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Northern China harbored the world’s earliest complex societies based on millet farming, in two major centers in the Yellow (YR) and West Liao (WLR) River basins. Until now, their genetic histories have remained largely unknown. Here we present 55 ancient genomes dating to 7500-1700 BP from the YR, WLR, and Amur River (AR) regions. Contrary to the genetic stability in the AR, the YR and WLR genetic profiles substantially changed over time. The YR populations show a monotonic increase over time in their genetic affinity with present-day southern Chinese and Southeast Asians. In the WLR, intensification of farming in the Late Neolithic is correlated with increased YR affinity while the inclusion of a pastoral economy in the Bronze Age was correlated with increased AR affinity. Our results suggest a link between changes in subsistence strategy and human migration, and fuel the debate about archaeolinguistic signatures of past human migration. Northern China contains some of the world’s earliest farming societies. Here, authors use 55 ancient genomes to trace the genetic history of human migrations across northern China for the last 7500 years, and document genetic changes mirroring shifts in subsistence strategy.

A fractional-order delayed SEIR rumor spreading model with a nonlinear incidence function is established in this paper, and a novel strategy to control the bifurcation of this model is proposed. First, Hopf bifurcation is investigated by considering time delay as bifurcation parameter for the system without a feedback controller. Then, a state feedback controller is designed to control the occurrence of bifurcation in advance or to delay it by changing the parameters of the controller. Finally, in order to verify the theoretical results, some numerical simulations are given.

China's historiographical traditions tell of the successful control of a Great Flood leading to the establishment of the Xia dynasty and the beginning of civilization. However, the historicity of the flood and Xia remain controversial. Here, we reconstruct an earthquake-induced landslide dam outburst flood on the Yellow River about 1920 BCE that ranks as one of the largest freshwater floods of the Holocene and could account for the Great Flood. This would place the beginning of Xia at ∼1900 BCE, several centuries later than traditionally thought. This date coincides with the major transition from the Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Yellow River valley and supports hypotheses that the primary state-level society of the Erlitou culture is an archaeological manifestation of the Xia dynasty.

The origin of millet from Neolithic China has generally been accepted, but it remains unknown whether common millet (Panicum miliaceum) or foxtail millet (Setaria italica) was the first species domesticated. Nor do we know the timing of their domestication and their routes of dispersal. Here, we report the discovery of husk phytoliths and biomolecular components identifiable solely as common millet from newly excavated storage pits at the Neolithic Cishan site, China, dated to between ca. 10,300 and ca. 8,700 calibrated years before present (cal yr BP). After ca. 8,700 cal yr BP, the grain crops began to contain a small quantity of foxtail millet. Our research reveals that the common millet was the earliest dry farming crop in East Asia, which is probably attributed to its excellent resistance to drought.

The Stag beetle (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) is a fascinating group, often considered one of the most primitive within the Scarabaeoidea. They are valuable models for studying beetle evolution. However, the lack of high-quality genomes hinders our understanding of the evolution and ecology of Lucanidae. In this study, we present a chromosome-level genome of Serrognathus titanus by combining PacBio HiFi long reads, Illumina short reads, and Hi-C data. The genome spans 384.07 Mb, with a scaffold N50 size of 75.81 Mb, and most contigs (97.45%, 374.30 Mb) were anchored into six chromosomes. Our BUSCO analysis of the assembly indicates a completeness of 97.6% (n = 1,367), with 92.8% single-copy BUSCOs and 4.8% duplicated BUSCOs identified. Additionally, we found that the genome contains 43.87% (168.50 Mb) repeat elements and identified 14,263 predicted protein-coding genes. The high-quality genome of S. titanus provides valuable genomic information for comprehending the evolution and ecology of Lucanidae.

Thermodynamic performance of three conceptual systems for biomass-derived olefin production with electricity cogeneration was studied and compared via exergy analysis at the levels of system, subsystem and operation unit. The base case was composed of the subsystems of gasification, raw fuel gas adjustment, methanol/light olefin synthesis and steam & power generation, etc. The power case and fuel case were designed as the combustion of a fraction of gasification gas to increase power generation and the recycle of a fraction of synthesis tail gas to increase olefin production, respectively. It was found that the subsystems of gasification and steam & power generation contribute ca. 80% of overall exergy destruction for each case, of which gasifier and combustor are the main exergy destruction sources, due to the corresponding chemical exergy degrading of biomass and fuel gas. The low efficiency of 33.1% for the power case could be attributed to the significant irreversibility of the combustor, economizer, and condenser in the combined-cycle subsystem. The effect of the tail gas recycle ratio, moisture content of feedstock, and biomass type was also investigated to enhance system exergy performance, which could be achieved by high recycle ratio, using dry biomass and the feedstock with high carbon content. High system efficiency of 38.9% was obtained when oil palm shell was used, which was 31.7% for rice husk due to its low carbon content.

Aulacophora lewisii (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is a specialist herbivore that primarily infests cucurbit crops, with larval feeding causing potentially severe damage during the seedling stage. However, the absence of a high-quality genome assembly has hindered progress in understanding its evolutionary history and the development of mechanism-based pest management strategies. In this study, we report a chromosome-level genome of A. lewisii generated by integrating sequencing data from PacBio, Illumina, and Hi-C. The assembled genome spans 1,642.79 Mb across 3,183 scaffolds, with a scaffold N50 of 55.13 Mb. A total of 90.65% (1,488.95 Mb) of the genome was successfully anchored to 28 chromosomes. BUSCO analysis using the insecta_odb10 dataset (n = 1,367) revealed the genome assembly completeness of 94.6%, including 89.7% single-copy and 4.9% duplicated BUSCOs. Repetitive sequences comprise 79.43% (1,304.88 Mb) of the genome, and 15,588 protein-coding genes were annotated. This high-quality reference genome provides an essential foundation for elucidating the ecological adaptations of A. lewisii and for informing the development of effective, genomics-driven pest control strategies.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a well-established contributing factor to isolated tricuspid regurgitation (TR), with elevated left atrial pressure (LAP) playing a crucial role in disease progression and patient outcomes. We investigated the relationship between LAP and TR in patients with AF. We enrolled individuals diagnosed with AF who underwent LA appendage closure at two centers in China, between January 2015 and December 2023. Participants were classified into two groups based on TR severity: those with moderate-to-severe TR and those with no significant TR groups. Baseline characteristics, imaging findings, and follow-up data were analyzed. A total of 189 participants were included, of whom 60 had moderate-to-severe TR. Compared to the no-TR group, the moderate-to-severe TR group was older (74.22 ± 9.71 years vs. 69.37 ± 8.04 years,  < 0.001), had a longer history of persistent AF (7.41 ± 7.18 years vs. 2.08 ± 2.26 years,  < 0.001), and exhibited lower hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. In addition, patients in the moderate-to-significant TR group were more likely to have mitral regurgitation, larger LA diameters, higher LA systolic pressure (LASP), higher LA diastolic pressure, higher mean LA pressure, and pulmonary hypertension (all  < 0.001). Elevated LAP was strongly associated with right heart remodeling and significant TR in patients with persistent AF. Regression analysis identified LASP, mitral regurgitation, and AF duration as independent predictors of significant TR (all  < 0.01). Early identification of LAP elevation and right heart remodeling may guide targeted interventions to prevent TR progression and improve patient outcomes. Furthermore, the recognition of LASP and AF duration as predictors of TR and LA dysfunction emphasizes the need for thorough clinical assessments in treatment planning.

Serangium japonicum (Coleoptera; Coccinellidae) plays a crucial role as a predatory coccinellid in ecosystems, exhibiting adept predation on diverse whitefly species and effectively regulating their population dynamics. Nonetheless, the absence of high-quality genomic data has hindered our comprehension of the molecular mechanisms underlying this predatory beetle. This study performed genome sequencing of S. japonicum using the PacBio HiFi long reads and Hi-C data. The genome spans 433.74 Mb, which includes 104 contigs and 17 scaffolds, with a contig N50 size of 11.44 Mb and a scaffold N50 size of 42.67 Mb. A substantial portion of the genome, totaling 433.04 Mb (99.84%), was anchored to 10 chromosomes. BUSCO analysis demonstrates a high genomic completeness of 97.8% (n = 1,376), comprising 97.3% single-copy genes and 0.5% duplicated genes. The genome includes 54.66% (237.06 Mb) repetitive elements and 12,299 predicted protein-coding genes. The chromosome-level genome of S. japonicum offers important genomic insights that enhance our understanding of the evolution and ecology of the Coccinellidae family.

Steel products have experienced long-standing problems such as unstable product quality and low product homogeneity. In the continuous casting process, realizing constant-temperature pouring is an effective way to improve product homogeneity. Plasma heating can compensate for the temperature drop during casting with a tundish and maintain a stable degree of superheating of the molten steel in the tundish. Plasma heating has a certain impact on the cleanliness of the molten steel and on the tundish covering flux in the tundish while compensating for the temperature drop. This paper uses SEM-EDS, XRD and FactSage to analyze the cleanliness of molten steel and the characteristics of the tundish covering flux before and after plasma heating. The results show that the number density of inclusions in the tundish is significantly lower after heating, improving the floating removal of small-sized inclusions; after heating, the surface morphology of the tundish covering flux sample appears transparent and glassy, with uniform morphology. XRD results show that the tundish covering flux after plasma heating exhibits no crystal precipitation and is amorphous and that there is a certain regularity before and after heating; there are no obvious changes in the composition of the tundish covering flux in the liquid phase area.