Three-dimensional isotropic microfabrication in glass using spatiotemporal focusing of high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser pulses

To improve the processing efficiency and extend the tuning range of 3D isotropic fabrication,we apply the simultaneous spatiotemporal focusing(SSTF)technique to a high-repetition-rate femtosecond(fs)fiber laser system.In the SSTF scheme,we propose a pulse compensation scheme for the fiber laser with a narrow spectral bandwidth by building an extra-cavity pulse stretcher.We further demonstrate truly 3D isotropic microfabrication in photosensitive glass with a tunable resolution ranging from 8μm to 22μm using the SSTF of fs laser pulses.Moreover,we systematically investigate the influences of pulse energy,writing speed,processing depth,and spherical aberration on the fabrication resolution.As a proof-of-concept demonstration,the SSTF scheme was further employed for the fs laser-assisted etching of complicated glass microfluidic structures with 3D uniform sizes.The developed technique can be extended to many applications such as advanced photonics,3D biomimetic printing,micro-electromechanical systems,and lab-on-a-chips.

Two-Agent Makespan Minimization Problem on Parallel Machines

A two-agent scheduling problem on parallel machines is considered in this paper. Our objective is to minimize the makespan for agent A, subject to an upper bound on the makespan for agent B. In this paper, we provide a new approximation algorithm called CLPT. On the one hand, we compare the performance between the CLPT algorithm and the optimal solution and find that the solution obtained by the CLPT algorithm is very close to the optimal solution. On the other hand, we design different experimental frameworks to compare the CLPT algorithm and the A-LS algorithm for a comprehensive performance evaluation. A large number of numerical simulation results show that the CLPT algorithm outperformed the A-LS algorithm.

Fundamental and Technical Challenges for a Compatible Design Scheme of Oxyfuel Combustion Technology

Oxyfuel combustion with carbon capture and sequestration(CCS) is a carbon-reduction technology for use in large-scale coal-fired power plants. Significant progress has been achieved in the research and development of this technology during its scaling up from 0.4 MWth to 3 MWth and 35 MWth by the combined efforts of universities and industries in China. A prefeasibility study on a 200 MWe large-scale demonstration has progressed well, and is ready for implementation. The overall research development and demonstration(RD&D) roadmap for oxyfuel combustion in China has become a critical component of the global RD&D roadmap for oxyfuel combustion. An air combustion/oxyfuel combustion compatible design philosophy was developed during the RD&D process. In this paper, we briefly address fundamental research and technology innovation efforts regarding several technical challenges, including combustion stability, heat transfer, system operation, mineral impurities, and corrosion. To further reduce the cost of carbon capture, in addition to the large-scale deployment of oxyfuel technology, increasing interest is anticipated in the novel and nextgeneration oxyfuel combustion technologies that are briefly introduced here, including a new oxygen-production concept and flameless oxyfuel combustion.

The influence of sub-grid scale motions on particle collision in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

The absence of sub-grid scale(SGS) motions leads to severe errors in particle pair dynamics, which represents a great challenge to the large eddy simulation of particle-laden turbulent flow. In order to address this issue,data from direct numerical simulation(DNS) of homogenous isotropic turbulence coupled with Lagrangian particle tracking are used as a benchmark to evaluate the corresponding results of filtered DNS(FDNS). It is found that the filtering process in FDNS will lead to a non-monotonic variation of the particle collision statistics, including radial distribution function, radial relative velocity, and the collision kernel. The peak of radial distribution function shifts to the large-inertia region due to the lack of SGS motions, and the analysis of the local flowstructure characteristic variable at particle position indicates that the most effective interaction scale between particles and fluid eddies is increased in FDNS. Moreover,this scale shifting has an obvious effect on the odd-order moments of the probability density function of radial relative velocity, i.e. the skewness, which exhibits a strong correlation to the variance of radial distribution function in FDNS.As a whole, the radial distribution function, together with radial relative velocity, can compensate the SGS effects for the collision kernel in FDNS when the Stokes number based on the Kolmogorov time scale is greater than 3.0. However,it still leaves considerable errors for St< 3.0.

Investigation of the relationship between DNA-dependent protein kinase and lymphatic metastasis in colorectal cancer

Objective: To investigate DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) expression,and its relationship with lymphat-ic metastasis in colorectal cancer. Methods: Tumor tissues from 60 patients,divided into two groups according to lymphatic metastasis,were immunohistochemically stained to detect the DNA-PK expression including Ku70,Ku80 and PKcs proteins. Results: Positivity of both Ku70 and Ku80 in colorectal cancer was negatively correlated with lymphatic metastasis with an r value of -0.57 and -0.38,respectively. Similar correlation was found between Ku expression,especially Ku70,and long-term survival. PKcs,however,displayed no significant correlation. Statistical analysis failed to detect any correlation between DNA-PK expression,and clinical characteristics,such as age,sex,tumor location,tumor thickness and distant metastasis (P>0.05). Conclusion: DNA-PK expression,especially Ku70 expression,is negatively correlated with lymphatic metastasis,and the survival of patients with colorectal cancer. Ku70 expression may be a potential indicator for the preoperative evaluation,and prognosis in colorectal cancer.

Effects of Soil Improver on Wheat in Saline-Alkali Lands in the Yellow River Delta

Field experiment carried out to test the effects of soil improver on wheat yield and soil physical-chemical properties. The results indicated that soil improver could optimize soil aggregates structure, decrease soil bulk density, soil pH and soil salt content, increase soil organic matter and 1 000-grain weight, thereby enhancing wheat yield. With the increase of soil improver application amount, soil physical-chemical properties became better and wheat yield increased. However, there was no significant difference in the treatments with the application amounts of 3%, 4% and 5%. In addition, the treatment of reducing nitrogen showed no superiority in soil physical-chemical properties and wheat yield, indicating that sufficient nitrogen was essential for the growth of wheat.

Curcumin protects against rotenone-induced neurotoxicity in cell and drosophila models of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder resulting from a selective loss of dopaminergic neurons. The pathogenesis of PD remains incompletely understood, but increasing evidence from human and animal studies has suggested that oxidative damage contributes to the neuronal loss in PD. In this study, we used rotenone (a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor) based cell and Drosophila models that resemble some key pathological features of PD to test whether curcumin, a potent antioxidant compound, derived from the curry spice turmeric, could protect against rotenone-induced neuronal toxicity. We found that curcumin reduced rotenone induced cell death in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells and alleviated PD-like symptoms in drosophila via reducing the intracellular and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and inhibiting the caspase-3/caspase-9 activity. These results suggest that curcumin is a promising therapeutic compound for PD.

A Clinical Analysis of Physical and Neurological Development in very Low Birth Weight Infants with MEIR(Massage,Exercises,Intelligence training,and Rehabilitation training)

Objective:This study aimed to investigate the application of MEIR(Massage,Exercises,Intelligence training,and Rehabilitation training)in Chinese VLBW infants and to observe its effects on infants’growth and deve1opment.Methods:Clinical data of 92 VLBW infants who were treated at the neonatal intensive care unit(NICU)of Loudi Centra1 Hospital were retrospectively analyzed.The patients were grouped as the MEIRgroup(n=47)and controls(n=45).Physical and neurodevelopment deve1opment were compared between the two groups.Results:There were differences in height and weight and head circumference between the two groups at all corrected ages(all P<0.05).Abnormal motions,reflexes,muscular tension,audio-visual reactions,and posture,and the total numbers of abnormalities of 3-,6-,9-and 12-corrected month-old infants in the MElRgroup were 1ower than in the control group(all P<0.05).The mental development index and psychomotor development index of 6-and 12-corrected month infants in the MEIR group were higher than in the control group(all P<0.05).Conclusion:MEIR could improve the physical and neurological developments of VLBW infants,reduce the incidence of adverse events,and improve their growth and development.

Prevalence of Reproductive Tract Infections and Association with Human Papillomavirus Infection Among Reproductive-Age Women—Six Tertiary Hospitals,China,June 2021-December 2022

Summary What is already known about this topic?Previous studies have indicated a possible association between reproductive tract infections(RTIs)and highrisk human papillomavirus(HPV)infection,but the evidence is still inconclusive.What is added by this report?This multicenter study found significantly higher positive rates of HPV,including general HPV,highrisk HPV.

Hepatic COX1 loss leads to impaired autophagic flux and exacerbates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

The mechanisms underlying autophagic defects in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH)remain largely unknown.We aimed to elucidate the roles of hepatic cyclooxygenase 1(COX1)in autophagy and the pathogenesis of diet-induced steatohepatitis in mice.Human nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)liver samples were used to examine the protein expression of COX1 and the level of autophagy.Cox1^(Δhepa)mice and their wildtype littermates were generated and fed with 3 different NASH models.We found that hepatic COX1 expression was increased in patients with NASH and diet induced NASH mice models accompanied by impaired autophagy.COX1 was required for basal autophagy in hepatocytes and liver specific COX1 deletion exacerbated steatohepatitis by inhibiting autophagy.Mechanistically,COX1 directly interacted with WD repeat domain,phosphoinositide interacting 2(WIPI2),which was crucial for autophagosome maturation.Adeno-associated virus(AAV)-mediated rescue of WIPI2 reversed the impaired autophagic flux and improved NASH phenotypes in Cox1^(Δhepa)mice,indicating that COX1 deletion-mediated steatohepatitis was partially dependent on WIPI2-mediated autophagy.In conclusion,we demonstrated a novel role of COX1 in hepatic autophagy that protected against NASH by interacting with WIPI2.Targeting the COX1 WIPI2 axis may be a novel therapeutic strategy for NASH.

Fully resolved simulations of viscoelastic suspensions by an efficient immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method

An efficient immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method(IB-LBM)is proposed for fully resolved simulations of suspended solid particles in viscoelastic flows.Stress LBM based on Giesekus and Oldroyd-B constitutive equation are used to model the viscoelastic stress tensor.A boundary thickening-based direct forcing IB method is adopted to solve the particle-fluid interactions with high accuracy for non-slip boundary conditions.A universal law is proposed to determine the diffusivity constant in a viscoelastic LBM model to balance the numerical accuracy and stability over a wide range of computa-tional parameters.An asynchronous calculation strategy is adopted to further improve the computing efficiency.The method was firstly applicated to the simulation of sedimentation of a single particle and a pair of particles after good validations in cases of the flow past a fixed cylinder and particle migration in a Couette flow against FEM and FVM methods.The determination of the asynchronous calculation strategy and the effect of viscoelastic stress distribution on the settling behaviors of one and two particles are revealed.Subsequently,504 particles settling in a closed cavity was simulated and the phenomenon that the viscoelastic stress stabilizing the Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities was observed.At last,simulations of a dense flow involving 11001 particles,the largest number of particles to date,were performed to investigate the instability behavior induced by elastic effect under hydrodynamic interactions in a viscoelastic fluid.The elasticity-induced ordering of the particle structures and fluid bubble structures in this dense flow is revealed for the first time.These simulations demonstrate the capability and prospects of the present method for aid in understanding the complex behaviors of viscoelastic particle suspensions.

Accelerating fully resolved simulation of particle-laden flows on heterogeneous computer architectures

An efficient computing framework,namely PFlows,for fully resolved-direct numerical simulations of particle-laden flows was accelerated on NVIDIA General Processing Units(GPUs)and GPU-like accelerator(DCU)cards.The framework is featured as coupling the lattice Boltzmann method for fluid flow with the immersed boundary method for fluid-particle interaction,and the discrete element method for particle collision,using two fixed Eulerian meshes and one moved Lagrangian point mesh,respectively.All the parts are accelerated by a fine-grained parallelism technique using CUDA on GPUs,and further using HIP on DCU cards,i.e.,the calculation on each fluid grid,each immersed boundary point,each particle motion,and each pair-particle collision is responsible by one computer thread,respectively.Coalesced memory accesses to LBM distribution functions with the data layout of Structure of Arrays are used to maximize utilization of hardware bandwidth.Parallel reduction with shared memory for data of immersed boundary points is adopted for the sake of reducing access to global memory when integrate particle hydrodynamic force.MPI computing is further used for computing on heterogeneous architectures with multiple CPUs-GPUs/DCUs.The communications between adjacent processors are hidden by overlapping with calculations.Two benchmark cases were conducted for code validation,including a pure fluid flow and a particle-laden flow.The performances on a single accelerator show that a GPU V100 can achieve 7.1–11.1 times speed up,while a single DCU can achieve 5.6–8.8 times speed up compared to a single Xeon CPU chip(32 cores).The performances on multi-accelerators show that parallel efficiency is 0.5–0.8 for weak scaling and 0.68–0.9 for strong scaling on up to 64 DCU cards even for the dense flow(φ=20%).The peak performance reaches 179 giga lattice updates per second(GLUPS)on 256 DCU cards by using 1 billion grids and 1 million particles.At last,a large-scale simulation of a gas-solid flow with 1.6 billion grids and 1.6 million particles was conducted using only 32 DCU cards.This simulation shows that the present framework is prospective for simulations of large-scale particle-laden flows in the upcoming exascale computing era.

Experimental study on NO_(x)emission characteristics under oxy-fuel combustion

This study focuses on the emission characteristics of NO_(x)under oxy-fuel combustion conditions.A comparative analysis with air combustion was performed.NO_(x)emission,control measures and influence factors under different working conditions were studied.Experiments were carried out on a 3-MWth test platform and a laboratory platform.The‘π’-type furnace was adopted,with the fur-nace width of 2.6 m,depth of 2.0 m and height of 10.5 m for the 3-MWth coal-fired boiler.NO_(x)emissions at different oxygen concen-trations and different air distribution were investigated;the effects of H2O and CO_(2)concentration on denitrification efficiency and SO_(2)/SO_(3)conversion rate were explored.Experiment results suggest that,compared with air combustion,NO concentration(volume basis)at the furnace outlet under oxy-fuel combustion is higher than that of air combustion,but the amount of NO_(x)emissions in the discharged gas significantly decrease compared to the air combustion conditions.In addition,the formation of NO_(x)can be effectively controlled through staged combustion.Furthermore,the selective catalytic reduction(SCR)denitrification efficiency and the con-version rate of SO_(2)to SO_(3)decreases when the CO_(2)concentration and the H2O content increase,indicating that CO_(2)and H2O have an adverse effect on the performance of the catalyst.Additionally,compared with CO_(2)concentration,H2O content has a greater effect on catalyst performance.

A systematic review of rigid-flexible composite pavement

Rigid-flexible composite pavement has gained significant popularity in recent decades.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research progress concerning rigid-flexible composite pavement,aiming to promote its application and address key issues while identifying future directions.The design theory and methodology of rigid-flexible composite pavement are discussed,followed by a description of its structural and mechanical behavior characteristics.The load stress,temperature stress,and their interactive effects between the asphalt layer and the rigid base were analyzed.It is clarified that the asphalt layer serves a dual role as both a“functional layer”and a“structural layer”.Typical distresses of rigid-flexible composite pavement,which primarily occur in the asphalt layer,were discussed.These distresses include reflective cracking,top-down cracking,rutting,and compressive-shear failure.Generally,the integrity of the rigid base and the interlaminar bonding conditions significantly impact the performance and distress of the asphalt layer.The technology for enhancing the performance of rigid-flexible composite pavement is summarized in three aspects:asphalt layer properties,rigid base integrity,and interlaminar bonding condition.The study concludes that developing high-performance pavement materials based on their structural behaviors is an effective approach to improve the performance and durability of rigid-flexible composite pavement.The integrated design of structure and materials represents the future direction of road design.

Clinical applications of MARSALA for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy

Conventional PCR methods combined with linkage analysis based on short tandem repeats （STRs） or Karyomapping with single nucleotide polymorphism （SNP） arrays, have been applied to preimplantation genetic diagnosis （PGD） for spinal muscular atrophy （SMA）, an autosome recessive disorder. However, it has limitations in SMA diagnosis by Karyomapping, and these methods are unable to distinguish wild- type embryos with carriers effectively. Mutated allele revealed by sequencing with aneuploidy and linkage analyses （MARSALA） is a new method allowing embryo selection by a one-step next-generation sequencing （NGS） procedure, which has been applied in PGD for both autosome dominant and X-linked diseases in our group previously. In this study, we carried out PGD based on MARSALA for two carrier families with SMA affected children. As a result, one of the couples has given birth to a healthy baby free of mutations in SMA-causing gene. It is the first time that MARSALA was applied to PGD for SMA, and we can distinguish the embryos with heterozygous deletion （carriers） from the wild-type （normal） ones accurately through this NGS-based method. In addition, direct mutation detection allows us to identify the affected embryos （homozygous deletion）, which can be regarded as probands for linkage analysis, in case that the affected family member is absent, In the future, the NGS-based MARSALA method is expected to be used in PGD for all monogenetic disorders with known pathogenic gene mutation.

Construction of a refined population analysis unit based on urban forms and population aggregation patterns

The population analysis unit(PAU)is the basic unit employed in studies of urban populations.The commonly used PAUs are mostly administrative divisions,regular geographic grids.However,these units are different from urban forms,and cannot be used to consider the characteristics of population distributions and flow changes.In this study,we proposed a method for constructing a fine population analysis zone(FPAZ)based on the population aggregation pattern and urban form elements.First,considering the spatial structure of a city and the fine-grained demands of population analysis,the basic analysis unit was divided according to the functional heterogeneity of the population activity region at the micro-scale by combining urban form elements.Next,a population aggregation preference model was established by considering the spatial distribution characteristics of the local aggregation of the urban population flow and long-term stability characteristics depending on the dynamic changes in entrances and exits.Finally,we divided the FPAZ combined with the microstructural elements.Experimental results showed that compared with other types of PAUs,the FPAZ was more consistent with the urban morphology and was an appropriate and general spatial unit for expressing the accurate characteristics of population distributions and changes at the micro-scale.

Enhancing thermostability of β-mannanase by protective additives

The effects of some sugars(glucose,mannose,fructose,sucrose and chitosan)and polyols(glycol,gly-cerol and sorbitol)as protective additive on the thermo-stability ofβ-mannanase were studied.The optimal reaction temperatures ofβ-mannanase and the ther-modynamics and the deactivation kinetics with or without additives were also investigated.The experimental results show that sucrose,chitosan and sorbitol could apparently improve the thermal stability ofβ-mannanase when their concentration was kept at 2 g/L.The optimal combina-tion additive proportion was sucrose:chitosan:sorbi-tol=1:2:2(molar ratio)using the orthogonal experimental design.The sucrose,chitosan,glycerol,sor-bitol and the combination additive might increase the optimal reaction temperature from 50℃to about 60℃due to their good protection effect.The thermal deactiva-tion curves ofβmannanase accorded with the kinetic rules of first order reaction,and the corresponding kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were calculated.Meanwhile,the protective mechanism of the additives against deactivation of enzyme was also discussed.

Inertial migration of aerosol particles in three-dimensional microfluidic channels

In recent years,manipulation of particles by inertial microfluidics has attracted significant attention.However,most studies focused on inertial focusing of particles suspended within liquid phase,in which the ratio of the density of the particle to that of the medium is O(1).The investigation on manipulation of aerosol particles in an inertial microfluidics is very limited.In this study,we numerically investigate the aerosol particle's motion in a 3D straight microchannel with rectangular cross section by fully resolved simulation of the particle-air flow.The air flow is modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations.The particle's motions,including translation and rotation,are governed,respectively,by the Newton's second law and the Euler equations without using any approximation models for the lift and drag forces.The coupled mathematical model is numerically solved by combining immersed boundary with lattice Boltzmann method(IB-LBM).We find that the Reynolds number(Re),the particle's initial position,particle's density and diameter are the influential parameters in this process.The equilibrium positions and their stabilities of aerosols are different from those suspended in liquid.

VPS35 Protects Against TMEM230-mutation-induced Progressive Locomotor Deficits in Drosophila

The discovery of genes related to Parkinson's disease(PD)provides an imporant basis for the progress of research into PD,helps to clarify is mechanism,and provides many new opportunities to find therapeutic targelts[1.2].The article by Deng and colleagues in 2016 found a new autosomal dominant PD(ADPD)gene,transmembrane protein 230(TMEM230).Four PD-linked mutations were identifed in PD patients:Y92C,RI4IL.184Wexr*5(replacing the stop codon with six amino-acids.WHPPHS,in the C-terminus in North American patients),and 184PGext*5(replacing the stop codon with proline and glycine,thus adding seven amino acids,PGHPPHS,to the C-lerminus in Chinese families with PD)[3].Subsequenly,studies have suggested thal TMEM230 variants are related to PD pathogenesis in viro[4-6].

Impact of City Scale and Regional Difference on Small & Medium-Sized Cities' Development and Its Implication

By studying the relationship between urban development performance and city scale and regional difference, this paper aims at revealing the real challenges faced by small and medium-sized cities(referred to as SMSC hereafter) in China. It analyzes the growth of different-sized cities, their positions in China's overall urban system, the influence of city scale on their capability in migrant absorption, economic development, public service, and environmental remediation, as well as the capability difference among SMSCs. Results show that city scale is less a determinant in economic development capability and per capita ownership of public service than in economic performance, quality of public service, and environmental remediation capabilities. Besides, there are many other factors determined by regional differences instead of city scale. Therefore, in the context when SMSC plays an increasingly important role in the process of urbanization, relevant parties should avoid the "trap of scale," and re-position urbanization within the framework of sustainable development.