Fe2+-catalyzed transformation of poorly crystalline ferrihydrite into highly crystalline forms is critical in the biogeochemical cycles of Fe, nutrients, and trace elements. The co-existence of ferrihydrite and kaolinite is widespread in soils of tropical and subtropical regions. In this investigation, three associations of ferrihydrite–kaolinite with ratios of 10, 30, and 50% (10% Fhy–Kln, 30% Fhy–Kln, and 50% Fhy–Kln) were examined to study the impact of the initial Fe2+ concentration and pH on Fe2+-catalyzed transformation under anoxic conditions. The findings reveal that the ferrihydrite in the 10% Fhy–Kln associations has the smallest particle size and the largest number of surface hydroxyl groups. At 0.5 mM Fe2+ and pH 7.5, ferrihydrite underwent transformation into lepidocrocite, with the presence of kaolinite promoting the formation of goethite. Moreover, the presence of kaolinite influenced the morphology of the resulting transformation products. A decrease in pH hindered the transformation of ferrihydrite, while an increase in Fe2+ concentration resulted in the formation of magnetite. The impact of kaolinite in the association system on the transformations of ferrihydrite occurs primarily through alteration of the properties of ferrihydrite during its formation process.

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.

To address the issues of low positioning accuracy and weak robustness of prior visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) systems in dynamic environments, a semantic VSLAM (Sem-VSLAM) approach based on deep learning is proposed in this article. The proposed Sem-VSLAM algorithm adds semantic segmentation threads in parallel based on the open-source ORB-SLAM2’s visual odometry. First, while extracting the ORB features from an RGB-D image, the frame image is semantically segmented, and the segmented results are detected and repaired. Then, the feature points of dynamic objects are eliminated by using semantic information and motion consistency detection, and the poses are estimated by using the remaining feature points after the dynamic feature elimination. Finally, a 3D point cloud map is constructed by using tracking information and semantic information. The experiment uses Technical University of Munich public data to show the usefulness of the Sem-VSLAM algorithm. The experimental results show that the Sem-VSLAM algorithm can reduce the absolute trajectory error and relative attitude error of attitude estimation by about 95% compared to the ORB-SLAM2 algorithm and by about 14% compared to the VO-YOLOv5s in a highly dynamic environment and the average time consumption of tracking each frame image reaches 61 ms. It is verified that the Sem-VSLAM algorithm effectively improves the robustness and positioning accuracy in high dynamic environment and owning a satisfying real-time performance. Therefore, the Sem-VSLAM has a better mapping effect in a highly dynamic environment.

Modern studies suggest that the upper ocean heat content (OHC) in the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) is a better qualitative predictor of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR). But it is still unknown how the OHC is mechanically linked to ISMR and whether it can be applied to long-term climate changes. By analyzing reanalysis datasets across the 20th century, we illustrate that in contrast to those anomalies associated with stronger ISM westerlies, higher ISMR is accompanied with summer surface high pressure and east wind anomalies from the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal (BOB), and is loosely related to increased western TIO OHC during decayed phases of positive Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) and of El Niño. Except for 1944–1968 AD, this interannually lagged ISMR response to winter OHC is insignificant, probably suppressed by those simultaneous effects of positive IOD and El Niño on ISMR. In our paleoclimatic simulations, this modern observed lagged response is interrupted by seasonally reversed insolation anomalies at the 23,000-year precessional band. Our sensitivity experiments further prove that, the ISMR can be simultaneously reduced by positive IOD-like summer OHC anomalies both for modern and precessional situations. This damping effect is mainly contributed by the warmer western TIO that triggers anomalous surface high pressure, easterly winds, and drastically reduced rainfall from BOB to Arabian Peninsula, but with slightly increased rainfall in the northern ISM region. And the cooler southeastern TIO will only moderately increase rainfall in the southern ISM region.

Physically compliant actuator brings significant benefits to robots in terms of environmental adaptability, human–robot interaction, and energy efficiency as the introduction of the inherent compliance. However, this inherent compliance also limits the force and position control performance of the actuator system due to the induced oscillations and decreased mechanical bandwidth. To solve this problem, we first investigate the dynamic effects of implementing variable physical damping into a compliant actuator. Following this, we propose a structural scheme that integrates a variable damping element in parallel to a conventional series elastic actuator. A damping regulation algorithm is then developed for the parallel spring-damping actuator (PSDA) to tune the dynamic performance of the system while remaining sufficient compliance. Experimental results show that the PSDA offers better stability and dynamic capability in the force and position control by generating appropriate damping levels.

Iodine is a vital trace element in the human body and is associated with several important coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors. We aimed to explore the correlation between urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and CAD. Data from 15 793 US adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003–2018) were analysed. We conducted multivariable logistic regression models and fitted smoothing curves to study the correlation between UIC and CAD. Furthermore, we performed subgroup analysis to investigate possible effect modifiers between them. We found a J-shaped association between UIC and CAD, with an inflection point at Lg UIC = 2·65 μg/l. This result indicated a neutral association (OR 0·89; 95 % CI 0·68, 1·16) between UIC and CAD as Lg UIC < 2·65 μg/l, but the per natural Lg [UIC] increment was OR 2·29; 95 % CI 1·53, 3·43 as Lg UIC ≥ 2·65 μg/l. An interaction between diabetes and UIC might exist. The increase in UIC results in an increase in CAD prevalence (OR 1·84, 95 % CI 1·32, 2·58) in diabetes but results in little to no difference in non-diabetes (OR 0·98, 95 % CI 0·77, 1·25). The J-shaped correlation between UIC and CAD and the interaction between diabetes and UIC should be confirmed in a prospective study with a series of UIC measurements. If excessive iodine precedes CAD, then this new finding could guide clinical practice and prevent iodine deficiency from being overcorrected.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical characteristics of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) PCR re-positivity after recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients (n = 1391) from Guangzhou, China, who had recovered from COVID-19 were recruited between 7 September 2021 and 11 March 2022. Data on epidemiology, symptoms, laboratory test results and treatment were analysed. In this study, 42.7% of recovered patients had re-positive result. Most re-positive patients were asymptomatic, did not have severe comorbidities, and were not contagious. The re-positivity rate was 39%, 46%, 11% and 25% in patients who had received inactivated, mRNA, adenovirus vector and recombinant subunit vaccines, respectively. Seven independent risk factors for testing re-positive were identified, and a predictive model was constructed using these variables. The predictors of re-positivity were COVID-19 vaccination status, previous SARs-CoV-12 infection prior to the most recent episode, renal function, SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM antibody levels and white blood cell count. The predictive model could benefit the control of the spread of COVID-19.

It is well known that the pressure fluctuations on both sides of a cylinder and those in its oscillating near-wake region are both sound sources at low Reynolds and Mach numbers. However, assessment of the propagating capacity and quantification of the radiating versus non-radiating components of these two sound sources are not currently available for this important benchmark aeroacoustic problem. Here, we isolate the radiating acoustic sound sources from the non-radiating hydrodynamic pseudo-sounds by applying the wavelet decomposition technique of Mancinelli et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 813, 2017), previously used in subsonic jet-noise experiments, to decompose the cylinder near-field pressure fluctuations obtained from our direct numerical simulations. Rigorous independence and convergence analyses of the wavelet decomposition procedure are performed. It is found that the radiating acoustic component strongly dominates over the non-radiating hydrodynamic component at near-field locations above and upstream of the cylinder. In the oscillating near-wake region, the hydrodynamic component dominates over the acoustic component at most frequencies, except at the vortex shedding frequency where they exhibit comparable strengths. Furthermore, within the oscillating near-wake region, the overall sound pressure level associated with the hydrodynamic pressure fluctuations exceeds that associated with the acoustic pressure fluctuations. Away from the oscillating near-wake region, the hydrodynamic pressure fluctuations decrease dramatically while the acoustic counterparts decay slowly, demonstrating that the hydrodynamic pressure fluctuation does not propagate, and that the acoustic pressure fluctuation is the only component to propagate to the far field.

We prove a higher genus version of the genus $0$ local-relative correspondence of van Garrel-Graber-Ruddat: for $(X,D)$ a pair with X a smooth projective variety and D a nef smooth divisor, maximal contact Gromov-Witten theory of $(X,D)$ with $\lambda _g$-insertion is related to Gromov-Witten theory of the total space of ${\mathcal O}_X(-D)$ and local Gromov-Witten theory of D.

Specializing to $(X,D)=(S,E)$ for S a del Pezzo surface or a rational elliptic surface and E a smooth anticanonical divisor, we show that maximal contact Gromov-Witten theory of $(S,E)$ is determined by the Gromov-Witten theory of the Calabi-Yau 3-fold ${\mathcal O}_S(-E)$ and the stationary Gromov-Witten theory of the elliptic curve E.

Specializing further to $S={\mathbb P}^2$, we prove that higher genus generating series of maximal contact Gromov-Witten invariants of $({\mathbb P}^2,E)$ are quasimodular and satisfy a holomorphic anomaly equation. The proof combines the quasimodularity results and the holomorphic anomaly equations previously known for local ${\mathbb P}^2$ and the elliptic curve.

Furthermore, using the connection between maximal contact Gromov-Witten invariants of $({\mathbb P}^2,E)$ and Betti numbers of moduli spaces of semistable one-dimensional sheaves on ${\mathbb P}^2$, we obtain a proof of the quasimodularity and holomorphic anomaly equation predicted in the physics literature for the refined topological string free energy of local ${\mathbb P}^2$ in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit.

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) could induce milk fat depression via regulating the body and blood fat metabolism. However, it is not completely clear how LPS might regulate triglyceride synthesis in dairy cow mammary epithelial cells (DCMECs). DCMECs were isolated and purified from dairy cow mammary tissue and treated with LPS. The level of triglyceride synthesis, the expression and activity of the liver X receptor α (LXRα), enzymes related to de novo fatty acid synthesis, and the expression of the fatty acid transporters were investigated. We found that LPS decreased the level of triglyceride synthesis via a down-regulation of the transcription, translation, and nuclear translocation level of the LXRα. The results also indicated that the transcription level of the LXRα target genes, sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), acetyl-CoA carboxylase-1 (ACC1), were significantly down-regulated in DCMECs after LPS treatment. Our data may provide new insight into the mechanisms of milk fat depression caused by LPS.

The aim of the study was to investigate any association between extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) and intestinal flora of <30-week-old preterm infants. A total of 59 preterm infants were assigned to EUGR (n=23) and non-EUGR (n=36) groups. Intestinal bacteria were compared by using high-throughput sequencing of bacterial rRNA. The total abundance of bacteria in 344 genera (7568 v. 13,760; P<0.0001) and 456 species (10,032 v. 18,240; P<0.0001) was significantly decreased in the EUGR group compared with the non-EUGR group. After application of a multivariate logistic model and adjusting for potential confounding factors, as well as false-discovery rate corrections, we found four bacterial genera with higher and one bacterial genus with lower abundance in the EUGR group compared with the control group. In addition, the EUGR group showed significantly increased abundances of six species (Streptococcus parasanguinis, Bacterium RB5FF6, two Klebsiella species and Microbacterium), but decreased frequencies of three species (one Acinetobacter species, Endosymbiont_of_Sphenophorus_lev and one Enterobacter_species) compared with the non-EUGR group. Taken together, there were significant changes in the intestinal microflora of preterm infants with EUGR compared to preterm infants without EUGR.

An effective multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the simultaneous detection of three major pathogens, Nosema bombycis Nägeli (Microsporidia: Nosematidae), Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (Baculoviridae: genus Alphabaculovirus) (NPV), and Bombyx mori densovirus (Parvoviridae: genus Iteravirus) (DNV), in silkworms (Bombyx mori (Linnaeus); Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) was developed in this study. Polymerase chain reaction and real-time PCR tests and basic local alignment search tool searches revealed that the primers and probes used in this study had high specificities for their target species. The ability of each primer/probe set to detect pure pathogen DNA was determined using a plasmid dilution panel, in which under optimal conditions the multiplex real-time PCR assay showed high efficiency in the detection of three mixed target plasmids with a detection limit of 8.5×103 copies for N. bombycis and Bombyx mori NPV (BmNPV) and 8.5×104 copies for Bombyx mori DNV (BmDNV). When the ability to detect these three pathogens was examined in artificially inoculated silkworms, our method presented a number of advantages over traditional microscopy, including specificity, sensitivity, and high-throughput capabilities. Under the optimal volume ratio for the three primer/probe sets (3:2:2=N. bombycis:BmNPV:BmDNV), the multiplex real-time PCR assay showed early detection of BmNPV and BmDNV by day 1 post inoculation using DNA templates of the three pathogens in various combinations from individually infected silkworms; the early detection of N. bombycis was possible by day 3 post inoculation using the DNA isolated from the midgut of N. bombycis-infected silkworms.

In this study, a system of triple liquid phases was developed using Li2CO3, Na2CO3, and K2CO3 to improve the densification of the akermanite scaffolds fabricated by selective laser sintering (SLS). The system formed a ternary liquid phase (Li2CO3–Na2CO3–K2CO3) at 399 °C, a binary liquid phase (Na2CO3–K2CO3) at 695 °C, and a unitary liquid phase (K2CO3) at 891 °C during sintering process. The effects of the liquid phases on the sinterability and mechanical properties of the scaffolds were investigated. The fracture toughness and compressive strength is increased by 43 and 152% with liquid phases increasing from 0 to 4 wt%, respectively. This was explained that liquid phases enhanced densification via improving diffusion kinetics and inducing particle rearrangement. In addition, the scaffolds maintained favorable hydroxyapatite (HA) formation ability and cell proliferation ability, which was proved by simulated body fluid (SBF) test and microculture tetrazolium test (MTT), respectively.

A novel surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate was produced by combining Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) and carbon nanocoils (CNCs). Three different methods were developed for loading AgNPs on CNCs, which include (i) direct deposition of AgNPs on CNCs by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) to form an Ag–CNC hybrid, (ii) deposition of a TiO2 film on CNCs by RFMS, followed by photoinduced growth of AgNPs to form an Ag–TiO2–CNC hybrid (called A-substrate), and (iii) deposition of a TiO2 film on CNCs by spin coating and then photoinduced growth of AgNPs to form an Ag–TiO2–CNC hybrid (called B-substrate). Experimental SERS results showed that B-substrates exhibited the highest SERS enhancement with an enhancement factor of over 107 for rhodamine 6G. The as-prepared Ag–TiO2–CNC substrates also showed much higher Raman signal enhancement than ordinary planar SERS substrates in our system. This was mainly due to the unique three-dimensional structure where the large surface area was available for loading more densely packed AgNPs which contribute to abundant Raman hot spots.

We report on the integration of flowable oxide based Fresnel microlenses with AlGaN based 280 nm light emitting diodes (LED). The lenses were fabricated on the back side of the LED sapphire substrates using direct electron beam writing. Ten concentric rings with different width and variable thickness were designed for 360 degree phase correction. Within each ring the thickness was varied in five steps to approximate a linear profile. The width of each thickness step varied from 100 nm to several microns. Outer diameter of the lens was 65μm. A focal distance of 68 μm was measured for the fabricated microlenses. At the focal plane a FWHM of intensity profile as small as 14 μm was measured for lenses integrated with 30 μm diameter UV LEDs . The maximum intensity at focal plane exceeded the background radiation by a factor of 50. Comparison of the LED performance before and after the lens fabrication did not reveal any degradation of integral efficiency of devices. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using flowable oxide Fresnel microlenses in optical systems based on micro-pixel deep UV AlGaN LEDs.

We present a study of the electrical and optical characteristics of 280 nm emission deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes (LED) at room and cryogenic temperatures. At low bias the defect assisted carrier tunneling primarily determines the current conduction. The room-temperature spectral performance and optical power are limited mostly by pronounced deep level defect assisted radiative and non-radiative recombination as well as poor electron confinement in the active region. At temperatures below 100 K the electroluminescence peak intensity increases by more than one order of magnitude due to suppression of non-radiative recombination channels indicating that with a proper device design and improved material quality, milliwatt power 280 nm LED are viable.

We report flip-chip 325 nm emission light emitting diodes over sapphire with dc powers as high as 0.84 mW at 180mA and pulse powers as high as 6.68 mW at 1A. These values to date are the highest reported powers for such short wavelength emitters. Our data shows the device output power under dc operation to be limited by the package heat dissipation. A study is presented to determine the role of thermal management in controlling the power output for the reported 325 nm ultraviolet light emitting diodes.