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Computer-aided analysis of ultrasound images is important for the early detection of breast cancer, obtaining more treatment time and improving the likelihood of survival. Current methods are either limited by predefined Regions of Interest (ROIs), suffer from a low proportion and variable locations of tumors, or lack appropriate modeling of tumor characteristics in ultrasound images. This paper proposes a framework called Key Region Cutting and Artificial Prior Model (KRC-APM) for breast cancer recognition in ultrasound images. Firstly, to avoid the reliance on predefined ROIs, as well as to increase the proportion of tumor areas and eliminate abundant background, we propose a Key Region Cutting (KRC) method, which analyzes the confidence levels for tumor areas and tolerantly cuts high-confidence areas into key regions. Next, to model the characteristics of tumors in ultrasound images, we design three types of diagnosis-related Artificial Priors (APs) under the guidance of experienced oncologists: Shape Modeling, Margin Analysis, and Echogenicity Pattern Indication. Finally, to fuse the key region with the extracted APs, we propose an Artificial Prior Model (APM), which synthetically learns the pattern of breast cancer. The proposed KRC-APM is validated on two public datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the key regions identified by the KRC method and the designed APs significantly enhance the performance of breast cancer recognition. Furthermore, the proposed KRC-APM framework outperforms current state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) method was developed to simultaneously measure the circumferentially distributed intima-media thickness, strain and strain rate of carotid artery with high accuracy in vivo. • An elastic modulus calculation method was proposed based on the cyclic strains for biomechanical properties characterization of the carotid artery. • The multi-parameter processing is based on image segmentation by U-Net deep learning, which is fast and fully automatic and has the potential to be translated clinically. Arterial characteristic parameters including the intima-media thickness (IMT), strain, strain rate, elastic modulus, and compliance may be unevenly distributed due to local lesion growth. Thus, a combination of the full-field distribution of these parameters may provide more effective guidance for the diagnosis and treatment of vascular diseases than either one of them. Here, we develop an intravascular coherence tomography (IVOCT) based full-field measurement method to characterize the mechanical properties of carotid artery in vivo. Image processing methods are proposed based on U-Net model and centroid detection for accurate IMT measurement. The strain, strain rate, incremental elastic modulus and volumetric compliance are obtained based on the geometric changes of intima-media. Ex vivo silica gel phantom tests demonstrate the accuracy of the vascular wall segmentation by the U-Net based method is greater than 92%, and the error for elastic modulus measurement is less than 2%. A porcine carotid artery was imaged by IVOCT in vivo , and the IMT and the mechanical characteristics during cardiac cycle were measured. The proposed method facilitates the study of the uneven pathological evolution of the vascular wall and provides an effective measurement method for the study of vascular mechanical properties in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intramedullary interlocking nailing is an effective technique used to treat long bone fractures. Recently, biodegradable metals have drawn increased attention as an intramedullary interlocking nailing material. In this study, numerical simulations were implemented to determine whether the degradation rate of magnesium alloy makes it a suitable material for manufacturing biodegradable intramedullary interlocking nails. Mechano-regulatory and bone-remodeling models were used to simulate the fracture healing process, and a surface corrosion model was used to simulate intramedullary rod degradation. The results showed that magnesium alloy intramedullary rods exhibited a satisfactory degradation rate; the fracture healed and callus enhancement was observed before complete dissolution of the intramedullary rod. Delayed magnesium degradation (using surface coating techniques) did not confer a significant advantage over the non-delayed degradation process; immediate degradation also achieved satisfactory healing outcomes. However, delayed degradation had no negative effect on callus enhancement, as it did not cause signs of stress shielding. To avoid risks of individual differences such as delayed union, delayed degradation is recommended. Although the magnesium intramedullary rod did not demonstrate rapid degradation, its ability to provide high fixation stiffness to achieve earlier load bearing was inferior to that of the conventional titanium alloy and stainless steel rods. Therefore, light physiological loads should be ensured during the early stages of healing to achieve bony healing; otherwise, with increased loading and degraded intramedullary rods, the fracture may ultimately fail to heal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an integrated approach for theoretical analysis and numerical modeling to investigate the ground response mechanism of entries and control methods induced by hard roof in longwall top coal caving panel (LTCC). The test site is located in the city of Jinzhong, Shanxi Province, China. A roof mechanical model for the main roof's different breaking positions was created to study the ground response mechanism of gob-side entries. The theoretical analysis indicated that the closer the main roof fracture line is to the gob, the smaller the lateral cantilever length of the main roof above the gob, and the surrounding rock of the roadway are more stable. Therefore, an innovative approach is proposed t to reduce the lateral cantilever length of the main roof above the gob area and automatically retain entry. This approach involves applying the "directional roof split blasting technique for pressure relief and automatic retained entry" (DRSBPRRE) in the thick coal seam of the LTCC panel. Meanwhile, numerical modeling results verified the results of the theoretical analysis. The results of the numerical simulation and practical application suggest that the DRSBPRRE approach can eliminate the cantilever length of the main roof, significantly reduce the peak vertical stress in the solid coal rib by approximately 13.76 % and reduce the surrounding rock damage and deformation. Therefore, the DRSBPRRE approach is a safe and efficient mining method for pressure relief and entry retention. This research could provide an important reference for thick coal seam LTCC panel non-pillar coal mining technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angiogenesis is considered playing an important role in bone regeneration. Studies have shown that angiogenesis is affected by biological factors, oxygen tension, and blood flow. In this paper, we propose a bone regeneration model with angiogenesis based on the theories of mechanobiology regulation, vascular network modeling, oxygen-induced secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and vascular remodeling. The results showed that this model can describe the distribution and concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor induced by oxygen tension during bone regeneration, the growth and remodeling of vascular tissue under the influence of vascular endothelial growth factor and mechanical loading, and the correspondence between vascular tissue and bone regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Heterogenous information network based recommendation is investigated. • An attention-aware metapath-based network embedding approach is proposed. • Each metapath is modeled as a weighted homogenous information network. • A self-attention mechanism generates integrated representations of users and items. • Deep neural network methods are used in the final stage of prediction. Heterogeneous information network (HIN) attracts increasing attention from the communities of recommender systems. HIN based recommendation methods can help overcome the difficulties of data sparsity and cold start. The majority of the existing HIN based recommendation methods use path-based semantic similarity between users and/or between items on HINs. However, the existing HIN based recommendation methods using metapath disregard the semantic differences among multiple metapaths (i.e., inter-metapaths) and the influence differences among neighbor pairs in each individual metapath (i.e., intra-metapaths). To solve these problems, we propose an attention-aware metapath-based network embedding for HIN based recommendation. To obtain additional semantic information, our method generates multiple metapath-based weighted homogeneous networks to model the auxiliary information of users and items of HIN. Thereafter, we design a novel self-attention integration to integrate multiple semantic information from multiple weighted homogenous information networks. Lastly, we utilize three deep neural network methods to model the implicit relations between users and items for the rating prediction task. Experimental results of three real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms existing state-of-the-art recommendation methods, solves the data sparsity problem, and models the multiple semantic information of users and items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph neural network (GNN) is considered as the state-of-art method for KG-based recommendation. However, the existing GNN-based recommendation methods incorporating KG information fail to fully consider interactions between nodes in the process of message passing and aggregating, which will affect the performance improvement of recommendation. To resolve the above limitation, we propose a Feature Interactive Graph Neural Network for KG-based Recommendation (FIKGRec) to explicitly model sophisticated feature interactions from the complex structure of heterogeneous knowledge graph. The overall framework consists of three components: (1) For items, we construct item-KGs where the nodes (entities) denote items and items' features, and edges represent the relations between entities. Modeling feature interaction can be thus transformed into modeling node (entity) interaction on the knowledge graph. Specifically, we integrate the collaborative signals into the process of KG signals propagation to capture more precise user preferences and then employ the feature entity interaction layer to incorporate the interaction information between entities in the process of neighbor aggregation of entities in item-KG. (2) For users, a preference-aware attention mechanism is designed to obtain the user's fine-grained preference for items that have been interacted. (3) The final representations of users and items are fed to deep neural network (DNN) to model complex correlations between them. Extensive experiments on three real-world datasets demonstrate the better performance of our FIKGRec framework compared to state-of-the-arts methods. • Graph Neural Network technic is used to explore knowledge graph. • Collaborative signals are integrated into the process of KG signals propagation. • Node (entity) interaction is considered when information aggregation. • A preference-aware attention mechanism is proposed for user-end modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Apoptosis is an important contributing factor in spinal cord injury (SCI). ZBTB38 is involved in the transcriptional regulation of multiple signaling pathways, is differentially expressed at different SCI stages, and may provide a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with SCI. In this study, we found that autophagy is blocked in ZBTB38 knockdown SH-SY5Y cells and that the expression levels of LC3B II/I decreased and P62 increased. We used transcriptome high-throughput sequencing to identify the target in ZBTB38 knockdown cells. From the transcriptome profile, RB1CC1 (i.e., FIP200) , a key component of the initiation machinery of autophagy (FIP200-ATG13-ULK1-ATG101), was found to decrease 4.2-fold following ZBTB38 knockdown. When RB1CC1 -overexpressed plasmids were transfected into ZBTB38 knockdown cells, they rescued the phenotype of ZBTB38 knockdown cells. Cell proliferation and viability were significantly enhanced by RB1CC1 overexpression, and LC3B and P62 expression returned to their original levels. We also injected ZBTB38 -overexpressed lentivirus into the injured center of the spinal cord and detected significant upregulation of RB1CC1 in the spinal cord. ZBTB38 overexpression can promote autophagy and partly rescue the secondary damage of SCI. Therefore, our findings provide a new strategy for the treatment of SCI. Highlights • ZBTB38 knockdown significantly inhibits autophagic expression in SH-SY5Y cells. • ZBTB38 knockdown downregulates RB1CC1 expression in SH-SY5Y cells. • Differentially expressed genes are mainly enriched in the MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways after ZBTB38 knockdown. • Restoring RB1CC1 expression can rescue autophagy-mediated death after ZBTB38 knockdown. • ZBTB38 overexpression upregulates RB1CC1 expression and enhances autophagy in SCI mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel discontinuous similar material for physical model experiments has been developed. • The bulking characteristics of the broken goaf roof under different roof cutting conditions have been revealed. • The protection effect of the roof cutting technology for the gob-side roadway has been obtained. • The excavation compensation effect of the bulking roof rock after failure by roof cutting has been proposed. The stability control of gob-side entry retaining (GSER) has consistently been an important topic of interest within the field of no-pillar mining. This paper presents a novel discontinuous similar material for conducting physical model experiments, in conjunction with discrete element numerical simulation, to investigate the goaf roof failure and bulking characteristics based on gob-side entry retaining by roof cutting. The results indicate that the application of roof cutting technology (RCT) can significantly expand the failure range of the goaf roof vicinity to the roof cutting line. This expansion leads to a 20% increase in the volume of broken roof rock, which in turn facilitates the formation of effective support and stress compensation for the overlying strata, and the possibility of failure and displacement in the overlying strata is reduced. RCT can decrease the length of the cantilever beam located on the gob-side roadway, which is beneficial for maintaining the stability of the roadway. This paper presents a rational approach for determining an appropriate roof cutting height and angle. The in-situ application results show that the deformation of the surrounding rock of GSER by RCT is small, indicating a high level of integrity, fully meeting the requirements of serving the production of the subsequent working face. This paper serves as a reference for future research on the stability control of gob-side roadways based on GSER approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-accuracy measurement method for shield tail clearance based on line structured light is presented in this article. The method depends on monocular vision imaging and laser triangulation, which utilizes a line laser and an industrial camera. Firstly, the laser is used to project a narrow line-shaped indicator laser between shield shell and segment. The camera captures two laser lines in the image to acquire their feature information. Then, the 3D coordinates of the clearance endpoints are calculated by the pinhole imaging model and the spatial position relation. Subsequently, the shield tail clearance is measured by calculating the distance between the two endpoints. Several experiments are designed to verify the measurement performance in this article. The results indicate that within the measurement range, the repeatability accuracy is better than 0.29 mm and the deviation is less than 1.7 mm, which can meet the construction demands for shield tail clearance. • A novel measurement method for shield tail clearance based on line structured light. • The proposed method of light plane calibration is simple, easy to operate and has high accuracy. • The measurement device is simple in structure and dose not require on-site calibration. • Only a laser and an industrial camera are required to complete the measurement task, which decreasing the cost of construction. • This method can realize high-accuracy and stable measurement for shield tail clearance, which ensure construction quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A high accuracy deformation measurement method for semi-continuous materials is proposed. • The deformation field of 3D printed scaffolds is accurately measured. • The first visualization of cell differentiation on scaffolds was achieved by experimental measurements. • The effects of loading in vitro and water content on cell differentiation were investigated. • This work corroborates that in vitro loading culture and modulation of scaffold pore structure can be exploited to design scaffolds with regions that guide specific tissue development. Three-dimensional (3D) mechanical microenvironments, such as 3D strain fields in tissue engineering scaffolds have a crucial impact on the interactions between scaffold architecture, mechanical stimuli, and tissue differentiation. However, the discontinuity induced by the pores poses a challenge to the measurement of the 3D strains of the scaffolds. Herein, we present a tissue engineering scaffold optical coherence elastography (TES-OCE) method to visualize the full-field 3D strain fields of the tissue engineering scaffolds when cells are cultured on them and to explore the relationship between mechanical stimulation and cell differentiation. A semi-continuous digital volume correlation (SC-DVC) method based on a material component identification algorithm was proposed to automatically extract the scaffold architecture information and obtain the 3D strain fields with high accuracy. The non-uniform deformation field of a 3D printed tissue engineering scaffold with various water contents under loading in vitro was measured by the TES-OCE method, based on the tissue shear strain field obtained above, the area of cell differentiation phenotype on tissue engineering scaffolds was accurately predicted. Experimental results show that the loads and water absorption of the scaffold significantly affects the 3D tissue shear strain field in the tissue engineering scaffold. Thus, the cell differentiation fate can be modulated by loading culture and scaffold pore structure. The TES-OCE provides a new experimental method to delineate the interrelationship between tissue engineering scaffolds, the mechanical microenvironment, and cell proliferation and differentiation. It may be further developed as an effective tool to guide the design and development of superior tissue engineering scaffolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the shortwave radiation data in 2007 from GEWEX-SRB, ISCCP-FD and CERES-SYN radiation products were evaluated against ground observations from BSRN, CEOP and GC-Net in the Arctic. The evaluation result shows that the accuracy of the three shortwave radiation products in the Arctic is low. In the Arctic Region, CERES-SYN radiation product quality is superior to GEWEX-SRB and ISCCP-FD. The RMSEs and MAEs of the three shortwave radiation products are > 20 W/m 2 at most sites. The mean RMSE and MAE of the downward shortwave radiation data of CERES-SYN are 54.4 W/m 2 (42.9%) and 28.4 W/m 2 (23.0%), respectively, the mean RMSE and MAE of the upward shortwave radiation data are 50.8 W/m 2 (80.4%), 28.4 W/m 2 (41.3%). The indexes values of the other two products are greater than CERES-SYN. Through accuracy analysis, it can be concluded that there are seasonal shortwave differences between satellite-estimates and ground measurements. The error sources are mainly systematic errors, rather than random errors. The main factors that affect the accuracy of the flux data include the spatial heterogeneity of the surface, the influence of the cloud, the accuracy of input inversion parameters and the low spatial resolution of the radiation products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]