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A novel approach was proposed to enhance the microviscosity sensitivity of molecular rotor probes by integrating flexible rotators and expanded molecular frameworks, addressing the crucial challenge of weakening microviscosity sensitivity in dilute solutions of macromolecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allyl ether naphthol resin (ANPF) was synthesized by introducing 1,5‐dihydroxynaphthalene and 2,7‐dihydroxynaphthalene into phenolic resin and was copolymerized with 4,4′‐bismaleimidodiphenylmethane resin (BDM) to obtain allyl ether naphthol‐modified bismaleimide resins (15‐ANPF‐BDM and 27‐ANPF‐BDM). The resulting thermal stability and glass transition temperature (Tg) were explored by thermogravimetric and dynamic mechanical analyses. The char yield of 15‐ANPF‐BDM at a temperature of 800°C was 46.0%. Additionally, the Tg of 15‐ANPF‐BDM was measured as 311°C, which is an increase of 44°C compared to that of c. The mechanical properties of the ANPF‐BDM/quartz fiber (Qf) composites were also investigated. The results reveal that ANPF‐BDM/Qf composites exhibit similar mechanical strength to APF‐BDM/Qf composites at room temperature. In addition, the mechanical properties of the ANPF‐BDM/ Qf composites demonstrated significant improvement in mechanical properties retained significantly improved at 200°C, with a 68% flexural strength retention and a 96% interlaminar shear retention of 15‐ANPF‐BDM/Qf composites. Thus, ANPF‐BDM/Qf composites exhibit outstanding mechanical properties at 200°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global ecosystem, the slow decomposition of coniferous forest litter has caused a number of ecological problems, among which is the decay of China's Pinus massoniana litter. It has been pointed out that converting pure P. massoniana plantations into mixed forests with broadleaf species can improve ecosystem services. Therefore, the selection of mixed species is key for the success or failure of the conversion of near-natural forests. In this study, from the perspective of apoplastic decomposition, the leaf litter of P. massoniana was mixed with three common native broadleaf species, namely Choerospondias axillaries, Cinnamomum camphora, and Cyclobalanopsis glauca, using an indoor incubation method to systematically analyse the differences in the decomposition rates of apoplastic material in each mixture, and to provide a theoretical basis for the selection and mixing of tree species for the management of near-natural forests in P. massoniana forests. After 175 days of indoor incubation of the foliar litter under dark conditions at 25 °C, the residual dry matter of the mixed apoplastic litter of P. massoniana and the three broadleaf trees was lower than that of P. massoniana. It indicated that the incorporation of broadleaf apoplastic foliage promoted litter decomposition, with the most pronounced effect in the case of admixture with C. Camphora. Compared with the group of pure P. massoniana alone, the remaining mass and residual rate decreased by 0.56 g and 9.45%, respectively. The regression equation of Olson's negative exponential decay model showed that the P. massoniana + C. Camphora mixture had the fastest decomposition rate (k) of 1.305, an increase of 0.237, a decrease in half-life of 0.11 years, and a decrease in turnover period of 0.49 year, compared to the P. massoniana alone group. Most of the measured values throughout the incubation period were significantly lower than the predicted values, suggesting that there was a non-additive and synergistic effect of litter mixing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon‐containing arylacetylene resin (PSA)‐matrix composites hold great potential for aerospace applications due to their excellent heat resistance. In recent years, many PSAs with specific functions have been designed via materials genome approach (MGA), and appropriate resin transfer molding (RTM) curing processes need to be screened to strike a balance between low cost and high quality. In this study, a novel tool based on finite element curing simulation and multiobjective genetic algorithm was developed to optimize the RTM curing process for novel PSA‐matrix composites. The silicon‐containing fluorenylacetylene resin (PSA‐VBF) was selected as the object to systematically characterize its apparent curing kinetics. To address the problem of explosive polymerization of the resin at the injection port during the RTM process, a multiobjective optimization of the curing process using a genetic algorithm was performed to obtain the Pareto front with the maximum temperature gradient at the injection port of the resin, the maximum degree of cure gradient of the composites, and the process time as the objectives. A global sensitivity analysis was also conducted to identify the key parameters. The results demonstrate that the optimized curing process can significantly reduce the temperature gradient and the curing degree gradient with improved curing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reservoir dispatching regulations are a crucial basis for reservoir operation, and using information extraction technology to extract entities and relationships from heterogeneous texts to form triples can provide structured knowledge support for professionals in making dispatch decisions and intelligent recommendations. Current information extraction technologies require manual data labeling, consuming a significant amount of time. As the number of dispatch rules increases, this method cannot meet the need for timely generation of dispatch plans during emergency flood control periods. Furthermore, utilizing natural language prompts to guide large language models in completing reservoir dispatch extraction tasks also presents challenges of cognitive load and instability in model output. Therefore, this paper proposes an entity and relationship extraction method for reservoir dispatch based on structured prompt language. Initially, a variety of labels are refined according to the extraction tasks, then organized and defined using the Backus–Naur Form (BNF) to create a structured format, thus better guiding large language models in the extraction work. Moreover, an AI agent based on this method has been developed to facilitate operation by dispatch professionals, allowing for the quick acquisition of structured data. Experimental verification has shown that, in the task of extracting entities and relationships for reservoir dispatch, this AI agent not only effectively reduces cognitive burden and the impact of instability in model output but also demonstrates high extraction performance (with F1 scores for extracting entities and relationships both above 80%), offering a new solution approach for knowledge extraction tasks in other water resource fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pouring of sand casting is accompanied by severe heat conduction, and there is an urgent need to investigate the pyrolysis properties of foundry sand. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the pyrolysis behaviors of resin sand, including precoated sand (PCS), hot box sand (HBS), and warm box sand (WBS), at heating rates of 20 °C/min, 30 °C/min, and 40 °C/min in nitrogen and air atmospheres. The mass loss of the resin sand was monitored continuously with a simultaneous thermal analyzer, and the kinetic parameters of the resin sand were calculated based on the Coats–Redfern method and thermal data. The average mass loss of the resin sand during pyrolysis was 3.03%, which was much smaller than that of the other sands. The volatile release characteristic index of resin sand could not be calculated based on this concept. To solve this issue, the term Tstv/mloss was established, and its value was determined. With increasing heating rates from 20 °C/min to 30 °C/min and from 30 °C/min to 40 °C/min, the mass losses of the resin sand increased by 0.79% and 0.64%, respectively, and the volatile release characteristic indices of the resin sand increased by 3.8 × 10−10 and 1.06 × 10−9, respectively. In addition, the mass losses and volatile release characteristic indices of resin sand in an air atmosphere were greater than those in a nitrogen atmosphere. With increasing heating rate, the activation energy of the resin sand decreased in a nitrogen atmosphere. The findings concerning the thermal decomposition behaviors of resin sand provided a theoretical basis for the pouring step of the sand casting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although various aerogels with electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing properties have been extensively explored, the development of aerogels with excellent wave absorption performance, low density, and great heat resistance has still met profound challenges. Herein, polysilazane hybrid phenolic resin aerogels (PRVS aerogels) were prepared using the vinyl addition reaction of polysilazane and cross‐linking reaction between polysilazane and phenolic resin. A SiOCN ceramic aerogel with multistage pore structure was prepared via a simple and quick freeze‐drying method and polymer‐derived ceramic (PDC) methods. The SiOCN ceramic aerogels exhibited low density (0.15–0.27 g/cm3), good heat‐shielding (thermal conductivity in the range of 0.03–0.04 W/(m·K)), and excellent wave absorption performance (i.e., RL was about –31.6 dB@16.48 GHz and EAB was 3.85 GHz when the thickness of the ceramic aerogel was 1.2 mm). Hence, the ceramic aerogel absorbing materials could meet the requirements of "wide absorption bandwidth, strong reflection loss, lightweight and thi thickness". Moreover, the mechanism of low weight, heat insulation, and wave absorption properties of the aerogels were also investigated. We believe this work is of great significance in ceramic aerogels prepared by traditional polymers, which may provide new opportunities for new ceramic aerogels with applications ranging from EMW absorption to aerospace and information technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, 1,5‐dihydroxynaphthalene moiety was introduced into a novolac resin structure, and propargyl ether naphthalene phenolic resin (PNPF) was synthesized by the Williamson etherification reaction, which improved the heat resistance of the resin and its processability. The structure of the PNPF resin was characterized using 1H NMR and FTIR analysis, and its processability, heat resistance, thermal expansion, and dielectric properties were evaluated. The results revealed that the addition of 1,5‐dihydroxylhine, increased the reaction activity of the PNPF resin, and decreased its initial curing temperature, with the resin exhibiting excellent processability. The cured resin also showed excellent heat resistance and thermomechanical properties. The 5% weight loss temperature (Td5) and glass transition temperature (Tg) of the resin increased to 437.61 and 362.04°C, respectively, while the coefficient of thermal expansion decreased from 60.17 to 44.52 ppm, with a reduction of 26.01%. Moreover, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the cured resin were 3.02 and 0.00239, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a one-dimensional superprocess with a supercritical local branching mechanism $\psi$ , where particles move as a Brownian motion with drift $-\rho$ and are killed when they reach the origin. It is known that the process survives with positive probability if and only if $\rho , where $\alpha=-\psi'(0)$. When $\rho , Kyprianou et al. [18] proved that $\lim_{t\to \infty}R_t/t =\sqrt{2\alpha}-\rho$ almost surely on the survival set, where $R_t$ is the rightmost position of the support at time t. Motivated by this work, we investigate its large deviation, in other words, the convergence rate of $\mathbb{P}_{\delta_x} (R_t >\gamma t+\theta)$ as $t \to \infty$ , where $\gamma >\sqrt{2 \alpha} -\rho$ , $\theta \ge 0$. As a by-product, a related Yaglom-type conditional limit theorem is obtained. Analogous results for branching Brownian motion can be found in Harris et al. [13]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the catalytic effects of aromatic amines with different structures on the room temperature curing of bisphenol E cyanate (BECy) have been studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Our results revealed that the mixed amine comprised of aniline and N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (AN/NNDPA) bearing primary amino groups in its structure was a highly effective catalyst for the room temperature curing of cyanate esters. When the cyanate ester and mixed amine were combined at a molar ratio of 100:5 and cured at room temperature for 5 days, the curing degree of BECy resin reached 79.7%. The room temperature curing mechanism of the BECy-AN/NNDPA system was investigated using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY GC-MS). Our results showed that the formation reactions of the intermediate structure and cyclotrimerization reactions occurred during the room-temperature curing process. The activation energies of BECy and different aromatic amine systems at different heating rates were determined using non-isothermal DSC. The results further demonstrated the catalytic effect of AN/NNDPA on the cyanate ester curing reaction. BECy-AN/NNDPA cured at room temperature has suitable heat resistance and a 5% weight loss temperature (Td5) of 361°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing skin-like biomimetic materials with electromechanical and sensing sensitive properties, so-called E-skin, demonstrate the potential to serve as novel sensors for surface strain measurement. Thus, a versatile bionic E-skin that can perceive strain signals was fabricated based on an electronic/ionic-conductive polymer, named as the CNC@PPy/CS-Cit3−/PVA gel. Notably, the citrate ion (Cit3−) formed tridentate coordination with N-glucosamine units of chitosan (CS) to form an interpenetrating CS-Cit3− polymer network. More importantly, the coordinated Cit3− could enhance the mechanical properties of the gels and serve as movable "bridges" among the cellulose nanocrystals@polypyrrole (CNC@PPy) nanoparticles. The as-developed conductive gels exhibited consecutive conductive networks with high conductivity (up to 0.97 ± 0.05 S m−1). The sensitivity of this electronic/ionic-conductive skin could be divided into two separate regions at different strain ranges (the GF was 5.27 for strain under 0–2.8% and the GF was 1.24 for strain under 2.8–650%). Owing to the rapid response time (∼160 ms) and recovery time (∼100 ms), remarkable fatigue resistance, and biocompatibility, the E-skin-based sensor can precisely distinguish physiological signals and joint motions of the body. It was envisioned that the bionic E-skin would achieve broad applications as sensors in medical monitoring and implantable bioelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deep understanding of the relationship between the knowledge acquired and the graduation requirements is essential for students to precisely meet the graduation requirements and to become human resources with specific knowledge, skills and professionalism. In this paper, we define the ontology layer of the knowledge graph by deeply analyzing the relationship between graduation requirement, course and knowledge. Based on the implementation of the concept of Outcome Based Education, we use Knowledge extraction, fusion, reasoning techniques to construct a hierarchical knowledge graph with the main line of "knowledge-course-graduation requirements. In the process of knowledge extraction, in order to alleviate the huge labor overhead brought by traditional extraction methods, this paper adopts a transfer learning method to extract triadic knowledge using the multi-task framework EERJE, Finally, knowledge reasoning was also performed with the help of LLM to further expand the knowledge scope. The comprehensiveness, correctness and relatedness of the data were evaluated through the experiment, and the F1 value of the ternary group extraction was 87.76%, the accuracy rate of entity classification was 85.42%, the data coverage was more comprehensive, and the results showed that the data quality was better, and the knowledge graph constructed in this way can fully optimize the organization and management of teaching resources, help students intuitively and comprehensively grasp the correlation and difference between graduation requirements and various knowledge points, and let the Students can carry out personalized independent learning through the navigation mode of knowledge graph, strengthen their weak links, and complete the relevant graduation requirements, which effectively improves the degree of students' graduation requirements achievement. This new paradigm of knowledge graph enabled teaching is of reference significance for engineering education majors to improve the degree of graduation requirements achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, it is still a challenge to prepare multifunctional composite nanomaterials with simple composition and favorable structure. Here, multifunctional Fe3O4@nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) nanocomposites with hollow porous core-shell structure and significant electrochemical, adsorption and sensing performances were successfully synthesized through the hydrothermal method, polymer coating, then thermal annealing process in nitrogen (N2) and lastly etching in hydrochloric acid (HCl). The morphologies and properties of the as-obtained Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites were markedly affected by the etching time of HCl. When the Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites after etching for 30 min (Fe3O4@N-C-3) were applied as the anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the invertible capacity could reach 1772 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at the current density of 0.2 A g−1, which is much better than that of Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites etched, respectively, for 15 min and 45 min (948 mA h g−1 and 1127 mA h g−1). Additionally, the hollow porous Fe3O4@N-C-3 nanocomposites also exhibited superior rate capacity (950 mA h g−1 at 0.6 A g−1). The excellent electrochemical properties of Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites are attributed to their distinctive hollow porous core-shell structure and appropriate N-doped carbon coating, which could provide high-efficiency transmission channels for ions/electrons, improve the structural stability and accommodate the volume variation in the repeated Li insertion/extraction procedure. In addition, the Fe3O4@N-C nanocomposites etched by HCl for different lengths of time, especially Fe3O4@N-C-3 nanocomposites, also show good performance as adsorbents for the removal of the organic dye (methyl orange, MO) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates for the determination of a pesticide (thiram). This work provides reference for the design and preparation of multifunctional materials with peculiar pore structure and uncomplicated composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatically generating descriptions for disaster news images could effectively accelerate the spread of disaster message and lighten the burden of news editors from tedious news materials. Image caption algorithms are remarkable for generating captions directly from the content of the image. However, current image caption algorithms trained on existing image caption datasets fail to describe the disaster images with fundamental news elements. In this paper, we developed a large-scale disaster news image Chinese caption dataset (DNICC19k), which collected and annotated enormous news images related to disaster. Furthermore, we proposed a spatial-aware topic driven caption network (STCNet) to encode the interrelationships between these news objects and generate descriptive sentences related to news topics. STCNet firstly constructs a graph representation based on objects feature similarity. The graph reasoning module uses the spatial information to infer the weights of aggregated adjacent nodes according to a learnable Gaussian kernel function. Finally, the generation of news sentences are driven by the spatial-aware graph representations and the news topics distribution. Experimental results demonstrate that STCNet trained on DNICC19k could not only automatically creates descriptive sentences related to news topics for disaster news images, but also outperforms benchmark models such as Bottom-up, NIC, Show attend and AoANet on multiple evaluation metrics, achieving CIDEr/BLEU-4 scores of 60.26 and 17.01, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on linear epoxy (bisphenol A epoxy) resin/benzoxazine composites showed that with the addition of epoxy (EP) resin, the resulting copolymers exhibited an increased glass transition temperature (T g) (T g reached a maximum value at a specific content), improved flexural strength, lower heat resistance, and reduced tensile strength. Herein, branched EP resin (AG-80)/benzoxazine copolymers featuring novolac (N-box) and siloxane (Si-box) chains were prepared without any external curing agent. In both systems, the EP resin endowed the copolymers with an increased crosslinking density; however, T g continued to increase with increasing EP content. In addition, the heat resistance of the copolymers gradually enhanced. Different types of benzoxazines have various effects on the properties of copolymers. In terms of mechanical properties, AG-80/N-box copolymers exhibited brittle fracture characteristics; with increasing EP content, the flexural strength of the copolymer decreased while the tensile strength increased. AG-80/Si-box copolymers exhibited ductile fracture characteristics, with gradual increases in flexural and tensile strengths. Furthermore, with increasing EP content, the molecular chain migration ability and network homogeneity of the AG-80/N-box copolymers decreased gradually. Alternatively, in the case of the AG-80/Si-box copolymers, the molecular chain migration ability remained unchanged and network homogeneity improved. Hence, the developed copolymers can be used as resin matrices for the fabrication of advanced composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four siloxane benzoxazines containing different rigid segments were successfully synthesized and characterized herein, including a benzene ring, a biphenyl, a naphthalene ring, and a diphenyl sulfone group. Different rigid segments had different effects on polymer properties. The introduction of the naphthalene ring and sulfone group considerably reduced the curing temperature of benzoxazine. Although the benzoxazine with the naphthalene ring exhibited low heat resistance, all the four samples showed a high char yield at 800°C under nitrogen atmosphere. In addition, during copolymerization with AG-80 epoxy, the introduction of epoxy promoted the curing of the benzoxazines containing the naphthalene ring and sulfone group. The heat resistance of all copolymers was considerably improved, especially for the copolymer containing the naphthalene ring, whose 5% thermal weight loss temperature (T d5) increased from 248°C to 321°C under nitrogen atmosphere. The copolymer containing the biphenyl structure had the highest glass transition temperature, reaching 259.1°C. Copolymerization with epoxy also considerably improved the tensile strength and elongation at break of the copolymers, which were much higher than those of traditional bisphenol A-aniline based benzoxazine (BA-a). Compared with the neat benzoxazine prepared using siloxane and bisphenol A, the developed copolymers also had better tensile properties, and the copolymer containing the sulfone group showed the greatest improvement (from 49 to 69 MPa, from 3.1% to 9.12%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new control algorithm was designed to solve the problems of actuator physical failure, remote network attack, and sudden change in trajectory curvature when a port's artificial intelligence-based transportation robots track transportation in a freight yard. First of all, the nonlinear, redundant, saturated sliding surface was designed based on the redundant information of sliding mode control caused by the finite nature of control performance; the dynamic acceleration characteristic of super-twisted sliding mode reaching law was considered to optimize the control high frequency change caused by trajectory mutation; and an improved super-twist reaching law was designed. Then, a nonlinear factor was designed to construct a nonlinear, fault-tolerant filtering mechanism to compensate for the abnormal part of the unknown input that cannot be executed by adaptive neural network reconstruction. On this basis, the finite-time technology and parameter-event-triggered mechanism were combined to reduce the dependence on communication resources. As a result, the design underwent simulation verification to verify its effectiveness and superiority. In the comparative simulation, under a consistent probability of a network attack, the tracking accuracy of the algorithm proposed in this paper was 22.65 % , 12.69 % and 11.48 % higher those that of the traditional algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A short-term 2-week (2w) and long-term 8-week (8w) feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of low-starch (LS) and high-starch (HS) diets on the growth performance, metabolism and liver health of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). Two isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing two levels of starch (LS, 9·06 %; HS, 13·56 %) were fed to largemouth bass. The results indicated that HS diet had no significant effects on specific growth rate during 2w, whereas significantly lowered specific growth rate at 8w. HS diet significantly increased hepatic glycolysis and gluconeogenesis at postprandial 24 h in 2w. The hepatosomatic index, plasma alkaline phosphatase, total bile acid (TBA) levels, and hepatic glycogen, TAG, total cholesterol, TBA, and NEFA contents were significantly increased in the HS group at 2w. Moreover, HS diet up-regulated fatty acid and TAG synthesis-related genes and down-regulated TAG hydrolysis and β -oxidation-related genes. Therefore, the glucolipid metabolism disorders resulted in metabolic liver disease induced by HS diet at 2w. However, the up-regulation of bile acid synthesis, inflammation and energy metabolism-related genes in 2w indicated that largemouth bass was still in a state of 'self-repair' response. Interestingly, all the metabolic parameters were returned to homoeostasis, with up-regulation of intestinal glucose uptake and transport-related genes, even hepatic histopathological analysis showed no obvious abnormality in the HS group in 8w. In conclusion, HS feed induced short-term acute metabolic disorder, but long-term metabolic adaptation to HS diet was related to repairing metabolism disorders via improving inflammatory responses, bile acid synthesis and energy metabolism. These results strongly indicated that the largemouth bass owned certain adaptability to HS diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzoxazines have been widely used in many fields, such as the aerospace, electronics, and automotive industries; however, these resins exhibit nonrecyclable nature and limited strength (for their brittleness). Introducing reversible covalent bonds in benzoxazines is expected to address these issues. Herein, two‐benzene‐ring‐conjugated Schiff‐base benzoxazine was successfully synthesized using a designed strategy. Using this strategy, possible side reactions, such as the transimination of the Schiff‐base, were prevented when preparing the target product via the traditional Mannich reaction. The cured benzoxazine could chemically degrade under acidic conditions and it undergoes controllable degradation when the temperature, acidity, and solvent are changed. The synthesized benzoxazine forms noticeable liquid crystals when heated to its melting point. Its glass transition temperature also reaches 265°C and the char yield at 800°C is 60.8%, considerably higher than that of traditional bisphenol A‐aniline based benzoxazine (BA‐a). Upon blending with epoxy (EP), the mechanical properties of the copolymers are significantly improved. With increasing benzoxazine content, the tensile strength of the copolymers increases from 63.6 to 95.2 MPa, an increase of ~50%. The rigid Schiff‐base structure is uniformly incorporated into the crosslinked network of EP and the EP curing agent via a transimination reaction during curing, thereby significantly improving the tensile modulus and strength of the composite material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four poly(benzoxazine‐co‐siloxane) oligomers (PBcSs) were successfully synthesized by improving the synthesis step and controlling the ratio of phenol, bisphenol A, 1,3‐bis(3‐aminopropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane, m‐aminophenyl acetylene, and formaldehyde; the resulting compounds all exhibited good processing properties. Siloxane addition can significantly improve the toughness of the polybenzoxazines. Additionally, compared with the PBcSs containing only phenol structure, the introduction of bisphenol A has a decelerating effect on the polymerization process of the benzoxazine oligomer, which leads to an increase in the exothermic peak temperature. Simultaneously, the PBcS containing bisphenol A also exhibits a higher glass transition temperature and increased thermal stability, but reduced flexural strength. Conversely, compared to the benzoxazine oligomers that do not contain alkynyl groups, the introduction of the terminal alkynyl group can accelerate the polymerization process, decrease the exothermic peak temperature, significantly increase the glass transition temperature, and greatly improve the heat resistance; the 5% thermal decomposition temperature of cured product is increased by up to 101°C. Furthermore, under conditions that ensure high flexural strength, appropriate alkynyl content can also significantly increase the material's flexural modulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) is highly expressed in a variety of neoplasms and promotes cancer progression. Nevertheless, the mechanism of ANGPTL4 in ovarian cancer (OC) metastasis remains unclear. This study aimeds to explore whether ANGPTL4 regulates OC progression and elucidate the underlying mechanism. Methods: ANGPTL4 expression in clinical patient tumor samples was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and high-throughput sequencing. ANGPTL4 knockdown (KD) and the addition of exogeneous cANGPTL4 protein were used to investigate its function. An in vivo xenograft tumor experiment was performed by intraperitoneal injection of SKOV3 cells transfected with short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) targeting ANGPTL4 in nude mice. Western blotting and qRT-PCR were used to detect the levels of ANGPTL4, CDH5, p-AKT, AKT, ETV5, MMP2 and MMP9 in SKOV3 and HO8910 cells transfected with sh-ANGPTL4 or shRNAs targeting ETV5. Results: Increased levels of ANGPTL4 were associated with poor prognosis and metastasis in OC and induced the angiogenesis and metastasis of OC cells both in vivo and in vitro. This tumorigenic effect was dependent on CDH5, and the expression levels of ANGPTL4 and CDH5 in human OC werepositively correlated. In addition, CDH5 activated p-AKT, and upregulated the expression of MMP2 and MMP9. We also found that the expression of ETV5 was upregulated by ANGPTL4, which could bind the promoter region of CDH5, leading to increased CDH5 expression. Conclusion: Our data indicated that an increase in the ANGPTL4 level results in increased ETV5 expression in OC, leading to metastasis via activation of the CDH5/AKT/MMP9 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon-based ceramic aerogels obtained by the polymer pyrolysis route possess excellent thermophysical properties, but their poor mechanical properties limit their broader applicability in thermal insulation materials. Herein, SiCN(O) ceramic aerogels were prepared under the toughening effect of a crosslinker (hexamethylene diisocyanate, HDI), which maintains the structural integrity of the aerogel during the wet gel-to-aerogel conversion. The aerogel maintained a high surface area (88.6 m2 g−1) and large pore volume (0.21 cm3 g−1) after pyrolysis. Based on this, mullite-fiber-reinforced SiCN(O) aerogels composites with outstanding thermal insulation properties and better mechanical performance were synthesized via ambient pressure impregnation. Furthermore, the effect of the impregnation concentration on the mechanical and insulation properties of the composites was investigated. The results revealed that the composite prepared with a solution ratio of 95 wt.% exhibited a low density (0.11 g cm−3) and a low thermal conductivity (0.035 W m−1 K−1), indicating an ~30% enhancement in its thermal insulation performance compared to the mullite fiber; the mesoporous aerogel structures wrapped on the mullite fibers inhibited the gas thermal conduction inside the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key to improving the readability and usage of educational resources is their orderly arrangement and integration. Knowledge graphs, which are a large-scale form of knowledge engineering, are an effective tool for managing and organizing educational resources. The water conservancy's educational big data is separated into three tiers of objectives–courses–knowledge units based on the connotation level of self-directed learning. Combined with the idea of Outcome-based Education(OBE), the goal-oriented knowledge graph structure of water conservancy disciplines and graph creation method is proposed. The focus is the error accumulation problem brought about by the traditional relational extraction method of Named Entity Recognition based on rules or sequence labeling. We first complete this objective, and then the relationship classification is performed according to the water conservancy disciplines entity and relations joint extraction (WDERJE) model, on which the prompt mechanism design is based. Think of the entity-relationship extraction task as a sequence-to-sequence generation task, and take the structured extraction language to unify the coding entity extraction and relationship extraction structures. The evaluation results of the WDERJE model show that the F_0.5 value of each entity extraction is above 0.76, and the cumulative extraction relationship triple is nearly 180,000. The graph fully optimizes the organization and management of water conservancy education resources and effectively improves the readability and utilization rate of water conservancy teaching resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Golden Triangle" is located on the border between Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, and slash-and-burn cultivation is an ancient and typical land type in this region. With the development of the "The Belt and Road" strategy of China and the climate change, the vegetation information is bound to change intensively under the combined influence of alternative plantation projects and economic policies. Here we used MOD13Q1-normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) and meteorological data to analyze the variation of vegetation coverage and its correlation with climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) during the period of 2000–2018 by using trend analysis, stability analysis, and partial correlation analysis. The results showed that the overall vegetation coverage of this region exerted the trend of improvement and became more stable over time. Spatially, the agglomeration degree became weaker as time goes during 2000–2018. The precipitation was more closely correlated with NDVI than temperature, indicating that precipitation could be the main limiting factor influencing vegetation change in this area. The correlation between NDVI and climatic factors exhibited differences among different seasons, with NDVI being less correlated with temperature and precipitation in spring and summer and more correlated with them in autumn and winter. Investigating the long-term vegetation coverage of this region and analyzing the trend of climate change is beneficial to understand the development trend of the ecological environment and resource potential in this region. Simultaneously, it can provide a favorable ecological evaluation for The Belt and Road strategy and provide important scientific suggestions and guidance for the sustainable development of ecosystems and human society under the drastic environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the unknown disturbance caused by the harsh environment in deep water, the stability of Underwater Tracked Remotely Opreated Vehicle (UTROV) trajectory tracking control is affected; especially the resistance forces of random vibrations caused by non-differentiable random disturbance resistance, which has become one of the main problems in controller design. Considering engineering practice, a stochastic model and new dynamic damping-based terminal sliding mode event-triggered fault-tolerant controller were designed in this paper. Firstly, based on the random resistance pre-compensation theory for the first time, a stochastic model was designed for differential drive UTROV. Meanwhile, a new nonsingular terminal sliding mode and dynamic damping reaching law were designed to achieve global finite-time convergence and reduce chattering with better robust response speed. Furthermore, to deal with the wear and tear caused by actuator failure and fixed sampling rate transmission, a new dynamic event trigger mechanism was designed and the faults analyzed. On this basis, combined with the finite-time adaptive on-line estimation technology, it can not only better reduce the transmission frequency, but also the finite-time dynamic active fault-tolerant compensation. The control scheme has semi-globally finite-time stability in probability and is proved by theory, which is compliant with engineering requirements. Then, according to characteristics of innovation, the three groups of simulation of control methods are designed to compare the methods in this paper. Finally the advantages of the method are verified by simulation to achieve the design expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid droplet (LD) is a kind of subcellular organelle, which originates from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). LDs can move flexibly between other organelles and store energy in the cells. In recent years, LDs and lipid droplet–associated proteins have attracted added attention at home and abroad, especially in cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases, especially ischemic heart disease (IHD), have always been the focus of attention because of their high morbidity and mortality. Atherosclerosis and myocardial remodeling are two important pathologic processes of IHD, and LDs and other organelles are involved in the development of the disease. The interaction between LDs and ER is involved in the formation of foam cells in atherosclerosis. And LDs, mitochondria, and lysosomes also affect the remodeling of cardiomyocytes by affecting ROS production and regulating PI3K/AKT pathways. In this article, we will review the role of LDs in IHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNA is a key regulator involved in the progression of many human diseases including diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the role and mechanism of hsa_circ_0037128 in the occurrence and development of DN remains to be explored. High glucose (HG)-induced podocytes were used to construct in vitro DN models. The expression of hsa_circ_0037128, microRNA (miR)-31-5p, and Kruppel-like factor 9 (KLF9) was determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The viability and apoptosis of podocytes was measured using cell counting kit 8 assay and flow cytometry. Western blot analysis was performed to examine the protein levels of apoptosis markers and KLF9 in podocytes. Inflammation factors were detected by ELISA assay, and oxidative stress markers were assessed by corresponding Assay Kits. In addition, the interaction between miR-31-5p and hsa_circ_0037128 or KLF9 was verified using dual-luciferase reporter assay and RIP assay. Our data suggested that hsa_circ_0037128 was highly expressed in DN patients and HG-induced podocytes. In HG-induced podocytes, hsa_circ_0037128 knockdown could alleviate HG-induced podocytes injury. In the term of mechanism, hsa_circ_0037128 could sponge miR-31-5p to upregulate KLF9. MiR-31-5p inhibitor could reverse the negative regulation of hsa_circ_0037128 silencing on HG-induced podocytes injury. Also, miR-31-5p relieved HG-induced podocytes injury, and this effect also could be reversed by KLF9 overexpression. In summary, our data showed that hsa_circ_0037128 could promote HG-induced podocytes injury via regulating miR-31-5p/KLF9 axis, showing that hsa_circ_0037128 might be a target for DN treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pigments are often used in water borne barrier coatings but tend to make the coatings prone to failure. The pigment properties effects on this issue is lacking in literature. In this work, coatings that used pigments with different moduli but with similar size and aspect ratio were characterized in terms of water vapor resistance before and after folding. Coatings with talc had better water vapor resistance than coatings with similar sized kaolin. Talc also limited the degradation of barrier properties when folded. Coatings with metalized poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes had better failure resistance than coatings with similarly sized rigid mica. Both results are likely caused by the ability of the low modulus pigment to deform and allow for strain to occur in the pigment as well as the latex phase. Styrene-butadiene (SB) and natural rubber (NR) latex coatings had a better failure resistance than styrene-acrylate (SA) latex, which is likely due to their low glass transition temperatures and high strain-to-failure values. However, coatings with high amounts of SB or NR latex may lead to blocking issues in production. Adding kaolin into SA and SB latex mixtures resulted in improved water vapor barrier property and failure resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Medical image segmentation is critical for many medical image analysis applications. 3D convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely adopted in the segmentation of volumetric medical images. The recent development of channelwise and spatialwise attentions achieves the state‐of‐the‐art feature representation performance. However, these attention strategies have not explicitly modeled interdependencies among slices in 3D medical volumes. In this work, we propose a novel attention module called progressive attention module (PAM) to explicitly model the slicewise importance for 3D medical image analysis. Methods: The proposed method is composed of three parts: Slice Attention (SA) block, Key‐Slice‐Selection (KSS) block, and Channel Attention (CA) block. First, the SA is a novel attention block to explore the correlation among slices for 3D medical image segmentation. SA is designed to explicitly reweight the importance of each slice in the 3D medical image scan. Second, the KSS block, cooperating with the SA block, is designed to adaptively emphasize the critical slice features while suppressing the irrelevant slice features, which helps the model focus on the slices with rich structural and contextual information. Finally, the CA block receives the output of KSS as input for further feature recalibration. Our proposed PAM organically combines SA, KSS, and CA, progressively highlights the key slices containing rich information for the relevant tasks while suppressing those irrelevant slices. Results: To demonstrate the effectiveness of PAM, we embed it into 3D CNNs architectures and evaluate the segmentation performance on three public challenging data sets: BraTS 2018 data set, MALC data set, and HVSMR data set. We achieve 80.34%, 88.98%, and 84.43% of the Dice similarity coefficient on these three data sets, respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed PAM not only boosts the segmentation accuracy of the standard 3D CNNs methods consistently, but also outperforms the other attention mechanisms with slight extra costs. Conclusions: We propose a new PAM to identify the most informative slices and recalibrate channelwise feature responses for volumetric medical image segmentation. The proposed method is evaluated on three public data sets, and the results show improvements over other methods. This proposed technique can effectively assist physicians in many medical image analysis. It is also anticipated to be generalizable and transferable to assist physicians in a wider range of medical imaging applications to produce greater value and impact to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Though massively parallel sequencing has been widely applied to noninvasive prenatal screen for common trisomy, the clinical use of massively parallel sequencing to noninvasive prenatal diagnose monogenic disorders is limited. This study was to develop a method for directly determining paternal haplotypes for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of monogenic disorders without requiring proband's samples. Methods: The study recruited 40 families at high risk for autosomal recessive diseases. The targeted linked-read sequencing was performed on high molecular weight (HMW) DNA of parents using customized probes designed to capture targeted genes and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) distributed within 1Mb flanking region of targeted genes. Plasma DNA from pregnant mothers also underwent targeted sequencing using the same probes to determine fetal haplotypes according to parental haplotypes. The results were further confirmed by invasive prenatal diagnosis. Results: Seventy-eight parental haplotypes of targeted gene were successfully determined by targeted linked-read sequencing. The predicted fetal inheritance of variant was correctly deduced in 38 families in which the variants had been confirmed by invasive prenatal diagnosis. Two families were determined to be no-call. Conclusions: Targeted linked-read sequencing method demonstrated to be an effective means to phase personal haplotype for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of monogenic disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GKN2 (gastrokine 2) mainly plays a regulatory role in gastric mucosal defense and cell protection mechanisms, and its role in gastric cancer has not been thoroughly elucidated. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect GKN2 and TFF1 expressions in 90 gastric cancer tissues, 48 neoplastic resection margins, and 22 normal gastric mucosa epithelia. It showed that the downregulation of GKN2 and TFF1 expressions in gastric cancer tissues was significantly different from that in adjacent normal gastric tissues and distal gastric mucosal tissues. Nevertheless, correlation analysis showed that GKN2 expression in gastric cancer tissues was independent of TFF1 expression. After overexpression of GKN2 was constructed in human gastric cancer cell line MKN28 with the Ad-GFP-GKN2 transfected, cell viability was measured by CCK-8 assay, and migration and invasion ability were analyzed by transwell migration assay and transwell invasion assay. It indicated that overexpression of GKN2 significantly reduced the viability of MKN28 and SGC7901 cells. Overexpression of GKN2 could also inhibit the migration and invasion ability in MKN28 and SGC7901 cells. In addition, upregulation of GKN2 can inactivate the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. Our data suggest that GKN2 and TFF1 play the antitumor role in gastric carcinoma, and TFF1 may not interact or cooperate with GKN2. GKN2 overexpression can inhibit the growth and metastasis by downregulating the JAK2/STAT3 pathway in gastric cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the vital causes of morbidity and mortality, and the number of deaths from CVD has increased worldwide. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) is a novel type of endogenous noncoding RNA, which can form covalent closed continuous rings and are highly expressed in the eukaryotic transcriptome. In recent years, research on circRNAs have been increasing and the researchers have also become cumulatively aware of the association between circRNAs and CVD. This review highlights the biogenesis and functions of circRNAs and the role in cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammasomes are a group of multiprotein signaling complexes located in the cytoplasm. Several inflammasomes have been identified, including NLRP1, NLRP2, NLRP3, AIM2, and NLRC4. Among them, NLRP3 was investigated in most detail, and it was reported that it can be activated by many different stimuli. Increased NLRP3 protein expression and inflammasome assembly lead to caspase‐1 mediated maturation and release of IL‐1β, which triggers inflammation and pyroptosis. The activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome has been widely reported in studies of tumors and neurological diseases, but relatively few studies on the cardiovascular system. Ventricular remodeling (VR) is an important factor contributing to heart failure (HF) after myocardial infarction (MI). Consequently, delaying VR is of great significance for improving heart function. Studies have shown that the NLRP3 inflammasome plays an essential role in the process of VR. Here, we reviewed the latest studies on the activation pathway of the NLRP3 inflammasome, focusing on the effects of the NLRP3 inflammasome in primary cells during VR, and finally discuss future research directions in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding pigments into waterborne barrier coatings improves barrier properties and cost-effectiveness but increases the risk of crack formation during folding. Crack formation is affected by pigment shape, aspect ratio, and concentration; however, the exact mechanism for these effects is still not well understood. In this work, a systematic model was used to understand the influence of the paper and coating thickness, the latex and pigment modulus, the pigment shape and aspect ratio, and pigment concentration on the failure of waterborne barrier coatings during folding. A finite element method-based model was solved with a commercial package to simulate the folding process. These simulations were compared to experimental results to verify the key parameters that affect coating failure. High paper and coating thickness, pigment loadings, pigment aspect ratios, and modulus differences between latex and pigment increased the likelihood of failure. Experiments and models using lower modulus spherical plastic pigments were more difficult to fail than coatings made with higher modulus kaolin. The maximum strain for coatings bent to a set curvature was the smallest when the modulus of latex and pigment were similar. The model agreed closely with experimental results for two pigment types at various pigment loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest in the facial expression recognition (FER) is increasing day by day due to its practical and potential applications, such as human physiological interaction diagnosis and mental diseases detection. This area has received much attention from the research community in recent years and achieved remarkable results; however, a significant improvement is required in spatial problems. This research work presents a novel framework and proposes an effective and robust solution for FER under an unconstrained environment. Face detection is performed using the supervision of facial attributes. Faceness-Net is used for deep facial part responses for the detection of faces under severe unconstrained variations. In order to improve the generalization problems and avoid insufficient data regime, Deep Convolutional Graphical Adversarial Network (DC-GAN) is utilized. Due to the challenging environmental factors faced in the wild, a large number of noises disrupt feature extraction, thus making it hard to capture ground truth. We leverage different multimodal sensors with a camera that aids in data acquisition, by extracting the features more accurately and improve the overall performance of FER. These intelligent sensors are used to tackle the significant challenges like illumination variance, subject dependence, and head pose. Dual-enhanced capsule network is used which is able to handle the spatial problem. The traditional capsule networks are unable to sufficiently extract the features, as the distance varies greatly between facial features. Therefore, the proposed network is capable of spatial transformation due to action unit aware mechanism and thus forward most desiring features for dynamic routing between capsules. Squashing function is used for the classification function. We have elaborated the effectiveness of our method by validating the results on four popular and versatile databases that outperform all state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid cyanate ester resin containing polysilazane was prepared via the prepolymerization of bisphenol-A dicyanate ester monomer (BADCy) in the presence of polysilazane (PSZ) under low temperature conditions in a short period of time. Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy reveal that the polymerization reaction of BADCy can be carried out in the presence of PSZ to obtain a hybrid resin below 100°C and polymethylsilazane (PHS) exhibits an improved prepolymerization effect when compared to polydimethylsilazane (PMS). FT-IR spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) showed that the prepolymerization degree of the PHS/BADCy resin increased upon increasing PHS mass fraction from 0 to 12 wt%, polymerization temperature from 60 to 100°C and polymerization time from 0 to 4 h. The PHS/BADCy hybrid resins samples were prepared and their process properties were investigated by rheometry and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results indicated that their viscosity was <10 Pa.s in the temperature range of 60–130°C, and the initial curing temperature and curing exothermic enthalpy were 121.9°C and 358.9 J/g, respectively. Furthermore, the cured PHS/BADCy resin possesses excellent thermal and mechanical properties, the 5% weight loss temperature (Td5) and glass transition temperature (Tg) were 424–441°C and 273–282°C, respectively. The cured PHS/BADCy resin with 4 wt% PHS showed the highest flexural strength of 146 MPa and flexural modulus of 4.1 GPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) of recessive monogenic diseases depends heavily on knowing the correct parental haplotypes. However, the currently used family-based haplotyping method requires pedigrees, and molecular haplotyping is highly challenging due to its high cost, long turnaround time, and complexity. Here, we proposed a new two-step approach, population-based haplotyping-NIPT (PBH-NIPT), using α-thalassemia and β-thalassemia as prototypes. Methods: First, we deduced parental haplotypes with Beagle 4.0 with training on a large retrospective carrier screening dataset (4356 thalassemia carrier screening-positive cases). Second, we inferred fetal haplotypes using a parental haplotype-assisted hidden Markov model (HMM) and the Viterbi algorithm. Results: With this approach, we enrolled 59 couples at risk of having a fetus with thalassemia and successfully inferred 94.1% (111/118) of fetal alleles. We confirmed these alleles by invasive prenatal diagnosis, with 99.1% (110/111) accuracy (95% CI, 95.1–100%). Conclusions: These results demonstrate that PBH-NIPT is a sensitive, fast, and inexpensive strategy for NIPT of thalassemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative localization has emerged as an appealing technology since it can improve the localization performance without any infrastructure change compared with non-cooperative localization. However, some well-localized agents may not be willing to sacrifice additional power to improve the others’ localization accuracy. This paper proposes an incentive mechanism from an economic perspective for cooperative localization, whereby a pricing scheme is designed to lead each agent to the optimal state. A game-theoretic algorithm is proposed where each player (agent) can obtain the optimal budget strategy to minimize its individual utility. To make profits in the game, the relationship between the agent's network condition and its budget strategy is derived. Furthermore, a fairness-aware price allocation rule (PAR) is developed to distribute the budget among the reference agents proportional to each node's contribution. Analytical and numerical results show that agents with better network conditions are more likely to join the cooperation under the proposed incentive mechanism, leading to an improved localization performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon‐containing arylacetylene resins (PSAs) can be used in high temperature environment due to their excellent thermal stability. However, their high temperature oxidation is still bottle‐neck for further application. Herein, Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) was utilized to identify a target monomer, 3,6‐diethynylcarbazole (DEC), to design new PSAs with enhanced antioxidant properties and heat resistance. After incorporation of DEC, the thermal curing behavior observed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that obtained silicon‐containing carbazolylacetylene resins (PSA‐VBC) can exhibit hydroamination reaction to decrease the initial curing temperature. And the temperature at 5% weight loss (Td5) occurred in cured copolymers ranged from 665°C to 691°C, which showed excellent heat resistance. Moreover, the oxidation behavior of cured resins was investigated by thermogravimetric/derivative thermogravimetry (TG/DTG), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Upon the incorporation of DEC, the thermal oxidation decomposition temperature of PSA‐VBC were 100°C higher than those observed for PSAs, which also proved by XPS analysis results that the oxygen content of PSA‐VBC solidified oxide was lower than that of PSAs. In addition, the surface morphology of cured PSA‐VBC resins still maintained integrity after oxidation at 400°C for 2 hr, which showed excellent oxidation resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

QiShenYiQi pill (QSYQ), a traditional Chinese medicine, is well known for improving the myocardial remodelling, but the dose‐effect relationship of its intervention in the reparative myocardial fibrosis is still unclear. We investigated the effect of QSYQ on the reparative myocardial fibrosis in cardiac myosin‐induced rats and explored its mechanism of action by regulating autophagy. The results indicated that QSYQ increased LVEF and LVFS, and decreased the LVEDD, LVESD, HMI, LVMI, myocardial inflammation histology score, and collagen volume fraction in a dose‐dependent manner. In addition, QSYQ declined the number of autophagosomes, down‐regulated the expression of myocardial Beclin‐1 and LC3B, up‐regulated the expression of myocardial p62 and increased the ratios of myocardial p‐PI3K/PI3K, p‐Akt/Akt and p‐mTOR/mTOR. We provided evidence for that QSYQ could inhibit excessive myocardial autophagy by regulating the PI3K/Akt‐mTOR pathway and can be a potential therapeutic approach in treating the cardiovascular diseases such as myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to investigate the validity of noninvasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) based on direct haplotype phasing without the proband or other family members and its feasibility for clinical application in the case of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).Methods: Thirteen singleton-pregnancy families affected by DMD were recruited. The pathogenic variants in the pregnant females have been identified by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). We resolved maternal haplotypes for each family by performing targeted linked-read sequencing of their high molecular weight DNA, respectively. Then, we integrated the maternal haplotypes and the targeted sequencing results of maternal plasma DNA to infer the fetal haplotype and the DMD gene variant status. The fetal genotypes were further validated by using chorionic villus sampling.Results: The method of directly resolving maternal haplotype through targeted linked-read sequencing was smoothly performed in 12 participated families, but one failed (F11). The predicted variant status of 12 fetuses was correct, which had been confirmed by invasive prenatal diagnosis.Conclusion: Direct haplotyping of NIPD based on linked-read sequencing for DMD is accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify NLOS propagations for a high-resolution wireless localization system, a strong NLOS classifier is proposed via a machine learning algorithm named AdaBoost. Signal features are extracted to characterize the distinctions between LOS and NLOS, based on which a series of weak learners are primarily given. By training and re-sampling data iteratively, weak learners with the minimal classification error are selected and the weighted sum is boosted into a strong classifier. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed AdaBoost-based NLOS classifier can improve NLOS identification performance, leading to reduced positioning errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a basic property of cloud, accurate identification of cloud type is useful in forecasting the evolution of landfalling typhoons. Millimeter-wave cloud radar is an important means of identifying cloud type. Here, we develop a fuzzy logic algorithm that depends on radar range-height-indicator (RHI) data and takes into account the fundamental physical features of different cloud types. The algorithm is applied to a ground-based Ka-band millimeter-wave cloud radar. The input parameters of the algorithm include average reflectivity factor intensity, ellipse long axis orientation, cloud base height, cloud thickness, presence/absence of precipitation, ratio of horizontal extent to vertical extent, maximum echo intensity, and standard variance of intensities. The identified cloud types are stratus (St), stratocumulus (Sc), cumulus (Cu), cumulonimbus (Cb), nimbostratus (Ns), altostratus (As), altocumulus (Ac) and high cloud. The cloud types identified using the algorithm are in good agreement with those identified by a human observer. As a case study, the algorithm was applied to typhoon Khanun (1720), which made landfall in south-eastern China in October 2017. Sequential identification results from the algorithm clearly reflected changes in cloud type and provided indicative information for forecasting of the typhoon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitous in nature, Aspergillus rarely invades the brain to induce infection in general. However, in clinical practice, some patients with hematological malignancies or immunosuppression may suffer from Aspergillus infection of the central nervous system, which arises most commonly as a result of hematogenous dissemination from a pulmonary focus or direct extension from the paranasal sinus infection. Treatment is clinically challenging and the mortality rate is relatively high. Recently, a case diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia was admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery, The First People's Hospital of Huzhou (First Affiliated Hospital of Huzhou University, Huzhou, China). During chemotherapy, space-occupying lesions were observed in the right occipital lobe of the patient, and lesion progression was captured. After treatment with surgery, an analysis of specimens collected from the patient was performed and was suggestive of Aspergillus infection. Following the symptomatic therapy with voriconazole, the patient's disease prognosis was favorable. The focus of infection due to pulmonary aspergillosis or Aspergillus sinusitis was not detected in the patient and the focus was not a common site of hematogenous infection. In addition, the patient exhibited no obvious clinical symptoms. In view of the above observations, the possibility of hospital-acquired infection was considered, to which clinicians should be alert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]