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Introduction: Persistent nasal carriage has been associated with Staphylococcus aureus infection. Previous S. aureus studies in Asia have primarily focused on clinical patients, providing limited information on persistent nasal carriage among the general adult population. Methods: This study examined 143 healthy adults in a community in Jiangsu, China. Nasal swab samples were collected 10 times. The colonization status was identified using SPA typing. We also determined antimicrobial susceptibility, genotype, and genomic characteristics of S. aureus. Results: The prevalence of S. aureus nasal carriage among the community individuals was on average 16.78%. The carriage rates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and multidrug-resistant S. aureus were 6.29% and 7.69%, respectively. We identified 8.39% persistent carriers, 39.16% intermittent carriers, and 52.45% noncarriers. Furthermore, family members displayed concordance in terms of genotype and genomic characteristics. Conclusion: Persistent nasal sampling captured intermittent carriers that were missed during short-term sampling, thus highlighting the necessity for regular community testing. SPA typing can serve as a rapid method for determining S. aureus colonization. The potential for intrafamilial transmission of S. aureus is evident, with persistent carriers being the most probable source of infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely distributed chair-shaped landslides in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) have caused significant economic damage and loss of life globally. Present studies have an over-reliance on individual case reviews, resulting in circumscribed conclusions. Furthermore, the classification criteria for chair-shaped landslides diverge across various researchers. This manuscript, therefore, systematically studies 160 chair-shaped landslides, providing a comprehensive analysis of their unique characteristics. The study then pivots to focus on a prototypical instance, the Jiuxianping landslide, to probe the landslide’s stability across diverse conditions, thereby discussing the type of chair-shaped landslide. The outcomes suggest that the type of chair-shaped landslides (seepage-induced or buoyancy-induced landslides) may interconvert due to varying parameters such as dip angle (β), permeability coefficient (K), reservoir water fluctuation rate (V), and the fluctuation range of the reservoir (S’). These parameters, which differ for each chair-shaped landslide, lead to varying findings among different scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of a 12-week brisk walking exercise regimen on motor function improvements in elderly women. Twenty-six elderly women, aged 84.2 ± 3.2 years, participated in a 12-week brisk walking exercise program. Fitness assessments and blood biomarker analyses (including CHO, HDLC, LDLC, TC) were conducted pre- and post-intervention. Additionally, targeted metabolomics was employed to measure short-chain fatty acids, amino acids, and vitamin metabolites. The intervention led to significant enhancements in participants' flexibility (p < 0.05), lower limb muscle strength (p < 0.01), and cardiorespiratory endurance (p < 0.01), while muscle mass showed no significant changes. Fifteen significant differential metabolites were identified (VIP > 1.0, FC > 1.2 or < 0.8, and p < 0.05), with arginine, ornithine, aspartic acid, glutamine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and pantothenic acid playing key roles across seven metabolic pathways. A 12-week brisk walking exercise program significantly enhanced flexibility, lower limb muscle strength, and cardiorespiratory endurance among elderly women. These improvements did not extend to muscle mass or upper limb muscle strength. The observed enhancement in exercise capacity may be attributed to improved regulation of neurotransmitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-optimal orbital transfers with soft terminal conditions are studied in this work. First, a two-layer thrust continuation method is devised. The unfavorable thrust continuation path is handled by switching between different solution curves. Second, the proposed method is applied to solving time-optimal transfers under two- or three-body dynamics with Cartesian coordinates to verify its effectiveness. The near conservation of the product between the time of flight and the thrust level is observed for general orbital transfers. A linear variation of this quantity with eccentricity is also illustrated when the difference in eccentricity between the initial and terminal orbits is large enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Ferroptosis is a reactive oxygen species (ROS)- and iron-dependent form of non-apoptotic cell death process. Previous studies have demonstrated that ferroptosis participates in the development of inflammatory arthritis. However, the role of ferroptosis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inflammatory hypoxic joints remains unclear. This study sought to explore the underlying mechanism of ferroptosis on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs). Methods: FLSs, isolated from patients with RA, were treated with LPS and ferroptosis inducer (erastin and RSL-3), and ferroptosis inhibitor (Fer-1 and DFO), respectively. The cell viability was measured by CCK-8. The cell death was detected by flow cytometer. The proteins level were tested by Western blot. The cytosolic ROS and lipid peroxidation were determined using DCFH-DA and C11-BODIPY581/591 fluorescence probes, respectively. The small interfering RNA (siRNA) was used to knock down related proteins. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), iron, inflammatory cytokines (IL6 and IL8), and LDH were analyzed by commercial kits. Results: Ferroptosis was activated by LPS in RA FLS with increased cellular damage, ROS and lipid peroxidation, intracellular Fe and IL8, which can be further amplified by ferroptosis inducer (erastin and RSL-3) and inhibited by ferroptosis inhibitor (Fer-1 and DFO). Mechanistically, LPS triggered ferroptosis via NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy in RA FLSs, and knockdown of NCOA4 strikingly prevent the process of ferroptosis. Intriguingly, LPS-induced RA FLSs became insensitive to ferroptosis and NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy under hypoxia compared with normoxia. Knockdown of HIF-1α reverted ferroptosis and ferritinophagy evoking by LPS-induced RA FLSs inflammation under hypoxia. In addition, low dose of auranofin (AUR) induced re-sensitization of ferroptosis and ferritinophagy through inhibiting the expression of HIF-1α under hypoxia. Conclusions: NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy was a key driver of ferroptosis in inflammatory RA FLSs. The suppression of NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy protected RA FLSs from ferroptosis in LPS-induced inflammation under hypoxia. Targeting HIF-1α/NCOA4 and ferroptosis could be an effective and valuable therapeutic strategy for synovium hyperplasia in the patients with RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping the body temperature relatively constant in a cold environment is critical to maintaining thermal comfort and normal operation of various functions. However, typical heating strategies waste much energy and cannot cope with the complicated and changing environment. Therefore, it is essential to develop a warm textile that can accurately heat the human body in an efficient and energy-saving way. In this work, MXene nanosheets were uniformly deposited on the surface of cotton fabrics via polydopamine (PDA) adhesion to prepare a warm fabric with solar heating and passive radiative heating (PRH). Notably, the obtained MXene-PDA/cotton fabric demonstrated a low mid-infrared emissivity of 19.7% at 7–14 μm and a high absorptivity of 90.7% in the wavelength range 250–2500 nm. Consequently, the MXene-PDA/cotton fabric exhibited effective passive radiative heating performance on the human body, showing a 2.8 °C improvement compared to traditional cotton fabric, and its excellent solar heating capacity could elevate the temperature to 52.5 °C in a simulated light environment of 100 mw/cm2. Besides, the MXene-PDA/cotton fabric retained well warmth after machine washing and ultrasonication, and had certain air permeability, wettability, and mechanical properties. This PDA/cotton fabric shows great potential in thermal management, energy-saving heating, and personal precision heating applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the malignancy with the highest global incidence, breast cancer represents a significant threat to women's health. Recent advances have shed light on the importance of mitochondrial function in cancer, particularly in metabolic reprogramming within tumors. Recognizing this, we developed a novel risk signature based on mitochondrial-related genes to improve prognosis prediction and risk stratification in breast cancer patients. In this study, transcriptome data and clinical features of breast cancer samples were extracted from two sources: the TCGA, serving as the training set, and the METABRIC, used as the independent validation set. We developed the signature using LASSO-Cox regression and assessed its prognostic efficacy via ROC curves. Furthermore, the signature was integrated with clinical features to create a Nomogram model, whose accuracy was validated through clinical calibration curves and decision curve analysis. To further elucidate prognostic variations between high and low-risk groups, we conducted functional enrichment and immune infiltration analyses. Additionally, the study encompassed a comparison of mutation landscapes and drug sensitivity, providing a comprehensive understanding of the differing characteristics in these groups. Conclusively, we established a risk signature comprising 8 mitochondrial-related genes—ACSL1, ALDH2, MTHFD2, MRPL13, TP53AIP1, SLC1A1, ME3, and BCL2A1. This signature was identified as an independent risk predictor for breast cancer patient survival, exhibiting a significant high hazard ratio (HR = 3.028, 95%CI 2.038–4.499, P < 0.001). Patients in the low-risk group showed a more favorable prognosis, with enhanced immune infiltration, distinct mutation landscapes, and greater sensitivity to anti-tumor drugs. In contrast, the high-risk group exhibited an adverse trend in these aspects. This risk signature represents a novel and effective prognostic indicator, suggesting valuable insights for patient stratification in breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposed rock masses in tunnel portals are susceptible to thermal deterioration in southern China, where temperatures are relatively high. The thermal stress field of rock masses is affected by fracture shape and distribution as fractures near the surface are channels for solar radiation energy to be converted into rock thermal energy. In this study, a function expression is developed for triangular heat sources of fractured rock masses in a tunnel portal in a high-temperature environment. By the function expression, the temperature field and thermal stress field are calculated, and the influence of fracture shape parameters and multi-fracture interaction is analyzed. The results are as follows: (1) the temperature field and thermal stress field of exposed rocks are redistributed by fractures. The internal temperature of the fractured rocks is higher than that of non-fractured rocks, and thermal stress near the fracture tip increases. (2) For triangular fractures of the same length, thermal stress increases as the apex angle increases. (3) When the spacing between parallel fractures or coplanar fractures is close, the superposition effect of thermal stress becomes significant. (4) In a high-temperature environment, temperature field and thermal stress field of a fractured rock are both nonlinear as temperature and thermal stress around fractures increase significantly. The results provide effective reference for stability evaluation of fractured rock masses in tunnel portals and offer theoretical foundation for thermal diseases analysis and protection measures of tunnel engineering in high-temperature environments of southern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of musculoskeletal radiologists to diagnose sternoclavicular joint injuries in the standard CT imaging planes compared to 3D volume rendered images to define the most accurate plane to improve prospective diagnosis. Materials and methods: A retrospective query of our institutional database was performed. Twenty-six patients with a diagnosis of sternoclavicular joint injury, who had been evaluated with CT and treated by orthopedic surgery, and 30 control patients who did not have a sternoclavicular joint injury were included for analysis. Two blinded radiologists with specialty training in musculoskeletal radiology independently reviewed axial, coronal, sagittal, and 3D reformatted CT images and documented whether injury was present or not present. Results: Accuracy was good for both radiologists on all views. It was lowest on the sagittal view for both readers. Accuracy was highest for the 3D view. When comparing the accuracy of the four views for each radiologist, there was a significant difference for Radiologist A, whose 3D images were more accurate compared to the axial and sagittal views. There was no significant difference for Radiologist B. There was good inter-reader agreement, which was highest on the 3D images. Conclusion: 3D volume renderings of the sternoclavicular joints have the potential to improve radiologist accuracy for detection of sternoclavicular joint injury/dislocation in the setting of chest well trauma, which could decrease instances of missed or delayed diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the thermomechanical behaviors of energy piles have been investigated through a limited number of full-scale tests with constant loads, the effect of multiple load levels on the bearing capacity of energy piles has not been fully implemented into these in situ tests in the past. We report six full-scale in situ tests on bored energy piles under heating or cooling conditions and multiple mechanical load levels in Shanghai, China. Each pile was tested with 24 h of mechanical loading, 48 h of heating or cooling, and 10 h of thermomechanical loading. We monitored the inlet and outlet water temperature, pile and soil temperature, pore water pressure in the soil, axial force of the pile, and pile head displacement, and analyzed the thermomechanical responses of the energy pile and the surrounding soil, as well as the bearing capacity of the energy pile. Our experimental results show that the mechanical responses induced by the temperature change in the pile were affected by mechanical load level. Larger mechanical load reduced the influence of temperature on the settlement of the pile top and on the variation of the axial force in the pile, and at the same time weakened the negative skin friction effect caused by heating and enhanced the positive skin friction effect caused by cooling. Furthermore, pore water pressure caused by changes in soil temperature decreased slightly, and excess pore water pressure increased with increasing mechanical load level and dissipated rapidly in low-permeability coefficient soil. Finally, we comprehensively discussed the vertical bearing capacity of the energy pile based on the thermomechanical responses of the pile and the surrounding soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hydrophilic Al-MOFs composite was prepared using cheap and available reagents in water via a suitable large-scale production, an economical and environment-friendly method for capturing N-glycopeptides. The prepared Al-MOFs composite with high hydrolytically stable and hydrophilic 1D channels exhibits an ultralow detection limit (0.5 fmol/μL), and excellent reusability (at least 10 cycles) in the capture of N-glycopeptides from standard bio-samples. Interestingly, the Al-MOFs composite also shows remarkable performance in practical applications, where 300 N-glycopeptides ascribed to 124 glycoproteins were identified in 1 µL human serum and were successfully applied in profiling the differences of N-glycopeptides during diabetes progression. Moreover, 12 specific glycoproteins used as biomarkers to accurately distinguish the progression of diabetes are identified. The present work provides a potential commercial method for large-scale glycoproteomics research in complex clinical samples while offering new guidance for the precise diagnosis of diabetes progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anti-corrosion improvement of epoxy-based (EP) coatings through an eco-fridendly way is significant to industrial development. Phytic acid (PA) is a kind of natural corrosion inhibitor, but its use to enhance the anti-corrosion of EP is challenging due to their poor compatilibility. This problem is addressed by the modification of PA in this paper. First, PA is grafted to ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) to obtain modified PA (PA-EGDE) by the catalysis of tetrabutylammonium bromide. Subsequently, PA-EGDE is added to EP to fabricate PA-EGDE/EP coatings. When the PA-EGDE loading is 5 wt%, the PA-EGDE/EP coating exhibits best mechanical and anti-corrosion properties. The peeling force and adhesion failure rate are 2.03 MPa and 45.6%, and the hardness, flexibility and shock resistance are 2H, 1 mm and 50 cm, respectively. The corresponding Ecorr value of PA-EGDE/EP coating is -0.620 eV, which is much higher than that of EP coating (-0.797 eV); the impedance modulus is 108 Ω·cm2 after immersion in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution for 30 days, which is much bigger than that of EP coating (106 Ω·cm2). Moreover, the anti-corrosion mechanism of PA in EP coating is thoroughly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From August 21 to December 22, 2019, unexpected successive retrogressive failures occurred in a mild dip rock slope on the right bank of a newly constructed expressway in Yunnan, China, induced by slope cutting and rainfall. The unique failure kinematics of the event urged for a thorough back analysis of the interior and exterior factors to reveal the mechanisms of the initiation and process of this landslide. To this end, a comprehensive engineering geological and geotechnical study on this slide, including field investigations, data collections, and in situ and laboratory tests, was conducted and is presented in this study. It is revealed that active failure constrained by the rock joints in the sliding body and the underlying fully weathered mudstone (slip soil) is the essence of the mild dip rock slope failure. Furthermore, the study finds that an unbalanced shear stress region (USSR) can develop on the slip surface due to the strain softening of the slip soil and foot unloading. The propagation of the USSR may trigger a failure at its end along the rock joints in mild slopes, as opposed to the conventional limit equilibrium methods (LEM) that do not consider strain softening. Accordingly, a simple criterion is proposed to assess the active failure controlled by the rock joints, which can be easily used for a quick risk assessment of excavated dip rock slopes. These findings are expected to enrich the current failure predictive models for the excavated mild dip rock slopes and serve as a reference for design considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization and population growth have triggered an increase in urban housing demand and rising housing prices, which can influence the migration intention of high-level talents. Much work within the literature has focused more on the migration of the general public. However, antecedents of migration intention and the impact of housing prices on the migration of high-level talents remain unclear. Therefore, based on the push-pull theory, this study investigates the influencing factors of talent migration intention and explores the role of housing prices. This study reveals a complex mechanism underlying migration decisions by using logistic regression models and survey data of high-level talents in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) megalopolis of China. The results indicate that: 1) in high house-price regions, social integration is the primary push factor, and the main factors for retaining talents are the expectation of future work and intimate family relationships; 2) in medium house-price regions, the main factors that attract talents are the current salary level and close family ties; 3) in low house-price regions, living convenience is a determining factor in retaining talents. This study provides a new perspective for talent mobility research and offers valuable inputs for retaining and attracting talents in different economic development regions. Findings are of great significance for formulating talent introduction policies and forming a new pattern of rational spatial docking and effective allocation of human resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction is an important sector for climate action. The construction, operation and maintenance, demolition and disposal stages of house buildings consume many resources and have a significant impact on society, the economy and the environment. To assess such efforts, we propose the emergy footprint model of house buildings, which can quantitatively analyse the ecological effect in the house buildings life cycle. The research shows the following. China's ecological efficiency of the housing sector is characterized by improvement. In the house building fifty-year life cycle, the emergy footprint of the operation and maintenance stage is the largest (75.92%), followed by the construction stage (21.95%), but the emergy footprint intensity of the latter is 4.82 times that of the former. Reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the operation and maintenance stage is the key to reducing the life cycle emergy footprint of house buildings. The ecological impact coefficient of house buildings is negatively exponentially correlated with their service life. It reaches ecological break-even when the service period of the house building is equal to 36.73 years. If the house building is demolished after less than nine years of service, the impact is extremely unfavourable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Differences in clinical adverse outcomes (CAO) based on different intestinal stricturing definitions in Crohn's disease (CD) are poorly documented. This study aims to compare CAO between radiological strictures (RS) and endoscopic strictures (ES) in ileal CD and explore the significance of upstream dilatation in RS. Methods: This retrospective double-center study included 199 patients (derivation cohort, n = 157; validation cohort, n = 42) with bowel strictures who simultaneously underwent endoscopic and radiologic examinations. RS was defined as a luminal narrowing with wall thickening relative to the normal gut on cross-sectional imaging (group 1 (G1)), which further divided into G1a (without upstream dilatation) and G1b (with upstream dilatation). ES was defined as an endoscopic non-passable stricture (group 2 (G2)). Strictures met the definitions of RS (with or without upstream dilatation) and ES were categorized as group 3 (G3). CAO referred to stricture-related surgery or penetrating disease. Results: In the derivation cohort, G1b (93.3%) had the highest CAO occurrence rate, followed by G3 (32.6%), G1a (3.2%), and G2 (0%) (p < 0.0001); the same order was found in the validation cohort. The CAO-free survival time was significantly different among the four groups (p < 0.0001). Upstream dilatation (hazard ratio, 1.126) was a risk factor for predicting CAO in RS. Furthermore, when upstream dilatation was added to diagnose RS, 17.6% of high-risk strictures were neglected. Conclusions: CAO differs significantly between RS and ES, and clinicians should pay more attention to strictures in G1b and G3. Upstream dilatation has an important impact on the clinical outcome of RS but may not be an essential factor for RS diagnosis. Clinical relevance statement: This study explored the definition of intestinal stricture with the greatest significance for the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of patients with CD, and consequently provided effective auxiliary information for clinicians to formulate strategies for the treatment of CD intestinal strictures. Key Points: • The retrospective double-center study showed that clinical adverse outcome is different between radiological strictures and endoscopic strictures in CD. • Upstream dilatation has an important impact on the clinical outcome of radiological strictures but may not be an essential factor for diagnosis of radiological strictures. • Radiological stricture with upstream dilatation and simultaneous radiological and endoscopic stricture were at increased risk for clinical adverse outcomes; thus, closer monitoring should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: A humanoid intelligent display platform (HIDP) is created using stretchable and resilient ionotronic materials, and can be applicable in extreme environments and complex mechanical stimulations. HIDP links sound amplitude and brightness through machine learning for audiovisual interaction. HIDP identifies and displays animal species and corresponding frequencies in real-time. This study proposes a rational strategy for the design, fabrication and system integration of the humanoid intelligent display platform (HIDP) to meet the requirements of highly humanized mechanical properties and intelligence for human–machine interfaces. The platform's sandwich structure comprises a middle light-emitting layer and surface electrodes, which consists of silicon elastomer embedded with phosphor and silk fibroin ionoelastomer, respectively. Both materials are highly stretchable and resilient, endowing the HIDP with skin-like mechanical properties and applicability in various extreme environments and complex mechanical stimulations. Furthermore, by establishing the numerical correlation between the amplitude change of animal sounds and the brightness variation, the HIDP realizes audiovisual interaction and successful identification of animal species with the aid of Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning techniques. The accuracy of species identification reaches about 100% for 200 rounds of random testing. Additionally, the HIDP can recognize animal species and their corresponding frequencies by analyzing sound characteristics, displaying real-time results with an accuracy of approximately 99% and 93%, respectively. In sum, this study offers a rational route to designing intelligent display devices for audiovisual interaction, which can expedite the application of smart display devices in human–machine interaction, soft robotics, wearable sound-vision system and medical devices for hearing-impaired patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective : Previous studies have indicated that neurotransmitters play important roles in the occurrence and development of gastric cancer. MAOA is an important catecholamine neurotransmitter-degrading enzyme involved in the degradation of norepinephrine, epinephrine and serotonin. To find a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of gastric cancer, the biological functions of MAOA and the underlying mechanism in gastric cancer need to be explored. Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets, Kaplan‒Meier (KM) plotter were used to identify the differentially expressed genes, which mainly involved the degradation and synthesis enzymes of neurotransmitters in gastric cancer. We also investigated the expression pattern of MAOA in human and mouse tissues and cell lines by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting analysis. Western blotting, quantitative real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a Seahorse experiment were used to identify the molecular mechanism of cancer cell glycolysis. MAOA expression and patient survival were analysed in the Ren Ji cohort, and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed based on the clinicopathological characteristics of the above samples. Results: MAOA expression was significantly downregulated in gastric cancer tissue and associated with poor patient prognosis. Moreover, the expression level of MAOA in gastric cancer tissue had a close negative correlation with the SUXmax value of PET-CT in patients. MAOA suppressed tumour growth and glycolysis and promoted cancer cell apoptosis. We also reported that MAOA can interact with NDRG1 and regulate glycolysis through suppression of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. MAOA expression may serve as an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer patients. Conclusions: MAOA attenuated glycolysis and inhibited the progression of gastric cancer through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. Loss of function or downregulation of MAOA can facilitate gastric cancer progression. Overexpression of MAOA and inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway may provide a potential method for gastric cancer treatment in clinical therapeutic regimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A long-lasting and efficient method of managing obesity and therapeutic associated comorbidities is bariatric surgery. However, a debated comparison between one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) and sleeve gastrectomy is still essential (SG). The goal of this study is to evaluate outcomes using RCT and NRCT from 2015 to 2022. Methods: By contrasting the OAGB and SG for bariatric surgery from January 2015 to September 2022, an RCT and NRCT were prospectively gathered using the PubMed, Cochrane Library, and MEDLINE databases of published research. This meta-statistical analysis was carried out in RevMan 5.4, and the best effect model was selected based on heterogeneity. Results: Twelve retrospective studies describing 6344 patients (3725 OAGB and 2619 SG) satisfied the inclusion criteria. A statistically significant result was in %EWL first year (MD = 8.03, 95% CI: 4.54–11.52, P < 0.05), second year (MD = 8.94, 95% CI: 2.95–14.94, P < 0.05), third year (MD = 8.93, 95% CI: 5.75–12.10, P < 0.05), fourth year (MD = 15.09, 95% CI:0.87–29.31, P < 0.05), and fifth year (MD = 14.25, 95% CI: 5.34, P < 0.05). OAGB was associated with a lower rate of remission in dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hemorrhage. However, OAGB increased the incidence of GERD and leakage. Conclusions: In terms of weight loss and comorbidity remission, OAGB is more effective than SG, although postoperative consequences are rather comparable between the two methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A magnesium aluminum bimetallic organic framework derivative (MgAl-DHBDC/LDH composite) was prepared by etching MgAl bimetallic MOF template and used to remove U(VI) in aqueous solution. Compared to MgAl-DHBDC, the stability, dispersibility and removal ratio of U(VI) with MgAl-DHBDC/LDH were improved significantly over a wide pH range. The adsorption of uranium by MgAl-DHBDC/LDH was mainly multilayer physical adsorption, and the adsorption process was a spontaneous endothermic process. Moreover, the removal ratio of U(VI) by the MgAl-DHBDC/LDH composite remained above 90% after 4 cycles, indicating good regeneration performance. The MgAl-DHBDC/LDH composite shows great potential in the remediation of radionuclide uranium wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of traveling waves to general predator–prey systems is an interesting and ongoing problem, and predator–prey systems that the predator spreads faster than the prey are the major focus of the previous research. In this paper, we are concerned with the existence of traveling waves to predator–prey system with the density death function of the predator when the predator is stationary. First of all, by the unstable manifold theorem, we show that pursuit and evasion waves do not exist for any wave speeds c, as well as invasion waves do not exist for any wave speeds c ⩽ 0 . Then, with the aid of the shooting argument, Wazewski theorem, LaSalle’s invariance principle and sophisticated analyses, we establish the existence of invasion waves for wave speed c > 0 , which partially answers the open problem proposed in Wu (Comput. Math. Appl. 76(5):1139-1160, 2018). Finally, we apply the existence results to Yodzis predator–prey system with Holling type-III functional response and then find a new phenomenon different from previous results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hand knob infarction induced focal weakness of contralateral hand or distal arm, only accounts for less than 1% of all ischemic strokes. To date, there is no case with pain during sleep as the onset symptoms being reported. The atypical symptoms of hand knob infarction might increase the risk of delaying treatment especially in the hyperacute phase of stroke. Case presentation: A 70-year-old man awoke from sleep due to sudden pain of his right medial wrist and presented to the emergency department with difficulty extending his right index and middle fingers within the time window of intravenous thrombolysis. But the intravenous thrombolysis was not given based on the NIHSS score (0) and atypical symptoms. MRI showed multiple DWI hyperintense lesions, including partial left hand knob area and left posterior central gyrus. CTA showed a severe focal stenosis of proximal left internal carotid artery. Conclusions: The hand knob infarction might onset with unusual pain and should be carefully inspected in patients combined with acute onset of focal hand paresis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction is an important sector for climate action. The construction, operation and maintenance, demolition and disposal stages of house buildings consume many resources and have a significant impact on society, the economy and the environment. To assess such efforts, we propose the emergy footprint model of house buildings, which can quantitatively analyse the ecological effect in the house buildings life cycle. The research shows the following. China's ecological efficiency of the housing sector is characterized by improvement. In the house building fifty-year life cycle, the emergy footprint of the operation and maintenance stage is the largest (75.92%), followed by the construction stage (21.95%), but the emergy footprint intensity of the latter is 4.82 times that of the former. Reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the operation and maintenance stage is the key to reducing the life cycle emergy footprint of house buildings. The ecological impact coefficient of house buildings is negatively exponentially correlated with their service life. It reaches ecological break-even when the service period of the house building is equal to 36.73 years. If the house building is demolished after less than nine years of service, the impact is extremely unfavourable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although instance segmentation has made significant progress in recent years, it is still a challenge to develop highly accurate algorithms with real-time performance. In this paper, we propose a real-time framework denoted by APTMask for instance segmentation, which builds on the real-time project YOLACT. In APTMask, we use Swin-Transformer Tiny with PA-FPN as the default feature backbone and a base image size of 544 × 544 . We devise a new mask branch, which can more effectively exploit the semantic information of PA-FPN deeper features and the positional information of shallow features for mask representation, compared to the use of implicit parameterized forms. We replace fast NMS with Cluster NMS, which compensates for the performance penalty of fast NMS compiled to standard NMS. CIoU loss is also adopted to fully exploit the scale information of the aspect ratio of the bounding box. Experimental results show that APTMask can achieve 39.7/34.7 box/mask AP on COCO val2017 dataset at 31.8 fps evaluated with a single RTX 2080TI GPU card. Compared to YOLACT, APTMask improves the box AP by about 8.0% and the mask AP by 6.2%, which is encouraging and competitive. Given its simplicity and efficiency, we hope that our APTMask can serve as a simple but strong baseline for a variety of instance-wise prediction tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between the microlymphangiogenesis, microangiogenesis, and combined detection of the programmed cell death-1 protein (PD-1)/ki67 in patients with gastric cancer as well as the disease prognosis. Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the microlymphatic density (MLD) and microvessel density (MVD) in the central and peripheral zones in 92 cases of gastric cancer, along with the number of PD-1- and ki67-positive tumor cells. Results: The central zone of the gastric cancer tissue contained fewer atretic cord-like lymphatic vessels than the peripheral zone, while the peripheral zone contained an increased number of lymphatic vessels compared with the central zone. In most cases, the lumen was also dilated. Compared with the MLD in the peripheral zone, the MLD in central zone was significantly decreased. Compared with the number of PD-1-positive cells in the peripheral zone, the number of PD-1-positive cells in the central zone was significantly decreased, and compared with the number of ki67-positive cells in the peripheral zone. The differences in the microlymphangiogenesis, microangiogenesis, and the number of PD-1- and ki67-positive cells among the different histological types were not statistically significant. The microlymphangiogenesis, microangiogenesis, and PD-1- and ki67-positive cells were significantly decreased in the gastric cancer tissues from the patients in stages T1 and T2 compared with the gastric cancer tissues from the patients in stages T3 and T4. Conclusions: The detection of the MLD and MVD as well as the positive expression of PD-1 and ki67 in gastric cancer tissue are important reference indicators for judging the prognosis of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the problems of single signal information and low accuracy of the early warning method for motor bearing health diagnosis, this paper conducts a study on the early warning method for bearing health diagnosis. By performing ensemble empirical modal decomposition (EEMD) on the signal after empirical modal decomposition (EMD) hard threshold noise reduction and then extracting the vibration signal fault characteristic parameters based on the principal components analysis (PCA) algorithm for dimension reduction, an Ensemble Empirical Modal Decomposition-Principal Components Analysis-Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System-based(EEMD-PCA-ANFIS) bearing fault warning model for vibration signals under defective conditions is established, the vibration signals of different working conditions are selected for diagnosis, and the accuracy of fault identification reaches 93.3%. Subsequently, a bearing failure warning model based on joint analysis of vibration and temperature rise trends was developed for bearing oil deficiency conditions, and the results show that the model can combine the vibration signal and temperature characteristics to complete the accurate judgement of bearing oil deficiency status and achieve the fault diagnosis of bearing defects and oil deficiency status. Compared with the existing methods, the proposed bearing health diagnosis and early warning method based on Ensemble Empirical Modal Decomposition-Principal Components Analysis-Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System(EEMD-PCA-ANFIS) can diagnose and warn of bearing defects and the state of oil shortages and oil shortages more accurately and lays a foundation for realizing an intelligent fault warning algorithm based on multi-information fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deformations and stresses of a rotating cylindrical hollow disk made of incompressible functionally-graded hyper-elastic material are theoretically analyzed based on the finite elasticity theory. The hyper-elastic material is described by a new micro-macro transition model. Specially, the material shear modulus and density are assumed to be a function with a power law form through the radial direction, while the material inhomogeneity is thus reflected on the power index m. The integral forms of the stretches and stress components are obtained. With the obtained complicated integral forms, the composite trapezoidal rule is utilized to derive the analytical solutions, and the explicit solutions for both the stretches and the stress components are numerically obtained. By comparing the results with two classic models, the superiority of the model in our work is demonstrated. Then, the distributions of the stretches and normalized stress components are discussed in detail under the effects of m. The results indicate that the material inhomogeneity and the rotating angular velocity have significant effects on the distributions of the normalized radial and hoop stress components and the stretches. We believe that by appropriately choosing the material inhomogeneity and configuration parameters, the functionally-graded material (FGM) hyper-elastic hollow cylindrical disk can be designed to meet some unique requirements in the application fields, e.g., soft robotics, medical devices, and conventional aerospace and mechanical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some complicated situations, decompression sickness (DCS) combined with other injuries, such as irradiation, will seriously endanger life safety. However, it is still unclear whether irradiation will increase the incidence of DCS. This study was designed to investigate the damage effects of irradiation on decompression injury and the underlying mechanism. Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed to irradiation followed by hyperbaric decompressing and the mortality and decompression symptoms were observed. Lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were collected to detect the lung lesion, inflammation response, activity of the angiotensin system, oxidative stress, and relative signal pathway by multiple methods, including Q-PCR, western blot, and ELISA. As a result, pre-exposure to radiation significantly exacerbated disease outcomes and lung lesions of DCS. Mechanically, the up-regulation of angiotensin-converting enzyme expression and angiotensin II levels was responsible for the exacerbated DCS and lung lesions caused by predisposing irradiation exposure. Oxidative stress and PI3K/AKT signal pathway activation in pulmonary tissue were enhanced after irradiation plus decompression treatment. In conclusion, our results suggested that irradiation could exacerbate lung injury and the outcomes of DCS by activating the angiotensin system, which included eliciting oxidative stress and activation of the PI3K/AKT signal pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve various extraction-related problems existing in the deep Jurassic mines in the Inner Mongolia-Shaanxi (IM-S) mining area, this paper puts forward a method to control roof water hazards based on the sedimentary facies pattern of the aquifers. The problems we addressed are: high volumes of goaf water, mixing of coal-based water in the stope, the proximity of the upper coal seam to water-enriched aquifers, and the inability for safe excavation and stoping. We first investigated the spatial distribution patterns of the aquifers and their related storage properties. A zone model of water yield compatible with the hydrogeological characteristics of a deep Jurassic mine was evaluated for the aquifers in the roof of the 3–1 coal mine, and a "low-position and lateral interception" control method was proposed based on the water yield zonation. The results demonstrated that the depositional environment for the sandstone aquifer in the first member of the Zhiluo Formation had a channel bar paleoenvironment that was characterized by a varying water table. This proved to be the key layer for preventing and controlling the water hazards. The method described in this paper effectively mitigated the water hazards associated with that aquifer in the study area and thus provide a theoretical and practical basis for controlling mine water hazards in the IM-S mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to the declining utilization and patient revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. hospital industry furloughed at least 1.4 million health care workers to contain their clinical-related expenses. However, it remains unclear how hospitals responded by adjusting their administrative expenses, which account for more than a quarter of U.S. hospitals' spending, a proportion substantially higher than that of other industrialized countries. Examining changes in hospitals' administrative expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic is important for understanding hospitals' cost-containment behaviors under operational shocks during a pandemic. Objective: To assess changes in hospitals' administrative expenses and clinical expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Design: Time-series observational study. Participants: 1420 Medicare-certified general acute-care hospitals with fiscal years starting in January and continuously operating during 2016–2020. Main Measures: Hospitals' annual administrative expenses and clinical expenses. Key Results: Hospitals' median administrative and clinical expenses both increased consistently around 4% each year from 2016 to 2019. From 2019 to 2020, the median administrative expenses grew by 6.2% while the median clinical expenses grew by 0.6%. The interrupted time-series regression estimated an additional 6.4% (95% CI, 4.5 to 8.2%) increase in administrative expenses in 2020, relative to the pre-COVID annual increase of 3.9% (95% CI, 3.3 to 4.4%), while an additional increase in clinical expenses in 2020 (0.5%; 95% CI, −0.3 to 1.4%) did not differ from the pre-COVID annual increase of 3.7% (95% CI, 3.5 to 4%). Stratified analysis showed hospitals with larger utilization volume, located in states with lower COVID-19 burden, or situated in counties with higher median household income experienced larger increase in administrative expenses in 2020. Conclusions: In 2020, administrative expenses grew much faster than clinical expenses, resulting in a larger share of hospital financial resources allocated to administrative activities. Higher administrative expenses might reflect hospitals' operational effort in response to the pandemic or inefficient cost management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being an important immune stimulant of T lymphocytes and NK cells, the recombinant human interleukin-15 (rhIL-15) has been extensively researched in tumor immunotherapy or as a vaccine adjuvant. However, the rhIL-15 manufacturing level lags far behind its growing clinical demand due to the lack of efficient and exact analysis methodologies to characterize the trace by-products, typically redox and deamidation. In order to improve the production and quality control of rhIL-15, here we developed an expanded resolution reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (ExRP-HPLC) approach to quickly and accurately analyze the oxidation and reduction by-products of rhIL-15, which may appear during the purification processes. Firstly, we developed RP-HPLC methods which can separate rhIL-15 fractions with different levels of oxidization or reduction, respectively, and the redox status of each peak was then determined by measuring the intact mass with a high-resolution mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS). To further clarify the complex pattern of oxidization of specific residues, the peaks with various oxidation levels were digested into pieces for peptide mapping to pinpoint the exact changes of oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the rhIL-15 by-products. In addition, we performed the ExRP-HPLC and UPLC-MS analysis of partially deamidated rhIL-15 to characterize their oxidation and reduction. Our work is the first in-depth characterization of the redox by-products of rhIL-15, even for deamidated impurities. The ExRP-HPLC method we reported can facilitate the rapid and accurate quality analysis of rhIL-15, which is substantially helpful for streamlining the industrial manufacturing of rhIL-15 to better meet the demands of clinical applications. Keypoints: • The oxidization and reduction rhIL-15 by-products were characterized for the first time. • The changes of oxygen and hydrogen atoms in rhIL-15 redox by-products were accurately determined by UPLC-MS. • Oxidation and reduction by-products of deamidated rhIL-15 were further analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature has shown that biochar can serve as potential amendment to achieve sustainable agriculture and environment. The accessibility and availability of cheap feedstock are considered as important constraint factors for the widespread application of biochar in agriculture. Marginal lands are widely distributed globally, several times larger than arable land, and hold little value for food production due to poor soil conditions. However, these lands are suitable for growing plants, which can be used as feedstock for biochar production. The salt-affected lands, as one of the main marginal lands, are particularly suitable for cultivating diverse varieties of halophytes that can be pyrolyzed into biochar, bio-gas, and bio-oil. The halophyte-derived biochar is useful to produce a desirable acid soil conditioner due to its high ash and rich bases, and improves soil characteristics under extreme saline conditions. Additionally, syngas and bio-oil hold potential benefits as fuels and industrial raw materials. This study introduces an innovative management technique for marginal lands such as salt-affected land, which can provide all-round benefits in food production, land management, vegetation coverage, carbon sequestration, and climate change mitigation. Highlights: Marginal lands such as salt-affected lands may supply adequate and cheap feedstock for biochar production. Biochar derived from halophytes can be befittingly used as a soil amendment, particularly for acidic soils. Halophyte biochar soil amendment can achieve all-wins in sustaining agriculture, ecology, and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

miRNA therapy is popularly investigated in treating acute spinal cord injury (SCI) and offers a significant prospect for the treatment of acute SCI. We aimed to provide pre-clinical validations of miRNA in the treatment of SCI. A systematic search of EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases was performed. Rats, which were the most used animals (70%, n = 46 articles), receiving miRNA therapy got prominent recovery in SCI models [BBB score, SMD 3.90, 95% CI 3.08–4.73, p < 0.01]. Locomotor function of fore and hind limbs in SCI mice receiving miRNA therapy (30%, n = 19 articles) [grip strength, SMD 3.22, 95% CI 2.14–4.26; p < 0.01; BBB score, SMD 3.47, 95% CI 2.38–4.56, p < 0.01; BMS, SMD 2.27, 95% CI 1.34–3.20, p < 0.01] also recovered better than mice in control group. Then, we conducted the subgroup analysis and did find that high-quality articles trended to report non-therapeutic effect of miRNA. Furtherly, we analyzed 46 miRNAs, including 9 miRNA families (miR-21-5p/34a-3p/124-3p/126-3p/223-3p/543-3p/30-3p/136-3p/15-5p), among which miR-30-3p/136-3p/15-5p family were not effective in recovering locomotor function of rats. Conclusively, miRNAs are curative drugs for SCI, however, appropriate miRNA carrier and which miRNA is the most efficacious for SCI should be furtherly investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-broadband and high absorption properties are significant for energy harvesting, solar cells, fire detection and imaging. An ultra-broadband and high absorption metamaterial absorber is proposed, which consists of a grid structure and a SiO2 rectangular structure. The simulation results of the metamaterial absorber show that the absorber has an absorption rate of more than 90% with a bandwidth of 3815 nm centered at about 2045 nm. Due to the asymmetry of the absorber structure, it is sensitive to the polarization angle, but still has certain polarization independence and wide-angle absorption characteristics in the whole band (300 ~ 4000 nm). The analysis shows that surface plasmon resonance, local surface plasmon resonance, cavity resonance, and coupling between resonant modes play a dominant role in the broadband and absorption of the absorber. The absorber with broadband and high absorption performance has great potential for solar energy harvesting, thermoelectric, and thermal emitter applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation capitalization is a new concept in innovation geography research. Extant research on a city scale has proven that innovation is an important factor affecting housing prices and verified that innovation has a capitalization effect. However, few studies investigate the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization. Thus, case verification at the urban agglomeration scale is needed. Therefore, this study proposes a theoretical framework for the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization at the urban agglomeration scale. Examining the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GHMGBA), China as a case study, the study investigated the spatial heterogeneity of the influence of high-tech firms, representing innovation, on housing prices. This work verified the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization. The study constructed a data set influencing housing prices, comprising 11 factors in 5 categories (high-tech firms, convenience of living facilities, built environment, the natural environment, and the fundamentals of the districts) for 419 subdistricts in the GHMGBA. On the global scale, the study finds that high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices, with the housing price increasing by 0.0156% when high-tech firm density increases by 1%. Furthermore, a semi-geographically weighted regression (SGWR) analysis shows that the influence of high-tech firms on housing prices has spatial heterogeneity. The areas where high-tech firms have a significant and positive influence on housing prices are mainly in the Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area, western Shenzhen-Dongguan, north-central Zhongshan-Nansha district, and Guangzhou—all areas with densely distributed high-tech firms. These results confirm the spatial heterogeneity of innovation capitalization and the need for further discussion of its scale and spatial limitations. The study offers implications for relevant GHMGBA administrative authorities for spatially differentiated development strategies and housing policies that consider the role of innovation in successful urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tenebrio molitor Larvae (Tenebrio molitor L) is one of the most important insects to human being as a protein source. The present work investigated the enantiomeric performance of tetraconazole in Tenebrio molitor L by dietary exposure. Tetraconazole concentration increased rapidly initially and declined slightly from 0.43 to 0.15 mg kg− 1 (S-tetraconazole) and 0.44 to 0.26 mg kg− 1 (R-tetraconazole) in Tenebrio molitor L in the first 3 days in the exposure group of 20 mg kg− 1 in wheat bran, and then increased steeply until the equilibrium in the 14th day with a level of 0.41 mg kg− 1 for S-tetraconazole and 0.68 mg kg− 1 for R-tetraconazole. In 2 mg kg− 1 group, tetraconazole was collected in the initial 3 days with R-tetraconazole preference and obtain an metabolism balance in the following days. The enantiomers in body and feces were of different concentrations with enantioselective performance in Tenebrio molitor L; and no bio-accumulation was observed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are required for exercise-induced molecular adaptations; however, excessive exercise may cause cellular oxidative distress. We postulate that astaxanthin (ASX) can neutralize oxidative distress and stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis in high-intensity exercise-trained mice. Methods: Six-week-old mice (n = 8/group) were treated with ASX (10 mg/kg BW) or placebo. Training groups participated in 30 min/day high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for 6 weeks. Gastrocnemius muscle was collected and assayed following the exercise training period. Results: Compared to the HIIT control mice, the ASX-treated HIIT mice reduced malonaldehyde levels and upregulated the expression of Nrf2 and FOXO3a. Meanwhile, the genes NQO1 and GCLC, modulated by Nrf2, and SOD2, regulated by FOXO3a, and GPx4, were transcriptionally upregulated in the ASX-treated HIIT group. Meanwhile, the expression of energy sensors, AMPK, SIRT1, and SIRT3, increased in the ASX-treated HIIT group compared to the HIIT control group. Additionally, PGC-1α, regulated by AMPK and SIRT1, was upregulated in the ASX-treated HIIT group. Further, the increased PGC-1α stimulated the transcript of NRF1 and Tfam and mitochondrial proteins IDH2 and ATP50. Finally, the ASX-treated HIIT mice had upregulations in the transcript level of mitochondrial fusion factors, including Mfn1, Mfn2, and OPA1. However, the protein level of AMPK, SIRT1, and FOXO3a, and the transcript level of Nrf2, NQO1, PGC-1α, NRF1, Mfn1, Mfn2, and OPA1 decreased in the HIIT control group compared to the sedentary control group. Conclusion: Supplementation with ASX can reduce oxidative stress and promote antioxidant capacity and mitochondrial biogenesis during strenuous HIIT exercise in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to simulate the process of rockburst and spalling failure of roadway surrounding rock under three-dimensional stress in deep rock engineering. Utilizing an independently developed true triaxial rockburst experimental setup, the failure process of a circular tunnel under initial in-situ stress at a depth of 500 m was investigated using red sandstone with prefabricated holes. A miniature camera device and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system were used to monitor and record the experimental process in real time. Using the collected data, the process of rockburst and spalling failure of the circular tunnel was reproduced. Finally, the difference between rockburst and spalling failure was analyzed and compared based on four aspects of stress characteristics, acoustic emission characteristics, fragment characteristics, and V-shaped notch morphology characteristics. The experimental results show that the failure of surrounding rock was more likely to occur under dynamic disturbance load, resulting in particle ejection. The spalling failure was found to be a slow and gradual static failure process. The mechanism of rockburst was more complex involving tension-shear coupling failure, whereas, the mechanism of spalling failure was simple involving a tensile failure. Compared with spalling failure, rockburst was more intense, producing more debris, and the V-shaped notch was narrow and deep. Highlights: Failure process of rockburst and spalling is reproduced in a laboratory. The stress characteristics of rockburst and spalling failure are calculated based on elastic theory. Frequency-amplitude characteristics and crack types based on acoustic emission are analyzed. The failure intensity of rockburst and spalling is investigated based on the rock fragments and morphology of V-shaped notch. The failure process of rockburst and spalling is discussed along with strain energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor immunotherapy has become an important means of tumor therapy by enhancing the immune response and triggering the activation of immune cells. However, currently, only a small number of patients respond to immunotherapy alone, and patients may experience immune-related adverse events (irAEs) during the course of treatment. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) can produce cytotoxic substances to tumor tissue, induce apoptosis and enhance immunity. SDT combined with immunotherapy is considered a promising strategy for cancer treatment. In this mini review, we summarize the role of SDT in immunotherapy in recent years, including the application of SDT-triggered immunotherapy and the combination of SDT and immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the delta parallel manipulator (PM) was considered as a case study to present a system elastodynamic modeling of spatial PMs contain subclosed loops. The mechanism consisted of major substructures including proximal, short, and distal links. Each link was divided into elements to establish the body-to-body and body-to-ground constraint equations. The global independent generalized displacement coordinates (IGDC) of the mechanism were extracted with the theory of multi-point constraint elements. Besides, the global IGDC and substructure synthesis approach was used to obtain the complete elastodynamic modeling of the mechanism without supplementing constraint equations. The resulting configuration-dependent elastodynamic modeling had fewer degrees of freedom, different from thousands used in finite element model (FEM). The natural frequencies could be predicted at any configuration of the mechanism, and were compared against the values of FEM to assess the correctness of the modeling. The proposed modeling could predict the distribution of natural frequencies of the mechanism in the workspace with computational efficiency. Therefore, it could be used as a numerical twin to simulate the elastodynamic performance of PMs in the pre-design stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a major public health concern. Cerebrovascular alterations play a significant role in the evolution of injury sequelae and in the process of post-traumatic brain repair. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an advanced perfusion magnetic resonance imaging technique that permits noninvasive quantification of cerebral blood flow (CBF). This is the first systematic review of ASL research findings in patients with mTBI. Our approach followed the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and PRISMA guidelines. We searched Ovid/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Index for relevant articles published as of February 20, 2020. Full-text results were combined into Rayyan software for further evaluation. Data extraction, including risk of bias ratings, was performed using American Academy of Neurology's four-tiered classification scheme. Twenty-three articles met inclusion criteria comprising data on up to 566 mTBI patients and 654 control subjects. Of the 23 studies, 18 reported some type of regional CBF abnormality in mTBI patients at rest or during a cognitive task, with more findings of decreased than increased CBF. The evidence supports the conclusion that mTBI likely causes ASL-derived CBF anomalies. However, synthesis of findings was challenging due to substantial methodological variations across studies and few studies with low risk of bias. Thus, larger-scale prospective cohort studies are needed to more definitively chart the course of CBF changes in humans after mTBI and to understand how individual difference factors contribute to post-injury CBF changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely diagnosis of bearing faults can effectively predict initial faults and avoid severe accidents. Ordinary neural networks have achieved relatively high accuracy for bearing failure classification. However, for the convolution process in neural networks, convolution kernels of fixed size are used across the whole image acquired by the time-frequency transformation, which is prone to overlook the intrinsic local time-frequency features of data. So as to solve this problem that the kernel may not reflect the local time-frequency characteristics of the non-stationary signal, a new method for planning convolutional kernels is proposed in this paper. We leverage variable kernels to capture the time-frequency resolution altering nature within the non-stationary signals. Firstly, starting from the time-frequency characteristics of non-stationary signals, the theoretical basis of adopting variable convolution kernels is analyzed, and the impact of Heisenberg's measurement inaccuracy principle on the design of the learning framework is analyzed in-depth with wavelet analysis as an example. Secondly, since the performance of different wavelet basis functions on time-frequency resolution varies dramatically, after comprehensive study of the mutual relationship between these resolutions, a proper criteria is deduced to deliver the measurement of performances, and the Gabor wavelet basis is chosen according to this principle. This design can be obtained by using wavelet analysis parameters before learning and training. This method is orthogonal to the model training process and can be plug-and-play with other deep learning frameworks. Finally, it is shown through datasets and practical experiments that the proposed method outperforms other newly proposed classification methods in terms of achieving higher accuracy in less time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of mixing zone on an interface induced by Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability occurs frequently in natural phenomena and in engineering applications. Usually, the medium on which the RM instability happens is inhomogeneous, the effect of medium inhomogeneity on the growth of the mixing zone during the RM instability is still not clear. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the RM instability in inhomogeneous medium. Based on a high-order computational scheme, the interactions of a density interface with an incident shock wave (ISW) in inhomogeneous medium are numerically simulated by solving the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The effect of the inhomogeneity on the interface evolution after the passage of ISW through the interface is investigated. The results show that the interface morphology develops in a distinctive “spike-spike” structure in inhomogeneous medium. Particularly, the spike structure on the bottom of the interface is due to the reverse induction of RM instability by curved ISW or reflected shock wave. With the increase of inhomogeneity, the growth rate of the mixing zone width on interface increases, and the wave patterns caused by interaction between the shock wave and interface are more complex. Compared with RM instability in homogeneous medium, the inhomogeneous distribution of the density in medium further enhances the baroclinic effect and induces larger vorticity in flow field. Therefore, the interface is stretched much more significantly under the induction of enhanced vorticity in inhomogeneous medium. Based on above analyses, a model for predicting the growth of mixing zone width on the interface after the passage of ISW is proposed, in order to provide a useful method for evaluations of perturbation growth behavior during the RM instability in inhomogeneous medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANC) often invades the parapharyngeal space and internal carotid artery. Are patients with LANC invading carotid artery are at risk of massive neck hemorrhage after radiotherapy? Methods: This retrospective study included 130 LANC patients with carotid artery invasion admitted to our hospital between January 2012 and September 2019. All patients were treated with induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) ± epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor. Univariate and multivariate analysis of risk factors were conducted for the prognosis and the occurrence of massive neck hemorrhage of LANC patients with carotid artery invasion. Outcomes: The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), local nodal recurrence-free survival (LNRFS), local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), nodal recurrence-free survival (NRFS) and overall survival (OS) of the 130 patients were 75.2%, 76.8%, 90.0%, 93.9%, 95.8% and 87.2%, respectively. The incidence of fatal bleeding after radiotherapy was 2.3% (3/130). The primary site of the three cases were all the pharyngeal recess, with more than 270° carotid artery invasion, suffering nasopharyngeal necrosis after radiotherapy (2 of which were diabetics and 1 received re-radiation after recurrence). Univariate analysis showed that clinical stage was negatively correlated with DMFS and PFS (P < 0.05). The induction chemotherapy TP regimen, platinum-based concurrent chemotherapy and EGFR inhibitors (Nituzumab/Cetuximab) significantly improved PFS and DMFS (P < 0.05). Patients with hemoglobin levels > 110 g/L had significantly inferior PFS, DMFS and OS than those with hemoglobin levels ≤ 110 g/L (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the EGFR inhibitor was an independent risk factor for PFS and DMFS, while the lowest hemoglobin level was an independent risk factor for OS. Conclusions: In LANC patients whose carotid artery invasion was < 270°, induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by helical tomotherapy (HT) and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) inhibitor had mild and tolerable side effects, better PFS and DMFS, with no massive hemorrhage. In patients whose primary tumor was pharyngeal recess with carotid artery invasion ≥ 270°, poorly controlled diabetes or re-radiotherapy led to a higher risk of massive hemorrhage after radiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between remnant cholesterol (RC) and glucose metabolic states in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with angina pectoris. Methods: This study collected data from 11,557 CHD patients with angina pectoris aged 35–75 years in Tianjin, China. Participants were divided into normal glucose regulation (NGR), prediabetes (Pre-DM) and diabetes mellitus (DM) groups according to glucose metabolic states. Linear regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between glucose metabolism [fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)] and RC levels. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the relationship between RC levels and glucose metabolic states. Results: Among all participants, 5883 (50.9%) had a DM state and 4034 (34.9%) had a Pre-DM state. FBG levels and HbA1c levels were positively related with RC in all patients (P < 0.001). NGR was used as a reference, multi-adjusted model showing that RC level was significantly associated with Pre-DM [Odds ratio (OR): 1.37; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19–1.56; P < 0.001] and DM state (OR:1.47; 95% CI 1.29–1.67; P < 0.001). When considering RC as categorical variables (tertiles), using T1 as a reference, T3 had the strongest relationship between RC levels and Pre-DM and DM state in univariate model and multivariate model. In the stratified analyses, the association between RC levels and pre-DM and DM in women was higher than that in men, and the elderly patients was higher than in the middle-aged patients. Conclusion: The study demonstrated a significant association between RC levels and pre-DM and DM state among CHD patients with angina pectoris, and the relationship was stronger in women and elderly patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a heterogeneous spatial-temporal similarity search framework is proposed, in which the datasets come from multiple different asynchronous data sources. Due to measuring error, data loss, and other factors, the similarity search based on single points along a trajectory usually cannot fulfill the accuracy requirements in our heterogeneous case. To address this issue, we introduce a concept of the spatial-temporal cluster of points, instead of single points, which can be identified for each target query. By following this concept, we further design a spectral clustering algorithm to construct the clusters in the pre-processing phase effectively. And the query processing is improved for the accuracy of the search by unifying multiple search metrics. To validate our idea, we also prototype a clustered online spatial-temporal similarity search system, "Osprey", to calculate in parallel the similarity of spatial-temporal sequences in the heterogeneous search on a distributed database. Our empirical study is conducted based on an open dataset, called "T-Drive", and a billion-scale dataset consisting of WiFi positioning records gathered from the urban metro system in Shenzhen, China. The experimental results show that the latency of our proposed system is less than 4s in most cases, and the accuracy is more than 70% when the similarity exceeds 0.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study and prevent the water hazards of deep coal mines roof in the Inner Mongolia–Shaanxi (IM–S) mining area, it is essential to correctly evaluate the water-richness distributions of water-bearing aquifers in roof. This paper puts forward a sediment control method for water-richness law and zoning in the roof aquifers of deep Jurassic coals. To determine the vertical distance of direct water-bearing aquifers, the height of fractured water-conducting zone was detected by an underground network parallel electrical method. The plane and lateral spatial distribution patterns of the water-bearing aquifers and the control of the water-richness distribution was analyzed with the sediment control method. An evaluation system that consisted of four indicators, i.e., sedimentary environmental impact index, interlayer ratio of sandstone and mudstone, sandstone thickness, geophysical water-richness anomaly index was constructed. Furthermore, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was introduced to establish the comprehensive zoning map. Finally, through the example analysis of Muduchaideng coal mine, the zoning evaluation results of water-richness were verified by the mine inflow. The findings of this study provide scientific guidance for prevention and control of mine water hazards in the IM–S mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two kinds of culture systems were constructed, namely, an artificial substrate system (novel sponge biocarrier, SB) and a water exchange system (WE), to evaluate the effects of the microalga Haematococcus pluvialis on the water quality and performance of whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). The results showed that the average NH4+-N concentration with H. pluvialis was lower than those without it. The average concentration of NO2−-N and NO3−-N in SB system were significantly decreased than those present in WE system, but there was no significant difference in SB system. The growth performance of shrimp with H. pluvialis was superior to that without it. The final average weight and growth rate of shrimp in SB1 and WE1 tanks were differed significantly among that present in SB2 and WE2 tanks (p < 0.05). SB1 tended to have the highest average weight gain and lowest feed conversion ratio. The shrimp survival was significantly higher in SB1 and WE1 tanks (89.06% and 82.29%, respectively) than that present in SB2 and WE2 tanks (78.13% and 48.44%, p < 0.05). The high-throughput sequencing results showed that the diversity of bacterial communities and the abundance of bacteria related to the nitrogen cycle and the degradation of organic matter were increased. The present study showed that H. pluvialis had positive effects on shrimp culture in using artificial substrate system and water exchange system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The contribution of household cooking salt to population iodine status is decreasing in China, the applicability of the coverage rate of iodized salt (IS), proportion of adequately iodized salt (AIS), and salt iodine concentration (SIC) of household cooking salt used for iodine status assessment of residents requires further investigation. Methods: Through the IDD control project, 16,445 children and 4848 pregnant women were recruited from Tianjin, China and the relationship between the coverage rate of IS, proportion of AIS, SIC, and population iodine status was analyzed. Additionally, through the thyroid health survey project, 856 children with IS or noniodized salt were recruited. The effects of different household cooking salts on individual iodine status and thyroid health were analyzed. Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, no relationship was found between the coverage rate of IS, proportion of AIS, SIC of household cooking salt, and iodine status of children and pregnant women (all P > 0.05). No differences in levels of thyroid function and structural indicators were found in children with different household cooking salts (all P > 0.05). Additionally, no relationship was found between noniodized salt exposure and goiter, overt hyperthyroidism, overt hypothyroidism, thyroid nodules, antibody single positivity, or subclinical hypothyroidism (all P > 0.05). Conclusion: Iodine in household cooking salt no longer plays a crucial role in iodine status in Tianjin, China. Other indicators must be identified as beneficial supplements for precise iodine status evaluation not only in Tianjin but also in other large cities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants. With the expansion of the city, the suburban environment is being increasingly polluted by PAHs, which pose a huge potential risk for suburban agriculture. Therefore, we conducted a survey focusing on the pollution level, sources, and risk of PAHs in Changchun suburban vegetable soils, Northeast China. The total concentrations of 16 PAHs (Σ16PAHs) in soils were between 2338.2 and 15,200 ng g−1 (mean 6778.1 ng g−1), which were significantly higher than those in most other cities. High molecular weight PAHs were the major components, which occupied over 85.63% of all PAHs. Seven potential carcinogenic PAHs accounted for 56.96% of the Σ16PAHs. Source apportionment results based on the ratio of PAH isomers and principal components analysis showed that PAHs were primarily derived from pyrolysis sources, such as biomass/coal combustion, traffic emissions, and petroleum. Ecological risk values of PAHs were between effects range-low (ERL) and effects range-median (ERM), which might cause occasionally ecological risks in the suburbs. According to the incremental lifetime cancer risk assessment results, the health risks to the exposed population were in the acceptable level, with dermal contact and ingestion being the predominant exposure pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]