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Abstract In the context of green transportation, the automotive industry is undergoing a revolution in autonomous, connected, electric, and shared (ACES) vehicles. ACES vehicles have a relatively short history and there is limited relevant market data available. Therefore, quantitative research on the economic impact of ACES trends remains a new area of exploration. The purpose of the paper is to explore the economic impact of ACES trends on the automotive value chain, with a specific focus on the production and aftermarket segments. In the paper, a detailed quantitative analysis of the installation scale and the market size of Chinese automotive production as well as the income changes of Chinese automotive aftermarket in 2030 is conducted. The findings show that the new markets for power batteries, electric powertrains, sensors, in-vehicle software and chips are created, thereby delivering more value to the business. While the ACES trends are expected to decrease the average aftermarket income per vehicle, the growth of the vehicle stock suggests significant potential for the development of the automotive aftermarket in 2030. Our research contributes by offering a business perspective on the impact of ACES trends. The quantitative insights presented are timely and crucial for all the stakeholders along the value chain, enabling them to adapt and thrive in the dynamic automotive landscape and align their strategies with the transformative ACES trends.

Abstract The cruise market has significant potential for family travel as birth rates continue to decline. To explore the reasons behind family cruise travel, passenger needs, and the three stages of cruise travel experience (anticipation, participation, and recall), this study employs qualitative research and in-depth survey methods. The study’s findings indicate that motivations for joining family cruise travel include "new experiences," "desire for cruise travel," "convenience," and "generating social topics/publicity." During the anticipation and recall stages, the most significant factors are the "port of call" and the "destination" of the cruise itinerary. Additionally, other important aspects include the dining options on the cruise. In the participation stage, the study reveals that cabins, entertainment, and special considerations for children hold particular significance. These results can provide valuable guidance in the planning of family cruise travel.

Abstract Extensive efforts have been dedicated to deciphering the interactions associated with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these developments are hampered by a lack of efficient strategies to avoid beneficial synergies being offset by harmful trade-offs. To fill these gaps, we used causal diagnosis and network analysis methods to construct 1302 directed networks of SDGs for 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2020. We observed a dramatic offsetting effect of SDG synergies and trade-offs in China from 2000 to 2020, with approximately 27% of trade-off indicator pairs turning into synergies and about 25% of the synergy indicator pairs turning into trade-offs. However, our findings suggested that prioritising the progress of high-frequency indicators in virtuous cycles could multiply the positive systemic effects of the SDGs. Moreover, controlling the transition from passive to active in the trade-off network of SDGs remains a challenge in advancing the SDGs holistically.

Abstract This study investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) motivations and technological resource commitment on headquarters’ employment of process control over subsidiaries, to better understand the process control mechanisms. Drawing on agency theory and the resource dependence perspective, a cross-sectional data model is developed among the 1541 Taiwanese manufacturing firms engaged in foreign investments, 1015 headquarters–subsidiary (HQ–Sub) relationships in China were selected from the database; in each of these relationships, the headquarters is located in Taiwan, while the subsidiary is located in China. Our findings reveal that the headquarters will use process control if the primary motivation for setting up a subsidiary in a host country is resource-seeking, but not use process control with market-seeking motivation. This control process relationship is enhanced/weakened/weakened by the headquarters’/subsidiaries’/partners’ technological resource commitment. Taiwanese multinational corporations (MNCs) from newly industrialized economies (NIEs) seeking to choose control mechanisms that fit their technological resources and FDI motivations in China are given guidelines. It adds to the use of control mechanisms with HQ-Sub literature. Both resource-seeking and market-seeking motivations shed light on technological resource commitment by various units of an MNC, to ward off information asymmetry.

Abstract Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) is a risk factor for lung cancer. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of PM2.5 exposure on lung cancer progression. We found that short‐term exposure to PM2.5 for 24 h activated the EGFR pathway in lung cancer cells (EGFR wild‐type and mutant), while long‐term exposure of lung cancer cells to PM2.5 for 90 days persistently promoted EGFR activation, cell proliferation, anchorage‐independent growth, and tumor growth in a xenograft mouse model in EGFR‐driven H1975 cancer cells. We showed that PM2.5 activated AhR to translocate into the nucleus and promoted EGFR activation. AhR further interacted with the promoter of TMPRSS2, thereby upregulating TMPRSS2 and IL18 expression to promote cancer progression. Depletion of TMPRSS2 in lung cancer cells suppressed anchorage‐independent growth and xenograft tumor growth in mice. The expression levels of TMPRSS2 were found to correlate with nuclear AhR expression and with cancer stage in lung cancer patient tissue. Long‐term exposure to PM2.5 could promote tumor progression in lung cancer through activation of EGFR and AhR to enhance the TMPRSS2‐IL18 pathway.

Air pollution can cause disease and has become a major global environmental problem. It is currently believed that air pollution may be related to the progression of SSNHL. As a rapidly developing city in recent years, Hefei has serious air pollution. In order to explore the correlation between meteorological variables and SSNHL admissions, we conducted this study. This study investigated the short-term associations between SSNHL patients admitted to the hospital and Hefei climatic variables. The daily data on SSNHL-related hospital admissions and meteorological variables containing mean temperature (T-mean; °C), diurnal temperature range (DTR; °C), atmospheric pressure (AP; Hp), and relative humidity (RH; %), from 2014 to 2021 (2558 days), were collected. A time-series analysis integrating distributed lag non-linear models and generalized linear models was used. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases were searched. Literature published up to August 2023 was reviewed to explore the potential impact mechanisms of meteorological factors on SSNHL. The mechanisms were determined in detail, focusing on wind speed, air pressure, temperature, humidity, and air pollutants. Using a median of 50.00% as a baseline, the effect of exceedingly low T-mean in the single-day hysteresis effect model began at a lag of 8 days (RR = 1.032, 95% CI: 1.001 ~ 1.064). High DTR affected the admission rate for SSNHL on lag 0 day. The significance of the effect was the greatest on that day (RR = 1.054, 95% CI: 1.007 ~ 1.104) and then gradually decreased. High and exceedingly high RH affected the admission rate SSNHL on lag 0 day, and these effects lasted for 8 and 7 days, respectively. There were significant associations between all grades of AP and SSNHL. This is the first study to assess the effect of meteorological variables on SSNHL-related admissions in China using a time-series approach. Long-term exposures to high DTR, RH values, low T-mean values, and all AP grades enhance the incidence of SSNHL in residents. Limiting exposure to extremes of ambient temperature and humidity may reduce the number of SSNHL-related hospital visits in the region. It is advisable to maintain a suitable living environment temperature and avoid extreme temperature fluctuations and high humidity. During periods of high air pollution, it is recommended to stay indoors and refrain from outdoor exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the production process of HDMI cables, manual intervention is often required, resulting in low production efficiency and time-consuming. The paper presents a real-time vision-based automatic inspection system for HDMI cables to reduce the labor requirement in the production process. The system consists of hardware and software design. Since the wires in HDMI cables are tiny objects, the hardware design includes an image capture platform with a high-resolution camera and a ring light source to acquire high-resolution and high-quality images of the wires. The software design includes a data augmentation system and an automatic HDMI wire-split inspection system. The former aims to increase the number and diversity of training samples. The latter is designed to detect the coordinate position of the wire center and the corresponding Pin-ID (pid) number and output the results to the wire-bonding machine to perform subsequent tasks. In addition, a new HDMI cable dataset is created to train and evaluate a series of existing detection network models for this study. The experimental results show that the detection accuracy of the wire center using the existing YOLOv4 detector reaches 99.9%. Furthermore, the proposed system reduces the execution time by about 38.67% compared with the traditional manual wire-split inspection operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving versatile room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials, especially with tunable mechanical properties and shape memory is attractive and essential but rarely reported. Here, a strategy was reported to realize multi-functional RTP films with multicolor fluorescence, ultralong afterglow, adjustable mechanical properties, and shape memory through the synergistic dynamic interaction of lanthanide (LnIII)-terpyridine coordination, borate ester bonds, and hydrogen bondings in a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix. By varying the amount of borax, the mechanical properties of the films could be finely controlled due to the change of crosslinking degree of dynamic borate ester bonds in PVA. The assembly and disassembly of borate ester bonds upon the trigger of borax and acid were applied as reversible linkage to achieve programmable shape memory behavior. In addition, the films displayed both fascinating multicolor fluorescence and ultralong afterglow characteristics due to the presence of LnIII doping and confinement of terpyridine in PVA. This study provides a new avenue to impart modulable mechanical strength and shape memory to RTP materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strain Lactiplantibacillus plantarum D1 with bacteriocin producing ability was found in the intestine of Gambusia affinis. The bacteriocin was found to have high inhibitory activity against multiple Streptococcus species and several other Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Bacteriocin was purified from culture supernatant by ion-exchange chromatography, Sep-Pak C18 cartridge, and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectral analysis determined that purified bacteriocin has a molecular mass of 2,731 Da. A partial N-terminal sequence KRKKHKXQIYNNGM was obtained from the Edman analysis. The N-terminal sequence was employed to search against a translation of the draft genome of strain D1. The translated full amino acid sequence of the mature peptide is as follows: NH2- KRKKHKCQIYNNGMPTGQYRWC, which has a molecular weight of 2738 Da. A BLAST search revealed that this bacteriocin was most similar to bactofencin A but differed from it with three amino acid residues. No identical peptide or protein has been previously reported, and this peptide, termed bactofencin YH, was therefore considered to be a new bacteriocin produced by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum D1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chewing areca nuts is popular in China. Areca alkaloids are the major toxic compounds in areca nuts. In this study, the levels of four areca alkaloids (i.e. arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline and guvacine) in 119 areca nut samples were analyzed and 3030 areca nut consumption questionnaires were collected to investigate the exposure to areca alkaloids in the Chinese populations through areca nut chewing. The levels of arecoline, arecaidine, guvacoline and guvacine in different areca nut products were 0.46–4.97 mg/g, 0.57–7.51 mg/g, 0.08–1.44 mg/g and 0.03–8.48 mg/g, respectively. Chewing fresh areca fruits was the main source of arecoline and the total areca alkaloids exposure. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of arecoline and the total areca alkaloids for the Chinese populations were 1.126 and 2.625 mg/kg BW/day for average exposure, 4.411 and 9.739 mg/kg BW/day for high exposure (P95th). The EDI varied with age and gender. The young male population (≤ 34 years) had the highest EDI than other populations. Concentrated and focused efforts are required to educate the general public, especially the young male population, about the risks of areca nut chewing to reduce exposure to areca alkaloids of the Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We aimed to develop machine learning (ML) models based on diffusion- and perfusion-weighted imaging fusion (DP fusion) for identifying stroke within 4.5 h, to compare them with DWI- and/or PWI-based ML models, and to construct an automatic segmentation-classification model and compare with manual labeling methods. Methods: ML models were developed from multimodal MRI datasets of acute stroke patients within 24 h of clear symptom onset from two centers. The processes included manual segmentation, registration, DP fusion, feature extraction, and model establishment (logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM)). A segmentation-classification model (X-Net) was proposed for automatically identifying stroke within 4.5 h. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, Dice coefficients, decision curve analysis, and calibration curves were used to evaluate model performance. Results: A total of 418 patients (≤ 4.5 h: 214; > 4.5 h: 204) were evaluated. The DP fusion model achieved the highest AUC in identifying the onset time in the training (LR: 0.95; SVM: 0.92) and test sets (LR: 0.91; SVM: 0.90). The DP fusion-LR model displayed consistent positive and greater net benefits than other models across a broad range of risk thresholds. The calibration curve demonstrated the good calibration of the DP fusion-LR model (average absolute error: 0.049). The X-Net model obtained the highest Dice coefficients (DWI: 0.81; Tmax: 0.83) and achieved similar performance to manual labeling (AUC: 0.84). Conclusions: The automatic segmentation-classification models based on DWI and PWI fusion images had high performance in identifying stroke within 4.5 h. Clinical relevance statement: Perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) fusion images had high performance in identifying stroke within 4.5 h. The automatic segmentation-classification models based on DWI and PWI fusion images could provide clinicians with decision-making guidance for acute stroke patients with unknown onset time. Key Points: • The diffusion/perfusion-weighted imaging fusion model had the best performance in identifying stroke within 4.5 h. • The X-Net model had the highest Dice and achieved performance close to manual labeling in segmenting lesions of acute stroke. • The automatic segmentation-classification model based on DP fusion images performed well in identifying stroke within 4.5 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a leading cause of drug-induced liver damage, highlighting the limitations of current emergency treatments that primarily involve administering the glutathione precursor N-acetylcysteine and supportive therapy. This study highlights the essential protective role of the type II transmembrane serine protease (TTSP), hepsin, in mitigating acetaminophen-induced liver injury, particularly through its regulation of gap junction (GJ) abundance in response to reactive oxygen stress in the liver. We previously reported that reduced levels of activated hepatocyte growth factor and the c-Met receptor tyrosine kinase—both of which are vital for maintaining cellular redox balance—combined with increased expression of GJ proteins in hepsin-deficient mice. Here, we show that hepsin deficiency in mice exacerbates acetaminophen toxicity compared to wild-type mice, leading to more severe liver pathology, elevated oxidative stress, and greater mortality within 6 h after exposure. Administering hepsin had a protective effect in both mouse models, reducing hepatotoxicity by modulating GJ abundance. Additionally, transcriptome analysis and a functional GJ inhibitor have highlighted hepsin's mechanism for managing oxidative stress. Combining hepsin with relatively low doses of N-acetylcysteine had a synergistic effect that was more efficacious than high-dose N-acetylcysteine alone. Our results illustrate the crucial role of hepsin in modulating the abundance of hepatic GJs and reducing oxidative stress, thereby offering early protection against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity and a new, combination approach. Emerging as a promising therapeutic target, hepsin holds potential for combination therapy with N-acetylcysteine, paving the way for novel approaches in managing drug-induced liver injury. 1. Hepsin−/− mice exhibit exacerbated APAP toxicity, resulting in more severe liver damage, elevated oxidative stress, and higher mortality. 2. Hepsin is crucial in protecting against APAP-induced liver injury by regulating gap junctions and reducing oxidative stress. 3. Combining hepsin with low doses of N-acetylcysteine provides greater protection against APAP-induced hepatotoxicity than high-dose NAC alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquilaria sinensis is a significant resin-producing plant worldwide that is crucial for agarwood production. Agarwood has different qualities depending on the method with which it is formed, and the microbial community structures that are present during these methods are also diverse. Furthermore, the microbial communities of plants play crucial roles in determining their health and productivity. While previous studies have investigated the impact of microorganisms on agarwood formation, they lack comprehensiveness, particularly regarding the properties of the microbial community throughout the entire process from seedling to adult to incense formation. We collected roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and other tissues from seedlings, healthy plants and agarwood-producing plants to address this gap and assess the dominant bacterial species in the microbial community structures of A. sinensis at different growth stages and their impacts on growth and agarwood formation. The bacteria and fungi in these tissues were classified and counted from different perspectives. The samples were sequenced using the Illumina sequencing platform, and sequence analyses and species annotations were performed using a range of bioinformatics tools to assess the plant community compositions. An additional comparison of the samples was conducted using diversity analyses to assess their differences. This research revealed that Listeria, Kurtzmanomyces, Ascotaiwania, Acinetobacter, Sphingobium, Fonsecaea, Acrocalymma, Allorhizobium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Peethambara, and Debaryomyces are potentially associated with the formation of agarwood. Overall, the data provided in this article help us understand the important roles played by bacteria and fungi in the growth and agarwood formation process of A. sinensis, will support the theoretical basis for the large-scale cultivation of A. sinensis, and provide a basis for further research on microbial community applications in agarwood production and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: About a quarter of migraine cases among women have menstrual migraine (MM), which is usually more severe, longer lasting, and less responsive to treatment than typical migraine. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have evaluated the efficacy of several medication in the acute and preventive treatment of MM; this meta-analysis compared the effectiveness of these treatments. Methods: We conducted systematic searches in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and Embase databases. The primary outcomes of acute treatment trials were pain relief at 2 and 24 h after treatment compared with placebo or another treatment. The three endpoints we checked for studying MM prevention were: no recurrence of headaches each month, a 50% reduction in monthly migraine days from baseline, and a decrease in the mean number of headache days per month. Results: Out of 342 studies, 26 RCTs met the criteria. Triptans, combined with or without other analgesics, were superior to placebo in providing pain relief in the acute treatment and prevention of MM. Among the treatments, sumatriptan and lasmiditan demonstrated superior pain relief at 2 h (OR: 4.62) and 24 h (OR: 4.81). Frovatriptan exhibited effectiveness in preventing headache recurrence, whereas galcanezumab and erenumab displayed significant preventive benefits in reducing headache days per month. Conclusion: Sumatriptan and lasmiditan are effective first-line treatments for acute MM. For prevention, frovatriptan may be the more effective of triptans. Compared with triptans, CGRP monoclonal antibodies, here including erenumab and galcanezumab, are more effective in reducing headache days, and therefore, in preventing MM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many schools have started implementing remote teaching due to the impact of the COVID-19. Flipped classroom has been proven to be a student-centered teaching method that can effectively improve learning effectiveness. Nonetheless, if students fail to watch the instructional videos prior to class or encounter difficulties during the learning process, it can result in unfavorable learning outcomes. Therefore, this study proposes the use of the flipped classroom combined with the WPACQ learning model for programming courses. During the pre-class phase, students engage in online collaboration with their classmates, working together to accomplish the tasks outlined in the flipped classroom learning sheet. They actively share essential summaries with peers, engage in collective problem-solving of concepts and processes, all with the ultimate goal of enhancing the effectiveness of their learning experience. This study will develop a learning system that combines the flipped classroom with the WPACQ learning model, guiding learners to adopt the WPACQ learning strategy. In this system, the experimental group learners go through stages including watching instructional videos (Watch), guided outline-style note-taking with peers (Peer-Summary), unit test (Assessment), error correction (Correction), and final questioning (Question). Through viewing peer-summary key notes and engaging in error correction activities with peers, learners cultivate the ability to summarize key points and deepen their understanding of the learning content. They reflect on their own learning process to identify areas for improvement. The research results demonstrate that learners who adopt the flipped classroom combined with the WPACQ learning model exhibit better learning effectiveness compared to those using the conventional flipped classroom learning model. Furthermore, this approach effectively helps learners enhance their learning motivation, self-efficacy, reflective abilities, programming learning attitudes, and reduce cognitive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search of the new physics (NP) beyond the Standard Model is one of the most important topics in current high energy physics. With the increasing luminosities at the colliders, the search for NP signals requires the analysis of more and more data, and the efficiency in data processing becomes particularly important. As a machine learning algorithm, support vector machine (SVM) is expected to to be useful in the search of NP. Meanwhile, the quantum computing has the potential to offer huge advantages when dealing with large amounts of data, which suggests that quantum SVM (QSVM) is a potential tool in future phenomenological studies of the NP. How to use SVM and QSVM to optimize event selection strategies to search for NP signals are studied in this paper. Taking the tri-photon process at a muon collider as an example, it can be shown that the event selection strategies optimized by the SVM and QSVM are effective in the search of the dimension-8 operators contributing to the anomalous quartic gauge couplings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rockfall poses a formidable threat to the ongoing fast-paced construction of large-scale projects in uninhabited areas in high mountain valleys. In this study, an optimization method for arranging passive nets on high and steep slopes was presented to mitigate the threat from rockfalls. This method diverges from the conventional method of subjectively arranging passive nets along the perimeter of protected regions (due to its emphasis on cost considerations), in which the quantitative appraisal of rockfall movement characteristics and interception rates is frequently omitted, consequently failing to comprehensively ensure transportation routes and temporary construction sites. The methodology encompasses the acquisition of terrain data by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), identification of rockfall sources based on UAV point clouds, quantitative assessment of rockfall hazards using a 3D probabilistic model, and optimization of the layout of passive nets based on the assessment results. The aim of the optimization of passive nets is to quantitatively assess the cost–effect relationship of passive nets, accounting for construction feasibility, interception potential, and likelihood of successful rockfall interception. We applied this method to the Feishuiyan slope in southwest China as an example, and the results demonstrated an enhanced interception rate of 99% and cost reduction by a factor of three relative to the original scheme. This innovative approach could enhance rockfall mitigation in high and steep areas, providing a viable strategy for future prevention efforts in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal spores are common airborne allergens, and fungal richness has been implicated in allergic disease. Amplicon sequencing of environmental DNA from air samples is a promising method to estimate fungal spore richness with semi-quantification of hundreds of taxa and can be combined with quantitative PCR to derive abundance estimates. However, it remains unclear how the choice of air sampling method influences these estimates. This study compared active sampling with a portable impactor and passive sampling with a passive trap over different durations to estimate fungal spore richness and the abundance of allergenic taxa. Air sampling was conducted indoors and outdoors at 12 residences, including repeated measurements with a portable impactor and passive traps with 1-day and 7-day durations. ITS2 amplicon sequence data were transformed to spore equivalents estimated by quantitative PCR, repeated active samples were combined, and abundance-based rarefaction was performed to standardize sample coverage for estimation of genus-level richness and spore abundance. Rarefied fungal richness was similar between methods indoors but higher for passive traps with a 7-day duration outdoors. Rarefied abundance of allergenic genera was similar between methods but some genera had lower abundance for passive traps with a 1-day duration, which differed indoors and outdoors indicating stochasticity in the collection of spores on collocated samplers. This study found that similar estimates of fungal spore richness and abundance of allergenic taxa can be obtained using a portable impactor or a passive trap within one day and that increased passive sample duration provides limited additional information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, T-cell-mediated disease with a multifactorial pathogenesis. MicroRNA (miRNA) alteration in psoriasis has been identified within the last few years. In particular, miR-146a levels were altered. However, previous studies have equivocal or even contradictory findings. Objective: The current study aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the miRNA expression profile in different tissues in patients with psoriasis. Further, the correlation between miR-146a levels and psoriasis severity as well as the specific expression patterns of the miR-146a profile in patients with psoriasis after treatment were evaluated. Methods: To retrieve studies investigating the correlation between miRNA and psoriasis, a comprehensive search of databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase was performed from inception to 30 June 2023. Relevant journals and references of the included studies were also reviewed. A meta-analysis was conducted using the comprehensive meta-analysis version 3. Results: The correlation between the miR-146a expression levels and psoriasis susceptibility in 14 studies was assessed. Results showed that the miR-146a expression level was upregulated in psoriasis samples [P = 0.001, standardized mean difference (SMD) = 1.489, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.618–2.360]. In a subgroup analysis based on sample type, the correlation between the peripheral blood mononuclear cell, blood, and tissue miR-146a expression level and psoriasis was significant (SMD = 1.293, 95% CI 0.310–2.276, P = 0.01; SMD = 2.526, 95% CI 1.710–3.342, P = 0.000; SMD = 3.153, 95% CI 1.432–4.874, P = 0.00, respectively). A positive correlation was observed between the miR-146a expression levels and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score. However, the result was not statistically significant (correlation coefficient = 0.29, 95% CI − 0.038 to 0.575, P = 0.081). Further, the miR-146a levels decreased after treatment (SMD = − 1.592, 95% CI − 2.067 to − 1.117, P = 0.000, I2 = 74.104). Conclusions: The miR-146a expression level is positively correlated with and can contribute to the pathobiology of psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let M = Sn /Γ and h be a nontrivial element of finite order p in π1(Μ), where the integers n, p ≥ 2, Γ is a finite abelian group which acts freely and isometrically on the n-sphere and therefore M is diffeomorphic to a compact space form. In this paper, we prove that there are infinitely many non-contractible closed geodesics of class [h] on the compact space form with Cr-generic Finsler metrics, where 4 ≤ r ≤ ∞. The conclusion also holds for Cr-generic Riemannian metrics for 2 ≤ r ≤ ∞. The proof is based on the resonance identity of non-contractible closed geodesics on compact space forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winged fruits possess a unique flight mechanism relying on simple geometric structures rather than neuromuscular control. This study proposes an innovative approach using origami techniques to create three-winged model fruits, serving as a proxy for understanding the flight dynamics of natural winged fruits. Paper is employed to simulate inherent wing flexibility, with the option to add plastic frames for rigidity. We comprehensively investigate the free fall motion of both rigid and flexible winged fruits through experimental and numerical analyses. Velocity–time curves reveal a three-stage descent pattern—acceleration, deceleration, and steady states. The overshoot phenomenon is attributed to rapid lift increase due to leading-edge vortices attaching stably to the wings. This insight sheds light on aerodynamics governing fruit flight. Compared with rigid wings, flexible wings exhibit two key properties—slower descent and higher self-orienting capability—that facilitate a more stable and longer-distance dispersal of seeds under crosswind conditions. Our study demonstrates the potential benefits of flexible wings in natural seed distribution. This study advances our understanding of winged fruit flight dynamics, utilizing origami as a powerful tool for biomimetic investigations. The findings have broad implications, from improving aerodynamic designs to developing efficient micro air vehicles and electronic microfliers, and understanding seed dispersal evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart failure (HF) can be caused by a variety of causes characterized by abnormal myocardial systole and diastole. Ca2+ current through the L-type calcium channel (LTCC) on the membrane is the initial trigger signal for a cardiac cycle. Declined systole and diastole in HF are associated with dysfunction of myocardial Ca2+ function. This disorder can be correlated with unbalanced levels of phosphorylation / dephosphorylation of LTCC, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and myofilament. Kinase and phosphatase activity changes along with HF progress, resulting in phased changes in the degree of phosphorylation / dephosphorylation. It is important to realize the phosphorylation / dephosphorylation differences between a normal and a failing heart. This review focuses on phosphorylation / dephosphorylation changes in the progression of HF and summarizes the effects of phosphorylation / dephosphorylation of LTCC, ER function, and myofilament function in normal conditions and HF based on previous experiments and clinical research. Also, we summarize current therapeutic methods based on abnormal phosphorylation / dephosphorylation and clarify potential therapeutic directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely applied aluminum alloys in ship hulls, underwater vehicles, and marine machinery experience severe corrosion in harsh marine environments. For corrosion protection of aluminum alloys, the most convenient, effective, and low-cost approach was the application of anti-corrosion coatings. Coatings possessing self-healing properties to spontaneously repair damages have emerged as a research focus for new types of coatings. In this study, focused on the indication and repair of anti-corrosion coating damages for aluminum alloys, the fluorescent aggregation-induced emission (AIE) composite probe, rhodamine-naphthalimide (RNI), was synthesized, and the composite polymer materials HPPA-SMPU containing 2-hydroxyphosphinoyl carboxylic acid-doped polyaniline and shape memory polyurethane were prepared. Coaxial electrospinning technology was introduced to combine the two and create the fibrous materials with the fiber wall constructed from HPPA-SMPU, encapsulating the interior RNI solution. The fibers were incorporated into the epoxy coatings. RNI exhibited water-triggered AIE, Al3+-CHEF (chelation-enhanced fluorescence), and pH-responsive fluorescent properties to indicate infrared laser-targeted points of coating damages. The photothermal properties of HPPA-SMPU caused localized heating of the damaged coatings, reaching the phase transition temperature of epoxy and SMPU, leading to softening, expansion, shape memory behavior, and healing of the coating damages. The self-healing approaches enhanced the protective performance of the coatings for aluminum alloys, showcasing and extending the development of synergistic and intelligent functions in novel self-healing coating technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores 15-year urological complications in chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients and investigates the predictive factors from video-urodynamic study (VUDS) and bladder management. Analyzing 864 SCI patients with a mean 15.6-year follow-up, we assessed complications and utilized multivariate logistic regression for risk evaluation. VUDS factors such as autonomic dysreflexia, detrusor sphincter dyssynergia, vesicourethral reflux (VUR), contracted bladder, and high voiding detrusor pressure significantly increased the likelihood of recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTI). Low bladder compliance, VUR, and contracted bladder notably raised the risk of hydronephrosis, while contracted bladder and detrusor overactivity with detrusor underactivity heightened chronic kidney disease risk. Volitional voiding reduced rUTI and VUR risk, whereas Valsalva maneuver-assisted voiding increased hydronephrosis risk. In conclusion, a contracted bladder identified in VUDS is associated with long-term urological complications in SCI, we propose that patients already experiencing a contracted bladder should prioritize volitional voiding as their preferred bladder management strategy to minimize the risk of additional complications such as rUTI and VUR. These findings unveil previously unexplored aspects in research, emphasizing the need for proactive management strategies in this patient population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the accuracy of data processing and interpretation, effective suppression of the regional background field and extraction of the local anomaly field for further analyses represent urgent issues that need to be solved in the wide-field electromagnetic methods. The present study proposes an anomaly separation technique based on the residual method to develop the basic idea of regional field separation in gravity and magnetic exploration. The proposed technique can effectively suppress the regional background field and highlight local anomalies, such as faults and thin layers in inversion imaging, overcoming the shortcomings of traditional interpretation methods. Based on the interpolation-cutting method, a dynamically improved interpolation-cutting operator is proposed to obtain the regional background field by separating it from the local anomaly field. Furthermore, one- and two-dimensional complex geoelectric models are designed to perform calculations, inverse imaging, and anomaly separation. It has been demonstrated that the local anomaly information extracted by the anomaly separation technology describes accurate strata, structures, and faults, obviously superior to the traditional processing results. The proposed method is used to separate the anomalies from the wide-field electromagnetic inversion imaging in the Changning area of the southern Sichuan Province. The local information of the structures, thin layers, and faults obtained by the anomaly separation results is highly consistent with the seismic profile, indicating that the proposed anomaly separation technology is effective and reliable. Further, the proposed technology can effectively improve the inversion imaging accuracy and the interpretation reliability of traditional wide-field electromagnetic methods; thus, it has important application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effect of external stress on the Cu microstructure evolution of electroplated Cu films was studied. We found that, with applying external compressive stress, abnormal grain growth occurred in the electroplated Cu films during thermal annealing. By studying the crystalline orientation mapping, we found the abnormal grain growth was attributed to the fast grain growth of the favorable Cu grains. We conclude that Cu grains with the (201) preferred orientation are the most favorable for the abnormal grain growth model under the external stress of 150 MPa and 300 MPa. Typically, subgrains (polygonization) formed by the dislocation rearrangement do not likely form in Cu, which is known to have a low stacking fault energy. Yet, by applying external stress, the energy barrier for the dislocation motion in Cu reduces. Subgrains and subgrain boundaries are observed in the Cu grains of electroplated Cu film when applying external stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosis of renal fibrosis can only be verified by kidney biopsy, but biomarkers for non-invasive evaluation remain unsatisfactory. Patients with fibrosis often have abnormalities of the lymphatic vascular system and associated immune function. We describe here a lymphatic marker as a candidate biomarker for fibrosis. After assessing and grading the fibrosis scores, testing serum soluble lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor1 (sLYVE1) level, and collecting clinical information, the association between sLYVE1 and renal fibrosis was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to screen variables. Diagnosis models with or without sLYVE1 were built, and nomograms were plotted. Calibration curve, C-index, and DCA were performed to assess the models. A total of 298 patients were enrolled in the study, of which 199 were included in the training cohort and 99 patients in the validation cohort. Serum sLYVE1 levels markedly elevated with increasing fibrosis grade (p<0.05). ROC analysis of sLYVE1 showed an AUC of 0.791 and 0.846 with optimal cut-off value of 405.25 ng/mL and 498.55 ng/mL for the prediction of moderate-to-severe renal fibrosis (MSF) and severe renal fibrosis (SF), respectively. The diagnostic nomogram model without sLYVE1 (model 1) included traditional clinical determinants (C-index: 0.658 for MSF; 0.603 for SF). A combination of model 1 and sLYVE1 (model 2) improved predictive performance (C-index: 0.847 for MSF; 0.856 for SF). Calibration curve and DCA demonstrated a better consistency accuracy and clinical benefit of model 2 than model 1. Serum sLYVE1 may be identified as a potential biomarker of renal fibrosis. Models incorporating sLYVE1 may be beneficial for a more accurate non-invasive diagnosis of renal fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yeast, which plays a pivotal role in the brewing, food, and medical industries, exhibits a close relationship with human beings. In this study, we isolated and purified 60 yeast strains from the natural fermentation broth of Sidamo coffee beans to screen for indigenous beneficial yeasts. Among them, 25 strains were obtained through morphological characterization on nutritional agar medium from Wallerstein Laboratory (WL), with molecular biology identifying Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain YBB-47 and the remaining 24 yeast strains identified as Pichia kudriavzevii. We investigated the fermentation performance, alcohol tolerance, SO2 tolerance, pH tolerance, sugar tolerance, temperature tolerance, ester production capacity, ethanol production capacity, H2S production capacity, and other brewing characteristics of YBB-33 and YBB-47. The results demonstrated that both strains could tolerate up to 3% alcohol by volume at a high sucrose mass concentration (400 g/L) under elevated temperature conditions (40 ℃), while also exhibiting a remarkable ability to withstand an SO2 mass concentration of 300 g/L at pH 3.2. Moreover, S. cerevisiae YBB-47 displayed a rapid gas production rate and strong ethanol productivity. whereas P. kudriavzevii YBB-33 exhibited excellent alcohol tolerance. Furthermore, this systematic classification and characterization of coffee bean yeast strains from the Sidamo region can potentially uncover additional yeasts that offer high-quality resources for industrial-scale coffee bean production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liver is the main gateway from the gut, and the unidirectional sinusoidal flow from portal to central veins constitutes heterogenous zones, including the periportal vein (PV) and the pericentral vein zones1–5. However, functional differences in the immune system in each zone remain poorly understood. Here intravital imaging revealed that inflammatory responses are suppressed in PV zones. Zone-specific single-cell transcriptomics detected a subset of immunosuppressive macrophages enriched in PV zones that express high levels of interleukin-10 and Marco, a scavenger receptor that sequesters pro-inflammatory pathogen-associated molecular patterns and damage-associated molecular patterns, and consequently suppress immune responses. Induction of Marco+ immunosuppressive macrophages depended on gut microbiota. In particular, a specific bacterial family, Odoribacteraceae, was identified to induce this macrophage subset through its postbiotic isoallolithocholic acid. Intestinal barrier leakage resulted in inflammation in PV zones, which was markedly augmented in Marco-deficient conditions. Chronic liver inflammatory diseases such as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) showed decreased numbers of Marco+ macrophages. Functional ablation of Marco+ macrophages led to PSC-like inflammatory phenotypes related to colitis and exacerbated steatosis in NASH in animal experimental models. Collectively, commensal bacteria induce Marco+ immunosuppressive macrophages, which consequently limit excessive inflammation at the gateway of the liver. Failure of this self-limiting system promotes hepatic inflammatory disorders such as PSC and NASH.A subset of Macro-positive macrophages is identified to have immunosuppressive functions in the periportal vein zones of the liver to mediate excessive inflammation, and their effects depend on commensal gut bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated evaluation metrics for video captioning hold an important place in computer vision. Although some research has looked up in this direction, they produce subpar results or highlight the significance of a dataset with a certain domain. So far, evaluation metrics used in machine translation/ image captioning have been adapted for video captioning. At the same time, they don't give the desired result. This work intends to improve the performances of existing methods by proposing a new evaluation metric for the video captioning models. The proposed metric, Video-Captioning Evaluation Metric for Segments (VEMS), accounts for the main event, sub-actions, and background details. Thus VEMS evaluates captions at the segment level. A novel dataset structure called MSVD-S, a modified version of the MSVD dataset consisting of captions for multiple segments in a single video has also been proposed. Based on the MSVD-S dataset with weighted frames, VEMS captions to video in a frame-wise manner. Detailed performance analysis of the corner cases like the omission of actions, ignorance of sub-events, and lack of details has been done. The proposed metric provided improved performance as an evaluation score closer to an accuracy of 34.2% has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In unit cell simulations, identification of ordered phases in block copolymers (BCPs) is a tedious and time-consuming task, impeding the advancement of more streamlined and potentially automated research workflows. In this study, we propose a scattering-based automated identification strategy (SAIS) for characterization and identification of ordered phases of BCPs based on their computed scattering patterns. Our approach leverages the scattering theory of perfect crystals to efficiently compute the scattering patterns of periodic morphologies in a unit cell. In the first stage of the SAIS, phases are identified by comparing reflection conditions at a sequence of Miller indices. To confirm or refine the identification results of the first stage, the second stage of the SAIS introduces a tailored residual between the test phase and each of the known candidate phases. Furthermore, our strategy incorporates a variance-like criterion to distinguish background species, enabling its extension to multi-species BCP systems. It has been demonstrated that our strategy achieves exceptional accuracy and robustness while requiring minimal computational resources. Additionally, the approach allows for real-time expansion and improvement to the candidate phase library, facilitating the development of automated research workflows for designing specific ordered structures and discovering new ordered phases in BCPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex differences in mammalian complex traits are prevalent and are intimately associated with androgens1–7. However, a molecular and cellular profile of sex differences and their modulation by androgens is still lacking. Here we constructed a high-dimensional single-cell transcriptomic atlas comprising over 2.3 million cells from 17 tissues in Mus musculus and explored the effects of sex and androgens on the molecular programs and cellular populations. In particular, we found that sex-biased immune gene expression and immune cell populations, such as group 2 innate lymphoid cells, were modulated by androgens. Integration with the UK Biobank dataset revealed potential cellular targets and risk gene enrichment in antigen presentation for sex-biased diseases. This study lays the groundwork for understanding the sex differences orchestrated by androgens and provides important evidence for targeting the androgen pathway as a broad therapeutic strategy for sex-biased diseases.The effects of sex and androgens on the molecular programs and cellular populations are explored using a single-cell transcriptomic atlas comprising over 2.3 million cells from different tissues in Mus musculus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supramolecular systems feature dynamic, reversible and stimuli-responsive characteristics, which are not easily achieved by molecular entities. The last decade has witnessed tremendous advances in the investigations of supramolecular systems for various bioapplications, which include drug delivery, anticancer therapy, antibacterial therapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, combination therapy, antidotes for residual drugs or toxins, and bioimaging and biosensing. Host-guest chemistry has played a key role in the development of such bioactive supramolecular systems, and natural macrocycles (such as cyclodextrins), synthetic macrocycles (such as calixarenes, cucurbit[n]urils, and pillararenes), and porous framework polymers (such as supramolecular organic frameworks and flexible organic frameworks) have been most successfully used as hosts to build different kinds of host-guest systems for attaining designed biofunctions. The self-assembly of rationally designed amphiphilic molecules, macromolecules and polymers represent another important approach for the construction of supramolecular architectures with advanced biofunctions. In this review, we summarize the important contributions made by Chinese researchers in this field, with emphasis on those reported in the past five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excipients are important components of pharmaceutical preparations that affect their quality, safety, and efficacy. Macrocyclic receptors are a family of supramolecular excipients with several advantages, including molecular-level protection, small sizes, fast kinetics of host-guest recognition, and modular construction. With the continuous advances in the medical field, personalized and precision medicine requires the development of excipients with low dosages, integrated modifying effects, universality, and controlled release. To meet these requirements, we have developed a new family of macrocyclic excipients based on calixarenes by integrating their covalent (broad chemical design space) and noncovalent (wide range of substrates) advantages. Accordingly, azocalixarenes (AzoCAs) were designed, showing high binding affinities to a broad spectrum of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), selectivity to interferents, and responsiveness to hypoxic microenvironments. Due to their highly efficient and controllable recognition, AzoCAs serve as low-dose excipients for 30 APIs. Molecular encapsulation by AzoCAs results in the integrated modification of the physicochemical properties of APIs, including solubility, stability, bioavailability, and biocompatibility. Moreover, AzoCAs can be reduced by azoreductases overexpressed in hypoxic microenvironments, leading to the controlled release of APIs. Collectively, AzoCA excipients have broad application prospects for a series of diseases such as enteritis, arthritis, stroke, cancer, bacterial infection and kidney injury, with diverse therapeutic modalities, including chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, immunotherapy, boron neutron capture therapy, radiotherapy, fluorescence imaging, and their combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Aberrant brain functional connectivity network is thought to be related to cognitive impairment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aims to investigate the triple-network effective connectivity patterns in patients with T2DM within and between the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and executive control network (ECN) and their associations with cognitive declines. Methods: In total, 92 patients with T2DM and 98 matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Spectral dynamic causal modeling (spDCM) was used for effective connectivity analysis within the triple network. The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and anterior insula (AINS) were selected as the regions of interest. Group comparisons were performed for effective connectivity calculated using the fully connected model, and the relationships between effective connectivity alterations and cognitive impairment as well as clinical parameters were detected. Results: Compared to HCs, patients with T2DM exhibited increased or decreased effective connectivity patterns within the triple network. Furthermore, diabetes duration was significantly negatively correlated with increased effective connectivity from the r-LPFC to the mPFC, while body mass index (BMI) was significantly positively correlated with increased effective connectivity from the l-LPFC to the l-AINS (r = − 0.353, p = 0.001; r = 0.377, p = 0.004). Conclusion: These results indicate abnormal effective connectivity patterns within the triple network model in patients with T2DM and provide new insight into the neurological mechanisms of T2DM and related cognitive dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog computing is a computer architecture consisting of fog nodes, a collection of near-user edge devices. These fog nodes collaborate to perform computational services like data retrieval, processing, storage, etc. Resource allocation is one of the most critical and challenging problems in the fog environment for industrial applications. The significant aspects to consider while allocating resources are response time, throughput, and energy consumption. The proposed work formulated the resource allocation problem as a bi-objective minimization problem. The main aim of the work is to reduce energy consumption and makespan while allocating service requests to virtual machines. The proposed technique uses the league championship algorithm to select an efficient resource for productive and resourceful service allocation of tasks in fog computing. The proposed algorithm's performance is assessed by comparing it to three well-known metaheuristic algorithms. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in terms of makespan and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Internet of Things (IoT) has gained wide popularity due to its implementation in smart homes and wearables. IoT centralized system increases the risk of a single point of failure and thus reduces the scalability. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) mitigates these security concerns by providing digital certificates which act as identity proof with a limited lifetime. Certificate Authority (CA) grants public key certificates that consist not only of users but also of servers and software. Once the private key is exposed then an attacker can misuse the information that is intended for the receiver. IoT has low computational power, which can disrupt the encryption process. Blockchain has been transforming cyberspace since its inception as the fundamental technology behind the emergence of cryptocurrencies. Blockchain's key features consist of decentralization, transparency, immutability, encryption, peer to peer which will overcome the shortcomings of IoT infrastructure. Blockchain records every transaction in the blocks, which are secured by hashing algorithms. Smart contracts will be implemented in the PKI and will be executed when certain conditions are fulfilled. PKI with IoT lacks trust in the certificate and the high cost of signing the certificate. IoT with blockchain has real-life use cases in different sectors such as medicine, supply chain, smart home automation, and so on. In this paper, we have done a comparative analysis of existing work by various researchers and focused on the challenges of PKI with IoT, and provided potential solutions for blockchain Implementation with PKI and IoT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Gram-stain-positive, oval-shaped, and non-flagellated bacterial strain YIM S02556T was isolated from forest soil in Xiongbi Town, Shizong County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. The strain exhibited high pairwise 16 S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Psychromicrobium lacuslunae (97.3%) and Psychromicrobium silvestre (96.3%). Strain YIM S02556T exhibited an average nucleotide identity (ANI) of 72.5% with P. lacuslunae IHBB 11,108T and 72.8% ANI with P. silvestre AK 20-18T. The digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) value between strain YIM S02556T and P. lacuslunae IHBB 11,108T was 20.2%, while with P. silvestre AK 20-18T, the dDDH value was 20.8%. Strain YIM S02556T exhibited optimal growth at 28 °C, pH 7.0, without NaCl. Growth occurred within 10–37 ℃, pH 5.0–8.0, and in the presence of up to 5% w/v NaCl concentration. The genome size was 3.1 Mbp with 64.2% G + C content. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H4). The major cellular fatty acid was anteiso-C15:0. Based on the polyphasic analysis, strain YIM S02556T (= KCTC 49,805T = CCTCC AB2020166T) represents a novel Psychromicrobium species in which the name Psychromicrobium xiongbiense sp.nov. was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfusion reactions induced by platelet transfusions may be reduced and alleviated by leukocyte reduction of platelets. Although leukoreduction of apheresis platelets can be performed either pre-storage or post-storage, seldom studies directly compare the incidence of transfusion reaction in these two different blood products. We conducted a retrospective study to compare the transfusion reactions between pre-storage and post-storage leukoreduced apheresis platelets. We reviewed the general characteristics and the transfusion reactions, symptoms, and categories for inpatients who received pre-storage or post-storage leukoreduced apheresis platelets. Propensity-score matching was performed to adjust for baseline differences between groups. A total of 40,837 leukoreduction apheresis platelet orders were reviewed. 116 (0.53%) transfusion reactions were reported in 21,884 transfusions with pre-storage leukoreduction, and 174 (0.91%) reactions were reported in 18,953 transfusions with post-storage leukoreduction. Before propensity-score matching, the odds ratio for transfusion reactions in the pre-storage group relative to the post-storage group was 0.57 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45–0.72, P < 0.01); the odds ratio after matching was 0.63 (95% CI 0.49–0.80, P < 0.01). A two-proportion z-test revealed pre-storage leukoreduction significantly decreases the symptoms of chills, fever, itching, urticaria, dyspnea, and hypertension as compared with those in post-storage leukoreduction. Pre-storage leukoreduced apheresis platelet significantly decreased febrile non-hemolytic transfusion reaction as compared with post-storage groups. This study suggests pre-storage leukoreduction apheresis platelet significantly decreases the transfusion reaction as compared with those in post-storage leukoreduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Container-based virtualization is becoming increasingly popular in cloud computing due to its efficiency and flexibility. Resource isolation is a fundamental property of containers. Existing works have indicated weak resource isolation could cause significant performance degradation for containerized applications and enhanced resource isolation. However, current studies have almost not discussed the isolation problems of page cache which is a key resource for containers. Containers leverage memory cgroup to control page cache usage. Unfortunately, existing policy introduces two major problems in a container-based environment. First, containers can utilize more memory than limited by their cgroup, effectively breaking memory isolation. Second, the OS kernel has to evict page cache to make space for newly-arrived memory requests, slowing down containerized applications. This paper performs an empirical study of these problems and demonstrates the performance impacts on containerized applications. Then we propose pCache (precisecontrol of page cache) to address the problems by dividing page cache into private and shared and controlling both kinds of page cache separately and precisely. To do so, pCache leverages two new technologies: fair account (f-account) and evict on demand (EoD). F-account splits the shared page cache charging based on per-container share to prevent containers from using memory for free, enhancing memory isolation. And EoD reduces unnecessary page cache evictions to avoid the performance impacts. The evaluation results demonstrate that our system can effectively enhance memory isolation for containers and achieve substantial performance improvement over the original page cache management policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the conventional entanglement-separability paradigm in quantum information theory, we embark on a different path by introducing a classical dichotomy. We aim to quantify a measurement’s disturbance by minimizing the difference between input and post-measurement states to distinguish either classical or quantum correlations. Theoretically, we apply a complex-valued gradient flow over Stiefel manifolds for minimization. Our focus extends beyond the practical application to encompass the well-known Łojasiewicz gradient inequality. This inequality is a fundamental tool that guarantees the global convergence of the flow from any initial starting point to the optimal solution. Numerically, we validate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed method by performing a series of experiments in different scenarios. Experimental results suggest the capability of our approach to accurately and reliably characterize correlations as classical or quantum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refined indigenous Saccharomyces cerevisiae can enhance refinement, sophistication, and subtlety of fruit wines by showcasing exceptional regional characteristics. In order to identify exceptional indigenous S. cerevisiae strains from Yunnan olive, this study isolated 60 yeast strains from wild Yunnan olive fermentation mash. The five S. cerevisiae strains were subjected to morphological and molecular biological identification, followed by evaluation of their fermentation performance, ethanol production capacity, ester production capacity, H2S production capacity, killing capacity, and tolerance. Strains LJM-4, LJM-10, and LJM-26 exhibited robust tolerance to 6% ethanol volume fraction, pH 2.8, sucrose concentration of 400 g/L, SO2 concentration of 0.3 g/L, glucose concentration of 400 g/L at both 40 °C and 15 °C. Additionally, strain LJM-10 demonstrated a faster fermentation rate compared to the other strains. Among the tested S. cerevisiae strains evaluated in this study for olive wine fermentation process in Yunnan region; strain LJM-10 displayed superior abilities in terms of ester and ethanol production while exhibiting the lowest H2S production levels. These findings suggest that strain LJM-10 holds great potential as an excellent candidate for optimizing fruit wine S. cerevisiae fermentation processes in Yunnan olive fruit wine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a volatile hormone signal, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) can regulate the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. But in floral fragrance, the effect and mechanisms of MeJA on monoterpenes, the major components of many plants, are largely unknown. In this paper, we measured the release of monoterpenes from petals of Lilium 'Siberia' after MeJA treatment, as well as the expressions of monoterpene pathway genes and Lilium coronatine-insensitive (LiCOI1) gene. Then the LiCOI1 gene was cloned, and using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technology, its function in monoterpene biosynthesis in response to MeJA was validated. The results showed that MeJA significantly improved the release amounts of myrcene, ocimene, and linalool. The expression levels of synthase genes [Lilium myrcene synthase (LiMYS), Lilium ocimene synthase (LiOCS), as well as Lilium linalool synthase (LiLIS)], two pathway genes [Lilium 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (LiDXS) and Lilium 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase (LiDXR)] were enhanced. Moreover, the LiCOI1 gene exhibited a remarkably increased expression level, which suggested its signaling role. Based on the analysis, the full length of LiCOI1 gene was 1809 bp, whose deduced protein contained 602 amino acids and was mainly located in the nucleus. Silencing the expression of LiCOI1 in petals significantly depressed not only the gene expressions of LiMYS, LiOCS, LiLIS, LiDXS, and LiDXR, but also the release amounts of myrcene, ocimene, and linalool. These results confirm that LiCOI1 plays an important signaling role in MeJA-induced enhancement of monoterpene biosynthesis in Lilium 'Siberia'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new medical image encryption scheme employing cascaded Quantum Mechanics and Chaos systems. Firstly, a Quantum Mechanics based Schrödinger wave time signal generates a stream of initial conditions based on electron-free particles within a well. In the second phase, every initial condition is permuted by a series of Logistic map functions to perform chaotic confusion followed by XOR-based encryption with respective block or sub-image. Before that, the original image must have undergone a division of countable blocks. Chaotic map sequences are sensitive to initial conditions and control parameters. The proposed Cascaded Schrödinger Logistic Encryption (CSLE) algorithm can encrypt any grayscale and color image. The key space 2 359 of the proposed algorithm is very high. It is validated against all statistical analysis and major security benchmark tests such as resistance to brute force attacks, differential attacks, key sensitivity tests, correlation analysis, resistance to noise, and plain text attack, along with speed analysis. The proposed CSLE algorithm meets all the NIST test suite standards. The security test result of the proposed algorithm outperforms many existing image encryption algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, this pandemic has severely affected the education sector. As education undergoes a brilliant transformation with advancing technology, the digital acquisition of knowledge has yet to find widespread use - virtual exams. Faraway Proctoring offers several advantages of using manual and primarily based technology. Although this allows students to take an exam in any field with specific technical requirements, it eliminates the need for physical research centers. It is cost-effective and easy to plan, which can be challenging to manage, especially during aggressive trials. Finally, the paper discusses the performance characteristics of different styles of web-based inspection systems, along with their limitations and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) is a serious complication after hepatectomy and a major cause of death. The current criteria for PHLF diagnosis (ISGLS consensus) require laboratory data of elevated INR level and hyperbilirubinemia on or after postoperative day 5. This study aims to propose a new indicator for the early clinical prediction of PHLF. Methods: The peri-operative arterial lactate concentration level ratios were derived from time points within the 3 days before surgery and within POD1, the patients were divided into two groups: high lactate ratio group (≥ 1) and low lactate ratio group (< 1). We compared the differences in morbidity rates between the two groups. Utilized logistic regression analysis to identify the risk factors associated with PHLF development and ROC curves to compare the predictive value of lactate ratio and other liver function indicators for PHLF. Results: A total of 203 patients were enrolled in the study. Overall morbidity and severe morbidity occurred in 64.5 and 12.8 per cent of patients respectively. 39 patients (19.2%) met the criteria for PHLF, including 15 patients (7.4%) with clinically relevant Post-hepatectomy liver failure (CR-PHLF). With a significantly higher incidence of PHLF observed in the lactate ratio ≥ 1 group compared to the lactate ratio < 1 group (n = 34, 26.8% vs. n = 5, 6.6%, P < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that a lactate ratio ≥ 1 was an independent predictor for PHLF (OR: 3.239, 95% CI 1.097–9.565, P = 0.033). Additionally, lactate ratio demonstrated good predictive efficacy for PHLF (AUC = 0.792). Conclusions: Early assessment of peri-operative arterial lactate concentration level ratios may provide experience in early intervention of complications in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, which can reduce the likelihood of PHLF occurrence and improve patient prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]