The pairing symmetry in quasi-one-dimensional superconductor Rb2Mo3As3

Quasi-one-dimensional electron systems display intrinsic instability towards long-range ordered phases at sufficiently low temperatures. The superconducting orders are of particular interest as they can possess either singlet or triplet pairing symmetry and frequently compete with magnetism. Here we report on muon spin rotation and relaxation ($\mathrm{\mu}$SR) study of Rb$_2$Mo$_3$As$_3$ characterised by one of the highest critical temperatures $T_{\rm c}=10.4\ \mathrm{K}$among quasi-one-dimensional superconductors. The transverse-field$\mathrm{\mu}$SR signal shows enhanced damping below$T_{\rm c}$due to the formation of vortex lattice. Comparison of vortex lattice broadening against single gap$s-$,$p-$and$d-$wave models shows the best agreement for the$s-$wave scenario but with the anomalously small superconducting gap,$\Delta_0$, to$T_{\rm c}$ratio of$2\Delta_0/k_{\rm B}T_{\rm c}=2.74(1)$. The alternative nodal$p-$wave or$d-$wave scenarios with marginally worse goodness of fit would yield more realistic$2\Delta_0/k_{\rm B}T_{\rm c}=3.50(2)$and$2\Delta_0/k_{\rm B}T_{\rm c}=4.08(1)$, respectively, and thus they cannot be ruled out when accounting for the superconducting state in Rb$_2$Mo$_3$As$_3$.Comment: 6 page

Catalyst or Obstacle? Green innovation and total factor energy efficiency

Green innovation possesses dual externalities of “innovation” and “environmental protection”, and enhancing energy efficiency serves as a crucial means to promote high-quality economic development. Building upon the energy rebound effect, we use the balanced panel data of cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2008 to 2018 to explore the impact of urban green innovation on total factor energy efficiency (TFEE). The findings of this study indicate that, firstly, the impact of green innovation on TFEE exhibits a positive U-shaped pattern, characterized by initial suppression followed by subsequent promotion. This conclusion remains robust after undergoing a series of rigorous robustness tests. Second, high-quality green innovation is found to reach the turning point more quickly, implying that substantial green innovation can cross the turning point in smaller quantities. Thirdly, on the whole, in comparison to non-resource-based cities, resource-based cities are capable of reaching the turning point at an earlier stage. Finally, the new energy demonstration cities have not yet reached the turning point, while the non-new energy demonstration cities have crossed the turning point. This study contributes novel insights into the relationship between green innovation and TFEE, which holds significant implications for the formulation and implementation of sustainable development policies

PHT427 as an effective New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) inhibitor restored the susceptibility of meropenem against Enterobacteriaceae producing NDM-1

IntroductionWith the increasingly serious problem of bacterial drug resistance caused by NDM-1, it is an important strategy to find effective inhibitors to assist β-lactam antibiotic treatment against NDM-1 resistant bacteria. In this study, PHT427 (4-dodecyl-N-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl-benzenesulfonamide) was identified as a novel NDM-1 inhibitor and restored the susceptibility of meropenem against Enterobacteriaceae producing NDM-1.MethodsWe used a high throughput screening model to find NDM-1 inhibitor in the library of small molecular compounds. The interaction between the hit compound PHT427 and NDM-1 was analyzed by fluorescence quenching, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay, and molecular docking analysis. The efficacy of the compound in combination with meropenem was evaluated by determining the FICIs of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)/pET30a(+)-blaNDM–1 and Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical strain C1928 (producing NDM-1). In addition, the mechanism of the inhibitory effect of PHT427 on NDM-1 was studied by site mutation, SPR, and zinc supplementation assays.ResultsPHT427 was identified as an inhibitor of NDM-1. It could significantly inhibit the activity of NDM-1 with an IC50 of 1.42 μmol/L, and restored the susceptibility of meropenem against E. coli BL21(DE3)/pET30a(+)-blaNDM–1 and K. pneumoniae clinical strain C1928 (producing NDM-1) in vitro. The mechanism study indicated that PHT427 could act on the zinc ions at the active site of NDM-1 and the catalytic key amino acid residues simultaneously. The mutation of Asn220 and Gln123 abolished the affinity of NDM-1 by PHT427 via SPR assay.DiscussionThis is the first report that PHT427 is a promising lead compound against carbapenem-resistant bacteria and it merits chemical optimization for drug development

Long term effects of video and computer game heavy use on health, mental health and education outcomes among adolescents in the U.S.

Video and computer gaming addiction, also called gaming disorder and pathological gaming, is an emerging behavioral problem for adolescents. Previous studies have investigated the associated negative outcomes of this putative mental health problem, such as academic failure, physical and mental health problems, but findings have been inconsistent and have methodological weaknesses. Most studies have been cross-sectional, which could not establish temporal order. Furthermore, the limited longitudinal studies found in this field failed to control for baseline health, mental health, academic achievement, gaming frequency and other confounding variables. Therefore, it is not known whether gaming addiction itself can cause long term negative consequences or whether gaming addiction is just associated with other problems. One of the main symptoms of gaming addiction is heavy gaming, defined by persistent and recurrent engagement in gaming for many hours. Even though some studies have investigated the association between heavy gaming and gaming addiction, there is no study focusing on how different cut-off points of heavy gaming predict long-term health, mental health and education outcomes differently. Therefore, it is unclear what cut points (i.e., number of hours of play) should be used to define heavy gaming. This study addresses the above gap by using a longitudinal design that tracked video and computer gaming from adolescence into young adulthood. Data analysis was performed using three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994-1995, 1996, 2001-2002), a nationally representative panel study. Heavy video and computer gaming was defined as at least 21 hours/week usage on video or computer gaming, with additional usage cut-off points recorded at >35, 42 and 56 hours. A propensity score matching (PSM) method, adding school fixed effect and sampling weight components, was used to create two equivalent groups using different cut-off points in Wave 2 based on 29 matching variables in Wave 1. Matching variables included: demographics, personal characteristics, parenting style, peer relationship, school attachment, community characteristics, as well as baseline conditions of health, mental health and education outcome variables. Then multiple regressions were used to predict Wave 3 (W3) health, mental health and education outcomes based on two equivalent groups created by PSM. Matched adolescent peers below each gaming usage cut-off point were compared to heavy users on W3 outcomes. All 29 matching variables were also included as controls. Conservative Bonferroni test were used in the above regression analysis. Results of fully adjusted multivariate analyses suggested that playing video and computer games 21 hours or more per week during adolescence was longitudinally associated with less likelihood of high school completion five years later (coef. =-.074, p<.001, effect size = -.206), higher likelihood of better self-reported health (coef. =.143, p<.01, effect size = .191), and less likelihood of obesity (coef. = -.084, p<.001, effect size =-.029). Playing video and computer games 35 hours or more per week was longitudinally associated with higher likelihood of better self-reported health five years later (coef. =.319, p<.001, effect size =.464), less likelihood of obesity (coef.=-.173, p<.001, effect size =-.454), less likelihood of marijuana use (coef.=-.222, p<.001, effect size = -.591), and more total years of education (coef.=.319, p<.001, effect size =.229). Playing video and computer games 42 hours or more per week was longitudinally associated with higher likelihood of better self-reported health five years later (coef.=.284, p<.001, effect size =.482), higher likelihood of depression (coef.=.227, p<.001, effect size =.731), less likelihood of conduct disorder (coef.=-.038, p<.001, effect size =-.427), and less likelihood of marijuana use (coef.=-.147, p<.001, effect size =-.468). Based on these findings, it is not possible to provide one single cut-off for heavy gaming which serves as a risk indicator for long term negative consequences. Instead, this study provides a mixed picture: heavy gaming has both negative and positive effects on health, mental health and education outcomes. Overall, findings showed that adolescents’ heavy video and computer gaming use, based on gaming behavior measured in 1996, was longitudinally associated with long term negative outcomes, such as less high school completion and higher likelihood of depression five years later. However, heavy gaming actually predicted less marijuana use after five years, which is different from previous studies. Furthermore, heavy gaming was associated with better health outcomes, which is also different from previous studies. Therefore, based on this study, heavy gaming is not merely a symptom of underlying mental health problems like depression; in the absence of baseline depression during adolescence, heavy gaming predicted depression in young adulthood. Moreover, the mixed findings, whereby heavy gaming induced both negative and positive outcomes, suggest that gaming addiction is not yet understood well enough to be a new category in the DSM-5. More research is needed to determine the exact nature and consequences of video game addiction, and because of the mixed results it is unclear at this time whether more or less video and computer game use should be recommended. Even though there appear to be some positive health outcomes associated with video game use, at least based on gaming options circa 1996, this study suggests that limiting gaming use to less than 3 hours per day may be beneficial during the formative years of adolescence, to reduce the risk of long term negative outcomes such as high school dropout and depression

Mental Workload Analysis Associated with Emotional Design in E-learning Contexts: Combining EEG and Eye-Tracking Data

In this study, we designed an online course mental workload induction experiment, which recorded EEG and Eye-tracking data of participants synchronously, aiming to investigate the association between different online course design principles and multimodal physiological features, and apply machine learning technology to classify mental workload states induced by different design principles. This paper systematically reviews three kinds of EEG and Eye-tracking features used for mental workload classification, compares the accuracy of mental workload classification between single-modal and multimodal features, modifies the mental workload index proposed by Pope et al. to monitor the variation of mental workload in E-learning contexts, and reduces the dimensions of features for more convenient use in daily life. From the results of the experiment, it’s demonstrated that (1) The classification ability of wavelet power features and entropy features are better than that of Eye-tracking in E-learning Contexts. (2) Multimodal physiological data can significantly improve the accuracy of mental workload classification in E-learning contexts, and (3) correlation-based feature selection (CFS) was employed to rank all features in descending order, when the feature dimension is reduced to 30, the optimal average classification accuracy obtained by linear-SVM can reach 88.1%, which greatly reduces the dimensions of feature while maintains a high accuracy. Furthermore, the EEG frequency bands that are highly correlated with mental workload are analyzed and the correlation between different brain areas and mental workload is discussed. All these results lay the foundation for continuous monitoring of participants' mental workload and make it possible to endow computers with the ability of mental workload understanding in E-learning contexts, which will remarkably enhance the learning efficiency and performance of participants during the pandemic. e learning

RiskQ: Risk-sensitive Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Value Factorization

Multi-agent systems are characterized by environmental uncertainty, varying policies of agents, and partial observability, which result in significant risks. In the context of Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL), learning coordinated and decentralized policies that are sensitive to risk is challenging. To formulate the coordination requirements in risk-sensitive MARL, we introduce the Risk-sensitive Individual-Global-Max (RIGM) principle as a generalization of the Individual-Global-Max (IGM) and Distributional IGM (DIGM) principles. This principle requires that the collection of risk-sensitive action selections of each agent should be equivalent to the risk-sensitive action selection of the central policy. Current MARL value factorization methods do not satisfy the RIGM principle for common risk metrics such as the Value at Risk (VaR) metric or distorted risk measurements. Therefore, we propose RiskQ to address this limitation, which models the joint return distribution by modeling quantiles of it as weighted quantile mixtures of per-agent return distribution utilities. RiskQ satisfies the RIGM principle for the VaR and distorted risk metrics. We show that RiskQ can obtain promising performance through extensive experiments. The source code of RiskQ is available in https://github.com/xmu-rl-3dv/RiskQ.Comment: Accepted at NeurIPS 202

Rational Layout of Taxi Stop Based on the Analysis of Spatial Trajectory Data

The implementation of the relevant management system makes the road-parking behavior standardized, while increasing the difficulty of temporary parking of operational vehicles such as taxis. Therefore, in order to improve the relevant management measures and promote the sustainable development of the taxi industry, it is necessary to survey the demand for taxi parking and study the layout of taxi stops. To process the GPS data of the taxis, and to extract the loading and unloading positions of the passengers from the spatial trajectory data, big data analysis technology is used. Compared with the data obtained using traditional survey means, the spatial trajectory data reflects the situation of the whole system, which can make the analysis more accurate. K-means cluster analysis was used to determine community demand. Finally, the immune optimization model was used to determine the optimal taxi stand location. The problem of taxi stand location at the level of urban network from two dimensions of quantity and spatial distribution is solved in this paper. The location of 10 taxi stands can not only meet the parking needs of regional taxis, but also reasonably allocate urban resources and promote sustainable development. This study also has a certain reference value for relevant management departments

Efficient Delivery of Curcumin by Alginate Oligosaccharide Coated Aminated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles and In Vitro Anticancer Activity against Colon Cancer Cells

We designed and synthesized aminated mesoporous silica (MSN-NH2), and functionally grafted alginate oligosaccharides (AOS) on its surface to get MSN-NH2-AOS nanoparticles as a delivery vehicle for the fat-soluble model drug curcumin (Cur). Dynamic light scattering, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to characterize the structure and performance of MSN-NH2-AOS. The nano-MSN-NH2-AOS preparation process was optimized, and the drug loading and encapsulation efficiencies of nano-MSN-NH2-AOS were investigated. The encapsulation efficiency of the MSN-NH2-Cur-AOS nanoparticles was up to 91.24 &plusmn; 1.23%. The pH-sensitive AOS coating made the total release rate of Cur only 28.9 &plusmn; 1.6% under neutral conditions and 67.5 &plusmn; 1% under acidic conditions. According to the results of in vitro anti-tumor studies conducted by MTT and cellular uptake assays, the MSN-NH2-Cur-AOS nanoparticles were more easily absorbed by colon cancer cells than free Cur, achieving a high tumor cell targeting efficiency. Moreover, when the concentration of Cur reached 50 &mu;g/mL, MSN-NH2-Cur-AOS nanoparticles showed strong cytotoxicity against tumor cells, indicating that MSN-NH2-AOS might be a promising tool as a novel fat-soluble anticancer drug carrier

PINOID Is Required for Formation of the Stigma and Style in Rice

The stigma is the entry point for sexual reproduction in plants, but the mechanisms underlying stigma development are largely unknown. Here, we disrupted putative auxin biosynthetic and signaling genes to evaluate their roles in rice (Oryza sativa) development. Disruption of the rice PINOID (OsPID) gene completely eliminated the development of stigmas, and overexpression of OsPID led to overproliferation of stigmas, suggesting that OsPID is a key determinant for stigma development. Interestingly, ospid mutants did not display defects in flower initiation, nor did they develop any pin-like inflorescences, a characteristic phenotype observed in pid mutants in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and maize (Zea mays). We constructed double mutants of OsPID and its closest homolog, OsPIDb, yet the double mutants still did not develop any pin-like inflorescences, indicating that either ospid is compensated by additional homologous genes or OsPID has different functions in rice compared with PID in other organisms. We then knocked out one of the NAKED PINS IN YUC MUTANTS (NPY) genes, which cause the formation of pin-like inflorescences in Arabidopsis when compromised, in the ospid background. The ospid osnpy2 double mutants developed pin-like inflorescences, which were phenotypically similar to pid mutants in Arabidopsis and maize, demonstrating that the roles of OsPID in inflorescence development are likely masked by redundant partners. This work identified a key determinant for stigma development in rice and revealed a complex picture of the PID gene in rice development. Furthermore, the stigma-less ospid mutants are potentially useful in producing hybrid rice