Cathepsin B (CTSB) is a cysteine protease that is widely found in eukaryotes and plays a role in insect growth, development, digestion, metamorphosis, and immunity. In the present study, we examined the role of CTSB in response to environmental stresses in Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera: Aphididae). Six MpCTSB genes, namely MpCTSB-N, MpCTSB-16D1, MpCTSB-3098, MpCTSB-10270, MpCTSB-mp2, and MpCTSB-16, were identified and cloned from M. persicae. The putative proteins encoded by these genes contained three conserved active site residues, i.e. Cys, His, and Asn. A phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that the six MpCTSB proteins of M. persicae were highly homologous to other Hemipteran insects. Real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that the MpCTSB genes were expressed at different stages of M. persicae and highly expressed in winged adults or first-instar nymphs. The expression of nearly all MpCTSB genes was significantly upregulated under different environmental stresses (38°C, 4°C, and ultraviolet-B). This study shows that MpCTSB plays an important role in the growth and development of M. persicae and its resistance to environmental stress.

The development of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) is progressing rapidly within the maritime industry. Degree Two of MASS (MASS-DoA2), balancing human oversight and autonomous efficiency, will likely gain regulatory approval and industry acceptance. MASS-DoA2 possesses different control modes to adapt to various scenarios. However, the control-switching mechanisms among operators at shore control centres, autonomous navigation systems and number of seafarers onboard remain ambiguous, which poses a new risk that may significantly influence navigation safety. This study focuses on MASS-DoA2 and carries out a systematic review of autonomous ship guidelines. A questionnaire was designed based on the review findings, and a survey was carried out among captains and researchers in related fields. The review identified 11 control-switching scenarios with suggested takeover agents and the switching process and outlined the priority relationship between various takeover agents. Finally, a control-switching framework for MASS – DoA2 is proposed. It can serve as a theoretical framework for research on MASS's dynamic degree of autonomy and provide a reference for maritime regulatory authorities in establishing MASS – DoA2 control-switching mechanisms.

The liver has multiple functions such as detoxification, metabolism, synthesis and storage. Folate is a water-soluble vitamin B9, which participates in one-carbon transfer reactions, maintains methylation capacity and improves oxidative stress. Folic acid is a synthetic form commonly used as a dietary supplement. The liver is the main organ for storing and metabolising folate/folic acid, and the role of folate/folic acid in liver diseases has been widely studied. Deficiency of folate results in methylation capacity dysfunction and can induce liver disorders. However, adverse effects of excessive use of folic acid on the liver have also been reported. This review aims to explore the mechanism of folate/folic acid in different liver diseases, promote further research on folate/folic acid and contribute to its rational clinical application.

A multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based model is presented in this study to reconstruct flow fields from noisy data. A combination of reinforcement learning with pixel-wise rewards, physical constraints represented by the momentum equation and the pressure Poisson equation, and the known boundary conditions is used to build a physics-constrained deep reinforcement learning (PCDRL) model that can be trained without the target training data. In the PCDRL model, each agent corresponds to a point in the flow field and learns an optimal strategy for choosing pre-defined actions. The proposed model is efficient considering the visualisation of the action map and the interpretation of the model operation. The performance of the model is tested by using direct numerical simulation-based synthetic noisy data and experimental data obtained by particle image velocimetry. Qualitative and quantitative results show that the model can reconstruct the flow fields and reproduce the statistics and the spectral content with commendable accuracy. Furthermore, the dominant coherent structures of the flow fields can be recovered by the flow fields obtained from the model when they are analysed using proper orthogonal decomposition and dynamic mode decomposition. This study demonstrates that the combination of DRL-based models and the known physics of the flow fields can potentially help solve complex flow reconstruction problems, which can result in a remarkable reduction in the experimental and computational costs.

Coastal eutrophication and hypoxia remain a persistent environmental crisis despite the great efforts to reduce nutrient loading and mitigate associated environmental damages. Symptoms of this crisis have appeared to spread rapidly, reaching developing countries in Asia with emergences in Southern America and Africa. The pace of changes and the underlying drivers remain not so clear. To address the gap, we review the up-to-date status and mechanisms of eutrophication and hypoxia in global coastal oceans, upon which we examine the trajectories of changes over the 40 years or longer in six model coastal systems with varying socio-economic development statuses and different levels and histories of eutrophication. Although these coastal systems share common features of eutrophication, site-specific characteristics are also substantial, depending on the regional environmental setting and level of social-economic development along with policy implementation and management. Nevertheless, ecosystem recovery generally needs greater reduction in pressures compared to that initiated degradation and becomes less feasible to achieve past norms with a longer time anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems. While the qualitative causality between drivers and consequences is well established, quantitative attribution of these drivers to eutrophication and hypoxia remains difficult especially when we consider the social economic drivers because the changes in coastal ecosystems are subject to multiple influences and the cause–effect relationship is often non-linear. Such relationships are further complicated by climate changes that have been accelerating over the past few decades. The knowledge gaps that limit our quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the human-coastal ocean nexus are identified, which is essential for science-based policy making. Recognizing lessons from past management practices, we advocate for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework with optimal modules of human dimensions to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

Background: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is used in the outpatient setting to treat infectious conditions that require a prolonged course of antimicrobials. OPAT has been shown to decrease length of hospital stay and healthcare costs without compromising patient care and has become a widely accepted practice nationally. Due to this trend, the study of OPAT is of vital importance and will continue to be relevant moving forward. Currently, few studies have explored risk factors associated with OPAT complications, and most are limited in their analysis by indication. Further work should be performed to expand upon what is currently known. We characterized factors associated with increased OPAT complication risk. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study at 4 sites across NYU Langone Health in patients admitted from 2017 to 2020. We applied the following inclusion criteria: aged ≥18 years and discharged with OPAT. Complications were defined as follows: vascular-access-related (line occlusion, thrombosis, dislodgement, central-line associated bloodstream infection or CLABSI) and antimicrobial-related (laboratory derangement, drug reaction, Clostridioides difficile infection), all-cause 30-day readmission, and OPAT-related readmission. Data were obtained from electronic medical records and the OPAT database. This study was granted a waiver from informed consent by the NYU Institutional Review Board. Multivariate logistic regression was performed, adjusting for confounding variables (sex, age, hospital of admission, history of chronic medical conditions, line type, and line duration). Results: Overall, 1,846 patient encounters of 5,951 reviewed met inclusion criteria. The median age was 66 (IQR, 26), 42.2% were female. Moreover, 810 (44%) received a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) and 1,036 (56%) received a midline cathether. Also, 563 (30.5%) were discharged to subacute rehabilitation (SAR). The most frequent complications were line dislodgement (4.2% of all patients), laboratory derangement (3.0%), and drug reaction (2.4%). Furthermore, 27 patients (1.5%) developed CLABSI. Patients discharged to SAR were more likely to develop CLABSI (OR, 4.1l; P = .005), and they had higher rates of OPAT-related 30-day readmissions (OR, 2.675; P = .004) compared to those who were discharged home, after adjusting for key confounders. Conclusions: Discharge to SAR is strongly associated with increased risk of readmission for OPAT-related complications and CLABSI, after adjusting for key confounders. CLABSI prevention during SAR admission is a critically needed public health intervention.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

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.

In this paper, the generation of relativistic electron mirrors (REMs) and the reflection of an ultra-short laser off this mirrors are discussed, applying two-dimensional particle-in-cell (2D-PIC) simulations. REMs with ultra-high acceleration and expanding velocity can be produced from a solid nanofoil illuminated normally by an ultra-intense femtosecond laser pulse with a sharp rising edge. Chirped attosecond pulse can be produced through the reflection of a counter-propagating probe laser off the accelerating REM. In the electron moving frame, the plasma frequency of the REM keeps decreasing due to its rapidly expanding. The laser frequency, on the contrary, keeps increasing due to the acceleration of REM and the relativistic Doppler shift from the lab frame to the electron moving frame. Within an ultra-short time interval, the two frequencies will be equal in the electron moving frame, which leads the resonance between laser and REM. The reflected radiation near this interval and the corresponding spectra will be amplified due to the resonance. Through adjusting the arriving time of the probe laser, certain part of the reflected field could be selectively amplified or depressed, leading to the selectively adjusting of the corresponding spectra.

In the laser plasma interaction of quantum electrodynamics (QED)-dominated regime, γ-rays are generated due to synchrotron radiation from high-energy electrons traveling in a strong background electromagnetic field. With the aid of 2D particle-in-cell code including QED physics, we investigate the preplasma effect on the γ-ray generation during the interaction between an ultraintense laser pulse and solid targets. We found that with the increasing preplasma scale length, the γ-ray emission is enhanced significantly and finally reaches a steady state. Meanwhile, the γ-ray beam becomes collimated. This shows that, in some cases, the preplasmas will be piled up acting as a plasma mirror in the underdense preplasma region, where the γ-rays are produced by the collision between the forward electrons and the reflected laser fields from the piled plasma. The piled plasma plays the same role as the usual reflection mirror made from a solid target. Thus, a single solid target with proper scale length preplasma can serve as a manufactural and robust γ-ray source.

The present study investigated the effects of Porphyra yezoensis enzyme degradation extract (PYEDE) on the brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases due to oxidative stress. We used in vitro antioxidant systems to verify the antioxidant potential of PYEDE. The results indicated that the PYEDE alleviated weight loss and organ atrophy, reduced the levels of lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation and elevated reduced glutathione (GSH) content in the serum and brains of the d-galactose-induced ageing model mice. The PYEDE also renewed the glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capability activities, down-regulated the inducible nitric oxide synthase activity and nitric oxide levels, normalised the hippocampal neurons and modulated multiple neurotransmitter systems by inhibiting the activities of acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase in the up-regulation of acetylcholine, dopamine and noradrenaline levels. Overall, the PYEDE is a promising supplement for the alleviation of oxidative stress and age-associated brain diseases.

Radiocarbon (14C) has become a unique and powerful tracer in source apportionment of atmospheric carbonaceous particles. In this study, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) held in Beijing in 2014 was used as a demonstration to research the source apportionment of atmosphere PM2.5. We used a 200 kV single stage accelerator mass spectrometer recently completed at China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The PM2.5 samples related to above case were collected, and the characteristics of radiocarbon in organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in samples were analyzed using the AMS. The results show that the Before-APEC pollution emission mode is different from the During-APEC and After-APEC pollution emission modes. For Before-APEC, During-APEC and After-APEC, the average values of fossil carbon fraction of OC are 0.463, 0.431 and 0.615, respectively, and those of EC are 0.644, 0.561 and 0.687. The fossil source contributions of traffic activities using fossil fuels to OC and EC are 15.8 % and 21.9 %, respectively. The fossil source contributions of industrial activities to OC and EC are 38.0 % and 8.2 %, respectively. It is about 7–10 days that is needed to take to regenerate the PM2.5 pollution caused by human activities.

In this paper, a novel method for autonomous navigation for an extra-terrestrial body landing mission is proposed. Based on state-of-the-art crater detection and matching algorithms, a crater edge-based navigation method is formulated, in which solar illumination direction is adopted as a complementary optical cue to aid crater edge-based navigation when only one crater is available. To improve the pose estimation accuracy, a distributed Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is developed to encapsulate the crater edge-based estimation approach. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed approach is validated by Monte Carlo simulations using a specifically designed planetary landing simulation toolbox.

Previous studies have indicated that some food items and nutrients are associated with uric acid metabolism in humans. However, little is known about the role of dietary patterns in hyperuricaemia. We designed this case–control study to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns and newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in Chinese adults. A total of 1422 cases and 1422 controls were generated from 14 538 participants using the 1:1 ratio propensity score matching methods. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated self-administered FFQ. Dietary patterns were derived by factor analysis. Hyperuricaemia was defined as concentrations of serum uric acid higher than 7 mg/dl (416·5 μmol/l) for men and 6 mg/dl (357 μmol/l) for women. Three dietary patterns were derived by factor analysis: sweet pattern; vegetable pattern; animal foods pattern. The animal foods pattern characterised by higher intake of an animal organ, seafood and processed meat products was associated with higher prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia (Pfor trend<0·01) after adjustment. Compared with the participants in the lowest quartile of the animal foods pattern, the OR of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in the highest quartile was 1·50 (95 % CI 1·20, 1·87). The other two dietary patterns were not associated with the prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia after adjustment. In conclusion, a diet rich in animal organ, seafood and processed meat products is associated with higher prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperuricaemia in a Chinese population. Further cohort studies and randomised controlled trials are required to clarify these findings.

Previous studies have demonstrated adverse mental health effects of Pb exposure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between consumption of preserved egg (PE), a high-Pb-containing food and depressive symptoms among adults in China. A sample of 25 213 adults (mean age 41·4 (sd 11·8) years; males, 53·9 %) in Tianjin, China, was studied in a cross-sectional analysis. Dietary intake including PE was assessed using a valid self-administered FFQ. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). The association was estimated by OR using logistic regression models adjusted for multiple confounders. The prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms was 6·6 % (SDS≥50). Compared with the least frequent PE consumption (<once/week), multivariable adjusted OR for elevated depressive symptoms were 1·52 (95 % CI 1·28, 1·81), 2·24 (95 % CI 1·76, 2·81) and 3·31 (95 % CI 2·52, 4·30) for consumption of once, 2–3 times and ≥4 times/week, respectively (Pfor trend<0·0001), indicating a clear dose–response relationship. The results suggested that higher consumption of PE was strongly associated with depressive symptoms among adults in China. These findings underscore the need to consider dietary Pb exposure as a risk factor for psychological distress.

Four isonitrogenous and isoenergetic purified diets containing free arachidonic acid (ARA) or EPA (control group), 0·30 % ARA, 0·30 % EPA and 0·30 % ARA+EPA (equivalent) were designed to feed juvenile grass carp (10·21 (sd 0·10) g) for 10 weeks. Only the EPA group presented better growth performance compared with the control group (P<0·05). Dietary ARA and EPA were incorporated into polar lipids more than non-polar lipids in hepatopancreas but not intraperitoneal fat (IPF) tissue. Fish fed ARA and EPA showed an increase of serum superoxide dismutase and catalase activities, and decrease of glutathione peroxidase activity and malondialdehyde contents (P<0·05). The hepatopancreatic TAG levels decreased both in ARA and EPA groups (P<0·05), accompanied by the decrease of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity in the ARA group (P<0·05). Fatty acid synthase (FAS), diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase and apoE gene expression in the hepatopancreas decreased in fish fed ARA and EPA, but only the ARA group exhibited increased mRNA level of adipose TAG lipase (ATGL) (P<0·05). Decreased IPF index and adipocyte sizes were found in the ARA group (P<0·05). Meanwhile, the ARA group showed decreased expression levels of adipogenic genes CCAAT enhancer-binding protein α, LPL and FAS, and increased levels of the lipid catabolic genes PPARα, ATGL, hormone-sensitive lipase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT-1) in IPF, whereas the EPA group only increased PPARα and CPT-1 mRNA expression and showed less levels than the ARA group. Overall, dietary EPA is beneficial to the growth performance, whereas ARA is more potent in inducing lipolysis and inhibiting adipogenesis, especially in IPF. Meanwhile, dietary ARA and EPA showed the similar preference in esterification and the improvement in antioxidant response.