INTUITIVE DECISION THEORY ANALYSIS AND THE EVALUATION MODEL

Intuitive decision-making studies the decision-maker’s decision-making behavior from the perspective of image thinking, which it poses a challenge to the classic decision-making hypothesis pursuing “optimal decision” because the outcomes of intuitive decision-making are difficulty to measure and its process isn’t easy to describe and control. Therefore it has not drawn the experts’ attention. This paper tries to establish an evaluation model of the intuitive decision-making as to giving a direction and inspiration of the quantization of intuitive decision-making, based on the systematic analysis of the existing domestic and international theory of intuitive decision-making. Key words: Intuitive decision-making, Thinking in images, The evaluation mode

5-tert-Butyl 1-ethyl 3-amino-1,4,5,6-tetra­hydro­pyrrolo­[3,4-c]pyrazole-1,5-dicarboxyl­ate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C13H20N4O4, contains two crystallographically independent mol­ecules in which the dihedral angles between the fused pyrrole and pyrazole rings are 5.06 (8) and 1.12 (8)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular N—H⋯O and N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds into chains parallel to the b axis

Binary Star Evolution in Different Environments: Filamentary, Fractal, Halo and Tidal-tail Clusters

Using membership of 85 open clusters from previous studies (Pang et al. 2021a,b, 2022b; Li et al. 2021) based on Gaia DR3 data, we identify binary candidates in the color-magnitude diagram, for systems with mass ratio q > 0.4. The binary fraction is corrected for incompleteness at different distances due to the Gaia angular resolution limit. We find a decreasing binary fraction with increasing cluster age, with substantial scatter. For clusters with a total mass > 200$M_\odot$, the binary fraction is independent of cluster mass. The binary fraction depends strongly on stellar density. Among four types of cluster environments, the lowest-density filamentary and fractal stellar groups have the highest mean binary fraction: 23.6% and 23.2%, respectively. The mean binary fraction in tidal-tail clusters is 20.8%, and is lowest in the densest halo-type clusters: 14.8%. We find clear evidence of early disruptions of binary stars in the cluster sample. The radial binary fraction depends strongly on the cluster-centric distance across all four types of environments, with the smallest binary fraction within the half-mass radius $r_h$, and increasing towards a few $r_h$. Only hints of mass segregation is found in the target clusters. The observed amount of mass segregation is not significant to generate a global effect inside the target clusters. We evaluate the bias of unresolved binary systems (assuming a primary mass of 1$M_\odot$) in 1D tangential velocity, which is 0.1-1$\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. Further studies are required to characterize the internal star cluster kinematics using Gaia proper motions

Screening therapeutic EMT blocking agents in a three-dimensional microenvironment

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in the early stages of dissemination of carcinoma leading to metastatic tumors, which are responsible for over 90% of all cancer-related deaths. Current therapeutic regimens, however, have been ineffective in the cure of metastatic cancer, thus an urgent need exists to revisit existing protocols and to improve the efficacy of newly developed therapeutics. Strategies based on preventing EMT could potentially contribute to improving the outcome of advanced stage cancers. To achieve this goal new assays are needed to identify targeted drugs capable of interfering with EMT or to revert the mesenchymal-like phenotype of carcinoma to an epithelial-like state. Current assays are limited to examining the dispersion of carcinoma cells in isolation in conventional 2-dimensional (2D) microwell systems, an approach that fails to account for the 3-dimensional (3D) environment of the tumor or the essential interactions that occur with other nearby cell types in the tumor microenvironment. Here we present a microfluidic system that integrates tumor cell spheroids in a 3D hydrogel scaffold, in close co-culture with an endothelial monolayer. Drug candidates inhibiting receptor activation or signal transduction pathways implicated in EMT have been tested using dispersion of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cell spheroids as a metric of effectiveness. We demonstrate significant differences in response to drugs between 2D and 3D, and between monoculture and co-culture.Singapore. National Research Foundation (Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's BioSystems and Micromechanics Inter-Disciplinary Research programme)National University of Singapore (Cancer Science Institute)Singapore. Agency for Science, Technology and ResearchSingapore. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB core funding A*STAR

Screening therapeutic EMT blocking agents in a three-dimensional microenvironment

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in the early stages of dissemination of carcinoma leading to metastatic tumors, which are responsible for over 90% of all cancer-related deaths. Current therapeutic regimens, however, have been ineffective in the cure of metastatic cancer, thus an urgent need exists to revisit existing protocols and to improve the efficacy of newly developed therapeutics. Strategies based on preventing EMT could potentially contribute to improving the outcome of advanced stage cancers. To achieve this goal new assays are needed to identify targeted drugs capable of interfering with EMT or to revert the mesenchymal-like phenotype of carcinoma to an epithelial-like state. Current assays are limited to examining the dispersion of carcinoma cells in isolation in conventional 2-dimensional (2D) microwell systems, an approach that fails to account for the 3-dimensional (3D) environment of the tumor or the essential interactions that occur with other nearby cell types in the tumor microenvironment. Here we present a microfluidic system that integrates tumor cell spheroids in a 3D hydrogel scaffold, in close co-culture with an endothelial monolayer. Drug candidates inhibiting receptor activation or signal transduction pathways implicated in EMT have been tested using dispersion of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cell spheroids as a metric of effectiveness. We demonstrate significant differences in response to drugs between 2D and 3D, and between monoculture and co-culture.Singapore. National Research Foundation (Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's BioSystems and Micromechanics Inter-Disciplinary Research programme)National University of Singapore (Cancer Science Institute)Singapore. Agency for Science, Technology and ResearchSingapore. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB core funding A*STAR

Occurrence and molecular characterization of Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) isolates from potato plants in North China

peer reviewedChina is the largest potato producing country worldwide, with this crop representing the fourth largest staple food crop in China. However, the steady presence of Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) over the past five decades has a significant economic impact on potato production. To determine why PSTVd control measures have been ineffective in China, more than 1 000 seed potatoes collected between 2009 and 2014 were subjected to PSTVd detection at the Supervision and Testing Center for Virus-free Seed Potatoes Quality, Ministry of Agriculture, China. A high PSTVd infection rate (6.5%) was detected among these commercial seed potatoes. Some breeding lines of potato collected from 2012 to 2015 were also tested for PSTVd infection, revealing a high rate of PSTVd contamination in these potato propagation materials. Furthermore, comparison of the full-length sequences of 71 different Chinese PSTVd isolates revealed a total of 74 predominant PSTVd variants, which represented 42 different sequence variants of PSTVd. Comparative sequence analysis revealed 30 novel PSTVd sequence variants specific to China. Comprehensive phylogenetic analysis uncovered a close relationship between the Chinese PSTVd sequence variants and those isolated from Russia. It is worth noting that three intermediate strains and six mild strains were identified among these variants. These results have important implications for explaining the ineffective control of PSTVd in China and thus could serve as a basic reference for designing more effective measures to eliminate PSTVd from China in the future

Progress on improving Agricultural Nitrogen use efficiency: UK-China viortual joint centers on Nitrogen Agronomy

Two virtual joint centers for nitrogen agronomy were established between the UK and China to facilitate collaborative research aimed at improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in agricultural production systems and reducing losses of reactive N to the environment. Major focus areas were improving fertilizer NUE, use of livestock manures, soil health, and policy development and knowledge exchange. Improvements to fertilizer NUE included attention to application rate in the context of yield potential and economic considerations and the potential of improved practices including enhanced efficiency fertilizers, plastic film mulching and cropping design. Improved utilization of livestock manures requires knowledge of the available nutrient content, appropriate manure processing technologies and integrated nutrient management practices. Soil carbon, acidification and biodiversity were considered as important aspects of soil health. Both centers identified a range of potential actions that could be taken to improve N management, and the research conducted has highlighted the importance of developing a systemslevel approach to assessing improvement in the overall efficiency of N management and avoiding unintended secondary effects from individual interventions. Within this context, the management of fertilizer emissions and livestock manure at the farm and regional scales appear to be particularly important targets for mitigation

Cross-National Differences in Victimization : Disentangling the Impact of Composition and Context

Varying rates of criminal victimization across countries are assumed to be the outcome of countrylevel structural constraints that determine the supply ofmotivated o¡enders, as well as the differential composition within countries of suitable targets and capable guardianship. However, previous empirical tests of these ‘compositional’ and ‘contextual’ explanations of cross-national di¡erences have been performed upon macro-level crime data due to the unavailability of comparable individual-level data across countries. This limitation has had two important consequences for cross-national crime research. First, micro-/meso-level mechanisms underlying cross-national differences cannot be truly inferred from macro-level data. Secondly, the e¡ects of contextual measures (e.g. income inequality) on crime are uncontrolled for compositional heterogeneity. In this paper, these limitations are overcome by analysing individual-level victimization data across 18 countries from the International CrimeVictims Survey. Results from multi-level analyses on theft and violent victimization indicate that the national level of income inequality is positively related to risk, independent of compositional (i.e. micro- and meso-level) di¡erences. Furthermore, crossnational variation in victimization rates is not only shaped by di¡erences in national context, but also by varying composition. More speci¢cally, countries had higher crime rates the more they consisted of urban residents and regions with lowaverage social cohesion.