Studies on the evolution of characteristics and dynamic mechanisms of dry/wet status in global arid regions are contradictory. We systematically assessed the evolution and drivers of dry/wet status in global arid regions from a paleoclimate perspective using observational datasets, paleoclimate records, and climate model simulations from Paleoclimate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 4 (PMIP4)-Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) and PMIP3-CMIP5. Our results show that climate change during the last glacial maximum (LGM) provides a reverse analog for the near-future climate in global arid regions. The notable migration of the subtropical high during the LGM profoundly altered the atmospheric circulation and influenced dry/wet status in global arid regions. The multimodel ensembles project that under the shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) 8.5 scenario, nonuniform heating induced by polar-amplified warming will introduce northward migration of the subtropical high. The resulting reduction in subtropical precipitation will lead to expansion of global arid regions under global warming, which is consistent with previous studies based on atmospheric aridity.

Spatial optimal responses to both inlet disturbances and harmonic external forcing for hypersonic flows over a blunt cone at non-zero angles of attack are obtained by efficiently solving the direct–adjoint equations with a parabolic approach. In either case, the most amplified disturbances initially take the form of localised streamwise vortices on the windward side and will undergo a two-stage evolution process when propagating downstream: they first experience a substantial algebraic growth by exploiting the Orr and lift-up mechanisms, and then smoothly transition to a quasi-exponential growth stage driven by the crossflow-instability mechanism, accompanied by an azimuthal advection of the disturbance structure towards the leeward side. The algebraic growth phase is most receptive to the external forcing, whereas the exponential growth stage relies on the disturbance frequency and can be significantly strengthened by increasing the angle of attack. The wavemaker delineating the structural sensitivity region for the optimal gain is shown to lie on the windward side immediately downstream of the inlet, implying a potent control strategy. Additionally, considerable non-modal growth is also observed for broadband high-frequency disturbances residing in the entropy layer.

Dusty plasmas typically contain various species of dust particles, though most studies have focused on homogeneous systems. This paper investigates the propagation of dust acoustic waves in an inhomogeneous dusty plasma with an interface, analysing how plasma inhomogeneity influences wave behaviour. Using scattering and reductive perturbation methods, we show that both transmitted and reflected waves depend strongly on the mass ratio between regions. Dust acoustic waves cannot propagate through a dust lattice when the wavelength is smaller than the lattice constant. At a discontinuous interface, at least one transmitted solitary wave is generated, with its amplitude determined by the mass ratio, while at most one reflected solitary wave can exist. These results underscore the critical role of the mass ratio in wave propagation and suggest a method for estimating dust particle masses and properties by analysing the incident, transmitted and reflected waves.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and coronary heart disease (CHD) can both cause significant morbidity and mortality. The association of MDD and CHD has long been identified, but the mechanisms still require further investigation. Seven mRNA microarray datasets containing samples from patients with MDD and CHD were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus. Combined matrixes of MDD and CAD were constructed for subsequent analysis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Functional enrichment analyses based on shared DEGs were conducted to identify pivotal pathways. A protein-protein network was also applied to further investigate the functional interaction. Results showed that 24 overlapping genes were identified. Enrichment analysis indicated that the shared genes are mainly associated with immune function and ribosome biogenesis. The functional interactions of shared genes were also demonstrated by PPI network analysis. In addition, three hub genes including MMP9, S100A8, and RETN were identified. Our results indicate that MDD and CHD have a genetic association. Genes relevant to immune function, especially IL-17 signalling pathway may be involved in the pathogenesis of MDD and CHD.

Cleavers, an annual or winter annual broadleaf weed in the Rubiaceae family, has become troublesome in the wheat fields of the Huang-Huai-Hai region in China due to its herbicide resistance. In North America the common name of the plant is stickwilly; in China it known as cleavers. Four populations of cleavers (JS-15, SD-10, JS-22, and AH-20) were collected from wheat fields in Jiangsu, Shandong, and Anhui provinces, where the plant was not being controlled with applications of florasulam. The aims of this study were to identify the herbicide resistance patterns and investigate the mechanism underlying florasulam resistance. Whole-plant dose-response experiments revealed a notable variation in the degree of resistance exhibited by three specific populations toward florasulam, in comparison to the most sensitive population (S and AH-9), with the highest resistance index reaching 841.4. A gene-sequencing assay for acetolactate synthase (ALS) found that plants that were resistant to ALS from the JS-15, JS-22, and AH-20 populations had a Trp-574-Leu mutation, while no known ALS resistance mutations were discovered in SD-10 plants. In vitro ALS enzyme activity assays also indicated that the extractable ALS from JS-15, JS-22, and AH-20 plants was greatly resistant to florasulam relative to plants that are susceptible. Additionally, according to the resistance rating system, all resistant populations were susceptible to carfentrazone-ethyl + MCPA-sodium and bipyrazone + fluroxypyr-methyl. AH-20, JS-15, and JS-22 exhibited resistance to selected ALS, 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD), and photosystem II (PS II) complex inhibitors, demonstrating RR and RRR resistance profiles, whereas AH-9 displayed sensitivity to virtually all tested agents. The SD-10 population, on the other hand, exhibited RR and RRR resistance to HPPD and PS II inhibitors, and sensitivity to tribenuron-methyl. These findings indicate that a target site–based mechanism drives resistance to the ALS inhibitor florasulam in populations of cleavers, but nontarget site resistance may also have contributed to resistance, but this was not investigated. Other herbicides with different sites of action were tested and were active against cleavers.

Reducing drag under high turbulence is a critical but challenging issue that has engendered great concern. This study utilizes hydrophilic tips in superhydrophobic (SHP) grooves to enhance the stability of plastron, which results in a considerable drag reduction ($DR$) up to 62 %, at Reynolds number ($Re$) reaching $2.79 \times 10^{4}$. The effect of the spacing width $w$ of the microgrooves on both $DR$ and flow structures is investigated. Experimental results demonstrate that $DR$ increases as either microgroove spacing $w$ or $Re$ increases. The velocity fields obtained using particle image velocimetry indicate that the air-filled SHP grooves induce a considerable wall slip. This slip significantly weakens the intensity of Taylor rolls, reduces local momentum transport, and consequently lowers drag. This phenomenon becomes more pronounced with increasing $w$. Furthermore, to quantify the multiscale relationship between global response and geometrical as well as driving parameters, $DR\sim (w, \phi _s, Re)$, a theoretical model is established based on angular momentum defect theory and magnitude estimate. It is demonstrated that a decrease in the surface solid fraction can reduce wall shear, and an increase in the groove width can weaken turbulence kinetic energy production, rendering enhanced slip and drag reduction. This research has implications for designing and optimizing turbulent-drag-reducing surfaces in various engineering applications, such as transportation and marine engineering.

The AIMTB rapid test assay is an emerging test, which adopted a fluorescence immunochromatographic assay to measure interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production following stimulation of effector memory T cells in whole blood by mycobacterial proteins. The aim of this article was to explore the ability of AIMTB rapid test assay in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection compared with the widely applied QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) test among rural doctors in China. In total, 511 participants were included in the survey. The concordance between the QFT-Plus test and the AIMTB rapid test assay was 94.47% with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient (κ) of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79–0.90). Improved concordance between the two tests was observed in males and in participants with 26 or more years of service as rural doctors. The quantitative values of the QFT-Plus test was higher in individuals with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB+ as compared to those with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB- (p < 0.001). Overall, our study found that there was an excellent consistency between the AIMTB rapid test assay and the QFT-Plus test in a Chinese population. As the AIMTB rapid test assay is fast and easy to operate, it has the potential to improve latent tuberculosis infection testing and treatment at the community level in resource-limited settings.

Human alveolar echinococcosis is a hard-to-treat and largely untreated parasitic disease with high associated health care costs. The current antiparasitic treatment for alveolar echinococcosis relies exclusively on albendazole, which does not act parasiticidally and can induce severe adverse effects. Alternative, and most importantly, improved treatment options are urgently required. A drug repurposing strategy identified the approved antimalarial pyronaridine as a promising candidate against Echinococcus multilocularis infections. Following a 30-day oral regimen (80 mg kg−1 day−1), pyronaridine achieved an excellent therapeutic outcome in a clinically relevant hepatic alveolar echinococcosis murine model, showing a significant reduction in both metacestode size (72.0%) and counts (85.2%) compared to unmedicated infected mice, which revealed significantly more potent anti-echinococcal potency than albendazole treatment at an equal dose (metacestode size: 42.3%; counts: 4.1%). The strong parasiticidal activity of pyronaridine was further confirmed by the destructive damage to metacestode tissues observed morphologically. In addition, a screening campaign combined with computational similarity searching against an approved drug library led to the identification of pirenzepine, a gastric acid-inhibiting drug, exhibiting potent parasiticidal activity against protoscoleces and in vitro cultured small cysts, which warranted further in vivo investigation as a promising anti-echinococcal lead compound. Pyronaridine has a known drug profile and a long track record of safety, and its repurposing could translate rapidly to clinical use for human patients with alveolar echinococcosis as an alternative or salvage treatment.

Estimating airspace capacity under convective weather conditions is crucial for ensuring the efficiency and safety of air traffic operations. Sector route segments, which are essential components of flight routes, require timely capacity predictions during operationally critical periods. In this paper, initially, an enhanced Recursive Feature Elimination algorithm is used to select meteorological data and develop predictive features. Subsequently, the CWSRC model is established using the RF supervised learning algorithm. Finally, the paper takes ENH-YIH segment as an example to predict the capacity. Compared with other machine learning algorithms, the residual percentages for KNN, MLP and RF are 86.03%, 77.37% and 93.40%, respectively, within the range of [−0.2, 0.2]. In three separate day cases, results show that the CWSRC model’s MAE, MSE, RMSE and R2 significantly outperform traditional methods like Maxflow/Mincut and scanning line. The results confirm the CWSRC model’s superior predictive capabilities.

The disassembly of power batteries poses significant challenges due to their complex sources, diverse types, variations in design and manufacturing processes, and diverse service conditions. Human memory capacity and robot cognitive and understanding capabilities are limited when faced with different dismantling tasks for end-of-life power batteries. Insufficient human-computer interaction capabilities greatly hinder the efficiency of human-robot collaboration (HRC) operations. The existing HRC relies heavily on the experience of operators, while the existing disassembly system fails to update new disassembly strategies in real time when facing new battery varieties. Therefore, this paper proposes an augmented reality-assisted human-robot collaboration (AR-HRC) power battery dismantling system based on transfer learning. It consists of three modules: AR-HRC knowledge modeling, dismantling subgraph similarity assessment, and strategy transfer update. The AR-HRC knowledge modeling module aims to establish an intelligent mapping from tasks to collaborative strategies based on part features. Based on the evaluation of task similarity, the mobility assessment model divides subtasks into similar and dissimilar classes. For similar subtasks, the original dismantling strategy can be applied to the current task. However, for different subtasks, operators can issue instructions to the AR-HRC system through the human-computer interaction function of AR and develop new collaborative strategies based on actual conditions. Finally, a case study of power battery dismantling is conducted, and the results show that compared to traditional pre-programmed assembly, this system can improve dismantling efficiency and reduce cognitive burden.

A modulational instability of nonlinearly interacting electron whistlers and magnetosonic perturbations is studied in the present paper. For typical parameters, there is no modulational instability. However, modulational instability appears in special cases. For example, when the whistler wavenumber is small enough, there is modulational instability. Its growth rate decreases as the angle between the external magnetic field and the perturbed wave's direction increases, while it increases as the whistler wavenumber increases. It is also found that there is no modulational instability when the whistler wavenumber is larger than a critical value ($k_0 > 0.05$), in which the perturbed wave frequency increases as the angle between the external magnetic field and the perturbed wave's direction increases when the angle between the external magnetic field and the perturbed wave's direction is large enough. Whereas, the perturbed wave frequency first increases as the whistler wavenumber increases, reaches a peak value and then decreases as whistler wavenumber increases.

Currently, workers in sand casting face harsh environments and the operation safety is poor. Existing pouring robots have insufficient stability and load-bearing capacity and cannot perform intelligent pouring according to the demand of pouring process. In this paper, a hybrid pouring robot is proposed to solve these limitations, and a vision-based hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) control technology is designed to achieve the real-time control problems of simulated pouring and pouring process. Firstly, based on the pouring mechanism and the motion demand of ladle, a hybrid pouring robot with a 2UPR-2RPU parallel mechanism as the main body is designed. And the equivalent hybrid kinematic model was established by using Eulerian method and differential motion. Subsequently, a motion control strategy based on HIL simulation technique was designed and presented. The working space of the robot was obtained through simulation experiments to meet the usage requirements. And the stability of the robot was tested through the key motion parameters of the robot joints. Based on the analysis of pouring quality and trajectory, optimal dynamic parameters for the experimental prototype are obtained through water simulation experiments, the pouring liquid height area is 35–40 cm, the average flow rate of pouring liquid is 112 cm3/s, and the ladle tilting speed is 0.0182 rad/s. Experimental results validate the reasonableness of the designed pouring robot structure. Its control system realizes the coordinated movement of each branch chain to complete the pouring tasks with different variable parameters. Consequently, the designed pouring robot will significantly enhance the automation level of the casting industry.

Hydrotalcite-like layered double hydroxides (LDHs) containing different ratios of Ni2+, Cu2+, Mg2+ and Al3+ in the layers have been prepared by a new method, the key features of which are a very rapid mixing and nucleation process in a colloid mill followed by a separate ageing process. The compositions and structural parameters of the materials synthesized using the two routes are very similar, although the degree of crystallinity is slightly higher for the LDHs produced using the new method. The major advantage of the new method is that it produces smaller crystallites, having a very narrow range of distribution of crystallite size. In the conventional coprecipitation process at constant pH, the mixing process takes a considerable time during which nuclei formed at the beginning of the process have a much longer time to undergo crystal growth than those formed at the end of the process. The consequence is that a wide dispersion of crystallite sizes is obtained. In the colloid mill process, however, the mixing and nucleation is complete in a very short time and is followed by a separate ageing process.

Reaction of a Mg-Al carbonate layered double hydroxide (LDH) with boric acid leads to a borate-pillared LDH with the stoichiometry [Mg0.65Al0.35(OH)2][B3O5]0.35.0.65H2O and an interlayer spacing of 1.07 nm. Infrared and 11B magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance data are consistent with the presence of polymeric triborate anions of the type [B3O4(OH)2]nn- in the interlayer galleries so that the material can be formulated as [Mg0.65Al0.35(OH)2][B3O4(OH)2]0.35.0.30H2O. The flame-retardant properties of the borate-pillared material and the carbonate precursor in composites with ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer were compared. Introduction of the borate anion leads to a significant enhancement in smoke suppression during combustion without compromising the flammability of the material. This is related to the synergistic effect between the host layers of the LDH and the borate anions uniformly distributed in the interlayer region.

Three-dimensional schools of hydrodynamically axisymmetric swimmers self-propelling at a constant velocity are studied. We introduce a low-order model for the induced velocity based on the far-field approximation. We inquire if, by holding suitable relative positions in the three-dimensional space, the swimmers can reduce the overall energy consumption of the school in comparison with the same number of isolated individuals at the same velocity. We find a considerable (several per cent) energy saving achievable by chain formations. The benefit increases asymptotically with the number of individuals, towards a finite limit that is a function of the minimum allowed spacing between each pair of neighbours.

A high-energy, alignment-insensitive, injection-seeded Q-switched Ho:yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) single-frequency laser is developed. Both the slave Q-switched laser and the seed laser are Ho:YAG ring lasers based on a pair of corner cubic reflectors. The seed laser has an available power of 830 mW at 2096.667 nm. At 100 Hz, the Q-switched Ho:YAG laser provides a single-frequency pulsed output using injection-seeded technology. The 7.3 mJ single-frequency pulse energy from the slave laser has a pulse width of 161.2 ns and is scaled to 33.3 mJ after passing through the Ho:YAG single-pass amplifier. According to the measurement results of the heterodyne beating technique, the single-frequency pulse has a half-width of 4.12 MHz.

This article examines the pricing of a firm’s carbon risk in the corporate bond market. Contrary to the “carbon risk premium” hypothesis, bonds of more carbon-intensive firms earn significantly lower returns. This effect cannot be explained by a comprehensive list of bond characteristics and exposure to known risk factors. Investigating sources of the low carbon alpha, we find the underperformance of bonds issued by carbon-intensive firms cannot be fully explained by divestment from institutional investors. Instead, our evidence is most consistent with investor underreaction to the predictability of carbon intensity for firm cash-flow news, creditworthiness, and environmental incidents.

Almost all creatinine is excreted by the kidney in individuals. Serum creatinine concentration, a widely used renal function index in clinical practice, can be affected by both genetic and environmental factors, as evidenced by current research exploring the relationship between these factors and kidney function. However, few studies have explored the heritability of serum creatinine in Asian populations. Therefore, we explored the genetic and environmental factors that affect the serum creatinine level in Asian populations. Participants in this study came from the Qingdao Twin Registry in China, and 374 pairs of twins were included, of which 139 pairs were dizygotic twins, whose ages ranged from 40 to 80 years old, and the serum creatinine level ranged from 10 to 126 μmol/L. Structural equation models were constructed using Mx software to calculate heritability, with adjusted covariates being age, sex, and body mass index. The results of heritability analysis showed that ACE was the best fit model. Serum creatinine level is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The result of heritability was 35.44%, and the influence of shared environmental factors accounted for 52.13%. This study provided the relevant basis for future research on genetic and environmental factors affecting serum creatinine levels in Asian populations.