To solve the problem of the leakage of phase-change materials and expand the application of clay minerals in the field of phase-change materials, illite and paraffin wax were used for the first time as a new binary hybrid core material with silica as the wall material. Phase-change microcapsules were prepared using the sol–gel method and successfully applied in silicone rubber foams. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the microcapsules had a melting temperature of 62.99°C and a latent heat capacity of 98.24 J g–1, indicating their good heat-storage capacity. Furthermore, the effectiveness of using illite as a filler for preventing paraffin leakage was demonstrated through 200 thermal cycling tests, which demonstrated a leakage rate of only 2.6% compared to 3.2% exhibited by microcapsules without illite.

Dietary antioxidant indices (DAI) may be potentially associated with relative telomere length (RTL) of leucocytes. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between DAI and RTL. A cross-sectional study involving 1656 participants was conducted. A generalised linear regression model and a restricted cubic spline model were used to assess the correlation of DAI and its components with RTL. Generalised linear regression analysis revealed that DAI (β = 0·005, P = 0·002) and the intake of its constituents vitamin C (β = 0·043, P = 0·027), vitamin E (β = 0·088, P < 0·001), Se (β = 0·075, P = 0·003), and Zn (β = 0·075, P = 0·023) were significantly and positively correlated with RTL. Sex-stratified analysis showed that DAI (β = 0·006, P = 0·005) and its constituents vitamin E (β = 0·083, P = 0·012), Se (β = 0·093, P = 0·006), and Zn (β = 0·092, P = 0·034) were significantly and positively correlated with RTL among females. Meanwhile, among males, only vitamin E intake (β = 0·089, P = 0·013) was significantly and positively associated with RTL. Restricted cubic spline analysis revealed linear positive associations between DAI and its constituents’ (vitamin E, Se and Zn) intake and RTL in the total population. Sex-stratified analysis revealed a linear positive correlation between DAI and its constituents’ (vitamin E, Se and Zn) intake and RTL in females. Our study found a significant positive correlation between DAI and RTL, with sex differences.

This article analyses recent archaeological work on the flow of materials and their influences on the communities in the South China Sea maritime regions, primarily from a local, Taiwanese perspective. The intertwined Austronesian Routes and maritime Silk Road acted as the primary conduit for the movement of both people and materials. Archaeological findings demonstrate intermittent interaction and cultural exchange between Taiwan and the regions around the South China Sea during the period 1,500-500 BCE. However, starting from 500 BCE, the gradual increase of glass beads, agate beads, and metal products which were made in mainland Southeast Asia and adjacent regions indicate an intensified interaction between Taiwan and Southeast Asia via the Maritime Silk Road and the Austronesian Routes. The author hypothesizes that trade diasporic craftspeople were the carriers of these exotic materials and knowledge, and that external cultural elements had a profound impact on the development of contemporary prehistoric Formosan society. This can be seen most notably in the shifting of decoration systems, the changing methods of subsistence, and technological leaps. Some of the impacts have faded into the archaeological records, but others are still traceable in the modern Indigenous society of Taiwan.

This paper presents an optimization method for pattern synthesis of distorted phased array antenna with unsteady surface deformation considering the dynamic range ratio (DRR). In the synthesis approach, different array deformations under unsteady mechanical loads are considered, and the distorted distribution of array elements is calculated after solving the mechanical deformation model. Then, optimize the excitation coefficients of each array element including amplitude and phase with DRR control so as to recover a high-quality pattern from a deteriorated pattern caused by the unsteady deformations. The optimization objective is to minimize the peak sidelobe level, which is synthesized by using a gradient-based algorithm. The optimized excitations can be used as the initial excitation, and the corresponding phase excitations can be derived according to the different deformations.

Palmitoyl-protein thioesterase (PPT), involved in the fatty acid synthesis and the de-palmitoylation of protein, was induced under ecological cooling treatment in hydrated lettuce seeds. However, there was no significant difference in fatty acid levels between the control and the cooled samples. To further study the function of PPT, 2-bromopalmitic acid (2-Bp), an inhibitor of protein palmitoylation, was applied during the imbibition of hydrated lettuce seeds, which was followed by slow-cooling treatment (−3°C h−1). The application of 2-Bp (1 mM) significantly increased the survival rate of seeds from 6.70% (control imbibition) to 22.67% (2-Bp imbibition) after slow cooling to −20°C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis indicated that 2-Bp led to earlier onset of ice crystals in the endosperm than the control group. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2D) confirmed that 2-Bp could promote the hydrolysis of seed globulins and the accumulation of globulin peptides with small molecular weights. High-efficiency hydrolysis of globulin induced by mercaptoethanol improved the freezing tolerance of hydrated lettuce seeds and led to the accumulation of small globulin peptides, which further proved the positive function of small globulin polypeptides in enhancing the freezing tolerance of hydrated lettuce seeds. DSC of small globulin peptides showed that the smaller the molecular weight, the earlier the appearance of ice crystals and the higher the enthalpy of heat release. For the smallest peptides, the 2-Bp-4 in 2-Bp group exhibited higher enthalpy in exothermic peak than the control group (c-4). In conclusion, the hydrolysis of seed globulins and accumulation of small-molecule globulin peptides could be the major reason for improving the freezing tolerance of hydrated seeds after de-palmitoylation treatment.

Rodents and shrews are major reservoirs of various pathogens that are related to zoonotic infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate co-infections of zoonotic pathogens in rodents and shrews trapped in four provinces of China. We sampled different rodent and shrew communities within and around human settlements in four provinces of China and characterised several important zoonotic viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens by PCR methods and phylogenetic analysis. A total of 864 rodents and shrews belonging to 24 and 13 species from RODENTIA and EULIPOTYPHLA orders were captured, respectively. For viral pathogens, two species of hantavirus (Hantaan orthohantavirus and Caobang orthohantavirus) were identified in 3.47% of rodents and shrews. The overall prevalence of Bartonella spp., Anaplasmataceae, Babesia spp., Leptospira spp., Spotted fever group Rickettsiae, Borrelia spp., and Coxiella burnetii were 31.25%, 8.91%, 4.17%, 3.94%, 3.59%, 3.47%, and 0.58%, respectively. Furthermore, the highest co-infection status of three pathogens was observed among Bartonella spp., Leptospira spp., and Anaplasmataceae with a co-infection rate of 0.46%. Our results suggested that species distribution and co-infections of zoonotic pathogens were prevalent in rodents and shrews, highlighting the necessity of active surveillance for zoonotic pathogens in wild mammals in wider regions.

Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) is a globally distributed noxious weed that poses a significant challenge for control due to its fast and efficient propagation through the tuber, which is the primary reproductive organ. Gibberellic acid (GA3) has proven to be crucial for tuberization in tuberous plants. Therefore, understanding the relationship between GA3 and tuber development and propagation of C. rotundus will provide valuable information for controlling this weed. This study shows that the GA3 content decreases with tuber development, which corresponds to lower expression of bioactive GA3 synthesis genes (CrGA20ox, two CrGA3ox genes) and two upregulated GA3 catabolism genes (CrGA2ox genes), indicating that GA3 is involved in tuber development. Simultaneously, the expression of two CrDELLA genes and CrGID1 declines with tuber growth and decreased GA3, and yeast two-hybrid assays confirm that the GA3 signaling is DELLA-dependent. Furthermore, exogenous application of GA3 markedly reduces the number and the width of tubers and represses the growth of the tuber chain, further confirming the negative impact that GA3 has on tuber development and propagation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that GA3 is involved in tuber development and regulated by the DELLA-dependent pathway in C. rotundus and plays a negative role in tuber development and propagation.

Aging plays a crucial role in the mechanisms of the impacts of genetic and environmental factors on blood pressure and serum lipids. However, to our knowledge, how the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the correlation between blood pressure and serum lipids changes with age remains to be determined. In this study, data from the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) were used. Resting blood pressure, including systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), and fasting serum lipids, including total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TGs) were measured in 2378 participants (1189 twin pairs). Univariate and bivariate structural equation models examined the genetic and environmental influences on blood pressure and serum lipids among three age groups. All phenotypes showed moderate to high heritability (0.37–0.59) and moderate unique environmental variance (0.30–0.44). The heritability of all phenotypes showed a decreasing trend with age. Among all phenotypes, SBP and DBP showed a significant monotonic decreasing trend. For phenotype-phenotype pairs, the phenotypic correlation (Rph) of each pair ranged from −0.04 to 0.23, and the additive genetic correlation (Ra) ranged from 0.00 to 0.36. For TC&SBP, TC&DBP, TG&SBP and TGs&DBP, both the Rph and Ra declined with age, and the Ra difference between the young group and the older adult group is statistically significant (p < .05). The unique environmental correlation (Re) of each pair did not follow any pattern with age and remained relatively stable with age. In summary, we observed that the heritability of blood pressure was affected by age. Moreover, blood pressure and serum lipids shared common genetic backgrounds, and age had an impact on the phenotypic correlation and genetic correlations.

To be successfully used in daily life situations, exoskeletons should be effective across multimodal scenarios, including walking on various terrains, and transitions between locomotion modes such as walking-to-stop. Correct continuous gait phase estimation is essential for high-level walking assistance control. Despite the impressive advances in gait phase estimation for a variety of locomotion modes, transition gait phase estimation is rarely researched, leading to the jittering of exoskeletons during walking-to-stop transitions. We propose an optimized phase oscillator (PO-opt) that estimates the gait phase correctly during transition gaits in multimodal locomotion, which is beneficial to eliminating the jittering. In the phase plane, a lateral axis extreme difference (LAED) is adopted to classify transition gaits. The threshold of LAED for transition gaits in multimodal locomotion was preliminarily determined by simulation, which was then applied and validated in experiments. Simulation results indicated that a threshold of 15.0 was suitable for transition gaits classification during treadmill walking, free walking, and ramp ascent/descent, while results of the experiment showed that a threshold between 6.5 and 10.5 was applicable for treadmill walking, free walking, and stair ascent/descent. In particular, the jittering elimination rates for 3, 4, and 5 km/h treadmill walking were improved from 29%, 21%, and 4% (PO model) to 100%, respectively, when the threshold of LAED was set at 15.0 in PO-opt model. The results indicated a significant increase in the rate of jittering elimination when the PO-opt model was applied. The model holds great promise in real-world applications for prostheses and other types of exoskeletons.

For the large redundant manipulator, due to its long working distance and large mass, the number of links (i.e., manipulator’s arms) that can be driven to move simultaneously is limited. Otherwise, the control accuracy and motion stability of the manipulator will deteriorate. Focusing on that, a weighted Newton iteration (WNI) algorithm for trajectory planning of the manipulator is firstly proposed, where the motion of the manipulator joints is controlled by a weight matrix, which is constant and related to each link’s energy consumption. To dynamically adjust the weight matrix according to kinematic constraints and acquire better energy efficiency, an adaptive WNI (AWNI) algorithm is further proposed. In AWNI, the weight matrix is adjusted in real-time during the planning process, with considerations of the kinematic constraints and the energy consumption of the manipulator. The switch of the links between the working state and the non-working state is made through the weight matrix to achieve flexible control of the manipulator motion. Two evaluation functions are established to validate the effectiveness of AWNI in energy saving and motion stability control. Taking a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) manipulator as an example, simulation experiments on trajectory planning are carried out and the results show the effectiveness of the proposed AWNI algorithm.

To comprehensively study the physical properties of inductively coupled plasma (ICP), a finite element method (FEM) simulation model of ICP is developed using the well-established COMSOL software. To benchmark the validation of the FEM model, two key physical parameters, the electron density and the electron temperature of the ICP plasma, are precisely measured by the state-of-the-art laser Thomson scattering diagnostic approach. For low-pressure plasma such as ICP, the local pressure in the generator tube is difficult to measure directly. The local gas pressure in the ICP tube has been calibrated by comparing the experimental and simulation results of the maximum electron density. And on this basis, the electron density and electron temperature of ICP under the same gas pressure and absorbed power have been compared by experiments and simulations. The good agreement between the experimental and simulation data of these two key physical parameters fully verifies the validity of the ICP FEM simulation model. The experimental verification of the ICP FEM simulation model lays a foundation for further study of the distribution of various physical quantities and their variation with pressure and absorption power, which is beneficial for improving the level of ICP-related processes.

The interpretation and understanding of the relationship between Middle to Late Holocene climate change in monsoon margins of northwest China with the westerlies and Asian monsoon (AM) remain controversial. Here we present a new multi-proxy sedimentary dataset from the Heihe River basin in the middle part of the Hexi Corridor on the northern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which is a sensitive zone for the interaction between the westerlies and AM. Fluctuations in grain size, δ13Corg, δ18O, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and C/N ratio document regional lake and climate evolution since 5334 cal yr BP. Results show that climate conditions on the millennial timescale are humid in the late Middle Holocene (MH) and dry to wet in the Late Holocene (LH). Combined with the multi-model ensemble simulation from PMIP3-CMIP5, high lake levels and wetter climate in the late MH are closely linked to the strengthening Asian summer monsoon. Simultaneously, the slight wetting trend since the late LH may be the superimposing effect of enhanced westerlies and the weakening Asian winter monsoon. These findings can provide insights into the interpretation of the interaction between the westerlies and AM during the Holocene in East Asia.

Folate, also known as vitamin B9, is a water-soluble vitamin. Previous studies on dietary folate intake in severe headache patients were equivocal. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional study to elucidate the relationship between folate intake and severe headache. This cross-sectional study used data from participants over 20 years old who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2004. The diagnosis of severe headache was made through participants’ self-report in the NHANES questionnaire section. We performed multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression to explore the relationship between folate intake and severe headache. A total of 9859 participants took part in the study, 1965 of whom were severe headache patients and the rest were non-severe headache. We found that dietary folate intake was significantly and inversely associated with severe headache. Compared with participants with lower folate intake Q1 (≤ 229·97 ug/d), the adjusted OR values for dietary folate intake and severe headache in Q2 (229·98–337 ug/d), Q3 (337·01–485 ug/d) and Q4 (≥ 485·01 ug/d) were 0·81 (95 % CI: 0·67, 0·98, P = 0·03), 0·93 (95 % CI: 0·77, 1·12, P = 0·41) and 0·63 (95 % CI: 0·49, 0·80, P < 0·001), respectively. For women aged 20–50 years, there was a non-linear association between folate intake and severe headache in the RCS. Women aged 20–50 years should have higher awareness of dietary folate and increase their dietary intake of folate, which may aid in preventing severe headache.

Maritime cybersecurity has attracted increasing attention in industrial and academic scope, which may be relevant to the increasing cyber-incidents in the maritime shipping industry. This paper presents a critical review of publications related to cybersecurity in the maritime transportation industry, to explore the current research status and gaps, as wells as to guide new probe avenues by employing bibliometric approaches. With the advantage of bibliometric methods, the research focus and evolution are conformed and visualised. Representative papers are reviewed together to demonstrate maritime cyber-threats recognition and categories, as well as potential consequence assessment and risk mitigation actions recommendation. This paper also created a detailed database that is comprised of attack form, occurring time, targets, purpose, as well as potential results and cost, which has been included in the Appendix and is fully portable and extendible.

The dynamics of compound drops impacting on a flat substrate is numerically investigated using a ternary-fluid diffuse-interface method, with the aim of assessing the effect of a density difference between the inner and outer droplets (denoted by $\lambda$) on the evolution of the interfaces. With the help of numerical simulations, we find that, at the intermediate stage of drop impact, the inner droplet exhibits a self-similar deformation at $\lambda =1$ and relatively high Weber number, and experiences more or less a uniform acceleration for various $\lambda$. In particular, the acceleration magnitude at $\lambda \ne 1$ can be correlated with the acceleration at $\lambda =1$ and the Atwood number. When the inner droplet is denser than the outer one, a lamella occurs at the spreading front of the inner droplet. We present a scaling analysis of the thickness of the lamella, and the resultant theoretical prediction is in good agreement with numerical results. At the maximal spreading of the compound drop, a bulging structure is formed around the symmetry axis due to the presence of the inner droplet, thereby effectively reducing the liquid supply to the spreading front and leading to a decrease of maximal spreading ratio $\beta _{max}$ as compared with a pure drop. We proposed a corrected Weber number $We^*_\lambda$ by taking account of the combined effects of $\lambda$, volume fraction of the inner droplet, Weber number and morphology of the compound drop. Integrating $We^*_\lambda$ with the universal model of $\beta _{max}$ for impacting pure drops, we successfully build up a new model for predicting the maximal spreading ratio of impacting compound drops with various $\lambda$.