The demand for separating and analysing rare target cells is increasing dramatically for vital applications such as cancer treatment and cell-based therapies. However, there remains a grand challenge for high-throughput and label-free segregation of lesion cells with similar sizes. Cancer cells with different invasiveness usually manifest distinct deformability. In this work, we employ a hydrogel microparticle system with similar sizes but varied stiffness to mimic cancer cells and examine in situ their deformation and focusing under microfluidic flow. We first demonstrate the similar focusing behaviour of hydrogel microparticles and cancer cells in confined flow that is dominated by deformability-induced lateral migration. The deformation, orientation and focusing position of hydrogel microparticles in microfluidic flow under different Reynolds numbers are then systematically observed and measured using a high-speed camera. Linear correlations of the Taylor deformation and tilt angle of hydrogel microparticles with the capillary number are revealed, consistent with theoretical predictions. Detailed analysis of the dependence of particle focusing on the flow rate and particle stiffness enables us to identify a linear scaling between the equilibrium focusing position and the major axis of the deformed microparticles, which is uniquely determined by the capillary number. Our findings provide insights into the focusing and dynamics of soft beads, such as cells and hydrogel microparticles, under confined flow, and pave the way for applications including the separation and identification of circulating tumour cells, drug delivery and controlled drug release.

This paper provides an overview of the current status of ultrafast and ultra-intense lasers with peak powers exceeding 100 TW and examines the research activities in high-energy-density physics within China. Currently, 10 high-intensity lasers with powers over 100 TW are operational, and about 10 additional lasers are being constructed at various institutes and universities. These facilities operate either independently or are combined with one another, thereby offering substantial support for both Chinese and international research and development efforts in high-energy-density physics.

The lattice Boltzmann method has become a popular tool for simulating complex flows, including incompressible turbulent flows; however, as an artificial compressibility method, it can generate spurious pressure oscillations whose impact on the statistics of incompressible turbulence has not been systematically examined. In this work, we propose a theoretical approach to analyse the origin of compressibility-induced oscillations (CIOs) and explore ways to suppress or remove them. We begin by decomposing the velocity field and pressure field each into the solenoidal component and the compressive component, and then study the evolution of these two components analytically and numerically. The analysis yields an evolution equation of the mean-square pressure fluctuation which reveals several coupling effects of the two components. The evolution equation suggests that increasing the bulk-to-shear viscosity ratio can suppress CIOs, which is confirmed by numerical simulations. Furthermore, based on the derived evolution equation and data from the simulation, a model is developed to predict the long-term behaviours of the mean-square pressure fluctuations. In the case of decaying turbulence in a periodic domain, we show that the Helmholtz–Hodge decomposition can be used to obtain the solenoidal components reflecting the true evolution of incompressible turbulent flow, from the mesoscopic artificial compressibility approach. The study provides general theoretical guidelines to understand, suppress and even remove CIOs in other related pseudo-compressibility methods.

Item replenishing is essential for item bank maintenance in cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT). In regular CAT, online calibration is commonly used to calibrate the new items continuously. However, until now no reference has publicly become available about online calibration for CD-CAT. Thus, this study investigates the possibility to extend some current strategies used in CAT to CD-CAT. Three representative online calibration methods were investigated: Method A (Stocking in Scale drift in on-line calibration. Research Rep. 88-28, 1988), marginal maximum likelihood estimate with one EM cycle (OEM) (Wainer & Mislevy In H. Wainer (ed.) Computerized adaptive testing: A primer, pp. 65–102, 1990) and marginal maximum likelihood estimate with multiple EM cycles (MEM) (Ban, Hanson, Wang, Yi, & Harris in J. Educ. Meas. 38:191–212, 2001). The objective of the current paper is to generalize these methods to the CD-CAT context under certain theoretical justifications, and the new methods are denoted as CD-Method A, CD-OEM and CD-MEM, respectively. Simulation studies are conducted to compare the performance of the three methods in terms of item-parameter recovery, and the results show that all three methods are able to recover item parameters accurately and CD-Method A performs best when the items have smaller slipping and guessing parameters. This research is a starting point of introducing online calibration in CD-CAT, and further studies are proposed for investigations such as different sample sizes, cognitive diagnostic models, and attribute-hierarchical structures.

Multidimensional-Method A (M-Method A) has been proposed as an efficient and effective online calibration method for multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (MCAT) (Chen & Xin, Paper presented at the 78th Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Arnhem, The Netherlands, 2013). However, a key assumption of M-Method A is that it treats person parameter estimates as their true values, thus this method might yield erroneous item calibration when person parameter estimates contain non-ignorable measurement errors. To improve the performance of M-Method A, this paper proposes a new MCAT online calibration method, namely, the full functional MLE-M-Method A (FFMLE-M-Method A). This new method combines the full functional MLE (Jones & Jin in Psychometrika 59:59–75, 1994; Stefanski & Carroll in Annals of Statistics 13:1335–1351, 1985) with the original M-Method A in an effort to correct for the estimation error of ability vector that might otherwise adversely affect the precision of item calibration. Two correction schemes are also proposed when implementing the new method. A simulation study was conducted to show that the new method generated more accurate item parameter estimation than the original M-Method A in almost all conditions.

This study revisits the parameter estimation issues in multidimensional item response theory more thoroughly and investigates some computation details that have seldom been addressed previously when implementing the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for finite mixtures (EM–FM). Two research questions are: Should we rescale after each EM cycle or after the final EM cycle? How to adapt the supplemented EM algorithm to the EM–FM framework to estimate standard errors (SEs) of all unknown parameters? Analytic details of the methods are provided, and a comprehensive simulation study is conducted to provide supporting evidence. Results reveal that rescaling after each EM cycle accelerates convergence without affecting the calibration accuracy. Moreover, the SEs of all model parameters, including item parameters and population mixing proportions, recover well when the sample size is relatively large (e.g., 2000).

We study the melting process of a solid under microgravity, driven solely by lateral vibrations that are perpendicular to the applied temperature gradient due to the absence of gravity-induced convection. Using direct numerical simulations with the phase-field method, we examine two-dimensional vibration-induced melting in a square cavity over four orders of magnitude of vibrational Rayleigh numbers, $10^5\le Ra_{{vib}}\le 10^9$. Our results show that as melting progresses, the flow structure transitions from a periodic-circulation regime with diffusion-dominated heat transfer to a columnar regime with vibroconvection. The mean height of the liquid–solid interface follows a power-law dependency with time, $\bar {\xi } \sim \tilde t^{1/(2-2\alpha )}$, where $\alpha = 0$ in the periodic-circulation regime and $\alpha = 1/2$ in the columnar regime. We further observe that within the columnar regime, the morphological evolution of the liquid–solid interface is influenced by the interaction of columnar thermal plumes in the central regions and the peripheral flow near the sidewalls. Specifically, we offer a comprehensive analysis of the plume merging behaviour, which is governed by the aspect ratio ($\bar {\xi }$) of the liquid layer and the intensity of vibration, quantified by the effective vibrational Rayleigh number $Ra_{vib}^{eff}$. We identify the relationship between the number of columnar plumes $K_m$ and $Ra_{vib}^{eff}$, finding that $K_m \sim \bar {\xi }^{-1} (Ra_{vib}^{eff})^{\gamma }$ with the fitting scaling exponent $\gamma = 0.150 \pm 0.025$. We subsequently quantify the characteristics of the interface roughness amplitude evolution in microgravity vibroconvection. Our results indicate that the roughness amplitude exhibits a power-law dependence on the mean height of the liquid layer. Drawing from the Stefan boundary condition, we theoretically deduce this dependence under the assumption of a non-uniform heat flux distribution at the interface, where the theory is corroborated by our numerical simulations.

Turbulent circular pipe flows subjected to axial system rotation are studied using direct numerical simulations (DNS) for a wide range of rotation numbers of $Ro_b = 0\unicode{x2013}20$ at a fixed Reynolds number. To ensure that energetic turbulent eddy motions are captured at high rotation numbers, long pipes up to $L_z = 180{\rm \pi} R$ are used in DNS. Two types of energy-containing flow structures have been observed. The first type is hairpin structures that are characteristic of the turbulent boundary layer developing over the pipe wall for both non-rotating and axially rotating flows. The second type is Taylor columns forming at moderate and high rotation numbers. Based on the study of two-point autocorrelation coefficients, it is observed that Taylor columns exhibit quasi-periods in both axial and azimuthal directions. According to the premultiplied spectra, Taylor columns feature one single characteristic axial length scale at the moderate rotation numbers but two at high rotation numbers. It is discovered that the axial system rotation suppresses the sweep events systematically and impedes the formation of hairpin structures. As the rotation number is increased, the turbulence kinetic energy held by Taylor columns enhances rapidly associated with significant increases in their axial length scales.

Compacted bentonite, used as an engineering barrier for permanent containment of high-level radioactive waste, is susceptible to mineral evolution resulting in compromise of the expected barrier performance due to alkaline–thermal chemical interaction in the near-field. To elucidate the mineral-evolution mechanisms within bentonite and the transformation of the nuclide adsorption properties during that period, experimental evolution of bentonite was conducted in a NaOH solution with a pH of 14 at temperatures ranging from 60 to 120°C. The results showed that temperature significantly affects the stability of minerals in bentonite under alkali conditions. The dissolution rate of fine-grained cristobalite in bentonite exceeds that of smectite, with the phase-transition products of smectite being temperature-dependent. As the temperature rises, smectite experiences a three-stage transformation: initially, at 60°C, the lattice structure thins due to the collapse of the octahedral sheets; at 80°C, the lattice disintegrates and reorganizes into a loose framework akin to albite; and by 100°C, it further reorganizes into a denser framework resembling analcime. The adsorption properties of bentonite exhibit a peak inflection point at 80°C, where the dissolution of the smectite lattice eliminates interlayer pores and exposes numerous polar or negatively charged sites which results in a decrease in specific surface area and an increase in cation exchange capacity and adsorption capacity of Eu3+. This research provides insights into the intricate evolution of bentonite minerals and the associated changes in radionuclide adsorption capacity, contributing to a better understanding of the stability of bentonite barriers and the effective long-term containment of nuclear waste.

Slender Russian thistle (Salsola collina Pall.) is a troublesome weed distributed mainly in the cropping regions of northern China that produces heteromorphic seeds in the same plant. However, limited information is available on the germination ecology of heteromorphic seeds in S. collina. Thus, the present study was conducted to verify the effect of alternating temperature conditions, light conditions, winged perianth, salt concentrations, water stress, and burial depths on the seed germination or seedling emergence of S. collina. The results showed that S. collina produced two different types of fruits/seeds that significantly differed in seed size, seed color, external structure, and germination/dormancy behavior. The type A seeds (green seeds) were nondormant, and the germination percentage was >96% at all alternating day/night temperatures and light conditions; whereas type B seeds (yellow seeds) exhibited dormancy characteristics and poor germination (≤1%). Moreover, the winged perianth did not inhibit the germination of S. collina green seeds. The germination of green seeds declined rapidly when NaCl concentration exceeded 100 mM, and only 2.22% germination was observed at 600 mM NaCl. About 62.00% of green seeds germinated at −0.6 MPa, and 8.00% germination was obtained at −1.2 MPa. The seedling emergence declined with an increase of burial depth, and decreased sharply when the burial depth exceeded 1.0 cm. Only 8.33% seedling emergence occurred at a burial depth of 4.0 cm. The results gathered from present study will help to illustrate the ecological adaptation strategy of S. collina and indicate that shallow tillage can effectively minimize the seedling emergence of S. collina.

Depression is highly prevalent in haemodialysis patients, and diet might play an important role. Therefore, we conducted this cross-sectional study to determine the association between dietary fatty acids (FA) consumption and the prevalence of depression in maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) patients. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated FFQ between December 2021 and January 2022. The daily intake of dietary FA was categorised into three groups, and the lowest tertile was used as the reference category. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were applied to assess the relationship between dietary FA intake and the prevalence of depression. As a result, after adjustment for potential confounders, a higher intake of total FA [odds ratio (OR)T3 vs. T1 = 1·59, 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1·04, 2·46] and saturated fatty acids (SFA) (ORT3 vs. T1 = 1·83, 95 % CI = 1·19, 2·84) was associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. Significant positive linear trends were also observed (P < 0·05) except for SFA intake. Similarly, the prevalence of depression in MHD patients increased by 20% (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.01–1.43) for each standard deviation increment in SFA intake. RCS analysis indicated an inverse U-shaped correlation between SFA and depression (Pnonlinear > 0·05). Additionally, the sensitivity analysis produced similar results. Furthermore, no statistically significant association was observed in the subgroup analysis with significant interaction. In conclusion, higher total dietary FA and SFA were positively associated with depressive symptoms among MHD patients. These findings inform future research exploring potential mechanism underlying the association between dietary FA and depressive symptoms in MHD patients.

The Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), recognized as the world's largest loess plateau, has been a subject of ongoing debate regarding the continuity of its sedimentary loess sequence due to its intricate depositional environment. In this study, we conducted dating on a 9.8-m-long Malan loess core obtained from the Sanmen Gorge in the southern CLP using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The OSL dates indicate loess deposition between 52.4 and 11.3 ka, with no apparent hiatus on a millennial scale, and a sedimentation rate (SR) exhibiting six distinct episodes. Additionally, a comprehensive review of 613 OSL ages from 18 sections at 14 sites across the CLP was conducted. The results reveal loess deposition at most sites shows no apparent hiatus on a millennial scale over the past 60 ka, except for two specific locations. High SR episodes during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 across the CLP were attributed to heightened dust emissions from the source region and an enhanced dust deposition efficiency, while MIS 2 deposits were influenced by an intensified East Asian winter monsoon. Low SR episodes during MIS 1 at most sites were likely associated with reduced atmospheric transportation and pedogenesis. Spatially heterogeneous SR variations across the CLP might be influenced by local depositional environments.

This study conducts particle-resolved direct numerical simulations to analyse how finite-size spherical particles affect the decay rate of turbulent kinetic energy in non-sustained homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The decaying particle-laden homogeneous isotropic turbulence is generated with two set-ups, i.e. (1) releasing particles into a single-phase decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence and (2) switching off the driving force of a sustained particle-laden homogeneous isotropic turbulence. With both set-ups, the decay of turbulent kinetic energy follows a power-law when the flow is fully relaxed, similar to their single-phase counterparts. The dependence of the power-law decay exponent $n$ on the particle-to-fluid density ratio, particle size and volume fraction is also investigated, and a predictive model is developed. We find that the presence of heavier particles slows down the long-time power-law decay exponent.

In this paper, we consider a joint drift rate control and two-sided impulse control problem in which the system manager adjusts the drift rate as well as the instantaneous relocation for a Brownian motion, with the objective of minimizing the total average state-related cost and control cost. The system state can be negative. Assuming that instantaneous upward and downward relocations take a different cost structure, which consists of both a setup cost and a variable cost, we prove that the optimal control policy takes an $\left\{ {\!\left( {{s^{\ast}},{q^{\ast}},{Q^{\ast}},{S^{\ast}}} \right),\!\left\{ {{\mu ^{\ast}}(x)\,:\,x \in [ {{s^{\ast}},{S^{\ast}}}]} \right\}} \right\}$ form. Specifically, the optimal impulse control policy is characterized by a quadruple $\left( {{s^{\ast}},{q^{\ast}},{Q^{\ast}},{S^{\ast}}} \right)$, under which the system state will be immediately relocated upwardly to ${q^{\ast}}$ once it drops to ${s^{\ast}}$ and be immediately relocated downwardly to ${Q^{\ast}}$ once it rises to ${S^{\ast}}$; the optimal drift rate control policy will depend solely on the current system state, which is characterized by a function ${\mu ^{\ast}}\!\left( \cdot \right)$ for the system state staying in $[ {{s^{\ast}},{S^{\ast}}}]$. By analyzing an associated free boundary problem consisting of an ordinary differential equation and several free boundary conditions, we obtain these optimal policy parameters and show the optimality of the proposed policy using a lower-bound approach. Finally, we investigate the effect of the system parameters on the optimal policy parameters as well as the optimal system’s long-run average cost numerically.

Malnutrition significantly hampers wound healing processes. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) in diagnosing malnutrition and predicting wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). GLIM criteria were evaluated for sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), positive predictive value, negative predictive value and kappa (κ) against SGA as the reference. Modified Poisson regression model and the DeLong test investigated the association between malnutrition and non-healing ulcers over 6 months. This retrospective cohort study included 398 patients with DFU, with a mean age of 66·3 ± 11·9 years. According to SGA and GLIM criteria, malnutrition rates were 50·8 % and 42·7 %, respectively. GLIM criteria showed a SE of 67·3 % (95 % CI 60·4 %, 73·7 %) and SP of 82·7 % (95 % CI 76·6 %, 87·7 %) in identifying malnutrition, with a positive predictive value of 80·0 % and a negative predictive value of 71·1 % (κ = 0·50) compared with SGA. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that malnutrition, as assessed by SGA, was an independent risk factor for non-healing (relative risk (RR) 1·84, 95 % CI 1·45, 2·34), whereas GLIM criteria were associated with poorer ulcer healing in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥ 60 ml/min/1·73m2 (RR: 1·46, 95 % CI 1·10, 1·94). SGA demonstrated a superior area under the receiver’s operating characteristic curve for predicting non-healing compared with GLIM criteria (0·70 (0·65–0·75) v. 0·63 (0·58–0·65), P < 0·01). These findings suggest that both nutritional assessment tools effectively identify patients with DFU at increased risk, with SGA showing superior performance in predicting non-healing ulcers.

A spatially developing flat-plate boundary layer free from and two-way coupled with inertial solid particles is simulated to investigate the interaction between particles and the turbulent/non-turbulent interface. Particle Stokes numbers based on the outer scale are $St=2$ (low), 11 (moderate) and 53 (high). The Eulerian–Lagrangian point-particle approach is deployed for the simulation of particle-laden flow. The outer edge of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface layer is detected as an iso-surface of vorticity magnitude. Results show that the particles tend to accumulate below the interface due to the centrifugal effect of large-scale vortices in the outer region of wall turbulence and the combined barrier effect of potential flow. Consequently, the conditionally averaged fluid velocity and vorticity vary more significantly across the interface through momentum exchange and the feedback of force in the enstrophy transport. The large-scale structures in the outer layer of turbulence become smoother and less inclined in particle-laden flow due to the modulation of turbulence by the inertial particles. As a result, the geometric features of the interface layer are changed, namely, the spatial undulation increases, the fractal dimension decreases and the thickness becomes thinner in particle-laden flow as compared with unladen case. These effects become more pronounced as particle inertia increases.