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Acute subdural hematoma (SDH) is a rare occurrence in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients with only two cases reported in literature. However, sudden severe acute SDH caused by CML has not been reported on.Our patient was admitted for 'sudden unconsciousness for more than 1 hour'. Computed tomography (CT) angiography revealed a large amount of acute SDH on the left side. Physical exam showed the patient's left pupil was dilated and signs of cerebral herniation were present. The preoperative coagulation profile was normal. Emergency craniotomy for hematoma clearance and decompression was performed. During the surgery, a ruptured cerebral artery was located in the perisylvian region and hemostasis was achieved through electrocautery. Pre-operative white blood count was 58,100 cell/ml, with post-operative bone marrow examination > cytogenetic analysis and RT-PCR detection revealing a diagnosis of CML, for which hydroxyurea chemotherapy was initiated. Leukocyte count of the patient gradually returned to normal. After 24 days, the patient regained consciousness and on day 30, repeat CT scan showed no SDH recurrence. The patient recovered with no neurological deficits and achieved a good prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex microgrid structures and time-varying conditions, among other factors, cause problems in the mechanical modeling of microgrids, making model-based controller optimization difficult. Therefore, this study proposed a secondary frequency adaptive control strategy based on parameter identification, which uses an online parameter identification method to identify the parameters in the microgrid in real-time. The identified parameters are then used in the secondary frequency adaptive controller to optimize the real-time controller performance. The proposed method realizes adaptive optimization of the controller in the microgrid operation state and is applied to a microgrid with unknown parameters to adjust the controller parameters. Finally, a simulation experiment was conducted to verify the model accuracy and the frequency regulation effect of the proposed adaptive control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a new electric vehicle routing problem with time windows and recharging strategies (EVRPTW-RS), where two recharging policies (i.e., full or partial recharging) and three recharging technologies (i.e., normal, rapid, and ultra-rapid) are considered. For this problem, we first develop a mixed-integer linear programming model defined in a series of vertices including a depot, a series of recharging stations, and a set of customers. Due to the strong NP-hardness of EVRPTW-RS, a tailored adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic (ALNS) which contains a number of advanced efficient procedures tailored to handle the proposed problem is developed. Numerical experiments for benchmark instances generated based on the Greater Toronto Area and Ontario in Canada are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and ALNS. Computational results demonstrate that the ALNS is highly effective in solving EVRPTW-RS and outperforms commercial solver CPLEX. Moreover, the advantages of the proposed recharging strategies are illustrated and some recommendations are provided for stakeholders when using electric vehicles for delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally believed that the 1+1D model for a single chiral fermion does not exist by itself alone on lattice. The obstruction to such a lattice realization is the failure to reproduce the quantum anomalies of a chiral fermion in continuum. The conventional way to escape is to associate the anomalous 1d system with a 2d bulk, which is in a topologically non-trivial state, as the boundary of the latter. In this paper, we propose a 1+1D chiral fermion model on 1d spatial lattice, standing alone — without being associated with a 2d bulk — with a simple non-Hermitian hopping Hamiltonian. We demonstrate, using various methods, that the model possesses the same chiral anomaly and gravitational anomaly as in continuum theory. Furthermore, with appropriate parameters, the low energy effective theory of the model remains a field theory for unitary chiral fermions. The essential reason for the success is that the usual "doubled" fermion mode with opposite chirality is rapidly damped out because of non-Hermicity of the Hamiltonian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency response model of a microgrid system is an indispensable tool for designing secondary frequency controllers and analyzing system frequency stability. Owing to the complexity of a microgrid system structure, time‐varying operation state, and difficulty in obtaining the inverter parameters, it is difficult to model the microgrid system. To address the abovementioned problems, this study constructs the equivalent model of a microgrid system based on mechanism analysis and then identifies the equivalent model parameters using an online identification method based on a hybrid particle swarm optimization butterfly algorithm according to the sampled operation data to obtain the specific equivalent model of a microgrid for the controller. This modeling method has strong adaptability and can yield accurate identification modeling when the operational structure of the microgrid changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting anomaly conditions in nuclear reactor is a critical issue in safety management of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Conventionally, the operating status are monitored in transient data with pre-designed labels by human operators or basic diagnosis systems. Nowadays, continuous time series data from multi-sensors are increasingly collected and emerging unlabeled abnormal status are monitored during the operation, making it challenging to capture both spatial and temporal dependency at each time steps without supervised labels. In this paper, a robust unsupervised Multi-Variate Convolutional GRU Encoder-Dncoder (MVCGED) method is proposed to perform anomaly detection and fault diagnosis in multi-sensor operation time series data. Specifically, MVCGED first construct each time steps into signature matrices to maintain both spatial and temporal features via sliding windows with inner-correlation and forget mechanism. Subsequently, A CNN feature extraction network, CNN-based GRU encoding network and CNN decoding network are implemented successively to capture and reconstruct the hidden patterns of the signature matrices. Finally, the reconstruction loss are further utilized to detect anomalies and diagnose faults. Extensive empirical studies based on PCTRAN nuclear power plant operation data demonstrate that MVCGED outperforms commonly-used baseline methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the mechanical stability of the PP layer, the oriented PP/PE double-layer film with a row-nucleated crystalline structure can be annealed at a higher temperature than the PE monolayer film. In this work, the effects of annealing temperature within the melting range of PE on the crystalline structure and properties of PP/PE double-layer films were studied. When the annealing temperature is between 100 and 130 °C, below the melting point of PE, the crystallinity, the long period, lateral dimension and orientation of the lamellae in the PE layer increase with the annealing temperature due to the melting of thin lamellae and the self-nucleated effect of partially-melted melts during annealing. With the annealing temperature further increasing to 138 °C, near the melting ending point of PE, since the lamellae melt completely and the melt memory becomes weak during annealing, some spherulite structures are formed in the annealed sample, resulting in a decrease of orientation. In contrast, the annealing only causes the appearance of a low-temperature endothermic plateau in the PP layer. The improved size and orientation of lamellar structure in the PE layer increase the pore arrangement and porosity of the stretched PP/PE microporous membrane. This study successfully applies the self-nucleation effect of partially-melted polymer melt into the practical annealing process, which is helpful to guide the production of high-performance PP/PE/PP lithium batteries separator and the annealing process of other multilayer products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Growing evidence demonstrates that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a crucial role as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) in tumor occurrence. The lncRNAs' functions and clinical significance in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) remain unclear. The study aims to reveal the lncRNA-associated ceRNA regulatory network of LSCC and clarify its clinical relevance.Methods: Here, we obtained LSCC transcriptome data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and identified the differential expression profile of lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs by the EdgeR R package. The function enrichment analysis of mRNAs was performed using clusterProfiler R package and GSEA3.0. Then, we constructed a ceRNA network and prognosis model based on lncRNAs through bioinformatic methods. Moreover, we explored the functions of prognosis-related lncRNA in LSCC by CCK-8 and transwell assay.Results: 1961 lncRNAs, 69 miRNAs, and 2224 mRNAs were identified as differentially expressed genes in LSCC tissues. According to the transcriptome differential expression profile, a ceRNA network containing 61 lncRNAs, 21 miRNAs, and 77 mRNAs was established. Then, four lncRNAs (AC011933.2, FAM30A, LINC02086, LINC02575) were identified from the ceRNA network to build a prognosis model for LSCC patients. And we found that LINC02086 and LINC02575 promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of LSCC cells while AC011933.2 and FAM30A inhibited these biological functions in vitro. Furthermore, we validated that LINc02086/miR-770-5p/SLC26A2 axis promoted migration in LSCC.Conclusion: Four lncRNAs of the ceRNA network were abnormally expressed and related to patient prognosis in LSCC. They played a significant role in the progress of LSCC via affecting the proliferation and metastasis of tumor cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive red spiral galaxies (MRSGs) are supposed to be the possible progenitors of lenticular galaxies (S0s). We select a large sample of MRSGs (⁠|$M_*\gt 10^{10.5}\rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$|⁠) from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) DR17 using the g − r colour versus stellar mass diagram, along with control samples of blue spirals and S0s. Our main results are as follows: (1) After comparing the Sérsic index, concentration parameter, asymmetry parameter distribution, size–mass relation, and Σ1 (stellar mass surface density within the central 1 kpc)−mass relation, we find MRSGs are similar to S0s and have more compact and symmetric structures than blue spirals. MRSGs also resemble S0s in Dn4000, metallicity, Mgb/ |$\rm \left\langle Fe \right\rangle$|⁠ , and V /σ radial profile. (2) By using MaNGA 2D spectra data, we separate the spatial regions into inner (R  < 0.8 R e) and outer (0.8 <  R   < 1.5 R e) regions, and detect residual star formation in the outer regions of MRSGs. (3) When we select a sub-sample of MRSGs with NUV −  r   >  5, we find that they are completely star formation quenched in both inner and outer regions. Compared to optically selected MRSGs, NUV −  r selected MRSGs appear to be more concentrated and have more massive dark matter haloes. The similarities between S0s and MRSGs suggest the possible evolutionary trend between MRSGs and S0s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of Cu+/Ni-MOF materials with different Cu loading were prepared by a hydrothermal method and were applied on selective catalytic reduction with NH3-SCR. From characterization results of XRD, XPS and TPR, it could be inferred that Cu+ species have been successfully introduced into the Ni-MOF framework. Compared with monometallic Ni-MOF catalyst, all bimetallic Cu+/Ni-MOF sample showed much better NH3-SCR activity at low temperature and achieved about 30% increase in the maximum catalytic efficiency at 320°C, which indicating a good synergistic effect between copper and nickel ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bimetallic Cu-Al-BTC MOFs with various Cu/Al ratios were successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal method and applied for CO-SCR. It is found that the catalytic efficiency increased significantly with Cu:Al ratio from 1:1 to 6:1. 6Cu1Al-BTC catalyst exhibits the highest catalytic activity, which achieves nearly 100% NO conversion in the temperature range from 325 °C to 400°C. All bimetallic Cu-Al-BTC catalysts showed higher catalytic activity than pure Cu-BTC and Al-BTC materials. The feasibility of bimetallic Cu-Al-BTC MOFs as a novel deNOx catalyst was evaluated in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: LRRop-1, induced by DOF6 transcription factor, negatively regulates abiotic stress responses during Arabidopsis seed germination. The lrrop-1 mutant has reduced ABA signaling, which is part of the underlying stress-remediation mechanism. The large family of leucine-rich repeat (LRR) proteins plays a role in plant immune responses. Most LRR proteins have multiple functional domains, but a subfamily is known to possess only the LRR domain. The roles of these LRR-only proteins in Arabidopsis remain largely uncharacterized. In the present study, we have identified 44 LRR-only proteins in Arabidopsis and phylogenetically classified them into nine sub-groups. We characterized the function of LRRop-1, belonging to sub-group V. LRRop-1 encodes a predominantly ER-localized LRR domain-containing protein that is highly expressed in seeds and rosette leaves. Promoter motif analysis revealed an enrichment in binding sites for several GA-responsive and stress-responsive transcription factors. The lrrop-1 mutant seeds showed enhanced seed germination on medium containing abscisic acid (ABA), paclobutrazol and NaCl compared to the wild type (WT), demonstrating higher abiotic stress tolerance. Also, the lrrop-1 mutant seeds have lower levels of endogenous ABA, but higher levels of gibberellic acid (GA) and jasmonic acid-Ile (JA-Ile) compared to the WT. Furthermore, lrrop-1 mutant seeds imbibed with ABA exhibited reduced expression of ABA-responsive genes compared to similarly treated WT seeds, suggesting suppressed ABA signaling events in the mutant. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) data showed that DNA BINDING1 ZINC FINGER6 (DOF6), a negative regulator of seed germination, could directly bind to the LRRop-1 promoter and up-regulate its expression. Thus, our results show that LRRop-1 regulates ABA-mediated abiotic stress responses during Arabidopsis seed germination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary of main observation and conclusion: The N‐glycans attached to some chloroviruses comprise a hyperbranched core structure without precedent. We are interested in the chemical synthesis of the hexasaccharide attached to ATCV‐1 (Acanthocystis turfacea Chlorella virus 1) for its distinct structure. After exploring four routes, the target hexasaccharide 2 was successfully synthesized for the first time in overall 10% yield over 8 steps from thioglycoside building blocks. This synthetic protocol is characterized by the three‐component one‐pot glycosylation and the regioselective glycosylation reactions. The disclosed synthetic approach to this new type of N‐glycans will facilitate the in‐depth understanding of their biological functions. A highly branched hexasaccharide was successfully synthesized by the three‐component preactivation‐based one‐pot glycosylation and the regioselective glycosylation reactions for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel active controlled primary current cutting-off zero-voltage and zero-current switching (ZVZCS) PWM three-level dc-dc converter (TLC) is proposed in this paper. The proposed converter has some attractive advantages. The OFF voltage on the primary switches is only Vin/2 due to the series connected structure. The leading-leg switches can obtain zero-voltage switching (ZVS), and the lagging-leg switches can achieve zero-current switching (ZCS) in a wide load range. Two MOSFETs, referred to as cutting-off MOSFETs, with an ultra-low on-state resistance are used as active controlled primary current cutting-off components, and the added conduction loss can be neglected. The added MOSFETs are switched ON and OFF with ZCS that is irrelevant to the load current. Thus, the auxiliary switching loss can be significantly minimized. In addition, these MOSFETs are not series connected in the circuit loop of the dc input bus bar and the primary switches, which results in a low parasitic inductance. The operation principle and some relevant analyses are provided, and a 6-kW laboratory prototype is built to verify the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical calculations of high speed solenoid valves (HSV) are performed to understand the effects of the driving current and structural parameters on electromagnetic energy conversion in HSV. The results show that the driving current plays a prominent role on the capability of electromagnetic energy conversion. The changes in the electromagnetic force are determined by the total magnetic reluctance and the range of the driving current. For large driving currents, the capability of electromagnetic energy conversion is not significantly influenced by the driving current and is only slightly affected by the working air-gap. The larger the driving current becomes, the smaller the increase of the electromagnetic force is with an increasing of the working air-gap. Within a certain range of driving currents, the armature thickness has positive effects on the capability of electromagnetic energy conversion, but the effects are not significant at large driving currents. At different driving currents, the effect of the number of coil turns on the electromagnetic force is mostly determined by the effects of the coil turns on the total magnetic flux and the total magnetic reluctance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A divergent synthesis of solanidine and 22-epi-solanidine, two 25S natural steroidal alkaloids, from 25R-configured diosgenin acetate, is described. Initially, solanidine was synthesized through a series of transformations including a cascade ring-switching process of furostan-26-acid, an epimerization of C25 controlled by the conformation of six-membered lactone ring, an intramolecular Schmidt reaction, and an imine reduction/intramolecular aminolysis process. To address the epimerization issue during Schmidt reaction, an improved synthesis was developed, which also led to a synthesis of 22-epi-solanidine. In this synthesis, selective transformation of azido lactone to azido diol and amino diol was realized through a reduction relay tactic. The azido diol was transformed to solanidine via an intramolecular Schmidt reaction/N-alkylation/reduction process and to 22-epi-solanidine via an intramolecular double N-alkylation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the bulk–edge correspondence in topological insulators by taking Fu–Kane spin pumping model as an example. We show that the Kane–Mele invariant in this model is Z 2 invariant modulo the spectral flow of a single-parameter family of 1 + 1 -dimensional Dirac operators with a global boundary condition induced by the Kramers degeneracy of the system. This spectral flow is defined as an integer which counts the difference between the number of eigenvalues of the Dirac operator family that flow from negative to non-negative and the number of eigenvalues that flow from non-negative to negative. Since the bulk states of the insulator are completely gapped and the ground state is assumed being no more degenerate except the Kramers, they do not contribute to the spectral flow and only edge states contribute to. The parity of the number of the Kramers pairs of gapless edge states is exactly the same as that of the spectral flow. This reveals the origin of the edge–bulk correspondence, i.e., why the edge states can be used to characterize the topological insulators. Furthermore, the spectral flow is related to the reduced η -invariant and thus counts both the discrete ground state degeneracy and the continuous gapless excitations, which distinguishes the topological insulator from the conventional band insulator even if the edge states open a gap due to a strong interaction between edge modes. We emphasize that these results are also valid even for a weak disordered and/or weak interacting system. The higher spectral flow to categorize the higher-dimensional topological insulators is expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synthesis of the 12,12′-azo-analogue of ritterazine N from hecogenin is reported. Ring contraction of two 6/5 bicyclic ring systems, one trans-fused and another spiro, to 5/5 spiro ring systems is accomplished with excellent stereochemical control. Key transformations include an abnormal Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, a Norrish type I cleavage, an intramolecular dipolar [3 + 2] cycloaddition, and an intramolecular oxymecuration. Failing to uncover the β-OH ketone from the isoxazoline ring, we end up with a synthesis of a cyclic analogue of ritterazine N. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic risk loci for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on the chromosome 10q26 (Chr10) locus and are tightly linked: the A69S (G>T) rs10490924 single-nucleotide variant (SNV) and the AATAA-rich insertion-deletion (indel, del443/ins54), which are found in the age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) gene, and the G512A (G>A) rs11200638 SNV, which is found in the high-temperature requirement A serine peptidase 1 (HTRA1) promoter. The fourth variant is Y402H complement factor H (CFH), which directs CFH signaling. CRISPR manipulation of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells may allow one to isolate the effects of the individual SNV and thus identify SNV-specific effects on cell phenotype. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) editing demonstrates that rs10490924 raised oxidative stress in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived retinal cells from patients with AMD. Sodium phenylbutyrate preferentially reverses the cell death caused by ARMS2 rs10490924 but not HTRAI rs11200638. This study serves as a proof of concept for the use of patient-specific iPSCs for functional annotation of tightly linked GWAS to study the etiology of a late-onset disease phenotype. More importantly, we demonstrate that antioxidant administration may be useful for reducing reactive oxidative stress in AMD, a prevalent late-onset neurodegenerative disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft and flexible large strain piezoresistive sensors can be widely used in robotic applications due to their simplicity and compact and lightweight structure. In this study, combining conductive filler of carbon black with elastomers, a soft elastomer strain sensor that can reach very large elongations is presented. These sensors have good linearity and extensibility. Stress relaxation does affect the accuracy of the sensor, but this can be minimized. In this work, we demonstrate the application of this sensor into the structure of an adaptive, human-like robot hand to perform object classification and object curvature estimation employing hand proprioception (measuring the bending angles of the fingers). Experiments demonstrated that the sensors could assist the hand with the ability to classify the object's basic shape using a single grasp. [Display omitted] • Large strain piezoresistive sensor made from carbon-black/elastomer composite. • Underactuated robotic hand with large strain piezoresistive sensor to determine fingers gestures. • Object's shape classification with single grasp with underactuated robotic hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-organic framework Cu-BTC was synthesized by hydrothermal method, and was employed as de nitrification catalyst for low temperature selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 (NHj-SCR). After activated at different temperatures from 180°C to 250°C in vacuum, Cu-BTC samples were characterized by NH3-SCR test, X-ray powder d iffraction, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscope and in situ Fourier-transform infrared. NO conversion results revealed that activation temperatures played a significant beneficial effect role in Cu-BTC catalytic performance for low temperature NH3-SCR reaction. The Cu-BTC catalyst pre-treated at 230°C achieved a complete NO conversion efficiency with large operating-temperature window from 220°C to 280°C. This excellent catalytic activity was mainly a ttributed to the unsaturated Cu sites in Cu-BTC. The correlation between catalytic property and structure of Cu-BTC was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present infrared (IR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of individual star-forming regions in four extremely metal-poor (EMP) galaxies with metallicity Z ≲ Z⊙/10 as observed by the Herschel Space Observatory. With the good wavelength coverage of the SED, it is found that these EMP star-forming regions show distinct SED shapes as compared to those of grand design Spirals and higher metallicity dwarfs: they have on average much higher f70μm/f160μm ratios at a given f160μm/f250μm ratio; single modified blackbody (MBB) fittings to the SED at γ ≥ 100 μm still reveal higher dust temperatures and lower emissivity indices compared to that of Spirals, while two MBB fittings to the full SED with a fixed emissivity index (β = 2) show that even at 100 μm, about half of the emission comes from warm (50 K) dust, in contrast to the cold (~20 K) dust component. Our spatially resolved images furthermore reveal that the far-IR colours including f70μm/f160µm, f160μm/f250μm and f250μm/f350μm are all related to the surface densities of young stars as traced by far-UV, 24 μm and star formation rates (SFRs), but not to the stellar mass surface densities. This suggests that the dust emitting at wavelengths from 70 to 350 μm is primarily heated by radiation from young stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review is an expansion of my talk at the conference on Sixty Years of Yang-Mills Theory. I review and explain the line of thoughts that lead to a recent joint work with Hu and Geer [Hu et al., arXiv:1502.03433] on the construction, exact solutions and ubiquitous properties of a class of quantum group gauge models on a honey-comb lattice. Conceptually the construction achieves a synthesis of the ideas of Yang-Baxter equations with those of Yang-Mills theory. Physically the models describe topological anyonic states in 2D systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new four-primary-switch diode clamped soft switching three-level DC-DC converter (TLDC) with full zero-voltage switching (ZVS) load range and TL secondary voltage waveform is proposed. The operation principle and characteristics of the presented converter are discussed, and experimental results are consistent with theoretical predictions. The improvements of the proposed converter include a simple and compact primary structure, TL secondary rectified voltage waveform, wide load range ZVS for all primary switches, and full output-regulated range with soft switching operation. The proposed converter also has some disadvantages. The VA rating of the transformer is slightly larger than that of conventional TLDCs in variable input and constant output mode. The conduction loss of the primary coil is slightly higher because an air gap is inserted into the magnetic cores of the transformer. Finally, the secondary circuit is slightly complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ability to characterize the heat transfer in flowing gases is important for a wide range of applications involving micro- and nanoscale devices. Gas flows away from the continuum limit can be captured using the Boltzmann equation, whose analytical solution poses a formidable challenge. An efficient and accurate numerical simulation of the Boltzmann equation is thus highly desirable. In this article, the linearized Boltzmann Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook equation is used to develop a hierarchy of thermal lattice Boltzmann (LB) models based on half-space Gaussian-Hermite (GH) quadrature ranging from low to high algebraic precision, using double distribution functions. Simplified versions of the LB models in the continuum limit are also derived, and are shown to be consistent with existing thermal LB models for noncontinuum heat transfer reported in the literature. Accuracy of the proposed LB hierarchy is assessed by simulating thermal Couette flows for a wide range of Knudsen numbers. Effects of the underlying quadrature schemes (half-space GH vs full-space GH) and continuum-limit simplifications on computational accuracy are also elaborated. The numerical findings in this article provide direct evidence of improved computational capability of the proposed LB models for modeling noncontinuum flows and heat transfer at small length scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the emergence of the B.l.l.529 (omicron) variant of SARS-CoV-2 in November 2021 has continued to evolve into sublineages, leading to a pandemic. To mitigate the spread of omicron, the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency authorized emergency use of the BNT162b2 bivalent vaccine in late August and early September 2022.

• Profilin was one of the major component allergens in P. acerifolia pollen. • The profilin had a significant cross-reactivity with Pop n 2. • Enriching the information on the allergenic components. • Help to develop diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for allergic patients. The Platanus acerifolia (P. acerifolia) pollen is one of the most common causes of allergic respiratory symptoms in China. However, the allergenic components in P. acerifolia are not fully studied yet. The study aimed to determine the molecular and immunochemical characterization of the profilin from P. acerifolia pollen. The coding sequence of profilin was amplified, cloned, and then expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 cells and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. Protein refolding was followed by structural characterization and homology 3D model building. The allergenicity and cross-reactivity were assessed by ELISA, immunoblotting, or basophil activation test (BAT) using the sera of P. acerifolia allergic patients. The cDNA sequence of profilin was cloned with a 396 bp open reading frame coding for 131 amino acids. The molecular weight of the profilin was approximately 14 kDa, and the predicted structure consisted of 3 α-helixes and 7 β-sheets. Physicochemical analysis indicated the profilin was a stable, relatively thermostable, and relatively conserved protein. The allergenicity determined by ELISA, western blot, and BAT suggested 76.9% (30/39) of the P. acerifolia pollen allergic patients displayed specific IgE recognition of the profilin. The profilin shared > 80% sequence identity with Pop n 2, the profilin from Populus nigra , and observed a significant cross-reactivity with Pop n 2 in IgE-inhibition assay. Profilin, as one of the major component allergens in P. acerifolia pollen, was identified and characterized at molecular and immunochemical levels in this study. These findings would contribute to developing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for P. acerifolia pollen allergic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handling data classification and regression problems through linear hyperplane is a naive and simple idea. In this paper, inspired by the idea of multiple criteria linear programs (MCLP) and multiple criteria quadratic programs (MCQP), we proposed a novel method for binary classification and regression problem. There are two main advantages for the proposed approach. One is that both of these two models guarantee the existence of feasible solutions when the model parameters were chosen properly. The other is that nonlinear patterns could be handled and captured by introducing kernel function into MCLP framework with a more natural way than previous work. Various classical approaches and datasets were evaluated in our experiments, and the result on both toy and real world data demonstrate the correctness and effectiveness of our proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel wide-range soft-switching pulse-width modulation three-level (TL) combined dc-dc converter characterized with no added primary clamping devices and reduced output inductance value. It is well suited for high input voltage dc-dc industrial applications due to following desirable features: all the switches sustain half of the input voltage; off state voltage of the switches is directly clamped by the bulky input capacitors, and no added primary clamping devices such as clamping diodes, flying capacitors, are required; TL waveform before output filter can be achieved, which significantly reduces the value of the output inductance; the modified phase-shift control method can be utilized to achieve wide output range. The converter can obtain zero-voltage switching (ZVS) for all power switches in wide load range; furthermore, less conduction loss is added to achieve ZVS. The operation and theoretical analysis of the proposed converter are presented. Experiments are carried out to validate the proposed converter, and efficiency curves are tested and given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered cobalt oxide materials YBaCo3.4Al0.3Ga0.3O7+δ (YBCAG33) and YBaCo3.2Al0.4Ga0.4O7+δ (YBCAG44) were prepared and the electrical conductivity, the thermal expansion coefficient and electrochemical performance were investigated as potential cathode materials for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). The highest conductivity of 6.2 S cm-1 is found for YBCAG33 at 900 °C in air. The average thermal expansion coefficients of YBCAG33 and YBCAG44 in the range of 30-850 °C are 9.3×10-6 K-1 and 9.0×10-6 K-1, respectively. The ASR value of YBCAG33 and YBCAG44 cathodes on LSGM electrolyte is as low as 0.080 Ω cm² and 0.120 Ω cm² at 800 °C, respectively. In an electrolyte-supported single test cell, the YBCAG33 cathode exhibited maximum power densities of 392, 292, 203, and 129 mW cm-2 at 800, 750, 700, and 650 °C, respectively. Preliminary results demonstrated that the YBCAG33 can be a promising alternative cathode materials in IT-SOFCs in terms of electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the identification and characterization of fructose-bisphosphate aldolase as new pollen allergens. The study found that this allergen was present in Artemisia sieversiana and Artemisia annua pollen and shared similarities with other allergens found in fish and chicken. The researchers purified and characterized the allergen, and it exhibited IgE-binding patterns and allergenicity. The findings suggest that fructose-bisphosphate aldolase could be used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in pollen allergies. The study also provides a framework for investigating other unknown pollen allergens. [Extracted from the article]

Oscillatory gas flows are commonly generated by micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems. Due to their small size and high operating frequencies, these devices often produce noncontinuum gas flows. Theoretical analysis of such flows requires solution of the unsteady Boltzmann equation, which can present a formidable challenge. In this article, we explore the applicability of the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method to such linear oscillatory noncontinuum flows; this method is derived from the linearized Boltzmann Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) equation. We formulate four linearized LB models in the frequency domain, based on Gaussian-Hermite quadratures of different algebraic precision (AP). The performance of each model is assessed by comparison to high-accuracy numerical solutions to the linearized Boltzmann-BGK equation for oscillatory Couette flow. The numerical results demonstrate that high even-order LB models provide superior performance over the greatest noncontinuum range. Our results also highlight intrinsic deficiencies in the current LB framework, which is incapable of capturing noncontinuum behavior at high oscillation frequencies, regardless of quadrature AP and the Knudsen number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as a response to the official assessment approach proposed by Basel Committee to identify domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) in China. Our analysis presents not only current levels of domestic systemic importance of individual banks but also the changes. We also consider the systemic risk of the whole banking system, by investigating how D-SIBs and non-D-SIBs are correlated before and after the recent financial crises using Copula. We find that the systemic importance of major banks is decreasing, while some banks becoming more systemically important should require tight regulations. D-SIBs as a whole subsystem display stronger correlation with non-D-SIBs than the individual D-SIBs, which alerts the regulatory to pay attention to "too-many-to-fail" problems. Contagion effects between D-SIBs and non-D-SIBs exist during the subprime crisis, but did not exist during the European debt crisis. This yields good signal of a more balanced banking system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) in 1999 in the USA, and its continued spread throughout the Americas, parts of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, underscored the need for WNV antiviral development. Here, we review the current status of WNV drug discovery. A number of approaches have been used to search for inhibitors of WNV, including viral infection-based screening, enzyme-based screening, structure-based virtual screening, structure-based rationale design, and antibody-based therapy. These efforts have yielded inhibitors of viral or cellular factors that are critical for viral replication. For small molecule inhibitors, no promising preclinical candidate has been developed; most of the inhibitors could not even be advanced to the stage of hit-to-lead optimization due to their poor drug-like properties. However, several inhibitors developed for related members of the family Flaviviridae, such as dengue virus and hepatitis C virus, exhibited cross-inhibition of WNV, suggesting the possibility to re-purpose these antivirals for WNV treatment. Most promisingly, therapeutic antibodies have shown excellent efficacy in mouse model; one of such antibodies has been advanced into clinical trial. The knowledge accumulated during the past fifteen years has provided better rationale for the ongoing WNV and other flavivirus antiviral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a numerical scheme based on the lattice Boltzmann method to tackle the classical problem of sound radiation directivity of pipes issuing subsonic mean flows. The investigation is focused on normal mode radiation, which allows the use of a two-dimensional lattice with an axisymmetric condition at the pipe's longitudinal axis. The numerical results are initially verified against an exact analytical solution for the sound radiation directivity of an unflanged pipe in the absence of a mean flow, which shows a very good agreement. Thereafter, the sound directivity results in the presence of a subsonic mean flow are compared with both analytical models and experimental data. The results are in good agreement, particularly for low values of the Helmholtz number ka.Moreover, the phenomenon known as 'zone of relative silence' was observed, even for mean flows associated with very lowMach numbers, though discrepancies were also observed in the comparison between the numerical results and the analytical predictions. A thorough discussion on the scheme implementation and numerical results is provided in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In this study, we aimed to identify long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that play important roles in starvation stress, analyze their functions, and discover potential molecular targets to alleviate starvation stress to provide a theoretical reference for subsequent in-depth research. Methods: We generated a piglet starvation stress animal model. Nine Yorkshire weaned piglets were randomly divided into a long-term starvation stress group (starved for 72 h), short-term starvation stress group (starved for 48 h), and the control group. LncRNA libraries were constructed using high-throughput sequencing of piglet ileums. Results: We obtained 11,792 lncRNAs, among which, 2,500 lncRNAs were novel. In total, 509 differentially expressed (DE)lncRNAs were identified in this study. Target genes of DElncRNAs were predicted via cis and trans interactions, and functional and pathway analyses were performed. Gene ontology functions and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes analysis revealed that lncRNA-targeted genes mainly participated in metabolic pathways, cellular processes, immune system processes, digestive systems, and transport activities. To reveal the mechanism underlying starvation stress, the interaction network between lncRNAs and their targets was constructed based on 26 DElncRNAs and 72 DEmRNAs. We performed an interaction network analysis of 121 DElncRNA–DEmRNA pairs with a Pearson correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. Conclusion: We found that MSTRG.19894.13, MSTRG.16726.3, and MSTRG.12176.1 might play important roles in starvation stress. This study not only generated a library of enriched lncRNAs in piglets, but its outcomes also provide a strong foundation to screen key lncRNAs involved in starvation stress and a reference for subsequent in-depth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) pollen is closely associated with respiratory allergy in late summer and autumn, and the prevalence of giant ragweed pollen allergy progressively increases. Compared with short ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), allergenic components from giant ragweed pollen are poorly investigated. To promote component-resolved diagnosis and treatment for giant ragweed pollen allergy, it becomes necessary to identify and characterize unknown allergens from giant ragweed pollen. In the present study, we identified and characterized a new cysteine-protease (CP) allergen from giant ragweed pollen, named as Amb t CP. The cloned Amb t CP gene encoded 387 amino acids. Recombinant Amb t CP (rAmb t CP) and natural Amb t CP (nAmb t CP) were purified by high-affinity Ni2+ resin and immunoaffinity chromatography respectively. During refolding, purified rAmb t CP could autocatalytically converted to its mature forms displaying a higher enzymatic activity. Moreover, the autocatalytic conversion of proforms to mature forms of nAmb t CP could cause their amount to change in giant ragweed pollen extracts. Then, the allergenicity of Amb t CP was characterized: 23 (33.8%) of 68 Chinese patients with ragweed pollen allergy showed positive IgE binding to nAmb t CP by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); the result of subsequent ELISA showed that IgE-binding activity of proforms and mature forms of rAmb t CP was different, with positive rate of 39.1% (9/23) and 47.8% (11/23) respectively; Amb t CP showed IgE cross-reactivity with the CP components from short ragweed, Artemisia annua and Artemisia sieversiana pollen. Our findings will help to promote component-resolved diagnosis and treatment for giant ragweed pollen allergy, standardize allergen products and individualize allergen-specific immunotherapy. • A new cysteine protease allergen from Ambrosia trifida pollen, Amb t CP, was identified. • The conversion of pro- to mature Amb t CP depended on a self-activation mechanism. • IgE-binding activity of pro- and mature Amb t CP was different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: More than 3.2millionlitres of vinegar is consumed every day in China. There are many types of vinegar in China. How to control the quality of vinegar is problem. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) transmission technique was applied to achieve this purpose. Ninety-five vinegar samples from 14 origins covering 11 provinces in China were collected. They were classified into mature vinegar, aromatic vinegar, rice vinegar, fruit vinegar, and white vinegar. Fruit vinegar and white vinegar were separated from the other traditional categories in the two-dimension principal component space of NIR after principle component analysis (PCA). Least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) as the pattern recognition was firstly applied to identify mature vinegar, aromatic vinegar, rice vinegar in this study. The top two principal components (PCs) were extracted as the input of LS-SVM classifiers by principal component analysis (PCA). The best experimental results were obtained using the radial basis function (RBF) LS-SVM classifier with σ =0.8. The accuracies of identification were more than 85% for three traditional vinegar categories. Compared with the back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) approach, LS-SVM algorithm showed its excellent generalisation for identification results. As total acid content (TAC) is highly connecting with the quality of vinegar, NIR was used to prediction the TAC of samples. LS-SVM was applied to building the TAC prediction model based on spectral transmission rate. Compared with partial least-square (PLS) model, LS-SVM model gave better precision and accuracy in predicting TAC. The determination coefficient for prediction (R p) of the LS-SVM model was 0.919 and root mean square error for prediction (RMSEP) was 0.3226. This work demonstrated that near infrared spectroscopy technique coupled with LS-SVM could be used as a quality control method for vinegar. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Chlorophyll concentration distribution map of cucumber leaf given by near infrared hyperspectral imaging was used to determine nitrogen (N) deficiency. 120 fresh leaves picked from N deficient and control plants were used for hyperspectral image collection and chlorophyll concentration determination. Firstly, after hyperspectral image acquisition and pre-processing, the average spectra obtained from the region of interest (ROI) in leaf hyperspectral images were extracted. Secondly, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the average spectrum to reduce the dimension along the wavelength axis. Thirdly, multi-linear regression (MLR) was used to build calibration models relating the spectra and chlorophyll concentration which determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The calibration models were applied to an independent prediction set for validation. Chlorophyll concentration was reasonably well predicted with a high correlation (R =0.8712). Finally, the calibration model was used to predict the chlorophyll concentration of each pixel in the hyperspectral image. Therefore, distribution maps of chlorophyll concentration on the N deficient and control cucumber leaves were obtained. Obvious differences could be directly observed from the chlorophyll distribution maps between N deficient leaves and control leaves. Depend on the maps, the mean value of chlorophyll concentration were calculated at lower nodes for N deficiency diagnostics. 12mg/g was defined as a threshold for the lower nodes leaf in diagnostics of N deficiency. Our results indicate that hyperspectral imaging exhibits considerable promise for nondestructive diagnostics of N deficiency in cucumber plant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Jolkinolides are naturally occurring tetracyclic diterpene from Euphorbia genus, which exhibit promising antitumor and other biological activity. Efficient syntheses of the 19-carboxy derivative of jolkinolide A and 19-hydroxyjolkinolide E have been accomplished in 13 steps with a total yield of 7.8% starting from the easily available and low-cost sweetener stevioside, and some related derivatives have also been synthesized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present rest-frame 15 and 24 μm luminosity functions (LFs) and the corresponding star-forming LFs at z < 0.3 derived from the 5MUSES sample. Spectroscopic redshifts have been obtained for ~98% of the objects and the median redshift is ~0.12. The 5-35 μm Infrared Spectrograph spectra allow us to estimate accurately the luminosities and build the LFs. Using a combination of starburst and quasar templates, we quantify the star formation (SF) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) contributions in the mid-jR spectral energy distribution. We then compute the SF LFs at 15 and 24 μm, and compare with the total 15 and 24 μm LFs. When we remove the contribution of AGNs, the bright end of the LF exhibits a strong decline, consistent with the exponential cutoff of a Schechter function. Integrating the differential LF, we find that the fractional contribution by SF to the energy density is 58% at 15 μm and 78% at 24 μm, while it goes up to ~86% when we extrapolate our mid-JR results to the total IR luminosity density. We confirm that the AGNs play more important roles energetically at high luminosities. Finally, we compare our results with work at z ~ 0.7 and confirm that evolution on both luminosity and density is required to explain the difference in the LFs at different redshifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an "extended Schmidt law" with explicit dependence of the star formation efficiency (SFE = SFR/Mgas) on the stellar mass surface density (Σstar). This relation has a power-law index of 0.48 ± 0.04 and a lσ observed scatter on the SFE of 0.4 dex, which holds over five orders of magnitude in the stellar density for individual global galaxies, including various types and especially the low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies that deviate significantly from the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) law. When applying it to regions of a sample of 12 spiral galaxies at sub-kiloparsec resolution, the extended Schmidt law not only holds for LSB regions but also shows significantly smaller scatters both within and across galaxies compared with the KS law. We argue that this new relation points to the role of existing stars in regulating the SFE, thus better encoding the star formation physics. Comparison with physical models of star formation recipes shows that the extended Schmidt law can be reproduced by some models including gas free fall in a stellar-gravitational potential and pressure-supported star formation. By implementing this new law into the analytic model of gas accretion in ACDM, we show that it can reproduce the observed main sequence of star-forming galaxies (a relation between the SFR and stellar mass) from z = 0 up to z = 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation of noncontinuum gas flows presents tremendous challenges, especially for nanoscale devices that usually exhibit low speeds and isothermal conditions. Such simulations are often achieved through use of the Boltzmann Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook equation, which forms the foundation for the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. Accuracy of the LB method in noncontinuum flows is widely assumed to depend on the order of quadrature used. Here, we study noncontinuum Couette flow and discover that interaction of the lattice with the solid boundaries is the dominant mechanism controlling accuracy—quadrature order plays a comparatively minor role. This suggests the applicability of low-order quadrature in LB simulation of wall bounded isothermal noncontinuum flows, and leads to a framework and rationale for accurate implementation of LB models in noncontinuum flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flaviviruses require complementarity between the 5' and 3' ends of the genome for RNA replication. For mosquito-borne flaviviruses, the cyclization sequences (CS) and upstream of AUG region (UAR) elements at the genomic termini are necessary for viral RNA replication, and a third motif, the downstream of AUG region (DAR), was recently designated for dengue virus. The 3' DAR sequence is also part of a hairpin (HP-3'SL), and both complementarity between 5' and 3' DAR motifs and formation of the HP-3'SL in the absence of the 5' end are conserved among mosquito-borne flaviviruses. Using West Nile virus as a model, we demonstrate that 5'-3' DAR complementarity and HP-3'SL formation are essential for viral RNA replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce an antisymmetric metric into a 3-algebra and call it a symplectic 3-algebra. The $\mathcal{N}=6$, Sp(2 N)× U(1) superconformal Chern-Simons-matter theory with SU(4) R-symmetry in three dimensions is constructed by specifying the 3-brackets in a symplectic 3-algebra. We also demonstrate that the $\mathcal{N}=6$, U( M)× U( N) theory can be recast into this symplectic 3-algebraic framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demissidine and solanidine, two steroidal alkaloids, are synthesized in eight steps from tigogenin acetate and diosgenin acetate, respectively, which involve the replacement of three C-O bonds with C-N bonds. Key transformations include a cascade ring-switching process of furostan-26-acid, an epimerization of C25, an intramolecular Schmidt reaction, and an imine reduction/intramolecular aminolysis process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One new sesquiterpene, (4E)-1-bromo-5-[(1′S*,3′R*)-3′-bromo-2′,2′-dimethyl- 6′-methylenecyclohexyl]-3-methylpent-4-ene-2,3-diol (1), and fifteen known sesquiterpenes, isopalisol (2), luzonensol (3), palisadin B (4), aplysistatin (5), palisadin A (6), 4-hydroxyl-palisudin C (7), 5-acetoxypalisadin B (8), 10-hydroxyaristolan-9-one (9), aristol-8-en-1-one (10), aristolan-9-en-1-one (11), aristolan-1(10)-en-9-one (12), aristolan- 1(10)-en-9-ol (13), aristolan-1(10),8-diene (14), aristolan-1,9-diene (15) and aristofone (16), were isolated from a sample of marine red alga Laurencia similis. Their structures were established by detailed NMR spectroscopic analysis and comparison with literature data. Compounds 2-9, and 16 were isolated for the first time from this species. All these metabolites were submitted for a cytotoxicity assay against the tumor cell line BEL7402 (human liver adenocarcinoma), but all of them were found inactive (IC50 > 10 μg/mL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]