Biomphalaria straminea (Gastropoda: Planorbidae) and Physa acuta (Gastropoda: Physidae), both invasive species in southern China, are important vectors for zoonotic diseases. However, the lack of information on the infection dynamics of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in these snails leaves gaps in understanding the compatibility mechanisms between the snails and the parasite. This study aims to reveal differences in A. cantonensis infection between B. straminea and P. acuta from Guangdong, southern China, and to investigate the potential interaction mechanisms between A. cantonensis and P. acuta. We found that both phenotypic color variants of B. straminea snails were highly susceptible to A. cantonensis (100%). The load of the L3 larvae ranged from 243 to 765 per snail, and it was positively correlated with the infection dosage. Based on the comparison of third-stage larvae quantities, B. straminea is more suitable than P. acuta for establishing the life cycle of A. cantonensis in the laboratory. In contrast, geographic isolates of P. acuta exhibited variable susceptibility (13–91%) and markedly lower parasite loads, with 6–32 third-stage larvae per snail. Diverse strains of P. acuta exhibit distinct immune responses to A. cantonensis, characterized by varied expression patterns of immune-related genes such as TEP1, HSP70, FREP2, Cu-Zn_SOD1, Fe-Mn_SOD2, MIF and Galectin. Our findings establish B. straminea as both a high-risk vector and a laboratory model for studying the life cycle of A. cantonensis, while highlighting P. acuta as a model for investigating parasite-snail interactions, thereby enhancing our understanding of snail-parasite dynamics in southern China.

Previous studies have reported co-morbidities of autoimmune thyroid disorders (AITD), including Hashimoto’s disease and Graves’ disease and celiac disease (CeD), as well as the possible beneficial effects of a gluten-free diet (GFD) on AITD. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether there is a genetic causal relationship between AITD and CeD, while the beneficial effects of a GFD are controversial. This study aims to explore the causal relationship between CeD and AITD, particularly with Hashimoto’s disease, and to determine whether a GFD is beneficial for AITD. We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomisation analysis on data from the largest meta-analysis summary statistics of AITD, CeD and GFD. Genetic instrumental variables were established by pinpointing SNP that relate to corresponding factors. In assessing sensitivity and heterogeneity, we conducted examinations of MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, weighted mode and MR Egger intercept tests. Hashimoto’s disease was found to play a pathogenic role in increasing the risk of CeD (ORIVW = 1·544 (95 % CI 1·153, 2·068), P = 0·00355), and our Mendelian randomisation study does not support genetic liability related to CeD with Graves’ disease and GFD with AITD. This study supports the positive correlation between Hashimoto’s disease risk and CeD risk, while GFD has no protective effect on AITD and may exert its effect through other mechanisms. These findings provide valuable insights into potential targets for disease intervention and treatment at the genetic level.

A species of acanthocephalan collected from the hindgut of Larimichthys crocea was identified as Longicollum pagrosomi Yamaguti, 1935 based on morphological characteristics. The complete mitochondrial genome of this parasite was sequenced. The mitogenome exhibited a circular structure with a total length of 14 632 bp, containing 12 protein coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and 2 major non-coding regions. The most frequently used start codon was GTG, and the most abundant amino acid was valine. The phylogenetic analyses of the mitogenome using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods showed that the genus Longicollum formed a sister clade to the genus Pomphorhynchus, supporting the monophyly of Pomphorhynchus. This study reported a new host for L. pagrosomi and revealed the first complete mitogenome sequence of the genus Longicollum.

High-power laser systems require thin films with extremely low absorption. Ultra-low-absorption films are often fabricated via ion beam sputtering, which is costly and slow. This study analyzes the impact of doping titanium and annealing on the absorption characteristics of thin films, focusing on composition and structure. The results indicate that the primary factor influencing absorption is composition. Suppressing the presence of electrons or holes that do not form stable chemical bonds can significantly reduce absorption; for amorphous thin films, the structural influence on absorption is relatively minor. Thus, composition control is crucial for fabricating ultra-low-absorption films, while the deposition method is secondary. Ion beam-assisted electron-beam evaporation, which is relatively seldom used for fabricating low-absorption films, was employed to produce high-reflectivity films. After annealing, the absorption at 1064 nm reached 1.70 parts per million. This method offers a cost-effective and rapid approach for fabricating ultra-low-absorption films.

The betatron radiation source features a micrometer-scale source size, a femtosecond-scale pulse duration, milliradian-level divergence angles and a broad spectrum exceeding tens of keV. It is conducive to the high-contrast imaging of minute structures and for investigating interdisciplinary ultrafast processes. In this study, we present a betatron X-ray source derived from a high-charge, high-energy electron beam through a laser wakefield accelerator driven by the 1 PW/0.1 Hz laser system at the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The critical energy of the betatron X-ray source is 22 ± 5 keV. The maximum X-ray flux reaches up to 4 × 109 photons for each shot in the spectral range of 5–30 keV. Correspondingly, the experiment demonstrates a peak brightness of 1.0 × 1023 photons·s−1·mm−2·mrad−2·0.1%BW−1, comparable to those demonstrated by third-generation synchrotron light sources. In addition, the imaging capability of the betatron X-ray source is validated. This study lays the foundation for future imaging applications.

The previous study indicated that ubiquitination is involved in the freezing tolerance of hydrated seeds. Parthenolide (PN), inducing the ubiquitination of MDM2, an E3 ring-finger ubiquitin ligase, adversely affects the freezing tolerance of hydrated lettuce seeds. Therefore, a proteomics analysis was conducted to identify PN's targets in hydrated seeds exposed to cooling conditions. Several pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation (KEGG00190), amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism (KEGG00520), and biosynthesis of nucleotide sugars (KEGG01250), were enriched in the PN treatment under slow-cooling conditions (3°C h−1, P < 0.05). Among the proteins in oxidative phosphorylation, the expression of NADH dehydrogenases and ATP synthases (ATPsyn) decreased in PN treatment. In contrast, uncoupling proteins increased after PN treatment, which led to the dissociation of the electron transport chain from ATP synthesis. Treatments with rotenone, dicoumarol, and oligomycin (i.e., oxidative phosphorylation inhibitors) decreased the survival rate of hydrated seeds under freezing conditions, which indicated that energy metabolism was related to the freezing tolerance of hydrated seeds. The predicted interactions between PN and MDM2-like proteins of Lactuca indicated that LsMDM2-5 forms two potential hydrogen bonds with PN. Furthermore, based on AlphaFold predictions and yeast 2-hybrid results, MDM2-5 might interact directly with NADH2. The knockdown of MDM2-5 by RNAi caused a higher level of NADH2 and ATPsyn and a higher freezing tolerance of hydrated seeds. This indicated that MDM2 played negative roles in regulating ATP synthesis and freezing tolerance of hydrated seeds.

Neural tuning for visual words is essential for fluent reading across various scripts. This study investigated the emergence and development of N170 tuning for Chinese characters and its cognitive–linguistic correlates. Electroencephalogram data from 48 adult L2 learners and 23 native Chinese readers were collected using a color detection task. The N170 for real characters, pseudo-characters, false characters, stroke combinations and line drawings were recorded. We found beginner adult L2 learners showed larger N170 Chinese characters compared to stroke combinations (coarse neural tuning). The intermediate-level L2 Chinese learners demonstrated fine-tuning for Chinese orthographic regularities. Importantly, a clear shift from bilateral to left-lateralized coarse and fine-tuning for print was observed from beginner to intermediate L2 learners as their Chinese reading experience increased. Moreover, individual differences in neural print tuning moderately correlated with word-reading fluency, Chinese vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness.

In this paper, we propose a novel vision-based adaptive leakage-type (LT) sliding mode admittance control for actuator-constrained collaborative robots to realize the synchronous control of the precise path following and compliant interaction force. Firstly, we develop a vision-admittance-based model to couple the visual feedback and force sensing in the image feature space so that a reference image feature trajectory can be obtained concerning the contact force command and predefined trajectory. Secondly, considering the system uncertainty, external disturbance, and torque constraints of collaborative robots in reality, we propose an adaptive sliding mode controller in the image feature space to perform precise trajectory tracking. This controller employs a leakage-type (LT) adaptive control law to reduce the side effects of system uncertainties without knowing the upper bound of system uncertainties. Moreover, an auxiliary dynamic is considered in this controller to overcome the joint torque constraints. Finally, we prove the convergence of the tracking error with the Lyapunov stability analysis and operate various semi-physical simulations compared to the conventional adaptive sliding mode and parallel vision/force controller to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed controller. The simulation results show that compared with the controller mentioned above, the path following accuracy and interaction force control precision of the proposed controller increased by 50% and achieved faster convergence.

Adsorption of uranyl (UO22+) ions to mineral surfaces is a potentially effective method for removing this hazardous metal from water, but other toxic trace metal ions (Xn+: Rb+, Sr2+, Cr3+, Mn2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Cd2+) in uraniferous wastewaters compete with UO22+ for adsorption sites and thus may diminish the capacity of adsorbents to sequester UO22+. A better understanding of competitive adsorption among these metal ions and the development of better adsorbents are, therefore, of critical importance. The purpose of the present study was to synthesize and characterize magnetic adsorbents, consisting of MFe2O4 (M = Mn, Fe, Zn, Co, or Ni) nanoparticles synthesized on montmorillonite (Mnt) edge sites, and to investigate their use as adsorbents for UO22+, including competitive adsorption with trace metal ions. Selective adsorption was studied using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms, and the results showed that Xn+ ions were adsorbed primarily on MFe2O4-montmorillonite surfaces, and the UO22+ ions were adsorbed on the interfaces between montmorillonite edge surfaces and MFe2O4 nanoparticles. Using the Freundlich model, the interface adsorption capacity of UO22+ reached 25.1 mg·g–1 in mixed solution. Further, the UO22+ and Cr3+ ions had a redox reaction on the interfaces with synergistic adsorption. Herein, the adsorption capacity of Cr3+ was 60.2 mg·g–1 using the Freundlich isotherm. The results demonstrated that the MFe2O4-montmorillonite with highly selective adsorption of UO22+ ions is applicable to UO22+ treatment in the presence of toxic trace metal ions.

Graphical abstract

The random distributed-feedback fiber laser (RFL) is a new approach to obtain a high-power stable supercontinuum (SC) source. To consider both structure simplification and high-power SC output, an innovative structure achieving a kilowatt-level SC output in a single-stage RFL with a half-open cavity is demonstrated in this paper. It consists of a fiber oscillator, a piece of long passive fiber and a broadband coupler, among which the broadband coupler acting as a feedback device is crucial in SC generation. When the system has no feedback, the backward output power is up to 298 W under the pump power of 1185 W. When the feedback is introduced before the pump laser, the backward power loss can be reduced and the pump can be fully utilized, which could promote forward output power and conversion efficiency significantly. Under the maximum pump power of 1847 W, a 1300 W SC with spectrum ranging from 887 to 1920 nm and SC conversion efficiency of 66% is obtained. To the best of our knowledge, it is the simplest structure used for high-power SC generation, and both the generated SC output power and the conversion efficiency are highest in the scheme of the half-opened RFL output SC.

The rapid and accurate taxonomic identification of fossils is of great significance in paleontology, biostratigraphy, and other fields. However, taxonomic identification is often labor-intensive and tedious, and the requisition of extensive prior knowledge about a taxonomic group also requires long-term training. Moreover, identification results are often inconsistent across researchers and communities. Accordingly, in this study, we used deep learning to support taxonomic identification. We used web crawlers to collect the Fossil Image Dataset (FID) via the Internet, obtaining 415,339 images belonging to 50 fossil clades. Then we trained three powerful convolutional neural networks on a high-performance workstation. The Inception-ResNet-v2 architecture achieved an average accuracy of 0.90 in the test dataset when transfer learning was applied. The clades of microfossils and vertebrate fossils exhibited the highest identification accuracies of 0.95 and 0.90, respectively. In contrast, clades of sponges, bryozoans, and trace fossils with various morphologies or with few samples in the dataset exhibited a performance below 0.80. Visual explanation methods further highlighted the discrepancies among different fossil clades and suggested similarities between the identifications made by machine classifiers and taxonomists. Collecting large paleontological datasets from various sources, such as the literature, digitization of dark data, citizen-science data, and public data from the Internet may further enhance deep learning methods and their adoption. Such developments will also possibly lead to image-based systematic taxonomy to be replaced by machine-aided classification in the future. Pioneering studies can include microfossils and some invertebrate fossils. To contribute to this development, we deployed our model on a server for public access at www.ai-fossil.com.

Patent data have been utilized for engineering design research for long because it contains massive amount of design information. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and data science present unprecedented opportunities to mine, analyse and make sense of patent data to develop design theory and methodology. Herein, we survey the patent-for-design literature by their contributions to design theories, methods, tools, and strategies, as well as different forms of patent data and various methods. Our review sheds light on promising future research directions for the field.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) is a cell surface receptor, belonging to the tyrosine kinase receptor superfamily. IGF1R plays a role not only in normal cell development but also in malignant transformation, which has become a candidate therapeutic target for the treatment of human cancer. This study aimed to explore insertions and deletions (indels) in IGF1R gene and investigate their association with growth traits in four Chinese cattle breeds (Xianan cattle, Jinnan cattle, Qinchuan cattle and Nanyang cattle). The current paper identified a 28-bp indel by polymerase chain reaction within IGF1R gene. The analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the locus and the hucklebone width of Nanyang cattle in four periods, in which it was highly correlated at 6, 12 and 18 months. At the age of 6 months, it was also significantly correlated with body height, body weight and body length. Association analysis showed that the locus in Jinnan cattle was extremely significantly correlated with body slanting length and body weight, and significantly correlated with chest circumference. There was no significant correlation between this locus and growth traits of Xianan cattle and Qinchuan cattle. The detected indel in the IGF1R gene was significantly associated with growth traits in Jinnan and Nanyang cattle, and could be used as a molecular marker for growth trait selection.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant tumours with a poor prognosis. In recent years, the incidence of pancreatic cancer is on the rise. Traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer have been improved, first-line and second-line palliative treatments have been developed, and adjuvant treatments have also been used in clinical. However, the 5-year survival rate is still less than 10% and new treatment methods such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy need to be investigated. In the past decades, many clinical trials of targeted therapies and immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer were launched and some of them showed an ideal prospect in a subgroup of pancreatic cancer patients. The experience of both success and failure of these clinical trials will be helpful to improve these therapies in the future. Therefore, the current research progress and challenges of selected targeted therapies and immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer are reviewed.

The South Qinling block, a segment of the Yangtze craton involved in the Qinling–Dabie orogen, is critical for understanding the tectonic evolution of eastern China. However, the tectonic setting of the South Qinling block and the northern margin of the Yangtze block during middle Neoproterozoic time has long been the subject of debate, with two distinctly different models (continental rift or volcanic arc) proposed. Here, a comprehensive study of zircon U–Pb geochronology and geochemistry has been carried out on the Chengwan granitic pluton from the Suizao terrane in the South Qinling block. The granites are monzogranite and syenogranite in lithology, and are mainly composed of potash feldspar, quartz, plagioclase and biotite. This suite has long been regarded as a Palaeozoic magmatic pluton, but zircon U–Pb ages of 809 ± 9 Ma and 816 ± 4 Ma are obtained in this study. The granites are metaluminous to strongly peraluminous with high alkali contents, and exhibit highly fractionated features, including high SiO2, low Zr/Hf ratios, rare earth element tetrad effects and enrichment of K and Rb. They show Hf–Nd isotopic decoupling, which may be genetically related to their petrogenetic process. Based on the geochemical features and the positive εHf(t) values of the zircons, it is indicated that the granites may have been derived from partial melting of juvenile tonalitic rocks by biotite breakdown under fluid-absent conditions. The Chengwan granite geochemically belongs to the A2-subtype granites, suggesting that it might have formed in a post-orogenic tectonic setting. The highly fractionated A-type granite in this study may represent extensional collapse shortly after the collisional events in the South Qinling block, and thus indicate a tectonic regime switch, from compression to extension, as early as middle Neoproterozoic time. Integrating our new data with documented magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary events during middle Neoproterozoic time in the region may support a continental rift model, and argues against arc models.