Integration of paper-based microfluidic devices with commercial electrochemical readers

The combination of simple Electrochemical Micro-Paper-based Analytical Devices (E$\mu$PADs) with commercially available glucometers allows rapid, quantitative electrochemical analysis of a number of compounds relevant to human health (e.g., glucose, cholesterol, lactate, and alcohol) in blood or urine.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Photometry of Variable Stars from THU-NAOC Transient Survey I: The First 2 Years

In this paper, we report the detections of stellar variabilities from the first 2-year observations of sky area of about 1300 square degrees from the Tsinghua University-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS). A total of 1237 variable stars (including 299 new ones) were detected with brightness < 18.0 mag and magnitude variation >= 0.1 mag on a timescale from a few hours to few hundred days. Among such detections, we tentatively identified 661 RR Lyrae stars, 431 binaries, 72 Semiregular pulsators, 29 Mira stars, 11 slow irregular variables, 11 RS Canum Venaticorum stars, 7 Gamma Doradus stars, 5 long period variables, 3 W Virginis stars, 3 Delta Scuti stars, 2 Anomalous Cepheids, 1 Cepheid, and 1 nove-like star based on their time-series variability index Js and their phased diagrams. Moreover, we found that 14 RR Lyrae stars show the Blazhko effect and 67 contact eclipsing binaries exhibit the O'Connell effect. Since the period and amplitude of light variations of RR Lyrae variables depend on their chemical compositions, their photometric observations can be used to investigate distribution of metallicity along the direction perpendicular to the Galactic disk. We find that the metallicity of RR Lyrae stars shows large scatter at regions closer to the Galactic plane (e.g., -3.0 < [Fe/H] < 0) but tends to converge at [Fe/H]~ -1.7 at larger Galactic latitudes. This variation may be related to that the RRAB Lyrae stars in the Galactic halo come from globular clusters with different metallicity and vertical distances, i.e. OoI and OoII populations, favoring for the dual-halo model.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, published in AJ, 150, 10

WebBrain: Learning to Generate Factually Correct Articles for Queries by Grounding on Large Web Corpus

In this paper, we introduce a new NLP task -- generating short factual articles with references for queries by mining supporting evidence from the Web. In this task, called WebBrain, the ultimate goal is to generate a fluent, informative, and factually-correct short article (e.g., a Wikipedia article) for a factual query unseen in Wikipedia. To enable experiments on WebBrain, we construct a large-scale dataset WebBrain-Raw by extracting English Wikipedia articles and their crawlable Wikipedia references. WebBrain-Raw is ten times larger than the previous biggest peer dataset, which can greatly benefit the research community. From WebBrain-Raw, we construct two task-specific datasets: WebBrain-R and WebBrain-G, which are used to train in-domain retriever and generator, respectively. Besides, we empirically analyze the performances of the current state-of-the-art NLP techniques on WebBrain and introduce a new framework ReGen, which enhances the generation factualness by improved evidence retrieval and task-specific pre-training for generation. Experiment results show that ReGen outperforms all baselines in both automatic and human evaluations.Comment: Codes in https://github.com/qhjqhj00/WebBrai

Primary health care team faultlines and team performance: the mediating role of knowledge sharing

Family doctor teams, serving as health gatekeepers, are extensively advocated in China. Their composition, comprising a heterogeneous mix of professionals, contributes to a more comprehensive service, but also poses challenges. Consequently, scholarly interest has arisen in comprehending how these compositions, known as faultlines, influence team dynamics and outcomes. However, there is a lack of comprehensive exploration into how faultlines influence team members’ communication processes and knowledge sharing. This study aims to provide insights into the associations between faultlines in primary care teams and team performance, specifically exploring how knowledge sharing may mediate these effects, with the goal of revealing key insights to optimize contracted family doctor services. Survey data from 291 family doctor teams in China was utilized to test hypotheses, revealing a negative association between (social-category and information-based) faultlines and knowledge sharing. Team knowledge sharing acts as a mediator in the relationship between these faultlines and team performance. Our findings advance faultlines theory and emphasize the mediating role of knowledge sharing in elucidating the interplay between faultlines and team performance. These insights are crucial for fostering collaboration, managing faultlines, and enhancing healthcare team performance

Risk factors for lumbar disc herniation in adolescents and young adults: A case–control study

BackgroundThere is a limited understanding of the risk factors for lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in younger people, even though the evidence suggests that LDH is more prevalent in this population. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the risk factors for LDH in adolescents and young adults.MethodsThe medical records of all patients were retrospectively reviewed with inclusion criteria of being younger than 25 years. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to confirm LDH from September 2016 to September 2021. Furthermore, 104 healthy people in the same age range were enrolled as the control group from physical examination centers. Gender, BMI, smoking, drinking, genetic history, sitting posture, daily sitting time, traumatic history of the lower back, scoliosis, and daily exercise time were examined for all enrolled people. These factors were statistically analyzed to determine the high-risk factors.ResultsA total of 208 young individuals were enrolled in the present study. The mean age of the study group and the control group was 21.06 ± 3.27 years (range: 11–25 years) and 21.26 ± 2.23 years (range: 15–25 years), respectively. The result of the chi-squared test demonstrated that there was a significant difference in BMI of more than 30 (p &lt; 0.001), genetic history (p = 0.004), sitting posture (p &lt; 0.001), daily sitting time of more than 6 h (p &lt; 0.001), and the history of low back trauma (p = 0.002). Additionally, multivariate logistic regression showed that these were high-risk factors for LDH, particularly the duration of daily sitting time (more than 6 h).ConclusionsBMI of more than 30, genetic history, sitting posture, daily sitting time of more than 6 h, and a history of low back trauma are the high-risk factors for adolescents and young adults with LDH. Therefore, providing them with the proper guidance and education, particularly about the protection of the lower back and the reduction of spinal load, could play a key role in preventing and reducing LDH

Effect of Oak Chip Aging on the Flavor of Persimmon Brandy

Mopan persimmon brandy with an alcohol content of 42% (V/V), prepared by fermentation and distillation, was aged after being added with 5–20 g/L of Chinese-made moderately roasted oak chips. The volatile and non-volatile components of persimmon brandy were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), the total phenol content and antioxidant activity were determined, and sensory evaluation was also performed. The results showed that a total of 33 volatile components were identified by GC-MS, among which the major components were ethyl acetate, ethyl decanoate, and ethyl laurate. The content of volatile components was the highest upon the addition of 10 g/L of oak chips. The results of LC-MS showed that the number of non-volatile substances increased by 183 after aging. The total phenol content and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging capacity increased with increasing addition of oak chips, but was basically stable after 90 days of aging. In the sensory evaluation, persimmon brandy with 15 g/L of oak chip scored the highest (72.5 points)

Micro-damage model of gas-bearing coal under load and instability identification criteria

The distribution of pores and skeletons within coal reservoirs significantly affects the migration of gases and the occurrence of gas dynamic disasters. To further explore the micro-damage mechanisms in gas-containing coal, a detailed study of the micro-damage process in gas-containing coal was conducted. Atomic force microscopy was employed to conduct in-situ tests on the surfaces of protruding and non-protruding coal samples before and after loading. The results indicate that the surface structure of the coal samples changes after loading, with a reduction in closed pore diameter, damage to some pores, and a tendency for connectivity between adjacent closed pores. Before loading, the pores in coal samples exhibit irregular distribution, while after loading, pore connectivity increases, and the number of open pore throats slightly increases. Loading leads to a reduction in the modulus of coal skeleton in protruding coal samples due to pore connectivity, while non-protruding coal samples experience internal structure compaction, resulting in a slight increase in elastic modulus due to their higher strength. Micro-damage types and concepts in coal were defined, and the stress distribution characteristics around coal pores and the coal skeleton were analyzed, revealing the micro-damage mechanisms in gas-containing coal under different conditions. Simultaneously, the factors influencing the closed-cell micro-gas explosion were discussed. The stress at the end of a slender elliptical hole is greater along the hole wall, making it more susceptible to closed-cell micro-gas explosions. Two forms of occurrence of open-pore micro-damage were described, revealing the constraining effect of the "bottleneck effect" on micro-damage. Inherent fractures were identified as the weak link in the coal skeleton, and the evolution of their rupture was analyzed. Utilizing theories such as linear elastic fracture mechanics, elastic-plastic mechanics, and permeation mechanics, criteria for detecting pore damage and coal instability under stress disturbances were established. The micro-damage characteristics of gas-containing coal and the mechanisms inducing coal and gas outbursts were summarized, and the research direction of coal and gas outburst was prospected

Inhibiting MARSs reduces hyperhomocysteinemia‐associated neural tube and congenital heart defects

Hyperhomocysteinemia is a common metabolic disorder that imposes major adverse health consequences. Reducing homocysteine levels, however, is not always effective against hyperhomocysteinemia‐associated pathologies. Herein, we report the potential roles of methionyl‐tRNA synthetase (MARS)‐generated homocysteine signals in neural tube defects (NTDs) and congenital heart defects (CHDs). Increased copy numbers of MARS and/or MARS2 were detected in NTD and CHD patients. MARSs sense homocysteine and transmit its signal by inducing protein lysine (N)‐homocysteinylation. Here, we identified hundreds of novel N‐homocysteinylated proteins. N‐homocysteinylation of superoxide dismutases (SOD1/2) provided new mechanistic insights for homocysteine‐induced oxidative stress, apoptosis and Wnt signalling deregulation. Elevated MARS expression in developing and proliferating cells sensitizes them to the effects of homocysteine. Targeting MARSs using the homocysteine analogue acetyl homocysteine thioether (AHT) reversed MARS efficacy. AHT lowered NTD and CHD onsets in retinoic acid‐induced and hyperhomocysteinemia‐induced animal models without affecting homocysteine levels. We provide genetic and biochemical evidence to show that MARSs are previously overlooked genetic determinants and key pathological factors of hyperhomocysteinemia, and suggest that MARS inhibition represents an important medicinal approach for controlling hyperhomocysteinemia‐associated diseases