Constant-force mechanisms (CFMs) are attractive for mechanical energy storage owing to their distinctive force–displacement characteristics, particularly under conditions with limited external load capacity and restricted space. However, conventional CFMs often suffer from short constant-force strokes and inefficient space utilization, which hinder their broader application. To address these limitations, this study exploits the buckling of compliant beams and increases the structural degrees of freedom by adopting a less constrained configuration, which extends the constant-force stroke and space utilization while reducing the required external load, thus improving energy storage efficiency for the same stored elastic energy. A novel catapult was developed through NSGA-II multi-objective optimization, achieving a high energy-to-cost ratio and an extended constant-force stroke. This work presents an effective design approach for motion mechanisms that demand high energy-storage efficiency and high-power output.

To determine values for the digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS), it is recommended that ileal amino acid (AA) digestibility values obtained in growing pigs are used to characterise protein quality in different foods. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the standardised ileal digestibility (SID) of AA in eight energy ingredients (barley, sorghum, wheat, brown rice, rice bran, wheat bran, cassava, paddy rice) fed to pigs, where SID values in pigs can be used to calculate approximate DIAAS values in humans. Among the data obtained for all energy ingredients, Significant variations (P < 0.01) in CP and AA composition were observed. Rice bran and wheat bran had the highest CP (16.43% and 18.16%, respectively) and DIAAS scores of 81–88 for adult, qualifying as “good” protein sources (> 75). Cassava, with the lowest CP (2.74%), was limited by sulfur amino acid (SAA) (54). Lysine (Lys) was the first-limiting AA in barley (74), sorghum (51), and wheat (49), with SID values lowest in wheat (71.04%). Brown rice and paddy rice showed higher SIDLys (87.51% and 78.13%, respectively). These findings highlight the potential of bran-based ingredients and Lys fortification to improve protein quality in grain-dependent diets, providing the scientific basis to combat protein malnutrition.

This study tested the effects of soil amendment with orange peel powder (Citrus sinensis L.) on Brassica rapa growth, the performance of the aphid Myzus persicae Sulzer, and the foraging behaviour of its parasitoid Aphidius gifuensis Ashmead. Three peel: soil ratios (1:10, 1:15, 1:20 w/w) were compared with an unamended control. The 1:10 amendment significantly reduced seed germination, plant height, leaf size, and fresh weight, while the 1:20 amendment also decreased fresh weight. Aphid nymphal development was significantly delayed in the 1:10 and 1:15 treatments, and adult weight gain was reduced in the 1:15 treatment. Aphid population growth and parasitoid foraging time were unaffected across treatments. The results indicate that orange peel amendments can delay aphid development but also suppress plant growth at higher concentrations, highlighting the need for optimized application rates. This study supports further exploration of orange peel as a sustainable soil amendment in integrated pest management.

This study examines how top managers engage in sensemaking to navigate dynamic and complex industrial policy environments and respond strategically. Based on a longitudinal narrative case study of a privately owned firm in China, we explore how managers interpret evolving policy signals and drive corporate strategic change. We extend sensemaking theory by incorporating an institutional logics perspective to investigate how top managers draw on multiple logics to make sense of policy shifts and craft organizational responses. The study develops a holistic process model that links industrial policy, sensemaking, and strategic change, highlighting the embedded agency of top managers in responding to evolving and diverse institutional pressures. By unpacking the temporal dynamics of sensemaking, we identify how the temporality of sensemaking contributes to heterogeneity in corporate strategic behavior. This research advances understanding of sensemaking as a key process linking shifting policies with firm strategic actions and contributes to the literature on sensemaking, institutional logics, and strategic change.

Zinc and manganese are essential nutrients for fetal growth and development. Since deficiency of maternal nutrition may lead to preventable adverse pregnancy outcomes, we aimed to examine the association of maternal dietary zinc and manganese levels with low birth weight (LBW). A nested case-control study was conducted in 605 cases and 7497 controls in Lanzhou, China. Eligible participants reported on their diet and characteristics during pregnancy. The relationship between dietary zinc and manganese intake and the risk of LBW was analyzed by unconditioned logistic regression and multivariate adjusted restricted cubic spline (RCS) model. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cut-off values of zinc and manganese. The dietary intake below the cut-off value was defined as the low level group, and greater than or equal to the cut-off value was defined as the high level group. Low dietary zinc (< 5.05 mg/d before pregnancy and < 7.36 mg/d during pregnancy) and manganese (< 2.66 mg/d before pregnancy and < 3.41 mg/d during pregnancy) intake was associated with increased risk of LBW and some subtypes. Both zinc and manganese have a nonlinear relationship with the risk of LBW (P<0.001). In addition, there was a synergistic effect of low zinc and low manganese intake on LBW risk. There were separate and interaction effects of zinc and manganese on the occurrence of LBW. Appropriate range of zinc and manganese intake may be beneficial to reduce the risk of LBW.

Oxidative stress is an important pathomechanism in psoriasis, and the oxidative balance score (OBS) serves as a standardised metric for assessing systemic oxidative status, but its association with psoriasis is unclear. This study included 18 023 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to investigate the relationship between OBS and psoriasis. After using a complex sampling weighting method, we performed multi-model logistic regression and stratified analysis with OBS as the exposure and psoriasis as the outcome for the primary analysis. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) plots were used to evaluate potential non-linear associations between OBS and psoriasis. In addition, we performed replication analyses using two 24-h dietary records data as a sensitivity test to ensure robustness of the results. Multi-model logistic regression analyses revealed no statistically meaningful link between OBS and psoriasis prevalence when accounting for all confounders (P > 0·05), but in stratified analyses, OBS demonstrated a significant association with reduced risk of psoriasis in individuals aged 60–80 years (OR = 0·27–0·35, P < 0·05). As part of the overall OBS, moderate dietary OBS demonstrated an association with reduced psoriasis risk in 60- to 80-year-olds (OR = 0·39–0·43, P < 0·05). Lifestyle OBS (LOBS) indicates a significant negative correlation with psoriasis risk among the ‘Other Hispanic’ group. (Q3 OR = 0·23, P < 0·05). The RCS showed a non-linear relationship between LOBS and psoriasis (non-linear P = 0·013). This study provides the first systematic confirmation of an association between OBS and a reduced risk of psoriasis in elderly populations and specific ethnic groups. These findings offer new insights and directions for the prevention and treatment of psoriasis.

This study systematically evaluates the effects of probiotic interventions on gut microbiota and clinical outcomes in diabetic patients to determine the optimal target population and conditions for effective use, with an emphasis on precision treatment. A comprehensive search was performed across PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), and Wanfang databases until April 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing probiotics as adjunctive therapy for diabetes were included. The control group received standard care, and the intervention group received probiotics alongside standard care. Data were managed with Endnote and Excel, and analyses were conducted using Revman 5.3 and Stata 16. Twelve RCTs involving 1,113 participants were included. Probiotics significantly increased fecal Lactobacillus (standardized mean difference (SMD) 1.42, P < 0.0001, I2 = 95%) and Bifidobacterium levels (SMD 1.27, P < 0.0001, I² = 90%) and reduced fasting plasma glucose (SMD -0.35, P = 0.004). Subgroup analysis showed that shorter intervention durations (≤3 months) improved FPG, HbA1c, and Bifidobacterium levels, while younger patients (≤60 years) experienced the most significant improvements in Bifidobacterium levels. In conclusion, probiotics improve gut microbiota and clinical outcomes in diabetic patients, with intervention duration and patient age as key factors influencing treatment effectiveness.

Evidence regarding the association between dietary choline intake and mortality in individuals with diabetes remains limited. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between dietary choline intake and all-cause, CVD and cancer-related mortality among adults with diabetes. A total of 4712 participants with diabetes were included from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2018 cycles. Dietary choline intake was estimated using two 24-h dietary recalls, and mortality outcomes were ascertained via linkage to National Death Index records through 31 December 2019. Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier analyses were employed to assess the associations between choline intake and mortality. Restricted cubic spline models were used to examine potential non-linear relationships, and threshold analyses were conducted to identify inflection points. Over a median follow-up of 6·42 years, 805 deaths were documented, including 267 from CVD and 126 from cancer. A U-shaped association was observed between dietary choline intake and all-cause mortality (Pfor non-linearity < 0·0001). Compared with the lowest quartile, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 0·64 (95 % CI 0·47, 0·88) for the second quartile, 0·59 (0·43, 0·82) for the third and 0·69 (0·43, 1·09) for the highest quartile. No significant associations were found between choline intake and either CVD or cancer mortality. These findings indicate a U-shaped relationship between dietary choline intake and all-cause mortality in individuals with diabetes, with intakes between 286·77 and 538·86 mg/d associated with the lowest risk – providing potential implications for dietary guidance in diabetes management.

In this paper, a single passage unsteady numerical simulation is carried out. Three different self-recirculating casing treatment structures with circumferential coverage ratios of 20%, 40% and 60% were designed. The calculation results show that as the circumferential coverage ratio increases, the stability enhancement ability of the self-recirculating casing also increases. Especially when the circumferential coverage ratio increases to 60%, the self-recirculating casing achieves the largest increase in stall margin, with an increase of 49.05%, but the decrease in the peak efficiency is 1.33%. An increase in the circumferential coverage ratio enhances the suction capacity of the self-recirculating casing. This enables it to better suppress the expansion of the leakage flow and reduce the degree of blockage within the passage. The self-recirculating casing can inhibit the occurrence of vortex breakdown in the tip passage. However, at the low flow rate point, it cannot effectively eliminate the interaction between the leakage streamlines. When the circumferential coverage ratio is relatively large, it can suppress the airflow separation phenomenon. The flow separation near the blade trailing edge and the mixing of the leakage flow within the tip passage are important reasons for the internal flow instability of the self-recirculating casing compressor.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious animal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). It is listed by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) as an animal disease subject to statutory reporting. ASFV, a large, enveloped double-stranded DNA virus with high genomic complexity, exhibits a case fatality rate of up to 100%, posing a significant threat to the global pig industry and food safety. To date, the absence of a safe commercial ASFV vaccine primarily stems from challenges in identifying immunogenic viral antigens, insufficient characterization of ASFV pathogenesis, and limited understanding of the virus’s immune evasion mechanisms. Here, we review the pathogenic characteristics (morphological structure, clinical symptoms, and epidemiological characteristics), molecular biological characteristics, and infection mechanism of ASFV, as well as the immune response mechanism, vaccine research, and the latest information on ASFV in other areas. This review will be in favour of understanding the current state of knowledge of ASF and developing effective vaccines to control this disease.

Kisspeptin, encoded by Kiss1 gene, regulates reproduction via the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. While kisspeptin treatment promotes follicular development in Tan sheep, its direct action on ovarian granulosa cells remains unclear. For this, we first detected the expression of Kiss1 and its receptor Kiss1r in primary ovarian granulosa cells of Tan sheep. Second, the effect of kisspeptin on steroid hormone secretion, proliferation and apoptosis of ovarian granulosa cells was investigated. Third, the signaling pathway of kisspeptin regulating steroid hormone secretion was revealed by western bolting in ovarian granulosa cells. The results showed that the Kiss1 and Kiss1r genes were present in ovarian granulosa cells of Tan-sheep, and 500 nM dose of kisspeptin significantly stimulated steroids hormone secretion (P < 0.05), and up-regulated StAR, HSD17B2, CPY19A1, FSHR, LHR, ERβ, PGR and p-ERK1/2 proteins expression (P < 0.05). Moreover, this treatment significantly promoted cell proliferation and increased the proportion of cells in S phase (P < 0.05), and significantly suppressed granulosa cell apoptosis (P < 0.05). Additionally, the stimulatory effects of kisspeptin on estradiol and progesterone secretion were blocked by inhibitors of the Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway (including PKA inhibitor, PLC inhibitor, PKC inhibitor, and Ca2+inhibitor). Western blot analysis confirmed that kisspeptin regulates steroid hormone secretion primarily through the MAPK-ERK signaling pathway. Our results demonstrate that kisspeptin can directly act on ovarian granulosa cells to promote steroidogenesis, proliferation, and inhibit apoptosis, providing a foundational basis for developing novel kisspeptin-mediated techniques to regulate reproduction in Tan sheep.

The structural stability of barrier layers is critical for the long-term effectiveness of landfill remediation projects, although leachate pumping and organic contamination can cause structural degradation, reduce remediation performance, and increase the risk of pollutant release. The objectives of this study were to determine the consolidation–rebound mechanisms of sand–bentonite mixtures through standardized tests and to analyze deformation under diesel contamination using multi-scale approaches, including pore-structure characterization, particle-size distribution, cation exchange capacity, and oil-blocking effects. The results revealed that uncontaminated soil (0.0 wt.% diesel) exhibited non-linear compression behavior, with an initial decrease and a subsequent increase with increasing sand content; when the consolidation pressure exceeded 400 kPa, the compression rate decreased markedly. The compression deformation of the contaminated soil increased and was positively correlated with the sand and diesel contents, with accelerated deformation at >4.0 wt.% diesel. The rebound capacity decreased under combined sand–diesel effects. Microstructural analysis indicated that initial compression was controlled by inter-aggregate pores, whereas mid- to late-stage compression was influenced by intra-aggregate pore evolution and particle breakage. Increased diesel content shifted aggregate breakage from single/secondary to tertiary patterns, altering later compression behavior. Coupled hydration reduction and enhanced oil-blocking suppressed rebound significantly, worsening with increasing diesel content. Technical–economic analysis revealed that pure bentonite (0% sand) was optimal under uncontaminated conditions and that a 10% sand mixture was best under contaminated conditions. The sand–bentonite barrier exhibited amplified consolidation–rebound deformation and reduced stability with increasing sand and diesel contents, providing a theoretical basis for long-term landfill remediation assessment.

To address the limitation of the generalised Reynolds analogy (GRA) in handling flows with a spatial mismatch between velocity and temperature extrema, we propose a zonal and regime-based GRA which integrates a zonal decomposition approach based on the extrema of velocity and temperature profiles with a regime-based approach that accounts for different temperature–velocity (T–V) relations. The new GRA is verified using compressible turbulent Couette–Poiseuille (C–P) flow, which occurs between two plane plates driven by the combination of relative moving walls and the application of a pressure gradient. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are implemented at ${\textit{Re}}_0 = 4000$, $\textit{Ma}_0 = 0.8$ and $1.5$. Two flow regimes are recognised: one is the Couette regime (C regime), featuring opposite-direction wall frictions on the bottom and top walls, and the other is the Poiseuille regime (P regime), characterised by same-direction wall frictions. For C-regime flow, the temperature maximum point and the minimum magnitude point of the velocity gradient divide the entire channel into three zones, with each zone modelled via canonical GRA. For P-regime flow, the velocity maximum point presents a strong singularity for canonical GRA. We propose a new set of T–V relations with non-uniform distribution of the effective Prandtl number (${\textit{Pr}}_e$) rather than the typical constant-${\textit{Pr}}_e$ assumption. Comparisons with DNS results indicate that the new T–V relation improves the prediction of temperature profile in compressible C–P turbulence, particularly for the two P-regime flows with higher $\textit{Ma}_0$, where the original GRA model shows clear deviations from the DNS.

Research has demonstrated that emotion modulates specificity in recollection of personally experienced events and the words individuals use during recollection reflect their psychological states. Here, we investigated the linguistic features of autobiographical memory (AM) of different specificity for different emotional events to address how emotion would modulate the psychological mechanisms underlying AM of different specificity. We analyzed 122 participants’ narratives of AM categorized as specific and general under happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral cues. The use of three groups (emotional process, cognitive process and thinking style) of words was, respectively, compared between specific and general AM in each emotion condition. In retrieval of sad, angry and fearful events, general relative to specific AM contained more affective process words, notably negative words. General AM featured more cognitive process words than specific AM, regardless of emotion type (except neutral). When recalling happy events, general AM featured more analytic thinking words than specific AM, while in recollection of fearful events, general AM featured fewer such words than specific AM. General relative to specific AM about happy experiences contained more narrative thinking words. These findings suggest that the psychological mechanisms underlying top-down and bottom-up retrieval differ between particular types of emotion engaged in AM.

The debate on attention’s validity in cognitive psychology persists. However, attention remains essential beyond peripheral vision constraints, as it is a resource-limited process (Norman & Bobrow, 1975). The outright dismissal of attention proposed in the target article risks conceptual voids without superior alternatives. Instead, refining attention as a theoretical framework offers a pragmatic path for advancing cognitive research.

To investigate the stall mechanisms of a multi-stage axial compressor under different rotational speeds and identify the initial stall stages, this study focuses on a high-load nine-stage axial compressor, validated through experimental data. The results reveal that at 100% corrected rotational speed, flow instability is primarily triggered by corner separation in the front four stators (S1–S4). At 80% corrected rotational speed, the instability stems from the interaction between the first rotor (R1) tip leakage vortex and the main flow, coupled with the front four stators’ corner separation. Precise identification of initial stall locations in multi-stage axial compressors is imperative. The study first employs qualitative flow-field analysis to identify initial stall locations by comparing meridional mass flux variation contour maps and axial velocity iso-surfaces. The results show that the stall inception occurs at the S2 root under 100% corrected rotational speed, while at 80% corrected rotational speed, stall initiates simultaneously at both the S2 root and the R1 tip. Furthermore, an innovative three-dimensional flow blockage quantification method was established to systematically evaluate blockage severity within multi-stage blade passages. This approach utilises relative blockage variation metrics to quantitatively identify regions of rapid flow deterioration, achieving remarkable consistency with qualitative flow-field analysis. The qualitative and quantitative analysis results have been mutually corroborated. The proposed blockage quantification approach enables precise evaluation across stages without complex flow fields comparisons, allowing rapid identification of stall-initiating locations and supporting subsequent stability enhancement optimization.