A comprehensive direct numerical simulation of electroconvection (EC) turbulence caused by strong unipolar charge injection in a two-dimensional cavity is performed. The EC turbulence has strong fluctuations and intermittency in the closed cavity. Several dominant large-scale structures are found, including two vertical main rolls and a single primary roll. The flow mode significantly influences the charge transport efficiency. A nearly $Ne \sim T^{1/2}$ scaling stage is observed, and the optimal $Ne$ increment is related to the mode with two vertical rolls, while the single roll mode decreases the charge transport efficiency. As the flow strength increases, EC turbulence transitions from an electric force-dominated mode to an inertia-dominated mode. The former utilizes the Coulomb force more effectively and allocates more energy to convection. The vertical mean profiles of charge, electric field and energy budget provide intuitive information on the spatial energy distribution. With the aid of the energy-box technique, a detailed energy transport evolution is illustrated with changing electric Rayleigh numbers. This exploration of EC turbulence can help explain more complicated electrokinetic turbulence mechanisms and the successful utilization of Fourier mode decomposition and energy-box techniques is expected to benefit future EC studies.

We investigated the effects of botulinum toxin on gait in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with foot dystonia. Six patients underwent onabotulinum toxin A injection and were assessed by Burke–Fahn–Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS), visual analog scale (VAS) of pain, Timed Up and Go (TUG), Berg Balance Test (BBT), and 3D gait analysis at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months. BFMDRS (p = 0.002), VAS (p = 0.024), TUG (p = 0.028), and BBT (p = 0.034) were improved. Foot pressures at Toe 1 (p = 0.028) and Midfoot (p = 0.018) were reduced, indicating botulinum toxin’s effects in alleviating the dystonia severity and pain and improving foot pressures during walking in PD.

A multicenter study of sharps injuries (SIs) and other blood or body fluid (OBBF) exposures was conducted among 33,156 healthcare workers (HCWs) from 175 hospitals in Anhui, China. In total, 12,178 HCWs (36.7%) had experienced at least 1 SI in the previous 12 months and 8,116 HCWs (24.5%) had experienced at least 1 OBBF exposure during the previous 12 months.

Evaluation of Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Se in humans is challenged by the potentially high within-individual variability of these elements in biological specimens, which are poorly characterised. This study aimed to evaluate their within-day, between-day and between-month variability in spot samples, first-morning voids and 24-h collections. A total of 529 spot urine samples (including eighty-eight first-morning voids and 24-h collections) were collected from eleven Chinese adult men on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 30, 60 and 90 and analysed for these five elements using inductively coupled plasma-MS. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were utilised to characterise the reproducibility, and their sensitivity and specificity were analysed to assess how well a single measurement classified individuals’ 3-month average exposures. Serial measurements of Zn in spot samples exhibited fair to good reproducibility (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·47) over five consecutive days, which became poor when the samples were gathered months apart (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·33). The reproducibility of Cr, Mn, Fe and Se in spot samples was poor over periods ranging from days to months (creatinine-adjusted ICC = 0·01–0·12). Two spot samples were sufficient for classifying 60 % of the men who truly had the highest (top 33 %) 3-month average Zn concentrations; for Cr, Mn, Fe and Se, however, at least three specimens were required to achieve similar sensitivities. In conclusion, urinary Cr, Mn, Fe, Zn and Se concentrations showed a strong within-individual variability, and a single measurement is not enough to efficiently characterise individuals’ long-term exposures.

An extruded Mg–8Gd–4Y–1Nd–0.5Zr alloy was preheated at 500 °C for 0.5 h and then subjected to hot compression to a true strain of 0.69 at temperature 450 °C and a strain rate of 0.2 s−1. It is observed that boundaries of small grains (∼3 μm) in the extruded alloy are decorated with irregular-shaped particles; small grains show a weak texture of three main components of $\left\langle {0001} \right\rangle //{\rm{TD}}$ , $\left\langle {11\overline 2 1} \right\rangle //{\rm{ND}}$ , and $\left\langle {10\overline 1 0} \right\rangle //{\rm{ED}}$ . Dynamic recrystallization is concurrent with dynamic precipitation of particles during hot compression, resulting in both a uniform grain structure and a redistribution of particles. The retained particles before compression keep the texture unchanged during compression, leading to the same texture type of $\left\langle {0001} \right\rangle //{\rm{TD}}$ of the compressed alloy as that of the preheated alloy. The compressed alloy exhibits a better aging hardening ability than the extruded alloy. After peak aging, the compressed alloy presents an ultimate tensile strength of 416 MPa, a yield tensile strength of 317 MPa, and an elongation of 2.7%.

A study of 7,388 consecutive patients after hepatic resection between 2011 and 2012 identified hepatolithiasis, cirrhosis, and intraoperative blood transfusion as the only independent risk factors of both incisional and organ/space surgical site infection (SSI). Patients with these conditions should be cared for with caution to lower SSI rates.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films were deposited on pre-oxidized Si wafers by electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECRCVD). The rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatments were applied to the as-grown samples in nitrogen atmosphere, and the temperature range for the RTA process is from 450 to 950 °C. The crystallization and grain growth behaviors of the annealed films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The onset temperature for the crystallization and grain growth is around 625 ∼ 650°C. The crystalline fraction of annealed a-Si:H films can reach ∼80%, and a grain size up to 17 nm could be obtained from the RTA treatment at 700 °C. We found that the crystallization continues when the grain growth has stopped.

The levels of drought tolerance and nucleotide polymorphism at the CBF4 locus were examined in a world-wide sample of 17 core accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana. The results showed that different accessions exhibited considerable differences in adaptation to drought stress. Compared with Columbia accession, the frequency of nucleotide polymorphism at the CBF4 locus of 25av, 203av and 244av accessions, including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and insertion/deletion (Indel), was high, on average 1 SNP per 35.8 bp and 1 Indel per 143 bp. No significance in all regions of Tajima's D test indicated that the neutral mutation hypothesis could explain the nucleotide polymorphism in this CBF4 gene region. The higher polymorphism was the result of purification selection. Nucleotide polymorphism in the non-coding region was three times higher than in the coding region. This might indicate a recent relaxation of selection pressures on the non-coding region of CBF4 gene. In the coding region of CBF4, SNP frequency was 1 SNP per 96.4 bp and one non-synonymous mutation was detected from 25av, 203av and 244av accessions: the amino acid variation gly↔val at position 205, caused by the nucleotide variation G↔T at position 1034 (corresponding to the nucleotide at position 19 696 of GenBank accession no. AB015478 as 1). Furthermore, four differential SNPs were discovered in haplotype 6 constituted by 203av, one of them located in the 3′ non-coding region (A↔C at position 1106) and the others in the 5′ non-coding region (A↔G, A↔C and G↔A at positions 27, 129 and 171, respectively). The drought tolerance assay indicated that accession 203av was the best at tolerating water deficiency. We propose that haplotype 6 is consistent with its drought tolerance.

A pair of mutant mice with a first sparse coat appeared spontaneously in the production stock of BALB/c mice with a normal coat. After being sib-mated, they produced three phenotypes in their progeny: mice with normal hair, mice with a first sparse coat and then a fuzzy coat, and uncovered mice. Genetic studies revealed the mutants had inherited an autosomal monogene that was semi-dominant. By using 11 biochemical loci – Idh, Car2, Mup1, Pgm1, Hbb, Es1, Es10, Gdc, Ce2, Mod1 and Es3 – as genetic markers, two-point linkage tests were made. The results showed the gene was assigned to chromosome 11. The result of a three-point test with Es3 and D11Mit8 (microsatellite DNA) as markers showed that the mutation was linked to Es3 with the recombination fraction 7·89±2·19%, and linked to D11Mit8 with the recombination fraction 26·30±3·57%. The recombination fraction between Es3 and D11Mit8 was 32·90±3·81%. It is suggested that the mutation is a new genetic locus that affected the skin and hair structure of the mouse. The mutation was named uncovered, with the symbol Uncv. Further studies showed the mutation affected not only the histology of skin and hair but also the growth and reproductive performance of the mice. The molecular characterization of the Uncv locus needs to be further studied.

Chemical element properties are generally classified in six groups: size, atomic number, electrochemical factor, valence-electron, cohesive energy, and angular valence-orbital. It is well known that some bulk properties of materials, like electrical conductivity and heat capacity of metals, may be interpreted in principle based on their constituent chemical element properties. In this study, effects of additives in galvanizing have been correlated to the chemical element properties of the additives. By screening all chemical elements (in the periodic table of elements) with this model, new additives, like Ca, Sc, Ge, Sr, and Y, have been predicted to reduce the steel weight loss in galvanizing. This model may also help to design new alloys as additives.