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Objective The electro-mechanical braking system architecture of tram is different from that of the traditional braking system, so it is necessary to analyze the system safety and make targeted improvement to its weak links. Method Using fuzzy fault tree method can obtain the triangular fuzzy number of the top event occurrence probability through analysis of the test data, and then obtain the fuzzy importance of each bottom event. According to the fuzzy importance of the bottom events, the weak links of the system are analyzed and improved to realize the fault prevention. Result & Conclusion By analyzing the reliability of the tram electro-mechanical braking system based on fuzzy fault tree, the safety of the system weak links can be improved, and the corresponding improvement measures be put forward, helpful for improving the safety and reliability of the electro-mechanical braking system.

Abstract Generating genetic diversity lies at the heart of directed evolution which has been widely used to engineer genetic parts and gene circuits in synthetic biology. With the ever-expanding application of directed evolution, different approaches of generating genetic diversity are required to enrich the traditional toolbox. Here we show in vitro generation of genetic diversity for directed evolution by error-prone artificial DNA synthesis (epADS). This approach comprises a three-step process which incorporates base errors randomly generated during chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides under specific conditions into the target DNA. Through this method, 200 ~ 4000 folds of diversification in fluorescent strength have been achieved in genes encoding fluorescent proteins. EpADS has also been successfully used to diversify regulatory genetic parts, synthetic gene circuits and even increase microbial tolerance to carbenicillin in a short time period. EpADS would be an alternative tool for directed evolution which may have useful applications in synthetic biology.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a prevalent human pathogen known for its propensity to cause severe infections, has exhibited a growing resistance to antibiotics. Lysine acetylation (Kac) is a dynamic and reversible protein post-translational modification (PTM), played important roles in various physiological functions. Recent studies have shed light on the involvement of Kac modification in bacterial antibiotic resistance. However, the precise relationship between Kac modification and antibiotic resistance in S. aureus remains inadequately comprehended. Methods: We compared the differential expression of acetylated proteins between erythromycin-resistant (Ery-R) and erythromycin-susceptible (Ery-S) strains of S. aureus by 4D label-free quantitative proteomics technology. Additionally, we employed motif analysis, functional annotation and PPI network to investigate the acetylome landscape and heterogeneity of S. aureus. Furthermore, polysome profiling experiments were performed to assess the translational status of ribosome. Results: 6791 Kac sites were identified on 1808 proteins in S. aureus, among which 1907 sites in 483 proteins were quantified. A total of 548 Kac sites on 316 acetylated proteins were differentially expressed by erythromycin pressure. The differentially acetylated proteins were primarily enriched in ribosome assembly, glycolysis and lysine biosynthesis. Bioinformatic analyses implied that Kac modification of ribosomal proteins may play an important role in erythromycin resistance of S. aureus. Western bolt and polysome profiling experiments indicated that the increased Kac levels of ribosomal proteins in the resistant strain may partially offset the inhibitory effect of erythromycin on ribosome function. Conclusions: Our findings confirm that Kac modification is related to erythromycin resistance in S. aureus and emphasize the potential roles of ribosomal proteins. These results expand our current knowledge of antibiotic resistance mechanisms, potentially guiding future research on PTM-mediated antibiotic resistance.

Abstract Background The effectiveness of anti-programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1)/programmed cell death 1 ligand 1(PD-L1) therapy in treating certain types of cancer is associated with the level of PD-L1. However, this relationship has not been observed in colorectal cancer (CRC), and the underlying regulatory mechanism of PD-L1 in CRC remains unclear. Methods Binding of TMEM160 to PD-L1 was determined by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and GST pull-down assay.The ubiquitination levels of PD-L1 were verified using the ubiquitination assay. Phenotypic experiments were conducted to assess the role of TMEM160 in CRC cells. Animal models were employed to investigate how TMEM160 contributes to tumor growth.The expression and clinical significance of TMEM160 and PD-L1 in CRC tissues were evaluated by immunohistochemistry(IHC). Results In our study, we made a discovery that TMEM160 interacts with PD-L1 and plays a role in stabilizing its expression within a CRC model. Furthermore, we demonstrated that TMEM160 hinders the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of PD-L1 by competing with SPOP for binding to PD-L1 in CRC cells. Regarding functionality, the absence of TMEM160 significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion, metastasis, clonogenicity, and radioresistance of CRC cells, while simultaneously enhancing the cytotoxic effect of CD8 + T cells on tumor cells. Conversely, the upregulation of TMEM160 substantially increased these capabilities. In severely immunodeficient mice, tumor growth derived from lentiviral vector shTMEM160 cells was lower compared with that derived from shNC control cells. Furthermore, the downregulation of TMEM160 significantly restricted tumor growth in immune-competent BALB/c mice. In clinical samples from patients with CRC, we observed a strong positive correlation between TMEM160 expression and PD-L1 expression, as well as a negative correlation with CD8A expression. Importantly, patients with high TMEM160 expression exhibited a worse prognosis compared with those with low or no TMEM160 expression. Conclusions Our study reveals that TMEM160 inhibits the ubiquitination-dependent degradation of PD-L1 that is mediated by SPOP, thereby stabilizing PD-L1 expression to foster the malignant progress, radioresistance, and immune evasion of CRC cells. These findings suggest that TMEM160 holds potential as a target for the treatment of patients with CRC.

Objective: ：The safety of endoscopic thyroidectomy in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a matter of concern. This study aimed to assess the effect of concomitant HT on the feasibility of endoscopic thyroidectomy in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods: This study is an observational, retrospective study. All patients were histopathologically diagnosed with HT. The study group consisted of 44 patients (40 %) with PTC who also had HT, whereas the remaining 66 patients (60%) without HT were assigned to the control group. The number of dissected lymph nodes, mean operation time, thyroid volume, blood loss, TSH level, and postoperative complications were recorded and statistically analysed. Results: One patient underwent conversion to open thyroidectomy because of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) transection. Another patient required reoperation owing to postoperative haemorrhage. Statistically significant differences were observed in mean operation time (105.4 ± 10.7 vs 98.2 ± 7.4 min, P = 0.0001),mean thyroid lobe volume (12.2 ± 5.8 vs 9.6 ± 3.5 mL [mL], P = 0.0041), TSH level(4.1 ± 1.5 mIU/L vs 3.4 ± 0.9 mIU/L, P ＝ 0.0028), and the number of dissected lymph nodes between groups (4.1 ± 1.5 vs 3.4 ± 0.9,P = 0.0028). The estimated mean blood loss (31.5 ± 6.8 vs 29.5 ± 3.9 mL, P = 0.0529) and rate of complications (15.9% vs 10.6%, P = 0.4136) did not show statistically significant differences between groups. Conclusion: The coexistence of PTC and HT increases the operation time and difficulties in endoscopic thyroidectomy but does not affect postoperative outcomes. Endoscopic thyroidectomy can be safely performed with acceptable complication rates.

AI technology has become a new creative tool, which brings infinite possibilities for painting creation. In this paper, we first parameterize the design of the painting through SolidWorks software and construct a semantic text with the design parameters obtained. Secondly, the text is inputted into the text-image similarity model based on a graph convolutional network, and the Stanford CoreNLP tool is used to perform dependency parsing on the input text and feature extraction on the textual semantic and spatial relation maps through two GCN networks. Finally, the visual parameters and visual comfort of the AI drawing samples are examined. The results show that the maximum difference between the cumulative scores comparing the reference image and the AI output image is 0.41, and this value is less than 1, which indicates that the AI drawing achieves the visual effect of quantifying the image quality. The efficiency and quality of drawing output can be improved through this study, which has both theoretical and practical significance.

The cloning of resistance-related genes CsROP5/CsROP10 and the analysis of their mechanism of action provide a theoretical basis for the development of molecular breeding of disease-resistant cucumbers. The structure domains of two Rho-related guanosine triphosphatases from plant (ROP) genes were systematically analyzed using the bioinformatics method in cucumber plants, and the genes CsROP5 (Cucsa.322750) and CsROP10 (Cucsa.197080) were cloned. The functions of the two genes were analyzed using reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), transient overexpression, cucumber genetic transformation, and histochemical staining technology. The conserved elements of the CsROP5/CsROP10 proteins include five sequence motifs (G1-G5), a recognition site for serine/threonine kinases, and a hypervariable region (HVR). The knockdown of CsROP10 through VIGS affected the transcript levels of ABA-signaling-pathway-related genes (CsPYL, CsPP2Cs, CsSnRK2s, and CsABI5), ROS-signaling-pathway-related genes (CsRBOHD and CsRBOHF), and defense-related genes (CsPR2 and CsPR3), thereby improving cucumber resistance to Corynespora cassiicola. Meanwhile, inhibiting the expression of CsROP5 regulated the expression levels of ROS-signaling-pathway-related genes (CsRBOHD and CsRBOHF) and defense-related genes (CsPR2 and CsPR3), thereby enhancing the resistance of cucumber to C. cassiicola. Overall, CsROP5 and CsROP10 may participate in cucumber resistance to C. cassiicola through the ROS and ABA signaling pathways.

Biofilms are closely associated with the tough healing and dysfunctional inflammation of chronic wounds. Photothermal therapy (PTT) emerged as a suitable alternative which could destroy the structure of biofilms with local physical heat. However, the efficacy of PTT is limited because the excessive hyperthermia could damage surrounding tissues. Besides, the difficult reserve and delivery of photothermal agents makes PTT hard to eradicate biofilms as expectation. Herein, we present a GelMA-EGF/Gelatin-MPDA-LZM bilayer hydrogel dressing to perform lysozyme-enhanced PTT for biofilms eradication and a further acceleration to the repair of chronic wounds. Gelatin was used as inner layer hydrogel to reserve lysozyme (LZM) loaded mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) (MPDA-LZM) nanoparticles, which could rapidly liquefy while temperature rising so as to achieve a bulk release of nanoparticles. MPDA-LZM nanoparticles serve as photothermal agents with antibacterial capability, could deeply penetrate and destroy biofilms. In addition, the outer layer hydrogel consisted of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) promoted wound healing and tissue regeneration. It displayed remarkable efficacy on alleviating infection and accelerating wound healing in vivo. Overall, the innovative therapeutic strategy we came up with has significant effect on biofilms eradication and shows promising application in promoting the repair of clinical chronic wounds.

At present, the 10-year survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer is still less than 4%, mainly due to the high cancer recurrence rate caused by incomplete surgery and lack of effective postoperative adjuvant treatment. Systemic chemotherapy remains the only choice for patients after surgery; however, it is accompanied by off-target effects and server systemic toxicity. Herein, we proposed a biodegradable microdevice for local sustained drug delivery and postoperative pancreatic cancer treatment as an alternative and safe option. Biodegradable poly(l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (P(L)LGA) was developed as the matrix material, gemcitabine hydrochloride (GEM·HCl) was chosen as the therapeutic drug and polyethylene glycol (PEG) was employed as the drug release-controlled regulator. Through adjusting the amount and molecular weight of PEG, the controllable degradation of matrix and the sustained release of GEM·HCl were obtained, thus overcoming the unstable drug release properties of traditional microdevices. The drug release mechanism of microdevice and the regulating action of PEG were studied in detail. More importantly, in the treatment of the postoperative recurrence model of subcutaneous pancreatic tumor in mice, the microdevice showed effective inhibition of postoperative in situ recurrences of pancreatic tumors with excellent biosafety and minimum systemic toxicity. The microdevice developed in this study provides an option for postoperative adjuvant pancreatic treatment, and greatly broadens the application prospects of traditional chemotherapy drugs.

Multichamber soft pneumatic actuators (m‐SPAs) are widely used in soft robotic systems to achieve versatile grasping and locomotion. However, existing m‐SPAs have slow actuation speed and are either limited by a finite air supply or require energy‐consuming hardware to continuously supply compressed air. Herein, these shortcomings by introducing an internal exhaust air recirculation (IEAR) mechanism for high‐speed and low‐energy actuation of m‐SPAs are addressed. This mechanism recirculates the exhaust compressed air and recovers the energy by harnessing the rhythmic actuation of multiple chambers. A theoretical model to guide the analysis of the IEAR mechanism, which agrees well with the experimental results, is developed. Comparative experimental results of several sets of m‐SPAs show that the IEAR mechanism significantly improves the actuation speed by more than 82.4% and reduces the energy consumption per cycle by more than 47.7% under typical conditions. The promising applications of the IEAR mechanism in various pneumatic soft machines and robots such as a robotic fin, fabric‐based finger, and quadruped robot are further demonstrated. An interactive preprint version of the article can be found at: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.166428178.80668101/v1.

Recognizing human actions can help in numerous ways, such as health monitoring, intelligent surveillance, virtual reality and human–computer interaction. A quick and accurate detection algorithm is required for daily real-time detection. This paper first proposes to generate a lightweight graph neural network by self-distillation for human action recognition tasks. The lightweight graph neural network was evaluated on the NTU-RGB+D dataset. The results demonstrate that, with competitive accuracy, the heavyweight graph neural network can be compressed by up to 80%. Furthermore, the learned representations have denser clusters, estimated by the Davies–Bouldin index, the Dunn index and silhouette coefficients. The ideal input data and algorithm capacity are also discussed.

The post-pandemic COVID-19 has been influential in accelerating the digital transformation of enterprises and business process virtualization. However, in a virtual working environment with no physical interaction, the psychological requirements of the communication between teleworkers and the negative impact of information systems are hindering the business process virtualization. Studying the relationship between the interaction between organizational members and job performance is an important part of organizational psychology. For an enterprise to maintain high-efficiency output, it is necessary to study psychological factors related to business process virtualization. This paper verified the factors hindering business process virtualization based on process virtualization theory (PVT). The research was implemented on a sample of 343 teleworkers in China enterprises. The structure of the model of this study includes two aspects that hinder the business process virtualization: the psychological requirements of teleworkers (Sensory requirements, Synchronism requirements, and Relationship requirements) and the negative effects of information systems (Information overload and Communication overload). The results show that teleworkers’ sensory requirements, synchronism requirements, and communication overload negatively impact business process virtualization. However, unlike the results in the existing literature, the relationship requirements and information overload do not affect the business process virtualization. The results will help business managers, teleworkers, and information system developers develop strategies to address the negative factors hindering business process virtualization. In the so-called new “normal era,” our research will help companies to create a successful virtual work environment.

Online reviews and customer Q&As have emerged as two vital forms of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) that significantly influence consumer decisions in e-commerce. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of the individual and combined roles of these eWOM types in shaping market dynamics remains elusive. This study addresses this research gap by tracking and analyzing three months of eWOM and sales data for 120 laptops on Amazon, comprising 7,205 online reviews, 6,365 customer Q&A questions, and 7,419 answers. Leveraging the Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR) model and STATA16.0 software, we unravel the intricate dynamics between online reviews, customer Q&As, and laptop sales. The empirical results reveal distinctive influence mechanisms of online reviews and customer Q&As on product sales, with review volume and answer valence positively affecting sales. Importantly, answer volume was found to stimulate online reviews and enhance their valence. Our study elucidates the interplay among online reviews, customer Q&As, and product sales, underscoring the need for future research on multi-type eWOM. Further, the insights gleaned offer valuable guidance for online platforms and retailers to strategize their eWOM management.

Eucommia ulmoides Oliver is a dioecious, pharmaceutically and economically important, and precious relict tree species endemic to China, and has been listed as a key protected tree species of national level II. Phenotypic variation in ten natural populations in some key traits is still obscure. In order to study the relationship between population variation in phenotypic traits and geoclimatic factors, 15 traits were analyzed in 117 female sampled tree from ten natural populations. The results showed that the coefficients of variation for all of the 15 traits widely ranged from 9.7% (fruit vertical diameter) to 49.0% (leaf thickness), with an average of 19.7%. The nested ANOVA revealed plentiful phenotypic variations within and among populations. The variation within population was the main source, with an average proportion of 42.8%, greater than that among the population (16.6%). The 15 traits were reduced to four principal components, which collectively accounted for 70.1% of phenotypic variation among trees. The ten populations were mainly divided into two groups: Group A included eight populations throughout the Wuling Mountains occurring in relatively close proximity to each other, and Group B which comprises two geographically distant populations in mountains further northern. There were significant level correlations between phenotypic differentiation among population of E. ulmoides and both geographic (r = 0.65, p < 0.05) and climatic (r = 0.73, p < 0.01) distance. Step-wise regression indicates average annual temperature and rainfall accounted for most of the phenotypic variation among populations, and mainly associated with differences in leaf, fruit and seed size. These results can have an important implication for genetic improvement, diversity conservation and resource management of the species in the future.

DNA synthesis is widely used in synthetic biology to construct and assemble sequences ranging from short RBS to ultra-long synthetic genomes. Many sequence features, such as the GC content and repeat sequences, are known to affect the synthesis difficulty and subsequently the synthesis cost. In addition, there are latent sequence features, especially local characteristics of the sequence, which might affect the DNA synthesis process as well. Reliable prediction of the synthesis difficulty for a given sequence is important for reducing the cost, but this remains a challenge. In this study, we propose a new automated machine learning (AutoML) approach to predict the DNA synthesis difficulty, which achieves an F1 score of 0.930 and outperforms the current state-of-the-art model. We found local sequence features that were neglected in previous methods, which might also affect the difficulty of DNA synthesis. Moreover, experimental validation based on ten genes of Escherichia coli strain MG1655 shows that our model can achieve an 80% accuracy, which is also better than the state of art. Moreover, we developed the cloud platform SCP4SSD using an entirely cloud-based serverless architecture for the convenience of the end users.

Objective. To detect viral load in human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection children after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) by chip digital PCR (cdPCR). Methods. The plasmid pUC57-UL83 containing the HCMV-UL83 gene and HCMV AD169 strain were used to evaluate the sensitivity of cdPCR. Either HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, EBV, HHV-6, or HHV-7 was used to evaluate the specificity of HCMV cdPCR. The cdPCR was compared with quantitative PCR (qPCR) by detecting HCMV infection in 125 children's whole blood samples following HSCT. Results. The limit of detection (LOD) of HCMV cdPCR was 103 copies/ml and the qPCR LOD was 297 copies/ml for plasmid pUC57-UL83. The result of HCMV cdPCR was 146 copies/ml for the HCMV AD169 strain, indicating that the sensitivity of cdPCR was higher than that of qPCR. There is no cross-reaction between HCMV cdPCR and other herpes viruses. The incidence of HCMV infection was 30.40% in 125 children following HSCT by cdPCR. The range of the HCMV viral load was from 107 copies/ml to 6600 copies/ml by cdPCR. Conclusions. cdPCR is more sensitive than qPCR for detecting HCMV viral load. Furthermore, the cdPCR could be used to detect the viral load of HCMV infection before or after HSCT in children.

This study used semantic network analysis to investigate the themes of JUUL electronic cigarette-related messages on Instagram posted by three account types (commercial, vape community, and organic users) and explore the function of hashtags in the JUUL-related discourse across these groups. Posts were collected from 1 March 2018 to 15 May 2018. We conducted network analyses for each user group, with separate analyses to examine texts with and without inclusion of hashtags. Network statistics determined which words occurred most frequently, which words co-occurred or clustered together, and what communication function hashtags perform. Analyses of message content with hashtags included revealed that the largest cluster of terms by account type was brand promotion (commercial), brand engagement (community), and youth social use of JUUL and other substances, such as marijuana (organic users). On removal of hashtags, the largest cluster for each group was online and offline retailer promotion (commercial), JUUL promotion or shares of existing promotional content (community), and youth social use (organic users). Commercial accounts used hashtags to increase brand visibility and engage with vape communities present on Instagram. Community accounts served as discursive intermediaries between commercial accounts and organic users, fostering organic user engagement with brands. Social media serve as an extension of real-life peer groups among youth and young adults. Community accounts, which likely have greater credibility among users compared to commercial accounts, may help enhance the effects of targeted promotion and normalize vaping comprehensive regulation of commercial digital tobacco marketing is necessary to reduce the amount of commercial content youth and other consumers are exposed to through overt commercial and influential community accounts.

Nowadays, many cities in China are suffering from both fine particulate matter (PM2.5, particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 µm) and ozone (O3) pollution. Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is an important component of PM2.5 and is closely related to the oxidation processes. To investigate the characteristics and formation pathways of SOA during different types of haze pollution episodes, carbonaceous components of PM2.5 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were monitored continuously in Chengdu in April 2019, when Chengdu experienced not only PM2.5 pollution (SPP) but also a complex pollution of PM2.5 and O3 (CoP). In the CoP episode, the concentrations of SOA increased by 51.2% as compared to SPP, and the SOA concentrations were positively correlated with PM2.5 mass concentrations. These suggest that SOA drove the increase in PM2.5 levels during the haze event to some extent. The preliminary VOC source analysis based on the feature ratio showed that vehicle emission and fuel volatilization sources were the main sources of VOCs at this urban site. In addition, coal emissions and biomass burning were also important contributors. High-carbon alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons significantly contributed to the SOA formation. These results provide a preliminary understanding of SOA formation during different types of pollution episodes in Chengdu, which can help us to further understand air pollution in this typical region.

Human action recognition has been applied in many fields, such as video surveillance and human computer interaction, where it helps to improve performance. Numerous reviews of the literature have been done, but rarely have these reviews concentrated on skeleton-graph-based approaches. Connecting the skeleton joints as in the physical appearance can naturally generate a graph. This paper provides an up-to-date review for readers on skeleton graph-neural-network-based human action recognition. After analyzing previous related studies, a new taxonomy for skeleton-GNN-based methods is proposed according to their designs, and their merits and demerits are analyzed. In addition, the datasets and codes are discussed. Finally, future research directions are suggested.

The structural stability, electronic properties, the elastic properties, and the hardness of three C-doped Cr[B.sub.4] compounds were calculated by first-principle calculations method. The electronic properties were carried out to discuss the effect of doped C on the conductivity, chemical bonding components, and orbital hybridization of CrB4. What is more, we employed a semiempirical method to evaluate the hardness of these three crystals. Mechanical properties and large hardness of them indicate that they are hard materials. In addition, the influence of pressure on the elastic constants of the three structures is different. The c-axis direction of CrC[B.sub.3] and Cr[C.sub.2][B.sub.2] is relatively more difficult to compress. Key words: doped Cr[B.sub.4], first-principles, electronic properties, hardness, pressure, 1. Introduction Hard materials [1, 2] have aroused extensive attention due to their excellent properties in industrial development and technology, such as aviation, integrated circuits, and high-speed rail tracks in [...]