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In the gravitational sector, we study the CPT violation and birefringence in gravitational waves. In presence of the CPT violation, a relative dephasing is generated between two circular polarization states of gravitational waves. This effect induces the birefringence of gravitational waves. Given the gravitational waveform modified by the CPT violation, we estimate the expected constraints on the CPT violation from Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, Einstein Telescope and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.

Piriformospora indica is known as a fungus that can easily colonize a wide range of plants and enhance host’s growth and tolerance to abiotic stresses, including salinity. The mechanistic basis behind this phenomenon remains poorly understood. This work was aimed to fill in this gap and reveal mechanisms enhancing salinity tolerance in maize roots colonised by P. indica. A range of agronomic and physiological characteristics were compared between inoculated and non-inoculated maize plants under 0/100/200 mM NaCl conditions. The impact of P. indica inoculation or root’s cytosolic K+ retention ability were also assessed using micro-electrode ion flux estimation technique. The results showed that inoculated plants had higher biomass, higher stomatal conductance, lower K+ efflux from roots and higher potassium content in shoots than non-inoculated plants under salt stress. Collectively, the results indicated that the beneficial effects of inoculation on plant performance under saline conditions were mainly attributed to the improved stomata operation associated with higher rate of K delivery into the shoots.

While online hate speech has become a serious problem in multimedia environments, most studies in this area have examined text-based hateful content, with less attention paid to its other visual aspects. From a multimodal perspective, we conducted an online experiment (N = 799) to investigate how multimodal hate speech (i.e., text and images presented together to convey hateful meanings) on social media affected users’ prejudicial attitudes and prosocial behavioral intentions. The results showed that participants in the text-plus-image (vs. text-only) condition felt more sympathy, which led to less implicit prejudice toward the target group and more prosocial behavioral intentions. In addition, exposure to text-plus-image hate speech had an indirect effect on prosocial behavioral intentions through sympathy and implicit prejudice. The findings contribute to scholarship on online hate speech and provide insights into the affect heuristics that individuals rely on when processing multimodal information.

Incorporating passive heating structures into personal thermal management technologies could effectively mitigate the escalating energy crisis. However, current passive heating materials struggle to balance thickness and insulating capability, resulting in compromised comfort, space efficiency, and limited thermoregulatory performance. Here, a dual air-gelation strategy, is developed to directly synthesize ultrathin and self-sustainable heating metafabric with 3D dual-network structure during electrospinning. Controlling the interactions among polymer, solvent, and water enables the microphase separation of charged jets, while adjusting the distribution of carbon black nanoparticles within charged fluids to form fibrous networks composed of interlaced aerogel micro/nanofibers with heat storage capabilities. With a low thickness of 0.18 mm, the integrated metafabric exhibits exceptional thermal insulation performance (15.8 mW m −1 K −1 ), superhydrophobicity, enhanced mechanical properties, and high breathability while maintaining self-sustainable radiative heating ability (long-lasting warming of 8.8 °C). This strategy provides rich possibilities to develop advanced fibrous materials for smart textiles and thermal management. Aerogels have limited application in textiles due to their fragility and poor processability. Here, authors synthesize an ultrathin aerogel-structured micro/nanofiber metafabric for self-sustained heating by developing a dual air-gelation strategy.

A discovery of gravitational waves from binary black holes raises a possibility that measurements of them can provide strict tests of CPT invariance in gravitational waves. When CPT violation exists, if any, gravitational waves with different circular polarizations could gain a slight difference in propagating speeds. Hence, the birefringence of gravitational waves is induced and there should be a rotation of plus and cross modes. For CPT-violating dispersion relation ω2=k2±2ζk3, where a sign ± denotes different circular polarizations, we find no substantial deviations from CPT invariance in gravitational waves by analyzing a compilation of ten signals of binary black holes in the LIGO-Virgo catalog GWTC-1. We obtain a strict constraint on the CPT-violating parameter, i.e., ζ=0.14-0.31+0.22×10-15m, which is around two orders of magnitude better than the existing one. Therefore, this study stands for the up-to-date strictest tests of CPT invariance in gravitational waves.

To assess the pharmacokinetics and safety of pure S-ketamine (esketamine) in Chinese patients undergoing painless gastroscopy and evaluate the potential advantage of esketamine in clinical treatment compared with racemate ketamine hydrochloride injection. A randomized, open-label, parallel-controlled, Phase I study was performed with 32 patients undergoing painless gastroscopy. Patients received a single dose of esketamine (0.5 mg/kg) or racemic ketamine (1 mg/kg, esketamine:R-ketamine=1:1), injected in 10 s. Blood samples were collected for pharmacokinetic analysis. The concentrations of esketamine, R-ketamine, S-norketamine, and R-norketamine were measured with a validated liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method. After administering a single dose of esketamine and racemate ketamine, the pharmacokinetics parameters of esketamine and S-norketamine are both similar in treatment groups. The clearance of esketamine in two groups was 18.1±3.2 and 18.4±3.4 mL/min•kg, respectively. However, in the ketamine group, esketamine has a larger clearance than R-ketamine (18.4±3.4 mL/min·kg vs 15.8±3.1 mL/min·kg, <0.001). Further analysis showed that gender did not affect the pharmacokinetics of esketamine and racemate ketamine. Regarding the safety of esketamine and racemate ketamine, no serious adverse events were observed during treatment, and the incidences of adverse events were 75.0% (esketamine) and 87.5% (racemate ketamine). The main adverse reactions were dizziness, agitation, nausea, vomiting, headache, and fatigue. However, compared with racemic ketamine, esketamine offers a shorter recovery time (9 mins vs. 13 mins, P<0.05) and orientation recovery time (11.5 mins vs. 17 mins, P<0.05) after short anesthesia. Esketamine administration as a single dose of 0.5 mg/kg was generally safe and tolerated in patients undergoing painless gastroscopy. In terms of anesthesia, a relatively small dose of esketamine can be used instead of racemate ketamine for routine treatment without consideration of gender differences.

Orientin is a flavonoid monomer. In recent years, its importance as a source of pharmacological active substance is growing rapidly due to its properties such as anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-apoptosis, anti-radiation, anti-tumor, and anti-aging. However, the neuroprotective effects of Orientin on stroke injury have not been comprehensively evaluated. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate the neuroprotective capacity and the potential mechanisms of Cyperus esculentus L. orientin (CLO) from Cyperus esculentus L. leaves against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury using standard orientin as control. For in vitro studies, we treated HT22 cells with CoCl2 as an in vitro ischemic injury model. HT22 cells in the control group were treated with CoCl2. For in vivo studies, we used rat models of middle cerebral artery occlusion, and animals that received sham surgery were used as controls. We found that CLO protected CoCl2-induced HT22 cells against ischemia/reperfusion injury by lowering lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species formation as well as decreasing protein oxidation. However, CLO did not reduce the release of lactate dehydrogenase nor increase the activity of superoxide dismutase. Results showed that CLO could decrease neurological deficit score, attenuate brain water content, and reduce cerebral infarct volume, leading to neuroprotection during cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Our studies indicate that CLO flavonoids can be taken as a natural antioxidant and bacteriostastic substance in food and pharmaceutical industry. The molecular mechanisms of CLO could be at least partially attributed to the antioxidant properties and subsequently inhibiting activation of casepase-3. All experimental procedures and protocols were approved on May 16, 2016 by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Xinjiang Medical University of China (approval No. IACUC20160516-57).

Primordial gravitational waves are a crucial prediction of inflation theory, and their detection through their imprints on the cosmic microwave background is actively being pursued. However, these attempts have not yet been successful. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to detect primordial gravitational waves by searching for a signal of second-order tensor perturbations. These perturbations were produced due to nonlinear couplings between the linear tensor and scalar perturbations in the early universe. We anticipate a blue-tilted tensor spectral index, and suggest that the tensor-to-scalar ratio can potentially be measured with high precision using a detector network composed of the ground-based Einstein Telescope and the space-borne LISA project on a decade timescale.

Functional materials play a vital role in the fabrication of smart windows, which can provide a more comfortable indoor environment for humans to enjoy a better lifestyle. Traditional materials for smart windows tend to possess only a single functionality with the purpose of regulating the input of solar energy. However, different color tones also have great influences on human emotions. Herein, a strategy for orthogonal integration of different properties is proposed, namely the thermo-responsiveness of ethylene glycol-modified pillar[6]arene ( EGP6 ) and the redox-induced reversible color switching of ferrocene/ferrocenium groups are orthogonally integrated into one system. This gives rise to a material with cooperative and non-interfering dual functions, featuring both thermochromism and warm/cool tone-switchability. Consequently, the obtained bifunctional material for fabricating smart windows can not only regulate the input of solar energy but also can provide a more comfortable color tone to improve the feelings and emotions of people in indoor environments. Materials for smart windows usually possess single functionality, thus developing materials that regulate solar energy whilst changing color to affect human emotion is desirable. Here the authors combine pillar[6]arenes and ferrocene/ferrocenium groups to produce warm/cool tone-switchable thermochromic materials.

Two gravitational wave events, i.e. GW200105 and GW200115, were observed by the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors recently. In this work, we show that they can be explained by a scenario of primordial black hole binaries that are formed in the early Universe. The merger rate predicted by such a scenario could be consistent with the one estimated from LIGO and Virgo, even if primordial black holes constitute a fraction of cold dark matter. The required abundance of primordial black holes is compatible with the existing upper limits from microlensing, caustic crossing and cosmic microwave background observations.