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The Dadiwan F901 site, boasting a history of over 5000 years, stands as the largest and most intricately crafted large-scale housing structure from China's prehistoric era. The early renovation efforts, incorporating a sealed glass curtain wall, led to a continuous rise in relative humidity within the site, triggering outbreaks of microbial diseases. Subsequent measures successfully restored stability to the thermal and humid environment. This paper employs on-site real-time environmental monitoring and numerical simulation methods to assess the ventilation effectiveness and relative humidity changes before and after multiple interior modifications of the Dadiwan F901 site museum. The results indicate that the fully enclosed glass curtain wall can suppress the dependence of indoor humidity fluctuations on external weather fluctuations but has generated unintended consequences, leading to increased air relative humidity and even reaching saturation in the museum space. The strategic deployment of louvered windows and duct fans proved effective in enhancing internal airflow dynamics and overall air exchange capacity. It was possible to ensure that the relative humidity inside the site remained at approximately 70%, meeting the essential requirements for the preservation of cultural relics. This study is of great significance for alleviating the deterioration problem of enclosed exhibition halls of earthen relics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the escalating global climatic challenges, hydrological risks significantly influence human settlement patterns, underscoring the imperative for an in-depth comprehension of hydrological change's ramifications on human migration. However, predominant research has been circumscribed to the national level. The study delves into the nonlinear effects of hydrological risks on migration dynamics in 46,776 global subnational units. Meanwhile, leveraging remote sensing, we procured globally consistent metrics of hydrological intrusion exposure, offering a holistic risk assessment encompassing hazard, exposure, and vulnerability dimensions, thus complementing previous work. Here, we show that exposure is the primary migration driver, surpassing socioeconomic factors. Surrounding disparities further intensified exposure's impact. Vulnerable groups, especially the economically disadvantaged and elderly, tend to remain in high-risk areas, with the former predominantly migrating within proximate vicinities. The nonlinear analysis delineates an S-shaped trajectory for hydrological exposure, transitioning from resistance to migration and culminating in entrapment, revealing dependence on settlement resilience and adaptability. Hydrological risks drive migration more than socioeconomic factors. Vulnerable groups often stay in high-risk areas or migrate nearby. The study reveals an S-shaped migration pattern influenced by settlement resilience and adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19-associated pulmonary fibrosis remains frequent. This study aimed to investigate pulmonary redox balance in COVID-19 ARDS patients and possible relationship with pulmonary fibrosis and long-term lung abnormalities. Methods: Baseline data, chest CT fibrosis scores, N-terminal peptide of alveolar collagen III (NT-PCP-III), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were first collected and compared between SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive patients with moderate to severe ARDS (n = 65, COVID-19 ARDS) and SARS-CoV-2 RNA negative non-ARDS patients requiring mechanical ventilation (n = 63, non-ARDS). Then, correlations between fibroproliferative (NT-PCP-III and TGF-β1) and redox markers were analyzed within COVID-19 ARDS group, and comparisons between survivor and non-survivor subgroups were performed. Finally, follow-up of COVID-19 ARDS survivors was performed to analyze the relationship between pulmonary abnormalities, fibroproliferative and redox markers 3 months after discharge. Results: Compared with non-ARDS group, COVID-19 ARDS group had significantly elevated chest CT fibrosis scores (p < 0.001) and NT-PCP-III (p < 0.001), TGF-β1 (p < 0.001), GSSG (p < 0.001), and MDA (p < 0.001) concentrations on admission, while decreased SOD (p < 0.001) and GSH (p < 0.001) levels were observed in BALF. Both NT-PCP-III and TGF-β1 in BALF from COVID-19 ARDS group were directly correlated with GSSG (p < 0.001) and MDA (p < 0.001) and were inversely correlated with SOD (p < 0.001) and GSH (p < 0.001). Within COVID-19 ARDS group, non-survivors (n = 28) showed significant pulmonary fibroproliferation (p < 0.001) with more severe redox imbalance (p < 0.001) than survivors (n = 37). Furthermore, according to data from COVID-19 ARDS survivor follow-up (n = 37), radiographic residual pulmonary fibrosis and lung function impairment improved 3 months after discharge compared with discharge (p < 0.001) and were associated with early pulmonary fibroproliferation and redox imbalance (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Pulmonary redox imbalance occurring early in COVID-19 ARDS patients drives fibroproliferative response and increases the risk of death. Long-term lung abnormalities post-COVID-19 are associated with early pulmonary fibroproliferation and redox imbalance. Highlights: Altering pulmonary redox balance drives an early pulmonary fibroproliferative response in COVID-19 ARDS. Pulmonary redox imbalance and fibroproliferation increase the risk of death in COVID-19 ARDS. Approximately 60% of moderate to severe COVID-19 ARDS survivors suffer residual pulmonary fibrosis and lung function impairment 3 months after hospital discharge. Pulmonary redox imbalance and fibroproliferation affect the resolution of residual pulmonary fibrosis and recovery from lung function impairment post-COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Cisternostomy is a novel surgical concept in the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which can effectively drain the bloody cerebrospinal fluid from the skull base cistern, reduce the intracranial pressure, and improve the return of bone flap, but its preventive role in post-traumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) is unknow. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Cisternostomy prevents the occurrence of PTH in patients with moderate and severe TBI. Methods: A retrospective analysis of clinical data of 86 patients with moderate and severe TBI from May 2019 to October 2021 was carried out in the Brain Trauma Center of Tianjin Huanhu Hospital. Univariate analysis was performed to examine the gender, age, preoperative Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, preoperative Rotterdam CT score, decompressive craniectomy rate, intracranial infection rate, the incidence of subdural fluid, and incidence of hydrocephalus in patients between the Cisternostomy group and the non-Cisternostomy surgery group. we also analyzed the clinical outcome indicators like GCS at discharge,6 month GOS-E and GOS-E ≥ 5 in two groups.Additionaly, the preoperative GCS score, decompressive craniectomy rate, age, and gender of patients with PTH and non hydrocephalus were compared. Further multifactorial logistic binary regression was performed to explore the risk factors for PTH. Finally, we conducted ROC curve analysis on the statistically significant results from the univariate regression analysis to predict the ability of each risk factor to cause PTH. Results: The Cisternostomy group had a lower bone flap removal rate(48.39% and 72.73%, p = 0.024)., higer GCS at discharge(11.13 ± 2.42 and 8.93 ± 3.31,p = 0.000) and better 6 month GOS-E(4.55 ± 1.26 and 3.95 ± 1.18, p = 0.029)than the non-Cisternostomy group However, there was no statistical difference in the incidence of hydrocephalus between the two groups (25.81% and 30.91%, p = 0.617). Moreover, between the hydrocephalus group and no hydrocephalus group,there were no significant differences in the incidence of gender, age, intracranial infection, and subdural fluid. While there were statistical differences in peroperative GCS score, Rotterdam CT score, decompressive craniectomy rate, intracranial infection rate, and the incidence of subdural fluid in the two groups, there was no statistical difference in the percentage of cerebral cisterns open drainage between the hydrocephalus group and no hydrocephalus group (32.00% and 37.70%, p = 0.617). Multifactorial logistic binary regression analysis results revealed that the independent risk factors for PTH were intracranial infection (OR = 18.460, 95% CI: 1.864–182.847 p = 0.013) and subdural effusion (OR = 10.557, 95% CI: 2.425–35.275 p = 0.001). Further, The ROC curve analysis showed that peroperative GCS score, Rotterdam CT score and subdural effusion had good ACU(0.785,0.730,and 0.749), with high sensitivity and specificity to predict the occurrence of PTH. Conclusions: Cisternostomy may decrease morbidities associated with removal of the bone flap and improve the clinical outcome, despite it cannot reduce the disability rate in TBI patients.Intracranial infection and subdural fluid were found to be the independent risk factors for PTH in patients with TBI,and the peroperative GCS score, Rotterdam CT score and subdural effusion had higher sensitivity and specificity to predict the occurrence of PTH. And more importantly, no correlation was observed between open drainage of the cerebral cisterns and the occurrence of PTH, indicating that Cisternostomy may not be beneficial in preventing the occurrence of PTH in patients with moderate and severe TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversies persist regarding the benefits of surgery in elderly patients with meningiomas. The objective of this study was to develop decision-making scale to clarify the necessity for surgical intervention and provide clinical consultation for this special population. This retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single center and included 478 elderly patients (≥ 65 years) who underwent meningioma resection. Follow-up was recorded to determine recurrence and mortality rates. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify significantly preoperative factors, and prognostic prediction models were developed with determined cutoff values for the prognostic index (PI). Model discrimination was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves based on the PI stratification, which categorized patients into low- and high-risk groups. A decision-making tree was then established based on the risk stratification from both models. Among all patients analyzed (n = 478), 62 (13.0%) experience recurrence and 47 (10.0%) died during the follow-up period. Significantly preoperative parameters from both models included advanced age, aCCI, recurrent tumor, motor cortex involvement, male sex, peritumoral edema, and tumor located in skull base (all P < 0.05). According to the classification of PI from the two models, the decision-making tree provided four recommendations that can be used for clinical consultation. Surgery is not recommended for patients assigned to the high-risk group in both models. Patients who meet the low-risk criteria in any model may undergo surgical intervention, but the final decision should depend on the surgeon's expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, 23 pepper varieties (Capsicum annuum L.) were used in the evaluation of morphological, agronomic, and nutritional characteristics to support breeding, protection, and management of genetic resources. In this study, diversity analysis, variance analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data obtained. The results showed that shoulder diameter, flesh thickness, single fruit weight, transverse diameter, fruit shape index, and ventricular number variability were > 20% across all varieties. The maximum diversity index for the ventricular number and single fruit weight were 1.492 and 1.2, respectively. The soluble sugar content ranged 1.6–2.7%, whereas the titratable organic acid content varied 0.2–0.4% and the soluble protein content ranged 8.4–20.1 mg g−1 FW. The range of nitric acid content was 147.5–547.7 mg kg−1, while citric, malic, and tartaric organic acids were the most dominant. The range of ascorbic acid content was 331.4–125.2 µg g−1 FW. Concentrations of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin varied greatly, ranging 3.5–39.9 mg 100 g−1 DW and 1.4–25.9 mg 100 g−1 DW, respectively. Principal component analysis showed that the P3 and P10 varieties clustered together in morphological, agronomic, and nutritional trait space, while the P2, P4, P12, and P16 varieties clustered based on nutritional traits. These morphological and nutritional characteristics can be used in pepper breeding to create new varieties and provide more choices for producers and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: The strong interaction between Ti3C2Sx and FeN4 species induces the central metal Fe(II) in FeN4 species with intermediate spin state transferred to high spin state, in which the latter is favorable to initiate the reduction of oxygen. This strong interaction induces a remarkable Fe 3d electron delocalization with d band center upshift, boosting oxygen-containing groups adsorption on FeN4 species and oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. The resulting FeN4–Ti3C2Sx with FeN4 moieties in high spin state exhibits high half-wave potential of 0.89 V vs. RHE and high limiting current density of 6.5 mA cm−2, enabling wearable zinc–air battery showing a good discharge performance with a maximum power density of 133.6 mW cm−2. Transition metal–nitrogen–carbon materials (M–N–Cs), particularly Fe–N–Cs, have been found to be electroactive for accelerating oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics. Although substantial efforts have been devoted to design Fe–N–Cs with increased active species content, surface area, and electronic conductivity, their performance is still far from satisfactory. Hitherto, there is limited research about regulation on the electronic spin states of Fe centers for Fe–N–Cs electrocatalysts to improve their catalytic performance. Here, we introduce Ti3C2 MXene with sulfur terminals to regulate the electronic configuration of FeN4 species and dramatically enhance catalytic activity toward ORR. The MXene with sulfur terminals induce the spin-state transition of FeN4 species and Fe 3d electron delocalization with d band center upshift, enabling the Fe(II) ions to bind oxygen in the end-on adsorption mode favorable to initiate the reduction of oxygen and boosting oxygen-containing groups adsorption on FeN4 species and ORR kinetics. The resulting FeN4–Ti3C2Sx exhibits comparable catalytic performance to those of commercial Pt-C. The developed wearable ZABs using FeN4–Ti3C2Sx also exhibit fast kinetics and excellent stability. This study confirms that regulation of the electronic structure of active species via coupling with their support can be a major contributor to enhance their catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate lung tumor segmentation has great significance in the treatment planning of lung cancer. However, robust lung tumor segmentation becomes challenging due to the heterogeneity of tumors and the similar visual characteristics between tumors and surrounding tissues. Hence, we developed an improved 3D dense connected UNet (I-3D DenseUNet) to segment various lung tumors from CT images. The nested dense skip connection adopted in the I-3D DenseUNet aims to contribute similar feature maps between encoder and decoder sub-networks. The dense connection used in encoder-decoder blocks also encourages feature propagation and reuse. A robust data augmentation strategy was employed to alleviate over-fitting based on a 3D thin plate spline (TPS) algorithm. We evaluated our method on 938 lung tumors from three datasets consisting of 421 tumors from the Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), 450 malignant tumors from the Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC), and 67 tumors from the private dataset. Experiment results showed an excellent Dice similarity coefficients (DSC) of 0.8316 for the TCIA and LIDC and 0.8167 for the private dataset. The proposed method presents a strong ability in lung tumor segmentation, and it has the potential to help radiologists in lung cancer treatment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although every glioma patient varies in tumor size, location, histological grade and molecular biomarkers, non-tumoral morphological abnormalities are commonly detected by a statistical comparison among patient groups, missing the information of individual morphological alterations. In this study, we introduced an individual-level structural abnormality detection method for glioma patients and proposed several abnormality indexes to depict individual atrophy patterns. Forty-five patients with a glioma in the frontal lobe and fifty-one age-matched healthy controls participated in the study. Individual structural abnormality maps (SAM) were generated using patients' preoperative T1 images, by calculating the degree of deviation of voxel volume in each patient with the normative model built from healthy controls. Based on SAM, a series of individual abnormality indexes were computed, and their relationship with glioma characteristics was explored. The results demonstrated that glioma patients showed unique non-tumoral atrophy patterns with overlapping atrophy regions mainly located at hippocampus, parahippocampus, amygdala, insula, middle temporal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus, which are closely related to the human cognitive functions. The abnormality indexes were associated with several molecular biomarkers including isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation, 1p/19q co-deletion and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutation. Our study provides an effective way to access the individual-level non-tumoral structural abnormalities in glioma patients, which has the potential to significantly improve individualized precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral hydrogels have caught a lot of attention for their strong competency as artificial skin-like materials. Nonetheless, it remains a great difficulty in fulfilling in one hydrogel system a range of key functionalities that are needed for practical artificial skin applications, i.e., to be biocompatible, strain-sensitive, ion-conductive, elastic and robust, anti-swelling, and anti-freezing. Here we present a such type of versatile hydrogel that is not only capable to deliver all the above-mentioned key functionalities but also highly stable. This novel hydrogel is constructed by introducing a gelatinous and amorphous multi-ionic biomineral (denoted as Mg-ACCP, containing Mg2+, Ca2+, CO32−, and PO43−) into the network of biocompatible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium alginate (SA). The presence of Mg2+ and PO43− in this hydrogel helps prohibit the crystallization of the biominerals, leading to significantly improved stability. The hydrogel thus obtained delivers excellent mechanical performance due to the chelation between the mineral ions and the organic matrix, and high sensitivity even to subtle pressure and strain applied, such as slight finger bending and gentle tapping. Furthermore, the novel hydrogel features high ionic conductivity, high resistance to swelling, and extraordinary anti-freezing property, holding great promise for applications in different practical scenarios, particularly in aqueous or cold environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The inverse planning simulated annealing (IPSA) algorithm has shown good results in cancer surgical treatment planning. However, an adaptive approach has not well been proposed for different shapes and sizes of tumors. The purpose of this study was to propose an adaptive, efficient and safe algorithm to get high-quality treatment dose planning, which is presented for pancreatic cancer. Methods: An algorithm employs an optimized IPSA and an adaptive process for adjusting the weight of organs at risk (OAR) and tumor. The algorithm, which was combined with ant colony optimization, was further optimized to reduce the number of needles. It could meet the clinical dose objectives within the tumors, reduce the dose distribution within the OAR and minimize the number of needles. Ten clinical cases were chosen randomly from patients, previously successfully treated in clinic to test our method. The algorithm was validated against clinical cases, using clinically relevant dose parameters. Results: The results were compared with clinical results in ten cases, indicating that the dose distribution within the tumor meets the clinical dose objectives. The dose received by OAR had been greatly reduced, and the number of needles could be reduced by about 50%. It was a significant improvement over the clinical treatment planning. Conclusions: In this paper, we have devised an algorithm to optimize the treatment planning in brachytherapy. The method in this paper could meet the clinical dose objectives and reduce the difficulty of operation. The results were clinically acceptable. This algorithm is also applicable to other cancers such as lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of the unique layered structure of TiSe2, the intrinsic electronic properties of two-dimensional materials can easily be tuned via heteroatomic engineering. Herein, we show that the charge density wave (CDW) phase in 1T-TiSe2 single-crystals can be gradually suppressed through Sn atoms intercalation. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and temperature-dependent resistivity measurements, this work reveals that Sn atoms can induce charge doping and modulate the intrinsic electronic properties in the host 1T-TiSe2. Notably, our temperature-dependent ARPES results highlight the role exciton-phonon interaction and the Jahn-Teller mechanism through the formation of backfolded bands and exhibition of a downward Se shift of 4p valence band in the formation of CDW in this material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low light intensity is always the important factor that influences the growth and development of Brassica pekinesis during winter seasons. We have found out that appropriate ammonium/nitrate ratio mitigated low light intensity in the previous study. In the present study, the nitrogen metabolism and proteomic responses of Brassica pekinensis to light intensities and ammonium/nitrate were further investigated to find out the mitigation mechanism. The activities of nitrate reductase (NR) and glutamine synthetase (GS) and the relative expression of GS1 as well as the content of nitric oxide (NO) were significantly higher in the NH4+:NO3− (15:85) treatment than in the NH4+:NO3− (0:100) treatment under normal light intensity. However, under low light intensity condition, the activities of NR and GS and relative expression of NR as well as the NO level in seedlings fertilized with NH4+:NO3− (10:90) were significantly higher compared with those fertilized with NH4+:NO3− (0:100). In addition, we found thirty-six protein spots, which exhibited significant changes in abundance using similarity searches across the uniprot database of Brassica. The proteins identified were classified into ten functional groups including photosynthesis, carbon and energy metabolism, stress/defense, protein folding, and modification and degradation response. We concluded that appropriate ammonium nitrate ratio improves the tolerance of mini Chinese cabbage seedlings to low light intensity by regulating the nitrogen metabolism and expression levels of some key proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), known as intracranial injury, has been a serious threat to human health. Evidence exists indicating that autophagy and inflammatory responses contribute to secondary brain injury after TBI. Notably, receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (Ripk1) exerts an important role in cell autophagy. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effect of Ripk1 on neuron autophagy and apoptosis in TBI. Initially, blood samples of patients with TBI and healthy persons were collected to detect the expression of Ripk1, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), and NF-kB inhibitor α (IKBα). Then rat models with TBI were successfully established and, respectively, treated with shRNA targeting Ripk1 (sh-Ripk1), Ripk1 overexpression plasmid (oe-Ripk1), or IKKα inhibitor (BAY 11-7082). Subsequently, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis were conducted to detect the expression of Ripk1, IKBα, NF-κB signaling pathway-, and apoptosis-related factors. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Compared with healthy persons, the expression of Ripk1, NF-κB and IKBα in blood of TBI patients was significantly upregulated. After silencing of Ripk1 or inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway, the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, Bax, and cleaved-caspase-3 was downregulated, and the expression of Bcl-2, ATG5, and LC3II/LC3I was upregulated. Furthermore, neuron injury and apoptosis were notably reduced and neuron autophagy increased significantly by Ripk1 downregulation or IKKα inhibitor. Ripk1 overexpression contributed to activation of NF-κB signaling pathway, whereby aggravating TBI-induced damage. Silencing Ripk1 suppresses TBI by inhibiting inflammation and promoting autophagy of neurons via inhibition of NF-κB signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt stress as one of main abiotic stresses damaged plant growth and development. In this study, the effects of ethylene on Ca2+-regulated rooting index, Na+ and K+ concentration, Na+ transportation and cell ultrastructure during adventitious rooting in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under salt stress were investigated. The results showed that ethylene might play a positive role in Ca2+-regulated rooting index during adventitious rooting under salt stress. Moreover, CaCl2 treatment significantly decreased the intracellular Na+ level but increased K+ content of cucumber explants under salt stress. However, the Na+ and K+ concentration which treated with Ca2+ treatment was significantly influenced by ethylene inhibitors under salt stress. Our results also showed that ethylene might be involved in Ca2+-affected cell ultrastructure of cucumber explants under salt condition. Further analysis showed that ethylene might be responsible for Ca2+-regulated Na+ transport through enhancing the transcriptional and protein levels of Na+/H+ antiporter as well as H+-ATPase for alleviating the negative effects of NaCl stress. Therefore, ethylene might act as a downstream signaling molecule of Ca2+ to maintain Na+ and K+ homeostasis via regulating Na+ transport and preserve the integrity of cellular ultrastructure of cucumber explant during adventitious rooting under salt condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer is pointed as a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Early lung nodule diagnosis has great significance for treating lung cancer and increasing patient survival. In this paper, we present a novel method to classify the malignant from benign lung nodules based on CT images using squeeze-and-excitation network and aggregated residual transformations (SE-ResNeXt). The state-of-the-art SE-ResNeXt module, which integrates the advantages of SENet for feature recalibration and ResNeXt for feature reuse, has great ability in boosting feature discriminability on imaging pattern recognition. The method is evaluated on the public available LUng Nodule Analysis 2016 (LUNA16) database with 1004 (450 malignant and 554 benign) nodules, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0. 9563 and accuracy of 91.67%. The promising results demonstrate that our method has strong robustness in the classification of nodules. The method has the potential to help radiologists better interpret diagnostic data and differentiate the benign from malignant lung nodules on CT images in clinical practice. To our best knowledge, the effectiveness of SE-ResNeXt on lung nodule classification has not been extensively explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intercalation of metal is a promising method for the modulating electronic properties in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). However, there still lacks enough knowledge about how the intercalated atoms directly impact the two-dimensional structural layers and modulate the band structures therein. Taking advantage of X-ray absorption fine structure and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we studied how Cu intercalation influences the host TaSe2 layers in Cu0.03TaSe2 crystals. The intercalated Cu atoms form bonds with Se of the host layers, and there is charge transfer from Cu to Se. By examining the changes of band dispersions, we show that the variation of electronic structures is beyond a simple rigid band model with merely charge doping effect. This work reveals that the unusual change of band dispersions is associated with the formation of bonds between the intercalated metal elements and anion ions in the host layers, and provides a reference for the comprehensive understanding of the electronic structures in intercalated materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pulmonary nodule detection has great significance for early treating lung cancer and increasing patient survival. This work presents a novel automated computer-aided detection scheme for pulmonary nodules based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs). Methods: The proposed approach employs 3D DCNNs based on squeeze-and-excitation network and residual network (SE-ResNet) for pulmonary nodule candidate detection and false-positive reduction. Specifically, a 3D region proposal network with a U-Net-like structure is designed for detecting pulmonary nodule candidates. For the subsequent false-positive reduction, a 3D SE-ResNet-based classifier is presented to accurately discriminate the true nodules from candidates. The 3D SE-ResNet modules boost the representational power of the network by adaptively recalibrating channel-wise residual feature responses. Both models utilize 3D SE-ResNet modules to learn nodule features effectively and improve nodule detection performance. Results: On the public available lung nodule analysis 2016 dataset with 888 scans included, the proposed method reaches high detection sensitivities of 93.6% and 95.7% at one and four false positives per scan, respectively. Meanwhile, the competition performance metric score of 0.904 is achieved. The proposed method has the capability to detect multi-size nodules, especially the extremely small nodules. Conclusion: In this paper, a 3D DCNNs framework based on 3D SE-ResNet modules is proposed to detect pulmonary nodules in chest CT images accurately. Experimental results demonstrate superior effectiveness of the proposed approach in pulmonary nodule detection task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subtle structural changes during electrochemical processes often relate to the degradation of electrode materials. Characterizing the minute-variations in complementary aspects such as crystal structure, chemical bonds, and electron/ion conductivity will give an in-depth understanding on the reaction mechanism of electrode materials, as well as revealing pathways for optimization. Here, vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), a typical cathode material suffering from severe capacity decay during cycling, is characterized by in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in-situ Raman spectroscopy combined with electrochemical tests. The phase transitions of V2O5 within the 0–1 Li/V ratio are characterized in detail. The V–O and V–V distances became more extended and shrank compared to the original ones after charge/discharge process, respectively. Combined with electrochemical tests, these variations are vital to the crystal structure cracking, which is linked with capacity fading. This work demonstrates that chemical bond changes between the transition metal and oxygen upon cycling serve as the origin of the capacity fading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Postimplant validation is an indispensable part in the brachytherapy technique. It provides the necessary feedback to ensure the quality of operation. The ability to pick implanted seed relates directly to the accuracy of validation. To address it, an automatic approach is proposed for picking implanted brachytherapy seeds in 3D CT images. Methods: In order to pick seed configuration (location and orientation) efficiently, the approach starts with the segmentation of seed from CT images using a thresholding filter which based on gray-level histogram. Through the process of filtering and denoising, the touching seed and single seed are classified. The true novelty of this approach is found in the application of the canny edge detection and improved concave points matching algorithm to separate touching seeds. Through the computation of image moments, the seed configuration can be determined efficiently. Finally, two different experiments are designed to verify the performance of the proposed approach: (1) physical phantom with 60 model seeds, and (2) patient data with 16 cases. Results: Through assessment of validated results by a medical physicist, the proposed method exhibited promising results. Experiment on phantom demonstrates that the error of seed location and orientation is within ( $$0.6\, \pm \, 0.38$$ ) mm and ( $$2.4 \pm 1.2$$ ) $${^{\circ }}$$ , respectively. In addition, the most seed location and orientation error is controlled within 0.8 mm and 3.5 $${^{\circ }}$$ in all cases, respectively. The average process time of seed picking is 8.7 s per 100 seeds. Conclusions: In this paper, an automatic, efficient and robust approach, performed on CT images, is proposed to determine the implanted seed location as well as orientation in a 3D workspace. Through the experiments with phantom and patient data, this approach also successfully exhibits good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypoxia is a major regulator of glioma development and aggressiveness. However, how CD133 positive U87 glioblastoma cells adapt to hypoxia and communicate with their surrounding microenvironment during tumor development remain important questions. Communication with host cells and stroma via exosomes represents one pathway by which tumors can modify their surroundings to achieve a tumor-permissive environment. MicroRNAs are thought to be essential actors of tumorigenesis as they are able to control the expression of numerous genes. Here, we show that exosomes derived from CD133+ U87 glioblastoma cells grown at hypoxic compared with normoxic conditions are potent proliferation inducers of the tumor vasculature and glioma cells proliferation in vitro. Moreover, we analyze the microRNA content of exosomes produced in vitro by hypoxia and normoxia CD133+ U87 glioblastoma cells using Affymetrix microarrays. It appears that the exosome microRNA profiles are qualitatively quite similar. Nevertheless, their quantitative profiles are different and may be potentially taken as an opportunity to carry out assays of diagnostic interest. We conclude that CD133+ U87 glioblastoma cells derived exosome-mediated miRNA transduction play an important role of mediating a proangiogenic response and glioma cells proliferation, and that the exosomal pathway constitutes a potentially targetable driver of hypoxia-dependent intercellular signaling during tumor development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cognitive heterogeneous network, when multitudes of femtocells coexist, effective resource management become important to enhance network performance. Based on the base station location and terminal distribution density, we propose spectrum management and power configuration scheme for femtocells deployment network. In the beginning, we consider two femtocells adjacent network and propose the resource management scheme. The scheme allocates time frequency resource by adopting complete reusing and private usage in non-overlapping and overlapping areas respectively. Subsequently the scheme optimizes base station power under the constraints of cross-tier interference and maximal transmission power to maximize network capacity. According to the analysis of the power variation effect to femtocell coverage, a near-optimal solution of the transmission power is derived, and the corresponding power configuration scheme is proposed. After then we extend the spectrum and power management to multiple femtocells coexisting networks, and propose the management scheme applied for multiple femtocells deployment networks. The simulation results indicate that in capacity performance, the proposed power solution is close to the optimal solution, and the proposed resource management outperforms the existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), as a widely used tool in probing the structure evolution in electrochemical process as well as the energy storage and capacity fading mechanism, has shown great effects with optimizing and building better batteries. Based on the research progresses of in situ XRD in recent years, we give a review of the development and the utilization of this powerful tool in understanding the complex electrochemical mechanisms. The studies on in situ XRD are divided into three sections based on the reaction mechanisms: alloying, conversion, and intercalation reactions in lithium-ion batteries. The alloying reaction, in which lithium ions insert into Si, Sb, and Ge is firstly reviewed, followed by a discussion about the recent development of in situ XRD on conversion reaction materials (including metal oxides and metal sulfides) and intercalation reaction materials (including cathode materials and some structure-stable anode materials). As for sodium-ion batteries, we divide these researches on structure evolution into two categories: cathode and anode materials. Finally, the future development of in situ XRD is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gliosarcoma (GSM) is a rare biphasic neoplasms of the central nervous system composed of a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) admixed with a sarcomatous component. In clinical practice GSM is generally managed similarly to GBM. However, there are conflicting reports regarding their clinical aggressiveness, cell line of origin and possible prognosis compared with those of GBM. The objective of this study was to compare clinic-pathological features in GSM patients with the GBM patients during the same study period. 518 patients with GBM were treated at our hospital between 2008 and 2013, among them 51 were GSM. In this series the GSMs represented 9.8 % of all GBMs and included 58.8 % male with a median age of 44.7 years. The locations, all supratentorial, included temporal in 41.2 %, frontal in 25.5 %, parietal in 19.6 %, and occipital in 13.7 %. All patients underwent tumor resection followed by post-operative radiation and adjuvant chemotherapy. The O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase promoter methylation studies were significantly more frequent in the GBMs than GSMs (80.1 % vs. 44.7 %, P < 0.001). The median progression free survival and overall survival for the patients with GSM were 8.0 and 13.0 months, respectively, as compared with 9.0 and 14.0 months in the GBM group (log rank test P = 0.001 and 0.004, respectively). The Cox proportional hazards regression model indicated that the extent of tumor resection (HR = 1.518, P = 0.009) and pathological types (HR = 0.608, P = 0.002) were the significant prognostic factors in our own series. With regard to clinical features and outcomes, GSM and GBM cannot be distinguished clinically. GSM in China may be managed similarly to GBM, with maximal safe surgical resection followed by chemo-radiotherapy. Our study adds further evidence to support GSM as a unique clinical entity with a likely worse prognosis than GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cognitive heterogeneous networks, when multiple adjacent femtocells are deployed, uncontrolled transmission power can lead to severe mutual interference. In order to reduce interference while satisfying capacity requirements, we propose a power management scheme for an adjacent femtocell network. Firstly, we build an interference model for adjacent femtocells, in which distance-dependent interference to terminals within the whole femtocell coverage area is considered. Then, we calculate the total capacity of adjacent femtocells based on the mutual interference and formulate a non-convex optimization problem to maximize the capacity under the transmission power constraints. To solve the non-convex problem, we divide it into two convex subproblems and solve them with the Lagrange dual theory and linear programming method. Finally, we derive the closed-form expression of the optimal power configuration to maximize capacity while minimizing energy consumption simultaneously. The simulation results indicate that the proposed power scheme demonstrates obvious improvement in terms of capacity and power economization, compared with the maximal power configuration method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hot-dip galvanized steel fastener on an electromagnetic product was found to be seriously corroded after 16 years of storage in a room environment. Its surface had become rough and lost its metallic luster, and large amounts of corrosion products had accumulated on the surface, with color ranging from light yellow to red brown. To determine the corrosion mechanism, the manufacturing process and storage information of the fastener were first investigated. Pieces of the corroded fastener were sampled; at the same time, the same kind of steel before and after galvanization was prepared as two control samples. The micromorphology and composition of the surface and corrosion were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Based on these analyses, as well as the manufacturing process and storage information, the corrosion mechanism was identified to be that zinc plating first reacted with oxygen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to form Zn(OH), ZnCO, and Zn(CO)(OH). Subsequently, the iron under the zinc plating reacted with oxygen and water vapor to form Fe(OH), Fe(OH) or FeO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we derive the exact secondary outage probability (OP) of spectrum sharing multicast cognitive relay network (CRN) with single decode-and-froward relay. In the multicast CRN, because of the allowed maximum instantaneous transmit power at the secondary source, the signal-to-noise ratio from secondary source to secondary destination and that from secondary source to secondary relay are correlated which makes the derivation difficult. Numerical results show that the derived analytical OP matches the simulated OP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conjugate addition reaction of dimethyl propanedioate to 1-nitroprop-1-ene catalyzed by cinchona alkaloid derivatives (QD-R″) is investigated using density functional theory calculations in this paper. The geometry optimizations and frequency calculations were carried out at the B3LYP/6-31G( d, p) level, and the accurate energetic parameters were obtained by the B3LYP/6-311++G(2 df,2 p) method. Our calculations find that cinchona alkaloids with -NCONHPh and -NH electron-withdrawing substituents in the quinuclidine show stronger activation on the system than that with -CH electron-donating substituent. The NBO charge analysis for the tertiary amine nitrogen of the quinuclidine affirms that the electron-withdrawing substituents decrease the negative charges on the tertiary amine nitrogen atom, which is favorable for the second proton transfer from the catalyst to α-carbon of 1-nitroprop-1-ene. As a result, the calculations show that the charge distribution of the tertiary amine nitrogen affects the catalytic efficiency of the system. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the effects of the solvent on the system further revealed the regularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progressive development of hard turning technology places greater demands upon clamping devices. The chuck is required not only to grip the workpiece securely but also to have high and stable radial chucking stiffness to guarantee high machining accuracy. As a primary property of a chuck, the clamping force, which greatly affects the security and precision of the machining process, must be meticulously determined. However, existing approaches for determining the required clamping force of jaw-chucks have mainly focused on their security. This is especially true for the crucial computation model for determining the critical bending force, which has more influence on the machining accuracy than other components of the cutting force. A new analytic computation model for determining the critical bending force of three-jaw power chucks, taking machining precision into account, is introduced in this study. The finite element method was applied and experiments performed to assist the modeling work. The results show that, when the jaw contacts the workpiece along its full clamping length, the variation in apparent radial chucking stiffness with respect to the direction of the bending force can be eliminated. In addition, an entirely uniformly distributed clamping force is desirable for the maintenance of larger critical bending forces, and a tiny negative initial angle is preferable. Furthermore, the critical bending force and radial chucking stiffness can be improved dramatically by enlarging the clamping length. This approach is helpful in the substitution of hard turning for grinding as the last process of machining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For cognitive relay networks (CRNs) where the secondary link contains multiple relays, considering the interference from primary user (PU) and the maximum transmit power constraint at the secondary user, we investigate the exact and asymptotic outage probabilities for both proactive and reactive decode-and-forward (DF) schemes. Unlike the conventional opportunistic relay networks where the outage probabilities for both proactive and reactive DF schemes are the same, it is found that an outage gap of the two schemes does exist for the CRNs. It is shown that the outage gap tends to zero when the interference caused by PU is high enough and the outage gap increases with the increase of the difference between the threshold signal-to-interference-and-noise ratios at relay and destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the failure phenomena of softening and flow of crosslinked epoxy resin encapsulant during a long-term storage were analyzed by means of fault tree analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray energy dispersive spectrum, and differential scanning calorimetry coupled with thermogravimetric analysis. Based on the results of those analyses, the reason of failure is identified to be that the epoxy resin was not cured completely during manufacturing, and the resulting imperfect three-dimensional crosslinked network was hydrolyzed because of the humidity in the environment during a long-term storage. Hence, the depolymerized polymers became softened gradually, and the seriously softened polymers flowed slowly because of creeping, an inherent property of the polymer materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New data on the isotopic age of zircons from metamorphic and igneous rocks are given for the Berezitovoe and Kirovskoe deposits located in the eastern margin of the Selenga-Stanovoi orogenic belt. The zircons were studied with the LA-ICP-MS method in the State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwestern University, Sian, Shansi province, People's Republic of China. The results allowed us to reveal three age epochs in formation of the eastern part of the Selenga-Stanovoi orogenic belt (1.87 Ga; 380-330 Ma; 138-125 Ma), which have significant importance for understanding of the geological structure of the south-eastern framework of the North Asian craton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphors of Eu activated BaMg(BO) were prepared by a high-temperature solid-state reaction technique. The phase purity was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The luminescence properties in the VUV-vis range as well as the decay curves have been investigated. The results demonstrate that the band near 176 nm in the VUV excitation spectra can be ascribed to host-related absorption. The charge-transfer bands (CTBs) of O → Eu in BaMg(BO):Eu are at about 231 nm. The emission intensity of the D→F transition (594 nm) is dominant upon excitations at 172 nm or 231 nm (CTB), while that of D→F transition (613 nm) is dominant when excitations are at 395 nm (the F→L transition of Eu) or at other f-f transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of the second stage of the RAMBAS (RAdiation Mechanism of Biomolecular ASymmetry) experiment on investigation of the radiation mechanism of the influence on chiral molecules are presented. Optical activity of samples of racemic mixtures of amino acids with heavy metals was compared prior to and after irradiation by electron flux from a radioactive source. It is found that the irradiation results in asymmetric degradation of both complexes and amino acids and in production of chiral asymmetry of the samples under study. These results confirm the conclusions inferred from the first stage of the RAMBAS experiment and could be important for the solution of the origin-of-life and biological homochirality problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the traditional thin film techniques, the matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) technique has many advantages in the deposition of polymer and organic thin films. It has a wide range of applications in many fields, such as non-linear optics, luminescent devices, electronics, various sensors. We have successfully deposited polyimide thin films by using the MAPLE technique. These films were characterized with XPS. The XPS spectra showed that the single-photon effect is obvious at low laser fluence and the chemical bonds will be broken, resulting in decomposition of the films. Contrarily, the single-photon effect will decrease and the multi-photon effect and the photothermal effect will increase at high laser fluence, resulting in the protection of the structure of the polyimide thin films and the obvious decrease in decomposition. High laser fluence is more suitable for the deposition of polymer and organic thin films than low laser fluence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first results of the RAdiation Mechanism of Biomolecular ASymmetry (RAMBAS) experiment on investigation of the radiation mechanism of the influence on chiral molecules, as a factor leading to origination of chiral asymmetry are presented. It was found that irradiation of simple achiral materials by a flux of electrons from radioactive source initiated the synthesis of amino acids, and it resulted in asymmetric degradation and chiral asymmetry in a racemic mixture of amino acids. The results obtained can be important for the solution of the origin-of-life and biological homochirality problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synchrotron radiation spectra of the spherical grating monochromator (SGM) working in the soft X-ray and VUV region are often contaminated by significant amounts of higher order harmonics. They cannot be suppressed completely by suitable filters. Higher order contributions in the spectral radiation standard and metrology beamline were researched using transmission grating (made in-house) and IRD AXUV100G (USA) photodiode detector. The exit beam was dispersed with the transmission grating behind the exit slit of the monochromator, and the contributions of the different orders were analyzed. The higher order distributions were quantitatively determined for three gratings with line densities of 1800, 600 and 200 l/mm. Experiment results show that in wavelengths between 5 nm and 15 nm the contributions of the higher orders to the detector signal are restricted to less than 7% even without the use of filters. In wavelength regions between 5 nm and 34 nm, the contributions of the higher orders to the detector signal are less than 14% with proper A1, Si3N4 and Zr filters, and after being modified by quantum efficiency of the detector, the higher order contributions are restricted to less than 6.5%. The study also shows that higher orders are almost totally suppressed by MgF2 filter when the wavelength ranges between 115–140 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As "the second eyes" of radiologists, computer-aided diagnosis systems play a significant role in nodule detection and diagnosis for lung cancer. In this paper, we aim to provide a systematic survey of state-of-the-art techniques (both traditional techniques and deep learning techniques) for nodule diagnosis from computed tomography images. This review first introduces the current progress and the popular structure used for nodule diagnosis. In particular, we provide a detailed overview of the five major stages in the computer-aided diagnosis systems: data acquisition, nodule segmentation, feature extraction, feature selection and nodule classification. Second, we provide a detailed report of the selected works and make a comprehensive comparison between selected works. The selected papers are from the IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, PubMed, and Web of Science databases up to December 2018. Third, we discuss and summarize the better techniques used in nodule diagnosis and indicate the existing future challenges in this field, such as improving the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and accuracy, developing new deep learning-based diagnosis techniques, building efficient feature sets (fusing traditional features and deep features), developing high-quality labeled databases with malignant and benign nodules and promoting the cooperation between medical organizations and academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]