In this work, a simple and environmentally friendly process combining low pressure (vacuum) and mechanical compression is proposed to convert recycled polypropylene (PP) foams (28 kg/m3) into low density foams (90-131 kg/m3) having negative tensile and compressive Poisson's ratios (NPR). The effect of processing conditions (vacuum time, temperature, and mechanical pressure) was studied. Based on the optimized conditions, the tensile Poisson’s ratio of the resulting auxetic foams reached −1.50, while the minimum compressive Poisson's ratios was −0.32 for the same sample. The foam structure was characterized via morphological analysis (SEM) to determine any changes related to the treatment applied. Finally, tensile and compressive properties (Young's modulus, strain energy, energy dissipation and damping capacity) are also presented and discussed. It was observed that the mechanical properties of the resulting auxetic foams were improved compared to the original PP foam (PP-O) for all tensile properties in terms of modulus (19.9 to 59.8 kPa), strength (0.298 to 1.43 kPa) elongation at break (28 to 77%), energy dissipation (14.4 to 56.3 mJ/cm3) and damping capacity (12 to 19%). Nevertheless, improvements were also observed under compression in terms of energy dissipation (1.6 to 3.6 mJ/cm3) and damping capacity (13 to 19%). These auxetic foams can find applications in sport and military protective equipment, as well as any energy mitigation system.

Strategic researches on green mine construction are of great theoretical and practical significance to the sustainable development of China's mining industry as well as the great-leap-forward development strategies of China. Strategies of green mine construction in China are methods summarized to solve all potential problems from mine production to ecological restoration. At present, strategies of green mine construction in China are not fully evaluated and studied yet. Therefore, on the basis of green mine construction related literatures carried out by researchers in China and abroad, this study took the green mine of Yongcheng City in China as the research object to evaluate the current situation of green mine construction in Yongcheng City and put forward corresponding countermeasures. First of all, driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) model was introduced for the construction of evaluation index system; construction principles and selection methods of indexes and the index system based on driving force, pressure, state, impact and response were constructed. Secondly, principal component analysis (PCA) was adopted to calculate and evaluate data of green mine of Yongcheng City in recent years, and construction state of green mine in Yongcheng City was analyzed concretely according to the evaluation results. Empirical results showed that, the evaluation system constructed in this study was feasible, which could be applied to evaluate construction of green mine effectively.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 poses a devastating threat to human society in terms of health, economy and lifestyle. Establishing accurate and real-time models to predict and assess the impact of the epidemic on the economy is instructive. We have designed a new model to quantitatively assess the impact of the COVID-19 on the economy of China’s mainland. The nominal GDP in the Q1 of 2020 that we predicted for China’s mainland with the Baidu Mi-gration Data is RMB 20,785.7 billion, which is less by 3.59% than that in 2019. The estimated val-ue is confirmed roughly by the official report released in April 17, 2020 (RMB 20,650 billion, 6.8% year-on-year declined). Strict control measures during the epidemic have greatly reduced Chi-na's economic activity and had a serious impact on the country's economy. Orderly promotion of population mobility plays a decisive role in economic recovery.

TiO2-based building materials have air purification, auto-cleaning and sterilization functions, and these innovative green building materials have great potential for energy-saving and emission reduction applications in the future. However, there are still great challenges in improving photocatalytic efficiency and stability from laboratory to practical applications. In recent years, researchers have done a lot of work to improve the efficiency and stability of TiO2-based building materials. This paper briefly discussed the air purification principle by photocatalytic building, and the preparation techniques of TiO2-based building materials and the strategies to improve the efficiency of TiO2. Moreover, this paper has outlined the key factors that affect the photocatalytic building performance in practical applications, and analyzed the limitations and future development trends. Finally, we proposed some suggestions for further research on photocatalytic buildings and its application in practice, aiming to provide an efficient reference for developing highly efficient and stable photocatalytic building materials. The aim of this paper is to provide effective guidance for the application of TiO2-based photo-catalysts in the field of green buildings, helping to develop more efficient and stable low-carbon buildings for the development of sustainable cities.

Excretory-secretory products (ESPs) are the main research targets for investigating the hosts and helminths interaction. Parasitic worms can migrate to parasitic sites and avoid the host immune response by secreting this product. Angiostrongylus cantonensisis an important food-borne zoonotic parasite that causes severe neuropathological damage and symptoms, including eosinophilic meningitis or meningoencephalitis in humans. Benzaldehydes are organic compounds composed of a benzene ring and formyl substituents. This compound has anti-inflammatory and antioxidation properties. Previous studies showed that 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde (3-HBA) and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HBA) can reduce apoptosis in A. cantonensis ESPs treated astrocytes. These results on the protective effect underlying benzaldehyde have primarily focused on cell survival. The study was designed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) and oxidative stress in astrocytes in A. cantonensis ESPs treated astrocytes and to evaluate the therapeutic consequent of 3-HBA and 4-HBA. First, we initially established the RNA-seq dataset in each group, including Normal, ESPs, ESPs+3-HBA, and ESPs+4-HBA. We also found that benzaldehyde (3-HBA and 4-HBA) can stimulate astrocytes to express ER stress-related molecules after ESP treatment. The level of oxidative stress could also be decreased in astrocytes by elevating antioxidant activity and reducing ROS generation. These results suggested that benzaldehyde may be a potential therapeutic compound for human angiostrongyliasis to support brain cell survival by inducing the expression levels of ER stress- and oxidative stress-related pathway.

In the paper, we develop some numerical schemes including finite difference scheme and finite volume scheme for the fractional Laplacian operator, and apply the resulted numerical schemes to solve some fractional diffusion equations. First, the fractional Laplacian operator can be characterized as the weak singular integral by a integral operator with zero boundary condition. Second, because of the solution of fractional diffusion equation is usually singular near the boundary, we apply finite difference scheme to discrete fractional Laplacian operator and fractional diffusion equation by fractional interpolation function. Moreover, it is find that the differential matrix of the above scheme is symmetric matrix, and strictly row-wise diagonally dominant in special fractional interpolation function. Third, we show finite volume scheme to discrete fractional diffusion equation by fractional interpolation function, and analyze the properties of differential matrix. Finally, the numerical experiments are given, and verify the correctness of theoretical results and the efficiency of the schemes.

Solar heating technology is a promising solution to promote China to achieve the “3060 double carbon” target as soon as possible. And seasonal thermal storage (STS) can effectively solve the mismatch problem of solar heating systems between the supply and demand of thermal energy. Due to the instability of solar radiation resources and heat demand, it is necessary to analyze the dynamic response characteristics of the system. Yet, related studies are still scarce. In this study, a solar heating system with a solar tower receiver and STS was introduced in north China. The dynamic performance of the system is analyzed with a dynamic simulated method in a typical day or typical operation modes, and the switch mechanism between multiple operation modes is also revealed. The impact of different heating strategies on system performance was analyzed. Results showed that the solar fraction of the system reached 89.4% in the third year, which was 3.6% higher than the first year. The quality-quantity heating operation strategies can be effective ways to improve the discharge efficiency of STS and the system performance without any heat pump. The electricity consumption of the pump on the heating side could be significantly reduced by 44.6% compared with the quality control.

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASONs) have proven potential for the treatment of various diseases. However, their limited bioavailability restricts their clinical application. New structures with improved enzyme resistance stability and efficient drug delivery are needed. In this work, we propose a novel category of ASONs bearing anisamide conjugation at phosphorothioate sites for oncotherapy. ASONs can be conjugated with the ligand anisamide very efficiently and flexibly in solution. The conjugation sites and ligand amount both influence anti-enzymatic stability and cellular uptake, resulting in changes in antitumor activity that are detectable by cytotoxicity assay. T6 (with double end AA-conjugation) was identified as the optimal conjugate, and its antitumor activity and the underlying mechanism were examined further in vitro and in vivo. This paper presents a new strategy for the design of nucleic acid–based therapeutics with improved drug delivery and biophysical and biological efficacy.

In this paper, the effects on the rheological properties, particle size distribution, and fluorescence properties of red wine were investigated under microwave irradiation, and the mechanism of the effects of microwave irradiation on the sensory properties of red wine was discussed. The results showed that the effect of microwave on the rheological properties in red wine could be fitted by the Power-law model and Carson model, through the analysis of the rheological constants, yield stress, and viscosity coefficient of wine, it was found that microwave treatment could improve leg phenomenon and thickening effect by the change of rheological properties; the particle size distribution in wine indicated that microwave irradiation did change the particle size distribution through friction effect and oxidative polymerization, resulting in the wine’s visual effect and mouthfeel; the wine quality could be improved by enhancing the fluorescence intensity under different microwave conditions, which meant that microwave technology could speed up the formation of fluorescent substances, such as the polymerization of flavan-3-ols. In conclusion, microwave treatment could modify the sensory characteristics of wine, and further provide the theoretical basis for the application of microwave in winemaking.

This study chose the indoor soil column test as the main method and the field test as the validation test to investigate the effects of various straw mulching techniques (surface, deep and straw mulching + deep burial) on evaporation and salt dynamics in saline soils. The results showed that straw mulching treatment could effectively reduce soil water evaporation, promote desalination in the stage of leaching infiltration and alleviate salt return in the stage of water evaporation, and the effect of straw mulching + deep burial treatment was better than that of single-layer straw mulching treatment. The indoor soil column test showed that S2D1 treatment (a 2:1 ratio of soil surface cover to the amount of straw buried 40cm below the soil surface) had the best effect on the suppression of soil moisture evaporation, and the cumulative evaporation of soil moisture was reduced by 65.85% compared with that of the CK, and the rate of salinity return in the evaporation stage was effectively reduced by 92.04% compared with that of the CK. In addition, there is a significant positive correlation between cumulative evaporation of soil moisture and cumulative soil salinity, which implies that cumulative soil salinity increases with cu-mulative evaporation of soil moisture. The results of the field experiment were consistent with the soil column test, and the S2D1 treatment was able to maintain high soil moisture content in all soil layers in all periods of the experiment and kept soil salinity in the 0-40 cm soil layer at a low level. However, in the 40-80 cm soil layer, the soil salinity suppression effect of DB treatment (straw buried at 40 cm below soil surface) was the best. So in summary, the S2D1 treatment had the best salinity and evapo-transpiration suppression effect in saline soils. This study is of great significance for the resource uti-lization of straw waste, improvement of water utilization and efficiency, and soil salinization manage-ment.

Since sensor-based perception systems are used in autonomous vehicle applications, validating such systems is imperative to guarantee the robustness of the systems before they are being put to use. In this study, a comprehensive corruption-related simulation-based robustness verification and enhancement process for sensor-based perception systems is proposed. Firstly, we present a methodology and scenario-based corruption generation tools for creating diverse simulated test scenarios that can analogously represent real-world traffic environments, especially considering corruption types related to safety concern. Then, an effective corruption similarity filtering algorithm is proposed to remove corruption types with high similarity and identify the representative corruption types to represent all considered corruption types. As a result, we can generate efficient corruption-related robustness test scenarios with less testing time and good scenario coverage. Subsequently, we perform the vulnerability analysis of object detection models to identify model weaknesses and construct an effective training dataset for model vulnerability enhancement. This enhances the tolerance of object detection models to weather and noise-related corruptions, ultimately improving the robustness of the perception system. We employ case studies to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed robustness verification and enhancement procedures. Additionally, we explore the impact of different "similarity overlap threshold" parameter settings on scenario coverage, effectiveness, scenario complexity (size of training and testing datasets), and time costs.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease characterized by chronic synovitis and progressive destruction of cartilage and bone. RA is commonly accompanied by extra-articular comorbidities. The pathogenesis of RA and its comorbidities is complex and not completely elucidated. Assembly of NLRP3 inflammasome activates caspase-1, which induces the maturation of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 and leads to cleavage of gasdermin D with promot-ing pyroptosis. Although the available therapeutic agents are effective for RA treatment, their high cost and increased infection rate are causes for concern. Recent evidence revealed the components of NLRP3 inflammasome as potential therapeutic targets in RA and its comorbidities. This nar-rative review summarizes the current research evidence regarding the pathogenic role and the therapeutic potential of NLRP3 inflammasome in RA and its comorbidities. Areas covered. We searched the MEDLINE database using the PubMed interface and reviewed English-language literature on NLRP3 inflammasome from 2000 to 2023. Its pathogenic role and therapeutic potential in RA and its comorbidities are the focus of this review. Expert opinion. NLRP3 inflammasome may play a critical role in both innate and adaptive im-munity, and its dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of RA and its comorbidities. Conse-quently, the components of NLRP3 inflammasome signaling represent promising therapeutic tar-gets, and ongoing research might lead to the development of new, effective treatments for RA and its comorbidities.

The 2019 novel SARS-like coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) entry depends on the host membrane serine protease TMPRSS2, which can be blocked by some clinically-proven drugs. Here we analyzed spatial relevance between glycosylation sequons and antibody epitopes and found that, different from SARS-CoV S, most high-surface-accessible epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 S are blocked by the glycosylation, and the optimal epitope with the highest surface accessibility is covered by the S1 cap. TMPRSS2 inhibitor treatments may prevent unmasking of this epitope and therefore prolong virus clearance and may induce antibody-dependent enhancement. Interestingly, a heparin-binding sequence immediately upstream of the S1/S2 cleavage site has been found in SARS-CoV-2 S but not in SARS-CoV S. Binding of SARS-CoV-2 with heparins may lead to exposure of S686, which then facilitates the S1/S2 cleavage, induces exposure of the optimal epitope, and therefore increases the antibody titres. A combination of heparin and vaccine (or convalescent serum) treatments thus is recommended.

Objective: To study the factors affecting the time of umbilical cord shedding in premature infants.Methods: A total of 151 premature infants who were born in the obstetrics department of a Class III hospital in Hefei from November 2020 to June 2021 were selected as subjects. All premature infants and their families met the complete inclusion criteria. A total of 33 related factors from 3 aspects, including the birth situation of premature infants, the condition of premature infants in hospital and the condition of pregnant mothers, were collected for univariate analysis and multiple Logistic regression analysis. The relevant factors affecting the umbilical cord shedding time of premature infants were screened through the univariate analysis results, and the main factors affecting the umbilical cord shedding time of premature infants were screened through the multiple Logistic regression analysis results.it was found that the weight, gestural age, admission age, whether the premature infants were combined with NRDS, the use of antibiotics, the duration in the warm box, the initial temperature in the warm box, the duration of light therapy, the degree of Apgar for 1 minute, the maternal education level had an effect on the time of umbilical cord shedding of premature infants (P < 0.05). Through Logistic multiple regression analysis, it was screened that the duration of premature infants in the incubator was the main factor affecting the umbilical cord shedding time of premature infants (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Factors such as premature infants' weight, gestural age, admission age, whether they are combined with NRDS, antibiotic use, duration in the incubator, initial temperature in the incubator, duration of phototherapy, Apgar level of 1 minute, and maternal education level will affect the umbilical cord shedding time of premature infants. Among them, duration in the incubator is the main factor affecting the umbilical cord shedding time of premature infants.

ALDH+ H1975 lung adenocarcinoma stem cells (LSCs) are a rare cell population identified in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). LSCs can self-renew, drive tumor initiation, growth, metastasis, and recurrence, and are also the predominant cause of poor prognosis due to their intrinsic resistance to drugs and chemotherapy. Consequently, LSCs are a promising target for LUAD therapy. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), exert many significant regulatory functions in the pathogenesis of human cancers, showing the necessity for a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that underlie lung carcinogenesis. Nonetheless, research on many known transcripts and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) has already generated new information. Unknown biomarkers in ncRNAs and systematic and comprehensive interrelation with unknown ncRNAs and mRNAs may provide further insights into the biology of LUAD. Herein, a set of novel ncRNAs that include miRNAs, lncRNAs, circRNAs, were identified and differentially expressed patterns of ncRNAs and mRNAs in LSCs and ALDH- H1975 LUAD tumor cells (LTCs) were obtained using stringent bioinformatics pipelines. Through a meta-analysis of the identified landscapes, novel competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks were constructed to reveal the potential molecular mechanisms that regulate the hallmarks of LSCs and LTCs. This study presents a summary of novel ncRNAs and the fundamental roles of differentially expressed ncRNAs implicated in the activity of LSCs and LTCs. In addition, the study also provides a comprehensive resource for the future identification of diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic biomarkers in LUAD.

In order to solve the problem of feature extraction of underwater acoustic signals in complex ocean environment, a new method for feature extraction from ship radiated noise is presented based on empirical mode decomposition theory and permutation entropy. It analyzes the separability for permutation entropies of the intrinsic mode functions of three types of ship radiated noise signals, and discusses the permutation entropy of the intrinsic mode function with the highest energy. In this study, ship radiated noise signals measured from three types of ships are decomposed into a set of intrinsic mode functions with empirical mode decomposition method. Then, the permutation entropies of all intrinsic mode functions are calculated with appropriate parameters. The permutation entropies are obviously different in the intrinsic mode functions with the highest energy, thus, the permutation entropy of the intrinsic mode function with the highest energy is regarded as a new characteristic parameter to extract the feature of ship radiated noise. After that, the characteristic parameters, namely, the energy difference between high and low frequency, permutation entropy, and multi-scale permutation entropy, are compared with the permutation entropy of the intrinsic mode function with the highest energy. It is discovered that the four characteristic parameters are at the same level for similar ships, however, there are differences in the parameters for different types of ships. The results demonstrate that the permutation entropy of the intrinsic mode function with the highest energy is better in separability as the characteristic parameter than the other three parameters by comparing their fluctuation ranges and the average values of the four characteristic parameters. Hence, the feature of ship radiated noise can be extracted efficiently with the method.

This paper presents a study to accurately evaluate defects in reinforced concrete decks using ultrasonic pulse-echo signals. Two validation specimens were designed and tested where reinforced concrete deck slab specimens included planned voids and defects. A commercial Ultrasonic Pulse-Echo (UPE) device obtains 2-D images of the void/defect locations of the reinforced concrete deck. The UPE is based on the ultrasonic shear-wave test method using dry-point-contact transmitting and receiving transducers and employing a synthetic aperture focusing technique. The authors analyzed the recorded UPE A-scan data to enhance the accuracy of estimating the defects' locations using the synthetic aperture focusing technique imaging method. The analysis benefitted from an advanced denoising approach and defect echo peak extraction based on empirical modal decomposition, Hurst exponent characterization, and Hilbert envelope estimation. While output from conventional UPC devices can only provide qualitative results, the new method provides quantitative information on the anomalies inside the reinforced concrete deck. The developed approach accurately assists with assessing the location and depth of the voids/defects in the reinforced concrete deck slabs.

Reactions of Co(OAc)24H2O, N‚N'-bis(3-pyridylmethyl)oxalamide (L) and 4,4’-sulfonyldibenzoic acid (H2SDA) afforded four coordination polymers with the same mixed ligands, {[Co(L)(SDA)(H2O)2]·H2O·CH3OH}n, 1, {[Co(L)0.5(SDA)]·2H2O·0.5L}n, 2, {[Co(L)1.5(SDA)(H2O)]·H2O}n, 3, and {[Co2(L)1.5(SDA)2(H2O)2]·4H2O}n, 4, which have been structurally characterized by using single crystal X-ray crystallography. Complexes 1 – 4 are 2D layers, revealing the topologies of sql, 2,6L1, (4,4)Ia and 6L12, respectively, and demonstrating that the metal to ligand ratio, solvent system and reaction temperature are important in determining the structural diversity. Immersion of these complexes into various solvents show that the structural types govern the chemical stabilities of 1 – 4. Reversible structural transformation can be shown for complexes 1 and 2 upon solvent removal and adsorption, while those of 3 and 4 are irreversible.

The hot wire anemometer is a commonly used device for measuring air speed in laboratories. In this paper, the relationship between air speed and the hot wire temperature in different air speed ranges was analyzed based on the theory of thermal equilibrium. A measurement circuit and hot wire shape were designed based on the principle of the hot wire anemometer, and the linear relationship between current and temperature in the hot wire at different air speeds was verified in an adjustable air speed field. The measured current was used to represent air speed. The designed hot wire anemometer was experimentally validated to provide measurement results that match the theoretical values in different air speed ranges. Finally, the sensitivity of the anemometer in different measurement ranges was determined based on the uncertainty of the instrument's sensitivity and the measurement formula.

This paper studies the pilot control strategy and workload of tilt-rotor aircraft dynamic conversion procedure between helicopter mode and fixed-wing mode. A nonlinear flight dynamics model of tilt-rotor aircraft with full flight modes is established. On this basis, a nonlinear optimal control model of dynamic conversion is constructed, considering factors such as conversion corridor limitations, pilot control, flight attitude, engine rated power, and wing stall effects. To assess pilot workload, an analytical method based on wavelet transform is proposed, which examines the mapping relationship between pilot control input's amplitude, constituent frequencies, and control tasks. By integrating the nonlinear optimal control model and the pilot workload evaluation method, the analysis of pilot control strategy and workload during the conversion procedure is conducted, leading to the identification of strategies to reduce pilot workload. The results indicate that incorporating the item of pilot workload in the performance index results in a notable reduction in the magnitude of collective stick inputs and longitudinal stick inputs. Moreover, it facilitates smoother adjustments in altitude and pitch attitude. Additionally, the conversion of the engine nacelle can be achieved at a lower and constant angular velocity. In summary, the conversion and reconversion procedures are estimated to have a low workload (Level 1 ~ Level 2), with relatively simple and easy manipulation for the pilot.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of propofol combined with psychological intervention on pain and emotional evaluation in painless colonoscopic colonic polypectomy patients undergoing endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR).Methods: A total of 80 patients who underwent painless colonoscopic colonic polypectomy with EMR treatment between June 2020 and June 2022 were selected in order of admission and divided into two groups. The control group received conventional analgesia, while the observation group received propofol combined with psychological intervention. Pain visual analog scale (VAS) and emotional scale were used to evaluate pain and emotions in both groups of patients. Adverse reactions and clinical efficacy were also compared between the two groups.Results: The two groups of patients were generally comparable with no significant differences (P > 0.05). The VAS score in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05), and the emotional scale score was also improved compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The number of patients with adverse reactions in the observation group was less than that in the control group. The clinical effective rate in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Propofol combined with psychological intervention can effectively alleviate pain and improve emotional status in painless colonoscopic colonic polypectomy patients undergoing EMR treatment, thereby increasing the comfort and success rate of the surgery. The number of patients with adverse reactions in the observation group was less than that in the control group, and the clinical effective rate in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05).

We give a simple proof of the Chen inequality for the Chen invariant $\underbrace{\delta (2,...,2)}_{k\mbox{ terms}}$ of submanifolds in Riemannian space forms.

Background and Aims: Of all primary liver tumors, primary hepatic angiosarcoma (PHA) is a rare and aggressive malignant vascular tumor. The standard therapeutic care for hepatic angiosarcoma remains unclear. This study compared the survival outcomes of aggressive treatment (resection and liver transplant) and nonaggressive treatment (chemotherapy, transarterial chemoembolization [TACE], and conservative treatments) for patients with PHA and analyzed the prognostic factors influencing survival. Materials and Methods: Data of patients diagnosed as having PHA at our facility were retrospectively reviewed. The primary outcome was survival time. The secondary outcome was calculated baseline characteristics. Results: We included a total of 19 patients, who were divided into 2 treatment groups: aggressive (8 patients had undergone resection or transplants) and nonaggressive (11 patients had undergone TACE, chemotherapy, or conservative treatment). The mean survival time was 233.1 ± 189.7 days in the aggressive treatment group and 146.5 ± 115.8 days in the nonaggressive treatment group. A Kaplan-Meier plot revealed no significant difference in survival time between the 2 treatment groups (P = .3256). Conclusions: The survival time of patients receiving aggressive treatment was longer than that of those receiving nonaggressive treatment. The long term survival time in some selective cases of aggressive treatment will be achieved. Thought a difference was not significant between the groups. Because the number of patients was limited, more cases are required to confirm these findings.

Over the last several decades, China has continuously introduced Duroc boars and used them as breeding boars. Although this crossbreeding method has increased pork production, it has affected pork quality. Nowadays, one of the primary goals of industrial breeding and production systems is to enhance the quality of meat. This research adds to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control the quality of pork and may be used as a guide for future efforts to enhance meat quality. We investigated the genetic mechanisms of cross-breeding for meat quality improvement by combining transcriptome and metabolome analysis, using Chinese native Jiaxing black (JXB) pigs and crossbred Duroc × Duroc × Berkshire × JXB (DDBJ) pigs. In the longissimus Dorsi muscle, the content of inosinic acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and amino acids was considerably higher in JXB pigs in contrast with that of DDBJ pigs, whereas DDBJ pigs have remarkably greater levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids than JXB pigs. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differential metabolites were identified using transcriptomic and metabolomic KEGG enrichment analyses. Differential metabolites mainly include amino acids, fatty acids, phospholipids. In addition, we found several DEGs that may explain differences in meat quality between the two pig types, including genes associated with lipid metabolism (e.g., DGKA, LIPG, and LPINI), fatty acid metabolism (e.g., ELOVL5, ELOVL4, and ACAT2), and amino acid metabolism (e.g., SLC7A2, SLC7A4). Combined with the DEGS-enriched signaling pathways, the regulatory mechanisms related to amino acids, fatty acids, and phospholipids were mapped. The abundant metabolic pathways and DEGs may provide insight into the specific molecular mechanism that regulates meat quality. Optimizing the composition of fatty acids, phospholipids, amino acids, and other compounds in pork is conducive to improving meat quality. Overall, these findings will give useful information and further groundwork for enhancing the meat quality that may be achieved via hybrid breeding.

Seven pieces of Lacquer Lian from Warring States Period to Yuan Dynasty were analyzed by means of cross-section observation, Raman spectroscopy (RS) and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography/ mass spectroscopy (THM-Py-GC/MS). The results demonstrate that Lacquer Lian was consisted by three layers, including pigment layer, undercoat layer and ground layer, and lacquering techniques had undergone minimal changes from Warring States Period to Yuan Dynasty, the red mineral pigment was cinnabar, the lacquer sap was urushi. Furthermore, Boiled tung oil was found in the ground layer of lacquerwares from Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty.

We report a prebiotically relevant solution to the N1-ribosylation of pyrimidine nucleobases, a well-known challenge in the RNA World hypothesis. It is found that the presence of metal cations and clay mineral enables the previously unachievable direct ribosylation of uracil, providing by far the highest yield. Spectroscopy and chromatography analyses confirmed the formation of ribosylated uracil. The method can also be extended to the ribosylation of 2-pyrimidinone. These findings are also compatible with the metal-doped-clay model developed by our lab for the unified route of the selection of ribose and subsequent syntheses of nucleotide and RNA.

The Chen circuit system, a three-dimensional autonomous system with intriguing dynamics, has gained considerable attention due to its potential applications in diverse scientific fields. In this article, a Chen circuit-like system is defined and a comprehensive dynamics has been studied. The system exhibits chaotic dynamics, limit cycles, and bifurcations, making it a captivating subject of study. By employing numerical simulations and analytical techniques, we explore the system's stability and identify critical parameter values leading to qualitative changes. Notably, we delve Hopf bifurcations, which give rise to stability changes and the emergence of limit cycles. Furthermore, we analyze the fractal dimension of the system's attractor, providing insights into its complexity and self-similarity. Through a systematic examination of the Chen circuit-like system, we deepen our understanding of its intricate dynamics and offer valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms. The findings contribute to the field of dynamical systems and hold potential implications in areas such as chaos-based secure communications, signal processing, and nonlinear control. This work serves as a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners interested in the dynamics and bifurcation analysis of nonlinear systems.

Biomimetic stimuli-responsive materials can respond to various external stimuli in the form of structural or morphological transformations by actively or passively converting input energy into mechanical energy. They are the core element of soft actuators for typical smart devices like soft robots, artificial muscles, intelligent sensors and nanogenerators. While significant progresses have been made in bioinspired stimuli-responsive materials, they have not yet achieved the remarkable properties in biological systems. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in biomimetic stimuli-responsive materials that are instrumental for soft actuators. Different stimuli-responsive principles for soft actuators are firstly discussed, including fluidic, electrical, thermal, magnetic, light and chemical stimuli. We further summarize the state-of-the-art stimuli-responsive materials for soft actuators and explore the advantages and disadvantages of using electroactive polymers, magnetic soft composites, hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers, shape memory alloys and chemical-responsive materials. Finally, we provide a critical outlook on the field of stimuli-responsive soft actuators, and emphasize the challenges in the process of their implementation to various industries.

To further explore the bearing capacity and sustainable construction of vacuum drainage pipe (VDP) piles, field tests were carried out to compare and analyze the ultimate single pile bearing capacity, pile side friction and pile end resistance of ordinary piles and vacuum drainage pipe piles. The effect of the VDP pile on energy conservation and emission reduction in practical projects is discussed. The results shows that the VDP pile basically eliminated the soil squeeze and did not cause excessive relative displacement of pile and soil after vacuum consolidation. The VDP pile enhances pile side friction resistance, resulting in a 17.6% increase in ultimate bearing capacity compared to traditional piles. The VDP pile method can reduce carbon emissions by 31.4% compared to traditional methods. This study provides guidance for the production and design of VDP piles in the future and demonstrates their potential for energy conservation and emission reduction benefits compared to traditional methods.

Mountain ecosystems are crucial for global biodiversity conservation. However, their landscape features are constantly changing owing to urban expansion. Understanding the relationships between biotic communities and landscape features is essential for biodiversity conservation. This study aimed to examine the effect of land-cover type on avian communities in Lishui, a mountainous urban area in eastern China. Avian surveys were conducted using a total of 168 line transects across different land-cover types once per season from December 2019 to January 2021. We assessed the diversity of bird communities by calculating various metrics at both taxonomic and functional levels. Among the land-cover types measured, woodland, built-up land, cultivated land, and water bodies significantly influenced bird community diversity and composition. Species richness, species abundance, and functional richness were negatively correlated with the proportion of woodland but positively correlated with the proportion of non-natural land cover, such as built-up and cultivated land. In contrast, functional evenness was positively correlated with the proportion of woodland and grassland but negatively correlated with the proportion of non-natural land cover. Land-cover type also exhibited significant correlations with avian functional characteristics such as diet, foraging strata, and body mass, thereby influencing the overall community structure. Our results indicated that mountainous landscape patterns substantially affect avian communities. Different land-cover types possess varying resource endowments that affect the distribution of avian species. Therefore, urban landscape planning in mountainous areas should carefully consider the various functions provided to organisms by different types of land cover to promote biodiversity.

Thrombosis has threatened human health in past decades. Bacillus nattokinase is a potential thrombolytic drug without side-effect and low cost and has been introduced into the consumer market as a functional food or dietary supplement. This review firstly summarizes the biodiversity sources and fermentation process of nattokinase, and systematically expounds the structure, cata-lytic mechanism and enzymatic properties of nattokinase; In view of the problems of low fermen-tation yield, insufficient activity and stability of nattokinase, this review discusses the heterologous expression of nattokinase in different microbial hosts, and summarizes the protein and genetic en-gineering progress of nattokinase-producing strains; Finally, this review summarizes the clinical application of nattokinase.

Studies report variable effects of sex hormones on serious diseases. Severe disease and mortality rates in COVID-19 show marked gender differences that may be related to sex hormones. Sex hormones regulate the expression of the viral receptors ACE2 and TMPRSS2, which affect the extent of viral infection and consequently cause variable outcomes. In addition, sex hormones have complex regulatory mechanisms that affect the immune response to viruses. These hormones also affect metabolism through obesity, and severe disease can result from complications such as thrombosis. This review presents the latest research on the regulatory functions of hormones in viral receptors, immune responses, complications as well as their role in COVID-19 progression. It also discusses the therapeutical possibilities of these hormones by reviewing the recent findings of clinical and assay studies.

SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of the globally spreading COVID-19, is capable of infecting variable animals besides human being. We evaluated the potential susceptibility of important livestock, pets and aquatic mammals by performing a multi-species sequence analysis of ACE2 based on the reported affected and unaffected animals. We identified a triple amino acid pattern of ACE2, at position 30, 31 and 34, that might be associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and H34 might be an indicator of the susceptibility to COVID-19.

The leaves of Ligustrum robustum have been applied as Ku-Ding-Cha, a functional tea to clear heat and remove toxins; and served as a folk medicine to deal with diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. Trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid and its esters, which were isolated from the leaves of L. robustum, might be a new resource to prevent diabetes and its complications because of their strong -glucosidase and fatty acid synthase (FAS) inhibitory activities and antioxidant effect. However, the quantitative analytical method for trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid and its esters in the leaves of L. robustum hasn’t been reported so far. In addition, it was difficult and troublesome to analyze no less than 34 trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid esters by usual HPLC. Therefore, a new HPLC-UV method using hydrolyzation with sodium hydroxide for quantitation of trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid and its esters in the leaves of L. robustum was developed in the present study. The optimal hydrolyzation conditions were as follows: 1 mL sodium hydroxide aqueous solution (1 M) was added into 1 mL the extract of L. robustum and incubated at 80 °C for 2 h , and then 1 mL hydrochloride (1 M) solution was added. HPLC analysis was performed in reverse phase mode using a C-18 column, eluting with methanol-0.1% acetic acid aqueous solution (40:60, v/v) in isocratic mode at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and detecting at 310 nm. The analytical method was simple and rapid, which simplified greatly the analytical process. The method was validated in terms of linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision, and accuracy. High linearity was demonstrated with correlation coefficient of 1.000 for trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid. The LOD and LOQ values were 1.55 and 4.69 μg/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of intra-day and inter-day variabilities for trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid were less than 2%. The percentage recovery of trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid was 101.2% ± 0.8%. Finally, the proposed method was applied successfully to the determination and comparison of the contents of trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid and its esters in various extracts of the leaves of L. robustum. The 60%-70% ethanol extracts of L. robustum showed the highest contents of free trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid (3.96-3.99 mg/g), and the 50%-80% ethanol extracts of L. robustum displayed the highest contents of trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid esters (202.6-210.6 mg/g). The method can be applied also to the quality control of the products of L. robustum.

Most machine learning and deep learning algorithms can only use low-dimensional data as input, but the data that must be processed in practical applications is diverse and irregular. There are two main problems with big dynamic data. (1) The size of the embedding table grows linearly with the vocabulary size, resulting in massive memory consumption. (2) For different newly added vocabularies. To solve these two problems, this paper proposes a novel embedding algorithm that can learn attribute associations with entities based on deep and hash algorithms. Taking movie data as an example, the encoding method and the specific flow of the algorithm are presented in detail, and the effect of dynamic reuse of data models is realized. Compared with the four existing embedding algorithms which can fuse entity attribute information, the deep hash embedding algorithm proposed in this paper has obvious optimization of time and space complexity.

Our aim was to evaluate efficacy and safety of 30mL CaO alone or plus Asc in bowel preparation before colonoscopy. Two hundred and forty six patients were allocated randomly to ingest 2L PEG with 30mL CaO, 1L PEG with 30mL CaO plus 5g Asc, or 3L PEG. We used Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS) to evaluate bowel preparation efficacy. We also determined other outcomes such as procedure time, polyp or adenoma detection rate and adverse events (AEs). Of 282 patients recruited, 36 were excluded. Groups were matched for baseline characteristics except weight (P = 0.020) and body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.003). Patient’s satisfaction were higher in 2L PEG-CaO (P = 0.016) and 1L PEG-CaO-Asc groups (P = 0·017). Patients’ compliance was 67.5%, 71.4% and 80.5% in 3L PEG, 2L PEG-CaO and 1L PEG-CaO-Asc groups (P = 0.014). Adequate bowel preparation rate was 75%, 78.57% and 53.66% in 3L PEG, 2L PEG-CaO and 1L PEG-CaO-Asc groups (P = 0.021). There were no differences in terms of remaining outcomes. Despite an increase in patients’ satisfaction and compliance, 1L PEG-CaO-Asc significantly decreased adequate bowel preparation rate. However, 2L PEG-CaO improved the patients' satisfaction and compliance and increased adequate bowel preparation rate.

(1) Background: ganoderic acids (GAs) are specific triterpenes of Ganoderma lucidum. The HPLC fingerprint profile of GAs of the fruiting body has been well-known, but the mycelial fingerprinting remains unclear. (2) Methods: the ethanol extract of the mycelium of G. lucidum (YK-01) was further purified by preparative HPLC. The HPLC spectra for four strains of G. lucidum and one strain of G. formosanum (purple lingzhi) were investigated. (3) Results: nineteen lanostane triterpenes, including five new triterpenes, GA-TP (1), ganodermic acid Jc (GmA-Jc) (2), GmA-Jd (3), GA-TQ1 (4), and ganoderal B1 (5), and fourteen known triterpenes 6-19 were isolated from the ethanol extract. A green chemical HPLC analytical method was developed by using ethanol and acetic acid as mobile phase. These triterpenes comprise of a unique HPLC triterpenoid spectral pattern of G. lucidum mycelium. All four G. lucidum strains showed the same HPLC spectral pattern, whereas G. formosanum displayed a different pattern. Quantitation methods for ganoderic acid T (10) and S (12) were also validated. (4) Conclusions: the triterpenoid HPLC analytical method can be used to identify G. lucidum species, and to determine the contents of GA-T and GA-S.

The Sanshui Basin (SSB) is located at the northern continental margin of the South China Sea and characterized by a continental rift basin. The bimodal volcanic rocks in SSB record the early Cenozoic magmatic activity in the South China Block, on the magmatic evolution process of bimodal volcanic rocks are poorly understood. Clinopyroxenes in bimodal volcanic rocks in the SSB provide an opportunity to investigate the magma process during magma ascent. We classified nine types of clinopyroxene phenocrysts according to the different compositions and textures types in cogenetic basalt-trachyandesite-comenditic trachyte, the composition of unzoned clinopyroxene have an evolution sequence of diopside- hedenbergite- aegirine with the decrease of Mg#, and the trace element contents of unzoned clinopyroxenes also increase systematically during magma evolution, indicating that the genesis of clinopyroxene dominated by fractional crystallization in a closed magma system; however, the clinopyroxenes with reverse zoning and multiple zoning record the process of magma mixing and recharge indicating an open magma system. Whilst fractional crystallization is the dominated process, magma mixing, recharge, and crystal settling complicate magma evolution. Thermobarometric calculations show that clinopyroxene phenocrysts in bimodal volcanic rocks of SSB are distributed in the whole crust during magma ascent. We have established a magma plumbing system, which provides a new constrain for the complex magmatic evolution history in the SSB by detailed mineral-scale analysis.

Psoriasis is a chronic, multisystem, inflammatory disease. The typical clinical cutaneous manifestation of psoriasis is scaly erythema or plaque, limited or widely distributed. However, psoriasis is far beyond the skin involvement and provides many challenges, including associated comorbidities. In this review, we classify psoriasis as cutaneous and systemic psoriasis, according to the clinical diversity and associated comorbid diseases, and recommend classification criteria for psoriasis. The key objective of this novel classification is to raise awareness of the complexity of this multifaceted disease and help to better understand and manage this complex disease comprehensively.

A rapid and efficient method using an alkyl functionalized magnetic nanoparticles-based extraction technique combined with Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography was developed for the detection of trace amounts of polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons in tea leaves. As a popular coating for chromatographic column packing materials, C18-alkyl has been demonstrated to be effective in separating polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons. And the magnetism of the nanomaterials accelerates the extraction process while their high surface ratio enables desirable dispersity in the sample matrix. Meanwhile, the adsorbents can be washed and reused 30 times without compromise on recovery, which greatly reduced the budget. The effects of various parameters were investigated and optimized, and the recoveries for five analytes were in the range of 84.8–103.7%. The reproducibility rate of intra-day and inter-day were below 7.1% and 11.3% respectively. The limits of detection and limits of quantification ranged from 1.69–9.97 ng g-1 and 5.12–30.21 ng g-1, indicating satisfactory sensitivity. Thus, the proposed methodology is rapid, highly efficient, and economical, and it expands the application of magnetic cleanup approaches in complex food matrices.

Revealing the multidimensional value of cultivated land resources, improving calculation methods, and exploring their spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors are crucial for the enhancement of natural resource accounting system and the protection of cultivated land resources. This study take Guangxi, China as an example and construct a comprehensive multidimensional value evaluation system for cultivated land resources at the county scale. The income capitalization method, substitution market method, and value equivalent correction method were applied to calculate the economic, social, and ecological values of cultivated land resources in 111 counties. Furthermore, spatial autocorrelation analysis was employed to study their distribution characteristics and influencing factors. The results show that: (1) The total value of cultivated land resources in Guangxi reach 19,729.2 billion yuan, and the average cultivated land value is 5.3511 million yuan/hm2, of which the ratio of economic, social and ecological values is about 6:1:2; (2) The value of cultivated land has a certain distribution pattern in the global space, and the average economic and social value show the spatial distribution patterns of "low in the west and high in the east" and "low in the northwest and high in the southeast" respectively."(3) There is a significant spatial clustering effect of all values of cultivated land resources in local space, with "high-high" and "low-low" clustering. (4) Economic development level is significantly negatively correlated with the ecological value of cultivated land, while has a significant positive correlation with social value; (5) Natural conditions, economic development and agricultural development approaches are the key factors affecting the value of cultivated land resources.

The Chinese government has expressed great confidence in the role of green finance in fulfilling its carbon neutrality commitment. However, the effectiveness of green finance, especially under the impact of emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, requires further examination. Using data from 2000 to 2020 in China, the correlation between green finance and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been analyzed, both in BaU scenario and the COVID-19 scenario. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) In BaU scenario, green finance can effectively reduce CO2 emissions, especially through government green expenditure and green credit; (2) In COVID-19 scenario, although there is no direct relationship between the pandemic and carbon emissions, the data shows that the pandemic has hindered the progress of green finance, weakened its ability to curb carbon emissions, and indirectly led to an increase in carbon emissions. This study not only clarifies the mechanism by which the COVID-19 pandemic affects carbon emissions through the green finance system but also addresses the common problem of data scarcity in green finance research.

Keywords: Deep mining; Drill bit structural parameters; Fidelity coring; Abaqus simulation and analysis.

The present study examined and compared the effects of high- and low-molecular weight (MW) chitosan, a nutraceutical, on intestinal and liver lipid metabolism in rats fed with high-fat diet. Both high- and low-MW chitosan decreased liver weight, elongated small intestine, improved the dysregulation of blood lipids and liver fat accumulation, and increased fecal lipid excretion in high-fat diet-fed rats. Supplementation of both high- and low-MW chitosan significantly inhibited the decreased phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)α and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)α protein expressions and the increased lipogenesis/cholesterogenesis-associated protein expressions (sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP)1c, SREBP2, and PPARγ) and the decreased apolipoprotein (Apo)E and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTTP) protein expressions in the livers of high-fat diet-fed rats. Both high and low-MW chitosan supplementation could also suppress the increased MTTP protein expression and the decreased angiopoietin-like protein (Angptl)4 protein expression in the intestines of high-fat diet-fed rats. Comparison between high and low-MW chitosan, high-MW chitosan has a higher efficiency than low-MW chitosan on the inhibition of intestinal lipid absorption and the increase of hepatic fatty acid oxidation, which can improve liver lipid biosynthesis and accumulation.

Chemotherapy treatment based on Cisplatin (CDDP) is established as the drug of choice for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Malignant tumors respond to microenvironment alteration through a dynamic balance of mitochondrial fission and fusion. HNSCC is known to have hypoxic conditions, yet the effects and underlying mechanisms of hypoxia on chemosensitivity and mitochondrial dynamics remain unclear. We found that hypoxia promoted mitochondrial fission and CDDP sensitivity in HNSCC cells. Importantly, Mff was shown to be correlated with chemosensitivity in clinical samples of HNSCC that underwent a hypoxic condition. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α-subunit (HIF-1α) dramatically increased Mff transcriptional expression and directly bound to Mff. Hypoxia enhanced the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and upregulated the expression of Mff via HIF-1α in HNSCC cells. ROS depletion in HNSCC cells attenuated HIF-1α, Mff expression, and mitochondrial fission. Moreover, a knockdown of Mff suppressed hypoxia-induced mitochondrial fission and decreased CDDP chemosensitivity in vivo and in vitro. Our findings revealed that the hypoxia-induced release of ROS promoted mitochondrial fission and CDDP chemosensitivity via the regulation of HIF-1α/Mff in HNSCC cells, indicating that Mff may serve as a new biomarker to predict neoadjuvant chemosensitivity in HNSCC patients

As e-commerce services and Internet technology have rapidly developed in recent years, many services and applications integrating these technologies can now be completed online. These commercial activities include online auctions, online ticketing and online payments. The client shops from the store online, andthe store delivers the goods to the client. The goods can be divided into digital products without entities, as well as actual entities. If it is a physical product, the store will deliver the package to the client through itslogistics. However, there have been many cases of switched goods purchased by clients in recent years. Earlier, some scholars proposed a security mechanism with a subliminal channel for E-cash and digital content. Only the sender and the receiver would know that the secret information was hidden in the signature. So the privacy of this subliminal message couldbe ensured. We apply this concept to the logistics environment to design secure logistics architecture with subliminal messages. The client can check the subliminal message of the received package, and know whether the package has been switched by malicious people. In addition, the proposed scheme also applies sensor technology;the client can check the GPS location, the temperature and humidity at any time during the delivery process. So intelligent logisticswouldthereby be achieved. This paper proposes an intelligent and secure package sensoring logistics system based on a subliminal channel. The proposed architecture uses the related mechanisms tosolve the problems of a logistics system, including how to achieve mutual authentication, data integrity, anti-switch package, package location and status tracing, resisting replay attacks, forward and backward secrecy, and non-repudiation issues.

The greenhouse gases and air pollution generated by extensive energy use have exacerbated climate change. An electric-bus (e-bus) transportation system favors reducing pollution and carbon emissions. This study analyzed the minimization of construction costs for an all battery-swapping public e-bus transportation system. A simulation was conducted according to existing timetables and routes. Daytime charging was incorporated during the hours of operation; the two parameters of the daytime charging scheme were the residual battery capacity and battery-charging energy during various intervals of daytime peak electricity hours. The parameters were optimized using three algorithms: particle swarm optimization (PSO), a genetic algorithm (GA), and a PSO–GA. This study observed the effects of optimization on cost changes (e.g., number of e-buses, on-board battery capacity, number of extra batteries, charging facilities, and energy consumption) and compared the plug-in and battery-swapping e-bus systems. The results revealed that daytime charging can reduce the construction costs of both systems. In contrast to the other two algorithms, the PSO–GA yielded the most favorable optimization results for the charging scheme. Finally, according to the cases investigated and the parameters of this study, the construction cost of the plug-in e-bus system was lower than that of the battery-swapping e-bus system.

Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality for non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) across all TNM-stages. Locoregional control rates have been impressive even from the 2D-radiotherapy (RT) era, except when the ability to deliver optimal dose coverage to the tumor is compromised. However, short- and long-term complications following head and neck RT are potentially debilitating, and thus, there had been much research investigating technological advances in RT delivery over the past decades, with the primary goal of limiting normal tissue damage. On this note, with a plateau in gains of therapeutic ratio by modern RT techniques, future advances have to be focused on individualization of RT, both in terms of dose prescription and delineation of target volumes. In this review, we analyzed the guidelines and evidence related to contouring methods, and dose prescription for early and locoregionally-advanced (LA-) NPC. Next, with the preference for induction chemotherapy (IC) in patients with LA-NPC, we assessed the evidence concerning radiotherapy adaptations guided by IC response, as well as functional imaging and contour changes during treatment. Finally, we discussed on RT individualization that is guided by EBV DNA assessment, and its importance in the era of combinatorial immune checkpoint blockade therapy with RT.

As an important carrier of urban residents' public life, urban public open space plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of life of urban residents. Accessibility is an important indicator to characterize the publicity and service level of a public open space. This study optimized the GIS-based, Gaussian two-part mobile search method to quantitatively calculate and evaluate the accessibility of public open space within a 5-minute walking distance for residents in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. On this basis, social survey methods, including the questionnaire survey method via a field survey and the interview method, were used to conduct field research on residents' accessibility satisfaction. Comparing the results of the survey on residents' accessibility satisfaction to the GIS quantitative evaluation results of accessibility, the results of the field research show that current residents of Nanshan are more satisfied with the accessibility of public open space. In view of the similarities and differences between the two sets of results, the influencing factors of public open space accessibility were analyzed, corresponding countermeasures were proposed for the construction of public open spaces in the future.

Cafestol, a bioactive compound found in coffee, has attracted considerable attention due to its potential impact on cardiovascular health. This review aims to comprehensively explore the association between cafestol and cardiovascular diseases. We delve into the mechanisms through which cafestol influences lipid metabolism, inflammation, and endothelial function, all of which are pivotal in cardiovascular pathophysiology. Moreover, we meticulously analyze epidemiological studies and clinical trials to elucidate the relationship between cafestol and cardiovascular outcomes. Through a critical examination of existing literature, we aim to provide insights into the potential benefits and risks associated with cafestol concerning cardiovascular health.

(1) Background: Previous systematic review suggested a beneficial effect of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. However, poor quality of eligible studies impaired the reliability and validity of findings. Moreover, additional potential studies with good quality published in Chinese language have been published recently. The aim of the present systematic review was to investigate the value of PMR training in preventing and alleviating nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy among cancer patients. (2) Methods: We assigned two independent investigators to search all potential studies in PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trial (CENTRAL), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), China Biomedical Literature database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang data. We used data extraction sheet extracted all essential information, and used the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool to appraise the quality of eligible studies. Finally, we qualitatively summarized the results of all included studies. (3) Results: Six studies enrolling 288 patients were considered to meet our selection criteria finally. Of these 6 studies, three were labeled as moderate quality, and the remaining studies were low quality. All included studies consistently suggested that PMR has a positive impact on nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy among cancer patients especially alleviating the incidence, frequency and degree of delayed nausea and vomiting. (4) Conclusions: Independent studies indicated that PMR was a beneficial approach to prevent and alleviate nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy among cancer patients. However, further studies considering other types of primary tumors should be designed in order to increase the generality of PMR because studies included in the present systematic review mainly enrolled lung cancer and breast cancer.

The development of subterranean non-motorized traffic infrastructure, commonly referred to as the underground pedestrian system (UPS), has become increasingly necessary in densely populated megacities worldwide as a means of advancing the Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims to promote sustainable cities and communities. To improve the overall spatial performance, it is imperative to decipher the fundamental formation mechanism of sustainable underground pedestrian systems (SUPS) that is simultaneously influenced by spatial morphology and pedestrian behaviors. Thereby, two representative case studies, namely Wujiaochang UPS and Loushanguanlu UPS located in Shanghai, were selected for an in-depth investigation. This study employed correlation and regression analysis to examine the impact of spatial configuration variables and spatial attribute factors on pedestrian flow distributions in distinct SUPSs. The findings indicate that the variables of Betweenness, as measured by both Euclidean and Angular metrics, along with the presence of metro station locations and commercial space connected by UPS, are the three most significant factors influencing pedestrian behaviors in both scenarios. The disclosure has been made that Wujiaochang UPS is seamlessly integrated into a comprehensive three-dimensional pedestrian network both above and below ground. On the other hand, it appears that Loushanguanlu UPS exhibits a greater degree of self-sufficiency as an underground system. This study aims to elucidate the mechanism underlying the development of SUPSs, thus offering effective guidance for the implementation of three-dimensional walking systems in cities that prioritize sustainability.

We have previously discussed the pathological characteristics, clinical characteristics, detection methods, pathogenesis, and treatment of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-positive gastric cancer, but we have not discussed the unique immune microenvironment in EBV-positive gastric cancer. Here, we reviewed studies on the immune microenvironment in EBV-positive gastric cancer and found that CD8+ T lymphocytes and a small number of CD204+ macrophages infiltrate the immune microenvironment in EBV-positive gastric cancer. Moreover, immune checkpoints, such as IDO1 and PD-L1, are expressed at high levels in EBV-positive gastric cancer. Lastly, we also analyzed the mechanisms underlying the formation of the immune microenvironment in EBV-positive gastric cancer. Our findings and conclusions have significance in clinical guidance and provide research direction for basic experiments.

Helicosporous hyphomycetes is a class of filamentous fungi that shows promising application prospects in metabolizing bioactive natural compounds. During a study of helicosporous fungi in China, six new helicosporous taxa were collected and isolated from decaying wood in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Morphological comparisons with multi-gene phylogenetic analyses revealed that these six taxa belong to Helicosporium (Tubeufiaceae, Tubeufiales), and they can be recognized as three novel species, named Helicosporium liuzhouense, H. multidentatum and H. nanningense. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the newly discovered taxa and comparisons with similar fungi are provided. In addition, a list and a key to accepted Helicosporium species are provided.

In the past decades, the world is actively working towards the global goal of net-zero emission. To decrease emissions, there is a notable trend of electrification in transportation, which is a transition from traditional fuel-based systems to electrical power systems onboard different transportation platforms. For this transition, it is important to study the electrical structure, specifically the onboard microgrid, powered by various energy sources. In this paper, traditional energy management strategies for onboard microgrid systems are discussed, which usually require complicated optimization algorithms and high computation capabilities. Driven by the recent advancements in information technologies, artificial intelligence and digital twin have gained much interest within the transportation sector. These technologies can effectively utilize data to achieve intelligent decision-making, optimize resource utilization, and save energy consumption. This paper presents an overview of the usage of these emerging information technologies in energy management strategies, providing an overall summary and classification of the practical applications. In addition, after examining the potential challenges associated with artificial intelligence and digital twin, this paper also discusses future trends in this field.

Seven pieces of Lacquer Lian from Warring States Period to Yuan Dynasty (475 BC- 1368 AD) were analyzed by means of cross-section observation, Raman spectroscopy (RS) and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography/ mass spectroscopy (Py-GC/MS). The results demonstrated that Lacquer Lian was consisted by three layers, including pigment layer in the surface, undercoat layer in the middle and ground layer, the red mineral pigment was cinnabar, and mixture of Chinese lacquer and drying oil was applied as main organic materials. Although lacquering techniques had undergone minimal changes from Warring States Period to Yuan Dynasty, the species of drying oil had changed based on the fact that boiled tung oil was found in the ground layer of lacquerwares from Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty. The present research provided direct evidence for the inheritance and development of Chinese lacquer technology.

During their growth, bacteria respond to complex environmental changes through equally com-plex and orderly regulatory mechanisms. sRNA has an important role as a post-transcriptional regulator in the environmental adaptation of Bacillus. In this study, we identified an sRNA Bvs091 located in the intergenic region of the Bacillus velezensis, which is widely present in the genus Bacillus and whose expression is upregulated by salt treatment. The deletion of bvs091 in B. ve-lezensis PEBA20 led to a reduced growth rate and a change in the phenotypes, with simple colony structures and low and easily degradable biofilm. Salt tolerance tests indicated that the deletion of bvs091 results in a reduced salt tolerance. galT2 mRNA is supposed to be a direct target of Bvs091 according to results obtained by using the bioinformatic method and performing qRT-PCR analysis. The microscale thermophoresis (MST) analysis showed that Bvs091 could directly bind 28‒51 bases in front of the promoter of galT2. Subsequently, the deletion of galT2 in B. velezensis resulted in increased salt tolerance. Based on the techniques of double plasmids and a half-life period, sRNA Bvs091 is confirmed as a trans-encoded sRNA that negatively regulates the mRNA expression of galT2. In brief, the trans-encoded sRNA Bvs091 acts by pairing the incomplete complementary bases of galT2 mRNA, reducing galT2 mRNA’s stability and affecting the trans-lation efficiency.

The quality prediction of quaternary structure models of a protein complex, in the absence of its true structure, is known as the Estimation of Model Accuracy (EMA). EMA is useful for ranking predicted protein complex structures and using them appropriately in biomedical research, such as protein-protein interaction studies, protein design, and drug discovery. With the advent of more accurate protein complex (multimer) prediction tools, such as AlphaFold2-Multimer and ESMFold, the estimation of the accuracy of protein complex structures has attracted increasing attention. Many deep learning methods have been developed to tackle this problem; however, there is a noticeable absence of a comprehensive overview of these methods to facilitate future development. Addressing this gap, we present a review of deep learning EMA methods for protein complex structures developed in the past several years, analyzing their methodologies and impacts. We also provide a prospective summary of some potential new developments for further improving the accuracy of the EMA methods.

Geologists employ high-spatial-resolution (HR) remote sensing (RS) data for many diverse applications as they effectively reflect detailed geological information, enabling high-quality and efficient geological surveys. Applications of HR RS data to geological and related fields have grown recently. By analyzing these applications, we can better understand the results of previous studies and more effectively use the latest data and methods to efficiently extract key geological information. HR optical remote sensing data are widely used in geological hazard assessment, seismic monitoring, mineral exploitation, glacier monitoring, and mineral information extraction due to high accuracy and clear object features. Compared with optical satellite images, synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images are stereoscopic and exhibit clear relief, strong performance, and good detection of terrain, landforms, and other information. SAR images have been applied to seismic mechanism research, volcanic monitoring, topographic deformation, and fault analysis. Furthermore, a multi-standard maturity analysis of the geological applications of HR images using literature from the Science Citation Index reveals that optical remote sensing data are superior to radar data for mining, geological disaster, lithologic, and volcanic applications, but inferior for earthquake, glacial, and fault applications. Therefore, geological remote sensing research needs to be truly multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary, ensuring more detailed and efficient surveys through cross-linking with other disciplines. Moreover, the recent application of deep learning technology to remote sensing data extraction has improved automatic processing and data analysis capabilities.

Shrews (Soricidae) are common small wild mammals with a significant overlap in their habitats with humans and domestic animals. Currently, viruses from 24 families have been identified in shrews, including Adenoviridae, Arenaviridae, Arteriviridae, Astroviridae, Bornaviridae, Caliciviridae, Circoviridae, Coronaviridae, Filoviridae, Flaviviridae, Hantaviridae, Hepadnaviridae, Hepeviridae, Nairoviridae, Orthoherpesviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Parvoviridae, Phenuiviridae, Picornaviridae, Polyomaviridae, Poxviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Sedoreoviridae, and Spinareoviridae, which pose potential threats to humans and domestic animals. This review compiled fundamental information about shrews and provided a comprehensive summary of the viruses that have been detected in shrews, with the aim to facilitating a deeper understanding of shrews and the diversity and risks of their viruses for researchers and the general public.

In heterogeneous networks, the random walks based on meta-path requires prior knowledge and lacks flexibility. And the random walks based on non-meta-path only considers the number of node types, but does not consider the influence of schema and topology between node types in real networks. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a novel model HNE-RWTIC (Heterogeneous Network Embedding Based on Random Walks of Type & Inner Constraint). Firstly, to realize the flexible walks, we design a Type strategy, which is the node type selection strategy based on the co-occurrence probability of node types. Secondly, to achieve the uniformity of node sampling, we design an Inner strategy, which is the node selection strategy based on the adjacency relationship between nodes. The Type & Inner strategy can realize the random walks based on meta-path, the flexibility of the walks, and can sample the node types and nodes uniformly in proportion. Thirdly, based on the above strategy, a transition probability model is constructed; then, we obtain the nodes embedding based on the random walks and Skip-Gram. Finally, in classification and clustering tasks, we conducted a thorough empirical evaluation of our method on three real heterogeneous networks. Experimental results shown that F1-Score and NMI of HNE-RWTIC outperform state-of-the-art approaches.

We suppose that a Cooper pair (CP) will experience a damping force exerted by the condensed matter. A Langevin equation of a CP in two dimensional condensed matter is established. Following a method similar to Nelson's stochastic mechanics, generalized Schr\"{o}dinger equation of a CP in condensed matter is derived. If the CPs move with a constant velocity, then the corresponding direct current (DC) electrical conductivity can be calculated. Therefore, a Drude like formula of resistivity of CPs is derived. We suppose that the damping coefficient of CPs in two dimensional cuprate superconductors is a linear function of temperature. Then the resistivity and scattering rate of CPs turn out to be also linear-in-temperature. The origin of linear-in-temperature resistivity and Planckian dissipation in cuprate superconductors may be the linear temperature dependence of the damping coefficient of CPs.

Anti-interferon (IFN)-γ autoantibodies are linked to varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection. Given the elevated risks of herpes zoster (HZ) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKi), we aimed to examine the relationship between anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies with HZ development in JAKi-treated patients. In twenty-four RA patients with new-onset HZ and forty-two without HZ, serum titers of anti-IFN-γ autoantibodies, plasma levels of IFN-γ, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and IFN-γ inducible protein-10 (IP-10) were measured by ELISA. Significantly lower MCP-1 levels were observed in patients with HZ compared to those without (median, 98.21pg/ml, interquartile range (IQR) 77.63-150.30pg/ml versus 142.3pg/ml, IQR 106.7-175.6pg/ml, p&lt;0.05). There was no significant difference in anti-IFN-γ titers, IFN-γ levels, or IP-10 levels between patients with and without HZ. Three of 24 patients with HZ had severe HZ with multi-dermatomal involvement. Anti-IFN-γ titers were significantly higher in patients with severe HZ than in those with non-severe HZ (median 24.8ng/ml, IQR 21.0-38.2ng/ml versus 10.5ng/ml, IQR 9.9-15.0ng/ml, p&lt;0.005). In conclusion, patients with HZ had significantly lower MCP-1 levels than those without HZ, and patients with severe HZ had significantly higher titers of anti-IFN-γ than those with non-severe HZ. Given small sample size, our results need further validation in future studies.

There is currently a lack of pathologic data on the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia, or COVID-19, from autopsy or biopsy. Two patients who recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. These two cases thus provide important first opportunities to study the pathology of COVID-19. Pathologic examinations revealed that, apart from the tumors, the lungs of both patients exhibited edema, proteinaceous exudate, focal reactive hyperplasia of pneumocytes with patchy inflammatory cellular infiltration, and multinucleated giant cells. Hyaline membranes were not prominent. Since both patients did not exhibit symptoms of pneumonia at the time of surgery, these changes likely represent an early phase of the lung pathology of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Remote sensing imagery is of great significance for policy decisions, especially for disaster assessment and disaster relief. To ensure the privacy and inviolability of personal buildings, the information containing these buildings must be anonymized during the remote sensing mapping process. Traditional processing methods for these targets in remote sensing mapping are mainly based on manual retrieval and image editing tools, which are inefficient. Deep learning provides a new direction for target hiding. Although the image inpainting method based on deep learning is faster than the manual method, the cost of training calculation is a disadvantage. And the element-wise product operation used in the model increases the risk of vanished or exploded gradients. We propose a Residual Attention Target Hiding (RATH) model for remote sensing target hiding based on deep learning. RATH uses residual attention modules to replace gated convolutions, reducing parameters and mitigating gradient issues. The residual attention module preserves gated convolution performance but provides an adjustable kernel size. RATH retains gated convolutions for dynamic feature selection and balances model depth and width. Furthermore, this paper modifies the contextual attention layer by adjusting the fusion process to enlarge the fusion patch size. Finally, we extend the edge-guided function to preserve the original target information and confound viewers. Ablation studies on an open dataset prove RATH’s efficiency for image inpainting and target hiding. RATH achieves state-of-the-art results with lower complexity. And it has the highest similarity for edge-guided target hiding. RATH enables robust, efficient target hiding for privacy protection in remote sensing imagery while balancing performance and complexity. Experiments show RATH's superiority over existing methods in hiding arbitrary-shaped targets.

The combination of new-generation information technology and manufacturing technology has resulted in major and profound impact on future development paradigm of manufacturing. It is challenging for existing methods to conduct a multidimensional trend exploration related to machine tool domain, which is the basis of virtually everything in manufacturing. In this paper, we proposed an integrating approach framework combined topic models, bibliometric, trend analysis and patent analysis to mine insightful information about future development from multi-source data related to machine tool, such as papers, grants, patents and news. Specifically, papers and grants provided two different perspectives to explore the current focuses and future trends in machine tool research. Furthermore, the future technology development of machine tool was investigated through patents analysis. Finally, news related to machine tool industry in recent years was analyzed to analyze future machine tool business mode. The integration of the above various analytical methods and the multi-dimensional mining of literatures enabled the analysis of the future development of machine tool domain systematically from multi-perspectives which include research, technology development and industry. The conclusions obtained in this paper is beneficial to different communities of machine tool in terms of determining the research directions for researchers, identifying industry opportunities for corporations and developing reasonable industry policy for policy makers.

Image encryption is increasingly becoming an important area of research in information security and network communications, as digital images are widely used in various applications and are vulnerable to various types of attacks. In this research work, a color image cryptosystem that is based on a 3-layer permutation-substitution network (PSN) is proposed. For every layer, an encryption key and an S-box are generated and utilized. Those are based on a four-dimensional (4D) dynamical Chen system of a fractional-order, the Mersenne Twister, OpenSLL, Rule 30 Cellular Automata and Intel’s MKL. The sequential application of Shannon’s ideas of diffusion and confusion for 3 times guarantees a total distortion of any input plain image, resulting in a totally encrypted one. Apart from the excellent and comparable performance to counterpart algorithms from the literature, showcasing resistance to visual, statistical, entropy, differential, known plaintext and brute-force attacks, the proposed image cryptosystem provides an exceptionally superior performance in 2 aspects: a vast key space of 2^1658 and an average encryption rate of 3.34 Mbps. Furthermore, the proposed image cryptosystem is shown to successfully pass all the tests of the NIST SP 800 suite.

Hubei, Hunan and Henan Provinces are located in Central China, a region with extensive transport networks and trade. Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the causative agent of pine wilt disease, is spreads mainly through human activities. In order to further understand the genetic structure of PWN in Central China, we studied the genetic information of PWN populations in this region and compared the genetic relationship with strains from Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces. We found that the HB (Hubei) 15, HEN (Henan) 20, HN (Hunan) 07, HN08 and HN10 had significantly more SNPs and homozygotes than other strains from Central China, and their most frequent mutant genotypes also differed from other strains. The clustering results indicated that HB15, HEN 20, HN07, HN08 and HN10 were genetically distinct from other strains and closely related to Guangdong strains. We also observed significant genetic variation among strains in Henan province, suggesting that some of them might have different transmission sources than those from Hubei and Hunan provinces. The results provide a basis for tracing the origin and spread of PWD in China.

This paper first discusses a fractional-order Liu system of order as low as 2.7 and shows its chaotic characteristics by carrying out numerical simulations such as Lyapunov exponents, bifurcation diagrams and phase portraits. Then, by using the topological horseshoe theory and computer-assisted proof, the existence of chaos in the system is verified theoretically. Finally, the fractional-order system is implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and the results obtained show that the fractional-order Liu system is indeed chaotic.

Gastric mixing relies both on enzymatic reactions and mechanical solicitations through antral contraction waves (ACWs). This work aims at discussing the influence of ACWs frequency and digesta viscosity on human gastric mixing efficiency by comparison with that of a soft elastic reactor (SER), that induces mixing by vibration of its wall in a similar way as ACWs promote stomach motility. The SER mixing curve was considered in order to determine the flow regime reached during gastric mixing. The number of contractions required to achieve homogenization was found to depend on the viscosity of the stomach content and the ACWs amplitude. Moreover, it was deduced from the same range of SER and ACWs operating points that the mechanical solicitation provided by human peristalsis was low and that gastric mixing was confined in laminar regime. Further efforts are needed to investigate the role of other physiological processes such as gastric secretions and emptying in overall gastric mixing performance.

The bio-oil was largely produced by thermal pyrolysis of Jatropha-derived biomass wastes (denoted as Jatropha bio-oil) using a Pilot Plant with a capacity of 20 kg h-1 at Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), Thailand. Jatropha bio-oil is an unconventional type of bio-oil, which is mostly composed of fatty acids, fatty acid methyl esters, fatty acid amides and derivatives, and consequently it contained large amounts of heteroatoms (oxygen ~ 20 wt.%, nitrogen ~ 5 wt.%, sulfur ~ 1000 ppm.). The heteroatoms, nitrogen especially, are highly poisonous to the metal or sulfide catalysts for upgrading of Jatropha bio-oil. To overcome this technical problem, we reported a stepwise strategy for hydrotreating of 100 wt% Jatropha bio-oil over mesoporous sulfide catalysts of CoMo/γ-Al2O3 and NiMo/γ-Al2O3 to produce drop-in transport fuels, such as gasoline- and diesel-like fuels. This study is very different from our recent work on co-processing of Jatropha bio-oil (ca. 10 wt%) with petroleum distillates to produce a hydrotreated oil as a diesel-like fuel (Chen et al., Catalysts 2018, 8, 59; http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/catal8020059). Jatropha bio-oil was pre-treated through a slurry-type high pressure reactor under severe condition, resulting in a pre-treated Jatropha bio-oil with relatively low amounts of heteroatoms (oxygen < 20 wt.%, nitrogen < 2 wt.%, sulfur < 500 ppm.). The light and middle distillates of pre-hydrotreated Jatropha bio oil was then separated by distillation at temperature below 240 oC, and the temperature of 240-360 oC. Deep hydrotreating of light distillates over sulfide CoMo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was performed on a batch-type high pressure reactor at 350 oC and 7 MPa of H2 gas for 5 h. The hydrotreated oil was a gasoline-like fuel, which contained 29.5 vol.% of n-paraffins, 14.4 vol.% of iso-paraffins, 4.5 vol.% of olefins, 21.4 vol. % of naphthene compounds and 29.6 wt.% of aromatic compounds, and little amounts of heteroatoms (nearly no oxygen and sulfur, and less than 50 ppm of nitrogen), corresponding to an octane number of 44, and it would be suitable for blending with petro-gasoline. The hydrotreating of middle distillates over sulfide NiMo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst using the same reaction condition produced a hydrotreating oil with diesel-like composition, low amounts of heteroatoms (no oxygen and less than 50 ppm of sulfur and nitrogen), and a cetane number of 60, which would be suitable for use in drop-in diesel fuel.

The Kuroshio Extension(KE) System exhibits highly energetic mesoscale phenomena, but the impact of mesoscale eddies on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling is not well understood. This study utilizes remote sensing and Argo floats to investigate how eddies modify surface and subsurface chlorophyll (Chl-a) concentrations. On average, cyclones (anticyclones) induce positive (negative) surface Chl-a anomalies, particularly in winter. This occurs because cyclones (anticyclones) lift (deepen) isopycnals and nitrate into (out of) the euphotic zone, stimulating (depressing) the growth of phytoplankton. Consequently, cyclones (anticyclones) result in greater (smaller) subsurface Chl-a maximum (SCM), depth-integrated Chl-a, and depth-integrated nitrate. The positive (negative) surface Chl-a anomalies induced by cyclones (anticyclones) are mainly located near (north of) the main axis of the KE. The second and third mode represent monopole Chl-a patterns within eddy centers corresponding to either positive or negative anomalies, depending on the sign of the principal component. Chl-a concentrations in cyclones (anticyclones) above the SCM layer are higher (lower) than the edge values, while those below are lower (higher), regardless of winter variations. The vertical distributions and displacements of Chl-a and SCM depth are associated with eddy pumping. In terms of frequency, negative (positive) Chl-a anomalies account for approximately 26% (18%) of the total cyclones (anticyclones) across all four seasons. The opposite phase suggests that nutrient supply resulting from stratification differences under convective mixing may contribute to negative (positive) Chl-a anomalies in cyclone (anticyclone) cores. Additionally, the opposite phase can also be attributed to eddy stirring, trapping high and low Chl-a, and/or eddy Ekman pumping. Based on OFES outputs, the seasonal variation of nitrate from winter to summer primarily depends on the effect of vertical mixing, indicating that convective mixing processes contribute to an increase (decrease) in nutrients during winter (summer) over the KE.

This study aimed to identify whether gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina (GACR) heterozygous individuals have possible clinical manifestations and to explore the potential pathogenic mechanism. In this retrospective study, we surveyed a two-generation pedigree of an individual diagnosed with GACR. Two family members underwent ophthalmological, hematologic, and genetic tests. An arginine-restricted diet with vitamin B6 supplementation was implemented; clinical assessments were repeated every 3 months during follow-up. Relative OAT mRNA expression was determined using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The 19-year-old compound heterozygous daughter (OAT: c.1186C&gt;T; c.748C&gt;T), had bilateral high myopia, posterior staphyloma, chorioretinal atrophy, macular abnormalities, and elevated hematologic ornithine. The 54-year-old heterozygous mother (OAT: c.1186C&gt;T), presented with bilateral severe myopia, asymmetric posterior staphyloma, retina and choroidal capillary layer atrophy, retinal pigment epithelium abnormalities, and mildly elevated hematologic ornithine. Compared to normal individuals, the daughter and mother had 29% and 46% relative OAT mRNA expression, respectively (P&lt;0.001). We believe that this is the first report of a carrier of one OAT variant allele with mild phenotypes, suggesting that family members should be aware of the possible involvement of autosomal recessive conditions. Additional data suggests nonsense mediated decay-initiated mRNA degradation may cause GACR.

Herein, bamboo-laminated lumber for furniture was coated with waterborne acrylic paint. The effects of different painting techniques and quantities on the drying rate, smoothness, hardness, adhesion and wear resistance of the paint film were investigated. Then, the thermal properties of the paint were analysed using thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimeter to examine the film-forming mechanism. The results showed that painting technique had no effect on the drying time, flatness, hardness and adhesion of the paint film, but it influenced the wear resistance. Herein, the films’ flatness showed little variation with different painting methods (one-layer primer one-layer topcoat, one-layer primer two-layer topcoat, two-layer primer one-layer topcoat and two-layer primer two-layer topcoat). The drying time for primer surfaces/solids was 8min/8.5 min, while it was 6.5/7 min for topcoats. The paint films exhibited grade B hardness and grade 0 adhesion and the better wear resistance when using one-layer primer one-layer topcoat at 51.24 mg·100 r−1. The amount of paint applied significantly affected the drying time and flatness of the paint film. As the quantity increased, the drying time of the paint’s surfaces and solids also increased, whereas the film’s flatness initially increased before decreasing. The film’s optimal adhesion, hardness and wear resistance values were grade 0, grade B and 51.24 mg·100 r−1, respectively, when 80 g/m2 of paint was applied. Thermal analysis of the primer and topcoat showed that water decomposition occurred at 100℃ and thermal decomposition of organic components occurred at 350℃. The primer and topcoat exhibited the same weight loss, but primer’s thermal loss rate was higher than that of topcoat. Consequently, the topcoat displayed better thermal stability than the primer.

The photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion of organic small molecules offers a dual benefit of synthesizing value-added chemicals and concurrently producing hydrogen (H2). Ethylene glycol, with its dual hydroxyl groups, stands out as a versatile organic substrate capable of yielding various C1 and C2 chemicals. In this study, we demonstrate that pH modulation markedly enhances the photocurrent of BiVO4 photoanodes, thus facilitating the efficient oxidation of ethylene glycol while simultaneously generating H2. Our findings reveal that in a pH=1 ethylene glycol solution, the photocurrent density at 1.23 V vs. RHE can attain an impressive 7.1 mA cm−2, significantly surpassing the outputs in neutral and highly alkaline environments. The increase in photocurrent is attributed to the augmented adsorption of ethylene glycol on BiVO4 under acidic conditions, which in turn elevates the activity of the oxidation reaction, culminating in the maximal production of formic acid. This investigation sheds light on the pivotal role of electrolyte pH in the PEC oxidation process and underscores the potential of the PEC strategy for biomass valorization into value-added products alongside H2 fuel generation.

To achieve efficient utilization of low-concentration mine gas, reduce resource waste, and alleviate environmental pollution, high-temperature oxidation of low-concentration gas at a concentration range of 1.00% to 1.50% that is directly discharged into the atmosphere during coal mine production was oxidized to recover heat for reuse. The gas oxidation equipment was improved for the heating process, and the safety of low-concentration gas oxidation under high-temperature environment was evaluated. Experimental results showed that the reactor could provide a 1000 ℃ high-temperature oxidation environment for gas oxidation after installing high-temperature resistant ceramics. The pressure variation curves of the reactor with air and different concentrations of gas were similar. Due to the thermal expansion, the air pressure slightly increased and then returned to normal pressure. In contrast, the low-concentration gas exhibited a stable pressure response in the high-temperature environment of 1000 ℃. The outlet pressure was significantly greater than the inlet pressure, and the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet exhibited a trend to increase with the gas concentration. The explosion limit varied with the temperature and the blend with oxidation products. The ratio of measured gas pressure to air pressure after oxidation was below the explosion criterion, indicating that the measured concentration gas is still safe after the shift of explosion limit, which provides a safe concentration range for efficient use of low-concentration gas in the future.

Surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) is one of the most versatile technique to modify the surface properties of material. Recent developed metal free SI-ATRP makes such technique more widely applicable. Herein photo-induced metal-free SI-ATRP of methacrylates, such as methyl methacrylate, N-isopropanyl acrylamide, and N,N- dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, on the surface of SBA-15 was reported to fabricate organic-inorganic hybrid materials. SBA-15 based polymeric composite with adjustable graft ratio was obtained. The structure evolution during the SI-ATRP modification of SBA-15 was monitored and verified by FT-IR, XPS, TGA, BET, and TEM. The obtained polymeric composite showed enhanced adsorption ability for the model compound toluene in aqueous. This procedure provides a low cost, ready availability, and facile modification way to synthesize the polymeric composites without the contamination of metal.

The combination of e-commerce and the green economy allows enterprises to distribute their green products directly to consumers through Internet channels. This paper investigates the impact of service spillovers on emission reduction and channel decisions in a two-echelon supply chain,in which the supplier is a Stackelberg leader and the retailer is a follower.By comparing the equilibrium outcomes of the single-channel and dual-channel supply chain in a setting with and without retail services, we observe that the supplier prefers to encroach on the market when services that retail locations provide largely spillover to and benefit the direct sales channel. Contrary to popular belief, a higher degree of service spillovers is beneficial for the retailer to get more returns under the dual-channel structure, whereas supplier encroachment will lead to a decline in the service level if the spillover degree is relatively low. In addition, the emission reduction level of products under supplier encroachment is always higher than that employed in the single-channel structure if consumers have both low-carbon preference and high degree of service sensitivity. Furthermore, we extend the equilibrium decisions under a carbon cap-and-trade (CCT) mechanism; the results fully verify the above conclusions. Interestingly, the implementation of a carbon price not only motivates carbon emission abatement and supplier encroachment, but also helps achieve a win-win outcome for supply chain members when service spillovers happen.

This paper proposes a single-stage asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back (AHBF) converter with resonant mode using dual-mode control. The presented converter has an integrated boost converter and asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter and operates in resonant mode. The boost-cell always operates in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) to achieve high power factor. The presented converter operates simultaneously using a variable-frequency-controller (VFC) and pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller. Unlike the conventional single-stage design, the intermediate bus voltage of this controller can be regulated depending on the main power switch duty ratio. The asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter utilizes a variable switching frequency controller to achieve the output voltage regulation. The asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter can achieve zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation and significantly reduce the switching losses. Detailed analysis and design of this single-stage asymmetrical half-bridge fly-back converter with resonant mode is described. A wide AC input voltage ranging from 90 to 264 Vrms and output 19 V/ 120 W prototype converter was built to verify the theoretical analysis and performance of the presented converter.

Poly(2,6-dimethyl phenyl oxide) (PPO) is known for its low dissipation factor. To achieve insulating materials with low dissipation factor for high-frequency communication application, a monomer-type benzoxazine (P-APPO) and a main-chain-type benzoxazine (BPA-APPO) were prepared from an amine end-capped oligo (2,6-dimethyl phenylene oxide) (APPO). The APPO was prepared from a nucleophilic substitution of a phenol-end capped oligo (2,6-dimethyl phenylene oxide) (a commercial product, SA 90) with fluoronitrobenzene, and followed by catalytic hydrogenation. After self-curing or curing with a dicyclopentadiene-phenol epoxy (HP 7200), thermosets with high-T_g and low-dissipation factor can be achieved. Furthermore, the resulting epoxy thermosets show better thermal and dielectric properties than those of epoxy thermoset cured from its precursor SA90, demonstrating it is a successful modification in simultaneously enhancing the thermal and dielectric properties.

Pool boiling is extensively utilized in various fields, such as electronics cooling, battery cooling, nuclear power plants, and chemical processing. In the process of temperature control through boiling, the generation and transportation of bubbles play a crucial role in calculating the heat transfer capacity of the system. Therefore, it holds immense significance to gain a profound understanding of the mechanisms underlying bubble formation, growth, and detachment. Currently, numerous mechanistic explanations and empirical correlations have been proposed to elucidate various parameters of bubbles during the boiling process. These findings were considered valuable references in selecting appropriate boiling media and designing efficient heating surfaces. To comprehensively present the progress of bubble formation and heat transfer during the boiling process, the forces exerted on the bubbles was highlighted in this article. And a meticulous review on bubble force analysis and correlation formulas pertaining to various relevant parameters (e.g. nucleation sites density, bubble growth rate, detachment diameter, detachment frequency) were conducted. This review article also were expected to provide a novel foundation for further exploration of enhanced boiling heat transfer.

This study integrated coastal-watershed models and combined a risk assessment method to develop a methodology to investigate the impact resulting from coastal disasters under climate change. The mid-western coast of Taiwan suffering from land subsidence was selected as the demonstrative area for the vulnerability analysis based on prediction of sea level rise (SLR), wave run-up, overtopping, and coastal flooding under the scenarios of 2020 to 2039. Database from tidal gauges and satellite images were used to analyze sea level rise using EEMD (Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition). Extreme wave condition and storm surge were estimated by numerical simulation using WWM (Wind Wave Model) and POM (Princeton Ocean Model). Coastal inundation was then simulated via WASH123D watershed model. The risk map of study areas based on the analyses of vulnerability and disaster were established using the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique. Predictions of sea level rise, the maximum wave condition and storm surge under the scenarios of 2020 to 2039 are presented. The results indicate that the sea level at the mid-western coast of Taiwan will rise in an average of 5.8 cm, equivalent to a rising velocity of 2.8 mm/year. The analysis indicates that Wuqi, Lukang, Mailiao, and Taixi townships are susceptive, low resistant and low resilient, and reaches the high risk level. The assessment provides that important information for making adaption policy in the mid-western coast of Taiwan.

Addressing the issue of low bonding strength in Ti/Mg laminated composites due to interfacial oxidation, this study employs a differential temperature rolling method using longitudinal induction heating to fabricate Ti/Mg composite plates. The entire process is conducted under an argon gas protective atmosphere, which prevents interfacial oxidation while achieving uniform deformation. The effects of reduction on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the composite plates are thoroughly investigated. Results indicate that as the reduction increases, the bonding strength gradually increases, mainly attributed to the increased mechanical interlocking area and a broader element diffusion layer. This corresponds to a transition from brittle to ductile fracture at the microscopic tensile-shear fracture surface. When the reduction reaches 47.5%, the Ti/Mg interfacial strength reaches 63 MPa, which is approximately a 20% improvement compared to the bonded strength with previous oxidation at the interface. Notably, at a low reduction of 17.5%, the bonding strength is significantly enhanced by about 1 time. Additionally, it is found that a strong bonded interface at high reduction is beneficial in hindering the propagation of interfacial cracks during tensile testing, enhancing the ability of the Ti/Mg composite plates to resist interfacial delamination.

This study used the sol–gel method to synthesize a non-halogenated hyperbranched flame retardant containing nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon, HBNPSi, which was then added to a polyurethane (PU) matrix to form an organic–inorganic hybrid material. Using 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of P- and Si-mapping, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, this study determined the organic and inorganic dispersity, morphology, and flame retardance mechanism of the hybrid material. The condensation density of the hybrid material PU/HBNPSi was found to be 74.4%. High condensation density indicates a dense network structure of the material. The P- and Si-mapping showed that adding inorganic additives in quantities of either 20% or 40% results in homogeneous dispersion of the inorganic fillers in the polymer matrix without agglomeration, indicating that the organic and inorganic phases had excellent compatibility. In the burning test, adding HBNPSi to PU resulted in the material passing the UL-94 standard at the V2 level, unlike the pristine PU, which did not meet the standard. The results demonstrated that after non-halogenated flame retardant was added to PU, the material’s flammability and dripping were lower, thereby proving that flame retardants containing elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon exert an excellent flame retardant synergistic effect.

Tourism sustainability is a significant approach to forming a synergistic model of industry and ecology in ecologically vulnerable areas. Scientifically detecting the effect mechanism of tourism development (TDI) on eco-environment resilience (ERI) is important in achieving regional social-ecological system sustainability. Empirical exploration is conducted on the levels of TDI and ERI in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) to study the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of TDI's effect on ERI. The results indicate a significant growth in TDI in the YREB, with the formation of tourist clusters around Shanghai and Chongqing as the core. Although ERI typically exhibits a declining trend, the rate of decline has notably slowed, forming a "high at the sides and low in the middle" spatial pattern. TDI and ERI are spatially dependent in the YREB, with predominantly high-high (HH) and low-high (LH) clusters in Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Conversely, upstream regions with strong eco-environmental foundations exhibit low-low (LL) and high-low (HL) clusters. In general, TDI promotes ERI, but there is significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the YREB. Positive impact regions are expanding, while negative impact regions are shrinking. These results could provide scientific evidence for differentiated classification and control policies in the YREB.

Deep learning methods paired with sidescan sonar (SSS) are commonly used in underwater search and rescue operations for drowning victims, wrecks, and airplanes. However, these techniques are primarily designed to detect mine-like objects and are rarely applied to identifying features in dynamic dredge pit environments, due to a lack of datasets. In this study, we present a Sandy Point Dredge Pit (SPDP) dataset, in which high-resolution SSS data were collected from the west flank of Mississippi bird foot delta of the Louisiana inner shelf. This dataset contains a total of 385 SSS images. We introduce an Effective Geomorphology Classification model (EGC). By ablation studies, we analyze the utility of transfer learning on different model architectures and the impact of data augmentations on model performance. This EGC model will make geomorphic features identification in dredge pit environments quick and efficient which requires extensive experience and professional knowledge. The combination of SSS images and EGC model is a cost-effective and valuable toolkit for hazards monitoring in marine dredge pit environment. The SPDP SSS images dataset, especially the feature of pit wall without rotational slump, is also valuable for other machine learning modelers.

Our image recognition system mainly judges whether the left upper limb in the image is the left upper limb or the right upper limb through our deep learning model in the image. The doctor then could give the correct surgical position. From the experimental results, it could be found that the precision rate and recall rate of the intelligent image recognition system proposed in this paper for preventing the upper limb dislocation surgery could reach 98% and 93%, respectively. It proved that our artificial intelligent image recognition system, AIIRS, could indeed assist orthopedic surgeons to prevent the occurrence of left and right dislocation in upper limb surgery. At the same time, this paper also completes the IRB application approval through the prototype experimental results and will conduct the second phase of human trials in the future. It showed that the research results of this paper will be of great benefit and research value to upper limb orthopedic surgery.

Our image recognition system mainly judges whether the left upper limb in the image is the left upper limb or the right upper limb through our deep learning model in the image. The doctor then could give the correct surgical position. From the experimental results, it could be found that the precision rate and recall rate of the intelligent image recognition system proposed in this paper for preventing the upper limb dislocation surgery could reach 98% and 93%, respectively. It proved that our intelligent image recognition system could indeed assist orthopedic surgeons to prevent the occurrence of left and right dislocation in upper limb surgery. At the same time, this paper also completes the IRB application approval through the prototype experimental results and will conduct the second phase of human trials in the future. It showed that the research results of this paper will be of great benefit and research value to upper limb orthopedic surgery.

The images captured by UAVs during inspection often contain numerous small targets related to transmission lines, which are critical and vulnerable elements for ensuring the safe operation of these lines. However, due to various factors such as the small size of the targets, low resolution, complex background, and potential line aggregation, achieving accurate and real-time detection becomes challenging. To address these issues, this paper proposes a detection algorithm called P2-ECA-EIOU-YOLOv5 (P2E-YOLOv5). Firstly, in order to address the challenges posed by the complex background and environmental interference that impact small targets, an ECA attention module is integrated into the network. This module effectively enhances the network's focus on small targets while concurrently mitigating the influence of environmental interference. Secondly, considering the characteristics of small target size and low resolution, a new high-resolution detection head is introduced, which is more sensitive to small targets. Lastly, the network utilizes the EIOU-Loss as the regression Loss function to improve the positioning accuracy of small targets, as they tend to aggregate. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed P2E-YOLOv5 detection algorithm achieves an accuracy P of 96.0% and an average accuracy (mAP) of 97.0% for small target detection in transmission lines.

Water pollution, intensified by the release of hard-to-degrade pollutants, poses severe threats to ecosystems, human health, and economic development. The existing advanced oxidation processes often involve high operational costs and may result in secondary pollution, highlighting the necessity for innovative and more sustainable solutions. To address these challenges, our study introduces a cost-effective and eco-friendly corona discharge barrier plasma discharger for wastewater treatment. Through the central composite design/response surface methodology, a high decolorization rate of 98% of methylene blue (MB) within 10 minutes was achieved by optimizing parameters such as pH and voltage. Furthermore, the mechanisms of the generation of reactive oxygen species via this device was discussed in detail and the degradation pathways of MB were described. Moreover, this device is also very energy-efficient, with a low energy density and electrical energy per order of 0.15 watt/mL and 5.79 kWh/m³/order, respectively. In conclusion, the plasma discharger developed in this study provides a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable solution for dye wastewater treatment. This research contributes significantly to the advancement of sustainable dye wastewater management practices, offering an innovative method that meets both environmental and economic objectives.

Bone drilling is a common procedure used to create pilot holes for inserting screws to secure implants for fracture fixation. However, dis process can increase bone temperature, teh excessive heat can lead to cell death and thermal osteonecrosis, potentially causing early fixation failure or complications. We conducted a three-dimensional dynamic elastoplastic finite element model to evaluate teh propagation and distribution of heat during bone drilling and assess teh thermally TEMPeffected zone (TAZ) dat may lead to thermal necrosis. dis model investigates teh parameters influencing bone temperature during bone drilling, including drill diameter, rotational speed, feed force, and predrilled hole. Teh results indicate dat our FE model is sufficiently accurate in predicting teh temperature rise TEMPeffect during bone drilling. Teh maximum temperature decreases exponentially wif radial distance. When teh feed forces are 40 and 60 N, teh maximum temperature does not exceed 45 °C. However, wif feed forces of 10 and 20 N, both teh maximum temperature exceeds 45 °C wifin a radial distance of 0.2 mm, indicating a high-risk zone for potential thermal osteonecrosis. Wif teh two-stage drilling procedure, where a 2.5 mm pilot hole is pre-drilled, teh maximum temperature can be reduced by 14 °C. dis suggests dat higher feed force and rotational speed and/or using a two-stage drilling process could mitigate bone temperature elevation and reduce teh risk of thermal osteonecrosis during bone drilling.

Data on pathologic changes of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are scarce. To gain knowledge about the pathology that may contribute to disease progression and fatality, we performed post-mortem needle core biopsies of lung, liver, and heart in four patients who died of COVID-19 pneumonia. The patients’ ages ranged from 59 to 81, including 3 males and 1 female. Each patient had at least one underlying disease, including immunocompromised status (chronic lymphocytic leukemia and renal transplantation) or other conditions (cirrhosis, hypertension, and diabetes). Time from disease onset to death ranged from 15 to 52 days. All patients had elevated white blood cell counts, with significant rise toward the end, and all had lymphocytopenia except for the patient with leukemia. Histologically, the main findings are in the lungs, including injury to the alveolar epithelial cells, hyaline membrane formation, and hyperplasia of type II pneumocytes, all components of diffuse alveolar damage. Consolidation by fibroblastic proliferation with extracellular matrix and fibrin forming clusters in airspaces is evident. In one patient, the consolidation consists of abundant intra-alveolar neutrophilic infiltration, consistent with superimposed bacterial bronchopneumonia. The liver exhibits mild lobular infiltration by small lymphocytes, and centrilobular sinusoidal dilation. Patchy necrosis is also seen. The heart shows only focal mild fibrosis and mild myocardial hypertrophy, changes likely related to the underlying conditions. In conclusion, the post-mortem examinations show advanced diffuse alveolar damage, as well as superimposed bacterial pneumonia in some patients. Changes in the liver and heart are likely secondary or related to the underlying diseases.

To study the oil and gas distribution law in the slope area of the hydrocarbon-bearing basin, the distribution of the effective dominant path of sand bodies transporting oil and gas is a fundamental subject. In this paper, we introduced an effective way to predict such transport paths and applied the method to study the sand bodies of the lower first member of the Shahejie Formation (E3s1L) in the southern area of the Qikou Depression in the Bohai Bay Basin (Qinan). We first define the dominant hydrocarbon transport paths of the sand body as the superimposed area of the contiguously distributed area of the sand body and the paleotectonic ridges at the top of the formation where the sand body is located. Then we define the oil and gas supply area of the oil source fault as the overlapped area of the favorable transport path of oil source faults and the width of the associated fracture zone. Stacking the two areas, we can delineate the distribution of the effective dominant transport paths of the sand bodies. The results from our case study of the Qinan area show that the effective dominant paths of sand bodies transporting oil and gas in the E3s1L Formation in the Qinan area are distributed throughout the region with better development in the west than in the east. The paths in the eastern part extend from north to south, while the paths in the western part extend from northeast to southwest, which is favorable for the convergence of oil and gas generated from the source rocks of the third member of Shahejie Formation (Es3) in the Northeastern main depression of Qikou and the formation of oil and gas accumulations in the l E3s1L Formation. The results are consistent with the fact that oil and gas discovered in the E3s1L Formation in the Qinan region are mainly distributed in the central and western regions, with a small amount in the southeast. Therefore, the suggested method is feasible to predict the effective dominant path of sand bodies transporting oil and gas.

Digital images have become an important carrier for people to access information in the information age. However, with the development of the technology, digital images are vulnerable to illegal access and tampering, to the extent that they pose a serious threat to personal privacy, social order and national security. Therefore, image forensic techniques have become an important research topic in the field of multimedia information security. In recent years, deep learning technology has been widely applied in the field of image forensics and the performance achieved has significantly exceeded the conventional forensic algorithms. This survey compares the state-of-the-art image forensic techniques based on deep learning in recent years. The image forensic techniques are divided into passive and active forensics. In passive forensics, forgery detection techniques are reviewed, and the basic framework, evaluation metrics and commonly used datasets for forgery detection are presented. The performance, advantages and disadvantages of existing methods are also compared and analyzed according to different types of detection. In active forensics, robust image watermarking techniques are overviewed, the evaluation metrics and basic framework of robust watermarking techniques are presented. The technical characteristics and performance of existing methods are analyzed based on the different types of attacks on images. Finally, future research directions and conclusions are given to provide useful suggestions for people in image forensics and related research fields.

Fringe projection profilometry(FPP) has been extensively applied in various fields for its superior fast speed, high accuracy and high data density. However, measuring some objects with high reflective surfaces or high dynamic range surfaces remains challenging for FPP. Some multiple exposure image fusion methods have been proposed and successfully improved the measurement performance for these kinds of objects. Normally, these methods have a relatively fixed sequence of exposure settings determined by artificial experience or trial and error experiments, which may decrease the efficiency of the entire measurement process and may have less robustness to various environmental lighting conditions and object reflective properties. In this paper, a novel self-adaptive multiple exposure image fusion method is proposed with two main aspects of improvement on adaptively optimizing the initial exposure and the exposure sequence. By introducing the theory of information entropy, combined with the analysis of the characterization of fringe image entropy, an adaptive initial exposure searching method is first proposed. Then, an exposure sequence generation method based on dichotomy is further described. On the base of these two improvements, a novel self-adaptive multiple exposure image fusion method for FPP as well as its detailed procedures are given. Experimental results validate the performance of the proposed self-adaptivity multiple exposure image fusion method by measuring the objects with different surface reflectivity and in different ambient lighting conditions.

Objective: To explore three novel fasting blood glucose (FBG)-based novel indicators, including FBG-to-albumin ratio (FAR), FBG-to-lymphocytes ratio (FLR), and FBG-to-hemoglobin ratio (FHR), in predicting prognosis and detecting metastasis for patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms after resection. Materials and methods: A total of 178 pNEN patients underwent surgical resection were included in this study. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the diagnosis values of FAR, FLR, and FHR, and the cut-off values were obtained for further analyses. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine the independent predictors. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to evaluate the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of the pNEN patients. Results: The optimal cut-off values of FAR, FLR, and FHR were 0.17, 2.85, and 0.028, respectively. As for PFS, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.693 for FAR, 0.690 for FLR, and 0.661 for FHR, respectively. The AUC was 0.770, 0.692, and 0.715 accordingly for OS. The groups with lower FAR, FLR, and FHR were significantly associated with prolonged PFS and OS (p < 0.05). In patients with metastasis, the lower FAR group was correlated with significantly longer PFS and OS (p = 0.022 and 0.002, respectively). The FLR was an independent predictor of PFS in pNEN patients, and the FAR was a predictor of OS. FAR was an independent indicator of PFS in patients with metastasis. Conclusion: Preoperative FAR, FLR, and FHR are effective in predicting the prognosis of pNEN patients and detecting the synchronous metastases.

The presence of phase diffusion can lead to the loss of the advantages of quantum measurements. Squeezing is considered to be an effective method to reduce the detrimental effect of phase diffusion on the measurement. The Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer has been exploited as a generic tool for precise phase measurement. Describing the reduction in quantum advantage caused by phase diffusion in an MZ interferometer that can be mitigated by squeezing is not easy to handle analytically, because the input state will change from a pure state to a mixed state after experiencing the diffusion noise in the MZ interferometer. We introduce a truncated MZ interferometer that can achieve the same potential phase sensitivity as the conventional MZ interferometer. This scheme can theoretically explain how phase diffusion reduces phase estimation and why squeezing counteracts in the presence of phase diffusion. Using the Gaussian property of the input state and the characteristic of Gaussian operation in the squeezing, the two orthogonal field quantities of the quantum state are squeezed and anti-squeezed to different degrees, and the analytic results are obtained. The truncated MZ interferometer is simpler to build and operate than the conventional MZ interferometer, and also mitigates the phase diffusion noise by the squeezing operation, thus making it useful for applications in precision metrology.

Accurate prediction of the degree of airport delays under the influence of convective weather is crucial for collaborative traffic management implementation and improving the efficiency of airport operations. However, existing studies usually only consider numerical-type quantitative features of weather-affected traffic in their models, and lack the introduction of spatial information to comprehensively portray the traffic operation scenarios under the influence of weather. In order to overcome this problem, this paper firstly designs a new image representation of weather-affected air traffic, and constructs a multi-channel traffic and weather scene image (MTWSI) by populating the airspace two-dimensional grid with traffic and meteorological information to represent the overall traffic operation situation in the terminal area under the influence of convective weather; then, a deep convolutional neural network-based airport delay prediction model ( ADLCNN), which takes MTWSI images as input and uses a specific CNN model to extract the deep features that affect traffic operation in it to input into the subsequent classification algorithm to predict the flight delay level; finally, a series of comparative experiments are carried out on the operational data of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, and the experimental validation shows that, compared with the traditional machine learning methods, the proposed CNN-based airport delay prediction The experimental validation shows that the proposed CNN-based airport delay prediction model has satisfactory prediction performance compared with the traditional machine learning methods, which also proves that the proposed MTWSI method can more comprehensively respond to the real traffic conditions.

Point defect-based single-photon emitters (SPEs) in GaN have aroused a great deal of interest due to their room-temperature operation, narrow line width and high emission rate. The room-temperature SPEs at the telecommunication bands have also been realized recently by localized defects in GaN in experiments, which are highly desired for the practical applications of SPEs in quantum communication with fiber compatibility. However, the origin and underlying mechanism of the SPEs remain unclear to date. Herein, our first-principle calculations predict and identify an intrinsic point defect NGa in GaN that owns a zero-phonon line (ZPL) at telecommunication windows. By tuning the triaxial compressive strain of the crystal structure, the ZPL of NGa can be modulated from 0.849 eV to 0.984 eV, covering the fiber telecommunication windows from the O band to the E band. Besides the ZPL, the formation energy, band structure, transition process and lifetime of the SPEs under different strains are investigated systematically. Our work gives insight into the emission mechanism of the defect SPEs in GaN and also provides effective guidance for achieving wavelength-tunable SPEs working in fiber telecommunication windows.

The separation and enrichment can be targeted to enrich the rare and precious metals in fly ash and reduce the cost of leaching and recovering of fly ash. Regarding their different properties, the single-component separation was used to obtain uncompleted burned carbon, glass microbeads, minerals, and other characteristic components from the ash. Also, the mineral composition of each component was analyzed by electron microscopy. The metal minerals were mainly concentrated in the mineral components. Besides, the electron probe micro-analysis shows that the Pt content in the minerals of fly ash was significantly correlated with the metal contents of Ni and Cu. After the obtainment of the characteristics of fly ash metal enrichment, the heavy minerals with Cu, Ni, Pt, Pd, and other target metal elements were enriched by gravity separation and flotation. The enrichment coefficients of Cu, Ni, Pt, and Pd were 1.45, 1.33, 1.90 and 1.60, respectively, and the recovery rates were 77%, 81%, 97% and 88% respectively. Since the yield of heavy minerals obtained by separation was 62.24%, it indicated the physical separation method could significantly reduce the cost of leaching and recovering of fly ash metal resources.