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AbstractThis work investigates the vibrational properties of doubly curved elastic concrete panels reinforced with multi-hybrid nanocomposites under in-plane loading. These cutting-edge materials use the advantages of several nanocomposites to produce greater performance by integrating many kinds of nanofibers and nanotubes to boost mechanical qualities. The study focuses on the effects of these reinforcements on the dynamic behavior of doubly curved panels, which are a typical structural component in contemporary engineering applications including civil infrastructure, automotive, and aerospace. The study investigates the natural frequencies and dynamic stability of the panels under in-plane stress circumstances using a thorough analytical method. The complicated geometry and material heterogeneity are modeled using mathematical modeling, which offers comprehensive insights into the impact of nanocomposite reinforcements. The findings show that, in comparison to conventional concrete panels, multi-hybrid nanocomposites considerably increase stiffness characteristics and vibrational performance. The results highlight the potential of these novel materials to transform structural component design and application, resulting in more robust and effective engineering solutions. By improving our knowledge of hybrid nanocomposite behavior under dynamic stresses, our study opens the door to a wider use of these materials science and engineering principles in materials science and engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT:Concrete plate structures’ compressive strength and natural frequency are connected by the mechanical characteristics of the material and structural dynamics. Concrete’s elastic modulus rises along with its compressive strength, making the structure stiffer. Since the natural frequency is proportional to the square root of the stiffness over the mass, the increased stiffness raises the natural frequency. In this work, the relationship between natural frequency and compressive strength in advanced concrete constructions reinforced with graphene oxide particles is examined. Also, the structure is under applied pressure. By using a trigonometric shear deformation plate theory, we hope to improve compressive strength prediction accuracy. Navier’s technique is used as the analytical solution process in the analysis. This study contributes to the design and assessment of more durable and effective structural systems by offering a reliable framework for estimating the compressive strength of reinforced concrete structures. This paper presents a novel method by combining Elman Neural Networks (ENNs) with the developed African Vulture Optimization Algorithm (DAVOA) to estimate the frequency of the structure. With the help of this integration, researchers and engineers can now more precisely estimate the compressive strength of sophisticated concrete structures, leading to the creation of stronger and more robust structural solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First, compared with traditional treatment, SGLT2is significantly improved HR, LAVi, LVMi, LVESV, E/e', and LVEF in all populations. • Second, empagliflozin reduced LVMi, LVEDV, LVESV, E/e', LAVi, and improved LVEF. However, other SGLT2is (dapagliflozin or canagliflozin, etc.) compared with control therapy did not exert significant effect on left ventricular diastolic and systolic function. • Third, the anti-remodeling cardiac effects of SGLT2is mainly significant in patients with heart failure. It has been proven that sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) improve the prognosis of patients with heart failure, independent of the presence of diabetes mellitus. Whether SGLT2 inhibitors affect cardiac structural remodeling and cardiac function is still uncertain. We included published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare the effect of SGLT2is and control therapy in patients with or without heart failure. The meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 software. A total of 15 RCTs with a total of 1343 patients were selected for this meta-analysis, 663 of whom were on SGLT2is treatment and 680 of whom were in the control group. SGLT2is significantly improved heart rate (HR) [MD: -2.74, 95% CI (-4.71, -0.77), P = 0.006], left atrium volume index (LAVi) [MD: -1.99, 95% CI (-3.23,-0.75), P = 0.002], E/e' [MD: -1.47, 95% CI (-1.83,-1.10), P <0.00001], left ventricular mass index (LVMi) [MD: -2.38, 95% CI (-4.35, -0.40), P = 0.02], left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) [MD: -6.50, 95% CI (-11.15,-1.84), P = 0.006], and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) [MD: 1.78, 95% CI (0.56,3.01), P = 0.004] in the total population. Subgroup analysis indicated that compared with other SGLT2is, empagliflozin significantly decreased LVEDV, LVESV,LVMi, LAVi, E/e', and increased LVEF (P <0.05). In addition, the cardiac anti-remodeling effects of SGLT2 are particularly significant in patients with heart failure. Our study showed that SGLT2is, particularly empagliflozin, significantly reverse cardiac remodeling in patients with heart failure. Empagliflozin may be a potentially promising agent to reverse cardiac remodeling in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiqubit quantum logic gates play a critical role in quantum information processing and serve as a stepping stone to implementing a scalable quantum computation. In this paper, based on the photon-scattering property of a four-level emitter coupled to one-dimensional waveguide, we propose two heralded schemes for implementing Toffoli and Fredkin gates simultaneously on polarization and spatial degrees of freedom (DoFs) of two-photon systems. The undesired scattering processes between two photons and waveguide-emitter system can be detected by the single-photon detectors. That is, two multiqubit quantum gates are implemented in a heralded way, and the fidelity of each gate is near to unit in principle under current technical conditions, which ensures the feasibility of the experiment. Moreover, the quantum circuits for the two gates are robust against the decoherence, and require less quantum resource compared with the ones in one DoF only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In other studies, Ouyang et al. [[26]] proposed a simplistic technique for mapping the cell surface charge by utilising electrostatic, cell-nanoparticle (fluorescent) interactions. The study includes a total analysis of 32,805 single-cells with 15,245 single hCD34 SP + sp stem/progenitor cells and 17,560 linage SP - sp mCD117 SP + sp cells. Regarding the former, for example, Gao et al. [[22]] directed comparative single-cell genomics analysis using a 10× single-cell platform and revealed the single-cell resolution transcriptomic atlas of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) of humans and mice using a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) computational strategy. The platform uses single-cell images to study cell phenotypes by gathering phase images from an extensive number of cells. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: With the rapid development of new technologies and resources, many avenues exist to adapt and grow as a profession. Embracing change can lead to growth, evolution, and new opportunities. Audiologists have the potential to harness many of these technological advancements to improve patient health care. Adoption and incorporation of these new technologies will likely benefit educational experiences, research methods, clinical practice, and clinical outcomes. Method: This commentary highlights some historical perspectives and accepted practices while illustrating opportunities to embrace new ideas and technologies. We also provide examples of how such adoption may yield positive outcomes. Specifically, we address embracing technology in audiology education, how artificial intelligence may influence patient performance in realistic listening scenarios, the convergence between hearing aids and consumer electronics, and the emergence of audiology telehealth services and their inclusion in clinical practice. Models of change are also discussed and related to audiology. Conclusion: This commentary aims to be a call to action for the entire profession of audiology to consider conscientiously the adoption of useful, evidence-based technological advancements in education, research, and clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Natural dihydrocarvone has been widely used in the food, cosmetics, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals industries because of its sensory properties and physiological effects. In our previous study, Klebsiella sp. O852 was shown to be capable of converting limonene to trans‐dihydrocarvone with high catalytic efficiency. Thus, it was essential to identify and characterize the functional genes involved in limonene biotransformation using genome sequencing and heterologous expression. RESULTS: The 5.49‐Mb draft genome sequence of Klebsiella sp. O852 contained 5218 protein‐encoding genes. Seven candidate genes participating in the biotransformation of limonene to trans‐dihydrocarvone were identified by genome analysis. Heterologous expression of these genes in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) indicated that 0852_GM005124 and 0852_GM003417 could hydroxylate limonene in the six position to yield carveol, carvone and trans‐dihydrocarvone. 0852_GM002332 and 0852_GM001602 could catalyze the oxidation of carveol to carvone and trans‐dihydrocarvone. 0852_GM000709, 0852_GM001600 and 0852_GM000954 had high carvone reductase activity toward the hydrogenation of carvone to trans‐dihydrocarvone. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in the present study suggest that the seven genes described above were responsible for converting limonene to trans‐dihydrocarvone. The present study contributes to providing a foundation for the industrial production of trans‐dihydrocarvone in microbial chassis cells using synthetic biology strategies. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismicity sequence following a main earthquake usually contains much meaningful information for unveiling the focal mechanism and predicting the reoccurrence interval of large earthquakes. The spatiotemporal evolution of earthquakes before and after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Ms 8.0) is analysed comprehensively in this study. The frequency-magnitude relation of the 3493 earthquake events retrieved from the database of the International Seismological Centre indicates that the adopted catalogue is complete for magnitudes ≥Ms 3.4. The seismicity during the 10 years before the Wenchuan earthquake remained stable, including the magnitudes and focal depths. However, seismicity attenuated sharply in the year following the Wenchuan earthquake, and the magnitude of earthquakes before the Wenchuan earthquake decreased gradually. The area of the seismogenic zone of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was smaller than the earthquake stricken area. The earthquakes that occurred in the Longmenshan fault area and adjacent area in the study period were mainly shallow earthquakes. The focal depths of earthquakes in the study area became stable gradually after the Wenchuan earthquake, mainly within the range from 10 to 16 km. The earthquakes in the study area were mainly distributed with an along-dip distance of 0–20 km, and the seismicity was distributed uniformly along the fault strike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective mitigation of seismic-induced ground hazards requires an improved understanding of ground response in terms of earthquake wave propagation and ground deformation. Here, this paper examines the effects of geosynthetic-encased stone columns (ESCs) and ordinary stone columns (SCs) on the acceleration amplitude and frequency content responses of sand profiles, and the deformation of the ground using a large-scale shaking table model test. The model was excited by 15 shaking events including El Centro motion, Wenchuan Qingping motion and Kobe motion with peaks ranging from 0.1 to 0.9 g. The results indicate that the ESCs more significantly amplify surface accelerations compared to the SCs in the frequencies ranging from 10 to 17 Hz and from 2.5 to 9 Hz. The horizontal peak acceleration values in the ESCs composite ground are approximately twice those of the SCs composite ground. The acceleration response of the ground is influenced by the applied acceleration peak and frequency content, reinforced type, and structure. After the seismic excitation, the ESCs composite ground develops much narrower surface cracks distributed in a larger area compared to the SCs. • The horizontal peak acceleration values at the geosynthetic-encased stone columns (ESCs) composite ground are approximately twice those of the ordinary stone columns (SCs) composite ground at the same position under the same motion, respectively. • The ESCs more significantly amplify surface accelerations compared to the SCs in the frequencies ranging from 10 to 17 Hz and 2.5 to 9 Hz under El Centro (EL), Wenchuan Qingping (QP) and Kobe (KB) motions for the ESCs composite ground shows stiffer. • During the El Centro motions, significant amplification of shear waves propagating from the pile tip to pile top is observed in higher frequencies ranging from 10 to 20 Hz at PBA = 0.1g, 0.2g, while slightly deamplification of shear waves occurs at PBA = 0.4g, 0.6g and 0.9 g. The ESCs amplify accelerations from the pile tip toward pile top at frequencies ranging from 2 to 10. • After the seismic excitation, the ESCs composite ground develops much narrower surface cracks compared to the SCs. The radius of the surface crack distribution area is approximately 65 cm for ESCs, and less than 35 cm for SCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have shown that long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) is involved in various human diseases including non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study was to explore the potential role of lncRNA HCG11 in the pathogenesis of NSCLC. Methods: The mRNA expression of HCG11, miR‐522‐3p and SOCS5 was detected by RT‐qPCR. The regulatory mechanism of lncRNA HCG11 was investigated by CCK‐8, transwell and dual luciferase reporter assays. Results: Downregulation of lncRNA HCG11 and upregulation of miR‐522‐3p were found in NSCLC tissues and cells, and abnormal expressions of lncRNA HCG11 and miR‐522‐3p were related to adverse clinical outcomes of NSCLC patients. LncRNA HCG11 acted as a molecular sponge for miR‐522‐3p. Functionally, lncRNA HCG11 inhibited cell viability, migration and invasion in NSCLC by downregulating miR‐522‐3p. Further, miR‐522‐3p directly targeted SOCS5. lncRNA HCG11 could positively regulate SOCS5 expression in NSCLC. In addition, HCG11 downregulation or miR‐522‐3p overexpression abolished the inhibitory effect of SOCS5 on cell viability, migration and invasion in NSCLC. Conclusions: LncRNA HCG11 inhibits cell viability, migration and invasion in NSCLC by functioning as a ceRNA of miR‐522‐3p to upregulate SOCS5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater mobile acoustic source target localization encounters several challenges, including the unknown propagation speed of the source signal, uncertainty in the observation platform's position and velocity (i.e., platform systematic errors), and economic costs. This paper proposes a new two-step closed-form localization algorithm that jointly estimates the angle of arrival (AOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), and frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) to address these challenges. The algorithm initially introduces auxiliary variables to construct pseudo-linear equations to obtain the initial solution. It then exploits the relationship between the unknown and auxiliary variables to derive the exact solution comprising solely the unknown variables. Both theoretical analyses and simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed method accurately estimates the position, velocity, and speed of the sound source even with an unknown sound speed and platform systematic errors. It achieves asymptotic optimality within a reasonable error range to approach the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB). Furthermore, the algorithm exhibits low complexity, reduces the number of required localization platforms, and decreases the economic costs. Additionally, the simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed localization method across various scenarios, outperforming other comparative algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention plays an important role in not only the awareness and perception of tinnitus but also its interactions with external sounds. Recent evidence suggests that attention is heightened in the tinnitus brain, likely as a result of relatively local cortical changes specific to deafferentation sites or global changes that help maintain normal cognitive capabilities in individuals with hearing loss. However, most electrophysiological studies have used passive listening paradigms to probe the tinnitus brain and produced mixed results in terms of finding a distinctive biomarker for tinnitus. Here, we designed a selective attention task, in which human adults attended to one of two interleaved tonal (500 Hz and 5 kHz) sequences. In total, 16 tinnitus (5 females) and 13 age- and hearing-matched control (8 females) subjects participated in the study, with the tinnitus subjects matching the tinnitus pitch to 5.4 kHz (range = 1.9–10.8 kHz). Cortical responses were recorded in both passive and attentive listening conditions, producing no differences in P1, N1, and P2 between the tinnitus and control subjects under any conditions. However, a different pattern of results emerged when the difference was examined between the attended and unattended responses. This attention-modulated cortical response was significantly greater in the tinnitus than control subjects: 3.9-times greater for N1 at 5 kHz (95% CI: 2.9 to 5.0, p = 0.007, ηp2 = 0.24) and 3.0 for P2 at 500 Hz (95% CI: 1.9 to 4.5, p = 0.026, ηp2 = 0.17). We interpreted the greater N1 modulation as local neural changes specific to the tinnitus frequency and the greater P2 as global changes to hearing loss. These two cortical measures were used to differentiate between the tinnitus and control subjects, producing 83.3% sensitivity and 76.9% specificity (AUC = 0.81, p = 0.006). These results suggest that the tinnitus brain is more plastic than that of the matched non-tinnitus controls and that the attention-modulated cortical response can be developed as a clinically meaningful biomarker for tinnitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most widespread juice produced and consumed globally, citrus juice (mandarin juice, orange juice, and grapefruit juice) is appreciated for its attractive and distinct aroma. While the decrease of characteristic aroma-active compounds and the formation of off-flavor compounds are easy to occur in processing and storage conditions. This review provides a comprehensive literature of recent research and discovery on citrus juice off-flavor, primarily focusing on off-flavor compounds induced during processing and storage (i.e., thermal, storage, light, oxygen, package, fruit maturity, diseases, centrifugal pretreatment, and debittering process), formation pathways (i.e., terpene acid-catalyzed hydration, caramelization reaction, Maillard reaction, Strecker degradation, and other oxidative degradation) of the off-flavor compounds, effective inhibitor pathway to off-flavor (i.e., electrical treatments, high pressure processing, microwave processing, ultrasound processing, and chemical treatment), as well as odor assessment techniques based on molecular sensory science. The possible precursors (terpenes, sulfur-containing amino acids, carbohydrates, carotenoids, vitamins, and phenolic acids) of citrus juice off-flavor are listed and are also proposed. This review intends to unravel the regularities of aroma variations and even off-flavor formation of citrus juice during processing and storage. Future aroma analysis techniques will evolve toward a colorimetric sensor array for odor visualization to obtain a "marker" of off-flavor in citrus juice. (1) Processing and storage can cause the degradation of nutrients in citrus juice and the formation of off-flavor compounds. (2) Terpene degradation products, sulfur-containing compounds, phenols, acids, and furans are contributed to citrus juice off-flavor. (3) Nonthermal techniques such as electrical treatments, high pressure, microwave, and ultrasound processing is beneficial to preservation of the original aroma and sensory qualities of citrus juice. (4) Potential off-flavor compounds (especially trace level) explored by molecular sensory science also significantly impact the aroma of citrus juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nowadays, the important roles of long non‐coding RNAs (LncRNAs) in lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) is being increasingly recognized. The purpose of this study was to explore the regulatory mechanism of lncRNA ZFAS1 in LAD. Methods: The expression and function of lncRNA ZFAS1 were assessed by RT‐qPCR, CCK‐8, transwell and dual luciferase reporter assays. Results: Upregulation of lncRNA ZFAS1 was found in LAD tissues and cells. Knockdown of lncRNA ZFAS1 restrained cell proliferation, migration and invasion in LAD cells. In addition, we determined that lncRNA ZFAS1 could directly bind to miR‐1271‐5p. MiR‐1271‐5p functioned as a tumor suppressor in LAD, and lncRNA ZFAS1 promoted LAD development by downregulating miR‐1271‐5p. Furthermore, FRS2 was a direct target of miR‐1271‐5p. FRS2 promoted progression of LAD by mediating lncRNA ZFAS1/miR‐1271‐5p axis. Conclusions: LncRNA ZFAS1 promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion in LAD by downregulating miR‐1271‐5p or upregulating FRS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tinnitus is a sound heard by 15% of the general population in the absence of any external sound. Because external sounds can sometimes mask tinnitus, tinnitus is assumed to affect the perception of external sounds, leading to hypotheses such as "tinnitus filling in the temporal gap" in animal models and "tinnitus inducing hearing difficulty" in human subjects. Here we compared performance in temporal, spectral, intensive, masking and speech-in-noise perception tasks between 45 human listeners with chronic tinnitus (18 females and 27 males with a range of ages and degrees of hearing loss) and 27 young, normal- hearing listeners without tinnitus (11 females and 16 males). After controlling for age, hearing loss, and stimulus variables, we discovered that, contradictory to the widely held assumption, tinnitus does not interfere with the perception of external sounds in 32 of the 36 measures. We interpret the present result to reflect a bottom-up pathway for the external sound and a separate top-down pathway for tinnitus. We propose that these two perceptual pathways can be independently modulated by attention, which leads to the asymmetrical interaction between external and internal sounds, and several other puzzling tinnitus phenomena such as discrepancy in loudness between tinnitus rating and matching. The present results suggest not only a need for new theories involving attention and central noise in animal tinnitus models but also a shift in focus from treating tinnitus to managing its comorbid conditions when addressing complaints about hearing difficulty in individuals with tinnitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bright red CsPbIBr2 films possess intrinsic semitransparent features, which make them promising materials for smart photovoltaic windows, power plants, curtain walls, top cells for tandem solar cells, and bifacial photovoltaics. In this work, bifacial CsPbIBr2 perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been fabricated by adopting an ultrathin silver (Ag) film transparent anode and a tellurium oxide (TeO2) optical modifying layer. The results showed that the transmittance of the TeO2 (40 nm)/Ag (11 nm) transparent top anode matched well with the light absorption range of the CsPbIBr2 film, and the resulting bifacial PSCs exhibited PCEs of 8.04% and 5.32% when illuminated from the FTO and Ag sides, respectively. By introducing cesium iodide-treated CsPbIBr2 layers, the PSCs achieved superior PCEs of 8.46% (FTO side) and 6.40% (Ag side) with a bifacial factor of 75.65%, which is the best performance of bifacial CsPbIBr2 PSCs reported to date. Interestingly, an identical cell showed a significantly higher fill factor, more efficient carrier transport, and better efficiency and stability when illuminated from the Ag side than from the FTO side, a phenomenon strongly related to the parasitic absorption of the spiro-OMeTAD layer below 420 nm. Consequently, we have found a route similar to "shooting fish in a barrel" to enhance the carrier transport, suppress the carrier recombination, and improve the stability of bifacial semitransparent CsPbIBr2 PSCs: turning the Ag side towards the sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caveolae position CaV3.2 (T‐type Ca2+ channel encoded by the α‐3.2 subunit) sufficiently close to RyR (ryanodine receptors) for extracellular Ca2+ influx to trigger Ca2+ sparks and large‐conductance Ca2+‐activated K+ channel feedback in vascular smooth muscle. We hypothesize that this mechanism of Ca2+ spark generation is affected by age. Using smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from mouse mesenteric arteries, we found that both Cav3.2 channel inhibition by Ni2+ (50 µM) and caveolae disruption by methyl‐ß‐cyclodextrin or genetic abolition of Eps15 homology domain‐containing protein (EHD2) inhibited Ca2+ sparks in cells from young (4 months) but not old (12 months) mice. In accordance, expression of Cav3.2 channel was higher in mesenteric arteries from young than old mice. Similar effects were observed for caveolae density. Using SMAKO Cav1.2−/− mice, caffeine (RyR activator) and thapsigargin (Ca2+ transport ATPase inhibitor), we found that sufficient SR Ca2+ load is a prerequisite for the CaV3.2‐RyR axis to generate Ca2+ sparks. We identified a fraction of Ca2+ sparks in aged VSMCs, which is sensitive to the TRP channel blocker Gd3+ (100 µM), but insensitive to CaV1.2 and CaV3.2 channel blockade. Our data demonstrate that the VSMC CaV3.2‐RyR axis is down‐regulated by aging. This defective CaV3.2‐RyR coupling is counterbalanced by a Gd3+ sensitive Ca2+ pathway providing compensatory Ca2+ influx for triggering Ca2+ sparks in aged VSMCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in abiotic stress response in plants. However, the total miRNA profiles (miRNome) and drought-responsive miRNAs in H. tibetana have not been identified. In this study, we present the first report on the miRNome profiles of H. tibetana by high-throughput sequencing technology. 116 known and 4 predicted novel miRNAs were all identified in six H. tibetana samples. Moreover, to reveal the drought-responsive miRNAs in H. tibetana, we compared the miRNA profiles of H. tibetana grown under water sufficiency and drought stress. The results showed that 39 known miRNAs were up-regulated, while 34 miRNAs were downregulated under drought stress. Moreover, the expression of two novel miRNAs (novel_mir_24 and novel_mir_87) showed notable changes in response to drought stress. The target genes of these differentially expressed miRNAs were mainly enriched in cellular process, metabolic process, cell part, and response to stimulus. The identified drought-responsive miRNAs might be used for improving drought tolerance in H. tibetana and other plateau plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether global processing style facilitates the discovery of structural similarity. In the two experiments, the participants were presented with three stories after being primed with global or local processing through a Navon task. The first story was the base story, and the other two stories shared either surface similarity or structural similarity with the base story. The results showed that, compared with the participants of the local processing and control groups, a substantially greater number of participants of the global processing group selected the story with structural similarity to the base story. This finding indicated that the global processing style can facilitate the discovery of structural similarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obsequent rock slopes are often thought to be more stable than consequent slopes and passive sliding is unlikely to occur under earthquake loading. However, failures in obsequent rock slopes were indeed observed in recent large earthquakes. This paper presents a time–frequency solution to the seismic stability of obsequent rock slopes fully considering the time–frequency characteristics of earthquake waves. Large-scale shaking table tests were conducted to illustrate the application of the time–frequency method to an obsequent rock slope containing multiple weak layers with a small dip angle. The seismic stability of the obsequent rock slope is analyzed combining the time–frequency method, outcomes from the shaking table test, and conventional pseudo-static and dynamic numerical analyses. The results show that passive sliding can develop in the obsequent rock slope when taking the time–frequency components of the earthquake waves and the vertical seismic force into account. The middle–upper part of the obsequent rock slope is more vulnerable to seismic damage. The slope bulges under the earthquake loading; the maximum permanent surface displacement occurs at the middle–upper part of the slope, rather than the slope crest. Additionally, the response of seismic safety factor lags behind the responses of acceleration and surface displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) on blood lipid profile. We searched the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline, and EMBASE databases from the inception to July 2023 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing SGLT2i with placebo regarding lipid profile changes. The "Meta" package of R software was applied for data synthesis. A total of 28 RCTs were included and 5192 patients participated in the present study, including 2686 patients who received SGLT2is intervention and 2506 patients who were in the control group. SGLT2is significantly increased blood low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels [mean difference (MD): 0.09 mmol/L, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.03, 0.16), 95% prediction interval (PI) (−0.06, 0.24), P = 0.0046] and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels [MD: 0.08 mmol/L, 95% CI (0.06, 0.11), 95% PI (−0.00, 0.17), P < 0.0001]. However, we observed neutral effect of SGLT2is on total cholesterol (TC) [MD: 0.08 mmol/L, 95% CI (−0.08, 0.24), 95% PI (−0.24, 0.40), P = 0.3150] and triglyceride (TG) [MD: −0.03 mmol/L, 95% CI (−0.23, 0.16), 95% PI (−0.70, 0.63), P = 0.7382]. Our study determined that SGLT2is increase both LDL-C and HDL-C levels, but exerts not significant effect on TC and TG levels. • Although it has been determined that SGLT2i has some benefits on CVD, the effect of SGLT2i on lipid profiles remains unclear. • Our study determined that SGLT2is slightly increases both LDL-C and HDL-C levels, but exerts not significant effect on TC and TG levels. • Our study will provide an evidence-based medical reference for the clinical practice of SGLT2i with concerns regarding the effects of SGLT2is on lipid profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-efficient quantum information processing is equal to the minimal cost of the quantum resources required by quantum logic gates to a certain extent. In this paper, we propose a refined scheme for setting up a polarized Fredkin gate assisted by weak cross-Kerr nonlinearity, X-homodyne detectors, and some linear optical elements. The realization of the Fredkin gate is definite and has a highly successful probability of being close to the unit, which is feasible with the current technology. Moreover, in contrast to the Fredkin gates that have been proposed, the scheme has the advantages of requiring less quantum resource without auxiliary photons, comparatively simplified circuits, lower requirements on the interaction strength, and robustness against photon loss, thus it can be used for scalable quantum computation. • Encoding qubits on polarization modes of photons provide less-decoherence quantum computing with minimum quantum resource overhead. • Our Fredkin gate has a highly successful probability of close to unit and be robust against photon loss of fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a heralded hyperparallel Fredkin gate for a three-photon system with the help of the optical property of a quantum dot (QD) embedded in a microcavity. This hyper-Fredkin gate performing both on spatial and polarized degrees of freedom (DoFs) of the three-photon system is equal to double independent three-photon Fredkin gate in one DoF, which has advantages over consuming a less quantum resource, accelerating calculation speed, and inhibiting photon-dissipation noise. Meanwhile, the fidelity of our hyper-Fredkin gate, in principle, approach unit even for the non-identical QD-cavity systems, as the imperfections involved in practical input–output processes of three photons can be converted into heralded errors by clicking the detectors rather than infidelity. Furthermore, the flexibility of the gate can be directly extended to construct some types of hybrid hyper-Fredkin gates with the same high fidelity and efficiency, accessibly performed under existing experimental techniques, as well as used large-scale quantum information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic response analysis of horizontal and inclined layered sites using large-scale shaking table tests in various directions, including the dip direction, strike, vertical direction, slope direction and direction perpendicular to the interface of layered sites is conducted in this study. The Fourier spectrum and response spectrum characteristics in the horizontal site are first investigated in this study, and the dynamic responses of the inclined layered sites are then studied and compared to the corresponding responses of the horizontal layered site. The influence of dip angle on the response spectrum is also studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key points: In arterial smooth muscle, Ca2+ sparks are elementary Ca2+‐release events generated by ryanodine receptors (RyRs) to cause vasodilatation by opening maxi Ca2+‐sensitive K+ (BKCa) channels.This study elucidated the contribution of T‐type Cav3.2 channels in caveolae and their functional interaction with L‐type Cav1.2 channels to trigger Ca2+ sparks in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).Our data demonstrate that L‐type Cav1.2 channels provide the predominant Ca2+ pathway for the generation of Ca2+ sparks in murine arterial VSMCs.T‐type Cav3.2 channels represent an additional source for generation of VSMC Ca2+ sparks. They are located in pit structures of caveolae to provide locally restricted, tight coupling between T‐type Cav3.2 channels and RyRs to ignite Ca2+ sparks. Recent data suggest that T‐type Cav3.2 channels in arterial vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and pits structure of caveolae could contribute to elementary Ca2+ signalling (Ca2+ sparks) via ryanodine receptors (RyRs) to cause vasodilatation. While plausible, their precise involvement in igniting Ca2+ sparks remains largely unexplored. The goal of this study was to elucidate the contribution of caveolar Cav3.2 channels and their functional interaction with Cav1.2 channels to trigger Ca2+ sparks in VSMCs from mesenteric, tibial and cerebral arteries. We used tamoxifen‐inducible smooth muscle‐specific Cav1.2−/− (SMAKO) mice and laser scanning confocal microscopy to assess Ca2+ spark generation in VSMCs. Ni2+, Cd2+ and methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin were used to inhibit Cav3.2 channels, Cav1.2 channels and caveolae, respectively. Ni2+ (50 μmol L−1) and methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (10 mmol L−1) decreased Ca2+ spark frequency by ∼20–30% in mesenteric VSMCs in a non‐additive manner, but failed to inhibit Ca2+ sparks in tibial and cerebral artery VSMCs. Cd2+ (200 μmol L−1) suppressed Ca2+ sparks in mesenteric arteries by ∼70–80%. A similar suppression of Ca2+ sparks was seen in mesenteric artery VSMCs of SMAKO mice. The remaining Ca2+ sparks were fully abolished by Ni2+ or methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin. Our data demonstrate that Ca2+ influx through CaV1.2 channels is the primary means of triggering Ca2+ sparks in murine arterial VSMCs. CaV3.2 channels, localized to caveolae and tightly coupled to RyR, provide an additional Ca2+ source for Ca2+ spark generation in mesenteric, but not tibial and cerebral, arteries. Key points: In arterial smooth muscle, Ca2+ sparks are elementary Ca2+‐release events generated by ryanodine receptors (RyRs) to cause vasodilatation by opening maxi Ca2+‐sensitive K+ (BKCa) channels.This study elucidated the contribution of T‐type Cav3.2 channels in caveolae and their functional interaction with L‐type Cav1.2 channels to trigger Ca2+ sparks in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs).Our data demonstrate that L‐type Cav1.2 channels provide the predominant Ca2+ pathway for the generation of Ca2+ sparks in murine arterial VSMCs.T‐type Cav3.2 channels represent an additional source for generation of VSMC Ca2+ sparks. They are located in pit structures of caveolae to provide locally restricted, tight coupling between T‐type Cav3.2 channels and RyRs to ignite Ca2+ sparks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a utility indifference-based model to investigate the pricing issue of house rents under housing market uncertainty. Our model not only allows for the crucial features in the housing market, such as market incompleteness and high idiosyncratic risk, but also the interaction of households’ house tenure choices with their financial asset holdings. Our model provides interesting insights into the hedging of house market risk and determination of housing rents. In addition to the parameters describing the expected changes and volatility on stock and house returns, we also show that individual precautionary savings motive, idiosyncratic risk premium, and the correlation between stock and housing have important implications for the determination of housing rents. We also test the model predictions empirically using the data from major Asian markets and the empirical results better support the model predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpha–beta based game playing programs usually contain an evaluation function f to assess the value of every legal position by considering the location and material values of each piece on the board. Normally, a manually designed f is imperfect and requires a great amount of expert knowledge. Theoretically speaking, f can be a giant table which gives value for every position. However, this table has too many entries. Hence it takes huge space and is also time-consuming to construct. Note that when the number of pieces left on the board is small, say 6 for Chinese dark chess, such a giant table already exists and is called an endgame database. Endgame databases provide game-theoretical, i.e., perfect, values for all legal positions in the included endgame. Due to resource constraints, only a very selected number of endgame databases are built. Observing the strength of having perfect information on selected positions and the limitation of not being able to have information on all positions by using endgame databases to derive f, we propose a scheme to better design f. First, an f is manually designed, and then is validated and fine-tuned using abstracted critical information from existing endgame databases. In the process, we begin by validating and correcting f on positions when they are contained in endgame databases. Using this information, we then discover meta-knowledge to fine-tune and revise f so that f better evaluates a position, even if it is not in any given endgame database. The experiment results show that our approach is successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue engineering technology offers an appealing approach for tissue reconstruction of the urothelium. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) represent an abundant source for tissue engineering applications. However, ASCs primarily possess mesoderm lineage differentiation potential. It is difficult to induce differentiation of ASCs towards urothelial cells that are derived from the endoderm, although a recent findings have reported that a conditioned medium may drive ADSCs towards differentiation into the urothelium phenotype. In the present study, human ADSCs were isolated from abdominal adipose tissues and incubated in this conditioned medium for indicated time periods. Western blotting showed that protein expression levels of urothelial specific marks, including CK7, CK20 and UPIII, were increased after seven days' incubation, but immunofluorescence microscopy determined that cells with CK7 and UPIII staining were scarce, which suggested a low-efficiency for the differentiation. Prolonging the incubation time did not further increase CK20 and UPIII expression. Furthermore, miR-33a expression was increased with ADSC differentiation. Using synthetic miRNAs to mimic or inhibit the action of miR-33a revealed that miR-33a hinders the differentiation of ADSCs towards urothelial cells. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assay confirmed that β-catenin and transforming growth factor-β receptor (TGFR) are targets of miR-33a. Inhibition of miR-33a expression increased β-catenin and TGFR expression and improved the efficiency of ADSCs towards differentiation into the urothelium phenotype. The present novel finding suggests that miR-33 may be an important target in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine for urothelium repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathogenesis of ketamine cystitis (KC) has been recently linked with immune response to patients but the same has not yet been established. Hence, this study aims to propose a possible immune mechanism of irreversible bladder damage caused by KC. A total of 53 KC patients and 21 healthy volunteers as controls have been retrospectively assessed. The levels of serum immunoglobulin E (IgE), IL-6, and IFN-γ of KC patients were significantly higher than those of controls, whereas the TGF-β levels of KC patients substantially reduced but the IL-2 and IL-4 levels of KC patients were comparable to those of controls. Moreover, the KC patients had significantly higher counts of TH1, TH2, and TH17 cells than those of controls. The immune response of KC users may begin with the IL-6 production and differentiation of TH17 and may be followed by alternating between high expressions of TH1 and TH2. The IL-6 may further suppress the TREG cells which can aggravate chronic inflammation in KC patients and the imbalance in TH17 and TREG cells may involve the pathogenesis of KC. Further investigation is needed to define the role of IL-6 in TH1/TH2/TH17-regulated signaling pathway in ketamine-induced cystitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study aimed to measure bimodal benefits and probe their underlying mechanisms in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) subjects who had contralateral residual acoustic hearing. Design: The subjects recognised words or phonemes from the Mandarin Lexical Neighborhood Test in noise at a 10-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with acoustic stimulation, electric stimulation or the combined bimodal stimulation. Study sample: Thirteen Mandarin-speaking subjects wore a CI in one ear and had residual acoustic hearing in the contralateral ear. Six of the subjects (5.2-13.0 years) had pre-lingual onset of severe hearing loss, and seven of them (8.6-45.8 years) had post-lingual onset of severe hearing loss. Results: Both groups of subjects produced a significant bimodal benefit in word recognition in noise. Consonants and tones accounted for the bimodal benefit. The bimodal integration efficiency was negatively correlated with the duration of deafness in the implanted ear for vowel recognition but positively correlated with CI or bimodal experience for consonant recognition. Conclusions: The present results support preservation of residual acoustic hearing, early cochlear implantation and continuous use of bimodal hearing for subjects who have significant residual hearing in the non-implanted ear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Hilbert-Huang Transform and its marginal spectrum, an energy-based method is proposed to analyse the dynamics of earthquake-induced landslides and a case study is presented to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that the seismic Hilbert energy in the sliding mass of a landslide is larger than that in the sliding bed when subjected to seismic excitations, causing different dynamic responses between the sliding mass and the sliding bed. The seismic Hilbert energy transits from the high-frequency components to the low-frequency components when the seismic waves propagate through the weak zone, causing a nonuniform seismic Hilbert energy distribution in the frequency domain. Shear failure develops first at the crest and toe of the sliding mass due to resonance effects. Meanwhile, the seismic Hilbert energy in the frequency components of 3-5 Hz, which is close to the natural frequency of the slope, is largely dissipated in the initiation and failure processes of the landslide. With the development of dynamic failure, the peak energy transmission ratios in the weak zone decrease gradually. This study offers an energy-based interpretation for the initiation and progression of earthquake-induced landslides with the shattering-sliding failure type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) shows long-term efficiency worldwide in most pharmacoresistant patients with epilepsy; however, there are still a small number of patients who are non-responders to VNS therapy. It has been shown that VNS treatment outcomes for drug-resistant epilepsy may be predicted by preoperative heart-rate variability measurements and that patients with epilepsy with ictal tachycardia (IT) during seizures have good responses to VNS. However, few studies have reported the efficacy of VNS in patients with epilepsy with ictal bradycardia (IB) or normal heart rate (HR), and none have explored the possible mechanisms of VNS efficacy based on different HR types. HR during seizures varies, and we presume that different HRs during seizures may impact the effects of VNS. It has been shown that blood pressure in the human body needs to be maintained through the arterial baroreflex (ABR). VNS efficacy in patients with epilepsy with IT, IB, and normal HR during seizures may be related to ABR. Mechanical signals generated by VNS are similar to the autonomic nerve pathways and, thus, we propose the hypothesis that different HRs during seizures can predict VNS efficacy in patients. If VNS is highly efficient in patients with IT during seizures, VNS in patients with a normal HR during seizures may be less efficient, and may even be inefficient in patients with IB during seizures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An earthquake wave has many non-linear and non-stationary components. In current methods for seismic slope stability analysis, the time-frequency-amplitude characteristics of the earthquake waves, which can significantly affect the computation results, are not taken into account. In this paper, formulas for computing the seismic safety factor of bedding rock slopes are derived based on the elastic wave mechanics. The Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) signal processing technique is employed to identify the time-frequency-amplitude characteristics of the earthquake waves in the time-frequency domain. Then a time-frequency method for computing the instantaneous seismic safety factor of bedding rock slopes, which considers the time-frequency-amplitude characteristics of the earthquake waves simultaneously, is proposed. A shaking table test example is worked out to illustrate the application of the proposed time-frequency analysis method to a bedding rock slope. The instantaneous seismic safety factors of all bedding planes are calculated based on the time-frequency analysis method proposed in this research. The seismic safety factor changes significantly over time, and the seismic safety factor of the upper part of the bedding rock slope is smaller than that of the lower part of the bedding rock slope. Hence the upper part of the bedding rock slope is more vulnerable to seismic damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slow blood flow or no reflow following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) typically leads to an adverse prognosis. However, it is controversial whether to use prourokinase (Pro-UK) during PCI in patients with acute STEMI. The present meta-analysis compared the efficacy and safety of intracoronary Pro-UK administration in patients with acute STEMI. Published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were analyzed to compare Pro-UK with non-Pro-UK treatment in patients with acute STEMI. PubMed, Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched and meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 software. A total of 13 RCTs were selected and 1,797 patients were considered in the meta-analysis, including 897 patients who received Pro-UK intervention and 900 patients who were in the control group. No significant heterogeneity was identified across these selected studies. Pro-UK therapy significantly decreased the incidence of major adverse cardiac events [risk ratio (RR), 0.68; 95% CI, 0.56-0.82, P<0.0001], left ventricular end-diastolic diameter [standardized mean difference (SMD), -0.26; 95% CI, -0.40 – -0.12; P=0.0003], corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count [SMD, -0.45; 95% CI, -0.62 – -0.28; P<0.00001] and cardiac troponin I [SMD, -0.31; 95% CI, -0.46 – -0.17; P<0.0001]. In addition, Pro-UK administration increased TIMI grade 3 flow (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.07-1.25; P=0.0003), TIMI myocardial perfusion grade 3 (RR: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.12-1.74, P=0.004), ST-segment resolution (RR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.10-1.36; P=0.0002) and left ventricular ejection fraction (SMD, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.27-0.49; P<0.00001). No significant difference was identified in bleeding (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.85-1.47; P=0.41). The present meta-analysis determined that intracoronary Pro-UK administration is efficacious and safe to decrease slow blood flow or no reflow phenomena following PCI and improve the prognosis of patients with acute STEMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: (+)‐Nootkatone is a highly valuable sesquiterpene compound that can be used as an aromatic in the food industry because of its grapefruit flavor and low sensory threshold. The unconventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has many unique physical and chemical properties, metabolic characteristics, and genetic structure, which has aroused the interest of researchers. Previous research showed that Y. lipolytica possesses the ability to transform the sesquiterpene (+)‐valencene to (+)‐nootkatone. The aim of this study was to isolate, purify, and identify the enzyme involved in the (+)‐valencene bioconversion to (+)‐nootkatone by Y. lipolytica. RESULTS: In this study, ultrasonic‐assisted extraction, ammonium sulfate precipitation, anion‐exchange chromatography, and gel‐filtration chromatography were used to separate and purify the enzyme involved in the (+)‐valencene bioconversion by Y. lipolytica. The protein was identified as aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) (gene0658) using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis. The ALDH had the highest activity when the pH value was 6.0 and the temperature was 30 °C. The activity of ALDH was significantly stimulated by ferrous ions and inhibited by barium, calcium, and magnesium ions. CONCLUSION: This is the first time that ALDH was found to participate in (+)‐valencene biotransformation by Y. lipolytica. It may be involved in regulating the microbial transformation of (+)‐valencene to (+)‐nootkatone through redox characteristics. This study provides a theoretical basis and reference for the biological synthesis of citrus flavor (+)‐nootkatone. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale shaking table test was performed to study the dynamic response of slopes parallel to geological bedding (bedding slopes) and slopes that cross-cut geological bedding (counter-bedding slopes). The test results show that the acceleration amplification coefficients increase with increasing elevation and, when the input earthquake amplitude is greater than 0.3 g, both bedding and counter-bedding slopes begin to show nonlinear dynamic response characteristics. With increasing elevation, the displacement of the bedding slope surface increases greatly. Conversely, the displacement of the counter-bedding slope surface increases first and then decreases; the slope develops a bulge at the relative elevation of 0.85. The displacement of the bedding slope surface is greater than that of the counter-bedding slope. The counter-bedding slope is more seismically stable compared with the bedding slope. Based on the Hilbert-Huang transform and marginal spectrum theories, the processes that develop dynamic damage of the bedding and counter-bedding slopes are identified. It is shown that the dynamic failure mode of the bedding slope is mainly represented by vertical tensile cracks at the rear of the slope, bedding slide of the strata along the weak intercalation, and rock collapse from the slope crest. However, the dynamic failure mode of the counter-bedding slope is mainly represented by staggered horizontal and vertical fissures, extrusion of the weak intercalation, and breakage at the slope crest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a higher energy conversion efficiency for gas turbines (GT), this paper proposes a novel two-stage cascaded supercritical CO 2 and transcritical CO 2 (sCO 2 -tCO 2) power cycle for waste heat recovery (WHR) of GT exhaust. A comparative study on system design and off-design performance is conducted between the typical GT-sCO 2 cycles and the novel GT-cascaded CO 2 (GT-CCO 2) cycles based on the detailed steady-state mathematical models and self-built simulation platform. The simple layout (SSBC) and recompression layout (RSBC) are chosen to represent the typical sCO 2 Brayton cycle configurations. The simulation results show that the SSBC-tCO 2 cycle is more suitable than the RSBC-tCO 2 cycle to work as the bottoming cycle for GT since the SSBC-tCO 2 cycle can produce higher power with a simpler configuration. Compared with the traditional GT-RSBC and GT-SSBC, the optimal GT-CCO 2 cycle (GT-SSBC-tCO 2) gains an improvement of 5.32% and 4.32% for the thermal efficiency, and a decrement by 4.08% and 2.42% for the Levelized cost of electricity respectively. The combined GT-CCO 2 cycles show superior performance with the variable inlet guide vane modulation during the off-design conditions because this control strategy increases the GT exhaust gas temperature and thus brings about a large improvement of the bottoming cycle output power. These findings could provide references for high efficiently utilizing gas turbine exhaust and verify the commercial viability of the CO 2 system. • Novel combined gas turbine and cascaded CO 2 cycles are proposed. • Thermo-economic optimization of the GT-CCO 2 combined cycles is performed. • Detailed off-design models of cycle and components are developed. • Integrating CCO 2 cycles with GT improves cycle efficiency and reduces cost. • Different control strategies and system configurations are compared for the combined cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-self-assembled vesicular nanoparticles of two structurally comparable amphiphilic boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes with dequenchable dual colour fluorescence were prepared for ratiometric imaging of live cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the cochlear implant has been widely acknowledged as the most successful neural prosthesis, only a fraction of hearing-impaired people who can potentially benefit from a cochlear implant have actually received one due to its limited awareness, accessibility, and affordability. To help overcome these limitations, a 26-electrode cochlear implant has been developed to receive China's Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) approval in 2011 and Conformité Européenne (CE) Marking in 2012. The present article describes design philosophy, system specification, and technical verification of the Nurotron device, which includes advanced digital signal processing and 4 current sources with multiple amplitude resolutions that not only are compatible with perceptual capability but also allow interleaved or simultaneous stimulation. The article also presents 3-year longitudinal evaluation data from 60 human subjects who have received the Nurotron device. The objective measures show that electrode impedance decreased within the first month of device use, but was stable until a slight increase at the end of two years. The subjective loudness measures show that electric stimulation threshold was stable while the maximal comfort level increased over the 3 years. Mandarin sentence recognition increased from the pre-surgical 0%-correct score to a plateau of about 80% correct with 6-month use of the device. Both indirect and direct comparisons indicate indistinguishable performance differences between the Nurotron system and other commercially available devices. The present 26-electrode cochlear implant has already helped to lower the price of cochlear implantation in China and will likely contribute to increased cochlear implant access and success in the rest of the world. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At about 8:00 p.m. local time on 30 August 2020, a large-scale debris flow with an estimated volume of 3.2 million m3 struck Azijue Village in north-eastern Ganluo County, Sichuan Province, China. The debris flow killed three residents, buried two villages, damaged a local middle school, crushed three bridges, and interrupted a significant transportation line (the Chengdu–Kunming Railway) for 14 days. This catastrophic debris flow was successfully detected by local residents 2 h before the final large-volume deposits arrived, which provided enough time for most of the residents to evacuate ahead of the deadly geohazard. To characterise the evolution process of the Azijue debris flow, a detailed field investigation was conducted with the aid of remote sensing technology. The results demonstrated that the debris flow, which had a high viscosity and large density, was part of a geohazard chain. Localised precipitation in a high-relief mountainous area primarily dominated by a subtropical monsoon climate was the main triggering factor for the debris flow. Thick ancient diluvial deposit in the debris flow gully was one of the main environmental factors that facilitated the rapid mass enlargement and long-runout movement of the debris flow. The catastrophic downstream loss of lives and infrastructure can be attributed to a major secondary landslide that originated at the end of the second sub-horizontal diluvial platform and initiated by the combined effect of continuous rainfall, top overloading, and toe cutting by the rapid and dense debris flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here I identify two gaps in cochlear implants that have been limiting their performance and acceptance. First, cochlear implant performance has remained largely unchanged, despite the number of publications tripling per decade in the last 30 years. Little has been done so far to address a fundamental limitation in the electrode-to-neuron interface, with the electrode size being a thousand times larger than the neuron diameter while the number of electrodes being a thousand times less. Both the small number and the large size of electrodes produce broad spatial activation and poor frequency resolution that limit current cochlear implant performance. Second, a similarly rapid growth in cochlear implant volume has not produced an expected decrease in unit price in the same period. The high cost contributes to low market penetration rate, which is about 20% in developed countries and less than 1% in developing countries. I will discuss changes needed in both research strategy and business practice to close the gap between prosthetic and normal hearing as well as that between haves and have-nots. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aiming at the low efficiency and reliability of the ultra-high voltage circuit breaker transmission mechanism, the kinematic differential equations of the mechanism was built based on analyzing the mechanism's composition principle, and the efficiency calculation model of the mechanism was built according to the conservation of energy. By solving this model, efficiency curves changing with stroke were obtained. Meanwhile, a new optimal scheme was designed according to the efficiency calculation model by changing the articulated point position and length of the connecting rod, considering the certain needs of the transmission mechanism were met. Better was the transmission performance that the transmission angle was close to 90 degree and the transmission efficiency was improved more than 6%. The results indicate that the transmission efficiency and performance of the mechanism could be effectively improved and optimized by adopting the model, which calculates the organization efficiency and optimizes the design method of high voltage circuit breaker transmission mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Hadamard transform-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HT-GC/MS) technique was successfully employed to detect acetone, a biomarker for diabetes mellitus (DM) prediction, in human breath. Samples of exhaled breath were collected from four DM patients (one type-I and three type-II) and eight volunteers (nondiabetic healthy subjects), respectively. The gas samples, without any pretreatment, were simultaneously injected into a GC column through a Hadamard-injector based on Hadamard codes. Under optimized conditions, when cyclic S-matrix orders of 255, 1023 and 2047 were used, the S/N ratios of the acetone signals were substantially improved by 8.0-, 16.0- and 22.6-fold, respectively; these improvements are in good agreement with theoretically calculated values. We found that the breath acetone concentration levels in the four DM patients and the eight volunteers ranged from 1 to 10ppmv and 0.1 to 1ppmv, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Contemporary cochlear implants with multiple electrode stimulation can produce good speech perception but poor music perception. Hindered by the lack of a gold standard to quantify electric pitch, relatively little is known about the nature and extent of the electric pitch abnormalities and their impact on cochlear implant performance. Here we overcame this obstacle by comparing acoustic and electric pitch perception in 3 unilateral cochlear-implant subjects who had functionally usable acoustic hearing throughout the audiometric frequency range in the non-implant ear. First, to establish a baseline, we measured and found slightly impaired pure tone frequency discrimination and nearly perfect melody recognition in all 3 subjects’ acoustic ear. Second, using pure tones in the acoustic ear to match electric pitch induced by an intra-cochlear electrode, we found that the frequency-electrode function was not only 1–2 octaves lower, but also 2 times more compressed in frequency range than the normal cochlear frequency-place function. Third, we derived frequency difference limens in electric pitch and found that the equivalent electric frequency discrimination was 24 times worse than normal-hearing controls. These 3 abnormalities are likely a result of a combination of broad electric field, distant intra-cochlear electrode placement, and non-uniform spiral ganglion cell distribution and survival, all of which are inherent to the electrode-nerve interface in contemporary cochlear implants. Previous studies emphasized on the “mean” shape of the frequency-electrode function, but the present study indicates that the large “variance” of this function, reflecting poor electric pitch discriminability, is the main factor limiting contemporary cochlear implant performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum gates designed with minimized resources overhead have a crucial role in quantum information processing. Here, based on the degrees of freedom (DoFs) of photons and Λ‐type atom systems, two high‐fidelity and low‐cost protocols are presented for realizing polarization‐spatial hyperparallel controlled‐not (CNOT) and Toffoli gates on photon systems with only two and four two‐qubit polarization–polarization swap (P‐P‐SWAP) gates in each DoF, respectively. Moreover, the quantum gates can be extended feasibly to construct 2m‐target‐qubit hyperparallel CNOT and 2n‐control‐qubit Toffoli gates required only 4m and 4n P‐P‐SWAP gates on (m+1)$(m+1)$‐ and (n+1)$(n+1)$‐photon systems, respectively, which dramatically lower the costs and bridge the divide between the theoretical lower bounds and the current optimal syntheses for the photonic quantum computing. Further, the unique auxiliary atom of these quantum gates can be regarded as a temporary quantum memory that requires no initialization and measurement, and is reused within the coherence time, as the state of the atom remains unchanged after the hyperparallel quantum computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal auditory adaptation is a standard clinical tool for diagnosing auditory nerve disorders due to acoustic neuromas. In the present study we investigated auditory adaptation in auditory neuropathy owing to disordered function of inner hair cell ribbon synapses (temperature-sensitive auditory neuropathy) or auditory nerve fibres. Subjects were tested when afebrile for (i) psychophysical loudness adaptation to comfortably-loud sustained tones; and (ii) physiological adaptation of auditory brainstem responses to clicks as a function of their position in brief 20-click stimulus trains (#1, 2, 3 … 20). Results were compared with normal hearing listeners and other forms of hearing impairment. Subjects with ribbon synapse disorder had abnormally increased magnitude of loudness adaptation to both low (250 Hz) and high (8000 Hz) frequency tones. Subjects with auditory nerve disorders had normal loudness adaptation to low frequency tones; all but one had abnormal adaptation to high frequency tones. Adaptation was both more rapid and of greater magnitude in ribbon synapse than in auditory nerve disorders. Auditory brainstem response measures of adaptation in ribbon synapse disorder showed Wave V to the first click in the train to be abnormal both in latency and amplitude, and these abnormalities increased in magnitude or Wave V was absent to subsequent clicks. In contrast, auditory brainstem responses in four of the five subjects with neural disorders were absent to every click in the train. The fifth subject had normal latency and abnormally reduced amplitude of Wave V to the first click and abnormal or absent responses to subsequent clicks. Thus, dysfunction of both synaptic transmission and auditory neural function can be associated with abnormal loudness adaptation and the magnitude of the adaptation is significantly greater with ribbon synapse than neural disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study uses a systems engineering approach to delineate the relationship between tinnitus and hyperacusis as a result of either hearing loss in the ear or an imbalanced state in the brain. Specifically examined is the input–output function, or loudness growth as a function of intensity in both normal and pathological conditions. Tinnitus reduces the output dynamic range by raising the floor, while hyperacusis reduces the input dynamic range by lowering the ceiling or sound tolerance level. Tinnitus does not necessarily steepen the loudness growth function but hyperacusis always does. An active loudness model that consists of an expansion stage following a compression stage can account for these key properties in tinnitus and hyperacusis loudness functions. The active loudness model suggests that tinnitus is a result of increased central noise, while hyperacusis is due to increased nonlinear gain. The active loudness model also generates specific predictions on loudness growth in tinnitus, hyperacusis, hearing loss or any combinations of the three conditions. These predictions need to be verified by experimental data and have explicit implications for treatment of tinnitus and hyperacusis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Rhizoma coptidis, a broadly used traditional Chinese medicine, derives from the dried rhizomes of Coptis chinensis Franch, Coptis deltoidea C.Y. Cheng et Hsiao and Coptis teeta Wall. Quantitative determination of protoberberine alkaloids in R. coptidis is critical for controlling its quality. In this study, a rapid, simple and accurate quantitative 1H NMR (qNMR) method was developed for simultaneous determination of berberine, jatrorrhizine, epiberberine, coptisine, palmatine and columbamine in R. coptidis from the three species. Method validation was performed in terms of selectivity, precision, repeatability, stability, accuracy, robustness and linearity. The average recoveries obtained were in the range of 96.9–102.4% for all the six alkaloids. In addition, the qNMR data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), and the results showed that the contents of the active alkaloids have significant difference among the three species. Compared with the conventional HPLC approach, the proposed qNMR method was demonstrated to be a powerful tool for quantifying the six alkaloids due to its unique advantages of high robustness, rapid analysis time and no need of standard compounds for calibration curves preparation. These findings indicate that this method has potential as a reliable method for quality evaluation of herb medicines, especially for protoberberine alkaloid-containing ones. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The addition of low-passed (LP) speech or even a tone following the fundamental frequency (F0) of speech has been shown to benefit speech recognition for cochlear implant (CI) users with residual acoustic hearing. The mechanisms underlying this benefit are still unclear. In this study, eight bimodal subjects (CI users with acoustic hearing in the non-implanted ear) and eight simulated bimodal subjects (using vocoded and LP speech) were tested on vowel and consonant recognition to determine the relative contributions of acoustic and phonetic cues, including F0, to the bimodal benefit. Several listening conditions were tested (CI/Vocoder, LP, TF0-env, CI/Vocoder + LP, CI/Vocoder + TF0-env). Compared with CI/Vocoder performance, LP significantly enhanced both consonant and vowel perception, whereas a tone following the F0 contour of target speech and modulated with an amplitude envelope of the maximum frequency of the F0 contour (TF0-env) enhanced only consonant perception. Information transfer analysis revealed a dual mechanism in the bimodal benefit: The tone representing F0 provided voicing and manner information, whereas LP provided additional manner, place, and vowel formant information. The data in actual bimodal subjects also showed that the degree of the bimodal benefit depended on the cutoff and slope of residual acoustic hearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the characteristics of the nitride-based blue light-emitting diode (LED) without an electron-blocking layer (EBL) are analyzed numerically. The emission spectra, carrier concentrations in the quantum wells (QWs), energy band diagrams, electrostatic fields, and internal quantum efficiency are investigated. The simulation results indicate that the LED without an EBL has a better hole-injection efficiency and smaller electrostatic fields in its active region over the conventional LED with an AlGaN EBL. The simulation results also show that the LED without an EBL has severe efficiency droop. However, when the p-type doped QW barriers and a hole-blocking layer are used, the efficiency droop is markedly improved and the electroluminescence emission intensity is greatly enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]