Pebrine disease, caused by Nosema bombycis (Nb) infection in silkworms, is a severe and long-standing disease that threatens sericulture. As parasitic pathogens, a complex relationship exists between microsporidia and their hosts at the mitochondrial level. Previous studies have found that the translocator protein (TSPO) is involved in various biological functions, such as membrane potential regulation, mitochondrial autophagy, immune responses, calcium ion channel regulation, and cell apoptosis. In the present study, we found that TSPO expression in silkworms (BmTSPO) was upregulated following Nb infection, leading to an increase in cytoplasmic calcium, adenosine triphosphate, and reactive oxygen species levels. Knockdown and overexpression of BmTSPO resulted in the promotion and inhibition of Nb proliferation, respectively. We also demonstrated that the overexpression of BmTSPO promotes host cell apoptosis and significantly increases the expression of genes involved in the immune deficiency and Janus kinase-signal transducer and the activator of the transcription pathways. These findings suggest that BmTSPO activates the innate immune signalling pathway in silkworms to regulate Nb proliferation. Targeting TSPO represents a promising approach for the development of new treatments for microsporidian infections.

We report the unified constitutive law of vibroconvective turbulence in microgravity, i.e. $Nu \sim a^{-1} Re_{os}^\beta$ where the Nusselt number $Nu$ measures the global heat transport, $a$ is the dimensionless vibration amplitude, $Re_{os}$ is the oscillational Reynolds number and $\beta$ is the universal exponent. We find that the dynamics of boundary layers plays an essential role in vibroconvective heat transport and the $Nu$-scaling exponent $\beta$ is determined by the competition between the thermal boundary layer (TBL) and vibration-induced oscillating boundary layer (OBL). Then a physical model is proposed to explain the change of scaling exponent from $\beta =2$ in the TBL-dominant regime to $\beta = 4/3$ in the OBL-dominant regime. Our finding elucidates the emergence of universal constitutive laws in vibroconvective turbulence, and opens up a new avenue for generating a controllable effective heat transport under microgravity or even microfluidic environment in which the gravity effect is nearly absent.

We show that demand effects generated by institutional frictions can influence systematic return predictability patterns in stocks and mutual funds. Identification relies on a reform to the Morningstar rating system, which we show caused a structural break in style-level positive feedback trading by mutual funds. As a result, momentum-related factors in stocks, as well as performance persistence and the “dumb money effect” in mutual funds, experienced a sharp decline. Consistent with the proposed channel, return predictability declined right after the reform, was limited to the U.S. market, and was concentrated in factors and mutual funds most exposed to the mechanism.

The International Design Engineering Annual (IDEA) Challenge is a virtually hosted hackathon for Engineering Design researchers with aims of: i) generating open access datasets; ii) fostering community between researchers; and, iii) applying great design minds to develop solutions to real design problems. This paper presents the 2022 IDEA challenge and elements of the captured dataset with the aim of providing insights into prototyping behaviours at virtually hosted hackathons, comparing it with the 2021 challenge dataset and providing reflections and learnings from two years of running the challenge. The dataset is shown to provide valuable insights into how designers spend their time at hackathon events and how, why and when prototypes are used during their design processes. The dataset also corroborates the findings from the 2021 dataset, demonstrating the complementarity of physical and sketch prototypes. With this paper, we also invite the wider community to contribute to the IDEA Challenge in future years, either as participants or in using the platform to run their own design studies.

Trematodes of the genus Ogmocotyle are intestinal flukes that can infect a variety of definitive hosts, resulting in significant economic losses worldwide. However, there are few studies on molecular data of these trematodes. In this study, the mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ogmocotyle ailuri isolated from red panda (Ailurus fulgens) was determined and compared with those from Pronocephalata to investigate the mt genome content, genetic distance, gene rearrangements and phylogeny. The complete mt genome of O. ailuri is a typical closed circular molecule of 14 642 base pairs, comprising 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 2 non-coding regions. All genes are transcribed in the same direction. In addition, 23 intergenic spacers and 2 locations with gene overlaps were determined. Sequence identities and sliding window analysis indicated that cox1 is the most conserved gene among 12 PCGs in O. ailuri mt genome. The sequenced mt genomes of the 48 Plagiorchiida trematodes showed 5 types of gene arrangement based on all mt genome genes, with the gene arrangement of O. ailuri being type I. Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated amino acid sequences of 12 PCGs revealed that O. ailuri was closer to Ogmocotyle sikae than to Notocotylus intestinalis. These data enhance the Ogmocotyle mt genome database and provide molecular resources for further studies of Pronocephalata taxonomy, population genetics and systematics.

We present a fast and accurate data-driven surrogate model for divertor plasma detachment prediction leveraging the latent feature space concept in machine learning research. Our approach involves constructing and training two neural networks: an autoencoder that finds a proper latent space representation (LSR) of plasma state by compressing the multi-modal diagnostic measurements and a forward model using multi-layer perception (MLP) that projects a set of plasma control parameters to its corresponding LSR. By combining the forward model and the decoder network from autoencoder, this new data-driven surrogate model is able to predict a consistent set of diagnostic measurements based on a few plasma control parameters. In order to ensure that the crucial detachment physics is correctly captured, highly efficient 1D UEDGE model is used to generate training and validation data in this study. The benchmark between the data-driven surrogate model and UEDGE simulations shows that our surrogate model is capable of providing accurate detachment prediction (usually within a few per cent relative error margin) but with at least four orders of magnitude speed-up, indicating that performance-wise, it has the potential to facilitate integrated tokamak design and plasma control. Comparing with the widely used two-point model and/or two-point model formatting, the new data-driven model features additional detachment front prediction and can be easily extended to incorporate richer physics. This study demonstrates that the complicated divertor and scrape-off-layer plasma state has a low-dimensional representation in latent space. Understanding plasma dynamics in latent space and utilising this knowledge could open a new path for plasma control in magnetic fusion energy research.

Cap-shaped skeletal fossils are the earliest undisputed body fossils of mollusks appearing in the basal Cambrian. A study on the morphometry of cap-shaped fossils from the Nanjiang area (North Sichuan, China) is undertaken to understand the origin and evolution of the early mollusks. The distribution of these fossil cap-shaped mollusks indicates a stepwise increase in their diversity during the early Cambrian. Maikhanella Zhegallo in Voronin et al., 1982 co-occuring with the spinose sclerites of siphogonuchitids, is regarded as the earliest scleritized mollusk. It is followed by other maikhanellids, e.g., Purella Missarzhevsky, 1974 and Yunnanopleura Yu, 1987, which co-occur with the earliest univalved helcionellids, e.g., Igorella Missarzhevsky in Rozanov et al., 1969. Cluster analysis of their morphometric characteristics shows that the Maikhanella group is similar to the Purella and Yunnanopleura groups, but is less comparable with univalved helcionellids. The maikhanellids are interpreted as representatives of the stem group Aculifera, although it remains uncertain if one or two larger cap-shaped shell plates were present on the elongate slug-like body, comparable to those of Halkieria Poulsen, 1967 or Orthrozanclus Conway Morris and Caron, 2007. Maikhanellids are characterized by the prominent protrusions or scales on the cap-shaped shell plates arranged in a concentric pattern around the shell apex. Evolutionarily, the protrusions or scales are reduced in younger strata, whereas subsequently a typically concentric ornament developed, the cap-shaped shell plates developed higher profiles, and the apical region became increasingly bare of scales. Meanwhile, the cap-shaped shell plates gradually evolved into a helcionellid-like appearance with an anteroposteriorly inclined apex. The morphological evolution of the earliest sclerotized mollusks reflects biotic evolution and environmental adaption among the stem-group mollusks during the early Cambrian.

How often, and in what contexts, have archaeologists discussed racism over the last four decades? Do societal events lead to sustained discussions of racism among the academic community? Here, the authors seek to answer these questions by applying computational text analysis methods to 68176 abstracts from 41 meetings of the Society for American Archaeology. Discussions of racism are found to be rare—usually a passing mention in the context of broader social issues. Historical archaeologists have addressed racism more frequently than other archaeologists. The results form a baseline against which the discipline's engagement with racism as a research theme and with anti-racist strategies might be tracked.

A profound characteristic of field cancerization is alterations in chromatin packing. This study aimed to quantify these alterations using electron microscopy image analysis of buccal mucosa cells of laryngeal, esophageal, and lung cancer patients. Analysis was done on normal-appearing mucosa, believed to be within the cancerization field, and not tumor itself. Large-scale electron microscopy (nanotomy) images were acquired of cancer patients and controls. Within the nuclei, the chromatin packing of euchromatin and heterochromatin was characterized. Furthermore, the chromatin organization was quantified through chromatin packing density scaling. A significant difference was found between the cancer and control groups in the chromatin packing density scaling parameter for length scales below the optical diffraction limit (200 nm) in both the euchromatin (p = 0.002) and the heterochromatin (p = 0.006). The chromatin packing scaling analysis also indicated that the chromatin organization of cancer patients deviated significantly from the control group. They might allow for novel strategies for cancer risk stratification and diagnosis with high sensitivity. This could aid clinicians in personalizing screening strategies for high-risk patients and follow-up strategies for treated cancer patients.

Thermocapillary patterning, namely, the formation of micro/nano patterns in a liquid film by surface deformation induced by an imposed thermal gradient, has enjoyed widespread applications in engineering. In this paper, we present the development of analytical and numerical models and model analyses to predict the equilibrium states of a deformed liquid polymer film under the action of thermocapillary forces. The deformation is found to be dependent on a non-dimensional parameter $\Im \equiv Ma \, Ca$, with Ma denoting the Marangoni number and Ca the capillary number. Model analyses show that a hysteresis phenomenon is associated with the thermocapillary deformation of the film with increasing and then decreasing $\Im$. When $\Im$ is increased above a critical value ${\Im _{c,1}}$, significant deformation occurs in the film until the polymer touches the top solid template. Then, if $\Im$ is allowed to decrease, the polymer film would not detach from the template until $\Im$ is decreased below another critical value ${\Im _{c,2}}$ (usually ${\Im _{c,2}} < {\Im _{c,1}}$). With $\Im \in [{\Im _{c,2}},\;{\Im _{c,1}}]$, there exist multiple (three at the maximum) equilibrium states. The Lyapunov energy analysis of these states reveals that one equilibrium state is stable, another is metastable and the third one is unstable.

Tianhuadong is a cave site located in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China. Since 2010, several surveys and one test excavation have yielded more than 1000 stone artifacts. The lithic assemblage shows some features of Levallois and Quina technologies, similar to those found in Middle Paleolithic sites in the Western Hemisphere. In this study, we summarize the lithic industry and propose a reliable chronology for the site using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of individual quartz grains extracted from sediments. We applied the standardized growth curve method to deal with the problem associated with the saturation in natural OSL signals in quartz. Our dating results yielded ages of 90–40 ka, suggesting that the associated lithic assemblage could be assigned to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 5 and 4 and could potentially represent Middle Paleolithic technologies. Because the number of Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest China is small, this site provides one of the few traces of human occupation in southwest China during the early upper Pleistocene. Thus, it is important for understanding hominin evolution and dispersal in this region.

The value of new archaeological knowledge is strongly determined by how credible it is, and a key measure of scientific credibility is how replicable new results are. However, few archaeologists learn the skills necessary to conduct replication as part of their training. This means there is a gap between the ideals of archaeological science and the skills we teach future researchers. Here we argue for replications as a core type of class assignment in archaeology courses to close this gap and establish a culture of replication and reproducibility. We review replication assignments in other fields and describe how to implement a replication assignment suitable for many types of archaeology programs. We describe our experience with replication in an upper-level undergraduate class on stone artifact analysis. Replication assignments can help archaeology programs give students the skills that enable transparent and reproducible research.

The Solonker and Shalazhashan belts are hotly debated tectonic units of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), because they may either represent a Permian or Triassic suture zone of the CAOB, or a rifting zone overprinted on an Early Palaeozoic orogen. Provenance analysis of the Upper Palaeozoic sandstones in these belts may provide useful constraints on this issue. This study collected six sandstone samples from three study areas: the Mandula area of the Solonker Belt, the Quagan Qulu area of the Shalazhashan Belt but close to the Alxa block, and the Enger Us area of the Shalazhashan Belt, for framework petrography, zircon morphology, U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic analyses. Framework petrography reveals that the Mandula and Enger Us area samples contain high proportions of volcanic fragments, whereas the samples from the Quagan Qulu area include not only volcanic fragments but also significant amounts of biotite and muscovite. The detrital zircons of the Mandula area and the Enger Us area yield two main age groups: (i) 260–330 Ma, with dominant εHf(t) values of –5 to +12; and (ii) 420–550 Ma, with dominant εHf(t) values of –9 to +9, suggesting that Early Palaeozoic arc-related magmatic rocks and Late Palaeozoic syn-depositional volcanic rocks are the main source rocks. The detrital zircons of the Quagan Qulu area have one main age group of 420–500 Ma and some grains of 0.9–1.1 Ga, 1.4–1.5 Ga, 1.8–1.9 Ga and ~ 2.5 Ga, which derive from the northern margin of the Alxa block. The lithological and fossil assemblages of the Upper Palaeozoic sandstones suggest shallow-marine to deep-water depositional environments and a northward-deepening transition. Based on the zircon spectra, sedimentary environment analysis and previous studies, we argue that the Solonker Belt and the Shalazhashan Belt of the CAOB are in extensional basins of a fore-arc or rifting setting.

If meta-analysis is to provide valuable answers, then it is critical to ensure clarity about the questions being asked. Here, we distinguish two important questions concerning cognitive bias modification research that are not differentiated in the meta-analysis recently published by Cristea et al (2015) in this journal: (1) do the varying procedures that investigators have employed with the intention of modifying cognitive bias, on average, significantly impact emotional vulnerability?; and (2) does the process of successfully modifying cognitive bias, on average, significantly impact emotional vulnerability? We reanalyse the data from Cristea et al to address this latter question. Our new analyses demonstrate that successfully modifying cognitive bias does significantly alter emotional vulnerability. We revisit Cristea et al's conclusions in light of these findings.

A numerical analysis is presented of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) in the presence of an external electric field, with an emphasis on nonlinear phenomena associated with the evolution of complex interfacial morphology. The Poisson equation for the electric field and the Navier–Stokes equation for fluid flow field are solved simultaneously along with the Cahn–Hilliard phase field equation for interface deformation and morphology development. Numerical model is validated against the existing data and the results of linear analysis. Extensive numerical simulations are carried out for a wide range of fluid flow and electric field conditions. Computed results show that, in both linear and nonlinear regimes, a horizontal field suppresses the RTI, while a vertical electric field aggravates it. However, the vertical field does not affect the secondary instability; specifically, it does not contribute to the baroclinical generation of vorticity and consequently does not affect the roll-up formation. Linear analysis predicts that the RTI remains the same with the interchange of the dielectric constants of the two fluids, which is also confirmed by the numerical model for small interface deformations. This prediction, however, does not hold true in the nonlinear regimes in that complex interfacial morphology may evolve quite differently if the dielectric constants of two fluids are interchanged.

The crystal–melt interfacial free energy is an important quantity governing many kinetic phenomena including solidification and crystal growth. Although general calculation methods are available, it is still difficult to obtain the interfacial energies that differ only slightly due to anisotropy. Here, we report such a calculation of Al crystal–melt interfacial energy based on the general framework of the capillary fluctuation method (CFM). The subtle dependence of both the melting temperature and interfacial free energy at melting temperature on the crystal interface orientation was examined. For Al, the average melting temperature is obtained at 934.79 ± 5 K and the orientationally averaged mean interfacial free energy is 98.35 mJ/m2. In addition, the anisotropy of the interfacial free energy is found weak, nevertheless with the values ranked as γ100 > γ110 > γ111.