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To investigate Mandarin Tone 2 production of disyllabic words of prelingually deafened children with a cochlear implant (CI) and a contralateral hearing aid (HA) and to evaluate the relationship between their demographic variables and tone-production ability. Thirty prelingually Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with CI+HA and 30 age-matched normal-hearing (NH) children participated in the study. Fourteen disyllabic words were recorded from each child. A total of 840 tokens (14 × 60) were then used in tone-perception tests in which four speech therapists participated. The production of T2-related disyllabic words of the bimodal group was significantly worse than that of the NH group, as reflected in the overall accuracy (88.57% ± 16.31% vs 99.29% ± 21.79%, p < 0.05), the accuracy of T1+T2 (93.33% vs 100%), the accuracy of T2+T1 (66.67 ± 37.91% vs 98.33 ± 9.13%), and the accuracy of T2+T4 (78.33 ± 33.95% vs 100%). In addition, the bimodal group showed significantly inferior production accuracy of T2+T1 than T2+T2 and T3+T2, p < 0.05. Both bimodal age and implantation age were significantly negatively correlated with the overall production accuracy, p < 0.05. For the error patterns, bimodal participants experienced more errors when T2 was in the first position of the tone combination, and T2 was most likely to be mispronounced as T1 and T3. Bimodal patients aged 3–5 have T2-related disyllabic lexical tone production defects, and their performances are related to tone combination, implantation age, and bimodal age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop a prognostic nomogram for individualized strategies on locoregional radiation therapy (LRRT) in patients with de novo metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (dmNPC) treated with chemoimmunotherapy. Ninety patients with dmNPC treated with chemoimmunotherapy and diagnosed between 2019 and 2022 were included in our study. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify independent prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) to establish a nomogram. With a median follow-up of 17.5 months, the median PFS and OS were 24.9 months and 29.4 months, respectively. Sixty-nine patients and twenty-one patients were included in the LRRT group and without LRRT group, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that younger age, lower EBV DNA copy number before treatment, a single metastatic site, more cycles of chemotherapy and immunotherapy were significantly associated with better OS. A prognostic nomogram was constructed incorporating the above 5 independent factors, with a C-index of 0.894. Patients were divided into low- and high-risk cohorts based on nomogram scores. A significant improvement in OS was revealed in the LRRT group compared with the without-LRRT group for patients in the high-risk cohort (HR = 2.46, 95% CI 1.01–6.00, P = 0.049), while the OS was comparable between the two groups in the low-risk cohort. Our study indicates that LRRT may be associated with better prognosis in high-risk patients with dmNPC in the era of immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the standard security access authentication mechanism of intelligent sensing terminals of massive power Internet of Things, In order to study the standard secure access authentication mechanism of intelligent sensing terminal of massive power Internet of Things, a new privacy protection method widely used in block chain is proposed to prove identity. The traditional power IoT cloud-side interaction security access MQTT protocol still has a lot of room for adaptation and optimization. First, the proposed non-interactive zero-knowledge proof identity authentication method reduces the time of traditional standard secure access authentication process; Second, it reduced the computing resources consumed in a large number of intelligent sensors access authentication. The comparison results show that, the access authentication time of this method is 30% ∼ 50% less than that of the traditional secure access authentication process. The computing resources consumed during authentication are reduced by 20% to 30% compared with traditional security and secrecy mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of DBPR108 (prusogliptin), a novel dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP‐4) inhibitor, as an add‐on therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) that is inadequately controlled with metformin. Materials and Methods: In this 24‐week, multi‐centre, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, superiority, phase III study, adult T2D patients with HbA1c levels ranging from 7.0% to 9.5% on stable metformin were enrolled and randomized (2:1) into the DBPR108 + metformin and placebo + metformin groups. The primary endpoint was the change from baseline in HbA1c at week 24 of DBPR108 versus placebo as an add‐on therapy to metformin. Results: At week 24, the least‐square mean (standard error) change from baseline in HbA1c was significantly greater in the DBPR108 group (−0.70% [0.09%]) than in the placebo group (−0.07% [0.11%]) (P <.001), with a treatment difference of −0.63% (95% confidence interval: −0.87%, −0.39%) on the full analysis set. A higher proportion of patients achieved an HbA1c of 6.5% or less (19.7% vs. 8.5%) and an HbA1c of 7.0% or less (50.0% vs. 21.1%) at week 24 in the DBPR108 + metformin group. Furthermore, add‐on DBPR108 produced greater reductions from baseline in fasting plasma glucose and 2‐hour postprandial plasma glucose without causing weight gain. The overall frequency of adverse events was similar between the two groups. Conclusions: DBPR108 as add‐on therapy to metformin offered a significant improvement in glycaemic control, was superior to metformin monotherapy (placebo) and was safe and well‐tolerated in patients with T2D that is inadequately controlled with metformin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing proportion of wind power connected to grid, power system dispatching is facing more and more challenges from uncertainty. To cope with this uncertainty, robust optimization has been applied in unit commitment (UC) problem. In this paper, a multi‐band uncertainty set considering the temporal correlation (MBUSCTC) of wind/load prediction error is proposed firstly, which has two characteristics: (1) The MBUSCTC rigorously and realistically reflect the distribution characteristics of uncertainties in uncertainty intervals, thereby effectively reducing the conservatism of the traditional singe‐band uncertainty set; (2) the temporal correlation constraints of wind power/load prediction errors in MBUSCTC could limit the realization of uncertainties fluctuating frequently in uncertain intervals, thereby eliminating scenarios with lower probability in uncertainty sets. Then the proposed MBUSCTC is applied to UC problem, leading a robust UC model based on MBUSCTC, which is solved by Benders decomposition method and C&CG method. Finally, case studies based on the modified IEEE‐118 bus system and an actual power system of China demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively reduce the conservativeness of the robust UC model and ensure the robustness of the unit commitment solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating ring bearing has the advantages of simple structure and high operating speed and is widely used in turbocharger and aero-engine. However, many harsh working conditions cause the floating ring bearing to produce starved lubrication and failures. Here, we investigated the starved lubrication characteristics of floating ring bearing via theoretical modeling and numerical simulation. We first established a theoretical model of starved-boundary lubrication based on the Reynolds equation for floating ring bearing. And meanwhile, an oil-film ratio coefficient is introduced into the theoretical model to reflect the degree of starved lubrication. We then analyzed the influence of inlet-boundary conditions (flow rate, oil-film thickness) on the starved-lubrication performance of floating ring bearings. The results showed that the flow rate obviously affects the bearing area of inside and outside oil film, and the oil-film ratio coefficient inside the bearing. When the oil supply is lower than 10 mL/min, the floating ring bearing is in a serious starved-lubrication state, and the oil-film area of bearing is reduced by 30%. The favorable oil supply flow rate can obviously improve the lubrication conditions, and also can predict the starved state of inner oil-film. Our study provides a theoretical basis for the fault detection of floating ring bearing. • Studied the mechanism of oil-starved lubrication on floating ring bearing. • Established model of oil-starved lubrication to calculate lubrication characteristics for floating ring bearing. • Calculated lubrication characteristics under different lubrication conditions. • Analyzed the influence of oil supply on bearing lubrication characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thioglycolic acid (TGA)-coated colloidal AgS quantum dots (QDs) emitting in the near-infrared (NIR) region upon excitation by an 808 nm diode laser were synthesized. The observed photoluminescence (PL) was attributed to the presence of ligand-modified AgS on the QD surfaces and could be easily controlled by a simple dilution process due to the concentration-dependent surface structure of the colloidal QDs. Upon dilution of the solution, the PL intensity initially increased before later decreasing, with a blueshift being observed in the PL spectra. These phenomena can be accounted for by the aggregation of QDs due to a decrease in the content of ligand-modified AgS on the QD surfaces upon dilution, which in turn affected the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and re-emission of the surface energy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag 2 S quantum dots (QDs) coated with thioglycolic acid (Ag 2 S QDs-TGA) have been synthesized in an organic solvent via a stepwise addition of reagents. When excited by a 980 nm laser, the near-infrared-emitting colloidal Ag 2 S QDs-TGA exhibit upconversion luminescence (UCL). The observed photoluminescence (PL) was attributed to the presence of ligand-modified Ag 2 S on the QD surfaces. Hence, upon dilution of the solution, the PL intensity initially increased before subsequently decreasing, accompanied by a blue shift in the PL spectra. The PL phenomena can be attributed to the increase in the amount of ligand-modified Ag 2 S on the QD surfaces upon dilution, which in turn affected the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and re-emission of the surface energy level. The relations between the emission intensity of Ag 2 S QDs-TGA and the excitation power are investigated, and the results confirm that the UCL in Ag 2 S QDs-TGA can be ascribed to a two-photon-assisted absorption process via a real energy state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]