulation of ferroptosis. Dietary intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) regulates ferroptosis by directly modifying the fatty acid composition in cell membranes. In addition, amino acids and glucose (energy stress) manipulate the ferroptosis pathway through the nutrient-sensitive kinases mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Understanding the molecular interaction between nutrient signals and ferroptosis sensors might help in the identification of the roles of ferroptosis in normal physiology and in the development of novel pharmacological targets for the treatment of ferroptosis-related diseases.

Echinococcus shiquicus is currently limited to the Qinghai–Tibet plateau, a large mountainous region in China. Although the zoonotic potential remains unknown, progress is being made on the distribution and intermediate host range. In this study, we report E. shiquicus within Gansu and Qinghai provinces in regions located not only around the central areas but also the southeast edge of the plateau and describe their genetic relationship with previous isolates from the plateau. From 1879 plateau pikas examined, 2.39% (95% CI 1.79–3.18) were infected with E. shiquicus. The highest prevalence of 10.26% (4.06–23.58) was recorded in Makehe town, Qinghai province. Overall the prevalence was marginally higher in Qinghai (2.5%, CI 1.82–3.43) than in Gansu (2%, CI 1.02–3.89). The cox1 and nad1 genes demonstrated high and low haplotype and nucleotide diversities, respectively. The median-joining network constructed by the cox1–nad1 gene sequences demonstrated a star-like configuration with a median vector (unsampled haplotype) occupying the centre of the network. No peculiar distinction or common haplotype was observed in isolates originating from the different provinces. The presence of E. shiquicus in regions of the southeast and northeast edges of the Qinghai–Tibet plateau and high genetic variation warrants more investigation into the haplotype distribution and genetic polymorphism by exploring more informative DNA regions of the mitochondrial genome to provide epidemiologically useful insight into the population structure of E. shiquicus across the plateau and its axis.

Mei Lanfang's contact with Stanislavsky during his 1935 tour in the Soviet Union and the latter's often-cited ‘appraisal’ of the acting of traditional Chinese theatre have exerted a profound and lasting influence on the Chinese understanding and evaluation of the art of their traditional theatre. Through extensive research into the related archival material, as well as contemporary records, this article investigates the historical facts and circumstances that underlie this historic intercultural moment on the twentieth-century international stage. It unweaves the historical construction of this remarkable intercultural phenomenon and exposes its political and ideological underpinnings as well as its theatrical and artistic placements and displacements. It underscores the necessity of deconstructing the creation of such an intercultural myth for today's historical understanding of the art of traditional Chinese theatre and, by implication, in a larger context, of the global making of twentieth-century intercultural theatre.

The effects of trace Ca and Sr addition on dynamic precipitates, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior, and texture evolution of Mg–5Zn alloy sheets fabricated by high strain rate rolling (HSRR) were investigated by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The Zn-rich precipitates formed with plate shapes, short-rod shapes, and near-spherical shapes, indicating that the most important function of adding Ca and Sr is to promote the precipitation process. The precipitate density increases, but the precipitate size and DRX volume fraction decrease with the addition of the alloying elements. It is concluded that the effects of combined Ca/Sr addition on promoting precipitation and refining precipitate size are more effective than that of single Ca addition, and the reduction in DRX volume fraction can be attributed to the inhibition of fine precipitation on the nucleation and growth of DRX. Moreover, the macro-texture intensity is mainly related to DRX as the DRX grains are much more randomly oriented than deformed grains. In addition, the texture intensity in DRX regions is primarily associated with the precipitates, which can inhibit DRX grain rotation due to their pinning effect on the grain boundaries.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of dietary fully oxidised β-carotene (OxBC, C40H60O15) supplementation during the perinatal period on immune status and productivity in a sow model. At day 85 of pregnancy, 150 sows were allocated to one of three dietary treatments with fifty sows per treatment. The three experimental diets were supplemented with 0, 4 or 8 mg/kg OxBC in the basal diet. The feeding trial was conducted from gestation day 85 until day 21 of lactation. Dietary OxBC supplementation greatly enhanced colostrum IgM, IgA and IgG levels, and the IgM and IgG content of 14-d milk. Dietary OxBC supplementation decreased the TNF-α and IL-8 levels in colostrum, as well as the TNF-α and IL-18 levels in 14-d milk. There was also a tendency towards an increase in the soluble CD14 level in 14-d milk. Although dietary treatments did not affect average daily feed intake nor backfat thickness loss during lactation, dietary OxBC supplementation tended to enhance litter weight and individual piglet weight at weaning. There was a trend towards increased lactose concentration in 14-d milk with increasing dietary OxBC. It is concluded that dietary supplementation with OxBC during the perinatal period enhances the lactose concentration of sow milk and the immune status of sows, which is reflected by improved cytokine status and immunoglobulin concentrations in colostrum and milk, and thus tending to increase litter weight and individual piglet weight at weaning. The results also provide a scientific nutritional reference for perinatal mothers due to the biological similarity between pigs and humans.

The mammary gland, a unique exocrine organ, is responsible for milk synthesis in mammals. Neonatal growth and health are predominantly determined by quality and quantity of milk production. Amino acids are crucial maternal nutrients that are the building blocks for milk protein and are potential energy sources for neonates. Recent advances made regarding the mammary gland further demonstrate that some functional amino acids also regulate milk protein and fat synthesis through distinct intracellular and extracellular pathways. In the present study, we discuss recent advances in the role of amino acids (especially branched-chain amino acids, methionine, arginine and lysine) in the regulation of milk synthesis. The present review also addresses the crucial questions of how amino acids are transported, sensed and transduced in the mammary gland.

The hydrogen embrittlement of 12Cr2Mo1R(H) steel at different strain rates were investigated after hydrogen precharging for 4 h in a 0.5 M H2SO4 solution with 2 g/L ammonium thiocyanate. Results showed that the embrittlement index increased and gradually reached a relative stable value of about 20% at the strain rate of 5 × 10−5 s−1 with the decrease of strain rates. SEM images depicted small and deep flakes at high strain rates, while flakes grew larger at slow strain rates. Most hydrogen-induced cracks (HICs) were transgranular fracture through lath grain of bainitic ferrite. High strain field surrounds the crack tips, which makes the crack tips of two close and parallel cracks deflect toward each another and even form crack coalescence. The electron backscatter diffraction technique was used to investigate the effects of grain boundaries, recrystallization fraction, kernel average misorientation map, texture component, and coincidence site lattice boundaries on the HIC propagation. High densities of dislocations and strain concentrations were found around the cracks, where grains are highly sensitive to HIC.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) system is a special cognitive radio system that is widely used in military and civilian applications. As a crucial aspect of spectrum monitoring and electronic countermeasures reconnaissance, it is important to identify the OFDM signal. An identification method based on fractal box dimension and pseudo-inverse spectrum (PIS) has been proposed in this paper for the recognition problem of OFDM signal under multipath channel. Firstly, by theoretically analyzing the fractal box dimension of OFDM signal and single carrier (SC) signal, it can be concluded that the fractal box dimension of OFDM signal and SC signal has obvious differences. Thus, the fractal box dimension of the two types of signal is used to discriminate OFDM signal and SC signal. Then, the PIS of an OFDM signal is constructed according to the characteristics of the OFDM signal. Through theoretical analysis and the experimental simulation, it illustrates that the classification feature could be extracted by detecting the periodical peak of the PIS of OFDM signal and used for identifying OFDM signal in the Gaussian noise. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has better performance than the conventional algorithm based on autocorrelation.

Children acquiring sociolinguistic knowledge in transnational migration settings must learn to evaluate multiple languages and dialects in a fluid, multifaceted social landscape. This study examines the sociolinguistic development of local and expatriate children in Singapore and investigates the extent to which they share sociolinguistic knowledge and norms. One hundred fourteen children ages five to nineteen completed a region identification task and an occupation judgment task, focusing on their perception of four regional English varieties: Australian English, Northern-China-accented English, Filipino English, and Singapore English. While all groups performed well on the region identification task, expatriate children outperformed locals within the youngest age group. Singaporean and expatriate children attending local schools showed greater familiarity with local norms than international school students in their occupation ratings. Participants mapped speakers to occupations by general prestige level, suggesting that children rely on indirect knowledge of social status rather than direct experience with speakers in their development of sociolinguistic evaluation. (Children's sociolinguistic development, transnational migration, language attitudes)*

The high-cycle fatigue (HCF) behavior is significantly affected by surface roughness, especially for high strength metal FV520B-I. However, with surface roughness effect, neither the fatigue property, nor the high-cycle fatigue life model about FV520B-I with surface roughness has been reported. In this paper, designed fatigue experiment using the specimen with different surface roughness is presented to study the effectiveness of the roughness to the fatigue. The observations of the fatigue crack initiation sites and the crack propagation. Then the high cycle fatigue behavior of FV520B-I affected by surface roughness is analyzed. The existing very-high-cycle fatigue life model is not well-fit for high-cycle fatigue model of FV520B-I. A NEW high-cycle fatigue life prediction model of FV520B-I, taking surface roughness as a main effective variable is proposed. The model is built up by a comprehensive use of experimental data and the traditional fatigue modeling theory. The new finding between the fatigue strength coefficient and stress amplitude, with surface roughness, is adopted, leading to a NEW modified life prediction model. Study on fatigue model of FV520B-I with surface roughness is a very beneficial effort in fatigue theory and fatigue engineering development.

Through a close examination of Eisenstein's writings on the Kabuki theatre, Min Tian demonstrates in this article that Eisenstein's interpretation of Kabuki from the perspective of his theory displaced the techniques and principles of Kabuki theatre from its historical and aesthetic contexts. Predicated upon his ‘montage thinking’, Eisenstein reconstituted the techniques and principles integral to Kabuki as an organic whole in the context of his evolving and synthesizing theory. Min Tian has a PhD in theatre history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a doctorate at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Currently teaching at the University of Iowa, he is the author of Mei Lanfang and the Twentieth-Century International Stage (2012) and The Poetics of Difference and Displacement: Twentieth-Century Chinese–Western Intercultural Theatre (2008), and editor of China's Greatest Operatic Male Actor of Female Roles: Documenting the Life and Art of Mei Lanfang, 1894–1961 (2010).

Texture and microstructure evolution during recrystallization of a heavily cold-rolled Ni9W alloy were investigated using x-ray diffraction and electron back-scattered diffraction. Brass, S and random orientations dominated the recrystallization process because the fractions of cube, Copper, and Goss orientations were low. Nearly all of the Brass and a part of the S orientation were consumed during recrystallization. Some of the S orientation was recrystallized grains, which grew during annealing and remained after the primary recrystallization. A large number of grains with other random orientations were formed as they had a significant size and fraction advantage during recrystallization. The evolution of microstructure and texture during recrystallization demonstrated that the cube grains did not have a size advantage compared with the noncube grains, which lead to the formation of a rough recrystallization cube texture in the Ni9W alloy after annealing.

Background: Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity of the lower extremities; HSP can present as complicated forms with additional neurological signs. More than 70 disease loci have been described with different modes of inheritance. Methods: In this study, nine subjects from a Chinese family that included two individuals affected by HSP were examined through detailed clinical evaluations, physical examinations, and genetic tests. Targeted exome capture technology was used to identify gene mutations. Results: Two novel compound heterozygous mutations in the SPG 11 gene were identified, c.4001_4002insATAAC and c.4057C>G. The c.4001_4002insATAAC mutation leads to a reading frame shift during transcription, resulting in premature termination of the protein product. The missense mutation c.4057C>G (p.H1353D) is located in a highly conserved domain and is predicted to be a damaging substitution. Conclusions: Based on the results described here, we propose that these novel compound heterozygous mutations in SPG 11 are the genetic cause of autosomal recessive HSP in this Chinese family.

The formation of deformation and recrystallization textures has been investigated in a Ni7W alloy after heavy cold rolling and subsequent annealing at different temperatures. Cold rolling to a von Mises strain of 4.17 produced a mix of rolling texture that lies between classical brass- and copper-type rolling textures, with the fraction of S({123}<634>), brass({110}<112>), and copper({112}<111>) orientations being 33, 28, and 13%, respectively. The fraction of rolling texture for the deformed Ni7W alloy samples increased slightly during recovery, was then consumed significantly during recrystallization, and dropped to 22% after being annealed at 800 °C for 1 h. The fraction of cube({001}<100>) orientation increased to 26% after primary recrystallization, whereas other random orientations of 43% formed in the Ni7W alloy samples. Further annealing promoted cube grain growth, which lead to a significant strengthening of the cube texture and to a significant loss in high angle boundary (HAB). The fractions of cube texture and HAB of the Ni7W alloy substrate were 92.1 and 27.8%, respectively, after annealing at 1200 °C for 1 h.