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Rationale and Objectives: Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an important biomarker for patient selection of immunotherapy in gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to construct and validate a non-invasive virtual biopsy system based on radiological features and clinical factors to predict the PD-L1 expression level in GC.Materials and Methods: 217 patients who received gastrectomy for GC were consecutively enrolled in this study, with 157 patients from center 1 as the training cohort and 60 patients from center 2 as the external validation cohort. 1205 quantitative radiomics features were extracted from preprocessed pre-operative contrast-enhanced CT images of enrolled patients. A radiological signature was computed using a regression random forest model and was integrated with clinical factors in a multilayer perceptron. The performance of the digital biopsy system was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calibration curve in both the training and validation cohort.Results: 15 features were selected for the construction of radiological signature, which was significantly associated with expression levels of PD-L1 in both the training cohort (p<0.0001) and the external validation cohort (p<0.01). The hybrid deep learning model integrating the radiological signature and clinical factor could accurately distinguish GCs with high PD-L1 expression levels in both the training cohort (AUC = 0.806, 95%CI: 0.736-0.875) and the validation cohort (AUC = 0.784, 95%CI: 0.668-0.901).Conclusions: Our results indicate that the combination of deep learning and quantitative radiological features are potential approaches for the non-invasive evaluation of PD-L1 expression levels in GC. The digital biopsy system could provide valuable suggestive information for clinical decision-making of immunotherapy in GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software module clustering problem (SMCP) aims to improve the internal quality of software while helping software engineers understand the system architecture and facilitating software system maintenance. However, most current methods ignore modular stability in software evolution and the topological properties of the software architecture and hence obtain decompositions much worse than the expert. Therefore, we propose a collaborative multi-objective information-sharing differential evolution (MOPISDE) algorithm for SMCP with global stability and path complexity as two new objective functions. Specifically, two new concepts are defined for SMCP as two objectives of populations and modular quality (MQ) as an objective of the third population. Population-sharing technology is designed to collaboratively exchange information among different populations to address the lack of diversity in a single population. An information-sharing three-stage differential evolution strategy is presented to reduce the search space and improve search performance by sharing good substructures among elite individuals. New mutation strategies are proposed to utilize the different substructures between two random individuals as a new community to further improve the search performance. Experiments on various projects demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm. The proposed method not only has fast convergence but also provides stable and accurate modularity that is somewhat closer to expert decomposition than that of other methods. • We propose two key concepts in the software module clustering problem (SMCP). • We design a collaborative multi-objective information-sharing DE algorithm based on the new concepts for SMCP. • The experiment results of our method are significantly better than the SOTA methods. • We provide the source code of our proposed method and the datasets used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental investigation on I steel reinforced concrete-filled glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) tubular short columns under axial load. The study aimed to explore the effect of three parameters of steel ratio, thickness of GFRP tube and concrete strength on the mechanical behavior of I steel reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular short columns under axial load. A total of twenty-seven I steel reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular short column specimens were tested with steel ratio of 4.6%, 6.8% and 8.3%, thicknesses of GFRP tube of 5, 8 and 10 mm and concrete strengths from 20 to 40 MPa. What's more, three reference tests including the pure I-section, pure GFRP tube and fully filled GFRP tube without I-sections were conducted in this paper to compare with the proposed composite sections. The failure modes, axial load-strain relationships, axial load-axial displacement relationships and ultimate loads are presented in this paper. The strength index is proposed to better evaluate the section behavior of the composite columns. Experimental results show that the failure modes of all the specimens are basically the same. The transverse strain of GFRP tube is smaller than the axial strain under the same axial load in the linear stage. Specimens with higher concrete strength obtain higher load-bearing capacity but lower deformation capacity and strength index. Increasing steel ratio fails to improve the load-bearing capacity and stiffness, but can lighten the weight of the columns. The results also indicate that thicker GFRP tube can both improve the load-bearing capacity and obtain better deformation capacity but generate a problem of low cost-efficient. Design formulas for the load-bearing capacity of I steel reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular short columns under axial load are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of CuO/MnO additives on phase composition, microstructures, sintering behavior, and microwave dielectric properties of 3ZrO 2 -3TiO 2 -ZnNb 2 O 6 (3Z-3T-ZN) ceramics prepared by conventional solid-state route were systematically investigated. CuO/MnO doped ceramics exhibited a main phase of α-PbO 2 -structured ZrTi 2 O 6 and a secondary phase of rutile TiO 2 . SEM results showed that the grain size of MnO doped ceramics became larger with increasing amount of dopants. The presence of CuO/MnO additives effectively reduced the sintering temperature of 3Z-3T-ZN ceramics to 1220 °C. MnO doped into ceramics could enhance the Q×f values significantly. The 0.5 wt% CuO doped 3Z-3T-ZN ceramics with 0.5 wt% of MnO, sintered at 1220 °C for 4 h, was measured to show superior microwave dielectric properties, with an ε r of 41.02, a Q×f value of 44,230 GHz (at 5.2 GHz), and τ f value of +2.32 ppm/°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of MgO/La 2 O 3 additives on phase composition, microstructures, sintering behavior, and microwave dielectric properties of 0.7(Sr 0.01 Ca 0.99 )TiO 3 −0.3(Sm 0.75 Nd 0.25 )AlO 3 (7SCT-3SNA) ceramics prepared via conventional solid-state route were systematically investigated. MgO/La 2 O 3 as additives showed no obvious influence on the phase composition of the 7SCT-3SNA ceramics and all the samples exhibited pure perovskite structures. The presence of MgO/La 2 O 3 additives effectively reduced the sintering temperature of 7SCT-3SNA ceramics due to the formation of a liquid phase at a relatively low temperature during sintering progress. The 0.5 wt% MgO doped 7SCT-3SNA sample with 0.5 wt% of La 2 O 3 , sintered at 1320 °C for 4 h, was measured to show superior microwave dielectric properties, with an ε r of 45.57, a Q×f value of 46205 GHz (at 5.5 GHz), and τ f value of −0.32 ppm/°C, which showed dense and uniform microstructure as well as well-developed grain growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of WO3 addition on the phase formation, the microstructures and the microwave dielectric properties of 1wt% ZnO doped 0.95MgTiO3–0.05CaTiO3 ceramics system were investigated. Formation of second phase MgTi2O5 could be effectively restrained through the addition of WO3, but should be in right amount. WO3 as additives could not only effectively lower the sintering temperature of the ceramics to 1310°C, but also promote the densification. A dielectric constant ε r of 20.02, a Q×f value of 62,000 (at 7GHz), and a τ f value of −5.1ppm/°C were obtained for 1wt% ZnO doped 0.95MgTiO3–0.05CaTiO3 ceramics with 0.5wt% WO3 addition sintered at 1310°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the behaviour of square hollow steel tubular (SHST) stub columns after elevated temperatures under axial compression, a total of 51 specimens were tested, including 48 SHST stub columns after elevated temperatures and 3 SHST stub columns at ambient temperature, of which 12 SHST stub columns were carried out load-strain tests. The main parameters explored in the test include temperature ranging from 400 °C to 1000 °C, thickness (2.0 mm, 3.0 mm, 4.0 mm) and high temperature duration (1.0 h, 1.5 h, 2.0 h, 2.5 h). This paper presents the failure modes, load-bearing capacity, load-strain curves, load versus displacement curves, initial stiffness at elastic stage and ductility of the specimens. Results show that failure modes of SHST columns at ambient temperature and elevated temperature follow similar pattern. It was found, in general, that temperature and thickness have significant influence on the behaviour of SHST columns; however, high temperature duration has negligible influence on the behaviour of SHST columns. Based on the experimental results, a formula is proposed to calculate the load-bearing capacity of SHST stub columns after elevated temperatures. It is evident from the comparisons between the results calculated from the formulas and the experimental results that the calculation gives results with reasonable accuracy. Finite element models having the same dimensions of test specimens were simulated to compare the finite element analysis results with experimental results. It can be seen from the comparison that finite element analysis results were in good agreement with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify the importance degree and assess the effect of key parameters on comprehensive performance during operational adjustment, the artificial neural network (ANN) method is employed to quantitatively analyze the supercritical CO 2 (sCO 2) cycle performance for the advantage of accurate prediction and regression capabilities. The effects of seven operating parameters on the performance of the simple sCO 2 cycle, recompression sCO 2 cycle, and partial cooling sCO 2 cycle are discussed. The test results obtained through the ANN method depict that the key parameters are turbine inlet temperature (T TIT) and pressure ratio (P r) according to importance degree ranking. The maximum relative errors observed in the quantitative analysis of thermal efficiency and input heat are 2.48% and 3.47%, respectively. Additionally, the performance comparison of the quantitative analysis shows that the R2 values of thermal efficiency, output work, and input heat in this research are 0.057025, 0.0001381, and 0.019063 higher than those in the MATLAB software. Furthermore, the recommended operating parameters for T TIT and P r are 500/900/500 °C and 2.266/3.378/2.276 in the three sCO 2 cycles to achieve multi-objective optimization. The corresponding values for thermal efficiency, output work, and input heat are 44.91%/57.7%/44.05%, 104.8761/278.3495/109.5893 kJ/kg, and 190.3585/198.9562/198.8478 kJ/kg, respectively. This research can contribute to expanding future investigations on adjusting experimental parameters to enhance the performance of sCO 2 cycles. [Display omitted] • The ANN method is employed to quantitatively analyze the sCO 2 cycle performance. • The key parameters for sCO 2 cycles are turbine inlet temperature and pressure ratio. • The R2 values of η th , w tur , and q in are larger than 0.986 in the simple sCO 2 cycle. • The recommended values for T TIT and P r are 500/900/500 °C and 2.266/3.378/2.276. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Theoretical and run-test evaluation of the 50 MW beam-down power plant is conducted. • The variation in heliostat efficiency, flux density, and power generation is analyzed. • The average outlet temperature of the molten salt was up to 559℃ for 50 min. • The flux density of hyperboloid mirror on four typical days is 10.2/11.2/10.9/9 kW/m2. • The flux density of receiver on four typical days is 353.6/399.1/381.7/314.2 kW/m2. The beam-down concentrating solar power plant has the advantages of high concentrating ratio, low installation and maintenance requirements, and low pump consumption. To conduct further theoretical and run-test evaluations of the optical and thermal performance of the beam-down concentrating solar power system, the Yumen Xinneng 50 MW beam-down power plant is analyzed in this research. The variation of the heliostat field efficiency, hyperboloid mirror flux density, receiver flux density, and annual power generation under various operating parameters is discussed. The run-test results from June 12th indicated an average outlet temperature of molten salt reached 559°C between 13:07 and 13:56 under an average direct normal irradiation of 739.7 W/m2. The corresponding inlet temperature increased from 302.3°C to 307.6°C due to the rewarming effect caused by the increase in hot molten salt. Regarding the simulation results, the recommended design parameters for the vertex ratio of the hyperboloid mirror are between 0.775 and 0.8 to mitigate the contradiction between initial investment and optical efficiency. The maximum values of cosine efficiency, shading and blocking efficiency, shading efficiency of the hyperboloid mirror, and attenuation efficiency for the heliostat field are 85.56%, 99.96%, 99.35%, and 97.46% on June 1st for the maximum solar elevation angle of 70.72°. Consequently, the maximum values of the average hyperboloid mirror flux density and receiver flux density are 11.2 kW/m2 and 399.1 kW/m2 on June 1st. The maximum power generation for a 7-day period is 4674.22 MWe in June with a duration time of 100 hours. This paper can further expand research on the comprehensive performance of beam-down power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]