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High-speed railway tunnels in various countries have continuously reported accidents of vault falling concrete blocks. Once the concrete block falling occurs, serious consequences follow, and traffic safety may be endangered. The aerodynamic shockwave evolves from the initial compression wave may be an important inducement causing the tunnel lining cracks to grow and form falling concrete blocks. A joint calculation framework is established based on ANSYS Fluent, ABAQUS, and FRANC3D for calculating the crack tip field under the aerodynamic shockwave. The intensification effect of aerodynamic shockwaves in the crack is revealed, and the evolution characteristics of the crack tip field and the influence factors of stress intensity factor (SIF) are analyzed. Results show that (1) the aerodynamic shockwave intensifies after entering the crack, resulting in more significant pressure in the crack than the input pressure. The maximum pressure of the inclined and longitudinal cracks is higher than the corresponding values of the circumferential crack, respectively. (2) The maximum SIF of the circumferential, inclined, and longitudinal crack appears at 0.5, 0.68, and 0.78 times the crack front length. The maximum SIF of the circumferential crack is higher than that of the inclined and longitudinal crack. The possibility of crack growth of the circumferential crack is the highest under aerodynamic shockwaves. (3) The influence of train speed on the SIF of the circumferential crack is more than 40%. When the train speed, crack depth, and crack length change, the change of pressure in the crack is the direct cause of the change of SIF.

The magnetic levitation control system is a key component of a maglev train, ensuring that the airgap between the train and its guideway is stable. Currently, the levitation controller is designed based on a single-point model in which the coupling effect between two levitation units at one side of the bogie in the maglev train is ignored. However, it is found that the coupling effect can cause unstable levitation problems during long-term operations. Hence, to solve the coupling problem of the two levitation units, a cooperative levitation controller based on the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman incorporated multi-agent reinforcement learning (HJB–MADRL) is proposed. The MADRL is adopted for the two-point levitation control considering the coupling effect between the two levitation units. To improve the training of the value network in the MADRL, the HJB function is used to evaluate the optimality of the value function. The proposed algorithm shows an improved performance compared to the original MADRL algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed cooperative controller using the proposed algorithm is verified by comparing with a conventional proportional-integral-derivatve (PID) controller and a model-guided controller. The robustness of the HJB–MADRL controller is examined in the presence of pitch motion, change in train load, disturbance force, and track irregularity.

Ferroptosis, an intricately regulated form of cell death characterized by uncontrolled lipid peroxidation, has garnered substantial interest since this term was first coined in 2012. Recent years have witnessed remarkable progress in elucidating the detailed molecular mechanisms that govern ferroptosis induction and defence, with particular emphasis on the roles of heterogeneity and plasticity. In this Review, we discuss the molecular ecosystem of ferroptosis, with implications that may inform and enable safe and effective therapeutic strategies across a broad spectrum of diseases.

In simulating vegetated flows using the porous approach, the reasonableness of the drag coefficient significantly impacts the calculation results. This study employs large eddy simulation (LES) to quantitatively investigate the effect of drag parameters on key flow characteristics in submerged vegetated flows. The results indicate that changes in the drag coefficient significantly alter the velocity in the middle of the vegetation layer and near the water surface in the free-flow layer. Compared with longitudinal velocity, the drag coefficient has a more pronounced effect on the vertical distribution of Reynolds stress, especially its peak at the top of the vegetation layer. The porous approach can accurately reproduce the vertical distribution of longitudinal velocity and Reynolds stress, consistent with experimental measurements, only when shear-scale flow dominates. Due to the high-intensity secondary flow under moderate vegetation density, fluctuations in the drag coefficient have a more significant impact on the numerical results than in very dense vegetation. Therefore, selecting the drag coefficient value should be done cautiously, especially in the absence of experimental measurements for validation.

In this paper, we propose a low-complexity fiber nonlinearity impairments compensation scheme based on nonlinear step size and modified adaptive digital back propagation. To verify the feasibility of the proposed algorithm, we construct a simulation system of single channel 12.5 GBaud polarization division multiplexing 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PDM-16QAM) optical transmission system. Comprehensive numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can not only search for the fiber nonlinear coefficient adaptively, but also has the characteristics of high performance and low complexity.

ABSTRACTIntroductionSystemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-dimensional autoimmune disease involving numerous tissues throughout the body. The chromatin accessibility landscapes in immune cells play a pivotal role in governing their activation, function, and differentiation. Aberrant modulation of chromatin accessibility in immune cells is intimately associated with the onset and progression of SLE.Areas coveredIn this review, we described the chromatin accessibility landscapes in immune cells, summarized the recent evidence of chromatin accessibility related to the pathogenesis of SLE, and discussed the potential of chromatin accessibility as a valuable option to identify novel therapeutic targets for this disease.Expert opinionDynamic changes in chromatin accessibility are intimately related to the pathogenesis of SLE and have emerged as a new direction for exploring its epigenetic mechanisms. The differently accessible chromatin regions in immune cells often contain binding sites for transcription factors (TFs) and cis-regulatory elements such as enhancers and promoters, which may be potential therapeutic targets for SLE. Larger scale cohort studies and integrating epigenomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic data can provide deeper insights into SLE chromatin biology in the future.

Warming and nitrogen (N) addition may impact soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, but the relationship between plant community composition and soil microbial activities remains unclear. For a two-year field study in the Qinghai‒Tibet Plateau, open-top chambers were used to quantify the effects of warming, N-addition, and their interactions on N2O emissions. We found that the N-addition greatly increased N2O emissions by 77.4% in 2018 when compared to the control group. In contrast, warming showed little effect on N2O emissions but did increase the activity of enzymes associated with soil nitrification and denitrification. A combined effect of warming and N-addition of resulted in 208.6% (2018) and 90.8% (2019) increase in N2O emissions, respectively, compared to the individual treatments of warming or N-addition. Global warming in alpine meadows is causally linked to increased legume biomass which is further intensified with the N-addition. Intensified legume biomass (p< 0.05), soil moisture (p< 0.001) and enzyme activity (p< 0.001) had a positive effect on N2O emissions, while diminished microbial carbon/nitrogen (MBC/MBN) (p< 0.05) correlated with reduced N2O emissions. Final results indicated that N-addition has a positive effect on N2O emissions, and the addition of warming further intensifies this effect. The increased dominance of legumes and microbial N content contributes to this effect. These outcomes suggest that warming and atmospheric N deposition can stimulate N2O emissions of alpine meadows in the future.

Supervised fault diagnosis (FD) in mechanical systems, particularly in high-speed train (HST) components, faces significant challenges due to the presence of label noise in annotating large-scale monitoring data. This label noise introduces strict requirements for label noise tolerance and the learning capabilities of FD algorithms. This article presents a unified framework for label noise FD in HST components using a bounded neural network (BNN) to address this issue. The proposed framework consists of multiple basic models with shared weights, enabling the learning of global knowledge across sensor nodes and facilitating the estimation of local states to adapt to dynamic measurement networks. The BNN-based basic model incorporates implicit weighted learning and bounded loss mechanisms, which extract valuable insights from misannotated data. In addition, a tighter bound of loss is introduced, providing theoretical proof and enhancing the label noise tolerance of the BNN. A surrogate training strategy based on an alternative convex search (ACS) is established to ensure the stability of the BNN model during the early training stage. This strategy mitigates the risk of failure in the initial training phase of the BNN model. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated through a real-field test conducted on a mechanical system of an HST component. The code is released on https://github.com/sudao-he/Bounded_Neural_Network.

Multimode configurations are extensively adopted to improve the energy efficiency of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which can significantly improve vehicle fuel economy by using operation mode switching. However, frequent mode transitions may deteriorate the vehicle drivability and driving comforts. Thus, this article presents a real-time predictive energy management strategy (EMS) with mode transition frequency constraints. First, two penalty functions are adopted to achieve a better balance between the fuel economy and frequency number of mode transition. Then, with the predicted vehicle speed from long-short term memory neural network and the penalty coefficients obtained from driving pattern recognition, a rapid near-optimal energy management algorithm is developed to achieve torque allocation optimization, which can ensure low mode transition frequency and high calculation efficiency for online application. Finally, the effectiveness as well as performance of proposed EMS is verified by using comparative hardware-in-the-loop tests.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients exhibit greater susceptibility to vascular calcification (VC), which has a higher risk of death and disability. However, there is no specific drug for VC therapy. NLRP3 inflammasome activation as a hallmark event of medial calcification leads to arterial stiffness, causing vasoconstrictive dysfunction in T2DM. Empagliflozin (EMPA), a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i), restrains hyperglycemia with definite cardiovascular benefits. Given the anti-inflammatory activity of EMPA, herein we investigated whether EMPA protected against VC in the aorta of T2DM mice by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Since db/dbmice receiving a normal diet developed VC at the age of about 20 weeks, we administered EMPA (5, 10, 20 mg·kg−1·d−1, i.g) to 8 week-old db/dbmice for 12 weeks. We showed that EMPA intervention dose-dependently ameliorated the calcium deposition, accompanied by reduced expression of RUNX2 and BMP2 proteins in the aortas. We found that EMPA (10 mg·kg−1·d−1for 6 weeks) also protected against VC in vitamin D3-overloaded mice, suggesting the protective effects independent of metabolism. We showed that EMPA (10 mg·kg−1·d−1) inhibited the abnormal activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in aortic smooth muscle layer of db/dbmice. Knockout (KO) of NLRP3 significantly alleviated VC in STZ-induced diabetic mice. The protective effects of EMPA were verified in high glucose (HG)-treated mouse aortic smooth muscle cells (MOVASs). In HG-treated NLRP3 KO MOVASs, EMPA (1 μM) did not cause further improvement. Bioinformatics and Western blot analysis revealed that EMPA significantly increased the expression levels of basic helix-loop-helix family transcription factor e40 (Bhlhe40) in HG-treated MOVASs, which served as a negative transcription factor directly binding to the promotor of Nlrp3. We conclude that EMPA ameliorates VC by inhibiting Bhlhe40-dpendent NLRP3 inflammasome activation. These results might provide potential significance for EMPA in VC therapy of T2DM patients.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an important role in organic matter (OM) stabilization in Fe ore tailings for eco-engineered soil formation. However, little has been understood about the AM fungi-derived organic signature and organo-mineral interactions in situat the submicron scale. In this study, a compartmentalized cultivation system was used to investigate the role of AM fungi in OM formation and stabilization in tailings. Particularly, microspectroscopic analyses including synchrotron-based transmission Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning transmission X-ray microspectroscopy combined with near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (STXM-NEXAFS) were employed to characterize the chemical signatures at the AM fungal-mineral and mineral-OM interfaces at the submicron scale. The results indicated that AM fungal mycelia developed well in the tailings and entangled mineral particles for aggregation. AM fungal colonization enhanced N-rich OM stabilization through organo-mineral association. Bulk spectroscopic analysis together with FTIR mapping revealed that fungi-derived lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates were associated with Fe/Si minerals. Furthermore, STXM-NEXAFS analysis revealed that AM fungi-derived aromatic, aliphatic, and carboxylic/amide compounds were heterogeneously distributed and trapped by Fe(II)/Fe(III)-bearing minerals originating from biotite-like minerals weathering. These findings imply that AM fungi can stimulate mineral weathering and provide organic substances to associate with minerals, contributing to OM stabilization and aggregate formation as key processes for eco-engineered soil formation in tailings.

Functionalized crystalline solids based on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) enable efficient luminescence detection and high proton conductivity, making them crucial in the realms of environmental monitoring and clean energy. Here, two structurally and functionally distinct zinc-based MOFs, [Zn(TTDPa)(bodca)]·H2O (1) and [Zn(TTDPb)(bodca)]·H2O (2), were successfully designed and synthesized using 3,6-di(pyridin-4-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (TTDPa) and 2,5-di(pyridin-4-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (TTDPb) as ligands, in the presence of bicyclo[2.2.2]octane-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (H2bodca). Both 1and 2display a three-dimensional (3D) structure with 5-fold interpenetration, and notably, 2forms a larger one-dimensional pore measuring 17.16 × 10.81 Å2in size. Fluorescence experiments demonstrate that 1and 2can function as luminescent sensors for nitrofurantoin (NFT) and nitrofurazone (NFZ) with low detection limits, remarkable selectivity, and good recyclability. A comprehensive analysis was conducted to investigate the differing sensing effects of compounds 1and 2and to explore potential sensing mechanisms. Additionally, at 328 K and 98% relative humidity, 1and 2exhibit proton conductivity values of 2.13 × 10–3and 4.91 × 10–3S cm–1, respectively, making them suitable proton-conducting materials. Hence, the integration of luminescent sensing and proton conductivity in monophasic 3D Zn-MOFs holds significant potential for application in intelligent multitasking devices.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) for the treatment of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with a hostile neck anatomy (HNA). Methods: From January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019, a total of 259 patients diagnosed with an AAA who underwent EVAR were recruited into this study. Based on the morphological characteristics of the proximal neck anatomy, the patients were divided into the HNA group and the friendly neck anatomy (FNA) group. The patients were followed up for up to 4 years. Results: The average follow-up time was 1056.1±535.5 days. Type I endoleak occurred in 4 patients in the HNA group, and 2 patients in the FNA group. Neither death nor intraoperative switch to open repair occurred in either group. The time of the operation was significantly longer in the HNA group (FNA vs.HNA, 99.2±51.1 min vs.117.5±63.8 min, P=0.011). There were no significant differences in short-term clinical success rate (P=0.228) or midterm clinical success rate (P=0.889) between the two groups. The overall mortality rate was 10.4%, and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that the two groups had similar cumulative survival rates at the end of the follow-up period (P=0.889). Conclusion: EVAR was feasible and safe in patients with an AAA with a proximal HNA. The early and midterm results were promising; however, further studies are needed to verify the long-term effectiveness of EVAR.

This study has demonstrated how oxygen plasma etching carves surface structures for thin films of polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate)/homopolystyrene blends. By tuning the weight-fraction ratio, blend films form perforations and cylinders on the SiOx/Si substrate. Since perforations exist only on the free surface and substrate interface, short exposure to oxygen plasma to quickly etch the PMMA component produces distorted hexagonal arrays of nanodots on the free surface. The interior of the blend films forms polygrain micro-structures composed of parallel cylinders with an in-plane random orientation. Oxygen plasma etching imposed on the fractured surfaces results in five morphologies: (i) distorted hexagonal arrays of nanoholes, (ii) layer-by-layer stacks, (iii) zigzag-like arrays, (iv) intertwined rectangular arrays of nanodots and nanoholes, and (v) intertwined parallelogram arrays of nanodots and nanoholes. The morphologies suggest synergic effects of grain orientations, stresses, spatial confinement, local segregation of chains, and etching kinetics on the terraced films with oxygen plasma etching.

To study the failure characteristics of surrounding rock near an excavated tunnel under different three-dimensional stress conditions, a TRW3000 rock true triaxial electro-hydraulic servo mutagenesis testing system was used to conduct triaxial loading experiments on granite specimens with a circular hole. A high-definition micro-camera system was used to record the failure process near the circular hole. The results show that spalling failure occurs near the holed specimen under low-stress conditions, and rockburst appears around the holed specimen under high-stress conditions. Increasing the horizontal stress can prevent the occurrence of rockburst. The evolution of strain energy density (SED) in the surrounding rock of the holed specimen under different stress conditions was simulated. The findings show that the distribution of SED around the circular hole decreases with an increase in horizontal stress. The SED distributions around the circular hole are basically consistent with the damage distributions in the experiments, namely, butterfly-shaped, ear-shaped, and ring-shaped.

The ultrasonic melt treatment (UMT) is widely used in the fields of casting and metallurgy. However, there are certain drawbacks associated with the conventional process of single-source ultrasonic (SSU) treatment, such as the fast attenuation of energy and limited range of effectiveness. In this study, the propagation models of SSU and four-source ultrasonic (FSU) in Al melt were respectively established, and the distribution patterns of acoustic and streaming field during the ultrasonic treatment process were investigated by numerical simulation and physical experiments. The simulated results show that the effective cavitation zone is mainly located in a small spherical region surrounding the end of ultrasonic horn during the SSU treatment process. When the FSU is applied, the effective cavitation zone is obviously expanded in the melt. It increases at first and then decreases with increasing the vibration-source spacing (Lv) from 30 mm to 100 mm. Especially, when the Lvis 80 mm, the area of effective cavitation zone reaches the largest, indicating the best effect of cavitation. Moreover, the acoustic streaming level and flow pattern in the melt also change with the increase of Lv. When the Lvis 80 mm, both the average flow rate and maximum flow rate of the melt reach the highest, and the flow structure is more stable and uniform, with the typical morphological characteristics of angular vortex, thus significantly expanding the range of acoustic streaming. The accuracy of the simulation results was verified by physical experiments of glycerol aqueous solution and tracer particles.

Obesity contributes to the progression of various chronic diseases, and shortens life expectancy. With abundant mitochondria, brown adipose tissue (BAT) dissipates energy through heat to limit weight gain and metabolic dysfunction in obesity. Our previous studies have shown that aurantio-obtusin (AO), a bioactive ingredient in Chinese traditional medicine Cassiae semensignificantly improves hepatic lipid metabolism in a steatotic mouse model. In the current study we investigated the effects of AO on lipid metabolism in the BAT of diet-induced obesity mice and in oleic acid and palmitic acid (OAPA)-stimulated primary mature BAT adipocytes. Obese mice were established by feeding a HFHS diet for 4 weeks, and then administered AO (10 mg/kg, i.g.) for another 4 weeks. We showed that AO administration significantly increased the weight of BAT and accelerated energy expenditure to protect the weight increase in the obese mice. Using RNA sequencing and molecular biology analysis we found that AO significantly enhanced mitochondrial metabolism and UCP1 expression by activating PPARα both in vivo and in vitro in the primary BAT adipocytes. Interestingly, AO administration did not improve metabolic dysfunction in the liver and white adipose tissue of obese mice after interscapular BAT excision. We demonstrated that low temperature, a trigger of BAT thermogenesis, was not a decisive factor for AO to stimulate the growth and activation of BATs. This study uncovers a regulatory network of AO in activating BAT-dependent lipid consumption and brings up a new avenue for the pharmaceutical intervention in obesity and related comorbidities.

Organic matter (OM) formation and stabilization are critical processes in the eco-engineered pedogenesis of Fe ore tailings, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The present 12 month microcosm study has adopted nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) and synchrotron-based scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) techniques to investigate OM formation, molecular signature, and stabilization in tailings at micro- and nanometer scales. In this system, microbial processing of exogenous isotopically labeled OM demonstrated that 13C labeled glucose and 13C/15N labeled plant biomass were decomposed, regenerated, and associated with Fe-rich minerals in a heterogeneous pattern in tailings. Particularly, when tailings were amended with plant biomass, the 15N-rich microbially derived OM was generated and bound to minerals to form an internal organo-mineral association, facilitating further OM stabilization. The organo-mineral associations were primarily underpinned by interactions of carboxyl, amide, aromatic, and/or aliphatic groups with weathered mineral products derived from biotite-like minerals in fresh tailings (i.e., with Fe2+and Fe3+) or with Fe3+oxyhydroxides in aged tailings. The study revealed microbial OM generation and subsequent organo-mineral association in Fe ore tailings at the submicrometer scale during early stages of eco-engineered pedogenesis, providing a basis for the development of microbial based technologies toward tailings’ ecological rehabilitation.

Increasing evidences showed that ovulatory dysfunction, possibly caused by luteinized unruptured follicular follicle syndrome (LUFS), is one of the reasons for endometriosis-related infertility. The present study was conducted to explore the potential effect of elevated progesterone in follicular fluid (FF) on ovulation in endometriosis. A prospective study including 50 ovarian endometriosis patients and 50 control patients with matched pairs design was conducted with alterations in FF and peritoneal fluid (PF) components identified by metabolomics analyses and differentially expressed genes in granulosa cells (GCs) identified by transcriptome analysis. Patients with endometriosis exhibited a significantly higher progesterone level in serum, FF, and PF. Granulosa cells from endometriosis patients revealed decreased expression of HPGD, COX-2,and suppressed NF-ĸB signaling. Similarly, progesterone treatment in vitro downregulated HPGD and COX2 expression and suppressed NF-ĸB signaling in granulosa tumor-like cell line KGN (Bena Culture Collection, China) and primarily cultured GCs, as manifested by decreased expressions of IL1R1, IRAK3, reduced pIĸBα/IĸBα ratio, and nucleus translocation of p65. On the contrary, TNF-α treatment increased expression of IL1R1, IRAK3, pIĸBα, p65, and HPGD in GCs. One potential p65 binding site was identified in the promoter region of HPGDby chromatin immunoprecipitation. In conclusion, we found that intrafollicular progesterone might downregulate HPGDand COX-2in GCs via suppressing the NF-ĸB signaling pathway, shedding light on the mechanism underlying the endometriosis-related ovulatory dysfunction.Endometriosis showed repression of NF-ĸB pathway and downregulation of HPGDand COX2, which may be involved in ovulation by participating in the metabolism of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), in GCs due to elevated progesterone in FF.

Objective: This study analyzed the role of G1 to S phase transition 1 protein (GSPT1) in promoting progression of liver cancer cells. Methods: A bioinformatics database was used to analyze the expression levels of GSPT1 in liver cancer tissues and the prognosis of patients. Subsequently, Western blotting and quantitative PCR were used to verify the expression levels of GSPT1 between normal hepatocytes and hepatoma cells. We used a CRISPR/Cas9 system to construct knockouts of GSPT1 in HepG2 and HCCLM9 liver cancer cells. The effect of GSPT1 on liver cancer cell migration and invasion was analyzed using flow cytometry, migration, and tumor formation assays. Results: The Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma dataset indicated that GSPT1 expression was upregulated in liver cancer cell lines, and patients with liver cancer had poor prognosis. Knockout of GSPT1 in cells significantly inhibited tumor proliferation, cell migration, and growth in vivo. Conclusion: In this study, we found that GSPT1 promotes the migration and invasion of liver cancer cells.

Damage to maglev rail joints, which connect adjacent rail segments, threatens the safety and comfort of railway systems. Machine learning methods have been used in combination with online monitoring data to assess the health conditions of maglev rail joints. However, most of the existing methods rely on the data collected in controlled scenarios, such as those involving constant train operation speeds. Given the diversity of operational conditions, a model learned from one known case (source domain) cannot be directly applied to the case of interest (target domain). Therefore, this article proposes a domain adaptation (DA) approach to diagnose the health conditions of maglev rail joints in complex operational conditions. The DA is unsupervised because the source and target domains are characterized by labeled and unlabeled samples, respectively. DA is implemented by integrating the sample moments with different orders into the transfer loss of a neural network. By minimizing the transfer loss, the domain shift caused by the difference in the operational conditions can be reduced, and the knowledge of features learned from the neural network is transferred from the source domain to the target domain. The proposed approach is validated over a dataset of time–frequency spectrograms (TFSs) derived from the experimental acceleration data of maglev rail joints in two operation modes: stable passing and braking. The proposed approach can successfully identify the conditions of the maglev rail joints, i.e., bolt-looseness-caused rail step, misalignment-caused lateral dislocation, and normal condition, even when the operation mode of the maglev train changes.

Slotline Stepped-impedance resonators (SIR) loaded with p-i-n diodes are used to develop bandpass filter (BPF) integrated switches in this brief. The loaded diodes are used to switch the resonant conditions of the short-ended slotline resonators. The equations for their resonant conditions under different loads at different locations are derived and discussed. With these derived equations, the switchable filters are designed and synthesized using the classical coupled-resonator filter theory. The design concept is demonstrated by a Cascaded Quadruplet (CQ) BPF-integrated single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch at center frequency $f_{0}\,\,=$ 1 GHz with 47.7 dB OFF-state suppression (OSS). Finally, two compact BPF-integrated single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches are designed and fabricated. One of them combines source-load (S-L) coupling and introduces two additional zeros outside the desired passband to improve the frequency selectivity. The other on fractal common feeding line is developed to reduce the impact of accumulated residual admittances from OFF-state channels, which shows high roll-off rate of sidebands as well as high port-to-port isolation of 53.1 dB, and its overall circuit size is only $0.051 \lambda \text{g} ^{\mathrm{ 2}}$ .

ABSTRACTTo reduce the crosswind effect on high-speed trains, in this paper, by using the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES) method and the SST turbulence model, a novel blowing measure is studied and compared by considering different positions of blowing slots on the train surface. The concerned blowing positions on the train surface include the top position (Top); windward side (WWS): the upper position (WU), middle position (WM), and lower position (WL); and leeward side (LWS): the upper position (LU), middle position (LM), and lower position (LL). The results show that in regard to the rolling moment coefficient around the leeward rail, CMxlee, the mitigation effect with LM for the head car is the largest, and the mitigation effect with WL for the middle car and tail car is superior to other cases. The corresponding drop percentages are 18.5%, 21.7%, and 30.8% for the head car, middle car, and tail car, respectively. The flow structures indicate that the blowing positions on the lower half of WWS and upper half of LWS would form a protective air gap to weaken the impact of coming flows and delay the vortex separation on LWS, and thus the train aerodynamic performance is improved.

The present work introduces the multiple CO reduction toward C3products promoted by a newly designed single cluster catalyst consisting of defective hBN and embedded dimerized Fe, by means of density functional theory calculations. We find the strong metal-support interactions give rise to the local strain and electron accumulation of the N coordinated with two metals and resultantly form a Fe2N active center. The metal–nonmetal synergic effect facilitates the coadsorption and C–C coupling of triple CO molecules and finally generates propane in a highly active and selective way.

Liver fibrosis is the common consequence of almost all liver diseases and has become an urgent clinical problem without efficient therapies. Recent evidence has shown that hepatocytes-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) play important roles in liver pathophysiology, but little is known about the role of damaged hepatocytes-derived EVs in hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation and following fibrosis. Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) from Ligusticum wallichii Franchatexhibits a broad spectrum of biological activities including liver protection. In this study, we investigated whether TMP exerted liver-protective action through regulating EV-dependent intercellular communication between hepatocytes and HSCs. Chronic liver injury was induced in mice by CCl4(1.6 mg/kg, i.g.) twice a week for 8 weeks. In the last 4 weeks of CCl4administration, mice were given TMP (40, 80, 160 mg·kg−1·d−1, i.g.). Acute liver injury was induced in mice by injection of a single dose of CCl4(0.8 mg/kg, i.p.). After injection, mice were treated with TMP (80 mg/kg) every 24 h. We showed that TMP treatment dramatically ameliorated CCl4-induced oxidative stress and hepatic inflammation as well as acute or chronic liver fibrosis. In cultured mouse primary hepatocytes (MPHs), treatment with CCl4or acetaminophen resulted in mitochondrial dysfunction, release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from injured hepatocytes to adjacent hepatocytes and HSCs through EVs, mediating hepatocyte damage and fibrogenic responses in activated HSCs; pretreatment of MPHs with TMP (25 μM) prevented all these pathological effects. Transplanted serum EVs from TMP-treated mice prevented both initiation and progression of liver fibrosis caused by CCl4. Taken together, this study unravels the complex mechanisms underlying the protective effects of TMP against mtDNA-containing EV-mediated hepatocyte injury and HSC activation during liver injury, and provides critical evidence inspiring the development of TMP-based innovative therapeutic agents for the treatment of liver fibrosis.

Vibration control of composite structures with distributed masses under random loadings is a significant issue. Adjustability of dynamic characteristics including response spectrum peaks and valleys is important for structural vibration control. The vibration control design in space contains structure and conformation designs which combination results in periodic composite structures. In the present paper, spatial periodicity control design is proposed. Stochastic response adjustable performance of a visco-elastomer sandwich plate with harmonic distribution of geometrical and physical parameters and distributed supported masses under random base motion loading is studied. Both facial layer thickness and core layer modulus of the sandwich plate are considered as harmonic distribution in length and width directions as well as periodically distributed masses. Partial differential equations of coupling motions of the sandwich plate system are derived and converted into ordinary differential equations for multi-mode coupling vibration. Generalized stiffness, damping, and mass coefficients are functions of the harmonic distribution parameters. An analysis solution with frequency response function and response spectral density expressions of the sandwich plate system is obtained. Numerical results are given to show the response adjustable performance through the harmonic geometrical and physical parameters and distributed masses. The results have a potential application to stochastic vibration control or dynamic optimization design of smart composite structure systems.