Replacing soiled bed linens is a common practice in intensive care units . We identified dust-driven transmission of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii correlated with changing bed linens by air sampling and genome-based analysis. This uncovers a hidden airborne route, which needs to be considered to design countermeasures against multidrug-resistant organisms.

The flow behaviour of an inclined jet in crossflow (JICF) subjected to different upstream roughness regimes – smooth, transitionally rough (${k}_{s}/{D}=0.129$, where $k_{s}$ is the equivalent roughness height and $D$ is the jet hole diameter) and fully rough (${k}_{s}/{D}=0.782$) – is investigated using refractive-index-matching time-resolved particle image velocimetry for velocity ratios VR = 0.33, 0.67 and 1.0. The transitionally rough regime produces intensified, unbroken large-scale vortices that induce strong intermittency in the boundary-layer thickness. Its energy spectrum retains the original multi-scale coherence, but exhibits an additional wavelength associated with this intermittency. This intermittent state imposes the strongest unsteady influence on the downstream JICF, manifested as a binary flow pattern consisting of alternating jet lift-off and regular shedding. Time-averaged fields show a vertically elongated counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP), while extended spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (ESPOD) indicates that the binary state drives modal bifurcation and distinct pathways associated with prematurely initiated centreline disturbance amplification. In contrast, the fully rough regime promotes rapid breakdown into small-scale turbulence. The ESPOD confirms that multi-scale frequency coherence decays rapidly, whereas low-frequency coherence experiences a brief amplification due to upstream signal injection. Additionally, secondary flows are observed to exert a localised, asymmetric modulation of the CRVP at VR ≤ 0.67: on the high-momentum pathway (downwash) side, one CRVP lobe is vertically compressed and its decay is delayed, while on the low-momentum pathway (upwash) side, the opposite lobe is vertically stretched and its decay is accelerated.

Blended-wing-body (BWB) aircraft with distributed propulsion offers significant potential for aerodynamic efficiency. However, this tightly integrated configuration inherently operates under boundary layer ingestion (BLI) conditions. The ingested thick fuselage boundary layer, coupled with the strong aerodynamic interactions between the S-shaped intake and wing, generates adverse pressure gradients at the inlet alongside low total pressure recovery coefficients and high outlet distortion. This study investigates integrated flow control under high-altitude flight conditions using a BWB aerofoil integrated with a semi-embedded S-shaped intake model, incorporating energy analysis. During cruise, strong adverse pressure gradients between the wing shock wave and intake cause distinct lip separation, resulting in a low total pressure recovery coefficient and high distortion. Distributed dual-row suction generates secondary flow generates distributed secondary flow near the separation point with equivalent energy consumption. This enhances fuselage boundary layer mixing, reduces near-wall adverse pressure gradients and improves the total pressure recovery coefficient. The integration of internal jet control synergistically augments the benefits of external wing suction via distinct spatial mechanisms: central jets replenish core flow kinetic energy to suppress separation and improve the total pressure recovery coefficient, while side jets enhance mixing between separation zones and mainstream flow, mitigating secondary swirl losses and substantially reducing distortion at the aerodynamic interface plane (AIP). Energy analysis confirms that a modest energy input (equivalent to 7.4% of the mainstream kinetic energy) yields a significant increase in intake thrust, while simultaneously reducing total pressure and swirl distortion.

This work presents an integrated modelling study of fast-proton distributions generated by ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) minority heating in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Using a series of high-confinement (H-mode) discharges with increasing ICRF power levels from 0.8 to 2.4 MW, fast protons were produced via minority heating mechanisms and analysed through simulations using the ASCOT code. The results reveal that the fast protons are primarily concentrated near the fundamental cyclotron resonance layer and exhibit strong power-dependent behaviour in both real-space (R–Z) distribution and velocity space, where R is the major radius and Z is the vertical coordinate. As the ICRF power increases, the energetic proton population shows significant spatial broadening and energy enhancement, reaching up to 1 MeV. The fast-ion pitch-angle distribution becomes increasingly anisotropic, with high-energy ions concentrated around $|\textit{v}_{\|}/\textit{v}| \lt 0.5$, where $\nu$ is the magnitude (speed) of the full velocity vector of the particle. Furthermore, the energy density of fast ions aligns well with the ICRF power deposition profile, confirming efficient central-core heating. These findings, which provide insight into fast-ion behaviour and ICRF heating characteristics in EAST plasmas, also support future fast-ion diagnostics and performance control strategies in EAST and similar experimental conditions.

This article studies the nonparametric identification and estimation of double auctions with one buyer and one seller. This model assumes that both bidders submit their own sealed bids, and the transaction price is determined by a weighted average between the submitted bids when the buyer’s offer is higher than the seller’s ask. It captures the bargaining process between two parties. Working within this double auction model, we first establish the nonparametric identification of both the buyer’s and the seller’s private value distributions in two bid data scenarios; from the case of all bids being available, to the case of only transacted bids being available. Specifically, both private value distributions are point identified when all of the bids are observed. They are, however, partially identified when only the transacted bids are available. In the latter case, a sharp characterization of the identified set is provided. Second, we estimate double auctions with bargaining using a two-step procedure that incorporates both boundary and interior bias correction. We then show that our value density estimators achieve the optimal uniform convergence rate of first-price auctions. Monte Carlo experiments show that, in finite samples, our estimation procedure works well on the whole support.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau faces a critical shortage of superior forage germplasm resources, and existing dual-purpose varieties require substantial improvements in both yield and quality. In this study, we conducted cluster analysis and comprehensive evaluation of 12 important agronomic and quality traits from 189 globally sourced rye (Secale cereale L.) landraces over a three-year field experiment. Our objective was to identify rye landraces with preferable traits for pre-breeding and to provide foundational materials for broadening the genetic basis of forage varieties and breeding high-yield, superior-quality crops adapted to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The genetically diverse rye accessions exhibited abundant phenotypic variation in grain traits, offering rich and excellent parental materials for superior germplasm identification. Accessions with outstanding single or comprehensive traits were successfully screened: those with high thousand-kernel weight, elevated grain protein content, or combined high yield and superior quality can serve as key parental or basic materials for rye breeding programs. The three accessions with the highest comprehensive evaluation scores should be prioritized as core materials for breeding. In the cluster analysis of grain traits, clusters II and III emerged as optimal selection regions for high-yield and quality materials. The high-quality germplasm and key clusters identified in this study provide specific resource support for forage genetic improvement and sustainable development of grassland animal husbandry on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, addressing the gap in systematic screening of rye landraces with preferable traits.

Despite growing attention to gender biases in student evaluations of teaching (SET) in political science, research on effective mitigation strategies remains limited. Given the reliance on SET as a dominant measure of teaching quality in higher education, this study investigates the impact of short-term bias mitigation prompts and prolonged exposure to gender-focused topics on SET. Using a survey experiment conducted in general education social science courses at a mid-sized, Midwestern nonprofit Catholic university, we found that bias mitigation prompts encouraged greater self-reflection, prompting students to critically evaluate their instructors and their own performance. This intervention appeared to reduce the advantages previously afforded to men instructors. However, exposure to gender topics revealed a complex dynamic: whereas gender-related courses are associated with higher SET ratings overall, this positive effect is significantly weakened for women instructors. Women teaching gender-related courses receive lower evaluations than would be expected based on the separate effects of course topic and instructor gender. Our findings underscore the complex interplay among faculty members’ gender, gender education, and persistent stereotypes.

Childhood adversity impairs well-being, yet psychological resilience may buffer its impact. Using resting-state fMRI in 94 rural Chinese children (ages 10–14), we examined whether psychological resilience protects brain network connectivity from adversity and its relevance to psychological well-being. Psychological resilience significantly moderated the impact of abuse, but not neglect, on limbic connectivity. Low-resilience children exposed to abuse showed heightened limbic-somatomotor and limbic-ventral attention connectivity, which predicted greater somatization and depression at baseline and more severe levels of anxiety six months later. These associations were absent in high-resilience children. Our findings reveal that psychological resilience specifically shields against the neurotoxic effects of abuse by modulating networks involved in emotion regulation, salience, and sensorimotor processing. Targeted interventions should consider adversity dimensions and psychological resilience capacity to mitigate long-term mental health risks.

Multidimensional metabolic dysregulation is implicated in hypertension development, but the utility of comprehensive metabolic vulnerability indices for assessing hypertension risk associations remains unclear. This prospective cohort study analyzed 150,591 participants from the UK Biobank. The Metabolic Vulnerability Index and its components—IVX and MMX—were calculated from six metabolites (GlycA, small HDL particles, leucine, valine, isoleucine, and citrate) measured by NMR spectroscopy. Cox proportional hazards models assessed associations with incident hypertension, adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors. Restricted cubic spline analyses examined dose-response relationships, and subgroup analyses explored effect modifications by polygenic risk score (PRS), BMI, and C-reactive protein levels. During follow-up, 32,198 participants developed hypertension. After comprehensive adjustment, IVX and MVX showed significant positive associations with hypertension risk (highest vs lowest quartile: HR=1.25 [95%CI: 1.20-1.31] and HR=1.19 [95%CI: 1.15-1.24], respectively P<0.001). Each standard deviation increase in IVX and MVX was associated with 9% and 7% higher hypertension risk, respectively. Conversely, MMX demonstrated a slight protective effect (HR=0.96 [95%CI: 0.92-0.99],P=0.016) and exhibited a U-shaped relationship with hypertension risk. Notably, associations between IVX/MVX and hypertension were significantly stronger in non-obese individuals (BMI<30) compared to obese participants (BMI≥30) (p-interaction<0.001 and P=0.007, respectively). Results remained robust in sensitivity analyses excluding extreme values and early hypertension cases. Metabolic vulnerability, particularly its inflammatory component, is independently associated with hypertension risk beyond traditional risk factors. These findings highlight the potential utility of comprehensive metabolomic profiling for early identification of individuals at elevated hypertension risk.

Prolonged grief disorder (PGD), recently classified in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR, is characterized by persistent and functionally impairing grief lasting beyond 6–12 months. The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by widespread mortality, social isolation, disrupted mourning rituals, and social disconnection, raising concerns about a potentially high burden of PGD during the pandemic period. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, following PRISMA guidelines and PROSPERO registration (CRD42023463720), to estimate PGD prevalence under standardized ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR diagnostic frameworks and to examine potential moderators during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched from inception to October 2024. Eligible studies included adults who experienced bereavement during the pandemic and were assessed using validated PGD instruments (PG-13-R, ICG, BGQ). Random-effects models were applied to pool prevalence estimates, with subgroup and meta-regression analyses. Thirteen studies comprising 5,766 participants were included. The pooled prevalence of PGD during the pandemic period was 24% (95% CI: 13%–36%), with the highest estimates observed in China (43%, 95% CI: 33%–54%). In the overall pooled analysis, studies applying DSM-5-TR criteria yielded lower prevalence estimates than those using ICD-11 criteria (18% vs.26%, p = 0.41). Digital interventions showed no statistically significant pooled effects (Hedges’ g = −0.38, 95% CI: −0.90 to 0.14). The high and geographically heterogeneous prevalence of PGD observed during the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to strengthen mental health surveillance, standardized assessment, and service accessibility in large-scale public health emergencies, and provides important evidence to inform population-level interventions and resource allocation strategies.

Bubble pairs are effective modulators of liquid jets. We investigate the jetting of an air bubble driven by a laser-induced cavitation bubble using high-speed imaging, compressible volume-of-fluid (VoF) simulations and theoretical analysis. Three distinct jet types emerge, depending on the stand-off distance $\gamma$ and size ratio $\eta$ between the bubbles. Jet formation proceeds through two stages: an initial shock-induced acceleration followed by flow focusing on the concave liquid–air interface. We derive scaling relations, $V_0=1.1 p_0R_0/(\rho cR_l)((\gamma (1+\eta )-1)/\eta )^{-1.6}$ for the shock-driven stage and $V_m={}(1+(0.8-0.5\gamma )\eta ^{0.75})V_0$ for the flow focusing stage in the strong jet regime, both of which agree closely with experimental and numerical measurements. Here, $V_0$ and $V_m$ denote the velocity increments associated with shock-wave-induced acceleration and flow focusing stages, respectively. The variables $p_0$, $R_0$, $\rho$, $c$ and $R_l$ represent the initial pressure and radius of the cavitation bubble, the fluid density, the speed of sound in the liquid and the maximum volume-equivalent radius of the cavitation bubble, respectively. A $(\eta ,\gamma )$ phase diagram delineates the weak, strong and explosive jets, with regime boundaries accurately captured by the theoretically derived transitions.

This study systematically investigated the effects of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (Lp), cellulase (CE), and their combination (CELp) on the fermentation quality, fiber degradation, and microbial community in rapeseed straw silage. This research was carried out with a completely randomized design, and rapeseed straw was inoculated with L. plantarum (1.0 × 10⁶ colony-forming units [CFU]/g), CE (50,000 U/g), or CELp and fermented in vacuum-sealed bags at 25°C for 60 days. Results demonstrated that the CELp co-treatment yielded superior outcomes, significantly increasing lactic acid content, accelerating acidification, and effectively degrading neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and hemicellulose compared to individual treatments. Microbial community analysis demonstrated that the CELp co-treatment effectively enriched functional bacterial treatments represented by Lactobacillus and Xanthomonas while significantly enhancing the activities of core enzymes, including L-lactate dehydrogenase, xylanase, and β-glucosidase. The CELp co-treatment intensified homolactic fermentation and structural carbohydrate decomposition, with correlation analysis revealing tight links among microbial composition, enzyme activities, and silage quality. In conclusion, the microbial–enzyme synergistic approach effectively improved the fermentation quality of rapeseed straw silage by directionally modulating the microbial community structure and enhancing core enzyme activities. These findings provide a novel theoretical basis for the efficient utilization of lignocellulosic agricultural by-products.

Body composition and fat distribution were found to display differential effects on the incidence and mortality of chronic disease. However, it remained unclear whether there is an interaction between lifestyle factors and genetic susceptibility on body composition and fat distribution. This study investigated the associations of lifestyle and genetic factors with body composition and fat distribution among 121 664 women from the UK Biobank cohort study. Women with a favourable lifestyle had lower BMI (BMI, –7·72 % (95 % CI: −7·93 %, −7·51 %)), fat mass index (FMI, −15·70 % (95 % CI: −16·09 %, −15·30 %)), fat-free mass index (FFMI, −2·86 % (95 % CI: −2·98 %, −2·74 %)), arm fat ratio (AFR, −5·19 %, (95 % CI: −5·38 %, −5·00 %)) and trunk fat ratio (TFR, −0·73 %, (95 % CI: −0·84 %, −0·62 %)) but higher leg fat ratio (LFR, 2·30 % (95 % CI: 2·16 %, 2·44 %)) than those with an unfavourable lifestyle. Significant interactions between lifestyle factors and genetic susceptibility on BMI, FMI and AFR were observed (Pinteraction < 0·05). Among women with a high genetic susceptibility to body composition or fat distribution, those with a healthy lifestyle still had a lower BMI, FMI, FFMI, AFR and TFR and higher LFR (Ptrend < 0·001). Women who adhere to a favourable lifestyle tend to have healthy body composition and fat distribution, and this association is consistent across all strata of genetic risk.