Long-distance and high-precision ranging with dual-comb nonlinear asynchronous optical sampling.

Precise distance metrology and measurements play an important role in many fields of scientific research and industrial manufacture. Dual-comb laser ranging combines sub-wavelength ranging precision, large non-ambiguity range, and high update rate, making it the most promising candidate in precise distance metrology and measurements. However, previous demonstrations of dual-comb ranging suffer from short working distances, limited by the decoherence of lasers in interferometric schemes or by the low sensitivity of the photodetectors in response to the sparse echo photons. Here, we propose and demonstrate time-of-flight laser ranging with dual-comb nonlinear asynchronous optical sampling and photon counting by a fractal superconducting nanowire single-photon detector, achieving ranging precision of 6.2 micrometers with an acquisition time of 100 ms and 0.9 micrometers with an acquisition time of 1 s in measuring the distance of an outdoor target approximately 298 m away.

Do modic changes affect the fusion rate in spinal interbody fusion surgery? A systematic review and network meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the fusion rates of spinal interbody fusion in patients with modic changes (MCs). METHODS: This meta-analysis was registered at PROSPERO, and the project number was CRD42024538023. This network meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA 2020 statement. The PubMed, Embase, Web of Science Core Collection, ClinicalTrials.gov and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to March 28, 2024 for potential studies. STATA 13.0 and Review Manager 5.3 were used to perform the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Seven studies with a total of 1162 patients or segments assigned to four groups according to MCs grade were identified. The fusion rate in the non-modic changes (NMCs) was significantly greater than that in the MCs at the 3-month (p = 0.0001) and 6-month (p = 0.002) follow-ups. No significant difference was detected in the fusion rate at 12-month (p = 0.34) and final follow-ups (p = 0.41). No significant difference was found in cervical fusion (p = 0.88) or transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) (p = 0.51). The fusion rate of NMCs was significantly greater than that of MCs in posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) (p < 0.00001). No significant differences were identified among the four groups in the overall comparison, cervical fusion or TLIF subgroups. The fusion rate in the NMCs was significantly greater than that in the MCs-2 and MCs-3 in the PLIF. CONCLUSION: MCs decreased the fusion rate at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups. MCs-2 and MCs-3 decrease the fusion rate in PLIF.

Development and characterization of a first-in-class adjustable-dose gene therapy system.

INTRODUCTION: Despite significant potential, gene therapy has been relegated to the treatment of rare diseases, due in part to an inability to adjust dosage following initial administration. Other significant constraints include cost, specificity, antigenicity, and systemic toxicity of current generation technologies. To overcome these challenges, we developed a first-in-class adjustable-dose gene therapy system, with optimized biocompatibility, localization, durability, and cost. METHODS: A lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system was developed and characterized by dynamic light scattering for size, zeta potential, and polydispersity. Cytocompatibility and transfection efficiency were optimized in vitro using primary human adipocytes and preadipocytes. Durability, immunogenicity, and adjustment of expression were evaluated in C57BL/6 and B6 albino mice using in vivo bioluminescence imaging. Biodistribution was assessed by qPCR and immunohistochemistry; therapeutic protein expression was quantified by ELISA. RESULTS: Following LNP optimization, in vitro transfection efficiency of primary human adipocytes reached 81.3 % ± 8.3 % without compromising cytocompatibility. Critical physico-chemical properties of the system (size, zeta potential, polydispersity) remained stable over a broad range of genetic cassette sizes (1,871-6,203 bp). Durable expression was observed in vivo over 6 months, localizing to subcutaneous adipose tissues at the injection site with no detectable transgene in the liver, heart, spleen, or kidney. Gene expression was adjustable using several physical and pharmacological approaches, including cryolipolysis, focused ultrasound, and pharmacologically inducible apoptosis. The ability of transfected adipocytes to express therapeutic transgenes ranging from peptides to antibodies, at potentially clinically relevant levels, was confirmed in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSION: We report the development of a novel, low-cost therapeutic platform, designed to enable the replacement of subcutaneously administered protein treatments with a single-injection, adjustable-dose gene therapy.

The Relationship Between Modic Changes and Endplate Sclerosis in Patients with Lumbar Degenerative Disease: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between modic changes (MCs) and endplate sclerosis in patients with lumbar degenerative disease. METHODS: This network meta-analysis was performed on the basis of Preffered Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis 2020 statement. This study was registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42024497370). We performed a systematic search of the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China national knowledge infrastructure, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and Wanfang databases from inception to December 22, 2023. STATA13.0 and RevMan 5.3 were applied to perform the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Seven studies with a total of 1510 endplates were divided into 6 groups according to the type of MCs. The endplate sclerosis rate in the single-type group was significantly lower than that in the mixed-type group. The endplate sclerosis rate in the type I MC (MC1) was significantly lower than that in the type II MC (MC2). The endplate sclerosis rate in the MC2 was significantly lower than that in the type III MC (MC3). The endplate sclerosis rate in the MC1/2 was significantly lower than that in the MC2/3. No significant difference was detected between MC1/2 and MC1/3 or between MC2/3 and MC1/3. For decreasing the endplate sclerosis rate, the order of the different types of MCs was MC1>MC2>MC1/2>MC2/3≈MC1/3>MC3. CONCLUSIONS: Endplate sclerosis occurs in all kinds of MCs. With increasing grade of MCs, the incidence of endplate sclerosis gradually increased. The endplate sclerosis rate in mixed-type MCs was significantly greater than that in MC2 and significantly lower than that in MC3. The endplate sclerosis rate in the mixed-type, including MC3 (MC1/3 and MC2/3), was significantly greater than that in the MC1/2.

High-intensity interval training attenuates impairment in regulatory protein machinery of mitochondrial quality control in skeletal muscle of diet-induced obese mice.

Mitochondrial quality control processes are essential in governing mitochondrial integrity and function. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of 10 weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on the regulatory protein machinery of skeletal muscle mitochondrial quality control and whole-body glucose homeostasis in diet-induced obese mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were assigned to low-fat diet (LFD) or high-fat diet (HFD) group. After 10 weeks, HFD-fed mice were divided into sedentary and HIIT (HFD + HIIT) groups for another 10 weeks (n = 9/group). Graded exercise test, glucose and insulin tolerance tests, mitochondrial respiration, and protein markers of mitochondrial quality control processes were determined. HFD-fed mice exhibited lower ADP-stimulated mitochondrial respiration (p < 0.05). However, 10 weeks of HIIT prevented this impairment (p < 0.05). Importantly, the ratio of Drp1(Ser616) over Drp1(Ser637) phosphorylation, an indicator of mitochondrial fission, was significantly higher in HFD-fed mice (p < 0.05), but such increase was attenuated in HFD-HIIT compared to HFD (-35.7%, p < 0.05). Regarding autophagy, skeletal muscle p62 content was lower in the HFD group than the LFD group (-35.1%, p < 0.05); however, such reduction was disappeared in the HFD + HIIT group. In addition, LC3B II/I ratio was higher in the HFD group than the LFD group (15.5%, p < 0.05) but was ameliorated in the HFD + HIIT group (-29.9%, p < 0.05). Overall, our study demonstrated that 10 weeks of HIIT was effective in improving skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration and the regulatory protein machinery of mitochondrial quality control in diet-induced obese mice through the alterations of mitochondrial fission protein Drp1 phosphorylations and p62/LC3B-mediated regulatory machinery of autophagy.

High-timing-precision detection of single X-ray photons by superconducting nanowires.

Precisely acquiring the timing information of individual X-ray photons is important in both fundamental research and practical applications. The timing precision of commonly used X-ray single-photon detectors remains in the range of one hundred picoseconds to microseconds. In this work, we report on high-timing-precision detection of single X-ray photons through the fast transition to the normal state from the superconductive state of superconducting nanowires. We successfully demonstrate a free-running X-ray single-photon detector with a timing resolution of 20.1 ps made of 100-nm-thick niobium nitride film with an active area of 50 µm by 50 µm. By using a repeated differential timing measurement on two adjacent X-ray single-photon detectors, we demonstrate a precision of 0.87 ps in the arrival-time difference of X-ray photon measurements. Therefore, our work significantly enhances the timing precision in X-ray photon counting, opening a new niche for ultrafast X-ray photonics and many associated applications.

Enhancement of silicon sub-bandgap photodetection by helium-ion implantation.

Silicon sub-bandgap photodetectors can detect light at the infrared telecommunication wavelengths but with relatively weak photo-response. In this work, we demonstrate the enhancement of sub-bandgap photodetection in silicon by helium-ion implantation, without affecting the transparency that is an important beneficial feature of this type of photodetectors. With an implantation dose of 1 × 1013 ions/cm2, the minimal detectable optical power can be improved from - 33.2 to - 63.1 dBm, or, by 29.9 dB, at the wavelength of 1550 nm, and the photo-response at the same optical power (- 10 dBm) can be enhanced by approximately 18.8 dB. Our work provides a method for strategically modifying the intrinsic trade-off between transparency and strong photo-responses of this type of photodetectors.

Non-line-of-sight imaging at infrared wavelengths using a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector.

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging can visualize a remote object out of the direct line of sight and can potentially be used in endoscopy, unmanned vehicles, and robotic vision. In an NLOS imaging system, multiple diffusive reflections of light usually induce large optical attenuation, and therefore, a sensitive and efficient photodetector, or, their array, is required. Limited by the spectral sensitivity of the light sensors, up to now, most of the NLOS imaging experiments are performed in the visible bands, and a few at the near-infrared, 1550 nm. Here, to break this spectral limitation, we demonstrate a proof-of-principle NLOS imaging system using a fractal superconducting nanowire single-photon detector, which exhibits intrinsic single-photon sensitivity over an ultra-broad spectral range. We showcase NLOS imaging at 1560- and 1997-nm two wavelengths, both technologically important for specific applications. We develop a de-noising algorithm and combine it with the light-cone-transform algorithm to reconstruct the shape of the hidden objects with significantly enhanced signal-to-noise ratios. We believe that the joint advancement of the hardware and the algorithm presented in this paper could further expand the application spaces of the NLOS imaging systems.

Dual-Signal Feature Spaces Map Protein Subcellular Locations Based on Immunohistochemistry Image and Protein Sequence.

Protein is one of the primary biochemical macromolecular regulators in the compartmental cellular structure, and the subcellular locations of proteins can therefore provide information on the function of subcellular structures and physiological environments. Recently, data-driven systems have been developed to predict the subcellular location of proteins based on protein sequence, immunohistochemistry (IHC) images, or immunofluorescence (IF) images. However, the research on the fusion of multiple protein signals has received little attention. In this study, we developed a dual-signal computational protocol by incorporating IHC images into protein sequences to learn protein subcellular localization. Three major steps can be summarized as follows in this protocol: first, a benchmark database that includes 281 proteins sorted out from 4722 proteins of the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) and Swiss-Prot database, which is involved in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), Golgi apparatus, cytosol, and nucleoplasm; second, discriminative feature operators were first employed to quantitate protein image-sequence samples that include IHC images and protein sequence; finally, the feature subspace of different protein signals is absorbed to construct multiple sub-classifiers via dimensionality reduction and binary relevance (BR), and multiple confidence derived from multiple sub-classifiers is adopted to decide subcellular location by the centralized voting mechanism at the decision layer. The experimental results indicated that the dual-signal model embedded IHC images and protein sequences outperformed the single-signal models with accuracy, precision, and recall of 75.41%, 80.38%, and 74.38%, respectively. It is enlightening for further research on protein subcellular location prediction under multi-signal fusion of protein.

Efficacy and safety of Aprepitant-containing triple therapy for the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Most cancer patients suffer from the pain of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a regimen consisting of aprepitant, dexamethasone, and 5-HT3 receptor antagonists in the prevention and treatment of CINV. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted across multiple databases, including PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CENTRAL, HEED, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP, to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the use of triple therapy (aprepitant, 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, and dexamethasone) to prevent and treat CINV. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata17 software, employing either a fixed-effect or random-effect model based on statistical heterogeneity. RESULTS: A meta-analysis of 23 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 7956 patients was conducted. Efficacy: Results showed significantly improved complete responses (CRs) for CINV in the test group versus the control group in the overall, acute, and delayed phases. Furthermore, in the test group, substantial alleviation of nausea symptoms was observed in the delayed and overall phases but not in the acute phase. Safety: There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of febrile neutropenia, diarrhea, anorexia, and headache between the 2 groups. The incidence of fatigue and hiccups in the test group was higher than that in the control group; however, the incidence of constipation was significantly lower. CONCLUSIONS: Aprepitant-containing triple therapy is highly effective in the prevention and treatment of CINV, with reliable medication safety.

Partial skeletal muscle-specific Drp1 knockout enhances insulin sensitivity in diet-induced obese mice, but not in lean mice.

OBJECTIVE: Dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) is the key regulator of mitochondrial fission. We and others have reported a strong correlation between enhanced Drp1 activity and impaired skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity. This study aimed to determine whether Drp1 directly regulates skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity and whole-body glucose homeostasis. METHODS: We employed tamoxifen-inducible skeletal muscle-specific heterozygous Drp1 knockout mice (mDrp1+/-). Male mDrp1+/- and wildtype (WT) mice were fed with either a high-fat diet (HFD) or low-fat diet (LFD) for four weeks, followed by tamoxifen injections for five consecutive days, and remained on their respective diet for another four weeks. In addition, we used primary human skeletal muscle cells (HSkMC) from lean, insulin-sensitive, and severely obese, insulin-resistant humans and transfected the cells with either a Drp1 shRNA (shDrp1) or scramble shRNA construct. Skeletal muscle and whole-body insulin sensitivity, skeletal muscle insulin signaling, mitochondrial network morphology, respiration, and H2O2 production were measured. RESULTS: Partial deletion of the Drp1 gene in skeletal muscle led to improved whole-body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity (P < 0.05) in diet-induced obese, insulin-resistant mice but not in lean mice. Analyses of mitochondrial structure and function revealed that the partial deletion of the Drp1 gene restored mitochondrial dynamics, improved mitochondrial morphology, and reduced mitochondrial Complex I- and II-derived H2O2 (P < 0.05) under the condition of diet-induced obesity. In addition, partial deletion of Drp1 in skeletal muscle resulted in elevated circulating FGF21 (P < 0.05) and in a trend towards increase of FGF21 expression in skeletal muscle tissue (P = 0.095). In primary myotubes derived from severely obese, insulin-resistant humans, ShRNA-induced-knockdown of Drp1 resulted in enhanced insulin signaling, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and reduced cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) content compared to the shScramble-treated myotubes from the same donors (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate that partial loss of skeletal muscle-specific Drp1 expression is sufficient to improve whole-body glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity under obese, insulin-resistant conditions, which may be, at least in part, due to reduced mitochondrial H2O2 production. In addition, our findings revealed divergent effects of Drp1 on whole-body metabolism under lean healthy or obese insulin-resistant conditions in mice.

HAR_Locator: a novel protein subcellular location prediction model of immunohistochemistry images based on hybrid attention modules and residual units.

Introduction: Proteins located in subcellular compartments have played an indispensable role in the physiological function of eukaryotic organisms. The pattern of protein subcellular localization is conducive to understanding the mechanism and function of proteins, contributing to investigating pathological changes of cells, and providing technical support for targeted drug research on human diseases. Automated systems based on featurization or representation learning and classifier design have attracted interest in predicting the subcellular location of proteins due to a considerable rise in proteins. However, large-scale, fine-grained protein microscopic images are prone to trapping and losing feature information in the general deep learning models, and the shallow features derived from statistical methods have weak supervision abilities. Methods: In this work, a novel model called HAR_Locator was developed to predict the subcellular location of proteins by concatenating multi-view abstract features and shallow features, whose advanced advantages are summarized in the following three protocols. Firstly, to get discriminative abstract feature information on protein subcellular location, an abstract feature extractor called HARnet based on Hybrid Attention modules and Residual units was proposed to relieve gradient dispersion and focus on protein-target regions. Secondly, it not only improves the supervision ability of image information but also enhances the generalization ability of the HAR_Locator through concatenating abstract features and shallow features. Finally, a multi-category multi-classifier decision system based on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was introduced to obtain the final output results of samples by fitting the most representative result from five subset predictors. Results: To evaluate the model, a collection of 6,778 immunohistochemistry (IHC) images from the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database was used to present experimental results, and the accuracy, precision, and recall evaluation indicators were significantly increased to 84.73%, 84.77%, and 84.70%, respectively, compared with baseline predictors.

High-Intensity Interval Training Attenuates Impairment in Regulatory Protein Machinery of Mitochondrial Quality Control in Skeletal Muscle of Diet-Induced Obese Mice.

Mitochondrial quality control processes are essential in governing mitochondrial integrity and function. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of 10 weeks of HIIT on the regulatory protein machinery of skeletal muscle mitochondrial quality control and whole-body glucose homeostasis in diet-induced obese mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to a low-fat diet (LFD) or high-fat diet (HFD) group. After 10 weeks, HFD-fed mice were divided into sedentary and HIIT (HFD+HIIT) groups and remained on HFD for another 10 weeks (n=9/group). Graded exercise test, glucose and insulin tolerance tests, mitochondrial respiration and regulatory protein markers of mitochondrial quality control processes were determined by immunoblots. Ten weeks of HIIT enhanced ADP-stimulated mitochondrial respiration in diet-induced obese mice (P < 0.05) but did not improve whole-body insulin sensitivity. Importantly, the ratio of Drp1(Ser 616 ) over Drp1(Ser 637 ) phosphorylation, an indicator of mitochondrial fission, was attenuated in HFD-HIIT compared to HFD (-35.7%, P < 0.05). Regarding autophagy, skeletal muscle p62 content was lower in HFD group than LFD group (-35.1%, P < 0.05), however, such reduction was disappeared in HFD+HIIT group. In addition, LC3B II/I ratio was higher in HFD than LFD group (15.5%, P < 0.05) but was ameliorated in HFD+HIIT group (-29.9%, P < 0.05). Overall, our study demonstrated that 10 weeks of HIIT was effective in improving skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration and the regulatory protein machinery of mitochondrial quality control in diet-induced obese mice through the alterations of mitochondrial fission protein Drp1 activity and p62/LC3B-mediated regulatory machinery of autophagy.

Estimation of Knee Joint Angle from Surface EMG Using Multiple Kernels Relevance Vector Regression.

In wearable robots, the application of surface electromyography (sEMG) signals in motion intention recognition is a hot research issue. To improve the viability of human-robot interactive perception and to reduce the complexity of the knee joint angle estimation model, this paper proposed an estimation model for knee joint angle based on the novel method of multiple kernel relevance vector regression (MKRVR) through offline learning. The root mean square error, mean absolute error, and R2_score are used as performance indicators. By comparing the estimation model of MKRVR and least squares support vector regression (LSSVR), the MKRVR performs better on the estimation of the knee joint angle. The results showed that the MKRVR can estimate the knee joint angle with a continuous global MAE of 3.27° ± 1.2°, RMSE of 4.81° ± 1.37°, and R2 of 0.8946 ± 0.07. Therefore, we concluded that the MKRVR for the estimation of the knee joint angle from sEMG is viable and could be used for motion analysis and the application of recognition of the wearer's motion intentions in human-robot collaboration control.

Capital endowments and adoption of agricultural green production technologies in China: A meta-regression analysis review.

The promotion of agricultural green production technologies (AGPTs) is a fundamental channel of agricultural sustainable development, and the capital endowments that drive farmers to adopt AGPTs have sparked an enormous interest. Given the mixed findings of 237 primary empirical studies on the link between capital endowments - AGPTs adoption, this systematic quantitative review conducts a meta-regression analysis method to estimate the genuine effects of different capital endowments in terms of eleven proxy factors on AGPTs adoption in China. Combining the estimation strategies of Weighted Least Squares (WLS) and Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA), our findings reveal that three proxy factors (Technical training, Family income, and Government subsidies) are infected by publication bias, and the study-to-study variation between those published studies that focus on these proxy factors stems from several heterogeneity features, such as the types of AGPTs, measurements of adoption decision, and model specification. After controlling the above issues, there are still six proxy factors attached to five types of capital endowments-Technical training, Labor force, Assets, Land size, Social network, and Government subsidies-present positive and significant genuine effects on AGPTs adoption. These effects are robust to different estimation strategies or model specifications. As farmers normally possess a low level of capital endowment and willingness to adopt AGPTs in most developing countries, such study findings are expected to provide some enlightenment for future research and policies related to the effective promotion of AGPTs, which may contribute to carbon reduction, environmental protection of farmland, and agricultural sustainable development.

Flavonoid Synthesis by Deinococcus sp. 43 Isolated from the Ginkgo Rhizosphere.

Flavonoids are crucial in physiological and pharmaceutical processes, especially the treatment of cancer and the prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Flavonoid-producing plants and fungi have been extensively reported, but bacteria have been much less investigated as a source of flavonoid production. Deinococcus sp. 43, a spherical flavonoid-producing bacteria from the Ginkgo rhizosphere, was reported in this study. First, the whole genome of Deinococcus sp. 43 was sequenced and a series of flavonoid anabolic genes were annotated. Simultaneously, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) results showed that Deinococcus sp. 43 was capable of producing flavonoids, with a maximum quercetin output of 2.9 mg/L. Moreover, the relative expression of key genes involved in flavonoid synthesis was determined to test the completeness of the flavonoid anabolic pathway. The results of LC-MS analysis demonstrated that the flavonoids produced by Deinococcus sp. 43 were significantly different between intracellular and extracellular environments. The concentration of multiple glycosylated flavonoids was substantially higher in extracellular than intracellular environments, while the majority of flavonoids obtained in intracellular environments were hydroxylated multiple times. Lastly, the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway of Deinococcus sp. 43 was constructed based on the genomic analysis and the detected flavonoids. In conclusion, this study represents the first comprehensive characterization of the flavonoid-producing pathway of Deinococcus. The findings demonstrate that the strain has excellent potential as a genetically engineered strain for the industrial production of flavonoids.

Base-Catalyzed One-Pot Synthesis of 2,3,6-Substituted Pyridines.

A three-component reaction catalyzed by base was established, which mainly consisted of ynals, isocyanates, amines and alcohols. This strategy provides a wide range of substrates and represents a simple process for the preparation of different pyridine derivatives in good yields with high regioselectivities.

High-performance ultrasonic transducer based on PZT piezoelectric ceramic for high-temperature NDE.

Piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers (PUT) are applied in a wide range of fields such as non-destructive evaluation (NDE), medical imaging and petroleum exploration, etc. Nevertheless, most PUTs cannot achieve high performance and high operating temperatures simultaneously because of the inverse correlation between piezoelectric property and operating temperature. In this paper, a high-performance ultrasonic transducer based on PZT-5A type piezoelectric ceramic (S35) for high-temperature NDE over 300 °C was proposed. Firstly, it is found that the d33, kp, and kt of the S35 ceramic plate show great temperature stability from 50 °C to 300 °C, which is attributed to the stabilisation of the phase structure and no occurrence of obvious depolarization behavior before the Curie temperature. And then, a single-element PUT based on S35 was fabricated, and pulse-echo tests from 50 °C to 300 °C in confined heating environments were executed. The peak-to-peak value (Vpp) varies from 2.58 V to 0.753 V, which results from the increase of the permittivity of the piezoelectric element and the degradation of the acoustic contact, and the -6dB BW demonstrates excellent temperature stability with a variation less than 10%. These results indicate the great potential of this high-performance ultrasonic transducer for high-temperature NDE.

Emission reduction effect of digital finance: evidence from China.

This paper investigates the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and explores the ecological effects of digital finance. Based on a panel data of 256 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper investigates the impact of digital finance on carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanisms. First, digital finance significantly suppresses the intensity of regional carbon emission, and the breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digital support of digital finance together curb regional carbon emissions, with the strongest suppressive effect being the breadth of coverage. In addition, the regression results remain significant after a series of robustness tests. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of digital finance to curb urban carbon emissions. These mechanisms include the three channels: promoting industrial advancement, green technology innovation, and optimizing labor resource allocation. Third, the heterogeneity test finds that the energy saving and emission reduction effects of digital finance are significantly stronger in non-low-carbon pilot cities with low urbanization rates, confirming the emission reduction utility of digital finance development. Therefore, we should take advantage of digital finance to improve the green development of financial services and adopt diverse policy measures according to local conditions to maximize the ecological effects of digital finance on energy saving and emission reduction. In the context of the development strategy of "carbon peaking and carbon neutral," this study has some implications for management in developing a regional green development system supported by digital finance.

Dynamic variation of Paris polyphylla root-associated microbiome assembly with planting years.

MAIN CONCLUSION: P. polyphylla selectively enriches beneficial microorganisms to help their growth. Paris polyphylla (P. polyphylla) is an important perennial plant for Chinese traditional medicine. Uncovering the interaction between P. polyphylla and the related microorganisms would help to utilize and cultivate P. polyphylla. However, studies focusing on P. polyphylla and related microbes are scarce, especially on the assembly mechanisms and dynamics of the P. polyphylla microbiome. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes was implemented to investigate the diversity, community assembly process and molecular ecological network of the bacterial communities in three root compartments (bulk soil, rhizosphere, and root endosphere) across three years. Our results demonstrated that the composition and assembly process of the microbial community in different compartments varied greatly and were strongly affected by planting years. Bacterial diversity was reduced from bulk soils to rhizosphere soils to root endosphere and varied over time. Microorganisms benefit to plants was selectively enriched in P. polyphylla roots as was its core microbiome, including Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Steroidobacter, Sphingobium and Agrobacterium. The network's complexity and the proportion of stochasticity in the community assembly process increased. Besides, nitrogen metabolism, carbon metabolism, phosphonate and phosphinate metabolism genes in bulk soils increased over time. These findings suggest that P. polyphylla exerts a selective effect to enrich the beneficial microorganisms and proves the sequential increasing selection pressure with P. polyphylla growth. Our work adds to the understanding of the dynamic processes of plant-associated microbial community assembly, guides the selection and application timing of P. polyphylla-associated microbial inoculants and is vital for sustainable agriculture.