This study delves into the intricate relationship between chief executive officers' (CEOs') experiences of poverty and the digital transformation of their firms. Employing comprehensive data collection on CEOs' birthplaces and leveraging advanced text analytics to quantify digitalization, our analysis encompasses a wide array of listed companies in China. The findings reveal that CEOs' impoverished experiences exert a detrimental influence on their firms' digital transformation efforts, primarily due to a lack of motivation and social resources necessary for such initiatives. However, this adverse effect can be ameliorated when CEOs gain access to substantial social resources in later life. Our conclusions are robust, supported by rigorous testing, and underscore not only the impact of CEOs' early-life poverty on corporate digitalization but also the potential for overcoming these challenges through the acquisition of external social resources and connections in adulthood. This study contributes significantly to existing literature and offers practical implications for enhancing corporate digital transformation strategies.

This study explores an interesting fluid–structure interaction scenario: the flow past a flexible filament fixed at two ends. The dynamic performance of the filament under various inclination angles ($\theta$) was numerically investigated using the immersed boundary method. The motion of the filament in the $\theta$–$Lr$ space was categorised into three flapping modes and two stationary modes, where $Lr$ is the ratio of filament length to the distance between its two ends. The flow fields for each mode and their transitions were introduced. A more in-depth analysis was carried out for flapping at a large angle (FLA mode), which is widely present in the $\theta$–$Lr$ space. The maximum width $W$ of the time-averaged shape of the filament has been shown to strongly correlate with the flapping frequency. After non-dimensionalising based on $W$, the flapping frequency shows little variation across different $Lr$ and $\theta$. Moreover, two types of lift variation process were also identified. Finally, the total lift, drag and lift-to-drag ratio of the system were studied. Short filaments, such as those with $Lr\leqslant 1.5$, were shown to significantly increase lift and the lift-to-drag ratio over a wide range of $\theta$ compared with a rigid plate. Flow field analysis concluded that the increases in pressure difference on both sides of the filament, along with the upper part of the flexible filament having a normal direction closer to the $y$ direction, were the primary reasons for the increase in lift and lift-to-drag ratio. This study can provide some guidance for the potential applications of flexible structures.

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a key monoamine neurotransmitter in insects, which regulates neural functions and influences various developmental and physiological processes by binding to its receptors. In this study, we investigate the molecular characteristics, phylogenetic relationships, and expression patterns of the 5-HT7 receptor (Cf5-HT7) in Chrysopa formosa, with a focus on its potential involvement in developmental and diapause regulation. The Cf5-HT7 gene was identified and cloned from the C. formosa transcriptome, revealing an open reading frame of 1788 bp encoding a 596 amino acid protein. Sequence analysis confirmed that Cf5-HT7 is a typical class A G protein-coupled receptor, characterised by seven transmembrane domains and several post-translational modifications, including palmitoylation and N-glycosylation sites. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Cf5-HT7 is most closely related to the 5-HT7 receptor from Chrysoperla carnea, with high conservation of key motifs involved in ligand binding and receptor activation. Expression analysis across different developmental stages of C. formosa showed that Cf5-HT7 is highly expressed in the first instar larvae, with significant upregulation observed during the prepupal stage. Under diapause-inducing conditions, Cf5-HT7 expression is modulated in a stage-specific manner, showing a marked decrease at the onset of diapause, followed by a significant increase during the mid-to-late diapause maintenance phase. These findings suggest that it plays a pivotal role in regulating development and diapause processes in C. formosa, offering new insights into the molecular mechanisms governing insect life cycle transitions. This study lays the groundwork for future research into the functional roles of 5-HT7 receptors in insect physiology and their potential applications in manipulating diapause.

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) occupies an integral position in the memory politics of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In recent years, dominant representations of the war create a memory discourse which portrays the heroic triumph of the Chinese people led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Japan. This article shows how the war has been remembered from the victory of the Communist revolution in 1949 to the present in the PRC. It contributes to the debate on the effectiveness and limitations of the monopoly of war memory by the CCP.

In this paper, we report the spatiotemporal dynamics of an intraguild predation (IGP)-type predator–prey model incorporating harvesting and prey-taxis. We first discuss the local and global existence of the classical solutions in N-dimensional space. It is found that the model has a global classical solution when controlling the prey-taxis coefficient in a certain range. Thereafter, we focus on the existence of the steady-state bifurcation. Moreover, we theoretically investigate the properties of the bifurcating solution near the steady-state bifurcation critical threshold. As a consequence, the spatial pattern formation of this model can be theoretically confirmed. Importantly, by means of rigorous theoretical derivation, we provide discriminant criteria on the stability of the bifurcating solution. Finally, the complicated patterns are numerically displayed. It is demonstrated that the harvesting and prey-taxis significantly affect the pattern formation of this IGP-type predator–prey model. Our main results of this paper reveal that (i) The repulsive prey-taxis could destabilize the spatial homogeneity, while the attractive prey-taxis effect and self-diffusion will stabilize the spatial homogeneity of this model. (ii) Numerical results suggest that over-harvesting for prey or predators is not advisable, it can lead to an ecological imbalance due to a significant reduction in population numbers. However, harvesting within a certain range is a feasible approach.

Intermittent swimming behaviour is commonly observed in larval zebrafish, often attributed to energy-saving mechanisms. In this study, we utilize a hybrid approach combining deep reinforcement learning and the immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann method to train a larval zebrafish-like swimmer to reach a target with minimized energy expenditure. We find that when the tail-beat period is fixed, continuous swimming emerges as the optimal strategy. However, when the tail-beat period is allowed to vary, intermittent swimming proves superior in energy performance, achieved through reductions in tail-beat amplitude and frequency. Our detailed analysis reveals that intermittent swimmers employ rapid backward tail flicks to attain high speeds, coupled with slower forward tail flicks and coasting phases to conserve energy. Furthermore, we derive scaling laws governing the swimming performance of trained fish. These results offer valuable insights into the intermittent swimming patterns of fish, with implications for understanding bio-inspired locomotion and informing the design of energy-efficient aquatic systems.

Data for Policy (dataforpolicy.org), a trans-disciplinary community of research and practice, has emerged around the application and evaluation of data technologies and analytics for policy and governance. Research in this area has involved cross-sector collaborations, but the areas of emphasis have previously been unclear. Within the Data for Policy framework of six focus areas, this report offers a landscape review of Focus Area 2: Technologies and Analytics. Taking stock of recent advancements and challenges can help shape research priorities for this community. We highlight four commonly used technologies for prediction and inference that leverage datasets from the digital environment: machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence systems, the internet-of-things, digital twins, and distributed ledger systems. We review innovations in research evaluation and discuss future directions for policy decision-making.

The Early-Middle Jurassic impression/compression macroflora and the palynoflora from the Qaidam Basin in the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau have been well studied; however, fossil wood from this region has not been previously documented systematically. Here, we describe an anatomically well-preserved fossil wood specimen from the Lower Jurassic Huoshaoshan Formation at the Dameigou section in northern Qinghai Province, northwestern China. This fossil exhibits typical Metapodocarpoxylon Dupéron-Laudoueneix et Pons anatomy with usually araucarian radial tracheid pits and variable cross-field pits, representing a new record for Metapodocarpoxylon in the Qaidam Basin. This discovery indicates that trees with this type of wood anatomy were not confined to northern Gondwana but also grew in more northerly regions in Laurasia. The wood displays distinct growth rings, with abundant, well-formed earlywood and narrow latewood. This observation, along with previous interpretations based on macroflora, palynoflora and sedimentological data, suggests that a warm and humid climate with mild seasonality prevailed in the region during the Early Jurassic.

The three-dimensional flow field past an I-shaped dual-step cylinder has been obtained by numerical integration of the Navier–Stokes equations at Reynolds number ($Re_D$) 150. The I-shaped cylinder consisted of two large-diameter (D) cylinders with a small-diameter (d) cylinder in between. With a view to exploring the vortex dynamics and structural loads, simulations were performed for eight different lengths $l$ of the small cylinder, varied from $l/D=10$ to 0.2 for a fixed diameter ratio $D/d=2$. When the length of the small cylinder is sufficiently large, the wake behind the I-shaped cylinder is similar to the wake behind the single-step cylinder (Tian et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 891, 2020, A24). As the small cylinder length decreases, the enhanced interactions between the two steps make the present wake deviate from the wake of the single-step cylinder, leading to four different wake modes distinguished by different combinations of vortex cells. The physical formation mechanisms were analysed in terms of the vortex dynamics. Besides the wake flow, the streamwise vortices around the I-shaped step cylinder were also investigated. A pair of edge vortices and a junction vortex were identified for $l/D \geq ~1$. When the gap between the two steps becomes too small, $l/D \leq ~0.2$, the junction vortex disappears, and only a pair of edge vortices exists. Varying the distance between the two steps strongly affects the structural loads (drag and lift) along the I-shaped cylinder. The dependence of the loads on $l/D$ was readily explained by the different wake modes.

In certain scenarios, the large footprint of a robot is not conducive to multi-robot cooperative operations. This paper presents a generalized single-loop parallel manipulator with remote center of motion (GSLPM-RCM), which addresses this issue by incorporating a reconfigurable base. The footprint of this RCM manipulator can be adjusted by varying the parameters of the reconfigurable base. First, utilizing configuration evolution, a reconfigurable base is constructed based on the principle of forming RCM motion. Then, according to the modular analysis method, the inverse kinematics of this parallel RCM manipulator is analyzed, and the workspace is also analyzed. Subsequently, the motion/force transmissibility of this RCM manipulator is analyzed by considering its single-loop and multi-degree of freedom characteristics. Leveraging the workspace index and transmissibility indices, dimension optimization of the manipulator is implemented. Finally, the influence of the reconfigurable base on the workspace and the transmissibility performance of the optimized manipulator is studied.