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High thermoelectric performance is a material challenge associated mainly with the manipulation of lattice dynamics to obtain extrinsic phonon transport routes, which can make the lattice thermal conductivity (κlat) intrinsically low by introducing multiple scattering mechanisms. The present study shows that the lattice-strain-induced phonon scattering resulting from microstructural distortions in GeTe-based compounds can enable ultralow lattice thermal conductivity. The unusual lattice shrinkage, W interstitials, W nanoprecipitates, and heavy elemental mass, in Ge0.85Sb0.1W0.05Te culminate in an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of ∼0.2 W m−1 K−1 at 825 K. Microstructural distortions in this Sb/W co-doped GeTe are found to be primarily associated with shorter W–Te bonding owing to the anomalous effect of the higher electronegativity of the W atoms. Furthermore, the increased electrical conductivity (σ) resulting from the enhanced vacancy formation caused by W doping and W interstitials synergistically contributes to optimization of the thermoelectric performance (ZT) to ∼2.93 at 825 K. The thermoelectric efficiency (η) as high as ∼17% has been obtained for a single leg in this composition at an operating temperature of 825 K, with an estimated device ZT value of ∼1.38. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid‐state lithium metal batteries incorporating LiNixCoyMnzO2 (NCM) as cathodes are developed to meet the high‐energy‐density requirements of energy storage systems. Nevertheless, the process of plating and stripping of Li‐ions on lithium metal electrodes causes significant volume changes, in which ultimately degrade battery performance. In this study, an elastomeric electrolyte with special latitude‐longitude interwoven structure is designed and synthesized successfully, which is composed of a crosslinked phase as filler and a polymeric phase as skeleton. With the increase of polymeric phase, the electrolyte changes from an irregular wrinkle structure to latitude‐longitude interwoven structure. The optimal electrolyte ATPE‐1 with a predominant latitude feature demonstrates remarkable resilience of 800% stretchability and high room temperature ionic conductivity (1.72 mS cm−1). Therefore, the close contact and excellent compatibility with lithium metal anode enable the lithium symmetric cell with ATPE‐1 as electrolyte to maintain a stable and extended cycle life for over 2000 h. Additionally, the existence of the supramolecular interaction between the polymeric phase and crosslinked phase effectively increases the decomposition voltage of the electrolyte. A Li/ATPE‐1/NCM622 cell delivers superior rate performance under ambient conditions. This innovative elastomeric electrolyte offers a promising potential for the practical application in high‐performance solid‐state lithium metal batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: Pd‐mediated bioorthogonal cleavage reactions have been extensively utilized in the activation of prodrug molecules, precise regulation of protein function, and cellular engineering. However, the availability of cleavable "caging" groups is quite limited, and their application in nucleic acid modification has seldom been reported. Herein, we introduce a method based on Pd‐catalyzed reduction amination of azides as a decaging strategy to activate the activity of biomolecules. We designed modifications on the bioactive sites with azides or their derivatives to mask the related biological function, followed by the release of biological activity through Pd‐catalyzed NaBH4 reduction amination reaction. This study has demonstrated that the strategy can effectively be used to activate bioactive molecules such as fluorescent probes, prodrugs, and to regulate the biological function of RNA, including reverse transcription extension, binding to ligands, and cleavage activity of the CRISPR‐Cas system. All results confirm that this strategy provides an efficient and controllable "OFF to ON" biological switch, capable of achieving significant regulatory effects substoichiometrically, and is expected to be extended to other biological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is a rare vascular phenotype characterized by abnormal dilation of blood vessels and disruption of coronary artery blood flow, which may promote thrombosis and an inflammatory response. We performed a cross-sectional study to investigate the association of white blood cells to mean platelet volume ratio (WMR) with CAE. Consecutive eligible patients (n = 492) were divided into two groups: including 238 patients with CAE and 254 patients in the normal coronary artery (NCA) group. WMR, the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were found to be significantly associated with CAE in both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In multivariate analysis, the presence of WMR was associated with CAE (the odds ratios (OR) = 1.002, 95% CI: 1.001–1.003, P <.001). In the ROC analysis, the statistics (Z-values) of WMR vs SII and WMR vs NLR were 2.427 and 2.670 and were statistically significant (P =.015 and P =.008), indicating that WMR was superior to SII and NLR in distinguishing WMR. The optimal cut-off value was calculated from the point of maximal sensitivity and specificity by using Youden's index, which was determined to be 635.50. WMR has the potential to be a cost-effective tool to monitor CAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In distributed storage systems, an r-Locally Repairable Code (r-LRC) ensures that a failed symbol can be recovered by accessing at most r other symbols. Prakash et al. in (Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, pp. 2776–2780, 2012) further introduced the concept of (r , δ) -LRC, where δ ≥ 2 , which can deal with the symbol failure in the presence of extra δ - 2 symbol failures still by accessing at most r other symbols. In particular, an r-LRC is just an (r, 2)-LRC. Luo and Ling in (Des Codes Cryptogr 90:1271–1287, 2022) obtained some alphabet-optimal r-LRCs concerning the Cadambe–Mazumdar bound from optimal linear codes constructed by special projective spaces. In this paper, we generalize the results of Luo and Ling in (Des Codes Cryptogr 90:1271–1287, 2022). Firstly, we generalize the result of constructing optimal linear codes to larger code length. In particular, we present the conditions for the constructed linear codes to qualify as Griesmer codes or distance-optimal codes. Secondly, we explore the locality of the constructed codes. The novelty of our work lies in establishing the locality as (r , δ) -locality and (r , δ) -locality with availability, in contrast to the previous literature that only considered r-locality. In addition, through the analysis combining the code parameters and the Cadambe–Mazumdar-like bound for (r , δ) -LRCs, we obtained some alphabet-optimal (r , δ) -LRCs and alphabet-optimal (r , δ) -LRCs with availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for precise diagnostic methods to distinguish between similar respiratory infections, such as COVID-19 and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP). Identifying key biomarkers and utilizing machine learning techniques, such as random forest analysis, can significantly improve diagnostic accuracy. We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical and laboratory data from 214 patients with acute respiratory infections, collected between October 2022 and October 2023 at the Second Hospital of Nanping. The study population was categorized into three groups: COVID-19 positive (n = 52), MP positive (n = 140), and co-infected (n = 22). Key biomarkers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), interleukin- 6 (IL-6), and white blood cell (WBC) counts, were evaluated. Correlation analyses were conducted to assess relationships between biomarkers within each group. The random forest analysis was applied to evaluate the discriminative power of these biomarkers. The random forest model demonstrated high classification performance, with area under the ROC curve (AUC) scores of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.70–0.97) for COVID-19, 0.79 (95% CI: 0.64–0.92) for MP, 0.69 (95% CI: 0.50–0.87) for co-infections, and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.83–0.95) for the micro-average ROC. Additionally, the precision-recall curve for the random forest classifier showed a micro-average AUC of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.69–0.91). Confusion matrices highlighted the model’s accuracy (0.77) and biomarker relationships. The SHAP feature importance analysis indicated that age (0.27), CRP (0.25), IL6 (0.14), and PCT (0.14) were the most significant predictors. The integration of computational methods, particularly random forest analysis, in evaluating clinical and biomarker data presents a promising approach for enhancing diagnostic processes for infectious diseases. Our findings support the use of specific biomarkers in differentiating between COVID-19 and MP, potentially leading to more targeted and effective diagnostic strategies. This study underscores the potential of machine learning techniques in improving disease classification in the era of precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Right aortic arch (RAA) is a common congenital aortic arch abnormality. Fetuses with RAA frequently have good outcomes after birth. However, chromosomal abnormalities and genetic syndromes suggest poor prognosis for these patients. So far the underlying genetic etiology is still not identified in most RAA patients based on traditional genetic techniques and a problem is still debated whether fetuses with isolated RAA should be referred for CMA. Our study aims to investigate the genetic etiology of fetuses with right aortic arch (RAA) by chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) and whole exome sequencing (WES) and evaluate the efficacy of CMA in fetal isolated RAA. Results: Among these 153 fetuses, 99 (64.7%) with isolated RAA and 54 (35.3%) with non-isolated RAA; 25.5% (39/153) with additional intracardiac anomalies (ICA), and 19.0% (29/153) with extracardiac anomalies (ECA). Tetralogy of Fallot (n = 10) and persistent left superior vena cava (n = 11) are the most common ICA and ECA, respectively. CMA detected 15 clinically significant copy number variations (CNVs) in 14 cases (9.2%); microdeletion of 22q11.21 was the most common pathogenic CNVs (7.8%). The chromosomal abnormalities rate was higher in non-isolated RAA and RAA with ICA groups than in isolated RAA group (16.7% vs. 5.1%; 20% vs. 5.1%, both p < 0.05). From five cases further undergoing WES, a diagnostic variant in MTOR gene (c.7255G > A, de novo) was first reported in prenatal, extending the prenatal manifestation of Smith–Kingsmore syndrome (OMIM: 616638); a clinically relevant variant c.3407A > T in STAG2 was identified, being inherited from the healthy mother. Moreover, the premature birth and termination rates were higher in non-isolated RAA group than in isolated RAA group (11.1% vs. 1.0%; 37.0% vs. 2.0%, both p < 0.01). Conclusions: We demonstrate that CMA and WES are useful diagnostic tools for fetal RAA, particularly non-isolated RAA, and all fetuses with RAA should be referred for CMA. The data probably aids in prenatal diagnosis and prenatal counseling of fetal RAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two modifications for Loidreau's cryptosystem, a rank metric-based cryptosystem constructed by using Gabidulin codes in the McEliece setting. Recently a polynomial-time key recovery attack was proposed to break this cryptosystem in some cases. To prevent this attack, we propose the use of subcodes to disguise the secret codes in Modification I. In Modification II, we choose a random matrix of low column rank to mix with the secret matrix. Our analysis shows that these two modifications can both resist the existing structural attacks. Furthermore, these modifications have a much more compact representation of public keys compared to Classic McEliece, which has been selected into the fourth round of the NIST-PQC project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locally repairable codes (LRCs) are linear codes with locality properties for code symbols, which have important applications in distributed storage systems. In this paper, we completely classify all the possible code parameters of optimal ternary LRCs achieving the Singleton-like bound proposed by Gopalan et al. Explicit constructions of optimal ternary LRCs are given for each group of possible code parameters. Moreover, it is also proved that optimal ternary LRCs with maximal minimum distance 6 are unique up to the equivalence of linear codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgroud: A systematic analysis was conducted to investigate the molecular etiology of fetal cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and the association between various types of CL/P and copy number variations (CNVs), as well as their impact on birth outcomes. Methods: In this retrospective study conducted between January 2016 and July 2022, a cohort of pregnancies diagnosed with fetal CL/P was enrolled and comprehensive clinical data for all cases were extracted from our medical record database, including demographic data about the pregnancies, ultrasound findings, results of Chromosomal microarray (CMA), as well as relevant pregnant and perinatal outcomes. Results: Among the 358 cases, 32 clinically significant variants in 29 (8.1%) fetuses with CL/P were detected by CMA. In 338 singleton pregnancies, the diagnostic yield of CMA in the context of CL/P fetuses was determined to be 7.7% (26/338). CP cases exhibited a relatively higher prevalence of pathogenic/likely pathogenic CNVs at a rate of 25% (3/12), followed by CLP cases at 8.0% (23/288). Notably, the CL group did not demonstrate any pathogenic/likely pathogenic CNV findings among the examined cases (0/38). The diagnostic rate of clinically significant variants was notably higher in the non-isolated CL/P group than in the isolated CL/P group (11/33, 33.3% vs. 15/305, 4.9%, p < 0.001). Within the remaining 20 twin pregnancies, three clinically significant variants (15%) were observed. Conclusions: This study provides powerful evidence supporting the efficacy of CMA as a valuable tool for facilitating the prenatal genetic diagnosis of fetal CL/P. The presence of CP and CLP in fetal cases demonstrated a relatively higher incidence of pathogenic/likely pathogenic CNVs. Moreover, when these cases were accompanied by additional ultrasound abnormalities, the likelihood of identifying diagnostic CNVs significantly increased. Conversely, cases of CL alone might not be associated with positive CNVs. The present data may significantly enhance prenatal diagnosis accuracy and facilitate informed genetic counseling for cases of fetal CL/P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic process of Drosophila spermatogenesis involves asymmetric division, mitosis, and meiosis, which ultimately results in the production of mature spermatozoa. Disorders of spermatogenesis can lead to infertility in males. ADAR (adenosine deaminase acting on RNA) mutations in Drosophila cause male infertility, yet the causative factors remain unclear. In this study, immunofluorescence staining was employed to visualize endogenous ADAR proteins and assess protein levels via fluorescence-intensity analysis. In addition, the early differentiation disorders and homeostatic alterations during early spermatogenesis in the testes were examined through quantification of transit-amplifying region length, counting the number of GSCs (germline stem cells), and fertility experiments. Our findings suggest that deletion of ADAR causes testicular tip transit-amplifying cells to accumulate and become infertile in older male Drosophila. By overexpressing ADAR in early germline cells, male infertility can be partially rescued. Transcriptome analysis showed that ADAR maintained early spermatogenesis homeostasis through the bone-morphogenetic-protein (BMP) signaling pathway. Taken together, these findings have the potential to help explore the role of ADAR in early spermatogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabricating carbon nitride (g-C3N4) based photocatalysts with high visible-light utilization efficiency and rapid photogenerated carrier migration rate is crucial for the improvement of photocatalytic hydrogen production. Herein, we designed and prepared Z-scheme O-CNS/MoS2 hybrid composites via a two-step combining with ultrasound sonication method. The obtained O-CNS/MoS2 composites possessed boosting visible-light absorption capacity, revealed by the results of the diffused reflectance spectra (DRS). In contrast to bulk g-C3N4 (u-CNB) and O-CNS samples, the obtained O-CNS/MoS2 composites displayed significantly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen behavior. Specifically, the O-CNS/MoS2 photocatalysts with 5 wt% loading of MoS2 exhibited the highest hydrogen production rate (HPR), which was respectively 26.5 and 1.97 times bigger than that of u-CNB and O-CNS sample correspondingly. This promoted photocatalytic hydrogen behavior was plausibly attributed to the synergistic effect of the porous structure, improved light absorption capacity, and enhanced photoactivated carrier migration rate. Based on comprehensive analysis, the migration and separation pathway of photoactivated carriers were proposed for interpreting the enhancement mechanism of the photocatalytic hydrogen behavior. Our work will open up an innovative strategy for the design and construction of novel g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalysts with boosting photocatalytic hydrogen production behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let p be an odd prime and m and s positive integers, with m even. Let further F p m be the finite field of p m elements and R = F p m + u F p m ( u 2 = 0 ). Then R is a finite chain ring of p 2 m elements, and there is a Gray map from R N onto F p m 2 N which preserves distance and orthogonality, for any positive integer N. It is an interesting approach to obtain self-dual codes of length 2N over F p m by constructing self-dual codes of length N over R. In particular, it has been shown that one of the key problems in constructing self-dual repeated-root cyclic codes over R is to find an effective way to present precisely Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes of length p s over R. But so far, only the number of these codes has been determined in literature. In this paper, we give an efficient way of constructing all distinct Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes of length p s over R by using column vectors of Kronecker products of matrices with specific types. Furthermore, we provide an explicit expression to present precisely all these Hermitian self-dual cyclic codes, using binomial coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permutation codes are studied due to their numerous applications in various applications, such as power line communications, block ciphers, and coding for storage. In this paper, we study perfect permutation codes in S n , the set of all permutations on n elements, under the ℓ ∞ -metric. We present some nonexistence results on perfect t-error-correcting permutation codes in S n under the ℓ ∞ -metric for some t and n. More precisely, we prove that there does not exist a perfect t-error-correcting code in S n under the ℓ ∞ -metric for t and n satisfying 1 ≤ t ≤ 3 , 2 t + 1 ≤ n or for t and n satisfying R 2 t + 1 (n) = 0 , 1 , 2 t , where 0 ≤ R d (n) < d is the residue when dividing the positive integer n by the positive integer d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropometry is vital to provide design references when seeking proper product fit. Nowadays, 3D anthropometry is widely used to provide more size and shape details for improving product designs. However, 3D ear anthropometry is still at an explorative stage, considering the complex ear morphology and other technical obstacles. The proposed research method in this study is applicable to analyse the 3D point cloud of the entire external ear. With the cross-parameterisation technique, the dataset was used to explore the morphological characteristics of the ear. Ear dimensions were automatically extracted and further analysed to explore the gender and symmetry differences using two-way ANOVA. The 3D ear models were investigated through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The most significant variation was found in the helix and concha region, and the overall ear size is the second important factor determining ear variance. The statistical models were generated as 3D design references for ear-related products. Practitioner summary: This study revealed the morphological variations of the entire 3D external ear with a parameterised 3D ear dataset. Based on the PCA findings, a set of statistical models were generated as design references for product evaluation digitally or physically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Codebooks with small maximum cross-correlation amplitudes are used to distinguish the signals from different users in multiple access communication systems in code division. Firstly, this paper studies the Jacobi sums over Galois rings of arbitrary characteristics and completely determines their absolute values. This extends the work by Li et al. (Sci China 56(7):1457–1465, 2013), where the Jacobi sums over some Galois rings with characteristics of a prime square were discussed. It is worth mentioning that the generalization is not trivial, as the Galois rings of arbitrary characteristics have a more complicated structure. Our deterministic construction of codebooks is based on Jacobi sums over Galois rings of arbitrary characteristics, producing asymptotically optimal codebooks for the Welch bound. Finally, compared to the literature, this article proposes for the first time design of codebooks based on Jacobi sums over Galois rings. In addition, the parameters of the presented codebooks are new. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insects produce a variety of highly acrobatic maneuvers in flight owing to their ability to achieve various wing-stroke trajectories. Among them, beetles can quickly change their flight velocities and make agile turns. In this work, we report a newly discovered phasic wing-tip-folding phenomenon and its aerodynamic basis in beetles. The wings' flapping trajectories and aerodynamic forces of the tethered flying beetles were recorded simultaneously via motion capture cameras and a force sensor, respectively. The results verified that phasic active spanwise-folding and deployment (PASFD) can exist during flapping flight. The folding of the wing-tips of beetles significantly decreased aerodynamic forces without any changes in flapping frequency. Specifically, compared with no-folding-and-deployment wings, the lift and forward thrust generated by bilateral-folding-and-deployment wings reduced by 52.2% and 63.0%, respectively. Moreover, unilateral-folding-and-deployment flapping flight was found, which produced a lateral force (8.65 mN). Therefore, a micro-flapping-wing mechanism with PASFD was then designed, fabricated, and tested in a motion capture and force measurement system to validate its phasic folding functions and aerodynamic performance under different operating frequencies. The results successfully demonstrated a significant decrease in flight forces. This work provides valuable insights for the development of flapping-wing micro-air-vehicles with high maneuverability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several deletion and insertion subtypes occur in exon 19 of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, collectively called exon 19 deletions (del19), and are one of the common EGFR mutations in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Previous studies have shown that del19 subtypes might influence the response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), but their findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of del19 subtypes in an Asian population and provide additional evidence on this issue. Materials and Methods: NSCLC patients treated at Chang Gung Medical Hospitals between 2011 and 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Their clinicopathological characteristics, clinical tumor response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were collected. PFS was evaluated among different del19 subtypes and EGFR-TKIs. Results: This study included 164 patients with NSCLC carrying an EGFR del19 mutation who had detailed information about their del19 subtype and were treated with frontline EGFR-TKIs (39 with afatinib and 125 with gefitinib/erlotinib). In this cohort, del19 subtypes did not influence PFS and OS based on different classifications, including start codon of deletion, the number of deleted nucleotides, or pure deletion versus mixed deletion/ insertion/substitution. In addition, afatinib generally showed better PFS than gefitinib/erlotinib, particularly and significantly for patients with the p. E746&lowbar;A750 mutation, a common 15 nucleotide deletion, or a pure deletion without insertion/substitution. Conclusion: In this study, del19 subtypes did not influence PFS and OS with EGFR-TKIs. Afatinib showed better activity than first-generation TKIs and should be preferred for patients with del19 mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acid ceramidase (ACDase) deficiency is an ultrarare autosomal recessive lysosomal disorder caused by pathogenic N‐acylsphingosine amidohydrolase (ASAH1) variants. It presents with either Farber disease (FD) or spinal muscular atrophy with progressive myoclonic epilepsy (SMA‐PME). Objective: The study aims to identify a novel splice site variant in a hydrops fetus that causes ASAH1‐related disorder, aid genetic counseling, and accurate prenatal diagnosis. Methods: We report a case of hydrops fetalis with a novel homozygous mutation in ASAH1 inherited from non‐consanguineous parents. We performed copy number variation sequencing (CNV‐Seq) and whole exome sequencing (WES) on the fetus and family, respectively. Minigene splicing analyses were conducted to confirm the pathogenic variants. Results: WES data revealed a splice site variant of the ASAH1 (c.458‐2A>T), which was predicted to affect RNA splicing. Minigene splicing analyses found that the c.458‐2A>T variant abolished the canonical splicing of intron 6, thereby activating two cryptic splicing products (c.456_458ins56bp and c.458_503del). Conclusions: Overall, we identified a novel splice site variant in the mutational spectrum of ASAH1 and its aberrant effect on splicing. These findings highlight the importance of ultrasonic manifestation and family history of fetal hydrops during ASAH1‐related disorders and could also aid genetic counseling and accurate prenatal diagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest‐lived account of ASAH1‐related disorders in utero with severe hydrops fetalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simultaneous attainment of long cycle life and high energy in Si anodes remains challenging. Herein, we introduce the concept of primary building units as organizing units to construct durable and conductive electrode architectures, which helps to facilitate the coalescence of Si nanoparticles with conductive pathways and prevent nanoparticle aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess prenatal diagnosis and pregnancy outcomes in twin pregnancies where one fetus has nuchal translucency (NT) above the 95th percentile. Method: In this retrospective analysis, 130 twin pregnancies (260 fetuses) in which one twin had an NT measurement above the 95th percentile while that of the other twin was normal were analyzed. Prenatal diagnostic results such as G bands, chromosomal microarray analysis, ultrasound findings, and pregnancy outcomes were reviewed. Results: Karyotype analysis and CMA results revealed that 15 (15.6 percent, 15/96) fetuses exhibited chromosomal abnormalities and that 13 fetuses were Variant of Uncertain Significance. Chromosome abnormalities were detected at a rate of 8.9% (5/56) in the DCT group and 25.0% (10/40) in the MCT group (p = 0.033, X2 = 4.571). 2 fetuses in DCT (3.9 percent, 2/51) and 4 fetuses in MCT (13.3 percent, 4/30) (p = 0.187) revealed structural abnormalities among the cases with normal prenatal diagnosis. Fetuses in the DCT group had an overall survival rate of 75.4 percent (95/126), whereas those in the MCT group had a survival rate of 60.4 percent (81/134) (p = 0.01, X2 = 6.636). According to the findings of Logistics regression analysis, NT thickening, maternal age and method of conception were all significant risk factors for chromosome abnormalities. Conclusion: In twin pregnancies with one fetus with NT above the 95th percentile, the prevalence of fetal structural abnormalities of the MCT group and the DCT group were comparable. Pregnant women's age and mode of pregnancy are risk factors for chromosomal abnormalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keyboard instruments play a significant role in the music teaching process, providing students with an enjoyable musical experience while enhancing their music literacy. This study aims to investigate the current state of keyboard instrument teaching in preschool education, identify existing challenges, and propose potential solutions using the literature review method. In response to identified shortcomings, this paper proposes integrating intelligent technology and subject teaching through the application of teaching robots in keyboard instrument education. Specifically, a Convolutional Neural Network model of Deep Learning is employed for system debugging, enabling the teaching robot to analyze students' images and movements during musical instrument play and deliver targeted teaching. Feedback from students who participated in keyboard instrument teaching with the robot indicates high satisfaction levels. This paper aims to diversify keyboard instruments' teaching mode, introduce the practical application of robots in classroom teaching, and facilitate personalized teaching catering to individual students' aptitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Purpose: Retrospective back-to-back comparisons were performed to evaluate the accuracy, effectiveness, and incremental yield of chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) and exome sequencing (ES) analysis in fetuses with digestive system malformations (DSMs). (2) Methods: In total, 595 women with fetal DSMs who underwent prenatal diagnosis were enrolled. We analyzed the diagnostic yields of CMA and ES and evaluated pregnancy outcomes. Copy number variants (CNVs) were classified according to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. (3) Results: Pathogenic CNVs were detected in 11/517 (2.12%) fetuses, and variants of unknown significance (VUS) were identified in 69 (13.35%) fetuses using CMA. ES detected 29 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants in 23/143 (16.08%) fetuses and 26/143 (18.2%) VUS. In those with other ultrasound abnormalities, the detection rate of multiple system structural malformations was 41.2%, followed by skeletal (33.3%), cardiovascular (25.4%), and central nervous system (18.6%) malformations. Of the 391 surviving children, 40 (10.2%) exhibited varying degrees of mental retardation. (4) Conclusion: A correlation exists between DSMs and chromosomal abnormalities. When combined with other systemic abnormalities, the incidence of chromosomal abnormalities increases significantly. Patients with congenital DSM are at risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. Combined CMA and ES detection of fetal DSM has good clinical application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Sacubitril/valsartan is a new cardiovascular agent characterized by its dual inhibition on the reninangiotensin system (RAS) and the neprilysin. As neprilysin also involved itself in the degradation of amyloid‐β, there is an ongoing concern about the effect of sacubitril/valsartan on cognition, especially in case of long‐term administration. Methods: The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) was mined between 2015Q3 and 2022Q4 to analyze the association between sacubitril/valsartan and adverse events (AEs) involving dementia. Standardized Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) Queries (SMQs) with "broad" and "narrow" preferred terms (PTs) relevant to dementia was applied to systematically search demented AE reports. The Empirical Bayes Geometric Mean (EBGM) from Multi‐Item Gamma Poisson Shrinker (MGPS) and proportional reporting ratio with Chi‐square (PRR, χ2) were used to calculate the disproportionality. Results: We filtered the query for indication and identified 80,316 reports with heart failure indication in FAERS during the analytical period. Among all the reports, sacubitril/valsartan was listed as primary suspected or secondary suspected drug in 29,269 cases. No significantly elevated reporting rates of narrow dementia were evident with sacubitril/valsartan. The EBGM05 for narrow dementia‐related AEs associated with sacubitril/valsartan was 0.88 and the PRR (χ2) was 1.22 (2.40). Similarly, broad demented complications were not over‐reported in the heart failure patients administrated with sacubitril/valsartan (EBGM05 1.11; PRR 1.31, χ2 109.36). Conclusion: The number of dementia‐related cases reported to FAERS generate no safety signal attributable to sacubitril/valsartan in patients with heart failure for now. Further follow‐ups are still warranted to address this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great progress has been made by regulating functional electrolytes for Mg metal batteries to achieve high capacity and stability. However, the electrolytes enabled by functional additives need to overcome the ever-existing contradiction between increasing additives in the electrolytes and the cell energy densities, which is much more meaningful for practical applications calling for high energy densities of full-cells. Herein, we reported a dual-salt electrolyte, composed of Mg and Li salts, which functions as a bifunctional electrolyte to simultaneously optimize the cathode and anode in Mg batteries. The electrolyte resulted in a unique Mg2+/Li+ co-insertion organic cathode, enabling a Mg–Li hybrid storage battery of ∼23 W h kg−1 with an ultra-long lifetime of more than 3000 cycles. This work may provide new insights into multiple-ion storage in organic electrodes for advanced batteries, considering the great potential of organic structural design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable batteries based on multivalent cation (Mvn+, n>1) carriers are considered potentially low‐cost alternatives to lithium‐ion batteries. However, the high charge‐density Mvn+ carriers generally lead to sluggish kinetics and poor structural stability in cathode materials. Herein, we report an Mvn+ storage via intercalation pseudocapacitance mechanism in a 2D bivalve‐like organic framework featured with localized ligands. By switching from conventional intercalation to localized ligand‐assisted‐intercalation pseudocapacitance, the organic cathode exhibits unprecedented fast kinetics with little structural change upon intercalation. It thus enables an excellent power density of 57 kW kg−1 over 20000 cycles for Ca2+ storage and a power density of 14 kW kg−1 with a long cycling life over 45000 cycles for Zn2+ storage. This work may provide a largely unexploited route toward constructing a local dynamic coordination microstructure for ultrafast Mvn+ storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable batteries based on multivalent cation (Mvn+, n>1) carriers are considered potentially low‐cost alternatives to lithium‐ion batteries. However, the high charge‐density Mvn+ carriers generally lead to sluggish kinetics and poor structural stability in cathode materials. Herein, we report an Mvn+ storage via intercalation pseudocapacitance mechanism in a 2D bivalve‐like organic framework featured with localized ligands. By switching from conventional intercalation to localized ligand‐assisted‐intercalation pseudocapacitance, the organic cathode exhibits unprecedented fast kinetics with little structural change upon intercalation. It thus enables an excellent power density of 57 kW kg−1 over 20000 cycles for Ca2+ storage and a power density of 14 kW kg−1 with a long cycling life over 45000 cycles for Zn2+ storage. This work may provide a largely unexploited route toward constructing a local dynamic coordination microstructure for ultrafast Mvn+ storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dandy–Walker malformation (DWM) is characterized by neuron dysregulation in embryonic development; however, the regulatory mechanisms associated with it are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of NADH dehydrogenase 1 alpha subcomplex 4 (NDUFA4) in regulating downstream signaling cascades and neuronal proliferation and apoptosis. Ndufa4 overexpression promoted the proliferation of neurons and inhibited their apoptosis in vitro, which underwent reverse regulation by the Ndufa4 short hairpin RNAs. Ndufa4-knockout (KO) mice showed abnormal histological alterations in the brain tissue, in addition to impaired spatial learning capacity and exploratory activity. Ndufa4 depletion altered the microRNA expressional profiles of the cerebellum: Ndufa4 inhibited miR-145a-5p expression both in the cerebellum and neurons. miR-145a-5p inhibited the proliferation of neurons and promoted their apoptosis. Ndufa4 promoted and miR-145a-5p inhibited the expression of human homer protein homolog 1 and cyclin D2 in neurons. Thus, Ndufa4 promotes the proliferation of neurons and inhibits their apoptosis by inhibiting miR-145a-5p, which directly targets and inhibits the untranslated regions of Homer1 and Ccnd2 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fetal hyperechogenic kidneys (HEK) is etiologically a heterogeneous disorder. The aim of this study was to identify the genetic causes of HEK using prenatal chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) and exome sequencing (ES). From June 2014 to September 2022, we identified 92 HEK fetuses detected by ultrasound. We reviewed and documented other ultrasound anomalies, microscopic and submicroscopic chromosomal abnormalities, and single gene disorders. We also analyzed the diagnostic yield of CMA and ES and the clinical impact the diagnosis had on pregnancy management. In our cohort, CMA detected 27 pathogenic copy number variations (CNVs) in 25 (25/92, 27.2%) fetuses, with the most common CNV being 17q12 microdeletion syndrome. Among the 26 fetuses who underwent further ES testing, we identified 7 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants and 8 variants of uncertain significance in 9 genes in 12 fetuses. Four novel variants were first reported herein, expanding the mutational spectra for HEK-related genes. Following counseling, 52 families chose to continue the pregnancy, and in 23 of them, postnatal ultrasound showed no detectable renal abnormalities. Of these 23 cases, 15 had isolated HEK on prenatal ultrasound. Taken together, our study showed a high rate of detectable genetic etiologies in cases with fetal HEK at the levels of chromosomal (aneuploidy), sub-chromosomal (microdeletions/microduplications), and single gene (point mutations). Therefore, we speculate that combined CMA and ES testing for fetal HEK is feasible and has good clinical utility. When no genetic abnormalities are identified, the findings can be transient, especially in the isolated HEK group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gingko biloba accumulates high levels of secondary metabolites of pharmaceutical value. Ginkgo calli develop a typical browning that reduces its regenerative capacity and thus its usefulness. To elucidate the browning mechanism, histological, transcriptomic, and metabolic alterations were compared between green and browning calli derived from immature ginkgo embryos. Histological observations revealed that browning calli had a more loosely arranged cell structure and accumulated more tannins than in green calli. Integrated metabolic and transcriptomic analyses showed that phenylpropanoid metabolism was specifically activated in the browning calli, and 428 differentially expressed genes and 63 differentially abundant metabolites, including 12 flavonoid compounds, were identified in the browning calli compared to the green calli. Moreover, the expression of flavonol synthase (FLS) and UDP-glucuronosyl-transferase (UGT) genes involved in the flavonoid pathway was more than tenfold higher in browning calli than in green calli, thus promoting biosynthesis of flavonol, which serves as a substrate to form glycosylated flavonoids. Flavonoid glycosides constituted the major coloring component of the browning calli and may act in response to multiple stress conditions to delay cell death caused by browning. Our results revealed the cellular and biochemical changes in browning callus cells that accompanied changes in expression of browning-related genes, providing a scientific basis for improving ginkgo tissue culturability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let p be any odd prime number and let m, k be arbitrary positive integers. The construction for self-dual cyclic codes of length p k over the Galois ring GR (p 2 , m) is the key to construct self-dual cyclic codes of length p k n over the integer residue class ring Z p 2 for any positive integer n satisfying gcd (p , n) = 1 . So far, existing literature has only determined the number of these self-dual cyclic codes (Des Codes Cryptogr 63:105–112, 2012). In this paper, we give an efficient construction for all distinct self-dual cyclic codes of length p k over GR (p 2 , m) by using column vectors of Kronecker products of matrices with specific types. On this basis, we further obtain an explicit expression for all these self-dual cyclic codes by using binomial coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Succinonitrile‐based plastic crystal electrolytes have emerged for high‐energy‐density Li metal batteries in terms of their superior ambient ionic conductivity, low flammability, and benign compatibility with high voltage cathode, but are hampered by inherent instabilities toward Li anodes. Constructing hierarchical solid electrolytes structure is a fundamental approach to protect Li anode from succinonitrile attacks, with succinonitrile‐based oxidation‐resistance layer facing high voltage cathode and reduction‐tolerant layer contacting Li anode. However, free succinonitrile molecules in succinonitrile‐based electrolyte layer can diffuse across the electrolyte/electrolyte interface and further reach Li anode surface during the battery cycle. This chemical "crosstalk" cause reduction‐tolerant electrolyte layer to fail to protect the Li anode from the attacks of free succinonitrile molecules. Nano Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12 is introduced creatively into succinonitrile‐based electrolyte layer. By taking advantage of the complexation between La atoms in Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12 and N atoms in succinonitrile, the free succinonitrile molecules are successfully immobilized in succinonitrile‐based electrolyte layer. The resulting low resistance and highly durable solid electrolyte interphase and cathode electrolyte interphase endow NCM622||Li batteries with remarkable cycle stability. Our research provides a new idea for the real application of plastic crystal electrolytes in high voltage solid‐state lithium metal batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel phosphide (Ni2P), as an anode material for both lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, offers high theoretical specific and volumetric capacities. However, considerable challenges include its limited rate capability and low cycle stability arising from its volume change and degradation during cycling. To solve these issues, appropriate composite micro/nanoparticle designs can improve conductivity and provide confinement. Herein, we report a simple pyrolysis method to synthesize nitrogen-doped carbon-coated Ni2P nanorod arrays (Ni2P@NC) from nickel foam and an ionic resin as a source of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The N-doped open-ended carbon shells provide Ni2P containment, good electrical conductivity, efficient electrolyte access and the buffering of bulk strain during cycling. Consequently, as a LIB anode material, Ni2P@NC has impressive specific capacity in long-term cycling (630 mAh g−1 for 150 cycles at 0.1 A g−1) and a high rate capability of 170 mAh g−1 for 6000 cycles at 5 A g−1. Similarly, as a SIB anode, Ni2P@NC retains a sizable 288 mAh g−1 over 300 cycles at 0.1 A g−1, and 150 mAh g−1 over 2000 cycles at 2 A g−1. Furthermore, due to a sizable portion of its capacity coinciding with adequately low voltage, the material shows promise for high volumetric energy storage in full-cell format. Lastly, the simple synthesis method has the potential to produce other carbon-coated metal phosphides for electrochemical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A linear code is called a locally repairable code (LRC) with locality r if one can recover an erased code symbol by accessing at most r other code symbols. Constructions of LRCs have been widely investigated in recent years. In this paper, we give a step forward in this direction. Firstly, we propose a novel concept of perfect LRCs whose size exactly achieves the Hamming-type bound, similar to the perfect codes that achieving the Hamming bound in classical coding theory. By the parity-check matrix approach, we establish some important connections between the existence of LRCs and the existence of some subsets of finite geometry and finite fields with certain properties, respectively. By employing q-Steiner systems and sunflowers in projective geometry and difference sets in finite fields, we obtain two new constructions of perfect LRCs with flexible parameters and present several new constructions of k-optimal LRCs achieving another Hamming-type bound under the integers restriction. Moreover, for fixed q and r, the code lengths of all the q-ary r-LRCs constructed in this paper can be arbitrarily large and the code rates can asymptotically achieve the upper bound r r + 1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate ICU nurses' knowledge level with regard to device‐related pressure injuries in northern, central, and southern China and analyse its influencing factors. A total of 261 ICU nurses participated in this cross‐sectional survey A convenience sampling method was used to select ICU nurses as respondents from one hospital in each of the six cities of Taiyuan, Wuhan, Xianning, Guangzhou, Foshan, and Huizhou. Data were collected using the MDRPI Knowledge Questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed by the investigators based on a summary of evidence of MDRPI, which has been reviewed and validated by experts. The obtained data were analysed using SPSS software. The average rate of the correct response about MDRPI was 60.54% (15.74 ± 2.90). The lowest percentage of correct responses was on the "concept and staging" dimension rated 28% (0.56 ± 0.67). The "skin assessment" dimension rated 39.2% (1.57 ± 0.84). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the factors influencing the MDRPI knowledge of ICU nurses included hospital grade, the highest educational attainment, whether or not they had wound care certification, when they last attended MDRPI training or lectures, and whether or not they had attended MDRPI training or lectures. The level of knowledge of nurses about MDRPI was insufficient. Training of ICU nurses on MDRPI should be emphasised at the institutional level. MDRPI training contents should be based on clinical evidence and updated timely. There is a need to focus on the training of wound care certification and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast and continuous ion insertion is blocked in the common electrodes operating with widely accepted single‐ion storage mechanism, primarily due to Coulomb repulsion between the same ions. It results in an irreconcilable conflict between capacity and rate performance. Herein, we designed a porous organic framework with novel multiple‐ion co‐storage modes, including PF6−/Li+, OTF−/Mg2+, and OTF−/Zn2+ co‐storage. The Coulomb interactions between cationic and anionic carriers in the framework can significantly promote electrode kinetics, by rejuvenating fast ion carrier migration toward framework interior. Consequently, the framework via PF6−/Li+ co‐storage mode shows a high energy density of 878 Wh kg−1 cycled more than 20 000 cycles, with an excellent power density of 28 kW kg−1 that is already comparable to commercial supercapacitors. The both greatly improved energy and power densities via the co‐storage mode may pave a way for exploring new electrodes that are not available from common single‐ion electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast and continuous ion insertion is blocked in the common electrodes operating with widely accepted single‐ion storage mechanism, primarily due to Coulomb repulsion between the same ions. It results in an irreconcilable conflict between capacity and rate performance. Herein, we designed a porous organic framework with novel multiple‐ion co‐storage modes, including PF6−/Li+, OTF−/Mg2+, and OTF−/Zn2+ co‐storage. The Coulomb interactions between cationic and anionic carriers in the framework can significantly promote electrode kinetics, by rejuvenating fast ion carrier migration toward framework interior. Consequently, the framework via PF6−/Li+ co‐storage mode shows a high energy density of 878 Wh kg−1 cycled more than 20 000 cycles, with an excellent power density of 28 kW kg−1 that is already comparable to commercial supercapacitors. The both greatly improved energy and power densities via the co‐storage mode may pave a way for exploring new electrodes that are not available from common single‐ion electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlation between the electrodes and the properties of the BiI3 device is systematically investigated. The X‐ray and UV photoemission spectroscopies are carried out to study the chemical state and electronic structure of the metal/BiI3 interfaces formed by the in‐situ deposition of BiI3 on the metal. This revealed the upward diffusion of Ag and the self‐formation of a conductive filament; the latter is further confirmed via tunneling electron microscopy. By coating the Au substrate with Ag layers of various thicknesses as a buffer layer, the morphology, surface roughness, chemical states, and quantity of the filament in the BiI3 layer can be manipulated. The device with the structure of Au/10 nm Ag/BiI3/Au demonstrated an ultrahigh on/off ratio of 109, good retention of 104 s, and multistate data storage. This study provides not only a fundamental insight into the interaction of BiI3 with metal, which will be helpful to design resistive switching devices and optoelectronics based on BiI3 material, but also a facile method to control the quantity of conductive filament in the BiI3 layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Objective: To evaluate the application of chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) in fetuses with pulmonary atresia (PA) and to explore the risk factors for predicting chromosomal imbalances and adverse perinatal outcomes. (2) Methods: This study investigated 428 cases of PA singleton pregnancies that were tested using CMA and quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) as first-line genetic testing. The PA cases were divided into two groups: an isolated group and a non-isolated group. (3) Results: CMA revealed clinically relevant copy number variations (CNVs) in 9/139 (6.47%) PA fetuses, i.e., pathogenic copy number variations (pCNVs) in 8/139 (5.76%) fetuses and likely pathogenic CNVs in 1/139 (0.72%) fetuses. Stratified analysis showed that the incidence of clinically significant variants was higher in non-isolated PA fetuses than in isolated PA fetuses (12.50%, 6/48 vs. 3.30%, 3/91, p = 0.036). Regression analysis showed that a combination of other structural abnormalities at diagnosis of PA represented the principal risk factor for chromosomal imbalances (OR = 2.672). A combination of other structural abnormalities and a high maternal age increased the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in PA cases, including intrauterine fetal death (IUFD), termination of pregnancy (TOP), and preterm delivery. (4) Conclusions: The value of CMA for locating imbalanced genetic variations in fetuses with PA was highlighted by this study, particularly when combined with additional structural abnormalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This retrospective study aimed to investigate the value of whole exome sequencing (WES) for clubfoot (CF) fetuses with or without other structural abnormalities and to further explore the genetic causes of fetal CF. Methods: this study included 83 singleton pregnancies diagnosed with fetal CF referred to our center between January 2016 and March 2022; cases were divided into two groups: isolated CF and non-isolated CF. After excluding cases with positive karyotyping and chromosomal microarray analysis results, WES was performed for the eligible fetuses and parents. Monogenic variants detected by WES and perinatal outcomes were recorded and evaluated at postnatal follow-up. Results: overall, clinically significant variations were identified in 12.0% (10/83) of fetuses, and the detection rate was significantly higher in the non-isolated than in the isolated CF group (8/36, 22.2% vs. 2/47, 4.3%, p = 0.031). We additionally detected eight (9.6%) fetuses harboring variants of unknown significance. We identified 11 clinically significant variations correlating with clinical phenotypes in nine genes from ten fetuses, with KLHL40 being the most frequent (n = 2). Furthermore, we observed a significant difference in termination and survival rates between isolated and non-isolated CF cases (27.6 vs. 77.8% and 59.6 vs. 19.4%, p < 0.001 for both). Conclusion: our data indicate that WES has a high additional diagnostic yield for the molecular diagnosis of fetal CF, markedly enhancing existing prenatal diagnostic capabilities and expanding our understanding of intrauterine genetic disorders, thus assisting us to better interpret fetal phenotype in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi-2-dimensional cyclic (Q2DC) codes over finite fields are important linear codes. They are asymptotically good, and have deep connection with convolutional codes. In this paper, using the trace representation and Gauss sums, we determine the Hamming weight distribution of Q2DC codes. As an application, we construct some classes of constant weight Q2DC codes achieving the Griesmer bound and some classes of two-weight, three-weight Q2DC codes. Moreover, by two-weight Q2DC codes, we obtain secret sharing schemes and association schemes under some special cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quaternary sequence is said to be good if its maximum nontrivial autocorrelation is very low relative to its period. In this paper, we present some new classes of quaternary sequences with low autocorrelation of period N via two binary cyclotomic sequences, where N ≡ 1 (mod 4) is an odd prime. Furthermore, we determine the linear complexity and minimal polynomials of these quaternary sequences over F 2 2 as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two constructions of frequency-hopping sequence (FHS for short) sets with respect to aperiodic Hamming correlation (AHC for short) are presented. Based on the presented constructions, we obtain several classes of optimal or near optimal FHS sets from cyclic codes and some known FHS sets with periodic partial Hamming correlation (PPHC for short), and explicitly determine their parameters. Moreover, the parameters of the obtained FHS sets are new and have large family size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]