Eotetranychus kankitus is an important pest on several agricultural crops, and its resistance to pesticides has promoted the exploration of biological control strategies. Beauveria bassiana and Neoseiulus barkeri have been identified as potential agents for suppressing spider mites. This study aimed to investigate the pathogenicity of B. bassiana on E. kankitus and its compatibility with N. barkeri. Results showed that among the five tested strains of B. bassiana, Bb025 exhibited the highest level of pathogenicity on E. kankitus. Higher application rates (1 × 108 conidia/mL) of Bb025 led to a higher mortality rate of E. kankitus (90.402%), but also resulted in a 15.036% mortality of N. barkeri. Furthermore, preference response tests indicated that both E. kankitus and N. barkeri actively avoided plants sprayed with Bb025 compared to the control group that was sprayed with Tween-80. In a no-choice test, we observed that N. barkeri actively attacked Bb025-treated E. kankitus with no adverse effect on its predatory capacities. Furthermore, N. barkeri laid more eggs when fed on Bb025-treated E. kankitus compared to Tween-80-treated E. kankitus, but the subsequent generation of surviving individuals fed on Bb025-treated E. kankitus was reduced. These findings demonstrate that the Bb025 strain of B. bassiana is highly virulent against E. kankitus while causing less harm to N. barkeri. Consequently, a promising strategy for controlling E. kankitus could involve the sequential utilisation of Bb025 and N. barkeri at appropriate intervals.

To realise the overall calibration of the error model coefficients of accelerometers in an inertial combination and to improve the navigation accuracy of the inertial navigation system, a norm-observation method is applied to the calibration, especially for the quadratic coefficient of the accelerometer. The Taylor formula is used to expand the solution of the acceleration model, and the intermediate variables with error model coefficients are obtained using the least square method. The formulas for calculating the quadratic term coefficient, scale factor and bias of the accelerometer are given. A 20-position method is designed to calibrate the accelerometer combination, the effectiveness of the method is verified by simulation, and the effects of installation misalignment and rod-arm error on calibration accuracy are analysed. The results show that the installation misalignments and rod-arm errors have little influence on the coefficient calibration, less than 10−8, and can be neglected in a practical calibration process.

Glaciers play a crucial role in the Asian Water Tower, underscoring the necessity of accurately assessing their mass balance and ice volume to evaluate their significance as sustainable freshwater resources. In this study, we analyzed ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements from a 2020 survey of the Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier (XDG) to determine ice thickness, and we extended the glacier’s volume-change record to 2020 by employing multi-source remote-sensing data. Our findings show that the GPR-derived mean ice thickness of XDG in 2020 was 54.78 ± 3.69 m, corresponding to an ice volume of 0.0811 ± 0.0056 km3. From 1969 to 2020, the geodetic mass balance was −0.19 ± 0.02 m w.e. a−1, and the glacier experienced area and ice volume losses of 16.38 ± 4.66% and 31.01 ± 4.59%, respectively. The long-term mass-balance reconstruction reveals weak fluctuations occurred from 1967 to 1993 and that overall mass losses have occurred since 1994. This ongoing shrinkage and ice loss are mainly associated with the temperature increases in the warm season since the 1960s. If the climate trend across the central Tibetan Plateau follows to the SSP585 scenario, then XDG is at risk of disappearing by the end of the century.

Time-domain characterization of ultrashort pulses is essential for studying interactions between light and matter. Here, we propose and demonstrate an all-optical pulse sampling technique based on reflected four-wave mixing with perturbation on a solid surface. In this method, a weak perturbation pulse perturbs the four-wave mixing signal generated by a strong fundamental pulse. The modulation signal of the four-wave mixing, which is detected in the reflection geometry to ensure a perfect phase-matching condition, directly reflects the temporal profile of the perturbation pulse. We successfully characterized multi-cycle and few-cycle pulses using this method. The reliability of our approach was verified by comparing it to the widely employed frequency-resolved optical gating method. This technique provides a simple and robust method for characterizing ultrashort laser pulses.

Objectives: Antipsychotic use among patients with Alzheimer’s dementia can pose safety concerns, including accidents/injuries, cardiovascular events, extrapyramidal symptoms, and somnolence/sedation. In the US, brexpiprazole is approved for the treatment of agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. This post hoc analysis aimed to evaluate the timing and duration of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) in three randomized clinical trials of brexpiprazole.

Methods: Data were included from three Phase 3, 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of brexpiprazole in patients with agitation associated with Alzheimer’s dementia (ClinicalTrials.gov identifiers: NCT01862640, NCT01922258, NCT03548584). Data for all patients who received ≥1 dose of trial medication were pooled by randomized dose group: brexpiprazole 0.5 or 1 mg/day (fixed-dose), brexpiprazole 2 or 3 mg/day (fixed- dose) (FDA- approved recommended-to-maximum dose), brexpiprazole 0.5 – 2 mg/day (flexible-dose), and placebo. Time-to-event analyses were performed to first occurrence of any TEAE, any serious TEAE, discontinuation due to AE, and TEAEs of interest, separately, and presented using descriptive statistics and Kaplan–Meier Methodsology. The duration of all TEAEs in each category was also determined.

Results: The pooled sample comprised 1,043 patients. Median time to first TEAE was 24 days with brexpiprazole .5 or 1 mg/day (fixed-dose), 32 days with brexpiprazole 2 or 3 mg/day (fixed-dose), 28 days with brexpiprazole 0.5–2 mg/day (flexible-dose), and 28 days with placebo. Median duration of all TEAEs was 7 days, 6 days, 8 days, and 4 days (respectively). Median time to (and incidence of) discontinuation due to AEs was 45 days (8.9%) with brexpiprazole 0.5 or 1 mg/day, 46.5 days (4.9%) with brexpiprazole 2 or 3 mg/day, 30 days (6.8%) with brexpiprazole 0.5 –2 mg/day, and 30 days (3.4%) with placebo. The incidence of serious TEAEs and TEAEs of interest is presented in the Table.

Conclusions: In patients with agitation in Alzheimer’s dementia, time to first occurrence of any TEAE was similar between brexpiprazole 2 or 3 mg/day (FDA-approved recommended-to- maximum dose) and placebo, and time to discontinuation due to AEs was longer with brexpiprazole 2 or 3 mg/day than placebo. Overall, no unexpected safety concerns were revealed by this analysis.

Understanding the genetic basis of porcine mental health (PMH)-related traits in intensive pig farming systems may promote genetic improvement animal welfare enhancement. However, investigations on this topic have been limited to a retrospective focus, and phenotypes have been difficult to elucidate due to an unknown genetic basis. Intensively farmed pigs, such as those of the Duroc, Landrace, and Yorkshire breeds, have undergone prolonged selection pressure in intensive farming systems. This has potentially subjected genes related to mental health in these pigs to positive selection. To identify genes undergoing positive selection under intensive farming conditions, we employed multiple selection signature detection approaches. Specifically, we integrated disease gene annotations from three human gene–disease association databases (Disease, DisGeNET, and MalaCards) to pinpoint genes potentially associated with pig mental health, revealing a total of 254 candidate genes related to PMH. In-depth functional analyses revealed that candidate PMH genes were significantly overrepresented in signaling-related pathways (e.g., the dopaminergic synapse, neuroactive ligand‒receptor interaction, and calcium signaling pathways) or Gene Ontology terms (e.g., dendritic tree and synapse). These candidate PMH genes were expressed at high levels in the porcine brain regions such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus, and the cell type in which they were significantly enriched was neurons in the hippocampus. Moreover, they potentially affect pork meat quality traits. Our findings make a significant contribution to elucidating the genetic basis of PMH, facilitating genetic improvements for the welfare of pigs and establishing pigs as valuable animal models for gaining insights into human psychiatric disorders.

Er:CaF2 crystals are crucial gain media for producing 3 μm mid-infrared (MIR) lasers pumped by 976 nm continuous-wave (CW) lasers owing to their low phonon energy and high conversion efficiency. This study investigated the damage characteristics and mechanism of Er:CaF2 crystals irradiated with a 976 nm CW laser. The laser-induced damage threshold of Er:CaF2 crystals with different Er3+ doping levels was tested; the damage morphology consists of a series of regular 70° cracks related to the angle of the crystal slip system on the surface. A finite-element model was used to calculate the temperature and stress fields of the crystals. The results indicated that the damage can be attributed to surface tensile stresses caused by the temperature gradient, and crystals with higher doping concentrations were more susceptible to damage owing to stronger light absorption. These findings provide valuable insights into the development of high-power MIR lasers.

For $r\in(0,1)$, let $\mu \left( r\right) $ be the modulus of the plane Grötzsch ring $\mathbb{B}^2\setminus[0,r]$, where $\mathbb{B}^2$ is the unit disk. In this paper, we prove that

\begin{equation*}\mu \left( r\right) =\ln \frac{4}{r}-\sum_{n=1}^{\infty }\frac{\theta _{n}}{2n}r^{2n},\end{equation*}

with $\theta _{n}\in \left( 0,1\right)$. Employing this series expansion, we obtain several absolutely monotonic and (logarithmically) completely monotonic functions involving $\mu \left( r\right) $, which yields some new results and extend certain known ones. Moreover, we give an affirmative answer to the conjecture proposed by Alzer and Richards in H. Alzer and K. Richards, On the modulus of the Grötzsch ring, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 432(1): (2015), 134–141, DOI 10.1016/j.jmaa.2015.06.057. As applications, several new sharp bounds and functional inequalities for $\mu \left( r\right) $ are established.

Increases in population size are associated with the adoption of Neolithic agricultural practices in many areas of the world, but rapid population growth within the Dingsishan cultural group of southern China pre-dated the arrival of rice and millet farming in this area. In this article, the authors identify starch grains from taros (Colocasia) and yams (Dioscorea) in dental calculus and on food-processing tools from the Dingsishan sites of Huiyaotian and Liyupo (c. 9030–6741 BP). They conclude that the harvesting and processing of these dietary staples supported an Early Holocene population increase in southern East Asia, before the spread of rice and millet farming.

Syphilis remains a serious public health problem in mainland China that requires attention, modelling to describe and predict its prevalence patterns can help the government to develop more scientific interventions. The seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model, long short-term memory network (LSTM) model, hybrid SARIMA-LSTM model, and hybrid SARIMA-nonlinear auto-regressive models with exogenous inputs (SARIMA-NARX) model were used to simulate the time series data of the syphilis incidence from January 2004 to November 2023 respectively. Compared to the SARIMA, LSTM, and SARIMA-LSTM models, the median absolute deviation (MAD) value of the SARIMA-NARX model decreases by 352.69%, 4.98%, and 3.73%, respectively. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) value decreases by 73.7%, 23.46%, and 13.06%, respectively. The root mean square error (RMSE) value decreases by 68.02%, 26.68%, and 23.78%, respectively. The mean absolute error (MAE) value decreases by 70.90%, 23.00%, and 21.80%, respectively. The hybrid SARIMA-NARX and SARIMA-LSTM methods predict syphilis cases more accurately than the basic SARIMA and LSTM methods, so that can be used for governments to develop long-term syphilis prevention and control programs. In addition, the predicted cases still maintain a fairly high level of incidence, so there is an urgent need to develop more comprehensive prevention strategies.

The current study evaluated cultural values and family processes that may moderate associations between daily racial-ethnic discrimination and distress among Mexican-origin youth. Integrating micro-time (daily diary) and macro-time (longitudinal survey) research design features, we examined familism, family cohesion, and ethnic-racial socialization from youth-, mother-, and father- reports as potential buffers of daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress (negative affect and anger). The analytic sample, drawn from the Seguimos Avanzando study, included 317 Mexican-origin adolescents (Mage = 13.5 years) and their parents, recruited from the Midwestern United States. Results indicated that youth-reported familism and family cohesion significantly buffered daily associations between youth racial-ethnic discrimination and youth distress. In contrast, parent-reported familism and family cohesion and some aspects of ethnic-racial socialization exacerbated the discrimination to distress link. The implications of these results are discussed to inform efforts supporting the healthy development of Mexican-origin youth and their families.

This study investigates the scenario of flow past a circular cylinder in proximity to a moving wall (or equally a body translating in still fluid parallel to a stationary wall). Fifty high-fidelity three-dimensional direct numerical simulations are performed over a parameter space of turbulent Reynolds numbers (Re) of 300 to 1000 combined with gap-to-diameter ratios (G/D) of 0.2 to 3. The flow, hydrodynamic and turbulence characteristics over the (Re, G/D) parameter space are examined in detail. Small-scale rib-like mode B structures and alternate vortex shedding are observed for all cases. The streamwise location for the vortex shedding (quantified by the wake recirculation length Lr) varies strongly with both Re and G/D. The variation of Lr with Re and G/D can be explained by the spanwise circulation $\varGamma_z$ fed into the wake, where the variation trends of Lr and $\varGamma_z$ are inversely correlated. The variations of the mean drag and fluctuating lift coefficients are also governed by the variations in Lr and $\varGamma_z$. The total kinetic energy in the wake region reduces drastically as G/D reduces below 0.8, which is contributed collectively by (i) reduction in the strength of the shed vortices, (ii) downstream movement of the location of vortex shedding and (iii) associated delayed generation of streamwise vortices. The present results on a moving wall also help to explain several flow and hydrodynamic characteristics reported in the literature for a stationary wall, because the moving wall eliminates the complex wall boundary layer and retains a ‘clean’ near-wall effect.

Safe and socially compliant navigation in a crowded environment is essential for social robots. Numerous research efforts have shown the advantages of deep reinforcement learning techniques in training efficient policies, while most of them ignore fast-moving pedestrians in the crowd. In this paper, we present a novel design of safety measure, named Risk-Area, considering collision theory and motion characteristics of different robots and humans. The geometry of Risk-Area is formed based on the real-time relative positions and velocities of the agents in the environment. Our approach perceives risk in the environment and encourages the robot to take safe and socially compliant navigation behaviors. The proposed method is verified with three existing well-known deep reinforcement learning models in densely populated environments. Experiment results demonstrate that our approach combined with the reinforcement learning techniques can efficiently perceive risk in the environment and navigate the robot with high safety in the crowds with fast-moving pedestrians.

Few studies have evaluated the joint effect of trace elements on spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB). This study aimed to examine the relationships between the individual or mixed maternal serum concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, Se, Sr and Mo during pregnancy, and risk of SPTB. Inductively coupled plasma MS was employed to determine maternal serum concentrations of the six trace elements in 192 cases with SPTB and 282 controls with full-term delivery. Multivariate logistic regression, weighted quantile sum regression (WQSR) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) were used to evaluate the individual and joint effects of trace elements on SPTB. The median concentrations of Sr and Mo were significantly higher in controls than in SPTB group (P < 0·05). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, compared with the lowest quartile levels of individual trace elements, the third- and fourth-quartile Sr or Mo concentrations were significantly associated with reduced risk of SPTB with adjusted OR (aOR) of 0·432 (95 CI < 0·05). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, compared with the lowest quartile levels of individual trace elements, the third- and fourth-quartile Sr or Mo concentrations were significantly associated with reduced risk of SPTB with adjusted aOR of 0·432 (95 % CI 0·247, 0·756), 0·386 (95 % CI 0·213, 0·701), 0·512 (95 % CI 0·297, 0·883) and 0·559 (95 % CI 0·321, 0·972), respectively. WQSR revealed the inverse combined effect of the trace elements mixture on SPTB (aOR = 0·368, 95 % CI 0·228, 0·593). BKMR analysis confirmed the overall mixture of the trace elements was inversely associated with the risk of SPTB, and the independent effect of Sr and Mo was significant. Our findings suggest that the risk of SPTB decreased with concentrations of the six trace elements, with Sr and Mo being the major contributors.

During the early stages of human pregnancy, successful implantation of embryonic trophoblast cells into the endometrium depends on good communication between trophoblast cells and the endometrium. Abnormal trophoblast cell function can cause embryo implantation failure. In this study, we added cyclosporine A (CsA) to the culture medium to observe the effect of CsA on embryonic trophoblast cells and the related mechanism. We observed that CsA promoted the migration and invasion of embryonic trophoblast cells. CsA promoted the expression of leukaemic inhibitory factor (LIF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF). In addition, CsA promoted the secretion and volume increase in vesicles in the CsA-treated group compared with the control group. Therefore, CsA may promote the adhesion and invasion of trophoblast cells through LIF and FGF and promote the vesicle dynamic process, which is conducive to embryo implantation.

The objective of this study was to understand and measure epigenetic changes associated with the occurrence of CHDs by utilizing the discordant monozygotic twin model. A unique set of monozygotic twins discordant for double-outlet right ventricles (DORVs) was used for this multiomics study. The cardiac and muscle tissue samples from the twins were subjected to whole genome sequencing, whole genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-sequencing and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Sporadic DORV cases and control fetuses were used for validation. Global hypomethylation status was observed in heart tissue samples from the affected twins. Among 36,228 differentially methylated regions (DMRs), 1097 DMRs involving 1039 genes were located in promoter regions. A total of 419 genes, and lncRNA–mRNA pairs involved 30 genes, and 62 proteins were significantly differentially expressed. Multiple omics integrative analysis revealed that five genes, including BGN, COL1A1, COL3A1, FBLN5, and FLAN, and three pathways, including ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF-β signaling pathway, exhibited differences at all three levels. This study demonstrates a multiomics profile of discordant twins and explores the possible mechanism of DORV development. Global hypomethylation might be associated with the risk of CHDs. Specific genes and specific pathways, particularly those involving ECM–receptor interaction, focal adhesion and TGF–β signaling, might be involved in the occurrence of CHDs.

The language-guided visual robotic grasping task focuses on enabling robots to grasp objects based on human language instructions. However, real-world human-robot collaboration tasks often involve situations with ambiguous language instructions and complex scenarios. These challenges arise in the understanding of linguistic queries, discrimination of key concepts in visual and language information, and generation of executable grasping configurations for the robot’s end-effector. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel multi-modal transformer-based framework in this study, which assists robots in localizing spatial interactions of objects using text queries and visual sensing. This framework facilitates object grasping in accordance with human instructions. Our developed framework consists of two main components. First, a visual-linguistic transformer encoder is employed to model multi-modal interactions for objects referred to in the text. Second, the framework performs joint spatial localization and grasping. Extensive ablation studies have been conducted on multiple datasets to evaluate the advantages of each component in our model. Additionally, physical experiments have been performed with natural language-driven human-robot interactions on a physical robot to validate the practicality of our approach.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012, the Party school system has been subject to several reforms. How well these reforms have been implemented in lower-level Party schools has received little attention because access is difficult to obtain. We conducted on-site investigations, interviews with cadres and surveys of trainees at a county/district-level Party school in an economically typical city and county. Our findings show that operational dilemmas lead to the perfunctory implementation of policy that is substantively deficient. These operational dilemmas are likely to be found in varying degrees in other county/district Party schools. Our finding that cadre education and training policy is implemented in a pro forma manner suggests that cadres may not be receiving the ideological education and practical training intended for them by the centre.