In the Three Gorges and adjacent areas, there are three planation surfaces and five terraces along the Yangtze River that record the evolution history of the river system. Here, we used diagnostic heavy minerals, U-Pb geochronology, and trace elements of detrital zircons from one planation surface, two terraces, and a modern point bar to reconstruct the evolution history of the upper Yangtze River, specifically the Chuan River in the Sichuan Basin. The sediments in the lowest planation surface had different felsic source rocks derived from east of the Three Gorges, which indicated that before the disintegration of the lowest planation surface (0.75 Ma), there were two paleorivers: the westward-flowing paleo-Chuan River and eastward-flowing paleo-Yangtze River separated by the Huangling Dome. At 0.75–0.73 Ma, the dominant detrital zircons from the Sichuan Basin in the sediments of terrace T5 (the highest terrace) confirmed that the paleo-Yangtze River cut through the Three Gorges and captured the paleo-Chuan River, and the Daliang Mountains became the new drainage divide. Finally, the appearance of materials from the upper Jinsha River in terrace T2 indicated that the paleo-Yangtze River progressively captured the paleo-Jinsha River, and the modern upper Yangtze River formed before 0.05 Ma. These river capture events of the upper Yangtze River confirmed the Quaternary uplift of the SE Tibetan Plateau.

High-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) contribute to dough elasticity and bread baking quality in wheat. In this study, wheat varieties were classified based on their HMW-GS composition into three groups: 1Dx5 (5 + 10, Gaoyou 8901, Xinmai 28, Xinmai 19, Xinmai 26 and Jinbaoyin), 1Dx2 (2 + 12, Zhoumai 24, Xinmai 9 and Yumai) and 1Dx4 (4 + 12, Aikang 58). Sequence analysis showed that 1Dx-GY8901, 1Dx-XM28, 1Dx-XM19 and 1Dx-XM26 were similar to the 1Dx5 gene and clustered on the same branch, while 1Dx-AK58, 1Dx-ZM24, 1Dx-JBY, 1Dx-YM, 1Dx-XM9 and 1Dx-JBY were more similar to the 1Dx2 gene and clustered on the same branch with 1Dx.2.2. There was a mutation of Ser to Cys at position S2, for an extra Cys in the repeat regions of 1Dx-XM19, 1Dx-XM26, 1Dx-XM28 and 1Dx-GY8901. The wheat HMW-GS genes exhibited similar percentages of α-helix, extended strand, β-turn and random coil structure, with ranges of 13.33–13.59, 4.77–5.78, 7.08–9.18 and 72.3–73.94%, respectively. Sequence conservation and the composition of HMW-GS subunits were also analysed for a series of strong gluten wheat varieties, Xinmai 9 (1, 7 + 8, 2 + 12), Xinmai 19 (1, 7 + 9, 5 + 10), Xinmai 26 (1, 7 + 8, 5 + 10) and Xinmai 28 (1, 7 + 9, 5 + 10). The results of this work should facilitate future breeding efforts and provide the theoretical basis for wheat quality improvement.

Safety voice helps organizations to identify safety issues timely and is critical to the long-term growth of the organization. Safety voice has become a hot research topic in organizational safety, and different scales have been developed. However, the unique cultural context in China has led to the need to redevelop safety voice measurement tools. In this paper, we developed an initial scale of safety voice for employees in Chinese organizational contexts fusing in-depth interviews and mature scales. The initial scale based on two samples (n1 = 205, n2 = 420) was revised and validated using item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analysis to finalize the final scale. We finally found that the safety voice scale in Chinese organizational contexts contains two dimensions: promotive safety voice and prohibitive safety voice. The scale developed in this paper is a reliable tool to measure safety voice behavior of Chinese employees.

Several studies have been conducted on collision avoidance (CA) and path planning for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) based on artificial potential field (APF) and electronic navigation chart (ENC) data. However, to date, accurate, highly efficient, and automatic modelling of complicated geometry environment potential fields (EPFs) has not been realised. In this study, an accurate EPF model is established using ENC data to describe different types of obstacles, navigable areas, and non-navigable areas. The implicit equations of complex polygons are constructed based on the R-function theory, and the discrete-convex hull method is introduced to realise the automatic modelling of EPF. Moreover, collaborative CA and obstacle avoidance (OA) experiments are designed and conducted in a simulated environment and based on the ENC data. The results show that the proposed EPF modelling method is accurate, reliable, and time-efficient even with numerous ENC data and complex shapes owing to the R-function representation for geometric objects and discrete-convex hull method. The combination of improved APF and EPF models is proven to be effective for CA and OA. This paper presents a practical EPF modelling approach for APF-based ship path planning.

The mixing-layer analogy is due to Raupach, Finnigan & Brunet (Boundary-Layer Meteorol., vol. 25, 1996, pp. 351–382). In the analogy, the flow in the roughness sublayer of a homogeneous deep vegetation canopy boundary layer is analogous to a plane mixing layer rather than a surface layer. Evidence for the analogy includes the inflected velocity profile, which resembles the velocity profile in a plane mixing layer, and, most notably, the following estimate as a result of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability: $\varLambda _x=8.1L_s$, where $\varLambda _x$ is the spacing of the large-scale eddies, and $L_s$ is the shear length. The mixing-layer analogy has been very successful in vegetation canopy flow research, but has received only limited support in urban-canopy flow research. This work revisits Raupach et al.'s mixing-layer analogy, and we present the evidence for the mixing-layer analogy in urban-canopy flows: the exponential velocity profile in the canopy layer, i.e. $(U-U_c)/(U_h-U_c)=\exp (z/L_m)$, and $L_m\sim [(U_h/U_c-1)(U_h/U_c+3)]^{-1}$. Here, $z$ is the vertical coordinate, $L_m$ is the attenuation length and is a measure of the largest eddy in the canopy layer, $U_h$ is the wind speed at the canopy crest and $U_c$ is the velocity in the inactive layer. We conduct direct numerical simulations of various deep homogeneous urban-canopy flows and test the above two scalings. We also discuss why Raupach et al.'s analogy has not seen as many successes in urban-canopy flows as in vegetation canopy flows.

Pregnancy is a complex biological process. The establishment and maintenance of foetal–maternal interface are pivotal events. Decidual immune cells and inflammatory cytokines play indispensable roles in the foetal–maternal interface. The disfunction of decidual immune cells leads to adverse pregnancy outcome. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, a common inflammatory cytokine, has critical roles in different stages of normal pregnancy process. However, the relationship between the disorder of TNF-α and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preeclampsia (PE), intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), spontaneous abortion (SA), preterm birth and so on, is still indefinite. In this review, we thoroughly reviewed the effect of TNF-α disorder on pathological conditions. Moreover, we summarized the reports about the adverse pregnancy outcomes (PE, IUGR, SA and preterm birth) of using anti-TNF-α drugs (infliximab, etanercept and adalimumab, certolizumab and golimumab) currently in the clinical studies. Overall, IUGR, SA and preterm birth are the most common adverse pregnancy outcomes of anti-TNF-α drugs. Our review may provide insight for the immunological treatment of pregnancy-related complication, and help practitioners make informed decisions based on the current evidences.

This paper investigates risk aggregation and capital allocation problems for an insurance portfolio consisting of several lines of business. The class of multivariate INAR(1) processes is proposed to model different sources of dependence between the number of claims of the portfolio. The total capital required for the whole portfolio is evaluated under the TVaR risk measure, and the contribution of each line of business is derived under the TVaR-based allocation rule. We provide the risk aggregation and capital allocation formulas in the general case of continuous and strictly positive claim sizes and then in the case of mixed Erlang claim sizes. The impact of both time dependence and cross-dependence on the behavior of risk aggregation and capital allocation is numerically illustrated.

Nicotine 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate is a nicotine salt that can be used as the nicotine source in tobacco products. X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for nicotine 2,6-dihydroxybenzoate, C10H15N2⋅C7H5O4, are reported [a = 7.726(8) Å, b = 11.724(3) Å, c = 9.437(1) Å, α = 90°, β = 109.081(3)°, γ = 90°, unit-cell volume V = 802.902 Å3, Z = 2, ρcal = 1.309 g cm−3, and space group P21] at room temperature. All measured lines were indexed and were consistent with the P21 space group.

Most glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have experienced continuous mass losses in response to global warming. However, the seasonal dynamics of glaciers on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau have rarely been reported in terms of glacier surface elevation and velocity. This paper presents a first attempt to explore the seasonal dynamics of the debris-covered Dagongba Glacier within the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. We use the multitemporal unoccupied aerial vehicle images collected over the lower ablation zone on 8 June and 17 October 2018, and 13 May 2019, and then perform an analysis concerning climatic fluctuations. The results reveal that the mean surface elevation decrease of the Dagongba Glacier during the warm season ($2.81\pm 0.44$ m) was remarkably higher than the cold season ($0.72\pm 0.45$ m). Particularly notable glacier surface elevation changes were found around supraglacial lakes and ice cliffs where ice ablation rates were $\sim$3 times higher than the average. In addition, a larger longitudinal decline of glacier surface velocity was observed in the warm season than that in the cold season. In terms of further comparative analysis, the Dagongba Glacier experienced a decrease in surface velocity between 1982–83 and 2018–19, with a decrease in the warm season possibly twice as large as that in the cold season.

This retrospective study investigated the predictive value of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Nomograms were developed to predict progression-free and overall survival (PFS, OS). The medical data of 228 patients with HCC and treated with TACE were collected. The patients were apportioned to 2 groups according to CONUT score: low or high (<4, ≥4). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using Cox regression for OS and PFS. OS and PFS were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier curve and compared with the log-rank test. Nomograms were constructed to predict patient OS and PFS. The nomograms were evaluated for accuracy, discrimination, and efficiency. The cut-off value of CONUT score was 4. The higher the CONUT score, the worse the survival; Kaplan-Meier curves showed significant differences in OS and PFS between the low and high CONUT score groups (P = 0·033, 0·047). The nomograms including CONUT, based on the prognostic factors determined by the univariate and multivariate analyses, to predict survival in HCC after TACE were generated. The CONUT score is an important prognostic factor for both OS and PFS for patients with intermediate HCC who underwent TACE. The cut-off value of the CONUT score was 4. A high CONUT score suggests poor survival outcomes. Nomograms generated based on the CONUT score were good models to predict patient OS and PFS.

To investigate the intrinsic mechanism for mixing enhancement by variable-density (VD) behaviour, a canonical VD mixing extracted from a supersonic streamwise vortex protocol, a shock–bubble interaction (SBI), is numerically studied and compared with a counterpart of passive-scalar (PS) mixing. It is meaningful to observe that the maximum concentration decays much faster in a VD SBI than in a PS SBI regardless of the shock Mach number ($Ma=1.22 - 4$). The quasi-Lamb–Oseen-type velocity distribution in the PS SBI is found by analysing the azimuthal velocity that stretches the bubble. Meanwhile, for the VD SBI, an additional stretching enhanced by the secondary baroclinic vorticity (SBV) production contributes to the faster-mixing decay. The underlying mechanism of the SBV-enhanced stretching is further revealed through the density and velocity difference between the light shocked bubble and the heavy ambient air. By combining the SBV-accelerated stretching model and the initial shock compression, a novel mixing time estimation for VD SBI is theoretically proposed by solving the advection–diffusion equation under a deformation field of an axisymmetric vortex with the additional SBV-induced azimuthal velocity. Based on the mixing time model, a mixing enhancement number, defined by the ratio of VD and PS mixing time further, reveals the contribution from the VD effect, which implies a better control of the density distribution for mixing enhancement in a supersonic streamwise vortex.

Hierarchical layered double hydroxide (HLDH) was synthesized by using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a soft-template agent for the removal of two charged organic dyes (i.e. methylene blue (MB; cationic dye) and methyl orange (MO; anionic dye)). The experimental results based on response surface methodology (RSM) demonstrated distinct removal behaviours of HLDH towards these two dyes: (1) the maximum capacity was 416.7 mg g–1 for MO and 58.7 mg g–1 for MB at 25°C; (2) the increase in temperature could enhance MO removal significantly, whereas it had a negligible effect on the MB treatment process; and (3) rapid removal of MB (5 min) compared to MO (480 min) was observed. In addition, the removal process for both dyes was pH-independent. Multiple characterization techniques further revealed the removal mechanisms, demonstrating that SDS played a significant role in the removal of both dyes; that is, MO replaced SDS to be intercalated into the HLDH interlayer via anion exchange. MB could influence the –SO3 group of SDS, resulting in it modifying the electrodensity of SDS. It could then be further combined with an SDS anion (DS–) via hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions to form DS-MB monolayers. This work not only provides an efficient capture agent for charged dyes, but also offers a deep insight into the underlying removal mechanism.