Exogenous application of succinic acid enhances tolerance of Larix olgensis seedling to lead stress

Larix olgensis A. Henry(Changbai larch) is a productive commercial species and good candidate for afforestation in northeast China. It is widely planted in lead-stressed soils which can induce oxidative damage in this plant. Increasing tolerance to lead(Pb) stress is therefore of keen interest. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to identify the biomass, physiological responses and Pb accumulation of L. olgensis seedlings to Pb stress under succinic acid(SA) application and to explore the interaction of exogenous SA applications and stress resistance. L. olgensis seedlings were planted in Pb-stressed or unstressed haplic cambisols in pots. In Pb-contaminated soils the seedlings were treated daily with concentrations of SA solutions at a rate approximately equivalent to 0, 0.04,0.2, 1.0, or 2.0 mmol kg-1of soil for 10, 20, and 30 days,respectively. Pb treatment induced damage in the seedlings and led to the inhibition of biomass accumulation in roots,stems and leaves, and a rise in Pb accumulation in fine roots and leaves. Malondialdehyde(MDA) content and electrolyte leakage in leaves significantly increased while peroxidase(POD) activities, soluble protein and photosynthetic pigment contents in leaves were all reduced.Physiological toxicity was promoted with increasing Pb treatment times. When Pb-stressed seedlings were exposed to SA(especially 10.0 mmol L-1 over 20 days), the physiological responses for Pb-only were reversed and the biomass of roots, stems, and leaves dramatically increased.SA facilitated Pb uptake in fine roots and leaves but more Pb accumulated in fine roots. The results demonstrate that exogenous SA alleviates Pb-induced oxidative injuries and improves the tolerance of L. olgensis seedlings to Pb stress.

Public Perceptions of Cryosphere Change and the Selection of Adaptation Measures in the rmqi River Basin

This study focuses on the characters of public perceptions on climate and cryosphere change,which are based on a questionnaire survey in the(U|¨)r(u|¨)mqi River Basin.In comparison with scientific observation results of climate and cryosphere change,this paper analyzes the possible impact of the change on water resources and agriculture production in the area.Perceptions of most respondents on climate and cryosphere changes confirm the main objective facts.For the selection of adaptation measures addressing the shortage of water resource,the results are as follows:most people preferred to choose the measures like "policy change" and "basic facility construction" which are mostly implemented by the government and the policy-making department;some people showed more preference to the measures of avoiding unfavorable natural environment,such as finding job in or migrating to other places.The urgency of personal participation in the adaptation measures is still inadequate.Some adaptation measures should be implemented in line with local conditions and require the organic combination of "resource-development" with "water-saving".

巴曲酶灌注联合肝动脉化疗栓塞治疗原发性肝癌的临床初步研究(英文)

Objective:The aim of the study was to explore the therapeutic efficacy and safety of batroxobin in patients with primary hepatic carcinoma(PHC) and the advantages of transcatheter arterial perfusion of batroxobin combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE).Methods:Forty patients with PHC were randomized into experimental group(transcatheter arterial perfusion of batroxobin combined with TACE treatment,20 patients) and control group(TACE alone group,20 patients).The patients were followed up and the data were recorded,compared and analyzed.Results:(1) Compared with the control group,the FIB level in the experimental group was significantly decreased at the first month after treatment(P < 0.05).(2) The baseline of the tumor was shortened in both groups after the treatment.There was a significant difference between the two groups at different time intervals(P < 0.05).(3) After the treatment,there was a significant difference of progression-free survival(PFS) levels between the two groups(t =2.877,P < 0.05).(4) The incidence of metastasis were 5.0%(1/20) in both groups at 6 months after treatment,and that after one year was 10.0%(2/20) in the experimental group and 25.0%(5/20) in the control group.However,the difference was not significant(χ2 = 0.693,P > 0.05).Conclusion:Batroxobin can rapidly and effectively decrease the FIB level of the PHC cases.Therefore it may be used as an effective and safe adjuvant drug for the treatment of primary hepatic carcinomas.Transcatheter arterial perfusion of batroxobin combined with TACE therapy has advantages in comparison with TACE alone therapy.It could be taken as a new therapeutic regimen in the PHC treatment.

Multiplicity of thermodynamic states of van der Waals gas in nanobubbles

The gas-containing nanobubbles have attracted extensive attention due to their remarkable properties and extensive application potential.However,a number of fundamental aspects of nanobubbles,including thermodynamic states for the confined gas,remain still unclear.Here we theoretically demonstrate that the van der Waals(vd W)gases confined in nanobubbles exhibit a unique thermodynamic state of remarkably deviating from the bulk gas phase,and the state transition behavior due to the sizedependent Laplace pressure.In general,the vd W gas inside nanobubbles present multiple stable or transient states,where 0–2 states are for supercritical gas and 0–4 for subcritical gas.Our further analysis based on Rayleigh–Plesset equation and free energy determination indicates that the gas states in nanobubbles exhibits different levels of stability,from which the coexistence of multiple bubble states and microphase equilibrium between droplets and bubbles are predicted.This work provides insight to understand the thermodynamic states appeared for gas in nanobubbles.

Microdroplet targeting induced by substrate curvature

Fundamental understanding of the wettability of curved substrates is crucial for the applications of microdroplets in colloidal science, microfluidics, and heat exchanger technologies. Here we report via lattice Boltzmann simulations and energetic analysis that microdroplets show an ability of transporting selectively to appropriate substrates solely according to substrate shape（curvature）, which is called the substrate-curvature-dependent droplet targeting because of its similarity to protein targeting by which proteins are transported to the appropriate destinations in the cell. Two dynamic pathways of droplet targeting are identified： one is the Ostwald ripening-like liquid transport between separated droplets via evaporating droplets on more curved convex（or less curved concave） surfaces and growing droplets on less curved convex（or more curved concave） surfaces, and the other is the directional motion of a droplet through contacting simultaneously substrates of different curvatures. Then we demonstrate analytically that droplet targeting is a thermodynamically driven process. The driving force for directional motion of droplets is the surface-curvature-induced modulation of the work of adhesion, while the Ostwald ripening-like transport is ascribed to the substrate-curvature-induced change of droplet curvature radius. Our findings of droplet targeting are potentially useful for a tremendous range of applications, such as microfluidics, thermal control, and microfabrication.

A P2P Platform for Collaborative Aggregated Multimedia Sharing

Peer-to-peer technologies have emerged as a powerful and scalable communication model for large scale content shar-ing. However, they are not yet provided with optimized heterogeneous aggregated content management functionality since they lack rich semantic specifications. To overcome these shortcomings, we elaborated a reference model of P2P architecture for a dynamic aggregation, sharing and retrieval of heterogeneous multimedia contents (simple or aggre-gated). This architecture was mainly developed under the CAM4Home European research project and is fully based on the CAM4Home semantic metadata model. This semantic model relies on RDF (Resource Description Framework) and is rich (but simple enough), extensible and dedicated for the description of any kind of multimedia content.In this paper, we detail and evaluate an original semantic-based community network architecture for heterogeneous multimedia con-tent sharing and retrieval. Within the presentedarchitecture, multimedia contents are managed according to their asso-ciated CAM4Home semantic metadata through a structured P2P topology. This topology relies on a semantically en-hanced DHT (Distributed Hash Table) and is also provided with an additional indexing system for offering semantic storage and search facilities and overcoming the problem of exact match keywords in DHTs.

Maternal Preconception Serum Alanine Aminotransferase Levels and Risk of Preterm Birth among Reproductive-Aged Women—China,2013-2017

Summary What is already known about this topic?The significance of maternal liver health concerning preterm birth(PTB)is well recognized;however,there is a gap in understanding the precise influence of preconception serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT)levels on the risk of PTB.What is added by this report?

Association of psychological stress with wives’hypertension across over 10 million Chinese married female population aged 20-49 years

Background:Psychological stress has been reported to be a potential risk factor for hypertension among females,but it remains unclear whether spousal chronic stress levels alter the risk of hypertension among women.We examined the associations between stress within the family and hypertension among married women.Methods:Reproductive-aged women who were planning for pregnancy and their husbands were recruited from the National Free Pre-pregnancy Checkup Projects(NFPCP)across 31 provinces in China in 2016 and 2017.Perceived stress of wives or husbands was measured with a 5-point Likert-type scale,and assessed from three domains:work/life-related stress,economic stress,and overall stress.Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between stress status and the prevalence of hypertension.Results:Of 10,027,644 couples,261,098(2.60%)women had hypertension.The results showed that higher stress levels among themselves or their husbands were associated with a higher prevalence of hypertension in women(P_(for trend)<0.001).Compared with non-stressed participants,female participants with the highest stress themselves were at a greater risk of hypertension,with adjusted odds ratio(OR)of 1.31(95%confidence interval[CI]:1.25-1.37);and compared with participants whose husbands had no stress,those whose husbands had the highest stress level were at a higher risk of hypertension with adjusted OR of 1.24(95%CI:1.20-1.29).Moreover,compared with non-stressed status for both couples,only-wife-stressed,only-husband-stressed,and both-stressed couples were found to be significantly associated with increased risks of wives’hypertension,with adjusted ORs of 1.28(95%CI:1.25-1.31),1.19(95%CI:1.17-1.21),and 1.28(95%CI:1.26-1.31),respectively.Conclusion:Moderate to severe stress in both spouses might be associated with female hypertension prevalence,which highlights the importance of paying attention to the psychological stresses of couples within the family.

Construction of spontaneously polarized ceramic via synergistic mechanical activation-Biomimetic mineralization for activating air and water

Spontaneously polarized crystals with intrinsic electric dipole moment have attracted immense interest as excellent functional materials for extensive applications.It is of great significance to engineer sustainable spontaneously polarized materials with fascinating characteristics and performance for activating air and water.Herein,a novel strategy based on the synergy of mechanical activation(MA)and biomimetic mineralization(BM)was created to construct spontaneously polarized ceramic.MA induced the structural damage of clay and promoted the dissolution of ions and the release of free proteins,contributing to the formation of silicate precursor in BM process.After high temperature firing,the silicate precursor in clay was converted to form KCa_(3)AlCa_(3)Si_(4)O_(16)(hexagonal crystal system,L^(6)symmetry type,and P63 space group)in the resulting spontaneously polarized ceramic.The non-centrosymmetric structure of KCa_(3)AlCa_(3)Si4O_(16)and the high intrinsic electric dipole moments contributed by K(1)polyhedrons resulted in high spontaneous polarization(0.2322μC/cm^(2))and far-infrared emissivity(0.951)of spontaneously polarized ceramic.In air,spontaneously polarized ceramic can activate H_(2)O and O_(2)molecules to form negative air ions owing to surface electric field.In water,spontaneously polarized ceramic can disaggregate large water clusters to form small water clusters ascribed to surface electric field and far-infrared emission;water pH can be regulated from weak acidity to approximate neutrality via the capture of electrons by H+ions to produce releasable hydrogen gas.This work provides great promise for rational design and synthesis of spontaneously polarized materials for functional applications.

Stable bulk nanobubbles can be regarded as gaseous analogues of microemulsions

In our previous work[2022 Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys.249685],we used molecular dynamics simulations to show that bulk nanobubbles can be stabilized by forming a compressed amphiphile monolayer at bubble interfaces.This observation closely matches the origin of stability of microemulsions and inspired us to propose here that,in certain cases,stable bulk nanobubbles can be regarded as gaseous analogues of microemulsions:the nanobubble phase and the bubble-containing solution phase coexist with the external gas phase.This three-phase coexistence is then validated by molecular dynamics simulations.The stability mechanism for bulk nanobubbles is thus given:the formation of a compressed amphiphilic monolayer because of microbubble shrinking leads to a vanishing surface tension,and consequently the curvature energy of the monolayer dominates the thermodynamic stability of bulk nanobubbles.With the monolayer model,we further interpret several strange behaviors of bulk nanobubbles:gas supersaturation is not a prerequisite for nanobubble stability because of the vanishing surface tension,and the typical nanobubble size of 100 nm can be explained through the small bending constant of the monolayer.Finally,through analyzing the compressed amphiphile monolayer model we propose that bulk nanobubbles can exist ubiquitously in aqueous solutions.

Super-anti-freezing,tough and adhesive titanium carbide and L-ornithine-enhanced hydrogels

Hydrogels are highly porous three-dimensional crosslinked polymer networks consisting of hy-drophilic polymers,employed most practically in medicine and industry,often as biosensors.Simple hydrogels suffer limitations in their mechanical properties,such as tensile and com-pression,and freeze at sub-zero temperatures,which compromise their ability as useful biosen-sors.In this study,the incorporation of L-ornithine-based zwitterionic monomer(OZM),titanium carbide(MXene),and glycerol within polyacrylamide hydrogels was used to prepare a novel polyacrylamide/polyL-ornithine-based zwitterion/MXene(PAM/Porn/MXene)hydrogel to im-prove the mechanical,adhesion,and anti-freezing properties of pure polyacrylamide hydrogels.This study also analyzed the mechanical strength(tensile and compression),adhesion,and anti-freezing properties of a novel PAM/Porn/MXene hydrogel at 1%,4%,and 10%MXene concen-trations to establish to what extent the conductive MXene material enhanced these properties and concluded that the tensile and compressive properties improved linearly with the increase in the concentrations of MXene,adhesion decreased with the increased MXene concentrations,and syn-ergistic interaction between MXene and OZM significantly improved the anti-freezing properties up to-80°C.

Dark matter direct search sensitivity of the PandaX-4T experiment

The Panda X-4T experiment, a 4-ton scale dark matter direct detection experiment, is being planned at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory. In this paper we present a simulation study of the expected background in this experiment. In a 2.8-ton fiducial mass and the signal region between 1-10 keV electron equivalent energy, the total electron recoil background is found to be 4.9 × 10^(-5) kg^(-1) d^(-1) keV^(-1). The nuclear recoil background in the same region is 2.8 × 10^(-7) kg^(-1) d^(-1) keV^(-1). With an exposure of 5.6 ton-years, the sensitivity of Panda X-4 T could reach a minimum spin-independent dark matter-nucleon cross section of 6 × 10^(-48) cm^2 at a dark matter mass of 40 Ge V/c^2.

800 Gbit/s transmission over 1 km single-mode fiber using a four-channel silicon photonic transmitter

We demonstrate the optical transmission of an 800 Gbit/s(4×200 Gbit/s)pulse amplitude modulation-4(PAM-4)signal and a 480 Gbit/s(4×120 Gbit/s)on–off-keying(OOK)signal by using a high-bandwidth(BW)silicon photonic(SiP)transmitter with the aid of digital signal processing(DSP).In this transmitter,a four-channel SiP modulator chip is co-packaged with a four-channel driver chip,with a measured 3 dB BW of 40 GHz.DSP is applied in both the transmitter and receiver sides for pre-/post-compensation and bit error rate(BER)calculation.Back-to-back(B2B)BERs of the PAM-4 signal and OOK signal are first measured for each channel of the transmitter with respect to a variety of data rates.Similar BER performance of four channels shows good uniformity of the transmitter between different channels.The BER penalty of the PAM-4 and OOK signals for 500 m and 1 km standard single-mode fiber(SSMF)transmission is then experimentally tested by using one channel of the transmitter.For a 200 Gbit/s PAM-4 signal,the BER is below the hard-decision forward error correction(HD-FEC)threshold for B2B and below the soft-decision FEC(SD-FEC)threshold after 1 km transmission.For a 120 Gbit/s OOK signal,the BER is below SD-FEC threshold for B2B.After 500 m and 1 km transmission,the data rate of the OOK signal shrinks to 119 Gbit/s and 118 Gbit/s with the SD-FEC threshold,respectively.Finally,the 800 Gbit/s PAM-4 signal with 1 km transmission is achieved with the BER of all four channels below the SD-FEC threshold.

Searching for neutrino-less nouble neta necay of 136Xe with PandaX-Ⅱ liquid xenon detector

We report the Neutrino-less Double Beta Decay(NLDBD)search results from PandaX-II dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber.The total live time used in this analysis is 403.1 days from June 2016 to August 2018.With NLDBD-optimized event selection criteria,we obtain a fiducial mass of 219 kg of natural xenon.The accumulated xenon exposure is 242 kg·yr,or equivalently 22.2 kg·yr of 136Xe exposure.At the region around 136Xe decay Q-value of 2458 keV,the energy resolution of PandaX-II is 4.2%.We find no evidence of NLDBD in PandaX-II and establish a lower limit for decay half-life of 2.1 ×10^23 yr at the 90%confidence level,which corresponds to an effective Majorana neutrino mass mββ<(1.4-3.7) eV.This is the first NLDBD result reported from a dual-phase xenon experiment.

High-speed and high-power germanium photodetector with a lateral silicon nitride waveguide

Up to now, the light coupling schemes of germanium-on-silicon photodetectors(Ge-on-Si PDs) could be divided into three main categories:(1) vertical(or normal-incidence) illumination, which can be from the top or back of the wafer/chip, and waveguide-integrated coupling including(2) butt coupling and(3) evanescent coupling. In evanescent coupling the input waveguide can be positioned on top, at the bottom, or lateral to the absorber. Here,to the best of our knowledge, we propose the first concept of Ge-on-Si PD with double lateral silicon nitride(Si_(3)N_(4)) waveguides, which can serve as a novel waveguide-integrated coupling configuration: double lateral coupling. The Ge-on-Si PD with double lateral Si_(3)N_(4) waveguides features uniform optical field distribution in the Ge region, which is very beneficial to improving the operation speed for high input power. The proposed Ge-on-Si PD is comprehensively characterized by static and dynamic measurements. The typical internal responsivity is evaluated to be 0.52 A/W at an input power of 25 mW. The equivalent circuit model and theoretical 3 dB optoelectrical(OE) bandwidth investigation of Ge-on-Si PD with lateral coupling are implemented. Based on the small-signal(S21) radio-frequency measurements, under 4 mA photocurrent, a 60 GHz bandwidth operating at-3 V bias voltage is demonstrated. When the photocurrent is up to 12 mA, the 3 dB OE bandwidth still has 36 GHz. With 1 mA photocurrent, the 70, 80, 90, and 100 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero(NRZ) and 100,120, 140, and 150 Gbit/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation clear openings of eye diagrams are experimentally obtained without utilizing any offline digital signal processing at the receiver side. In order to verify the highpower handling performance in high-speed data transmission, we investigate the eye diagram variations with the increase of photocurrents. The clear open electrical eye diagrams of 60 Gbit/s NRZ under 20 mA photocurrent are also obtained. Overall, the proposed lateral Si_(3)N_(4) waveguide structure is flexibly extendable to a light coupling configuration of PDs, which makes it very attractive for developing high-performance silicon photonic integrated circuits in the future.

An improved evaluation of the neutron background in the PandaX-Ⅱ experiment

In dark matter direct detection experiments,neutron is a serious source of background,which can mimic the dark matter-nucleus scattering signals.In this paper,we present an improved evaluation of the neutron background in the PandaX-II dark matter experiment by a novel approach.Instead of fully relying on the Monte Carlo simulation,the overall neutron background is determined from the neutron-induced high energy signals in the data.In addition,the probability of producing a dark-matter-like background per neutron is evaluated with a complete Monte Carlo generator,where the correlated emission of neutron(s)andγ(s)in the(α,n)reactions and spontaneous fissions is taken into consideration.With this method,the neutron backgrounds in the Run 9(26-ton-day)and Run 10(28-ton-day)data sets of PandaX-II are estimated to be(0.66±0.24)and(0.47±0.25)events,respectively.

育龄女性促甲状腺激素水平异常与血压升高的关联研究

目的探讨育龄女性促甲状腺激素(TSH)水平异常与血压升高的关系。方法以2013年至2019年参加深圳市孕前优生健康检查的294674名育龄女性作为研究对象,收集基本人口学特征、血压、TSH、空腹血糖等指标,采用多元logistic回归分析揭示TSH水平异常与血压升高(包括正常高值血压和高血压)的关联。结果本研究显示,育龄女性正常高值血压和高血压者分别占21.77%和2.41%。与TSH正常的育龄女性相比,TSH降低者正常高值血压和高血压的患病风险分别增加34.0%(OR=1.340,95%CI 1.248~1.438)和59.6%(OR=1.596,95%CI 1.301~1.938),TSH升高者正常高值血压和高血压的患病风险分别增加13.6%(OR=1.136,95%CI 1.076~1.198)和38.0%(OR=1.380,95%CI 1.198~1.581)。亚组分析结果显示,年龄、民族、文化程度、职业、配偶吸烟、饮酒、体重指数、空腹血糖等多数亚组的TSH水平异常与血压升高风险存在关联;异质性检验提示,高中及以下文化程度或饮酒的育龄女性TSH降低与血压升高风险的关联更大,而大专/本科及以上文化程度或配偶不吸烟的育龄女性TSH升高与血压升高风险的关联更大。结论育龄女性TSH异常与正常高值血压和高血压的患病风险存在显著相关性,在不同文化程度、饮酒、配偶吸烟特征中应分层探讨其关联。

67 GHz light-trapping-structure germanium photodetector supporting 240 Gb/s PAM-4 transmission

A light-trapping-structure vertical Ge photodetector(PD)is demonstrated.In the scheme,a 3μm radius Ge mesa is fabricated to constrain the optical signal in the circular absorption area.Benefiting from the light-trapping structure,the trade-off between bandwidth and responsivity can be relaxed,and high opto-electrical bandwidth and high responsivity are achieved simultaneously.The measured 3 d B bandwidth of the proposed PD is around67 GHz,and the responsivity is around 1.05 A/W at wavelengths between 1520 and 1560 nm.At 1580 nm,the responsivity is still over 0.78 A/W.A low dark current of 6.4 n A is also achieved at-2 V bias voltage.Based on this PD,a clear eye diagram of 100 GBaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation(PAM-4)is obtained.With the aid of digital signal processing,240 Gb/s PAM-4 signal back-to-back transmission is achieved with a bit error ratio of 1.6×10^(-2).After 1 km and 2 km fiber transmission,the highest bit rates are 230 and 220 Gb/s,respectively.

An electrical-filtered optical heterodyne technique for tuning speed measurement of DBR lasers

A new scheme based on the electrical-filtered optical heterodyne technique is proposed for measuring the tuning speed of tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers. In this scheme, a 10 GHz high-pass electrical filter is used and the wavelength switching time of a tunable DBR laser for different tuning frequencies corresponding exactly to different delay lines is measured. The switching time is measured to be nearly 300 ns and can be improved by reducing the equivalent resistance-capacitance (RC) time constant of the device. The distribution of the beat signal of the DBR laser in the time domain is also obtained, and is a good match with the waveforms measured using an optical filter.

Persistent luminescence phosphor as in-vivo light source for tumoral cyanobacterial photosynthetic oxygenation and photodynamic therapy

Tumor oxygenation level has been regarded as an attractive target to elevate the efficiency of photodynamic therapy(PDT).Cyanobacterial photosynthesis-mediated reversal of tumor hypoxia could enable an oxygen-boosted PDT,but is limited by scant penetration depth and efficiency of external light.Herein,aiming at the dual purposes of reducing biological toxicity induced by long-term light irradiation and alleviating hypoxia,we here introduce a novel-designed CaAl2O4:Eu,Nd blue persistent luminescence material(PLM)as the in vivo light source after pre-excited in vitro.The ingenious construction of blue-emitting PLM with“optical battery”characteristics activates cyanobacterial cells and verteporfin simultaneously,which performs the successive oxygen supply and singlet oxygen generation without the long-term external excitation,resulting in the modulated tumor hypoxic microenvironment and enhanced photodynamic tumor proliferation inhibition efficiency.Both in vitro cellular assessment and in vivo tumor evaluation results affirm the advantages of self-produced oxygen PDT system and evidence the notable antineoplastic outcome.This work develops an irradiation-free photosynthetic bacteria-based PDT platform for the optimization of both oxygen production capacity and light utilization efficiency in cancer treatment,which is expected to promote the clinical progress of microbial-based photonic therapy.