TiO2 nanocrystals with tunable bulk/surface defects were synthesized and characterized with TEM, XRD, BET, positron annihilation, and photocurrent measurements. The effect of defects on ...photocatalytic activity was studied. It was found for the first time that decreasing the relative concentration ratio of bulk defects to surface defects in TiO2 nanocrystals could significantly improve the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, thus significantly enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency.
Abstract Chinese rose ( Rosa chinensis ) is an important ornamental plant, with economic, cultural, and symbolic significance. During the application of outdoor greening, adverse environments such as ...high temperature and drought are often encountered, which affect its application scope and ornamental quality. The starch phosphorylase ( Pho ) gene family participate in the synthesis and decomposition of starch, not only related to plant energy metabolism, but also plays an important role in plant stress resistance. The role of Pho in combating salinity and high temperature stress in R. chinensis remains unknown. In this work, 4 Phos from R. chinensis were detected with Pfam number of Pho (PF00343.23) and predicted by homolog-based prediction (HBP). The Phos are characterized by sequence lengths of 821 to 997 bp, and the proteins are predicted to subcellularly located in the plastid and cytoplasm. The regulatory regions of the Phos contain abundant stress and phytohormone-responsive cis-acting elements. Based on transcriptome analysis, the Phos were found to respond to abiotic stress factors such as drought, salinity, high temperature, and plant phytohormone of jasmonic acid and salicylic acid. The response of Phos to abiotic stress factors such as salinity and high temperature was confirmed by qRT-PCR analysis. To evaluate the genetic characteristics of Phos , a total of 69 Phos from 17 species were analyzed and then classified into 3 groups in phylogenetic tree. The collinearity analysis of Phos in R. chinensis and other species was conducted for the first time. This work provides a view of evolution for the Pho gene family and indicates that Phos play an important role in abiotic stress response of R. chinensis .
Abstract
Background
With the accelerated urbanization and aging population in China, more and more migrant older with children (MOC) moved to new cities. Previous studies mainly explored the ...acculturation of MOC, yet few focused on the health conditions of this vulnerable group. This study aimed to investigate the effects of oral health and social support on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of MOC in Weifang, China.
Method
This study was a cross-sectional study and participants were selected by multi-stage cluster random sampling in Weifang, China. The HRQOL was assessed via the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) which included the mental component summary (MCS) and the physical component summary (PCS). The oral health was evaluated by the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI). The social support was administered using the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Descriptive analysis was used to describe participants’ sociodemographic variables, oral health and social support. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between the social support, oral health and HRQOL.
Results and discussion
It was found that 25.0% of MOC were defined as MCS poor and PCS poor, respectively. Those participants with average and low monthly household income compared to those around them, average and poor oral health, and low levels of social support were more likely to have poor PCS. Those with temporary residence permits, fair and poor oral health, and medium and low levels of social support were more likely to report poor MCS.
Conclusion
Results indicated that better social support and oral health led to higher HRQOL of MOC. Implications for the government, communities and families of MOC were given to improve their HRQOL.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In the context of secondary forest succession, aboveground-belowground interactions are known to affect the dynamics and functional structure of plant communities. However, the links between soil ...microbial communities, soil abiotic properties, plant functional traits in the case of semi-arid and arid ecosystems, are unclear. In this study, we investigated the changes in soil microbial species diversity and community composition, and the corresponding effects of soil abiotic properties and plant functional traits, during a ≥150-year secondary forest succession on the Loess Plateau, which represents a typical semi-arid ecosystem in China. Plant community fragments were assigned to six successional stages: 1-4, 4-8, 8-15, 15-50, 50-100, and 100-150 years after abandonment. Bacterial and fungal communities were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) region of the rRNA operon, respectively. A multivariate variation-partitioning approach was used to estimate the contributions of soil properties and plant traits to the observed microbial community composition. We found considerable differences in bacterial and fungal community compositions between the early (S1-S3) and later (S4-S6) successional stages. In total, 18 and 12 unique families were, respectively, obtained for bacteria and fungi, as indicators of microbial community succession across the six stages. Bacterial alpha diversity was positively correlated with plant species alpha diversity, while fungal diversity was negatively correlated with plant species diversity. Certain fungal and bacterial taxa appeared to be associated with the occurrence of dominant plant species at different successional stages. Soil properties (pH, total N, total C, NH
-N, NO
-N, and PO
-P concentrations) and plant traits explained 63.80% and 56.68% of total variance in bacterial and fungal community compositions, respectively. These results indicate that soil microbial communities are coupled with plant communities via the mediation of microbial species diversity and community composition over a long-term secondary forest succession in the semi-arid ecosystem. The bacterial and fungal communities show distinct patterns in response to plant community succession, according to both soil abiotic properties and plant functional traits.
Magnetorheological gel (MRG) excels in the material properties in term of adjustability and sedimentation performance, which could upgrade the performances of the current magnetorheological fluid ...based adjustable devices for structural control and vibration mitigation. However, the characterization and modelling of the stress-strain hysteresis responses of MRG has not been reported in the past, which are fundamental steps towards engineering applications. In this study, the stress-strain hysteresis of polyurethane based MRG sample with 60% carbonyl iron particle weight fraction was characterized under sinusoidal shear excitations with broad ranges of strain amplitude (5%–100%), excitation frequency (0.1 Hz–2 Hz) and magnetic fields (0–0.91 T). Significant stress overshooting phenomenon were observed under the application of low magnetic fields (0.27 T). A structurally-simple and accurate phenomenological model has been established to capture this unique nonlinearity. By validating the experimental results, the proposed model accurately predicts the hysteretic behaviour and the overshoot of the MRG under the excitation scenarios and the magnetic fields considered. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) was implemented to provide the solution to the model generalization. The SVM-assisted model showed good agreement with the experimental data and can benefit the efficiency and viability in developing controllable MRG-based devices and system.
Display omitted
•Comprehensive experimental characterization of the stress-strain hysteresis relationship of magnetorheological gel.•Discovered the stress overshoot behaviour in magnetorheological gel upon on the application of low level magnetic field.•Establishment of a four-parameter overshoot model to portray the nonlinear behaviour of magnetorheological gel.•Generalization of the four-parameter overshoot model by support vector machine method.
Organophosphate pesticides (OPPs) are one type of the most massively used pesticides and ubiquitously detected in aquatic environments, which may pose potential risks to the aquatic organisms and ...human health. In the present study, the spatiotemporal distribution and potential risks of OPPs were investigated in overlying water and surficial sediments from urban waterways of Guangzhou. For all studied sites, in general, four target OPPs (i.e., malathion, chlorpyrifos, terbufos, and diazinon) were present in the overlying water, with malathion and chlorpyrifos as major components. Higher concentrations of the four OPPs were found for the water and sediments collected in the dry season compared to the wet season, possibly because of the dilution effect of heavy rains. The results of Pearson’s analyses and principal coordinate analyses (PCoA) suggested similar sources for target OPPs in the water and sediments across the Guangzhou urban waterways. Potential ecological risks of the OPPs to three representative taxons (algae, aquatic invertebrates, and fish) were evaluated via toxic units (TUs) and risk quotients (RQs), while risk assessment on human health was performed using hazard index (HI). Although TU results showed no acute risks to the aquatic organisms in the overlying water and surface sediments, RQ results of the mixture showed high risks to the aquatic invertebrate and fish in all water samples. Individual HI values and cumulative HI values were on the order of 10
−6
–10
−3
for children and adults, suggesting no potential risks to either children or adults through drinking and bathing.
Graphical abstract
The quantitative study of earthquake-triggered rockfall debris along seismogenic fault zones has proven to be a valid approach for use in identifying paleo-earthquakes and faulting activities. After ...the 2010 Yushu earthquake, paleo-rockfall research employed U-series dating of calcareous coats on the rockfall surface, and the results provided chronological evidence of multi-period features relating to earthquake-triggered rockfalls that have occurred along the Yushu fault. In this study, the mechanism involved in forming the calcareous coat on seismic rockfall surfaces was analyzed to further explain the significance of conducting associated U–Th aging analyses. For earthquake-triggered rockfall regions, the U–Th age of the calcareous coat can be used as a proxy age of the rockfall formation, and the timing of the related paleo-earthquake event can be constrained. Based on all current existing age data, an in-depth comparison was made between the U–Th ages of calcareous coats obtained from five seismic rockfall sites and other
14
C dating results obtained from trenches and paleo-seismic landslides relating to paleo-earthquakes. Combined with the results of field investigations, four individual paleo-earthquakes that triggered rockfalls of different scales in historical time were identified. These results imply that multi-period earthquake-triggered rockfalls along the Yushu fault may be valid time indicators of seismic events and reflect the intensity and meizoseismal scale of relevant paleo-earthquake events. This exploratory research on the U-series dating of calcareous coats from earthquake-triggered rockfalls in Yushu can be used as a valuable reference for paleo-earthquake studies in other tectonically active regions.
In the context of carbon-neutral, countries are urging a social-wide transition to decarbonization. However, the efficiency of this transition has not been as expected due to the game of benefits ...among relevant players. Here, we develop a quadrilateral evolutionary game model that highlights the complex interactions at a multi-player level, including producers, regulators, third-party certifiers, and consumers, in order to analyze evolutionary pathways and stable strategies. Our results suggest that: (1) there are significant correlations among the quadrilateral game players, and the benign interactions among them will effectively drive the social-wide low-carbon transition; (2) if consumers have higher low-carbon preferences, producers will be attracted to actively choose the low-carbon transition strategy, which may form a stable portfolio strategy; (3) proper interventions, such as reducing transition costs, increasing reputation loss, and raising consumers’ whistle-blowing abilities, can help promote the systematic evolution to the low-carbon state; and (4) rent-seeking behavior between producers and third-party certifiers should be strongly monitored by regulators, and higher penalties can prevent their duty dereliction. These findings provide significant implications for policy-makers to make better-informed decisions about the social-wide low-carbon transition in the context of carbon-neutral.
•The evolutionary game model on low-carbon transition is constructed.•Consumers' low-carbon preference is the priority factor of transition willingness.•Strong regulation can urge producers to transit into low-carbon production.•Higher penalties to avoid collusion, higher validity of low-carbon certificates.•Whistle-blowing behavior actively affects the evolutionary system.
This paper proposes a new fractional-order model reference adaptive control (FOMRAC) framework for a fractional-order multivariable system with parameter uncertainty. The designed FOMRAC scheme ...depends on a fractional-order nonlinear scalar update law. Specifically, the scalar update law does not change as the input–output dimension changes. The main advantage of the proposed adaptive controller is that only one parameter online update is needed such that the computational burden in the existing FOMRAC can be relieved. Furthermore, we show that all signals in this adaptive scheme are bounded and the mean value of the squared norm of the error converges to zero. Two illustrative numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed control scheme.
Hyperuricemia (HUA) is a metabolic anomaly with an increased incidence rate, causing a global medical burden. Several studies have confirmed that obesity and insulin resistance (IR) are the risk ...factors for HUA. Reports on the predictive power of different obesity indices for HUA are limited. This study aimed to compare the association between different general, abdominal, and visceral obesity indices and markers of the IR-triglyceride glucose (TyG) index with serum uric acid (SUA) and to assess the ability of these indices to predict HUA.
A total of 2243 participants were recruited from Barkol County Hospital and surrounding township hospitals in Xinjiang. Obesity indices, including the atherogenic index of plasma, cardiometabolic index, visceral adiposity index, lipid accumulation product index, a body shape index, body roundness index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, body mass index, and TyG index, were divided into four quartiles. Moreover, partial correlations and logistic regression were used to analyze the association between these indices and SUA. The area under the curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to analyze the predictive value of these indices for HUA.
After controlling for confounding variables, the association between the TyG index and HUA was stronger than that between the obesity indices in both males and females. The odds ratios (ORs) for HUA in the highest quartile of the TyG index were 2.098 (95% confidence interval, 1.555-2.831) in males and 7.788 (95% CI, 3.581-16.937) in females. For males, the AIP, CMI, VAI, LAP index, and TyG index were able to discriminate HUA, and the TyG index showed the highest AUC value of 0.586 (95% CI, 0.557-0.614;
< 0.001). For females, all indices, except BMI, can discriminate HUA. Moreover, the visceral obesity index CMI showed the highest AUC value of 0.737 (95% CI, 0.691-0.782;
< 0.001). Meanwhile, the TyG index had a relatively high AUC value of 0.728 (95% CI, 0.682-0.773;
< 0.001).
The TyG index was significantly related to HUA and was superior to obesity indices in identifying HUA in the medical checkup population in Xinjiang, China.
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