Fructus Amomi (FA) is usually regarded as the dried ripe fruits of Amomum villosum Lour. (FAL) or Amomum villosum Lour. var. xanthioides T. L.Wu et Senjenis (FALX) However, FAL, which always has a much higher price because of its better quality, is confused with FALX in the market. As volatile oil is the main constituent of FA, a strategy of chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and chemometric approches was applied to compare the chemical composition of FAL and FALX. The results showed that the oil yield of FAL was significantly higher than that of FALX. Total ion chromatograph (TIC) showed that cis-nerolidol existed only in FALX. Bornyl acetate and camphor, could be considered as the most important ones in FAL and FALX respectively. Moreover, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) successfully distinguished the chemical constitutes of the volatile oils in FAL and FALX. Additionally, bornyl acetate, α-cadinol, linalool, β-myrcene, camphor, d-limonene, terpinolene and endo-borneol were selected as the potential markers for discriminating FAL and FALX by partial least squares discrimination analysis (PLS-DA). In conclusion, this present study first developed a scientific approach to separate FAL and FALX based on volatile oils by GC-MS combined with chemometric techniques.

Coptisine (Cop) exerts a neuroprotective effect in central nervous system disease, particularly ischemic stroke. However, its protective mechanism is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of Cop on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (IR) rats with a middle cerebral artery occlusion model by integrating a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics approach with biochemical assessment. Our results showed that Cop could improve neurobehavioral function and decrease the ischemia size in IR rats. In addition, Cop was found to decrease inflammatory mediators (e.g., prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and attenuate oxidative stress response (e.g., increase the superoxide dismutase (SOD) expression and decrease 8-iso-PGF2α level). Furthermore, GC-MS based cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) metabolomics analysis indicated that Cop influenced the level of glycine, 2,3,4-trihydroxybutyric acid, oleic acid, glycerol, and ribose during IR injury. Cop exhibited a good neuroprotective effect against cerebral IR injury and metabolic alterations which might be mediated through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory property.

Background. 46,XX disorders of sex development are rare. Approximately, 90% of XX males are SRY-positive, while testicular development in the absence of SRY takes place in a minority. Methods: A boy with 46,XX karyotype (SRY-negative; absence of SOX9 duplications) was investigated by targeted Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), and Comparative Genomic Hybridization array (CGH-array). Results: The boy had normal male phenotype and normal prepubertal values of testicular hormones. He presented a heterozygous duplication of 49.626 bp, encompassing exons 2 and 3 of DMRT1. The result was arr[GRCh37] 9p24.3(845893_895518)x3. Since both breakpoints are harbored in the intronic regions, the duplication does not stop or shift the coding frame. Additional known pathogenic or uncertain variants in pro-testis gene cascade were not identified. Conclusions: This study report a boy with 46,XX testicular disorder of sex differentiation, showing a de novo partial intragenic duplication of DMRT1. This intragenic duplication may result in a gain of function, acting as primary pro-testis gene (or anti-ovary gene) in a 46,XX human foetus and permitting normal pre-pubertal endocrine testis function.

(1) Background: Mpox was declared an international public health emergency by WHO. Initially, Smallpox vaccine in Italy was offered only to laboratory personnel at direct risk of infection. Currently, Healthcare workers (HCWs) are all considered by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to be at low or moderate risk. (2) Methods: To assess smallpox vaccination coverage among HCWs in an Italian hospital with different levels of risk of exposure to Mpox infection and to assess their attitudes toward vaccination, a self-report was administered to HCWs stratified at high and low/moderate risk. (3) Results: Of the 338 HCWs evaluated, 60.36% provided the requested data; among them the percentage of previously vaccinated staff was 38.7%, which corresponds to 23.4% of the total HCWs in the departments considered. Considering those born before 1979 as vaccinated, vaccination coverage increases from 23.4% to 41.4%. The department with the highest percentage of vaccinated is infectious diseases (60.5%); The percentage of HCWs who adhered to vaccination is 23%; only 8.8% of laboratory staff want to vaccinate, compared with 100% of midwives. The department with the highest percentage of vaccination adherence is proctology (85.7%). (4) Conclusions: Given the vaccination adherence rate and the vaccination coverage of the departments analyzed, it would be useful to extend vaccination against Smallpox to frontline HCWs involved in patient care in Italy too.

Hang-ju was one of five officinal varieties of Flos chrysanthemum for its edible and potable usage. Besides Flos Chrysanthemum (FL), there were also Bud Chrysanthemum (BC) and Fetal Chrysanthemum (FC) at the early and late stage of buds, respectively, in the consumption market of Hang-ju with higher prices. Whether the quality and efficiency of BC and FC was superior to FL or merely consumption misunderstandings? Three commercial products of Hongxinju, a representive cultivar of Hang-ju were studied with a GC-MS based metabolomics approach, complemented with morphology, contents of moisture and protein and the anti-oxidant activity, to reveal the metabolic alterations of violate components in Hongxinju in different flowering stage and at different processing periods. It revealed that most of the violate components were increased from fresh FC to FL, and the low-boiling fractions, inflammatory methyl arachidonate and air-polluting component of ethylbenzene were declined while the representative components with pungent flavor and cool nature of a-curcumene and (Z,Z,Z)-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid, vision improving carotenol of rhodopin and high-boiling fractions were elevated after processed in final FL compared with that in BC and/or FC. Though the content of protein and anti-oxidative capacity of final BC and FC were nearly equal to those of FL, in comprehensive consideration of the representative components related with the efficiency in heat cooling and vision improving, as well as the representative components related with inflammation and air-pollution, final FL was recommended other than BC and FC in the practice of medicine with the yield and quality integrated into account.

Background and Aims: The present study analyzed retrospectively the association between socioeconomic deprivation and graft and patient survival in a cohort of 2,568 adult recipients of a liver transplant between 1996 and 2022. Materials and methods: The primary exposure was a nationally validated socioeconomic deprivation index (DI) at census block level and ranking from 1-5, with higher ranks indicating more significant socioeconomic deprivation. Results: At a median (IQR) follow-up of 144.8 (204) months, the overall patient and graft survival rates were 92% and 90.4% at 1 year, 78.4% and 72.2% at 5 years, and 58% and 56.7% at 10 years. Recipients with a DI rank above the median (i.e., more deprived) had 1, 5, and 10-year patient and graft survival rates of 91% and 89.5%, 70.4% and 68.4%, 48% and 46.7%, respectively, versus 92% and 90.4%, 78.4% and 72.2%, and 58% and 56.7% for less deprived patients (log-rank p<0.001). More deprived patients had a higher risk of death (p<0.0001), hypertension (p<0.0001), obesity (p=0.02), diabetes mellitus (p=0.02), graft rejection (p<0.0001), chronic kidney dysfunction (p<0.0001), major cardiovascular events (p<0.0001) and de novo malignancies (p<0.0001) than less deprived recipients. The factors associated with the survival probability were younger donor and recipient ages (p=0.03 and 0.02, respectively), female recipient sex (p=0.04), absence of HCV (p<0.01), absence of HCC (p=0.02), absence of DM at transplantation (p=0.03) and 1 year (p=0.01), lower DI (p=0.02), lower MELD (0.02), shorter CIT (p=0.03), TAC (p=0.01), and EVR in the immunosuppressive regimen (p=0.02). Conclusions: Patients from more deprived areas have a higher risk of death after liver transplantation. Pre- and post-transplant socioeconomic risk profiling is warranted to better tailor care to patient’s needs and expectations.

We conducted a hybrid-design study on a historical cohort of 359 adult recipients of a liver graft who received transplants between 1996 and 2002. The study aimed to identify predictors of survival and investigate the prevalence of co-morbidities among long-term survivors. The actuarial (95% CI) patient survival of the overall study cohort was 96% (94.6%-98.3%), 69% (64.2%-73.6%), 55% (49.8%-59.9%), 42.8% (37.6%-47.8%), and 34% (29.2%-38.9%) at 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively. The actuarial (95% CI) graft survival was 93.8% (91.6%-97.2%), 67.6% (62.2%-71.5%), 54.3% (49.6%-59.3%), 42.1% (37.3%-47.4%), and 33.8% (29.0%-38.4%) at 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively. The leading cause of death was hepatitis C virus recurrence (24.6%), followed by extrahepatic malignancies (16.9%), infection (14.4%), and hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence (14.4%). The Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that several independent factors were associated with the survival probability. These factors include younger donor and recipient ages (p=0.001 and 0.004, respectively), female recipient sex (p<0.001), absence of HCV (p<0.01), absence of HCC (p=0.001), and absence of diabetes mellitus at one year (p<0.01). At the latest follow-up, the leading comorbidities in the long-term survivors were hypertension (53.6%), obesity (18.7%), diabetes mellitus (17.1%), hyperlipidemia (14.7%), chronic kidney dysfunction (14.7%), and extrahepatic malignancies (13.8%), with 73.9% of patients having more than one complication. The Kaplan-Meier probability (95% CI) of complication-free survival was 65.4% (60.2%-70.3%), 38.4% (33.4%-43.7%), 17.8% (14.1%-22.2%), 7.2% (4.8%-10.5%), and 1.94% (0.85%-4.15%) at 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively. Aging with a liver graft is associated with an increased risk of complications and requires ongoing care to reduce the long-term attrition rate resulting from chronic immunosuppression.

The degree of ore rock fragmentation of mine blasting is an important index for evaluating the effect of engineering blasting. In order to study the effect of millisecond delayed blasting on the internal fragmentation of the ore rock, LS-DYNA numerical simulation software was used to obtain the damage characteristics of the ore rock in the blasting area using the RHT model. The Mohr-Coulomb strength damage criterion was applied to analyze the internal stress state of the ore rock, and the effects of 25ms, 50ms and 75ms delay time conditions on ore rock fragmentation were studied. The results show that, within a certain range of delay time, the degree of rock fragmentation increases with the increase of delay time. The stress state in the ore rock due to blasting is strengthened with the increase of delay time in the direction of the blast hole, which shows that the stress concentration is strengthened from the excavation face to the interior of the ore rock. The damage and the degree of fragmentation show a characteristic relationship of 25ms＜50ms＜75ms, which is verified by carrying out blasting experiments on site.

Semi-continuous data are very common in the social science and economics. In this paper, a Bayesian variable selection procedure is developed to assess the influence of exogenous factors including observed and unobserved on the semi-continuous data. Our formulation is based on the two-part latent variable model with polytomous response. We consider two schemes for the penalties of regression coefficients and factor loadings: the Bayesian spike and slab bimodal prior and the Bayesian lasso prior. Within the Bayesian framework, we implement Markov Chains Monte Carlo sampling method to conduct posterior inference. To facilitate posterior sampling, we recast the logistic model in part one as the norm-like mixture model. Gibbs sampler is designed to draw observations from the posterior. Our empirical results show that with suitable hyper-parameters, the spike and slab bimodal method slightly outperforms the Bayesian lasso in the current analysis. Finally, a real example related to the China household finance survey is analyzed to illustrate the application of the methodology.. .

Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID) is a condition characterized by a strong and persistent identification with the opposite sex. These people consider themselves victims of a sort of biological accident: "a soul in a wrong body". There are numerous theories on the origin of transsexualism: genetic, hormonal and psychological causes have been hypothesized, but those currently most accredited are the neuroanatomical ones. The cornerstones of hormone conversion therapy (Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy, GAHT) are feminizing hormones for transgender women (MtFs) and virilizing for transgender males (FtMs). GID can be present among adolescents and older people. For adolescents is now accepted reversible treatment of puberty withdrawal with hormones that stops the progression of pubertal development in the biological direction not accepted; for elderly people is suggested GAHT in reduced doses. Physicians should consider and discuss with people with GID about fertility preservation, general and cancer risks. We present also data of 127 transsexual patients enrolled at the Garibaldi-Nesima Andrology Clinic in Catania (Italy) from 2003 to 2020. To optimize the conversion treatment with sex hormones, transsexuals require long-term follow-up. GAHT must be performed by a doctor who is familiar with these problems. Therefore, the “do-it-yourself” trend and the lack of medical and laboratory checks over time should be absolutely discouraged. Before proceeding with the surgical sex reassignment, it is recommended to refer to an endocrinologist and psychologist or psychiatrist for a period of 2-3 years. The transition surgical conclusion process must be practiced by a quality surgical team.

The group delay response of chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBG) written in polarization-maintaining fiber can be measured using the beat spectrum of the reflections from the two polarization axis, with a resolution and reproducibility better than 50 fs. The method is theoretically described, and we analyze the effect of group delay ripples (GDR) on the performance of a stretcher-compressor pair used in chirped pulse amplification systems. Ripples with a spectral period of the order of the pulse bandwidth are the most deleterious. Those are readily captured with our method, despite the limit on resolution due to the fiber polarization beat length. As a rule of thumb, the GDR should not exceed half the pulse duration. The reconstructed phase of the CFBG is also used to predict the pulse compression performance for a given device. Measurement of GDR as low as 161 fs is experimentally demonstrated.

Reducing the hardness of hard water is of great concern nowadays due to some adverse effects on water pipes, boilers and soap consumption. Using the method of biomineralization to precipitate calcium and magnesium ions to become carbonate minerals was one of the most important innovations for reducing the hardness of hard water. The present study sought to explore the physical and chemical conditions of carbonates bio-precipitation and the potential use of Bacillus licheniformis SRB2 strain (GenBank: KM884945.1) isolated from sludge sample of Moshui River (Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, China) in reducing the hardness of hard waters by the induction of carbonate minerals. In this study, B. licheniformis SRB2 strain was identified based on the morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA gene sequence homology analysis. The carbonate minerals induced by B. licheniformis bacteria in the liquid culture medium with 3% NaCl and Mg/Ca molar ratio of 0, 6, 8, 10 and 12 were investigated. The culture medium was inoculated with the bacterial liquid seed was set as the experimental group and the other culture medium was inoculated with the same volume of distilled water was set as the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray detector, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. The bacterial concentrations and pH values of the solution were measured by a spectrophotometer and a pH meter, respectively. The urease secreted by B. licheniformis SRB2 was found to greatly increase the pH values of the liquid medium, which favored the formation of calcium carbonate.As a result, Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion concentrations decreased greatly due to the biomineralization of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals in the presence of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacterium. There were only few calcium carbonates and no nesquehonite minerals in the control groups. It was also found that the minerals of nesquehonite induced by B. licheniformis SRB2 had a phenomenon of preferred orientation. What was more, even though Mg²⁺ ions inhibited the precipitation of Ca²⁺ ions, but under the action of B. licheniformis SRB2 bacteria, the inhibition effect was significantly declined. The bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate and nesquehonite minerals may represent a new method of pretreatment for the hardness reduction of hard water. The accomplished study is of certain interest for interpretation of the carbonates biomineralization in natural environment, and maybe also has a certain application value in the former processing of hard water

To obtain long-term data on the use of everolimus in patients who underwent liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma, we conducted a retrospective, single-center analysis of adult recipients transplanted between 2013 and 2021. Patients on everolimus-incorporating immunosuppression were matched with those on tacrolimus using an inverse probability of treatment weighting methodology. Two propensity-matched groups of patients were thus compared: 233 (45.6%) receiving everolimus versus 278 (54.4%) on tacrolimus. At a median (interquartile range) follow-up of 4.4 (3.8) years after transplantation, everolimus patients showed a reduced risk of recurrence versus tacrolimus (7.7% versus 16.9%; RR=0.45; P=0.002). At multivariable analysis, microvascular infiltration (HR=1.22; P<0.04) and a higher tumor grading (HR=1.27; P<0.04) were associated with higher recurrence rate while being within Milan criteria at transplant (HR=0.56; P<0.001), a successful pre-transplant downstaging (HR=0.63; P=0.01) and use of everolimus (HR=0.46; P<0.001) had a positive impact on the risk of post-transplant recurrence. EVR patients with earlier drug introduction (30 days; P<0.001), longer treatment duration (P<0.001), and higher drug exposure (5.9ng/mL; P<0.001) showed lower recurrence rates versus TAC. Based on our experience, everolimus provides a reduction of the relative risk of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence, especially for advanced-stage patients and those with earlier drug administration, higher drug exposure, and longer time on treatment. These data advocate for early everolimus introduction after liver transplantation to reduce the attrition rate consequent to chronic immunosuppression.

High density of buildings and the large traffic volume of cities give rise to narrow spaces and high passenger flows in most subway stations. When evacuation is required during an emergency, these problems may trigger issues in operational safety. Therefore, it is imperative to comprehensively assess subway station emergency evacuation times and capacities during the operating process to ensure the design is safe, science-based, and rational. To further enhance safe evacuation capacity, this paper proposes an overall evacuation time model that considers the multielement charac-teristics of subway stations in multiple segments. The evacuation route is decomposed into five stages according to the critical nodes in the evacuation process. An overall emergency evacuation time model is established based on the diversity of bottlenecks in the five stages, integrating elements such as the horizontal movement velocity of passengers, subway equipment parameters, and human density. Taking Xi’an Wulukou Subway Station as an example, this paper verifies the outcomes of the theoretical model against the Pathfinder software and conducts additional anal-yses of the evacuation conditions of stairs and exits. The results show that the error between the theoretical emergency evacuation time and simulation evacuation time was 5.4%, The emergency evacuation model established in this study boasts strong robustness and stability.

Enveloped viruses represent a significant category of pathogens that cause serious diseases in animals. These viruses express envelope glycoproteins that are singularly important during infection of host cells by mediating fusion between the viral envelope and host cell membranes. Despite low homology at protein levels, three classes of viral fusion proteins have, as of yet, been identified based on structural similarities. Their incorporation into viral particles is dependent upon their proper sub-cellular localization after being expressed and folded properly in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, viral protein expression can cause stress in the ER, and host cells respond to alleviate the ER stress in the form of the unfolded protein response (UPR); the effects of which have been observed potentiating or inhibiting viral infection. One important arm of UPR is to elevate the capacity of the ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD) pathway, which is comprised of host quality control machinery that ensures proper protein folding. In this review, we provide relevant details regarding viral envelope glycoproteins, UPR, ERAD, and their interactions in host cells.

We study a two-echelon supply chain made up of a supplier and a manufacturer, both of which can reduce their component/product carbon emissions. With the vertical technology spillovers, we explore the optimal decisions of centralized and decentralized supply chains with price dependent demand and propose coordination strategy for the decentralized supply chain. Considering the cost contraction effectiveness of the technology spillovers, the centralized and decentralized game theoretic models of a two-echelon supply chain are developed to investigate optimal decisions of pricing and carbon emissions reduction. Through a systematic comparison and numerical analysis, we show that the profits of both players and the entire supply chain improve with the effect of technology spillovers increasing. Carbon emissions reduction will be taken by various protective measures so that the supplier and the manufacturer who do not innovate can hardly share the results of innovating via the “free-riding” methods when the technology spillover is relatively small. We also propose a revenue-cost sharing contract through bargaining to enhance the performance of the decentralized supply chain.

Earth observation satellites can capture images of specific areas in Earth's orbit based on user requirements. Despite the high demand for satellite imagery, satellites remain a scarce resource. When there are many observation tasks that are large and dense, they may interfere with each other due to satellite mobility. To address this issue, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on a task merging mechanism has been proposed. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to the problem: task merging phase and merging task scheduling phase. The task merging phase introduces two methods based on Mean Shift and Complete Graph to generate the merging task set. In the merging task scheduling phase, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on merging tasks is employed to solve the problem. Finally, certain measurement experiments suggest the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Microplastics pollution in sugarcane areas of China is severe, and reducing their ecological risks is critical. This study aims to explore the effects and mechanisms of microplastics combined with or without biochar on sugarcane growth, soil biochemical properties in red soil by a potted experiment. The results showed that compared with control (CK), microplastic alone treatments reduced the dry biomass of sugarcane, soil pH and the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents, obviously decreased the observed_OTUs, Chao1 and Shannon indices of soil total bacteria (16S rRNA gene-based bacteria) while increasing them in phoD-harbouring bacteria. Interestingly, microplastics combined with biochar could alleviate the negative effects of microplastic accumulation on sugarcane growth and soil quality. There were significant differences in the bacterial community compositions among different treatments. Compared with CK, all other treatments significantly decreased the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadota while only microplastic combined with biochar treatments significantly increased the abundance of Subgroup_10 for the 16S rRNA gene, and only microplastic alone treatments significantly increased the relative abundance of Streptomyces for the phoD gene. Moreover, the treatments with microplastics combined with biochar increased the relative abundance of Subgroup_10 and Bradyrhizobium while decreased the IMCC26256 and Streptomyces compared with that in the treatment with microplastics alone. Correlation analysis showed that Subgroup_10 and Bradyrhizobium were significantly positively correlated with sugarcane biomass and several soil properties, while IMCC26256 and Streptomyces were just the opposite. Additionally, different treatments also changed the abundance of potential microbial functional genes. Compared to CK, other treatments increased the abundance of aerobic_ammonia_oxidation, denitrification while decreased the abundance of nitrate_respiration, nitrogen_respiration; meanwhile, these four functional genes involved in N cycling processes were obviously higher in treatments with microplastics combined with biochar than in treatments with microplastic alone. In conclusion, microplastics combined with biochar could alleviate the negative effects of microplastic accumulation on sugarcane growth by improve soil nutrients and microbial community structure and function.

Music therapy has served as complementary and alternative medicine for various neurological disorders. Five Phases Music Therapy (FPMT) employs the theory of five phases and five music scales or tones (宫Gong (do), 商Shang (ri), 角Jue (mi), 徵Zhi (so) and 羽Yu (la)) to analyze and treat mind-body illness. In Chinese Medicine (CM), the five music scales are used to connect the human body and the universe, interpret personalities and constitution and analyze the influences of climatic changes on health. FPMT has a self-contained theory and routine of practice application. Large amounts of clinical and fundamental reports have been available and clinical benefits have been obtained. However more systemic clinic research esp. evidence-based and random controlled trials must be performed to validate and optimize its routines and biological and neurological mechanism must be further explored. It’s reasonable to believe that the effective music therapy will attract more attention from the world outside China with the introduction of FPMT.

This paper analyzes and compares models for predicting average magnet losses in interior permanent-magnet motors with fractional-slot concentrated windings due to harmonics in the armature reaction (assuming sinusoidal phase currents). Particularly, loss models adopting different formulations and solutions to the Helmholtz equation to solve for the eddy currents are compared to a simpler model relying on an assumed eddy-current distribution. Boundaries in terms of magnet dimensions and angular frequency are identified (numerically and using an identified approximate analytical expression) to aid the machine designer whether the more simple loss model is applicable or not. The assumption of a uniform flux-density variation (used in the loss models) is also investigated for the case of V-shaped and straight interior permanent magnets. Finally, predicted volumetric loss densities are exemplified for combinations of slot and pole numbers common in automotive applications.

The surface defects of shield subway tunnel can significantly affect the serviceability of the tunnel structure and may compromise the operation safety. To effectively detect the multiple surface defects, this research employs a tunnel inspection trolley (TIT) based on the mobile laser scanning technique. By conducting the inspection of the shield tunnel on a metro line section, various surface defects are identified by the TIT, including water leakage defect, dislocation, spalling, cross-section deformation, etc. To explore the root causes of the surface defects, the association rules between different defects are calculated via an improved Apriori algorithm. Results show that: i) there are significant differences in different association rules of various surface defects of the shield tunnel; ii) the average confidence of the association rule “dislocation &amp; spalling → water leakage” is as high as 57.78%, indicating that most of the water leakage defects are caused by dislocation and spalling of the shield tunnel in the sections being inspected; iii) the weakest rule appears at “water leakage → spalling”, with the average confidence of 13%. The association analysis can be used in predicting the critical defects influencing the structural reliability and operation safety, such as water leakage, and optimizing the construction and maintenance work for the shield subway tunnel.

Human pose estimation is a complex detection task in which the network needs to capture the rich information contained in the images. In this paper, we propose MSTPose (Multi-Scale Transformer for human Pose estimation). Specifically, MSTPose leverages a high-resolution Convolution neural network (CNN) to extract texture information from images. For the feature maps from three different scales produced by the backbone network, each branch performs the coordinate attention operations. The feature maps are then spatially and channel-wise flattened, combined with keypoint tokens generated through random initialization, and fed into a parallel Transformer structure to learn spatial dependencies between features. As the Transformer outputs one-dimensional sequential features, the mainstream two-dimensional heatmap method is abandoned in favor of one-dimensional coordinate vector regression. The experiments show that MSTPose outperforms other CNN-based pose estimation models and demonstrates clear advantages over CNN + Transformer networks of similar types.

Nanosystems-based antifungal agents have emerged as an effective strategy to address issues related to drug resistance, drug release, and toxicity. Among the different materials used for drug delivery, multifunctional polymers have proven to be ideal due to their versatility. This review provides an overview of the various types of nanoparticles used in antifungal drug delivery systems, with a particular emphasis on the types of polymers used. The review focuses on the application of drug delivery systems and the release behavior of these systems. Furthermore, the review summa-rizes the critical physical properties and relevant information utilized in antifungal polymer nanomedicine delivery systems, and briefly discusses the application prospects of these systems.

Contrary to optical images, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images are in different electromagnetic spectrum where the human visual system is not accustomed to. Thus, with more and more SAR applications, the demand for enhanced high-quality SAR images has increased considerably. However, high-quality SAR images entail high costs due to the limitations of current SAR devices and their image processing resources. To improve the quality of SAR images and to reduce the costs of their generation, we propose a Dialectical Generative Adversarial Network (Dialectical GAN) to generate high-quality SAR images. This method is based on the analysis of hierarchical SAR information and the “dialectical” structure of GAN frameworks. As a demonstration, a typical example will be shown where a low-resolution SAR image (e.g., a Sentinel-1 image) with large ground coverage is translated into a high-resolution SAR image (e.g., a TerraSAR-X image). Three traditional algorithms are compared, and a new algorithm is proposed based on a network framework by combining conditional WGAN-GP (Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network - Gradient Penalty) loss functions and Spatial Gram matrices under the rule of dialectics. Experimental results show that the SAR image translation works very well when we compare the results of our proposed method with the selected traditional methods.

This proposal describes the design and development of an interoperable application that supports green open access with long-term sustainability and improved user experience of article deposit. Introduction: The lack of library resources and unfriendly repository user interface are two significant barriers that hinder green open access. Tasked to implement the open access mandate, librarians at an American research university developed a comprehensive system called Easy Deposit 2 to automate the support workflow of green open access. Implementation: Easy Deposit 2 is a web application that is able to harvest newly publications, outreach for manuscript on behalf of the library, and facilitate self-archiving to IR. It is developed and maintained by the library and integrated with the IR. Results and Discussion: The article deposit rate is about 25% with Easy Deposit 2, which increases significantly comparing to the previous period. It also serves as a local database for faculty publications with open access status. The lesson learned is that library cannot rely on a single commercial provider for publication data due to mismatched priorities. Conclusion: Recent IT developments provides new opportunities of innovation like Easy Deposit 2 in supporting open access. Academic librarians are vital in promoting "openness" in scholarly communication such as transparency and diversity in the sharing of publication data.

In fuzzy decision problems, the ordering of fuzzy numbers is the basic problem. Among which, the fuzzy preference relation is the reasonable one to represent preference relation by a fuzzy membership function. This paper studies the Nakamura’s and Kołodziejczyk’s preference relations. Eight cases of representing different level of overlapping between two triangular fuzzy numbers are considered. We analyze the ranking behaviors of all possible combinations of decomposition and intersection of two fuzzy numbers for the Nakamura’s and Kołodziejczyk’s preference relations of these test cases. The results indicate that the decomposition and intersection can affect the fuzzy preference relations, thereby the final total order relation of fuzzy numbers.

Embryo and fetus grow in a hypoxic environment. Intrauterine oxygen levels fluctuate throughout the pregnancy allowing the oxygen to modulate apparently contradictory functions, such as the expansion of stemness but also differentiation. We have recently demonstrated that in the last weeks of pregnancy oxygenation progressively increases, but the trend of oxygen levels during the previous weeks remains to be clarified. In the present study, umbilical venous and arterial oxygen levels, fetal oxygen extraction, oxygen content, CO2, and lactate were evaluated in a cohort of healthy newborns with gestational age &lt; 37 weeks. A progressive decrease in pO2 levels associated with a concomitant increase in pCO2 and reduction of pH has been observed starting from the 23rd week until approximately the 33-34th week of gestation. Over this period, despite the increased hypoxemia, oxygen content remains stable thanks to increasing hemoglobin concentration, which allows the fetus to becoming more hypoxemic, but not more hypoxic. Starting from the 33-34th week, fetal oxygenation increases and ideally continues following the trend recently described in term fetuses. The present study confirms that oxygenation during intrauterine life continues to vary even after placenta development, showing a clear biphasic trend. Fetuses, in fact, from mid-gestation to near-term become progressively more hypoxemic. However, starting from the 33-34th week, oxygenation progressively increases until birth. In this regard, our data suggest that the placenta is the hub that ensures this variable oxygen availability to the fetus, and we speculate that this biphasic trend is functional to the promotion, in specific tissues and at specific timing, of stemness and intrauterine differentiation.

The secondary structures of Scherer commonly known as perineuronal and perivascular satellitosis have been identified as a histopathological hallmark of diffuse, invasive, high-grade gliomas. They are recognized as perineuronal satellitosis when clusters of neoplastic glial cells surround neurons cell bodies and perivascular satellitosis when such tumour cells surround blood vessels infiltrating Virchow-Robin spaces. In this review, we provide an overview of emerging knowledge regarding how interactions between neurons and glioma cells can modulate tumour evolution and how neurons play a key role in glioma growth and progression, as well as the role of perivascular satellitosis into mechanisms of glioma cells spread. At the same time, we review the current knowledge about the role of perineuronal satellitosis and perivascular satellitosis within the tumour microenvironment (TME), in order to highlight critical knowledge gaps in research space.

It is proved that there exist two odd prime numbers, p_i and p_j , such that p_i + p_j = 2r + 2(r ⩾ 2), where p_n denote the n-th odd prime number, 1 ⩽ i, j ⩽ n. By the theory of generating functions, we prove that there exist two positive integers, h_i and h_j , such that h_i + h_j = r(r ⩾ 2), where h_n = (p_n − 1)/2，(p_n ⩾ 3).Then we complete the proof.

Copper-based nanoparticles were synthesized using the glycine–nitrate process (GNP) by using copper nitrate trihydrate [Cu(NO₃)₂‧3H₂O] as the main starting material and glycine [C₂H₅NO₂] as the complexing and incendiary agent. The as-prepared powders were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Using Cu(NO₃)₂.3H₂O as the oxidizer (N) and glycine as fuel (G), we obtained CuO, mixed-valence copper oxides (CuO + Cu₂O, G/N = 0.3–0.5), and metallic Cu (G/N = 0.7). The XRD and BET results indicated that increasing the glycine concentration (G/N = 0.7) and reducing particle surface area increased the yield of metallic Cu. The effects of varying reaction parameters such as catalyst activity, catalyst dose, and H₂O₂ concentration on nonylphenol-9-polyethoxylate (NP9EO) degradation were assessed. With a copper‐based catalyst in a heterogeneous system, the NP9EO and total organic carbon removal efficiencies were 83.1% and 70.6%, respectively, under optimum operating conditions (pH, 6.0; catalyst dose, 0.3 g/L; H₂O₂ concentration, 0.05 mM). The results suggested that removal efficiency increased with an increase in H₂O₂ concentration but decreased when the H₂O₂ concentration exceeded 0.0.5 mM. Furthermore, the trend of photocatalytic activity was as follows: G/N = 0.5 > G/N = 0.7 > G/N = 0.3. The G/N = 0.5 catalysts showed the highest photocatalytic activity and resulted in 94.6% NP9EO degradation in 600 min.

Type two diabetes mellitus (T2DM) represents a chronic condition with increasing prevalence worldwide among the older population. T2DM condition increases the risk of micro and macro-vascular complications as well as the risk of geriatric syndromes as falls, fractures and cognitive impairment. The management of T2DM in the older population represents a challenge for the cli-nician, and a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment should always be prioritized, in order to tailor the glycate haemoglobin target according to functional and cognitive status comorbidities, life ex-pectancy and type of therapy. According to the most recent guidelines, older adults with T2DM should be cathegorized in three groups: healthy patients with good functional status, patients with complications and reduced functionality and patients at the end of life; for each group the target for the glycemic control is different, also according to the type of treatment drug. The therapeutic ap-proach should always begin with lifestyle changes; after that, several lines of therapies are available, with different mechanism of action and potential effect other than glucose level reduction. Partic-ular interest is growing around sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, due to their effect on the cardiovascular system. In this review we evaluate the therapeutic options available for the treat-ment of older diabetic patients, to ensure a correct treatment approach

Many corporations have now revised their value statements to showcase their commitment to sustainable development and green business due to the pressing issues of climate and environmental damage. Despite the importance of value statements that can direct companies to achieve sustainable goals, what kind of values can be perceived as organizational orientations to sustainability remains unknown. This study explores how the general public views the inclusion of sustainable components in value statements from the listed companies in Hong Kong by using Q-sort methodology (n = 30). Analyzing the final sample of 40 value statements extracted from 27 listed companies, we identified three factors related to sustainability, namely, Empowering business process management, Empowering customer-centric excellence, and Empowering sustainable progress. This study provides an additional component to the traditional triple bottom line by suggesting that internal operation of a company is an emerging idea to understand corporate sustainability.

After the end of colonial rule in 1997, the Hong Kong education system has been experiencing a policy reform on Senior Secondary Education (NSS) Curriculum commenced in September 2009 aiming to educate students as globalized Hong Kong citizens for the Western. Although previous scholars argued that it is hard to differentiate between domestic values and the Western values in account of curriculum development (Sewpaul, 2007), this study demonstrates an analysis using the dichotomy to investigate how local curriculum, especially in the post-colonial areas, embrace both the Western values and domestic values. Using content analysis on the NSS curriculum guides, this article evaluates the influence of the Western values and Chinese values in the NSS curriculum through investigating: (1) how the Western values and Chinese values was incorporated into the curriculum throughout its development (2) why some values are more significantly highlighted in the curriculum guide. Findings include that more Chinese values are involved in the curriculum documents. This may be because of the upholding of domestic values as a post-colonial city. The Western values which are academically related are greatly incorporated into the local curriculum.

Due to increasing concerns about global warming and energy crisis, intensive efforts have been made to explore renewable and clean energy sources. Single-atom metals and two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have attracted extensive attention in the fields of energy and environment because of their unique electronic structures and excellent properties. In this review, we sum-marize the state-of-art progress on the single-atom metal supported at 2D MoS2 (single-atom metal/2D MoS2) for electrochemical CO2 reduction and water splitting. First, we introduce the advantages of single-atom metal/2D MoS2 catalysts in the fields of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction and water splitting, followed by the strategies for improving electrocatalytic performances of single-atom metal/2D MoS2 hybrid nanomaterials and the typical preparation methods. Further, we discuss the important applications of the nanocomposites in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction and water splitting via some typical examples, particularly focusing on their synthesis routes, modification approaches, and physiochemical mechanisms for improving their electrocatalytic performances. Finally, our perspectives on the key challenges and future directions of exploring high-performance metal single-atom catalysts are presented based on recent achievements in the development of single-atom metal/2D MoS2 hybrid nanomaterials.

In-depth research on the rehabilitation mechanism and motion characteristics of a rehabilitation training robot based on 4-UPUS parallel mechanism. The overall design and the working principle of each key component are explained, and the robot rehabilitation scheme is described. The static analysis and modal analysis of the robot bearing structure are carried out to verify whether the static mechanical characteristics of the mechanism meet the application requirements under working conditions.A simplified mathematical model of the six-bar linkage mechanism is established, and the kinematics of the mechanism is solved by the geometric analysis method. The motion characteristic diagram of each key point is obtained through simulation calculation. Establish the motion model of the parallel mechanism, and discuss the working space and motion performance analysis of the mechanism. The forward solution analysis of the mechanism position is carried out by using the numerical analysis method, and the three-dimensional graphics of the attitude angle and linear displacement of the reachable working space are obtained.Taking the UPUS single branch chain as the analysis object, the single open chain analysis method is used to solve the kinematics image of the corresponding surface in the working space of the mechanism, which verifies the correctness of the kinematics theoretical solution and the feasibility of simulation.The research results show that the 4-UPUS parallel mechanism rehabilitation training robot can cooperate with the ankle joint for rehabilitation training. It makes up for the single movement of the current lower limb rehabilitation robot and the unsatisfactory rehabilitation effect, and provides a reference for the practical application of the subsequent ankle joint rehabilitation robot system.

Faced with difficulties stemming from the complex interactions between tight gas sand bodies and fractures when describing and identifying reservoirs, a composite reservoir model was established. By setting the supply boundary to characterize the superposition characteristics of sand bodies, a mathematical model of unstable seepage in fractured vertical wells in tight sandstone gas reservoirs was constructed considering the factors such as stress sensitivity, fracture density and fracture symmetry. The seepage law and pressure response characteristics of gas well in tight sandstone discontinuous reservoir with stress sensitivity, semi-permeable supply boundary and complex fracture topology were determined, and the reliability of the model was verified. The research results more accurately depict the pressure characteristic curve of the superposed sand body complex fracture vertical well, and provide a more comprehensive model for tight gas production dynamic analysis and well test data analysis, which can more accurately guide the dynamic inversion of reservoir and fracture parameters.

This study aims to test a model linking destination image, perceived value, tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty. Based on a sample of 300 tourists travelling by car from the World Natural Heritage Site of Tianchi, China, a new model of destination image was explored and data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that perceived value and satisfaction are direct antecedents of destination loyalty. Above all, perceived value and tourist satisfaction mediate the relationship between destination image and loyalty. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical and management implications of the findings in order to boost the tourism industry in the context of car trips.

Pancreatitis and alcoholic pancreatitis are serious health concerns, and there is an urgent need for effective treatment strategies. Alcohol is a known etiological factor for pancreatitis, including acute pancreatitis (AP) and chronic pancreatitis (CP). Excessive alcohol consumption induces many pathological stress responses; of particular note is endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and adaptive unfolded protein response (UPR). ER stress results from the accumulation of unfolded/misfolded protein in the ER and is implicated in the pathogenesis of alcoholic pancreatitis. Here we summarize the possible mechanisms by which ER stress contributes to alcoholic pancreatitis. We also discuss potential approaches targeting ER stress and UPR for developing novel therapeutic strategies for the disease.

The active layer thickness (ALT) is affected by local soil material and surface vegetation coverage in Tibetan plateau permafrost region. The human activities and engineering construction along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH) destroyed the surface vegetation coverage, which have seriously influenced the ALT and heat exchange balance. Meanwhile, the changes of the detailed internal structure in the active layer will affect the stability of engineering infrastructure. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to detect the ALT in the permafrost region. However, researches on the detailed structure of the active layer and spatial variation information of ALT are rare, the main reason given for this is that the lack of advanced imaging techniques to enhance the GPR images. In this paper, the researchers focus on solving this problem by applying the reverse time migration (RTM) method to GPR field data acquired in the Beiluhe region. Analyses of the results led to conclusions as follows: a) The RTM algorithm is proved to be accurate for imaging the characteristics of the active layer through the dielectric constant model obtained by common midpoint and GPR data velocity analysis. b) The result of RTM profiles show the loose structure and graben-like fine internal structure. Combining with drill data and soil materials information, the researchers deduce the graben-like structure might be coarse gravel layer, which may be related to subgrade settlements in some local area. c) The 2D contour maps not only show the spatial variation feature of ALT at two sides of the highway, but also can compensate the defect of the research for single 2D survey line. The ALT is about 0.6~0.8 m in most areas, and about 0.8~0.9 m near the highway at west side of the QTH on the 2D contour maps. From the RTM interpretation profile, the closer to the plash, the deeper thawed active layer. The detailed internal structure of the active layer and 2D contour maps of ALT have great significance for the study of fine internal structure and the characteristic of ALT spatial variation in the Tibetan plateau under the background of climatic change.

Fast 3D reconstruction with semantic information on road scenes is of great requirements for autonomous navigation. It involves issues of geometry and appearance in the field of computer vision. In this work, we propose a method of fast 3D semantic mapping based on the monocular vision. At present, due to the inexpensive price and easy installation, monocular cameras are widely equipped on recent vehicles for the advanced driver assistance and it is possible to acquire semantic information and 3D map. The monocular visual sequence is used to estimate the camera pose, calculate the depth, predict the semantic segmentation, and finally realize the 3D semantic mapping by combination of the techniques of localization, mapping and scene parsing. Our method recovers the 3D semantic mapping by incrementally transferring 2D semantic information to 3D point cloud. And a global optimization is explored to improve the accuracy of the semantic mapping in light of the spatial consistency. In our framework, there is no need to make semantic inference on each frame of the sequence, since the mesh data with semantic information is corresponding to sparse reference frames. It saves amounts of the computational cost and allows our mapping system to perform online. We evaluate the system on naturalistic road scenes, e.g., KITTI and observe a significant speed-up in the inference stage by labeling on the mesh.

Meat serves as a vital component of the human diet, offering a rich source of protein and essential trace elements. China stands as both a significant producer and consumer of meat on a global scale, leading the world in terms of total meat production and consumption. As the standard of living within the country continues to rise, there is a growing emphasis on the nutritional value and safety of meat consumption. The tenderness of meat is a critical factor influencing its overall quality. Traditionally, tenderness has been assessed through shear force testing, a method that is inherently destructive, inefficient, and results in considerable sample wastage. In light of these drawbacks, non-destructive testing techniques have emerged as a preferred alternative, promising greater accuracy, efficiency, and convenience without compromising the integrity of the samples. This paper delves into the application of five advanced non-destructive testing technologies in the realm of meat tenderness assessment. These include near-infrared spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, Raman spectroscopy, airflow optical fusion detection, and nuclear magnetic resonance detection. Each technology is scrutinized for its respective strengths and limitations, providing a comprehensive overview of their current utility and potential for future development. Moreover, the integration of these techniques with the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology is explored. The fusion of AI with non-destructive testing offers a promising avenue for the development of more sophisticated, rapid, and intelligent systems for meat tenderness evaluation. This integration is anticipated to significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of quality assessment in the meat industry, ensuring a higher standard of safety and nutritional value for consumers. The paper concludes with a set of technical recommendations aimed at guiding the future direction of non-destructive, AI-enhanced meat tenderness detection, thereby contributing to the ongoing improvement of the meat industry in China and beyond.

(1) Background: Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a syndrome described as secondary when it is the consequence of an organic disorder (s-PPPD) or primary when no somatic triggers cannot be identified. We evaluated a group of patients diagnosed as s-PPPD with Benign Positional Paroxysmal Vertigo (BPPV) as the main somatic trigger with the aim to identify predictive clinical elements of evolution towards PPPD.; (2) Methods: We compared the clinical characteristics of the 51 patients with s-PPPD having as trigger a BPPV (group 1) with 107 subjects diagnosed as BPPV but with no evolution in PPPD (control group). Results: A significant statistical difference in the mean age was found between s-PPPD and the non-s-PPPD group. The latency between the onset of BPPV and the final diagnosis was 25.2 days in the group 1 and 12.8 days in the control group; (4) Conclusions: The parameters mostly involved as potential precipitants of PPPD after BPPV are represented by the age of the patients and a long latency between the onset of BPPV and the final diagnosis: the mean age of the subjects who developed a PPPD following BPPV is significantly higher. These findings lead us to emphasize the importance of an early identification and treatment of BPPV, especially in older patients.

Existing research indicates that mineralization of Carlin-type gold deposit is related to geological structures, but current studies mostly focus on the qualitative association, and lack quantitative analysis of the relationship between mineralization and structural features, which limits the potential for predictive mineral exploration. In this study, the Nibao Carlin-type gold deposit was selected as the research area to conduct three-dimensional geological modeling, spatial analysis, and three-dimensional prospectivity modeling. Spatial analysis revealed that the majority of gold ore bodies are situated near the main fault, with gold mineralization primarily occurring within a spatial range of approximately -80 meters to 20 meters from the main fault plane. This spatial distribution predominantly aligns in a SW-NE direction. Spatial characteristic extraction of fault slope indicators suggests that the slope angles are conducive to the migration and accumulation of ore-forming hydrothermal fluids, with ore body metal content rapidly increasing within an angle range of approximately 20° to 60°. The shape analysis of the mainfault indicates that the principal spaces of mineralization enrichment are within -10m to 20m of the fault plane undulations, where gold resources are concentrated in a relatively flat area. However, the degree of mineralization is more pronounced in the protruding sections than in the depressed areas. The areas with significant dip changes in faults display higher variations in orebody attitudes, with mineralization noticeably weaker in areas where the fault steepness changes markedly. Ore-bearing units exhibit significantly higher grades within the -17° to 3° interval of fault steepness transition. This interval also sees a rapid accumulation of gold resources. The Nibao gold mine's mineralization is derived from deep, ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids ascending along major fractures, precipitating, and accumulating in favorable ore-hosting spaces (faults, anticline cores) and lithological combinations (sedimentary tuffs, tuffs). Three deep potential gold targets were identified, highlighting the deep western edge of the F1 fault and the deep southeast-trending lower plate as prospective areas for future exploration. This study underscores the effectiveness of 3D prospective modeling as an indispensable tool for elucidating the spatial distribution of fault-controlled Carlin-type gold deposits and their tectonic determinants.

This paper examines the relationship between the ratio of independent board member to the financial performance of the company under the mediation of the three pillars of environment, society, and governance (ESG) in Taiwan. The study addresses a research gap between independent directors and corporate financial performance, an issue that is rarely discussed today. The author develops the hypotheses and tests them by applying panel data regression to the data tables taken from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database to analyze data on 173 Taiwanese companies that reported ESG from 2009 to 2021. The results show that the relationship between the ratio of independent directors and financial performance has a positive relationship. At the same time, the 3 pillars of ESG also clearly show the intermediary role in this relationship. Finally, this study provides additional insights into the relationship between the ratio of independent directors and financial performance in the Taiwan context.

Digital wellbeing concerns the balance and health we may experience in digital use, and the existing studies have focused on adolescents and adults. However, young children are more vulnerable to digital overuse and addiction than adults; thus, their digital wellbeing deserves empirical exploration. This scoping review synthesized and evaluated 35 collected studies on young children’s digital use and their wellbeing that were published until October of 2022 to understand the definitions, measurements, contributors, and interventions. The synthesis of evidence revealed that: (1) there was no consensus about its definition; (2) there were no effective measurements of young children’s digital wellbeing; (3) both child factors (duration and place of digital use, child demographic characteristics) and parent factors (digital use, parental perception, and mediation) contribute to young children’s wellbeing; and (4) there were some effective applications and interventions. This review contributes to the theoretical development by mapping the existing work on young children's digital wellbeing, proposing a model, and identifying the research gaps for future studies.

Model selection and model averaging have been the popular approaches in handling modelling uncertainties. Fan and Li(2006) laid out a unified frame work for variable selection via penalized likelihood. The tuning parameter selection is vital in the optimization problem for the penalized estimators in achieving consistent selection and optimal estimation. Since the OLSpost-LASSO estimator by Belloni and Chernozhukov (2013), few studies have focused on the finite sample performances of the class of OLS post-penalty estimators with the tuning parameter choice determined by different tuning parameter selection approaches. We aim to supplement the existing model selection literature by studying such a class of OLS post-selection estimators. Inspired by the Shrinkage Averaging Estimator (SAE) by Schomaker(2012) and the Mallows Model Averaging (MMA) criterion by Hansen (2007), we further propose a Shrinkage Mallows Model Averaging (SMMA) estimator for averaging high dimensional sparse models. Based on the Monte Carlo design by Wang et al. (2009) which features an expanding sparse parameter space as the sample size increases, our Monte Carlo design further considers the effect of the effective sample size and the degree of model sparsity on the finite sample performances of model selection and model averaging estimators. From our data examples, we find that the OLS post-SCAD(BIC) estimator in finite sample outperforms most of the current penalized least squares estimators as long as the number of parameters does not exceed the sample size. In addition, the SMMA performs better given sparser models. This supports the use of the SMMA estimator when averaging high dimensional sparse models.

Purinergic signaling is that nucleotides (especially ATP) and adenosine are utilized as transmitter molecules, which play an important role in the immune system. In the extracellular ventricle, ATP plays a significant role of pro-inflammatory molecules mainly through activating P2 receptors, while adenosine plays the role as anti-inflammatory molecule mainly through activating P1 receptors. As we know，neutrophils are the most abundant immune cells in our circulation and have become an essential part of coordinating a series of complex events during inflammatory diseases. However, due to the destruction of inflammatory substances from neutrophils, the activation of neutrophils is fine-tuned, and purinergic signaling is associated with this process. As a matter of fact, altering the balance between P2 and P1 signals is of great importance for neutrophils to exert immune activities properly. Here, we review the role of purinergic signaling in regulatory function of neutrophils during inflammatory disease, and then discuss the potential contribution of targeted purinergic signals in the treatment of the neutrophil during inflammatory diseases.

This study, based on the AISAS model, explores the impact of the interaction effect between visual and auditory signals on consumer purchase behavior. Using experimental methods, 120 participants were randomly assigned to four different visual and auditory signal combinations, and their purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior were measured. The results show that the interaction effect between visual and auditory signals has a significant impact on both purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior, and there is a significant positive relationship. Specifically, when visual and auditory signals are mutually consistent, consumers have the highest purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior; when both visual and auditory signals are absent, consumers have the lowest purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior; when either the visual or auditory signal is missing, consumers' purchase intentions and actual purchase behavior are in between the two extremes. This study provides a new perspective for understanding consumers' decision-making processes in multi-sensory environments and offers valuable insights for the development of marketing strategies.

In rice, symbiotic N fixation via nodule bacteroids does not take place naturally. Although N fixation by endophytic and associative diazotrophs has been reported in rice, main organs and seasonal regulation for the N fixation have not been elucidated. In this study, therefore, seasonal changes of nitrogenase (acetylene reduction) activity and carbohydrate contents in culm internode (IN), basal nodes (BN), and crown root (CR) were investigated in manure compost (MC)- and chemical fertilizer-applied rice. Nitrogenase activity increased after rooting, and reached the highest activity in BN of MC-applied rice at panicle initiation. In BN of MC-applied rice, the sucrose content was low whereas the higher glucose content was detected at panicle initiation. Although bacterial and diazotrophic bacterial populations were most abundant in CR, the nitrogenase activity seemed to be restricted by its trace sucrose and glucose contents. In addition, alpha-Proteobacteria and Clostridia phyla were abundant in BN-specific bacterial microbiota at panicle initiation. These results suggest that the increased N fixation in BN at panicle initiation might be sustained both by the non-structural carbohydrate supply from photosynthetic apparatus and BN-specific bacterial microbiota including diazotrophs.

With the advancement of the economy and society, policymakers acknowledge the significance of improving rural households' well-being as a crucial factor in promoting sustainable economic and social development. Based on the matching data of China Household Finance Survey and Digital Rural County Index, this study empirically examines the effect and mechanisms of digital village construction on subjective well-being of rural households. The results revealed that digital village construction has a significant improvement in their subjective well-being. The impact of digital village construction is particularly significant in rural areas located in the western regions of China, as well as among households possessing higher levels of human capital. The process through which digital village construction enhances the subjective well-being of rural households involves the augmentation of household income, the promotion of non-farm employment opportunities, and the enhancement of rural governance. This study provides robust micro-empirical evidence highlighting the positive welfare effects of digital rural construction. This study provides insights into the digital village construction within the happiness economy framework, offering a new perspective. The imperative to strengthen rural digital infrastructure and improve farmers' proficiency in modern information skills is a strategic policy aimed at enhancing well-being of rural households.

The speech-to-song illusion is a type of auditory illusion that the repetition of a part of a sentence would change people’s perception tendency from speech-like to song-like. The study aims to examine how pace, emotion, and language tonality affect people’s experience of the speech-to-song illusion. It uses a between-subject (Pace: fast, normal, vs. slow) and within-subject (Emotion: positive, negative, vs. neutral; language tonality: tonal language vs. non-tonal language) design. Sixty Hong Kong college students were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions characterized by pace. They listened to 12 audio stimuli, each with repetitions of a short excerpt, and rated their subjective perception of the presented phrase, whether it sounded like a speech or a song, on a five-point Likert-scale. Paired-sample t-tests and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. The findings reveal that a faster speech pace could strengthen the tendency of the speech-to-song illusion. Neither emotion nor language tonality show a statistically significant influence on the speech-to-song illusion. This study suggests that the perception of sound should be in a continuum and facilitates the understanding of song production in which speech can turn into music by having repetitive phrases and to be played in a relatively fast pace.

Soil cadmium (Cd) contamination has become a serious problem in China. In this study, the goals of the field experiments were to understand how the application of nitrogen fertilizer at the full heading stage and filling stage reduced the uptake of Cd in rice by affecting the distribution of Cd in iron plaques on the root surfaces and subcellular in the root and flag leaf. The hydroponic culture experiments aimed to explore the effect of interaction or deficiency of nitrogen and cadmium on cadmium accumulation in rice at the late growth stage. The results showed that under the condition of having enough nitrogen supply during the early growth stage, applying nitrogen fertilizer during the full heading stage and filling stage resulted in a significant increase in the concentration of Fe and Cd on the root plaques at the milk stage and mature stage. Additionally, it increased the concentration and proportion of Cd in the soluble fraction of subcellular in the flag leaves at the milk stage. On the other hand, when there was a deficiency of nitrogen, the concentration of Fe in the root plaques increased significantly, while the concentration of Cd in the root plaques decreased significantly. Moreover, the proportion of Cd in the flag leaf cell walls increased significantly. Regardless of whether there was sufficient or deficient nitrogen supply during the early growth stage, applying nitrogen at the full heading stage reduced the Cd concentration in brown rice by 35.11% and 57.25%, respectively. Under hydroponic culture conditions with both Cd exposure and later-stage nitrogen supply significantly increased the Cd concentration in brown rice. However, in the absence of Cd, nitrogen supply significantly reduced the Cd concentration in brown rice. The accumulation of Cd in brown rice was significantly correlated with the accumulation of Fe and Mn at the late growth stage. Our findings indicate that when there is sufficient nitrogen nutrition during the early growth stage of rice, topdressing nitrogen fertilizer at the full heading stage combined with lime with mineral element fertilizers such as Fe and Mn is an effective approach to reduce the presence of cadmium in rice grains.

The time-dependent behavior and long-term stability of deep-buried tunnels in soft rocks have received lots of considerations in tunnel engineering and allied sciences. To better explore and deepen the engineering application of rock creep, extensive research studies are still needed, although fruitful outcomes have already obtained in many related investigations. In this article, the Weilai Tunnel in China’s Guangxi province is studied taking its host rocks as the main research object. In fact, aiming at forecasting the time-varying deformation of this tunnel, a novel elasto-visco-plastic creep constitutive model with two variants is proposed, by exploiting the typical complex load-unload process of rock excavation. The model is well validated and good agreements are found with the relevant experimental data. Moreover, the time-dependent de-formation rules are properly established for the surrounding rocks, by designing two new closed-form solutions based on the proposed creep model and the Hoek-Brown criterion. The convergence deformations calculated from the closed-form solutions conform well to the on-site monitoring data. In only 27 days after excavation, the creep deformation of the Weilai tunnel overtakes 400 mm, which is enormous. To guarantee the long-term stability of this tunnel, a ro-bust support scheme and its long-term monitoring with appropriate remote sensors are strongly suggested.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are particularly susceptible to respiratory infections like influenza, which exacerbate symptoms and increase healthcare utilization. While smoking cessation and influenza vaccination are recommended preventive measures, their combined impact on healthcare resource utilization is underexplored. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) assesses comorbidity burden in COPD patients and may influence healthcare outcomes. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 357 COPD patients, evaluating smoking cessation success over one year and influenza vaccination receipt, stratifying patients by CCI scores. Healthcare utilization outcomes included emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and medical expenses. Results showed that 51.82% of patients quit smoking and 59.66% received influenza vaccination, with higher comorbidity prevalence in advanced COPD stages (p=0.002). Both smoking cessation and influenza vaccination independently correlated with decreased emergency room visits, hospital admissions, days, and costs. Patients who both quit smoking and received influenza vaccination exhibited the lowest healthcare utilization rates. In conclusion, smoking cessation and influenza vaccination significantly reduce healthcare resource utilization in COPD patients, with the combination yielding synergistic benefits, particularly in those with lower CCI scores. Integrating these interventions and comorbidity management in COPD strategies is essential for optimizing patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.

As a new plant slope protection technology, living stumps can effectively improve slope stability. The current study attemptes to investigate the mechanical characteristics of the root system of living stumps and their reinforcement mechanism on slopes by carrying out a three-dimensional living stump slope modeling test. Using ABS materials, a 3D model of a living elm stump was created by 3D printing and a slope model test was carried out. The reinforcement mechanism of the living stump was studied through a combination of model testing and numerical simulation. The results indicate that, due to the presence of living stumps in the lower and middle parts of the slope, the maximum shear stress area of the soil moved to a deeper direction. The stress state of the soil around the living stump was effectively improved due to the existence of the lateral root system.Living stumps in the lower part of the slope cross the potential sliding surface and transferred the soil shear stress gradually to the root system through root-soil interaction. Moreover, the tap roots and lateral roots of living stumps form a robust spatial structure that bears the shear stress of soil together, thus increasing the stability of the slope.

Cytological diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma (PM) is controversial even using ancillary markers (BAP1, MTAP and CDKN2A). Here, we aimed to prospectively validate a previously developed 117-gene expression panel for the differential cytological diagnosis of epithelioid, biphasic PM and mesothelial hyperplasia. Seventy-seven pleural effusions were classified using the 117-gene expression levels (NanoString system). Sixty-eight cases were also screened for ancillary markers. The performance of both gene panel and ancillary markers was evaluated using ROC metrics. A score using the top consistently deregulated genes between epithelioid and biphasic PM was built to subtype malignant effusions. The panel alone reached a diagnostic accuracy (0.89) comparable to the best marker combination (BAP1 plus MTAP: 0.88). Ancillary tests missed 8 PMs, seven of which were correctly classified by the panel. The score built by averaging the expression levels of MSLN, CLDN15 and CFB showed an accuracy of 0.80 in subtyping epithelioid and biphasic effusions. The 117-gene panel is effective for PM cytological diagnosis of epithelioid and biphasic PM. This tool can be complementary to ancillary markers, reducing invasive procedures and allowing an earlier diagnosis. Finally, the possibility to subtype PM on effusions strengthens the panel role in PM diagnosis and management.

Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall., live in Changbai Mountain being exposed to chilling temperature, high light intensities and water scarcity condition. To adapt to the harsh environment, the cold resistance mechanisms of R. chrysanthum have been successfully evolved in the long-term adaptive process. In our present work, the methods of proteomics combined with physiological and biochemical analyses were used to investigate the effects of cold stress on the photosynthesis and antioxidant system of Rhododendron chrysanthum Pall. and the molecular mechanisms involved in cold resistance of plants. A total of 153 photosynthesis related proteins were identified in present work, of which 7 proteins including Rubisco large subunit (rbcL) were up-regulated in experiment group (EG) compared with control group (CG). Simultaneously, four chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were measured in present study. The results showed that the maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), actual quantum yield of PSII (Y(II)) and photochemical quenching (qP) were significantly higher in EG, whereas the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) was notably decreased. Cold stress could lead to a significant reduction in electron transport rate (ETR) accompanied with an increase in excitation pressure (1-qP). The abundance of PetE which involved in the plants photosynthetic electron transfer was also significantly influenced by cold stress. Moreover, the up-regulated expressions and higher levels of enzymatic activities of Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and Ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) were detected in EG. All these changes which can help plants to survive in low temperature are considered as the crucial parts of cold tolerance mechanisms. These results revealed that photosynthesis and redox adjustment play significant roles in the defense of cold-induced damage.

Studying hydro-meteorological factors variations and its links to large-scale atmospheric circulation systems can facilitate the understanding of the hydrological processes and sustainable water resources management in the source region of the Yangtze River (SRYR). Currently, researches mostly focused on the temporal and spatial variation characteristics in hydro-meteorological factors; however, researches on the hydro-meteorological variations and its links to large-scale atmospheric circulation systems in the SRYR are scarce. Based on long-term hydro-meteorological and reanalysis data, this research investigated multiscale variations of hydro-meteorological factors and its links to large-scale atmospheric circulation characteristic indices during 1957~2012 in the SRYR. The results showed that the amounts of streamflows and precipitation in the SRYR declined during the 1990s. Since the 2000s, the amounts of streamflows and precipitation had increased significantly climate in the SRYR. The change trends of precipitation and streamflows in the SRYR are synergetic at annual and seasonal scales, and have three significant periods, namely 3~5 years, 15–20 years and 30–40 years. The South Asia monsoon (SAM) plays a relatively more important role in the hydro-meteorological factors changes in the SRYR. The relative contributions of SAM to streamflows and precipitation changes were 83.6% and 78%, respectively. During the driest (wettest) year, the SAM is relatively weak (strong), and brings less (more) southwest airflow into the SRYR, less (more) precipitation and streamflows will be generated in the SRYR.

The mechanism underlying microbiologically induced carbonate precipitation have not been thoroughly characterized, although numerous scholars and experts have specifically investigated questions regarding minerals induced by bacteria. The study of the precipitation of carbonate minerals induced by halophilic bacteria has aroused wide concern. The present study aimed to investigate the characterization and process of biomineralization in high salt systems by a halophilic bacterium, Chromohalobacter israelensis strain LD532 (GenBank: KX766026), which was isolated from the Yinjiashan Saltern in China. Carbonate minerals induced by LD532 were investigated in several sets of comparative experiments that employed magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride as Mg resources. Magnesium calcite and aragonite were induced by LD532 bacteria, whereas these minerals did not appear in the control group. The mineral phases, micromorphologies, and crystal structures were analysed using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray detection. The carbonic anhydrase and urease secreted by strain LD532 through metabolism increased the pH value of the liquid medium and promoted the process of carbonate precipitation. Further study using high resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray detection and analysis of ultrathin slices showed that the nucleation sites of carbonate minerals were located on extracellular polymeric substances and the membranes of intracellular vesicles of LD532 bacteria, which provided favourable conditions for the growth of carbonate mineral crystals. The morphologies and compositions of minerals formed in solutions of MgSO₄ and MgCl₂ display significant differences, indicating that different sources of Mg²⁺ may also affect the physiological and biochemical activities of microorganisms and thus mineral deposition. This study will be of some interest for the interpretation of carbonate biomineralization in natural salt environments and has some value as a reference in understanding sedimentary carbonates in ancient marine environments, such as tidal flats.

Given the increased provision of international exchange programmes in higher education, this paper examines students’ perceptions of their learning process in one Erasmus+ programme in Food Innovation and Product Design. Using evaluation model of international exchange programme and triple helix model as the analytical framework, students’ testimonials from 2015–2021 were analysed using a critical discourse analysis. EU and non-EU students had similar perceptions of learning outcomes related to knowledge of the food innovation industry, but non-EU students had a stronger sense of awareness of both the international context and multicultural interaction.

The purpose of this work was to achieve non-destructive detection of the internal defects of in-shell walnuts using X-ray radiography technology based on improved Faster R-CNN network model. First, the FPN structure was added to the feature extraction layer to extract richer image information. Then ROI Align was used to instead of ROI Pooling for eliminating the localization bias problem caused by quantization operation. Finally, the Softer-NMS module was introduced to the final regression layer with the predicted bounding box for improving the localization accuracy of the candidate boxes. The results indicated that the internal defects in intact walnuts with shells could be identified effectively using the proposed improved network model in this study. Specifically, the discrimination accuracy of the in-shell sound, shriveled and empty-shell walnuts were 96.14%, 91.72% and 94.80% respectively, and the highest overall accuracy can reach 94.22 %. Contrasted with original Faster R-CNN network model, the mAP and F1-value of the improved Faster R-CNN model increased by 5.86% and 5.65%, respectively. Consequently, the proposed method can be applied for the in-shell walnuts with shriveled and empty-shell defects.

The effect of seven different thawing methods (atmospheric temperature thawing (AT), microwave thawing (MT), microwave magnetic nanoparticles thawing (MMT), microwave vacuum thawing (MVT), far-infrared thawing (FT), far-infrared magnetic nanoparticles thawing (FMT) and far-infrared ultrasonic thawing (FUT)) on water mobility and microstructure of frozen pork was examined. The results showed that the thawing loss, cooking loss, and centrifugal loss of MVT treatment were lower than those of other thawing methods. The results of LF-NMR and NMRI showed that in MVT and FUT treatment, the proportion of bound water and non-flowing water increased, while the proportion of free water decreased. The microstructure was significantly improved by microwave or far-infrared thawing assisted by magnetic nanoparticles, and the frozen pork samples had a more compact and granular microstructure. In summary, MVT and FUT improved the quality of thawed meat and have broad potential applications in thawing meat.

In recent years, the taxonomy of the families of Phenuiviridae, Nairoviridae, and Peribunyavidae in Bunyavirales was updated frequently, because many novel viruses in these families have been identified and the species demarcation criteria of these families have been changed. As per these criteria and sequence analysis, we found that the taxonomy of 19 species in these families should be revised. We presented six proposals for optimizing virus species taxonomy using the examples from these families. First, the species demarcation criteria for the same family (e.g., Peribunyavidae) should be unified. Second, the methods and parameters for the taxonomic calculation in the same order (e.g., Bunyavirales) should be unified. Third, virus species taxonomy should be based on phylogenetic relationships, rather than a cutoff value of sequence identities that is a self-contradictory demarcation criterion, although sequence identities aid virus taxonomy greatly. Fourth, virus species taxonomy should be based on the phylogenetic relationship of a key viral gene (e.g., the RdRp gene of Bunyavirales), which is important for the taxonomy of virus recombinants or reassortants. Fifth, a virus can be demarcated without a species before its biomedical significance has been revealed. Sixth, names of all viruses and virus species should be constituted exclusively with common characters (English letters and Arab numbers), to minimize difficulty in spelling and communication. These proposals are rational, flexible, and can accommodate all known viruses. They can also bridge the taxonomy history and the future demands due to their flexibility.

Aiming at the problems of high labor intensity and high cost of manual picking, high loss rate of mechanical picking seeds, low mechanization level and difficult to guarantee the quality of picking plates in the process of picking plates of edible sunflower. Based on the principle of manual plate taking, a plate taking control system for sunflower harvesting table was designed. Through the research and analysis of the principle of taking the plate of the edible sunflower harvesting table. According to the actual operation requirements, the overall scheme of the sunflower plate control system is determined, and the control strategy of imitating artificial low loss harvesting is designed. To reduce the grain loss in the process of taking the plate and improve the control accuracy of the system on the movement speed and displacement of the key components in the process of taking the plate, a trapezoidal acceleration and deceleration control algorithm is designed as the control algorithm of taking the plate. To verify the working performance of the plate control system, with the absolute error, relative error and total loss rate of the harvest as objectives. The bench and field verification experiments were both carried out. The bench experiment showed that the speed error of the plate parts was not more than 0.028 m/s. In the bench experiments of the device, the maximum positioning error was 1.25 mm, the average relative error is only 0.94 %, and the grain loss rate was not more than 2.26 %. It result showed that the system algorithm was reliable, the positioning accuracy was high, and the taking plate operation can be completed well. The field verification experiment showed that the forward speed of the unit was in the range of 0.4~0.8 m/s, and the total loss rate of harvest was less than 5 %. When the forward speed is 0.6 m/s, the minimum harvest loss rate is 2.32 %, and which indicated the control system meets the requirements of sunflower harvesting operation.

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) was most important flame retardant in Expanded Polystyrene foam and Extruded Polystyrene foam in the past forty years in the world. China was the major producer and user of HBCD, and the total HBCD production was about 0.3 million tons. Although HBCD has been completely banned in China in 2021 because of its long-range transport, bioaccumulation and toxicity, there's still a lot of residues in environment. Therefore, we reviewed multiple studies concerning the distribution of HBCD in diverse environmental matrices, such as air, dust, soil, water, sediment and biota. Results revealed that HBCD levels in different environments in China present a geographical variation and were at high level compared with other countries. In all environmental media, relatively high HBCD concentrations have been found in industrial and urban areas. Industrialization and urbanization are two important factors that influence the concentration and distribution of HBCD in the environment. In terms of isomer, γ-HBCD was the dominant isomer in soil, water, and sediment, while in the biota, α-HBCD was the predominant isomer.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity are escalating globally among the general population. However, there are limited evidence on the trends and prevalence of overweight /obesity in the military setting. Increased rates of injuries, low work productivity, incurred higher healthcare costs and prematurely discharge from service are consequences of overweight/obesity among the military. Therefore, we aimed to systematically describe the trends and prevalence of overweight and obesity in the military population, by regions and military service branches. Databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar were used. Inclusion criteria were military population (inclusive of all service branches) with BMI reported as the overweight/obesity indicator. Population related to military but not exclusively military personnel such as the retirees, the veterans and their dependents were excluded. From the 27 included studies, 13 were published between year 2010 to 2014 and half were conducted in the United States. Overall, studies showed increasing trend in the prevalence of overweight (30% to 50%) and obesity (2% to 30%); only one study showed a decreasing trend of 0.9% and 0.6% for the prevalence of overweight and obesity respectively. However, the rates of increment differed between countries, where Asian countries demonstrated lower overweight prevalence compared to the United States and the European countries. In conclusion, the military population is not protected from overweight and obesity. Interventions should be implemented to prevent overweight / obesity among the military personnel.

Impact in the form of innovation and commercialisation is an essential component of publicly funded research projects. PHUSICOS, an H2020 Innovation Action project, aims at demonstrating the use of nature-based solutions for mitigating hydrometeorological hazards in rural and mountainous areas. The work program is built around key innovation actions, and each WP leader specifically responsible for nurturing innovation processes, maintaining market focus and ensuring relevance for the intended recipients of the project results. Key success criteria for PHUSICOS include up-scaling and mainstreaming of NBS to reach broader market access. An innovation strategy and supporting tools for implementing this within PHUSICS has been developed and key concepts forming the basis for this strategy are presented in this research note.

Abstract: Over the years, several distinct pathogenic coronaviruses have emerged, including the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 which is difficult to curtail despite the availability of licensed vaccines. The difficulty in managing SARS-CoV-2 is linked to changes in the variants’ proteins, especially in the spike protein (S) used for viral entry. These mutations, especially in the S, enable the virus to evade the immune responses induced by natural infection or vaccination. However, some parts of the SP in the S1 subunit and the S2 subunit are considered conserved among coronaviruses. In this review, we will discuss the epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 S1 and S2 subunit proteins that have been demonstrated by various studies to be conserved among coronaviruses and may be immunogenic for the development of vaccine. Considering the higher conservancy of the S2, we will further discuss the likely challenges that could limit the S2 subunit from inducing robust immune responses and the promising approaches to increase their immunogenicity.

Industrial process control systems commonly exhibit features of time-varying, strong coupling, and strong nonlinearity. Obtaining accurate mathematical models of these nonlinear systems and achieving satisfactory control performance is still a challenging task. In this paper, data-driven modeling techniques and deep learning methods are used to accurately capture a category of smooth nonlinear system’s spatiotemporal features. The operating point of these systems may change over time, and their nonlinear characteristics can be locally linearized. We established the LSTM-CNN-ARX model by utilizing a fusion of long short-term memory (LSTM) network and convolutional neural network (CNN) to fit the coefficients of the state-dependent exogenous variable autoregressive (SD-ARX) model. Compared to other models, the hybrid LSTM-CNN-ARX model is more effective in capturing the nonlinear system’s spatiotemporal characteristics due to its incorporating the strengths of LSTM for learning temporal characteristics and CNN for capturing spatial characteristics. The model-based predictive control (MPC) strategy, namely LSTM-CNN-ARX-MPC, is developed by utilizing the model's local linear and global nonlinear features. The control comparison experiments conducted on a water tank system (WTS) show the effectiveness of the developed models and MPC methods.

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant polyphenol in green tea. In this study, the effects of dietary EGCG on oxidative stress and the metabolism and toxicity of acetaminophen in liver were investigated. Rats were fed the diets with (0.54 %) or without EGCG supplementation for four weeks and were then intraperitoneally injected with acetaminophen (1g/kg). Results showed EGCG lowered hepatic oxidative stress and cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2, 2E1, and 3A, and UDP-glucurosyltransferase activities prior to acetaminophen injection. After acetaminophen challenge, the elevations in plasma alanine aminotransferase activity and histological changes in liver were ameliorated by EGCG treatment. EGCG reduced acetaminophen-induced apoptosis by increasing the Bax/Bcl2 ratio in liver. EGCG mildly increased autophagy by increasing the LC3B II/I ratio. Lower hepatic acetaminophen-glutathione and acetaminophen-protein adducts contents were observed after EGCG treatment. EGCG increased glutathione peroxidase and NAD(P)H quinone 1 oxidoreductase activities and reduced organic anion-transporting polypeptides 1a1 expression in liver after acetaminophen treatment. Our results indicate that EGCG may lower oxidative stress and reduce the metabolism and toxicity of acetaminophen. The reductions in CYP-mediated acetaminophen bioactivation and uptake transporter, as well as enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity, may limit the accumulation of toxic products in liver and thus lower hepatotoxicity

: Cnidium officinale Makino, a perennial crop in the Umbeliperae family, is harvested in the summer for medicinal purposes. The average temperature in Korea has recently increased, and consequently, the area used to cultivate C. officinale has been reduced, and plant disease and soil sickness have increased. In this study, rhizosphere bacteria were isolated from C. officinale, and their antagonistic activity evaluated against Fusarium solani, which is a major issue during repeated cultivation. Twenty-eight strains were isolated from the root and rhizosphere soil, of which seven showed antagonistic activity against F. solani and were further investigated. An in planta test found that the dead rate of shoots was significantly lower in the group inoculated with PT1 isolated from the root tissue and that the fresh and dry weights were also higher, when compared with the other groups. PT1 was thus considered to have antagonistic activity against F. solani. The 16S rRNA analysis identified the PT1 as Leclercia adecarboxylata, and downstream studies confirmed the production of enzymes related to antagonism, such as siderophore and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase. The phosphorous solubilizing ability and secretion of related enzymes were also confirmed. The results indicate that PT1 could be utilized as a PGPR to help control fusarium wilt.

During prolonged standing, insufficient calf muscle pumping accompanies venous stasis and hypertension in the lower legs, resulting in valve dysfunction, venous wall problems, and subsequent inflammation. Compression therapy, which includes medical compression stockings (MCS) and mechanical intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC), is one of the most effective therapeutic interventions for treating chronic venous diseases. This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of IPC and MCS, and the optimal protocol of compression therapy for chronic venous disease. This crossover trial was conducted for healthy, long standing workers (>8 h daily) with leg edema and pain. Four groups were established for each visit: group A (resting after work without MCS), group B (resting after work with MCS), group C (IPC after work without MCS), and group D (IPC after work with MCS). The primary outcome was the visual analogue scale (VAS) score for leg pain. The secondary outcomes were leg volume (mL), circumference (cm), extracellular fluid/total body fluid (ECF/TBF), and extracellular water/total body water (ECW/TBW) through bioimpedance analysis. Outcomes were assessed before work (T0), after work (T1), and 60 minutes after intervention (T2). We included 39 healthy volunteers, aged 30.03±7.56 years. All four groups had significantly increased leg pain after work (T0-1) but improved 60 minutes after intervention (T1-2), particularly group C (decreased VAS by 1.9). When leg swelling was compared at T0 and T1, groups A and C showed significant increases in leg volume and circumference, indicating significant work-induced edema, whereas groups B and D showed no change or even a decrease. After interventions, leg volume and circumference significantly decreased in groups A and C, although groups B and C did not show significant improvement. The ECF/TBF and ECW/TBW of all groups decreased after interventions. Leg pain and edema after prolonged standing in healthy adults were safely and effectively improved by IPC. Although MCS also reduced leg edema immediately after work, it did not show significant improvement in leg pain at T0-1–and T1-2, nor in swelling at T1-2.

Cloud computing has become a widespread technology due to ICT advancements. It allows businesses to move and take advantage of the pay-as-you-go price model. Enterprises pay for what they use and don't have to buy, setup, or maintain resources. However, outsourcing core resources such as storage, servers, operating systems, and software applications from a third party needs careful decisions to take advantage of cloud facilities. Choice of appropriate service provider, deployment and service model must be aligned with business needs and goals. In this paper, we will present cloud computing benefits, cloud deployment methods, services, state-of-the-art migration methods, tools and techniques and will conclude with the role of SDN in cloud computing.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the effects of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) acting on the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) or its receptor (anti-CGRP/R mAbs) on comorbid symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue in migraine patients resistant to traditional prophylaxis. Methods: The study was an open-label prospective study assessing comorbidities in patients with high frequency (HFEM) and chronic migraine (CM), medication overuse headache (MOH), and resistance to traditional prophylaxis treated with anti-CGRP/R mAbs for 3 months. Results: 77 patients were enrolled with either HFEM (21%) or CM (79%) with or without MOH (56% and 44% respectively). We identified 21 non-responders (27%) and 56 responders (73%), defined on the reduction ≥ 50% of headache frequency. The two groups were highly homogeneous for investigated comorbidities. Disease severity in terms of headache frequency, migraine-related disability, and affective comorbid symptoms were reduced in both groups with different thresholds; allodynia and fatigue were ameliorated only in responders. Conclusion: anti-CGRP/R antibodies improve pain together with affection, fatigue, and sensory sensitization in migraine patients.

Abstract: Lipodystrophies (LDs) are rare, complex disorders of the adipose tissue characterized by selective fat loss, altered adipokines profile and metabolic impairment. Sirtuins (SIRTs) are class III NAD+-dependent histone-deacetylases linked to fat metabolism. SIRT1 plays a critical role in metabolic health by deacetylating target proteins in tissues including liver, muscle and adipose tissue. Circulating SIRT1 levels have been found to be reduced in obesity while increased in anorexia nervosa and in patients experiencing weight loss. We evaluated circulating SIRT1 levels in relation to fat amount in 32 lipodystrophic patients affected by congenital or acquired LDs compared to non-LD subjects (24 with anorexia nervosa, 22 normal weight and 24 with obe-sity). SIRT1 serum levels were higher in LDs as compared with normal weight subjects (mean ± SEM: 4.17 ± 0.48 vs. 2.59 ± 0.20 ng/mL) or subjects with obesity (1.7 ± 0.39 ng/mL), whereas they were close to those measured in anorexia nervosa (3.44 ± 0.46 ng/mL). Our findings show that within the LD group there was no relationship between SIRT1 levels and the amount of body fat. The mechanisms responsible for secretion and regulation of SIRT1 in LD deserve further investi-gation.

Heptanuclear {GdIII7} (complex 1) and tetradecanuclear {GdIII14} (complex 2) have been synthesized using a Rhodamine 6G ligand HL (Rhodamine 6G salicylaldehyde hydrazone) and characterized. Complex 1 has a rare disc-shaped structure, where the central Gd ion was connected to the peripheral six GdIII ions via CH3O-/μ3-OH- bridges. Complex 2 has an unexpected three-layer double sandwich structure with a rare μ6-O2- ion in the center of the cluster. Magnetic studies revealed that complex 1 exhibits a magnetic entropy change of 17.4 J kg−1 K−1 at 3 K and 5 T. On the other hand, complex 2 shows a higher magnetic entropy change of 22.3 J kg−1 K−1 at 2 K and 5 T.

Tourism activities generally have a ∩-type lock on the level of tourism ecological security in an area, but when applied to the border areas of China, there are certain specificities in the spatial evolution of tourism ecological security (TES) compared to traditional findings. This paper measures tourism ecological security in China’s border areas from 2009 to 2020 by using the DPSIR model with the superefficient SBM-DEA and analyzes the spatial differences, evolutionary characteristics, and driving factors of tourism ecological security in border areas by using Pearson’s correlation coefficients, center of gravity models, and geographic probes: (1) The overall tourism ecological security index of China’s border provinces is relatively good. Tourism activities do not completely affect the traditional “∩ lock” of the border provinces. The tourism ecological security level of the border provinces presents three spatial-temporal changes (“∩” type, “U” type, “\” type) and four evolution trends (“high–high–high”, “middle–middle–medium”, “medium–low–low”, and “low–low–low”). (2) The overall tourism ecological security level in border areas is polarized between high and low levels, and the ecological security efficiency of the three large areas is spatially characterized as “Southwest Area &gt; Northeast Area &gt; Northwest Area”, and the center of gravity of ecological security is mostly concentrated in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Neimenggu, where the ecological security level is higher. (3) Social and environmental factors are the main factors that influence tourism ecological security in border areas, while economic factors account for a smaller proportion. Accordingly, this thesis also proposes the driving mechanism of the ecological security of tourism sites in border areas in China with a view to providing theoretical support for policy formulation.

When a grid-forming (GFM) inverter is connected to a low or medium voltage weak power grid, the line impedance with resistive-inductive characteristics will cause power coupling. Typical GFM decoupling control strategies are designed under nominal line impedance parameters. However, there are deviations between the nominal line impedance and actual parameters, resulting in poor decoupling effects. Aiming at this problem, this paper proposes a power decoupling strategy based on a reduced-order extended state observer (ESO). Firstly, the power dynamic model of GFM is established based on the dynamic phasor method. Then, the model deviation and power coupling due to line impedance parameter perturbation are estimated as internal disturbances of the system, and the disturbances are compensated on the basis of typical power control strategy and virtual impedance decoupling. Good decoupling performance is obtained under different impedance parameters, improving the control strategy's robustness. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the results of RT Box hardware-in-the-loop experiments.

Based on a rich data set of recoveries donated by a debt collection business, recovery rates for non-performing loans taken from a single European country are modelled using linear regression, linear regression with Lasso, beta regression and inflated beta regression. We also propose a two-stage model: beta mixture model combined with a logistic regression model. The proposed model allows us to model the multimodal distribution we find for these recovery rates. All models are built using loan characteristics, default data and collections data prior to purchase by the debt collection business. The intended use of the models is to estimate future recovery rates for improved risk assessment, capital requirement calculations and bad debt management. They are compared using a range of quantitative performance measures under K-fold cross validation. Among all the models, we find that the proposed two-stage beta mixture model performs best.

The meaning of a good social outcome in land use transport policy/planning has been relatively underdeveloped, compared to economic and environmental sustainability goals, but this is now changing. Cities are increasingly prioritizing reducing social exclusion, with the allied intent of providing all residents with equitable access to the benefits of their city. However, in jurisdictions that use cost-benefit analysis to guide government decision-making, this poses a challenge: monetization of the benefits of reducing social exclusion is poorly developed. An evaluation gap thus confronts benefit-cost based assessment of initiatives intended to reduce social exclusion, compared to initiatives directed towards societal economic and environmental goals. This is a particular problem for public transport services that primarily enable people at risk of mobility-related social exclusion to access more opportunities in their society (social transit). The benefits of reducing social exclusion associated with these services have not been monetized, so social transit initiatives are poorly placed to argue their merits against competing initiatives where benefit monetization is more advanced (e.g., mass public transport and roads). The paper summarizes Australian research that has developed monetized measures for the value of increased trip making, bridging/bonding social capital, sense of community and several conceptions of wellbeing, and of reducing neighbourhood disadvantage, as these contribute to reducing social exclusion. New Singaporean research on the value of trip making to support reduced exclusion is also presented, affirming the Australian trip values. Trip values are then used in case study examples to show they can make a material difference to the societal worth of initiatives intended to reduce exclusion. Using these trip values, and other pathway values linked to reducing social exclusion, closes or at least substantially reduces the evaluation gap confronting social goal achievement in land use transport policy and planning, strengthening the case for reducing exclusion. These values will assist jurisdictions that are seeking to provide their residents with more equitable access to the benefits of their city.

The stability of deep soft rock tunnels is of particular concern under seepage conditions. Aiming at thoroughly discussing the seepage actions and their consequences on the support scheme of such structures, the host rocks of the Weilai Tunnel situated in Guangxi province of China are taken as the research substance. Emphasizing on seepage conditions, stresses, displacements and plastic zone radii along the surrounding rocks of such tunnel are adequately examined taking into consideration the Mogi-Coulomb strain criterion and the elastic-plastic theory. Subsequently, based on strain-softening model, the coupled actions of seepage and softening on the rocks surrounding the tunnel are studied. According to the results, it is revealed that the support scheme of deep soft rock tunnels must be of highest resistance possible to better decrease the plastic zone and the tangential stress along the host rocks. Moreover, throughout the surrounding rocks, the dissemination of pore water pressure is strongly affected by the uneven permeability coefficient under anisotropic seepage states. Combined effects of softening and seepage are very dangerous for the surrounding rocks of deep-buried tunnels. To better guarantee reasonable longevity of such tunnels, long-term monitoring of their support structures with reliable remote sensors is strongly recommended.

A Chinese superalloy GH4099 (~20 vol.% γ' phase), which can operate for long periods of time at temperatures of 1173-1273 K, was fabricated by electron beam melting (EBM). Argon gas atomized (AA) and plasma rotation electrode process (PREP) powders with the similar composition and size distribution were used as raw materials for comparison. Microstructure and mechanical properties of both the as-EBMed and post-treated alloy samples were investigated. The results show that the different powder characteristics resulted in the different build temperatures for AA and PREP samples, which were 1253 K and 1373 K, respectively. With increasing the building temperature, the EBM processing window shifted towards the higher scanning speed direction. Furthermore, intergranular cracking was observed for the as-fabricated PREP sample as a result of local enrichment of Si at grain boundaries. The cracks were completely eliminated by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) and did not re-open during subsequent solution treatment and aging (STA). Fine spherical γ' phase precipitated uniformly after STA. The tensile strength of the HIP+STA samples was ~920 MPa in the building direction and ~850 MPa in the horizontal direction, comparable with that of the wrought alloy.

Chicken infectious anemia (CIA) poses a significant threat to the chicken industry in China. De-spite its non-specific symptoms, the disease is often overlooked. This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the etiology and pathology of CIA in Guangxi Province, China. Three strains of the chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) were isolated from liver samples of diseased 20-week-old chickens. The complete genomes of these strains were sequenced, and experiments on specific pathogen-free (SPF) chicks revealed that the GX21121 strain exhibited high virulence. Histopathological examination of the deceased chicks showed liver cell necrosis, fibrous-serous exudation, inflammatory cell infiltration, hemorrhage in liver tissues, as well as congestion in lung and renal tissues. Phylogenetic analysis of the genome revealed that the three strains had a close genetic relationship to the Heilongjiang wild-type (GenBank KY486144). The genetic evolu-tion of their VP1 genes indicated that all three CIAV isolates belonged to genotype IIIc. In sum-mary, this study demonstrated the genomic diversity of three CIAV strains in adult layer hens. The isolation and characterization of the GX21121 strain as a highly virulent isolate provide val-uable information for further investigations into the etiology, molecular epidemiology, and viral evolution of CIAV.

The rapid development of China's economy has led to a rapid increase in energy production and use. Among them, the excessive consumption of coal in fossil energy consumption is the leading cause of air pollution in China. This paper incorporates renewable energy innovation, fossil energy consumption and air pollution into a unified analysis framework, and uses spatial measurement models to investigate the spatial effects of renewable energy green innovation and fossil energy consumption on air pollution in China, and decomposes the total impact into direct and indirect effects. influences. The empirical results show that China's air pollution, renewable energy green innovation and fossil energy consumption are extremely uneven in geographical space, generally showing the characteristics of high in the east and low in the west, and showing a strong spatial aggregation phenomenon. Fossil energy consumption will lead to increased air pollution, and the replacement of fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy is an important means of controlling pollution emissions. The direct and indirect effects of renewable energy green innovation on air pollution are significantly negative, indicating that renewable energy green innovation not only suppresses local air pollution, but also suppresses air pollution in neighboring areas. The consumption of fossil energy will significantly increase the local air pollution, and the impact on the SO2 and Dust&Smoke pollution in the adjacent area is not very obvious. It is recommended to strengthen investment in renewable energy green innovation, reduce the proportion of traditional fossil energy consumption, and pay attention to the spatial connection and spillover of renewable energy green innovation.

Herpesviridae is a family of enveloped double-stranded DNA viruses that cause a wide range of diseases in hosts. Among the various components of herpesvirus particles, tegument proteins residing between the envelop and nucleocapsid play crucial roles in viral replication, immune evasion, and modulation of host cellular pathways. Understanding the three-dimensional structure of herpesvirus tegument proteins help to reveal the molecular mechanism underlying the crosstalk with other viral and cellular components, and thus is crucial for the investigation of their biological and pathological functions. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the structural features of herpesvirus tegument proteins, highlighting the structure-based functional implications, including the potential as targets for antiviral drug development.

This study aimed to verify the sex differences in early syntactic development among Cantonese-speaking children by Tse et al. (2002), with the same corpus design but a different Chinese language: Mandarin. The utterances produced during half-hour play activities by 192 Beijing children, ranging from 3 to 6 years, were collected in the Early Child Mandarin Corpus (Li &amp; Tse, 2011) and analyzed for this study. Their syntactic development was measured in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU), sentence type and structure, syntactic complexity, and verb pattern. The statistical analyses indicated significant age differences in MLU, sentence types and structures, and syntactic complexity. However, no sex or age-by-sex differences were found. This negative evidence indicates that sex difference is neither universal nor cross-language. The implications for early childhood education and future studies are discussed.

The human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the only known human oncogenic retrovirus. HTLV-1 can cause a cancer called adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). The virus is transmitted through body fluids of infected individuals, primarily breast milk, blood, and semen. At least 5–10 million people in the world are infected with HTLV-1. In addition to ATL, HTLV-1 infection can also cause HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM /TSP). ATL is characterized by low viral ex-pression and poor prognosis. The oncogenesis triggered by HTLV-1 is extremely complex and the molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. However, viral regulatory proteins Tax and HTLV-1 bZIP factor (HBZ) have been shown to play key roles in the transformation of HTLV-1-infected T cells. Moreover, several studies have shown that the final fate of HTLV-1-infected transformed T cell clones is the result of a complex interplay of HTLV-1 oncogenic protein expression with cellular transcription factors that subvert the cell cycle and disrupt reg-ulated cell death, thereby exerting their transforming effects. This review provides updated in-formation on the mechanisms underlying the transforming action of HTLV-1 and the potential therapeutic targets to combat ATL.

With the increase of global human activities, a large number of technogenic magnetic particles (TMPs) generated by industrial activities such as coal combustion, traffic and so on enter sediments on continental shelves. However, there is currently a lack of understanding of the spatiotemporal distribution of TMPs on continental shelves, as well as the sedimentary effects they cause. This review work comprehensively analyzes the source, morphology, composition, and spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of TMPs. Then it elucidates their magnetic contribution to sedimentary environments in continental shelf seas, as well as the influence of heavy metals and active iron. At the same time, the existing problems and future development directions of TMPs on continental shelves are summarized.

This paper focus on the modeling and time-domain analyzing method of piecewise-smooth fractional-order circuit systems. Firstly, an analytical framework is constructed based on a generalized piecewise-smooth two-port impedance network model, which takes the topological characteristics of Dickson type switched-capacitor converters (SCCs) as examples, and considers the fractional-order characteristics of class-2 X7R ceramic capacitors, which are widely used in SCCs. Secondly, the time-domain analyzing method for such a piecewise-smooth fractional-order circuit system is developed, numerical solutions are obtained, and the influence of the fractional-order capacitor on the power conversion efficiency of the system are revealed. Finally, in order to validate the analysis, both numerical simulation and experiments are provided in the work, the results of which confirm that, the proposed fractional-order analytical framework can capture the power loss mechanism of piecewise-smooth fractional-order circuit systems more effectively than the traditional integer-order based approach, thus benefiting the design of circuit systems.

Intense climate change and rapid urbanization have increased the risk of urban flooding, seriously affecting urban economic and social stability. Enhancing the urban flood resilience (UFR) has required a new solution to cope with urban flood disasters. In this study, taking Yingtan city as an example, a system of indicators for evaluating UFR was constructed, with 17 representative indicators, comprising three subsystems: socio-economic, ecological and infrastructural. A hybrid (FAHP-EWM)-TOPSIS model was applied, to develop an index-based measurement to compare and evaluate UFR, and Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) was used to discover the main factors affecting UFR. In addition, the natural discontinuous method was innovatively used to divide the UFR grade interval into levels, and the grade change was evaluated based on the TOPSIS method. The results showed that (1) from 2010 to 2022, the UFR in Yingtan City increased by 80.69%, and the factors affecting UFR are highly correlated with urban infrastructure development. However, the ecological resilience in the subsystem showed a fluctuating downward trend, because of the influence of the surface area of lakes and rivers. (2) The grades of UFR for Yingtan City increased from Level III (2010 and 2016) to Level IV (2022), with local financial expenditures and the age structure of the population being the main factors currently limiting the development of UFR. The study provides a theoretical basis for the construction of an indicator system for assessing the UFR of Yingtan and proposes practical improvement directions for UFR.

Val-Phe-Val-Arg-Asn (VFVRN) has been identified and screened from lipid-lowering chickpea peptides (ChPs) by using a pharmacokinetic model in our previous experiment. The present study was conducted to investigate its effects and mechanisms on lipid metabolism. A high-fat diet C57BL/6J mice model and 3T3-L1 preadipocyte cell model were used. VFVRN was found to significantly decrease the levels of some blood lipids. The expressions of LDL receptor (LDLR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR)α, liver X receptor (LXR)α, cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) in liver were up-regulated by VFVRN treatment. The expressions of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGR), fatty acid synthetase (FAS), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthetase (ACC), sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c and SREBP-2 in liver were significantly (P<0.05) down-regulated. Additionally, the expressions of PPARα and PPARγ in adipose tissues were up-regulated by VFVRN significantly (P<0.05). VFVRN might also contribute to transintestinal cholesterol efflux (TICE) by up-regulating the expressions of LXRα and ATP binding cassette G5/8 transporters (ABGC5/8). Moreover, VFVRN promoted 3T3-L1 preadipocyte apoptosis by up-regulating the expressions of BaX, cleaved Caspase-3 and down-regulating Bcl-2. VFVRN had potent effects in reversing metabolic disorders of blood and liver in a high-fat diet mice model, as well as to promote the apoptosis of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.

Metasurface holography offers significant advantages, including a broad field of view, minimal noise, and high imaging quality, making it valuable across various optical domains such as 3D displays, VR, and color displays. However, the conventional pure-structured metasurface holographic devices face a limitation: once fabricated, their functionality remains fixed, restricting practical applications. In recent developments, the landscape of metasurface holography has witnessed a notable shift from passive to active elements, spurred by the introduction of multiplexed and reconfigurable metasurfaces. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the latest advancements in multiplexing and reconfigurable metasurface holography, delving into fundamental characteristics, design strategies, and diverse applications. In conclusion, we offer a brief summary of this rapidly evolving research area, suggest potential future directions, and explore applications. Finally, we briefly summarize this rapidly growing area of research, propose future directions and potential applications.

In this paper, we investigate some elementary properties of two kinds modified Szasz type basis functions, depending on non-negative parameters. We study some shape preserving properties of these operators concerning monotonicity, convexity, starlikeness, semi-additivity and smoothness.

This paper analyzes the representation behaviors of a comparison measure between two compared fuzzy sets. Three types of restrictions on two fuzzy sets are considered in this paper: the two disjoint union fuzzy sets, the two disjoint fuzzy sets and the two general fuzzy sets. Differences exist among the numbers of possible representations of a comparison measure for the three types of fuzzy sets restrictions. The value of comparison measure is constant for the two disjoint union fuzzy sets. There are 42 candidate representations of a comparison measure for the two disjoint fuzzy sets. Of which 13 candidate representations with one or two terms can be used to easily calculate and compare a comparison measure.

Teachers of English as a foreign language in Taiwan are challenged to organize multi-dimensional language activities for foreign students coming from ASEAN countries, including Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam. With different cultural backgrounds, these students have different prior knowledge of Taiwanese culture, and, because of the similarities and differences between Taiwan and these countries, it is meaningful to explore the development of globalization with the students, who are learning both English and Chinese. The different historical backgrounds, various cultural and religious differences, and social conditions, such as gender relationships in working places, are significant topics for class discussions. When teachers serve as discussion facilitators, they encourage students to express their own multi-identities and expectations for the exchange program. Most interesting of all is to find out about their own short-term and long-term career goals. 32 foreign students from the Philippines and Vietnam were recruited for research. Questionnaires were used to assess their foreign language learning motivation and strategies, as well as to discover the learning environment they prefer and their globalization prospects. It was found that multi-lingual language policies for promoting globalization in higher education are very likely to influence the success of foreign student study in Taiwan.

In fuzzy group decision making problems and fuzzy shortest path problems, the addition and subtraction are the basic problems. For the mixed normal fuzzy numbers and trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, the addition and subtraction operations are approximated by the normal fuzzy numbers in this paper. The behaviors of approximated normal fuzzy numbers are the same as those of the normal distributions from the viewpoint of probability. An application of the addition and subtraction operations of mixed fuzzy numbers to the fuzzy sample mean is also proposed.

As a special class of “green” elastomers, thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) have been widely used in industries due to the combination of the excellent resilience of conventional elastomers and the easy recyclability of thermoplastics. Here, the morphology evolution of TPVs based on polyamide 6/ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (PA6/EPDM) blends was investigated by varying the content of the curing agent, phenolic resin (PF). With the incorporation of 6 wt% PF, the gel content of the EPDM phase reaches a high value of 49.6wt% and a typical sea-island structure is formed with EPDM domain in a micro-nano size. The dynamic rheology behaviors of TPVs showed that with the curing degree of EPDM phase increasing, a denser network of EPDM particles is formed in PA6 matrix. Also, a lower crystal degree and crystal peak temperature are observed, indicating that the presence of a growth restriction of PA6 crystal plate induced by a thinner plastic layer between the adjacent EPDM particles. However, the crystal form of PA6 is not changed with the increasing curing degree of the EPDM phase. This study provides an effective strategy to realize a new kind of TPVs, which can be easily introduced into industrial applications.

A spinning gyroscope precesses about the vertical due to a torque acting upon the wheel. The torque is generated by the shift of moment of force by gravity and it points to the vertical instead of the tangential direction of precession. This intuition offers an alternative and straightforward view of precession dynamics in comparison with the literature. It also presumes a dynamic balance of momentum between circular motions of the wheel spin and precession. Accordingly, the gyroscopic dynamics is then applied to the study of galactic motion of the solar system in space and the Galactic mass is calculated with the inclusion of gyroscopic effect of the solar planets. Results indicate that the gyroscopic effect of Mercury orbiting around the Sun can increase the calculated Galactic mass by 23% in comparison with the result obtained by the classic approach.

Self-sustained learning (SSL) is considered a crucial factor in promoting students’ long-term learning and development in a sustainable society. To deepen the understanding of SSL, especially in the context of learning English as a second language, the current study examined the influence of intercultural communicative skills, language mindset, and positive L2 self on SSL in English learning among 1,238 college students in China. The results showed that students not only had a strong language mindset, positive L2 self, and intercultural communicative skills but also scored higher in long-term self-sustained English learning. Findings from the Structural Equation Modeling indicated that both language mindset and intercultural communicative skills positively predicted positive L2 self and self-sustained English learning. Furthermore, language mindset and intercultural communicative skills had an indirect impact on self-sustained English learning through positive L2 self. These findings suggest that to promote English learners’ SSL, instructors should help facilitate students’ intercultural communicative skills and foster a growth language mindset, as well as positive language learning beliefs.

Wound healing is a complex, dynamic process involving the coordinated interaction of diverse cell types, growth factors, cytokines, and extracellular matrix components. Despite emerging evidence highlighting their importance, dermal sheath cells remain a largely overlooked aspect of wound healing research. This review explores the multifunctional roles of dermal sheath cells in various phases of wound healing, including modulating inflammation, aiding in proliferation, and contributing to extracellular matrix remodeling. Special attention is devoted to the paracrine effects of dermal sheath cells and their role in fibrosis, highlighting their potential in improving healing outcomes, especially in differentiating between hairy and non-hairy skin sites. By drawing connections between dermal sheath cells activity and wound healing outcomes, this work proposes new insights into the mechanisms of tissue regeneration and repair, marking a step forward in our understanding of wound healing processes.