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Experiments have shown that crystalline–amorphous nanolayered composites show a strong size dependence in strength and plasticity. However, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here, the layer thickness (h)-dependent compressive strength and plastic deformation of Nb/amorphous CuNb nanolayered composites with h ranging from 2.8 to 20 nm have been studied by molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the strength increases monotonically with the decrease of h, which can be well captured by the refined confined layer slip model. Furthermore, the shear banding-induced strain localization was analyzed in detail based on the evolution of the von Mises strain distribution with the applied strain and a strain localization parameter that represents the deviation of the specific atomic Mises strain from the average one of all atoms. The results show that the strain localization of the composite shows a significant size dependence and its magnitude increases with the decrease in the layer thickness. The prevention of shear band propagation in thicker layer samples is attributed to that the amorphous phase is capable of forming an atomic vortex to alleviate the strain concentration caused by dislocation absorption. The thicker amorphous layers accommodate enhanced homogeneous plasticity than the thinner ones by forming a larger vortex. Note that the above size dependence of strength and strain localization in the composite agrees well with existing experimental measurements and observations in the layer thickness range considered. As a result, the present work gives a deeper insight into the understanding of the size-dependent strengthening and strain localization mechanism in the amorphous/crystalline composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Dragonfly topology is a commonly utilized design for interconnection networks in parallel and distributed systems. A classical dragonfly can be denoted as dragonfly(k$$ k $$,m$$ m $$,l$$ l $$), wherem$$ m $$ is the number of routers in a group,l$$ l $$ is the number of links per router connected to other groups, andk$$ k $$ is the number of links per router connected to compute nodes. Each router has otherm−1$$ m-1 $$ links fully connected to otherm−1$$ m-1 $$ routers within a group. Each group hasml$$ ml $$ links connected to other groups. The groups are also fully connected, therefore there areml+1$$ ml+1 $$ groups in total. The router radix in a dragonfly(k$$ k $$,m$$ m $$,l$$ l $$) isl+k+m−1$$ l+k+m-1 $$. Building a large dragonfly system requires a large number of high‐radix routers, increasing hardware costs. To reduce hardware costs, this paper proposes a more flexible topology called dimension‐extended dragonfly (DED). Rather than routers in a group being fully connected, each router in a group is arranged in ann$$ n $$‐dimensional matrix, and routers of the same dimension are fully connected. We usen$$ n $$ to denote the dimension such that each group in the DED hasmn$$ {m}^n $$ routers. This study comprehensively evaluates DED in terms of cost, performance, fault tolerance, and packet latency. The findings show that DED provides a more economical hardware solution compared to traditional Dragonfly and Cascade topologies, especially forn≥3$$ n\ge 3 $$. Beyond cost‐efficiency, DED enhances system design flexibility. It offers diverse possibilities for system scaling through different combinations of diameter and radix, giving system architects more adaptable options. To further enhance the versatility of DED, three disjoint path routing algorithms are proposed and their fault tolerance is evaluated through simulation. The simulation results also show that the packet latency of DED is lower than dragonfly and cascade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is characterized by high mortality rates and various complications, including skeletal muscle atrophy, which significantly exacerbates its outcomes. Despite its clinical relevance, the mechanistic understanding of the relationship between skeletal muscle and the pancreas in SAP remains limited. Our study aimed to elucidate this "organ crosstalk" and its potential implications. Methods: We established an SAP mouse model through pancreatic duct ligation (PDL) and evaluated pancreatic necrosis, skeletal muscle atrophy, and myonectin expression levels. Recombinant myonectin protein was administered in vivo and in vitro to assess its effects on acinar cell necrosis. Mechanistic insights were gained through RNA-seq data analysis and experimental validation. Serum samples from AP patients and healthy controls were collected to investigate the correlation between serum myonectin levels and disease severity. Results: The mouse model exhibited severe pancreatic necrosis, skeletal muscle atrophy, and elevated myonectin levels, with myonectin administration exacerbating model severity. We identified iron accumulation-induced ferroptosis as a key pathway contributing to myonectin-mediated acinar cell necrosis. A total of 22 healthy controls and 52 patients with varying degrees of AP were included in the serum samples and clinical data (36.5% females, age 49.79 ± 16.53). Analysis of serum samples revealed significantly higher myonectin levels in AP patients, correlating with disease severity (R = 0.28, P = 0.041). Conclusions: Our findings underscore the significant role of myonectin in SAP progression and its potential as a prognostic marker for disease severity in AP patients. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology of SAP and highlights potential therapeutic targets for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Paris Olympic cycle, South Korean women's athlete An Se-young rose to the top of the 2023 BWF Olympic points with a win rate of 89.5%. With An Se-young as the subject, this paper aims to carry out technical and tactical analysis of women's badminton singles and formulate a prediction model based on machine learning. Firstly, An's technical and tactical statistics are analyzed and presented in a proposed "three-stage" data classification method. Secondly, we improve our "three-stage" machine learning dataset using video analysis of 10 matches (21 point games) where An Se-young faced off against four other players ranked in the top five of the World Badminton Federation (BWF) in week 44 of 2023. Finally, we establish a prediction model for the scoring and losing of points in the women's badminton singles based on the 'Decision tree', 'Random forest', 'XGBoost', 'Support vector' and 'K-proximity' algorithms, and analyze the effectiveness of this model. The results show that the improved data classification is reasonable and can be used to predict the final score of a match. When the support vector machine uses the RBF function kernel, the accuracy reaches its highest at 87.5%, and the consistency of this prediction model is strong. An's playstyle is sustained and unified; she does not seek continuous pressure, but rather exploits and maximizes her aggression following any mistake made by her opponents, immediately utilizing assault methods such as kills or dives, often resulting in the conversion of points during the subsequent 2–3 strikes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanograined materials possess ultrahigh strength, while their processing and technological applications are constrained by inherent thermal and mechanical instability. Existing experiments show that the stability of Cu nanograins can be enhanced by performing a rapid heating pretreatment that reduces the grain boundary (GB) energy by changing the GB structure. The variation in the GB structure inevitably affects the migration mechanism of GBs. However, the effect of the pretreatment-induced variation in migration mechanisms on stability remains unclear. Here, the shear deformation of a series of ⟨ 100 ⟩ symmetrical tilt GBs after rapid heating pretreatment is systematically investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The simulations of unheated GBs are also included for comparison. Our results show that the rapid heating pretreatment does not improve the mechanical stability of GBs with tilt angles larger than 36.87° but rather enhances the mechanical stability of those with tilt angles less than 36.87° by the transformation of migration behavior from the normal ⟨ 110 ⟩ mode to (i) a ⟨ 100 ⟩ mode; (ii) an inhomogeneous mixed one that reconciles the ⟨ 110 ⟩ and ⟨ 100 ⟩ modes; and (iii) an inhomogeneous ⟨ 110 ⟩ mode. The former leads to an increase in the critical shear stress that is required to initiate the migration, whereas the latter two result in a decrease in the migration distance. The variation in the GB migration mechanism is attributed to the change in the GB structure from an ordered kite structure to a disordered one. The research gives an atomic insight into the stabilizing mechanism of nanocrystalline materials with rapid heating pretreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sports practices, the intensity and type of forces exerted on the human body are totally different from everyday living. Harsh movements and impact loadings are very common in sports and sometimes cause severe injuries to both muscles and bones. In a specific case, in volleyball games, the lower arm of the player is continuously exposed to heavy impacts by the ball. The main part of the body enduring these impact loads are the two ulna and radius bones in the lower arm. Therefore, in this type of ball impacts it is important to investigate the effect of ball movement and condition on the stress-induced in bones. In the present study, using numerical finite element and generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) methods, stability conditions in the ulna and radius bones in volleyball players under several static and harmonic loading types are investigated. Furthermore, change in the ball mass in the standard range is also considered in analyses. The bone structure is modeled as a cylindrical shell with classical elasticity theory and for inhomogeneous material properties. The results obtained using the numerical method are presented with a focus on the state of stability of the both ulna and radius bones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroptosis, characterized by lipid peroxidation, plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis (AP). While sterol O-acyltransferase 2 (Soat2) is known for its crucial regulatory role in cholesterol homeostasis, its involvement in the development of AP remains unreported. We conducted this study to identify the pivotal role of Soat2 in AP using transcriptomic databases. Subsequently, we confirmed its alterations through both in vitro and in vivo experimental models. Furthermore, we performed intervention with the Soat2 inhibitor avasimibe to evaluate pancreatic tissue pathology and serum enzymatic levels and observe inflammatory cell infiltration through immunohistochemistry. Additionally, changes in indicators related to ferroptosis were also observed. The results showed that in the AP mouse model, the protein and mRNA levels of Soat2 were significantly increased. Following avasimibe administration, there was a decrease in serum amylase levels, reduction in pancreatic tissue pathological damage, and attenuation of inflammatory cell infiltration. Furthermore, avasimibe administration resulted in downregulation of ferroptosis-related indicators. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the Soat2 inhibitor avasimibe protects against AP in mice through inhibition of the ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate perception of external environment information through the robot foot is crucial for the mobile robot to evaluate its ability to traverse terrain. Adequate foot-end contact signals can provide robust support for robot motion control and decision-making processes. The shape and uncertain rotation of the wheel-legged robot foot end represent a significant challenge to sensing the robot foot-end contact state, which current foot-end sensing schemes cannot solve. This paper presents a sensing method for the tire stress field of wheel-legged robots. A finite element analysis was conducted to study the deformation characteristics of the foot-end tire under force. Based on this analysis, a heuristic contact position estimator was designed that utilizes symmetrical deformation characteristics. Strain sensors, arranged in an array, extract the deformation information on the inner surface of the tire at a frequency of 200 Hz. The contact position estimator reduces the dimensionality of the data and fits the eigenvalues to the estimated contact position. Using support vector regression, the force estimator utilizes the estimated contact position and sensor signal to estimate the normal reaction force, designated as FZ. The sensing system is capable of detecting the contact position on the wheel circumference (with a root mean square error of 1.150°), as well as the normal force of 160 N on the Z axis (with a root mean square error of 6.04%). To validate the efficacy of the sensor detection method, a series of randomized and repeated experiments were conducted on a self-constructed test platform. This novel approach offers a promising avenue for perceiving contact states in wheel-legged robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the performance of a 4-MIX engine utilizing hydrogen combustion in pure oxygen, water injection, and the application of the early-intake valve closure (EIVC) Miller cycle. Transitioning from a standard petrol–oil mix to hydrogen fuel with pure oxygen combustion aims to reduce emissions. Performance comparisons between baseline and oxyhydrogen engines showed proportional growth in the energy input rate with increasing rotational speed. The oxyhydrogen engine exhibited smoother reductions in brake torque and thermal efficiency as rotational speed increased compared to the baseline, attributed to hydrogen's higher heating value. Water injection targeted cylinder and exhaust temperature reduction while maintaining a consistent injected mass. The results indicated a threshold of around 2.5 kg/h for the optimal water injection rate, beyond which positive effects on engine performance emerged. Investigation into the EIVC Miller cycle revealed improvements in brake torque, thermal efficiency, and brake specific fuel consumption as early-intake valve closure increased. Overall, the EIVC model exhibited superior energy efficiency, torque output, and thermal efficiency compared to alternative models, effectively addressing emissions and cylinder temperature concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fat synthesis and lipolysis are natural processes in growth and have a close association with health. Fat provides energy, maintains physiological function, and so on, and thus plays a significant role in the body. However, excessive/abnormal fat accumulation leads to obesity and lipid metabolism disorder, which can have a detrimental impact on growth and even harm one's health. Aside from genetic effects, there are a range of factors related to obesity, such as excessive nutrient intake, inflammation, glycometabolism disease, and so on. These factors could serve as potential targets for anti-obesity therapy. Quercetin is a flavonol that has received a lot of attention recently because of its role in anti-obesity. It was thought to have the ability to regulate lipid metabolism and have a positive effect on anti-obesity, but the processes are still unknown. Recent studies have shown the role of quercetin in lipid metabolism might be related to its effects on inflammatory responses and glycometabolism. The references were chosen for this review with no date restrictions applied based on the topics they addressed, and the databases PubMed and Web of Sicence was used to conduct the references research, using the following search terms: "quercetin", "obesity", "inflammation", "glycometabolism", "insulin sensitivity", etc. This review summarizes the potential mechanisms of quercetin in alleviating lipid metabolism through anti-inflammatory and hypoglycemic signaling pathways, and describes the possible signaling pathways in the interaction of inflammation and glycometabolism, with the goal of providing references for future research and application of quercetin in the regulation of lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the valence state (connectivity) of most covalent organic frameworks (COFs) building units is low, mostly trivalent and tetravalent, making only 18 types of topological structures of COFs materials. On the contrary, the valence states of MOFs building blocks vary from 3 to 24, making them have more than 2 000 topological structure types. If a higher valence COFs building block can be designed, it will greatly enrich its topological structure type and material number. To this end, a hexahedral boron-phosphorus unit (-B4 P4 O12-) and five linear organic linkers (phenyl, fluorophenyl, toluene, naphthalene, biphenyl) were selected, and five high-valent boron-phosphorus covalent organic frameworks (BP-COFs) with lta topology were theoretically designed by molecular mechanics methods. The results show that the five materials have structural characteristics that are conducive to hydrogen storage applications, such as low density (0.52 ~ 1.17 g⋅cm-3), large specific surface area (1 274.12 ~ 4 033. 95 m² ⋅g-1) and high porosity (0. 55% ~ 0.78%). The Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) method was used to predict the physical adsorption properties of hydrogen molecules on five materials at 298 and 77 K, and the structure-activity relationship between material structure and hydrogen adsorption properties was analyzed. The results show that the five BP-COFs materials have strong hydrogen adsorption capacity. Especially at 77 K, BP-COF-10 and BP-COF-11 have the best performance in hydrogen storage performance. BP-COF-10 has the highest volumetric hydrogen storage capacity at 77 K, reaching 52.86 g⋅L-1. BP-COF-11 has a large accessible specific surface area and high porosity. It has a good hydrogen storage capacity at 77 K and a gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity of 9.90% at 5 000 kPa. With the increase of pressure, the hydrogen storage capacity of BP-COF-11 still maintains a good upward trend. BP-COF-7 has the largest hydrogen storage capacity at 298 K, and the hydrogen storage capacity reaches 4.83 g⋅L-1 at 5 000 kPa. This indicates that the designed material has good hydrogen storage potential. This study will provide a theoretical reference for the experimental development of new high-performance hydrogen storage materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phrase comprehension (PC) aims to locate a specific object in an image according to a given linguistic query. The existing PC methods work in either a fully supervised or proposal-based weakly supervised manner, which rely explicitly or implicitly on expensive region annotations. In order to completely remove the dependence on the supervised region information, this paper proposes to address PC in a proposal-free weakly supervised training paradigm. To this end, we developed a novel cascaded searching reinforcement learning agent (CSRLA). Concretely, we first leveraged a visual language pre-trained model to generate a visual–textual cross-modal attention heatmap. Accordingly, a coarse salient initial region of the referential target was located. Then, we formulated the visual object grounding as a Markov decision process (MDP) in a reinforcement learning framework, where an agent was trained to iteratively search for the target's complete region from the salient local region. Additionally, we developed a novel confidence discrimination reward function (ConDis_R) to constrain the model to search for a complete and exclusive object region. The experimental results on three benchmark datasets of Refcoco, Refcoco+, and Refcocog demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the problem of long modeling time and large workload of multiview bill of material (XBOM) reconstruction process in digital twin shop, this paper proposes a knowledge-driven XBOM reconstruction method for complex products. Through the research of knowledge base construction, the modeling and simulation analysis of XBOM reconstruction process in digital twin workshop are supported, so as to shorten the cycle and improve efficiency and quality. Taking the maintenance history data of the typical representative electric multiple unit (EMU) bogies in complex products as the research object, the bidirectional long short-term memory neural network with conditional random field (BiLSTM-CRF) algorithm is used to complete the entity recognition of maintenance BOM (WBOM) reconstructed parts. Finally, taking the XBOM reconstruction process of the bogie of an enterprise as an example, the XBOM reconstruction knowledge base interaction system of the EMU bogie is built. It verifies the feasibility of the method proposed in this paper, and provides knowledge support for the XBOM reconstruction process of complex products in the digital twin workshop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, increasing the penetration of renewable heat technologies is an important approach to minimise global primary energy use and reduce CO2 emissions for a sustainable future. Thermoelectric heat pumps, which have some unique characteristics in comparison with conventional vapour compression heat pumps, can be integrated with solar thermal energy storage to form a promising renewable heat technology. However, currently, a reliable numerical model for TeHPs suitable for building energy simulation is lacking and the benefits achievable for a TeHP thanks to the integration with heat storage are unclear. To solve these issues, in this work, an experimental apparatus consisting of a water-to-air TeHP unit with a heat storage tank is modelled and tested for the first time, under the scenarios with thermal energy storage and without thermal energy storage, respectively. The results found that the developed numerical model could well predict the output performance of the TeHP unit, with deviations within 12%. Additionally, the output performance of the TeHP unit when combined with a heat storage tank is better than that of the TeHP unit without heat storage, in terms of the maximum temperature achieved in the testing box, the temperature response speed of the testing box, and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the TeHP unit. This work not only paves the way for the following building-integrated simulations of TeHP units, but also provides guidance for the design of the integrated systems that include TeHPs and thermal energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion in internal combustion engines. The exhaust valve closing (EVC) timings were scanned to obtain a set of baseline operating points for HCCI, and the coupling control of the internal and external EGR was explored. The results indicate that external EGR delays HCCI ignition timing and slows down the combustion speed. As the internal EGR rate increases, the maximum external EGR ratio that can be tolerated decreases. For HCCI detonation operating points with low internal EGR rates, the addition of up to 10% of external EGR can control the pressure rise rate peak to less than 10 bar/°CA, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and increased indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). However, for HCCI operating points with high internal EGR rates, the effect of external EGR is mainly observed in the control of the pressure rise rate, with limited increase in IMEP. Additionally, an increasing external EGR rate leads to a significant decrease in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, while carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions slightly increase before engine misfire occurs. These findings suggest that the coupling control of internal and external EGR should be explored further, particularly in relation to reducing the negative valve overlap (NVO) angle and improving combustion efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments have shown that the ultrahigh strength of nanolayered metallic composites originates from their high-density interfaces of special characteristics. Hence, the modulation of interface structures becomes an effective route to enhance the mechanical performance of the nanolayered composites. One of the general ways to tune the interfacial feature is to introduce interlayers of several nanometers among constituent layers, such as amorphous (disordered) and crystalline (ordered) interlayers. Here, the deformation of a Cu/Ni layered composite with Ag interlayers of different thicknesses was simulated by molecular dynamics simulations. Our simulations show that the yield stress of 25 nm Cu/25 nm Ni nanolayered composites with Ag interlayers can be significantly enhanced, i.e., it can be 56.4% higher than that of their counterparts without interlayers. We also found that the yield strength of the new composites can be maximized by selecting an appropriate thickness for the Ag interlayer. The optimum interlayer thickness is 2.1 nm in tension and 4.2 nm for compression. It is revealed that the extra strength results from the alleviation of stress concentration by stimulating abundant interfacial dislocations at the Cu–Ag and Ag–Ni interfaces. These findings show that the introduction of additional interlayers is a new route to design stronger nanolayered metallic composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the challenges of production management of manufacturing enterprises and the demand for intelligent control of manufacturing system abnormalities, this paper proposes a production abnormal event diagnosis method based on digital twin technology to achieve intelligent tracing of the causes of production abnormal events and improve the problems of poor timeliness and lack of feedback mechanism for the diagnosis of production abnormal events of complex products. First, a complex product production abnormal event diagnosis model is constructed, in which physical production workshop, virtual production workshop, workshop twin data platform and abnormal event diagnosis service system work together. Second, the joint method of Bayesian network (BN) and C5.0 decision tree algorithm (C5.0) is used to achieve the diagnosis of production abnormal events. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the scheme are verified by the arithmetic example of key stations in the bogie production workshop. The diagnostic accuracy of 92.49% of the BN–C5.0 model is higher than that of the conventional C5.0 decision tree model with 79.94% accuracy. The proposed method and mechanism provide a reference model for the application of digital twin to the diagnosis of abnormal production events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-modal image-text retrieval aims at retrieving the images according to the given query texts and vice versa, which is a challenging task due to the inherent heterogeneous gap between computer vision and natural language processing. Most previous methods mine the intra-modal interactions and inter-modal interactions independently, which may lead to a fragmented understanding of the visual-linguistic modalities. Different from them, in this paper, we address this challenge by proposing a unified multi-modal Co-Occurrence transformer Reasoning Network, dubbed as COREN, to comprehensively discover the semantic correlations of the two modalities. Specifically, we resort to a unified multi-modal transformer encoder to decompose the intra-modal and inter-modal co-occurrence relationships reasoning into a two-stage learning architecture. In the first learning stage, we utilize the multi-modal transformer as a shared siamese encoder for both visual and textual branch to reason the intra-modal co-occurrence relationships. In this way, we obtain modality-specific contextualized representations for each input image and text instance, and the model is equipped with the representation and reasoning ability of both visual and textual entities. In the second learning stage, we stack the visual and textual features together and jointly feed them into the same multi-modal transformer encoder to reason the inter-modal co-occurrence relationships between the two modalities. Additionally, we propose a novel Adaptive Similarity Aggregation (ASA) module to achieve a more accurate cross-modal similarity measurement based on the generated contextualized representations. The experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses and evaluates a design for a distributed renewable power system for a British winery. A winery in Wiltshire, England, is used for a case study. The consumption of this winery is first analysed, then potential means of generation are discussed. The resulting design is a combination of 156 1.6 × 1 m2 photovoltaic panels; a 2 × 12 m2 modular anaerobic digester using winery and farm waste to produce 0.00287 kg/s of biogas; and a biogas combined heat and power generator to supply 188 MWhe and 44 MWht per year. This was analysed technically, using ECLIPSE, and economically. The design would reduce the carbon footprint of a winery by 41,100 kgCO2/year. The techno-economic performance was compared with traditional power generation means; the designed system is technically viable, and financial incentives allow it to compete economically with alternatives. The cost of the design varies more with technology price than incentives, demonstrating that as technology improves incentives will quickly no longer be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study concrete members' safety and residual life after fire damage, this study takes concrete beams as the research object. Then, it predicts the residual energy of concrete beams after fire by investigating their temperature field after the fire and deriving the required data for studying the corresponding residual life. This study first establishes the temperature field model of concrete beams under fire by using the finite element software ABAQUS, selects the ISO-834 standard warming curve as the fire condition, and obtains the thermodynamic parameters and calculation formulas of concrete and steel reinforcement from a large number of experiments and examples, to provide reliable materials for the temperature field simulation, reliability analysis, and residual life prediction by using the finite element software ABAQUS afterward. The results obtained from the temperature field simulation are used to calculate the probability of failure using the Monte Carlo method calculation program prepared by MATLAB software in conjunction with the equation of limit state to derive the results of the residual life of the concrete member. When the concrete beam with a definite strength of C40 and a thickness of the protective layer of 35 mm undergoes a fire for 2 hours, the residual life of the concrete beam is 13 years and 7 years, respectively, under the requirements of the general building and the use of the essential building components. They are about 13 years and 7 years, respectively. To verify the reasonableness of the derived equations, confirmed cases are used to demonstrate the feasibility. Finally, by analyzing the results of reliability and remaining life under different working conditions, it can be concluded that the concrete grade and the thickness of the concrete protective layer have a significant effect on the remaining life of concrete beams after the fire, regardless of the requirements of general or essential building components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fat‐tree topologies are widely used in interconnect network designs for parallel supercomputers. In the classic fat‐tree, compute nodes are connected to leaf stage switches by links. Given a large number of compute nodes, many switches and links are required, resulting in high hardware costs. To solve this problem, this paper proposes two hybrid topologies, k$$ k $$‐Cube k$$ k $$‐Ary n$$ n $$‐Tree (CAT) and Mirrored k$$ k $$‐Cube k$$ k $$‐Ary n$$ n $$‐Tree (MiCAT), based on fat‐tree and hypercube. Instead of connecting k$$ k $$ compute nodes directly to a leaf switch, we connect a k$$ k $$‐cube to the switch, and each switch in the k$$ k $$‐cube part connects k$$ k $$ compute nodes. That is, this k$$ k $$‐cube consists of 2k−1$$ {2}^k-1 $$ switches and k(2k−1)$$ k\left({2}^k-1\right) $$ compute nodes. We give the shortest path routing algorithms and evaluate the path diversity, cost, performance, and average packet latency of CAT and MiCAT. The results show that CAT and MiCAT can save up to 87%$$ 87\% $$ switches and 80%$$ 80\% $$ links in a large‐scale parallel system, k=n=8$$ k=n=8 $$ for example, compared to fat‐trees, and meanwhile, both CAT and MiCAT have higher path diversities than fat‐trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Laparoscopic middle hepatic vein-guided anatomical hemihepatectomy combined with transhepatic duct lithotomy (MATL) is an approach that can substantially improve stone clearance rates while reducing the rate of postoperative biliary fistula formation, residual stone rates, and rates of recurrence. In this study, we classified left-side hepatolithiasis cases into four subtypes based upon the diseased stone-containing bile duct, the middle hepatic vein, and the right hepatic duct. We then investigated the risk associated with different subtypes and evaluated the safety and efficacy of the MATL procedure. Methods: In total, 372 patients who underwent left hemihepatectomy for left intrahepatic bile duct stones were enrolled. Based on the distribution of the stones, the cases could be divided into four types. The risk of surgical treatment was compared for the four types and the safety, short-term efficacy, and long-term efficacy of the MATL procedure in the four types of left intrahepatic bile duct stones were studied. Results: Type II was found to be the most likely to cause intraoperative bleeding while type III was likely to cause biliary tract damage and type IV was associated with the highest stone recurrence rate. The MATL procedure did not increase the risk of surgery and was found to reduce the rate of bile leakage, residual stones, and stone recurrence. Conclusion: Left-side hepatolithiasis-associated risk classification is feasible and may represent a viable means of improving the safety and feasibility of the MATL procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel self-calibration comparator for a 12-bit 2.5 MSPS successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC) applied in a touch microcontroller unit (MCU) with small area, high precision, fast response speed, and low-voltage detection is proposed in this paper. A combination of input/output offset storage (IOS/OOS) and an offset trimming circuit was employed to reduce the offset of the cascade preamplifier and the operational transconductance amplifier (OTA), a novel offset trimming circuit with a 5-bit digital controller was designed to further reduce the residual offset voltage, and an improved self-calibration technology was also implemented to compensate the conversion error in SAR ADC system to a minimum. Simulation and measured results show that the input-referred offset calibrating range is ±9.15 mV at 0.61 mV/step, the low-voltage detection of SAR ADC is realized by compensating the conversion error to a minimum, and the effective number of bits (ENOB) and figure of merit (FoM) at 5 V supply and 2.5 M/s rate in the 12-bit SAR ADC with a 95 nm CMOS are 11.33 bits and 726.6 fJ/conversion-step, respectively. The proposed self-calibration comparator applied in the SAR ADC system can automatically eliminate the offset voltage caused by nonidealities and meet the requirements of the touch MCU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-silencing function protein 1 homolog B (ASF1B) has been implicated in the occurrence and development of cancers. The present work explored the functional role and the expression regulation of ASF1B in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Based on the real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC), ASF1B was significantly upregulated in PDAC tissues. High expression of ASF1B was associated with a poor overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (DFS) in the PDAC patients. ASF1B also showed a relatively higher expression in PDAC cells (AsPC-1, PANC-1) when compared with human pancreatic ductal epithelial cells (HPDFe-6). CCK8 and clone formation assay demonstrated that silencing ASF1B impaired the proliferation in PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells, and Annexin V-PI staining showed an increased level of apoptosis upon ASF1B silencing. ASF1B silencing also suppressed the migration and invasion in PDAC cells, as revealed by Transwell assays. We further showed that miR-24-3p was downregulated in PDAC tissues and cells, which functionally interacted with ASF1B by dual-luciferase reporter assay. miR-24-3p negatively regulated ASF1B expression to modulate the malignant phenotype of PDAC cells. ASF1B shows high expression in PDAC, which promotes the malignancy and EMT process of PDAC cells. miR-24-3p is a negative regulator of ASF1B and is downregulated in PDAC cells. Our data suggest that targeting ASF1B/miR-24-3p axis may serve as an intervention strategy for the management of PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanolayered metallic composites have attracted intensive scientific interests due to their ultrahigh strength. However, the deformation incompatibility among the component layers with high mechanical contrast leads to extremely low tensile ductility in the nanolayered composites, which is a great setback for their engineering applications. Here, by molecular dynamics simulations, we show that a heterogeneous nanolayered design by combining 2.5 nm and 24 nm Cu/Ni bilayers in a composite in an appropriate way can promote the dislocation activity of the hard phase, i.e., the Ni layers. In the new heterogeneous structure, each 24 nm Cu or Ni layer is coated on both surfaces by one 2.5 nm Cu/Ni bilayer. The simulations show that the dislocations in the 24 nm Ni layers can nucleate and glide almost synchronously with those in the 24 nm Cu layers. The enhanced dislocation activities are attributed to the presence of the 2.5 nm Cu layer that can promote the dislocation nucleation and motion in the 24 nm Ni layer by forming more nodes in the dislocation network of the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diesel engines play a very significant role in the automotive industry, but the total emissions of diesel engines are more than 1.8 times that of petrol engines. It is therefore important for diesel engines to control emissions. Theoretically, the Miller cycle can be used to achieve NOx reductions by changing the effective compression ratio, while it has become increasingly popular in recent years with the increasing maturity of current turbocharging technology. Based on Ricardo WAVE software, this paper analyses the NOx emissions and engine performance of diesel engines by modelling and simulating their operation under different loads with two types of Miller cycles (EIVC and LIVC) at different degrees. Simulation of engines operating under different loads allows a more comprehensive study of the effects of the Miller cycle on the engine, and a specific analysis in the context of the actual engine operating environment. The result is that both versions of the Miller cycle are most effective in reducing NOx emissions at 10% load, showing a maximum reduction of 21% for EIVC and 37% for LIVC. However, as the Miller cycle decreases engine power, the paper further investigates the application of turbocharger systems in the EIVC Miller cycle, with results showing a 32% increase in brake power at 10% load and −25% EIVC Miller cycle degree. Both ethanol-fueled diesel-cycle and Miller cycle engines were also analyzed, and a reduction in NOx emissions was observed, as well as hydrogen engine performance and NOx emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free-piston engine is a type of none-crank engine that could be operated under variable compression ratio, and this provides it flexible fuel applicability and low engine emission potential. In this work, several 1-D engine models, including conventional gasoline engines, free-piston gasoline engines and free-piston hydrogen engines, have been established. Both engine performance and emission performance under engine speeds between 5–11 Hz and with different equivalent ratios have been simulated and compared. Results indicated that the free-piston engine has remarkable potential for NOx reduction, and the largest reduction is 57.37% at 6 Hz compared with a conventional gasoline engine. However, the figure of NOx from the hydrogen free-piston engine is slightly higher than that of the gasoline free-piston engine, and the difference increases with the increase of engine speed. In addition, several factors and their relationships related to hydrogen combustion in the free-piston engine have been investigated, and results show that the equivalent ratio φ = 0.88 is a vital point that affects NOx production, and the ignition advance timing could also affect combustion duration, the highest in-cylinder temperature and NOx production to a large extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is still controversy over whether to perform laparoscopic surgery for T3 stage gallbladder cancer. In addition, the necessity of segment 4b+5 liver resection for stage T3 gallbladder has not been reported. This article aims to explore the safety, effectiveness, and short-term prognosis of laparoscopic segment 4b+5 liver resection for T3 stage gallbladder cancer. Methods: This is a retrospective multicenter propensity score-matched study. Disease-free survival, perioperative complications, and intraoperative safety were analyzed to evaluate safety and effectiveness. Results: There was no significant difference in the incidence of intraoperative bleeding, number of lymph nodes obtained, postoperative complications, or disease-free survival (DFS) between the open group (OG) and laparoscopic group (LG) (P > 0.05). The DFS time of the S4b+5 resection group (S4b5) was longer than that of the wedge group (P = 0.016). Cox regression showed that positive margins (HR, 5.32; 95% CI 1.03–27.63; P = 0.047), lymph node metastasis (HR, 2.70; 95% CI 1.31–5.53; P = 0.007), and liver S4b+5 resection (HR, 0.30; 95% CI 0.14–0.66; P = 0.003) were independent risk factors for DFS. The operative time of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence-guided liver S4b5 segment resection was shorter than that of traditional laparoscopic S4b+5 resection guided by hepatic veins (P ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: Laparoscopic liver S4b+5 resection for T3 stage gallbladder cancer is safe and feasible and can prolong DFS. ICG fluorescence-guided negative staining may reduce the difficulty of the operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at low accuracy of recognition in complex leakage images of subway tunnels, this paper studied the application of image recognition algorithms in tunnel water-leakage disease, was using two kinds of neural networks: U-Net and PSP-Net. Based on the subway tunnel images, tunnel leakage disease sample data set was constructed, where 5000 subway tunnel disease image data and 4000 labeled images were included. This data set could be used for deep neural convolution network training. U-Net and PSP-Net deep learning frameworks were established, and the neural networks were trained by self-made data set. The accuracy of the prediction results from U-Net and PSP-Net was evaluated, and the performance of the two networks in the application of leakage disease identification was compared. U-Net had stronger coverage for the disease and quick detection, while PSP-net had higher accuracy fit to fine detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CCHP system is a reasonable and effective method to improve the current situation of energy use. Capacity allocation is of great significance in improving the performance of the CCHP system. Due to the particularity of chemical enterprises' production process, the demand for cooling, heating, and power load is also relatively particular, which makes the dynamic loads challenging to be satisfied. Because of the above problems, the structure of the typical CCHP system is improved, embodied in the collocation of multi-stage lithium bromide chiller, and the use of various energy storage devices. Based on the improved ant lion intelligent optimization (ALO) algorithm, the comprehensive evaluation index coupled with energy benefit, economic benefit, and environmental benefit, is taken as the objective function, and the equipment capacity configuration of the CCHP system for chemical enterprises is studied. Considering winter, summer, and transition seasons, the results show that the system is better than the typical CCHP system. The annual cost savings of the new structural system are up to 13%, and the carbon dioxide emissions of the new structural system are reduced by up to 36.39%. The primary energy utilization rate of the new structure system is increased by 18%, and the comprehensive evaluation index also performs better. The optimal index can reach 0.814. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new design of a sorption-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system is proposed to improve ammonia storage density and meet the ammonia demand for high NOx conversion efficiency at a relatively lower temperature (<100 °C) compared to urea-SCR systems. The major components are a main unit and a start-up unit that each contain a metal halide ammine as the sorbent. The start-up unit can operate without any external heat source, but spontaneously releases ammonia at the ambient temperature and is only used when the main unit is being warmed up for action. The selection criteria for the metal halide ammine for each unit is discussed. The working pair of SrCl2 as the main ammine and NH4Cl as the start-up ammine is further analyzed as an example to be used in the sorption-SCR system for a diesel engine, the NOx emissions of which were experimentally measured in different operation modes. Based on the experimental data of engine emissions and kinetic models of the chemisorption between ammines and ammonia, the dynamic performance of the sorption system with a total capacity of 180 L sorbent composite in different layouts was investigated and compared. It was found that the achievable desorption conversion degree was lower in smaller reactors and was more sensitive to operating conditions in smaller reactors compared to larger reactors. This suggests that a system using a small reactor layout requires some extra volume to completely meet the required capacity compared to a larger reactor layout. However, because systems with large reactors tend to respond slowly, as they have more thermal mass and take a longer time for preparation, there is a design trade-off required to have optimal performance and balance between the main unit and the start-up unit. In the case studied in this work, a system using three rechargeable reactors with a volume of 60 L each was found to be the preferable layout; it could have about a 90% desorption conversion degree and required around 10 min of warm-up time. Meanwhile, the coupled start-up unit should have a capacity of around 165 mL at least. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, L -tryptophan was hyper-crosslinked on cellulose and several other matrices (such as silica gel and polystyrene) via a Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction to produce a series of chiral hyper-crosslinked catalyst supports (HCP-Mt-(L)Trp). Transition metal catalysts (M) were then fixed on the resulting supports via coordination with the amino acid residues, generating heterogeneous chiral catalysts (HCP-Mt-(L)Trp-M). All the catalysts successfully catalyzed the asymmetric Henry reaction, and the influence of the matrix on the catalytic performance was investigated. It is found that the choice of matrix significantly affects the catalytic performance; matrices supported on cellulose show the best performance, and they led to good yields and enantioselectivity at both low and high temperatures (enantiomeric excesses up to 99% and yields of >80%). The catalysts can be readily recycled via filtration and show good recyclability. This work provides an effective strategy for the synthesis of highly efficient asymmetric catalysts with both high selectivity and ease of preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many thermal resources are not reasonably used in the chemical industry's production process. To recover the waste heat from organic waste residue-calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which is added to inhibit hydrogen production, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system is applied in this research. An ORC system can reuse the low-temperature waste heat that is not fully utilized. In this study, the mathematical model of the biomass ORC power generation system is constructed. Five organic working fluids, R11, R113, R123, R141b, and R245fa, were selected from the physical characteristics and safety of working fluids. The system application case is the low-temperature heat absorption in a chemical industry's production process. The system is simulated by Aspen Plus V11 software, so as to study and analyze the influence of different working fluids and working conditions on the system performance and to obtain the preferred working fluids under different working conditions. At the same time, the economic evaluation and entropy method of the system are evaluated by using the investment profit rate PRI from different angles. It can be found that R11 and R141b have advantages, but R11 does not have advantages in environmental aspects. Through research, it is found that it is difficult to have a working fluid that can adapt to the biomass ORC power generation system under any working conditions. This paper can provide a basis for the subsequent research and selection of working fluids in the biomass ORC system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vienna rectifiers are widely used, but they have problems of zero-crossing current distortion and midpoint potential imbalance. In this paper, an improved hybrid modulation strategy is proposed. According to the phase difference between the reference voltage vector and the input current vector, the dynamic current crossing distortion sector is divided at each phase current crossing, and the discontinuous pulse width modulation strategy is adopted in the sector to suppress the redundant small vector mutation and improve the current crossing distortion. To solve the problem of midpoint potential balance, a space vector modulation strategy is adopted outside the sector to control the midpoint potential balance by allocating the time of small vector action by voltage balance factor. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective*To analyze the characteristics of lipoprotein subclasses of family members with familial hypertriglyceridemia (FHTG). Methods*A FHTG family with 13 members meeting the diagnostic criteria of the FHTG family was collected at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University. They were divided into the high triacylglycerol (TAG) group (7 persons) and the control group (6 persons) according to whether the level of TAG of the family members increased (≥2.26 mmol/L). Through the face-to-face investigation, age, gender, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, living habits and medical history and other general information of each member were collected. Based on the survey results, a family tree was drawn. After 8-12 h in abrosia, peripheral venous blood samples of the family members were collected for biochemical testing. The vertical auto profile (VAP) was used to determine the serum lipoprotein subclasses of the study subjects, including TAG, total cholesterol, lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), very low-density lipoprotein 3 (VLDL3), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), high-density lipoprotein 2 (HDL2), high-density lipoprotein 3 (HDL3), intermediate-density lipoprotein, remnant-like lipoprotein particle, lipoprotein a and non-high-density lipoprotein. The LDL pattern was obtained by VAP method based on the analysis of LDL max time value. The vertical lipoprotein profile (VLP) was used to determine the serum low-density lipoprotein particle (LDL-P) of the study subjects. The levels of lipoprotein subclasses between the control group and the high TAG group were compared by independent sample t test. Results*Compared with the control group, the high TAG group in FHTG pedigree had remarkably higher levels of height, weight, BMI and waist circumference (P=0.022, P= 0.000, P=0.001, P=0.000). There was statistical significance in gender difference between the two groups (P=0.029), but there was no significant difference in age (P=0.561). Compared with the control group, the high TAG group had remarkably higher levels of TAG, VLDL, VLDL3 and LDL-P (P=0.003, P=0.033, P=0.020, P=0.043), and remarkably lower level of HDL-C, HDL2 and HDL3 (P=0.000, P=0.001, P=0.001). The LDL pattern in the high TAG group was small and dense, while the LDL pattern in the normal control group was mixed or large and sparse. There were no significant differences between other indicators. Conclusions*In addition to the TAG and HDL-C commonly used in clinical practice, VLDL, VLDL3, LDL-P, small and dense LDL, HDL2 and HDL3 are expected to become the indicators for FHTG diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the images of crack defects of subway tunnel, traditional image processing algorithms is hardly effective for dealing with problems existing in the image like uneven illumination or severe noise interference. Based on pixel-level processing, an improved crack detection algorithm is proposed using structural analysis for improving the quality of tunnel images. Firstly, image preprocessing transforms the raw images of tunnel surface into binary images containing crack pixels and noise pixels. To extract crack information from binary images, three kinds of interference components are removed by structural analysis. With few interference components remaining in the image, the width of crack can be calculated according to the mean and standard deviation of the local area of the crack. Based on the algorithm, a crack detection system is designed, and a tunnel inspection experiment is conducted in a subway tunnel to capture tunnel surface images. Compared with popular image processing method, the crack recognition rate of the proposed method is 91.15% which is approximately 10% higher than others, and the measurement result of crack width based on the proposed method is closer to the ground truth. The experiment result indicates that the proposed method shows a better performance in crack detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of developing major sports events, how to guide providers and users to provide and utilize the archives information resources of major sports events and realize the interaction between them is an important problem to be solved urgently in the development of major sports events and the archive service of major sports events. By analyzing the present situation of archive service of major sports events, especially the analysis of the opposite dependent subjects of service providers and users, we can see that the continuous development of archive services for major sports events will inevitably lead to constant changes in user groups and user needs, guided by the theory of information retrieval, knowledge management, and media effect. According to the service model of archive service of major sports events, the archive service model of specific sports events is constructed. In this paper, four kinds of event recommendation models are applied to the collected marathon event data for experiments. Through experimental comparison, the effectiveness of content-based recommendation algorithm technology in the event network data set is verified, and an algorithm model suitable for marathon event recommendation is obtained. Experiments show that the comprehensive event recommendation model based on term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) text weight and Race2vec entry sequence has the best recommendation performance on marathon event data set. According to the recommendation target of the event and the characteristics of the event data type, we can choose a single or comprehensive recommendation algorithm to build a model to realize the event recommendation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra‐thin narrow bezel of 5G mobile phone is very attractive, but obviously when the thickness of LGP is constant, the optical homogeneity is better when the distance from LED to visual area is bigger, so establish an optical analysis model to analyze the optical homogeneity in light emitting side in vertical direction by the relations between the distance from LED to visual area and the thickness of LGP. When the thickness of LGP is above 0.34 millimeter and the distance from LED to visual area of BLU is above 1.75 millimeters, the optical homogeneity can meet mass production by normal design. if the thickness of LGP compress from 0.34 millimeters to 0.26 millimeters and distance from LED to visual area of backlight units compress from 1.75 millimeters to 1.57 millimeters, the optical homogeneity in light‐emitting side can be above 75% by the angle of LGP wedge surface is below 5 degree and the length of LGP wedge surface is between 0.35 and 0.55 millimeters, so the border of backlight units can be compressed to 2.8 millimeters based on the LED under the FPC and the thickness of liquid crystal display module can reach 0.95 millimeters. The optical effect and structural reliability of liquid crystal display module is both OK under the value of G is above 0.55 millimeters by using linear silver paste or the value of G is between 0.4 millimeters and 0.55 millimeters by using L shape silver paste based on DOE experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the phenomenon that the incident terahertz (THz) radiation can increase the discharge current and luminescent intensity of a glow discharge detector (GDD), the electrical and optical modes were used to detect the THz wave. The influence of GDD’s discharge current, orientation, size, phosphor coating, and polarization sensitivity were investigated in detail. The results show that the electron density, the receiving efficiency to THz wave and effectively collecting the output signals of GDD are important to improve the responsivity of GDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spacecraft missions are characterized by complex missions, high risks, high costs, high reliability, and long periods. In order to meet the needs of more complex spacecraft mission development in the future, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methods is introduced in the spacecraft design and development. A model-based spacecraft development process and six types of model systems that meet the needs of the spacecraft development process are proposed, which are composed of demand model, function model, process model, architecture model, product model, and verification model. Taking the lunar water resource exploration as a hypothetical task, the MBSE modeling process and its model are presented, which fully embodies the advantages of the MBSE method in spacecraft design and simulation verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Automatic visual inspection of cracks on concrete surface has become increasingly important for the health diagnosis of subway tunnel structures to prevent catastrophic failures. This paper designs an on‐board image acquisition system using multiple line scan cameras to capture the full‐section images of tunnel surface and proposes a robust automatic crack detection method for noisy and complicated tunnel surface images. The detection method consists of three steps. The first step is a crack enhancing process by using morphological image processing and frequency‐domain enhancing algorithm. In the second step, a multistage fusion filtering algorithm is designed to filter out background noise and interference from images of water stain and various railway devices on the tunnel surface. The third step is to use an improved seed growth algorithm to segment real cracks from the noisy background. The detection system is tested in the Beijing Metro Line 1, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing methods that are only robust for images of small area with a simple background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NLRP3 inflammasome has emerged as a crucial regulator of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. The expression of MCT4 is significantly increased in intestinal mucosal tissue of IBD, which has been identified to regulate intestinal barrier function. However, the function of MCT4 in cell pyroptosis remained unknown. In this study, we have established a stable cell line with MCT4 overexpression in HT-29 and CaCO2 cells, respectively. Functional analysis revealed that ectopic expression of MCT4 in CaCO2 cells contributed to cell pyroptosis as evidenced by LDH assay, which is largely attributed to Caspase-1-mediated canonical pyroptosis, but not Caspase-4 and Caspase-5, leading to cleave pro-IL-1β and IL-18 into mature form and release mediated by cleaved GSDMD. Mechanically, MCT4 overexpression in HT-29 and CaCO2 cell triggered the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and NF- κ B p65, while inhibition of MCT4 by MCT inhibitor α -Cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (α -CHCA) in HT-29 and CaCO2 cells led to a significant downregulation of ERK1/2 and NF- κ B activity. What's more, blockade of ERK1/2-NF- κ B pathway could reverse the promotion effect of MCT4 on IL-1β expression. Importantly, both MCT4 and Caspase-1, GSDMD were significantly increased in patients with IBD, and a positive clinical correlation between MCT4 and Caspase-1 expression was observed (p < 0.001). Taken together, these findings suggested that MCT4 promoted Caspase-1-mediated canonical cell pyroptosis to aggravate intestinal inflammation in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) through the ERK1/2-NF- κ B pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been shown that aberrant activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathways plays an important role in the pancreatic carcinogenesis, and KRAS mutation is a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Until now, the role of KRAS mutation in the context of crosstalk between Hh and NF-κB signaling pathways in PDAC has not been investigated. This study was to determine whether the crosstalk between the Hh and NF-κB pathways is dependent on KRAS mutation in PDAC. The correlation between Gli1, Shh, NF-κB p65 expression and KRAS mutation in PDAC tissues was firstly examined by immunohistochemistry. Next, Western blotting, qPCR, and immunofluorescence were conducted to examine the biological effects of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) as NF-κB signaling agonists, Shh as an Hh ligand alone or in combination with KRAS small interfering RNA (si-KRAS) in KRAS-mutant PDAC cells (MT-KRAS; SW1990 and Panc-1), wild-type KRAS PDAC cells (WT-KRAS; BxPC-3) and mutant KRAS knock-in BxPC-3 cells in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. KRAS mutation-dependent crosstalk between Hh and NF-κB in PDAC cells was further assessed by Ras activity and luciferase reporter assays. The aberrant Hh and NF-κB pathway activation was found in PDAC tissues with KRAS mutation. The same findings were confirmed in MT-KRAS PDAC cells and MT-KRAS knock-in BxPC-3 cells, whereas this activation was not observed in WT-KRAS PDAC cells. However, the activation was significantly down-regulated by KRAS silencing in MT-KRAS PDAC cells. Furthermore, MT-KRAS cancer cell proliferation and survival in vitro and tumor growth after inoculation with MT-KRAS cells in vivo were promoted by NF-κB and Hh signaling activation. The pivotal factor for co-activation of NF-κB and Hh signaling is MT-KRAS protein upregulation, showing that positive crosstalk between Hh and NF-κB pathways is dependent upon KRAS mutation in PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Postoperative prognosis prediction models for patients with stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) according to the 8th edition of the Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system after surgery are rare. This study aimed to build a prognostic score to predict survival outcomes and stratify these patients into different prognostic strata. Patients and Methods: We developed a web-based nomogram that incorporated four selected risk factors based on the multivariate Cox regression, using a training set (n=3567) from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. It was validated with an independent internal set from the SEER database (n=1783) and an external validation set of 516 Chinese patients. The predictive performance and discrimination ability of our model were further evaluated and compared with those of the conventional HCC staging systems. Results: Our nomogram consistently outperformed the conventional staging systems in the training, internal validation set, and external validation set. We quantified the nomogram model into a numerical SNIG (an abbreviation of the incorporated variables – size, number, MVI, and grade) score by summing the points assigned to each incorporated variable, leading to the optimal cut-off values of 6 and 10, which could stratify patients into 3 categories (SNIG score < 6, 6– 10, ≥ 10). This yielded significantly different median overall survivals (interquartile ranges) of 42.0 (20.0– 72.0) and 37.0 (17.0– 67.0); 28.0 (12.0– 60.0) and 42.0 (21.75– 82.0); 40.0 (18.0– 70.0) and 29.0 (11.5– 61.0) months for the 3 categories in the entire SEER and external validation sets, respectively. Conclusion: We developed a web-based SNIG model to graphically and numerically predict the overall survival of stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ HCC. This scoring system may shed light on risk stratification for these patients in clinical practice and clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most lethal cancer worldwide; however, accurate prognostic tools are still lacking. We aimed to identify immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based signature as a prognostic classifier to predict recurrence and survival in patients with HCC at Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) early- and immediate-stage. In total, 567 patients who underwent curative liver resection at two independent centers were enrolled. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression model was used to identify significant IHC features, and penalized Cox regression was used to further narrow down the features in the training cohort (n = 201). The candidate IHC features were validated in internal (n = 101) and external validation cohorts (n = 265). Three IHC features, hepatocyte paraffin antigen 1, CD34, and Ki-67, were identified as candidate predictors for recurrence-free survival (RFS), and were used to categorize patients into low- and high-risk recurrence groups in the training cohort (P < 0.001). The discriminative performance of the 3-IHC_based classifier was validated using internal and external cohorts (P < 0.001). Furthermore, we developed a 3-IHC_based nomogram integrating the BCLC stage, microvascular invasion, and 3-IHC_based classifier to predict 2- and 5-year RFS in the training cohort; this nomogram exhibited acceptable area under the curve values for the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts (2-year: 0.817, 0.787, and 0.810; 5-year: 0.726, 0.662, and 0.715; respectively). The newly developed 3-IHC_based classifier can effectively predict recurrence and survival in patients with early- and intermediate-stage HCC after curative liver resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest the tumor suppressor role of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) STXBP5-AS1 in cervical and gastric cancer, but its expression pattern and functional mechanism are still elusive in pancreatic cancer (PC). Relative expression of STXBP5-AS1 in PC both in vivo and in vitro was analyzed by real-time PCR. IC50 of Gemcitabine was determined by the MTT assay. Cell proliferation in response to drug treatment was investigated by colony formation assay. Cell apoptosis was measured by both caspase-3 activity and Annexin V/PI staining. Cell invasion capacity was scored by the transwell assay in vitro, and lung metastasis was examined with the tail vein injection assay. Cell stemness was determined in vitro by sphere formation and marker profiling, respectively, and in vivo by limited dilution of xenograft tumor incidence. Subcellular localization of STXBP5-AS1 was analyzed with fractionation PCR. Association between STXBP5-AS1 and EZH2 was investigated by RNA-immunoprecipitation. The binding of EZH2 on ADGB promoter was analyzed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. The methylation was quantified by bisulfite sequencing. We showed downregulation of STXBP5-AS1 in PC associated with poor prognosis. Ectopic STXBP5-AS1 inhibited chemoresistance and metastasis of PC cells. In addition, STXBP5-AS1 compromised stemness of PC cells. Mechanistically, STXBP5-AS1 potently recruited EZH2 and epigenetically regulated neighboring ADGB transcription, which predominantly mediated the inhibitory effects of STXBP5-AS1 on stem cell-like properties of PC cells. Our study highlights the importance of the STXBP5-EZH2-ADGB axis in chemoresistance and stem cell-like properties of PC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For achieving higher energy transferring efficiency from the resources to the load, the Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power (CCHP) systems have been widely researched and applied as an efficient approach. The key idea of this study is designing a novel structure of a hybrid CCHP system and evaluating its performance. In this research, there is a hybrid energy storage unit enhancing the whole system's operation flexibility while supplying cooling, heating, and power. An ORC system is integrated into the CCHP system which takes responsibility of absorbing the low-temperature heat source for electricity generation. There are a few research studies focusing on the CCHP systems' performance with this structure. In order to evaluate the integrated system's performance, investigation and optimisation work has been conducted with the approaches of experimental studies and modelling simulation. The integrated system's configuration, the model building process of several key components, the optimisation method, and the case studies are discussed and analysed in this study. The design of the integrated system and the control strategy are displayed in detail. Several sets of dynamic energy demand profiles are selected to evaluate the performance of the integrated system. The simulation study of the system supplying selected scenarios of loads is conducted. A comprehensive evaluation report indicates that the system's efficiency during each study process differs while supplying different loads. The results include the power supplied by each component, the energy consumed by each type of load, and the efficiency improvements. It is found that the integrated system fully satisfies the selected domestic loads and various selected scenarios of loads with high efficiency. Compared to conventional power plants or CHP systems, the system efficiency enhancement comes from higher amount of recovery waste heat. Especially, the ORC system can absorb the low-temperature heat source for electricity generation. Compared to the original following electrical load (FEL) control strategy, the optimisation process brings overall efficiency improvements. The system's overall efficiency was increased by from 3%, 3.18%, 2.85%, 17.11%, 8.89%, and 21.7% in the second case studies. Through the whole study, the main challenge lies within the design and the energy management of the integrated system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]