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Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life‐threatening disease characterized by extensive membrane destruction in the vascular wall that is closely associated with vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) phenotypic switching. A thorough understanding of the changes in regulatory factors during VSMC phenotypic switching is essential for managing AAA therapy. In this study, we revealed the impact of NRF2 on the modulation of VSMC phenotype and the development of AAA based on single‐cell RNA sequencing analysis. By utilizing a murine model of VSMC‐specific knockout of nuclear factor E2‐related factor 2 (NRF2), we observed that the absence of NRF2 in VSMCs exacerbated AAA formation in an angiotensin II‐induced AAA model. The downregulation of NRF2 promoted VSMC phenotypic switching, leading to an enhanced inflammatory response. Through genome‐wide transcriptome analysis and loss‐ or gain‐of‐function experiments, we discovered that NRF2 upregulated the expression of VSMC contractile phenotype‐specific genes by facilitating microRNA‐145 (miR‐145) expression. Our data identified NRF2 as a novel regulator involved in maintaining the VSMC contractile phenotype while also influencing AAA formation through an miR‐145‐dependent regulatory mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of portable electronic devices, there is an urgent need for the multifunctional composites like excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance, mechanical property, and thermal management capabilities. Here, due to the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials (PCMs), a sandwich structure carbon nanotube/phase change microcapsule/carbon nanotube (CNT/PMC/CNT (CPC)) film was prepared by vacuum‐assisted filtration (VAF) method. CNT, PMC, and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) were used as functional fillers. The addition of CNCs was used to improve the mechanical performance of CPC film. Compared with PMC‐CNC (PC) film, CPC film with sandwich structure prevented leakage phenomenon efficiently. Subsequently, the use of ultrasonic‐assisted forced infiltration (UAFI) successfully infiltrated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix in the filler skeleton to obtain CNT/PMC/CNT/PDMS (CPCP) composites. When filler mass ratio (CNT: CNC and PMC: CNC) reached 10:1, the thermal conductivity of CPCP composites was 2.32 W/(m·K) and total EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SET) of it with 0.38 mm thickness reached 37.46 dB at 12.4 GHz. Besides, these sandwich composites exhibited the good mechanical properties and heat storage capacity. And we systematically observed the impact of different addition amounts of PC homogeneous dispersing solution on phase change ability of CPCP10:1 composites. In summary, CPCP phase change composites with sandwich structure shows potential application prospect in thermal management materials with EMI shielding of electronic devices. Highlight: The sandwich structure CPCP composites prepared by the combination of VAF and UAFI method, showing superior thermal conductivity and phase change ability.CPCP has excellent EMI shielding performance, which can meet the need of TMMs with EMI shielding performance.Compared with same thickness PC film, sandwich CPC film can prevent leakage phenomenon efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brain calibrates itself based on the past stimulus diet, which makes frequently observed stimuli appear as typical (as opposed to uncommon stimuli, which appear as distinctive). Based on predictive processing theory, the brain should be more "prepared" for typical exemplars, because these contain information that has been encountered frequently, allowing it to economically represent items of that category. Thus, one could ask whether predictability and typicality of visual stimuli interact, or rather act in an additive manner. We adapted the design by Egner and colleagues (2010), who used cues to induce expectations about stimulus category (face vs. chair) occurrence during an orthogonal inversion detection task. We measured BOLD responses with fMRI in 35 participants. First, distinctive stimuli always elicited stronger responses than typical ones in all ROIs, and our whole-brain directional contrasts for the effects of typicality and distinctiveness converge with previous findings. Second and importantly, we could not replicate the interaction between category and predictability reported by Egner et al. (2010), which casts doubt on whether cueing designs are ideal to elicit reliable predictability effects. Third, likely as a consequence of the lack of predictability effects, we found no interaction between predictability and typicality in any of the four tested regions (bilateral fusiform face areas, lateral occipital complexes) when considering both categories, nor in the whole brain. We discuss the issue of replicability in neuroscience and sketch an agenda for how future studies might address the same question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar is an efficacious amendment for mitigating nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in soils. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms responsible for reduced N2O emissions by biochar in paddy soils remain inadequately elucidated. Here, using two typical paddy soils with contrasting pH values (5.40 and 7.56), the N2 and N2O fluxes and the associated functional genes were investigated in soil amended with varying amounts of biochar (0%, 0.5%, and 5%, weight/weight) via soil slurry incubation integrated with the N2/Ar technique and qPCR analysis. The results showed that N2O fluxes were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced by 0.65–3.64 times following biochar amendment, concomitant with a significant (p < 0.05) increase in N2 fluxes (5.47–46.14%) in both acidic and alkaline paddy soils. As a result, the N2O/(N2O + N2) ratios were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced by 1.53–4.65 fold in both soil types. In acidic paddy soils, the enhanced denitrification rates and the decreased N2O/(N2O + N2) ratios exhibited a strong correlation with increased pH values. In alkaline paddy soil, these changes were ascribed to the enhanced nosZ Clade I gene abundance and nosZ/(nirS + nirK) ratio. Our findings reveal that biochar primarily mitigates N2O emissions in paddy soils by promoting its reduction to N2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of cell death, which is essential for coordinating tissue homeostasis. In this study, we have characterized the Drosophila Ste20-like kinase Slik as a novel modulator of JNK pathway-mediated apoptotic cell death. Results: First, ectopic JNK signaling-triggered cell death is enhanced by slik depletion whereas suppressed by Slik overexpression. Second, loss of slik activates JNK signaling, which results in enhanced apoptosis and impaired tissue homeostasis. In addition, genetic epistasis analysis suggests that Slik acts upstream of or in parallel to Hep to regulate JNK-mediated apoptotic cell death. Moreover, Slik is necessary and sufficient for preventing physiologic JNK signaling-mediated cell death in development. Furthermore, introduction of STK10, the human ortholog of Slik, into Drosophila restores slik depletion-induced cell death and compromised tissue homeostasis. Lastly, knockdown of STK10 in human cancer cells also leads to JNK activation, which is cancelled by expression of Slik. Conclusions: This study has uncovered an evolutionarily conserved role of Slik/STK10 in blocking JNK signaling, which is required for cell death inhibition and tissue homeostasis maintenance in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing a face as belonging to a given identity is essential in our everyday life. Clearly, the correct identification of a face is only possible for familiar people, but 'familiarity' covers a wide range—from people we see every day to those we barely know. Although several studies have shown that the processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces is substantially different, little is known about how the degree of familiarity affects the neural dynamics of face identity processing. Here, we report the results of a multivariate EEG analysis, examining the representational dynamics of face identity across several familiarity levels. Participants viewed highly variable face images of 20 identities, including the participants' own face, personally familiar (PF), celebrity and unfamiliar faces. Linear discriminant classifiers were trained and tested on EEG patterns to discriminate pairs of identities of the same familiarity level. Time‐resolved classification revealed that the neural representations of identity discrimination emerge around 100 ms post‐stimulus onset, relatively independently of familiarity level. In contrast, identity decoding between 200 and 400 ms is determined to a large extent by familiarity: it can be recovered with higher accuracy and for a longer duration in the case of more familiar faces. In addition, we found no increased discriminability for faces of PF persons compared to those of highly familiar celebrities. One's own face benefits from processing advantages only in a relatively late time‐window. Our findings provide new insights into how the brain represents face identity with various degrees of familiarity and show that the degree of familiarity modulates the available identity‐specific information at a relatively early time window. Familiarity degree affects face identity processing. We studied the representational dynamics of face identity for self, personally familiar, celebrity and unfamiliar faces. Identity information emerged around 100 ms, independently of familiarity while it was recovered better and longer for more familiar faces between 200 and 400 ms. We show how the degree of familiarity modulates the available identity‐specific information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the tunnel lining GHEs have encountered issues with the relatively low heat exchange rate and the rapid decline of heat exchange rate with time. This is because the huge heat accumulation around the tunnel lining GHEs obstructs the heat transfer between the absorber pipe and the surrounding rock during the GHEs operation. Hence, to improve the heat accumulation and enhance heat exchange rate, the two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT), an efficient device for long-distance heat transfer, was employed in the tunnel lining GHEs to build a thermally induced channel between absorber pipes and the surrounding rock, accelerating heat transfer between the absorber pipe and surrounding rock. The heat transfer model of the tunnel lining GHEs using TPCTs was built to analyze the thermal performance enhancement mechanism of tunnel lining GHEs using TPCTs for building cooling with different thermal conductivities of primary lining concrete and surrounding rock, and convective heat transfer coefficients (CHTCs) on tunnel internal walls. The results showed that throughout a 90-day operation, TPCTs dramatically boosted the heat injection rate of tunnel lining GHEs from 16.5 to 27.0 W/m2 with an increase of 63.6%. Thermal conductivities of the primary tunnel lining concrete have significant effects on the heat injection rates of the GHEs with TPCTs. The heat injection rates increased from 27.0 to 36.4 W/m2 as thermal conductivities of the concrete increased from 1.85 to 10.7 W/m K, and the enhancement rate ranged from 63.6% to 94.7% when compared to tunnel lining GHEs without TPCTs. The enhancement rate of tunnel lining GHEs with TPCTs decreased with increasing thermal conductivity of surrounding rock and CHTC, reaching up to 122.1% under the thermal conductivity of 1.4 W/m K and CHTC of 0 W/m2 K. Overall, TPCT greatly enhances the heat injection rate of tunnel lining GHEs, implying that it is a promising technology. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amyloid‐β (Aβ) peptide, produced from amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β and γ‐secretases, has been implicated in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the precise intracellular trafficking pathway of APP and its subcellular locations to produce Aβ have remained unclear. To address these issues, we established fly AD models that recapitulated multiple AD‐like symptoms by expressing human APP in the Drosophila nerve system. The ESCRT (endosomal sorting complexes required for transport) machinery regulates the sorting and trafficking of endocytosed proteins, yet its role in AD pathogenesis has not been explored in vivo. We found that knockdown of distinct ESCRT components ameliorated APP‐induced morphological and behavioral defects, including impaired wing expansion, eye degeneration, dopamine neuron loss, locomotor disability, lifespan shortening, and cognitive deficits. Mechanistically, we showed that impaired ESCRT impeded APP's intracellular transportation from early endosomes to late endosomes, resulting in reduced Aβ production and amyloid deposit load. These data suggest that APP undergoes ESCRT‐mediated endocytic trafficking, and Aβ is generated mainly in late endosomes. Our data provide the first in vivo evidence to support a physiological role of ESCRT in AD pathogenesis, suggesting that interfering with ESCRT machinery might be an alternative therapeutic strategy for AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision is an important way for unmanned mobile platforms to understand surrounding environmental information. For an unmanned mobile platform, quickly and accurately obtaining environmental information is a basic requirement for its subsequent visual tasks. Based on this, a unique convolution module called Multi-Scale Depthwise Separable Convolution module is proposed for real-time semantic segmentation. This module mainly consists of concatenation pointwise convolution and multi-scale depthwise convolution. Not only does the concatenation pointwise convolution change the number of channels, but it also combines the spatial features from the multi-scale depthwise convolution operations to produce additional features. The Multi-Scale Depthwise Separable Convolution module can strengthen the non-linear relationship between input and output. Specifically, the multi-scale depthwise convolution module extracts multi-scale spatial features while remaining lightweight. This fully uses multi-scale information to describe objects despite their different sizes. Here, Mean Intersection over Union (MIoU), parameters, and inference speed were used to describe the performance of the proposed network. On the Camvid, KITTI, and Cityscapes datasets, the proposed algorithm compromised between accuracy and memory in comparison to widely used and cutting-edge algorithms. In particular, the proposed algorithm acquired 61.02 MIoU with 2.68 M parameters on the Camvid test dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a new design method and principle, i.e., Compliant Building Elements (CBE), for compliant mechanisms that adopts a systematic and synthetic approach to generate practicable flexure designs. The CBE is unique in that it encodes a compliant system's quantitative information, including elasticity, geometry, location, and orientation, in a parametric matrix. Based on the matrix, a degree-of-freedom (DOF) concept is defined to describe permitted motions of a flexure; next, the screw theory is used to guide the design and synthesis of compliant mechanisms from DOF decomposition to actuator layout selection. In CBE, a compliant system consists of three types of compliant elements, i.e., compliant elements formed by serial or parallel connections and basic compliant elements. The synthesis procedure is a top-down and iterative process, starting from laying out the stage topology to finally optimizing the compliant connection elements and types (i.e., serial or parallel), where the iteration stops when the stage characteristics meet the design requirements. A library of various compliant elements is provided to help the designers quickly generate the initial stage topological designs and optimize the performance with reduced design iterations. The matrix-based design method for compliant mechanisms, i.e., CBE, which is analogous to the screw-based type synthesis for rigid parallel mechanisms, enables early-stage flexure system design via building compliant blocks just like building LEGO® bricks. • Compliant Building Elements (CBE) is a systematic and synthetic design method to generate designs for compliant mechanisms. • In CBE, the synthesis of compliant mechanisms is guided by screw theory and verified by the parametric stiffness/compliance matrices. • The CBE method can be automated to expedite the design process owing to its systematic and matrix operation nature. • The CBE method can benefit inexperienced flexure designers to quickly generate practical design concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part II, we present the use and application of the Compliant Building Elements (CBE) method to generate practical designs for different multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF) compliant mechanisms. We first create a compliant mechanism library based on the combination of prismatic beams, which includes commonly used basic elements (BEs), serial elements (SEs), and parallel elements (PEs). Examples are given during the construction of the library. Based on the library and CBE method, we demonstrate the design of a six-axis nanopositioner, a compliant steering mechanism, and a one-dimensional mechanical metamaterial structure. The outcome of each design process yields a flexure topology that meets the design requirements as well as the corresponding parametric stiffness and compliance matrices, from which we can efficiently obtain the kinematic characteristics of the flexure system and optimize the stiffnesses in selected axes. • CBE is a new design methodology to generate practical designs for multiple degree-of-freedom mechanisms. • CBE combines the advantages of screw theory, matrix-based method, and practical experience to synthesize complex flexures. • A compliant mechanism library is provided based on the combination of prismatic beams to facilitate the design process. • We demonstrate the design process of compliant nanopositioners, steering mechanisms, and metamaterial structures via CBE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitchen waste (KW) has high water content and organic matter, which has great potential for energy application, but how to treat it effectively has always been a difficult problem. In this study, the feasibility of transforming kitchen waste into hydrochar as a solid fuel to replace the primary energy by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is put forward. An experimental study of proportioned KW under HTC conditions (reaction temperature, residence time, liquid–solid ratio) is carried out by elemental analysis, industrial analysis, energy density calculation, and calorific value measurement. The results show that a proper extension of the residence time to 3.5 h at a liquid–solid ratio of 10 and a reaction temperature of 265 °C for the kitchen waste after HTC would result in a maximum calorific value of 30.933 MJ/Kg for the prepared hydrochar. The maximum ash content of hydrochar at a 265 °C reaction temperature is 3.94% < 10%, which is much lower than the standard of extra-low-ash coal, and the study shows that the hydrochar prepared from kitchen waste by HTC for combustion will greatly improve the combustion efficiency. The three types of kitchen waste under HTC conditions are compared with the three typical types of coal in China by the van Krevelen diagram. The results show that the combustion properties of hydrochar from kitchen waste prepared by the HTC method are better than those of lignite close to bituminous coal and can provide a theoretical basis for replacing primary energy in the future. Finally, by combining thermogravimetric analysis with mathematical modeling, it is calculated that the hydrochar of kitchen waste has a lower activation energy than those of other biomass, which can better facilitate the reaction. The experimental results further determine the feasibility of hydrochar as an alternative primary energy source and provide a theoretical basis for the future conversion of kitchen waste into hydrochar as a solid fuel through HTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase change materials (PCMs) have been widely used in passive thermal management and energy storage due to their high latent heat capacity. However, the low thermal conductivity and leakage problems of PCMs are two bottlenecks for its application in the field of heat-related applications. Although many present studies can tackle one or two of these problems by preparing phase change composites (PCCs), it is still a challenge to achieve high performance PCCs with excellent thermal, mechanical, and phase change properties simultaneously. In this work, we report a spatial confining forced network assembly (SCFNA) method to efficiently prepare the thermal conductive, flexible, leak-proof hexagonal boron nitride/paraffin wax/ polydimethylsiloxane (hBN/PW/PDMS) PCCs by constructing hBN and PW thermal conductive networks as the functional matrix of PCCs. In the hBN/PW/PDMS PCCs, PW is served as the PCM, a dense hBN network provides the high thermal conductivity, and the mechanical properties and shape stability are provided by PDMS. The hBN/PW/PDMS PCCs as thermal interface materials reduce the LED chips surface temperature and exhibit efficient and reliable thermal management performance. Our work provides an efficient and economical method for the preparation of PCCs with outstanding thermal management capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carboxylesterases (CEs) play important physiological roles in the human body and are involved in numerous cellular processes. Monitoring CEs activity has great potential for the rapid diagnosis of malignant tumors and multiple diseases. Herein, we developed a new phenazine-based "turn-on" fluorescent probe DBPpys by introducing 4-bromomethyl-phenyl acetate to DBPpy, which can selectively detect CEs with a low detection limit (9.38 × 10−5 U/mL) and a large Stokes shift (more than 250 nm) in vitro. In addition, DBPpys can also be converted into DBPpy by carboxylesterase in HeLa cells and localized in lipid droplets (LDs), emitting bright near-infrared fluorescence under the irradiation of white light. Moreover, we achieved the detection of cell health status by measuring the intensity of NIR fluorescence after co-incubation of DBPpys with H2O2-pretreated HeLa cells, indicating that DBPpys has great potential applications for assessing CEs activity and cellular health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid development of the miniaturization and portability of electronic devices, the demand for polymer composites with high thermal conductivity and mechanical flexibility has significantly increased. A carbon nanotube (CNT)-graphene (Gr)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite with excellent thermal conductivity and mechanical flexibility is prepared by ultrasonic-assisted forced infiltration (UAFI). When the mass ratio of CNT and Gr reaches 3:1, the thermal conductivity of the CNT-Gr(3:1)/PDMS composite is 4.641 W/(m·K), which is 1619% higher than that of a pure PDMS matrix. In addition, the CNT-Gr(3:1)/PDMS composite also has excellent mechanical properties. The tensile strength and elongation at break of CNT-Gr(3:1)/PDMS composites are 3.29 MPa and 29.40%, respectively. The CNT-Gr/PDMS composite also shows good performance in terms of electromagnetic shielding and thermal stability. The PDMS composites have great potential in the thermal management of electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Preparation of aluminum-clad steel wire by solid–liquid composite method. • Through metallurgical bonding, the composite strength has been strengthened. • Rapid solidification enhances the mechanical properties of the coated aluminum. Solid-liquid composites and rapid solidification were synergistically employed to improve the interfacial-bonding and mechanical properties of prepared aluminum-clad steel wires. The effects of the process parameters on the performance of the wires were studied. The experimental results showed that good metallurgical interfaces can be prepared because of the synergistic strengthening effects between the solid–liquid composite and rapid solidification. The interfacial diffusion zone composed of FeAl 3 and Fe 2 Al 5 increased the bonding strength of the wires by 13 % compared with that of wires prepared by using the rolling process. The equiaxed fine crystal tissue morphology of the cladding aluminum and twin crystal organization resulted in good mechanical properties. Compared with LB35 and LB40, the conductivity and tensile strength were increased by 14 % and 22 %, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of traditional borehole ground heat exchangers (GHEs) is extremely limited in tropical zones because of the performance degradation induced by thermal imbalances over the years. Unlike traditional borehole GHEs, tunnel-lining GHEs have absorber pipes between the primary and secondary linings, allowing tunnel ventilation to aid in ground temperature recovery during off periods. To date, the application potential of tunnel-lining GHEs in tropical zones has rarely been reported. In this study, a coupled heat transfer model for heat pumps and tunnel-lining GHEs was built to investigate the effects of tunnel ventilation on thermal imbalance and analyze the feasibility of tunnel-lining GHEs in tropical zones under different thermal conductivities of the surrounding rocks, annual average temperatures, and wind velocities. The results showed that tunnel-lining GHEs effectively reduce the influence of thermal imbalance. The maximum outlet temperature increase for absorber pipes induced by thermal imbalance was 0.54 °C for ten years under building cooling, implying that no obvious annual performance degradation of tunnel-lining GHEs occurs in the tropics of China. However, not all tropical zones of China are suitable for tunnel-lining GHEs because of their excessively high outlet temperatures ranging from 31.2 °C to 41.4 °C. Hence, parametric design charts were proposed to determine the outlet temperature for a preliminary evaluation of feasibility. Finally, parametric design charts were employed in an actual tunnel-lining GHEs project in a tropical zone. Energy, environmental, and economic performance were analyzed for this project. The electricity usage and CO 2 emission of tunnel-lining GHEs decreased by 24.6% compared to the cooling towers, and the payback period was 5.9 years. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An energy pile alters the ground temperature fields around it, which may lead to uneven settlements and a higher risk of failure. The thermomechanical behaviors of soils have been studied extensively in laboratory experiments, while in situ investigations are rare. In this research, flat dilatometer tests (DMTs) are first employed to investigate the thermomechanical behaviors of soil under in situ conditions. The soils were heated by a full-scale precast high-strength concrete (PHC) energy pile, and a series of DMTs were conducted. The results show that temperature changes had a substantial impact on the DMT data of the silt and clay layers. The measured pressures p0 and p1 of the silt and clay layers decreased with increasing ground temperature, and the measured pressure p2 of the silt and clay layers decreased at the beginning and then increased with increasing ground temperature. Although the silt and clay layers have similar variations in the measured pressures, the clay layer has a greater thermal response than the silt layer. Finally, the critical state soil mechanics theory is used to analyze the pore water pressure and thermomechanical properties of in situ overconsolidated soil. The results indicate that the elastic region (yield surface) and mean effective stress of in situ soil decrease with increasing ground temperature, potentially resulting in more irreversible deformation and a higher probability of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straw incorporation, a common agricultural strategy designed to enhance soil organic carbon (SOC), often leads to increased nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission, potentially offsetting benefits of SOC sequestration. However, the mechanism and mitigation options for the enhanced N 2 O emission following straw incorporation remain unclear. Here, N 2 and N 2 O emission rate, as well as N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio under four different fertilization treatments [i.e., non-fertilization (Control), conventional chemical fertilization (CF), conventional chemical fertilization plus straw incorporation (SWCF), and conventional chemical fertilization plus straw and biochar incorporation (SWBCF)] were investigated by a robotized sampling and analysis system. High-throughput sequencing was also employed to assess the variation of bacterial community across different treatments. The results showed CF, SWCF, and SWBCF fertilization treatments significantly increased N 2 O emission rate by 1.04, 2.01, and 1.29 folds, respectively, relative to Control treatment. Albeit no significant enhancements in N 2 emission rate, the N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio significantly increased by 65.53%, 1.10 folds, and 69.49% in CF, SWCF, and SWBCF treatments, respectively. The partial least squares path modeling analysis further revealed that fertilization treatments slightly increased N 2 emission rate by increasing DOC content and keystone OTUs abundance. While the enhanced N 2 O emission rate and N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio in the fertilization treatments was primarily determined by reducing DOC/NO 3 − ratio and specific bacteria module abundance dominated by Gaiellales, Solirubrobacterales, and Micrococcales. Furthermore, SWBCF treatment alleviated the increase in net global warming potential due to straw incorporation, as indicated by the higher SOC sequestration and lower N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio therein. Collectively, these findings suggest that simultaneous application of straw and biochar has the potential to mitigate the risk of increased N 2 O emission from straw incorporation. This study provides valuable insights for developing targeted strategies in C sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation, tackling the challenge presented by global climate change. [Display omitted] • Straw incorporation significantly increased N 2 O emission and SOC content. • Enhanced N 2 O emission was regulated by DOC/NO 3 − ratio and specific bacteria module. • Adding biochar reduced the N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio compared to straw incorporation. • Co-application of straw and biochar alleviated the net global warming potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The prevalence of ACM is high in patients with T2DM. • ACM predicts the risk of long-term ischemic stroke-related hospitalization in patients with T2DM independent of atrial fibrillation. • ACM, a marker for evaluating early myocardial remolding in clinical practice, can be used to improve risk stratification in T2DM patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-complexity network models are challenging to execute on agricultural robots with limited computing capabilities in a large-scale pineapple planting environment in real time. Traditional module replacement often struggles to reduce model complexity while maintaining stable network accuracy effectively. This paper investigates a pineapple detection framework with a YOLOv7-tiny model improved via pruning and a lightweight backbone sub-network (the RGDP-YOLOv7-tiny model). The ReXNet network is designed to significantly reduce the number of parameters in the YOLOv7-tiny backbone network layer during the group-level pruning process. Meanwhile, to enhance the efficacy of the lightweight network, a GSConv network has been developed and integrated into the neck network, to further diminish the number of parameters. In addition, the detection network incorporates a decoupled head network aimed at separating the tasks of classification and localization, which can enhance the model's convergence speed. The experimental results indicate that the network before pruning optimization achieved an improvement of 3.0% and 2.2%, in terms of mean average precision and F1 score, respectively. After pruning optimization, the RGDP-YOLOv7-tiny network was compressed to just 2.27 M in parameter count, 4.5 × 10 9 in computational complexity, and 5.0MB in model size, which were 37.8%, 34.1%, and 40.7% of the original YOLOv7-tiny network, respectively. Concurrently, the mean average precision and F1 score reached 87.9% and 87.4%, respectively, with increases of 0.8% and 1.3%. Ultimately, the model's generalization performance was validated through heatmap visualization experiments. Overall, the proposed pineapple object detection framework can effectively enhance detection accuracy. In a large-scale fruit cultivation environment, especially under the constraints of hardware limitations and limited computational power in the real-time detection processes of agricultural robots, it facilitates the practical application of artificial intelligence algorithms in agricultural engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Inconel 718 superalloy demonstrates the potential to fabricate high-temperature components using additive manufacturing. However, additively manufactured Inconel 718 typically exhibits low strength, necessitating post-heat treatments for precipitate strengthening. This study investigated the microstructures and mechanical properties of the Inconel 718 superalloy fabricated via laser powder bed fusion. The room-temperature and high-temperature tensile properties of the Inconel 718 alloy samples following various post-heat treatments were evaluated. The results indicate that the as-built samples exhibited columnar grains with fine cell structures. Solution treatment resulted in δ phase formation and grain recrystallization. Subsequent double aging led to finely distributed nanoscale γ′ and γ″ particles. These nanoscale particles provided high strength at both room and high temperatures, resulting in a balanced strength and ductility comparable to the wrought counterpart. High-temperature nanoindentation analyses revealed that the double-aging samples exhibited very high hardness and low creep rates at 650 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans show a clear left-side bias in face processing. A chimeric face constructed with the left side (from the viewer's perspective) of a face and its mirror image is usually rated as more resemblant to the original face than a chimeric face constructed with the right side of the same face. Previous studies have characterized the left-side bias mainly with own-race faces, but it remains unclear whether this effect is race specific or if it reflects an universal visual expertise. One hundred and five Chinese students completed two versions of a chimeric face-identification task. The results revealed a significant left-side bias for both own-race (Chinese) and other-race (Caucasian) faces, suggesting that the left-side bias reflects an universal visual expertise in face processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct seawater electrolysis is the main method of hydrogen energy production in the future. However, due to the competition of anode chlorine evolution and the phenomenon of cathode fouling, direct seawater electrolysis faces great challenges. Alkali treatment of seawater is the treatment method for most work at present, but there is currently no uniform standard for the amount of alkali. Obviously, excessive alkali treatment will increase operating costs. Here, the NiFe LDH material, which is considered to have the best catalytic OER performance, is grown on carbon cloth, and the optimal amount of alkali treatment seawater is explored. By determining the amount of alkali by the amount of precipitation, it can reduce the operating cost of industrial production. It can also prevent the impact of sedimentation on the life of the equipment. We believe that this treatment method will make a great contribution to the future standard seawater pretreatment method. [Display omitted] • The effect of alkaline treatment on the catalyst's performance for OER was revealed. • Economical alkali treatment of seawater reduced the competition of CER during OER. • A reasonable seawater pretreatment method for seawater electrolysis was provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary malignant brain tumor with a high mortality rate. Aberrant activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) signaling results in tumor pathogenesis and progression by regulating cell cycle, cell survival and immune response. METHODS: Therapeutic targets and prognostic biomarkers within the STAT family in GBM were explored using web applications and databases. RESULTS: High levels of STAT1/3/5A/5B/6 and low levels of STAT4 were observed in GBM patients. GBM patients expressing high STAT1/2/3/5A/6 and low STAT4/5B levels had the worse overall survival. Among the STAT family, STAT4 and STAT6 were the most frequently mutated genes. A low to moderate correlation among members of the STAT family was observed. Additionally, the STATs were involved in activation or inhibition of cancer related pathways. Analysis of immune infiltrates showed STAT5A levels to be significantly correlated with abundance of immune cells and levels of immune gene biomarkers. Gene ontology (GO) functions and KEGG pathway analysis indicated that STAT5A is involved in immune response-regulating signaling pathway, neutrophil and lymphocyte mediated immunity, single-stranded DNA binding, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway. Moreover, several kinase and transcription factor targets of STAT5A in GBM were identified. CONCLUSION: We report here therapeutic targets, prognostic biomarkers and regulation network of STAT family in GBM. These findings lay a foundation for further studies on the role of STAT family in therapy and prognosis of GBM. Further studies are required to verify our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of phenolic substances in sugarcane juice seriously affects the color value of sugar products. Magnetic chitosan (MCS) was prepared using an ionic cross-linking technique, and then was modified with arginine to prepare arginine-modified magnetic chitosan (AMCS) for use as a new sucrose clarifying adsorbent. Gallic acid (GA) is a representative phenolic substance and was used to test the adsorption properties of the prepared AMCS. The adsorption kinetics indicated that the adsorption of GA on AMCS conformed to the pseudo-second-order model, the main adsorption mechanism was chemisorption. The Langmuir equation fit well and with good linearity, and indicated a maximum adsorption capacity of 48.38 mg g−1. The adsorption process was consistent with monolayer adsorption and spontaneous endothermic process. The prepared AMCS exhibited excellent regenerability, and can effectively remove GA in sugarcane juice to improve product safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roll-to-roll (R2R) printing technologies have been widely adopted in a variety of engineering fields, e.g., organic photovoltaics and flexible electronics, owing to the advantages of cost and throughput. Although a minimum feature size of 100 nm has been demonstrated on R2R systems, the layer to layer registration accuracy (i.e., overlay accuracy) still remains as low as tens of microns, which prevents the fabrication of common electronic and functional devices, such as transistors. To realize the full potential of R2R technologies, the registration accuracy must be improved to match the printing resolution, i.e., 100s nm. To address the issue, we have developed a multi-layer R2R system with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) closed-loop control that achieves submicron level alignment precision for large-scale continuous printing processes. The enabling elements in the multi-layer R2R system include: (1) new vision-based alignment algorithm/method, which provides 100s nm position detection capability based on low-cost cameras; and (2) custom-built five-axis compliant roller positioner. Experimental results show that the compliant roller positioner has a ±1 mm range with 100s nm precision in X, Y, and Z axes respectively. For correcting in-plane web errors, the roller positioner can achieve a range of 1 mm with < 1 μm precision, realizing multi-layer R2R printing with submicron overlay accuracy. Based on the new methods, a gate/source-drain multi-layer electrode structure for field-effect transistors (FETs) has been designed and fabricated on a 4-inch PET web, demonstrating better than 1 μm overlay precision in fabricating flexible electronics on a R2R platform for the first time. • The first demonstration of a multi-layer R2R printing system that achieves better than 1 μm overlay accuracy. • The five-axis roller positioner actively corrects position errors with a precision of ±200 nm and ±2 μrad. • The new alignment solution achieves a large detection range (> 1 mm) with high-resolution (10s nm) based on low-cost cameras. • R2R printing of a multi-layer structure, i.e., FETs, was demonstrated on a 4-inch PET web with < 1 μm overlay precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) was used to grow GaSb thin films on GaSb substrates. We have obtained the optimized growth condition to improve films quality and the surface morphology of GaSb epilayer during growth. Two group samples were tested to study the influence of the growth rate and the V/III flux ratios on the crystal quality. It caused fewer defects when the growth rate of approximately was fixed 0.6 ML/s. And the surface morphology and performance was best for GaSb epilayer when the beam ratio was 5. The thin films were characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and high-resolution X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The root means square roughness of the superlattice surface was only 0.335 nm. The full width at half maximum of the rocking curve was 39.6 arcsec and the emission wavelength of photoluminescence was 1.99 μm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermoelectric‐photoelectric integrated power generator and a power management circuit are designed in this letter for the inefficiency of power amplifier and the generation of massive heat of transceiver. Thermoelectric‐photoelectric integrated power generator is composed of thermoelectric power generator at surface layer and photoelectric power generator at bottom layer, absorbing both heat and light energy at the same time. The outputs of thermoelectric and photoelectric power generator are connected with power management circuit after parallel connection. Power management circuit is an interface circuit which is able to boost the small output voltage of integrated power generator from 300 mV to 3.1 V with no external power supply. The innovation is not only structure integration, but also output integration of two power generators. In addition, 3.1 V voltage from power management circuit is compatible with most interfaces in transceiver system. The integrated power generator and power management circuit form a complete power supply module for transceiver and wireless sensor node. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a nonlocal reaction–diffusion prey–predator model with free boundary. The spatial–temporal risk index R 0 p (t) which is threshold value, is introduced for this model. The global existence of positive solutions is proved and the long-time behavior of positive solutions is investigated. The sufficient conditions are found for vanishing of predators and the establishment of themselves in new environment. Furthermore, the spreading–vanishing criteria are established. The results show that the predators will vanish finally and not establish themselves if the sizes of habitant and spreading coefficient are relatively small or the initial value of predators is also relatively small with R 0 p (0) < 1 , and the predators will achieve if initial values of predators and preys are relatively big or R 0 p (t 0) > 1 for t 0 > 0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robots can help people complete repetitive and high-risk tasks, such as industrial production, medical care, environmental monitoring, etc. The control system of robots is the key to their ability to complete tasks, and studying robot control systems is of great significance. This article used Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies to optimize and train the robot control system and constructed a robot control system. This article conducts perception and decision-making experiments and execution experiments in the experimental section. According to the experimental results, it can be concluded that the average image recognition accuracy of the robot control system in perception and decision-making experiments was 94.62%. The average decision accuracy was 87.5%, and the average time efficiency was 176 seconds. During the execution of the experiment, the deviation of the motion trajectory shall not exceed 5 cm, and the oscillation amplitude shall not exceed 6°; the distance from the obstacle shall not exceed 20 cm, and the movement speed shall not exceed 0.6 m/s; the operating time shall not exceed 25 hours, and the number of faults shall not exceed 0.2 times per hour, all within the normal range. The robot control system based on Deep Learning (DL) and RPA has broad application prospects and research value, which would bring new opportunities and challenges to the development and application of robot technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with nonlocal and local diffusive SIR epidemic model with free boundaries including convolution, which is natural extension of reaction diffusion systems with free boundary problems and local diffusions. The existence of unique global solution for this model is considered. Dichotomy of the spreading and vanishing is established. A spreading barrier line is found to determine whether the spreading of disease will fail finally. The spreading of disease will fail when it cannot spread across the spreading barrier line l ∗ , while it will be successful when it transcends over this barrier line. The results show that if the basic reproduction number R 0 < 1 , the spreading of disease will fail eventually, and if R 0 > 1 + d 2 μ 2 + α , the spreading of disease will get success finally. We also find that the spreading coefficients play important role in the spreading achievement. When 1 + β θ μ 1 < R 0 < 1 + d 2 μ 2 + α , the spreading coefficient decides whether the spreading of disease will be successful. It is shown that the spreading will be successful when the spreading coefficient is relatively big, while the spreading will fail if the spreading coefficient is relatively small. • A spreading barrier line is found to determine whether the spreading of disease will fail finally. • The results show that if the basic reproduction number R 0 < 1 , the spreading of disease will fail eventually, and if R 0 > 1 + d 2 μ 2 + α , the spreading of disease will get success finally. • When 1 + β θ μ 1 < R 0 < 1 + d 2 μ 2 + α , the spreading coefficient decides whether the spreading will be successful.It is shown that the spreading will be successful when the spreading coefficient is relatively big, while the spreading will fail if the spreading coefficient is relatively small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a self‐reference algorithm to improve the accuracy of micro‐electro‐mechanical system thermoelectric microwave power sensor (5‐15 GHz). The output thermovoltage of the sensor is not only a function of the input signal power, but also relates to the signal frequency, resulting in low accuracy of the sensor. In this article, a mathematical model is established for the sensor to analyze the reasons for frequency dependence. Moreover, an algorithm is derived from analyzing the characteristics of the model and the experimental results. The algorithm relieves the dependence on the thermovoltage and frequency. Experiments show that the relative error of the sensor based on the proposed self‐reference algorithm decreases from 22% to 1.6%, and the SD is smaller than 0.4 mW. This self‐reference algorithm plays critical role in the practical application of microwave power sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sectioning soft tissues, e.g., brain, into thin slices is frequently performed using an oscillating blade microtome; it is generally observed that a combination of normal and shear cutting forces at an appropriate frequency will minimize the material deformation, leading to better sectioning results. To understand and better exploit this phenomenon, we theoretically and experimentally study the cutting mechanism of soft materials using a custom-built oscillating blade microtome. Analytical models are derived to deterministically link the sectioning quality to the cutting parameters, including blade oscillation frequency, amplitude, and sample feed rate. Experiments have been performed on 2% agarose gels to verify the predicted results over a range of operating parameters. Importantly, for the first time the study reveals that the sectioning results given by microtomes can be greatly enhanced when the cutting frequency is above 150 Hz due to the material stiffening effect—a unique trait of viscoelastic materials. The model may be used to predict the optimal cutting parameters for various tissues. As most state-of-the-art microtomes operate below 100 Hz, the results also set the new requirements for the next-generation tissue sectioning and surgical instruments. Highlights • A new parametric model that explains the cutting mechanisms of soft materials using an oscillating blade. • For the first time, the analytical modeldeterministically links the sectioning quality to the cutting parameters. • The sectioning quality will be enhanced at high cutting frequency (> 150 Hz) due to the material stiffening effect. • As all microtomes operate < 100 Hz, the model sets new requirements for future tissue sectioning and surgical instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is purported to investigate a ratio-dependent invasion-diffusion predator-prey epidemic system in a bounded domain with no flux boundary condition. The local and global stabilities of positive equilibrium are investigated to this system without invasion-diffusion. The sufficient conditions to nonexistence and existence of non-constant positive solution are found for this invasion-diffusion epidemic system, which implies the existence of spatiotemporal pattern formation. The results show that in wide space for the predator and the prey to diffuse by the self pressure and with a little tendency of predator to catch prey, they can't coexist and there isn't endemic disease extensively, but they can coexist and endemic disease exists extensively when the coefficient of invasion-diffusion for predator is big enough with other random diffusion coefficients being fixed and satisfying curtain conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recognition of objects is strongly facilitated when they are presented in the context of other objects (Biederman, 1972). Such contexts facilitate perception and induce expectations of context-congruent objects (Trapp and Bar, 2015). The neural mechanisms underlying these facilitatory effects of context on object processing, however, are not yet fully understood. In the present study, we investigate how context-induced expectations affect subsequent object processing. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured repetition suppression as a proxy for prediction error processing. Participants viewed pairs of alternating or repeated object images which were preceded by context-congruent, context-incongruent or neutral cues. We found a stronger repetition suppression in congruent as compared to incongruent or neutral cues in the object sensitive lateral occipital cortex. Interestingly, this stronger effect was driven by enhanced responses to alternating stimulus pairs in the congruent contexts, rather than by suppressed responses to repeated stimulus pairs, which emphasizes the contribution of surprise-related response enhancement for the context modulation on RS when expectations are violated. In addition, in the congruent condition, we discovered significant functional connectivity between object-responsive and frontal cortical regions, as well as between object-responsive regions and the fusiform gyrus. Our findings indicate that prediction errors, reflected in enhanced brain responses to violated contextual expectations, underlie the facilitating effect of context during object perception. • Context-induced expectations influence object processing as measured by fMRI. • We observed stronger RS in congruent contexts compared to incongruent or neutral cues. • Surprise-related response enhancement contributes to the modulation of context on RS. • Significant functional connectivity between LOC and frontal cortical regions during modulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to explore the effects of Cucurbitacin B (CuB) and KIF20A on esophageal carcinoma (ESCA). Data were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The expression properties of KIF20A have been confirmed by GEPIA and ualcan from TCGA. The expression of KIF20A was determined using western blotting in ECA109 and KYSE150 cells after transfection with KIF20A, KIF20A siRNA, or numerical control siRNA (si-NC). Then, different concentrations of CuB were used to treat ECA109 and KYSE150 cells. CCK-8 and colony formation assays were used to measure cell viability, and a Transwell assay was utilized to assess cell migration and invasion ability. N-cadherin, E-cadherin, snail, p-Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), JAK2, p-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and STAT3 expression levels were evaluated using western blot. KIF20A was higher expressed in ESCA than in normal cells, and its overexpression was associated with squamous cell carcinoma, TNM stage, and lymph nodal metastasis of ESCA patients. In ECA109 and KYSE150 cells, increased KIF20A facilitated cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, whereas the knockdown of KIF20A can reverse these effects with N-cadherin. Snail expression diminished and E-cadherin increased. Similarly, CuB treatment could inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion concentration dependently. Furthermore, KIF20A accelerated the expression of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3, while the application of CuB inhibited KIF20A expression and attenuated the activation of the JAK/STAT3 pathway. These findings revealed that CuB could inhibit the growth, migration, and invasion of ESCA through downregulating the KIF20A/JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway, and CuB could serve as an essential medicine for therapeutic intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a cross-diffusion predator–prey system with prey-taxis incorporating Holling type II functional response under homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. By employing global bifurcation theory, it is obtained that a branch of nonconstant solutions can bifurcate from the positive constant solution whenever the chemotactic is attractive or repulsive. Furthermore, by using perturbation of simple eigenvalues it is found that the bifurcating solutions are locally stable near the bifurcation point under suitable conditions. These results imply that cross-diffusion can create coexistence for the predators and preys under the above special case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic adaptive streaming addresses user heterogeneity by providing multiple encoded representations at different rates and/or resolutions for the same video content. For delay-sensitive applications, such as live streaming, there is however a stringent requirement on the encoding delay, and usually the encoding power (or rate) budget is also limited by the computational (or storage) capacity of the server. It is therefore important, yet challenging, to optimally select the source coding parameters for each encoded representation in order to minimize the resource consumption while maintaining a high quality of experience for the users. To address this, we propose an optimization framework with an optimal representation selection problem for delay, power, and rate constrained adaptive video streaming. Then, by the optimal selection of source coding parameters for each selected representation, we maximize the overall expected user satisfaction, subject not only to the encoding rate constraint, but also to the delay and power constraints at the server. We formulate the proposed optimization problem as an integer linear program formulation to provide the performance upper bound, and as a submodular maximization problem with two knapsack constraints to develop a practically feasible algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed weighted rate and power cost benefit greedy algorithm is able to achieve a near-optimal performance with very low time complexity. In addition, it can strike the best tradeoff both between the rate and power cost, and between the algorithm’s performance and the delay requirements proposed by delay sensitive applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly anisotropic SmCo 5 single crystal particles are promising candidates for high-density data storage and building nanocomposite permanent magnets with large maximum energy product. Previously, nanocrystalline SmCo 5 particles obtained by calciothermic reduction exhibit low magnetic energy product due to magnetic isotropy caused by severely agglomerated equiaxial particles. In this study, we report a new strategy to fabricate highly anisotropic SmCo 5 nanochips by reductive annealing of precursors with a special designed morphology. The precursors containing single crystal Co(OH) 2 nanoflakes and crystalline Sm(OH) 3 nanorods were synthesized by a hydrothermal process, and converted into SmCo 5 nanochips by subsequent thermal reduction, during which the Co(OH) 2 nanoflakes facilitate the formation of SmCo 5 nanochips as a template and Sm(OH) 3 nanorods help to maintain the hexagonal morphology and single crystal nature. The SmCo 5 nanochips exhibit strong magnetic anisotropy and excellent room temperature magnetic properties with a remanence of 7.7 kG, coercivity of 19.3 kOe, and maximum energy product of 14.4 MGOe, which is the highest recorded value for chemical synthesized nanostructured SmCo 5 particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a diffusive Holling–Tanner prey–predator model in a bounded domain with Dirichlet boundary condition and a free boundary. The global existence of the unique solution is proved. Moreover, the criteria governing spreading–vanishing are derived by mainly using the comparison principle. The results show that if the length of the occupying line is bigger than a threshold value (spreading barrier), then the spreading of predators will make an achievement, and, if the length of the occupying line is smaller than this spreading barrier and the spreading coefficient is relatively small depending on initial size of predators, then the predators will fail in establishing themselves and eventually die out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective laser melting (SLM) can effectively replace traditional processing methods to prepare parts with arbitrary complex shapes through layer-by-layer accumulation. However, SLM Ti-6Al-4V alloy typically exhibits low ductility and significant mechanical properties anisotropy due to the presence of acicular α′ martensite and columnar prior β grains. Post-heat treatment is frequently used to obtain superior mechanical properties by decomposing acicular α′ martensite into an equilibrium α + β phase. In this study, the microstructure and tensile properties of SLM Ti-6Al-4V alloy before and after various heat treatments were systematically investigated. The microstructure of the as-fabricated Ti-6Al-4V sample was composed of columnar prior β grains and acicular α′ martensite, which led to high strength (~1400 MPa) but low ductility (~5%) as well as significantly tensile anisotropy. The single heat treatment samples with lamellar α + β microstructure exhibited improved elongation to 6.8–13.1% with a sacrifice of strength of 100–200 MPa, while the tensile anisotropy was weakened. A trimodal microstructure was achieved through multi-step high-to-low-temperature (HLT) heat treatment, resulting in an excellent combination of strength (~1090 MPa) and ductility (~17%), while the tensile anisotropy was almost eliminated. The comprehensive mechanical properties of the HLT samples were superior to that of the conventional manufactured Ti-6Al-4V alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive review of mechanical design and synthesis methods for piezo-actuated compliant micro-positioning stages, which play an important role in areas where high precision motion is required, including bio-robotics, precision manufacturing, automation, and aerospace. Unlike conventional rigid-link mechanisms, the motion of compliant mechanisms is realized by using flexible elements, whereby deformation requires no lubrication while achieving high movement accuracy without friction. As compliant mechanisms differ significantly from traditional rigid mechanisms, recent research has focused on investigating various technologies and approaches to address challenges in the flexure-based micro-positioning stage in the aspects of synthesis, analysis, material, fabrication, and actuation. In this paper, we reviewed the main concepts and key advances in the mechanical design of compliant piezo-actuated micro-positioning stages, with a particular focus on flexure design, kineto-static modeling, actuators, material selection, and functional mechanisms including amplification and self-guiding ones. We also identified the key issues and directions for the development trends of compliant micro-positioning stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a fractional diffusion predator-prey system with Holling type-II functional response in a bounded domain with no flux boundary condition. The local and global stabilities are investigated and sufficient conditions of stabilities are obtained. The existence of the non-constant steady states is considered and the sufficient conditions of the existence for the non-constant steady states are also obtained. The results show that the predator and the prey can coexist under some suitable conditions with fractional diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is purported to investigate a ratio-dependent prey–predator system with cross-diffusion in a bounded domain under no flux boundary condition. The asymptotical stabilities of nonnegative constant solutions are investigated to this system. Moreover, without estimating the lower bounds of positive solutions, the existence, multiplicity of positive steady states are considered by using fixed points index theory, bifurcation theory, energy estimates and the differential method of implicit function and inverse function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• RAN promoted the polarization of macrophages towards M1 by activating the PI3K/Akt2/NF-κB signaling pathway. • p-Akt2 can enhance the endocytosis of macrophages by regulating GSK3β/Dynamin1 pathway. • RAN as adjuvant could effectively increase the differentiation of Th1 cells after M1 polarization. • RAN could enhance the killing function of CTL to inhibit tumor growth and improve survival rate as adjuvant tumor vaccine. Adjuvants are an indispensable component of vaccines, but there are few adjuvants for human vaccines. H2 receptor blockers, inhibiting gastric acid secretion, have immune enhancement effects. Ranitidine (RAN) is a water-soluble H2 receptor blocker, and whether it has an immune-enhancing effect is still unknown. In this study, flow cytometry, western blotting, and immunofluorescence methods were used to analyze whether RAN could activate macrophage polarization to the M1 phenotype in vivo and in vitro. Here, we found that the M1 inflammatory cytokine levels and surface markers in RAW264.7 cells were upregulated by NF-κB activation, possibly through the PI3K-Akt2 signaling pathway, after RAN treatment. Endocytic function was also enhanced by feedback regulation of Akt2/GSK3β/Dynmin1 signaling. Furthermore, to evaluate the adjuvant function of RAN, we used OVA plus RAN as a vaccine to inhibit the growth of B16-OVA tumors in mice. We also found that in the RAN adjuvant group, macrophage polarization to M1, Th1 cell differentiation, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activation were significantly upregulated. The tumor growth of mice was inhibited, and the survival rate of mice was significantly improved. This study provides new evidence for the mechanism by which RAN activates the immune response and is expected to provide a new strategy for the research and development of tumor vaccine adjuvants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is purported to investigate a food chain reaction-diffusion predator-prey system with nonlocal delays in a bounded domain with no flux boundary condition. We investigate the global stability and find the sufficient conditions of global stability of the unique positive equilibrium for this system. The derived results show that delays often restrain stability. Using the method of linearizing this system, we see that the zero equilibrium is unstable. Moreover, by constructing upper-lower solutions, we find that there exist traveling wavefronts which connect the zero equilibrium and positive equilibrium when the wave speed is large enough and the prey intrinsic growth rate and the death rate of the predator are relatively big. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ratio-dependent diffusion predator-prey system with free boundary is investigated to understand the impact of free boundary on spreading-vanishing dichotomy and a long time behavior of species. The existence and uniqueness of solutions are verified and the behavior of positive solutions is considered for this system. Moreover, the criteria for spreading-vanishing dichotomy are also derived. The results show that if the length of the initial occupying area is longer than a critical size for the predators or the length of the initial occupying area is shorter than a critical size, but the moving coefficient of free boundary is relatively big, then the spreading of predators always happens under relatively small rate of death for the predator. On the other hand, it is found that if the initial value of free boundary is smaller than a threshold value and the moving coefficient of free boundary is relatively small depending on initial size of predator or the rate of death is relatively big, the predators fail in spreading to new environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about effects of conversion from rice fields to vegetable fields on denitrification process is still limited. In this study, denitrification rate and product ratio (i.e., N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio) were investigated by soil-core incubation based N 2 /Ar technique in one rice paddy field (RP) and two vegetable fields (VF4 and VF7, 4 and 7 years vegetable cultivating after conversion from rice fields, respectively). Genes related to denitrification and bacterial community composition were quantified to investigate the microbial mechanisms behind the effects of land-use conversion. The results showed that conversion of rice fields to vegetable fields did not significantly change denitrification rate although the abundance of denitrification related genes was significantly reduced by 79.22%–99.84% in the vegetable soils. Whereas, compared with the RP soil, N 2 O emission rate was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 53.5 and 1.6 times in the VF4 and VF7 soils, respectively. Correspondingly, the N 2 O/(N 2 O + N 2) ratio increased from 0.18% (RP soil) to 5.65% and 0.65% in the VF4 and VF7 soils, respectively. These changes were mainly attributed to the lower pH, higher nitrate content, and the altered bacterial community composition in the vegetable soils. Overall, our results showed that conversion of rice fields to vegetable fields increased the N 2 O emission rate and altered the product ratio of denitrification. This may increase the contribution of land-use conversion to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]