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Tumor size is an important prognostic factor without consideration of the necrotic and cystic components within tumor for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). We aimed to extract the enhancing viable component from the tumor using computed tomography (CT) post-processing software and evaluate the value of preoperative CT features for predicting the disease-free survival (DFS) after curative resection for patients with primary gastric GISTs.132 Patients with primary gastric GISTs who underwent preoperative contrast-enhanced CT and curative resection were retrospectively analyzed. We used a certain CT attenuation of 30 HU to extract the enhancing tissue component from the tumor. Enhancing tissue volume and other CT features were assessed on venous-phase images. We evaluated the value of preoperative CT features for predicting the DFS after surgery. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to find the independent risk factor for predicting the DFS.Of the 132 patients, 68 were males and 64 were females, with a mean age of 61 years. The median follow-up duration was 60 months, and 28 patients experienced disease recurrence and distant metastasis during the follow-up period. Serosal invasion (p 0.001; HR = 5.277) and enhancing tissue volume (p = 0.005; HR = 1.447) were the independent risk factors for predicting the DFS after curative resection for patients with primary gastric GISTs.Preoperative contrast-enhanced CT could be useful for predicting the DFS after the surgery of gastric GISTs, and serosal invasion and enhancing tissue volume were the independent risk factors.

The floating bridge bears the dead weight and live load with buoyancy, and has wide application prospect in deep-water transportation infrastructure. The structural analysis of floating bridge is challenging due to the complicated fluid-solid coupling effects of wind and wave. In this research, a novel time domain approach combining dynamic finite element method and state-space model (SSM) is established for the refined analysis of floating bridges. The dynamic coupled effects induced by wave excitation load, radiation load and buffeting load are carefully simulated. High-precision fitted SSMs for pontoons are established to enhance the calculation efficiency of hydrodynamic radiation forces in time domain. The dispersion relation is also introduced in the analysis model to appropriately consider the phase differences of wave loads on pontoons. The proposed approach is then employed to simulate the dynamic responses of a scaled floating bridge model which has been tested under real wind and wave loads in laboratory. The numerical results are found to agree well with the test data regarding the structural responses of floating bridge under the considered environmental conditions. The proposed time domain approach is considered to be accurate and effective in simulating the structural behaviors of floating bridge under typical environmental conditions.

Graph simulation is one of the most fundamental problems in graph processing and analytics. It can help users to generate new graphs on different scales to mimic observed real-life graphs in many applications such as social networks, biology networks, and information technology. In this paper, we focus on one of the most important types of graph generators: general graph generators, which aim to reproduce the properties of the observed graphs regardless of the domains. Though a variety of graph generators have been proposed in the literature, there are still several important research gaps in this area. In this paper, we first give an overview of the existing general graph generators, including recently emerged deep learning-based approaches. We classify them into four categories: simple model-based generators, complex model-based generators, autoencoder-based generators, and GAN-based generators. Then we conduct a comprehensive experimental evaluation of 20 representative graph generators based on 17 evaluation metrics and 12 real-life graphs. We provide a general roadmap of recommendations for how to select general graph generators under different settings. Furthermore, we propose a new method that can achieve a good trade-off between simulation quality and efficiency. To help researchers and practitioners apply general graph generators in their applications or make a comprehensive evaluation of their proposed general graph generators, we also implement an end-to-end platform that is publicly available.

In order to dispose of high level nuclear waste during the operation of underground geological repositories, the buffer/backfill performance of bentonite–based material might be affected by the combined influence of temperature field and infiltrating groundwater thereby leading to uncertainties in the safe operation of repositories. In order to address this issue, bentonite–sand mixtures (BSM) were prepared by mixing GMZ01 bentonite with sand using ratios of 70:30 and 30:70 by weight. One-dimensional deformation experiments were conducted on the prepared BSM in NaCl solutions of varying concentrations (0, 0.1, and 1.0 mol/L) at three different temperatures (25, 60, and 90 °C). The experimental results on the BSM in NaCl solutions indicated that the swelling deformation increased as temperature rises, because osmotic swelling is the dominant swelling type under the experimental conditions. The swelling deformation of BSM could be represented by fractal em–pe relation (em is the montmorillonite void ratio, pe is the effective stress incorporating osmotic suction). At each temperature interval, the swelling of BSM with high bentonite content in different NaCl solutions can be expressed as a unique em–pe relation; however, the swelling coefficient of montmorillonite in the em–pe relationship increases at higher temperature. When the effective stress pe exceeds a threshold, sand–particle skeletons will be formed in BSM with low bentonite content, thus resulting in deviations in the value of em from the em–pe curve. The em–pe relation offers a simple and efficacious method to estimate the deformation of BSM under combined thermal–salt effects.

Compared to other types of qubits, photon is one of a kind due to its unparalleled advantages in long-distance quantum information exchange. Therefore, photon is a natural candidate for building a large-scale, modular optical quantum computer operating at room temperature. However, low-fidelity two-photon quantum logic gates and their probabilistic nature result in a large resource overhead for fault tolerant quantum computation. While the probabilistic problem can, in principle, be solved by employing multiplexing and error correction, the fidelity of linear-optical quantum logic gate is limited by the imperfections of single photons. Here, we report the demonstration of a linear-optical quantum logic gate with truth table fidelity of 99.84(3)% and entangling gate fidelity of 99.69(4)% post-selected upon the detection of photons. The achieved high gate fidelities are made possible by our near-optimal Rydberg single-photon source. Our work paves the way for scalable photonic quantum applications based on near-optimal single-photon qubits and photon-photon gates.

Accurate prediction of oil consumption plays a dominant role in oil supply chain management. However, because of the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, oil consumption has exhibited an uncertain and volatile trend, which leads to a huge challenge to accurate predictions. The rapid development of the Internet provides countless online information (e.g., online news) that can benefit predict oil consumption. This study adopts a novel news-based oil consumption prediction methodology-convolutional neural network (CNN) to fetch online news information automatically, thereby illustrating the contribution of text features for oil consumption prediction. This study also proposes a new approach called attention-based JADE-IndRNN that combines adaptive differential evolution (adaptive differential evolution with optional external archive, JADE) with an attention-based independent recurrent neural network (IndRNN) to forecast monthly oil consumption. Experimental results further indicate that the proposed news-based oil consumption prediction methodology improves on the traditional techniques without online oil news significantly, as the news might contain some explanations of the relevant confinement or reopen policies during the COVID-19 period.

Background To compare potential of ultrashort time-to-echo (UTE) T2* mapping and T2* values from T2*-weighted imaging for assessing lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD),with Pfirrmann grading as a reference standard. Methods UTE-T2* and T2* values of 366 lumbar discs (L1/2-L5/S1) in 76 subjects were measured in 3 segmented regions: anterior annulus fibrosus, nucleus pulposus (NP), and posterior annulus fibrosus. Lumbar intervertebral discs were divided into 3 categories based on 5-level Pfirrmann grading: normal (Pfirrmann grade I),early disc degeneration (Pfirrmann grades II-III), and advanced disc degeneration (Pfirrmann grades IV-V). Regional differences between UTE-T2* and T2* relaxometry and correlation with degeneration were statistically analyzed. Results UTE-T2* and T2*value correlated negatively with Pfirrmann grades (P r = − 0.733; P r = -0.654; P P Conclusions UTE-T2* relaxometry provides another promising magnetic resonance imaging sequence for quantitatively evaluate lumbar IVDD and was more accurate than T2*mapping in the earlier stage degenerative process.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most aggressive malignancy among the bone tumors in the world. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been reported to be participated in multiple cancers, including OS. Meanwhile, circPVT1 has been proved to be upregulated in OS. However, the mechanism by which circPVT1 mediates the tumorigenesis of OS remains to be further explored.Protein and gene expressions in OS cells were measured by western blot and RT-qPCR, respectively. Cell growth was assessed by flow cytometry and colony formation, respectively. In addition, cell migration was assessed by wound healing, and invasion was evaluated by Transwell assay. Meanwhile, the correlation among circPVT1, miR-26b-5p and CCNB1 was explored by RNA pull-down and dual luciferase assay. Finally, in vivo model was established to explore the role of circPVT1 in OS in vivo.CircPVT1 and CCNB1 were significantly upregulated in OS cells, while miR-26b-5p was downregulated. Knockdown of circPVT1 notably inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of OS cells. CircPVT1 shRNA significantly suppressed the OS cell invasion and migration. Meanwhile, circPVT1 sponged miR-26b-5p and CCNB1 was found to be the direct target of miR-26b-5p. Furthermore, silencing of circPVT1 inhibited the growth and metastasis of OS in vivo.Silencing of circPVT1 notably suppressed the tumorigenesis and metastasis of OS via miR-26b-5p/CCNB1 axis. Therefore, circPVT1 might be used as a target for OS treatment.

To compare the difference of evaluating the microcirculatory function status of primary small HCC between DCE-MRI with two-compartmental pharmacokinetic model and IVIM-DWI. 27 patients (22 men, 5 women; mean age, 49 years; range 36–65 years) with primary single sHCC who underwent IVIM-DWI and DCE–MRI before the operation were included in this retrospective study. The MR perfusion parameters are Ktrans, Ve, Kep, D, D* and f. Pathological results include pathological grade (low grade ≤ II, high grade > II) and MVD. The perfusion parameters and pathological results of sHCC were analyzed and compared in their relevance, sensitivity and specificity. Statistical methods included Spearman and ROC curve analysis. The perfusion parameters (Ktrans, Kep, D*, f) were significantly positive correlated (r = 0.892, 0.808, 0.589 and 0.543, P = 0.000, 0.000, 0.001 and 0.003 with MVD of sHCC. The parameter Ve and D values were negatively correlated (r = − 0.454 and − 0.399, P = 0.017 and 0.039, respectively) with the pathological grade. Regarding the evaluation MVD of sHCC, the evaluation of the sensitivity and specificity performance was present in descending order: Ktrans > Kep > PF > D*. In the evaluation pathological grade of sHCC, the sensitivity and specificity were better by parameters D than Ve. DCE-MRI is better than IVIM-DWI for evaluation microcirculation functional status of sHCC. But for evaluating the pathological grade, IVIM-DWI is better than DCE-MRI. Combination of the two imaging techniques may provide more comprehensive evaluation in microcirculation functional status of the sHCC.

Response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) often fail to identify clinically meaningful response to bevacizumab-containing therapy in colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM). This study aimed to develop RECIST by combining contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A total of 126 patients with CRLM who underwent hepatic resection after bevacizumab-containing chemotherapy were split into initial analyses cohort (N = 42, with 76 indexed liver metastases) and validation cohort (N = 84). In lesion-based analyses, percentage decrease of arterial enhancement area and percentage increase of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value from baseline to post-chemotherapy were measured. Their optimal cutoff values for distinguishing pathology-confirmed major and minor response were determined. Then, the developed RECIST (D-RECIST) was established by combining functional and size-based items. Survival relevance of D-RECIST and RECIST was examined in the validation cohort. Percentage decrease of arterial enhancement area and increase of ADC value significantly differed between lesions of pathologic major or minor response, with optimal cutoffs of approximately 33% and 19%, respectively. Patients defined as responders by D-RECIST had a significantly longer median disease-free survival (DFS) than non-responders (p = 0.021; 12.9 versus 8.6 months). No significant difference was observed with RECIST (p = 0.524). In a Cox regression model, D-RECIST- but not RECIST-defined responses independently predicted the DFS (p = 0.034 and 0.811). D-RECIST-defined responses provided significant prognostic information, and thus may serve as a better response evaluation approach than RECIST in CRLM treated with bevacizumab-containing therapy. • Changes in arterial enhancement area and apparent diffusion coefficient value are associated with pathological response in colorectal liver metastases treated with bevacizumab. • The MRI-based response criteria developed by combining size-based and functional features can provide significant prognostic information.

Objectives To develop radiomics-based nomograms for preoperative microvascular invasion (MVI) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) prediction in patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ≤ 5 cm. Methods Between March 2012 and September 2019, 356 patients with pathologically confirmed solitary HCC ≤ 5 cm who underwent preoperative gadoxetate disodium–enhanced MRI were retrospectively enrolled. MVI was graded as M0, M1, or M2 according to the number and distribution of invaded vessels. Radiomics features were extracted from DWI, arterial, portal venous, and hepatobiliary phase images in regions of the entire tumor, peritumoral area ≤ 10 mm, and randomly selected liver tissue. Multivariate analysis identified the independent predictors for MVI and RFS, with nomogram visualized the ultimately predictive models. Results Elevated alpha-fetoprotein, total bilirubin and radiomics values, peritumoral enhancement, and incomplete or absent capsule enhancement were independent risk factors for MVI. The AUCs of MVI nomogram reached 0.920 (95% CI: 0.861–0.979) using random forest and 0.879 (95% CI: 0.820–0.938) using logistic regression analysis in validation cohort (n = 106). With the 5-year RFS rate of 68.4%, the median RFS of MVI-positive (M2 and M1) and MVI-negative (M0) patients were 30.5 (11.9 and 40.9) and > 96.9 months (p < 0.001), respectively. Age, histologic MVI, alkaline phosphatase, and alanine aminotransferase independently predicted recurrence, yielding AUC of 0.654 (95% CI: 0.538–0.769, n = 99) in RFS validation cohort. Instead of histologic MVI, the preoperatively predicted MVI by MVI nomogram using random forest achieved comparable accuracy in MVI stratification and RFS prediction. Conclusions Preoperative radiomics-based nomogram using random forest is a potential biomarker of MVI and RFS prediction for solitary HCC ≤ 5 cm. Key Points • The radiomics score was the predominant independent predictor of MVI which was the primary independent risk factor for postoperative recurrence. • The radiomics-based nomogram using either random forest or logistic regression analysis has obtained the best preoperative prediction of MVI in HCC patients so far. • As an excellent substitute for the invasive histologic MVI, the preoperatively predicted MVI by MVI nomogram using random forest (MVI-RF) achieved comparable accuracy in MVI stratification and outcome, reinforcing the radiologic understanding of HCC angioinvasion and progression.

In this study, the effect of loading rate on shale fracture behaviors was investigated under dynamic and static loading conditions. Cracked straight through Brazilian disc (CSTBD) shale specimens were tested with a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) setup and INSTRON1346 servo-testing machine under pure mode I loading conditions. During the test, the crack propagation process was recorded by high-speed (HS) camera, and the acoustic emission (AE) signal generated by the fracture was collected by acoustic emission (AE) system. At the same time, crack propagation gauge (CPG) was used to measure the crack propagation velocity of the specimen. The results show that the crack propagation velocity and fracture toughness of shale have a positive correlation with the loading rate. The relationship among the crack propagation velocity, the fracture toughness and the loading rate is established under the static loading condition. In addition, the characteristics of AE signals with different loading rates are analyzed. It is found that the AE signals generated by microcrack growth decrease with the increase of loading rates. Meanwhile, the turning point of cumulative counting moves forward as the loading rate increases, which shows that the AE signal generated by shale fracture at low loading rate mainly comes from the initiation and propagation of microcracks, while at high loading rate it mainly comes from the formation of macro large-scale cracks. The fracture mechanism that causes shale fracture toughness and crack propagation velocity to vary with loading rate is also discussed based on the analysis results of AE signals.

The perennial tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is a beverage crop consumed worldwide. Its annual production is significantly affected by the length of winter dormancy (WD) in temperate regions. By intensive phenotype-based selection, we bred a new short WD tea cultivar, named ‘Emei Wenchun’ (EW), which has a dormancy period that is approximately half the length of that of the regular cultivars. To understand the genetic basis of short WD trait of EW, we performed full-length transcript sequencing using the PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) platform and analyzed the transcript expression levels in the buds by Illumina RNA-SEq. We obtained a total of 101,720 full-length non-chimeric sequences from 9.79 Gb of SMRT clean data, resulting in 30,720 non-redundancy full-length transcripts. These transcripts were mapped to 12,819 gene loci, including 2135 novel loci, and revealed 7980 alternative splicing events. In addition, 695 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and 1,183 fusion transcripts were predicted. By integrating with the RNA-Seq data, we compared the expression levels of the transcripts in dormant and growing buds of EW and a normal WD cultivar (‘Chuan Cha 2’). A total of 15,009 differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) were identified. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of the DETs revealed critical terms and pathways for the regulation of WD. The key candidate transcripts that were likely to be involved in the WD regulation, including MASDs, NF-YCs, AP2-ERFs, and plant hormone-related genes, were discussed. Results from our analyses provide valuable information to understand the genetic basis of the regulation of WD in Camellia sinensis.

A number of recent studies have adopted long short-term memory (LSTM) in extensive applications, such as handwriting recognition and time series prediction, with considerable success. However, the parameters of LSTM have greatly influenced its accuracy and performance. In this study, LSTM with fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA), called FOA-LSTM, is designed to solve time series problems. As a novel intelligent algorithm, FOA is applied to decide on the optimal hyper-parameter of LSTM. Experiments under the NN3 time series, three comparative experiments and the monthly energy consumption of the USA are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the FOA-LSTM model. The results indicate that the symmetric mean absolute percentage error (SMAPE) is reduced by up to 11.44% in the last 11 monthly series in the NN3 dataset. Four comparative experiments and the real-life series verify further that the FOA-LSTM model obtains a better result compared with other forecasting models.

We aimed to develop a radiomics-based model derived from gadoxetic acid–enhanced MR images to preoperatively identify cytokeratin (CK) 19 status of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A cohort of 227 patients with single HCC was classified into a training set (n = 159) and a time-independent validated set (n = 68). A total of 647 radiomic features were extracted from multi-sequence MR images. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and decision tree methods were utilized for feature selection and radiomics signature construction. A multivariable logistic regression model incorporating clinico-radiological features and the fusion radiomics signature was built for prediction of CK19 status by evaluating area under curve (AUC). In the whole cohort, 57 patients were CK19 positive and 170 patients were CK19 negative. By combining 11 and 6 radiomic features extracted in arterial phase and hepatobiliary phase images, respectively, a fusion radiomics signature achieved AUCs of 0.951 and 0.822 in training and validation datasets. The final combined model integrated a-fetoprotein levels, arterial rim enhancement pattern, irregular tumor margin, and the fusion radiomics signature, with a sensitivity of 0.818 and specificity of 0.974 in the training cohort and that of 0.769 and 0.818 in the validated cohort. The nomogram based on the combined model showed satisfactory prediction performance in training (C-index 0.959) and validation (C-index 0.846) dataset. The combined model based on a fusion radiomics signature derived from arterial and hepatobiliary phase images of gadoxetic acid–enhanced MRI can be a reliable biomarker for CK19 status of HCC. • Arterial rim enhancement pattern and irregular tumor margin on hepatobiliary phase on gadoxetic acid–enhanced MRI can be useful for evaluating CK19 status of HCC. • A radiomics-based model performed better than the clinico-radiological model both in training and validation datasets for predicting CK19 status of HCC. • The nomogram based on the fusion radiomics signature can be easily used for CK19 stratification of HCC.

Investigation of the effects of salinity concentration on shear strength of compressed bentonite and its sand mixture is desideratum to evaluate the safety of engineered barriers for disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste. In this research study, the compacted bentonite–sand mixtures were first saturated using distilled water and NaCl solutions under a specified stress in oedometers. Then the specimens were subjected to shearing in a direct shear apparatus. The experimental results revealed that the shear strength increases at higher NaCl concentration and high sand content of mixture. By employing the modified effective stress (pe) containing the osmotic suction effect of porewater, the highest shear strength (τf), referred to as the peak shear strength (PSS) from hereon, of mixture in different NaCl concentrations can be represented by a unique line in the τf–pe plane. As per Mohr–Coulomb principle, the mixtures with a given bentonite content possess the same parameters of shear strength (effective angle of internal friction φ′ and effective cohesion c′), when they are placed and allowed to saturate in NaCl solution at various concentrations. On the contrary, the appearance of sand particles on the shearing surface offers more resilience to the movement of montmorillonite particles which increases the internal friction angle φ′ but poses negligible effects on the cohesion c′. When the effective stress approaches a threshold value, the skeleton of sand particles is formed in the mixture with high sand content bringing about a significant change in the shear strength of bentonite.

The creep of rock is a slow stress adjustment deformation and an evolutional process of rock mass destruction. Therefore, rock creep plays a vital role in a variety of rock engineering. To reveal the creep properties of rock, the following work has been done. A series of triaxial creep tests has been conducted considering different low confining pressures. The creep curve is analyzed under different confining pressures, and the creep law of each stage is obtained. Many results were obtained for the influence of confining pressure on the instantaneous modulus of deformation, creep strain, creep rate and instantaneous strain. The proportion of the various stages of creep changes under different confining pressure. Due to the existence of confining pressure, the ultimate failure method of rock has also been affected. Creep data can then be fitted by the improved Nishihara model, revealing a good relationship. The conclusion of this paper can provide some significant guidance for rock engineering.

To explore whether volumetric acquisition of histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps could quantify liver fibrosis stages. 84 patients underwent MRI exams including DWI before surgery or liver biopsy were included. Histogram analysis of whole liver ADC maps were performed and parameters including ADC mean, ADC median, ADC skewness, ADC kurtosis, ADC standard deviation (SD), ADC 5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th and 95th percentiles were calculated. The correlations between different histopathologic grades and histogram analysis parameters were determined. For the significant parameters, receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses were further established to evaluate the potential diagnostic performance for differentiating liver fibrosis stages. The ADC mean and ADC median, ADC SD, ADC5th, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th and 95th percentile were significantly lower with the increasing grade of liver fibrosis (rho: from − 0.580 to − 0.230). ADC skewness and ADC kurtosis were significantly higher with the increasing grade of liver fibrosis (rho: 0.243, 0.347, respectively). Areas under the ROC curve (AUC) of ADC mean and ADC 75th percentile for identification liver fibrosis (F1–F4), moderate to advanced liver fibrosis (F2–F4), advanced liver fibrosis (F3–F4), cirrhosis (F4) were 0.87, 0.83, 0.82, 0.76 and 0.88, 0.82, 0.80, 0.74, respectively. Histogram analysis of volumetric acquisition of liver ADC maps has a potential value for quantifying liver fibrosis grades.

The existing laser remote range-gated imaging system in China is large, expensive and impractical. To achieve long distance imaging, the high-power laser, high-power laser pulse drive, optical system and field synchronisation control are improved in this paper. The improved system is lightweight, easy to use and has a small volume. Experimental results show that the system can clearly map the target at 6 km far away and has a good adaptive adjustment function.

The effect of the architecture of poly(ethylene glycol)/poly(L-lactide) (PEG/PLLA) block copolymers on the non-isothermal crystallization behaviors of PLLA blocks was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). 1-Arm MPEG-b-PLLA and 4-arm PEG-b-PLLA (4PEG-b-PLLA) were synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization of Llactide in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (MPEG) and 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol) (4PEG). 4-Arm PLLA-b-MPEG (4PLLA-b-PEG) was synthesized by coupling 4-arm PLLA and MPEG. The WAXD results indicated that the crystalline structure of PLLA blocks did not alter due to the different chain architectures. The average values of Avrami index ( $$\bar{n}$$ ) were all above 4, which indicated that the nucleation mechanism of PLLA blocks was heterogeneous nucleation, regardless of the architectures. The overall crystallization rates were decreased markedly as following: MPEG-b-PLLA > 4PEG-b-PLLA > 4PLLA-b-PEG, ascribed to the different confinement by PEG blocks and to the steric hindrance of chain architectures. Therefore, the crystallization of PLLA blocks became more difficult and the crystallization activation energy of the PLLA blocks increased due to the confinement of chain architectures.

Most conventional high energetic molecules contain nitro group that endows them with high sensitivities. To overcome this disadvantage, 11 novel bistetrazole-diolated anions were designed by inserting different bridges into the dihydroxylammonium 5,5′-bistetrazole-1,1′-diolate (TKX-50) framework. Forty-two energetic salts were formulated from the bistetrazole-diolated anions and ammonium-based cations, which were paired according to their thermal stability. Their crystal densities, heats of formation (HOFs), energetic properties, and impact sensitivity were predicted using density functional theory (DFT) and volume-based thermodynamics calculations (VBT). It is found that the introduction of the tetrazole ring to the bridge of bistetrazole diolate is the most efficient to get high density, while the introduction of the tetrazine ring as a bridge is a good choice in order to obtain excellent HOFs. However, azo group is more helpful to obtain good detonation properties due to its better oxygen balance, and its corresponding dihydroxylammonium salt exhibits better detonation performance (D = 9.41 km s−1 and P = 41.27 GPa) than TKX-50 (A3, D = 9.25 km s−1 and P = 39.53 GPa). Therein, 18 energetic salts are endowed with better detonation properties and much lower sensitivity than the commonly used 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX). The construction of the non-nitro energetic anions like bistetrazole diolate and oxygenated cation like hydroxylammonium is a potential efficient way for screening out the high energy density materials (HEDMs) with low sensitivity.

To evaluate the value of MR liver extracellular volume (ECVliver) in assessment of liver fibrosis with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and to compare its performance with two-dimensional (2D) shear-wave elastography (SWE). A total of 68 CHB patients who were histologically diagnosed as fibrosis stages F0 to F4 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent gadopentetate dimeglumine-enhanced T1-mapping and 2D SWE. ECVliver and liver stiffness were measured and compared between fibrosis subgroups; their correlations with histologic findings were evaluated using Spearman correlation test and multiple regression analysis. Diagnostic performance in evaluating liver fibrosis stages was assessed and compared using receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Both ECVliver and liver stiffness increased as the fibrosis score increased (F = 17.08 to 10.99, P

Optical memory based on the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a double-$$\Lambda$$ Λ atomic system provides a convenient way to convert the frequency, bandwidth or polarization of an optical pulse by storing it in one $$\Lambda$$ Λ channel and retrieving it from another. This memory-based optical converter can be used to bridge the quantum nodes which have different physical properties in a quantum network. However, in real atoms, each energy level usually contains degenerate Zeeman states, which may lead to additional energy loss, as has been discussed in our recent theoretical paper (Tsai et al. in Phys. Rev. A 100, 063843). Here, we present an experimental study on the efficiency variation in the EIT-memory-based optical polarization conversion in cold cesium atoms under Zeeman-state optical pumping. The experimental results support the theoretical predictions. Our study provides quantitative knowledge and physical insight useful for practical implementation of an EIT-memory-based optical converter.

The folate-coupled metabolic enzyme MTHFD2 (the mitochondrial methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase/cyclohydrolase) confers redox homeostasis and drives cancer cell proliferation and migration. Here, we show that MTHFD2 is hyperacetylated and lysine 88 is the critical acetylated site. SIRT3, the major deacetylase in mitochondria, is responsible for MTHFD2 deacetylation. Interestingly, chemotherapeutic agent cisplatin inhibits expression of SIRT3 to induce acetylation of MTHFD2 in colorectal cancer cells. Cisplatin-induced acetylated K88 MTHFD2 is sufficient to inhibit its enzymatic activity and downregulate NADPH levels in colorectal cancer cells. Ac-K88-MTHFD2 is significantly decreased in human colorectal cancer samples and is inversely correlated with the upregulated expression of SIRT3. Our findings reveal an unknown regulation axis of cisplatin-SIRT3-MTHFD2 in redox homeostasis and suggest a potential therapeutic strategy for cancer treatments by targeting MTHFD2.

To determine the feasibility of pre-TACE IVIM imaging based on histogram analysis for predicting prognosis in the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fifty-five patients prospectively underwent 1.5T MRI 1 week before TACE. Histogram metrics for IVIM parameters and ADCs maps between responders and non-responders with mRECIST assessment were compared. Kaplan–Meier, log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard regression model were used to correlate variables with time to progression (TTP). Mean (p = 0.022), median (p = 0.043), and 25th percentile (p < 0.001) of perfusion fraction (PF), mean (p < 0.001), median (p < 0.001), 25th percentile (p < 0.001) and 75th percentile (p = 0.001) of ADC(0,500), mean (p = 0.005), median (p = 0.008) and 25th percentile (p = 0.039) of ADCtotal were higher, while skewness and kurtosis of PF (p = 0.001, p = 0.005, respectively), kurtosis of ADC(0,500) and ADCtotal (p = 0.005, p = 0.001, respectively) were lower in responders compared to non-responders. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that mRECIST was associated with TTP independently, and kurtosis of ADCtotal had the best predictive performance for disease progression. Pre-TACE kurtosis of ADCtotal is the best independent predictor for TTP. • mRECIST was associated with TTP independently. • Lower kurtosis and higher mean for ADCs tend to have good response. • Pre-TACE kurtosis of ADC total is the best independent predictor for TTP.

To evaluate the value of MR imaging features in stratifying Grade 2 (G2) pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) using the 5% cut-off value of the Ki-67 index as reference standards. Between January 2010 and October 2016, 41 G2 PNET patients (One patient had 3 tumors) with preoperative MR imaging were included. Tumor grading was based on the revised 2016 World Health Organization classification of PNETs. MR imaging features included size, shape, consistency, T1-w and T2-w signal intensities, enhancement pattern, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) ratios (tumor/normal pancreatic parenchyma). 16 Ki-67 index

This paper presents a multiple heterogeneous kernel relevance vector machine (MHKRVM) approach for analog circuit fault prognostic. Compared to other kernel learning methods, multiple kernel learning method produces the optimal kernel function because many effective kernels’ combination always generates better generalization performance. By using the multiple heterogeneous kernel learning method, the proposed MHKRVM method’s kernel function holds its diversification. Meanwhile, the sparse weights of consisted basic kernels in the MHKRVM are helpful in prediction accuracy, and they are yielded through particle swarm optimization algorithm. Six fault prognostic cases are conducted to demonstrate the whole prognostic procedure, and prove that the presented MHKRVM can predict the trend of falling circuit elements’ health degree trajectories closely and estimate the remaining useful performance of failing circuit elements accurately.

To assess liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in comparison with conventional diffusion-weighted imaging, with histology as reference standard.This prospective study included 81 patients and DKI with b-values of 0, 200, 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 s/mmThe MD (rho=-0.491, p0.001), MK (rho=0.537, p0.001) and ADC (rho=-0.496, p0.001) correlated significantly with fibrosis stages, and ADC exhibited a strong negative correlation with MK (rho=-0.968; p0.001) and a moderate association with MD (rho=0.601, p0.001). Areas under the curves (AUCs) for predicting stage 2 fibrosis or greater were not significantly different (p0.05) between MK (0.809) and ADC (0.797) as well as between MD (0.715) and ADC. AUCs were also similar for MD (0.710), MK (0.768) and ADC (0.747) for predicting stage 3 fibrosis or greater.Although DKI is feasible for predicting liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease, MD and MK offer similar diagnostic performance to ADC values.• Diffusion kurtosis imaging is feasible for staging liver fibrosis. • Diffusion kurtosis and monoexponential model are highly correlated. • The kurtosis model offers no added value to the conventional, monoexponential model.