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Background: Mutations of the PIK3CA/AKT/mTOR axis are common events in metastatic breast cancers (MBCs). This study was designed to evaluate the extent to which genetic alterations of the PIK3CA/AKT/mTOR can predict protein activation of this signalling axis in MBCs. Methods: Molecular profiles were generated by CLIA-certified laboratories from a real-world evidence cohort of 171 MBC patients. Genetic alterations of the PIK3CA pathway were measured using next-generation sequencing. Activation levels of AKT and downstream signalling molecules were quantified using two orthogonal proteomic methods. Protein activity was correlated with underlying genomic profiles and response to CDK4/6 inhibition in combination with endocrine treatment (ET). Results: Oncogenic alterations of the PIK3CA/AKT/PTEN pathway were identified in 49.7% of cases. Genomic profiles emerged as poor predictors of protein activity (AUC:0.69), and AKT phosphorylation levels mimicked those of mutant lesions in 76.9% of wild-type tumours. High phosphorylation levels of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR downstream target p70S6 Kinase (T389) were associated with shorter PFS in patients treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors in combination with ET (HR:4.18 95%CI:1.19–14.63); this association was not seen when patients were classified by mutational status. Conclusions: Phosphoprotein-based measurements of drug targets and downstream substrates should be captured along with genomic information to identify MBCs driven by the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inorganic carbon acquisition is essential to algal growth, while the limitations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) on phytoplankton are still less known in lakes. Sediment is an active hot spot for microbial metabolism, driving the migration and transformation of elements in shallow lakes, which may control the DIC availability to influence algal spatiotemporal dynamics. Hence, we investigated the spatiotemporal changes of phytoplankton, DIC and sediment respiration rates in a eutrophic shallow freshwater lake under non-bloom conditions. There was a widespread deficiency of DIC in the lake, except the estuary. Sediment respiration was positively associated with changes in DIC concentrations, indicating that carbon metabolic activity of sedimentary microorganisms was an important inorganic carbon source for water columns. The availability of DIC in water columns regulated by sediment microbial respiration influenced the algal biomass, composition and productivity. The synergistic effects of seasonal temperature changes and sediment microbial respiration influenced the vertical distribution and migration of phytoplankton. Our results emphasized that carbon metabolic intensity of sediment microorganisms might play a key role in dynamics of phytoplankton, further impacting the spatiotemporal pattern and formation of algal bloom in eutrophic shallow freshwater lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon-silicon-switch strategy, replacing one specific carbon atom in organic molecules with a silicon, has garnered significant interest for developing new functional molecules. However, the influence of a reaction regarding its selectivity and reactivity by carbon-silicon-switch strategy has far less been investigated. Here we discover an unusual carbon-silicon-switch effect in the enantioselective construction of silicon-stereogenic center. It is found that there has been a significant change in the desymmetrization reaction of silacyclohexadienones using asymmetric conjugate addition or oxidative Heck reaction with aryl/alkyl nucleophiles when compared with their carbon analogues cyclohexadienones. Specifically, the carbon-silicon-switch leads to a reversal in enantioselectivity with arylzinc as the nucleophile by the same chiral catalyst, and results in totally different reactivity with arylboronic acid as the nucleophile. Control experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations have shown that the unusual carbon-silicon-switch effect comes from the unique stereoelectronic feature of silicon. Silicon has been incorporated into organic molecules in place of carbon under the principle that, given that they belong to the same periodic group, their reactivity could be similar. Here, the authors perform desymmetrizations on silacyclohexenone and the carbon analogue, with the two substrates yielding opposite enantiomers, showing that our understanding of the similarities of the two atoms is incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average age of patients with BS was 52.29 ± 9.46 years, comprising 136 males and 31 females. Risk factors for BS include close contact with cattle and sheep and consumption of unpasteurized food. The positive detection rate using combined Rose Bengal Test (RBT) and Standard Agglutination Test (SAT) was 94.6%, whereas the positive rate for blood culture was only 7.8%. The most common clinical manifestations were fever (81.4%), back pain (88.6%), sweating (61.1%), fatigue (69.5%), and anorexia (65.3%). Hematological examinations often revealed decreased hemoglobin (18.0%), increased platelets (18.0%), elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (88.0%), elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) (78.4%), elevated Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (18.6%), and decreased K+(23.4%). The imaging examinations revealed that the lumbar spine, particularly L4/5 (41.3%), is the most frequently affected vertebral level in BS. After treatment, the overall recurrence rate was 3.0%. In endemic areas, clinicians should be vigilant for BS in patients presenting with back pain and unexplained fever, particularly those with a history of close contact with cattle and sheep. The RBT and SAT tests show a high positivity rate of 94.6%, establishing them as the preferred diagnostic methods. This study enhances clinicians' comprehension of BS characteristics and lays a robust theoretical groundwork for disease prevention and monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), including anti-programmed cell death protein 1 and its ligand (PD-1/PD-L1) as well as anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), have been widely used for treating solid tumors. Myocarditis is a potentially lethal immune-related adverse events (irAEs) caused by ICIs therapy. The treatment of steroid-refractory myocarditis is challenging. We reported two non-small-cell lung cancer patients with steroid-refractory myocarditis induced by ICI. The symptoms were not resolved after pulse corticosteroid therapy and subsequent treatment including intravenous immunoglobulin and mycophenolate mofetil. Considering the level of serum interleukin (IL)-6 decreased by > 50% and level of serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) increased during the course of the disease, infliximab was used. Myocarditis gradually alleviated after infliximab treatment. The cases revealed that specific cytokine inhibitors have promising roles in the treatment of steroid-refractory myocarditis. Infliximab could be considered for patients with low level of IL-6 and elevated level of TNF-α. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate recognition of apples in complex orchard environments is a fundamental aspect of the operation of automated picking equipment. This paper aims to investigate the influence of dense targets, occlusion, and the natural environment in practical application scenarios. To this end, it constructs a fruit dataset containing different scenarios and proposes a real-time lightweight detection network, ELD(Efficient Lightweight object Detector). The EGSS(Efficient Ghost-shuffle Slim module) module and MCAttention(Mix channel Attention) are proposed as innovative solutions to the problems of feature extraction and classification. The attention mechanism is employed to construct a novel feature extraction network, which effectively utilizes the low-latitude feature information, significantly enhances the fine-grained feature information and gradient flow of the model, and improves the model's anti-interference ability. Eliminate redundant channels with SlimPAN to further compress the network and optimise functionality. The network as a whole employs the Shape-IOU loss function, which considers the influence of the bounding box itself, thereby enhancing the robustness of the model. Finally, the target detection accuracy is enhanced through the transfer of knowledge from the teacher's network through knowledge distillation, while ensuring that the overall network is sufficiently lightweight. The experimental results demonstrate that the ELD network, designed for fruit detection, achieves an accuracy of 87.4%. It has a relatively low number of parameters ( 4.3 × 10 5 ), a GLOPs of only 1.7, and a high FPS of 156. This network can achieve high accuracy while consuming fewer computational resources and performing better than other networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satisfactory reduction of some displaced pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures is not achievable via closed reduction, thus necessitating open procedure, which increases the incidence of complications. Using percutaneous prying-up technique to assist closed reduction may reduce the requirement for transform to an open operation. We retrospectively reviewed displaced pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures treated by the same surgeon from September 2021 to January 2024,with 134 subjects meeting criteria for inclusion. These children were divided into two groups. In Group A(n = 61),the prying-up technique was used to assist with closed reduction of fractures. Group B(n = 73) included fractures treated with conventional manual traction. To balance group size,12 fractures from group A were randomly removed, leaving a final 61 patients in each group. Demographics, operative time, the rate of failed closed reduction, complications and radiographic results were analyzed. The operative time was significantly less in Group A as compared with Group B(mean difference, − 7.22; [95% confidence interval (CI), − 8.49 to − 5.94]; p < 0.001). The rate of failed closed reduction were significantly lower in Group A as compared to Group B(2 of 61 vs. 10 of 61, p = 0.015). However, we found no difference in terms of the radiographic results and complications between the two groups(p > 0.05). percutaneous prying-up technique significantly improves the efficiency of surgery and reduces rate of failed closed reduction of supracondylar humeral fractures in pediatric patients. Level III, retrospective comparative study.See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel-based superalloys with high Al + Ti content are considered non-weldable, and hot cracking is a major challenge in their thermal fabrication processes. In this study, the microstructure liquefaction characteristics and liquation cracking behavior of laser-remelted as-cast K447A superalloy have been investigated. In the heat-affected zone (HAZ), the special liquefaction phenomenon of the coarse script carbides consists of cracking, breakdown, and liquefaction successively. The whole liquefaction sequence observed in the as-cast K447A substrate encompasses: IMRs (Ni7Hf2-γ + γ–γ′ + M5B3-γ), primary γ′, MC-γ, matrix γ, and MC phases. Liquefaction of IMRs during the laser thermal cycle easily forms a continuous liquid film and evolves into liquation cracking. In the remelted zone (RZ), the fine MC particles and IMRs just form isolated liquefaction points. These isolated liquefaction points are interconnected due to micro-cracks generated by thermal stresses and solidification shrinkage stresses. Finally, crack-free remelted specimens have been obtained by process optimization and preheating the substrate. The tensile strength and elongation of the RZ are increased by 32 and 227 pct, which is beneficial for the RZ acting as a buffer layer to relax or inhibit the stress and cracks generated by subsequent additive repair of K447A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FOXO transcription factors modulate aging-related pathways and influence longevity in multiple species, but the transcriptional targets that mediate these effects remain largely unknown. Here, we identify an evolutionarily conserved FOXO target gene, Oxidative stress-responsive serine-rich protein 1 (OSER1), whose overexpression extends lifespan in silkworms, nematodes, and flies, while its depletion correspondingly shortens lifespan. In flies, overexpression of OSER1 increases resistance to oxidative stress, starvation, and heat shock, while OSER1-depleted flies are more vulnerable to these stressors. In silkworms, hydrogen peroxide both induces and is scavenged by OSER1 in vitro and in vivo. Knockdown of OSER1 in Caenorhabditis elegans leads to increased ROS production and shorter lifespan, mitochondrial fragmentation, decreased ATP production, and altered transcription of mitochondrial genes. Human proteomic analysis suggests that OSER1 plays roles in oxidative stress response, cellular senescence, and reproduction, which is consistent with the data and suggests that OSER1 could play a role in fertility in silkworms and nematodes. Human studies demonstrate that polymorphic variants in OSER1 are associated with human longevity. In summary, OSER1 is an evolutionarily conserved FOXO-regulated protein that improves resistance to oxidative stress, maintains mitochondrial functional integrity, and increases lifespan in multiple species. Additional studies will clarify the role of OSER1 as a critical effector of healthy aging. FOXO transcription factors are known to promote longevity via effects on transcriptional targets. In this study, the authors identify OSER1 as an evolutionarily conserved target of FOXO. OSER1 expression improves resistance to oxidative stress, supports mitochondrial function, and extends lifespan across multiple species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste categorization and recycling are critical approaches for converting waste into valuable and functional materials, thereby significantly aiding in land preservation, reducing pollution, and optimizing resource usages. However, real-world classification and identification of recyclable waste face substantial hurdles due to the intricate and unpredictable nature of wastes, as well as the limited availability of comprehensive waste datasets. These factors limit efficacy of the existing research work in the domain of waste management. In this paper, we utilize semantic segmentation at individual pixel level and introduce a semi-supervised metod for authentic waste classification scenarios, leveraging the Zerowaste dataset. We devise a non-standard data augmentation strategy that mimics the ever-changing conditions of real-world waste environments. Additionally, we introduce an adaptive weighted loss function and dynamically adjust the ratio of positive to negative samples through a masking method, ensuring the model learns from relevant samples. Lastly, to maintain consistency between predictions made on data-augmented images and the original counterparts, we remove input perturbations. Our method proves to be effective, as verified by an array of standard experiments and ablation studies, achieved an accuracy improvement of 3.74% over the baseline Zerowaste method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this pilot study, we investigated the utility of handheld ultrasound-guided photoacoustic (US-PA) imaging probe for analyzing ex-vivo breast specimens obtained from female patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery (BCS). We aimed to assess the potential of US-PA in detecting biochemical markers such as collagen, lipids, and hemoglobin, and compare these findings with routine imaging modalities (mammography, ultrasound) and histopathology results, particularly across various breast densities. Twelve ex-vivo breast specimens were obtained from female patients with a mean age of 59.7 ± 9.5 years who underwent BCS. The tissues were illuminated using handheld US-PA probe between 700 and 1100 nm across all margins and analyzed for collagen, lipids, and hemoglobin distribution. The obtained results were compared with routine imaging and histopathological assessments. Our findings revealed that lipid intensity and distribution decreased with increasing breast density, while collagen exhibited an opposite trend. These observations were consistent with routine imaging and histopathological analyses. Moreover, collagen intensity significantly differed (P < 0.001) between cancerous and normal breast tissue, indicating its potential as an additional biomarker for risk stratification across various breast conditions. The study results suggest that a combined assessment of PA biochemical information, such as collagen and lipid content, superimposed on grey-scale ultrasound findings could aid in distinguishing between normal and malignant breast conditions, as well as assist in BCS margin assessment. This underscores the potential of US-PA imaging as a valuable tool for enhancing breast cancer diagnosis and management, offering complementary information to existing imaging modalities and histopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudo-labeling methods are popular in semi-supervised learning (SSL). Their performance heavily relies on a proper threshold to generate hard labels for unlabeled data. To this end, most existing studies resort to a manually pre-specified function to adjust the threshold, which, however, requires prior knowledge and suffers from the scalability issue. In this paper, we propose a novel method named Meta-Threshold, which learns a dynamic confidence threshold for each unlabeled instance and does not require extra hyperparameters except a learning rate. Specifically, the instance-level confidence threshold is automatically learned by an extra network in a meta-learning manner. Considering limited labeled data as meta-data, the overall training objective of the classifier network and the meta-net can be formulated as a nested optimization problem that can be solved by a bi-level optimization scheme. Furthermore, by replacing the indicator function existed in the pseudo-labeling with a surrogate function, we theoretically provide the convergence of our training procedure, while discussing the training complexity and proposing a strategy to reduce its time cost. Extensive experiments and analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on both typical and imbalanced SSL tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and represents a substantial disease burden worldwide. Immune checkpoint inhibitors combined with chemotherapy are the standard first-line therapy for advanced NSCLC without driver mutations. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is currently the only approved immunotherapy marker. PD-L1 detection methods are diverse and have developed rapidly in recent years, such as improved immunohistochemical detection methods, the application of liquid biopsy in PD-L1 detection, genetic testing, radionuclide imaging, and the use of machine learning methods to construct PD-L1 prediction models. This review focuses on the detection methods and challenges of PD-L1 from different sources, and discusses the influencing factors of PD-L1 detection and the value of combined biomarkers. Provide support for clinical screening of immunotherapy-advantage groups and formulation of personalized treatment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stable mitochondrial pool is crucial for healthy cell function and survival. Altered redox biology can adversely affect mitochondria through induction of a variety of cell death and survival pathways, yet the understanding of mitochondria and their dysfunction in primary human cells and in specific disease states, including asthma, is modest. Ferroptosis is traditionally considered an iron dependent, hydroperoxy-phospholipid executed process, which induces cytosolic and mitochondrial damage to drive programmed cell death. However, in this report we identify a lipoxygenase orchestrated, compartmentally-targeted ferroptosis-associated peroxidation process which occurs in a subpopulation of dysfunctional mitochondria, without promoting cell death. Rather, this mitochondrial peroxidation process tightly couples with PTEN-induced kinase (PINK)−1(PINK1)-Parkin-Optineurin mediated mitophagy in an effort to preserve the pool of functional mitochondria and prevent cell death. These combined peroxidation processes lead to altered epithelial cell phenotypes and loss of ciliated cells which associate with worsened asthma severity. Ferroptosis-targeted interventions of this process could preserve healthy mitochondria, reverse cell phenotypic changes and improve disease outcomes. Altered redox biology causes mitochondrial dysfunction, yet mechanisms and implications vary. Here, the authors identify 15 lipoxygenase-linked mitochondrial ferroptosis and mitophagy driving epithelial cell differentiation and asthma outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a high-resolution 18-bit SAR ADC with a high 10-bit capacitor DAC and a low 8-bit resistor DAC. The total required number of the unit capacitors is decreased to 512. Foreground digital calibration based on capacitive recombination is introduced to improve linearity. Preamplifiers and output offset storage(OOS) enhance the noise and offset performance of the comparator. As a result, the design under 180 nm process achieves a signal-to-noise and distortion ratio(SNDR) of 105.5dB and a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 116.3dB under 1 MS/s sampling rate with a single channel. The effective number of bits (ENOB) can reach 17.23 bits with a Nyquist-rate input while consuming 46 mW from a 5 V supply. The resultant Schreier and Walden figures of merit (FoM) are 178.92 dB and 295.34 fJ/conversion-step, respectively. The proposed SAR ADC occupies an actual area of 3850 μ m by 2810 μ m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and synthesis of porous carbons with unique structures and diverse functionalities as CO2 adsorbents constitute a challenging and intriguing research topic. In this study, the synthesis of hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (NPCS) and its adsorption of CO2 were investigated. Highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by using economically available resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursors, with N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (KH-792) as a soft template and silica sol as a hard template. The hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles exhibit an evident microporous-mesoporous structure and have two different scales of mesopores with 9 nm and 12 nm, respectively. The effects of various synthetic parameters on the formation of hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles were analyzed. The hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles exhibited specific surface area of 1090 to 1716 m2/g and nitrogen content of 2.83 to 5.28%. At 273 K and 1 bar, the experimental results demonstrated the positive effects of the enriched pore structure and nitrogen doping on CO2 adsorption. The optimum adsorption capacity of activated NPCS (ANPCS) was 5.11 mmol/g with excellent CO2/N2 selectivity value of 20.44 at 273 K and 1 bar. The initial heat of adsorption value for ANPCS was 30.90 KJ/mol. Additionally, the hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles retained 99.2% of the initial adsorbed amount after 5 cycles of adsorption. The excellent adsorption performance of the material can be ascribed not only to its extensive specific surface area and enriched nitrogen but also to its mesoporous and hollow structure, which facilitates rapid CO2 transport. Highlights: The combination of soft and hard templates was used to prepare hollow micro-mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles. N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane is used not only as structure-directing and pore-forming agent, but also nitrogen source. The carbon nanoparticles have excellent CO2 adsorption due to their large specific surface area, high nitrogen content and mesoporous hollow structures. The mesoporous and hollow structures leads to high CO2 transport rates in carbon nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we mainly consider the Cauchy problem for the reverse space-time nonlocal Hirota equation with the initial data rapidly decaying in the solitonless sector. Start from the Lax pair, we first construct the basis Riemann-Hilbert problem for the reverse space-time nonlocal Hirota equation. Furthermore, using the approach of Deift-Zhou nonlinear steepest descent, the explicit long-time asymptotics for the reverse space-time nonlocal Hirota is derived. For the reverse space-time nonlocal Hirota equation, since the symmetries of its scattering matrix are different with the local Hirota equation, the ϑ(λi) (i = 0, 1) would like to be imaginary, which results in the δ λ i 0 contains an increasing t ± I m ϑ (λ i) 2 , and then the asymptotic behavior for nonlocal Hirota equation becomes differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the macular morphological and visual outcomes of combined idiopathic epiretinal membrane (iERM) removal with triamcinolone acetonide (TA) injection based on consideration of the ectopic inner foveal layer (EIFL) staging scheme. Methods: Retrospective case–control study. The clinical data of 84 eyes of 84 patients who underwent vitrectomy for iERM between 2018 and 2022 were reviewed. The enrolled subjects were divided into the TA and non-TA groups. Fifty-one eyes received intravitreal TA injection following vitrectomy and ERM peeling (TA group), and 33 were only treated by standard vitrectomy and ERM peeling (non-TA group). Preoperative and postoperative EIFL stages, central foveal thickness (CFT), and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were compared between both groups. Results: After a mean follow-up of 7.69 ± 3.68 months, both groups exhibited significant improvement in EIFL stages (P < 0.01), with no discernible advantage observed in the TA group. The TA and non-TA groups demonstrated improvement in the EIFL stages in 56.86 and 63.64% of eyes, respectively (P = 0.43). The CFT and BCVA significantly improved in both groups at the final visit (P < 0.01). However, CFT in the non-TA group displayed a more significant reduction during the follow-up (P < 0.03). Subgroup analysis revealed no significant differences in postoperative CFT and BCVA between the two groups in cases with or without continuous EIFL (P > 0.10). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that combined intravitreal TA injection following ERM removal conferred no significant benefits in alleviating macular thickening or improving visual acuity in iERM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel deep learning method for detecting and tracking vehicles within the context of autonomous driving, particularly focusing on scenarios related to vehicle failures. Ensuring the precise identification and monitoring of vehicles is paramount for enhancing road safety in autonomous driving systems. Our contribution involves the introduction of a hybrid Siamese network that merges the capabilities of YOLO models with Transformers. This integration aims to address the limitations of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in grasping high-level semantic nuances, thereby facilitating accurate detection and tracking of multiple vehicles within a given scene. Beyond this, we also curated the traffic scene dataset, which serves as a resource for training a multi-vehicle tracking model specifically tailored to the unique characteristics of traffic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics and magma transport at the boundary between the upper and lower oceanic crusts (i.e., the dike–gabbro transition) are crucial for understanding the crustal accretion beneath mid-ocean ridges, which however have been studied at quite a few sites such as the East Pacific Rise and ophiolites like Troodos and Oman. Here we present detailed geological, petrological, and geochemical data for the dike–gabbro transition and associated basalts in the Yunzhug ophiolite, central Tibet, to constrain the complex magmatic processes in this specific horizon. The Yunzhug ophiolite contains a large (~ 20 km2) well-exposed sheeted dike complex, which is rooted in a dike–gabbro transition that consists of diverse lithologies, including diabase, gabbro, and minor porphyritic diabase. Petrographically, the Yunzhug gabbros could be grouped into the dominant Plg (plagioclase)-euhedral gabbros (euhedral–subhedral plagioclases enclosed in clinopyroxene oikocrysts) and a small amount of Cpx (clinopyroxene)-euhedral gabbros (with abundant euhedral clinopyroxenes). Plagioclases and their equilibrated melts of the two types of gabbros are similar, whereas clinopyroxenes and their equilibrated melts of the Cpx-euhedral gabbros are more primary and depleted than those of the Plg-euhedral gabbros. These petrographic and geochemical features suggest an earlier crystallization of clinopyroxene for the Cpx-euhedral gabbros, which is best explained by occasional water input in the magmatic system. Nevertheless, the modeled equilibrated melts of the two types of gabbros have compositions indistinguishable from the whole rock compositions of diabases and basalts, indicating a direct genetic linkage between these rocks. The unusual porphyritic diabases, on the other hand, provide evidence supporting for plagioclase accumulation and aggregation during magma upward migration, thus may have served as a unique way for magma to transport from the lower to upper crust. Studies of the Yunzhug ophiolite thus provide some key constraints on the complex magmatic processes in the oceanic dike–gabbro transition, regarding its dynamic accretion and magmatic plumbing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Guanxin Danshen Dripping Pill (GXDSDP) in treating anxiety and depression in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: A total of 1,428 patients diagnosed with CHD screened for anxiety, depression, and quality of life (QOL) at baseline received 0.4 g of GXDSDP treatment 3 times per day and returned for monthly reassessment. Patients were recruited after stable treatment for CHD and received assessment of General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) for evaluating anxiety, depression, and QOL. Patients were followed up 3 times, once every 4 weeks, during outpatient visits for 12 weeks. Results: At the third follow-up (F3), the anxiety symptom of 63.79% (673/1,055) of the patients improved to sub-clinical level, and the GAD-7 score improved significantly (8.11 vs. 3.87, P<0.01); 57.52% (585/1,017) patients' depressive symptoms improved to sub-clinical level, with a significant improvement in PHQ-9 score (8.69 vs. 4.41, P<0.01) at F3. All aspects of QOL significantly improved at the end of treatment compared to those at baseline (all P<0.01) as assessed by SAQ: physical limitation (31.17 vs. 34.14), anginal stability (2.74 vs. 4.14), anginal frequency (8.16 vs. 9.10), treatment satisfaction (13.43 vs. 16.29), and disease perception (8.69 vs. 11.02). Conclusions: A fixed dosage of GXDSDP may be a potential treatment option for CHD patients comorbid with anxiety or depression. (Registration No. ChiCTR2100051523) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polygenic variation unrelated to disease contributes to interindividual variation in baseline white blood cell (WBC) counts, but its clinical significance is uncharacterized. We investigated the clinical consequences of a genetic predisposition toward lower WBC counts among 89,559 biobank participants from tertiary care centers using a polygenic score for WBC count (PGSWBC) comprising single nucleotide polymorphisms not associated with disease. A predisposition to lower WBC counts was associated with a decreased risk of identifying pathology on a bone marrow biopsy performed for a low WBC count (odds-ratio = 0.55 per standard deviation increase in PGSWBC [95%CI, 0.30−0.94], p = 0.04), an increased risk of leukopenia (a low WBC count) when treated with a chemotherapeutic (n = 1724, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.78 [0.69−0.88], p = 4.0 × 10−5) or immunosuppressant (n = 354, HR = 0.61 [0.38–0.99], p = 0.04). A predisposition to benign lower WBC counts was associated with an increased risk of discontinuing azathioprine treatment (n = 1,466, HR = 0.62 [0.44−0.87], p = 0.006). Collectively, these findings suggest that there are genetically predisposed individuals who are susceptible to escalations or alterations in clinical care that may be harmful or of little benefit. Here, the authors find that a benign polygenic predisposition to lower white blood cell counts is associated with multiple clinical endpoints, suggesting that predisposed individuals are susceptible to escalations or alterations in clinical care that may be harmful or of little benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is imperative to develop efficient flame retardants to solve the issues of high heat and smoke release for epoxy resin (EP) polymeric materials plagued over time. Hence, a phosphorus–nitrogen modified Ti3C2Tx MXene nanohybrids (MXene@MPA) were synthesized by in situ assembly melamine phytate macromolecules (MPA) to boost the fire hazards of EP composites. The introduction of MPA improved the dispersion of MXene in epoxy matrix, contributing to the improved thermal stability and flame-retardant properties for EP composites. With the addition of 2 mass% MXene@MPA, EP composites achieved the decreased maximum mass loss rate (MLRmax) by 41.8%, indicating the enhanced thermal properties. Also, the peak heat release rate (PHRR) and peak smoke production rate (PSPR) of EP-MXene@MPA composites were down by 27.9% and 43.6% compared to pure EP, respectively, accompanied by significantly increased char production. The synergistic effects between MPA and MXene contributed to the elevated fire safety of EP-MXene@MPA composites: the catalytic charring of transition metals and phosphorus-containing acid and the barrier effect of MXene nanosheets, as well as the quenching effects of phosphorus–oxygen free radicals and dilution of nitrogen-containing inert gases due to the decomposition of MPA. The multiple hybridization route provided a reference for the development of efficient MXene-based flame retardants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving a harmonious alignment between the biological characteristics of fish and hydrodynamics patterns is crucial for ensuring the efficacy of fish passage facilities. In this study, based on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the river and the biological characteristics of fish, we evaluated the internal flow field in the nature-like fishway of Congen II hydropower station located along the Chabao river and explored methods to improve the operation efficiency. Based on comprehensive considerations of the flow field, turbulent kinetic energy, and the migration pathways of fish, it is found that the implementation of a continuous oblique bottom slope represents a more cost-effective and operationally convenient solution. The influence of different permutation of bulkheads in the nature-like fishway on operational efficiency was further examined. Our investigation revealed that the nature-like fishway with the continuous slope of 2% and the arrangement of three bulkheads in each row (model 3) exhibited a relatively simple velocity distribution and linear flow line, which poses challenges for fish in locating resting areas. In addition, the distribution of low turbulence kinetic energy area in the mainstream made it less favorable for fish to transition from the mainstream to the rest area within the fishway. The nature-like fishway with the continuous slope of 2% and the arrangement of two or three bulkheads in staggered rows (model 4) demonstrated better performance. Several potential fish migration routes for both model 3 and model 4 were proposed based on the numerical simulation results. In model 3, fish exhibited a continuous sprint through the concentrated high-speed area, which was less favorable for fish to rest and forage. In contrast, model 4 exhibited a diversified flow velocity distribution, enabling fish to make timely changes in their direction during migration. This feather proved to be advantageous in enhancing fish migration within the passage. The design of nature-like fishway in this study provides an important reference and technical support for the construction and optimization of the nature-like fishway for low dams, and is of great significance for restoring river connectivity destroyed by small hydropower construction and improving fish migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aberrant iron metabolism is commonly observed in multiple tumor types, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, as the key regulator of iron metabolism involved in iron absorption, the role of transferrin receptor (TFRC) in HCC remains elusive. Methods: The mRNA and protein expression of TFRC were evaluated in paired HCC and adjacent non-tumor specimens. The correlation between TFRC level and clinicopathological features or prognostic significance was also analyzed. The role of TFRC on biological functions was finally studied in vitro and in vivo. Results: The TFRC level was remarkably upregulated in HCC tissues compared to paired peritumor tissues. Overexpressed TFRC positively correlated with serum alpha-fetoprotein, carcinoembryonic antigen, and poor tumor differentiation. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that upregulated TFRC was an independent predictive marker for poorer overall survival and disease-free survival in HCC patients. Loss of TFRC markedly impaired cell proliferation and migration in vitro and notably suppressed HCC growth and metastasis in vivo, while overexpression of TFRC performed an opposite effect. Mechanistically, the mTOR signaling pathway was downregulated with TFRC knockdown, and the mTOR agonist MHY1485 completely reversed the biological inhibition in HCC cells caused by TFRC knockdown. Furthermore, exogenous ferric citrate (FAC) or iron chelator reversed the changed biological functions and signaling pathway expression of HCC cells caused by TFRC knockdown or overexpression, respectively. Conclusions: Our study indicates that TFRC exerts an oncogenic role in HCC and may become a promising therapeutic target to restrain HCC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen-rich hollow carbon microspheres were successfully synthesized using resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon sources, tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) as a catalyst, and nitrogen source, with SiO2 microspheres as a hollow template. The hollow carbon microspheres were prepared by adding varying amounts of SiO2 hollow templates to a fixed amount of TEPA. The shell thickness increased as the amount of SiO2 template decreased and the shell thicknesses of AHMCS-2(1), AHMCS-2(3), and AHMCS-2(5) were 28.5 nm, 17.3 nm, and 12.7 nm, respectively. The activated hollow carbon microspheres (AHMCS-2(1), AHMCS-2(3) and AHMCS-2(5)) contained 4.66%, 5.05%, and 3.27% nitrogen, respectively. Due to the sufficient activation process, the specific surface area and microporous volume of hollow carbon microspheres are greatly increased compared to solid carbon microspheres, therefore, their CO2 adsorption performance is superior as well. As the shell layer thickens, the specific surface area and micropore volume of the activated hollow carbon microspheres increased, among which AHMCS-2(1) showed the largest specific surface area and micropore volume of 1146 m2/g and 0.45 cm3/g, respectively. Similarly, the CO2 adsorption capacity of activated hollow carbon microspheres increased with the increasing thickness of the shell layer, and that of AHMCS-2(1) reached 5.54 mmol/g at 0 °C. High specific surface area, high micropore volume, high nitrogen content, and small micropore pore size are favorable for CO2 adsorption by carbon microspheres. The hollow carbon microspheres exhibit high CO2 dynamic adsorption capacity, excellent selective adsorption, and good cyclic stability. Highlights: Nitrogen-rich hollow carbon microspheres with different shell layer thicknesses were prepared using the template method. The thicker shell thickness retains more micropores and nitrogen content. The nitrogen-rich hollow carbon microspheres have high CO2 adsorption performance due to large specific surface area and high nitrogen content. The effect of activation process on the nitrogen-rich hollow carbon microspheres with different shell thicknesses is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi-supervised learning offers a solution to the high cost and limited availability of manually labeled samples in supervised learning. In semi-supervised visual object detection, the use of unlabeled data can significantly enhance the performance of deep learning models. In this paper, we introduce an end-to-end framework, named CISO (Co-Iteration Semi-Supervised Learning for Object Detection), which integrates a knowledge distillation approach and a collaborative, iterative semi-supervised learning strategy. To maximize the utilization of pseudo-label data and address the scarcity of pseudo-label data due to high threshold settings, we propose a mean iteration approach where all unlabeled data is applied to each training iteration. Pseudo-label data with high confidence is extracted based on an ever-changing threshold (average intersection over union of all pseudo-labeled data). This strategy not only ensures the accuracy of the pseudo-label but also optimizes the use of unlabeled data. Subsequently, we apply a weak-strong data augmentation strategy to update the model. Lastly, we evaluate CISO using Swin Transformer model and conduct comprehensive experiments on MS-COCO. Our framework showcases impressive results, outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by 2.16 mAP and 1.54 mAP with 10% and 5% labeled data, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In gait recognition (GR) based on graph convolutional network (GCN), both the limitation of existing human skeleton joint partitioning strategies (HSJPSs) and the ignorance of the difference between frames result in a deterioration of recognition performance. Therefore, an improved GaitGraph method via a new HSJPS and multi-scale temporal convolution (MSTC) is proposed to solve the problems. First, the new HSJPS with the locally non-shared joint (LNS-HSJPS) is designed to acquire the corresponding spatial graph convolutional model, which is employed to replace that of the GaitGraph. Then, the temporal enhancement module (TEM) is introduced into the shallow layer of the network to generate a temporal attention matrix, in order to obtain the most informative skeleton frames in the gait sequence. Finally, an improved spatial temporal block (IST-Block) with MSTC is proposed in the subsequent feature extraction process. Specifically, the MSTC is integrated into the bottleneck structure to sufficiently extract the gait features from both adjacent and non-adjacent frames. The experiments not only validate that the LNS-HSJPS can significantly improve the recognition accuracy of the baseline GaitGraph, but also indicate that our method can achieve superior performance and better robustness under cross-view and cross-walk conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning-based visual object detection is a fundamental aspect of computer vision. These models not only locate and classify multiple objects within an image, but they also identify bounding boxes. The focus of this paper's research work is to classify fruits as ripe or overripe using digital images. Our proposed model extracts visual features from fruit images and analyzes fruit peel characteristics to predict the fruit's class. We utilize our own datasets to train two "anchor-free" models: YOLOv8 and CenterNet, aiming to produce accurate predictions. The CenterNet network primarily incorporates ResNet-50 and employs the deconvolution module DeConv for feature map upsampling. The final three branches of convolutional neural networks are applied to predict the heatmap. The YOLOv8 model leverages CSP and C2f modules for lightweight processing. After analyzing and comparing the two models, we found that the C2f module of the YOLOv8 model significantly enhances classification results, achieving an impressive accuracy rate of 99.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional models for pose estimation in video surveillance are based on graph structures, in this paper, we propose a method that breaks the limitation of template matching within a range of pose changes to obtain robust results. We implement our swimmer pose estimation method based on deep learning. We take use of High-Resolution Net (HRNet) to extract and fuse visual features of visual object and complete the object detection using the key points of human joint. The proposed model could be applied to all kinds of swimming styles throughout appropriate training. Compared with the methods that require multimodel combinations and training, the proposed method directly achieves the end-to-end prediction, which is easily to be implemented and deployed. In addition, a cross-fusion module is added between parallel networks, which assists the network to make use of the characteristics of multiple resolutions. The proposed network has achieved ideal results in the pose estimation of swimmers by comparing HRNet-W32 and HRNet-W48. In addition, we propose an annotated key point dataset of swimmers which was created from the view of underwater swimmers. Compared with side view, the torso of swimmers collected by the underwater view is much suitable for a broad spectrum of machine vision tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed carbon sources have been developed for denitrification to eliminate the "carbon dependency" problem of single carbon. The metabolic correlation between different carbon sources is significant as guidance for the development of novel mixed carbon sources. In this study, to explore the metabolic similarity of denitrifying carbon sources, we selected alcohols (methanol, ethanol, and glycerol) and saccharide carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, and starch). Batch denitrification experiments revealed that methanol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of both methanol (14.42 mg-N/gMLVSS*h) and ethanol (9.65 mg-N/gMLVSS*h), whereas ethanol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of both methanol (7.80 mg-N/gMLVSS*h) and ethanol (22.23 mg-N/gMLVSS*h). In addition, the glucose-acclimated sludge and sucrose-acclimated sludge possibly improved the denitrification rate of glucose and sucrose, and the glycerol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), alcohols, and saccharide carbon sources. Functional gene analysis revealed that methanol, ethanol, and glycerol exhibited active alcohol oxidation and glyoxylate metabolism, and glycerol, glucose, and sucrose exhibited active glycolysis metabolism. This indicated that the similarity in the denitrification metabolism of these carbon sources was based on functional gene similarity, and glycerol-acclimated sludge exhibited the most diverse metabolism, which ensured its good denitrification effect with other carbon sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively extract and classify the information from reports or documents and protect the privacy of the extracted results, we propose a privacy classification named Word Embedding Combination Privacy-preserving Support Vector Machine (WECPPSVM) model to classify the text. In addition, this paper also proposes the Privacy-preserving Distribution and Independent Frequent Subsequence Extraction Algorithm (PPDIFSEA), which calculates the degree of independence of the training data input to the classification model by training the Deep Belief Network(DBN) in PPDIFSEA, then obtains the Privacy Boundary(PB). PB is an indispensable condition for both data sampling and privacy noise generation. And this model can protect privacy by injecting the privacy noise into the classification result, this method can interfere with the background knowledge-based privacy attack. Our quantitative analysis shows that the WECPPSVM proposed in this paper can approach mainstream text classification algorithms in terms of text classification accuracy while preserving privacy without increasing computational complexity. In addition, the fusion study and privacy threat evaluation also verify that the proposed PPDIFSEA method combined with WECPPSVM achieves an acceptable level of classification accuracy and privacy protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to improve the comprehensive performance of the ductile iron bars (DIBs) for the cylinder block of the extra high pressure hydraulic plunger pump and accelerate the industrial application. In this work, the LZQT600-3 DIBs with the diameter of 145 mm were prepared by the horizontal continuous casting (HCC) process, that is, LZQT600-3 HCCDIBs. The microstructure and room temperature tensile properties of different sections [left-edge (surface layer), left-1/2R (left half of the radius), and the center of the HCCDIBs] were studied. The results show that the spheroidization of LZQT600-3 HCCDIBs matrix from the left-edge, left1/2R to the center is at nodulizing grade II and above. As the cooling rate gradually decreases from surface to the center of the HCCIBs, the number of spheroidized graphite is gradually reduced, the size is gradually increased, the shape factor is decreased, and the pearlite content and lamellate spacing are increased. Along the horizontal direction of the section, the hardness of the material is distributed symmetrically around the center of the HCCDIBs. In the vertical direction, the hardness distribution in the center of the HCCDIBs is asymmetrical due to the gravity during the solidification process. Therefore, the microstructure in the lower part of the section solidifies relatively quickly. The left-edge has the best tensile mechanical properties, and the ultimate tensile strength, yield tensile strength and elongation are 597.3 MPa, 418.5 MPa and 9.6%, respectively. The tensile fracture belongs to the ductile-brittle hybrid fracture. The comprehensive performances of LZQT600-3 HCCDIBs meet the actual application requirements of ultra-high pressure hydraulic plunger pump cylinder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug repurposing represents an attractive alternative to the costly and time-consuming process of new drug development, particularly for serious, widespread conditions with limited effective treatments, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Emerging generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technologies like ChatGPT offer the promise of expediting the review and summary of scientific knowledge. To examine the feasibility of using GAI for identifying drug repurposing candidates, we iteratively tasked ChatGPT with proposing the twenty most promising drugs for repurposing in AD, and tested the top ten for risk of incident AD in exposed and unexposed individuals over age 65 in two large clinical datasets: (1) Vanderbilt University Medical Center and (2) the All of Us Research Program. Among the candidates suggested by ChatGPT, metformin, simvastatin, and losartan were associated with lower AD risk in meta-analysis. These findings suggest GAI technologies can assimilate scientific insights from an extensive Internet-based search space, helping to prioritize drug repurposing candidates and facilitate the treatment of diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the melting residue of the asthenosphere at ocean ridges, the oceanic mantle lithosphere is initially depleted, which might be re-enriched by various types of melts. However, the metasomatic enrichments in the sub-ridge mantle lithosphere are generally assumed to be limited, because these melts have low abundances of incompatible elements. In this study, we report a case of extreme metasomatic enrichment in abyssal peridotites from the Atlantis Bank oceanic core complex on the Southwest Indian Ridge. We identify two types of metasomatized peridotites (Type 1 and 2) and a clinopyroxenite, which show different degrees of interaction with evolved melts. Type 1 peridotite exhibits strong incompatible element zonation and negative Eu anomalies in clinopyroxene, indicating a short-term percolation of a modestly evolved mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB). Type 2 peridotite shows textural and trace element features consistent with the impregnation of a highly evolved, oxide-saturated MORB magma. The clinopyroxenite shows remarkable enrichments in iron and incompatible trace elements and negative Eu anomalies in clinopyroxene and contains abundant zircon and apatite, which imply reaction with an extremely evolved Fe–Zr–P-rich melt. We attribute such extreme mantle metasomatic enrichments to the lateral infiltration of variably evolved melts from a local magmatic center, which is now exposed as the Atlantis Bank gabbroic massif. As slow- and ultraslow-spreading ridges exhibit similarly discontinuous lower crust, the intervening shallow mantle between local magmatic centers may have been pervasively metasomatized by the evolved melts, leading the way for substantial mantle enrichment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contactless acquisition enables palm identification device to be more easily accepted by people who worry about hygiene problems. The uncertainty of the position between the palm and the device leads to the horizontal rotation, translation, scaling of palm image. This paper proposes a novel feature extraction method which can reflect the geometric features of palmprint and palm vein without being affected by the scaling, rotation and translation. Firstly, the inscribed circle of palm is obtained, and then several radiation segments are made between the circle center and circumference. The wiring direction from the center to the root points of both middle finger and ring finger is as the direction of the first radiation segment. Secondly, the gradient value of pixels in the inscribed circle is calculated by creating template. The feature vector space is established by the relative radius of radiation segment's centroids. Finally, the palm image database is established based on the application. The feature stability in different size of sub-template and recognition performance in different number of feature line segments are analyzed. In the size of sub-template is equal to three and the number of feature line segments is 60, the equal error rate is less than 0.4% and feature extraction time is 0.0019 s. The experimental results show that the method can extract out stable characteristics whenever the hand image is scaled, rotated or translated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a non-destructive test of apple ripeness using digital images of multiple types of apples. In this paper, fruit images are treated as data samples, artificial intelligence models are employed to implement the classification of fruits and the identification of maturity levels. In order to obtain the ripeness classifications of fruits, we make use of deep learning models to conduct our experiments; we evaluate the test results of our proposed models. In order to ensure the accuracy of our experimental results, we created our own dataset, and obtained the best accuracy of fruit classification by comparing Transformer model and YOLO model in deep learning, thereby attaining the best accuracy of fruit maturity recognition. At the same time, we also combined YOLO model with attention module and gave the fast object detection by using the improved YOLO model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The average time interval adopted by the historical wind climate observation data of different meteorological stations worldwide is not uniform, leading to a conversion difficulty of the average time interval in the extreme wind speed estimation process. Early observation equipment requires manual intervention, leading to discontinuous data and estimated deviation. This study analyzed wind speed data recorded by 11 meteorological stations in normal wind climate areas to obtain average wind speed sequences with different average time intervals. The extreme wind speeds for some return periods were calculated. Subsequently, the influence of the average time intervals on the prediction results of extreme wind speeds was analyzed. Simultaneously, the data were extracted into a 2 min average wind speed series with hourly, 6-hourly, and no-spacing observation. The estimation results of extreme wind speed for the return periods based on these three data series were calculated and compared in detail. Extreme wind speed for a given return period decreases with an increase in the average time interval in normal wind climate areas and approximates an exponential attenuation. The difference between the extreme wind speed corresponding to the continuous observation series and that corresponding to the observation data series with a spacing of 1 or 6 h meets the Rayleigh distribution. This study proposes a conversion formula for extreme wind speed with different average time intervals in normal wind climate areas. A set of correction methods for wind speed observation data with observation spacings was provided for more accurate estimation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basal ganglia hemorrhage, which is characterized by excessive incapacity charge and high mortality rates, is surgically treated by minimally invasive hematoma puncture and drainage. We aimed at determining the efficacy of laser-guided minimally invasive hematoma puncture and drainage for treatment of basal ganglia hemorrhage. A total of 61 patients with hypertensive basal ganglia hemorrhage were recruited at the Binzhou Medical University Hospital, between October 2019 and January 2021, and their clinical information retrospectively analyzed. Based on the surgical approach used, patients were assigned into either laser navigation or small bone window groups depending on the surgical approach. Then, we compared the operation times, intraoperative blood loss, clinic stay, Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) rating at 30 days, Barthel index (BI) rating at 6 months, postoperative pneumonia incidences, and intracranial contamination complications between groups. Intraoperative blood loss, operation time, and sanatorium were significantly low in laser navigation group, relative to the small bone window group. At the same time, there were no significant differences between the groups with regard to postoperative hematoma volume, lung contamination, (CSF) leak, and intracranial contamination, as well as the 6-month BI and 30-day GOS rating. There were no deaths in either group. Compared with the traditional small bone window surgery, laser-guided puncture and drainage is a low-cost, accurate, and safe method for the treatment of basal ganglia hemorrhage, which is suitable for promotion in developing countries and economically underdeveloped areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: CPAP is the "gold standard" treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Current CPAP models have developed additional functions including automatic CPAP and pressure relief. However, CPAP adherence has not improved over the last three decades. Many patients in low-income countries cannot afford these CPAP devices. A novel simple CPAP device with a fixed pressure without pressure controller was developed. Methods: Manual CPAP pressure titration was performed in 127 patients with OSA. Six patients with a titration pressure higher than 11 cmH2O and 14 patients who could not tolerate CPAP were excluded, leaving 107 participating in the following 2 studies. In study one, 54 of 107 patients were treated by both conventional fixed CPAP and simple CPAP in random order. In the second study, another 53 patients were treated by both autoCPAP in automatic function and simple CPAP in random order. Simple CPAP was fixed at 10 cmH2O, 8 cmH2O, and 6 cmH2O for patients whose titration pressure was between 9–10, 7–8, and ≤ 6 cmH2O, respectively. Conventional fixed CPAP device was set exactly the same as manual titration pressure. Results: All patients whose manual titration pressure ≤ 10 cmH2O were effectively treated by simple CPAP (AHI 40.7 ± 2.3 events/h before vs 2.5 ± 0.3 events/h after, p < 0.001). Patients expressed similar preferences for simple CPAP, autoCPAP, and conventional fixed CPAP (p > 0.05). Conclusions: We conclude that a novel simple CPAP is an alternative treatment for most patients with OSA, which may widen access to CPAP therapy in the developing countries because of its low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyroxenite veins are commonly observed in the mantle section of ophiolites, reflecting a variety of melts that percolate through the mantle, react, and finally crystallize in the lithosphere. To better understand the formation mechanism of the pyroxenite veins and associated peridotites, we conducted an integrated petrological and geochemical study of a suite of orthopyroxenite, websterite, and composite clinopyroxenite–orthopyroxenite veins in residual peridotites from the Dazhuqu ophiolite (Southern Tibet, China). Both orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene in pyroxenites are characterized by high Mg#, low Al2O3 concentrations, and depleted patterns of incompatible trace elements. This suggests that parental melts of the pyroxenites could be formed by re-melting of a previously depleted mantle source. We observed systematic variations in the major and trace element compositions of clinopyroxene and orthopyroxene across the pyroxenite–harzburgite sequences. Through trace element modeling, we have established a model for the formation of pyroxenite veins and associated harzburgites. According to this model, hydrous and aggregated melts were expelled from the tip of the dunite channels and subsequently injected into the lithosphere via fractures. The infiltrating melts then underwent diffusional loss of water into the residual harzburgites within the asthenosphere, which in turn promoting partial melting of the harzburgite. The pyroxenite veins were formed by mixing the infiltrating channel melt and matrix melt derived from partially molten harzburgite. This formation model can be applied to explain the pyroxenite–harzburgite and dunite–pyroxenite–harzburgite sequences in the Yarlung-Tsangbo ophiolite and other ophiolites around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circularly polarized light (CPL) adds a unique dimension to optical information processing and communication. Integrating CPL sensitivity with light learning and memory in a photonic artificial synapse (PAS) device holds significant value for advanced neuromorphic vision systems. However, the development of such systems has been impeded by the scarcity of suitable CPL active optoelectronic materials. In this work, we employ a helical chiral perovskite hybrid combined with single-wall carbon nanotubes to achieve circularly polarized ultraviolet neuromorphic vision sensing and imaging. The heterostructure demonstrates long-term charge storage as evidenced by multiple-pulsed transient absorption measurements and highly sensitive circular polarization-dependent photodetection, thereby enabling efficient CPL-resolved synaptic and neuromorphic behaviors. Significantly, our PAS sensor arrays adeptly visualize, discriminate, and memorize distinct circularly polarized images with up to 93% recognition accuracy in spiking neural network simulations. These findings underscore the pivotal role of chiral perovskites in advancing PAS technology and circular polarization-enhanced ultraviolet neuromorphic vision systems. Circularly polarized light adds a unique dimension to optical information processing and communication. Here, the authors present a development of a photonic artificial synapse device using chiral perovskite hybrid materials and carbon nanotubes. The heterostructure exhibits efficient synaptic and neuromorphic behaviors, enabling accurate recognition of circularly polarized images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, agriculture has incorporated various sensors to obtain crop data. Nutrients, conductivity, and pH in soil are the key factors affecting the growth of crops. Before using fertilizers, farmers need to master the soil information of the orchard to decide the ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to be fertilized and the amount of water to be irrigated. Although existing outdoor technology sensing solutions can detect soil nutrient information, there are high maintenance costs and systems that do not provide analysis recommendations, which are very unfriendly to farmers. Aiming at the above problems, we propose the fuzzy neural network of fertilization rate and fuzzy neural network of fertilization rate to provide farmers with the most direct fertilization and irrigation suggestions. This paper uses an automated self-propelled soil identification system that enables path planning in an orchard. After arriving at the measurement point designated by the farmer, we use the soil probe measurement system to measure soil nutrients within a certain range. The system provides farmers with suggestions on fertilization and medication and grasps the growth status of the orchard area. The advantage of this is that it can reduce the maintenance cost caused by the long-term installation of the system. The cost of our vehicle-mounted system is 150,000 NT dollars, which saves 350,000 NT dollars a year and 50,000 NT dollars in maintenance costs compared to installing ten outdoor weather station sensors. Compared with fixed weather station solutions, mobile unmanned vehicles can analyze more land areas and bring more precise benefits to farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Alkyl-tailored Y-SMAs named YR-SeNF series with near-infrared absorption, different molecular crystallinity and self-assembly abilities are developed. The related organic solar cells (OSCs) with an active layer processed from halogen-free solvents and spin-coating-free technologies achieve a ~ 19% efficiency. Ternary OSCs offer a robust operating stability under MPP tracking and well-keep > 80% of the initial efficiency for even over 400 h. Power-conversion-efficiencies (PCEs) of organic solar cells (OSCs) in laboratory, normally processed by spin-coating technology with toxic halogenated solvents, have reached over 19%. However, there is usually a marked PCE drop when the blade-coating and/or green-solvents toward large-scale printing are used instead, which hampers the practical development of OSCs. Here, a new series of N-alkyl-tailored small molecule acceptors named YR-SeNF with a same molecular main backbone are developed by combining selenium-fused central-core and naphthalene-fused end-group. Thanks to the N-alkyl engineering, NIR-absorbing YR-SeNF series show different crystallinity, packing patterns, and miscibility with polymeric donor. The studies exhibit that the molecular packing, crystallinity, and vertical distribution of active layer morphologies are well optimized by introducing newly designed guest acceptor associated with tailored N-alkyl chains, providing the improved charge transfer dynamics and stability for the PM6:L8-BO:YR-SeNF-based OSCs. As a result, a record-high PCE approaching 19% is achieved in the blade-coating OSCs fabricated from a green-solvent o-xylene with high-boiling point. Notably, ternary OSCs offer robust operating stability under maximum-power-point tracking and well-keep > 80% of the initial PCEs for even over 400 h. Our alkyl-tailored guest acceptor strategy provides a unique approach to develop green-solvent and blade-coating processed high-efficiency and operating stable OSCs, which paves a way for industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonic computing enables faster and more energy-efficient processing of vision data1–5. However, experimental superiority of deployable systems remains a challenge because of complicated optical nonlinearities, considerable power consumption of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for downstream digital processing and vulnerability to noises and system errors1,6–8. Here we propose an all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing (ACCEL). It has a systemic energy efficiency of 74.8 peta-operations per second per watt and a computing speed of 4.6 peta-operations per second (more than 99% implemented by optics), corresponding to more than three and one order of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art computing processors, respectively. After applying diffractive optical computing as an optical encoder for feature extraction, the light-induced photocurrents are directly used for further calculation in an integrated analog computing chip without the requirement of analog-to-digital converters, leading to a low computing latency of 72 ns for each frame. With joint optimizations of optoelectronic computing and adaptive training, ACCEL achieves competitive classification accuracies of 85.5%, 82.0% and 92.6%, respectively, for Fashion-MNIST, 3-class ImageNet classification and time-lapse video recognition task experimentally, while showing superior system robustness in low-light conditions (0.14 fJ μm−2 each frame). ACCEL can be used across a broad range of applications such as wearable devices, autonomous driving and industrial inspections.An all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing achieves systemic energy efficiency of more than three orders of magnitude and a computing speed of more than one order of magnitude compared with state-of-the-art computing processors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing slash pine plantations is the primary method for restoring sandification land in the Houtian area of South China. However, the microbial variation pattern with increasing stand age remains unclear. In this study, we investigated microbial community structure and function in bare sandy land and four stand age gradients, exploring ecological processes that determine their assembly. We did not observe a significant increase in the absolute abundance of bacteria or fungi with stand age. Bacterial communities were dominated by Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Acidobacteria; the relative abundance of Chloroflexi significantly declined while Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria significantly increased with stand age. Fungal communities showed succession at the genus level, with Pisolithus most abundant in soils of younger stands (1- and 6-year-old). Turnover of fungal communities was primarily driven by stochastic processes; both deterministic and stochastic processes influenced the assembly of bacterial communities, with the relative importance of stochastic processes gradually increasing with stand age. Bacterial and fungal communities showed the strongest correlation with the diameter at breast height, followed by soil available phosphorus and water content. Notably, there was a significant increase in the relative abundance of functional groups involved in nitrogen fixation and uptake as stand age increased. Overall, this study highlights the important effects of slash pine stand age on microbial communities in sandy lands and suggests attention to the nitrogen and phosphorus requirements of slash pine plantations in the later stages of sandy management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pattern classification has always been essential in computer vision. Transformer paradigm having attention mechanism with global receptive field in computer vision improves the efficiency and effectiveness of visual object detection and recognition. The primary purpose of this article is to achieve the accurate ripeness classification of various types of fruits. We create fruit datasets to train, test, and evaluate multiple Transformer models. Transformers are fundamentally composed of encoding and decoding procedures. The encoder is to stack the blocks, like convolutional neural networks (CNN or ConvNet). Vision Transformer (ViT), Swin Transformer, and multilayer perceptron (MLP) are considered in this paper. We examine the advantages of these three models for accurately analyzing fruit ripeness. We find that Swin Transformer achieves more significant outcomes than ViT Transformer for both pears and apples from our dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]