Visualizing how a catalyst behaves during chemical reactions using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is crucial for understanding the activity origin and guiding performance optimization. However, the sample drifts as temperature changes during in situ reaction, which weakens the resolution and stability of TEM imaging, blocks insights into the dynamic details of catalytic reaction. Herein, a Thon-ring based sample position measurement (TSPM) was developed to track the sample height variation during in situ TEM observation. Drifting characteristics for three commercially available nanochips were studied, showing large biases in aspects of shifting modes, expansion heights, as well as the thermal conduction hysteresis during rapid heating. Particularly, utilizing the TSPM method, for the first time, the gas layer thickness inside a gas-cell nanoreactor was precisely determined, which varies with reaction temperature and gas pressure in a linear manner with coefficients of ~8 nm/°C and ~50 nm/mbar, respectively. Following drift prediction of TSPM, fast oxidation kinetics of a Ni particle was tracked in real time for 12 s at 500°C. This TSPM method is expected to facilitate the functionality of automatic target tracing for in situ microscopy applications when feedback to hardware control of the microscope.

HMGR, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase, is a major rate-limiting enzyme in mevalonate (MVA) pathway for isoprenoids and subsequent tanshinone biosynthesis in the Chinese traditional bulk herbal medicine Danshen, Salvia miltiorrhiza, mainly for cardiovascular disorders. In this paper, the genomic SmHMGR genes of 38 cultivated populations of S. miltiorrhiza collected in China were for the first time sequenced to reveal the genetic diversity and phylogeny. The SmHMGR gene was shown to be intron-free, 1650~1659 bp in complete CDS with the majority being 1656 bp, and two unique populations (W-FJLY-V-1 and W-SCHY-W-1) being 1659 and 1650 bp respectively. A total of 103 SNP variation sites were detected with a variation rate of 6.22%, most of which occurred in S. miltiorrhiza f. alba population W-SCHY-W-1; a total of 25 amino acid variation sites were found, of which 19 was in W-SCHY-W-1. The same four populations, W-SCHY-W-1, V-HBAG-V-1, V-JLCC-V-1 and S-NM-V-1 could be discriminated from the remaining 34 by both the SNP fingerprints and the deduced amino acid variation sites. Other or composite DNA markers are needed for better identification. The SmHMGR gene of white flower S. miltiorrhiza f. alba population W-SCHY-W-1 is especially rich in variations and worthy of further studies. Phylogenetic trees based on both the gene and the deduced amino acid sequences showed a very similar two-clade topological structure. This research enriched the content and the genetic means for the molecular identification, genetic diversity and phylogenetic studies of the cultivated S. miltiorrhiza populations, and laid a solid foundation for further related and in-depth investigations.

This study evaluated the association between inflammatory diets as measured by the dietary inflammatory index (DII), and inflammation biomarkers, and the development of preeclampsia among the Chinese population. We followed the reporting guidelines of the STROBE statement for observational studies. A total of 466 preeclampsia cases aged over 18 years were recruited between March 2016 and June 2019, and 466 healthy controls were 1:1 ratio matched by age (± 3 years), week of gestation (± 1 week), and gestational diabetes mellitus. The energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) was computed based on dietary intake assessed using a 79-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Inflammatory biomarkers were analyzed by ELISA kits. The mean E-DII scores were -0.65 ± 1.58 for cases and -1.19 ± 1.47 for controls (P value <0.001). E-DII scores positively correlated with IFN-γ (rs = 0.194, P value = 0.001) and IL-4 (rs = 0.135, P value = 0.021). After multivariable adjustment, E-DII scores were positively related to preeclampsia risk (P trend <0.001). The highest tertile of E-DII was 2.18 times the lowest tertiles (95% CI = 1.52, 3.13). The odds of preeclampsia increased by 30% (95% CI= 18%, 43%, P value <0.001) for each E-DII score increase. The preeclampsia risk was positively associated with IL-2 (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.11), IL-4 (OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.03, 1.54) and TGF-β (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.29). Therefore, proinflammatory diets, corresponding to higher IL-2, IL-4 and TGF-β levels, were associated with increased preeclampsia risk.

Many waterflooding oil fields, injecting water into an oil-bearing reservoir for pressure maintenance, are in their middle to late stages of development. To explore the geological conditions and improve oilfield recovery of the most important well group of the Hu 136 block, located on the border areas of three provinces (Henan, Shandong, and Hebei), Zhongyuan Oilfield, Sinopec, central China, a 14C cross-well tracer monitoring technology was developed and applied in monitoring the development status and recognize the heterogeneity of oil reservoirs. The tracer response in the production well was tracked, and the water drive speed, swept volume of the injection fluid were obtained. Finally, the reservoir heterogeneity characteristics, such as the dilution coefficient, porosity, permeability, and average pore-throat radius, were fitted according to the mathematical model of the heterogeneous multi-layer inter-well theory. The 14C-AMS technique developed in this work is expected to be a potential analytical method for evaluating underground reservoir characteristics and providing crucial scientific guidance for the mid to late oil field recovery process.

This study investigates how Mandarin Chinese-speaking children use Mandarin Chinese, a language lacking tense markers, to represent characters’ speech in their story narratives. Eighty participants, from three to six years of age, completed an elicited narrative task based on a wordless picture book. The representing forms and signals that they employed in representing activities were assessed. The results showed a significant age-related increase in the overall use of speech representation by the cohort of children. Regarding representing forms, direct representation exhibited its expected dominance among all age groups, and its presence in children’s narratives grew significantly with age. Concerning representing signals, shuō ‘say’ was the most prevalent across all ages and susceptible to significant age effects, and, with advancing age, children’s representing signals expanded from single verbs to more complex syntactic constructions. In addition, no significant gender effects were observed regarding the representing forms or signals that Mandarin-speaking children used.

Different kinds of waves and instabilities in the F-region of the ionosphere excited by the relative streaming of the dust beam to the background plasma are studied in the present paper. The dispersion relations of different waves are obtained on different time scales. It is found from our numerical results that there are both a stable upper hybrid wave on the electron vibration time scale and a stable dust ion cyclotron wave on the ion vibration time scale. However, the chaotic behaviour appears on the dust particles vibration time scale due to the relative streaming of the dust particles to the background plasma. Such instabilities may drive plasma irregularities that could affect radar backscatter from the clouds.

Athetis lepigone Möschler (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) is a common maize pest in Europe and Asia. However, there is no long-term effective management strategy is available yet to suppress its population. Adults rely heavily on olfactory cues to locate their optimal host plants and oviposition sites. Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are believed to be responsible for recognizing and transporting different odorant molecules to interact with receptor membrane proteins. In this study, the ligand-binding specificities of two AlepPBPs (AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3) for sex pheromone components and host plant (maize) volatiles were measured by fluorescence ligand-binding assay. The results demonstrated that AlepPBP2 had a high affinity with two pheromones [(Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.11 ± 0.1 μM, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, Ki = 1.32 ± 0.15 μM] and ten plant volatiles, including (-)-limonene, α-pinene, myrcene, linalool, benzaldehyde, nonanal, 2-hexanone, 3-hexanone, 2-heptanone and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one. In contrast, we found that none of these chemicals could bind to AlepPBP3. Our results clearly show no significant differences in the functional characterization of the binding properties between AlepPBP2 and AlepPBP3 to sex pheromones and host plant volatiles. Furthermore, molecular docking was employed for further detail on some crucial amino acid residues involved in the ligand-binding of AlepPBP2. These findings will provide valuable information about the potential protein binding sites necessary for protein-ligand interactions which appear as attractive targets for the development of novel technologies and management strategies for insect pests.

In training deep learning networks, the optimizer and related learning rate are often used without much thought or with minimal tuning, even though it is crucial in ensuring a fast convergence to a good quality minimum of the loss function that can also generalize well on the test dataset. Drawing inspiration from the successful application of cyclical learning rate policy to computer vision tasks, we explore how cyclical learning rate can be applied to train transformer-based neural networks for neural machine translation. From our carefully designed experiments, we show that the choice of optimizers and the associated cyclical learning rate policy can have a significant impact on the performance. In addition, we establish guidelines when applying cyclical learning rates to neural machine translation tasks.

Reconstructing the history of elite communication in ancient China benefits from additional archaeological evidence. We combine textual analysis with new human stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from two Chu burials in the Jingzhou area to reveal significant dietary differences among Chu nobles of the middle Warring States period (c. 350 BC). This research provides important new information on the close interaction between the aristocratic families of the Qin and Chu.

Bladder cancer is the most common malignant tumour of the urinary system that is characterised by significant intra-tumoural heterogeneity. While large-scale sequencing projects have provided a preliminary understanding of tumour heterogeneity, these findings are based on the average signals obtained from the pooled populations of diverse cells. Recent advances in single-cell sequencing (SCS) technologies have been critical in this regard, opening up new ways of understanding the nuanced tumour biology by identifying distinct cellular subpopulations, dissecting the tumour microenvironment, and characterizing cellular genomic mutations. By integrating these novel insights, SCS technologies are expected to make powerful and meaningful changes to the current diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer through the identification and usage of novel biomarkers as well as targeted therapeutics. SCS can discriminate complex heterogeneity in a large population of tumour cells and determine the key molecular properties that influence clinical outcomes. Here, we review the advances in single-cell technologies and discuss their applications in cancer research and clinical practice, with a specific focus on bladder cancer.

Sustainability encompasses social, economic and environmental issues with the primary aim to fulfil the needs of the present society without compromising the potential needs of future generations. Product design has been identified to greatly influence the sustainability of New Product Development. This study aims to identify and review the fundamental factors in which product design has the ability to influence and improve the overall environmental sustainability of a product. A comprehensive literature review has been performed to establish trends over the past four decades. The factors that have significant potential, such as the 6Rs, waste and energy, which aid designers in the implementation of environmental sustainability during the product design process have been identified and discussed. Through this analysis, a new conceptual framework has been conceived, facilitating designers in implementing environmental sustainability during product development. In addition, future research opportunities have been identified.

This work reports experimental observation and theoretical explanation of the dynamics and morphology of a droplet passing through a soap film. During the process, the film undergoes four sequential responses: (1) film deformation upon droplet impact; (2) drop–film detachment; (3) coalescence of the film shell with the drop; (4) peel-off of the film shell. Physical models and the corresponding analytical expressions are developed to reveal the underlying physics for the observed four responses. It is identified that the film is an elongated catenoid under continuous stretch by the droplet, and that they separate at the fixed height of 5.8 times of the droplet radius while the detach point is located at the centre of the height. After separation, the droplet is wrapped with a film shell, which is then punctured by the ring tip of the converging surface wave at the impacting Weber number range of [45, 225]. The film shell then coalesces with the droplet, falls off with a fixed velocity and is eventually ejected as a bubble leaving the droplet with a transplanted surface of the soap solution.

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.

Two new genera and six new species of trilobites are systematically documented herein: Sinagnostus mirabilis new genus new species, Yanpingia punctata n. gen. n. sp., Illaenus taoyuanensis n. sp., Panderia striolatus n. sp., Nileus yichongqiaoensis n. sp., and Paratiresias peculiaris n. sp. The materials were collected from the Darriwilian (late Middle Ordovician) strata in the Upper Yangtze Region, South China. Also provided is an emended diagnosis of the genus Paratiresias based on the new species Paratiresias peculiaris, which is the oldest known species of this genus with an extremely narrow (sag. and exsag.) preglabellar field. Those Chinese species previously referred to Nanillaenus are reassigned to Illaenus sensu lato. These trilobites add new data for the Darriwilian trilobite macroevolution and show highly endemic to South China and the faunal exchanges between South China and Tarim, Kazakhstan, Alborz, as well as Sibumasu and North China.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/ec3be9be-b003-4367-910d-7a0ac4edc982