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ABSTRACT Firefly algorithm (FA) combined with extreme learning machine (ELM) is developed for spectral interval selection and quantitative analysis of complex samples. The method firstly segments the spectra into a certain number of intervals. Vectors with 1 and 0, which represent the interval selected or not, are used as the inputs of the FA. The RMSEP value predicted by ELM model is used as the fitness function of the FA. The activation function and number of hidden layer nodes of ELM, number of spectral intervals, population number, environmental absorbance, and constant of FA are optimized. The predictive performance of FA‐ELM is compared with full‐spectrum PLS, ELM, genetic algorithm‐ELM (GA‐ELM), and particle swarm optimization‐ELM (PSO‐ELM) by one ultraviolet (UV) spectrum dataset of gasoil and three near‐infrared (NIR) spectral datasets of corn, wheat, and tablet samples. The results show that FA‐ELM has a better performance compared with its competitors in predicting monoaromatics, water, wheat kernel texture, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in gasoil, corn, wheat, and tablet samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel ternary 2D material Bi2O2Se exhibits numerous unique properties in the optical discipline due to its distinctive structure, rendering it of significant research importance and application potential in the domains of new‐generation microelectronics, optoelectronic sensors, and multidimensional optical recognition. However, the optical anisotropy and multidimensional angular resolution of Bi2O2Se have yet to be investigated under the condition of 3D spatial variation of incidence angle. Herein, the spatial optical sensing of the few‐layer Bi2O2Se is investigated under 3D spatially varying incidence conditions using a combination of polarized Raman spectroscopy and multidimensional angle‐resolved spectroscopy. By manipulating the incident angle conditions and adjusting the sample placement angle, a comprehensive optical characterization of materials from diverse spatial orientations is conducted. It is observed that few‐layer Bi2O2Se exhibits a systematically transformed multidimensional spatial photoresponse within visible and near‐infrared wavelengths. This demonstrates the capability of Bi2O2Se as photosensitive semiconductors for 3D stereo optical detection. Furthermore, finite difference time domain simulations reveal that the spatial optical anisotropy of few‐layer Bi2O2Se can be manifested under 3D variable‐angle incidence conditions. The work serves as a crucial guide for the future of Bi2O2Se in anisotropic integrated optics applications, based on polarization‐based chiral recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability and lattice vibration of H 24 AlXO 20 S 2 (X = Na, Rb, Cs, K) hydrides are predicted by calculating the crystal structure and energy. The formation enthalpy proves the structural stability and the dynamic stability of the hydride is predicted by the phonon dispersion diagram. Meanwhile, the optical and mechanical properties are analyzed by using the quasi-Debye model. The elastic constants and modulus prove H 24 AlXO 20 S 2 (X = Na, Rb, Cs, K) mechanical stability. By the value of B/G and Poisson's ratio, it inferred that H 24 AlNaO 20 S 2 , H 24 AlRbO 20 S 2 and H 24 AlKO 20 S 2 are brittle. Only H 24 AlCsO 20 S 2 is ductile and has the lowest hardness. H 24 AlRbO 20 S 2 has the largest shear modulus and Young's modulus, so it has the highest hardness. In addition, by calculating the anisotropy index of the hydrides, it is proved that they are anisotropic. H 24 AlKO 20 S 2 has the strongest anisotropy and the value of A U is 0.2477. The anisotropy of the hydride is further studied by calculating the Debye temperature and sound velocity of H 24 AlXO 20 S 2 (X = Na, Rb, Cs, K) hydrides. The energy band and state density analysis reveal their electronic transitions and bonding. • The lattice vibration, optical and electronic properties were explored. • The hydrides exhibit the hydrogen storage properties. • The anisotropy were demonstrated by 3D contours and 2D projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise measurements of the magnetic field are essential for particle accelerators, and the harmonic coil measurement system is especially suitable for the multipole field because of its unique advantages. The accurate placement of magnets is essential for accurate magnetic field measurements. The current positioning technique employed for harmonic coil measurement is inefficient due to its labor-intensive and time-consuming nature. The aim of this study is to automate the positioning of the quadrupole magnet. Therefore, a close-range photogrammetry system is utilized to monitor the position of the magnet due to its non-contact feature, and an electrically driven Stewart platform is utilized to manipulate the magnet. Meanwhile, a control system has been developed to regulate the automatic positioning. The system is capable of receiving measurements from the close-range photogrammetry system in order to ascertain the displacements of the magnet from its current position to the target. Subsequently, it can transmit commands to Stewart platform to regulate its movement. The experiments indicate that the efficiency of the quadrupole magnet positioning has increased significantly by at least 5 times, and the final positioning accuracy was verified by the laser tracker. The study also addresses the potential application of this technology in high radiation environments that are otherwise inaccessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal solitary waves (ISW), characterized by large amplitude and long propagation distance, are widespread in global oceans. While remote sensing images have played an essential role in studying ISWs, they mainly exploit two-dimensional image information. However, with the launch of the surface water ocean topography (SWOT) satellite on December 16, 2022, a unique opportunity has emerged to capture wide-swath three-dimensional ISW-induced sea surface information. In this study, we examine ISWs in the Andaman Sea using data from the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIN), a crucial sensor onboard SWOT. KaRIN not only provides backscattering satellite images but also employs synthetic aperture interferometry techniques to retrieve wide-swath two-dimensional sea surface height measurements. Our observations in the Andaman Sea revealed the presence of ISWs characterized by dark-bright strips and surface elevation solitons. The surface soliton has an amplitude of 0.32 m, resulting in an estimation of ISW amplitude of approximately 60 m. In contrast to traditional two-dimensional satellite images or nadir-looking altimetry data, the SWOT mission's capability to capture three-dimensional sea surface information represents a significant advancement. This breakthrough holds substantial promise for ISW studies, particularly in the context of ISW amplitude inversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clogging of a stream bed has a significant impact on the exchange of water between a river and groundwater, known as hyporheic exchange. Clogging issues in orifices influenced by fluid flow have long been a concern, particularly in understanding clogging mechanisms and particle dynamics. This study focuses on investigating the behavior of poly-dispersed particle systems in the Shanghai soft soil using a coupled lattice Boltzmann method and a discrete element method (LBM-DEM). A particle-orifice model was developed based on LBM-DEM to study the clogging problem. Three different orifice diameters with the same particle size distribution were set at a microscopic scale. The simulation results indicate that the primary form of clogging is the formation of particle domes, exhibiting distinct characteristics depending on orifice size. As the orifice size increases, clogging becomes more challenging. Interestingly, the flow rate of fluid passing through clogged orifices is quite complex, as it does not decrease significantly. The formation process of the particle structure shows significant randomness, posing challenges for quantitative analysis and experimental validation. This study provides insights into the initial stages of clogging formation, leading to a better understanding of hyporheic exchange phenomena in stream bed ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the treatment method for urban sludge is mainly sludge landfill, which requires the water content of sludge to be less than 60%. Therefore, many researchers have proposed different methods to reduce sludge water content. Freeze–thaw (F/T) and chemical conditioning of sludge, combined with vacuum pressure and vertically inserted drainage board, has been proven to be an effective method to reduce the moisture content of landfill sludge (LS). Based on the consolidation theory of radial drainage, the characteristics of LS in the process of vacuum preloading were studied. A method of instantaneous multistage loading was proposed. The concept of free drainage stage before consolidation drainage is proposed, and the correction of the consolidation coefficient is introduced. Finally, the rationality of the theory was verified by experimental data. The results showed that the consolidation theory is rational for deep dewatering of LS in the vacuum preloading method. The difference between sludge dewatering after F/T pretreatment and chemical pretreatment was mainly reflected in the consolidation coefficient and the free drainage stage. The sludge after F/T pretreatment has higher permeability, more water precipitation, and low moisture content after vacuum preloading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Brentuximab vedotin (BV) was approved as a therapy for patients with CD30‐positive lymphoma in China in 2020 based on the results of multiple clinical trails. Few Chinese real‐world data of its use are yet available. Herein, we present the application situation of BV in patients with lymphoma among different hospitals in Henan province in China under real‐world conditions. Methods: This was a multicenter and retrospective study in 104 patients with lymphoma who received BV for the first time between August 2020 and September 2022 across eight centers in Henan province. Data on the clinical use, effectiveness and adverse events (AEs) of BV were extracted from patient medical records. Short‐term effectiveness was assessed based on objective response rate (ORR), complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD). Progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated using Kaplan–Meier method. Safety was also evaluated in our study. Results: 104 lymphoma patients were enrolled in our study, who had completed a median of two cycles (range,1–8) of BV‐based treatment. A total of 72.1% of patients were relapsed/refractory (R/R) lymphoma, and only 27.9% were previously untreated lymphoma who received BV in frontline treatment settings. Among them who received effectiveness evaluation, the ORR achieved 64.5% (CR 25.8%, PR 38.7%). After a median follow‐up of 11 months, the 6‐month PFS rate and OS rate achieved 77.2% and 90.1% respectively, and the 12‐month PFS rate and OS rate achieved 77.2% and 79.9% respectively. In general, BV‐based treatment was well‐tolerated, with 38.5% incidence of grade ≥3 AEs. The most commonly reported AEs were hematologic disorders, especially neutropenia, with the incidence reaching 50.0%. Conclusions: BV‐based regimens could be a promising therapeutic option with remarkable effectiveness and moderate toxicity in treating Chinese lymphoma patients with CD30 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater images suffer from color distortion, low clarity and halos problems due to light absorption, particle scattering and non‐uniform illumination. To address these degradation issues, a multi‐cues underwater image restoration algorithm combined with light field technology is proposed. First, based on Epipolar Plane Image, the light field cue transmittance containing depth information is calculated. Then, according to the turbidity of the underwater image, the light field cue transmittance and the polarization cue transmittance are fused to obtain the multi‐cues transmittance, which can effectively reduce the effect of particle scattering and color bias. Finally, the background light is estimated through the all‐focus operation, which can effectively overcome the distortion of an underwater single image and simultaneously reduce the halo phenomenon. Experimental results show that the method achieves the best results evaluated by UCIQE, UIQM, PSNR, and SSIM, and the restored color under the method is closer to the actual image than other underwater restoration methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐throughput sequencing has substantially improved our understanding of fungal diversity. However, the short read (<500 bp) length of current second‐generation sequencing approaches provides limited taxonomic and phylogenetic resolution for species discrimination. Longer sequences containing more information are highly desired to provide greater taxonomic resolution. Here, we amplified full‐length rRNA operons (~5.5 kb) and established a corresponding fungal rRNA operon database for ONT sequences (FRODO), which contains ONT sequences representing eight phyla, 41 classes, 109 orders, 256 families, 524 genera and 1116 species. We also benchmarked the optimal method for sequence classification and determined that the RDP classifier based on our FRODO database was capable of improving the classification of ONT reads, with an average of 98%–99% reads correctly classified at the genus or species level. We investigated the applicability of our approach in three representative mycobiomes, namely, the soil, marine and human gut mycobiomes, and found that the gut contains the largest number of unknown species (over 90%), followed by the marine (42%) and soil (33.8%) mycobiomes. We also observed a distinct difference in the composition of the marine and soil mycobiomes, with the highest richness and diversity detected in soils. Overall, our study provides a systematic approach for mycobiome studies and revealed that the previous methods might have underestimated the diversity of mycobiome species. Future application of this method will lead to a better understanding of the taxonomic and functional diversity of fungi in environmental and health‐related mycobiomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early identification, diagnosis and treatment of TAFRO syndrome are very importants. We retrospectively analysed 6 patients with TAFRO syndrome. Their clinical manifestations, treatment methods, survival and other aspects were summarized. All patients were pathologically diagnosed with Castleman's disease, with fever, an inflammatory storm state and varying degrees of anasarca. All patients received steroid therapy; four of them also received chemotherapy, and 1 received rituximab. Of the 3 patients with severe disease, only 1 patient who received the recommended dose of glucocorticoids survived. Early administration of glucocorticoids can improve the prognosis, especially in patients with severe disease, and adequate glucocorticoids are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our objective is to examine the independent prognostic risk factors for patients with Esophageal Cancer with Liver Metastasis (ECLM) and to develop a predictive model. Methods: In this study, clinical data were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Cox regression analysis was employed to identify independent prognostic factors and construct nomograms based on the results of multivariate regression. The predictive performance of the nomograms was assessed using several methods, including the consistency index (C-index), calibration curve, time-dependent receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC), and decision curve analysis (DCA). Additionally, Kaplan–Meier survival curves were generated to demonstrate the variation in overall survival between groups. Results: A total of 1163 ECLM patients were included in the study. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that age, tumor differentiation grade, bone metastasis, therapy, and income were independently associated with overall survival (OS) in the training set. Subsequently, a prognostic nomogram was constructed based on these independent predictors. The C-index values were 0.739 and 0.715 in the training and validation sets, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) values at 0.5, 1, and 2 years were all higher than 0.700. Calibration curves indicated that the nomogram accurately predicted OS. Decision curve analysis (DCA) showed moderately positive net benefits. Kaplan–Meier survival curves demonstrated significant differences in survival between high- and low-risk groups, which were divided based on the nomogram risk score. Conclusions: The nomogram we developed for ECLM patients has demonstrated good predictive capability, allowing clinicians to accurately evaluate patient prognosis and identify those at high risk, thereby facilitating the development of personalized treatment plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic heterotopic ossification (THO) represents one of the most prominent contributors to post‐traumatic joint dysfunction, which currently lacks an effective and definitive preventative approach. Inflammatory activation due to immune dyshomeostasis during the early stages of trauma is believed to be critical in initiating the THO disease process. This study proposes a dual‐homeostatic modulation (DHM) strategy to synergistically prevent THO without compromising normal trauma repair by maintaining immune homeostasis and inducing stem cell homeostasis. A methacrylate‐hyaluronic acid‐based hydrogel spray device encapsulating a curcumin‐loaded zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8@ceric oxide (ZIF‐8@CeO2, CZC) nanoparticles (CZCH) is designed. Photo‐crosslinked CZCH is used to form hydrogel films fleetly in periosteal soft tissues to achieve sustained curcumin and CeO2 nanoparticles release in response to acidity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the inflammatory microenvironment. In vitro experiments and RNA‐seq results demonstrated that CZCH achieved dual‐homeostatic regulation of inflammatory macrophages and stem cells through immune repolarization and enhanced efferocytosis, maintaining immune cell homeostasis and normal differentiation. These findings of the DHM strategy are also validated by establishing THO mice and rat models. In conclusion, the CZCH hydrogel spray developed based on the DHM strategy enables synergistic THO prevention, providing a reference for a standard procedure of clinical operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture (SM), as one of the crucial environmental factors, has traditionally been estimated using global navigation satellite system interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) microwave remote sensing technology. This approach relies on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reflection component, and its accuracy hinges on the successful separation of the reflection component from the direct component. In contrast, the presence of carrier phase and pseudorange multipath errors enables soil moisture retrieval without the requirement for separating the direct component of the signal. To acquire high-quality combined multipath errors and diversify GNSS-IR data sources, this study establishes the dual-frequency pseudorange combination (DFPC) and dual-frequency carrier phase combination (L4) that exclude geometrical factors, ionospheric delay, and tropospheric delay. Simultaneously, we propose two methods for estimating soil moisture: the DFPC method and the L4 method. Initially, the equal-weight least squares method is employed to calculate the initial delay phase. Subsequently, anomalous delay phases are detected and corrected through a combination of the minimum covariance determinant robust estimation (MCD) and the moving average filter (MAF). Finally, we utilize the multivariate linear regression (MLR) and extreme learning machine (ELM) to construct multi-satellite linear regression models (MSLRs) and multi-satellite nonlinear regression models (MSNRs) for soil moisture prediction, and compare the accuracy of each model. To validate the feasibility of these methods, data from site P031 of the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) H2O project are utilized. Experimental results demonstrate that combining MCD and MAF can effectively detect and correct outliers, yielding single-satellite delay phase sequences with a high quality. This improvement contributes to varying degrees of enhanced correlation between the single-satellite delay phase and soil moisture. When fusing the corrected delay phases from multiple satellite orbits using the DFPC method for soil moisture estimation, the correlations between the true soil moisture values and the predicted values obtained through MLR and ELM reach 0.81 and 0.88, respectively, while the correlations of the L4 method can reach 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. These findings indicate a substantial achievement in high-precision soil moisture estimation within a small satellite-elevation angle range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different window design schemes have different effects on heating, cooling, lighting energy consumption and indoor thermal comfort. This research established four scenarios, considering different window design variables, such as: window to wall ratio, glazing type, overhang and fin depth, maximum and minimum outdoor temperature setpoint for window opening and window opening factor, to minimize different energy consumption and thermal discomfortable hours. Sensitivity analysis was carried out prior to optimization to compare the sensitivity of each window design variable to different research objectives. Through optimization based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II), the recommended values of each window design variable were given, designers can choose different optimal schemes according to preferences. Results in this paper are of great significance in guiding designers in the early design stage of office buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed estimation based on different sources of observations has drawn attention in the modern statistical learning. When the distributed data are missing at random, we propose a two-stage ℓ 1 -penalized communication-efficient surrogate likelihood (CSL) algorithm based on inverse probability weighting to eliminate the estimation bias caused by the missing data and construct sparse distributed M-estimator simultaneously. In the first stage, we consider a parametric propensity model and directly apply the ℓ 1 -penalized CSL method to obtain an efficient and sparse distributed estimator of the propensity parameter. In the second stage, we construct an IPW-based ℓ 1 -penalized CSL loss function to eliminate the bias and obtain the sparse M-estimation. The finite-sample performance of the estimators is studied through simulation, and an application to house sale prices data set is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel unsupervised learning framework for estimating scene depth and camera pose from video sequences, fundamental to many high-level tasks such as 3D reconstruction, visual navigation, and augmented reality. Although existing unsupervised methods have achieved promising results, their performance suffers in challenging scenes such as those with dynamic objects and occluded regions. As a result, multiple mask technologies and geometric consistency constraints are adopted in this research to mitigate their negative impacts. Firstly, multiple mask technologies are used to identify numerous outliers in the scene, which are excluded from the loss computation. In addition, the identified outliers are employed as a supervised signal to train a mask estimation network. The estimated mask is then utilized to preprocess the input to the pose estimation network, mitigating the potential adverse effects of challenging scenes on pose estimation. Furthermore, we propose geometric consistency constraints to reduce the sensitivity of illumination changes, which act as additional supervised signals to train the network. Experimental results on the KITTI dataset demonstrate that our proposed strategies can effectively enhance the model's performance, outperforming other unsupervised methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) in patients with preoperative synovitis is controversial. This study aimed to investigate the association between synovitis detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and prognosis after UKA. Methods: Synovitis was graded using the MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score criteria based on preoperative MRI findings of 132 UKAs performed between June 2020 and August 2021. The Knee Society Knee Score (KS-KS) and the Knee Society Function Score were collected preoperatively and 1 year postoperatively. The relationship between synovitis and the changes in the Knee Society score was analyzed using logistic regression. Results: Univariate logistic regression showed that patients with higher preoperative synovitis scores (odds ratio (OR) = 1.925, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.482–2.500, P < 0.001) had higher KS-KS changes. After adjusting for confounding variables, synovitis was proven to be an independent factor for KS-KS improvement after UKA in multivariate logistic regression (OR = 1.814, 95% CI: 1.354–2.430, P < 0.001). Before UKA, patients with synovitis had lower pain scores (PS) than patients without synovitis (95% CI: -17.159 – -11.160, t = -9.347, P < 0.001). There was no difference in PS between the two groups after UKA (95% CI: -6.559 – 0.345, t = -1.782, P = 0.077). Conclusions: Patients with synovitis can achieve good improvement of pain symptoms, and the efficacy is not inferior to that of non-synovitis patients after UKA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lossless and directional droplet transport is desirable in biological processes as well as in technical applications such as targeted drug therapies, bioassays, and microfluidics. Conventional methods that use surface energy and Laplace pressure gradients to achieve spontaneous droplet transport often suffer from droplet destruction and loss. Herein, an efficient strategy is reported based on a V‐shaped underwater superoleophobic rail and a V‐shaped superhydrophobic rail that delivers lossless and directional oil and water droplet transport, respectively. The V‐shaped rail not only converts the kinetic energy of the impacting droplets into planar motion but also seriously deforms the droplet to create a 3D Laplace pressure difference that directionally moves the droplet. The superoleophobic and superhydrophobic wettability of a copper rod surface is crucial for achieving lossless water and oil droplet transport, which is attributable to low adhesive forces acting on the droplets. The V‐shaped rail can also feasibly be used in droplet sensors, microchemical reactions, droplet‐based electricity generators, and water/oil separation applications, thereby significantly expanding the applications of lossless and directional droplet transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is a reproductive dysfunction disease characterized by endometrial fibrosis, with limited therapeutic options and poor prognosis. Our previous studies confirmed that menstrual blood-derived stromal cells (MenSCs) effectively attenuated endometrial fibrosis in an animal model of IUA mainly through exosomes. This therapeutic effect can be enhanced by platelet-rich plasma (PRP), in which PDGFBB is an abundant growth factor. Therefore, we aimed to compare the effects of PRP and PDGFBB on the biological activities of MenSCs in vitro, and to further investigate the molecular mechanism of MenSCs-derived exosomes in alleviating endometrial fibrosis. Methods: MenSCs were isolated for in vitro functional assays to examine the viability, migration, and stemness of MenSCs. Endometrial stromal cells (EndoSCs) were treated with 50 ug/ml of MenSCs-derived exosomes, obtained by differential ultracentrifugation extraction. The molecular mechanisms by which PDGFBB improves MenSCs and exosomes alleviate EndoSCs fibrosis were then explored using immunofluorescence, western blot, and co-immunoprecipitation. Results: Both 100 ng/ml PDGFBB and 10% activated PRP promoted the proliferation, increased the S phase of cell cycle, and inhibited apoptosis of MenSCs in vitro. Compared with PRP, PDGFBB significantly promoted MenSCs migration. All of these effects were inhibited by sorafenib, a PDGFR-β inhibitor. PRP and PDGFBB activated AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway in MenSCs and increased the expression of P65 and OCT4. Moreover, pretreatment of PDGFBB did not increase the secretion of MenSCs but significantly increased the anti-fibrosis effects of MenSCs-derived exosomes on IUA-EndoSCs. MenSCs-derived exosomes attenuated SMAD3 phosphorylation and increased YAP ubiquitination, which reduced the binding of YAP/SMAD3. Pretreatment with PDGFBB amplified this effect. Conclusions: In summary, PDGFBB could improve the biological functions of MenSCs via AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway, including viability, migration, and stemness. Our results indicated that PDGFBB amplified MenSCs-derived exosomes to attenuate endometrial fibrosis by inhibiting YAP activity, revealing a novel mechanism by which PRP enhanced the ability of MenSCs to repair tissue injury and providing a potential option for improving stem cell efficacy in IUA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is an urgent need for effective treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (R/R‐DLBCL). This trial investigated the efficacy of decitabine in combination with rituximab, cisplatin, cytarabine, dexamethasone (RDHAP) in R/R‐DLBCL. Methods: 56 patients were divided into two groups (decitabine‐RDHAP group. n = 35; RDHAP group, n = 21). The primary endpoints were the overall response rate (ORR) and duration of remission (DOR). Secondary objectives were toxicity, progression‐free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Results: The ORR was 40% and 33% for decitabine‐RDHAP and RDHAP groups, respectively, with no difference between the groups. The DOR for the decitabine‐RDHAP regimen was higher than that for the RDHAP regimen (p = 0.044). After a median follow‐up of 12.0 months, the median PFS and OS were 7.0 and 17.0 months for in the decitabine‐RDHAP group and 5.0 and 9.0 months in the RDHAP group with no significant differences between the two groups (p = 0.47, 0.17). The incidence of adverse events was not significantly different between groups. Conclusion: The decitabine‐RDHAP regimen is effective and well tolerated, and is a promising salvage regimen for R/R‐DLBCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to explore whether there is an association between androgen receptor (AR) expression and ultrasound, clinicopathological features and prognosis of breast cancer. Methods: A total of 141 breast cancer patients were included in this retrospective study. AR expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. The images of B-mode, color Doppler and strain elastography from 104 patients were collected continuously, and the corresponding ultrasound characteristics were obtained. The differences in ultrasound and clinicopathological features in different AR status were analyzed. Progression-free survival (PFS) of patients was obtained through up to 90 months of follow-up; then, the effect of AR on PFS was analyzed. Subsequently, a nomogram was constructed to predict the AR status. The predictive accuracy was calculated using C-index. Results: The positive expression of AR (AR +) was associated with lower histological grade (p = 0.034) and lower Ki-67 level (p = 0.029). Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) had the lowest probability of AR + (p < 0.001). The AR + group mostly showed unsmooth margin (p < 0.001), posterior acoustic shadowing (p = 0.002) and higher elasticity score (p = 0.022) on ultrasound. The echo pattern of most tumors with AR + was heterogeneous (p = 0.024) in Luminal A subtype. AR + could be a sign of a better prognosis in overall breast cancer (p < 0.001), as well as in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression and Luminal B subtypes (p = 0.001 and 0.025). The nomogram showed relatively reliable performance with a C-index of 0.799. Conclusion: Our research demonstrated that AR expression was closely related to ultrasound, clinicopathological features and prognosis of breast cancer. Key points: In terms of clinicopathology, the probability of AR expression in different subtypes of breast cancer was various, and the positive expression of AR was associated with lower histological grade and lower Ki-67 level. In terms of ultrasound, the positive expression of AR was associated with unsmooth margin, posterior acoustic shadowing and stiffer on strain elastography, and AR + and AR– tumors performed differently when analyzed separately according to different molecular subtypes. The positive expression of AR could be a sign of a better prognosis in breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and modeling procedure of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system applied to In-wheel-motor (IWM). The system is designed to transmit over 10 kW of power following the physical constraints faced by the IWM applications. The issues of coil misalignment and load change are discussed as particular scenarios in IWM. The finite element model is built for circular, rectangular, and double-D coils, finding that the rectangular coil has the best performance considering the transmission interval and misalignment resistance. The circuit design procedure is presented, and the analysis of the influence of load and mutual inductance change on the WPT system is addressed. Finally, the performance of the design is verified with experiments on a full-scale prototype. It is proved that the WPT system successfully transmits 10 kW of power with a DC–DC efficiency of over 90% under a transmission interval of 140 mm. The output voltage is stable under 40 mm coil misalignment scenarios and over 50% load change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flame retardants (FRs) often reduce the mechanical properties of polymer materials, and FR/microcellular polyurethane elastomer (MPUE) composite materials have not been systemically studied. Hence, we conducted this study on FR/MPUE composites by using multiple liquid FRs and/or expandable graphite (EG). Compared with liquid flame retardants, the LOI of an expandable graphite/dimethyl methylphosphonate (EG/DMMP) (3:1) combination was significantly increased (~36.1%), and the vertical combustion grade reached V-0 without a dripping phenomenon. However, the corresponding tensile strength was decreased by 17.5%. With the incorporation of EG alone, although the corresponding LOI was not a match with that of DMMP/EG, there was no droplet phenomenon. In addition, even with 15 wt% of EG, there was no significant decline in the tensile strength. Cone calorimeter test results showed that PHRR, THR, PSPR, and TSR were significantly reduced, compared to the neat MPUE, when the EG content surpassed 10 wt%. The combustion process became more stable and thus the fire risk was highly reduced. It was found that flame retardancy and mechanical properties could be well balanced by adding EG alone. Our proposed strategy for synthesizing FR/MPUE composites with excellent flame retardancy and mechanical properties was easy, effective, low-cost and universal, which could have great practical significance in expanding the potential application fields of MPUEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological sustainability has now become a primary concern of nations. The gradual increase in greenhouse gasses (GHGs) emanation has created an alarming situation in recent decades. The rapid increase in economic growth extends the ecological footprint of advanced economies. Although various studies have explored numerous factors contributing to achieving ecological sustainability, very few are known regarding financial development and digital trade impact. Hence the study considers financial development and digital trade as crucial determinants of the ecological footprint of G-7 countries. For this purpose, the study employed the CUP-FM "continuously updated fully modified" and CUP-BC "continuously updated bias-corrected" estimators on the panel data of G-7 countries from 2000 to 2020. The coefficients of the long-run parameters show a negative association between digital trade, renewable energy consumption, and ecological footprint, whereas financial development has a significantly positive relationship with the ecological footprint. It implies that financial stability encourages investment in carbon-intensive economic activities; therefore, financial development causes environmental degradation in G-7 countries. In contrast, digital trade enhances technological innovations' penetration, which helps ensure ecological sustainability. Likewise, the increased renewable energy consumption minimizes fossil fuel consumption, thus reducing the ecological footprint of G-7 countries. Lastly, this study endorsed Environmental Kuznets Curve and offered policy directions to ensure environmental sustainability in G-7 economies. • CUP-FM and CUP-BC were applied using G-7 data. • Digital trade and renewable energy decrease ecological footprints. • Financial inclusion and Economic growth increase ecological footprints. • EKC Hypothesis is confirmed. • Bidirectional causality exists between digital trade and ecological sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outstanding physical properties make TM 5 Si 4 silicides become the potential silicon-based transition-metal ultrahigh-temperature materials. In present work, we adopt the first-principles scheme to explore the structural stability, mechanical properties and explain the hydrogenated mechanism of Ti 5 Si 4 , Zr 5 Si 4 and Hf 5 Si 4 using the electronic structures. And the investigation increases the theoretical support for the developments and applications of TM 5 Si 4 silicides. Three hydrogenated models have shown that the hydrogen displays the stability for hydrogenated TM 5 Si 4 compounds. Furthermore, the introduction of hydrogen occupation has weakened the elastic properties of TM 5 Si 4. The metallic property of TM 5 Si 4 and three hydrogenated models was confirmed by the electronic structures. The localized hybridization between hydrogen and TM 5 Si 4 confirm the hydrogenated structural stability. • Hydrogenation mechanism of TM 5 Si 4 silicides is studied by first-principles calculations. • We find that hydrogen is a thermodynamic stability in TM 5 Si 4 silicides. • The hydrogen weakens the elastic moduli and hardness of TM 5 Si 4 silicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research explores the effect of economic growth, technological innovation, trade openness, and industrialisation on energy intensity in the BRICS economies using a dataset from 1990 to 2019. Furthermore, this study evaluates the combined effects of industrialisation and technological innovation on energy intensity. We employed second-generation approaches such as Westerlund co-integration, method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), and panel causality. In addition, we conducted a robustness analysis by using the long-run estimators including the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS), fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and fixed effect-ordinary least square (FE-OLS). The MMQR allows for a heterogeneous income-energy intensity nexus at different conditional quantile distributions of energy intensity, which the conventional mean regressions would generally ignore. The empirical evidence from the MMQR confirms that economic growth and industrialisation contribute to higher energy intensity; meanwhile, trade openness and technological innovation decrease the energy intensity. The combined effects of industrialisation and technological innovation reduce energy intensity in the BRICS economies. The outcomes from the MMQR are supported by the DOLS, FMOLS, and FE-OLS estimators. Furthermore, the causal interaction between the energy intensity drivers is also investigated using the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests, which reveal that industrialisation and technological innovation Granger cause energy intensity. Meanwhile, a bidirectional causal interaction between economic growth and energy intensity is found, as well as between trade openness and energy intensity. Policymakers must design industrial policies that promote technological innovation, which is the mechanism of inhibiting industrialisation. • MMQR applied using BRICS Data. • Economic growth and industrialisation lead to higher energy intensity. • Trade openness and technological innovation decrease the energy intensity. • The joint effects of industrialisation and technology innovation are stronger. • Bidirectional causality exist between model variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-drug combinations for the treatment of complex diseases are gradually becoming an important treatment, and this type of treatment can take advantage of the synergistic effects among drugs. However, drug–drug interactions (DDIs) are not just all beneficial. Accurate and rapid identifications of the DDIs are essential to enhance the effectiveness of combination therapy and avoid unintended side effects. Traditional DDIs prediction methods use only drug sequence information or drug graph information, which ignores information about the position of atoms and edges in the spatial structure. In this paper, we propose Molormer, a method based on a lightweight attention mechanism for DDIs prediction. Molormer takes the two-dimension (2D) structures of drugs as input and encodes the molecular graph with spatial information. Besides, Molormer uses lightweight-based attention mechanism and self-attention distilling to process spatially the encoded molecular graph, which not only retains the multi-headed attention mechanism but also reduces the computational and storage costs. Finally, we use the Siamese network architecture to serve as the architecture of Molormer, which can make full use of the limited data to train the model for better performance and also limit the differences to some extent between networks dealing with drug features. Experiments show that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in Accuracy, Precision, Recall and F1 on multi-label DDIs dataset. In the case study section, we used Molormer to make predictions of new interactions for the drugs Aliskiren, Selexipag and Vorapaxar and validated parts of the predictions. Code and models are available at https://github.com/IsXudongZhang/Molormer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the rare earth metal silicon‐based materials have attracted much attention. In order to accurately comprehend the application of rare earth silicides, we investigated the physical properties of the tetragonal TM2Si2Ys (TM = Cu, Ir, Os, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru), orthogonal SiY, hexagonal Si2Y, and Si3Y5 compounds. The structural stability, electronic properties, elastic anisotropy, and optical properties of these silicides are investigated using the first‐principles calculations. The enthalpy of formation and phonon dispersions confirm that the binary and ternary silicides display the structural stability. According to the electronic structure, the stability, and mechanical properties of these silicides can be better understood. Ir2Si2Y has the stronger resistance to deformation and higher hardness. The values of v and G/B ratio confirm that Os2Si2Y, Pd2Si2Y, Pt2Si2Y, Ru2Si2Y, Rh2Si2Y, and Si2Y are the ductile materials. The 3D surface constructions and 2D projections of Young's modulus display the elastic anisotropy properties of the ternary silicides. The optical properties indicate that these silicides can be used as UV shielding materials for optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • For accurately predicting drug-target interactions on small scale dataset, it is important to extract morefeatures. • We propose DeepFusion, a deep learning-based multi-scale feature fusion method for generating drug and protein global structural similarity features based on similarity theory, convolution neuralnetworkandextractinglocalsub-structuresematicfeaturesthroughtransformernetwork. • Using 70% sub-dataset, DeepFusion is close to the performance of some baseline methods trained by the whole dataset. During the reduction of the dataset size, ROC and PR curves of DeepFusion aresmooth indicatingawellrobustness. • DeepFusionachievespromisingpredictionresultsonpredictingpotentialDTIsincasestudy. Predicting drug-target interactions (DTIs) is essential for both drug discovery and drug repositioning. Recently, deep learning methods have achieved relatively significant performance in predicting DTIs. Generally, it needs a large amount of approved data of DTIs to train the model, which is actually tedious to obtain. In this work, we propose DeepFusion, a deep learning based multi-scale feature fusion method for predicting DTIs. To be specific, we generate global structural similarity feature based on similarity theory, convolutional neural network and generate local chemical sub-structure semantic feature using transformer network respectively for both drug and protein. Data experiments are conducted on four sub-datasets of BIOSNAP, which are 100%, 70%, 50% and 30% of BIOSNAP dataset. Particularly, using 70% sub-dataset, DeepFusion achieves ROC-AUC and PR-AUC by 0.877 and 0.888, which is close to the performance of some baseline methods trained by the whole dataset. In case study, DeepFusion achieves promising prediction results on predicting potential DTIs in case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) results in reduced fertility. Kuntai capsule, a Chinese patent medicine, which can nourish the heart and kidneys, has shown promising efficacy in its treatment. However, there is no enough clinical evidence to confirm the efficacy and safety of Kuntai capsule. This review aims to evaluate Kuntai capsule's potential benefits and detriments for diminished ovarian reserve. Databases namely China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WANFANG Database, Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched from their inception to July 2023. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing Kuntai capsule to hormone therapy (HT) and Kuntai capsule in combination with HT to HT alone for DOR treatment. The risk of bias was evaluated using RoB 1.0. A Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. The primary outcomes were antral follicle count (AFC) and serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), secondary outcomes were follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and adverse reactions. A Meta-analysis of 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), encompassing a total of 905 DOR patients was conducted. The results indicated that the combination of Kuntai capsule with HT exhibited superior efficacy in enhancing AFC (MD = 1.34, 95% CI [0.96,1.72]) and AMH levels (MD = 1.09 (ng/mL) 95% CI[0.80,1.38]), Kuntai capsule demonstrated improvements in AFC (MD = 0.65, 95% CI [0.48,0.83]) in DOR patients compared to HT alone. Based on the available results, the combination of Kuntai capsule with HT appears to improve the AFC, AMH and FSH levels of DOR patients. Kuntai capsule alone appears to improve the AFC and FSH levels of DOR patients. However, included trials had methodological quality issues, further standardized research is required. [Display omitted] • Kuntai Capsule is more effective and safer for Diminished Ovarian Reserve treatment. • Kuntai capsule can improve antral follicle count and anti-Müllerian hormone levels. • A meta-analysis focused on 12 trials with 905 Diminished Ovarian Reserve patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tank receiving process as an indispensable part of the crude oil tank storage process, the study of waste heat utilization effectiveness in tank receiving process, thus reduces the frequency of tank heating and plays a key role in achieving the "dual carbon" targets of the relevant energy storage companies. This paper analyses the waste heat transfer characteristics of received oil in the tank storage receiving process under dynamic liquid level conditions. The density field inhomogeneity is innovatively adopted to reflect waste heat utilization effectiveness of the tank storage receiving process, quantitatively characterized the influencing mechanisms between the density field inhomogeneity inside the storage tank and the external dynamic thermal environment and the mixing conditions. The results show that tank storage receiving process has gone through the heat flow diffusion stage, heat flow accumulation stage and hot and cold oil mixture stage. The heat flow diffusion stage is mainly affected by convective heat transfer, the heat flow floatation behavior is caused by mixed convection and the heat flow diffusion behavior is caused by natural convection. After the newly received hot oil breaks through the original layer and form a new hot oil layer, the process enters into the heat flow accumulation stage. This stage is affected by convection in a similar way to the heat flow diffusion phase, but the natural convection on the oil continues to deepen. And the received oil waste heat utilization effectiveness by the external environmental temperature impact is deeper. With the hot oil layer continues to accumulate, the heat transfer mode is gradually transformed from convective heat transfer to heat conduction mode of heat transfer, the receiving process enters the hot and cold oil mixture stage, the cold oil layer in the tank to heat up rapidly, and the mixing temperature gradually becomes the main influencing factors of the received oil waste heat utilization. When the tank storage receiving process is over, the larger the flow rate of the received oil and the lower the temperature, the better the efficiency of the received oil waste heat utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The impact of l -Cys on the gel properties of sheep plasma protein has been studied. • The addition of l -Cys can regulate the gel and enhance the gel strength and WHC of heat-induced sheep plasma protein gel. • l -Cys affects the stability of sheep plasma protein gel by regulating the content of β-sheet. • The interaction of S S bond formation between l -Cys and sheep plasma protein gel is the main driving force. The effects of different l -Cysteine additions (0–2 %) on the gel properties, microstructure and physicochemical stability of sheep plasma protein gels were studied. The introduction of l -Cys significantly improved the water retention capacity and whiteness of the plasma protein gel (p < 0.05). The addition of 0.2 %–0.4 % l -Cys increased gel strength, but l -Cys had no significant effect on gel elasticity (p < 0.05). Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the addition of l -Cys also promoted the formation of a porous three-dimensional network structure in the gel. Raman spectroscopy and SDS-PAGE revealed that the addition of l -Cys generally reduced α-helix structures in protein gels and promoted the formation of β-folds. Addition of 0.2 % l -Cys treatment leading to the greatest increase in disulfide bonds, and its surface hydrophobicity and endogenous fluorescence intensity were the largest. At this time, the comprehensive performance of sheep plasma protein gel is the best performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A prospective cohort with the current largest sample size (920 cases) • A full course of vaccination prior to COVID-19 infection may benefit IVF treatment. • SARS-CoV-2 infection affected embryo quality, rather than pregnancy outcome in IVF. The impact of COVID-19 on reproductive health is controversial. The association between female SARS-CoV-2 infection and laboratory and pregnancy outcomes following subsequent in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between IVF treatment at different time intervals after SARS-CoV-2 infection and reproductive outcomes. A prospective cohort study of 920 IVF cycles post-SARS-CoV-2 infection was conducted. Modified Poisson regression and logistic regression models were utilized to evaluate oocyte- and embryo-related outcomes as well as clinical outcomes. Stratified analyses were also performed based on the vaccination status of the female participants. SARS-CoV-2 infection within three months was associated with reduced available [Adjusted RR (aRR): 0.96, 95 %CI: 0.91–1.00] and top-quality embryos (aRR: 0.90, 95 %CI: 0.83–0.98) in subsequent IVF treatment. Among patients failing to finish the three-dose vaccination, the interval between SARS-CoV-2 infection and cycle initiation of less than 90 days was associated with a lower number of oocytes retrieval (aRR: 8.81, 95 %CI: 8.24–9.41 vs aRR: 9.64, 95 %CI: 9.06–10.25), available embryos (aRR: 0.93, 95 %CI: 0.88–0.99), and top-quality embryos (aRR: 0.81, 95 %CI: 0.72–0.91) rather than among fully vaccinated women. Moreover, COVID-19 infection was not associated with biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, embryo implantation, and early abortion either in fresh embryo transfer (ET) or frozen ET. This study indicated that initiating IVF treatment within 90 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection might reduce the likelihood of obtaining available and top-quality embryos, especially among those who had not completed the three-dose vaccination. Nevertheless, female COVID-19 infection did not affect pregnancy or early abortion. Further rigorously designed studies are required to support these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is hampered by slow kinetics and low round-trip efficiency. Electrocatalysts with a hierarchical structure and large surface area are expected to overcome these problems. Herein, we prepared a Ru/MoO 2 /carbon nanotubes (RMC) hybrid with a hierarchical structure by a convenient solid-phase reaction (SPR) method, and studied the electrochemical activity for HER. After annealing as-prepared RuO 2 /MoO 2 /carbon nanotubes (ROMC) precursor in a tubular furnace under Ar atmosphere, RuO 2 and MoS 2 were in-situ transformed into Ru metal and MoO 2 phase by the redox SPR. Through various tests, we have confirmed that the new formed Ru metal and MoO 2 phase are combined and uniformly coated on the outer surface of CNTs. Interestingly, the RMC-500 exhibits the best HER performance with a low overpotential of 16 mV at l0 mA cm−2, small Tafel slope of 45 mV dec−1, higher electrochemical active surface area, and long-time durability in alkaline electrolyte. The Ru/MoO 2 /CNTs hybrid with hierarchical structure and large surface area are prepared by a convenient solid-phase reaction for efficient HER. [Display omitted] • The tubular Ru/MoO 2 /CNTs (RMC) electrocatalyst was synthesized via a special solid-phase reaction strategy. • The carbon nanotube is conducive to accelerate the reaction rate of HER. • The hierarchical structure endows RMC with large physical surface area and excellent HER performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Gallbladder polyps (GBPs) are relatively common. Many studies have attempted to distinguish between benign and neoplastic GBPs to identify early‐stage gallbladder carcinoma. We have established an accurate neoplastic predictive model and evaluated the effectiveness of radiomics in predicting malignancy in patients with GBPs. Methods: A total of 503 patients confirmed through postoperative pathology were included in this retrospective study. Clinical information and ultrasonographic findings were retrospectively analyzed. The model was constructed from independent risk factors using Spearman correlation and logistic regression analysis of a training cohort of 250 GBP patients, and its efficacy was verified using an internal validation group of 253 consecutive patients through the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). The area of GBPs was delimited manually, and the texture features of ultrasound images were analyzed using correlation and ROC analysis. Results: Independent predictors, including age, gallstones, carcinoembryonic antigen, polyp size, and sessile shape, were incorporated into the nomogram model for the neoplastic potential of GBPs. Compared with other proposed prediction methods, the established nomogram model showed good discrimination ability in the training group (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.865) and validation group (AUC: 0.845). Regarding ultrasonic radiomics, the minimum caliper diameter was identified as the only independent predictor (AUC: 0.841). Conclusions: Our preoperative nomogram model can successfully evaluate the neoplastic potential of GBPs using simple clinical data, and our study verified the use of radiomics in GBP identification, which may be valuable for avoiding unnecessary surgery in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault probability rises with an increase in the number of current sensors in multi-phase permanent synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. This paper proposes an improved axis rotation method for fault diagnosis and tolerant control to make the multi-phase PMSM drives against current sensor loss signal and gain faults. This method can effectively diagnose and distinguish faults without selecting a threshold value, and the degree of fault can be further estimated. The proposed method makes current sensor fault diagnosis and tolerant control become an integrated module. The validity and accuracy of the proposed method is verified by different fault diagnoses and tolerant control experiments of a 9 kw nine-phase PMSM drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a predictive energy management strategy of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by real-time optimization and data-driven calibration. The powertrain modelling and physical constraints, including engine, battery, and generator, are simplified by polynomial fitting approximations, which reserve the system nonlinearities with acceptable accuracy. To mitigate the control complexity, the physical constraints of engine, generator, and battery, are merged into a unified one by methodical derivatives. The nonlinear model predictive control problem is established, and the continuation/ general minimal residual (C/GMRES) algorithm is proposed for real-time optimization. Since the original C/GMRES algorithm can only deal with the equality constraints, the external penalty method is adopted for inequality constraints handling. To tackle the parameters’ tuning difficulties, the Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm is proposed. Based on the prior knowledges of closed-loop experiments, the map between parameters and objective can be described by Gaussian process, and the control parameters can be optimized with few evaluations in BO. Moreover, owing to the real-time applicability of C/GMRES algorithm, the time of closed-loop experiments is reduced so that the calculation time of BO calibration can be saved, exhibiting the superior design for predictive energy management. Simulation and hardware-in-the-loop validations are carried out and verify the energy-saving effectiveness and real-time applicability for proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction on drug–target interaction has always been a crucial link for drug discovery and repositioning, which have witnessed tremendous progress in recent years. Despite many efforts made, the existing representation learning or feature generation approaches of both drugs and proteins remain complicated as well as in high dimension. In addition, it is difficult for current methods to extract local important residues from sequence information while remaining focused on global structure. At the same time, massive data is not always easily accessible, which makes model learning from small datasets imminent. As a result, we propose an end-to-end learning model with SUPD and SUDD methods to encode drugs and proteins, which not only leave out the complicated feature extraction process but also greatly reduce the dimension of the embedding matrix. Meanwhile, we use a multi-view strategy with a transformer to extract local important residues of proteins for better representation learning. Finally, we evaluate our model on the BindingDB dataset in comparisons with different state-of-the-art models from comprehensive indicators. In results of 100% BindingDB, our AUC, AUPR, ACC, and F1-score reached 90.9%, 89.8%, 84.2%, and 84.3% respectively, which successively exceed the average values of other models by 2.2%, 2.3%, 2.6%, and 2.6%. Moreover, our model also generally surpasses their performance on 30% and 50% BindingDB datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical, thermodynamics, electronic, optical properties of Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 , Bi 2 Ti 4 O 11 , Bi 12 TiO 20 and Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 ternary semiconductor materials were calculated and analyzed using first-principles calculations. The structural optimizations demonstrate that four ternary semiconductors are structurally stable. The mechanical parameters of Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 exhibit the highest resistance to deformation and average bonding strength, while Bi 2 Ti 4 O 11 demonstrates the high shear deformation resistance. The Debye temperatures for these bismuth titanate semiconductors are in the following order: Bi 2 Ti 4 O 11 >Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 >Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 >Bi 12 TiO 20. Both Bi 12 TiO 20 and Bi 2 Ti 2 O 7 exhibit high light absorption energies within specific ranges. Through the computational analysis presented in this paper, the theoretical data of bismuth-based semiconductors are enriched for further experimental investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radix Chimonanthi Pracecocis (RCP), also known as Tiekuaizi, widely used by the Miao community in Guizhou, exhibits diverse biological activities and holds promise for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). However, there is a lack of contemporary pharmacological research in this area. This study aims to explore the potential of targets and mechanisms of RCP in the treatment of OA. The chemical components of RCP were identified using UPLC-MS/MS, and active components were determined based on the Lipinski rule. RCP and OA-related targets were retrieved from public databases such as TCMSP and GeneCards. Network pharmacology approaches were employed to identify key genes. The limma package (version 3.40.2) in R 4.3.2 was used to screen for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between OA and healthy individuals in GSE82107. DEGs were analyzed using an independent sample t -test and receiver operating characteristic analysis in GraphPad Prism 9.5.1. Additionally, molecular docking (SYBYL2.1.1) was used to analyze the binding interactions between the active components and target proteins. Finally, we established a papain-induced osteoarthritis (OA) rat model and treated it with RCP aqueous extract by gavage. We validated relevant indicators using real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, immunohistochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Seven active components and 53 targets were identified. The results of GO and KEGG enrichment analyses confirmed the significant role of RCP in the regulation of pyroptosis. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) was identified as a key gene involved in the main biological functions. Molecular docking analysis revealed that Praecoxin, Isofraxidin, Esculin, and Naringenin can bind to the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) (T-Score >5). Additionally, Praecoxin can bind to HIF-1α (T-Score >5). In vivo experiments demonstrated that RCP significantly affects the NLRP3 inflammasome, which is regulated by the HIF-1α pathway. RCP inhibited pyroptosis and reduced synovial inflammation. This study confirmed the efficacy of RCP aqueous extract in the treatment of OA and identified seven active components (esculin, dihydrokaempferol, naringenin, praecoxin, carnosol, hydroxyvalerenic acid, isofraxidin) that may play an anti-pyroptosis role in the treatment of OA by downregulating the expression of HIF-1α and NLRP3 inflammasome. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-principles techniques were used to determine the mechanical characteristics, electronic structure and thermal characteristics of the ternary intermetallics ZrAlNi, ZrAlNi 2 , ZrAl 5 Ni 2 and Zr 6 Al 2 Ni. The lattice parameters and equilibrium volumes exhibit the concordance with the existing experimental data. Additionally,the formation enthalpies of the four intermetallic compounds are −0.655eV/atom, −0.618eV/atom, −0.409eV/atom and-0.360eV/atom, respectively. Their enthalpy of formation is negative, indicating that they have thermodynamic stability. The elastic constants of all four compounds satisfy the corresponding Bonn stability criteria, indicating that all of them exhibit mechanical stability. The metallic characteristics of the phases are verified according to their density of states and band structure, providing evidence for their ability to conduct electricity. In addition, the band structure and state density map also show that four compounds are not magnetic. Both G/B ratio(0.69) and ν values(0.22) indicate that ZrAl 5 Ni 2 compound studied is brittle materials. The Poisson 's ratios of ZrAlNi, ZrAlNi 2 and Zr 6 Al 2 Ni are 0.28,0.32 and 0.28,so ZrAlNi, ZrAlNi 2 and Zr 6 Al 2 Ni exhibit characteristics of ductility materials. Among the four phases, ZrAl 5 Ni 2 has the highest Debye temperature of 216.35 k, indicating its superior thermal conductivity. The Gibbs free energy has a negative correlation with temperature. Among these compounds, ZrAlNi 2 has the smallest Gibbs free energy, suggesting its superior formation ability. • The lattice vibration, stress-strain behavior and electronic properties were explored. • Zr–Al–Ni phases exhibit the thermodynamical and dynamical stability. • The elastic anisotropies of Zr–Al–Ni phases were demonstrated by the 3D contours and 2D projections of elastic modulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Continuous fibres are coated by translating and rotating during sputtering. • HEA coatings with FCC solid solution cover around the fibres uniformly. • Ti fibre strength is enhanced with coated CoCrFeNiCu, especially (CoCrFeNiCu)N. The CrFeCoNiCu high entropic alloy (HEA) was coated on the surface of continuous Ti fibres by magnetron sputtering. The coatings' morphology, structure, and strength were then analyzed. The results showed that the CrFeCoNiCu HEA coating inherited the FCC structure of the bulk HEA, and the coating crystallinity decreased with introduced N 2. The CrFeCoNiCu and (CrFeCoNiCu)N coatings covered fibres uniformly. The tensile strength of fibres was enhanced greatly with coating CrFeCoNiCu and (CrFeCoNiCu)N by 24.10% and 32.23%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fig. Projections of E on the (0 0 1), (1 0 0) and (0 1 0) crystal planes of ScAl 2 , ScAl 3 , ScAl, Sc 2 Al, Sc 3 AlC, ScAl 3 C 3 and Sc 2 AlC. [Display omitted] • The electronic, mechanical, anisotropic and optical properties of the Sc-Al-C MAX phases were explored. • The anisotropy were demonstrated by 3D contours and 2D projections. • MAX phases can be used as optoelectronic devices in the ultraviolet range. MAX phase series materials have the excellent thermal, electrical and mechanical properties and have great research potential. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the utilization of Sc-Al-C MAX phases, the mechanical properties, electronic structures, elastic anisotropy and optical properties of these compounds were calculated by first-principles calculations. The lattice parameters and equilibrium volumes agree with the existing experimental data. The elastic constants show that these compounds are mechanically stable. In addition, the enthalpy of formation indicates that they are thermodynamically stable. The metallic properties of the phases are verified by the analysis of their density of states and band structures. ScAl 3 C 3 has the largest shear and Young's modulus because of its strong chemical bonding and the values are 150.91 GPa and 346.65 GPa, respectively. Sc 2 AlC shows the lowest degree of anisotropy due to the lack of strong direction in the bonding. The G/B ratio and ν values support that all these compounds are brittle materials. By calculating the absorption coefficient, it is shown that these compounds can be used as optoelectronic devices in the ultraviolet range. The reflectance images show that these compounds can be used as thermal insulation coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the properties of Hf 2 Si, we design six transition metals (TM = Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, W and Re) doped in Hf 2 Si. The effect of TM elements on the properties of Hf 2 Si was studied using the first-principles calculations. The results of formation enthalpy and phonon dispersion confirm that TM-doped Hf 2 Si are thermodynamically stable and dynamically stable. The addition of the TM element will enhance the compression resistance of Hf 2 Si along the c-axis. W-doped Hf 2 Si has the strongest tensile strength. In particular, the addition of Nb, Mo, Tc, W and Re elements enhances the bulk (B), shear (G) and Young's modulus (E) of Hf 2 Si. The brittle property of Hf 2 Si is improved and the hardness of the material is reduced. Based on the improvements in mechanical properties, we make further explanations according to the electronic properties. • The lattice vibration, stress-strain behavior and electronic properties were explored. • Hf x Si y Cu z phases exhibit the thermodynamical and dynamical stability. • The elastic anisotropies of Hf x Si y Cu z phases were demonstrated by the 3D contours and 2D projections of elastic modulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human oral bioavailability (HOB) is a key factor in determining the fate of new drugs in clinical trials. HOB is conventionally measured using expensive and time-consuming experimental tests. The use of computational models to evaluate HOB before the synthesis of new drugs will be beneficial to the drug development process. In this study, a total of 1588 drug molecules with HOB data were collected from the literature for the development of a classifying model that uses the consensus predictions of five random forest models. The consensus model shows excellent prediction accuracies on two independent test sets with two cutoffs of 20% and 50% for classification of molecules. The analysis of the importance of the input variables allowed the identification of the main molecular descriptors that affect the HOB class value. The model is available as a web server at www.icdrug.com/ICDrug/ADMET for quick assessment of oral bioavailability for small molecules. The results from this study provide an accurate and easy-to-use tool for screening of drug candidates based on HOB, which may be used to reduce the risk of failure in late stage of drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]