Neutral zone

To explore the distribution characteristics of paddy soil and rice AS content, as well as the health risks of rice consumption, and to evaluate the safe planting ability of rice, 209 paddy soil samples and 1 567 groups of paddy soil-rice samples were collected, their As content and basic soil physical and chemical properties were determined, and the single-factor pollution index method was used to evaluate the pollution degree of the samples. The results showed that:① the soil of paddy fields in Guizhou Province was mainly neutral, and its fertilizer retention capacity and organic matter content were above the medium level, and the soil was relatively fertile...

Postural assessments of the lumbar spine lack valuable information about its properties. The purpose of this study was to assess neutral zone (NZ) characteristics via in vivo lumbar spine passive stiffness and relate NZ characteristics to standing lumbar lordosis. A comparison was made between those that develop low back pain during prolonged standing (pain developers) and those that do not (nonpain developers). Twenty-two participants with known pain status stood on level ground, and median lumbar lordosis angle was calculated...

Dryopteris filix-mas (hereafter D. filix-mas ), a wild leafy vegetable, has gained popularity among high mountain residents in the Hindukush-Himalaya region due to its exceptional nutritional profile, and their commercial cultivation also offers viable income alternatives. Nevertheless, besides phytochemicals with medicinal applications, ecological factors strongly affect their mineral contents and nutritional composition. Despite this, little has been known about how this wild fern, growing in heterogeneous ecological habitats with varying soil physiochemical properties and coexisting species, produces fronds with optimal mineral and nutritional properties...

Reed belts acting as basic nutrient filters are important parts of lake buffer riparian zones. However, little is known about their impacts on nutrient release and bacterial community during plant litter decomposition. In this study, a field experiment was conducted in west-lake Taihu to monitor the changes in nutrients, bacterial enzymatic activities, and bacterial community in plant debris during Hydrilla verticillata (H. verticillata) decomposition in open water (HvC) and reed belts (HvL) area for 126 days...

Streams impacted by historic mining activity are characterized by acidic pH, unique microbial communities, and abundant metal-oxide precipitation, all of which can influence groundwater-surface water exchange. We investigate how metal-oxide precipitates and hyporheic mixing mediate the composition of microbial communities in two streams receiving acid-rock and mine drainage near Silverton, Colorado, USA. A large, neutral pH hyporheic zone facilitated the precipitation of metal particles/colloids in hyporheic porewaters...

Water shortage seriously restricts the development of grassland agriculture in arid land and dramatically impacts alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) quality content and hay yield. Reasonable irrigation methods have the potential to enhance the alfalfa quality content, hay yield, and thus quality yield. Whether partial root-zone drying subsurface drip irrigation (PRDSDI) improves the alfalfa quality yield, quality content, and hay yield is still unknown compared with conventional subsurface drip irrigation (CSDI)...

BACKGROUND: Acne negatively affects quality of life, however quality-of-life scores poorly correlate with disease severity scores. Previous research demonstrated existence of facial areas in which skin lesions have greater impact on gaze patterns. Therefore, we hypothesized that anatomical variants of acne may be perceived differently. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to investigate effect of anatomical variants of acne on natural gaze patterns and resulting impact on social perception of acne patients...

BACKGROUND: The depressor anguli oris muscle (DAO) is a pivotal treatment target in creation of harmonic jawline. However, evidence of its live morphology remains scarce. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to reevaluate DAO by a facile ultrasound analysis and hereby guide safer and more effective botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) injection. METHODS: A prospective ultrasound assessment was conducted in 41 patients. Morphology of DAO and its relative position with neighboring structures were appraised at the ubiquitous facial landmark, labiomandibular fold (LMF)...

We investigate the impact of a magnetic field on surfactant concentration and interfacial forces across droplet surfaces within shear flows. Our analysis centers on a single two-dimensional ferrofluid droplet covered with surfactants, suspended in an immiscible, non-magnetizable liquid. The model combines incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and Maxwell's equations in the superparamagnetic limit in the single-fluid formulation, augmented by terms accounting for Marangoni, capillary, and magnetic forces at the droplet interface...

Short nanopores find extensive applications, capitalizing on their high throughput and detection resolution. Ionic behaviors through long nanopores are mainly determined by charged inner-pore walls. When pore lengths decrease to sub-200 nm, charged exterior surfaces provide considerable modulation to ion current. We find that the charge status of inner-pore walls affects the modulation of ion current from charged exterior surfaces. For 50-nm-long nanopores with neutral inner-pore walls, the charged exterior surfaces on the voltage (surfaceV) and ground (surfaceG) sides enhance and inhibit the ion transport by forming ion enrichment and depletion zones inside nanopores, respectively...

Divalent ions (Mg, Ca, and Zn) are being considered as competitive, safe, and earth-abundant alternatives to Li-ion electrochemistry, but present challenges for stable cycling due to undesirable interfacial phenomena. We explore the formation of electroactive species in the electrolyte Ca(BH4 )2 ∣THF using molecular dynamics coupled with a continuum model of bulk and interfacial speciation. Free-energy analysis and unsupervised learning indicate a majority population of neutral Ca dimers and monomers with diverse molecular conformations and an order of magnitude lower concentration of the primary electroactive charged species - the monocation, CaBH[Formula: see text] - produced via disproportionation of neutral complexes...

Urbanization has altered land surface properties driving changes in micro-climates. Urban form influences people's activities, environmental exposures, and health. Developing detailed and unified longitudinal measures of urban form is essential to quantify these relationships. Local Climate Zones [LCZ] are a culturally-neutral urban form classification scheme. To date, longitudinal LCZ maps at large scales (i.e., national, continental, or global) are not available. We developed an approach to map LCZs for the continental US from 1986 to 2020 at 100 m spatial resolution...

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted public health and our lifestyles, leading to new social adaptations such as quarantine, social distancing, and facial masks. Face masks, covering extended facial zones, hamper our ability to extract relevant socio-emotional information from others' faces. In this fMRI study, we investigated how face masks interfere with facial emotion recognition, focusing on brain responses and connectivity patterns as a function of the presence of a face mask...

Flow regulation in gravel-bed rivers impacts the hydrology, sediments and morphology, riparian vegetation, and vertical connectivity with the hyporheic zone. In this context, previous works have suggested that flood events may have riverine morphological and ecological benefits. In a Mediterranean-climate river system, we analyzed the impact of a 18-year return period flood on river morphology, riparian vegetation, fish aquatic habitat quality, and hyporheic exchange in a dam-regulated gravel-bed river, Serpis River (Spain)...

Vesicles on substrates play a fundamental role in many biological processes, ranging from neurotransmitter release at the synapse on small scales to the nutrient intake of trees by large vesicles. For these processes, the adsorption or desorption of vesicles to biological substrates is crucial. Consequently, it is important to understand the factors determining whether and for how long a vesicle adsorbs to a substrate and what shape it will adopt. Here, we systematically study the adsorption of a vesicle to planar substrates with short- and long-range interactions, with and without buoyancy...

Zn-Fe layered double hydroxide (LDH) was synthesized through the low-temperature-based coprecipitation method. Various concentrations of Ag (1, 3, and 5 wt %) with a fixed amount (5 wt %) of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were doped into LDH nanocomposites. This research aims to improve the bactericidal properties and catalytic activities of doping-dependent nanocomposites. Adding Ag and PVP to LDH enhanced oxygen vacancies, which increased the amount of hydroxide adsorption sites and the number of active sites...

BACKGROUND: Sufficient surgical resection is necessary for effective tumor control, but is usually limited for vertebral tumors, especially in the cervical spine in small animal neurosurgery. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the primary stability and safety of customized three-dimensional (3D)-printed implants for cervical spine reconstruction after total vertebrectomy. METHODS: Customized guides and implants were designed based on computed tomography (CT) imaging of five beagle cadavers and were 3D-printed...

Macromolecular crowding is the usual condition of cells. The implications of the crowded cellular environment for protein stability and folding, protein-protein interactions, and intracellular transport drive a growing interest in quantifying the effects of crowding. While the properties of crowded solutions have been extensively studied, less attention has been paid to the interaction of crowders with the cellular boundaries, i.e., membranes. However, membranes are key components of cells and most subcellular organelles, playing a central role in regulating protein channel and receptor functions by recruiting and binding charged and neutral solutes...

We have previously shown that blood levels of B-cell Activating Factor (BAFF) rise relatively to disease progression status in the context of HIV-1 infection. Excess BAFF was concomitant with hyperglobulinemia and the deregulation of blood B-cell populations, notably with increased frequencies of a population sharing characteristics of transitional immature and marginal zone (MZ) B-cells, which we defined as marginal zone precursor-like" (MZp). In HIV-uninfected individuals, MZp present a B-cell regulatory (Breg) profile and function, which are lost in classic-progressors...

Methanogens are considered to be crucial components of mangrove ecosystems with ecological significance. However, understanding the assembly processes of methanogenic communities in mangrove ecosystems is relatively insufficient. In the current study, a natural mangrove in a protection zone was employed to investigate the diversity and assembly processes of methanogenic community by using amplicon high-throughput sequencing, a null model as well as a neutral community model. The results showed that methanogenic community in mangrove sediments were highly diverse, with the predominance of methylotrophic Methanolobus, and hydrogenotrophic Methanogenium, Methanospirillum...