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Typical weak signal search experiments rely on resonant effects, where the resonance frequency is scanned over a broad range, resulting in significant time consumption. In this study, we demonstrate an accelerated strategy that surpasses the typical resonance-bandwidth limited scan step without compromising sensitivity. We apply this method to an alkali-noble-gas spin system, achieving an approximately 30-fold increase in scanning step size. Additionally, we obtain an ultrahigh sensitivity of 1.29 fT ⋅ Hz−1/2 at around 5 Hz, corresponding to an energy resolution of approximately 1.8 × 10−23eV ⋅ Hz−1/2, which is among the highest quantum energy resolutions reported. Furthermore, we use this sensor to search for axion-like particles, setting stringent constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) in the 4.5–15.5 Hz Compton-frequency range coupling to neutrons and protons, improving on previous limits by several-fold. This accelerated strategy has potential applications in other resonant search experiments. Weak signal detection, as in the case for the search of Dark Matter, relies on the resonant effect, when many frequencies are scanner in search of the signal, but this is very time consuming. The authors present a magnetometry method that combines high sensitivity and a wider parameter space coverage adopting an artificially enlarged resonance width, increasing the scanning efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe-based amorphous coatings prepared by high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying have the advantages of good mechanical properties, high density, low porosity, and high amorphous content. The service life and bonding strength of coating greatly depend on its thickness; however, the characterization of ferromagnetic coating thickness is a very difficult problem. Pulsed eddy current (PEC) is characterized by abundant signals in frequency domains. In this paper, the thickness measurement principle of ferromagnetic coating was explored, and the typical and entropy features from PEC signals were extracted. Seven integrated learning methods were combined to quantitatively characterize the coating thickness, namely ridge regression (RR), lasso regression (LR), random forest regression (RFR), extra trees regression (ETR), gradient boosting tree regression (GBTR), addaptive boost regression (ABR) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting Regression (XGBR) algorithms. By comparing typical features with new ones, it was verified that the effective combination of entropy features and typical features could be used as effective feature parameters of eddy current signal. Statistical scores (RMSE and R2) and GridsearchCV features were used to evaluate and optimize the established model. As indicated by the results, the proposed XGBR machine learning model well predicted the coating thickness, and the relative error less than 0.05 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Surgical intervention is an important treatment option to improve the prognosis for Chiari type I malformation (CM-I) patients. However, there is no consensus about surgical strategies. The article intends to evaluate the effect of decompression combined with or without cerebellar tonsillectomy in the treatment of CM-I. Method: Following PRISMA's principles, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases and references to relevant articles were searched to include only original articles on decompression combined with or without cerebellar tonsillectomy in CM-I patients. Through meta-analysis, the data on clinical improvement, radiological improvement, and complications were pooled. Results: Nine articles, including 399 CM-I patients undergoing decompression alone and 343 undergoing decompression with cerebellar tonsillectomy, meet the inclusion standard. In comparison, the improvement rate of clinical symptoms or signs in patients with cerebellar tonsillectomy is higher and statistically significant (RR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.75–0.95; P = 0.006). However, decompression with cerebellar tonsillectomy is also significantly higher in the incidence of postoperative complications (RR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.36–0.80; P = 0.002). No statistical difference is discovered between the two groups in the improvement rate of syringomyelia (RR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.57–1.03; P = 0.08). Conclusions: Although decompression with cerebellar tonsillectomy is superior than decompression alone in clinical improvement for CM-I patients, it also faces a higher risk of postoperative complications. The reduction of syringomyelia in the two groups can be considered equally effective without significant differences. In the future, the results of the research require multicenter and large-scale randomized controlled trials to verify in clinical practice. Trial registration: CRD42022321750 (PROSPERO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decoding neural responses from multimodal information sources, including electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), has the transformative potential to advance hybrid brain-computer interfaces (hBCIs). However, existing modest performance improvement of hBCIs might be attributed to the lack of computational frameworks that exploit complementary synergistic properties in multimodal features. This study proposes a multimodal data fusion framework to represent and decode synergistic multimodal motor imagery (MI) neural responses. We hypothesize that exploiting EEG nonlinear dynamics adds a new informative dimension to the commonly combined EEG-fNIRS features and will ultimately increase the synergy between EEG and fNIRS features toward an enhanced hBCI. The EEG nonlinear dynamics were quantified by extracting graph-based recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) features to complement the commonly used spectral features for an enhanced multimodal configuration when combined with fNIRS. The high-dimensional multimodal features were further given to a feature selection algorithm relying on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) for fused feature selection. Linear support vector machine (SVM) was then used to evaluate the framework. The mean hybrid classification performance improved by up to 15% and 4% compared to the unimodal EEG and fNIRS, respectively. The proposed graph-based framework substantially increased the contribution of EEG features for hBCI classification from 28.16% up to 52.9% when introduced the nonlinear dynamics and improved the performance by approximately 2%. These findings suggest that graph-based nonlinear dynamics can increase the synergy between EEG and fNIRS features for an enhanced MI response representation that is not dominated by a single modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal treatment strategies for traumatic intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) pseudoaneurysms are controversial. The low-profile visualized intraluminal support (LVIS) device is a braided stent with a metal coverage rate between traditional laser cut stents and flow diversion devices. We report here our therapy strategy using the LVIS stent-assisted coiling for treatment of traumatic intracranial ICA pseudoaneurysms. Patients with traumatic intracranial ICA pseudoaneurysms treated by the LVIS stent-assisted coiling in our center between January 2015 and June 2021 were reviewed. The complications, radiographic, and clinical outcomes of these patients were analyzed. A total of 12 patients with 12 pseudoaneurysms were included. The mean maximum aneurysm diameter was 6.2 ± 3.1 mm. Nine patients had a subarachnoid hemorrhage; five patients with Hunt-Hess grade III and four patients with grade IV. All procedures were successfully performed without intraoperative complications. Immediate postoperative angiogram showed that six (50%) aneurysms were Raymond grade 1, four (33.3%) were grade 2, and two (16.7%) were grade 3. Postoperative multiple cerebral infarction occurred in two patients because of vasospasm. Of the ten patients with angiographic follow-up (mean, 29.9 months), two received additional coiling because of recanalization of the pseudoaneurysm, and all aneurysms were completely obliterated at the last examination of the patients. During the clinical follow-up period (mean, 26.8 months), the overall mortality and morbidity were 25% (3/12) and 8.3% (1/12), respectively. LVIS stent-assisted coiling was a feasible approach for the treatment of traumatic ICA pseudoaneurysms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in the tourism industry, the experience of the tourist is changed dramatically. Mainly, there are two types of sustainability in the tourism industry. One is for the sustainable destination environment and other is for the sustainable tourists' experience. For the tourists' sightseeing recommendation, an invulnerable system is needed to the site based on the current ground conditions. The tourist volume prediction of tourist attractions in tourism research has always been an interesting topic and one of the difficult problems faced by the tourism field. The RBF neural network algorithm was utilized to the parameters optimization and the popular tourist spots prediction model was established to study and predict popular tourist spots, which was compared with the traditional prediction model. The results show that the particle swarm optimization neural network can better track the change rules of popular tourist attractions, and the prediction accuracy of popular tourist attractions is obviously better than that of the traditional model. The tourist attractions prediction efficiency is also higher, which can meet the requirements of online prediction of popular tourist attractions. The training time and prediction time of the prediction model of popular tourist attractions are reduced which speeds up the modeling efficiency of the popular tourist attractions prediction and allows online prediction of popular tourist attractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Berberine chloride (BBC) is a well-known plant isoquinoline alkaloid derived from Berberis aristata. In this study, we aim to explore the effect of BBC on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and further expound the underlying mechanism of BBC induces NSCLC cell death in vitro and in vivo.Methods: CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay were used to test the viability and colony formation ability of NSCLC cells. Apoptosis analysis was used to analyze the apoptotic cells. siRNAs were utilized to disturb the expression of Sin3A. qPCR and Western blot analysis were employed to determine mRNA and protein levels of related genes and proteins. Tumor xenografts model was used for in vivo detection.Results: BBC inhibited the proliferation and colony formation of human NSCLC cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In addition, BBC induced DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) through downregulating TOP2B level, leading to apoptosis in human NSCLC cells. The Chip-seq data of A549 cells obtained from the ENCODE consortium indicate that Sin3A binds on the promoters of TOP2B. Knockdown of Sin3A led to downregulation of TOP2B in human NSCLC cells. Furthermore, BBC decreased Sin3A expression and shortened the half-life of Sin3A, results in downregulation of TOP2B in human NSCLC cells.Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrated a new mechanism that BBC suppresses human NSCLC by deregulating Sin3A/TOP2B pathway, leading to DNA damage and apoptosis in human NSCLC in vitro and in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) were treated with 5 μl L−1, 10 μl L−1, 20 μl L−1, and 50 μl L−1 peppermint oil and then stored at 4 °C for 8 days to investigate with respect to browning and postharvest qualities. It was found that 20 μl L−1 peppermint oil treatment could provide the best effect on inhibiting browning of fruit bodies. Our results indicated 20 μl L−1 peppermint oil fumigation restrains browning development and alleviated membrane lipid peroxidation, as reflected by lower electrolyte leakage (17.42%), malondialdehyde (MDA) content (21.95%), and weight loss (1.69%) compared with those of the control mushrooms at 8 days, respectively. In addition, the 20 μl L−1 peppermint oil fumigation had 1.49-fold and 1.24-fold higher phenolics and flavonoids accumulation respectively than those in control and retained high levels of soluble protein and total sugar at the end of the storage time. Furthermore, peppermint oil treatment significantly improved the antioxidant system, which increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and phenylalnine ammonia lyase (PAL), and inhibited the activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD), as well as regulated the relative expression levels of genes encoding polyphenol oxidase (AbPPO1, AbPPO2, AbPPO5, AbPPO6) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (AbPAL1, AbPAL2) during the storage period. These findings suggest that peppermint oil fumigation is a promising method to control browning and improve the quality of button mushrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They found intradiscal cement leakage and pre-operative disc height were independent risk factors for developing radiographic ASD in patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs) who underwent percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP). To the Editor, We wish to congratulate Tianyi Wang and colleagues for their article titled "Radiographic adjacent segment degeneration and risk factors for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures treated with percutaneous kyphoplasty" [[1]]. [Extracted from the article]

Decreased postharvest quality is one of the main reasons for the short shelf life of the white button mushroom. The effects of L-arginine on color, weight loss, firmness, electrolyte leakage rate, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, PPO activity, PAL activity, SOD activity, POD activity, total phenolic levels, flavonoid amounts, total sugar, and soluble protein amounts in white button mushrooms were assessed during storage at 4 °C for 8 days. The results showed that treatment with 10 mM L-arginine maintained tissue firmness, reduced electrolyte leakage, and delayed browning compared with the control treatment. In addition, 10 mM L-arginine treatment inhibited PPO and PAL activities, while inducing SOD and POD activities. Furthermore, L-arginine treatment increased the accumulation of phenolic substances and flavonoids, while total sugar and soluble protein contents were maintained at high levels throughout the storage period. These findings suggested that 10 mM L-arginine treatment may maintain the quality of the button mushrooms and extend their shelf life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of low-concentration acidic electrolyzed water (LcEW) combined with ultrasound (US) on fresh-sliced button mushrooms ( Agaricus bisporus), by evaluating the enzymatic browning, physio-biochemical changes, and microbial loads. The sliced button mushrooms were divided randomly into three groups (control, LcEW, and LcEW+US) and treated separately with tap water, LcEW, and LcEW+US for 3 min, and afterwards, they were stored at 5 °C for 8 days. The results indicated that LcEW delayed surface browning and maintained the flesh firmness of fresh-cut mushrooms compared with the control, and ultrasound enhanced these effects. Moreover, LcEW+US slowed down the electrolyte leakage (EL) rate and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, which were 5.29% and 0.5227 μmol/fresh weight less than those in control at day 8, respectively. The combined treatment of LcEW and US also significantly inhibited the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) and controlled the counts of total bacteria (TBC) and yeast and mold counts (Y&M). Meanwhile, LcEW+US maintained a high level of total soluble protein and total phenolic contents, which were 1.49 and 1.24 times higher than those in control at the end of the storage time, respectively, and the combined treatment was more effective than LcEW treatment alone. These results demonstrated that the combination of LcEW and US could be an effective pretreatment technology in maintaining the product quality and prolonging the shelf life of fresh-sliced button mushrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the decolorization of reactive brilliant blue in an aqueous solution using Fe-Mn-sepiolite as a heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst has been performed. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of the catalyst showed bending vibrations of the Fe-O. The Xray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the catalyst showed characteristic diffraction peaks of α-FeO, γ-FeO and MnO. A four factor central composite design (CCD) coupled with response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to evaluate and optimize the important variables (catalyst addition, hydrogen peroxide dosage, initial pH value and initial dye concentration). When the reaction conditions were catalyst dosage = 0.4 g, [HO]= 0.3 mL, pH = 2.5, [reactive brilliant blue] = 50mg·L, and volume of solution = 500 mL at room temperature, the decolorization efficiency of reactive brilliant blue was 91.98% within 60 min. Moreover, the Fe-Mn-sepiolite catalyst had good stability for the degradation of reactive brilliant blue even after six cycles. Leaching of iron ions (<0.4 mg·L) was observed. The decoloring process was reactive brilliant blue specific via a redox reaction. The benzene ring and naphthalene ring were first oxidized to open ring; these were then oxidized to the alcohol and carboxylic acid. The reactive brilliant blue was decomposed mainly by the attack of ·OH radicals including surface-bound ·OH radicals generated on the catalyst surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is an important problem in artificial intelligence and operations research. Many practical problems can be formulated as CSP, i.e., finding a consistent value assignment to variables subject to a set of constraints. In this paper, we give a quantitative approach to solve the CSPs which deals uniformly with binary constraints as well as high order, k-ary ( k ≥ 2) constraints. In this quantitative approach, using variable transformation and constraint transformation, a CSP is transformed into a satisfiability (SAT) problem. The SAT problem is then solved within a continuous search space. We will evaluate the performance of this method based on randomly generated SAT problem instances and regularly generated k-ary ( k ≥ 2) CSP problem instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic inflammatory response has been implicated as a contributor to the onset of febrile seizures (FS). The four novel indices of the inflammatory response such as, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet count (PLT) ratio and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) have been investigated in FS susceptibility and FS types (simple febrile seizure and complex febrile seizure). However, the potential role of these inflammatory markers and MPV/PLT ratio (MPR) in Chinese children with FS has yet to be fully determined. This study investigated the relevance of NLR, MPV, PLT, MPR and RDW in febrile children with and without seizures. 249 children with FS and 249 age matched controls were included in this study. NLR and MPR were calculated from complete blood cell counts prior to therapy. Differences in age, gender and these inflammatory markers between the FS group and the control group were evaluated using the chi-square test, t-test or logistic regression analysis. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cut-off value of NLR and MPR for FS risk. Interactions between NLR and MPR on the additive scale were calculated by using the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), the proportion attributable to interaction (AP), and the synergy index (S). It has been shown that the elevated NLR and MPR levels were associated with increased risk of FS. The optimal cut-off values of NLR and MPR for FS risk were 1.13 and 0.0335 with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.768 and 0.689, respectively. Additionally, a significant synergistic interaction between NLR and MPR was found on an additive scale. The mean levels of MPV were lower and NLR levels were higher in complex febrile seizure (CFS) than simple febrile seizure (SFS), and the differences were statistically significant. ROC analysis showed that the optimal cut-off value for NLR was 2.549 with 65.9% sensitivity and 57.5% specificity. However, no statistically significant differences were found regarding average values of MPR and RDW between CFS and SFS. In conclusion, elevated NLR and MPR add evidence to the implication of white cells subsets in FS risk, and our results confirmed that NLR is an independent, albeit limited, predictor in differentiating between CFS and SFS. Moreover, NLR and MPR may have a synergistic effect that can influence the occurrence of FS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid zeolite-polyamide thin film nanocomposite (TFN) reverse osmosis membranes were synthesized by incorporating Linde type A (LTA)-type zeolite molecular sieve nanocrystals in the interfacial polymerization reaction used to form polyamide thin films. Nanocrystals were prepared with two different mobile cations (Na+ and Ag+) exchanged within the LTA crystal matrix. Incorporation of molecular sieve nanocrystals into polyamide thin films during interfacial polymerization was verified by infrared spectroscopy. Both TFN membranes exhibited higher water permeability, while maintaining similar salt rejection to pure polyamide thin film composite membranes. Nanocomposite thin films containing LTA nanocrystals in the silver form (AgA) produced a greater increase in water permeability than those in the sodium form (NaA). Furthermore, AgA-TFN membranes exhibited more hydrophilic and smooth interfaces, which appeared to inhibit adhesion of bacteria cells onto the membranes. The AgA nanocrystals exhibited significant bactericidal activity; however, when encapsulated within polyamide thin films the antimicrobial activity was significantly reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]