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Systematic experimental data on local extreme velocities and unsteady features in high-Reynolds-number deep-cavity flows remain limited. In this study, two-component particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed to investigate the flow characteristics of an incoming-flow-driven deep cavity with $L/D$ = $1/3$ at Re = 2.55 × 105. Three streamwise $xy$ planes ($z/W$ = 0.10, 0.25, 0.50) and three spanwise yz planes ($x/L$ = 0.10, 0.25, 0.50) were measured systematically. The time-averaged velocity, root mean square velocity fluctuations, in-plane turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), instantaneous maximum velocity, and higher-order statistics including skewness and kurtosis were analysed. The results show that the vertical velocity fluctuation on the intermediate streamwise plane ($z/W$ = 0.25) reaches peak value approximately $v$rms/Ulid = 0.072 (where Ulid is the characteristic inflow velocity above the cavity), indicating the strongest local vertical unsteady response among the measured streamwise planes. On the near-wall plane ($z/W$ = 0.10), the instantaneous maximum velocity exhibits skewness 1.23 and kurtosis 7.47, reflecting pronounced local intermittent extreme events, whereas the extreme events on the middle plane ($z/W$ = 0.50) are weaker and closer to a Gaussian-like distribution. The spanwise planes also demonstrate clear non-Gaussian features, with high-fluctuation and high in-plane TKE regions primarily concentrated in areas associated with the interaction between the shear layer and recirculation structures, revealing significant spatial anisotropy in the flow. These results suggest that shear-layer development, primary recirculation, sidewall confinement and downstream flow turning jointly modulate local extreme events and intermittent velocity fluctuations. This study provides systematic experimental quantification of spatial non-uniformity and extreme-event characteristics in a high-Reynolds-number deep cavity using multi-plane PIV, offering useful experimental references for turbulence model validation and complex cavity-flow control.
Fluid–structure interaction (FSI) poses a significant computational challenge due to the complex, multiscale nonlinearities of both fluid and structural dynamics. In this study, a novel strongly coupled FSI network is developed for accurate and efficient predictive modelling of FSI problems. Specifically, the framework architecture integrates a physics-constrained convolutional neural network autoencoder (CAE) with a strong coupling (SC) prediction module containing both fluid and structural dynamic prediction modules (DP) that perform recursive prediction simultaneously and interactively. First, the physics-constrained CAE learns low-dimensional nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) representations of the high-dimensional fluid field’s spatiotemporal dynamics. Subsequently, the fluid DP module in the SC module leverages these NNMs combined with structural states determined by embedding the motion equation into the structural DP, to predict the future-state flow fields efficiently. Such a strongly coupled FSI framework is achieved by integrating fluid NNMs and structural states within each time step to recursively correct the learned mapping of the trained CAE and fluid DP modules, thereby efficiently and accurately predicting future-state FSI dynamics simultaneously. The developed SC-CAE-NNM FSI framework is applied to the classic problem of vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder, analysing both laminar and high-$ \textit{Re}$ flows. It is observed that the identified NNMs of fluid flows in association with the structural state achieve superior accuracy in the prediction of the flow fields and structural responses, indicating that the SC scheme effectively captures the dynamic flow characteristics and strong nonlinear interactions. Furthermore, the framework is found to be able to reconstruct small-scale flow structures in high-$ \textit{Re}$ flows accurately and predict structural responses efficiently. Additionally, the analysis of NNMs energy distributions reveals that the majority of the total energy of the flow field is captured by the first four NNMs, demonstrating significant advantages of nonlinear feature representation for efficient reduced-order modelling of complex flows. Overall, this novel framework shows strong capability for accurate and efficient predictive modelling of complex nonlinear dynamics of FSIs.
This study examines whether homeownership has a trade-off relationship with public-pension development in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Relying on a comparative historical approach, we find that while the three governments pursued homeownership societies, their interventions in housing provision and distribution varied in timing and intensity, contributing to different levels of homeownership. Historically, middle-class families in these countries have preferred asset accumulation through home purchases over reliance on public pensions. In particular, the early introduction of mandatory savings as a form of lump-sum retirement payments, combined with widespread homeownership aspirations, led to heavy reliance on private homeownership and, in turn, contributed to establishing underdeveloped, small-scale public-pension systems. Homeownership is unlikely to serve as a cornerstone of old-age economic security systems in East Asia, where asset-based welfare developed as a substitute for collective welfare provision and social rights.
Hospital-attributable central line-associated bloodstream infections (HA-CLABSI) are associated with severe patient outcomes. Published data on HA-CLABSI epidemiology in hospitals locally remains limited. This study aimed to determine the HA-CLABSI incidence and risk factors to inform targeted infection prevention practices.
Methods:
Retrospective, nested case-control study was performed at Singapore General Hospital from January 2018 to December 2020, involving 127 cases and 252 controls. HA-CLABSI cases developed CLABSI ≥ 3 calendar days of hospitalization. Controls had central line inserted but did not develop CLABSI. Cases and controls were matched on 1:2 ratio for central line insertion date. Multivariable conditional logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors for HA-CLABSI, with adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p-values reported. Variables with p-value < 0.05 were statistically significant. HA-CLABSI incidence rate was calculated per 1,000 central line-days.
Results:
HA-CLABSI incidence rate during the study period was 8.4/1,000 central line-days. Independent risk factors for HA-CLABSI were transfer to high-risk areas (aOR: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.05–3.92), immunocompromised health status (aOR: 4.62, 95% CI: 2.20–9.69), antibiotic administration (aOR: 7.41, 95% CI: 3.24–16.92), and total parenteral nutrition (aOR: 3.61, 95% CI: 1.49–8.77) being included as indications for central line insertion, insertion of PICC (aOR: 13.61, 95% CI: 3.12–55.53), presence of non-tunneled central lines (aOR: 2.95, 95% CI: 1.48–5.87) and prior MRSA acquisition (aOR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.83–6.35).
Conclusion:
HA-CLABSI remains a significant concern despite on-going infection prevention efforts. Risk factors identified facilitate development of targeted, evidence-based interventions.
Received scholarship by H.T. Huang and others has argued that the high incidence of lactose intolerance in East Asians discouraged the Chinese from adopting dairy on health grounds before the twentieth century. However, such wisdom overlooks Chinese medical literature that prescribes fresh dairy to treat chronic diarrhea. This essay considers what famed healer Sun Simiao (581–682) had to say about the uses of dairy products in treating digestive ailments. Towards this end, we consider the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold for Emergencies (Beiji qianjin yaofang 備急千金要方) and the Supplemental Formulas Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold (Qianjin yifang 千金翼方). We then compare the uses of dairy in the Sun corpus to both contemporary and earlier texts. Our analysis shows that Tang-dynasty (618–907) healers regarded milk products as generally good for the gut, and, in some cases, recommended using fresh dairy for cases of flux.
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious animal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). It is listed by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) as an animal disease subject to statutory reporting. ASFV, a large, enveloped double-stranded DNA virus with high genomic complexity, exhibits a case fatality rate of up to 100%, posing a significant threat to the global pig industry and food safety. To date, the absence of a safe commercial ASFV vaccine primarily stems from challenges in identifying immunogenic viral antigens, insufficient characterization of ASFV pathogenesis, and limited understanding of the virus’s immune evasion mechanisms. Here, we review the pathogenic characteristics (morphological structure, clinical symptoms, and epidemiological characteristics), molecular biological characteristics, and infection mechanism of ASFV, as well as the immune response mechanism, vaccine research, and the latest information on ASFV in other areas. This review will be in favour of understanding the current state of knowledge of ASF and developing effective vaccines to control this disease.
The structural stability of barrier layers is critical for the long-term effectiveness of landfill remediation projects, although leachate pumping and organic contamination can cause structural degradation, reduce remediation performance, and increase the risk of pollutant release. The objectives of this study were to determine the consolidation–rebound mechanisms of sand–bentonite mixtures through standardized tests and to analyze deformation under diesel contamination using multi-scale approaches, including pore-structure characterization, particle-size distribution, cation exchange capacity, and oil-blocking effects. The results revealed that uncontaminated soil (0.0 wt.% diesel) exhibited non-linear compression behavior, with an initial decrease and a subsequent increase with increasing sand content; when the consolidation pressure exceeded 400 kPa, the compression rate decreased markedly. The compression deformation of the contaminated soil increased and was positively correlated with the sand and diesel contents, with accelerated deformation at >4.0 wt.% diesel. The rebound capacity decreased under combined sand–diesel effects. Microstructural analysis indicated that initial compression was controlled by inter-aggregate pores, whereas mid- to late-stage compression was influenced by intra-aggregate pore evolution and particle breakage. Increased diesel content shifted aggregate breakage from single/secondary to tertiary patterns, altering later compression behavior. Coupled hydration reduction and enhanced oil-blocking suppressed rebound significantly, worsening with increasing diesel content. Technical–economic analysis revealed that pure bentonite (0% sand) was optimal under uncontaminated conditions and that a 10% sand mixture was best under contaminated conditions. The sand–bentonite barrier exhibited amplified consolidation–rebound deformation and reduced stability with increasing sand and diesel contents, providing a theoretical basis for long-term landfill remediation assessment.
Over an algebraically closed field $\mathbb F$ of characteristic $p \gt 0$, the restricted twisted Heisenberg Lie algebras are studied. We use the Hochschild–Serre spectral sequence relative to its Heisenberg ideal to compute the trivial cohomology. The ordinary 1- and 2-cohomology spaces are used to compute the restricted 1- and 2-cohomology spaces and describe the restricted one-dimensional central extensions, including explicit formulas for the Lie brackets and $-^{[p]}$-operators.
Paleontology provides insights into the history of the planet, from the origins of life billions of years ago to the biotic changes of the Recent. The scope of paleontological research is as vast as it is varied, and the field is constantly evolving. In an effort to identify “Big Questions” in paleontology, experts from around the world came together to build a list of priority questions the field can address in the years ahead. The 89 questions presented herein (grouped within 11 themes) represent contributions from nearly 200 international scientists. These questions touch on common themes including biodiversity drivers and patterns, integrating data types across spatiotemporal scales, applying paleontological data to contemporary biodiversity and climate issues, and effectively utilizing innovative methods and technology for new paleontological insights. In addition to these theoretical questions, discussions touch upon structural concerns within the field, advocating for an increased valuation of specimen-based research, protection of natural heritage sites, and the importance of collections infrastructure, along with a stronger emphasis on human diversity, equity, and inclusion. These questions offer a starting point—an initial nucleus of consensus that paleontologists can expand on—for engaging in discussions, securing funding, advocating for museums, and fostering continued growth in shared research directions.
Climate conditions are known to modulate infectious disease transmission, yet their impact on measles transmission remains underexplored. In this study, we investigate the extent to which climate conditions modulate measles transmission, utilizing measles incidence data during 2005–2008 from China. Three climate-forced models were employed: a sinusoidal function, an absolute humidity (AH)-forced model, and an AH and temperature (AH/T)-forced model. These models were integrated into an inference framework consisting of a susceptible–exposed–infectious–recovered (SEIR) model and an iterated filter (IF2) to estimate epidemiological characteristics and assess climate influences on measles transmission. During the study period, measles epidemics peaked in spring in northern China and were more diverse in the south. Our analyses showed that the AH/T model better captured measles epidemic dynamics in northern China, suggesting a combined impact of humidity and temperature on measles transmission. Furthermore, we preliminarily examined the impact of other factors and found that population susceptibility and incidence rate were both positively correlated with migrant worker influx, suggesting that higher susceptibility among migrant workers may sustain measles transmission. Taken together, our study supports a role of humidity and temperature in modulating measles transmission and identifies additional factors in shaping measles epidemic dynamics in China.
Organizational capability is key to achieving strategic goals and adaptability. This study applies the TASKS framework to evaluate taskload, affect, skills, knowledge, and stress using a questionnaire developed through the Environment-Based Design (EBD) methodology. A structured perception-centered evaluation was conducted to assess employees’ perceptions of organizational alignment, with middle managers’ responses serving as a reference. Findings emphasize the need for better communication, leadership engagement, and goal clarity to enhance transformation readiness. The TASKS framework’s perception-centered evaluation assesses organizational capability and identifies role-based misalignments. Future research will expand the framework’s application to validate its effectiveness and refine strategies for enhancing organizational capability.
This study examines how university curriculum reforms that increase course selection flexibility influence entrepreneurial outcomes. Departing from traditional emphasis on educational attainment, we explore how institutional changes in education shape entrepreneurial tendencies among alumni. Leveraging a reform that removed constraints on course selection at a major university, we find that increased educational choice significantly fosters entrepreneurship. Our analysis reveals partial support for the moderating effects of individual, family, and spatial factors: the positive impact of these reforms is contingent on the type of electives and courses taken, with stronger effects observed among alumni with entrepreneurial parents, those born in urban areas, and those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. These groups leverage specific course patterns to align their educational choices with entrepreneurial aspirations, enhancing their likelihood of pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. However, these findings also underscore the potential for educational reforms to exacerbate inequalities, disproportionately benefiting those with preexisting advantages. By integrating insights on institutional changes, course-taking patterns, and individual moderators, this study advances understanding of the interplay between education and entrepreneurship, offering implications for designing more equitable educational policies.
We strengthen two results of Moretó. We prove that the index of the Fitting subgroup is bounded in terms of the degrees of the irreducible monomial Brauer characters of the finite solvable group G and it is also bounded in terms of the average degree of the irreducible Brauer characters of G that lie over a linear character of the Fitting subgroup.
The outbreak of major epidemics, such as COVID-19, has had a significant impact on supply chains. This study aimed to explore knowledge innovation in the field of emergency supply chain during pandemics with a systematic quantitative analysis.
Methods
Based on the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection, proposing a 3-stage systematic analysis framework, and utilizing bibliometrics, Dynamic Topic Models (DTM), and regression analysis to comprehensively examine supply chain innovations triggered by pandemics.
Results
A total of 888 literature were obtained from the WOS database. There was a surge in the number of publications in recent years, indicating a new field of research on Pandemic Triggered Emergency Supply Chain (PTESC) is gradually forming. Through a 3-stage analysis, this study identifies the literature knowledge base and distribution of research hotspots in this field and predicts future research hotspots and trends mainly boil down to 3 aspects: pandemic-triggered emergency supply chain innovations in key industries, management, and technologies.
Conclusions
COVID-19 strengthened academic exchange and cooperation and promoted knowledge output in this field. This study provides an in-depth perspective on emergency supply chain research and helps researchers understand the overall landscape of the field, identifying future research directions.
Recent studies have increasingly utilized gradient metrics to investigate the spatial transitions of brain organization, enabling the conversion of macroscale brain features into low-dimensional manifold representations. However, it remains unclear whether alterations exist in the cortical morphometric similarity (MS) network gradient in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). This study aims to examine potential differences in the principal MS gradient between individuals with SCZ and healthy controls and to explore how these differences relate to transcriptional profiles and clinical phenomenology.
Methods
MS network was constructed in this study, and its gradient of the network was computed in 203 patients with SCZ and 201 healthy controls, who shared the same demographics in terms of age and gender. To examine irregularities in the MS network gradient, between-group comparisons were carried out, and partial least squares regression analysis was used to study the relationships between the MS network gradient-based variations in SCZ, and gene expression patterns and clinical phenotype.
Results
In contrast to healthy controls, the principal MS gradient of patients with SCZ was primarily significantly lower in sensorimotor areas, and higher in more areas. In addition, the aberrant gradient pattern was spatially linked with the genes enriched for neurobiologically significant pathways and preferential expression in various brain regions and cortical layers. Furthermore, there were strong positive connections between the principal MS gradient and the symptomatologic score in SCZ.
Conclusions
These findings showed changes in the principal MS network gradient in SCZ and offered potential molecular explanations for the structural changes underpinning SCZ.
We say that two nonempty subsets A and B with cardinality r of a group G are noncommuting subsets if $xy\neq yx$ for every $x\in A$ and $y\in B$. We say a nonempty set $\mathcal {X}$ of subsets with cardinality r of G is an r-noncommuting set if every two elements of $\mathcal {X}$ are noncommuting subsets. If $|\mathcal {X}| \geq |\mathcal {Y}|$ for any other r-noncommuting set $\mathcal {Y}$ of G, then the cardinality of $\mathcal {X}$ (if it exists) is denoted by $w_G(r)$ and is called the r-clique number of G. In this paper, we try to find the influence of the function $w_G: \mathbb {N} \longrightarrow \mathbb {N}$ on the structure of groups.
The emotion regulation network (ERN) in the brain provides a framework for understanding the neuropathology of affective disorders. Although previous neuroimaging studies have investigated the neurobiological correlates of the ERN in major depressive disorder (MDD), whether patients with MDD exhibit abnormal functional connectivity (FC) patterns in the ERN and whether the abnormal FC in the ERN can serve as a therapeutic response signature remain unclear.
Methods
A large functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset comprising 709 patients with MDD and 725 healthy controls (HCs) recruited across five sites was analyzed. Using a seed-based FC approach, we first investigated the group differences in whole-brain resting-state FC of the 14 ERN seeds between participants with and without MDD. Furthermore, an independent sample (45 MDD patients) was used to evaluate the relationship between the aforementioned abnormal FC in the ERN and symptom improvement after 8 weeks of antidepressant monotherapy.
Results
Compared to the HCs, patients with MDD exhibited aberrant FC between 7 ERN seeds and several cortical and subcortical areas, including the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, bilateral occipital gyrus, right thalamus, calcarine cortex, middle frontal gyrus, and the bilateral superior temporal gyrus. In an independent sample, these aberrant FCs in the ERN were negatively correlated with the reduction rate of the HAMD17 score among MDD patients.
Conclusions
These results might extend our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings underlying unadaptable or inflexible emotional processing in MDD patients and help to elucidate the mechanisms of therapeutic response.
Rhopalosiphum padi is an important grain pest, causing severe losses during crop production. As a systemic insecticide, flonicamid can control piercing-sucking pests efficiently. In our study, the lethal effects of flonicamid on the biological traits of R. padi were investigated via a life table approach. Flonicamid is highly efficiently toxic to R. padi, with an LC50 of 9.068 mg L−1. The adult longevity and fecundity of the R. padi F0 generation were markedly reduced under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid exposure. In addition, negative transgenerational effects on R. padi were observed under exposure to lethal concentrations of flonicamid, with noticeable decreases in the reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation under the LC25 concentration of flonicamid. Furthermore, the third nymph stage (N3), preadult stage, duration of the adult pre-reproductive period, duration of the total pre-reproductive period, reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation were significantly lower under treatment with the LC50 concentration of flonicamid. The life table parameters were subsequently analysed, revealing that the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and the net reproductive rate (R0) were significantly lower but that the finite rate of increase (λ) and the mean generation time (T) were not significantly different under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid. These data are beneficial for grain aphid control and are critical for exploring the role of flonicamid in the integrated management of this key pest.