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Drawing on the resource dependence perspective, this study suggests that alliance survival is an adaptive response to both environmental dependence and partner dependence independently and jointly. Based on a sample of cross-border alliances formed and terminated by local and foreign firms in a longitudinal setting, the results suggest that the mutual trade dependence between a home country and a host country is positively related to the survival of cross-border alliances in the host country. Whereas partner substitutability reduces the probability of alliance survival, repeated partnership increases the probability. Moreover, mutual trade dependence reduces the negative effect of partner substitutability on alliance survival. The findings support the idea that resource dependence theory provides an important framework for the study of cross-border alliances.

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes for cancer related deaths in women, and early detection is extremely important to improve survival rates. Currently, x-ray mammogram is the only modality for mass screening of asymptomatic women. However, it has decreased sensitivity in radiographically dense breasts, which is also associated with a higher risk for breast cancer. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is an emerging modality that enables deep tissue imaging of optical contrast at ultrasonically defined spatial resolution, which is much higher than that can be achieved in purely optical imaging modalities. Because of high optical absorption from hemoglobin molecules, PA imaging can map out hemo distribution and dynamics in breast tissue and identify malignant lesions based on tumor associated angiogenesis and hypoxia. We review various PA breast imaging systems proposed over the past few years and summarize the PA features of breast cancer identified in these systems.

We test the anisotropy in the Finslerian cosmological model with the X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) fluxes of quasars. The 2015 and 2020 compilations of quasars are used in the cosmological constraints. We find that the dipole direction given by the 2015 quasar compilation is not far away from the one provided by the Pantheon sample and the angular differences are around 30∘. The Pantheon sample is combined with quasars as the “standardized candles” to test the cosmic anisotropy. The results from two combined datasets are consistent. They show that the dipole anisotropy is weak in the Finslerian cosmological model. We investigate the Hubble constant H0 in the Finslerian cosmological model. Though the central value of H0 from the combination of six gravitationally lensed quasars, Pantheon sample, and 2020 quasar compilation decreases a little bit, it is consistent with the result from six gravitationally lensed quasars within statistical uncertainties.

We test the cosmic anisotropy in the dipole-modulated ΛCDM model and Finslerian cosmological model with the recently-released quasar sample. Based on the redshift tomographic method, the quasar sample is divided into two subsets z≤zcut and z>zcut by different cutting redshifts. The dipole amplitudes of the two cosmological models from the subsets z≤zcut are very weak. We find that quasars at a higher redshift range may provide more detailed information about the dipole amplitude AD. The dipole directions of each cosmological model from the subsets z≤1.1 and z>1.1 are deviated by 1σ level. The Pantheon sample is combined with the two subsets. The dipole amplitude from the two combined datasets is also very weak. In the dipole-modulated ΛCDM model, the dipole direction from the combined dataset quasar at z≤1.1 and Pantheon sample is far away from the one given by the Pantheon sample. In the Finslerian cosmological model, the dipole directions from the two combined datasets are close to the one in the Pantheon sample.

Flood control of the Yangtze River is an important part of China’s national water security. In July 2020, due to continuous heavy rainfall, the water levels along the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River and major lakes constantly exceeded the warning levels, in which Taihu Lake exceeded its highest safety water level and some stations of Poyang Lake reached their highest water levels in its history. In August 2020, another huge flood occurred in the Minjiang River and the Jialing River in the upper Yangtze River, and some areas of Chongqing Municipality and other cities along the rivers were inundated, resulting in great pressure on flood control and high disaster losses. The 2020 Yangtze River flood has received extensive media coverage and raised concerns on the roles of the Three Gorges Dam and other large reservoirs in flood control. Here we analyze the changes in the pattern of the Yangtze River flood control by comparing the strategies to tackle the three heavy floods occurring in 1954, 1998, and 2020. We propose that the overall strategy of the Yangtze River flood control in the new era should adhere to the principle of “Integration of storage and drainage over the entire Yangtze River Basin, with draining floods downstream as the first priority” by using both engineering and non-engineering measures. On the basis of embankments, the engineering measures should use the Three Gorges Dam and other large reservoirs as the major regulatory means, promote the construction of key flood detention areas, keep the floodways clear, and maintain the ecosystem services of wetlands and shoals. In terms of non-engineering measures, we should strengthen adaptive flood risk management under climate change, standardize the use of lands in flood detention areas, give space to floods, and promote the implementation of flood risk maps and flood insurance policies. The ultimate goal of this new flood control system is to enhance the adaptability to frequent floods and increase the resilience to extreme flood disasters.

Waterlogging is one of the major water issues in most cities of China and directly restricts their urbanization processes.The construction of Sponge City is an effective approach to solving the urban water issues,particularly for the waterlogging.In this study,both the urban issues emerged at the stage of rapid urbanization in China and the demands as well as problems of Sponge City construction related with the water issues were investigated,and the opportunities and challenges for the Sponge City construction in the future were also proposed.It was found that the current stormwater management focused on the construction of gray infrastructures（e.g.,drainage network and water tank） based on the fast discharge idea,which was costly and hard to catch up with the rapid expansion of city and its impervious surface,while green infrastructures（e.g.,river,lake and wetland）were ignored.Moreover,the current construction of Sponge City was still limited to low impacted development（LID） approach which was concentrated on source control measures without consideration of the critical functions of surrounding landscapes（i.e.,mountain,river,wetland,forest,farmland and lake）,while application of the integrated urban water system approach and its supported technologies including municipal engineering,urban hydrology,environmental science,social science and ecoscape were relatively weak and needed to be improved.Besides,the lack of special Sponge City plan and demonstration area was also a considerable problem.In this paper,some perspectives on Good Sponge City Construction were proposed such as the point that idea of urban plan and construction should conform to the integral and systematic view of sustainable urban development.Therefore,both the basic theoretical research and the basic infrastructure construction such as monitoring system,drainage facility and demonstration area should be strengthened,meanwhile,the reformation and innovation in the urban water management system and the education system should also be urgently performed.The study was expected to provide a deeper thinking for the current Sponge City construction in China and to give some of suggestions for the future directions to urban plan and construction,as well as urban hydrology discipline.

Structural differences in 40- and 42-residue-long amyloid-β fibrils seeded in vitro from the cortical tissue of patients with different clinical subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease suggest that different fibril structures form in different disease variants and with different peptide lengths. Variation between amyloid-β fibrils In a study of the molecular structures of amyloid-β fibrils that develop in the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's disease, Robert Tycko and colleagues used direct structural techniques, including electron microscopy and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, to screen fibril structures in a large set of tissue samples from human patients. They find structural differences in 40- and 42-residue-long amyloid-β fibrils seeded in vitro from the cortical tissue of patients with different clinical subtypes of the disease. This suggests that different fibril structures form in different disease variants and with different peptide lengths. Aggregation of amyloid-β peptides into fibrils or other self-assembled states is central to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Fibrils formed in vitro by 40- and 42-residue amyloid-β peptides (Aβ40 and Aβ42) are polymorphic, with variations in molecular structure that depend on fibril growth conditions 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 . Recent experiments 1 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 suggest that variations in amyloid-β fibril structure in vivo may correlate with variations in Alzheimer’s disease phenotype, in analogy to distinct prion strains that are associated with different clinical and pathological phenotypes 17 , 18 , 19 . Here we investigate correlations between structural variation and Alzheimer’s disease phenotype using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) measurements on Aβ40 and Aβ42 fibrils prepared by seeded growth from extracts of Alzheimer’s disease brain cortex. We compared two atypical Alzheimer’s disease clinical subtypes—the rapidly progressive form (r-AD) and the posterior cortical atrophy variant (PCA-AD)—with a typical prolonged-duration form (t-AD). On the basis of ssNMR data from 37 cortical tissue samples from 18 individuals, we find that a single Aβ40 fibril structure is most abundant in samples from patients with t-AD and PCA-AD, whereas Aβ40 fibrils from r-AD samples exhibit a significantly greater proportion of additional structures. Data for Aβ42 fibrils indicate structural heterogeneity in most samples from all patient categories, with at least two prevalent structures. These results demonstrate the existence of a specific predominant Aβ40 fibril structure in t-AD and PCA-AD, suggest that r-AD may relate to additional fibril structures and indicate that there is a qualitative difference between Aβ40 and Aβ42 aggregates in the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

To investigate gravity in the nonlinear regime of cosmic structure using measurements from stage IV surveys, it is imperative to accurately compute large-scale structure observables, such as nonlinear matter power spectra, for gravity models that extend beyond general relativity. However, the theoretical predictions of nonlinear observables are typically derived from N-body simulations, which demand substantial computational resources. In this study, we introduce a novel public emulator, termed FREmu, designed to provide rapid and precise forecasts of nonlinear power spectra specifically for the Hu–Sawicki f(R) gravity model across scales 0.0089h Mpc−1 < k < 0.5h Mpc−1 and redshifts 0 < z < 3. FREmu leverages principal component analysis and artificial neural networks to establish a mapping from parameters to power spectra, utilizing training data derived from the Quijote-MG simulation suite. With a parameter space encompassing seven dimensions, including Ω m , Ω b , h, n s , σ 8, M ν , and fR0 , the emulator achieves an accuracy exceeding 95% for the majority of cases, thus proving to be highly efficient for constraining parameters.

The flexural performance of steel and concrete composite beams can be further enhanced by utilizing advanced construction materials such as ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) and high-strength steel. In this paper, the concept of critical elastic moment resistance is proposed and the equation for its estimation is derived. It was found that the high yield strength of steel calls for a narrow UHPFRC top layer to reach the critical state, whereas this ideal condition is not realistic for composite beams with normal-strength steel and UHPFRC. Small-scale composite beams composed of both high-strength and low-strength steel materials were tested under four-point bending to verify the critical state and performance of different types of connectors. The headed studs and plate connectors were first tested through small-scale push-out tests and then implemented in the composite beam with different spacing. The connection utilizing headed studs with 150 mm spacing performed the best among the three tested specimens in helping reach the critical elastic moment resistance. Finite element analyses of the composite beam were performed based on the estimated material properties under axial and biaxial stress conditions and the results align with the experiment results.

The EG statistic provides a valuable tool for evaluating the predictions of general relativity (GR) by probing the relationship between gravitational potential and galaxy clustering on cosmological scales within the observable Universe. In this study, we constrain the EG statistic using photometric redshift data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) MagLim sample in combination with the Planck 2018 cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map. Unlike spectroscopic redshift surveys, photometric redshift measurements are subject to significant redshift uncertainties, making it challenging to constrain the redshift distortion parameter β with high precision. We adopt a new definition for this parameter, β(z) = fσ8(z)/bσ8(z). In this formulation, we reconstruct the growth rate of structure, fσ8(z), using the artificial neural network method, while simultaneously utilizing model-independent constraints on the parameter bσ8(z), directly obtained from the DES collaboration. After obtaining the angular power spectra Cℓgg (galaxy–galaxy) and Cℓgκ (galaxy–CMB lensing) from the combination of DES photometric data and Planck lensing, we derive new measurements of the EG statistic: EG = 0.354 ± 0.146, 0.452 ± 0.092, 0.414 ± 0.069, and 0.296 ± 0.069 (68% confidence limit) across four redshift bins z = 0.30, 0.47, 0.63, and 0.80, respectively, which are consistent with the predictions of the standard Lambda cold dark matter model. Finally, we forecast the EG statistic using future photometric redshift data from the China Space Station Telescope, combined with lensing measurements from the CMB-S4 project, indicating an achievable constraint on EG of approximately 1%, improving the precision of tests for GR on cosmological scales.