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In the face of global climate change and the need for energy diversification, electrocatalytic technology emerges as an eco‐friendly solution. However, persistent electrode failures hinder long‐term stability. This review comprehensively outlines the primary causes leading to the failure of self‐supported electrodes, encompassing substrate passivation, substrate/catalyst dissolution, CO poisoning, catalyst migration and agglomeration, as well as cathodic etching. Proposed strategies center on material design, emphasizing anchoring, lattice matching, substrate stability, and morphological control. Advanced characterization techniques and in situ technologies offer promising ways. The integrated deployment of these strategies will provide crucial guidance and support for the sustainable advancement of electrocatalytic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to conventional actuators, the soft ionic polymer–metal composite (IPMC) actuator has significant advantages in specific applications, and the mathematical model of IPMC actuators is essential to comprehending and applying IPMCs. Due to the inherent characteristics of IPMCs and the impact of the manufacturing and measurement processes, it is challenging to developa reliable model. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the developments in IPMC actuator modeling. In particular, three types of models are examined and contrasted: the nonphysical identification model, the partial‐physical model, and the physical‐based model. In order to comprehend the current state of numerous IPMC actuator models, the characteristics, evolution, and functions of each type of model are discussed. Afterward, the evolution of the IPMC actuators' applications is discussed. Finally, promising research directions for IPMC actuator models are identified that can more effectively facilitate the development of IPMC‐based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We design and integrate free‐form metagratings with irregular nanoscale patterns into diffractive augmented reality (AR) waveguides to achieve simultaneous improvements in eye‐glow attenuation and outcoupling efficiency. The freeform metagrating demonstrates over 40% reduction in eye‐glow while enhancing outcoupling efficiency by 8% compared to the conventional binary grating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses two methods for reconstituting injectable poly-D,L-lactic acid (PDLLA) using vacuum-assisted hydration (VAH). The first method, known as the "wet" VAH method, involves attaching a syringe containing sterile water for injection (SWFI) to a syringe housing PDLLA lumps and creating negative pressure to draw the SWFI into the lumps. The second method, known as the "dry" VAH method, involves creating a vacuum within both syringes before introducing the SWFI. Both methods are based on Boyle's law and can be completed in less than 1 minute. However, practitioners must follow aseptic procedures and have a thorough understanding of the process to avoid contamination or process failure. [Extracted from the article]

Weaning is a critical period in raising pigs. Novel animal feed additives that promote gut health and regulate immune function of piglets without antibiotics are needed. In this study, we aimed to test the ability of mesobiliverdin IXα‐enriched microalgae (MBV IXα‐enriched microalgae) to eliminate reliance on antibiotics to promote intestinal health in piglets. Eighty 28‐day‐old weaned piglets were randomly allocated to four groups each with four replicate pens and five piglets per pen. The dietary treatments were a basal diet as control (NC), basal diet plus 0.05% tylosin (PC), basal diet plus 0.1% or 0.5% MBV IXα‐enriched microalgae as low (MBV‐SP1) or high (MBV‐SP2) dose respectively. All treated animals showed no significant differences in live weight, average daily gain and feed efficiency compared to control animals. Histological examination showed that MBV‐SP1 and particularly MBV‐SP2 increased the ratio of villus height to crypt depth in the jejunum and ileum compared to NC (p < 0.05). Similarly, tylosin treatment also increased villi lengths and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth in the jejunum and ileum compared to the NC (p < 0.05). MBV‐SP1 and particularly MBV‐SP2 reduced the levels of inflammatory cytokines interleukin‐6 and tumour necrosis factor‐alpha in the small intestine. MBV‐SP2 and tylosin similarly reduced the lipid peroxidation marker (TBARS value) in the duodenum and ileum. In conclusion, feed supplementation with MBV IXα‐enriched microalgae improved gut health by villus height and production of immunomodulators that correlated with down‐regulated secretion of inflammatory cytokines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrocatalytic selective oxidation of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) presents a highly efficient and eco‐friendly method for biomass utilization. Herein, we synthesized pure β‐Ni(OH)2 and amorphous Ni(OH)2 on nickel foam (NF) using a facile stepwise electrodeposition technique and evaluated their catalytic performances for the oxidation of HMF to 2,5‐furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA). The β‐Ni(OH)2 nanosheets‐decorated electrode (β‐NiNS/NF) exhibited excellent interfacial lattice matching with the substrate nickel, resulting in enhanced electron transfer at the catalyst‐substrate interface, as confirmed by electrochemical analysis. Consequently, the β‐NiNS/NF electrode displayed improved intrinsic electrocatalytic activity and interfacial stability. Additionally, it demonstrated effective HMF adsorption capability. These advantageous properties led to enhanced HMF conversion, selectivity, and structural stability. Notably, the β‐NiNS/NF electrode achieved an unprecedented FDCA yield of 80.6 % under relatively large current density galvanostatic electrolysis commonly used in industry. Moreover, our investigation identified a novel possible oxidation pathway during HMF electrocatalysis. This study not only showcases an efficient and scalable synthetic approach but also highlights the potential of the β‐NiNS/NF electrode for industrial HMF electrocatalytic oxidation under conditions involving relatively large applied currents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional deep learning models have shown comparable performance to radiologists in detecting and classifying thoracic diseases. However, research on rib fractures remains limited compared to other thoracic abnormalities. Moreover, existing deep learning models primarily focus on using frontal chest X‐ray (CXR) images. To address these gaps, the authors utilised the EDARib‐CXR dataset, comprising 369 frontal and 829 oblique CXRs. These X‐rays were annotated by experienced radiologists, specifically identifying the presence of rib fractures using bounding‐box‐level annotations. The authors introduce two detection models, AB‐YOLOv5 and PB‐YOLOv5, and train and evaluate them on the EDARib‐CXR dataset. AB‐YOLOv5 is a modified YOLOv5 network that incorporates an auxiliary branch to enhance the resolution of feature maps in the final convolutional network layer. On the other hand, PB‐YOLOv5 maintains the same structure as the original YOLOv5 but employs image patches during training to preserve features of small objects in downsampled images. Furthermore, the authors propose a novel two‐level cascaded architecture that integrates both AB‐YOLOv5 and PB‐YOLOv5 detection models. This structure demonstrates improved metrics on the test set, achieving an AP30 score of 0.785. Consequently, the study successfully develops deep learning‐based detectors capable of identifying and localising fractured ribs in both frontal and oblique CXR images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) connects everything with intelligence, while the increase in energy consumption generated by numerous electronic devices puts forward an impending demand on the power supply. Energy harvesting technology has emerged as a compelling innovation technology for the net zero emissions of the power supply for the AIoT. Although significant advances have been witnessed in energy harvesting, some issues such as poor electrical output, weak environmental adaptability, and low reliability are difficult to satisfactorily resolve. Mechanical intelligent energy harvesting can be defined as the system identifying the external excitation or its own state and reacting to it, rather than relying on electrical sensing elements or a central controller for certain adaptive or programmed functions. The adaptive and programmed functions exhibit great potential in solving the above‐mentioned issues that seriously restrict the development of the energy harvesting technology. Here, a generalized definition of mechanical intelligent energy harvesting is given critically and the design methodology is elaborated. The typical reported energy harvesting systems with the characteristics of mechanical intelligence are reviewed. The key research directions in mechanical intelligent energy harvesting are discussed. The mechanical intelligence is expected to revolutionize the development of the energy‐harvesting technology and pave the way for applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic levitation (MagLev) is a promising technology for density‐based analysis and manipulation of nonmagnetic materials. One major limitation is that extant MagLev methods are based on the static balance of gravitational‐magnetic forces, thereby leading to an inability to resolve interior differences in density. Here a new strategy called "dynamically rotating MagLev" is proposed, which combines centrifugal force and nonlinear magnetic force to amplify the interior differences in density. The design of the nonlinear magnetic force in tandem with centrifugal force supports the regulation of stable equilibriums, enabling different homogeneous objects to reach distinguishable equilibrium orientations. Without reducing the magnetic susceptibility, the dynamically rotating MagLev system can lead to a relatively large change in orientation angle (∆ψ > 50°) for the heterogeneous parts with small inclusions (volume fraction VF = 2.08%). The rich equilibrium states of levitating objects invoke the concept of levitation stability, which is employed, for the first time, to characterize the spatial density heterogeneity of objects. Exploiting the tunable nonlinear levitation behaviors of objects provides a new paradigm for developing operationally simple, nondestructive density heterogeneity characterization methods. Such methods have tremendous potential in applications related to sorting, orienting, and assembling objects in three dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proportion of electric maloperation accidents (EMAs) in substations caused by human and organizational factors (HOFs) has gradually increased. Although there has been some research into the factors affecting EMAs in substations, the available results are insufficient to support the interpretation of HOFs in EMAs. This article explores the relationships between the HOFs and EMAs using Human Factors Analysis and Classification System‐gradient boosting with categorical features support (HFACS–CatBoost) and Shapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) methods. First, the HFACS framework was introduced to identify 135 EMAs in the Southern Power Grid risk causation. CatBoost was used to construct an accident classification model to analyze the important relationship between accidents and HOFs and to compare and analyze with the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and the binary logistic regression (BLR) to verify the superiority of CatBoost. Finally, to solve the problem of inadequate interpretation of the CatBoost black‐box model, the SHAP value plot was applied to express the contribution degree relationship between accidents and HOFs. The results show that the above method can explore and explain the importance and contribution of HOFs in EMAs. And from this, it is concluded that poor psychological state, poor communication and coordination, inadequate supervision, and inadequate training and education are highly correlated with the occurrence of EMAs. The findings will help substation operations and maintenance staff to develop safety measures to address the confusion of HOFs in substations and prevent the occurrence of EMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HLA‐C*14:155 differs from HLA‐C*14:02:01:01 by one nucleotide in exon 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Filler injection for lower eyelid rejuvenation remains a difficult subject due to many complicated anatomic changes as the face ages. Objectives: To propose an alternative, simple, and effective filler injection method in lower eyelids for Asian patients. Methods: Any patient who has tear trough deformities, infra‐orbital hollows, nasojugal grooves, dark eye circles, as well as mild eyebags is a potential candidate for this method. Our filler choice is injectable poly‐d,l‐lactic acid (PDLLA; AestheFill; REGEN). PDLLA must be reconstituted with sterile water for injection (SWFI) before administration. When the patient's troughs, grooves, or volume deficit are classes II and III, 3–4 ml of SWFI and 1 ml of lidocaine are used. When the deficits are class I, 5–7 ml of SWFI and 1 ml of lidocaine are used. With the fanning injection technique, a wide region that covers all the deficits is evenly injected. The depth is under the dermis layer. The total amount of filler injection is not more than 2 ml on each side. Results: Since 2019, we have injected more than 100 patients by following these steps in Taiwan. The level of patient satisfaction is high. Only some mild and transient post‐injection complications such as edema, erythema, and ecchymosis were found. Conclusions: We propose an alternative, simple and effective method for non‐surgical lower eyelid rejuvenation for Asian patients. However, anyone who wants to perform this procedure should be well‐trained and knowledgeable about the anatomy, product, and procedure to prevent adverse events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human reliability analysis (HRA) is a proactive approach to model and evaluate systematic human errors and has been extensively implemented in various complicated systems. The assessment of human errors relies heavily on the knowledge and experience of experts in real‐world cases. Moreover, there are usually specific sorts of uncertainty while experts use linguistic labels to evaluate human failure events. In this context, this paper seeks to establish a new model based on the hesitant fuzzy matrix (HFM) and the cognitive reliability and error analysis method (CREAM) to conduct a quantitative analysis of human errors. This model handles the multiple crisp scores of the common performance conditions (CPCs) given by experts according to the context description in terms of CPCs, determines the weights of CPCs by the HFM, and elicits the human error probability (HEP) point estimation formula considering consequences based on the CREAM. Finally, the effectiveness and practicality of the presented HFM‐CREAM model are demonstrated through the emergency response analysis of the steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) in nuclear power plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to injection, reconstitution with sterile water for injection (SWFI) is required.[[1], [4]] However, injectable PLLA tends to form dry PLLA micro-clumps in the suspension after reconstitution with SWFI. In conclusion, retaining an even distribution of biostimulators both microscopically (pre-injection) and grossly (post-injection) is crucial to prevent non-inflammatory nodules formation and other irregularities. Retaining even distribution of biostimulators microscopically and grossly: Key to prevent non-inflammatory nodules formation. [Extracted from the article]

Summary: Outsourcing data to cloud servers is a popular service for data owners, however, how to check the integrity and freshness of the outsourced data is very challenge. Recently, Jin et al. proposed a cloud auditing protocol with full integrity and freshness support for cloud data, unfortunately in this article, we show their proposal is not secure. Concretely, the cloud servers can forge the authentication tag and thus has the ability to forge proof of data possession, which obviously invalidates their cloud auditing protocol. We also give a new cloud auditing protocol and analysis its security and performance. The results show our protocol is more efficient and secure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production and collection of the mass traffic data in the vehicle network will result in wasted bandwidth and data transmission delay. The mobile edge computing (MEC) technology is able to reduce the transmission cost and provide fast interactive response. However, the amount of data between roadside units (RSUs) and MEC servers has not decreased. Compressive sensing (CS) technology can reduce the sampling frequency and reconstruct the signal with even fewer samples than the sampling theorem requires. Therefore, in this article, we use CS technology to reduce the data in the "last mile" of traffic edge computing network. We propose two traffic data reconstruction models, which use different neighbor regularization methods in the objective function of CS reconstruction model. Different from the previous studies, we leverage the low‐rank nature and the neighbor relationship between detectors to improve the reconstruction accuracy of different missing scenes. To validate the improved reconstruction models, we have carried out extensive experiments based on the actual traffic flow data of the freeway system under different loss rates and loss patterns. The missing data are caused by reduced sampling frequency and accidental transmission loss so that it is closer to the real fact. The experimental results show that even if the traffic data from the RSUs to MEC servers are decreased by 50%, the complete data can be reconstructed accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, contour detection algorithm has made obvious progress with the help of convolutional neural networks. The aim of this paper is to present a novel network connecting low‐ and high‐resolution features to make the network achieving richer feature representation. First, VGG net is used as encoding part with outputting the features of different resolutions, and then the feature maps are combined in some specific resolution with up‐ or down‐sample method. The combining process can be stack step‐by‐step. The proposed network makes the encoding part deeper to extract richer convolutional features. The experiments have shown that the proposed method improves the contour detection performances and outperform some existed convolutional neural networks based methods on BSDS500 and NYUD‐V2 datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Podocyte injury plays a vital role in proteinuria and nephrotic syndrome. Calcineurin (CaN) inhibitors are effective in reducing proteinuria. However, their molecular mechanism is still not fully understood. Angiopoietin‐like‐4 (ANGPTL4) is a secreted protein that mediates proteinuria in podocyte‐related nephropathy. In this study, we established a puromycin aminonucleoside (PAN)‐induced minimal‐change disease (MCD) rat model and a cultured podocyte injury model. We found that CaN inhibitors protected against PAN‐induced podocyte injury, accompanied by an inhibition of Nfatc1 and Angptl4 both in vivo and in vitro. Nfatc1 overexpression and knockdown experiments indicated that Angptl4 was regulated by Nfatc1 in podocytes. ChIP assays further demonstrated that Nfatc1 increased Angptl4 expression by binding to the Angptl4 promoter. In addition, overexpression and knockdown of Angptl4 revealed that Angptl4 directly induced rearrangement of the cytoskeleton of podocytes, reduced the expression of synaptopodin, and enhanced PAN‐induced podocyte apoptosis. Furthermore, in a cohort of 83 MCD and 94 membranous nephropathy (MN) patients, we found increased expression of serum ANGPTL4 compared to 120 healthy controls, and there were close correlations between serum ANGPTL4 and Alb, urinary protein, urinary Alb, eGFR, Scr, and BUN in MCD patients. No obvious correlation was found in MN patients. Immunofluorescence studies indicated that increased ANGPTL4 in MCD and MN patients was located mostly in podocytes. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that CaN inhibitors ameliorate PAN‐induced podocyte injury by targeting Angptl4 through the NFAT pathway, and Angptl4 plays a vital role in podocyte injury and is involved in human podocyte‐related nephropathy. © 2020 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we conduct a series of large‐eddy simulations (LESs) to study the impact of different incoming turbulent boundary layer flows over large wind farms, with a particular focus on the overall efficiency of electricity production and the evolution of the turbine wake structure. Five representative turbine placements in the large wind farm are considered, including an aligned layout and four staggered layouts with lateral or vertical offset arrangements. Four incoming flow conditions are used and arranged from the LESs of the ABL flow over homogeneous flat surfaces with four different aerodynamic roughness lengths (i.e., z0 = 0.5, 0.1, 0.01, and 0.0001 m), where the hub‐height turbulence intensity levels are about 11.1%, 8.9%, 6.8%, and 4.9%, respectively. The simulation results indicate that an enhancement in the inflow turbulence level can effectively increase the power generation efficiency in the large wind farms, with about 23.3% increment on the overall farm power production and up to about 32.0% increment on the downstream turbine power production. Under the same inflow condition, the change of the turbine‐array layouts can increase power outputs within the first 10 turbine rows, which has a maximum increment of about 26.5% under the inflow condition with low turbulence. By comparison, the increase of the inflow turbulence intensity facilitates faster wake recovery that raises the power generation efficiency of large wind farms than the adjustment of the turbine placing layouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem‐solving dynamics refers to the process of solving a series of problems over time, from which a student's cognitive skills and non‐cognitive traits and behaviors can be inferred. For example, we can derive a student's learning curve (an indicator of cognitive skill) from the changes in the difficulty level of problems solved, or derive a student's self‐regulation patterns (an example of non‐cognitive traits and behaviors) based on the problem‐solving frequency over time. Few studies provide an integrated overview of both aspects by unfolding the problem‐solving process. In this paper, we present a visual analytics system named SeqDynamics that evaluates students 'problem‐solving dynamics from both cognitive and non‐cognitive perspectives. The system visualizes the chronological sequence of learners' problem‐solving behavior through a set of novel visual designs and coordinated contextual views, enabling users to compare and evaluate problem‐solving dynamics on multiple scales. We present three scenarios to demonstrate the usefulness of SeqDynamics on a real‐world dataset which consists of thousands of problem‐solving traces. We also conduct five expert interviews to show that SeqDynamics enhances domain experts' understanding of learning behavior sequences and assists them in completing evaluation tasks efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The saline infusion test (SIT) is a common confirmatory test for primary aldosteronism (PA). According to the guideline, a postinfusion plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) of 5‐10 ng/dL is considered indeterminate, and recommendations for diagnostic strategies are currently limited in this situation. Objective: To explore whether an addition of the captopril challenge test (CCT) could improve the diagnostic accuracy in patients with indeterminate SIT. Methods: A total of 280 hypertensive patients with high risk of PA completed this study. Subjects were defined as SIT indeterminate based on their PAC post‐SIT. These patients then underwent the CCT where PACs post‐CCT >11 ng/dL were considered positive. Using fludrocortisone suppression test (FST) as the reference standard, diagnostic parameters including area under the receiver‐operator characteristic curves (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Results: There were 65 subjects (23.2%) diagnosed as PA indeterminate after SIT. With the addition of CCT, true‐positive numbers increased from 134 to 147, and false‐negative numbers decreased from 27 to 14. Compared to SIT alone, a combination of SIT and CCT showed a higher AUC (0.91 [0.87,0.94] vs 0.87 [0.83,0.91], P =.041) and an increased sensitivity for the diagnosis of PA (0.91 [0.86,0.95] vs 0.83 [0.76,0.89], P =.028), while the specificity remained similar. In the subgroup with indeterminate SIT results, using PAC post‐CCT resulted in a 36% higher AUC than using PAC post‐SIT alone for the diagnosis of PA. Conclusion: For patients under investigation for possible PA who have indeterminate SIT results, an addition of CCT improves the diagnostic accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relevant physiological studies have revealed that the response of the classical receptive field (CRF) to visual stimuli could be suppressed by non‐CRF (nCRF) inhibition of the kernel in the primary visual cortex (V1). Based on this mechanism, many bio‐inspired contour detection models have been proposed, which are mainly achieved through CRF responses and nCRF surround inhibition calculation. In fact, the dynamic characteristics of neurons play an important role in contour detection in biological vision. Inspired by these visual mechanisms, the authors propose a contour detection model that emulates these dynamic characteristics. By introducing a multi‐bandwidth Gabor filter, according to the target image, they can effectively adjust the weight ratios of the filter to protect the contours and filter the background textures in the calculation of CRF responses. Additionally, they logarithmically modulate the nCRF inhibition kernel to make texture suppression more flexible and effective, thus improving the accuracy of detection algorithm as a whole. Compared with existing bio‐inspired contour detection models, the proposed model is more effective at contour detection, which will aid engineering applications that utilise pattern recognition in machine vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Salivary characteristics are altered in gastrointestinal diseases and related to oral taste disorder. However, specific salivary biochemical characteristics and their relationships with oral taste disturbances in chronic non‐atrophy gastritis (CNAG) remain uncertain. Methods: Seventy patients with CNAG and 70 subjects in healthy control group (HCG) were enrolled in our study. The levels of salivary flow rate (SFR), pH, salivary α‐amylase (sAA) activity, total protein density (TPD), chloride concentration, and calcium concentration were determined before and after citric acid stimulation and compared between CNAG with and without oral taste disturbances. Results: Average body mass index (BMI) of CNAG (17.75 ± 2.08) was lower than that of HCG (21.96 ± 1.72, P < 0.01). Compared with HCG, CNAG showed increased TPD and calcium concentration but decreased SFR both before and after acid stimulation (P < 0.01), as well as reduced sAA and salivary chloride responses to acid stimulation (P < 0.01). Compared with CNAG with normal BMI (24.29%, 17/70), sAA activity response to acid stimulation was reduced in those with low BMI (75.71%, 53/70, P < 0.05). Under resting condition, CNAG with dry mouth (55.71%, 39/70) showed increased SFR and decreased TPD (P < 0.05), as compared with CNAG without dry mouth (44.29%, 31/70). Compared with CNAG without bitter taste (57.14%, 40/70), pH was decreased in those with bitter taste (42.86%, 30/70) under both resting and stimulated conditions (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Decreased sAA activity may reflect malnutrition state and be one potential marker of poor digestion, decreased salivary pH may contribute to bitter taste perception, and reduced TPD might be a cause of dry mouth in CNAG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Classical depth‐integrated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) models for avalanches are extended in the present work to include a μ(I)− rheological model enriched with a fragmentation law. With this improvement, the basal friction becomes grain distribution dependent. Rock avalanches, where grain distribution tends to change with time while propagating, are the appropriate type of landslide to apply the new numerical proposal. The μ(I)− rheological models considered in the present work are those of Hatano and Gray, combined with two different fragmentation laws, a hyperbolic and a fractal‐based law. As an application, Frank avalanche, which took place in Canada in 1903, is analyzed under the scope of the present approach, focusing in the influence of the rheological and fragmentation laws in the evolution of the avalanche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychophysical and neurophysiological investigations on the human visual system show that most neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) possess a non‐classical receptive field (nCRF) region in addition to the CRF region. The nCRF has a modulatory, normally inhibitory, effect on the responses to visual stimuli generated within the CRF. In computational terms, this mechanism suppresses the response to edges in the presence of similar edges in the surroundings. Many computational techniques have been proposed to address the surround suppression mechanism. These methods introduce an inhibition term that is required to suppress the textures and protect the contours. Several studies have found that the spatial summation properties over the receptive fields of retinal X cells are approximately linear, while they are non‐linear for Y cells. Inspired by the visual information processing in the X–Y channel and spatial summation properties of X and Y cells, the authors propose a contour detector using linear and non‐linear modulations based on nCRF suppression. Extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate that their contour detector significantly outperforms other algorithms. The methods proposed in this study are expected to facilitate the development of efficient computational models in the field of machine vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are integral parts of modern technology, but can raise safety concerns because of their flammable organic electrolytes with low flash points. Aqueous electrolytes can be used in LIBs to overcome the safety issues that come with organic electrolytes while avoiding poor kinetics associated with solid state electrolytes. Despite advances in aqueous electrolytes, current collectors for aqueous battery systems have been neglected. Current collectors used in today's aqueous battery systems are usually metal‐based materials, which are heavy, expensive, bulky, and prone to corrosion after prolonged use. Here, a carbon nanotube (CNT)–cellulose nanofiber (CNF) all‐fiber composite is developed that takes advantage of the high conductivity of CNT while achieving high mechanical strength through the interaction between CNT and CNF. By optimizing the CNT/CNF weight ratio, this all‐fiber current collector can be made very thin while maintaining high conductivity (≈700 S cm−1) and strength (>60 MPa), making it an ideal replacement for heavy metal current collectors in aqueous battery systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new method for reducing the peak-to-average power ratio of the single-carrier frequency-division multiple access system. The method is an integration of the tone injection (TI) and tone reservation (TR) techniques. A recommended method that uses TI to improve TR's low data transmission rate problem that is caused by the reservation of subcarriers. Additionally, to reduce the massive amount of computation required by the combined needs of TI and TR, an iterative flipping algorithm was adopted for this purpose. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method is not only capable of effectively improving the peak-to-average power ratio-reduction efficiency of the single-carrier frequency-division multiple access system but it can also improve the data transmission rate of the conventional TR technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heptagonal-shaped monopole antenna design for ultrawideband (UWB) applications is proposed. This antenna is designed on PCB FR4 substrate with relative permittivity ɛr = 4.4, loss tangent tan δ = 0.0245, and thickness h = 1.6 mm. The antenna consists of a radiated patch, a feed line, and a ground plane. With the different geometrical parameters, simulated and experimental results of the antenna are suitable for UWB operations. The bandwidth VSWR < 2 of the UWB antennas from measurement is ∼122.02% (2.63-10.86 GHz). To decrease the interference with the wireless local area networks (WLANs) at 5.2/5.8 GHz and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) at 3.5/5.5 GHz, two band-notched filters covering from 3.4 to 3.69 and 5.15 to 5.85 GHz was design. Two L-shaped slots on the patch and two slot-type split ring resonators (SRRs) on the ground plane were used to produce two band-notched frequency bands. The results for VSWR, far-field H- and E-plane radiation patterns and gain of the proposed antennas are presented and discussed. The radiation area of the design antenna is 26 × 16.38 mm2. The measured results show a good agreement with the simulated results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc finger protein X-linked (ZFX) is frequently upregulated in multiple human malignancies and also plays a critical role in the maintenance of self-renewal in embryonic stem cells. However, the role of ZFX in liver cancer stem cells (CSCs) remains obscure. We observed that the elevated expression of both ZFX and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) was associated with aggressive clinicopathological features and indicated poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ZFX was commonly enriched in liver EpCAM+ CSCs. Knockdown of ZFX decreased the proportion of EpCAM+ CSCs in HCC cells and suppressed their expression of stemness-related genes, self-renewal capacity, chemoresistance, metastatic potential, and tumorigenicity. Conversely, upregulation of ZFX in CSCs rescued these inhibitory effects and enhanced stem-like properties. Mechanistically, depletion of ZFX reduced nuclear translocation and transactivation of β-catenin, thereby inhibiting the self-renewal capacity of EpCAM+ CSCs. Moreover, knockdown of β-catenin attenuated the self-renewal of EpCAM+ HCC cells stably expressing ZFX, further indicating that β-catenin is required for ZFX-mediated expansion and maintenance of EpCAM+ CSCs. Taken together, our findings indicate that ZFX activates and maintains EpCAM+ liver CSCs by promoting nuclear translocation and transactivation of β-catenin. Furthermore, combination of ZFX and EpCAM may serve as a significant indicator for prognosis of patients with HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In both tumor and yeast cells that lack telomerase, telomeres are maintained via an alternative recombination mechanism. In this study, we tested genistein, a potential TOP2 inhibitor required for telomere-telomere recombination, on the repression of telomere-telomere recombination. Genistein on the repression of type II recombination on a tlc1 yeast strain was examined by the telomeric DNA structures using Southern blot analysis. Telomere patterns of freshly dissected tlc1 spores containing an empty plasmid ( pYES2) or a yeast TOP2 ( yTOP2) plasmid were analyzed. The results indicated that the reintroduction of TOP2 recovered the type II pattern, implying genistein in the blockage of type II survivors in the tlc1 strain. The effects of genistein on both tlc1 and tlc1 rad 51 strains in liquid and solid mediums were also examined. Finally, treatment of 10 μmol/L of genistein showed inhibitory effect on the growth of telomerase-negative U2 OS alternative lengthening of telomere ( ALT) cells, but not in telomerase-positive HCT116 cells. These results provide evidences that the inhibitory effects of genistein on telomerase-negative cells depend on type II recombination pathway in yeast and the ALT pathway in human tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stable Na metal anodeis is reported by forming an artificial solid electrolyte interphase via a low‐temperature plasma‐enhanced atomic layer deposition technology. It is discovered that an ultrathin layer of Al2O3 layer (2.8 nm) can protect Na metal from electrolyte decomposition, prevent 3D dendrite formation, and significantly enhance its cycle stability in a carbonate‐based electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the risk of stroke in patients with cerebral palsy (CP), based on nationwide data in Taiwan.Method: This prospective cohort study was comprised of patients recorded on the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 (LHID2005) who had a diagnosis of CP (n=1975) in records between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2007. A comparison group (1:5) drawn from the same database was matched for age and sex (n=9875). Each patient was tracked by data until the development of stroke or the end of 2008. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to evaluate the hazard ratios after adjusting for potential confounding factors.Results: Patients with CP were more likely to suffer stroke than the comparison population, after adjusting for potential confounding factors (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.74-2.69). The hazard ratio of stroke was 4.78 (95% CI: 3.18-7.17) and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.20-2.05) for patients with CP aged 50 years and under, and over 50 years respectively.Interpretation: Cerebral palsy is a risk factor or marker for stroke that is independent of traditional stroke risk factors. Further research in this area is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disorder characterized by varied clinical symptoms and can be comorbid with neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the association between SLE and dementia risk in patients with SLE remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the incidence of dementia in patients with SLE.Methods: Patients were recruited from a nationwide cohort in 2004-2008 and categorized as SLE (n = 1,074; patients diagnosed with SLE) or non-SLE (n = 5,370; age- and sex-matched controls). Each patient was followed for up to 7 years, until either receiving a diagnosis of dementia or until December 31, 2010. Data were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis.Results: The incidence rate of dementia was higher in the SLE cohort (357 per 100,000 person-years) than in the non-SLE cohort (180 per 100,000 person-years). Patients with SLE had a higher risk of dementia than did those without SLE (crude hazard ratio [HR] 1.92; P < 0.05). Cox regression analysis revealed an adjusted HR for dementia in the SLE cohort of 2.14 (P < 0.001), after adjustment for other comorbid diseases and variables.Conclusion: Patients with SLE have a higher risk of dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this article, a new configuration of ultra-wideband (UWB) monopole antenna employs two slot-type split ring resonators (SRRs) with band-notched filters in 5-6 GHz WiMAX/WLAN bands. The UWB antenna consists of the octagonal, heptagonal, and triangular patches. A 50 microstrip feedline is employed to stimulate the monopole antenna. With adjusting the size and the position of two slot-type SRRs on the ground plane, the UWB antenna produce a single band-notched and decrease interference with the WiMAX/WLAN bands. The results for VSWR, far-field H- and E-plane radiation patterns and gain of the proposed antennas are presented and discussed. The radiation area of the design antenna is 24 × 17.4 mm2. The measured results show a good agreement with the simulated results. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2595-2598, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical and electrochemical instability of the Li metal interface with organic solvent has been a major impediment to use of Li-metal anodes for next-generation batteries. Here the character of Li surface degradation and the application of atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a protection layer to suppress the degradation are addressed. Using standard Li foil samples in organic solvent with and without in situ deposited ALD Al2O3 protective layers, results from in situ atomic force microscopy, mass spectrometry (including differential electrochemical mass spectrometry), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and ex situ scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are reported. Despite the presence of a thin oxide/hydroxide/carbonate layer on the Li foil surface, degradation readily occurs in organic solvent, particularly at surface features such as ridges. Introduction of the ALD protective layer - deposited directly on this Li foil surface - dramatically suppresses the degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New food processing technology is required for food production with high quality and healthfulness. In this study, a novel application was developed to extract lard from pig fatback, a by-product of the slaughter plant, by an aqueous enzymatic extraction method (AEE). Various proteases with different properties including Alcalase 2.4 L, Neutrase 1.5 MG, Flavourzyme 1000 L, and Protamex were evaluated for their efficiency in oil release and lard qualities. Alcalase 2.4 L was more effective for oil extraction with a yield of 95.19%. A high quality of lard was produced by AEE in comparison with lards produced by conventional extraction methods in aspects of color, acid value, peroxide value, phospholipids, cholesterol, and oxidation stability. A further refinement to reduce cholesterol from lard by β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was developed and the optimal conditions were established. The optimal conditions were 7% β-CD addition (w/w) to a mixture of equal amount of lard and distilled water at reaction temperature 50°C for about 60 min. The cholesterol content of lard from this refinement process was about 3.2 mg/100 g which was about 93.7% reduction from 51.2 mg/100 g. This simple process by AEE and cholesterol reduction did not affect the composition of fatty acids and construction of triglyceride. Factors that were components of lard or produced during the lard extraction processes were evaluated for their influence on the cholesterol removal. Phospholipids could slightly enhance cholesterol removal, while free fatty acids with saturated or unsaturated aliphatic chains would have inhibitory effects because of their competition with cholesterol for β-CD. Practical applications: An excellent quality of lard was produced by a novel application of an aqueous enzymatic extraction method (AEE). This lard could be further refined by β-cyclodextrin for cholesterol reduction. This procedure would be a promising technology to obtain healthy lard and explore animal by-products for the food industry. This lard with high nutrients could have very broad applications such as in baking, cooking, deep fat frying in food industry. Lard obtained by combination of aqueous enzymatic extraction and β-cyclodextrin treatment presented high quality and very low cholesterol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new formulation of the fundamental load impedance circuit in the z-plane is employed to study transformers. The design employs prototypes of transfer function, parametric modelling techniques, and optimisation methods; a model describing multisection transmission-line transformers is proposed to match load impedance for use in wireless and mobile communication applications. Configuration of the transformer consists of multisection serial transmission lines. This transformer was designed on a PCB FR4 substrate featuring a permittivity of 4.4, a loss tangent of 0.0245, and a thickness of 1.6 mm. Microstrip line circuits were fabricated to verify the feasibility of the technique. The simulation and measurement results show that real and complex load impedances can be matched simultaneously at three different frequency bands. The characteristic impedance values of the transmission lines synthesising the transformers were adjusted according to the autoregressive process by using optimisation algorithms. The experimental results are in agreement with theoretical values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed a modified tone reservation (TR) technique that can reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system and is able to correct errors to avoid channel interference. The TR technique is a widely used PAPR reduction technique, which divides subcarriers of the OFDM system into two sets to generate peak-canceling signals and transmit modulated data. The subcarriers used to reduce the PAPR are called the peak reduction tone sets. The mechanism of peak-canceling signal generation is a primary factor in determining the quality of the PAPR reduction performance of the TR technique. Currently, two signal generation mechanisms exist: TR-gradient-based and TR-clipping-based techniques. Although TR techniques can effectively reduce the high PAPR in the OFDM system, TR techniques lack the ability to correct errors. Therefore, this paper combined block coded modulation codes and TR techniques to provide the modified TR techniques with error correction abilities. From the simulation results, the modified TR techniques had a superior effect on PAPR reduction performance compared with the conventional TR technique. The modified TR technique also possessed the ability to correct errors during signal transmission. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]