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Foreign object detection on top of railway freight vehicles is critical to ensuring the safety and efficiency railway transportation. However, this task is mainly carried out manually, facing major challenges such as low accuracy and false positives and false negatives. To address the above problems, this paper proposes a novel BiFPN-SECA Network, Bidirectional Feature Pyramid Network with Squeeze-and-Excitation Channel Attention, which integrates an attention mechanism combining contextual features and coordinate information. This innovative approach improves detection performance by effectively capturing and emphasizing key features. The ordinary convolutional layers in the coordinate attention mechanism are improved in SEnet to increase the attention to the regions of interest. Second, an improved coordinate attention mechanism module is embedded before the BiFPN sampling layer and after the backbone output layer to enhance key feature extraction. In addition, a dataset of foreign objects in railway freight vehicles was established, including bag, stone and torn. Experimental results verify that the BiFPN-SECA Network is able to improve detection accuracy, with an accuracy of 94.57 % , demonstrating its potential to significantly enhance the safety and reliability of railway freight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ternary I-III-VI quantum dots, unlike traditional binary counterparts, offer advantages like low toxicity, cadmium-free composition, tunable electronic properties, and near-infrared light emission, making them increasingly popular for their cost-effectiveness and versatile applications in light emission. In this study, monodispersive, water-soluble, highly emissive CuInS2@ZnS quantum dots were synthesized using cysteine and threonine as ligands by a simple one-pot solution method. By adjusting, the ratio of cysteine to threonine to 1:5 and the heating time during the synthesis process to 40 min, CuInS2@ZnS quantum dots achieved the highest fluorescence intensity. Then, CuInS2@ZnS quantum dots were applied for ciprofloxacin (CIP) detection in food sample, showing a linear range of 2–18 μg/ml and a lowest detection limit of 0.28 μg/ml. The fluorescent probe was successfully established by quenching process as CIP concentration increasing, due to photoinduced electron transfer. Experimental results demonstrated the detection method has high sensitivity and good selectivity. We, then utilized smartphones to visually distinguish CIP concentrations based on the colors emitted by the CuInS2@ZnS quantum dots under UV light. The method was finally effectively to detect residual CIP in porcine kidneys, with recoveries of 92%–98%. This approach has promising potential for enhancing food safety testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Top-K and selection operations are critical in data processing and analysis, and their efficient implementation on GPUs is increasingly important due to the growing demands of data analysis. Existing methods, primarily relying on the bucket partition execution model, encounter challenges such as uneven bucket distribution and latency in merging processes. To address these issues, we introduce a novel Split-Bucket Partition (SBP) execution model that specifically addresses these challenges. Additionally, we propose task and control flow optimizations targeted at top-K and selection algorithms, which further contribute to performance improvements. Our optimized algorithms significantly outperform existing approaches, delivering performance gains of up to 2.3 times and 1.6 times for different bucket partitioning rules. Our algorithms show robust performance improvements in non-uniform data scenarios, with gains ranging from 1.9 times to 15.5 times. However, it should be noted that the SBP model has limitations related to shared memory and register utilization, potentially impacting performance. Tests on TU102 and A100 GPU architectures validate the effectiveness of our approach, achieving a maximum speedup of 2.9 times. The study suggests that while the SBP model is effective for top-K and selection algorithms, it also holds promise for other computational tasks, setting the stage for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) plays a critical role in a wide range of linear algebra computations, particularly in scientific and engineering disciplines. However, the irregular memory access patterns, extensive memory usage, high bandwidth requirements, and underutilization of parallelism hinder the computational efficiency of SpMV on GPUs. In this paper, we propose a novel approach called block-wise dynamic mixed-precision (BDMP) to address these challenges. Our methodology involves partitioning the original matrix into uniformly sized blocks, with each block's size determined by considering architectural characteristics and accuracy requirements. Additionally, we dynamically assign precision to each block using a precision selection method that takes into account the value distribution of the original sparse matrix. We develop two distinct SpMV computation algorithms for BDMP: BDMP-PBP (Precision-based partitioning) and BDMP-TCKI (Tailored compression and kernel implementation). BDMP-PBP partitions the matrix into two independent matrices for separate computations based on block precision, offering flexibility for integration with other optimization techniques. Meanwhile, BDMP-TCKI focuses on achieving significant thread-level parallelism and memory utilization by tailoring an appropriate compressed storage format and kernel implementation for each block. We compare BDMP with NVIDIA's cuSPARSE library and three state-of-the-art SpMV methods, including SELLP, MergeBase, and BalanceCSR, using matrices from the University of Florida's SuiteSparse dataset collection. BDMP-PBP and BDMP-TCKI show average speedups up to 2.64 × and 2.91 × on Turing RTX 2080Ti, and up to 2.99 × and 3.22 × on Ampere A100. The results demonstrate that BDMP enables the optimization of computation speed without compromising the precision necessary for reliable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) can be effectively applied for cardio-protection. Here, to clarify whether RIC exerts myocardial protection via aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), we established a myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) model in C57BL/6 and ALDH2 knockout (ALDH2-KO) mice and treated them with RIC. Echocardiography and single-cell contraction experiments showed that RIC significantly improved myocardial function and alleviated I/R injury in C57BL/6 mice but did not exhibit its cardioprotective effects in ALDH2-KO mice. TUNEL, Evan's blue/triphenyl tetrazolium chloride, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays showed that RIC's effect on reducing myocardial cell apoptosis, myocardial infarction area, and ROS levels was insignificant in ALDH2-KO mice. Our results showed that RIC could increase ALDH2 protein levels, activate sirtuin 3 (SIRT3)/hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1α), inhibit autophagy, and exert myocardial protection. This study revealed that RIC could exert myocardial protection via the ALDH2/SIRT3/HIF1α signaling pathway by reducing 4-HNE secretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiber organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have received extensive attention in wearable and implantable biosensors because of their high flexibility and low working voltage. However, the transconductance of fiber OECTs is much lower compared with the planar counterparts, leading to low sensitivity. Here, we developed fiber OECTs in a coaxial configuration with microscale channel length to achieve the highest transconductance of 135 mS, which is one to two orders of magnitude higher than that of the state-of-the-art fiber OECTs. Coaxial fiber OECT based sensors showed high sensitivities of 12.78, 20.53 and 3.78 mA/decade to ascorbic acid, hydrogen peroxide and glucose, respectively. These fiber OECTs were woven into a fabric to monitor the glucose in sweat during exercise and implanted in mouse brain to detect ascorbic acid. This coaxial architectural design offers an effective way to promote the performance of fiber OECTs and realize highly sensitive detection of biochemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing efficient adsorbents is key to mitigate radioactive contamination in coal mine wastewater and improve uranium extraction. This study processed local Photinia × fraseri Dress into biochar via high-temperature carbonization. Microwave irradiation yielded modified biochar, then treated under alkaline conditions and dilute sulfuric acid to produce PDC-M-K and PDC-M-H. The study found that PDC-M-K and PDC-M-H had U(VI) adsorption capacities of 79.6 and 116.3 mg U/g ads, with utilization rates of 69.3% and 75.6%, respectively. Their adsorption selectivity for U(VI) was 66.5% and 72.8%. Indicating that modified biochar effectively adsorbs U(VI) from wastewater, providing a reference for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1–x)BaTiO3–xBi(Ni1/2Zr1/2)O3 [(1–x)BT–xBNZ, x = 0.08 ~ 0.20] polycrystal ceramics were produced from solid-state reaction and used to make efficient dielectric capacitors for pulsed power use. All specimens had a pseudocubic phase and generated stable solid solutions with dense microstructures. The average grain size of (1-x)BT-xBNZ ceramics first increased and then decreased with x. Dielectric detection showed the BT-BNZ ceramics were relaxor-like with wider phase transiting peaks and a slim-polarized electric field, which contributed to the effective energy storage of ceramic capacitors. At the best performance component x = 0.15, the releasable energy storage density was raised to 1.67 J/cm3, and the energy efficiency was up to 89.1% at 200 kV/cm. This work provides an applicable approach to develop high-energy-storing lead-free ceramics under low electric fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intraoperative intravenous fluid administration proves to be associated with surgical patients’ postoperative outcomes. Few studies reported the relationship between intraoperative crystalloid-colloid infusion ratio and early surgical complications after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) in ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods: Data on patients with underwent IPAA from January 2008 to March 2022 at our three inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) surgery centers were retrospectively collected. Intraoperative anesthetic data were recorded and later evaluated by our team anesthesiologist. Results: A total of 140 eligible patients with a median follow-up time of 6.0 years [interquartile range (IQR): 2.0–8.0] were enrolled. Among all enrolled patients, 34 (24.3%) developed early surgical complications after IPAA. Greater blood loss and lower crystalloid-colloid infusion ratio were observed in patients with early surgical complications. Crystalloid-colloid infusion ratio < 2 and blood loss ≥ 200 ml had the most significant area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.664 and 0.674 in predicting early surgical complications. Crystalloid-colloid infusion ratio < 2 [odds ratio (OR), 2.571; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.067–6.195, p = 0.035] and blood loss ≥ 200 ml (OR, 3.165; 95% CI, 1.288–7.777, p = 0.012) were independent risk factors for the development of early post-IPAA complications. Conclusion: Intraoperative crystalloid-colloid infusion ratio < 2 and blood loss volume over 200 ml during IPAA contribute to the occurrence of early surgical complications. Early attentions and necessary interventions are warranted to avoid these risk factors during the IPAA surgery in order to prevent the development of early surgical complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting force detection can contribute to predicting the productivity and quality of end milling operations. Instantaneous cutting force prediction of digital twins in end milling operations should be near real-time and accurate. This paper proposes an image-based approach that can contain more useful information due to a higher dimension and simplify the complexity of computing geometric data. The cutter frame image (CFI) is utilized as one of the inputs of a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict instantaneous cutting forces. Considering the convenience of capturing massive data, the approach uses cutting forces generated from a mechanistic force model instead of experimental cutting forces to train the CNN. The correlation coefficient R2 value between predicted results and simulated results is 0.9999 and the average time cost per image is 0.057 s in a cutting condition, which validates the possibility to use the image-based method to predict instantaneous cutting forces accurately and efficiently in the digital twin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azolla imbircata dry powder (Ai-dp) was prepared by collecting wild Azolla imbircata, drying and grinding. SEM, FTIR and XPS have been used to characterize it. Batch biosorption experiments studied pH, contact time, initial U(VI) concentration, adsorbent dosage and temperature effects on U(VI) biosorption. These results indicated that the maximum biosorption capacity was 4.55 mg L−1 under conditions of 303 K, pH 2.0, initial U(VI) concentration 15 mg L−1 and adsorbent dosage 3.75 g L−1. The biosorption process fit pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm, it showed the adsorption process was monolayer chemisorption. The thermodynamic fitting results showed the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has considered all children while investigating adult children's role in their older parents' health and well-being. In this study, we examine the effect of filial piety across all children on parental depressive symptoms. A sample of 432 older parents with 1,223 adult children in a rural county in northern China rated the filial piety level for each child individually. Ratings were then combined across multiple children and organized into an ordinal variable of filial piety including three levels: all children being filial, some of the children being filial, and none of the children being filial. Ordinary least squares linear regression analyses were performed. The results reveal a significant and negative relationship between adult children's filial piety levels and older parents' depressive symptoms after controlling for age, gender, marital status, financial strain, chronic conditions, and social support from family and friends, respectively. That is, one level lower in the adult children's filial piety corresponds to increase in level of older parents' depressive symptoms. Filial piety seems to benefit older Chinese parents' mental health net of social support from family and friends in this sample. Including information from all children in the analyses is informative for better understanding the psychological significance of filial piety for healthy aging in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan is an amorphous translucent substance with a structural unit similar to the polysaccharide structure of the extracellular matrix, It has good antibacterial, biocompatible, and degradable properties. It has important application value in leather, water treatment, medicine, food and other fields, so chitosan and its modified products have received widespread attention. This article reviewed the preparation methods of chitosan-based antibacterial composites in recent years, including chitosan/collagen, chitosan/graphene, chitosan/tannic acid, and chitosan/polyethylene glycol composite materials, elaborates their modification methods and antibacterial mechanism were reviewed in detail, and its applications in the leather industry as antibacterial auxiliaries and water treatment antibacterial adsorption materials were discussed. Finally, the future development and challenges of chitosan-based composite materials in the leather industry were forecasted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene oxide was encapsulated into sodium alginate to prepare SA-GO composite hydrogel for U(VI) adsorption, which characterized by SEM, FTIR, and XPS. The effects of pH, reaction time, initial U(VI) concentration and adsorbent amount on U(VI) adsorption were studied by batch adsorption experiments. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity was 149.76 mg/L when pH 5.0, adsorbent 0.1 g/L, 30 °C and initial U(VI) concentration 15 mg/L. The adsorption process accords with pseudo-second-order kinetic models and Langmuir isotherm. After five cycles of desorption and reuse experiments, the adsorption capacity of SA-GO for U(VI) was still higher than 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the low access to biodegradable organic substances used for denitrification, the partial nitrification-denitrification process has been considered as a low-cost, sustainable alternative for landfill leachate treatment. In this study, the process upgrade from conventional to partial nitrification-denitrification was comprehensively investigated in a full-scale landfill leachate treatment plant (LLTP). The partial nitrification-denitrification system was successfully achieved through the optimizing dissolved oxygen and the external carbon source, with effluent nitrogen concentrations lower than 150 mg/L. Moreover, the upgrading process facilitated the enrichment of Nitrosomonas (abundance increased from 0.4% to 3.3%), which was also evidenced by increased abundance of amoA/B/C genes carried by Nitrosomonas. Although Nitrospira (accounting for 0.1%–0.6%) was found to stably exist in the reactor tank, considerable nitrite accumulation occurred in the reactor (reaching 98.8 mg/L), indicating high-efficiency of the partial nitrification process. Moreover, the abundance of Thauera, the dominant denitrifying bacteria responsible for nitrite reduction, gradually increased from 0.60% to 5.52% during the upgrade process. This process caused great changes in the microbial community, inducing continuous succession of heterotrophic bacteria accompanied by enhanced metabolic potentials toward organic substances. The results obtained in this study advanced our understanding of the operation of a partial nitrification-denitrification system and provided a technical case for the upgrade of currently existing full-scale LLTPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GPR54 is highly expressed in the central nervous system and plays a crucial role in pubertal development. However, GRP54 is also expressed in the immune system, implying possible immunoregulatory functions. Here we investigated the role of GPR54 in T cell and immune tolerance. GPR54 deficiency led to an enlarged thymus, an increased number of thymocytes, and altered thymic micro-architecture starting around puberty, indicating GPR54 function in T-cell development through its regulatory effect on the gonadal system. However, flow cytometry revealed a significant reduction in the peripheral regulatory T cell population and a moderate decrease in CD4 single-positive thymocytes in prepubertal Gpr54−/− mice. These phenotypes were confirmed in chimeric mice with GPR54 deficient bone marrow-derived cells. In addition, we found elevated T cell activation in peripheral and thymic T cells in Gpr54−/− mice. When intact mice were immunized with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, a more severe experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) developed in the Gpr54−/− mice. Interestingly, aggravated EAE disease was also manifested in castrated and bone marrow chimeric Gpr54−/− mice compared to the respective wild-type control, suggesting a defect in self-tolerance resulting from GPR54 deletion through a mechanism that bypassed sex hormones. These findings demonstrate a novel role for GPR54 in regulating self-tolerant immunity in a sex hormone independent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are a cause of stroke and seizure for which no effective medical therapies yet exist. CCMs arise from the loss of an adaptor complex that negatively regulates MEKK3-KLF2/4 signalling in brain endothelial cells, but upstream activators of this disease pathway have yet to be identified. Here we identify endothelial Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the gut microbiome as critical stimulants of CCM formation. Activation of TLR4 by Gram-negative bacteria or lipopolysaccharide accelerates CCM formation, and genetic or pharmacologic blockade of TLR4 signalling prevents CCM formation in mice. Polymorphisms that increase expression of the TLR4 gene or the gene encoding its co-receptor CD14 are associated with higher CCM lesion burden in humans. Germ-free mice are protected from CCM formation, and a single course of antibiotics permanently alters CCM susceptibility in mice. These studies identify unexpected roles for the microbiome and innate immune signalling in the pathogenesis of a cerebrovascular disease, as well as strategies for its treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal parameters of a passive damper (i.e., frequency ratio and damping ratio) for the machining vibration attenuation of thin-walled part are quite affected by the material removal process, and the damper becomes ineffective easily due to its narrow vibration band. A design of passive damper with tunable stiffness is proposed for being adaptive to the varying machining process, and the frequency tuning is carried out by orienting the mass block inside the damper. Modal tests are performed to verify the amplitude reduction of the target mode of the thin-walled part. It shows that the optimal vibration suppression is reached when the orientation is 20° due to a smaller frequency difference between the damper and target mode, and the amplitude of the damped frequency response function is reduced to 1.3 %. Finally, machining tests are carried out, and the machining vibration and surface quality validate the large increase of machining stability. The experimental critical depth of cut under optimal tuning is increased by 1.8-folds compared with the most ineffective tuning, and the machined surface roughness is reduced by more than 80 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cutting efficiency and surface quality in the machining of compliant workpieces have been severely affected by machining vibration. As industrial workpieces are most likely to have multiple flexible modes due to its complex geometry and each mode can only be damped by a single vibration mode of a tuned mass damper (TMD), a two-degree-of-freedom (DOF) magnetic TMD (MTMD) is designed for damping the vibration of aluminum thin-frame workpiece with multiple modes. The natural frequencies of the MTMD are designed to be adjustable as evidenced by hammer tests and are tuned to coincide with the modes of the workpiece. Eddy current damping is incorporated for promoting damping by utilizing the relative motion between the mass block and magnets inside the MTMD. Frequency response functions demonstrate that the MTMD is effective in attenuating the amplitude of the first and second modes by 21.6 and 12.1 dB. Milling tests are finally carried out to validate its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machining vibrations are harmful to workpiece surface quality and tool life, especially for thin-walled parts. A lightweight damping device is proposed by utilizing eddy current damping, and it can be easily attached onto the workpiece surface by glue. The cylindrical device is mainly composed of a magnet, an aluminum cylindrical conductor, and two springs. An induced repulsive force due to the machining vibration is generated and transmitted to the workpiece and then contributed to the vibration attenuation. Dynamic response evaluation on a cantilever beam by hammer tests demonstrates that the device is able to damp vibration mode and the effect of additive mass on the beam dynamics is investigated by roving the attaching point. Moreover, the device is applied to damp multiple modes and attenuate machining vibration of a thin-walled frame. Machining tests under different configurations of cutting parameters are carried out, and its effectiveness of wide band and adaptability to the varying machining processes are validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stability lobes are widely used to avoid chatter which restricts the machining quality and productivity. A lot of work has been done to predict the stability lobes fast and accurately. However, most of them are based on the linear force model, and the chatter stability limit is formulated as independent on the feed rate, which is inconsistent with the machining practice. By referencing with the zero-order solution, this paper investigates the chatter stability prediction based on the exponential force model. Focusing on the cutters with a lead angle (i.e., inserted face mill, the ball-end mill, and bull-nose end mill) where chatter is likely to be brought up in Z direction, the stability model is extended to three-dimensional. Taylor equation is utilized to linearize the exponential expressions when computing the directional coefficients in order to solve the stability limit analytically as the linear force model. Simulation results show that the exponential force model agrees with the measurements as well as the linear force model in the cutting force prediction, and it is able to demonstrate the feed rate effect on the stability limit. The stability limit is found to be increased as the feed rate increases, which is evidenced by the time domain simulation. Cutting tests are performed in the end to verify the stability model. The proposed model could be reduced to either X/ Y dimensional or linear force model-based stability model by further simplifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence reveals that genetic variants play pivotal roles in familial atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the molecular defects in most patients with AF remain to be identified. Here, we report on three novel KCNA5 mutations that were identified in 4 of 120 unrelated AF families. Among them, T527M was found in two AF families, and A576V and E610K in two other AF families, respectively. The mutations T527M and A576V were also detected in 2 and 1 of 256 patients with idiopathic AF, respectively. The same mutations were not observed in 200 secondary AF patients and 500 controls. Functional analyses revealed consistent loss-of-function effects of mutant KCNA5 proteins on the ultrarapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium currents. These findings expand the spectrum of mutations in KCNA5 linked to AF and provide new insight into the molecular mechanism involved in AF.Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 54, 277–283; doi:10.1038/jhg.2009.26; published online 3 April 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]