Assessing the degree of impact from iceberg activities on penguin colonies of Clarence Island

During August and September 2023,three giant icebergs,each bigger than Paris,successively grazed Clarence Island in the northeast of the Antarctic Peninsula,a home to a population of over 100000 penguins.This incident may serve as a clarion call for the increasing iceberg calving due to global warming and its subsequent impact on the Antarctic ecosystem.Here we investigate this unexpected event and employ historical records and probabilistic analyses of iceberg grounding to assess the degree of impact on penguin colonies of Clarence Island.Among the eleven colonies,there is one with low impact,eight with medium impact,and two with high impact.The low-impact colony,Cape Lloyd,is located in the northern part of the island,while the high-impact colonies,False Ridge and Pink Pool,are in the southeast.The eight medium-impact colonies are distributed along both the eastern and western coasts of the island.This study provides essential support for evaluating the impact of iceberg activity on penguin colonies.We argue that penguin colonies located in areas prone to iceberg drift,such as Clarence Island,may become more vulnerable to the heightened risk of iceberg collisions or groundings in the warming future.Therefore,we hope the public will become more aware of the grave impacts of climate change on penguins and underscore the urgent need for effective conservation strategies.

A Large-Scale Group Decision Making Model Based on Trust Relationship and Social Network Updating

With the development of big data and social computing,large-scale group decisionmaking(LGDM)is nowmerging with social networks.Using social network analysis(SNA),this study proposes an LGDM consensus model that considers the trust relationship among decisionmakers(DMs).In the process of consensusmeasurement:the social network is constructed according to the social relationship among DMs,and the Louvain method is introduced to classify social networks to form subgroups.In this study,the weights of each decision maker and each subgroup are computed by comprehensive network weights and trust weights.In the process of consensus improvement:A feedback mechanism with four identification and two direction rules is designed to guide the consensus of the improvement process.Based on the trust relationship among DMs,the preferences are modified,and the corresponding social network is updated to accelerate the consensus.Compared with the previous research,the proposedmodel not only allows the subgroups to be reconstructed and updated during the adjustment process,but also improves the accuracy of the adjustment by the feedbackmechanism.Finally,an example analysis is conducted to verify the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed method.Moreover,compared with previous studies,the superiority of the proposed method in solving the LGDM problem is highlighted.

疏水改性壳聚糖的合成与乳化性能研究

壳聚糖(CS)不同的分子量和脱乙酰度赋予了其多样性,但强亲水性限制了其在食品、化妆品等领域的应用。因此,若通过疏水改性降低壳聚糖的强亲水性可扩展其作为乳化剂的应用。本文通过美拉德反应以酪蛋白疏水多肽(CHP)对不同分子量和脱乙酰度的壳聚糖进行疏水改性。以60℃,相对湿度75%,反应时间3天以及CHP和CS质量比1∶3为美拉德反应的较优条件。获得接枝度为3.10%~15.08%的系列接枝物,并通过红外和荧光光谱对接枝物进行结构分析。经酪蛋白疏水多肽改性得到的接枝物可以用于稳定乳状液的制备。对乳状液稳定性进行考察,以质量分数为1%的接枝物稳定50%橄榄油的O/W乳状液。壳聚糖稳定的乳状液在7天破乳,而接枝物可以为乳液液滴提供较大的静电排斥力,为乳状液提供了良好的长期储存稳定性,保持28天不破乳。

贝叶斯方法在肿瘤新药早期临床研发中的发展与应用

贝叶斯学派是通过综合未知参数的先验信息与样本信息,依据贝叶斯定理,求出后验分布,根据后验分布推断未知参数的统计方法。相比频率派,贝叶斯学派更加灵活、高效。肿瘤新药是全球研发的热点,但同时也存在高失败率的风险。在肿瘤新药早期研发中,高效寻找最佳剂量、优势人群、估计疗效和成功率是医药企业和研究者的共同需求。近年来,肿瘤新药研发呈现化学药物生物制品转变、单药治疗向联合治疗转变、传统设计向创新设计转变等新趋势;伴随出现的各种挑战,包括无法找到最高耐受剂量、延迟毒性、延迟反应、剂量疗效关系变化、剂量组合众多等。基于贝叶斯方法,恰当借用先验信息,能有效帮助企业在肿瘤早期研发中,实现从传统研发模式(高投入、长周期、低效率)向现代研发模式(低投入、短周期、高效率)的转变。研究还进行了贝叶斯方法在肿瘤新药早期研发的进展阐述,与频率派的理念、应用场景的比较分析,可为医药研发的所有从业人员提供宏观、系统的参考。

Growing research and development of targeted anticancer drugs in China

Objective:To deliver a comprehensive picture of the landscape and changing trend of trials and approvals on targeted anticancer drugs in China from 2012 to 2021.Methods:Trials,investigated products,and listed drugs were acquired from national databases.The status quo,changing trend of absolute number,and proportion of targeted trials,products,and drugs,as well as the corre-sponding difference between domestic and foreign companies were analyzed.Results:A total of 2,632 trials on 1,167 targeted antitumor drugs were identified,accounting for 81.5%of all registered trials.The number and proportion of trials on targeted drugs increased steadily,with an average growth rate of 36.0%and 6.2%,respectively.A similar growth trend was observed in the number(33.7%)and proportion(13.8%)of targeted drugs.Targeted drugs and trials owned by domestic companies accounted for a higher proportion than that by foreign companies(80.5%vs.19.5%;83.2%vs.16.8%,respectively),and the growing trend for both targeted drugs(13.8%vs.5.7%)and trials(13.8%vs.33.7%)owned by domestic companies was faster.The proportion of targeted drug trials(80.5%vs.85.6%)and multicenter trials(6.0%vs.69.9%)initiated by domestic companies was lower than that by foreign companies,with the gap gradually narrowing.Among the identified 18 targets of the 126 immune drugs under development,only one globally new target was found.Conclusions:Research and development of targeted antitumor drugs in China are booming and advancing rapidly,and domestic enterprises have become the pillar.Encouraging genomics activities and establishing incentives and public-private collaboration frameworks are crucial for innovation-oriented drug development in China.

Putative Risk Biomarkers of Bipolar Disorder in At-risk Youth

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable and functionally impairing disease.The recognition and intervention of BD especially that characterized by early onset remains challenging.Risk biomarkers for predicting BD transition among at-risk youth may improve disease prognosis.We reviewed the more recent clinical studies to find possible pre-diagnostic biomarkers in youth at familial or(and)clinical risk of BD.Here we found that putative biomarkers for predicting conversion to BD include findings from multiple sample sources based on different hypotheses.Putative risk biomarkers shown by perspective studies are higher bipolar polygenetic risk scores,epigenetic alterations,elevated immune parameters,front-limbic system deficits,and brain circuit dysfunction associated with emotion and reward processing.Future studies need to enhance machine learning integration,make clinical detection methods more objective,and improve the quality of cohort studies.

Quiescent Adult Neural Stem Cells:Developmental Origin and Regulatory Mechanisms

The existence of neural stem cells(NSCs)in the adult mammalian nervous system,although small in number and restricted to the sub-ventricular zone of the lateral ventricles,the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus,and the olfactory epithelium,is a gift of evolution for the adaptive brain function which requires persistent plastic changes of these regions.It is known that most adult NSCs are latent,showing long cell cycles.In the past decade,the concept of quiescent NSCs(qNSCs)has been widely accepted by researchers in the field,and great progress has been made in the biology of qNSCs.Although the spontaneous neuronal regeneration derived from adult NSCs is not significant,understanding how the behaviors of qNSCs are regulated sheds light on stimulating endogenous NSC-based neuronal regeneration.In this review,we mainly focus on the recent progress of the developmental origin and regulatory mechanisms that maintain qNSCs under normal conditions,and that mobilize qNSCs under pathological conditions,hoping to give some insights for future study.

Aldh2 deficiency plays a dual role in lung tumorigenesis and tumor progression

Alcohol consumption contributes to global mortality and cancer development.Acetaldehyde(ACE),the oxidized metabolite of alcohol,is highly reactive towards DNA,resulting in DNA adducts.ACE can be detoxified to acetate by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase type 2(ALDH2).ALDH2 deficiency can lead to ACE accumulation and DNA damage.

Microfluidic-enabled ambient-temperature synthesis of ultrasmall bimetallic nanoparticles

The production of bimetallic nanoparticles with ultrasmall sizes is the constant pursuit in chemistry and materials science because of their promising applications in catalysis,electronics and sensing.Here we report ambient-temperature preparation of bimetallic NPs with tunable size and composition using microfluidic-controlled co-reduction of two metal precursors on silicon surface.Instead of free diffusion of metal ions in bulk system,microfluidic flow could well control the local ions concentration,thus leading to homogenous and controllable reduction rate among different nucleation sites.By controlling precursor concentration,flow rate and reaction time,we rationally design a series of bimetallic NPs including Ag-Cu,Ag-Pd,Cu-Pt,Cu-Pd and Pt-Pd NPs with ultrasmall sizes(~3.0 nm),tight size distributions(relative standard deviation(RSD)<21%),clean surface,and homogenous elemental compositions among particles(standard deviation(SD)of weight ratios<3.5%).This approach provides a facile,green and scalable method toward the synthesis of diverse bimetallic NPs with excellent activity.

Progress and Understanding on Catalysts with Well-defined Interface for Boosting CO_(2)Conversion

Catalytic conversion of CO_(2)into valuable chemicals like CH;OH is the most promising way to alleviate CO_(2)emission for solving the serious climate change issue.Multi-component catalysts with well-defined interface show outstanding performance in CO_(2)conversion due to the synergistic effects and multifunctional properties caused by the well-defined interface.A discharge technique,named as cold plasma,has been recognized as an excellent strategy for tuning catalyst interface properties.The temperature of cold plasma is lower than 200℃,and can be further lowered to room temperature by simply changing the operation conditions of cold plasma.The lower temperature of cold plasma can well maintain the catalyst structures,especially the porous structures.When conducting cold plasma,in addition to nontoxic working gases like Ar and air,no harmful substances are used.Cold-plasma-prepared catalysts have unique interface properties,and thereby exhibit superior performance in CO_(2)conversion over the catalysts prepared by traditional methods.The present review summarizes the progress about the cold-plasma-prepared catalysts for CO_(2)conversion,discusses the origin for the outstanding catalytic performance,and proposes the challenges and opportunities for further studies.This will stimulate more deep insights into the cold-plasma-prepared catalysts with well-defined interface properties for achieving more efficient CO_(2)conversion.

超薄蛭石纳米片基人工界面层调控Zn^(2+)离子通量助力高性能锌金属负极

水系锌离子电池因其成本低、安全性高成为了近年来的研究热点,然而循环过程中的枝晶生长和界面腐蚀等问题严重限制了此类电池的实际应用。本文利用超薄蛭石纳米片(Vermiculite sheets,VS)在锌金属负极表面制备了具有核壳结构的多功能离子整流器(Ionrectifier,IRT)人工界面层.其中,疏水性聚偏二氟乙烯(PVDF)外壳能够将H_(2)O从锌负极表面驱离,赋予其优异的抗腐蚀效率(94.8%);VS内核的天然负电层间能够促进Zn^(2+)的迁移动力学(t_(+)=0.79)和密实沉积.结果表明,锌负极的电化学稳定性和沉积一致性大大提高,即使在高电流密度(3mA cm^(-2))下,IRT保护下的锌负极仍能稳定工作1600小时以上,并获得2400mAh cm^(-2)的累积放电容量.同时,利用该人工界面层组装的Zn//NH_(4)V_(4)O_(10)软包电池在1Ag^(-1)下循环150圈后的容量保持率高达94.3%.这种低成本、高效率的负极界面改性策略为水系电池的商业化提供了可能。

Research on electronic word-ofmouth for product and service quality improvement:bibliometric analysis and future directions

Purpose-This paper aims to analyze high-quality papers on the research of electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)for product and service quality improvement from 2009 to 2022,in order to fully understand theirhistorical progress,current situation and future development trend.Design/Methodology/Approach-This paper adopts the bibliometrics method to analyze the relevantliterature,including publishing trend and citation status,regional and discipline area distribution,andinfluential publications.Secondly,the VOSviewer is used for literature co-citation analysis and keywordco-occurrence analysis to obtain the basic literature and research hotspots in this research field.Findings-Firstly,the study finds that the number of publications basically shows an increasing trend,and thosepublications are mainly published in tourism journals.In addition,among these papers,China has the largestnumber of publications,followed by the USA and South Korea.Through co-citation analysis of literature andkeyword co-occurrence analysis,22 foundational papers and six main research topics are obtained in this paper.Finally,this paper elaborates on the development trend of the research topic and future research directions in detail.Originality/value-This is the first paper that uses bibliometrics to analyze and review relevant researcheson eWOM for product and service quality improvement,which is helpful for researchers to quickly understandits development status and trend.This review also provides some future research directions and provides areference for further research.