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Low-light images often suffer from severe visual degradation, affecting both human perception and high-level computer vision tasks. Most existing methods process images in the spatial domain, making it challenging to simultaneously improve brightness while suppressing noise. In this paper, we present a novel perspective to enhance images based on frequency domain characteristics. Specifically, we reveal that the low-frequency components are closely related to luminance and color, whereas the high-frequency components are not. Based on this observation, we propose the Frequency-aware Network (FaNet) for low-light image enhancement. By selectively adjusting low-frequency components, FaNet preserves more high-frequency details while achieving low-light image enhancement. Additionally, we employ a multi-scale framework and selective fusion for effective feature learning and image reconstruction. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. [Display omitted] • We reveal that the luminance is closely related to low-frequency components. • We design a frequency-aware network to utilize frequency domain features. • A multi-scale framework and selective fusion is proposed for feature learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Prospective clinical trials conducted specifically for dmNPC population are scarce. • This is the first prospective clinical trial comparing TPF and GP regimens in the treatment of dmNPC patients. • 4-6 cycles of TPF induction chemotherapy combined with LRRT can achieve a therapeutic effect comparable to GP regimen. • TPF induction chemotherapy plus LRRT should be recommended as one of the optional treatments for dmNPC patients. This prospective clinical trial aims to compare the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GP) versus docetaxel plus cisplatin and fluorouracil (TPF) as induction chemotherapy combined with locoregional radiotherapy in de novo metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (dmNPC). 146 dmNPC patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive 4–6 cycles of GP (GP group) or TPF induction chemotherapy (TPF group) followed by locoregional radiotherapy (LRRT). The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Secondary endpoints consisted of progression-free survival（PFS）, objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and treatment-related adverse events (AEs). As of data cutoff (May 31, 2024), the median follow-up time was 60.0 months (IQR 40.3–68.1). There is no significant difference in median OS (35.4 vs. 34.8 months, p = 0.2609) and PFS (15.8 vs. 14.3 months, p = 0.2318) between the GP and TPF groups. No significant differences in ORR (65.8 % vs. 71.2 %, p = 0.476) and DCR (79.5 % vs. 82.2 %, p = 0.674) were observed between GP and TPF group too. Furthermore, the 5-year OS was 40.1 % (95 % CI, 29.6 %-54.2 %) in the GP group, compared with 27.2 % (95 % CI, 17.9 %−41.3 %) in the TPF group（HR = 0.79, 95 % CI, 0.53–1.20). However, the TPF group had higher incidences of grade 3–4 AEs such as neutropenia, leukopenia, nausea, and diarrhea. The study indicates that 4–6 cycles of TPF induction chemotherapy combined with LRRT achieves a therapeutic effect comparable to the GP regimen with controllable safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analyzing the differences between temporal and spatial static scattering parameters. • Revising LSCI algorithm for myocardial blood flow imaging application. • Designing ring-shaped light illumination and enhancing deeper-tissue imaging. Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) is a real-time, non-invasive imaging technique widely used for visualizing blood flow in biomedical applications. Likely, LSCI method can be applied to the myocardial coronary artery to monitor the evolution of blood flow on spatial and temporal scales, which is of large-size inner diameter, higher flow rate, and has thicker vascular walls. In this paper, we aim to measure wide-range blood flow rate linearly under static scattering noise. We elaborate on the differences between temporal and spatial static scattering parameter that are typically ignored but can result in inaccurate measurements of blood flow through phantom experiments. It is the first time, to our best of knowledge, that the maximum linear range can be measured up to 616 mm/s with 20 Hz sampling frequency. When the blood flow is covered by cardiac vascular tissue, the maximum linear blood flow range can be up to 92.4 mm/s with 100 Hz sampling frequency. Besides, we compared uniform light with ring-shaped light and demonstrated that the latter can increase penetration depth, thereby extending the linear range and reducing oscillations in the curve. Those results will greatly lower the expense of LSCI device while improving performance, and benefit future big animal clinical medical research, especially in monitoring the spatiotemporal evolution of coronary arteries in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon quota management system is a long-term effective mechanism to promote the sustainable development of automotive industry. However, issues such as the total amount and allocation mechanism of carbon quotas hinder countries' implementation of carbon quota policies in the automotive industry. To address these issues, this study uses the GREET model and system dynamics model to predict carbon emissions in the automotive industry and sets the total carbon quota for China's automotive industry. Furthermore, based on the ZSG-DEA model and Gini coefficient model, this study applies repeated game theory to propose a carbon quota allocation modeling framework for the automotive industry. The results show that the proposed allocation modeling framework achieves a balance between equity and efficiency while taking into account the interests of both the government and enterprises, and achieves an equitable allocation of carbon quotas among 10 representative automotive enterprises. This study can provide reference for the design of carbon quota management system in the automobile industry. • Prediction of life-cycle carbon emissions and sales of representative vehicles. • Setting carbon quota targets for China's automotive industry. • Proposing a carbon quota allocation strategy balancing equity and efficiency. • Obtaining equilibrium allocation results for 10 typical automobile enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, engineered butanologenic Escherichia coli T5 constructed by the OGAB method was used for 1-butanol production. The results showed the feasibility of the artificial butanologenic operon, (Promoter Pr)-thil-crt-bcd-etfB-etfA-hbd-adhe1-adhe, where the 1-butanol titer, specific BuOH yield, and BuOH yield were 4.50mg/L, 4.50mg-BuOH/g cell, and 0.35mg-BuOH/g-glucose, respectively. Fermentation conditions of anaerobic, low initial concentrations of carbon sources, low oxidation state of carbon source, pH of 6, addition of glutathione and citrate, had been shown for efficiently improving the 1-butanol production. The premise behind these fermentation approaches can be categorized into two lines of reasoning, either elevated the availability of acetyl-CoA or lowered the intracellular redox state. By comparing the fermentation conditions tested in this study, pH has been shown to be the most efficiency strategies for 1-butanol production while the replacement of glucose with glycerol provides the highest improvement in butanol yield. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Existing deep learning-based single-image super-resolution (SR) methods typically rely on vast quantities of paired data. As an essential solution, zero-shot SR methods require only a single image to handle image-specific degradation. However, these methods still struggle to recover fine-grained details due to the lack of supervised information. In this work, we propose a novel guided Diff usion model for Zero -shot image SR (ZeroDiff) to explicitly direct image quality enhancement. Specifically, we elaborate two key guidance strategies: (1) high-frequency guidance and (2) content-consistent guidance. The former concentrates on boosting fine-grained textures by embedding high-frequency information into the cross-attention mechanism of the noise estimator. The latter avoids the sampling deviating from the original image in terms of structure and low-frequency content. Specifically, the noisy images at each diffusion step are injected into the corresponding sampling step, encouraging the sampled image to be consistent with that of the corresponding diffusion step. Moreover, we design a progressive zoom-in paradigm by gradually enlarging the image size and enriching the image details to boost the sampling efficiency of diffusion models, while enabling high-quality image reconstruction. Extensive experiments reveal that our method achieves comparable results with other state-of-the-art methods in quantitative and qualitative evaluations on both face and natural images from synthetic and real-world datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric response of polymer dielectrics determines their applications in electronic devices. Although fluoropolymers were widely accepted in communication technology, electronic packing and electrical insulating for their extraordinary dielectric properties, the underlying effect of fluorine hybridization on the dielectric response of polymers is still unclear. Here, surface fluorination was conducted to construct fluorine hybrid epoxy resin (EP), and the dielectric response of EP before and after fluorination was studied. It was found that at low temperature, the electronic polarization was dominated on the dielectric response. The fluorine hybridization reduced the electronic polarization, which led to a lower permittivity of the fluorinated EP. However, at a higher temperature, the fluorine hybridization increased the thermal expansion coefficient and enlarged the free volume fraction, which allowed flexible reorientations of dipoles and led to an enhanced dipolar polarization, and thus, it proved an enhanced permittivity for fluorinated EP. Therefore, the effect of fluorine hybridization on dielectric response of EP polymers was temperature-dependent, with the low-temperature-dominated electronic polarization and high-temperature-dominated dipolar polarization, respectively. This work revealed the influence of fluorine hybridization on dielectric response of epoxy polymers and could promote the application of organic dielectrics in communication and electronic devices. [Display omitted] • Clarifying the influence of fluorine hybridization on dielectric response of EP polymers at different temperature ranges. • Revealing the F element repressed the electronic polarization dominating low temperature-dielectric response. • Revealing the polar CF n groups enhanced dipolar polarization dominating high temperature-dielectric response. • Providing a new perspective to study the dielectric response of polymer based on H-N function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crosslinking reaction behaviors can determine the network morphology and further influence macroscopic properties of polymers, while the current comprehension about crosslinking reaction behaviors of peroxide-induced low-density polyethylene (PLDPE) is quite lacking, which seriously limits its development and application. Here, for the first time, the crosslinking reaction behaviors of PLDPE are fully characterized and analyzed by combining kinetic and thermodynamic analysis. The kinetic behaviors are investigated by non-isothermal DSC and isothermal rheology methods, and thermodynamic characteristics of crosslinking reaction are analyzed by Arrhenius law and transition state theory. The results demonstrate that the crosslinking reaction of PLDPE involves complex order and autocatalysis reactions. Notably, the autocatalysis reaction is considered as the driving force of the whole crosslinking reaction. Furthermore, the autocatalysis reaction is proved to be strongly dependent on the diffusion of macromolecular chains under isothermal conditions, whereas the effect of diffusion on order reaction can be ignored. Given that, a new kinetic model incorporates the single diffusion factor to significantly describe the diffusion effect on the autocatalysis reaction during crosslinking, which grasps the complexity of crosslinking reaction mechanism. This model is able to characterize and predict the kinetic results of PLDPE crosslinking reaction very well. It provides an effective analysis methodology and an accurate kinetic model for characterizing and predicting the diffusion-limited crosslinking reaction behaviors of polymers. • Crosslinking reaction behaviors are characterized by combining kinetic and thermodynamic analysis. • A kinetic model is proposed for characterizing diffusion-limited crosslinking reaction behaviors. • PLPE crosslinking reaction is a composite reaction of n-order and autocatalytic reactions. • Autocatalysis reaction is more dependent on the diffusion of macromolecular chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Removing raindrops adhering to lenses or glass is challenging since raindrops have more complex internal structures and optical effects than rain streaks. Existing raindrop removal methods typically employ single-channel masks for raindrop representation. However, these methods ignore the complementarity of priors between different channels, thereby losing the color and transparency information of raindrops. Moreover, simply applying the same processing across different pixels is insufficient to deal with spatially-varying degradation. To address these limitation, we propose a novel Mutual channel prior guided Dual-domain Interaction Network (MDINet) for single image raindrop removal. Specifically, to effectively guide the restoration of the raindrop region, we propose a mutual channel prior by modeling the multi-channel raindrop soft mask, in which the enriched color and transparency information of raindrops are represented and learned by our model. To tackle the spatially-varying degradation, we design the dual-domain interaction block to capture global low-frequency content and local high-frequency details. Simultaneously, a spatially adaptive modulation block is devised to handle complicated and diverse raindrops. Moreover, we propose a contrastive discrimination strategy to motivate the restored image to approach the clean image and stay away from the raindrop image in the representation space. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets and real-world images indicate that the proposed method achieves qualitative and quantitative superiority against state-of-the-art methods. [Display omitted] • We propose a novel mutual channel prior for raindrop representation. • We design a dual-domain interaction network to tackle diverse raindrops. • Contrastive discrimination is proposed to mine the mutually exclusive property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peroxide-initiated low-density polyethylene (PLPE) has been extensively used as insulating materials for high-voltage cables, while the lack of comprehensive knowledge on crosslinking process of PLPE seriously limits the development of cable insulation. Here, the crosslinking process and mechanism of PLPE are fully revealed by combining kinetic and chemorheological analysis for the first time. Rheological parameters during crosslinking process of PLPE are obtained by dynamic rheology experiments at different frequencies and temperatures. Crosslinking kinetics of PLPE is explored by rheological conversion method and diffusion-controlled Kamal-Sourour model. Meanwhile, chemorheological behaviors of PLPE are discussed based on percolation theory and Arrhenius law. The results indicate that the crosslinking reaction of PLPE involves complex n-order and autocatalytic reactions. Importantly, the autocatalytic reaction and the gelation formation significantly enhance the reaction rate. Furthermore, physical diffusion of macromolecular chains obviously reduces the reaction rate and prolongs the termination reaction. Based on that, the mutual influences and relationships between the kinetic and chemorheological behaviors are established by combining the apparent activation energy. It is suggested that PLPE crosslinking process is controlled by alternant synergistic action of chemical reaction and physical diffusion. This work can provide a critical theoretical basis for the comprehension and optimization of PLPE crosslinking process. [Display omitted] • PLPE crosslinking reaction involves both n-order and autocatalytic reaction. • Mutual relationships between kinetics and chemorheology behaviors are established. • Crosslinking process is controlled by chemical reaction and physical diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burst image restoration methods offer the possibility of recovering faithful scene details from multiple low-quality snapshots captured by hand-held devices in adverse scenarios, thereby attracting increasing attention in recent years. However, individual frames in a burst typically suffer from inter-frame misalignments, leading to ghosting artifacts. Besides, existing methods indiscriminately handle all burst frames, struggling to seamlessly remove the corrupted information due to the neglect of multi-frame spatio-temporal varying degradation. To alleviate these limitations, we propose a general semantic-guided model named SeBIR for burst image restoration incorporating the semantic prior knowledge of Segment Anything Model (SAM) to enable adaptive recovery. Specifically, instead of relying solely on a single aligning scheme, we develop a joint implicit and explicit strategy that sufficiently leverages semantic knowledge as guidance to achieve inter-frame alignment. To further adaptively modulate and aggregate aligned features with spatio-temporal disparity, we elaborate a semantic-guided fusion module using the intermediate semantic features of SAM as an explicit guide to weaken the inherent degradation and strengthen the valuable complementary information across frames. Additionally, a semantic-guided local loss is designed to boost local consistency and image quality. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations for burst super-resolution, burst denoising, and burst low-light image enhancement tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Acquired radiation resistance is one of the main causes of the failure of radiation therapy for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). • The circadian clock gene, BMAL1, has been shown to correlate with the sensitivity of NPC to radiotherapy. • Cellular and animal experiments to explore the mechanisms of the BMAL1's effect on acquired radiation resistance to NPC. • BMAL1 inhibits the radiation-induced EMT by inactivating the TGF-β1/Smads pathway and induces the radiosensitization of NPC. • This study is the first to explore the correlation of the BMAL1 with EMT and radio-resistance in NPC. Acquired radio-resistance is thought to be one of the main causes of recurrent metastasis after failure of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) radiotherapy, which may be related to X-ray-induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) activation. The circadian clock gene, BMAL1, has been shown to correlate with the sensitivity of NPCs to radiotherapy, but the specific mechanism has not been reported. NPC cells were irradiated by conventional fractionation to generate radiotherapy-resistant cells. NPC cells with BMAL1 gene stabilization/overexpression and interference were obtained by lentiviral transfection. Western blotting, colony formation analysis, cell counting kit-8 assays, wound-healing tests, Transwell assays, flow cytometry, the EDU method, nuclear plasma separation experiments, HE staining, immunohistochemical staining and TUNEL staining were performed to explore the influence and molecular mechanism of the circadian clock gene, BMAL1, on NPC-acquired radio-resistance and EMT through in vitro and in vivo experiments. The results indicated that there was a gradual downregulation of BMAL1 gene protein expression during the routine dose induction of radio-resistance in NPC cells. EMT activation was present in the radiation-resistant cell line 5-8FR, and was accompanied by the significant enhancement of proliferation, migration and invasion. The BMAL1 gene significantly increased the radiosensitivity of the radiation-resistant cell line 5-8FR and reversed the acquired radio-resistance of NPCs, which was accomplished by inhibiting the TGF-β1/Smads/Snail1 axis-mediated EMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, high strength seawater coral aggregate concrete (SCAC) with a compressive strength of 80 MPa was prepared, and seawater coral aggregate reinforced concrete slab (SCARCS) was designed with epoxy-coated steel bars. Combining with the AE technology, monotonic flexural static tests were conducted on SCARCS specimens with three varying reinforcement ratios (i.e., 0.85%, 1.13%, and 1.41%). Results showed that the increasing the reinforcement ratio led to an increase in peak bearing capacity and a decrease in center deflections at the peak. The loading process can be divided into four stages based on the varying magnitudes of the b -value and Ib -value. The primary mode of failure was tensile microcracks at various stages, and the ratio of shear microcracks reached its maximum value in the final stage of loading. Besides, based on the signal intensity analysis, it can be observed that the scale and complexity of cracks propagation inside the SCARCS specimen increased as the reinforcement ratio rose. In addition, back propagation neural network (BPNN) classification model optimized by deep belief network (DBN) algorithm was proposed to predict the damage degree of SCARCS during loading, and the average prediction accuracy of the proposed model was shown to be over 89%. The classification outcomes demonstrated that with an increase in the reinforcement ratio of SCARCS, the proportion of AE signals in Cluster 3 increased, while the proportion of AE signals in Cluster 2 dropped. Notably, both the average frequency and energy presented an ascending trend. The findings of this study provided valuable insights for designing and assessing the safety of SCAC structures for essential island and reef engineering infrastructure. • High strength seawater coral aggregate reinforced concrete slab (SCARCS) was designed with epoxy-coated steel bars. • Loading process of SCARCS can be divided into four stages based on the varying magnitudes of the b -value and Ib -value. • As the reinforcement ratio rose, the scale and complexity of crack propagation inside SCARCS increased. • Optimized back propagation neural network model was proposed to predict the damage degree of SCARCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The extraction of Au(III) from hydrochloric acid solutions by microemulsion was studied. The extraction experiments were carried out using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant and iso-amyl alcohol as co-surfactant. Au(III) was found to be extracted into the microemulsion phase due to ion pair formation such as AuCl4 −CTAB+. The influence of temperature on the extraction of Au(III) has been investigated at temperatures ranging from 288 to 313K. Temperature was found to decrease the distribution of Au(III). Thermodynamic parameters like enthalpy and entropy of the extraction, calculated by applying Van’t Hoff equation, were −36.76kJmol−1 and −84.87Jmol−1 K−1, respectively. Furthermore, the influence of the concentrations of hydrogen ion and chloride anion on the extraction efficiency (E%) were verified. Au(III) was extracted quantitatively (E%>99%) and selectively at the whole range of HCl concentrations (0.2–5M). Recovery of gold from electrical waste and treatment of CTAB wastewater generated from the extraction were also discussed. Thus, the extraction of Au(III) from hydrochloric acid solutions by microemulsion is an effective approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]