The incorporation of trace metals into land snail shells may record the ambient environmental conditions, yet this potential remains largely unexplored. In this study, we analyzed modern snail shells (Cathaica sp.) collected from 16 sites across the Chinese Loess Plateau to investigate their trace metal compositions. Our results show that both the Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios exhibit minimal intra-shell variability and small inter-shell variability at individual sites. A significant positive correlation is observed between the shell Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios across the plateau, with higher values being recorded in the northwestern sites where less monsoonal rainfall is received. We propose that shell Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios, which record the composition of soil solution, may be controlled by the Rayleigh distillation in response to prior calcite precipitation. Higher rainfall amounts may lead to a lower degree of Rayleigh distillation and thus lower shell Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios. This is supported by the distinct negative correlation between summer precipitation and shell Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios, enabling us to reconstruct summer precipitation amounts using the Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios of Cathaica sp. shells. The potential application of these novel proxies may also be promising for other terrestrial mollusks living in the loess deposits globally.

Cavitation bubble pulsation and liquid jet loads are the main causes of hydraulic machinery erosion. Methods to weaken the load influences have always been hot topics of related research. In this work, a method of attaching a viscous layer to a rigid wall is investigated in order to reduce cavitation pulsations and liquid jet loads, using both numerical simulations and experiments. A multiphase flow model incorporating viscous effects has been developed using the Eulerian finite element method (EFEM), and experimental methods of a laser-induced bubble near the viscous layer attached on a rigid wall have been carefully designed. The effects of the initial bubble–wall distance, the thickness of the viscous layer, and the viscosity on bubble pulsation, migration and wall pressure load are investigated. The results show that the bubble migration distance, the normalised thickness of the oil layer and the wall load generally decrease with the initial bubble–wall distance or the oil-layer parameters. Quantitative analysis reveals that when the initial bubble–wall distance remains unchanged, there exists a demarcation line for the comparison of the bubble period and the reference period (the bubble period without viscous layer under the same initial bubble–wall distance), and a logarithmic relationship is observed that $\delta \propto \log_{10} \mu ^*$, where $\delta =h/R_{max}$ is the thickness of the viscous layer h normalised by the maximum bubble radius $R_{max}$, $\mu ^* = \mu /({R_{max }}\sqrt {{\rho }{{\mathop {P}\nolimits } _{{atm}}}})$ is the dynamic viscosity $\mu$ normalised by water density $ \rho $ and atmospheric pressure $P_{atm}$. The results of this paper can provide technical support for related studies of hydraulic cavitation erosion.

While there is evidence that childhood maltreatment (CM) is positively associated with drug use (DU), the strength and difference of the association between CM and its subtypes (hereafter CM + ST) and DU remains to be further explored. A multilevel meta-analysis was conducted on 101 independent studies reporting 333 effect sizes (N = 132,341; Mage = 24.65; 43.80%males). Results showed significantly positive correlations between CM + ST and DU (range from 0.109 to 0.185). The results of the subgroup analysis revealed notable disparities in the correlations between distinct CM subtypes and DU (F = 5.358, P<0.01). Specifically, the effect size for childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was significantly lower than childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) and childhood physical maltreatment (CPM), while no significant difference was noted between the CEM and CPM groups. These effect sizes also varied across regions, drug types, gender, detection rate of CM, the presence or absence of alcohol in substances, publication status and measurement method. The significant yet differing correlations between different subtypes of CM and DU to some extent support the principle of equality in psychopathology. These findings help explain the relationship between CM + ST and DU laying the groundwork for further research into the intricate and complex associations between CM and DU.

Objectives/Goals: Our study’s objective is to evaluate RadOnc-GPT, a GPT-4o powered LLM, in generating responses to in-basket messages related to prostate cancer treatment in the Radiation Oncology department. By integrating it with electronic health record (EHR) systems, the goal is to assess its impact on clinician workload, response quality, and efficiency in healthcare communication. Methods/Study Population: RadOnc-GPT was integrated with patient EHRs from both hospital-wide and radiation-oncology-specific databases. The study examined 158 pre-recorded in-basket message interactions from 90 non-metastatic prostate cancer patients. Quantitative natural language processing analysis and two randomized single-blinded grading studies, involving four clinicians and four nurses, were conducted to evaluate RadOnc-GPT’s response quality in completeness, correctness, clarity, empathy, and estimated editing time. Response times were measured to estimate the time saved for clinicians and nurses. The study population included patient messages across all phases of care (pre-, during, and post-treatment) for those undergoing radiotherapy. Results/Anticipated Results: In the single-blinded grader study, clinician graders evaluated 316 responses (158 from human care teams and 158 from RadOnc-GPT). Results showed RadOnc-GPT outperformed human responses in empathy and clarity, while humans excelled in completeness and correctness. Sentiment analyses using TextBlob and VADER revealed RadOnc-GPT responses had a positive mean score of 0.25, whereas human responses clustered around neutral. VADER analysis indicated a high median score for RadOnc-GPT, nearing 1.0, reflecting predominantly positive sentiment, while human responses displayed a broader sentiment range, indicating sensitivity to context. Clinicians averaged 3.60 minutes (SD 1.44) to respond, compared to 6.39 minutes (SD 4.05) for nurses, highlighting RadOnc-GPT’s efficiency in generating timely responses. Discussion/Significance of Impact: RadOnc-GPT effectively generated responses to individualized patient in-basket messages, comparable to those from radiation oncologists and nurses. While human oversight is still necessary to avoid errors, RadOnc-GPT can speed up response times and reduce pressure on care teams, shifting their role from drafting to reviewing responses.

This study explores an interesting fluid–structure interaction scenario: the flow past a flexible filament fixed at two ends. The dynamic performance of the filament under various inclination angles ($\theta$) was numerically investigated using the immersed boundary method. The motion of the filament in the $\theta$–$Lr$ space was categorised into three flapping modes and two stationary modes, where $Lr$ is the ratio of filament length to the distance between its two ends. The flow fields for each mode and their transitions were introduced. A more in-depth analysis was carried out for flapping at a large angle (FLA mode), which is widely present in the $\theta$–$Lr$ space. The maximum width $W$ of the time-averaged shape of the filament has been shown to strongly correlate with the flapping frequency. After non-dimensionalising based on $W$, the flapping frequency shows little variation across different $Lr$ and $\theta$. Moreover, two types of lift variation process were also identified. Finally, the total lift, drag and lift-to-drag ratio of the system were studied. Short filaments, such as those with $Lr\leqslant 1.5$, were shown to significantly increase lift and the lift-to-drag ratio over a wide range of $\theta$ compared with a rigid plate. Flow field analysis concluded that the increases in pressure difference on both sides of the filament, along with the upper part of the flexible filament having a normal direction closer to the $y$ direction, were the primary reasons for the increase in lift and lift-to-drag ratio. This study can provide some guidance for the potential applications of flexible structures.

Machine learning (ML) models have been developed to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to accelerate systematic reviews (SRs). However, their use has been limited due to concerns about their performance and practical benefits. We developed a high-recall ensemble learning model using Cochrane RCT data to enhance the identification of RCTs for rapid title and abstract screening in SRs and evaluated the model externally with our annotated RCT datasets. Additionally, we assessed the practical impact in terms of labour time savings and recall improvement under two scenarios: ML-assisted double screening (where ML and one reviewer screened all citations in parallel) and ML-assisted stepwise screening (where ML flagged all potential RCTs, and at least two reviewers subsequently filtered the flagged citations). Our model achieved twice the precision compared to the existing SVM model while maintaining a recall of 0.99 in both internal and external tests. In a practical evaluation with ML-assisted double screening, our model led to significant labour time savings (average 45.4%) and improved recall (average 0.998 compared to 0.919 for a single reviewer). In ML-assisted stepwise screening, the model performed similarly to standard manual screening but with average labour time savings of 74.4%. In conclusion, compared with existing methods, the proposed model can reduce workload while maintaining comparable recall when identifying RCTs during the title and abstract screening stages, thereby accelerating SRs. We propose practical recommendations to effectively apply ML-assisted manual screening when conducting SRs, depending on reviewer availability (ML-assisted double screening) or time constraints (ML-assisted stepwise screening).

This study aims to assess the therapeutic effects of probiotic oral therapy in paediatric patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and to investigate its impact on intestinal flora composition, brain–gut peptide levels and overall clinical outcomes. A retrospective study was conducted involving 100 children diagnosed with AN at Xingtang County People’s Hospital between January 2023 and June 2024. Patients were divided into two groups: a control group (n 50) receiving zinc gluconate oral solution alone and an observation group (n 50) receiving zinc gluconate plus probiotics. Outcome measures included intestinal flora analysis, brain–gut peptide levels (somatostatin (SS) and nitric oxide (NO)), clinical efficacy, serum trace element levels (Ca, Zn and Fe) and prognosis, including recurrence rates 6 months post-treatment. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups (P > 0·05). After treatment, the observation group showed significantly higher levels of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus and lower levels of Enterobacter compared with the control group (P < 0·05). Additionally, the observation group had lower levels of SS and NO (P < 0·05), indicating improved brain–gut communication. Clinical efficacy was significantly higher in the observation group (P < 0·05), with improved serum trace element levels (P < 0·05 for Ca, Zn and Fe). Furthermore, the recurrence rate 6 months post-treatment was significantly lower in the observation group compared with the control group (P < 0·05). Probiotic supplementation in children with AN effectively modulates intestinal flora, improves brain–gut peptide levels and enhances clinical outcomes.

Broadband frequency-tripling pulses with high energy are attractive for scientific research, such as inertial confinement fusion, but are difficult to scale up. Third-harmonic generation via nonlinear frequency conversion, however, remains a trade-off between bandwidth and conversion efficiency. Based on gradient deuterium deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDxH2-xPO4, DKDP) crystal, here we report the generation of frequency-tripling pulses by rapid adiabatic passage with a low-coherence laser driver facility. The efficiency dependence on the phase-matching angle in a Type-II configuration is studied. We attained an output at 352 nm with a bandwidth of 4.4 THz and an efficiency of 36%. These results, to the best of our knowledge, represent the first experimental demonstration of gradient deuterium DKDP crystal in obtaining frequency-tripling pulses. Our research paves a new way for developing high-efficiency, large-bandwidth frequency-tripling technology.

Aircraft with bio-inspired flapping wings that are operated in low-density atmospheric environments encounter unique challenges associated with the low density. The low density results in the requirement of high operating velocities of aircraft to generate sufficient lift resulting in significant compressibility effects. Here, we perform numerical simulations to investigate the compressibility effects on the lift generation of a bio-inspired wing during hovering flight using an immersed boundary method. The aim of this study is to develop a scaling law to understand how the lift is influenced by the Reynolds and Mach numbers, and the associated flow physics. Our simulations have identified a critical Mach number of approximately $0.6$ defined by the average wing-tip velocity. When the Mach number is lower than 0.6, compressibility does not have significant effects on the lift or flow fields, while when the Mach number is greater than $0.6$, the lift coefficient decreases linearly with increasing Mach number, due to the drastic change in the pressure on the wing surface caused by unsteady shock waves. Moreover, the decay rate is dependent on the Reynolds number and the angle of attack. Based on these observations, we propose a scaling law for the lift of a hovering flapping wing by considering compressible and viscous effects, with the scaled lift showing excellent collapse.

We demonstrated a high-power, high-energy regenerative amplifier (RA) based on Yb-doped CaGdAlO4 (Yb:CALGO) crystal, which achieves a maximum average power exceeding 50 W at a repetition rate greater than 50 kHz, and a maximum pulse energy of approximately 7 mJ at a repetition rate of up to 5 kHz. After compression, 130 fs pulses with a peak power of nearly 45 GW are achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the highest average power and pulse energy reported for a Yb:CALGO RA. The RA cavity is specifically designed to maintain excellent stability and output beam quality under a pumping power of 380 W, resulting in a continuous-wave output power exceeding 70 W. For the seeder, a fiber laser utilizing a nonlinear amplification process, which yields a broadband spectrum to support approximately 80 fs pulses, is employed for the high-peak-power pulse generation.

Time-domain characterization of ultrashort pulses is essential for studying interactions between light and matter. Here, we propose and demonstrate an all-optical pulse sampling technique based on reflected four-wave mixing with perturbation on a solid surface. In this method, a weak perturbation pulse perturbs the four-wave mixing signal generated by a strong fundamental pulse. The modulation signal of the four-wave mixing, which is detected in the reflection geometry to ensure a perfect phase-matching condition, directly reflects the temporal profile of the perturbation pulse. We successfully characterized multi-cycle and few-cycle pulses using this method. The reliability of our approach was verified by comparing it to the widely employed frequency-resolved optical gating method. This technique provides a simple and robust method for characterizing ultrashort laser pulses.

A high-energy pulsed vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) solid-state laser at 177 nm with high peak power by the sixth harmonic of a neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) amplifier in a KBe2BO3F2 prism-coupled device was demonstrated. The ultraviolet (UV) pump laser is a 352 ps pulsed, spatial top-hat super-Gaussian beam at 355 nm. A high energy of a 7.12 mJ VUV laser at 177 nm is obtained with a pulse width of 255 ps, indicating a peak power of 28 MW, and the conversion efficiency is 9.42% from 355 to 177 nm. The measured results fitted well with the theoretical prediction. It is the highest pulse energy and highest peak power ever reported in the VUV range for any solid-state lasers. The high-energy, high-peak-power, and high-spatial-uniformity VUV laser is of great interest for ultra-fine machining and particle-size measurements using UV in-line Fraunhofer holography diagnostics.

This study aimed to demonstrate the utilization value of 1PN embryos. The 1PN zygotes collected from December 2021 to September 2022 were included in this study. The embryo development, the pronuclear characteristics, and the genetic constitutions were investigated. The overall blastocyst formation and good-quality blastocyst rates in 1PN zygotes were 22.94 and 16.24%, significantly lower than those of 2PN zygotes (63.25 and 50.23%, respectively, P = 0.000). The pronuclear characteristics were found to be correlated with the developmental potential. When comparing 1PN zygotes that developed into blastocysts to those that arrested, the former exhibited a significantly larger area (749.49 ± 142.77 vs. 634.00 ± 119.05, P = 0.000), a longer diameter of pronuclear (29.81 ± 3.08 vs. 27.30 ± 3.00, P = 0.000), and a greater number of nucleolar precursor body (NPB) (11.56 ± 3.84 vs. 7.19 ± 2.73, P = 0.000). Among the tested embryos, the diploidy euploidy rate was significantly higher in blastocysts in comparison with the arrested embryos (66.67 vs. 11.76%, P = 0.000), which was also significantly higher in IVF-1PN blastocysts than in ICSI-1PN blastocysts (75.44 vs. 25.00%, P = 0.001). However, the pronuclear characteristics were not found to be linked to the chromosomal ploidy once they formed blastocysts.

In summary, while the developmental potential of 1PN zygotes is reduced, our study shows that, in addition to the reported pronuclear area and diameter, the number of NPB is also associated with their developmental potential. The 1PN blastocysts exhibit a high diploidy euploidy rate, are recommend to be clinically used post genetic testing, especially for patients who do not have other 2PN embryos available.

A recent study published in Oryx proposed that the extinct Javan tiger Panthera tigris sondaica may still survive on the Island of Java, Indonesia, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis of a single hair sample collected from a location where a tiger was reportedly encountered. However, upon reanalysing the genetic data presented in that study, we conclude that there is little support for this claim. The sequences of the putative tiger hair and Javan tiger museum specimens generated are not from tiger cytoplasmic mitochondrial DNA but more likely the nuclear pseudogene copies of mitochondrial DNA. In addition, the number of mismatches between the two Javan tiger sequences is unusually high for homologous sequences that are both from tigers, suggesting potential issues with data reliability. The paper provides insufficient details on quality control measures, making it impossible to rule out the possibility that errors were introduced during the analysis. Consequently, it is inappropriate to use the sequences presented in that study to infer the existence of the Javan tiger.