Effects of "audience effects"on animal mate choice: A review.

The information tranfered among individual animals can be shared by a network, which is consisted of the sender, the receiver, and the extra bystander of the communication signals. The bystanders can read and use the signal that is not sent directly to them and make use of it to interfere with the sender and the receiver, which is known as "audience effects" in the research area of animal behaviors. The processes of mate choice and mating of animals occur mainly in the network that is composed of the particular species. Increasing evidence show that the audience effects play an important role in regulating mating preference and mating strategy, resulting in changes in species evolution. Here, we review the role of audience effects on animal mate choice and evolution by clarifying the definition and functional explanations of audience effects, the factors contributing to audience effects, as well as the different impacts of audience effects on males and females. It would provide novel ideas to study the impacts of audience effects on mate choice and species evolution in the future.

Full Transformer Framework for Robust Point Cloud Registration With Deep Information Interaction.

Point cloud registration is an essential technology in computer vision and robotics. Recently, transformer-based methods have achieved advanced performance in point cloud registration by utilizing the advantages of the transformer in order-invariance and modeling dependencies to aggregate information. However, they still suffer from indistinct feature extraction, sensitivity to noise, and outliers, owing to three major limitations: 1) the adoption of CNNs fails to model global relations due to their local receptive fields, resulting in extracted features susceptible to noise; 2) the shallow-wide architecture of transformers and the lack of positional information lead to indistinct feature extraction due to inefficient information interaction; and 3) the insufficient consideration of geometrical compatibility leads to the ambiguous identification of incorrect correspondences. To address the above-mentioned limitations, a novel full transformer network for point cloud registration is proposed, named the deep interaction transformer (DIT), which incorporates: 1) a point cloud structure extractor (PSE) to retrieve structural information and model global relations with the local feature integrator (LFI) and transformer encoders; 2) a deep-narrow point feature transformer (PFT) to facilitate deep information interaction across a pair of point clouds with positional information, such that transformers establish comprehensive associations and directly learn the relative position between points; and 3) a geometric matching-based correspondence confidence evaluation (GMCCE) method to measure spatial consistency and estimate correspondence confidence by the designed triangulated descriptor. Extensive experiments on the ModelNet40, ScanObjectNN, and 3DMatch datasets demonstrate that our method is capable of precisely aligning point clouds, consequently, achieving superior performance compared with state-of-the-art methods. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/CGuangyan-BIT/DIT.

Engineering Active-Site-Induced Homogeneous Growth of Polydopamine Nanocontainers on Loading-Enhanced Ultrathin Graphene for Smart Self-Healing Anticorrosion Coatings.

Engineering nanocontainers with encapsulated inhibitors onto graphene has been an emerging technology for developing self-healing anticorrosion coatings. However, the loading contents of inhibitors are commonly limited by inhomogeneous nanostructures of graphene platforms. Here, we propose an activation-induced ultrathin graphene platform (UG-BP) with the homogeneous growth of polydopamine (PDA) nanocontainers encapsulated with benzotriazole (BTA). Ultrathin graphene prepared by catalytic exfoliation and etching activation provides an ideal platform with an ultrahigh specific surface area (1646.8 m2/g) and homogeneous active sites for the growth of PDA nanocontainers, which achieves a high loading content of inhibitors (40 wt %). The obtained UG-BP platform exhibits pH-sensitive corrosion inhibition effects due to its charged groups. The epoxy/UG-BP coating possesses integrated properties of enhanced mechanical properties (>94%), efficient pH-sensitive self-healing behaviors (98.5% healing efficiency over 7 days), and excellent anticorrosion performance (4.21 × 109 Ω·cm2 over 60 days), which stands out from previous related works. Moreover, the interfacial anticorrosion mechanism of UG-BP is revealed in detail, which can inhibit the oxidation of Fe2+ and promote the passivation of corrosion products by a dehydration process. This work provides a universal activation-induced strategy for developing loading-enhanced and tailor-made graphene platforms in extended smart systems and demonstrates a promising smart self-healing coating for advanced anticorrosion applications.

Fluorescent detection of brown spot of tobacco caused by Alternaria alternata based on lambda exonuclease-induced DNAzyme amplification.

A rapid, simple, and sensitive fluorescent detection method for brown spot of tobacco is established by lambda exonuclease-induced Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme amplification. It contains hybridization of the Alternaria alternata genome and HP1, digestion of the 5'-phosphorylated strand of the hybrid dsDNA by lambda exonuclease, acquisition of complete Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme, cleavage of the substrate modified with FAM and BHQ-1, and fluorescent detection. The proposed assay exhibits good sensitivity (10 pg L-1), selectivity and reproducibility. The method does not require pure DNA and expensive instruments, and can be performed within 2.5 hours. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of fluorescent detection of Alternaria alternata and its tobacco field samples. This method can be applied to the rapid and sensitive detection of Alternaria alternata in tobacco and its seedlings, and is particularly important for the green prevention and control of tobacco brown spot disease.

Research on the Influence of Informal Employment on Residents' Happiness in China: Empirical Analysis Based on CLDS Data.

The influence of informal employment on residents' happiness has gained wide attention around the world. However, few studies focus on this topic in China. Using the 2016 wave of the China Labor Force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) data, we examined the effect of informal employment and its mechanisms on residents' happiness in China. Our study shows there is a significant negative correlation between informal employment and residents' happiness in China. Moreover, the correlation between informal employment and residents' happiness is stronger for residents who are female, migrating, and with a rural household registration. In addition, we investigated possible mechanisms of the effect, including individual income, social respect, unemployment expectations, and social security, and found that informal employment reduces the happiness of residents by widening the gap in unemployment probability and social insurance level among residents.

Occurrence, Density, and Transcriptomic Response of the Leafhopper Erythroneura sudra (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) When Confronted With Different Fruit Tree Species.

The leafhopper, Erythroneura sudra (Distant) is becoming a dominant insect pest, and usually can cause significant damage to fruit production in northern China. We studied the occurrence and density of E. sudra on three fruit tree species and its transcriptomic responses when it was fed on leaves of these tree species. A higher density and survival rate of E. sudra were recorded when it fed on leaves of peach (Amygdalus persica L.) (Rosales: Rosaceae) and cherry (Cerasus pseudocerasus Lindl) (Rosales: Rosaceae) than on apple (Malus domestica Mill) (Rosales: Rosaceae). Also, feeding on M. domestica induced the largest variation in transcriptomic profiles in E. sudra. In total, 166 genes were differentially expressed (89 upregulated and 77 downregulated) in E. sudra when it fed on M. domestica, compared to when it fed on the other two tree species. The upregulated genes were mainly related to 'response to oxidative stress', 'stress-resistance', and 'xenobiotic metabolic process'. The downregulated genes were mainly related to 'structural constituent of cuticle', 'biosynthetic process', and 'development regulation'. These results suggested that M. domestica significantly changed the expression of many genes and consequently caused lower occurrence and density of E. sudra. Such information could enhance our understanding of the leafhopper-host plant relationship. Additionally, it can contribute to the improvement of current control strategies for this pest.

Insights into Regional Wetting Behaviors of Amphiphilic Collagen for Dual Separation of Emulsions.

Industrial manufacture generates a huge quantity of emulsion wastewater, which causes serious threats to the aquatic ecosystems. Water-in-oil (W/O) and oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions are two major types of emulsions discharged by industries. However, dual separation of W/O and O/W emulsions remains a challenging issue due to the contradictory permselectivity for separating the two emulsions. In the present investigation, the amphiphilicity-derived regional wetting mechanism of water and oil on the amphiphilic collagen fibers was revealed based on the combination of numerous experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Electrostatic interactions and van der Waals force were manifested to be the driving forces of regional wetting in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, respectively. The regional wetting endowed amphiphilic collagen fibers with underwater oleophobicity and underoil hydrophilicity, which enabled dual separation of emulsions by selectively retaining the dispersed water phase of W/O emulsions in the hydrophilic regions while the dispersed oil phase of O/W emulsions in the hydrophobic regions. The achieved separation efficiency was higher than 99.98%, and the flux reached 3337.6 L m-2 h-1. Initial wetting status significantly affects the regional wetting-enabled dual separation. Based on the MD simulations, amphiphilic intramolecular conformations of tropocollagen were suggested to be the origins of regional wetting on collagen fibers. Our findings may pave the way for developing high-performance dual separation materials that are promising to be utilized for the practical treatment of emulsion wastewater.

Effects of Baduanjin on postoperative rehabilitation of patients with breast cancer: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Baduanjin, as an ancient Chinese exercise, is beneficial to both physical and mental health. Moreover, researchers discovered that Baduanjin has effects on the recovery of postoperative breast cancer patients. Yet, nobody focused on the systematic review, which can provide convincing evidence to verify the effect of Baduanjin in breast cancer patients. Therefore, our study will conduct a systematic review to fill in the blank, besides we will offer new evidence for clinical workers. METHODS: PubMed, Embase.com, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, and SinoMed will be used for literature search, retrieve time is up to June 1, 2021. We will include randomized controlled trials that evaluate the effects of Baduanjin on postoperative rehabilitation for breast cancer patients. Two independent researchers will perform study selection and data extraction. The risk of bias will be assessed by the Cochrane bias assessment tool. We will use funnel plot and Egger test to evaluate publication bias. Stata 13.0, as a necessary software, will be used to perform statistical analysis. Also, we will utilize subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses to explore the sources of heterogeneity. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: Evidence that adequately assesses the effect of Baduanjin in the recovery of breast cancer patients will be confirmed through this systematic review. Our study will offer a guideline for clinical workers, besides we will supply a new way for the rehabilitation of breast cancer patients.

Gua sha therapy for chronic low back pain: A protocol for systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Non-specific chronic low back pain (LBP) is a debilitating disease that profoundly impacts patients' daily physical function and quality of life. Gua sha therapy, as an easy-to-use and noninvasive complementary modality, has been widely used clinically in patients with non-specific chronic LBP. The aim of this study is to test the potential benefits and harms of gua sha therapy on patients with non-specific chronic LBP. METHODS: Ten English databases, 3 Korean databases, 6 Chinese databases, 1 Japanese database, and 2 Brazilian databases will be searched from their inception to September 2019. Randomized controlled trials will be included if gua sha therapy was used as the sole treatment or as a part of combination therapy with other treatments in patients with non-specific chronic LBP. Two reviewers will independently extract the data and assess the methodological quality using the Cochrane criteria for risk of bias. The meta-analysis will be performed using Review Manager 5.3 software. RESULTS: The findings of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: This systematic review will provide more evidence regarding the clinical usage of gua sha therapy for non-specific chronic LBP. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019134567.

Ultrastable Lubricating Properties of Robust Self-Repairing Tribofilms Enabled by in Situ-Assembled Polydopamine Nanoparticles.

Aqueous lubrication in nature is attracting increasing attention in the tribological fields for reducing friction energy consumption and improving anti-wear durability. Generally, adding nanolubricant additives is one of the most important strategies to effectively enhance the interface performance under boundary lubrication via the formation of a protective tribofilm on rubbing surfaces. However, the adsorbed tribofilms are unstable and are prone to failure during friction, and the interaction mechanism between the tribofilms and frictional interfaces is partly disclosed. In this study, inspired by mussels, an in situ-assembled polydopamine (PDA) tribofilm is achieved with PDA nanoparticles as aqueous lubricant additives, which shows excellent lubrication properties. The coefficient of friction is interface-independent and is reduced by as much as 83%. The results show that the PDA tribofilm can not only form chemical bonding with metal interfaces but also present a synergistic lubrication effect with the upper ceramic surface. Especially, a self-repairing effect of the PAD tribofilm is observed, by which the ultrastable lubricating properties can be achieved during friction, and thus, the friction and wear can be effectively controlled. This work provides an effective method for improving the interface stability of friction pairs under aqueous lubrication and also shows great meaning for industrial applications.

Intergenerational financial transfers and physical health of old people in rural China: evidence from CHARLS data / Transferências financeiras intergeracionais e saúde física de idosos na China rural: evidências de dados CHARLS

ABSTRACT: With the reduction of intergenerational temporal transfers, financial transfers from adult offspring to their elderly parents are prevailing in rural China. Although much has been done, little is known about the association between the expansion of intergenerational transfers and rural old people's physical health in China. The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of intergenerational financial transfers on the elders' physical health in rural China. Using data collected from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), panel data fixed effect model and threshold model are employed to estimate the impact of intergenerational financial transfers on the old people's physical health in rural areas. Results showed that; although, the intergenerational financial transfers have a positive effect on the old people's physical health, no linear relationship exists between them. Intergenerational financial transfers are clearly less effective for low-income old people's physical health than those of middle-income, while the effect on high-income old people's health is the most insignificant. Studies concerning the effect of intergenerational financial transfers on the elders' health in developing countries remain limited. Findings of this paper provided great insights into how intergenerational transfers, such as intergenerational financial transfers, may affect the well-beings of old residents in rural areas. Additionally, this study can offer inspiration to policy makers regarding what measures they should take to enhance rural old residents' well-beings.

RESUMO: Com a redução de transferências temporais intergeracionais, as transferências financeiras da prole adulta a seus pais idosos estão prevalecendo em China rural. Embora muito tenha sido feito, pouco se sabe sobre a associação entre a expansão das transferências intergeracionais e a saúde física dos idosos rurais na China. O objetivo deste artigo é examinar o efeito das transferências financeiras intergeracionais sobre a saúde física dos anciãos na China rural. Usando dados coletados do estudo longitudinal de saúde e aposentadoria da China (CHARLS), o modelo de efeito fixo de dados do painel e o modelo de limiar são empregados para estimar o impacto das transferências financeiras intergeracionais na saúde física dos idosos em áreas rurais. Os resultados mostram que, embora as transferências financeiras intergeracionais tenham um efeito positivo na saúde física dos idosos, não existe relação linear entre eles. As transferências financeiras intergeracionais são claramente menos eficazes para a saúde física de idosos de baixa renda do que as de renda média, enquanto o efeito sobre a saúde de idosos de alta renda é o mais insignificante. Os estudos sobre o efeito das transferências financeiras intergeracionais sobre a saúde dos anciãos nos países em desenvolvimento permanecem limitados. Os achados deste artigo fornecem grandes insights sobre como as transferências intergeracionais, e as transferências financeiras intergeracionais podem afetar o bem-estar de idosos residentes em áreas rurais. Além disso, este estudo pode oferecer inspiração para os decisores políticos sobre as medidas que devem tomar para melhorar o bem-estar dos residentes rurais.

Impact of adult sons' marriage squeeze on the mental health of parents in rural China / Impacto do casamento dos filhos adultos na saúde mental dos pais na China rural

ABSTRACT: Studying the influencing factors and interventions of mental health in rural China has important practical significance for promoting personal development and social progress. Using the 2016 waves of the China Family Panel Studies data, this paper examined the effect of adult sons' marriage squeeze on parents' mental health in rural China and its corresponding mechanisms. Our study showed a significant negative association between adult sons' marriage squeeze and the mental health status of rural parents. Moreover, the negative association of adult sons' marriage squeeze with mental health is larger for female parents, parents who are less than 60 years old and parents living with children. In addition, we investigated possible mechanisms of the effect, including intergenerational support, intergenerational relationship and neighborhood relationship, and that adult sons' marriage squeeze mainly damages the mental health of rural parents by increasing the downstream intergenerational support of rural parents and worsening intergenerational and neighborhood relationships.

RESUMO: O estudo dos fatores e intervenções de saúde mental na China rural tem um significado prático importante para promover o desenvolvimento pessoal e o progresso social. Usando dados de 2016 provenientes do China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), este artigo estudou o efeito do "aperto do casamento" de um filho adulto, na saúde mental dos pais, na zona rural da China e seus mecanismos correspondentes. O termo aperto do casamento refere-se a um desequilíbrio entre o número de homens e mulheres disponíveis para se casar em uma determinada sociedade. Nesse estudo evidencia-se uma associação significativamente negativa entre o "aperto no casamento" do filho adulto e o estado de saúde mental dos pais rurais. Além disso, a associação negativa do "aperto do casamento" de um filho adulto com a saúde mental é maior para mães, pais com menos de 60 anos e pais que vivem com filhos. Além disso, investigamos possíveis efeitos, incluindo apoio intergeracional, relacionamento intergeracional e relacionamento de vizinhança, e descobrimos que o aperto do casamento do filho adulto prejudica principalmente a saúde mental dos pais rurais, aumentando o apoio intergeracional e piorando relações intergeracionais e de vizinhança.

Design and construction of a novel instrument for high-frequency micro-force electrical sliding friction testing.

Sliding electrical contact exists in various electrical equipment. However, its performance is significantly affected by the sliding condition such as the load, electricity, and the surface state of friction pairs. In this study, a novel instrument is designed and constructed for high-frequency microforce electrical sliding friction testing. The new instrument provides a unique experimental platform that enables high-frequency reciprocating friction and microforce loading, and it has an innovative data collection system that includes a cantilever beam structure to measure the microforce. In this instrument, parameters (positive force, friction, displacement, and voltage of frictional pair) are obtained and monitored in real time. The steel sheet and nickel-plated steel wire were used as materials to conduct an experiment, and the steel sheet morphology after the experiment was observed using a light microscope. Results show that the voltage and positive load significantly influence the friction coefficient and friction wear, which is crucial in understanding friction and wear behaviors.

A novel route to the synthesis of an Fe3O4/h-BN 2D nanocomposite as a lubricant additive.

Two-dimensional (2D) nanocomposites as lubricant additives have been widely studied, but the synthetic process of the nanocomposites is not always environmentally friendly or economical. In this study, a new 2D nanocomposite, Fe3O4/h-BN, has been prepared by physical mixing of exfoliated h-BN nanosheets and organically modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The nanocomposite displays a unique 2D-layered structure without folds or wrinkles. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the h-BN nanosheet surfaces with the help of an elegant self-assembly strategy from van der Waals interactions. For the first time, Fe3O4/h-BN is studied as a lubricant additive and it exhibits excellent tribological properties. The coefficient of friction (COF) and the wear depth can be respectively reduced by 47% and 80% compared with the base oil. Based on the advantages of a simple and low-cost synthetic process and significant tribological properties, Fe3O4/h-BN offers great potential for lubrication application.

Preparation and property of high strength and low friction PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel using annealing treatment.

PVA hydrogels have desirable characteristics for use as soft tissue substitutes. However, PVA hydrogels are not high strength enough to withstand the demanding in load-bearing environment of human. In this paper, a high strength and low friction PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel is obtained by freezing-thawing and annealing method. The microstructure, thermal stability, mechanical and biotribological properties of the hydrogel are studied. Annealing PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel has porous structure, interaction occurred between PVA, HA and PAA. HA particles are distributed in PVA matrix and played a role of diffuse strengthening and toughening. Annealing improves the crystallinity and crosslinking of the hydrogel, annealing PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel has good thermal stability, strength and mechanical properties. The tensile strength of annealing PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel can be up to 3.71 MPa. Annealing PVA-HA/PAA composite hydrogel has favorable lubricating properties, and the friction coefficient is very low.