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Surgical site infection (SSI) following lumbar disc herniation (LDH) surgery leads to prolonged hospital stays, increased costs and reoperations. Therefore, we aim to develop and validate a nomogram to predict the risk of SSI following LDH surgery, thereby helping spine surgeons design personalized prevention strategies and promote early recovery. Data from 647 patients with SSI who underwent LDH surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University (AFMU) from 2020 to 2023 were collected. Ultimately, 241 patients with SSI were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients were randomly divided into training and validation sets with a ratio of 7:3. LASSO regression, univariate, and multivariate logistic regression were utilized to identify target variables and establish the prediction model, which was subsequently validated. Six factors—Age, Body Mass Index (BMI), Postoperative Suction Drainage (PSD), Gelatin Sponge (GS), None-Preoperative Antibiotic (NPTA), and Thrombin Time (TT)—were selected to construct the nomogram model. In the training set, the area under the curve (AUC) for the nomogram was 0.818 (95% CI 0.779–0.857). In the validation set, the AUC was 0.782 (95% CI 0.717–0.846). Calibration curves for both sets showed satisfactory agreement between predicted and actual SSI probabilities. Decision curve analysis indicated that the nomogram is clinically useful with a threshold range of 1–90%. The Clinical Impact Curve (CIC) demonstrated an acceptable cost-benefit ratio. The developed nomogram model effectively predicts the risk of SSI following LDH surgery, enabling spine surgeons to formulate more professional and rational clinical prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Unique inter-skeleton conductive films are constructed in polymer foam. The resistance change of the foam can reach four orders of magnitude under compression. This foam exhibits strain-adaptive electromagnetic interference shielding performance, anti-interference pressure sensor with high sensitivity over a wide pressure range and compression-regulated Joule heating function. Conductive polymer foam (CPF) with excellent compressibility and variable resistance has promising applications in electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and other integrated functions for wearable electronics. However, its insufficient change amplitude of resistance with compressive strain generally leads to a degradation of shielding performance during deformation. Here, an innovative loading strategy of conductive materials on polymer foam is proposed to significantly increase the contact probability and contact area of conductive components under compression. Unique inter-skeleton conductive films are constructed by loading alginate-decorated magnetic liquid metal on the polymethacrylate films hanged between the foam skeleton (denoted as AMLM-PM foam). Traditional point contact between conductive skeletons under compression is upgraded to planar contact between conductive films. Therefore, the resistance change of AMLM-PM reaches four orders of magnitude under compression. Moreover, the inter-skeleton conductive films can improve the mechanical strength of foam, prevent the leakage of liquid metal and increase the scattering area of EM wave. AMLM-PM foam has strain-adaptive EMI shielding performance and shows compression-enhanced shielding effectiveness, solving the problem of traditional CPFs upon compression. The upgrade of resistance response also enables foam to achieve sensitive pressure sensing over a wide pressure range and compression-regulated Joule heating function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tetracaine, a local anesthetic, exhibits potent cytotoxic effects on multiple cancer; however, the precise underlying mechanisms of its anti-cancer activity remain uncertain. The anti-cancer activity of tetracaine was found to be the most effective among commonly used local anesthetics in this study. After tetracaine treatment, the differentially expressed genes in melanoma cells were identified by the RNAseq technique and enriched in the lysosome signaling pathway, cullin family protein binding, and proteasome signaling pathway through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Additionally, the ubiquitin-like neddylation signaling pathway, which is hyperactivated in melanoma, could be abrogated due to decreased NAE2 expression after tetracaine treatment. The neddylation of the pro-oncogenic Survivin, which enhances its stability, was significantly reduced following treatment with tetracaine. The activation of neddylation signaling by NEDD8 overexpression could reduce the antitumor efficacy of tetracaine in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, vemurafenib-resistant melanoma cells showed higher level of neddylation, and potential substrate proteins undergoing neddylation modification were identified through immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry. The tetracaine treatment could reduce drug resistance via neddylation signaling pathway inactivation in melanoma cells. These findings demonstrate that tetracaine effectively inhibits cell proliferation and alleviates vemurafenib resistance in melanoma by suppressing the neddylation signaling pathway, providing a promising avenue for controlling cancer progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the malicious MS-Office document has already become one of the most effective attacking vectors in APT attacks. Though many protection mechanisms are provided, they have been proved easy to bypass, and the existed detection methods show poor performance when facing malicious documents with unknown vulnerabilities or with few malicious behaviors. In this paper, we first introduce the definition of im-documents, to describe those vulnerable documents which show implicitly malicious behaviors and escape most of public antivirus engines. Then we present GLDOC—a GCN based framework that is aimed at effectively detecting im-documents with dynamic analysis, and improving the possible blind spots of past detection methods. Besides the system call which is the only focus in most researches, we capture all dynamic behaviors in sandbox, take the process tree into consideration and reconstruct both of them into graphs. Using each line to learn each graph, GLDOC trains a 2-channel network as well as a classifier to formulate the malicious document detection problem into a graph learning and classification problem. Experiments show that GLDOC has a comprehensive balance of accuracy rate and false alarm rate − 95.33% and 4.33% respectively, outperforming other detection methods. When further testing in a simulated 5-day attacking scenario, our proposed framework still maintains a stable and high detection accuracy on the unknown vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible-light photocatalysis has evolved as a powerful technique to enable controllable radical reactions. Exploring unique photocatalytic mode for obtaining new chemoselectivity and product diversity is of great significance. Herein, we present a photo-induced chemoselective 1,2-diheteroarylation of unactivated alkenes utilizing halopyridines and quinolines. The ring-fused azaarenes serve as not only substrate, but also potential precursors for halogen-atom abstraction for pyridyl radical generation in this photocatalysis. As a complement to metal catalysis, this photo-induced radical process with mild and redox neutral conditions assembles two different heteroaryl groups into alkenes regioselectively and contribute to broad substrates scope. The obtained products containing aza-arene units permit various further diversifications, demonstrating the synthetic utility of this protocol. We anticipate that this protocol will trigger the further advancement of photo-induced alkyl/aryl halides activation. Visible-light photocatalysis has evolved as a powerful technique to enable controllable radical reactions and the exploration of new photocatalytic mode for product diversity is of great significance. Herein, the authors present a photo-induced chemoselective 1,2-diheteroarylation of unactivated alkenes utilizing halopyridines and quinolines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel actinobacterium strain, designated HUAS 2-6 T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Camellia oleifera Abel collected from Taoyuan County, Northwestern Hunan Province, South China. This strain was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain HUAS 2-6 T is characterized by morphology typical of members of the genus Streptomyces, with deep purplish vinaceous aerial mycelia and deep dull lavender substrate mycelia. Strain HUAS 2-6 T, based on the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, exhibited the highest similarities to S. puniciscabiei S77T (99.31%), S. filipinensis NBRC 12860 T (99.10%), S. yaanensis CGMCC 4.7035 T (99.09%), S. fodineus TW1S1T (99.08%), S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T (98.76%), S. achromogenes JCM 4121 T (98.69%), S. barringtoniae JA03T (98.69%), and less than 98.70% with other validly species. In phylogenomic tree, strain HUAS 2-6 T was clustered together with S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T, suggesting that they were closely related to each other. However, average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridisation (dDDH) between them were much less than the species cutoff values (ANI 96.7% and dDDH 70%). Moreover, in phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain HUAS 2-6 T is distinct from S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T. On the basis of the polyphasic data, strain HUAS 2-6 T is proposed to represent a novel species, Streptomyces camelliae sp. nov. (= MCCC 1K04729T = JCM 35918 T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofouling has been a persistent problem in marine riser system, resulting in energy waste and equipment damage. In this study, a kind of water wave-driven contact-mode flexible triboelectric nanogeneration has been prepared by using graphene-doped PDMS as dielectric friction material. When the graphene content is 2%, the average output voltage can reach 46 V under the contact frequency 10 Hz. The flexible triboelectric nanogeneration encapsulation module is impinged by water waves to generate alternating microelectric field on the riser surface and destroy the adhesion conditions of microorganisms during the biofilm stage. In the biofouling experiments at different stages, the biofouling area of the platymonas subcordiformis has been reduced by 53%, 62% and 61%. It provides a new idea for effective treatment of biofouling of mussels, oysters and barnacles attached to risers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of the vehicle network has brought new challenges to the management for the internet of vehicles (IoV). As a combination of the IoV and software-defined networks (SDN), the software-defined internet of vehicles can provide an efficient network management method and effectively cope with the heterogeneity and high mobility of the IoV. Although the use of a distributed control plane to build a software-defined internet of vehicles is more suitable for a distributed architecture of the IoV, for a time-sensitive network such as the internet of vehicles, the choice of edge control plane also needs to consider factors such as flexibility and reliability. Delay optimization caused by controller plane improvement, deployment cost and possible management overhead is all problems that need to be paid attention to in software-defined internet of vehicles deployment. In view of the above problems, this paper selects the roadside unit (RSU) plane to construct the edge control plane of the software-defined internet of vehicles. The initial deployment of the control plane is first achieved by defining the RSU controller priority. The designed model mainly includes three factors: node contact time, flow scale and node popularity. Secondly, frequent fluctuations of the control plane are not conducive to network management, so the placement cost function and the RSU plane fluctuation cost function are designed to trade off the control plane dynamic adjustment overhead, thereby realizing the dynamic management of the control plane. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the comparison schemes in four aspects: flow setup delay, end-to-end delay, number of controllers, and management overhead. Under normal operation, the proposed scheme is 20.3, 6.6, 34.1 and 4.9% lower than the best scheme IMABC in four parameters respectively. When the path failure probability pfail = 0.02 exists, the proposed scheme is 19, 7.9, 28.6 and 2.7% lower than the best scheme IMABC in the four parameters, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To retrospectively explore the characteristics of plasma amino acids (PAAs) in children with autism spectrum disorder and their clinical association via case-control study. A total of 110 autistic and 55 healthy children were recruited from 2014 to 2018. The clinical phenotypes included severity of autism, cognition, adaptability, and regression. Compared with the control group, autistic children had significantly elevated glutamate, γ-Amino-n-butyric acid, glutamine, sarcosine, δ-aminolevulinic acid, glycine and citrulline. In contrast, their plasma level of ethanolamine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, homocysteine, pyroglutamic acid, hydroxyproline, ornithine, histidine, lysine, and glutathione were significantly lower. Elevated neuroactive amino acids (glutamate) and decreased essential amino acids were mostly distinct characteristics of PAAs of autistic children. Increased level of tryptophan might be associated with severity of autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread application of assisted reproductive technology, the health issues of offspring conceived through assisted reproductive technology have also received increasing attention. Animal experiments and clinical studies have found subclinical adverse changes in the cardiovascular system of assisted reproductive offspring. Assisted reproductive technology itself may be just one of the many factors contributing to this phenomenon, with epigenetics playing an important role. Ultrasound technology can be used to assess the morphological structure and function of the cardiovascular system in assisted reproductive offspring from the fetal stage, providing the possibility to study the potential cardiovascular damage in this large population. This review aims to explore the effects and mechanisms of assisted reproductive technology on the cardiovascular system of offspring and provide a review of the research progress in ultrasound technology in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercially available magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the solid powder form are typically colloidally unstable under the aqueous environment and can easily settle out without modification. Thus, surface functionalization with polyelectrolyte is required to improve the colloidal stability of MNP systems prior to their applications. In this study, the effect of various factors during the functionalization process, including type of polyelectrolyte, solution pH, ionic strength and particle-to-polyelectrolyte ratio, on the colloidal stability of the functionalized MNPs was evaluated experimentally and theoretically. It was revealed that PSS-70 k and PDDA(M) imparted better colloidal stability toward the functionalized MNPs as compared to PEG, PSS-1000 k and PDDA(L). The optimal pH to produce PSS-70 k- and PDDA(M)-functionalized MNPs is found to be pH 3 and 11, respectively. In addition, the optimum MNP/polyelectrolyte mass ratio was revealed to be 1:5 and 1:0.5 for the synthesis of PSS-70 k- and PDDA(M)-functionalized MNP systems, respectively. The colloidal stability of both PSS-70 k- and PDDA(M)-functionalized MNPs was severely impeded by the presence of free ionic species in the solution during the functionalization process. Lastly, the mathematical analysis based on DLVO theory was consistent and well aligned with the experimental findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, video super-resolution has achieved an outstanding performance. However, many existing methods to solve video super-resolution usually make use of complex strategies, such as explicit optical flow, deformable convolution, which increase complexity and computation. In this paper, we propose a lightweight network for video super-resolution, namely Efficient Lightweight Network for Video Super-Resolution (ELNVSR). We design a Multi-group Block extracting long-distance spatial information to construct a lightweight Bidirection Alignment Module which is implicitly capable of fusing and propagating spatial-temporal information in a bidirectional way. Meanwhile, a Multi-scale Pyramid Block is built as a lightweight reconstruction module to extract different levels of information layer by layer. Comprehensive experiments are conducted on public benchmarks. The results demonstrate a promising performance with fewer parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The material surface was sinusoidally textured using nanosecond laser processing technology, and Ni-based MoS2 coatings were applied to the resultant surfaces via plasma spray. The adhesion of the coating was investigated through separate adhesion tests to assess the impact of retaining the fusion-sputtered splash bulges and subsequently grinding them off. The coating's cross-sectional microstructure and fracture morphology were characterized to investigate its deposition and fracture mechanisms. The comparison of textured surfaces with and without bulges has shown that the exposed plain areas diminish the coating's adhesion. Furthermore, the splash bulge also significantly affects the adhesion. Fracture analysis has demonstrated that the mixed failure mode is dominated by no uplift, and adhesive failure occurs in practically all plain areas. By analyzing specimen cross-sectional morphologies and extracting coating morphological features in and around the splash bulge, several aspects, such as filling and spreading mode, the state of sprayed droplets, porosity comparison, and crack formation mechanism and distribution, were investigated. Finally, it was concluded that the excessive or large splash bulges detrimentally impact the bonding properties of the coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full waveform inversion (FWI) has difficulties in obtaining deep velocity models with high accuracy in practice. Thus, the authors propose a time-domain acoustic FWI method based on the first-order approximate exponential frequency to improve the deep inversion results. However, there is still a lack of partial low-frequency information. Therefore, this article used the time-domain acoustic FWI method with instantaneous amplitude low-frequency and amplitude preservation as the first-order approximate exponential frequency to solve the lack of partial low-frequency components and formed a set of multi-instantaneous attribute joint inversion processes. The tests proved the feasibility and effectiveness of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma cladding was used to prepare a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy (HEA) coating under different conditions. The process parameters were optimized using an orthogonal experiment design based on surface morphology quality characteristics, dilution rate, and hardness. The optimal process parameters were determined through range and variance analysis to be a cladding current of 70 A, a cladding speed of 7 cm⋅min-1, and a powder gas flow rate of 8 L⋅s-1. During the optimized experiments, both the cladded and annealed CoCrFeMnNi HEA coatings exhibit some pores, micro-voids, and a small amount of aggregation. However, the aggregation in the annealed coating is more dispersed than that in the cladded coating. The cladded CoCrFeMnNi HEA coating consists of simple FCC phases, while a new Cr-rich phase precipitates from the FCC matrix after annealing the coating at a temperature range of 550 °C-950 °C. After annealing at 850 °C, the proportion of the FCC phase decreases compared to the cladded coating, and the number of large-angle grain boundaries is significantly reduced. However, the proportion of grains with sizes below 50 µm increases from 61.7% to 74.3%. The micro-hardness and wear resistance of the cladded coating initially increases but then decreases with an increase in annealing temperature, indicating that appropriate annealing can significantly improve the mechanical properties of the CoCrFeMnNi HEA coatings by plasma cladding. The micro-hardness of the CoCrFeMnNi HEA coatings after annealing at 650 °C increases to 274.82 HV0.2, while the friction coefficient decreases to below 0.595. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen-isotope storage materials are essential for the controlled nuclear fusion. However, the currently used smelting-ZrCo alloy suffers from rapid degradation of performance due to severe disproportionation. Here, we reveal a defect-derived disproportionation mechanism and report a nano-single-crystal strategy to solve ZrCo’s problems. Single-crystal nano-ZrCo is synthesized by a wet-chemistry method and exhibits excellent comprehensive hydrogen-isotope storage performances, including ultrafast uptake/release kinetics, high anti-disproportionation ability, and stable cycling, far superior to conventional smelting-ZrCo. Especially, a further incorporation of Ti into nano-ZrCo can almost suppress the disproportionation reaction. Moreover, a mathematical relationship between dehydrogenation temperature and ZrCo particle size is established. Additionally, a microwave method capable of nondestructively detecting the hydrogen storage state of ZrCo is developed. The proposed disproportionation mechanism and anti-disproportionation strategy will be instructive for other materials with similar problems.ZrCo, a promising hydrogen isotope storage material, has poor cyclic storage capacity. Here author reveal a defect-derived disproportionation mechanism and report a nano-single-crystal strategy to comprehensively improve performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Esketamine provides an immediate and noticeable antidepressant effect, although the underlying molecular processes are yet unclear. Irisin induced by aerobic exercise has been implicated in the alleviation of depressive symptoms, whether irisin expression responds to the administration of esketamine remains unknown. In this study, we found that irisin was reduced in the hippocampus and peripheral blood of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) mice, whereas the irisin level was rescued by esketamine treatment. The reduction of PGC-1α expression (transcriptional regulator of irisin gene expression) in the CUMS mice was rescued by esketamine treatment, PGC-1α knockdown significantly reduced the irisin level induced by esketamine. Additionally, FNDC5/irisin-knockout mice developed more severe depressant-like behaviors than wild-type mice under CUMS stimulation, with an attenuated the antidepressant effect of esketamine. Further research indicated that irisin-mediated modulation of esketamine on depressive-like behaviors in CUMS mice involved the ERK1/2 pathway. Overall, the PGC-1α/irisin/ERK1/2 signaling activation may be a new mechanism underlying the antidepressant activity of esketamine, denoting that irisin may be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the dual influence of the mining disturbance of the previous working face and the advanced mining of the working face, the roadway is prone to large deformation, failure, and rockburst. Roadway stabilization has always significantly influenced deep mining safety. In this article we used the research background of the large deformation failure roadway of Fa-er Coal Mine in Guizhou Province of China to propose two control methods: bolt-cable-mesh + concrete blocks + directional energy-gathering blasting (BCM-CBDE method) and 1st Generation − Negative Poisson's Ratio (1G NPR) cable + directional energy-gathering blasting + dynamic pressure stage support (π girder + single hydraulic prop + retractable U steel) (NPR-DEDP method). Meantime, we compared the validity of the large deformation failure control method in a deep gob-side roadway based on theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, and field experiments. The results show that directional energy-gathering blasting can weaken the pressure acting on the concrete blocks. However, the vertical stress of the surrounding rock of the roadway is still concentrated in the entity coal side and the concrete blocks, showing a 'bimodal' distribution. BCM-CBDE method cannot effectively control the stability of the roadway. NPR-DEDP method removed the concrete blocks. It shows using the 1G NPR cable with periodic slipping-sticking characteristics can adapt to repeated mining disturbances. The peak value of the vertical stress of the roadway is reduced and transferred to the deep part of the surrounding rock mass, which promotes the collapse of the gangue in the goaf and fills the goaf. The pressure of the roadway roof is reduced, and the gob-side roadway is fundamentally protected. Meantime, the dynamic pressure stage support method with π girder + single hydraulic prop + retractable U steel as the core effectively protects the roadway from dynamic pressure impact when the main roof is periodically broken. After the on-site implementation of NPR-DEDP method, the deformation of the roadway is reduced by more than 45%, and the deformation rate is reduced by more than 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine equipments such as marine risers and oil pipelines operate in complex underwater environments and are usually attached by animals, plants and microorganisms. The attachment of marine fouling organisms will accelerate the corrosion damage of offshore structure and greatly reduce the service life. Studies have shown that non-smooth bionic surfaces with specific microstructures can inhibit fouling formation. Based on the idea of bionics, this paper proposes a new type of underwater flexible fretting texture, which is a composite material prepared by mixing graphene and silicone rubber, and modified by pulsed laser to construct a hexagonal bionic surface texture. Under the impact of specific water flow, the flexible texture can produce an angular displacement around 8° and a linear displacement in the amplitude range of 165 µm, and the inhibition rate of fouling biological diatoms up to 97.5%, which can effectively avoid the occurrence of marine biological fouling. The results provide a new idea for the surface protection of marine structures, which is of great significance for the development of marine industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MDRL) has attracted attention for solving complex tasks. Two main challenges of MDRL are non-stationarity and partial observability from the perspective of agents, impacting the performance of agents' learning cooperative policies. In this study, Controlled and Targeted Communication with the Centralized Critic (COTAC) is proposed, thereby constructing the paradigm of centralized learning and decentralized execution with partial communication. It is capable of decoupling how the MAS obtains environmental information during training and execution. Specifically, COTAC can make the environment faced by agents to be stationarity in the training phase and learn partial communication to overcome the limitation of partial observability in the execution phase. Based on this, decentralized actors learn controlled and targeted communication and policies optimized by centralized critics during training. As a result, agents comprehensively learn when to communicate during the sending and how to target information aggregation during the receiving. Apart from that, COTAC is evaluated on two multi-agent scenarios with continuous space. Experimental results demonstrated that partial agents with important information choose to send messages and targeted aggregate received information by identifying the relevant important information, which can still have better cooperation performance while reducing the communication traffic of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate identification of malicious nodes in vehicular social networks (VSN) can ensure the secure and efficient operation of the mobile network. The roadside unit (RSU) undertakes various tasks in the internet of vehicles (IoV) and processes a large amount of data. It plays an indispensable and crucial role in the IoV. Therefore, the damage and scope of the attack on RSU are more significant. This paper proposes a trust model for detecting malicious RSUs (TMDMR) to realize the trust decision problem of the roadside unit in VSN. The trust management model is constructed by designing two main decision indicators (QoS trust and social trust) in vehicular social networks, and the algorithm is intended to complete the calculation of global trust. Finally, the global trust server implements the trust decision of RSU. The simulation results demonstrate that TMDMR is better than the comparison scheme in terms of Precision and Recall. When the malicious number of nodes is 45% during OA attack, the Precision of TMDMR is 5.3% and 26.2% higher than comparison schemes, and Recall value is also 4.7% and 30.1% higher than them, respectively. When the malicious number is 45%, TMDMR has the lowest packet dropping rate (23.8% and 44.7%) to the comparison schemes. Its end-to-end delay is 42% and 51.3% lower than other two schemes. It also has advantages in terms of response time to complete a round of detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harum Manis mango leaves are considered lignocellulosic (LC) biomass that could contribute to the production of second generation (2G) bioethanol. However, pretreatment should be conducted to overcome the recalcitrance of LC biomass prior to bioethanol production. Hence, this study aims to elucidate the structural changes of the biomass of Harum Manis mango leaves after single-stage and two-stage chemical pretreatment. The Harum Manis mango leaves were treated with only acid, only alkaline, acid-alkaline, or alkaline-acid process. One per cent (v/v) sulphuric acid and 1% (w/v) sodium hydroxide were used as the acid and alkaline hydrolysing agent in the four approaches of pretreatment, respectively. Consequently, the pretreated biomass was enzymatically hydrolysed to produce reducing sugar followed by the conversion into bioethanol through yeast fermentation. Acid-alkaline pretreatment yielded the highest holocellulose composition of 95.26%, with the highest delignification effect of 86.97 ± 1.26%. Furthermore, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) validated the acid-alkaline pretreated biomass to be the most feasible substrate for bioethanol production in this study. Finally, the maximum fermentable sugar content and bioethanol concentration of 415.02 ± 7.01 mg/g and 1.57 ± 0.06 mg/ml, respectively, were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel and straightforward pointwise training strategy, namely difference embedding (DifE), for recommender systems that capture the personalized information retained in pairwise preference differences while simply using effective and efficient pointwise training. Specifically, a function was designed to capture and emphasize pairwise preference differences. Then, a novel projection was used to construct a new space in which pairwise information is preserved, and the newly proposed pointwise loss function is sufficient to learn a better embedding. To verify the superiority and generality of the proposed strategy, we integrate the proposed loss function with four state-of-the-art recommenders and obtain four corresponding optimized models namely MF-DifE, NeuMF-DifE, GCN-DifE, and SGL-DifE. Comprehensive and comparative experiment results on three public datasets show that these optimized models achieve significant improvement compared to their corresponding baselines and outperform various recent recommendation methods, which indicates the excellence and generality of the proposed loss function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluorescence aptasensor based on taking the advantage of the combination of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), and CRISPR/Cas12a was developed for the determination of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)-derived exosomes. The MNPs can eliminate background interference due to their magnetic separation capability. TdT can form an ultra-long polynucleotide tail which can bind with multiple crRNA, generating a signal amplification effect. The trans-cleavage activity of CRISPR/Cas12a can be specifically triggered via the crRNA binding with DNA, resulting in the bi-labeled DNA reporter with fluorophore and quencher being cleaved. The excitation wavelength of the fluorescence spectra was 490 nm. Fluorescence spectra with emission wavelengths ranging from 511 to 600 nm were collected. Under the optimization condition, the fabricated fluorescence aptasensor for NPC-derived exosome determination exhibited excellent sensitivity and specificity, with the linear range between 500 to 5 × 104 particles mL−1 and the limit of detection of 100 particles mL−1. It can be used for the determination of NPC-derived exosomes in clinical samples, which has a considerable clinical potential and prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart electromagnetic functional devices prepared based on electromagnetic wave responsive materials will provide more convenience for human life in the future. Here, we prepare oriented magnetic liquid metal droplet-filled polydimethylsiloxane films with micropillar array patterned surfaces, and further assemble them into bilayer films with interlocked structures. Once compressed, the increase in conductivity of the film due to the tunneling effect between microarrays and the elongation of liquid metal droplets leads to a rapid increase in electromagnetic interference shielding performance. Accordingly, a tunable electromagnetic interference shielding material with high sensitivity and wide control range is obtained, which has potential applications in electromagnetic wave control systems and intelligent electromagnetic protection systems. Meanwhile, we assemble a strain sensor and a magnetic sensor, which can precisely sense pressure and magnetic field according to changes in electromagnetic signal and electrical signal, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed Nash equilibrium seeking of aggregative games is investigated and a continuous-time algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is designed by virtue of projected gradient play dynamics and aggregation tracking dynamics, and is applicable to games with constrained strategy sets and weight-balanced communication graphs. The key feature of our method is that the proposed projected dynamics achieves exponential convergence, whereas such convergence results are only obtained for non-projected dynamics in existing works on distributed optimization and equilibrium seeking. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of our methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to develop distributed continuous-time algorithms over directed graphs to seek the Nash equilibrium in a noncooperative game. Motivated by the recent consensus-based designs, we present a distributed algorithm with a proportional gain for weight-balanced directed graphs. By further embedding a distributed estimator of the left eigenvector associated with zero eigenvalue of the graph Laplacian, we extend it to the case with arbitrary strongly connected directed graphs having possible unbalanced weights. In both cases, the Nash equilibrium is proven to be exactly reached with an exponential convergence rate. An example is given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the interactions between posaconazole (POS) and intravenously/orally administered cyclosporine A (CsA) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients. Methods: We included 118 allogeneic HSCT patients who received CsA and POS simultaneously between January 2017 and June 2020 in this study. The ratio of CsA blood concentration (ng/mL) to dosage (mg/day) (C/D) before and after POS initiation was compared. Results: After the initiation of POS, the level of CsA increased 1 to 2 times in 66% (78/118) of patients compared to those without POS. However, the CsA C/D ratio increased by more than threefold in 6% (7/118) of patients after POS initiation, with an increase of more than fourfold in two patients. The median C/D ratio of CsA increased from 0.89 to 1.23 (P < 0.001) and 0.78 to 1.22 (P < 0.001) after POS initiation when CsA was administered intravenously and orally, respectively. In patients who received POS at the time of transition from intravenous to oral CsA, the value increased from 1.01 to 1.38 (P = 0.001). The route of administration had no significant effect on the change in the CsA C/D ratio (P = 0.615). Additionally, we observed the time required for the C/D ratio to reach a plateau after POS initiation was similar on days 13, 8, and 15 under various scenarios. Conclusion: POS treatment increased blood CsA levels. A large variability was found in the fold-change in the CsA C/D ratio. Therefore, CsA doses should be adjusted by closely monitoring the blood levels of CsA after POS initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarcity of drinking water is a global problem and especially serious in rural areas of developing countries. Passive permeate-side-heated interfacial-heating solar membrane distillation has been shown recently as a promising system for off-grid distributed water and wastewater treatment. In this study, single-stage tubular systems were developed by giving the poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane (pore size: 0.45 µm) a tubular structure with the outer surface (i.e., the permeate side) coated with carbon black NPs which absorbed solar thermal energy and evaporated the feedwater inside the membrane tube. Under natural sunlight, the vertical tubular system had a production rate of distilled water per footprint of 0.67‒2.06 kg m−2 day−1 throughout the year, 71% higher than the single-stage planar system on average. The three-stage planar systems were developed by overlapping three single-stage modules. Two adjacent modules shared a common copper sheet that serves as both the top of the condensation chamber of the preceding stage and the bottom of the feedwater chamber of the following stage. The copper sheet can partially transfer the condensation heat of the preceding stage to the feedwater of the following stage, thus enhancing the system energy efficiency (ƞsys) in producing distilled water. The ƞsys and distillate flux of the three-stage systems were 62% and 5.01 kg m−2 day−1, respectively, at the average daytime irradiance of 422 W m−2, 34% higher than the single-stage planar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum digital signature is one of the most promising quantum technologies, which can guarantee the authenticity and transferability of messages based on the law of quantum mechanics. Up to date, various protocols have been proposed to make quantum digital signature more practical. However, most of them consider only single protocol and security, neglecting resource allocations in practical applications, especially under the environment of multi-party real-time signatures. Here, we for the first time implement the machine learning method based on the random forest algorithm into the optimization of quantum digital signature systems, and with that, we can predict not only the most suitable protocol, but also the optimal system parameters in real time, with an accuracy of more than 97%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a kidney cancer that is originated from the lined proximal convoluted tubule, and its major histological subtype is clear cell RCC (ccRCC). This study aimed to retrospectively analyze single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, to explore the correlation among the evolution of tumor microenvironment (TME), clinical outcomes, and potential immunotherapeutic responses in combination with bulk RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and to construct a differentiation-related genes (DRG)-based prognostic risk signature (PRS) and a nomogram to predict the prognosis of ccRCC patients. First, scRNA-seq data of ccRCC samples were systematically analyzed, and three subsets with distinct differentiation trajectories were identified. Then, ccRCC samples from TCGA database were divided into four DRG-based molecular subtypes, and it was revealed that the molecular subtypes were significantly correlated with prognosis, clinicopathological features, TME, and the expression levels of immune checkpoint genes (ICGs). A DRG-based PRS was constructed, and it was an independent prognostic factor, which could well predict the prognosis of ccRCC patients. Finally, we constructed a prognostic nomogram based on the PRS and clinicopathological characteristics, which exhibited a high accuracy and a robust predictive performance. This study highlighted the significance of trajectory differentiation of ccRCC cells and TME evolution in predicting clinical outcomes and potential immunotherapeutic responses of ccRCC patients, and the nomogram provided an intuitive and accurate method for predicting the prognosis of such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Stretchable MXene organohydrogel contains MXene network for electron conduction and water/glycerin binary solvent for ion transmission was prepared. The MXene organohydrogel exhibits exceptionally enhanced EMI shielding performance compared to hydrogel, as well as low-temperature tolerance, anti-drying ability. Conductive hydrogels have potential applications in shielding electromagnetic (EM) radiation interference in deformable and wearable electronic devices, but usually suffer from poor environmental stability and stretching-induced shielding performance degradation. Although organohydrogels can improve the environmental stability of materials, their development is at the expense of reducing electrical conductivity and thus weakening EM interference shielding ability. Here, a MXene organohydrogel is prepared which is composed of MXene network for electron conduction, binary solvent channels for ion conduction, and abundant solvent-polymer-MXene interfaces for EM wave scattering. This organohydrogel possesses excellent anti-drying ability, low-temperature tolerance, stretchability, shape adaptability, adhesion and rapid self-healing ability. Two effective strategies have been proposed to solve the problems of current organohydrogel shielding materials. By reasonably controlling the MXene content and the glycerol-water ratio in the gel, MXene organohydrogel can exhibit exceptionally enhanced EM interference shielding performances compared to MXene hydrogel due to the increased physical cross-linking density of the gel. Moreover, MXene organohydrogel shows attractive stretching-enhanced interference effectiveness, caused by the connection and parallel arrangement of MXene nanosheets. This well-designed MXene organohydrogel has potential applications in shielding EM interference in deformable and wearable electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reentrant phase transition (RPT) is composed of at least two phase transition, which has previously been observed in the Condensed Matter Theory/systems, and now has been found with a renewal interest in black hole thermodynamics. For the RPT, there exist always two and several critical points; while the first order phase transition always corresponds to a single critical point. In this paper, we present a black hole thermodynamical systems with a single critical point possessing the RPT, other than a first order phase transition. Concretely, we focus on the Hayward-AdS black hole, i.e. the AdS black hole in the gravity with a nonlinear electrodynamics, consider its extended thermodynamics, and investigate its critical phenomena and phase structure, especially the RPT in detail. The number of critical points and the types of phase transition depend on the strength constant of the nonlinear electromagnetic field. We introduce an unexpected RPT with a single physical critical point for the first time. We also present all distinct and physical critical RPT points in the phase diagrams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultra-slow-roll (USR) inflation represents a class of single-field models with sharp deceleration of the rolling dynamics on small scales, leading to a significantly enhanced power spectrum of the curvature perturbations and primordial black hole (PBH) formation. Such a sharp transition of the inflationary background can trigger the coherent motion of scalar condensates with effective potentials governed by the rolling rate of the inflaton field. We show that a scalar condensate carrying (a combination of) baryon or lepton number can achieve successful baryogenesis through the Affleck-Dine mechanism from unconventional initial conditions excited by the USR transition. Viable parameter space for creating the correct baryon asymmetry of the Universe naturally incorporates the specific limit for PBHs to contribute significantly to dark matter, shedding light on the cosmic coincidence problem between the baryon and dark matter densities today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, we give some sufficient conditions for extended neighborhood coronas to have Laplacian perfect state transfer. We also give some conditions for extended neighborhood coronas to be periodic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring students in Learning Management Systems (LMS) throughout the teaching–learning process has been shown to be a very effective technique for detecting students at risk. Likewise, the teaching style in the LMS conditions, the type of student behaviours on the platform and the learning outcomes. The main objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of three teaching modalities (all using Online Project-based Learning -OPBL- and Flipped Classroom experiences and differing in the use of virtual laboratories and Intelligent Personal Assistant -IPA-) on Moodle behaviour and student performance taking into account the covariate "collaborative group". Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. With regard to the quantitative analysis, differences were found in student behaviour in Moodle and in learning outcomes, with respect to teaching modalities that included virtual laboratories. Similarly, the qualitative study also analysed the behaviour patterns found in each collaborative group in the three teaching modalities studied. The results indicate that the collaborative group homogenises the learning outcomes, but not the behaviour pattern of each member. Future research will address the analysis of collaborative behaviour in LMSs according to different variables (motivation and metacognitive strategies in students, number of members, interactions between students and teacher in the LMS, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first arrival waveform inversion (FAWI) has a strong nonlinearity due to the objective function using L2 parametrization. When the initial velocity is not accurate, the inversion can easily fall into local minima. In the full waveform inversion method, adding a cross-correlation function to the objective function can effectively reduce the nonlinearity of the inversion process. In this paper, the nonlinearity of this process is reduced by introducing the correlation objective function into the FAWI and by deriving the corresponding gradient formula. We then combine the first-arrival wave travel-time tomography with the FAWI to form a set of inversion processes. This paper uses the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) algorithm to improve the computational efficiency of inversion and solve the problem of the low efficiency of the FAWI method. The overthrust model and field data test show that the method used in this paper can effectively reduce the nonlinearity of inversion and improve the inversion calculation efficiency at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constant-rate inflation, including ultra-slow-roll inflation as a special case, has been widely applied to the formation of primordial black holes with a significant deviation from the standard slow-roll conditions at both the growing and decaying phases of the power spectrum. We derive analytic solutions for the curvature perturbations with respect to the late-time scaling dimensions (conformal weights) constrained by the dilatation symmetry of the de Sitter background and show that the continuity of conformal weights across different rolling phases is protected by the adiabatic condition of the inflaton perturbation. The temporal excitation of subleading states (with the next-to-lowest conformal weights), recorded as the “steepest growth” of the power spectrum, is triggered by the entropy production in the transition from the slow-roll to the constant-rate phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is not only a biomarker of kidney injury but also a bone-derived factor involved in metabolism. We aimed to explore relationships between plasma NGAL and chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD) parameters in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Materials and methods: First, a cross sectional observational study, including 105 MHD patients, was conducted to explore relationships between plasma NGAL levels and CKD–MBD parameters. Second, impact of parathyroidectomy and auto-transplantation (PTX + AT) on plasma NGAL was investigated in 12 MHD patients with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT). Results: According to Spearman correlation analysis, plasma NGAL levels were positively correlated with female (r = 0.243, P = 0.012), vintage (r = 0.290, P = 0.003), Klotho (r = 0.234, P = 0.016), calcium(Ca) (r = 0.332, P = 0.001), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (r = 0.401, P < 0.001) and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) (r = 0.256, P = 0.008); while inversely correlated with albumin(Alb) (r = − 0.201, P = 0.039). After adjusting for age, sex, vintage, Alb and all parameters of CKD–MBD(Ca, P, lg(ALP), lg(iPTH), Klotho and fibroblast growth factor 23(FGF23)), lg(NGAL) were positively correlated with Ca (r = 0.481, P < 0.001), P (r = 0.336, P = 0.037), lg(ALP) (r = 0.646, P < 0.001) in Partial correlation analysis; further multiple linear regression analysis showed same positive associations between lg(NGAL) and Ca (β = 0.330, P = 0.002), P (β = 0.218, P = 0.037), lg(ALP) (β = 0.671, P < 0.001). During the 4–7 days after PTX + AT, plasma NGAL decreased from 715.84 (578.73, 988.14) to 688.42 (660.00, 760.26) ng/mL (P = 0.071), Klotho increased from 496.45 (341.73, 848.30) to 1138.25 (593.87, 2009.27) pg/mL (P = 0.099). Conclusion: Plasma NGAL levels were positively associated with ALP in MHD patients; and downtrends were shown after PTX + AT in patients with severe SHPT. These findings suggest that NGAL is a participant in CKD–MBD under MHD condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the distributed optimization problem over an undirected connected graph subject to digital communications with a finite data rate, where each agent holds a strongly convex and smooth cost function. The agents need to cooperatively minimize the average of all agents' cost functions. Each agent builds an encoder/decoder pair that produces transmitted messages to its neighbors with a finite-level uniform quantizer, and recovers its neighbors' states by a recursive decoder with received quantized signals. Combining the adaptive encoder/decoder scheme with the gradient tracking method, the authors propose a distributed quantized algorithm. The authors prove that the optimization can be achieved at a linear rate, even when agents communicate at 1-bit data rate. Numerical examples are also conducted to illustrate theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock physics inversion is to use seismic elastic properties of underground strata for predicting reservoir petrophysical parameters. The Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is commonly used to solve rock physics inverse problems. However, all the parameters to be inverted are iterated simultaneously in the conventional MCMC algorithm. What is obtained is an optimal solution of combining the petrophysical parameters with being inverted. This study introduces the alternating direction (AD) method into the MCMC algorithm (i.e. the optimized MCMC algorithm) to ensure that each petrophysical parameter can get the optimal solution and improve the convergence of the inversion. Firstly, the Gassmann equations and Xu-White model are used to model shaly sandstone, and the theoretical relationship between seismic elastic properties and reservoir petrophysical parameters is established. Then, in the framework of Bayesian theory, the optimized MCMC algorithm is used to generate a Markov chain to obtain the optimal solution of each physical parameter to be inverted and obtain the maximum posterior density of the physical parameter. The proposed method is applied to actual logging and seismic data and the results show that the method can obtain more accurate porosity, saturation, and clay volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]