Neocinnamomum plants are evergreen shrubs or small trees belonging to the Neocinnamomeae tribe of the Lauraceae family. Their seeds are rich in fatty acids, and their leaves are often used in traditional Chinese medicine. Presently, only a few studies have been performed on Neocinnamomum plants; therefore, the genome-based phylogeny among Neocinnamomum species has not been determined, which limits the germplasm innovation of this genus. In this study, by the Illumina (next-generation sequencing) and third-generation sequencing technologies, the whole genomes of seven Neocinnamomum species samples were sequenced, their nuclear DNA (nrDNA) sequences were assembled and characterized, and their phylogeny was reconstructed. The results revealed four hypervariable regions (i.e. transcribed spacer regions) in the nrDNA sequences, among which the highest degree of variation was observed in the external transcribed spacer (ETS) region localized behind the 26S gene. A total of 27 insertions/deletions and 184 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, both localized mainly in the ETS and internal transcribed spacer regions, were identified. Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on the nrDNA sequences using the maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) methods with Caryodaphnopsis henryi as the outgroup. The ML tree divided the seven Neocinnamomum species into four clades. Clade I consisted of Neocinnamomum caudatum var. macrocarpum and Neocinnamomum caudatum, clade II included Neocinnamomum delavayi and Neocinnamomum mekongense, clade III included Neocinnamomum fargesii and a branch species of N. delavayi and clade IV included Neocinnamomum lecomtei, constituting a monophyletic and basal group. The BI tree shared the same topological structure as the ML tree, and all the support values of the BI tree were one except for that of one Neocinnamomum species (0.98). The results of this study provide new evidence regarding the phylogenetic evolution of the Neocinnamomum plants.

Sedimentary records from the Kumtag (also known as Kumtagh) Desert (KMD) in northwestern China are investigated to better understand Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in this hyper-arid region. Presented here are the results of probably the first systematic survey of sedimentary sequences from the KMD, with the chronology determined by the optically stimulated luminescence dating. The variation of sedimentary facies, supported by granular and geochemical paleoenvironmental proxies, is used to decipher the history of Late Quaternary environment changes. The results demonstrate that a constantly dry condition characterized the eastern KMD since the last glacial maximum, but with occurrences of wetter periods. From ca. 17 to 15 ka, fluvial activity was probably triggered by melting of glaciers in mountains located south of the KMD. A distinctly drier stage (ca. 13–7 ka) was recognized due to the prominent occurrence of aeolian sands. A wetter environment likely persisted between ca. 4.4 and 2.2 ka, consistent with evidence of human activities. While the causes of paleoenvironmental changes in the eastern KMD are still a matter of debate, the melting of glaciers in the Altyn-Tagh Mountains in the south must be considered as an important factor.

We document and explain the sharp performance deterioration of smart beta indexes after the corresponding exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are launched for investment. While smart beta is purported to deliver excess returns through factor exposures, the market-adjusted return of smart beta indexes drops from about 3% “on paper” before ETF listings to about −0.50% to −1% after ETF listings. This performance decline cannot be explained by variation in factor premia, strategic timing, or diminishing returns to scale. Instead, we find strong evidence of data mining in the construction of smart beta indexes, which helps ETFs attract flows, as investors respond positively to backtests.

The subduction of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean is important in the geological evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. In this paper, we report new zircon U-Pb age and Lu-Hf isotopic data and whole-rock elemental and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data for Early Cretaceous dacites from the Rena-Co area (RCA) in the southern Qiangtang Terrane (QT), central Tibet and use these data to better understand the tectonic evolution of the Bangong–Nujiang suture. LA–ICP-MS dating of zircons yields ages of 109.5 ± 0.6 Ma to 109.6 ± 0.8 Ma for the dacites from the RCA. Geochemically, these dacites are medium-K calc-alkaline and show high SiO2 contents of 64.79–70.37 wt.%, high Sr contents of 517–598 ppm and low Y contents of 8.45–10.7 ppm, similar to those of typical adakites. Additionally, all the rocks are strongly enriched in light rare earth elements and some large ion lithophile elements (e.g. Rb, U, K and Cs) but significantly depleted in high-field-strength elements (e.g. Nb, Ta and Ti), consistent with the geochemical characteristics of arc-type magmas formed in the subduction zone. Moreover, these adakite-like dacites show whole-rock initial (87Sr/86Sr)i ratios of 0.705119 to 0.705491, (206Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 18.489 to 18.508, (207Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 15.591 to 15.612, (208Pb/204Pb)i ratios of 38.599 to 38.686, ϵNd(t) values of −0.28 to +1.25 and single-stage Nd model ages of 642 to 818 Ma, as well as significantly positive zircon ϵHf(t) values of 3.9–13.1, with young Hf-depleted mantle ages of 331 to 923 Ma. These geochemical and isotopic data indicate that they are most likely derived from the juvenile thickened mafic lower continental crust, which contains partial melts of metasomatized peridotite and subduction-related fluids in the magma source region. Based on previous studies and our new data, we propose that the RCA adakite-like dacites are most likely a result of the northwards subduction of the Bangong–Nujiang Ocean lithosphere beneath the southern QT during the Early Cretaceous and that a slab rollback model could explain the formation of the RCA adakite-like dacites.

In this paper, we study almost proximal extensions of minimal flows. Let $\pi : (X,T)\rightarrow (Y,T)$ be an extension of minimal flows. Then $\pi $ is called an almost proximal extension if there is some $N\in {\mathbb N}$ such that the cardinality of any almost periodic subset in each fiber is not greater than N. When $N=1$, $\pi $ is proximal. We will give the structure of $\pi $ and give a dichotomy theorem: any almost proximal extension of minimal flows is either almost finite to one, or almost all fibers contain an uncountable strongly scrambled subset. Using the category method, Glasner and Weiss showed the existence of proximal but not almost one-to-one extensions [On the construction of minimal skew products. Israel J. Math. 34 (1979), 321–336]. In this paper, we will give explicit such examples, and also examples of almost proximal but not almost finite to one extensions.

Using one-dimensional branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment, we give probabilistic proofs of the asymptotics and uniqueness of pulsating traveling waves of the Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovskii–Piskounov (F-KPP) equation in a periodic environment. This paper is a sequel to ‘Branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment and existence of pulsating travelling waves’ (Ren et al., 2022), in which we proved the existence of the pulsating traveling waves in the supercritical and critical cases, using the limits of the additive and derivative martingales of branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment.

A method is presented for configuration selection to obtain the best tip-over stability of a modular reconfigurable mobile manipulator (MRMM) under various application situations. The said MRMM consists of a modular reconfigurable robot (MRR) mounted on a mobile platform. The MRR in different configurations creates different wrenches onto the mobile platform, leading to different tip-over moments of the MRMM, even though the joint speeds or tip speeds remain the same. The underlying problem pertains to selecting one configuration of MRR for reconfiguration that would obtain the best tip-over stability under a given application. First, all the permissible configurations are identified through an enumeration method. Then, the feasible configurations are determined based on application-oriented workspace classifications. At last, two workspace indices, vertical reach and horizontal reach, are used to select an optimal configuration. The tip-over stability analysis and evaluation of MRMM are carried out for verification for three cases including vertical, horizontal, and general 3D space applications. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Aberrations in how people form expectations about rewards and how they respond to receiving rewards are thought to underlie major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the underlying mechanism linking the appetitive reward system, specifically anticipation and outcome, is still not fully understood. To examine the neural correlates of monetary anticipation and outcome in currently depressed subjects with MDD, we performed two separate voxel-wise meta-analyses of functional neuroimaging studies using the monetary incentive delay task. During reward anticipation, the depressed patients exhibited an increased response in the bilateral middle cingulate cortex (MCC) extending to the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex, the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the postcentral gyrus, but a reduced response in the mesolimbic circuit, including the left striatum, insula, amygdala, right cerebellum, striatum, and IFG, compared to controls. During the outcome stage, MDD showed higher activity in the left inferior temporal gyrus, and lower activity in the mesocortical pathway, including the bilateral MCC, left caudate nucleus, precentral gyrus, thalamus, cerebellum, right striatum, insula, IFG, middle frontal gyrus, and temporal pole. Our findings suggest that cMDD may be characterised by state-dependent hyper-responsivity in cortical regions during the anticipation phase, and hypo-responsivity of the mesocortico-limbic circuit across the two phases of the reward response. Our study showed dissociable neural circuit responses to monetary stimuli during reward anticipation and outcome, which help to understand the dysfunction in different aspects of reward processing, particularly motivational v. hedonic deficits in depression.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) possesses a strong capability to ameliorate high-fat diet (HFD)-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in mice, but the underlying mechanism is still unknown. Our study aimed to clarify the involvement of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in the beneficial effects of NAC on HFD-induced NAFLD. C57BL/6J mice were fed a normal-fat diet (10 % fat), a HFD (45 % fat) or a HFD plus NAC (2 g/l). After 14-week of intervention, NAC rescued the deleterious alterations induced by HFD, including the changes in body and liver weights, hepatic TAG, plasma alanine aminotransferase, plasma aspartate transaminase and liver histomorphology (haematoxylin and eosin and Oil red O staining). Through whole-transcriptome sequencing, 52 167 (50 758 known and 1409 novel) hepatic lncRNA were detected. Our cross-comparison data revealed the expression of 175 lncRNA was changed by HFD but reversed by NAC. Five of those lncRNA, lncRNA-NONMMUT148902·1 (NO_902·1), lncRNA-XR_001781798·1 (XR_798·1), lncRNA-NONMMUT141720·1 (NO_720·1), lncRNA-XR_869907·1 (XR_907·1), and lncRNA-ENSMUST00000132181 (EN_181), were selected based on an absolute log2 fold change value of greater than 4, P-value < 0·01 and P-adjusted value < 0·01. Further qRT-PCR analysis showed the levels of lncRNA-NO_902·1, lncRNA-XR_798·1, and lncRNA-EN_181 were decreased by HFD but restored by NAC, consistent with the RNA sequencing. Finally, we constructed a ceRNA network containing lncRNA-EN_181, 3 miRNA, and 13 mRNA, which was associated with the NAC-ameliorated NAFLD. Overall, lncRNA-EN_181 might be a potential target in NAC-ameliorated NAFLD. This finding enhanced our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying the beneficial role of NAC.

In the design of the filter antenna, the filter unit with the same structure as the radiation patch not only improves the selectivity of the band edge, but also helps to improve the in-band impedance. In this design, a compact circular monopole filtering antenna with improved sideband selectivity and in-band impedance using a circular-stub-load resonator is proposed. To obtain better sideband selection characteristics and in-band impedance characteristics, and reduce the mismatch problem caused by the introduction of the filter, a branch-loaded filter with the same resonance mode as the antenna radiation patch is designed. In addition, different shape branch loading structures of the bandpass filter are also studied. The experimental results show that when the loading unit of the filter and the radiation structure of the antenna have the same structure, both good in-band impedance characteristics and sideband selectivity characteristics can be obtained from the filter antenna. The antenna reflection coefficient bandwidth is from 3 to 11 GHz (114%), and the maximum reflection coefficient is only −15 dB, showing good in-band impedance characteristics and sideband selection characteristics. The filter antenna realizes the integration of antenna filtering without increasing the size, and the final size of the antenna is 30 × 25 mm2.

To set the sleeping mode for the Yutu-2 rover, a visual pose prediction algorithm including terrain reconstruction and pose estimation was first studied. The terrain reconstruction precision is affected by using only the stereo navigation camera (Navcam) images and the rotation angles of the mast. However, the hazard camera (Hazcam) pose is fixed, and an image network was constructed by linking all of the Navcam and Hazcam stereoimages. Then, the Navcam pose was refined based on a multiview block bundle adjustment. The experimental results show that the mean absolute errors of the check points in the proposed algorithm were 10.4 mm over the range of $\boldsymbol{L}$ from 2.0 to 6.1 m, and the proposed algorithm achieved good prediction results for the rover pose (the average differences of the values of the pitch angle and the roll angle were −0.19 degrees and 0.29 degrees, respectively). Under the support of the proposed algorithm, engineers have completed the remote setting of the sleeping mode for Yutu-2 successfully in the Chang’e-4 mission operations.

This work numerically investigates the role of viscosity and resistivity in Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities in magnetized high-energy-density (HED) plasmas for a high Atwood number and high plasma beta regimes surveying across plasma beta and magnetic Prandtl numbers. The numerical simulations are performed using the visco-resistive magnetohydrodynamic equations. Results presented here show that the inclusion of self-consistent viscosity and resistivity in the system drastically changes the growth of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) as well as modifies its internal structure at smaller scales. It is seen here that the viscosity has a stabilizing effect on the RTI. Moreover, the viscosity inhibits the development of small-scale structures and also modifies the morphology of the tip of the RTI spikes. On the other hand, the resistivity reduces the magnetic field stabilization, supporting the development of small-scale structures. The morphology of the RTI spikes is seen to be unaffected by the presence of resistivity in the system. An additional novelty of this work is in the disparate viscosity and resistivity profiles that may exist in HED plasmas and their impact on RTI growth, morphology and the resulting turbulence spectra. Furthermore, this work shows that the dynamics of the magnetic field is independent of viscosity and likewise the resistivity does not affect the dissipation of enstrophy and kinetic energy. In addition, power law scalings of enstrophy, kinetic energy and magnetic field energy are provided in both the injection range and inertial sub-range, which could be useful for understanding RTI induced turbulent mixing in HED laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and could aid in the interpretation of observations of RTI-induced turbulence spectra.

Do language skills affect investment decisions? This article addresses this question by identifying the effect of English proficiency on the stock market participation of immigrants in the United States and Australia. To establish causality, we construct an instrumental variable for English proficiency by exploiting the phenomenon that younger children acquire languages more easily than older children. We find that English proficiency has a significant positive effect on stock ownership among immigrants in both countries. Moreover, we provide evidence that a reduction in information costs and an increase in trust may serve as the mechanisms underlying the language ability effect.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) is a cell surface receptor, belonging to the tyrosine kinase receptor superfamily. IGF1R plays a role not only in normal cell development but also in malignant transformation, which has become a candidate therapeutic target for the treatment of human cancer. This study aimed to explore insertions and deletions (indels) in IGF1R gene and investigate their association with growth traits in four Chinese cattle breeds (Xianan cattle, Jinnan cattle, Qinchuan cattle and Nanyang cattle). The current paper identified a 28-bp indel by polymerase chain reaction within IGF1R gene. The analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the locus and the hucklebone width of Nanyang cattle in four periods, in which it was highly correlated at 6, 12 and 18 months. At the age of 6 months, it was also significantly correlated with body height, body weight and body length. Association analysis showed that the locus in Jinnan cattle was extremely significantly correlated with body slanting length and body weight, and significantly correlated with chest circumference. There was no significant correlation between this locus and growth traits of Xianan cattle and Qinchuan cattle. The detected indel in the IGF1R gene was significantly associated with growth traits in Jinnan and Nanyang cattle, and could be used as a molecular marker for growth trait selection.