High-energy cosmic-ray electrons and positrons (CREs), which lose energy quickly during their propagation, provide a probe of Galactic high-energy processes and may enable the observation of ...phenomena such as dark-matter particle annihilation or decay. The CRE spectrum has been measured directly up to approximately 2 teraelectronvolts in previous balloon- or space-borne experiments, and indirectly up to approximately 5 teraelectronvolts using ground-based Cherenkov γ-ray telescope arrays. Evidence for a spectral break in the teraelectronvolt energy range has been provided by indirect measurements, although the results were qualified by sizeable systematic uncertainties. Here we report a direct measurement of CREs in the energy range 25 gigaelectronvolts to 4.6 teraelectronvolts by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) with unprecedentedly high energy resolution and low background. The largest part of the spectrum can be well fitted by a 'smoothly broken power-law' model rather than a single power-law model. The direct detection of a spectral break at about 0.9 teraelectronvolts confirms the evidence found by previous indirect measurements, clarifies the behaviour of the CRE spectrum at energies above 1 teraelectronvolt and sheds light on the physical origin of the sub-teraelectronvolt CREs.
The conductivity of gallium oxide thin films is strongly dependent on the growth temperature when they deposited by pulsed laser deposition under vacuum environment, exhibiting an ...insulative-to-metallic transition with the decrease of the temperature. The high conductive gallium oxide films deposited at low temperature are amorphous, non-stoichiometric, and rich in oxygen vacancy. Large changes in electrical resistance are observed in these non-stoichiometric thin films. The wide variety of hysteretic shapes in the I-V curves depend on the voltage-sweep rate, evidencing that the time-dependent redistribution of oxygen vacancy driven by bias is the controlling parameter for the resistance of gallium oxide.
Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) with Th-233U fuel cycle attracts more and more attention with its excellent performance such as desirable breeding capacity, low waste production and high inherent safety. ...Considering the fact that there is no available 233U in the nature, it is necessary to analyze the fuel transition from enriched 235U/Th to 233U/Th and then give a flexible transition scenario for a graphite-moderated MSR. By employing an in-house developed tool which is based on SCALE6.1, two scenarios, a Breeding and Burning (B&B) scenario and a Pre-breeding scenario, are studied. The evolution of the inventories of main nuclides, net 233U production and isothermal temperature coefficient are presented and discussed in the B&B scenario. It is found that the fuel transition can be achieved smoothly by using enriched uranium with greater than 40% concentration of 235U. The fuel transition can still be accomplished with 20% enriched uranium but takes a long double time of about 79 years. Meanwhile, we perform an analysis of the Pre-breeding scenario and conclude that it is efficient to produce 233U and the double time ranges from 2.07 years for the 10-day reprocessing to 10.7 years for the 180-day reprocessing. A comparison of these two scenarios is conducted, which indicates that the B&B scenario is more favorable than the Pre-breeding scenario from the aspect of resource utilization efficiency. Finally, a combined three-stage program for developing Th-based MSRs is proposed.
•The B&B scenario and the Pre-breeding scenario are analyzed to achieve the fuel transition from 235Uenr/Th to 233U/Th in MSR.•Both scenarios can achieve the transition, and the B&B scenario is more favorable due to its resource utilization efficiency.•These analyses can provide references for gradual deployment of the thorium-based MSRs and large-scale thorium utilization.
Aims/hypothesis
We have previously documented a high heritability of insulin clearance in a Hispanic cohort. Here, our goal was to confirm the high heritability in a second cohort and search for ...genetic loci contributing to insulin clearance.
Methods
Hyperinsulinaemic–euglycaemic clamps were performed in 513 participants from 140 Hispanic families. Heritability was estimated for clamp-derived insulin clearance and a two-phase genome-wide linkage scan was conducted using a variance components approach. Linkage peaks were further investigated by candidate gene association analysis in two cohorts.
Results
The covariate-adjusted heritability of insulin clearance was 73%, indicating that the majority of the phenotypic variance is due to genetic factors. In the Phase 1 linkage scan, no signals with a logarithm of odds (LOD) score >2 were detected. In the Phase 2 scan, two linkage peaks with an LOD >2 for insulin clearance were identified on chromosomes 15 (LOD 3.62) and 20 (LOD 2.43). These loci harbour several promising candidate genes for insulin clearance, with 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 15 and six SNPs on chromosome 20 being associated with insulin clearance in both Hispanic cohorts.
Conclusions/interpretation
In a second Hispanic cohort, we confirmed that insulin clearance is a highly heritable trait and identified chromosomal loci that harbour genes regulating insulin clearance. The identification of such genes may improve our understanding of how the body clears insulin, thus leading to improved risk assessment, diagnosis, prevention and therapy of diabetes, as well as of other hyperinsulinaemic disorders, such as the metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome.
To explore the role of transgelin-2 TAGLN2 in the development and progression of meningioma and the potential regulatory.
TAGLN2 knockdown expression and overexpression in vitro models were ...constructed using lentivirus in meningioma cell line CH157; their corresponding transfection efficiencies were verified by qRT-PCR and Western Blot. Actions of TAGLN2 on the proliferation of meningioma cells were explored by CCK8 and colony formation assays. The effect of TAGLN2 on invasion of meningioma cells was analyzed by transwell cell invasion assay. Biological function of TAGLN2 on apoptosis of meningioma cells was determined by flow cytometry. Finally, Western Blot was used to investigate the detailed mechanism of TAGLN2 on regulating the biological functions of meningioma cells.
After down-regulating the expression of TAGLN2, there were significantly decreased capacities of cells proliferation and colony formation of meningioma cells, meanwhile, cell invasion was significantly decreased but the apoptosis rate was increased. On the contrary, up-regulation of TAGLN2 expression, the proliferation, colony formation ability were significantly increased as well as the invasion capacity, whilst apoptosis rate was decreased. Western Blot showed that expressions of p-PI3K and p-AKT were inhibited after knockdown of TAGLN2, which were significantly increased after TAGLN2 was overexpressed.
TAGLN2 can affect the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of meningioma cells and may participate in the development of meningioma through regulating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
•Novel shock structure reconstruction technique based on schlieren and visual hull.•Prior knowledge of global velocity or density field not required for reconstruction.•Achieved high resolution and ...2.5% average error in reconstructed shock structures.•Successful reconstruction of axisymmetric and asymmetric shock structures.•Relative to current methods, proposed technique is fast, robust and easy to apply.
Three-dimensional shock structures produced by Mach 1.45 supersonic bevelled jets were digitally reconstructed based on schlieren photography and a voxel-based visual hull technique. By taking advantage of the strong edge features commonly found in schlieren images of shock waves, the proposed technique demonstrates the possibility of performing shock wave reconstruction in supersonic jet applications without prior knowledge of the global density or velocity field. Semi-synthetic camera parameters were introduced as a method to circumvent camera calibration issues faced in the reconstruction procedure. This is key to achieving accurate and high-resolution reconstructed shock waves for both axisymmetric and asymmetric test cases with an average of 2.5% error when validated against raw schlieren images. When applied to bevelled jets with non-uniform nozzle exit geometries, an additional assumption was made to address the problem of schlieren line-of-sight blockage by the non-conventional nozzle, and reconstruction errors were found to be larger near regions of poorer shock wave contrast. Current results indicate that the technique is robust and fast during image calibration and processing, with accuracy of reconstructed shock waves in both conventional and non-conventional nozzles strongly dependent on shock wave contrast. Compared to existing techniques that can be used to reconstruct 3D shock structures, the proposed technique has the advantage of being totally non-intrusive as compared to point or particle-based measurements, requires significantly less computation than tomographic methods, offers high resolution reconstruction even with limited camera resolution and projected schlieren views, and is easy and cost effective to implement.
A quantitative rainbow schlieren study was conducted on an over-expanded jet at nozzle pressure ratio of 2.8, based on two different schlieren set-ups: the standard
z
-type and a single-mirror ...schlieren set-up. The technique used a single, weak focal-length lens placed in the field of view of the system to provide the calibration information required for the extraction of the quantitative data. In the case of the single-mirror set-up, the calibration image required further post-processing procedures to take into account the double refraction experienced by the light. Density gradients were calculated using Abel transform and compared to validated reference data. Results indicate that the single-mirror set-up is able to improve prediction of the density gradient field as compared to the standard
z
-type schlieren, due to its inherent property of higher sensitivity. The study has shown that the single-mirror set-up performs on average better than the standard
z
-type system, yielding an overall averaged error of ± 20%, with localized values as low as ± 5% where the shock cell structure is clearly defined, with respect to the validated reference data. At the same time, both systems perform poorly in regions where the flow structure displays poor image contrast.
Graphic abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common type of irreversible dementia, is predicted to affect 152 million people by 2050. Evidence from large-scale preventive randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on ...modifiable risk variables in Europe has shown that multi-domain lifestyle treatments for older persons at high risk of dementia may be practical and effective. Given the substantial differences between the Chinese and European populations in terms of demographics and living conditions, direct adoption of the European program in China remains unfeasible. Although a RCT has been conducted in China previously, its participants were mainly from rural areas in northern China and, thus, are not representative of the entire nation.There is an urgent need to establish cohorts that represent different economic, cultural, and geographical situations in order to explore implementation strategies and evaluate the effects of early multi-domain interventions more comprehensively and accurately.
We developed an integrated intervention procedure implemented in urban neighborhood settings, namely China Initiative for Multi-Domain Intervention (CHINA-IN-MUDI). CHINA-IN-MUDI is a 2-year multicenter open-label cluster-randomised controlled trial centered around a Chinese-style multi-domain intervention to prevent cognitive decline. Participants aged 60-80 years were recruited from a nationally representative study, i.e. China Healthy Aging and Dementia Study cohort. An external harmonization process was carried out to preserve the original FINGER design. Subsequently, we standardized a series of Chinese-style intervention programs to align with cultural and socioeconomic status. Additionally, we expanded the secondary outcome list to include genomic and proteomic analyses. To enhance adherence and facilitate implementation, we leveraged an e-health application.
Screening commenced in July 2022. Currently, 1,965 participants have been randomized into lifestyle intervention (n = 772) and control groups (n = 1,193). Both the intervention and control groups exhibited similar baseline characteristics. Several lifestyle and vascular risk factors were present, indicating a potential window of opportunity for intervention. The intervention will be completed by 2025.
This project will contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of intervention strategies in controlling AD risk and reducing clinical events, providing a basis for public health decision-making in China.
This paper formulates an edge/face-based smoothed radial point interpolation method (ES/FS-RPIM) for the 2D and 3D static analysis of structures. In present method, the problem domain is discretized ...using triangular or tetrahedron cells and the edge-based or face-based smoothing domains are then constructed based on these background meshes. Field functions are approximated using RPIM shape functions which have Kronecker delta function property. An efficient T2L-scheme is employed for the RPIM shape function construction. The system equations are derived using the generalized smoothed Galerkin (GS-Galerkin) weak form and essential boundary conditions can be imposed directly as in the finite element method (FEM). Several numerical examples with different material models are investigated to verify the proposed method in terms of accuracy, stability, efficiency and convergence.
Aims/hypothesis
Insulin clearance is a highly heritable trait, for which few quantitative trait loci have been discovered. We sought to determine whether validated type 2 diabetes and/or glycaemic ...trait loci are associated with insulin clearance.
Methods
Hyperinsulinaemic–euglycaemic clamps were performed in two Hispanic-American family cohorts totalling 1329 participants in 329 families. The Metabochip was used to fine-map about 50 previously identified loci for type 2 diabetes, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, 2 h glucose or HbA
1c
. This resulted in 17,930 variants, which were tested for association with clamp-derived insulin clearance via meta-analysis of the two cohorts.
Results
In the meta-analysis, 38 variants located within seven loci demonstrated association with insulin clearance (
p
< 0.001). The top signals for each locus were rs10241087 (
DGKB/TMEM195
TMEM195
also known as
AGMO
) (
p
= 4.4 × 10
−5
); chr1:217605433 (
LYPLAL1
) (
p
= 3.25 × 10
−4
); rs2380949 (
GLIS3
) (
p
= 3.4 × 10
−4
); rs55903902 (
FADS1
) (
p
= 5.6 × 10
−4
); rs849334 (
JAZF1
) (
p
= 6.4 × 10
−4
); rs35749 (
IGF1
) (
p
= 6.7 × 10
−4
); and rs9460557 (
CDKAL1
) (
p
= 6.8 × 10
−4
).
Conclusions/interpretation
While the majority of validated loci for type 2 diabetes and related traits do not appear to influence insulin clearance in Hispanics, several of these loci do show evidence of association with this trait. It is therefore possible that these loci could have pleiotropic effects on insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity and insulin clearance.
PDF
