Farmers and seed companies constantly require high-quality seeds with excellent agronomic performance. However, faced with environmental adversity, limited natural resources and increasing food demand around the globe, more attention has turned to improving crop plant production by implementing efficient strategies. Seed priming technology has shown promising biological improvements leading to suitable agronomic performance in crop plants under adverse environmental conditions. Seeds are subjected to controlled conditions that are conducive to complex physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes, conferring specific stress tolerance to subsequent germination and growth conditions. In this review paper, we aimed to study the recent approaches in the efficiency of hydropriming, osmopriming, chemopriming, hormopriming, nanopriming, matrix priming, biopriming, physical priming and hybrid priming procedures in the production of crop plants under environmental adversity, as well as their biological mechanism changes. All priming methods demonstrated relevant changes in the biological mechanism related to crop plant production by mitigating salinity effects, heavy metals, and flooding stress and enhancing chilling, heat, drought and phytopathogen tolerance. We strongly recommend that researchers combine multiple priming methods, known as hybrid priming, in their investigations to provide novel technologies and additional biological approaches to enhance the knowledge of crop plant science. Thus, the findings shed light on the use of seed priming technology as a key strategy to increase crop plant production under environmental adversity by acquiring stress tolerance and enhancing agronomic traits to meet the global food demand.

The United Nations' sustainable development goals have underscored the importance of enhancing supply chain sustainability while appropriately distributing orders. This study proposes a novel framework involving Z-number, game theory, indifference threshold-based attribute ratio analysis (ITARA), and combined compromise solution method (CoCoSo) to evaluate the sustainability of suppliers and order allocations. To better reflect the decision makers’ current choices for the sustainability of assessed suppliers and order allocations; enhance the comprehensiveness of decision-making, the importance parameter of the supplier is obtained through game theory objectively for transforming supplier performance into order allocation performance. The Z-numbers are involved in ITARA (so-called ZITARA) and CoCoSo (so-called ZCoCoSo) to overcome the issue of information uncertainty in the process of expert evaluation. ZITARA and ZCoCoSo are applied to assess the objective weight of criteria and the ranking of assessed order allocations, respectively. Afterwards, a case study of China’s company is illustrated the utility of the proposed framework and inform their decision-making process regarding the orders to be assigned to the assessed suppliers.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is known to play a significant role in the development of peptic ulcer diseases and gastric cancer. Previous studies have reported the existence of polymorphism in the ureC gene of H. pylori. However, the relationship between genetic sequence variations in ureC and the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer diseases remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the associations between ureC sequence variations and the development of gastric ulcer and gastric cancer. PCR amplification and DNA sequencing to analyze ureC sequences, and conducted phylogenetic analysis using MEGA X software. Samples from Taiwanese patients with gastric ulcer and gastric cancer were included in this study. PCR was used to amplify the ureC gene from these samples, followed by DNA sequencing. The obtained sequences were then subjected to phylogenetic analysis using MEGA X software. In addition, ureC sequences from different geographical regions, including China and other countries, were included in the analysis for comparison. Analysis of the ureC se-quences from Taiwanese samples revealed that 6 out of 7 gastric ulcer samples clustered together in one group, while the sequences from 7 out of 8 gastric cancer samples were distributed across other groups. Phylogenetic analysis incorporating ureC sequences from different geographical regions showed that Taiwanese ureC sequences could be divided into two distinct groups, although the bootstrap values supporting this separation were low. Notably, the ureC sequences from China formed a distinct group with a high bootstrap value, separate from sequences from all other countries. There are two genotypes of ureC sequences present in Taiwanese samples, with one genotype showing a closer association with gastric cancer. Additionally, the ureC sequences from China appear to be unique and separate from those obtained from other countries, indicating the presence of genetic diversity in ureC sequences among H. pylori strains from different regions, potentially contributing to differences in disease outcomes. Further research is needed to elucidate the specific mechanisms by which ureC sequence variations may influence the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer diseases and gastric cancer.

Aims: A community-based multi-component intervention (increasing awareness of the importance of physical activity in chronic illness management through reading comic books, training regarding warm-up stretching exercises, identifying facilitators and barriers to exercise through photosharing, supporting self-reflection and development of action plans) was developed to promote physical activity (PA) among patients with diabetes and hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention on health behaviour (walking) and health outcomes. Design: A non-randomized controlled trial with waitlisted control and pre- and post-measures. Setting: Community centres for the elderly. Participants: A total of 204 older adults with diabetes and/or hypertension were recruited. They were assigned to either the intervention group (IG) or waitlisted to the control group (CG). Intervention: Under the supervision of a nurse, six weekly group meetings were arranged in community centres for the elderly in which the participants freely exchanged their views regarding the barriers and facilitators of regular physical activity. Participants were encouraged to take photos in their neighbourhood or at home and brought these photos to share at the group meetings. The photos showed both the barriers and the facilitators to PA. In the last meeting, each participant worked out a plan to perform PA in the coming four weeks. Measures: PA referred to the number of steps taken per day and it was measured by a Garmin Accelerometer at baseline, Week 6 and Week 10. Other measures included the nine-item Self-Efficacy Scale for Exercise - Chinese version (SEE-C), the 23-item Chinese Barriers to Exercise Scale and Senior Fitness Tests. Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) models compared the outcomes over time between IG and CG. Results: A statistically significant difference in the changes in the average number of steps taken daily between the two groups at Week 10 (mean difference = 965.4; 95% confidence interval: 92.2, 1838.6, p = 0.030) was observed, although the difference at Week 6 was non-significant (mean difference = 777.6; 95% confidence interval: −35.3, 1590.5, p = 0.061). IG participants also showed significant improvements in lower body strength (mean difference = 0.967; 95% confidence interval: 0.029, 1.904, p = 0.043) and lower limb flexibility (mean difference = 2.068; 95% confidence interval: 0.404, 3.731, p = 0.015) at Week 10 compared to CG participants. Conclusion: This multi-component intervention improved the participants’ physical activity level and physical fitness, particularly in lower limb flexibility and body strength.

In Taiwan, remote healthcare was initially limited to telemedicine services, and the systematic development of remote care was relatively delayed. It was not until 2007 that the Department of Health of the Executive Yuan first initiated the 'Remote Care Pilot Program,' followed by the 'Remote Care Service Improvement and Quality Enhancement Plan' in the subsequent year. In 2010, Taiwan officially launched the 'Remote Health Care Services Development Plan' and established a dedicated project office, marking the comprehensive start-up of remote care services. This stage saw significant contributions from artificial intelligence aids and ICT remote transmission technologies, greatly promoting the application of smart healthcare in home care. This study aims to explore the strategic gaps in the application of smart healthcare in home remote care. By analyzing gaps in 'legal regulations,' 'economic factors,' 'user behavior habits,' 'policy and culture,' and 'environment and technology,' this study employs a mixed-methods approach. Particularly, it uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to construct a weighted ranking of these strategic gaps. Through in-depth interviews with doctors and smart healthcare experts and the collection of 16 valid AHP questionnaire samples, which cover both industry and academia with a balanced distribution, the survey results are ensured to be representative and reliable. The findings indicate that 'legal regulations' are considered the most critical strategic gap that needs to be addressed first, followed by 'user behavior habits.' This suggests that when designing smart healthcare applications, greater consideration needs to be given to user acceptance and habits. By systematically analyzing and addressing these strategic gaps, this study not only provides solutions to issues in the application of smart healthcare in home remote care but also offers valuable references for future research and practice, aiming to make home remote care services more comprehensive and efficient.

This paper takes the VR animation display of the Ming Xiao Mausoleum General stone statue life as an example to study the advantages of VR animation in the display of material heritage. Combined with literature and pictures, the digital restoration of the Ming Xiao Mausoleum stone statue is carried out in MAYA and Z brush, and the construction of the scene and the output of the final effect are realized in UE4.

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.

Thermal infrared imagery provides temperature information on target objects, and has been widely applied in non-destructive testing. However, thermal infrared imagery is not always able to display detailed textures of inspected objects, which hampers the understanding of geometric entities consisting of temperature information. Although some commercial software has been developed for 3D thermal model displays, the software requires the use of expensive specific thermal infrared sensors. This study proposes a cost-effective method for 3D thermal model reconstruction based on image-based modeling. Two smart phones and a low-cost thermal infrared camera are employed to acquire visible images and thermal images, respectively, that are fused for 3D thermal model reconstruction. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to effectively reconstruct a 3D thermal model which extremely approximates its corresponding entity. The total computation time for the 3D thermal model reconstruction is intensive while generating dense points required for the creation of a geometric entity. Future work will improve the efficiency of the proposed method in order to expand its potential applications to in-time monitoring.

Biocompatible and biodegradable poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA)/hexadecylamine-modified PPZn (m-PPZn) nanocomposites were prepared using a melt mixing process. Experimental results of wide-angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the stacking layers of the m-PPZn were partially intercalated and partially exfoliated into the PBSA polymer matrix. The isothermal crystallization kinetics of PBSA/m-PPZn nanocomposites were studied at the temperature range of 62−70 °C and the half-time for crystallization of 3 wt % PBSA/m-PPZn nanocomposite was reduced by 27−35% compared with that of pure PBSA. This finding suggests that the incorporation of m-PPZn might cause the heterogeneous nucleation and the subsequent crystallization growth, which enhances the isothermal crystallization rate of PBSA/m-PPZn nanocomposite. The biodegradation rates of PBSA using Lipase from Pseudomonas sp. increase as the contents of m-PPZn increase. The degradation behavior of the neat PBSA investigated using the change of weight-average molecular weight belongs to exo-type hydrolysis activity. It is necessary to point out that the change of degree of crystallinity and degradation rate are almost linearly proportional to the loading of hexadecylamine-modified PPZn. This finding would provide an important information for the manufacturing biodegradable PBSA nanocomposites.

The spin-torsion theory is a gauge theory approach to gravity that expands upon Einstein's general relativity (GR) by incorporating the spin of microparticles. In this study, we further develop the spin-torsion theory to examine spherically symmetric and static gravitational systems that involve free-falling macroscopic particles. We posit that the quantum spin of macroscopic matter becomes noteworthy on cosmic scales. We further assume that the Dirac spinor and Dirac equation adequately capture all essential physical characteristics of the particles and their associated processes. A crucial aspect of our approach involves substituting the constant mass in the Dirac equation with a scale function, allowing us to establish a connection between quantum effects and the scale of gravitational systems. This mechanism ensures that the quantum effect of macroscopic matter is scale-dependent and diminishes locally, a phenomenon not observed in microparticles. For any given matter density distribution, our theory predicts an additional quantum term, the quantum potential energy (QPE), within the mass expression. QPE induces time dilation, distance contraction, and thus mimics a gravitational well. When applied to cosmology, our theory yields a static cosmological model. The QPE serves as a counterpart to the cosmological constant introduced by Einstein to balance gravity in his static cosmological model. The QPE also offers a plausible explanation for the origin of the Hubble redshift (traditionally attributed to the universe's expansion). The predicted luminosity distance-redshift relation aligns remarkably well with SNe Ia data from the cosmological sample of SNe Ia. In the context of galaxies, QPE functions as the equivalent of dark matter. The predicted circular velocities align well with the rotation curve data from the SPARC (Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves database) sample. Importantly, our conclusions in this paper are reached through a conventional approach, with the sole assumption of the quantum effects of macroscopic matter on large scales, without the need for additional modifications or assumptions.

The chitin synthase B gene is a key enzyme in the chitin synthesis of insect peritrophic matrix (PM), affecting insects' feeding behavior. The chitin synthase B gene has been cloned from the transcription library of Heortia vitessoides Moore. RT-qPCR showed that HvChsb was highly expressed in the larval stage of H. vitessoides, especially on the first day of the prepupal stage, and in the midgut of larvae and the abdomen of adults. After starvation treatment, HvChsb was found to be significantly inhibited with time. After 48 h of starvation, the feeding experiment showed that HvChsb increased with the prolongation of the refeeding time. The experimental data showed that feeding affected the expression of HvChsb. HvChsb was effectively silenced by RNA interference, so its function was lost, significantly decreasing the survival rate of H. vitessoides. The survival rate from larval-to-pupal stages was only 43.33%, accompanied by abnormal phenotypes. It can be seen that HvChsb plays a key role in the average growth and development of H. vitessoides.

This study introduces session-aware recommendation models, leveraging GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit) and attention mechanisms for advanced latent interaction data integration. A primary ad-vancement is enhancing latent context, a critical factor for boosting recommendation accuracy. We address existing models' rigidity by dynamically blending short-term (most recent) and long-term (historical) preferences, moving beyond static period definitions. Our approaches, pre-combination (LCII-Pre) and post-combination (LCII-Post) with fixed (Fix) and flexible learning (LP) weight configurations, are thoroughly evaluated. We conducted extensive experiments to as-sess our models' performance on public datasets such as Amazon and MovieLens 1M. Notably, on the MovieLens 1M dataset, LCII-PreFix achieved a 1.85% and 2.54% higher Recall@20 than II-RNN and BERT4Rec+st+TSA, respectively. On the Steam dataset, LCII-PostLP outperformed these models by 18.66% and 5.5%. Furthermore, on the Amazon dataset, LCII showed a 2.59% and 1.89% improvement in Recall@20 over II-RNN and CAII. These results affirm the significant enhancement our models bring to session-aware recommendation systems, showcasing their po-tential for both academic and practical applications in the field.

Convenient labeling of proteins is important for observing its function under physiological conditions. In tissues particularly, heptamethine cyanine dyes (Cy-7) are valuable because they absorb in near infrared (NIR) region (750 – 900 nm) where light penetration is maximal. In this work, we found Cy-7 dyes with a meso-Cl functionality covalently binding to proteins with free Cys residues under physiological conditions (aqueous environments, at near neutral pH, and 37 °C). It transpired that the meso-Cl of the dye was displaced by free thiols in protein, while nucleophilic side-chains from amino acids like Tyr, Lys, and Ser did not react. This finding shows a new possibility for convenient and selective labeling of proteins with near-IR fluorescent probes.

Infectious keratitis (IK) represents a major cause of corneal blindness. This study aims to investigate the demographics, risk factors, microbiological characteristics and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of IK in Taiwan over the past 15 years. A retrospective population-based study was conducted using the Chang Gung Research Database. Patients with IK were identified by diagnostic codes for corneal ulcer from 2004 to 2019. Of 7807 included subjects, 45.2% of patients had positive corneal cultures. The proportion of contact lens-related IK declined, while that of IK related to systemic diseases grew. The percentage of isolated gram-positive bacteria surpassed that of gram-negative bacteria in the 15-year period. The prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed a decreasing trend (p = 0.004), whereas coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) and Propionibacterium species were increasingly detected (p < 0.001). Overall, the trend of antibiotic susceptibility of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria did not change throughout the study period. The susceptibility to the test antibiotics maintained over 90% in gram-negative isolates during 15 years. Vancomycin preserved 100% susceptibility to all gram-positive isolates. Since most tested antibiotics exhibited stable susceptibility over decades, this study reinforced that fluoroquinolones and fortified vancomycin continue to be good empiric therapies for treating bacterial keratitis in Taiwan.

A enantioselective tandem transformation concerning asymmetric allylic decarboxylative addition and cyclization of N-nosylimines with vinylethylene carbonates (VECs) in the presence of [Rh(C2H4)2Cl]2, chiral sulfoxide-N-olefin tridentate ligand has been developed. The reaction of VECs with various substituted N-nosylimines proceeded smoothly under mild conditions, giving highly functionalized oxazolidine frameworks in good to high yields with good to excellent enantioselectivity.

Accurately predicting the power of solar power generation can greatly reduce the impact of the randomness and volatility of power generation on the stability of the power grid system, which is beneficial for the balanced operation and optimized dispatch of the power grid system, and reduces operating costs. Solar PV power generation depends on weather conditions, which are prone to large fluctuations under different weather conditions. Its power generation is characterized by randomness, volatility and intermittency. Recently, the demand for further investigation and effective use on the uncertainty of short-term solar PV power generation prediction has been getting increasing attention in many application of renewable energy sources. In order to improve the predictive accuracy of output power of solar PV power generation and develop a precise predictive model, the authors worked predictive algorithms for the output power of a solar PV power generation system. Moreover, since short-term solar PV power forecasting is one of the important aspects for optimizing the operation and control of renewable energy systems and electricity markets, this review focuses on the predictive models of solar PV power generation, which can be verified in the daily planning and operation of a smart grid system. In addition, the predictive methods in the reviewed literature are classified according to the input data source used for accurate predictive models, and the case studies and examples proposed are analyzed in detail. The contributions, advantages and disadvantages of the predictive probabilistic methods are compared. Finally, the future studies of short-term solar PV power forecasting is proposed.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) monolayers exhibit unique valleytronics properties due to the dependency of the coupled valley and spin state at the hexagonal corner of the first Brillouin zone. Precisely controlling valley spin-polarization via manipulating the electron population enables its application in valley-based memory or quantum technologies. This study uncovered the uncompensated spins of the antiferromagnetic oxide (NiO) serving as the ferromagnetic (FM) order to induce valley spin-polarization in molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) monolayers via the magnetic proximity effect (MPE). A spin-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy (SR-PL) was employed to observe MoS₂, where the spin-polarized trions appear to be responsible for the MPE, leading to a valley magnetism. Results indicate that local FM order from the uncompensated surface of NiO could successfully induce significant valley spin-polarization in MoS₂ with the depolarization temperature approximately at 100 K, which is relatively high compared to related literature. This study reveals new perspectives and potential of AFM materials in the field of exchange-coupled van der Waals heterostructures.

The increased global incidence of myopia requires the establishment of therapeutic approaches. Previous studies have suggested that inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of myopia. We used human retinal pigment epithelial cell to study the molecular mechanisms on how FJE and PVE lowering the inflammation of the eye. The effect of FJE and PVE in MFD induced hamster model and explore the role of inflammation cytokines in myopia. Expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were upregulated in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells treated with IL-6 and TNF-α. FJ extract (FJE) + PV extract (PVE) reduced IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α expression in RPE cells. Furthermore, FJE and PVE inhibited inflammation by attenuating the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT), and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B (NF-κB) pathway. In addition, we report two resveratrol + ursolic acid compounds from FJ and PV and their inhibitory activities against IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α expression levels in RPE cells treated with IL-6 and TNF-α. FJE, PVE, and FJE + PVE were applied to MFD hamsters and their axial length was measured after 21 days. The axial length showed statistically significant differences between phosphate-buffered saline- and FJE-, PVE-, and FJE + PVE-treated MFD eyes. FJE + PVE suppressed expressions of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α. They also inhibited myopia-related transforming growth factor-beta (TGF)-β1, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, and NF-κB expression while increasing type Ⅰ collagen expression. Overall, these results suggest that FJE + PVE may have a therapeutic effect on myopia and be used as a potential treatment option.

Photoelectric smoke detectors are the most cost-effective devices for very early fire alarms. However, due to different light intensity response values for different fire smoke and interference from interferential aerosols, they have a high false alarm rate, which limits their popularity in Chinese homes. To address these issues, an embedded spatial-temporal convolutional neural network (EST-CNN) model is proposed for real fire smokes identification and aerosols (fire smokes and interferential aerosol) classification. EST-CNN consists of three modules including information fusion, scattering feature extraction, and aerosol classification. Moreover, a two dimensional spatial-temporal scattering (2D-TS) matrix is designed to fuse the scattered light intensities in different channels and adjacent time slices, which is the output of the information fusion module and the input of the scattering feature extraction module. EST-CNN is trained and tested with experimental data measured on the established fire test platform using the developed dual-wavelength dual-angle photoelectric smoke detector. The optimal network parameters are selected through extensive experiments resulting in an average classification accuracy of 95.6% for different aerosols with only 66 kB network parameters. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the designed EST-CNN model to be directly installed in existing commercial photoelectric smoke detectors to realize aerosol classification.

Surface roughness prediction is a pivotal aspect of the manufacturing industry, as it directly influences product quality and process optimization. This study introduces a predictive model for surface roughness in the turning of complex-structured workpieces, utilizing Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) informed by vibration signals. The model captures parameters from both the time and frequency domains of the turning tool, encompassing the mean, median, standard deviation (STD), and root mean square (RMS) values. The signal is from the time to frequency domain is executed using Welch's method, complemented by time-frequency domain analysis employing three levels of Daubechies Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT). The selected features are then utilized as inputs for the GPR model to forecast surface roughness. Empirical evidence indicates that the GPR model can accurately predict the surface roughness of turned complex-structured workpieces. This predictive strategy has the potential to improve product quality, streamline manufacturing processes, and minimize waste within the industry.

Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) combines the nontoxic photosensitizer (PS) and visible light to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause oxidative damages in (on) microbial organisms. Previously, we have shown that chitosan can augment the bactericidal efficacy mediated by PDI against bacteria and Candida. In this study, we showed that the antimicrobial action of chitosan to augment PDI relates to the enlargement of cell surface destruction. The microbial cell surfaces exhibit severe irregular shapes after PDI in the presence of chitosan. Furthermore, increase in the concentrations or incubation time of chitosan significantly reduce the amounts of photosensitizers TBO required, indicating that chitosan could be a synergistic agent with PDI against human pathogens. A prolonged lag phase was found in PDI surviving microbial cells, in which chitosan can act to synergistically eradicate the cells. Once the impaired cells rebuild their cellular functions from PDI-induced damage, the increased cytotoxic effect of chitosan disappeared. Together, our results suggest that chitosan with an augmented bactericidal activity after PDI is to inhibit the rehabilitation of PDI surviving cells, leading to microbial death.

In order to meet the national energy saving goals set in the Vietnam National Energy Efficiency Program in the period of 2019 – 2030 (VNEEP), the Vietnamese government has adopted a series solutions and policies to improve energy efficiency. The Vietnam’s 63 provinces will be as main actor for the national achievement in energy efficiency. Thus, understanding the province’s potentiality of energy efficiency is useful for the harmonious and sustainable development between the economy and energy systems. In this study, provincial and national data from General Statistic Office are analyzed in terms of the energy efficiency levels. With the trends of economic development and energy consumption in both national and regional levels, the Lorenz curve between Vietnamese energy consumption and GDP is investigated. The Lorenz coefficient shows the energy allocation is nether reasonable nor balanced. By using clustering method, the 63 provinces of Vietnam clustered into 7 groups that the provinces in the cluster has the similar indexes of energy efficiency i.e. ability, responsibility, potential and difficulty. The energy consumption and GDP are predicted in the period of 2019 – 2025. Based on the difference of GDP development and energy consumption levels, the target of energy efficiency for each province through clustering is set. The results show that 33 provinces included in the cluster 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 are heavy contribution. Among them, the provinces in the cluster 2 and 3 need to focus on the industry sector in their energy saving policy. The cluster 7 included the under-developed provinces can learn development’s experiences of the provinces in the cluster 1, 2, 3 and 4 to find the best way of their future development.

This study aims to develop a performance evaluation system that can facilitate performance evaluation at region, hospital, and department levels to enable better cost management for sustainable development. A multi-level system of performance evaluation informs a hierarchical assessment of cost management from regions to hospitals to departments using diagnosis-related group (DRGs). Various metrics are developed employing the variances between targets and actuals where targets are determined from two perspectives: benchmarking using external regional prices and change management using internal data. Targets for the latter are statistically based and specifically incorporate variability. The model is applied to two hospitals, twenty departments, nine DRGs and 1071 inpatients. The analyses indicate that the approach can provide a practical evaluation tool that allows for particular characteristics at multiple levels. The system provides macro-micro and external-internal perspectives in performance, enabling high-level variances to be decomposed thereby identifying sources of performance variability and financial impact.

Taking an existing public building as an example, on the basis of the measured data, the mathematical model of each equipment module of the chilled station and the TRNSYS custom module are established. The mathematical model of “chilled station cooling capacity—equipment power” is proposed and established. The full-frequency control strategy based on device contribution rate is proposed and established to set up the Matlab control module of the chilled station. The TRNSYS simulation platform is used to simulate a public building chilled station in cooling season. The result shows that the season energy efficiency rate of the public building air-conditioning system is 2.15 times the original after applying the new control strategy.

Is there any possible synergic effect of fertility outcome between spindle view-assisted intracyto-plasmic sperm injection (SV-ICSI) with or without assisted oocyte activation (AOA) for patients with low fertilization rate history? To explore the answer, a retrospective study was held in our fertility center by reviewing patients receiving SV-ICSI during 2019/03 to 2023/06. Total 47 pa-tients were included, the fertility outcomes of intervention group (AOA-SV-ICSI, 14 patients) and control group (SV-ICSI, 33 patients), such as fertilization rate, blastocyst formation rate and clin-ical pregnancy rate, were analyzed. The blastocyst formation rate between groups was signifi-cantly higher in AOA-SV-ICSI group (p=0.020), but the fertilization rate and clinical pregnancy rate did not reach any statistical significance. This discovery of increased blastocyst formation rate in low fertilization rate patients could possibly help them in getting more usable embryos in fertility treatment.

Exercise training influences the risk of vascular thrombosis in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Mitochondrial functionalities in platelets involve the cellular bioenergetics and thrombogenesis. This study aimed to elucidate the effect of cycling exercise training (CET) on platelet mitochondrial bioenergetics in PAD patients. Forty randomly selected patients with PAD engaged in general rehabilitation (GR) with CET (i.e., cycling exercise at ventilation threshold for 30 min/day, 3 days/week) (GR+CET, n=20) or to a control group that only received GR course (n=20) for 12 weeks. Systemic aerobic capacity and platelet mitochondrial bioenergetics that included oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and electron transport system (ETS) were measured using automatic gas analysis and high-resolution respirometry, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that GR+CET for 12 weeks significantly (i) elevated VO2peak and lowered VE-VCO2 slope, (ii) raised resting ankle-brachial index and enhanced cardiac output response to exercise, (iii) increased the distance in 6-minute walk test and raised the Short Form-36 physical/mental component scores, and (iv) enhanced capacities of mitochondrial OXPHOS and ETS in platelets by activating FADH2 (Complex II)-dependent pathway. Moreover, changes in VO2peak levels were positively associated with changes in platelet OXPHOS and ETS capacities. However, no significant changes in systemic aerobic capacity, platelet mitochondrial bioenergetics, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) occurred following GR alone. Hence, we conclude that CET effectively increases the capacities of platelet mitochondrial bioenergetics by enhancing Complex II activity in patients with PAD. Moreover, the exercise regimen also enhanced functional exercise capacity, consequently improving HRQoL in PAD patients.

This study explored the effects of cryogenic treatment on the microstructure, hardness, and wear-resistance of diamond-like carbon (DLC) by cryogenically treating NAK 80 mold steel coated with DLC. Raman spectroscopy analyzed the structure of the DLC film. Nanoindenter analyzed the hardness and Young’s modulus of the film, and their relationship determined the wear resistance. Wear test assessed the wear rate and friction coefficient of the DLC film. The results showed that cryogenic treatment increased the rate of carbide precipitation and refined the grain structure. Raman spectroscopy indicated that the Raman intensity rate (I_D/I_G) of treated DLC films was smaller than those without cryogenic treatment. When the sp3 bond increased, the hardness and wear-resistance of the DLC film also increased.

Much has been explored in the individual health issue, and most of them adopt the objective data such as laboratory tests or health services utilization to analyze individual health assessment. However, the factors influencing individuals in self‐assessed health is still unclean. The study considers that self‐assessed health is viewed as catalyst in health management and explores various dimensions associated with self‐assessed health. Totally, 800 participants who were randomly sampled from the citizen of Porter County, Indiana completed the Needs Assessment Citizen Survey in 2007.After adjustment for age, gender, education, income, and health coverage, life quality (β=1.5538, sdandard erro of β=0.8404), and Medicaid assistance (β= -0.7715, sdandard erro of β= 0.3958) are the main determinants of individuals’ self‐assessed health. The results suggest that public health officials should consider improving citizens’ self-assessed health by providing good living and socio-economic environment.

Red djulis (Chenopodium formosanum) is a native cereal plant in Taiwan; it contains abundant polyphenols, betalian and dietary fiber. The appearance of red djulis is bright red. Therefore, it is also called the “ruby of cereals”. The antioxidative activity of red djulis extract is well-understood. However, the antiaging function still remains unclear. This study examined the potential of red djulis extract for enhancing collagen secretion and preventing cutaneous aging using red djulis extracts. The red djulis extracts are comprised of an abundant active component that can effectively enhance the ability of collagen secretion of dermal fibroblasts, prevent the glycation of collagen and resist the damage of ultraviolet light exposure. After fibroblast treatment with red djulis extracts, TGM1, KRT1, KRT10 and SOD2 genes were up-regulated significantly by 2.3, 4.3, 4.4 and 27.3 times, respectively, compared to those of the control group. Additionally, it can increase COL1A2 gene expression by 43% and decrease MMP9 gene expression 33%. Therefore, it was demonstrated that red djulis extracts affect gene expressions related to the skin barrier, antioxidation and collagen. Moreover, we found positive effects on skin barrier integrity, endogenous antioxidant activity and skin collagen-preservation. The preparation of the red djulis extracts is environmental friendly and can promote the economic value of Chenopodium formosanum; thus, the proposed extract is suitable for applications in the development of food products, especially beverages, skin care and cosmetic products.

Infrared sensors incorporating suspended zinc oxide (ZnO) pyroelectric films and thermally-insulated silicon substrates are fabricated using conventional MEMS-based thin-film deposition, photolithography, and etching techniques. The responsivity of the pyroelectric film is improved through annealing at 500℃ for 4 h. The voltage response of the fabricated sensors is evaluated experimentally for a substrate thickness of 1 µm over a sensing range of 30 cm. The results show that the voltage signal varies as an inverse exponential function of the distance. A positioning system based on three infrared sensors is implemented in LabVIEW. It is shown that the position estimates obtained using the proposed system are in excellent agreement with the actual locations. In general, the results presented in this study provide a useful source of reference for the further development of MEMS-based pyroelectric infrared sensors.

Photodynamic therapy has been applied endoscopically to treat early esophageal cancer. However, the long-term survival outcome of this treatment option is unknown in literature. Patients and Method: The patients of early esophageal cancer (clinical stage I) treated with photophrin based photodynamic therapy were analyzed for their long-term survival outcome and compared to those patients undergoing esophagectomy by a single surgeon for stage I disease. Results: There were 15 and 16 patients undergoing PDT and esophagectomy enrolled in the current study respectively. Complete response was achieved in 10 (66.7%) patients after PDT. After adjuvant chemoradiation (CCRT) complete response was achieved in 13 patients (86%). There is no mortality after PDT. Severe complication was detected in 3 patients including trachea-esophageal fistulae, esophageal stenosis and skin photosensitivity respectively. With a median follow-up duration of 110.2 months (+9.6 months) for the patients after PDT, there were 4 and 3 recurrence in the primary tumor site and regional lymph node respectively with 73.3% of successful local control rate of the primary tumor. There were 7 (46.7%) patients died during clinical follow-up of this cohort with 5 (33.3%) from disease progression of esophageal cancer and two from other diseases respectively. The five-year survival rate after PDT is 64.3%, whereas 70.9% of the patients after esophagectomy without significant difference of these two group of patients (P=0.72). Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggested that PDT might provide an equivalent long-term oncological outcome as compared to that done by esophagectomy for early esophageal cancer. A prospective randomized clinical trial comparing the results with esophagectomy and other endoscopic abrasive therapies is warrant in the future.

Dravet syndrome (DS), also known as severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy, is a rare and drug-resistant form of developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, which is both debilitating and challenging to manage, typically arising during the first year of life, with seizures often triggered by fever, infections, or vaccinations. It is characterized by frequent and prolonged seizures, developmental delays, and various other neurological and behavioral impairments. Most cases result from pathogenic mutations in the sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 1 (SCN1A) gene, which encodes a critical voltage-gated sodium channel subunit involved in neuronal excitability. Precision medicine offers significant potential for improving DS diagnosis and treatment. Early genetic testing enables timely and accurate diagnosis. Advances in our understanding of DS's underlying genetic mechanisms and neurobiology have enabled the development of targeted therapies, such as gene therapy, offering more effective and less invasive treatment options for patients with DS. Targeted and gene therapies provide hope for more effective and personalized treatments. However, research into novel approaches remains in its early stages, and their clinical application remains to be seen. This review addresses the current understanding of clinical DS features, genetic involvement in DS development, and outcomes of novel DS therapies.

Although oncolytic viruses are currently being evaluated for cancer treatment in clinical trials, systemic administration is hindered by many factors that prevent them from reaching the tumor cells. When administered systemically, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) target tumors, and therefore constitute good cell carriers for oncolytic viruses. Methods: MSCs were primed with trichostatin A under hypoxia, which upregulated the expression of CXCR4, a chemokine receptor involved in tumor tropism, and coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor that plays an important role in adenoviral infection. After priming, MSCs were loaded with conditionally replicative adenovirus that exhibits limited proliferation in cells with a functional p53 pathway and encodes Escherichia coli nitroreductase (NTR) enzymes (CRAdNTR) for targeting tumor cells. Results: Primed MSCs increased tumor tropism and susceptibility to adenoviral infection, and successfully protected CRAdNTR from neutralization by anti-Adenovirus antibodies both in vitro and in vivo, and specifically targeted p53-deficient colorectal tumors when infused intravenously. Analyses of deproteinized tissues by UPLC-MS/QTOF revealed that these MSCs converted the co-administered prodrug CB1954 into cytotoxic metabolites, such as 4-hydroxylamine and 2-amine, inducing oncolysis and tumor growth inhibition without being toxic for the host vital organs. Conclusion: This study shows that the combination of oncolytic viruses delivered by MSCs with the activation of prodrugs is a new cancer treatment strategy that provides a new approach for the development of oncolytic viral therapy for various cancers.

The increased consumption of high fat-containing foods has been linked to the prevalence of obesity and abnormal metabolic syndromes. Rhizopus oligosporus, a fungus in the family Mucoraceae, is widely used as a starter for homemade tempeh. Although R. oligosporus can prevent the growth of other microorganisms, it grows well with lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Lactobacillus plantarum can produce β-glucosidase, which catalyzes the hydrolysis of glucoside isoflavones into aglycones (with greater bioavailability). Therefore, the development of a soybean-based functional food by the co-inoculation of R. oligosporus and L. plantarum is a promising approach to increase the bioactivity of tempeh. In this study, the ameliorative effect of L. plantarum in soy tempeh on abnormal carbohydrate metabolism in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced hyperglycemic rats was evaluated. The co-incubation of L. plantarum with R. oligosporus during soy tempeh fermentation reduced the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, HbA1c, serum glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, free fatty acid, insulin, and low-density lipoprotein contents and significantly increased the high-density lipoprotein content in HFD rats. It also increased the LAB counts as well as the bile acid, cholesterol, triglyceride, and short-chain fatty acid contents in the feces of HFD rats. Our results suggested that the modulation of serum glucose and lipid levels by LAB occurs via alterations in the internal microbiota, leading to the inhibition of cholesterol synthesis and promotion of lipolysis. Tempeh, produced with both L. plantarum and R. oligosporus, may be a beneficial dietary supplement for individuals with abnormal carbohydrate metabolism.

Lung cancer is almost the most common cause of cancer death in the world. Clinically, the conventional therapy to eradicate the cancer cells is chemotherapy but a better drug remains required. In this study, the effects of three bufadienolides, kalantuboside B, kalantuboside A and bryotoxin C, isolated from Kalanchoe tubiflora (Harvey) were evaluated and characterized in CL1-5 highly metastatic human lung cancer cells. Contrary to the apoptosis-promoting activity in other cancer cells, these three bufadienolides did not induce apoptosis in CL1-5 cancer cells. Instead, they activated an autophagy pathway, as indicated by the increase of autophagosomes formation. The induction of autophagy by these three bufadienolides was demonstrated to link to down-regulation of p-mTOR as well as up-regulation of LC3-II, ATG5, ATG7, Beclin-1. Moreover, among these three compounds, kalantuboside B in which a monosaccharide is attached at the bufadienolide aglycon, exhibited a better autophagy induction. Our findings revealed an alternative mechanism of drug action by bufadienolides in lung cancer cells and provided evidence for the possibility of treating highly metastatic human lung cancer through an autophagy pathway.

With the continuous breakthrough of natural language processing, the application of intelligent question answering technology in electric power system has attracted wide attention. However, at present, the traditional question answering system has poor performance and is difficult to be applied in engineering practice. This paper proposes an improved BERTserini algorithm for intelligent answering of electric power regulations based on a BERT model. The proposed algorithm is implemented in two stages. The first stage is the text segmentation stage, where a multi-document long text preprocessing technique is utilized that accommodates the rules and regulations text, and then Anserini is used to extract paragraphs with high relevance to the given question. The second stage is answer generation and source retrieval stage, where a two-step fine-tuning based on the Chinese BERT model is applied to generate precise answers based on given questions, while the information regarding documents, chapters, and page numbers of these answers are also output simultaneously. The algorithm proposed in this paper eliminates the necessity for manual organization of professional question-answer pairs, thereby effectively reducing the manual labor cost compared to traditional question answering systems. Additionally, this algorithm exhibits a higher degree of exact match rate and a faster response time for providing answers.

The Loropetalum chinense and Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum are typical and traditional ornamental and Chinese herbal medicine in Asia. However, more information is needed on the mechanisms underlying its flower coloring. Here, we profiled the flavonoid metabolome, full-length sequencing, and transcriptome analysis to investigate the flavonoid biosynthesis and global transcriptome changes among different petal coloring cultivars of L. chinense and L. chinense var. rubrum. The total anthocyanins and phenotypic of the petal were highly consistent with the petal color. Moreover, a total of 207 flavonoid components were identified. Of these, 12 flavonoid components were considered significantly different expression compounds among the four samples. Meanwhile, the first reference full-length transcriptome of L. chinense var. rubrum was being built, which had 171,783 high-quality non-redundant transcripts with correcting with next-generation sequencing (NGS). Among them, 52,851 transcripts were annotated in the seven database of NR, KOG, GO, NT, Pfam, Swiss-Port and KEGG. Combined with NGS analysis, the DETs involved in flavonoids and anthocyanins contributed greatest to the flower-coloring. Additionally, the different expressed of eight LcDFRs and four LcANS genes were positively correlated with flavonoid biosynthesis, and the four LcBZ1 and one Lc3Mat1 were positively correlated with the content of seven anthocyanins revealed by coupling with metabolomics and transcriptomics analysis. Together these results were used to mine candidate genes by analyzing flower coloring changes in a comprehensive metabolic and transcriptomic level in L. chinense and L. chinense var. rubrum.

This purpose of the study presented in this article is to comparing different service quality measurements between Kano and TRIZ that plays the critical roles in the catering industrial. Data collected from a DINESERV questionnaire comprises service-quality standards to increase customer satisfaction of mobile dining car. Finally, the TRIZ is standardized measure designed to improve the idealization of strategy for selecting the most appropriate service quality model. In addition, the preferences of more than one decision maker are internally aggregated into the TOPSIS procedure. All these things provide several important theoretical and practical implications for developing a successful mobile catering app.

In tobacco plants, symbiont endophytic fungi are widely distributed in all tissues where they play important roles. It is therefore important to determine the species distribution and characteristics of endophytic fungi in tobacco. Here, two parasitic fungi Leptosphaerulina chartarum and Curvularia trifolii were isolated and identified from normal tobacco tissue. We sequenced the mitogenomes of these two species and analysed their features, gene content, and evolutionary histories. The L. chartarum and C. trifolii mitochondrial genomes were 68,926 bp and 59,100 bp long circular molecules with average GC contents of 28.60% and 29.31%, respectively. The L. chartarum mitogenome contained 36 protein coding genes, 26 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes (rrnL and rrnS), which were located on both strands. The C. trifolii mitogenome contained 26 protein coding genes, 29 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes (rrnL and rrnS). The L. chartarum 26 tRNAs ranged from 70 bp to 84 bp in length, whereas the 29 tRNAs in C. trifolii ranged from 71 bp to 85 bp. L. chartarum and C. trifolii mtDNAs had an identical mitochondrial gene order and orientation and were phylogenetically identified as sisters. These data therefore provide an understanding of the gene content and evolutionary history of species within Pleosporales.

This study evaluates the incidence and characteristics of adverse events (AEs) following the second COVID-19 booster dose, leveraging Taiwan's distinctive approach of extending booster vaccinations to all citizens, unlike the targeted high-risk group strategies in other countries. Utilizing data from Taipei Veterans General Hospital's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) from October 27, 2022, to January 19, 2023, the research examines AEs in 441 out of 1711 second booster recipients, considering factors like age, vaccine brands, and booster combinations. The findings reveal incidence rates (IR) of 25.6% (95% CI: 21.1-30.8) after the first booster and 24.9% (95% CI: 20.5-30.0) after the second, mostly non-serious, with those having AEs post-first booster 5 times more likely to report them again (Incidence rat rato, 5.02, P<0.001). Significantly, switching from the mRNA1273 vaccine to another brand reduced AE risk by 18%. The study underscores that AEs are more repetitive than cumulative with additional booster doses, advocating for personalized vaccination strategies based on individual medical histories and previous vaccine reactions. These insights are valuable for healthcare providers in discussing potential AEs with patients, thereby improving vaccine compliance and public trust, and for policymakers in planning future booster vaccination strategies.

Recent preclinical studies have shown the potential benefits of short-term calorie reduction (SCR) on cancer treatment. In this integrative review, we aimed to identify and synthesize current evidence regarding the feasibility, process, and effects of SCR in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Ovid Medline, PsychINFO, and Embase were searched for original research articles using various combinations of Medical Subject Heading terms. Among the 311 articles identified, seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the reviewed studies was small randomized controlled trials or cohort study with fair quality. The results suggest that SCR is safe and feasible. SCR is typically arranged around the chemotherapy with the duration ranging from 24 to 96 hours. Most studies examined the protective effects of SCR on normal cells during chemotherapy. The evidence supports that SCR had the potential to enhance both physical and psychological wellbeing of patients during chemotherapy. SCR is a cost-effective intervention with great potential. Future well-controlled studies with sufficient sample sizes are needed to examine the full and long-term effects of SCR and its mechanism of action.

Pain is unpleasant sensory and emotional experience accompanied by tissue injury. Often an indi-vidual experience, it can be influenced by different physiological, psychological, and social factors. Fibromyalgia, one of the most difficult-to-treat types of pain, is characterized by general muscle pain accompanied by obesity, fatigue, sleep, and memory and psychological concerns. Fibromyal-gia has increased nociceptive sensations via central sensitization in the brain and spinal cord level. We used intermittent cold stress to create a mouse fibromyalgia pain model (Day 0: 3.69  0.14 g; Day 5: 2.13  0.12 g). Mechanical pain could be reversed by eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) admin-istration (Day 0: 3.72  0.14 g; Day 5: 3.69  0.13 g). A similar trend could be also observed for thermal hyperalgesia. The levels of elements in the transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) sig-naling pathway were increased in the ascending pain pathway, including the thalamus, medial prefrontal cortex, somatosensory cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and cerebellum. EPA intake significantly attenuated this overexpression. Novel chemogenetics method was used to indeed in-hibit SSC to ACC activity presented an analgesic effect through TRPV1 downstream pathway. The present results provide insights as to the role of TRPV1 signaling pathway as in fibromyalgia and its potential as a clinical target.

Neuropathic pain is initiated by a malfunction of the somatosensory cortex system. Acupuncture had been shown to have therapeutic effects for neuropathic pain, although with uncertain mechanisms. We used electroacupuncture (EA) to treat mice spared nerve injury (SNI) model and explore the underlying molecular mechanisms through novel chemogenetic techniques. Both me-chanical and thermal pain were found in SNI mice till four weeks (mechanical: 3.23 ± 0.29 g; thermal: 4.9 ± 0.14 s). Hyperalgesia was attenuated by 2 Hz EA (mechanical: 4.05 ± 0.19 g; ther-mal: 6.22 ± 0.26 s) but not with sham EA (mechanical: 3.13 ± 0.23 g; thermal: 4.58 ± 0.37 s), sug-gesting EA’s specificity. In addition, animals with transient receptor potential V1 (Trpv1) deletion showed no significant induction of neuropathic pain (mechanical: 4.43 ± 0.26 g; thermal: 6.24 ± 0.09 s). Moreover, we found increased levels of inflammatory factors such as interleukin-1 beta (IL1-β), IL-3, IL-6, IL-12, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interferon gamma after SNI modeling, which decreased in EA and Trpv1-/- group rather than sham group. Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis showed similar tendency in the dorsal root ganglion, spinal cord dorsal horn, somatosensory cortex (SSC), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In addition, a novel chemogenetics method was used to precisely inhibit SSC to ACC activity showed an analgesic effect through TRPV1 pathway. In summary, our findings indicate a novel mechanism underlying neuropathic pain as beneficial targets for neuropathic pain.

The prediction of wind power output is part of the basic work of power grid dispatching and energy distribution. At present, the output power prediction is mainly obtained by fitting and regressing the historical data. The medium- and long-term power prediction results exhibit large deviations due to the uncertainty of wind power generation. In order to meet the demand for accessing large-scale wind power into the electricity grid and to further improve the accuracy of short-term wind power prediction, it is necessary to develop models for accurate and precise short-term wind power prediction based on advanced algorithms for studying the output power of a wind power generation system. This paper summarizes the contribution of the current advanced wind power forecasting technology and delineates the key advantages and disadvantages of various wind power forecasting models. These models have different forecasting capabilities, update the weights of each model in real time, improve the comprehensive forecasting capability of the model, and have good application prospects in wind power generation forecasting. Furthermore, the case studies and examples in the literature for accurately predicting ultra-short-term and short-term wind power generation with uncertainty and randomness are reviewed and analyzed. Finally, we present prospects for future studies that can serve as useful directions for other researchers planning to conduct similar experiments and investigations.

Influenced by geological, climatic, and natural weathering factors, the Great Wall heritage is sus-ceptible to deformations, posing significant challenges to the comprehensive preservation of the Great Wall sites. To investigate techniques for monitoring deformations in extensive linear cultural heritage sites, such as the Great Wall, this study utilizes the SBAS-InSAR technique for deformation monitoring and analysis. A dataset comprising 161 Sentinel-1A images spanning from March 2017 to January 2022 was chosen for SBAS-InSAR processing, yielding a deformation velocity field. To verify result credibility, a typical mountainous segment spanning approximately 896.53 km within the Great Wall landscape corridor underwent analysis. The findings suggest that around 75.8% of the landscape corridor along the Shanxi section of the Ming Great Wall maintain relative stability, displaying deformation rates varying from -10 to 10 mm/year. The remaining 24.2% of the land-scape corridor experiences notable deformations, including a maximum subsidence rate of 33.1 mm/year and a maximum subsidence of 148.6 mm. This study illustrates the potential utility of the SBAS-InSAR technique for monitoring and evaluating surface deformations in extensive linear cultural heritage sites.

Intelligent algorithms are recently used in the optimization process in chemical engineering and application of multiphase flows such as bubbling flow. This overview of modeling can be a great replacement with complex numerical methods or very time-consuming and disruptive measurement experimental process. In this study, we develop the adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) method for mapping inputs and outputs together and understand the behavior of the fluid flow from other output parameters of the bubble column reactor. Neural cells can fully learn the process in their memory and after the training stage, the fuzzy structure predicts the multiphase flow data. Four inputs such as x coordinate, y coordinate, z coordinate, and air superficial velocity and one output such as pressure gradient are considered in the learning process of the ANFIS method. During the learning process, the different number of the membership function, type of membership functions and the number of inputs are examined to achieve the intelligent algorithm with high accuracy. The results show that as the number of inputs increases the accuracy of the ANFIS method rises up to almost for all cases, while the increment in the number of rules has a effect on the intelligence of artificial algorithm. This finding shows that the density of neural objects or higher input parameters enables the moded for better understanding. We also proposed a new evaluation of data in the bubble column reactor by mapping inputs and outputs and shuffle all parameters together to understand the behaviour of the multiphase flow as a function of either inputs or outputs. This new process of mapping inputs and outputs data provides a framework to fully understand the flow in the fluid domain in a short time of fuzzy structure calculation.

The study examines the behavior of the Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall using available reinforcement materials in Danang, Vietnam. The MSE was reinforced by the self-fabricated galvanized steel grids using CB300V steel with 3 cm ribs. The backfill soil is a sandy clay soil from the local area with a low cohesion. A full-scale model with full instrumentation was installed to investigate the distribution of tensile forces along the reinforcement layers. The highest load that caused the wall to collapse due to internal instability (reinforcement rupture) was 302 kN/m2, which is 15 times the design load of 20 kN/m2. The failure surface within the reinforced soil had a parabolic sliding shape which is similar to the theoretical studies. At the failure load level, the maximum lateral displacement at the top of the wall facing was small (3.9 mm) which is significantly lower than the allowable displacements for the retaining wall. Furthermore, a numerical model using FLAC software was applied to simulate the performance of the MSE wall. The modeling results are in good agreement with the physical model. Thus, the self-fabricated galvanized steel grids could be confidentially used in combination with the local backfill soil for the MSE walls.

The shift towards lean production is gradually replacing traditional mass production, and lean accounting is also being mentioned to evaluate operational efficiency based on the lean philosophy, eliminating waste, and simplifying direct cost aggregation along the value stream to improve productivity, distribution, quality, and service. This study aims to evaluate the impact of various factors on the adoption of lean accounting in Vietnamese garment firms, based on data collected from 242 survey questionnaires completed by managers and accountants of Vietnamese garment firms. Through Cronbach's Alpha test, EFA test, and multiple regression analysis to verify and forecast information, eight determinants affecting the adoption of Lean Accounting in Vietnamese garment firms are arranged in descending order of influence, including Leadership, Size, Cost of implementation, Resources, Accounting department, Education and training, Culture, and Competitive pressure. Based on the findings, recommendations are proposed to management businesses and agencies to address shortcomings in the process of applying lean accounting, contributing to making it one of the most effective tools in promoting product development and continuous improvement, enhancing quality and production efficiency.

Introduction: Treating elbow fracture-dislocation is a challenge, especially in the situation of basal-coronoid trans-ulnar fracture. The study ams to explain whether or not the minimal invasive surgery (MIS) would be feasible in elbow dislocation with coronoid fracture. Materials & Methods: At Taipei Veterans General Hospital, patients who had elbow dislocations with coronoid process fractures underwent single one surgeon’s MIS techniques which included the fluoroscopy-guided ulnar anteromedial (FGUAM) approach in the stage of reducing coronoid process. When there is a proximal ulnar fracture, the posterior incision should be necessary, followed by the incision over the lateral or medial elbow in treating radial fractures or ligament injuries. Results: The Flow Diagram about approach recommendation was established in base of defining MIS as not to do cross-plane dissection. Anteriorly rigid fixation for the coronoid process was also emphasized. Conclusions: MIS can be achieved by multiple limited surgical incisions. However, if there is an unstable ulnar metaphysis or ligament avulsion fracture, the posterior approach has to be extended and the so-called MIS fails to be established.

Agriculture is an industry that heavily relies on the environment. The increasing frequency of ex-treme disasters attributable to climate change has adversely affected agricultural land and dis-rupted the stability of the supply of agricultural products. Therefore, we implemented a research program focused on current strategies for adapting to agricultural meteorological disasters. The primary goal was to actively promote disaster prevention information and techniques through information platforms and applications and to provide refined forecasting and an early warning system to enhance preparedness for and recovery from agricultural disasters. This initiative can transform passive mitigation into dynamic action by disseminating crucial information to farmers. We integrated meteorological data and crop characteristics to develop disaster prevention strate-gies for the predisaster, during-disaster, and postdisaster stages to empower farmers to implement autonomous disaster prevention, ensuring their profitability and minimizing the impact of disas-ters. This paper presents an agricultural disaster prevention system involving cross-disciplinary collaboration to establish an early warning system for crop disasters. However, the effectiveness of the early warning system relies on the availability of complete meteorological and crop infor-mation, necessitating high-density agricultural meteorological stations, refined weather forecast services, historical crop damage data, and ongoing research and development on disaster preven-tion technology. In the system, a diversified social media interface is used to provide local farmers with weather forecast information. When impending disasters are identified, the platform acti-vates disaster prevention measures to reduce agricultural losses. This article paper introduces Taiwan’s agricultural disaster prevention system as a complete disaster prevention strategy.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients infected with COVID-19 may experience abnormal heart rates, posing potential health risks. This study proposes a non-contact method for measuring heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) to effectively reduce the risk of infection and assist healthcare professionals in more accurate diagnosis and treatment. In this study, except for the different image acquisition method, other research processes and methods are similar to the research methods in [15]. The image acquisition method is changed from forehead image to palm image. The new non-contact measurement performance of the proposed method can effectively not only avoid infection concerns but also obtain heart rate and HRV quickly and conveniently, providing higher accuracy for physiological parameters, root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) compared to those in recently published papers.

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), with poor prognosis and high mortality rates, is one of the most diagnosed head and neck cancers. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) - epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) loop is increasingly implicated in the therapy-resistance, relapse, and metastasis of OSCC patients. Accumulating evidence indicate that aberrantly expressed CD47 is associated with cell-death evasion, invasion and cancer metastasis; however, the role of CD47 in the modulation of CSCs-like phenotypes, including therapy-resistance and metastasis, with its underlying mechanism in OSCC remains largely underexplored. Methods: This study investigated the CSCs- modulating potential of CD47 in OSCC cell lines SAS, TW2.6, HSC-3 and FaDu using bioinformatics approach, immunoblotting, immunofluorescence staining, migration, invasion, colony and orosphere formation, as well as radiosensitivity assays. Results: We demonstrated that the characteristic ectopic expression of CD47 in OSCC patients was associated with ~ 20% 2-year survival disadvantage (p = 0.01) and positively correlated with the expression of pluripotency factors; while shRNA silencing of CD47 significantly suppressed cell viability and markedly inhibited orosphere formation, resulting in smaller and fewer orospheres, and downregulated CD133, SOX2, OCT4 and c-Myc mRNA and protein expression levels. We also showed that CD47 downregulation attenuates EMT, migration and clonogenicity of OSCC cells, with associated E-cadherin upregulation and suppression of Vimentin, Slug, Snail, and N-cadherin expression. Conclusion: Of therapeutic relevance, combined with radiotherapy, CD47 knockdown enhanced the anti-OSCC effect of radiotherapy. Thus, we demonstrate the therapeutic feasibility of a CD47-mediated anti-CSCs strategy, and suggest a role for CD47 suppression in potentiating the therapeutic efficacy of radiation therapy in OSCC patients.

The microglia, displaying diverse phenotypes, play a significant regulatory role in the development, progression, and prognosis of Parkinson's disease. Research has established that glycolytic reprogramming serves as a critical regulator of inflammation initiation in pro-inflammatory macrophages. Furthermore, the modulation of glycolytic reprogramming has the potential to reverse the polarized state of these macrophages. Previous studies have shown that levetistilide A (LA), a phthalide component derived from Angelica sinensis, possesses a range of pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. In our study, we have examined the impact of LA on inflammatory cytokines and glucose metabolism in microglia induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, we explored the effects of LA on the AMPK/mTOR pathway and assessed its neuroprotective potential both in vitro and in vivo. The findings revealed that LA notably diminished the expression of M1 pro-inflammatory factors induced by LPS in microglia, while leaving M2 anti-inflammatory factor expression unaltered. Additionally, it reduced ROS production and suppressed IκB-α phosphorylation levels as well as NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation. Notably, LA exhibited the ability to reverse microglial glucose metabolism reprogramming and modulate the phosphorylation levels of AMPK/mTOR. In vivo experiments further corroborated these findings, demonstrating that LA mitigated the death of TH-positive dopaminergic neurons and reduced microglia activation in the ventral SNpc brain region of the midbrain and the striatum. In summary, LA exhibited neuroprotective benefits by modulating the polarization state of microglia and altering glucose metabolism, highlighting its therapeutic potential.

PG9, PG16, PGT121, and PGT145 antibodies were identified from culture media of activated memory B-cells of an infected donor and shown to neutralize many HIV-1 strains. Since HIV-1 spreads via both free virions and cell-cell fusion, we examined the effect of the antibodies on HIV-1 Env-mediated cell-cell fusion. Clone69TRevEnv cells that express Env in the absence of tetracycline were labeled with Calcein-AM Green, and incubated with CD4+ SupT1 cells labeled with CellTrace™ Calcein Red-Orange, with or without antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies PG9, PG16, 2G12, PGT121, and PGT145 (at up to 50 µg/mL) had little or no inhibitory effect on fusion between HIV-Env and SupT1 cells. By contrast, Hippeastrum hybrid agglutinin completely inhibited fusion. Our results indicate that transmission of the virus or viral genetic material would not be inhibited by these broadly neutralizing antibodies. Thus, antibodies generated by HIV-1 vaccines should be screened for their inhibitory effect on Env-mediated cell-cell fusion.

Pilots can be one of the factors in many air traffic accidents. When one or both pilots are impaired (e.g. fatigue, drunk), disabled, capable but wrong-headed, don’t have sufficient training, distracted, miscommunicate with the air traffic controller, or follow wrong instructions from the air traffic controller, the risk of accident will increase dramatically. In some of these cases, the risk can be mitigated by using big data and machine learning. The system will collect and analyze large amount of data about the state of the aircraft, e.g., the flight path, the immediate environment around the aircraft, the weather and terrain information, and the pilots’ input to control the aircraft. Additional sensors such as eye tracking devices and biological monitor can also be added to determine the condition of the pilots. If the pilots’ input do not match proper reaction to the situation or the pilots are impaired, the learning machine will first provide an advisory to the pilots. If both pilots are impaired or incapable, a warning will be sent to the flight attendants and air traffic controllers so that they can take appropriate actions. The learning machine will be trained by both accident database and an automatic training system.

Background and Objectives: Treatment for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV) must deal with immunosuppression as well as infections associated with compromised immune system, such as tuberculosis (TB). Our aim was to overcome the gap in the literature concerning the risk of incidental TB after diagnosis of AAV. Materials and Methods: This retrospective population-based cohort study was based on the data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We used a novel algorithm to identify patients with newly diagnosed granulomatous polyangiitis (GPA) or microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2012. The primary outcome was risk of incidental TB. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association between AAV and incidental TB. Results: A total of 2,257 patients with AAV and a propensity-score matched cohort of 9,028 patients were studied. Overall, patients with AAV were at a 1.48x higher risk of contracting incidental TB than were patients in the matched cohort (adjusted HR 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.15). Note that the highest risk of contracting incidental TB was in the first two years following a diagnosis of AAV, with a nearly 1-fold increase in risk (adjusted HR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.01-3.60). Female AAV patients were 3.24x more likely than females without AAV to develop TB (adjusted HR 3.24; 95%CI, 1.85-5.67). Conclusion: Patients with AAV face an elevated risk of contracting incidental TB, particularly within the first two years after AAV diagnosis. The risk of contracting TB is higher among female AAV patients than among females without AAV.

The article presents a literature review of three Chinese manuscripts containing natural dyes recipes and three containing synthetic dyes from the Ming Dynasty to the Republican Period. The manuscripts mentioned were exclusively used as references and sources. Four databases were used to access the original documents, then, a translation from old mandarin to Spanish was made. For natural dyes, the results show four dyestuffs were commonly used to produce colors, sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan L.), followed by safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), indigo (Indigofera tinctoria L.), and sophora (S. japonicum L.). While the synthetic dyes exported to or produced in China were mainly bluish, greenish, and violet probably because they were difficult to obtain from natural ones. The literature review of the dyes and their recipes can be a key factor in any art history or conservation study, improving the understanding of how the colors were achieved and as complementary information for analytical analyses. It provides useful details that contribute to the preservation of Chinese dye history on silk heritage.

The mammalian STE 20-like protein kinase 4 (MST4) gene is highly expressed in several cancer types, but little is known on the role of MST4 in breast cancer and the function of MST4 during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has not been fully elucidated. Here, we report that overexpression of MST4 in breast cancer results in enhanced cell growth, migration, and invasion, whereas inhibition of MST4 expression significantly attenuates these properties. Further study shows that MST4 promotes EMT by activating Akt and its downstream signaling molecules such as E-cadherin/N-cadherin, Snail, and Slug. MST4 also activates AKT and its downstream pro-survival pathway. Furthermore, by analyzing breast cancer patient tissue microarray and silicon datasets, we found that MST4 expression is much higher in breast tumor tissue compared to normal tissue, and significantly correlates with cancer stage, lymph node metastasis and a poor overall survival rate (p<0.05). Taken together, our findings demonstrate the oncogenic potential of MST4 in breast cancer, highlighting its role in cancer cell proliferation, migration/invasion, survival, and EMT, suggesting a possibility that MST4 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for breast cancer.

This study explores wind energy resources in different locations through the Gulf of Oman and also their future variability due climate change impacts. In this regard, EC-EARTH near-surface wind outputs obtained from CORDEX-MENA simulations are used for historical and future projection of the energy. The ERA5 wind data are employed to assess the suitability of the climate model. Moreover, the ERA5 wave data over the study area are applied to compute sea surface roughness as an important variable for converting near-surface wind speeds to those of wind speed at turbine hub height. Considering the power distribution, bathymetry and distance from the coats, some spots as tentative energy hotspots to provide a detailed assessment of directional and temporal variability and also to investigate climate change impact studies. RCP8.5 is a common climatic scenario is used to project and extract future variation of the energy in the selected sites. The results of this study demonstrate that the selected locations have a suitable potential for wind power turbine plans and constructions.

Our study explores the role of cancer-derived extracellular exosomes (EXs), particularly focusing on collagen alpha-3 (VI; COL6A3), in facilitating tumor dissemination and metastasis in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We found that COL6A3 is expressed in aggressive ES2 derivatives, SKOV3 overexpressing COL6A3 (SKOV3/COL6A3), and mesenchymal-type ovarian carcinoma stromal progenitor cells (MSC-OCSPCs), as well as their EXs, but not in less aggressive SKOV3 cells or ES2 cells with COL6A3 knockdown (ES2/shCOL6A3). High COL6A3 expression correlates with worse overall survival in EOC patients, as evidenced by TCGA and GEO data analysis. In vitro experiments showed that EXs from MSC-OCSPCs or SKOV3/COL6A3 cells significantly enhance invasion ability in ES2 or SKOV3/COL6A3 cells, respectively (both, P &lt;0.001). In contrast, ES2 cells with ES2/shCOL6A3 EXs exhibit reduced invasion ability (p&lt;0.001). In vivo, the average disseminated tumor numbers in the peritoneal cavity were significantly greater in mice receiving intraperitoneally injected SKOV3/COL6A3 cells than in SKOV3 cells (p&lt;0.001). Furthermore, mice intravenously (IV) injected with SKOV3/COL6A3 cells and SKOV3/COL6A3-EXs showed increased lung colonization compared to mice injected with SKOV3 cells and PBS (p=0.007) or SKOV3/COL6A3 cells and PBS (p=0.039). Knockdown of COL6A3 or treatment with EXs inhibitor GW4869 or rapamycin-abolished COL6A3-EXs may suppress the aggressiveness in EOC.

The present study analyzed light emitting diodes (LEDs) as an output load and used a Taylor series to describe the characteristic curve based on the exponential characteristic of voltage and current. A prototype circuit of a flyback LED driver system was established to verify whether the theory is consistent with actual results. This study focused on the exponential relationship of LED voltage and current. Conventional simulations usually used linear models to present LED loads. However, the linear model resulted in considerable error between simulation and actual characteristics. Therefore, this study employed a Taylor series to describe the nonlinear characteristic of an LED load. Through precise calculations with Mathcad computation software, the error was effectively reduced. Moreover, the process clarified the influence of temperature on LEDs, which benefited the characteristic analysis of the entire system. Finally, a realized circuit of 120-W flyback LED drivers was established for conducting theory verification, including theoretic analysis and evaluation of the system design process of the flyback converter. The circuit simulation software SIMPLIS was used to demonstrate the system model, which enabled quick understanding of the system framework established in this study. Regarding LEDs, a commercially available aluminum luminaire was used as the output load. The measured results of the actual circuit and the simulation results were remarkably consistent. For the same system at the same temperature, the error between the simulation and actual results was less than 3%, which proved the reliability of the Taylor series simulation.

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a form of vasculitis that primarily affects children under the age of 5 years old. Patients may be missed diagnosis when initial clinical symptoms do not fulfill the traditional criteria. We aimed to analyze factors that clinicians could use to differentiate febrile children suspected of KD. Method: We retrospectively enrolled a total of 83 febrile children who were initially suspected of KD, but they did not meet the American Heart Association (AHA) criteria for a diagnosis. However, some of these patients were diagnosed with KD during their second visit. We analyzed patients' characteristics, clinical symptoms, and laboratory data. Results: In total, 50 patients were enrolled in the study. Of those, ten patients were diagnosed with KD on their second visit (group 1), while the other 40 patients still did not fit a KD diagnosis (group 2). A patient with a neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio greater than 1.33 combined with a C-reactive protein more than 33 mg/L was more likely to have KD. Conclusion: Among patients suspected of KD that did not initially meet the criteria, clinicians should pay special attention to elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios and CRP levels and closely follow up such patients.

Floods are among the most destructive natural disasters, which are highly complex to model. The research on the advancement of flood prediction models has been contributing to risk reduction, policy suggestion, minimizing loss of human life and reducing the property damage associated with floods. To mimic the complex mathematical expressions of physical processes of floods, during the past two decades, machine learning (ML) methods have highly contributed in the advancement of prediction systems providing better performance and cost effective solutions. Due to the vast benefits and potential of ML, its popularity has dramatically increased among hydrologists. Researchers through introducing the novel ML methods and hybridization of the existing ones have been aiming at discovering more accurate and efficient prediction models. The main contribution is to demonstrate the state of the art of ML models in flood prediction and give an insight over the most suitable models. The literature where ML models are benchmarked through a qualitative analysis of robustness, accuracy, effectiveness, and speed have been particularly investigated to provide an extensive overview on various ML algorithms usage in the field. The performance comparison of ML models presents an in-depth understanding about the different techniques within the framework of a comprehensive evaluation and discussion. As the result, the paper introduces the most promising prediction methods for both long-term and short-term floods. Furthermore, the major trends in improving the quality of the flood prediction models are investigated. Among them, hybridization, data decomposition, algorithm ensemble, and model optimization are reported the most effective strategy in improvement of the ML methods. This survey can be used as a guideline for the hydrologists as well as climate scientists to assist them choosing the proper ML method according to the prediction task conclusions.

Dendrobium Sw have multiple photosynthetic pathways but due to the lack of identification, the influence of CAM pathway on the plastid genomic evolution of Dendrobium and the origin of CAM pathway are still poorly understood. In this study, based on the results of δ13C, net photosynthetic rates (Pn) and titratable acid value, we identified Dendrobium species into three photosynthetic pathways. Then the chloroplast whole genome characteristics of 10 Dendrobium species were analyzed with next-generation sequencing technology. The quadripartite-structure plastomes ranged from 151,673 bp to 160,375 bp and included 127 to 132 genes. Five noncoding mutational hotspots (rbcL-accD, atpB-rbcL, rbcL, trnLUAA, accD, Pi &gt; 0.10) were identified. A total of 41–60 SSRs were recognized, the average trinucleotide content was only about 4%, which is probably due to a more conserved SSR. Among multiple photosynthetic pathways, the apparent differences in IR junctions of SSC/IRB junctions (JSBs) were measured within chloroplast genomes, and the chloroplast genome size of constitutive CAM plants is shorter because of their ndh gene loss or pseudogenization, and this phenomenon accounts for a decreasing proportion of constitutive CAM, facultative CAM, and obligate C3 plants, so that the loss of the ndh gene may be speculated to be closely related to the CAM pathway. Phylogenetic analyses showed that there are multiple independent CAM origins in selected Dendrobium species, and the ancestral Dendrobium plastome possessed full ORFs for all ndh genes. The study aims to clarify the chloroplast genomic features of different photosynthetic pathways, enrich the genomic data of CAM plants, and provide genetic information from different perspectives for further systematic study of Dendrobium.

Multicellular organisms organize themselves according to two principles; first, the equilibrium between the driving force of unstable state cells and apoptosis or senescence; and second, the mutual equilibrium between the functional requirements of different types of cells. For the first principle, we deduce that stem cells at different levels have their own growth limits, which are determined by two factors: the ability of the stem cells to enter an unstable state (specifically, the ability of cells to divide and differentiate); and the rate of cellular senescence, loss of function, and finally, apoptosis. The superposition of stem cell limits at different levels over each other can amplify small differences at the genetic level. Moreover, the growth limits of different organs are different, which lead to different individuals having completely different appearances. The second principle is that the sum of the specific output functions of an organ must be equal to the overall demand for the function to be provided by the organ. If negative entropy input can meet this equilibrium, defects in certain genes will cause these defective individuals to become larger or develop other morphology.

Passive and forced drinking harm was prevalent but less recognized in Chinese adolescents. We educated adolescents on such harm to reduce their intention to drink. Students (n=1244) from 7 secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in a video-based health talk on passive and forced drinking harm. Paired t-test was used to assess their change in knowledge of passive and forced drinking, health and social harm of drinking after the health talk. McNemar's chi-squared test and adjusted multivariable logistic regression (AOR) were used to assess their change in intention to drink and intention to quit. Students were less likely to drink (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.19-0.42) and more likely to quit drinking (OR 3.50, 1.10-14.6) after the health talk. Increased knowledge of passive drinking was associated with less intention to drink (AOR 0.93, 0.90-0.97), increased knowledge of health harm (adjusted b 0.06, 0.05-0.08), and social harm of drinking (adjusted b 0.12, 0.10-0.16). Similar associations were observed in forced drinking (intention to drink: AOR 0.87, 0.79-0.96; health harm: adjusted b 0.16, 0.12-0.19; social harm: adjusted b 0.36, 0.28-0.43). We showed preliminary evidence that the health talk on passive and forced drinking reduced the intention to drink in adolescents.

Abstract: NFinFET transistors with fin channel length 90nm and a planar MOSFET transistor with channel length 180nm and 90nm are presented with characteristic curves at various gate biases. A finalized algorithm with kink effects is effectively responsible for addressing the field effect transistors. The algorithm includes the modified conventional current-voltage formula and a nonlinear heat-associated kink solution which is simplified as a Gaussian form. Three parameters in modified model includes kN (related with channel width, channel length, and gate oxide capacitor, and proportional to the mobility of carriers)Vth(Threshold Voltage), and (the inverse of Early Voltage). Those parameters are determined to minimize the discrepancies between the measured data and the fitting values, but leave kinks located at around (VGS－Vth), which are deliberately eliminated by the Gaussian form because of the agitation of thermal kink effects. The whole fitting is made to be as close as the as-measured IDS-VDS. In the mean time, those determined parameters are physically meaningful after the analysis has been done.

Background: Passive drinking is prevalent in adolescents worldwide, but its prevalence and harm are understudied. Methods: Secondary students (n=5840, grades 7-12) from 23 selected schools in Hong Kong participated in the survey from 2015-16. Students reported the harm of passive drinking, perceived health status, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, Perceived Stress Scale-4, perceived happiness, family health, happiness, and harmony in the questionnaire. The associations were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression (odds ratio, OR) and linear regression (unstandardized coefficient, b), adjusted for confounders. Results: 29.1% (95% CI 27.8 to 30.5%) of students experienced passive drinking in the past 30-day. Past 30-day parental passive drinking was associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms (AOR 1.63, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.10), stress (adjusted b 0.76, 0.42 to 1.10), and lower level of perceived happiness (adjusted b -0.52, -0.72 to -0.33). Past 30-day parental passive drinking was associated with a lower level of family health (adjusted b -1.39, 95% CI -1.66 to -1.11), family happiness (adjusted b -1.36, -1.64 to -1.08), and family harmony (adjusted b -1.40, -1.70 to -1.10). Conclusion: Passive drinking was associated with poorer mental health, family wellbeing, and lower level of happiness among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents.

Background: Pleurotus ostreutus is one of the world’s most commonly consumed mushrooms. Cultivation of mushrooms using wood resources usually results in environmental issues of deforestation. Juncao grass Pennisetum sp, Arundo Donax, and Methodology: Miscanthus are the culture mediums used in this research which offered a composting system most particularly for a simple formulation, cheap and feasible for small farms in cultivating oyster mushrooms. Results: The present study assessed the different junco grass as a substrate for growing Pleurotus ostreatus given the enzyme activities, growth, and yields. In addition, on the other hand, Lignin peroxidase (LiP) was the most active enzyme in each culture material among the other enzyme activities expressed differently between substrate and growing stages. Fruiting bodies harvested on giant grass,Arundo donax,and miscanthus,substrate weighed 159.2g/bag,132g/bag, and 65.1g/bag on average respectively. The biological efficiency of pleurotus cultivated in three different substrates was 75.2%, 63.4%, and 28.7%, respectively. Lignin peroxidase (LiP) was the most active enzyme followed by Laccase in each substrate. At the same time, other enzyme activities were differently expressed between substrate and different developmental stages. Nutrient analysis revealed significant variations, with differences in polysaccharides, proteins, and amino acids among substrates as well as the presence of heavy metals as arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium content in all samples was within safe limits. Conclusion: Findings from this study will serve as a solid foundation for future studies aimed at characterizing different substrate responses on enzyme activity. This research provides a sustainable footprint for subsequent research promoting eco-friendly mushroom production. The obtained results indicate that Arundo donax should be a good substrate in place of giant grass, using miscanthus is not productive based on the results obtained in this research the juncao grasses offer a sustainable approach that reduces reliance on wood-based substrates and enhances environmental sustainability.

Aiming at the problems of inaccurate segmentation of long object and information loss of small object in real-time semantic segmentation algorithm, this paper proposes a lightweight multi-branch real-time semantic segmentation network based on BiseNetV2. The new auxiliary branch makes full use of spatial details and context information to cover the long object in the field of view. Meanwhile, in order to ensure the inference speed of the model, the asymmetric convolution is used in each stage of the auxiliary branch to design a structure with low computational complexity. In the multi-branch fusion stage, the alignment and fusion module is designed to provide guidance information for deep and shallow feature mapping, so as to make up for the problem of feature misalignment in the fusion of information at different scales, and thus reduce the loss of small target information. In order to further improve the model’s awareness of key information, a global context module is designed to capture the most important features in the input data. The proposed network uses NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU experiment, on the road street view data set Cityscapes and CamVid average occurring simultaneously ratio reached 77.1% and 78.4% respectively, with running speed of 127 frames/s respectively and 112 frames/s. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve real-time segmentation and improve the accuracy significantly, showing good semantic segmentation performance

Ever since oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf Region in the 1920s, the oil and gas industries have been dominant in the area. These countries are responsible for generating approximately 35 percent of the world's natural gas and 25 percent of its crude oil, making them the largest crude oil producers globally. The release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere is directly linked to the use of fossil fuels. CO2 accounts for 58.8 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and has a detrimental impact on urban residents through the urban heat island effect. A significant portion of these emissions can be attributed to residential buildings. Some nations exacerbate the problem by relying excessively on fossil fuels. Oil-rich countries provide energy subsidies to the public in order to lower energy costs for their citizens. However, this policy can have negative consequences, including wasteful energy usage in countries like Iran.

The bridge crane is often used in a complex environment, often subject to interference of all loads. Some uncertainties factors often have an inevitable impact on its swing. So the force situation of the bridge crane during a working cycle is analyzed, and a three-dimensional dynamic mathematical model of the bridge crane is built. Through the simulation analysis of the model under the action of driving force and wind load, the change law of the swing angle of the bridge crane is studied. Then, the fuzzy control theory is used to determine the control parameter in the anti sway control process. The position, swing angle deviation and deviation rate of the bridge crane are taken as the input, and the parameter correction is obtained after the fuzzification by using the center of gravity method, the anti sway fuzzy control system of the bridge crane is designed and simulated. The research results show that the fuzzy PID anti sway controller can not only improve the adaptability of the control system, but also overcome the large overshoot, quickly restrain the swing, and effectively realize the anti sway function of the bridge crane.

Three new cembranoids (1–3) and a new casbanoid (4), along with three known analogues (5–7), have been isolated from the soft coral Sinularia nanolobata collected off Ximao Island. The structures including the absolute configurations of new compounds were established by extensive spectro-scopic data analysis, time-dependent density functional theory/electronic circular dichroism (TDDFT-ECD) calculations and the comparison with spectroscopic data of known compounds. In in vitro bioassay, compounds 1 and 5 exhibited moderate cytotoxic activities against human erythroleukemia (HEL) cells line with IC50 values of 37.1 and 42.4 uM, respectively.

Skeletal muscle is a specialized tissue consisting of nondividing and multinucleated muscle fibers. Skeletal muscle-specific myostatin (MSTN) is a secreted protein that acts as a negative regulator of muscle mass by inhibiting proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. In this study, we established a screening platform to monitor myostatin promoter activity in rat L8 myoblasts. Extract of Glycyrrhiza uralensis (GUE), an oriental herbal medicine, was identified through this screening platform and, the active fractions of GUE were identified by process-scale liquid column chromatography system. For in vivo study, the GUE as a feed additive was investigated in growth-finishing pigs. The results showed that GUE significantly increased body weight, carcass weight and lean content in pigs. Microbiota analysis indicated that GUE did not affect the composition of gut microbiota in pigs. In summary, this established rodent myoblast screening platform was used to identify a myogenesis-related phytogenic, GUE, and further demonstrated that the active fractions inhibited MSTN expression. These finding suggest a novel application for GUE in growth performance enhancement through modulation of MSTN expression. Furthermore, this established screening platform has great potential for identification and evaluation of a wide variety of phytogenics involving in myogenesis.

Using lightweight fire-rated board (LFRB) presents cost-effective opportunities for various passive fire protection measures. The aim of the project is to develop a LFRB with enhanced fire resistance, acoustic properties, and mechanical properties. These properties were determined using the Bunsen burner, furnace, energy dispersive X-Ray, impedance tube instrument, and Instron universal testing machine. To fabricate the LFRBs, vermiculite and perlite were blended with flame-retardant bind-ers, and four types of LFRBs were produced. A fire test was conducted to compare the fire-resistance performance of the LFRBs with a commercially available flame retardant board. The B2 prototype showed exceptional fire-resistant properties, with a temperature reduction of up to 73.0 °C as compared to the commercially available fire-rated magnesium board. Incorporating nano chicken eggshell into the specially formulated flame-retardant binder preserved the LFRBs’ structural integrity, enabling them to withstand fire for up to 120 minutes with an equilibrium temperature of 92.6 °C. This approach also provided an absorption coefficient of α = 2.0, a high flexural strength of 3.54 MPa, and effective flame retardancy properties with a low oxygen/carbon ratio of 2.60. These results make the LFRBs valuable for passive fire protection applications in the construction and building materials industry.

The continuous casting process of helical fiber reinforced metal matrix composites was proposed, and the experimental equipment was designed and manufactured. The relationship model be-tween the process parameters and the helical shape of the fibers in the metal matrix is analyzed by differential geometry. Helical carbon fiber reinforced lead matrix composites were prepared under different conditions. When the melting temperature and cooling intensity were increased, the helical radius of helical carbon fiber in lead matrix was increased. When the fiber rotation speed was increased, the helical radius was decreased, and the helical pitch was de-creased proportionally. The experimental results are consistent with the process model. Carbon fiber rein-forced aluminum composites were prepared. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the infiltration between the aluminum matrix and the carbon fiber was not complete. As the volume fraction of carbon fiber which was added in composites is too small, the mechanical properties of the composites have not been significantly improved.

Objectives. Invasive fungal spondylodiscitis (IFSD) is rare and could be lethal in certain circumstances. Previous literature revealed limited data concerning the outcomes. This study aimed to establish a risk-scoring system. Methods. A total of 53 patients were included in the study from a multi-centered database in Taiwan. All the clinicopathological and laboratory data were retrospectively analyzed. Variables strongly related to 1-year mortality were identified using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to express the performance of our IFSD scoring model. Results. Five strong predictors were included in the IFSD score: predisposing immunocompromised state, the initial presentation of either radiculopathy or myelopathy, initial laboratory findings of WBC > 12.0 or < 0.4 103/uL, hemoglobin < 8 g/dL, and evidence of candidemia. 1-year mortality rates for patients with IFSD Scores of 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 0%, 16.7%, 56.3%, 72.7%, and 100%, respectively. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.823. Conclusions. We developed a practical scoring model with easily obtained demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters to predict the probability of 1-year mortality in patients with IFSD. However, more large-scale and international validations would be necessary before this scoring model is commonly used.

In Taiwan, peanuts are classified by hand. The kernel quality is judged based on the appearance of peanuts. The identification takes considerable time and labor. Fatigue can induce misrecogni-tion or grade cognition instability due. Peanut defects are generally divided into health, underde-velopment, insect bite, and rupture. This study employed two imaging methods push-boom FX10 and Snapshot. Deep learning was used to detect peanut defects. A push-broom instrument was used for testing. There were 1,560 peanuts, including 240 good and 240 bad ones. There were a total of 1,080 good peanuts and bad peanuts in the test set data, the band selection was used, and a CNN model was built. Based on the results from three methods, 3DCNN could classify with 97%accuracy. The Snapshot was used to achieve the real-time design of a lightweight CNN model. Finally, five bands were selected using PCA, and the screening could be accurate and efficient. The maximum overall accuracy was about 98.5%. Kappa was 97.3% with real-time recognition. This will be a major advantage in the future practical application and commercialization processes. This technique can reduce labor costs, achieve intelligent detection and intelligent grading, and bring breakthroughs to smart agriculture for other crops as well.

Longitudinal image registration of pulmonary computed tomography (PCT) images may serve as an essential tool for investigating the relationship between radiation dose distribution and the occurrence and phenotype of radiation-induced lung disease (RILD). Although numerous longitudinal registration algorithms have been developed for PCT, most similarity-based approaches are not suitable for PCT involving RILD due to the complex tissue variation between two PCT images. Moreover, conventional feature-based approaches might fail to find a sufficient number of matched pairs of feature points due to the disparate lung deformation caused by breathing and RILD. To overcome the challenges resulting from RILD, component structure coherence point drift (CSCPD) was proposed to establish a deformation model by decomposing the chest into several components and matching them with individual parameters based on coherence point drift (CPD). Moreover, a regional vascular point matching (RVPM) algorithm was proposed to generate a vascular subtree and to substantially increase the number of corresponding pairs between two images. Eventually, the components were recomposed and aligned by a thin plate spline algorithm. A performance assessment on 15 pairs of PCT images of patients with RILD yielded recall and precision values of 0.85 and 0.89 for RVPM, respectively. Moreover, the target registration error of CSCPD with RVPM (2.3 ± 1.79) was significantly better than that of conventional CPD with RVPM (2.95 ± 1.89) and conventional CPD (5.04 ± 2.87). Therefore, the proposed registration system is robust enough to address the disparate deformation of lungs with RILD, and it improves registration accuracy within the parenchyma.

Nutrients are the driving force of plant and herbivore interactions. Different elements and fertilization levels in soil, or artificially fertilized substrates can have a direct impact on plant defense responses. Meanwhile, nutrient levels mediated by root associated microbes can indirectly affect plant-herbivore interactions. Nutrient uptake promoted by beneficial mycorrhizal fungi or rhizobacteria interacting with roots can stimulate plant tolerance to herbivore attack, as evidenced by herbivore performance, plant nutrient status, plant biomass allocation and compensatory growth. In return, herbivory affects nutrient fluxes between plants and their associated beneficial microbes. Furthermore, aboveground and belowground herbivory can affect the nutrient exchange between plants and soil microbial communities, mainly for carbon-and nitrogen-based resources supporting herbivores´ life cycles. These ecological interactions are governed by jasmonic acid (JA) and key enzymes on the molecular level. This review summarizes the current scientific literature on the role of nutrients in plant-herbivore interactions. This will support efforts to optimize plant defense strategy via managing nutrient variance.

Expansion tube is ideal energy absorber which dissipates kinetic energy through plastic deformation and friction. There is an urgent need to understand the influence of key parameter, e.g. semi angle, tube material, and friction coefficient, on the mechanical response and energy absorption characteristics of expansion tube. In the present work, the material properties of the tubes were tested under quasi-static loading condition, and the numerical simulations were carried out by using commercial software ABAQUS. Based on the validated finite element simulation, all the semi angle, tube material, and friction have significant effects on the energy absorption capacity of expansion tube. The expansion tube with high tensile stress of parent material have high energy absorption capacity, while the specific energy absorption is linear with the tensile stress/density of tube material. This work would give a guidance to the structural design and parent materials selection for expansion tubes.

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic element impacting on biological systems and ecosystems. Because the toxicity of Hg species is highly dependent on concentration levels and chemical forms, sensitive identification of chemical forms for Hg, i.e., Hg speciation, is of major significance in providing meaningful information about the source of Hg exposure. In this study, a microfluidic-based device made of high clarity poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was fabricated. Then titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2) were attached to the treated channel interior with the aid of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC). After coupling the nano-TiO2-coated microfluidic-based photocatalyst-assisted reduction device (the nano-TiO2-coated microfluid-ic-based PCARD) with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), a selective and sensitive hyphenated system for Hg specia-tion was established. Validation procedures demonstrated that the method could be satisfactorily applied to the determination of mercuric ion (Hg2+) and methylmercury ion (CH3Hg+) in both human urine and water samples. Remarkably, the zeta potential measured clearly indicated the PDADMAC-capped nano-TiO2 with predominance of positive charges indeed provided steady force for firm attachment to the negatively charged device channel. The cause for the durability of the nano-TiO2-coated microfluidic-based PCARD was clarified thus.

A case-crossover study examined how PM_2.5 from Asian Dust Storms (ADS) affects the number of emergency room (ER) admissions for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and respiratory diseases (RDs). Our data indicated that PM_2.5 concentration from ADS was highly correlated with ER visits for CVDs and RDs. The odds ratios (OR) increased by 2.92 (95% CI: 1.22-5.08) and 1.86 (95% CI: 1.30-2.91) per increase 10 µg/m³ in PM_2.5 levels, for CVDs and RDs, respectively. A 10 µg/m³ increase in PM_2.5 from ADSs was significantly associated with increase in ER visits for CVDs among those 65 years of age and older (an increase of 2.77 in OR) and for females (an increase of 3.09 in OR). In contrast, PM_2.5 levels had a significant impact on RD ER visits among those under 65 years of age (OR=1.77). The risk of ER visits for CVDs increased on the day when the ADS occurred in Taiwan and the day after (lag 0 and lag 1); the corresponding risk increase for RDs only increased on the fifth day after the ADS (lag 5). In Taiwan’s late winter and spring, the severity of ER visits for CVDs and RDs increases. Environmental protection agencies should employ an early warning system for ADS to reduce high-risk groups’ exposure to PM_2.5.

Spectacular shifts have been led to by The COVID-19 crisis in consumer behavior. Retailers will have to work hard to meet ever-evolving customer service experience with respect to the ways in which it may be differently affected by offline or online transactions in order to win and stay relevant. We suggest an integrative framework and construct customer service experience hypotheses, based on its antecedents and consequences that will contribute to academic study as well as managerial implications. The hypotheses are tested by a simultaneous equation model employing two data sets of the retail industry's offline and online customers. In this study, 571 samples of these businesses, 319 and 252 respondents from offline and online retail channels, respectively, were collected by means of an online web survey of consumers. The results show that the impact of consequences and antecedents of CSX differs based on the media utilized. The integrative framework of CSX in its online medium is far more effective than its explanatory power offline. The outcomes are reasonably counterintuitive in so far as they demonstrate that while most elements of CSX where a service is selected offline is the same in terms of customer loyalty and value equity, the emotional element related to the service provider is higher when the service is selected offline rather than online. These outcomes indicate that, contrary to popular fears, the online medium enables firms to develop a loyal customer foundation. These findings offer perceptivity into how an online channel could be used to better complement the offline channel, contributing towards new knowledge and understanding on CSX and how it may be utilized for managerial decision-making.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancies in women and the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype is a breast cancer subset without ER, PR and HER2 expression, limiting treatment options and presenting a poorer survival rate. Thus, we investigated whether HDACi would be used as potential anti-cancer therapy on breast cancer cells. In this study, we found TNBC and HER2-enrich breast cancers are extremely sensitive to Panobinostat, Belinostat of HDACi via experiments of cell viability assay, apoptotic marker identification and flow cytometry measurement. On the other hand, we developed a bioluminescence based live cell non-invasive apoptosis detection sensor (IADS) detection system to evaluate the quantitative and kinetic analyses of apoptotic cell death by HDAC treatment on breast cancer cells. In addition, the use of HDACi may also be accompanied with chemotherapeutic agent such as doxorubicin to synergic drug sensitivity on TNBC cell (MDA-MB-231), but not in breast normal epithelia cells (MCF-10A), providing therapeutic benefits against breast tumor in clinic.

Consumption of refined foods and beverages high in sugar make the teeth susceptible to the formation of biofilm, and lead to dental caries and diseases of the oral cavity such as periodontitis and periodontal disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the ability of selected probiotics to inhibit growth and biofilm formation by the cariogenic bacterium Streptococcus mutans in vitro. We screened strains of latic acid bacteria (LAB) (n=120) from the Bioresources Collection and Research Center (BCRC), saliva of healthy adults and infant stool. The antimicrobial activity of LAB in vitro was evaluated by agar spot culture and co-culture of the S. mutans strains. We determined the effect of heating and dilution factors (2- and 4-fold) on the antagonistic activity of LAB. Antagonistic substances in the spent culture suspensions (SCS) of LAB were precipitated by extraction with ammonium sulphate and chloroform to characterise the protein and lipophilic fractions. Results of co-culturing show that the SCS of the three LAB strains (Lactobacillus pentosus 13-1, 13-4 and Lactobacillus crispatus BCRC 14618) subjected to heat treatment showed significantly high antimicrobial activity. We found that substances produced by L. pentosus 13-4 which have the potential to exhibit antimicrobial properties might be lipophilic proteins. Additionally, we infer that the mechanism of reducing biofilm formation by Lactobacillus strains is associated with sucrose-dependent cell–cell adhesion and the gtfC level of glucosyltransferases (Gtfs) in the biofilm. Native LAB strains screened in our study may be used in chewing gums and other processed foods for preventing tooth decay.

It is desirable to upgrade previous evolutionary theories, which have remained incomplete and controversial for decades. Here we employ the concept of carbon-based entities (CBEs), which include methane, amino acids, proteins, organisms, and other entities containing relatively many carbon atoms. We deduce the driving force, mechanisms, steps, modes, tempos of CBE evolution, through integration of biology, physics, and chemistry using logics for complex issues. We hence establish the Carbon-Based Evolutionary Theory (CBET). The CBET suggests that evolution is the increase in hierarchy, diversity, fitness of CBEs under natural selection and driven by thermodynamics due to the chemical effect of the thermodynamic features of the Earth on CBEs. It provides better explanations for life origin, macroevolution events, natural selection, sympatric speciation, and evolution tempos than previous evolutionary theories. It reveals the evolutionary basis of multiple important social notions, including diversity, collaboration, altruism, obeying rules, and proper increase in freedom. It refutes some wrong notions in thermodynamics, including negative entropy (negentropy) and that biological order is equal to thermodynamic order, which have misled many people. The CBET is supported by its deduction and application. It could be a rare bridge linking laws of thermodynamics, evolution of life, and development of human society, and could have great significance in various sciences.

The combination of artificial intelligence algorithms and numerical methods has recently become popular in the prediction of macroscopic and microscopic hydrodynamics parameters of bubble column reactors. The multi inputs and outputs machine learning can cover small phase interactions or large fluid behavior in industrial domains. This numerical combination can develop the smart multiphase bubble column reactor with the ability of low-cost computational time. It can also decrease case studies for the optimization process when big data is appropriately used during learning. There are still many model parameters that need to be optimized for a very accurate artificial algorithm, including data processing and initialization, the combination of inputs and outputs, number of inputs and model tuning parameters. For this study, we aim to train four inputs big data during learning process by an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system or adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) method, and we consider the superficial gas velocity as one of the input variables, while for the first time, one of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) outputs named gas velocity is used as an output of the artificial algorithm. The results show that the increasing number of input variables improves the intelligence of the ANFIS method up to , and the number of rules during learning process has a significant effect on the accuracy of this type of modeling. The results also show that propper selection of model parameters results in more accuracy in prediction of the flow characteristics in the column structure.

The kinetics of biogas production from biomass depends on several factors such as: carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), reactor temperature (T), and retention time (RT). The purpose of this study was to obtain a new model for predicting biogas production. Spent Mushroom Compost (SMC) was used to produce biogas in a batch type reactor. The experiments were carried out with different C/N ratios (12.1, 20, 30 and 40) and in both mesophilic (35°C) and thermophilic (55°C) temperatures. The results showed that the Maximum biogas production at 35°C, C/N=20 was equal to 41.9 mL/gVS and 55°C, C/N=30 was equal to 51.6 mL/gVS. By using experimental data, a new kinetic model was proposed to predict biogas production. Comparing the values of the results indicate that the total values of RMSE for Logistics, Gampartz and new kinetic models was 0.1906, 0.1830 and 0.1617, respectively. Therefore, the process of anaerobic digestion of biomass can be assumed to be just a chemical reaction, and the new kinetic model is an appropriate alternative to microbial growth models.

Electricity demand forecasting has been a real challenge for power system scheduling in the different levels of the energy sectors. Various computational intelligence techniques and methodologies have been employed in the electricity market for load forecasting; although, scant evidence is available about the feasibility of each of these methods considering the type of data and other potential factors. This work introduces several scientific, technical rationale behind intelligent forecasting methods, based on the work of previous researchers in the field of energy. The fundamental benefits and main drawbacks of the aforementioned methods are discussed in order to depict the efficiency of each approach in various situations. In the end, a proposed hybrid strategy is represented.

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM), a malignant grade IV tumor, is the most malignant brain tumor due to its hyper-proliferative and apoptosis-evading characteristics. The signal transducer and activators of transcription (STAT) family genes, including STAT3 and STAT5A, have been indicated to play important roles in GBM progression. Increasing number of reports suggest that Garcinol, a polyisoprenylated benzophenone and major bioactive component of Garcinia indica contains potent anti-cancer activities. Material & Methods: The present study investigated the anti-GBM effects of garcinol, focusing on the STAT3/STAT5A activation, using a combination of bioinformatics, in vitro, and ex vivo assays. Results: Our bioinformatics analysis of TCGA - GBM cohort (n=173) showed that STAT3 and STAT5A are preferentially elevated in primary and recurrent GBM, compared to non-tumor brain tissues, and is significantly correlated with reduced overall survival. In support, our immunohistochemical staining of a GBM cohort (n=30) showed an estimated 5.3-fold (p<0.001) elevation in STAT3 and STAT5A protein expression in primary and recurrent GBM versus the non-tumor group. In vitro, garcinol treatment significantly suppressed the proliferative, invasive, and migratory potential of U87MG or GBM8401 cells, dose-dependently. In addition, garcinol anticancer effect significantly attenuated the GBM stem cell-like phenotypes, as reflected by diminished ability of U87MG or GBM8401 to form colonies and tumorspheres and suppressed expression of OCT4 and SOX2. Furthermore, analysis on GBM transcriptome revealed an inverse correlation between the level of STAT3/5A and hsa-miR-181d. Garcinol-mediated anti-GBM effects were associated with an increased hsa-miR-181d/STAT3 and hsa-miR-181d/5A ratio. Conclusion: We present evidence of anti-GBM efficacy of garcinol mediated by enhancing the hsa-miR-181d/STAT3 and hsa-miR-181d/5A ratios in GBM cells. Our findings suggest a potential new therapeutic agent for combating aggressive GBM.

Agricultural activities are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon emissions from agricultural land use (CEALU) have become a hot issue across the world. However, few scholars explored the impact of agricultural land policies on carbon emissions, such as the High-standard farmland construction(HSFC) in China.Thus，by relying on provincial panel data for China for the period 2005-2017, the effect of the high-standard basic farmland construction policy on carbon emissions from agricultural land use per unit area and its regional differences were quantitatively analyzed using the difference-in-difference (DID) model. The results showed that: 1) China's CEALU per unit area presented a fluctuating upward trend during the period 2005-2017, from 392.58 kg/ha to 457.72 kg/ha, with an average annual growth rate of 1.31%. 2) The high-standard farmland construction(HSFC) policy produced a significant carbon emission reduction effect in agricultural land use, and reduced the CEALU per unit area by 10.80% on average. With the promotion of this policy, its carbon emission reduction effect in agricultural land use presented an overall increasing trend. 3) The carbon emission reduction effect of the high-standard farmland construction policy in agricultural land use was significant in central China, but non-significant in eastern China and western China.

Simple summary: The noninvasive differentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) remains challenging. In recent years, the number of studies on the application of radiomics in liver cancer has grown dramatically. However, there have been very few studies on the differentiation of HCC from ICC based on multisequence magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a radiomic model based on preoperative fat suppression T2-weighted imaging (FS-T2WI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI features in the arterial phase (A) and portal venous phase (P) for the differentiation of HCC from ICC. Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics in differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). The clinical and MRI data of 129 pathologically confirmed HCC cases and 48 ICC cases from April 2016 to December 2021 at the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College were retrospectively analyzed. Included cases were randomly divided at a ratio of 7:3 into a training group of 124 cases (90 HCC cases and 34 ICC cases) and a validation group of 53 cases (39 HCC cases and 14 ICC cases). Radiomic features were extracted from axial fat-suppression T2-weighted imaging (FS-T2WI) and axial arterial-phase (A) and portal-venous-phase (P) dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI sequences, and the corresponding datasets were generated. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method was used to select the best radiomic features. Logistic regression was used to establish a radiomic model for each sequence (FS-T2WI, A, and P models) and a joint model (M model) integrating the radiomic features of all the sequences. The performance of each model was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The AUC of the FS-T2WI, A, P, and M models for distinguishing HCC from ICC was 0.693, 0.863, 0.818, and 0.914 in the training group and 0.690, 0.784, 0.727, and 0.802 in the validation group, respectively. The results of this study suggest that MRI-based radiomics may help noninvasively differentiate HCC from ICC. The model integrating the radiomic features of multiple sequences showed further improvement in performance.

This paper reports the efforts made and experiences gained in developing the Flood Prevention and Emergency Response System (FPERS) powered by Google Earth Engine, with focus on its applications at the three stages of floods. At the post-flood stage, FPERS integrates various remote sensing imageries, including Formosat-2 optical imagery, to detect and monitor barrier lakes, synthetic aperture radar imagery to derive an inundation map, and high-spatial-resolution photographs taken by unmanned aerial vehicles to evaluate damage to river channels and structures. At the pre-flood stage, a huge amount of geospatial data are integrated in FPERS and are categorized as typhoon forecast and archive, disaster prevention and warning, disaster events and analysis, or basic data and layers. At the during-flood stage, three strategies are implemented to facilitate the access of the real-time data: presenting the key information, making a sound recommendation, and supporting the decision-making. The example of Typhoon Soudelor in August of 2015 is used to demonstrate how FPERS was employed to support the work of flood prevention and emergency response from 2013 to 2016. The capability of switching among different topographic models and the flexibility of managing and searching data through a geospatial database are also explained, and suggestions are made for future works.

Recently, there is a growing need for sensors that can operate autonomously, without the need for an external power source. This is especially important in applications where conventional power sources, such as batteries, are impractical or difficult to replace. Self-powered sensors have emerged as a promising solution to this challenge, offering a range of benefits such as low cost, high stability, and environmental friendliness. One of the most promising self-powered sensor technologies is L-S TENG, which stands for the liquid-solid triboelectric nanogenerator. This technology works by harnessing the mechanical energy generated by external stimuli such as pressure, touch, or vibration, and converting it into electrical energy that can be used to power sensors and other electronic devices. Therefore, self-powered based on L-S TENG, which provides numerous benefits such as rapidly responding, portability, cost-effectiveness, and miniaturization, is critical for increasing living standards and optimizing industrial processes. In this review paper, the working principle with three basic modes has been briefly introduced firstly. After that, affecting parameters to L-S TENG are reviewed based on the properties of the liquid and solid phases. With different working principles, L-S TENG has designed a lot of structure that works as a self-powered sensor for pressure/force change, liquid flow motion, concentration, and chemical detection or biochemical sensing. Moreover, the continuous output signal of TENG plays an important role in a real-time sensor that is vital to the growth of the Internet of Things.

In the present work, a predictive modelling and optimization with the adaptive network based fuzzy inference system(ANFIS) modelling of mechanical properties of laser-coated NB/SiC/Ni welds was studied based on Taguchi design by laser cladding. An ANFIS model based on a Sugeno type fuzzy inference system was developed for predicting the hardness properties of SiC/BN/Ni welds by laser cladding with experimental data required for network training and prediction. Based on analysis of variance, three important factors were taken as inputs for the fuzzy logic inferences, while the hardness properties was taken as the output of the ANFIS. The microstructure of welds were analysed using scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive X-Ray spectrometer. Highly developed leaf-like dendrites and eutectic crystals were found in some areas of the melting zone for the BN/SiC/Ni weld, which was significantly hardened. The ANFIS model based on Taguchi's design provides a better pattern of response because the predicted and experimental values were highly similar. As a result, a satisfactory result was achieved between the predicted and experimental values of hardness in laser-coated NB/SiC/Ni welds, whereby the success and validity of the method was verified.

The aim of this paper is to apply all the existing pyranometric method, to estimate the sunshine duration from the global solar irradiation, in order to find in their original form the most suitable method for a tropical site. Then, in a second step, one of these methods will be optimized to well fit tropical sites. Five methods in the literature (Step Algorithm, Carpentras Algorithm, Slob &amp; Monna Algorithm, Slob &amp; Monna 2 Algorithm, and Linear Algorithm) were applied with eleven years of global and diffuse solar radiation data. As a result, in their original form, the Step Algorithm is on the first rank. But in the second step, after improving its main coefficients, the Carpentras Algorithm was found to be the best algorithm for tropical site in the southern hemisphere.

In this study, we aimed to develop a deep learning model for identifying bacterial keratitis (BK) and fungal keratitis (FK) by using slit-lamp images. We retrospectively collected slit-lamp images of patients with culture-proven microbial keratitis between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019, from two medical centers in Taiwan. We constructed a deep learning algorithm, consisting of a segmentation model for cropping cornea images and a classification model that applies convolutional neural networks to differentiate between FK and BK. The model performance was evaluated and presented as the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curves. A gradient-weighted class activation mapping technique was used to plot the heatmap of the model. By using 1330 images from 580 patients, the deep learning algorithm achieved an average diagnostic accuracy of 80.00%. The diagnostic accuracy for BK ranged from 79.59% to 95.91% and that for FK ranged from 26.31% to 63.15%. DenseNet169 showed the best model performance, with an AUC of 0.78 for both BK and FK. The heat maps revealed that the model was able to identify the corneal infiltrations. The model showed better diagnostic accuracy than the previously reported diagnostic performance of both general ophthalmologists and corneal specialists.

Silicon carbide single crystal (SiC) has been widely used in the field of power devices, while it is difficult to fabricate ultra-flat surface by traditional manufacturing technologies due to its difficult-to-machine property. This paper investigates the interaction process during femtosecond laser ablation of crystalline silicon carbide based on the two-temperature model simulation and experimental study. The findings reveal that parameters such as laser pulse energy, scanning interval, and defocus amount exert significant influence on ablation depth, roughness, and surface morphology. The femtosecond laser proves effective in removing surface defects from cut SiC substrates, albeit resulting in increased surface roughness. However, subsequent polishing treatment of the laser-ablated silicon carbide surface can mitigate this roughness, underscoring the feasibility of laser surface ablation for silicon carbide single crystals.

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a key pathological feature of several of the leading causes of vision loss including neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Here we show that a calreticulin anti-angiogenic domain (CAD)-like peptide 27, CAD27, inhibited in vitro angiogenic activities, including tube formation and migration of endothelial cells, and suppressed vascular sprouting from rat aortic ring explants. In rat model of laser-induced CNV, we demonstrate that intravitreal injection of CAD27 significantly attenuated the formation of CNV lesions as measured via fundus fluorescein angiography and choroid flat-mounts (19.5% and 22.4% reductions at 10μg and 20μg of CAD27 injected, respectively). Similarly, the reduction of CNV lesions was observed in the groups of rats that had received topical applications of CAD27 (choroid flat-mounts: 17.9% and 32.5% reductions at 10μg/mL and 20μg/mL of CAD27 installed, respectively). Retinal function was unaffected, as measured using electroretinography in both groups received interareal injection or topical applications of CAD27 at least for 9 days. These findings show that CAD27 can be used as a potential therapeutic alternative for targeting CNV in the diseases such as neovascular age-related macular degeneration.