Search

We consider the problem of large‐scale finite‐sum minimization on Riemannian manifold. We develop a sub‐sampled adaptive trust region method on Riemannian manifolds. Based on inexact information, we adopt adaptive techniques to flexibly adjust the trust region radius in our method. We present the iteration complexity is Omax{εg−2εH−1,εH−3}$$ O\left(\max \left\{{\varepsilon}_g^{-2}{\varepsilon}_H^{-1},{\varepsilon}_H^{-3}\right\}\right) $$ when the algorithm attains an (εg,εH)$$ \left({\varepsilon}_g,{\varepsilon}_H\right) $$‐second‐order stationary point, which matches the result on trust region method. Numerical results for PCA on Grassmann manifold and low‐rank matrix completion are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed Riemannian method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a modified RFedSVRG method by incorporating the Barzilai–Borwein (BB) method to approximate second-order information on the manifold for Federated Learning (FL). Moreover, we use the BB strategy to obtain self-adjustment of step size. We show the convergence of our methods under some assumptions. The numerical experiments on both synthetic and real datasets demonstrate that the proposed methods outperform some used methods in FL in some test problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn today’s era of information overload, efficiently extracting valuable information from a large volume of textual data has become a crucial challenge in reading. This study aimed to explore the enhancement of Chinese readability in the digital domain through intelligent typesetting method. This study involved two experiments. The purpose of the first experiment was to achieve the machine learning-based assessment of the importance of individual words in Chinese articles and to automate typesetting based on the importance of words. For the second experiment, readability tests and eye-tracking reading tests were performed and the reading performance and reading attention between intelligent typesetting and general typesetting style was compared. This work proposed three Chinese typesetting methods that distinguished the importance of Chinese text information, based on font size and color. The results showed that first, when reading Chinese text, visual attention was more likely to be drawn to larger font sizes, darker brightness, or warmer-colored characters. Second, intelligent Chinese typography that distinguishes information importance through font size, color brightness, and color hue can enhance Chinese reading comprehension accuracy and subjective evaluation. It was concluded that using the TextRank model to distinguish importance of Chinese vocabulary and intelligent typesetting methods based on visual features of font could obviously improve text readability. Specifically, readability achieved through intelligent typesetting method distinguishing information importance through font color brightness surpasses that of general typesetting significantly. These intelligent typesetting methods can be widely applied in Chinese reading scenarios, such as web pages, e-books, information visualization, and other Chinese reading contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glioma is considered the most common primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system. Although traditional treatments have not achieved satisfactory outcomes, recently, targeted therapies for glioma have shown promising efficacy. However, due to the single-target nature of targeted therapy, traditional targeted therapies are ineffective; thus, novel therapeutic targets are urgently needed. Methods: The gene expression data for glioma patients were derived from the GEO (GSE4290, GSE50161), TCGA and CGGA databases. Next, the upregulated genes obtained from the above databases were cross-analyzed, finally, 10 overlapping genes (BIRC5, FOXM1, EZH2, CDK1, KIF11, KIF4A, NDC80, PBK, RRM2, and TOP2A) were ultimately screened and only KIF4A expression has the strongest correlation with clinical characteristics in glioma patients. Futher, the TCGA and CGGA database were utilized to explore the correlation of KIF4A expression with glioma prognosis. Then, qRT-PCR and Western blot was used to detect the KIF4A mRNA and protein expression level in glioma cells, respectively. And WZ-3146, the small molecule inhibitor targeting KIF4A, were screened by Cmap analysis. Subsequently, the effect of KIF4A knockdown or WZ-3146 treatment on glioma was measured by the MTT, EdU, Colony formation assay and Transwell assay. Ultimately, GSEA enrichment analysis was performed to find that the apoptotic pathway could be regulated by KIF4A in glioma, in addition, the effect of WZ-3146 on glioma apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry and Western blot. Results: In the present study, we confirmed that KIF4A is abnormally overexpressed in glioma. In addition, KIF4A overexpression is a key indicator of glioma prognosis; moreover, suppressing KIF4A expression can inhibit glioma progression. We also discovered that WZ-3146, a small molecule inhibitor of KIF4A, can induce apoptosis in glioma cells and exhibit antiglioma effects. Conclusion: In conclusion, these observations demonstrated that targeting KIF4A can inhibit glioma progression. With further research, WZ-3146, a small molecule inhibitor of KIF4A, could be combined with other molecular targeted drugs to cooperatively inhibit glioma progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast bulk of polystyrene (PS), a major type of plastic polymers, ends up in landfills, which takes up to thousands of years to decompose in nature. Chemical recycling promises to enable lower‐energy pathways and minimal environmental impacts compared with traditional incineration and mechanical recycling. Herein, we demonstrated that methanol as a hydrogen supplier assisted the depolymerization of PS (denoted as PS‐MAD) into alkylbenzenes over a heterogeneous catalyst composed of Ru nanoparticles on SiO2. PS‐MAD achieved a high yield of liquid products which accounted for 93.2 wt % of virgin PS at 280 °C for 6 h with the production rate of 118.1 mmolcarbon gcatal.−1 h−1. The major components were valuable alkylbenzenes (monocyclic aromatics and diphenyl alkanes), the sum of which occupied 84.3 wt % of liquid products. According to mechanistic studies, methanol decomposition dominates the hydrogen supply during PS‐MAD, thereby restraining PS aromatization which generates by‐products of fused polycyclic arenes and polyphenylenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vast bulk of polystyrene (PS), a major type of plastic polymers, ends up in landfills, which takes up to thousands of years to decompose in nature. Chemical recycling promises to enable lower‐energy pathways and minimal environmental impacts compared with traditional incineration and mechanical recycling. Herein, we demonstrated that methanol as a hydrogen supplier assisted the depolymerization of PS (denoted as PS‐MAD) into alkylbenzenes over a heterogeneous catalyst composed of Ru nanoparticles on SiO2. PS‐MAD achieved a high yield of liquid products which accounted for 93.2 wt % of virgin PS at 280 °C for 6 h with the production rate of 118.1 mmolcarbon gcatal.−1 h−1. The major components were valuable alkylbenzenes (monocyclic aromatics and diphenyl alkanes), the sum of which occupied 84.3 wt % of liquid products. According to mechanistic studies, methanol decomposition dominates the hydrogen supply during PS‐MAD, thereby restraining PS aromatization which generates by‐products of fused polycyclic arenes and polyphenylenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a segmented layered bistable piezoelectric energy harvester (SBPEH) has been developed and thoroughly investigated for its wind energy harvesting capabilities. The SBPEH's performance was comprehensively evaluated through the creation of a detailed 3D finite element model using Abaqus and XFlow software, and further validated via rigorous wind tunnel experiments. The results of this research demonstrate the SBPEH's remarkable potential for wind energy harvesting. With a wide operational wind speed range, it achieved a maximum measured power output of 5.476 mW, coupled with an outstanding power density of 68.45 mW/cm3, both of which were realized at a wind speed of 13 m/s. It is worth noting that as the wind speed surpasses a specific threshold, the energy harvesting efficiency of the SBPEH experiences a decline, emphasizing the importance of identifying the optimal operational wind speed range for maximizing energy output. These findings offer valuable insights for the enhancement and application of SBPEHs, contributing to the advancement of renewable energy technologies and providing an eco‐friendly solution for power generation. Highlights: The study introduces a new segmented layered bistable piezoelectric energy harvester (SBPEH) design for wind energy harvesting, addressing the limitations of traditional harvesters.Performance is evaluated through 3D finite element modeling, ABAQUS, Xflow simulations, and wind tunnel experiments.The SBPEH operates efficiently across a broad wind speed range (6–14 m/s), showcasing optimal output power of 5.476 mW at 13 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a distributed observer-based resilient control scheme is proposed to solve the voltage regulation and current sharing problems of islanded direct current (DC) microgrids under actuator faults. First, an observer-based distributed fault estimation design is presented to estimate fault signals with high accuracy. Then, based on the estimated information, a primary decentralized fault-tolerant control layer is designed to ensure accurate voltage reference tracking. A secondary cooperative control layer is employed to achieve the goal of current sharing. Besides, both the fault estimation observers and the fault-tolerant controllers are designed in a plug-and-play fashion, which guarantees the scalability of the DC microgrid. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control strategy can efficiently improve the reliability and resilience of the DC microgrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical carbon capture and utilization (eCCU) from flue gas CO2 could avoid high energy consumption and capital input in conventional capture, storage, and utilization, which is a promising approach for achieving negative emissions and producing "e‐chemicals." However, low CO2 concentration and leftover O2 in the flue gas presumably lowers the eCCU performance. Herein, redox‐active 2‐amino‐5‐mercapto‐1,3,4‐thiadiazole (AMT) functionalized gold nanoparticles are synthesized to achieve integrated electrochemical capture and reduction of CO2 in simulated flue gas (SFG, 15% CO2, 4% O2, balanced with N2), achieving maximum CO Faradaic efficiency of 80.2% at −0.45 V versus RHE in H‐type cell, and 66.0% at voltage of 2.7 V in a full cell, respectively. The AMT ligand can capture CO2 by strong interaction with CO2 in the reduced state and serve as a selective layer to suppress O2 reduction, which provides the ability of electrochemical carbon capture from SFG and significantly decreases energy required for CO2 electro‐reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elimination of chlorinated organics (chlorobenzene as a model) in a SCR convertor has been given an increasing demand. Herein, a novel catalyst by loading CeO2 clusters on α-MnO2 nanorods has been designed for simultaneous abatement of NOx and chlorobenzene. The CeO2 modification provided new active center for CB oxidation as well as promoted the SCR activity of MnO2 by increasing both redox performance and adsorption property. The independent effect of dual active centers can be inferred from changing the amount of CeO2 content and atmosphere. In this regard, structure and chemical characterizations were conducted to further reveal the interaction mechanism and function in specific reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiogenic skin injury (RSI) is a common complication during cancer radiotherapy or accidental exposure to radiation. The aim of this study is to investigate the metabolism of bile acids (BAs) and their derivatives during RSI. Rat skin tissues were irradiated by an X-ray linear accelerator. The quantification of BAs and their derivatives were performed by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS)-based quantitative analysis. Key enzymes in BA biosynthesis were analyzed from single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) data of RSI in the human patient and animal models. The in vivo radioprotective effect of deoxycholic acid (DCA) was detected in irradiated SD rats. Twelve BA metabolites showed significant differences during the progression of RSI. Among them, the levels of cholic acid (CA), DCA, muricholic acid (MCA), chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), glycocholic acid (GCA), glycohyodeoxycholic acid (GHCA), 12-ketolithocholic acid (12-ketoLCA) and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) were significantly elevated in irradiated skin, whereas lithocholic acid (LCA), tauro-β-muricholic acid (Tβ-MCA) and taurocholic acid (TCA) were significantly decreased. Additionally, the results of scRNA-Seq indicated that genes involved in 7a-hydroxylation process, the first step in BA synthesis, showed pronounced alterations in skin fibroblasts or keratinocytes. The alternative pathway of BA synthesis is more actively altered than the classical pathway after ionizing radiation. In the model of rat radiogenic skin damage, DCA promoted wound healing and attenuated epidermal hyperplasia. Ionizing radiation modulates the metabolism of BAs. DCA is a prospective therapeutic agent for the treatment of RSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the holographic DC and Hall conductivity in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory in Gauss-Bonnet gravity with momentum dissipation. We analytically derived the DC conductivity and Hall conductivity from the black horizon data and found that the conductivities are independent of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling. We also used the entropy function formalism to get the conductivities in terms of the charge of the black hole, even without knowing the explicit black hole solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle platoons were recently proposed to reduce energy consumption and emissions. However, the majority of platooning studies have focused on pure connected automated vehicle (CAV) environments with limited insights into energy consumption and emissions. This paper quantifies fuel consumption and emissions by studying the microscopic movements of CAVs and human driving vehicles (HDVs) in mixed traffic flows. With an extended cellular automaton model, a four-lane mixed traffic flow of CAVs and HDVs is investigated in detail. The results have shown that ad hoc platoon formation can lead to frequent acceleration and lane changing, resulting in more fuel consumption and emission. With a dedicated CAV lane (DCL) strategy, the interference of CAVs and HDVs is greatly reduced, thereby improving the fuel economy and emission reduction. The findings can benefit the organization of vehicle platoons in the persisting mixed traffic flow environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of radiation-induced sinusitis (RIS), MRI-based scoring system was used to evaluate the development regularity, characteristics and influencing factors of RIS in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Patients and methods: A retrospective analysis was performed by collecting the clinical and MRI data of 346 NPC patients to analyze the characteristics and prognosis of RIS. The predictive model was constructed according to the influencing factors of RIS. Results: (1) In the 2-year follow-up after radiotherapy (RT), there was significant change in L-M score in both groups of NPC patients (sinusitis before RT group: p = 0.000 vs. non-sinusitis before RT group: p = 0.000). After 6 months of RT, the L-M scores of the two groups tended to plateau (sinusitis before RT group: p = 0.311 vs. non-sinusitis before RT group: p = 0.469). (2) The prevalence of sinusitis in two groups of NPC patients (without or with sinusitis before RT) was 83% vs. 93%, 91% vs. 99%, 94% vs. 98% at 1, 6 and 24 months after RT, respectively. (3) In the patients without sinusitis before RT, the incidence of sinusitis in maxillary and anterior/posterior ethmoid, sphenoid and frontal sinuses was 87.1%, 90.0%/87.1%, 49.5%, 11.8% respectively, 1 month after RT. (4) A regression model was established according to the univariate and multivariate analysis of the factors related to RIS (smoking history: p = 0.000, time after RT: p = 0.008 and TNM staging: p = 0.040). Conclusion: (1) RIS is a common complication in NPC patients after RT. This disorder progressed within 6 months after RT, stabilized and persisted within 6 months to 2 years. There is a high incidence of maxillary sinus and ethmoid sinus inflammation in NPC patients after RT. (2) Smoking history, time after RT and TNM staging were significant independent risk factors for RIS. (3) The intervention of the risk factors in the model may prevent or reduce the occurrence of RIS in NPC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ferroptosis has been implicated in the pathological process of type 2 diabetic osteoporosis (T2DOP), although the specific underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. This study aimed to clarify the role and possible mechanism of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM)-mediated osteoblast ferroptosis in T2DOP. Methods: We treated hFob1.19 cells with normal glucose (NG) and different concentrations of high glucose (HG, 26.25 mM, 35 mM, or 43.75 mM) for 48 h. We then measured cell viability and osteogenic function, quantified ferroptosis and autophagy levels, and measured the levels of ASM and ceramide in the cells. To further investigate the specific mechanism, we examined these indicators by knocking down ASM expression, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) treatment, or N-acetylcysteine (NAC) treatment. Moreover, a T2DOP rat model was induced and microcomputed tomography was used to observe the bone microstructure. We also evaluated the serum levels of iron metabolism-associated factors, ceramide and lipid peroxidation (LPO) and measured the expression of ASM, LC3 and GPX4 in bone tissues. Results: HG inhibited the viability and osteogenic function of osteoblasts by inducing ferroptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the expression of ASM and ceramide and autophagy levels were increased by HG treatment, and these factors were required for the HG-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and LPO. Similarly, inhibiting intracellular ROS also reduced HG-induced ASM activation and autophagy. ASM-mediated activation of autophagy was crucial for HG-induced degradation of GPX4, and inhibiting ASM improved osteogenic function by decreasing HG-induced autophagy, GPX4 degradation, LPO and subsequent ferroptosis. We also found that inhibiting ASM could alleviated ferroptosis and autophagy and improved osteogenic function in a T2DOP rat model. Conclusion: ASM-mediated autophagy activation induces osteoblast ferroptosis under HG conditions through the degradation of GPX4, providing a novel mechanistic insight into the treatment and prevention of T2DOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abnormal hyaluronic acid (HA) metabolism is a major factor in tumor progression, and the metabolic regulation of HA mainly includes HA biosynthesis and catabolism. In glioma, abnormal HA biosynthesis is intimately involved in glioma malignant biological properties and the formation of immunosuppressive microenvironment; however, the role of abnormal HA catabolism in glioma remains unclear. Methods: HA catabolism is dependent on hyaluronidase. In TCGA and GEPIA databases, we found that among the 6 human hyaluronidases (HYAL1, HYAL2, HYAL3, HYAL4, HYALP1, SPAM1), only HYAL2 expression was highest in glioma. Next, TCGA and CGGA database were further used to explore the correlation of HYAL2 expression with glioma prognosis. Then, the mRNA expression and protein level of HYAL2 was determined by qRT-PCR, Western blot and Immunohistochemical staining in glioma cells and glioma tissues, respectively. The MTT, EdU and Colony formation assay were used to measure the effect of HYAL2 knockdown on glioma. The GSEA enrichment analysis was performed to explore the potential pathway regulated by HYAL2 in glioma, in addition, the HYAL2-regulated signaling pathways were detected by flow cytometry and Western blot. Finally, small molecule compounds targeting HYAL2 in glioma were screened by Cmap analysis. Results: In the present study, we confirmed that Hyaluronidase 2 (HYAL2) is abnormally overexpressed in glioma. Moreover, we found that HYAL2 overexpression is associated with multiple glioma clinical traits and acts as a key indicator for glioma prognosis. Targeting HYAL2 could inhibit glioma progression by inducing glioma cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Conclusion: Collectively, these observations suggest that HYAL2 overexpression could promote glioma progression. Thus, treatments that disrupt HA catabolism by altering HYAL2 expression may serve as effective strategies for glioma treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have received increased attention in endoscopic images due to their outstanding advantages. Clinically, some gastric polyps are related to gastric cancer, and accurate identification and timely removal are critical. CNN-based semantic segmentation can delineate each polyp region precisely, which is beneficial to endoscopists in the diagnosis and treatment of gastric polyps. At present, just a few studies have used CNN to automatically diagnose gastric polyps, and studies on their semantic segmentation are lacking. Therefore, we contribute pioneering research on gastric polyp segmentation in endoscopic images based on CNN. Seven classical semantic segmentation models, including U-Net, UNet++, DeepLabv3, DeepLabv3+, Pyramid Attention Network (PAN), LinkNet, and Muti-scale Attention Net (MA-Net), with the encoders of ResNet50, MobineNetV2, or EfficientNet-B1, are constructed and compared based on the collected dataset. The integrated evaluation approach to ascertaining the optimal CNN model combining both subjective considerations and objective information is proposed since the selection from several CNN models is difficult in a complex problem with conflicting multiple criteria. UNet++ with the MobineNet v2 encoder obtains the best scores in the proposed integrated evaluation method and is selected to build the automated polyp-segmentation system. This study discovered that the semantic segmentation model has a high clinical value in the diagnosis of gastric polyps, and the integrated evaluation approach can provide an impartial and objective tool for the selection of numerous models. Our study can further advance the development of endoscopic gastrointestinal disease identification techniques, and the proposed evaluation technique has implications for mathematical model-based selection methods for clinical technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Copper homeostasis is associated with malignant biological behavior in various tumors. The excessive accumulation of copper can induce tumor death, which is named cuproptosis, and it is also closely related to tumor progression and the formation of the immune microenvironment. However, the associations of cuproptosis with glioblastoma (GBM) prognosis and microenvironment construction are poorly understood. Method: First, TCGA and GEO (GSE83300, GSE74187) merged datasets were used to analyze the association of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) with GBM. Then, we performed cluster analysis of CRGs in GBM from the GEO (GSE83300, GSE74187) and TCGA merged datasets. Subsequently, the prognostic risk model was constructed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) according to gene expression features in CRG clusters. Next, we performed a series of in-depth analyses, including tumor mutational burden (TMB) analysis, cluster analysis, and GBM IDH status prediction. Finally, RARRES2 was identified as a target gene for GBM treatment, especially IDH wild-type GBM. In addition, we further analyzed the correlation of CRG clusters and RARRES2 expression with the GBM immune microenvironment by ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT analyses. In vitro experiments were conducted to demonstrate that targeting RARRES2 inhibits glioblastoma progression and macrophage infiltration, particularly IDH wild-type GBM. Results: In the present study, we demonstrated that the CRG cluster was closely related to GBM prognosis and immune cell infiltration. Moreover, the prognostic risk model constructed with the three genes (MMP19, G0S2, RARRES2) associated with the CRG clusters could well evaluate the prognosis and immune cell infiltration in GBM. Subsequently, after further analyzing the tumor mutational burden (TMB) in GBM, we confirmed that RARRES2 in the prognostic risk model could be used as a crucial gene signature to predict the prognosis, immune cell infiltration and IDH status of GBM patients. Conclusion: This study fully revealed the potential clinical impact of CRGs on GBM prognosis and the microenvironment, and determined the effect of the crucial gene (RARRES2) on the prognosis and tumor microenvironment construction of GBM, meanwhile, our study also revealed over-expressed RARRES2 is related to the IDH satus of GBM, which provides a novel strategy for the treatment of GBM, particularly IDH wild-type GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a framework to identify geological characteristics (GC) based on borehole data and operational data during shield tunnelling using a fuzzy C-means algorithm. The proposed fuzzy C-means model was established by integrating the K-means ++ algorithm into the fuzzy set theory. The identified factors for GC include advance rate, cutterhead rotation speed, thrust, cutterhead torque, penetration rate, torque penetration index, field penetration index, and specific energy. Principal component analysis was employed to reduce the dimensions of these factors. The first six principal components were employed to analyse the GC and establish the input data set in the fuzzy C-means model. The types of GC were determined based on elbow method, silhouette coefficient, fuzzy partition coefficient and the geological profile from borehole data. The proposed approach was validated by a case of Guangzhou intercity tunnel construction. The results present that the proposed fuzzy C-means model can effectively determine GC and provide membership to reveal the proportion of hard rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible strain sensors are gradually developing toward being textile‐shaped and multifunctional. Here, a microfluidic spinning strategy with special designed coaxial‐like needles is developed to fabricate conductive fibers with multi‐model strain sensing properties. The coaxial‐like needle can regulate the fiber's structure and characteristics by adjusting the meeting point of core and sheath solution. First, a polyaniline (PANI)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)‐based blended composite fiber (PTBF) with unique hollow‐porous morphology is prepared. The PTBF fibrous sensors with 30 wt.% PANI obtain a large strain range (50% strain), while the PTBFs with 50 wt.% PANI possess a high sensitivity (gauge factor of 160). On this basis, a PANI/TPU‐based core–sheath composite fiber (PTCF) is fabricated by changing the core and sheath solutions. PTCFs exhibit satisfactory multi‐model strain sensing capabilities, including tensile, bending, and pressure. The results show that the resistance of PTCF is extremely sensitive to tensile deformation. The PTCF‐based fibrous sensor can also detect 0–180° bending strains and 0.1–2 N pressure strains. The multi‐model strain sensor can be used in motion monitoring, gesture discrimination, finger‐pressure recognition, and flexible circuit switches. This work may provide a foundation for the direct integration of fiber‐based strain sensors into smart clothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Genetic variation is an important determinant of gene transcription, which in turn contributes to functional and phenotypic diversity. Identification of the genetic variants controlling gene expression and alternative splicing in crops responding to cadmium (Cd), an important issue for food safety and human health, is of great value to improve our understanding of Cd accumulation‐related genes. Here we report an in‐depth survey of population‐level transcriptome variation of barley (Hordeum vulgare) core accessions under Cd exposure. We reveal marked transcriptomic changes in response to Cd exposure, and these are largely independent of tissues. A genome‐wide association study (GWAS) revealed 59 498 expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) and 23 854 splicing quantitative trait loci (sQTLs), leading to a complex network that covers 66.6% of the expressed genes, including 68 metal transporter genes. On average, 41.0% of sQTLs overlapped with eQTLs across different tissues, indicating that these two dimensions of transcript variation are largely independent. Moreover, we found that 34.5% of GWAS QTLs that underlie 10 Cd accumulation traits in barley are co‐localized with eQTLs and sQTLs, which could imply a mechanistic role of different genetic variants affecting gene expression and alternative splicing in these traits. This study highlights the role of distal and proximal genetic effects on gene expression, splicing, and phenotypic plasticity. We anticipate that our results on the genetic control of expression and splicing underlying Cd accumulation provide a bridge to better understand genetic variation and phenotypic diversity to elucidate the mechanisms underlying Cd accumulation in plants. Significance Statement: An in‐depth survey of population‐level transcriptome variation was conducted in 100 barley (Hordeum vulgare) core accessions under Cd exposure. We found that 34.5% of GWAS QTLs that underlie 10 Cd‐related traits in barley are co‐localized with eQTLs and sQTLs, which could imply a mechanistic role of gene expression and alternative splicing in these traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high performance computing (HPC) systems, collecting and replaying communication traces are fundamental approaches to analyze performance. With increasingly large-scale HPC systems and applications, tracing tools can produce huge trace data that is costly and challenging to store and analyze. Due to the inherent repetition of behaviors of HPC applications, domain-aware data compression methods can effectively reduce the storage cost of trace data. This study proposes LCR (Lossy Compression and Replay), a framework that aggressively compresses and replays MPI communication traces. Differing from existing trace compression methods, which explicitly identify loop and synchronization structures of communication events, LCR models traces as time series and compactly represents them by lightweight recurrent neural networks. Experimental results demonstrate that LCR can further reduce the size of irregular traces by three orders of magnitude at most, compared with existing structural methods. Meanwhile, LCR accurately reproduces performance and communication patterns of original MPI programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open in new tab Download slide OBJECTIVES The goal of the present study was to determine the safety and efficacy of a modified off-pump biatrial mini-maze procedure to treat long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS Patients with long-standing persistent AF underwent our modified mini-maze procedure using bipolar radiofrequency ablation. Those patients first underwent a mini-maze procedure using the Dallas lesion set protocol. Second, a purse-string suture was performed on the right atrium, and then 4 ablation lesions were made to the superior vena cava, the inferior vena cava, the appendix of the right atrium and the tricuspid valve annulus from the purse-string suture point by the bipolar radiofrequency clamp. After the operation, the patients were followed up at 3, 6 and 12 months and every year thereafter. RESULTS A total of 102 patients were included in the study. There were no deaths, no surgical re-exploration for bleeding and no permanent pacemaker implants. The intraoperative cardioversion rate was 42.2% (43/102). A follow-up at intervals of 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months showed that a success rate free from long-standing persistent AF was 95.1% (97/102), 94.4% (85/90), 94.8% (73/77), 91.5% (54/59), 90.3% (28/31) and 86.4% (19/22), whereas freedom from AF in patients off antiarrhythmic drugs was 88.2% (90/102), 85.6% (77/90), 81.8% (63/77), 78.0% (46/59), 74.2% (23/31) and 68.2% (15/22), respectively. CONCLUSIONS The modified biatrial mini-maze procedure proved to be safe and feasible. Early follow-up demonstrated an acceptable success rate free from AF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) with excellent conductivity and stability have become a promising material to design the strain sensing network. To date, however, the effect of the stacked structure of CNF membrane on the sensing performance has rarely been studied. In this work, we reported a high-performance sensor based on the cross-stacked aligned CNF membrane. The effects of cross-stacked structures on the sensing characteristics were systematically investigated. The flexible strain sensor could capture low detection limit (<0.1%) with a gauge factor (GF) of 4.24 and wide strain range up to 130%. The uniform GF value reached 2050 when the strain was in the range of 100–130%. In addition, the high linearity under 40% strain (>0.998), excellent durability and quick response time (<200 ms) were demonstrated. The excellent comprehensive performances were simultaneously obtained. The sensor could be used in extensive applications, such as monitoring body movements and distinguishing the track of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interfacial reaction of nano-aluminum (nAl) and fluoropolymer was evaluated using nAl@Viton composite under slow and rapid heating rates. The results under slow heating rates indicate that nAl@Viton composites reacted in several stages at 100–1000 °C. The oxide shell of nAl underwent a pre-ignition reaction with Viton before Viton decomposition, followed by the reaction of nAl with the products from Viton decomposition, and defluorination of aluminum fluoride. Temperature jump experiments were used to confirm the occurrence of interfacial reactions between nAl particles with the products produced by Viton decomposition, and the gaseous products of nAl@Viton during the reactions were investigated via online gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results show a direct correlation between the nAl particles and the relative abundance of products. The initial decomposition products of Viton would be induced to form more cyclic hydrocarbon by the fluorination of nAl with gaseous fluorocarbons and hydrogen fluoride released from Viton decomposition. Fluorination yields heat feedback to the reactive surface, thus providing the main advantage of aluminum–fluoropolymer reactive system for energy release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) represents the most malignant glioma among astrocytomas and is a lethal form of brain cancer. Many RAB genes are involved in different cancers but RAB42 (Ras-associated binding 42) is seldom studied in GBM. Our study aimed to explore the role of RAB42 expression in the development and prognosis of GBM. Methods: All GBM patient data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) databases. The relevance of RAB42 expression to the clinicopathologic characteristics of GBM patients was analyzed. The overall survival (OS) significance was determined using log-rank. Significantly enriched KEGG pathways were screened using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Results: High expression of RAB42 was observed in GBM specimens compared with normal samples, which was also verified in cell lines and tissue samples. Elevated RAB42 expression was correlated with higher GBM histological grade. The prognosis of GBM patients with high RAB42 expression was worse than those with lower RAB42. A total of 35 pathways, such as the P53 pathway, were significantly activated in highly RAB42-expressed GBM samples. Conclusions: High RAB42 expression is related to the development of GBM, and RAB42 is a probable prognostic marker for GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glass surfaces are ubiquitous in human life environment, such as glass windows, glass doors, glass guardrails and glass walls. Most glass surfaces are transparent without intrinsic texture and color characteristics. Such characteristics pose significant challenges for artificial intelligence systems to identify glass surfaces. We observed that reflections on glass surfaces of near-infrared (NIR) images are always significantly suppressed compared with that of regular RGB images captured from the same scene. Thus, we propose an effective glass surface detection network, called NRGlassNet , which takes N IR- R GB image pair captured from the same scene as input. Our NRGlassNet employ a dual-branch structure consisting of powerful Swin-Transformer blocks to extract features from the NIR image and the RGB image separately. We also propose a novel Multi-modal Context Contrast (MCC) module to modulate the differences of reflection intensities in the NIR image and the RGB image for identifying glass surfaces. In addition, for learning our proposed network, we propose a new dataset, called RNGD, which consists of 1378 NIR-RGB image pairs captured from real-world scenes as well as their ground-truth glass surface annotations. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed method. Our code and dataset will be available at: https://github.com/YT3DVision/NRGlassNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The combustion performance of micro- and nano-sized TiB 2 powders was measured. • The first thermal oxidation stage of TiB 2 began with the oxidation of Ti. • The effect of Ti on oxidation temperature highlighted energy output features of TiB 2. • The TiB 2 nano-powders generated stronger energy output compared to micro-TiB 2. • The confining of TiO 2 allowed B of TiB 2 to have higher oxidation efficiency. This study explored the characteristics of TiB 2 powders as an additive fuel of energetic materials. Results revealed that the whole oxidation of TiB 2 was divided into two stages before and after the melting of B 2 O 3. The effect of Ti on the onset oxidation temperature and low-temperature oxidation efficiency of TiB 2 highlighted energy output features. The mass gain of the first stage, the combustion heat, the peak pressure, and the maximum pressurization rates of nano-sized TiB 2 were larger than those of micro-sized TiB 2. These properties of TiB 2 provide evidence for the synergistic effect between Ti and B, which could promote its application in energetic formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the explosive growth of data collected by various sensors, it has become a difficult problem determining how to conduct feature selection more efficiently. To address this problem, we offer a fresh insight into rough set theory from the perspective of a positive approximation set. It is found that a granularity domain can be used to characterize the target knowledge, because of its form of a covering with respect to a tolerance relation. On the basis of this fact, a novel heuristic approach ARIPA is proposed to accelerate representative reduction algorithms for incomplete decision table. As a result, ARIPA in classical rough set model and ARIPA-IVPR in variable precision rough set model are realized respectively. Moreover, ARIPA is adopted to improve the computational efficiency of two existing state-of-the-art reduction algorithms. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the improved algorithms, a variety of experiments utilizing four UCI incomplete data sets are conducted. The performances of improved algorithms are compared with those of original ones as well. Numerical experiments justify that our accelerating approach enhances the existing algorithms to accomplish the reduction task more quickly. In some cases, they fulfill attribute reduction even more stably than the original algorithms do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MgO nanostructures with different morphologies were fabricated by regulating the composition of raw materials, using the chemical vapor deposition method with gold as a catalyst. Polycrystalline MgO nanopillars were prepared using only Mg3N2 as the raw material. Single crystalline nanowire arrays can be obtained by adding carbon powder into the raw material. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used for the detailed characterization of (100) nanowire arrays. Besides the vertical growth direction [100], the nanowires change into two kinds of orientations after growing to a certain length: 〈111〉 and 〈001〉. The epitaxial growth was attributed to the lattice match and regulation of the concentration of the Mg source. The variation of growth orientations was probably caused by the difference in surface energy and reaction temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ν 1 h 1 1 / 2 band in 100Pd is investigated by the cranking covariant density functional theory (CDFT) with the particle-number-conservation shell-model-like approach (SLAP) to treat the pairing correlations. The experimental B (E 2) , moments of inertia, and the total angular momentum are well reproduced by our calculation. The deformations for neutrons, protons, and the whole nucleus behave in a similar way with the decreasing of β and the tiny change of γ with increasing rotational frequency ℏ ω from 0.2 to 0.6 MeV. The features of the antimagnetic rotation (AMR) are identified by above calculation results. To conclude, the configuration of AMR for 1 0 0 Pd given by the cranking CDFT-SLAP is π (1 g 9 / 2 ) − 4 ⊗ ν [ 1 h 1 1 / 2 (1 g 7 / 2) 3 ]. Furthermore, the configuration of π (1 g 9 / 2 ) − 4 ⊗ ν [ 1 h 1 1 / 2 (1 g 7 / 2) 2 2 d 5 / 2 ] , which presents the experimental result of low spins, is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fractional integral operators are useful tools for generalizing classical integral inequalities. Convex functions play very important role in the theory of mathematical inequalities. This paper aims to investigate the Hadamard type inequalities for a generalized class of functions namely strongly (α , h − m) -p-convex functions by using Riemann–Liouville fractional integrals. The results established in this paper give refinements of various well-known inequalities which have been published in the recent past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sequentially responsive nanocarrier was fabricated with three-in-one functional integration: bio-imaging, tumor microenvironment responsive chemotherapy and cascade activation of upconversion photodynamic therapy. The designed DNA outer nanoshell displayed site-specific degradation and controlled degradation speed. Significantly, the developed controllable nanotheranostic agent displayed high cell apoptosis ratios and obvious tumor inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify the role of TRAF3IP2 in high glucose (HG)‐stimulated cardiomyocyte inflammation and apoptosis and its action mechanism. SiRNA plasmid of TRAF3IP2 was constructed and transfected into HG‐stimulated cardiomyocytes to silence TRAF3IP2. The expression of TRAF3IP2 was determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blot. Cell viability and cytotoxicity were first observed using cell counting kit‐8 and lactate dehydrogenase assays. The inflammatory injury of the cardiomyocytes was then examined by real time‐qPCR (RT‐qPCR) and western blot. The oxidative stress of the cardiomyocytes was evaluated using reactive oxygen species assay kit, RT‐qPCR, western blot and enzyme activity assay kit. Next, cell apoptosis was detected employing TUNEL and western blot. Finally, RT‐qPCR and western blot were performed to investigate the effects of inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase‐4, including saxagliptin, empagliflozin and linagliptin, on TRAF3IP2. TRAF3IP2 expression was found to be increased in HG‐stimulated cardiomyocytes. TRAF3IP2 interference inhibited HG‐induced cell viability loss, cytotoxicity, inflammatory response, oxidative stress and apoptosis of the cardiomyocytes. Moreover, saxagliptin, empagliflozin and linagliptin inhibited the expression of TRAF3IP2. TRAF3IP2 interference alleviates HG‐induced inflammation and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. The result suggests that TRAF3IP2 may be a promising therapeutic target in treating diabetic cardiomyopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we establish some upper bounds of the numerical radius of a bounded linear operator S defined on a complex Hilbert space with polar decomposition S = U ∣ S ∣ , involving generalized Aluthge transform. These bounds generalize some bounds of the numerical radius existing in the literature. Moreover, we consider particular cases of generalized Aluthge transform and give some examples where some upper bounds of numerical radius are computed and analyzed for certain operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to assess the impact of changes in blood pressure on cardiovascular events in the Chinese population. It enrolled 33 179 Chinese participants aged ≥35 years (57.1% women) without CVD at baseline. BP status was defined according to the 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension guidelines. The type of BP change was defined as change in BP status from baseline to the end of follow‐up, included stable BP <130/80, <130/80 to ≥130/80, ≥130/80 to <130/80 mm Hg, persistent BP ≥130/80 mm Hg. The hazard ratio (HR) of incident CVD by change in BP category was estimated using Cox proportional hazards and Fine–Gray models. During median follow‐up of 3.17 years, 2023 CVD events occurred. Compared with BP <120/80, 120–129/<80 mm Hg at baseline (HR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.09–2.53), 130–139/80–89 mm Hg (HR = 1.35, 95% CI: 0.94–1.95), and ≥140/90 mm Hg (HR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.78–3.40) were risk factors for CVD. Compared with the group with stable BP <130/80 mm Hg, the risk of CVD was 1.88 (95% CI: 1.40–2.53) in the group with persistent BP ≥130/80 mm Hg and 1.40 (95% CI: 1.01–1.94) in the group of BP decreased to <130/80 mm Hg. These results showed that BP 120–129/<80, 130–139/80–89, and ≥140/90 mm Hg were associated with a high risk of CVD. Over time, persistent BP ≥130/80 mm Hg increased the risk of CVD, but a return to <130/80 mm Hg from hypertension decreased the risk of CVD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible strain sensors have promising applications in deformation detection and have attracted tremendous attention. However, it is still a challenge to detect multidirectional strains and further enhance the sensing performance including high sensitivity and durability. Herein, successfully prepared aligned graphene oxide/polyacrylonitrile composite fiber membrane by optimized microfluidic spinning process is presented, and highly aligned carbon fiber membrane (CFM) by stabilization and carbonization is obtained. The flexible strain sensors are fabricated based on the CFM with different fiber arrangement directions, exhibiting good sensing performance and remarkable anisotropic electromechanical behaviors. When the fiber arrangement is parallel to the direction of stress application, the gauge factors (GFs) of the sensor are 399 in the strain range of 0‐12%, and 10 688 of 12‐15% strain. When the fiber arrangement is perpendicular to the stress direction, the GFs of the sensor are 49.8 and 830.7 under the strain of 0‐45% and 45‐50%, respectively. Meanwhile, the flexible and anisotropic strain sensors are endowed with excellent linearity, dynamic stability under different stretching rates and strain levels, rapid response time (< 300 ms), and good durability (over 1000 cycles). Remarkably, it has been demonstrated the anisotropic strain sensors could be applied in detecting human activity and assisting badminton training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of inert gas bonding has always been an important topic. The bonds of noble gases cover the entire range of chemical bonds, from the weakest van der Waals forces, to non-covalent interactions, and to covalent bonds. Two types of methods were used to investigate the properties of chemical bonds in the inert gas inserted compound MNgBY with the transition metal M = Cu/Ag/Au and substituents Y = O/S/NH, one based on orbital analysis and the other based on electron density analysis. The NBO/NRT analysis shows that in these compounds there exists long-bonding striding the noble gas between the transitional metal and boron, similar to the noble gas insertion compounds HNgX of hydrohalide, and so a three-center four-electron bond exists among the M-Ng-B part. The electron density analyses show that the M-Ng bond between the metal Cu/Ag/Au and noble gas and the Ng-B bond in the Cu/Ag compounds are partial covalent but the Ng-B bond in Au compounds is a typical covalent bond. The large relativistic effects of Au cause the bonds in Au compounds shorter and stronger than the bonds in Ag/Cu compounds. The properties of the M-Ng and Ng-B bonds are not affected by substituents Y, but the bond lengths are sensitive to substituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of heterosis is a successful strategy in increasing yield for many crops. However, it consumes tremendous manpower to test the combining ability of the parents in fields. Here, we applied the genomic-selection (GS) strategy and developed models that significantly increase the predictability of heterosis by introducing the concept of a regional parental genetic-similarity index (PGSI) and reducing dimension in the calculation matrix in a machine-learning approach. Overall, PGSI negatively affected grain yield and several other traits but positively influenced the thousand-seed weight of the hybrids. It was found that the C subgenome of rapeseed had a greater impact on heterosis than the A subgenome. We drew maps with overviews of quantitative-trait loci that were responsible for the heterosis (h-QTLs) of various agronomic traits. Identifications and annotations of genes underlying high impacting h-QTLs were provided. Using models that we elaborated, combining abilities between an Ogu-CMS-pool member and a potential restorer can be simulated in silico, sidestepping laborious work, such as testing crosses in fields. The achievements here provide a case of heterosis prediction in polyploid genomes with relatively large genome sizes. Author summary: Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) is of significant economic interest worldwide, providing high-quality oil with excellent health-promoting properties. It represents an excellent model of a successful recent polyploid that rapidly became an important crop worldwide. The utilization of hybridization, leading to hybrid vigor, or heterosis, is a successful strategy in increasing yield and vigor for many field crops including rapeseed (Brassica napus). However, the procedure of using classical breeding methods remains slow and laborious, illustrating the need for predictive and innovative methods. Here, we have achieved a significant breakthrough by using genome selection and significantly advanced models to predict the heterosis by pairing genome-wide nucleotides of parents. We provided maps with overviews of quantitative trait loci that were responsible for the heterosis of various agronomic traits. The research used deep resequencing (>30x) data of the entire polyploidy rapeseed genome, providing a successful case for the prediction of heterosis in polyploid genomes with relatively large genome sizes. Moreover, we provided the genetic information (SNPs) of 1007 core accessions of this species in the public domain for testing combinations with high heterosis using our predicting model for rapeseed breeders all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrozoans and anthozoans are an important component of a great variety of marine communities, particularly abundant and ubiquitous as part of the fouling assemblages around the globe. Several negative impacts have been associated to their occurrence on artificial substrata. In the coastal waters of China, a total of 76 species of fouling cnidarians were observed and classified. According to the occurrence frequency or biomass, the major species in the Bohai and Yellow Seas were Ectopleura marina, Bougainvillia sp., and Eudendrium capillare; in the East China Sea Anthopleura nigrescens, Diadumene lineata, and Ectopleura crocea; and in the South China Sea Clytia sp., Obelia sp., and Actiniaria spp. The peak period of settlement of most species was mainly in summer and autumn. With the decrease of latitude, species number increased greatly and even cnidarian fouling was observed all year round in the East and South China Seas. Salinity was another factor affecting species distribution. Naturally, immersion time of substrata also directly affects the characteristics of cnidarians in fouling communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV; family Coronaviridae , genus Alphacoronavirus) causes acute diarrhea and vomiting, dehydration, and high mortality in neonatal piglets. Despite extensive research focusing on the pathogenesis of PEDV infection, the molecular pathogenesis of PEDV-induced diarrhea in piglets remains unclear. Na+/H+ exchanger 3 (NHE3), the main exchanger of electroneutral sodium in intestinal epithelial cells, is closely associated with the occurrence of diarrhea. To date, there is no study on whether diarrhea caused by PEDV infection is related to the activity of NHE3. In the present study, it was found that the expression level of cell membrane protein NHE3 significantly decreased after PEDV infection, whereas the total level of protein expression was not significantly changed. The Na+/H+ transport rate and the mRNA abundance of NHE3 decreased; the NHE3 activity decreased gradually with increasing infection time. In vivo, after PEDV infection of newborn piglets, rupture of intestinal villi and interstitial degeneration of intestinal epithelial cells in different intestinal segments were observed by hematoxylin–eosin staining. Immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence methods were used to observe the decreased expression of NHE3 protein on the membrane of intestinal epithelial cells in the jejunum and ileum. Taken together, these data indicate that PEDV infection reduces NHE3 activity in intestinal epithelial cells, hindering Na+ transport and thus causing diarrhea. • NHE3 is an important Na+/H+ exchanger in intestinal epithelial cells, which is closely related to the occurrence of diarrhea. • Reduced intestinal surface Na+/H+ exchanger NHE3 activity is a key factor for induction of diarrhea after PEDV infection. • The decrease of NHE3 activity in intestinal cells hindered the absorption of electrolytes, and induced diarrhea in piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The compatibility of Radix Polygoni multiflori-Achyranthes (RPMA) root is a Traditional Chinese medicine pair frequently used in the clinic and has good anti-osteoporosis (OP) effects. Materials and Methods: The extract of the compatibility of RPMA root was given orally in this study. The pharmacokinetics and the distribution in the tissues of tetrahydroxystilbene glucoside and β-ecdysterone were considered by high-performance liquid chromatography in OP rats induced by retinoic acid and healthy rats. Quercetin was employed as the internal standard. According to the above results, the effects of Osteoporosis on the process of β-ecdysterone and 2,3,5,4'-tetrahydroxy stilbene 2-Ο-β-D-glucoside in rats were analyzed. Results: The results displayed that the peak time of β-ecdysterone in plasma of OP model rats was earlier and the plasma concentration and pharmacokinetic parameters of tetrahydroxystilbene glucoside in the model group were suggestively different from those in the normal group. The concentration distribution of the two components in each tissue of the model group was significantly diverse from that of the normal group. In particular, the concentrations of the two components in kidney tissue of the model group were inferior than those of the normal group at most time points. Conclusion: It is ventured that the two components may be convoluted in the treatment of OP. This experiment can deliver the reference for the further pharmacodynamic study of the compatibility of RPMA root and the correlation analysis of pharmacodynamics and the content of active ingredients in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the network performance of radial basis function (RBF) and back-propagation (BP) networks on complex nonlinear problems, an integrated neural network model with pre-RBF kernels is proposed. The proposed method is based on the framework of a single optimized BP network and an RBF network. By integrating and connecting the RBF kernel mapping layer and BP neural network, the local features of a sample set can be effectively extracted to improve separability; subsequently, the connected BP network can be used to perform learning and classification in the kernel space. Experiments on an artificial dataset and three benchmark datasets show that the proposed model combines the advantages of RBF and BP networks, as well as improves the performances of the two networks. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified. Graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the network performance of radial basis function (RBF) and back-propagation (BP) networks on complex nonlinear problems, an integrated neural network model with pre-RBF kernels is proposed. The proposed method is based on the framework of a single optimized BP network and an RBF network. By integrating and connecting the RBF kernel mapping layer and BP neural network, the local features of a sample set can be effectively extracted to improve separability; subsequently, the connected BP network can be used to perform learning and classification in the kernel space. Experiments on an artificial dataset and three benchmark datasets show that the proposed model combines the advantages of RBF and BP networks, as well as improves the performances of the two networks. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified. Graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant phenology is highly sensitive to climate change, and shifts in autumnal foliar senescence are critical for plant productivity and nutrient cycling. Global warming has delayed the timing of foliar senescence, but the response of autumnal foliar senescence to nonuniform seasonal warming remains poorly understood, with experimental evidence in trees especially scarce. We therefore conducted a field experiment on seasonally asymmetric warming on 2‐year‐old larch (Larix principis‐rupprechtii) seedlings in two hydrologically contrasting years (wet 2018 and dry 2019). Autumnal and year‐round warming significantly delayed the timing of foliar senescence by 6 and 7 d in 2018, the wet year, with corresponding temperature sensitivities of 6.73 ± 1.47 and 8.26 ± 1.00 d/°C, respectively. Interestingly, the dates of senescence did not change across the warming treatments in 2019, the dry year. However, there was no significant effect of summer warming on the timing of foliar senescence neither in the wet nor dry year. The delayed autumnal foliar senescence was responsible for an increase in biomass only in the wet year, 2018. In contrast, summer warming, but not autumnal warming, increased the mortality of the seedlings in both 2018 and 2019. These results suggest that the hydrological conditions substantially modify the response of autumnal phenology and growth to seasonal warming. Autumnal warming increases growth, whereas summer warming could cause carbon starvation/hydraulic failure, reduce growth, and lead to higher mortality. Our results suggest that the functioning, ecosystem services, and sustainability of forests in the future depend on the strength and pattern of nonuniform seasonal warming. This study can inspire new research in phenology and tree growth in experiments with asymmetric warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metasurface holograms have the potential to be applied in a variety of practical fields. Here an anisotropic digital metasurface is proposed that can project polarization multiplexing patterns at the microwave frequency, in which a modified Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm is presented to calculate the phase masks. A 3‐bit coding metamaterial unit is also proposed, which is capable of independently manipulating the transmission phases of orthogonal linearly polarized electromagnetic waves. The influence of wave‐front has been analyzed by comparing two holographic results with distinct source optimization methods. A prototype of the anisotropic digital coding metasurface optimized with horn wave‐front is designed, manufactured, and tested. The experimental measurements present the expected holographic fields and have a good match with the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]