Based on 30 high-resolution U-Th dating controls, we reconstruct stalagmite δ18O records from 45 to 15 thousand years ago (ka B.P., before AD 1950) from the Shizhu Cave, which is located in southwestern China under the influence of both the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM). By integrating with the other stalagmite δ18O records in Asia during the middle to late last glacial, our results reveal two main moisture trajectories: one from the Indian Ocean, through the Shizhu Cave towards central China, and the other from the Pacific Ocean to central and northern China. The systematic decrease of the average values of stalagmite δ18O records from oceans to inland China reveals a spatial pattern of water vapour fractionation and moisture trajectory during the middle to late last glacial. In contrast, the variation amplitude, which is defined as the departures apart from the background δ18O records during Heinrich stadials 1 to 4 (HS1–HS4), show an increasing trend from the coastal oceans to mid-latitude inland China, presenting a ‘coastal-inland’ pattern, which can be interpreted by the enhanced East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) and the weakened EASM. More specifically, the enriched stalagmite δ18O records in the EASM region during HS1 to HS4 are caused by the decreased summer rainfall amount or/and the increased proportion of summer moisture resources from the Pacific Ocean. These new observations deepen our understanding of the complicated stalagmite δ18O records in the EASM region.

We study the dynamic interaction of two gravity currents in a confined porous layer, one heavier and one lighter, partly inspired by the practice of geological $\mathrm {CO}_2$ sequestration in oil fields. Two coupled nonlinear advective-diffusive equations are derived to describe the time evolution of the profile shape of both the upper (lighter) and lower (heavier) currents. At early times, the upper and lower currents remain separated and propagate independently. As time progresses, the currents approach each other and start to interact. We have identified eight different regimes of gravity current interaction at late times, impacted by four dimensionless parameters, representing the flow rate partition, ratio of buoyancy over the injection force, and the viscosity contrasts between the two injecting and displaced fluids. By defining appropriate similarity variables at either the early or late times, the governing partial differential equations (PDEs) reduce to different ordinary differential equations (ODEs), corresponding to the classic nonlinear diffusion solutions at early times and eight different self-similar solutions at late times when the currents attach to each other. It is of interest to note that in four of the eight regimes of late-time interaction (regimes 2, 6–8), self-similar solutions can be constructed by combining appropriately the three basic solutions (i.e. shock, rarefaction and travelling wave solutions) identified during single fluid injection in confined porous layers. In the four other regimes (regimes 1, 3–5), implicit solutions in the form of logarithm or error functions are obtained due to the influence of flow confinement and interaction of gravity currents. Potential implications of the model and solutions are also briefly discussed in the context of ${\rm CO}_2$-water co-flooding for simultaneous ${\rm CO}_2$ sequestration and oil recovery.

The efficient separation of hexane isomers from the light naphtha fraction is a significant challenge in the petrochemical industry. 5A zeolite adsorbent is used commercially to sieve alkane isomers. In this study, 5A zeolites were synthesized using a low-cost natural clay mineral precursor, i.e. palygorskite (PAL), with the addition of crystallization directing agent (CDA). By varying the mass ratio of CDA/deionized water, 5A zeolites were obtained as CDA-5%, CDA-7.5%, and CDA-10%. All products were submicron particles with an average particle size of 400–800 nm. A sieving test of CDA-induced 5A zeolites was carried out on hexane adsorbates including n-hexane (nHEX), 2-methylpentane (2MP), and 3-methylpentane (3MP). According to vapor-phase batch adsorption experiments, a significant equilibrium amount (0.149 g/g) of nHEX and only 0.0321 g/g 2MP and 0.0416 g/g 3MP were adsorbed on the 5A zeolite product with CDA-5%. The dynamic adsorption performance of 5A zeolite (CDA-5%) was evaluated by breakthrough curves of binary mixtures of nHEX/2MP and nHEX/3MP. Palygorskite 5A (PAL 5A) zeolite achieved maximum dynamic adsorption capacities of nHEX (0.16 g/g in both cases) at 200°C and 1.2 MPa total pressure. This work provided an economic alternative for the synthesis of 5A zeolites using natural clay minerals instead of chemical raw materials.

Background. We aimed to construct the lncRNA-associated competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network and distinguish feature lncRNAs associated with tendinopathy. Methods. We downloaded the gene profile of GSE26051 from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), including 23 normal samples and 23 diseased tendons. Differentially expressed mRNAs (DEmRNAs) and differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) were identified, and functional and pathway enrichment analyses were performed. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and further analyzed by module mining. Moreover, a ceRNA regulatory network was constructed based on the identified lncRNA–mRNA coexpression relationship pairs and miRNA–mRNA regulation pairs. Results. We identified 1117 DEmRNAs and 57 DElncRNAs from the GEO data. The downregulated DEmRNAs were particularly associated with muscle contraction and muscle filament, while the upregulated ones were linked to extracellular matrix organization and cell adhesion. From the PPI network, 11 modules were extracted. Genes in MCODE 2 (such as TPM4) were significantly involved in cardiomyopathy, and genes in MCODE 4 (such as COL4A3 and COL4A4) were involved in focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. The ceRNA network contained 7 lncRNAs (MIR133A1HG, LINC01405, PRKCQ-AS1, C10orf71-AS1, MBNL1-AS1, HOTAIRM1, and DNM3OS), 63 mRNAs, and 41 miRNAs. Downregulated lncRNA MIR133A1HG could competitively bind with hsa-miR-659-3p and hsa-miR-218-1-3p to regulate the TPM3. Meanwhile, MIR133A1HG could competitively bind with hsa-miR-1179 to regulate the COL4A3. Downregulated C10orf71-AS1 could competitively bind with hsa-miR-130a-5p to regulate the COL4A4. Conclusions. Seven important lncRNAs, particularly MIR133A1HG and C10orf71-AS1, were found associated with tendinopathy according to the lncRNA-associated ceRNA network.

SARS-CoV-2 rapidly spreads among humans via social networks, with social mixing and network characteristics potentially facilitating transmission. However, limited data on topological structural features has hindered in-depth studies. Existing research is based on snapshot analyses, preventing temporal investigations of network changes. Comparing network characteristics over time offers additional insights into transmission dynamics. We examined confirmed COVID-19 patients from an eastern Chinese province, analyzing social mixing and network characteristics using transmission network topology before and after widespread interventions. Between the two time periods, the percentage of singleton networks increased from 38.9$ \% $ to 62.8$ \% $$ (p<0.001) $; the average shortest path length decreased from 1.53 to 1.14 $ (p<0.001) $; the average betweenness reduced from 0.65 to 0.11$ (p<0.001) $; the average cluster size dropped from 4.05 to 2.72 $ (p=0.004) $; and the out-degree had a slight but nonsignificant decline from 0.75 to 0.63 $ (p=0.099). $ Results show that nonpharmaceutical interventions effectively disrupted transmission networks, preventing further disease spread. Additionally, we found that the networks’ dynamic structure provided more information than solely examining infection curves after applying descriptive and agent-based modeling approaches. In summary, we investigated social mixing and network characteristics of COVID-19 patients during different pandemic stages, revealing transmission network heterogeneities.

In this paper, we explore potential surplus modelling improvements by investigating how well the available models describe an insurance risk process. To this end, we obtain and analyse a real-life data set that is provided by an anonymous insurer. Based on our analysis, we discover that both the purchasing process and the corresponding claim process have seasonal fluctuations. Some special events, such as public holidays, also have impact on these processes. In the existing literature, the seasonality is often stressed in the claim process, while the cash inflow usually assumes simple forms. We further suggest a possible way of modelling the dependence between these two processes. A preliminary analysis of the impact of these patterns on the surplus process is also conducted. As a result, we propose a surplus process model which utilises a non-homogeneous Poisson process for premium counts and a Cox process for claim counts that reflect the specific features of the data.

The transport phenomena of dust particles have been widely observed in fusion plasmas. In this article, we report the observations of dust fragmentations in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). A dust particle splits into two daughter particles and their motions are recorded before and after the breakup with a fast video camera. The trajectories of the daughter particles in the experiment are consistent with equation-of-motion simulations. The stability of a rotating charged particle in the plasma is briefly discussed.

Electronic skin (e-skin) is playing an increasingly important role in health detection, robotic teleoperation, and human-machine interaction, but most e-skins currently lack the integration of on-site signal acquisition and transmission modules. In this paper, we develop a novel flexible wearable e-skin sensing system with 11 sensing channels for robotic teleoperation. The designed sensing system is mainly composed of three components: e-skin sensor, customized flexible printed circuit (FPC), and human-machine interface. The e-skin sensor has 10 stretchable resistors distributed at the proximal and metacarpal joints of each finger respectively and 1 stretchable resistor distributed at the purlicue. The e-skin sensor can be attached to the opisthenar, and thanks to its stretchability, the sensor can detect the bent angle of the finger. The customized FPC, with WiFi module, wirelessly transmits the signal to the terminal device with human-machine interface, and we design a graphical user interface based on the Qt framework for real-time signal acquisition, storage, and display. Based on this developed e-skin system and self-developed robotic multi-fingered hand, we conduct gesture recognition and robotic multi-fingered teleoperation experiments using deep learning techniques and obtain a recognition accuracy of 91.22%. The results demonstrate that the developed e-skin sensing system has great potential in human-machine interaction.

Maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) is an important determinant of infant birth weight, and having adequate total GWG has been widely recommended. However, the association of timing of GWG with birth weight remains controversial. We aimed to evaluate this association, especially among women with adequate total GWG. In a prospective cohort study, pregnant women’s weight was routinely measured during pregnancy, and their GWG was calculated for the ten intervals: the first 13, 14–18, 19–23, 24–28, 29–30, 31–32, 33–34, 35–36, 37–38 and 39–40 weeks. Birth weight was measured, and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) and large-for-gestational-age were assessed. Generalized linear and Poisson models were used to evaluate the associations of GWG with birth weight and its outcomes after multivariate adjustment, respectively. Of the 5049 women, increased GWG in the first 30 weeks was associated with increased birth weight for male infants, and increased GWG in the first 28 weeks was associated with increased birth weight for females. Among 1713 women with adequate total GWG, increased GWG percent between 14 and 23 weeks was associated with increased birth weight. Moreover, inadequate GWG between 14 and 23 weeks, compared with the adequate GWG, was associated with an increased risk of SGA (43 (13·7 %) v. 42 (7·2 %); relative risk 1·83, 95 % CI 1·21, 2·76). Timing of GWG may influence infant birth weight differentially, and women with inadequate GWG between 14 and 23 weeks may be at higher risk of delivering SGA infants, despite having adequate total GWG.

The subduction model of the Neo-Tethys during the Early Cretaceous has always been a controversial topic, and the scarcity of Early Cretaceous magmatic rocks in the southern part of the Gangdese batholith is the main cause of this debate. To address this issue, this article presents new zircon U–Pb chronology, zircon Hf isotope, whole-rock geochemistry and Sr–Nd isotope data for the Early Cretaceous quartz diorite dykes with adakite affinity in Liuqiong, Gongga. Zircon U–Pb dating of three samples yielded ages of c. 141–137 Ma, indicating that the Liuqiong quartz diorite was emplaced in the Early Cretaceous. The whole-rock geochemical analysis shows that the Liuqiong quartz diorite is enriched in large-ion lithophile elements (LILEs) and light rare-earth elements (LREEs) and is depleted in high-field-strength elements (HFSEs), which are related to slab subduction. Additionally, the Liuqiong quartz diorite has high SiO2, Al2O3 and Sr contents, high Sr/Y ratios and low heavy rare-earth element (HREE) and Y contents, which are compatible with typical adakite signatures. The initial 87Sr/86Sr values of the Liuqiong adakite range from 0.705617 to 0.705853, and the whole-rock ϵNd(t) values vary between +5.78 and +6.24. The zircon ϵHf(t) values vary from +11.5 to +16.4. Our results show that the Liuqiong adakite magma was derived from partial melting of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic plate (mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) + sediment + fluid), with some degree of subsequent peridotite interaction within the overlying mantle wedge. Combining regional data, we favour the interpretation that the Neo-Tethyan oceanic crust was subducted at a low angle beneath the Gangdese during the Early Cretaceous.

Demodex infestation and density changes remain one of the main challenges in some clinical settings. Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) inhibitors have been recommended as a first-line treatment for ankylosing spondylitis (AS). However, there have been no studies investigating the impact of TNF-α inhibitor adalimumab on changes in the Demodex density in patients with AS. The aim of this study was to investigate Demodex density changes before and after adalimumab treatment and analyse the relationship between the Demodex density and clinical characteristics in AS. It was found that the Demodex density was positively correlated with age and C-reactive protein levels and the number of Demodex mites could increase after adalimumab treatment in AS.

The optimization of laser pulse shapes is of great importance and a major challenge for laser direct-drive implosions. In this paper, we propose an efficient intelligent method to perform laser pulse optimization via hydrodynamic simulations guided by the genetic algorithm and random forest algorithm. Compared to manual optimizations, the machine-learning guided method is able to efficiently improve the areal density by a factor of 63% and reduce the in-flight-aspect ratio by a factor of 30% at the same time. A relationship between the maximum areal density and ion temperature is also achieved by the analysis of the big simulation dataset. This design method has been successfully demonstrated by the 2021 summer double-cone ignition experiments conducted at the SG-II upgrade laser facility and has great prospects for the design of other inertial fusion experiments.

The wheat aphid Sitobion miscanthi (CWA) is an important harmful pest in wheat fields. Insecticide application is the main method to effectively control wheat aphids. However, CWA has developed resistance to some insecticides due to its extensive application, and understanding resistance mechanisms is crucial for the management of CWA. In our study, a new P450 gene, CYP4CJ6, was identified from CWA and showed a positive response to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Transcription of CYP4CJ6 was significantly induced by both imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, and overexpression of CYP4CJ6 in the imidacloprid-resistant strain was also observed. The sensitivity of CWA to these two insecticides was increased after the knockdown of CYP4CJ6. These results indicated that CYP4CJ6 could be associated with CWA resistance to imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Subsequently, the posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism was assessed, and miR-316 was confirmed to participate in the posttranscriptional regulation of CYP4CJ6. These results are crucial for clarifying the roles of P450 in the resistance of CWA to insecticides.

Chronic inflammation exerts pleiotropic effects in the aetiology and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Glucosamine is widely used in many countries and may have anti-inflammatory properties. We aimed to prospectively evaluate the association of regular glucosamine use with incident COPD risk and explore whether such association could be modified by smoking in the UK Biobank cohort, which recruited more than half a million participants aged 40–69 years from across the UK between 2006 and 2010. Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for potential confounding factors were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) as well as 95 % CI for the risk of incident COPD. During a median follow-up of 8·96 years (interquartile range 8·29–9·53 years), 9016 new-onset events of COPD were documented. We found that the regular use of glucosamine was associated with a significantly lower risk of incident COPD with multivariable adjusted HR of 0·80 (95 % CI, 0·75, 0·85; P < 0·001). When subgroup analyses were performed by smoking status, the adjusted HR for the association of regular glucosamine use with incident COPD were 0·84 (0·73, 0·96), 0·84 (0·77, 0·92) and 0·71 (0·62, 0·80) among never smokers, former smokers and current smokers, respectively. No significant interaction was observed between glucosamine use and smoking status (P for interaction = 0·078). Incident COPD could be reduced by 14 % to 84 % through a combination of regular glucosamine use and smoking cessation.