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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an immune-mediated and multi-systemic disease which may affect the nervous system, causing neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE). Recent neuroimaging studies have examined brain functional alterations in SLE. However, discrepant findings were reported. This meta-analysis aims to identify consistent resting-state functional abnormalities in SLE. PubMed and Web of Science were searched to identify candidate resting-state functional MRI studies assessing SLE. A voxel-based meta-analysis was performed using the anisotropic effect-size version of the seed-based d mapping (AES-SDM). The abnormal intrinsic functional patterns extracted from SDM were mapped onto the brain functional network atlas to determine brain abnormalities at a network level. Twelve studies evaluating fifteen datasets were included in this meta-analysis, comprising 572 SLE patients and 436 healthy controls (HCs). Compared with HCs, SLE patients showed increased brain activity in the bilateral hippocampus and right superior temporal gyrus, and decreased brain activity in the left superior frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, bilateral thalamus, left inferior frontal gyrus and right cerebellum. Mapping the abnormal patterns to the network atlas revealed the default mode network and the limbic system as core neural systems commonly affected in SLE. The number of included studies is relatively small, with heterogeneous analytic methods and a risk of publication bias. Brain functional alterations in SLE are predominantly found in the default mode network and the limbic system. These findings uncovered a consistent pattern of resting-state functional network abnormalities in SLE which may serve as a potential objective neuroimaging biomarker. • This study is the first meta-analysis to investigate the resting-state functional alterations in SLE. • SLE-related brain abnormalities are predominantly found in the default mode network and the limbic system. • Resting-state fMRI may be an objective neuroimaging biomarker for identifying brain abnormalities in SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) aqueous solution and polyethyleneimine (PEI) ethanol solution as the composite bonding system, adding a certain amount of silicone defoamer and toluene diisocyanate (TDI), studied the micro-size charge forming effect of sub-micron Octogen (HMX)-based composite ink under the 3D direct writing printing process and the detonation performance and safety of sub-micron Octogen (HMX) under micro-size charges. The results show that the explosive ink with a solid content (quality score) of 90% has the best rheological properties, excellent printability, and the surface of the molded sample is smooth. The impact energy and friction of the molded sample are 7 J and 324 N, respectively, which are lower than those of the raw material HMX 100% and 237.5%, showing excellent mechanical sensitivity safety performance. In addition, XRD and FTIR show that the HMX crystal form in the composite ink remains β-type, the measured density of the molded sample is 1.432 g·cm−1, the detonation velocity is 6982 m·s−1, and the critical detonation size is 1 × 0.0771 mm, showing excellent microchannel detonation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on proposing a novel framework, Hybrid Hierarchical HyperGraph Neural Network (H3GNN), for Personalized Session-based Recommendation (PSBR). Topics include the challenges of capturing hierarchical information, modeling high-order transitions, and integrating user preferences to improve recommendation performance in session-based scenarios.

Investigating the impact of train-induced vibration loads on soil hydraulic properties, this study conducted experiments using a self-designed indoor soil seepage platform that incorporates vibration loads. The experiments were complemented with scanning electron microscopy to analyze the influence of train-induced vibration loads on soil hydraulic conductivity and its evolutionary characteristics under different vibration frequencies. The experimental results indicated that as the vibration frequency increases from no vibration (0 Hz) to 20 Hz, the time required for the soil volumetric moisture content to reach its peak and stabilize decreases rapidly. However, after the vibration frequency exceeds 20 Hz, the rate at which the time required for the volumetric moisture content to reach its peak and stabilize decreases slows down. Furthermore, the soil pore water pressure increases with the increase in vibration frequency. At a vibration frequency of 80 Hz, the peak value of pore water pressure increases by 105% compared to the non-vibration state, suggesting that higher vibration frequencies promote the development and acceleration of soil pore moisture migration. Additionally, as the vibration frequency increases, the soil hydraulic conductivity initially experiences a rapid increase, with a growth rate ranging from 40.1 to 47.4%. However, after the frequency exceeds 20 Hz, this growth rate significantly decreases, settling to only 18.6% to 7.8%. When the soil was subjected to a vibration load, the scanning electron microscopy test revealed alterations in its pore structure. Micropores and small pores transformed into macropores and mesopores. Additionally, the microstructural parameters indicated that vibration load decreased the complexity of soil pores, thereby speeding up the hydraulic conduction process. This, in turn, affected the hydraulic properties of the soil and established a relationship between pore structure complexity and soil hydraulic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing the energy transfer (ET) process from excitons to rare earth ions in halide perovskites has great guiding value for designing optoelectronic materials. Here, the multiple ET channels in multi‐exciton emissive Sb3+/Nd3+ co‐doped Cs2ZrCl6 are explored to comprehend the ET processes. Förster–Dexter ET theory reveals that the sensitizer concentration rather than the overlap integral of the spectra plays the leading function in the comparison of the ET efficiency among multiple ET channels from the host self‐trapped excitons (STEs) and dopant triplet STEs to Nd3+ ions. Besides, Sb3+/Nd3+ co‐doped Cs2ZrCl6 enables varied color delivery and has great potential as anti‐counterfeiting material. Under X‐ray irradiation, Sb3+/Nd3+ co‐doped Cs2ZrCl6 presents a high light yield of ≈13300 photons MeV−1 and promising X‐ray imaging ability. This work provides new insight for investigating the ET efficiency among multiple ET processes and presents great potentiality of multi‐exciton emissive perovskites in the fields of anti‐counterfeiting and X‐ray imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical problem with high morbidity and mortality. The discovery of ferroptosis has provided novel insights into the mechanisms underlying AKI and paves the way for developing ferroptosis-based approaches to treat AKI. Glycyrol (GC) is a representative coumarin compound isolated from licorice that demonstrates various pharmacological activities. However, its potential for a protective effect against kidney injury remains unknown. We hypothesized that GC might be able to protect against AKI via suppression of ferroptosis. This hypothesis was tested in a cell-culture model of RSL3-induced nephrocyte ferroptosis and a mouse model of folic acid-induced AKI. The results showed that GC exerted a significant protective effect against nephrocyte ferroptosis in vitro and was effective against folic acid-induced AKI in vivo, where it was mechanistically associated with suppressing HO-1-mediated heme degradation. Collectively, the findings of the present study support the hypothesis that GC holds considerable potential to be developed as a novel agent for treating ferroptosis-related AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flavivirus remodels the host endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to generate replication compartments (RCs) as the fundamental structures to accommodate viral replication. Here, a centralized replication mode of flavivirus is reported, i.e., flavivirus concentrates host ER in perinuclear main replication compartments (MRCs) for efficient replication. Superresolution live‐cell imaging demonstrated that flavivirus MRCs formed via a series of events, including multisite ER clustering, growth and merging of ER clusters, directional movement, and convergence in the perinuclear region. The dynamic activities of viral RCs are driven by nonstructural (NS) proteins and are independent of microtubules and actin. Moreover, disrupting MRCs formation by small molecule compounds inhibited flavivirus replication. Overall, the findings reveal unprecedented insight into dynamic ER reorganization by flavivirus and identify a new inhibition strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the Invariant Subspace Problem for Hilbert spaces is equivalent to the statement that all minimal non-trivial invariant subspaces for a universal operator are one dimensional. In this paper, we characterize all linear fractional composition operators and their adjoints that have universal translates on the space S 2 (D) . Moreover, we characterize all adjoints of linear fractional composition operators that have universal translates on the Hardy space H 2 (D) . In addition, we consider the minimal invariant subspaces of the composition operator C φ a on S 2 (D) , where ϕa(z) = az + 1 − a, a ∈ (0, 1). Finally, some relationships between complex symmetry and universality for bounded linear operators and commuting pairs of operators on a complex separable, infinite dimensional Hilbert space are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: A previous study found that an indigenous endoparasitic wasp Cotesia ruficrus, has a good control effect on the invasive pest Spodoptera frugiperda. Understanding the molecular mechanism of host recognition of C. ruficrus would help improve its biological control effect. Chemoreceptor proteins (CSPs) play a crucial role in insect olfactory perception. The CrufCSP1 protein was obtained via prokaryotic expression, and its binding properties were evaluated using fluorescence binding assays. Molecular docking was used to verify the function of CrufCSP1. The findings revealed that CrufCSP1 has the ability to bind with seven host-related compounds. This information serves as a crucial reference for developing natural enemy attractants for pest control. Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are a class of soluble proteins that facilitate the recognition of chemical signals in insects. While CSP genes have been identified in many insect species, studies investigating their function remain limited. Cotesia ruficrus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) holds promise as an indigenous biological control agent for managing the invasive pest Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in China. This study aimed to shed light on the gene expression, ligand binding, and molecular docking of CrufCSP1 in C. ruficrus. A RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the expression of CrufCSP1 was higher in the wings, with male adults exhibiting significantly higher relative expression levels than other developmental stages. A fluorescence competitive binding analysis further demonstrated that CrufCSP1 has a high binding ability with several host-related volatiles, with trans-2-hexenal, octanal, and benzaldehyde showing the strongest affinity to CrufCSP1. A molecular docking analysis indicated that specific amino acid residues (Phe24, Asp25, Thr53, and Lys81) of CrufCSP1 can bind to these specific ligands. Together, these findings suggest that CrufCSP1 may play a crucial role in the process of C. ruficrus locating hosts. This knowledge can contribute to the development of more efficient and eco-friendly strategies for protecting crops and managing pests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 3D direct writing technology, a small critical size explosive ink formula was designed using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) aqueous solution and phenolic resin (PF) ethanol solution as a two-component bonding system, and CL-20 as the main explosive. In particular, we investigated the influence of the CL-20 solid content on the micro-size detonation performance. Preliminary research shows that when the content of the main explosive in the explosive ink is less than 92%, the detonation velocity increases with the increase of the content, and the detonation critical size decreases with the increase of the content. The micromorphology, molding density, explosive crystal form, mechanical sensitivity, thermal stability and detonation corner of the molded samples were tested and characterized. The results show that the internal particle distribution of the printed molded sample is uniform, without cracks and fractures, the crystal form remains ε-type, the mechanical sensitivity and thermal stability are reduced, and the detonation velocity after molding with 92% explosive ink reaches 7281m·s-1, which is critical The detonation size is 1×0.027mm, and the detonation angle can reach up to 160°, showing excellent micro-size detonation performance.    [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal halide scintillators have drawn great interest for X‐ray imaging; however, it remains challenging to simultaneously achieve a high light yield (LY) and highly sensitive detection. Herein, Zn2+ is successfully introduced into [TPPen]2MnBr4 (TPPMB, TPPen = pentyltriphenylphosphonium) and the synthesis of [TPPen]2Mn0.9Zn0.1Br4 (TPPMZB) is designed. The LY increases from 43 000 for TPPMB to 68 000 photons MeV−1 for TPPMZB in virtue of the Zn atom doping. Additionally, the detection limit of TPPMZB is 204.1 nGy s−1, showing great improvement to that of TPPMB with the value of 696.9 nGy s−1. X‐ray imaging is realized by utilizing the large‐scale scintillator film fabricated by mixing polydimethylsiloxane with TPPMZB or TPPMB, and the spatial resolution is enlarged from 4.6 to 11.2 lp mm−1 after Zn2+‐doping. This study provides a design principle by doping engineering for enhancing the LY property of metal halide X‐ray scintillators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to accurately predict the leakage rate of the sealing interface, this work proposes a two-dimensional finite element model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, which includes the microscopic surface morphology and the asperity contact process of the components. First of all, we constructed the surface morphology of the seal by the two-dimensional W-M (Weierstrass–Mandelbrot) fractal function and explored the influence of fractal dimension (D) and scale parameter (G) on the surface profile. Furthermore, the finite element method and Poiseuille fluid theory were adopted to obtain the deformation variables of the asperity under different clamping pressures and leakage rates. Moreover, we quantitatively analyzed the impact of surface roughness on the clamping pressure and leakage rate. It was found that both the surface amplitude and surface roughness are positively correlated with G and negatively correlated with D. Surface morphology is proportional to D but has no relationship with G. Additionally, the deformation asperity decreases exponentially with growing clamping pressure, and the leakage rate is consistent with the experimental values at a clamping pressure of 0.54 MPa. With the same leakage rate, when the seal surface roughness value is less than 1 μm, a doubled roughness value leads to an increase of 31% in the clamping pressure. In contrast, when the surface roughness of the seal is greater than 1 μm, a doubled roughness value induces an increase of 50% in the corresponding clamping pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the effect of Octogen (HMX) in the application of microscale explosive transfer sequence charges. In this paper, we designed and formulated four kinds of explosive inks with different solid contents using submicron HMX as the main explosive and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) aqueous solution / fluorocarbon resin (FEVE) ethyl acetate solution emulsion as the binder system, studied the effect of solid content on the rheological properties of explosive inks, conducted micro loading studies using a direct ink writing molding platform, The morphology, safety performance and explosion transmission performance of the microscale printed molding samples were tested and analyzed. The results show that the ink containing 90 wt.% HMX explosive has the largest n value, has good printability, smooth surface of the molded sample, consistent, uniform particle dispersion inside the line; HMX crystalline type is still β type; critical impact energy and critical friction of the printed sample compared to the raw HMX increased by 114% and 100% respectively, critical impact energy compared to CL-20-based explosive ink printed sample increased by 67%, indicating that the printed samples have a high safety under the Mechanical Sensitivity. The detonation velocity of the printed sample is 6902 m·s−1 at a charge cross-section size of 1 mm × 1 mm. The critical detonation thickness of the printed sample is 1 × 0.095 mm, Can be stable under the corner of not more than 120 ° detonation.The results of the study show that HMX as the main charge can improve the wide applicability of direct-written explosive ink.     [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a highly complicated and dynamic organelle that actively changes its shape and communicates with other organelles. Visualization of ER in live cells is of great importance to understand cellular activities. Here, we designed a novel ER marker, RR‐mNeonGreen, which comprised an N‐terminal ER retention signal, a bright fluorescent protein (mNeonGreen), and a C‐terminal transmembrane region. Colocalization of RR‐mNeonGreen with mCherry‐KDEL verified that RR‐mNeonGreen perfectly labeled the ER. RR‐mNeonGreen showed better continuity of ER tubules when imaged by super‐resolution microscopy. Moreover, RR‐mNeonGreen is competent for live‐cell imaging of ER dynamics and tracing of the interaction between ER and mitochondria at high spatiotemporal resolution. In summary, RR‐mNeonGreen is a novel ER marker for super‐resolution live‐cell imaging with multiple merits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic biology tools for regulating gene expression have many useful biotechnology and therapeutic applications. Most tools developed for this purpose control gene expression at the level of transcription, and relatively few methods are available for regulating gene expression at the translational level. Here, we design and engineer split orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (o-aaRS) as unique tools to control gene translation in bacteria and mammalian cells. Using chemically induced dimerization domains, we developed split o-aaRSs that mediate gene expression by conditionally suppressing stop codons in the presence of the small molecules rapamycin and abscisic acid. By activating o-aaRSs, these molecular switches induce stop codon suppression, and in their absence stop codon suppression is turned off. We demonstrate, in Escherichia coli and in human cells, that split o-aaRSs function as genetically encoded AND gates where stop codon suppression is controlled by two distinct molecular inputs. In addition, we show that split o-aaRSs can be used as versatile biosensors to detect therapeutically relevant protein-protein interactions, including those involved in cancer, and those that mediate severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescent metal halide perovskites (MHPs) open new avenues for highly efficient radiation detection. To challenge the state‐of‐art technology, fundamental understanding of factors controlling radiation light yield of MHP scintillators is urgent. Herein, a design method is established by simultaneously considering charge‐transfer and recombination efficiencies via band alignment engineering in doped MHPs materials, and this strategy is corroborated experimentally and computationally by applying it to the luminescence of ns2 electron (Sb3+, Bi3+, and Te4+) doped vacancy‐ordered double perovskite Cs2ZrCl6. Alloying Te4+ into Cs2ZrCl6 is optimized and significantly improves the scintillation performance, including a twofold increase in light yield and a threefold increase in detection limit over pristine Cs2ZrCl6, and high‐resolution X‐ray imaging with 20 μm for 2D and 0.2 mm for 3D imaging. It is believed that doping engineering in MHPs enabling band alignment method holds great potential for the development of next‐generation MHP scintillators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-Satellite Links (ISLs) can effectively enhance the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) performance, such as communication and ranging performance. These performances would have been improved by disposing sparsely of ground stations and ISLs. Here, we demonstrate a topology scheduling strategy based on Signed Variance and Blossom algorithm (SV-Blossom) to promote the topology performance of GNSS. We also analyze the effect of this strategy on the robustness of the ranging information quality of the ISLs assignments system. For the domestic and overseas satellite communication Time Delay (TD) and Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP), by analyzing the relation of satellites, a set of the ISLs cost models is established, and the cost matrix is obtained. The final ISLs assignments result is obtained by processing the link cost matrix with the Blossom algorithm in the graph theory. In order to verify the rationality of the SV-Blossom strategy, a typical BDS-3 simulation scene with 10080 min is built to test these performances of ISLs. The final results show that the ranging information quality of the SV-Blossom strategy is greatly improved compared with recently published strategies, and the proposed links assignments mechanism has good robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication networks have become an important means to provide internet access services for areas with limited infrastructure. Compared with the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, the LEO satellites have limited on-board communication caching and calculating resources. Furthermore, the distribution of traffic requests is dynamically changing and uneven due to the relative movement between the LEO satellites and the ground. Therefore, how to schedule the multi-dimensional resources is an important issue for the LEO satellite communication networks. Beam-hopping is an efficient approach to improve the resource utilization by dynamically allocating time, power, and frequency according to the traffic requests. This paper proposes an efficient multi-dimensional resource allocation mechanism for beam-hopping in LEO satellite networks, which simultaneously satisfies the GEO interference avoidance. First, we construct the beam-hopping model of LEO satellites, and formulate the resource optimization problem. Second, we provide the weighted greedy strategy to determine the illumination pattern. In order to reduce the search space, the cells are clustered to non-interference clusters. Then, an improved genetic algorithm is provided to jointly allocate the communication resources. Finally, we construct various simulations to evaluate our proposed mechanism. Compared with the random-BH, polling-BH and traditional genetic algorithm, our algorithm achieves better performance in terms of both system throughput, access success rate, average delay and fairness between cells. The performance improvement is more significant in scenarios where traffic demand is unevenly distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces versatile filters to construct efficient convolutional neural networks that are widely used in various visual recognition tasks. Considering the demands of efficient deep learning techniques running on cost-effective hardware, a number of methods have been developed to learn compact neural networks. Most of these works aim to slim down filters in different ways, e.g., investigating small, sparse or quantized filters. In contrast, we treat filters from an additive perspective. A series of secondary filters can be derived from a primary filter with the help of binary masks. These secondary filters all inherit in the primary filter without occupying more storage, but once been unfolded in computation they could significantly enhance the capability of the filter by integrating information extracted from different receptive fields. Besides spatial versatile filters, we additionally investigate versatile filters from the channel perspective. Binary masks can be further customized for different primary filters under orthogonal constraints. We conduct theoretical analysis on network complexity and an efficient convolution scheme is introduced. Experimental results on benchmark datasets and neural networks demonstrate that our versatile filters are able to achieve comparable accuracy as that of original filters, but require less memory and computation cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal clusters with color‐tunable radioluminescence have attracted growing attention as X‐ray detection materials. However, they are generally less scintillation‐efficient due to the coexistence of multiple exciton recombination centers. Herein, two new zero‐dimensional copper(I)‐based clusters (DIET)3Cu3X3 (DIET = 1,3‐Diethyl‐2‐thiourea, X = Cl, Br) are designed, which support the single channel photon emission (Cu cluster centered, CC) to enhance the scintillation performance. Those DIET ligands (L) anchoring with copper(I) ions not only generate direct CuL bonds, but also form a disorder [Cu3X3] cluster, which results in the intense X‐ray absorption. (DIET)3Cu3Br3 with low halogen electronegativity further weakens halogen‐to‐ligand charge transfer (XLCT) emission, enabling enhanced quantum efficiency (≈69%) and scintillation performance comparable to commercially available Lu3Al5O12:Ce. Moreover, the flexible thin film counterpart demonstrates legible X‐ray imaging with high spatial resolution of 11.71 lp mm−1. This study provides a feasible design principle to discover new metal cluster‐based scintillators and to further expand their radiation detection applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial task in Computer Vision, object detection has substantially improved in recent years, with the aid of deep learning and increasingly abundant datasets. However, compared with natural image detection, medical CT images require more precision due to the obvious clinical implications. Detecting multiple lesions or clusters with relatively few training samples and indistinctive feature representation is extremely problematic. In this paper, we propose comprehensive improvements to the original YOLOv3, such as data augmentation, feature attention enhancement and feature complementarity enhancement to increase general lesion area detection performance. Ablation studies use the open DeepLesion dataset to validate these improvements and confirm the effectiveness of each amendment. Comparisons between state-of-the-art counterparts demonstrated that the proposed lesion object detector has enhanced salient accuracy (under two commonly used metrics) and an exceptional speed-accuracy trade-off. The proposed model achieved 57.5% mAP and 85.07% sensitivity at 4 false positives (FPs) per image, while running at reliable 35.6 frames per second (FPS). These findings indicate that the proposed detector is more practicable than other currently available computer aided diagnostics (CAD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tackle the problem of discovering novel classes in an image collection given labelled examples of other classes. We present a new approach called AutoNovel to address this problem by combining three ideas: (1) we suggest that the common approach of bootstrapping an image representation using the labelled data only introduces an unwanted bias, and that this can be avoided by using self-supervised learning to train the representation from scratch on the union of labelled and unlabelled data; (2) we use ranking statistics to transfer the model’s knowledge of the labelled classes to the problem of clustering the unlabelled images; and, (3) we train the data representation by optimizing a joint objective function on the labelled and unlabelled subsets of the data, improving both the supervised classification of the labelled data, and the clustering of the unlabelled data. Moreover, we propose a method to estimate the number of classes for the case where the number of new categories is not known a priori. We evaluate AutoNovel on standard classification benchmarks and substantially outperform current methods for novel category discovery. In addition, we also show that AutoNovel can be used for fully unsupervised image clustering, achieving promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohols and biodiesel are promising alternative biofuels for their excellent physicochemical properties and renewable property. Compared with low-carbon alcohols, high-carbon 1-Pentanol has better fuel characteristics. The objective of the present study was to reveal the effects of different 1-pentanol addition ratios on the micro-explosion characteristics of blended droplets. Single droplet suspension experiment under atmospheric pressure and 700 °C was carried out, and results were compared with that of methanol. The droplet had three initial diameters (1.281, 1.451, and 1.537 mm). The droplet evaporation images were recorded at 500 fps with a resolution of 1024 × 1024 pixels by a high-speed video camera, and the corresponding droplet diameter in the evaporation process was obtained by a MATLAB program. A new dimensionless micro-explosion intensity was proposed. The results showed that when the 1-pentanol volume content was 50% (B50P50), the micro-explosion number and total micro-explosion intensity reached the maximum. With the increase of initial droplet diameter, the micro-explosion number, total micro-explosion intensity and droplet lifetime increased. Compared with biodiesel/1-pentanol blended droplets, biodiesel/methanol ones had better micro-explosion characteristics and shorter droplet lifetime. White fog formed in the evaporation process of blended droplets and pure biodiesel ones. In short, the addition of methanol and 1-pentanol caused micro-explosions, changed the evaporation behavior of biodiesel, and reduced droplet lifetime, which could be considered as an alternative fuel blended with biodiesel. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymeric ultrafiltration technology, crucial in water treatment and desalination, faces challenges of membrane fouling that compromise performance and shorten the operational lifetime. Traditional polymer ultrafiltration membrane modifications, such as surface adsorption, grafting, and physical blending, have notable limitations including reduced permeability, structural instability, poor compatibility, and additive leakage. To overcome these shortcomings, we present a novel approach based on copolymerization, integrating click chemistry and sol-gel techniques for the preparation of copolymer ultrafiltration membranes. The active sites of sol-gel reaction were introduced into the PVC copolymer backbone through suspension copolymerization. Subsequently, an in-situ modification of resveratrol was carried out within the copolymer casting solution to facilitate sol-gel reaction with PVC skeleton, forming a crosslinking structure during the film-forming process. This approach enhances membrane properties like hydrophilicity, thermal stability, permeability, antifouling capability, and antibacterial adhesion without compromising structural integrity or causing additive leakage. Importantly, the hydrophilicity and permeability are sustained even after prolonged exposure to deionized water and bacterial conditions, respectively. Our research contributes to the advancement of durable and functional ultrafiltration membranes through copolymerization techniques, offering valuable insights to enrich membrane modification strategies for water treatment. [Display omitted] • Sol-gel reactive sites were introduced into PVC backbone by copolymerization. • Click chemistry and Sol-gel in situ integration for improved membrane properties. • Copolymer membrane solves the problems of additive leakage and poor compatibility. • Copolymer membranes have superior antifouling and antibacterial adhesion properties. • Copolymer membrane with excellent durability and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The capping agent glycinamide imparts multiple hydrogen bonds to WPU. • A hard but reversible Zr-O-Si network is constructed. • The chemical bonding between A-ZrO 2 and WPU enhances the interfacial combination. • The soft/hard hybrid structure endows the coating with robust mechanical property. Robust, self-healing waterborne coatings have become the preferred choice in the field of flexible electronic devices owing to their outstanding compliance, restorability, and environmental friendliness. Nevertheless, most of the existing self-healing waterborne polymers exhibit viscoelasticity, irreversible fatigue damage, and the challenge of reconciling self-healing functions with mechanical properties, all stemming from inherent molecular structure contradictions between flexibility and rigidity. Here, we propose a novel strategy that utilizes a nanofiller with dynamic reversible bonds to overcome the self-healing limitations that theoretically demand flexible chain, for achieving both mechanical robustness and self-healing ability in the waterborne polyurethane (WPU) hybrid coating system. We modified tetrapropyl zirconate (TPOZ) with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) to enhance compatibility between the matrix and inorganic particles, while the formation of dynamic reversible bonds through both condensation hydrolysis endows the self-healing abilities. The WPU hybrid coating was designed by covalently incorporating amino-modified TPOZ (A-ZrO 2) into a glycinamide-functionalized WPU network, conferring excellent fracture energy (50.3 kJ/m2), elastic recovery, along with antistatic capability to the coating. Furthermore, the hybrid coating maintains a robust mechanical performance alongside 92.58 % of healing efficiency, exhibiting a potential for flexible electronics application. The hybridization strategy via incorporation of the nanofillers with hard but reversible covalent bond resolves the inherent robustness-healing trade-off, providing exciting thoughts to expand WPU applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present research, novel lanthanide coordination compounds [DyL(PhCOO)(CH3OH)](ClO4)2·(CH3OH)2 (1) were characterized by the compression of 2,6-diformyl-4-methyl-phenol (dmp) and 1,3-diamino-2-propanol using benzoate as the secondary ligand, where L indicates the deprotonated macrocyclic ligand. Through the high structural rigidity driven by the coordination of the macrocyclic ligand formed by condensation in methanol solution and sodium benzoate with Dy(ClO4)3·6H2O, compound 1 exhibits outstanding cyan-emitting fluorescence performance and potential applications as a fluorescent material. Additionally, hyaluronic acid (HA)/ carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) hydrogels were prepared with loaded resveratrol metal-organic complexes according to the synthetic chemical approach. In biological study, we evaluated the effect of hydrogels on oxidative stress on human dermal fibroblasts. Examined by molecular docking simulation, the results showed that the binding interactions were from the phenol group, the carboxyl group and also the “-N=” group, indicating Dy metal complex has excellent biological capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large-scale construction and operation of the railway in Northwestern China has resulted in some geological disasters in recent times. Among them, the shallow sliding of the loess railway slope caused by the coupling effect of train vibration and rainfall has been a frequent occurrence, causing heavy losses of life and property. Accordingly, this is a major problem an needs an urgent solution. Therefore, this study used acceleration, pressure, moisture, and displacement monitoring equipment, among others, to conduct physical simulation experiments and theoretical analysis on the instability and sliding process of loess railway slopes under the coupling effect of train vibration and rainfall. The research results indicate that acceleration gradually decreases downward along the slope, and the pore water pressure and volumetric water content increase with the increase in rainfall infiltration. The slope displacement exhibits a phased increase after the initial slip. As vibration energy builds up, the slope bottom undergoes rapid structural damage and tensile shear coupled instability failure, followed by slip. Before sliding, both the crack density and fractal dimension of the slope have an active area, that is, a sliding slope area, which continues to expand upward under the cumulative effect of vibration energy. The failure process is divided into three stages according to the changes in macrodeformation, pressure, water content, displacement, and fractal dimension of the slope model: crack development stage, local liquefaction sliding stage, and slip propagation stage. This research elucidates the initiation mechanism of loess railway slope sliding under the coupling effect of train vibration and rainfall and provides a theoretical basis for predicting loess slope disasters under train vibration and providing adequate warning. • Quantitative analysis details loess slope failure modes. • Categorizes loess slope failure process: crack development, local liquefaction sliding, and slip propagation. • Reveals train vibrations and rain's impact on slope stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deploying convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on mobile devices is difficult due to the limited memory and computation resources. We aim to design efficient neural networks for heterogeneous devices including CPU and GPU, by exploiting the redundancy in feature maps, which has rarely been investigated in neural architecture design. For CPU-like devices, we propose a novel CPU-efficient Ghost (C-Ghost) module to generate more feature maps from cheap operations. Based on a set of intrinsic feature maps, we apply a series of linear transformations with cheap cost to generate many ghost feature maps that could fully reveal information underlying intrinsic features. The proposed C-Ghost module can be taken as a plug-and-play component to upgrade existing convolutional neural networks. C-Ghost bottlenecks are designed to stack C-Ghost modules, and then the lightweight C-GhostNet can be easily established. We further consider the efficient networks for GPU devices. Without involving too many GPU-inefficient operations (e.g., depth-wise convolution) in a building stage, we propose to utilize the stage-wise feature redundancy to formulate GPU-efficient Ghost (G-Ghost) stage structure. The features in a stage are split into two parts where the first part is processed using the original block with fewer output channels for generating intrinsic features, and the other are generated using cheap operations by exploiting stage-wise redundancy. Experiments conducted on benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed C-Ghost module and the G-Ghost stage. C-GhostNet and G-GhostNet can achieve the optimal trade-off of accuracy and latency for CPU and GPU, respectively. MindSpore code is available at https://gitee.com/mindspore/models/pulls/1809, and PyTorch code is available at https://github.com/huawei-noah/CV-Backbones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the single droplet suspension method, the effect of nitrogen flow rate on the micro-explosion characteristics of L/H (low-boiling fuel in high one) and H/L (high-boiling fuel in low one) droplets in the laminar flow regime at 700 °C and atmospheric pressure was studied. The experimental results showed that for B80P20 (80% biodiesel and 20% 1-pentanol by volume) and B20P80 (20% biodiesel and 80% 1-pentanol), the micro-explosion intensity as well as the number of micro-explosions and strong micro-explosions increased first and then decreased with the increase in the nitrogen flow rate. In addition, the change range of B20P80 was always larger than that of B80P20. The micro-explosion intensity of B80M20 (80% biodiesel, 20% methanol) changed a little. However, for B20M80 (20% biodiesel, 80% methanol), it decreased monotonously with nitrogen flow rate. The variation of droplet lifetime was opposite to that of micro-explosion intensity except for B80M20. The micro-explosion delay time and relative micro-explosion delay time increased monotonously with nitrogen flow rate for B80P20, B20P80, and B20M80. As nitrogen flow rate increased, the micro-explosion distribution of B80M20 and B20M80 became more dense, but for B80P20 and B20P80, it became dense first and then sparse. In short, the nitrogen flow rate had a greater impact on H/L droplets than L/H ones, and a greater impact on B20M80 than B20P80. The experimental results provided a reference for further study on the micro-explosion mechanism of different blended types of droplets in different flow regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Tissue adhesives have received much attention for their effectiveness in sealing wounds or incisions in clinical surgery, especially in minimally invasive surgery. To meet the safe and smart wound management requirements, ideal tissue adhesives are expected to have high biocompatibility, and be able to accelerate wound closing and healing, and monitor wound healing process. However, few adhesives fit all of the above descriptions. It has been demonstrated that inorganic nanoparticles can directly glue biological tissue based on nano-bridging effect. In this study, self-luminescence porous silicon (LPSi) particles were prepared with degradable and biocompatible properties. In addition, the self-luminescence property of LPSi particles was discovered by In Vivo Imaging System (IVIS) for the first time, which can avoid the limitations of photoluminescence imaging. Due to the oxidation and degradation reaction, LPSi particles not only can be degraded completely in several days, but also showed satisfactory biocompatibility. And their degradation product could promote tube formation of HUVECs. Moreover, owing to the high specific surface area and the outer oxide layer of LPSi particles, LPSi tissue adhesive exhibited strong adhesive strength to pig livers. Furthermore, this adhesive closed wound rapidly, promoted angiogenesis and epidermal regeneration, and facilitated wound healing in a mouse skin incision model. Importantly, the wound healing ratio can be monitored by measuring the self-luminescence intensity of LPSi particles in the wound site. This study reveals that LPSi particles could be employed as a safe and smart wound management tissue adhesive for wound closure, as well as accelerating and monitoring wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 15 species of small carnivorous marsupials that comprise the genus Antechinus exhibit semelparity, a rare life‐history strategy in mammals where synchronized death occurs after one breeding season. Antechinus males, but not females, age rapidly (demonstrate organismal senescence) during the breeding season and show promise as new animal models of ageing. Some antechinus species are also threatened or endangered. Here, we report a chromosome‐level genome of a male yellow‐footed antechinus Antechinus flavipes. The genome assembly has a total length of 3.2 Gb with a contig N50 of 51.8 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 636.7 Mb. We anchored and oriented 99.7% of the assembly on seven pseudochromosomes and found that repetitive DNA sequences occupy 51.8% of the genome. Draft genome assemblies of three related species in the subfamily Phascogalinae, two additional antechinus species (Antechinus argentus and A. arktos) and the iteroparous sister species Murexia melanurus, were also generated. Preliminary demographic analysis supports the hypothesis that climate change during the Pleistocene isolated species in Phascogalinae and shaped their population size. A transcriptomic profile across the A. flavipes breeding season allowed us to identify genes associated with aspects of the male die‐off. The chromosome‐level A. flavipes genome provides a steppingstone to understanding an enigmatic life‐history strategy and a resource to assist the conservation of antechinuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of photometric stereo, in both calibrated and uncalibrated scenarios, for non-Lambertian surfaces based on deep learning. We first introduce a fully convolutional deep network for calibrated photometric stereo, which we call PS-FCN. Unlike traditional approaches that adopt simplified reflectance models to make the problem tractable, our method directly learns the mapping from reflectance observations to surface normal, and is able to handle surfaces with general and unknown isotropic reflectance. At test time, PS-FCN takes an arbitrary number of images and their associated light directions as input and predicts a surface normal map of the scene in a fast feed-forward pass. To deal with the uncalibrated scenario where light directions are unknown, we introduce a new convolutional network, named LCNet, to estimate light directions from input images. The estimated light directions and the input images are then fed to PS-FCN to determine the surface normals. Our method does not require a pre-defined set of light directions and can handle multiple images in an order-agnostic manner. Thorough evaluation of our approach on both synthetic and real datasets shows that it outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both calibrated and uncalibrated scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning has recently demonstrated considerable promise for a variety of computer vision tasks. However, in many practical applications, large-scale labeled datasets are not available, which limits the deployment of deep learning. To address this problem, semi-supervised learning has attracted a lot of attention in the computer vision community, especially in the field of medical image analysis. This paper analyzes existing deep semi-supervised medical image segmentation studies and categories them into five main categories (i.e., pseudo-labeling, consistency regularization, GAN-based methods, contrastive learning-based methods, and hybrid methods). Afterward, we empirically analyze several representative methods by conducting experiments on two common datasets. Besides, we also point out several promising directions for future research. In summary, this paper provides a comprehensive introduction to deep semi-supervised medical image segmentation, aiming to provide a reference and comparison of methods for researchers in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates an optimal investment problem for an open-end fund with dynamic flows. The accumulated fund inflow and outflow processes are modeled by two independent compound Poisson processes, respectively. The fund manager allocates the fund capital between a risk-free asset and a risky asset. The correlation between the fund inflow process and the risky asset's price process is under consideration. Inspired by Berk and Van Binsbergen [(2015). Measuring skill in the mutual fund industry. Journal of Financial Economics, 118(1), 1–20], we first introduce the accumulated value added process to measure the fund performance. The manager aims to maximize the expected utility of the fund's accumulated value added. We derive the optimal investment strategy explicitly via dynamic programming approach. Furthermore, a verification theorem is provided and some properties of the optimal strategy are analyzed. Finally, sensitivity analysis is given to illustrate the effects of model parameters on the optimal strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a Stackelberg game between a mutual fund manager and an investor. Throughout the paper, we follow the literature (see, e.g. Li and Sethi. A review of dynamic stackelberg game models. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. B, 2016, 22(1), 125) on Stackelberg games, i.e. leader-follower games, and call the leader and follower, respectively, her and him. In our model, the leader (she) refers to the mutual fund manager, while the follower (he) is the investor. The individual investor (he), manages an active mutual fund and can only allocate his wealth among a risk-free asset, the active mutual fund, and a passive index fund. The passive index fund is composed of an exogenously given portfolio of all stocks in the market. The investor aims to maximize the expected constant relative risk aversion utility of his terminal wealth, while the mutual fund manager's objective is to maximize the expected value of the accumulative discounted management fees from the investor. Assume that the mutual fund manager faces portfolio constraints, which reflects the investment objective and style of the fund. We first focus on a special case in which the mutual fund is a sector fund, investing only in a small subset of available stocks in the market, namely a specific sector or industry. Then, this special case is extended to the general case in which the portfolio constraint is given by a nonempty, closed convex set. By applying the dynamic programming principle approach, we solve two associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations and obtain Stackelberg equilibrium strategies for both the mutual fund manager and the investor in closed-form expressions. Finally, in the special case we provide numerical examples to analyze the effects of some parameters on the equilibrium strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum dialogue (QD) is a quantum communication mode which enables two communication parties to exchange their secret messages simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a measurement-device-independent quantum dialogue (MDI-QD) protocol using the polarization–spatial-mode hyperentanglement. The protocol can eliminate the security loopholes related to measurement devices and the information leakage. Comparing with previous MDI-QD protocol, our MDI-QD protocol has higher channel capacity. Two communication parties can exchange 4 bits of messages per hyperentangled photon pair. Moreover, for promoting its practical application, we try to use the practical linear-optical partial hyperentangled Bell-state measurement in our MDI-QD protocol, with which the parties can exchange 3 bits of messages per hyperentangled photon pair. Our high-capacity MDI-QD protocol has application potential in future quantum communication field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are more than 100 species of American didelphid marsupials (opossums and mouse opossums). Limited genomic resources for didelphids exists, with only two publicly available genome assemblies compared with dozens in the case of their Australasian counterparts. This discrepancy impedes evolutionary and ecological research. To address this gap, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-level genome of the agile gracile mouse opossum (Gracilinanus agilis) using a combination of stLFR sequencing, polishing with mate-pair data, and anchoring onto pseudochromosomes using Hi-C. This species employs a rare life-history strategy, semelparity, and all G. agilis males and most females die at the end of their first breeding season after succumbing to stress and exhaustion. The 3.7-Gb chromosome-level assembly, with 92.6% anchored onto pseudochromosomes, has a scaffold N50 of 683.5 Mb and a contig N50 of 56.9 kb. The genome assembly shows high completeness, with a mammalian BUSCO score of 88.1%. Around 49.7% of the genome contains repetitive elements. Gene annotation yielded 24,425 genes, of which 83.9% were functionally annotated. The G. agilis genome is an important resource for future studies of marsupial biology, evolution, and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of natural protein derived material, gelatin has been widely used in the preparation of medical hydrogels due to its good biocompatibility, non-immunogenicity and the ability of promoting cell adhesion. Functionalization of gelatin-based hydrogels is a hot topic in research and its clinic application. Herein, a novel gelatin-based adhesive hydrogel was prepared via mussel-inspired chemistry. Gelatin was firstly functionalized by dopamine to form dopamine grafted gelatin (GelDA). After the mixture with 1,4-phenylenebisboronic acid and graphene oxide (GO), the GelDA/GO hydrogels were obtained by H 2 O 2 /HRP (horseradish peroxidase) catalytic system. Based on the self-healing and tissue adhesion of the hydrogels, the hemostatic property has been exhibited in the rat hepatic hemorrhage model. Additionally, the incorporation of GO endowed conductivity and enhanced the mechanical property of GelDA/GO hydrogels. The electromyography (EMG) signals of finger movement were successfully monitored by using hydrogel as the adhesive electrodes of EMG monitor. L929 cell experiments showed that the hydrogels had good cytocompatibility. The results indicated the potential application of GelDA/GO hydrogels in tissue adhesives, wound dressings, and wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microengineering technology involving microfabrication, micropatterning and microfluidics enables promising advances in single cell manipulation and analysis. Herein, we describe a parallel, large-scale, and temporal investigation of diverse single cell activities and response dynamics using a facile-assembled microwell array chip with a microfluidics-molded microporous membrane. We demonstrated that the versatility with respect to geometrical homogeneity and diversity of microporous membrane fabrication, as well as the stability, repeatability, and reproducibility rely on the well-improved molding. Serial and practical operations including controllable single cell trapping, array-like culture or chemical stimulation, and temporal monitoring can be smoothly completed in the chip. We confirmed that the microwell array chip allowed an efficient construction of a single cell array. Using the cell array, on-chip detection of single cell behaviours under various culture and drug therapy conditions to explore phenotypic heterogeneity was achieved in massive and dynamic manners. These achievements provide a facile and reliable methodology for fabricating microporous membranes with precise control and for developing universal microplatforms to perform robust manipulation and versatile analysis of single cells. This work also offers an insight into the development of easy to fabricate/use and market-oriented microsystems for single cell research, pharmaceutical development, and high-throughput screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of mirror surface reconstruction, and proposes a solution based on observing the reflections of a moving reference plane on the mirror surface. Unlike previous approaches which require tedious calibration, our method can recover the camera intrinsics, the poses of the reference plane, as well as the mirror surface from the observed reflections of the reference plane under at least three unknown distinct poses. We first show that the 3D poses of the reference plane can be estimated from the reflection correspondences established between the images and the reference plane. We then form a bunch of 3D lines from the reflection correspondences, and derive an analytical solution to recover the line projection matrix. We transform the line projection matrix to its equivalent camera projection matrix, and propose a cross-ratio based formulation to optimize the camera projection matrix by minimizing reprojection errors. The mirror surface is then reconstructed based on the optimized cross-ratio constraint. Experimental results on both synthetic and real data are presented, which demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating self‐trapped excitons (STEs), dopants, and defect levels in a single‐component metal halide perovskite will be of significance for tunable multimode luminescence and photochromism. Here, a platform utilizing interactions of STEs, defects, and alien dopants in CsCdCl3 by a heterovalent doping strategy is demonstrated, in which the photoluminescence quantum efficiency is improved, and more importantly, the emissions can be manipulated statically and dynamically by dopants and changing excitation wavelength/irradiation time. Meanwhile, the presence of carrier trapping and de‐trapping processes leads to bright orange–near‐infrared persistent luminescence and photochromic behaviors, which can be quickly erased by white light, enabling visual displays and codable in dark and bright dual‐fields. Inspired by these versatile optical characteristics of doped luminescent metal halides, a multilevel encryption and anti‐counterfeiting platform with the advantages of nondestructive and convenient authentication is constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental platform for measuring droplet combustion and micro-explosion characteristics based on a tube furnace was established. Through this experimental platform, the BD60E40 droplets involving a mixture of 60 vol. % biodiesel and 40 vol. % ethanol was tested. Instantaneous gray images were obtained by means of high-speed photography during the BD60E40 droplets heating or combustion cycle. The expansion, ejection, micro-explosion, and combustion characteristics of mixed droplets under different temperatures and oxygen concentrations were studied by using the platform. The study found that the BD60E40 droplets produced high intensity primary and secondary micro-explosions when the oxygen concentration in the tube furnace was 0% and 30%. However, when the oxygen concentration was 50%, the BD60E40 droplet showed a weak micro-explosion phenomenon. The temperature was an important condition for the occurrence of micro-explosions. The BD60E40 droplet was not subject to micro-explosions during heating under 300 °C ambient temperature, but the micro-explosion occurred under 400 and 500 °C. According to the different experimental phenomena, the equation for calculating the micro-explosion intensity was established and the micro-explosion intensity of BD60E40 droplets under different oxygen concentration was calculated, and the reason for the different micro-explosion behavior of BD60E40 droplets under different oxygen concentration was established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical conversion of CO2 is an attractive alternative to releasing it to the atmosphere. Catalysts derived from electroreduction of metal oxides are often more active than when starting with metallic phase catalyst. The origin of this effect is not yet clear. Using ZnO nanorods, we show that the initial structure of the oxide as well as the electrolyte medium have a profound impact on the structure of the catalytic active Zn phase, and thereby the selectivity of the catalysts. ZnO nanorods with various aspect ratios were electrochemically reduced in different electrolytes leading to metallic Zn with different structures; a sponge‐like structure, nanorods and nanoplates. The sponge‐like Zn produced syngas with H2 : CO=2, and some formate, the nanorods produced only syngas with H2 : CO=1, while Zn nanoplates exhibited 85 % selectivity towards CO. These results open a pathway to design new electrocatalysts with optimized properties by modifying the structure of the starting material and the electroreduction medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed a smart cane with remote electrocardiogram (ECG) and fall detection. The cane comprises a self-developed ECG detection circuit, fall detection module composed of a three-axis gyroscope and three-axis accelerator, and two wireless transmission modules. The data reception end features a human–machine interface with self-developed ECG analysis and fall detection programs, providing reference data for identifying an abnormal situation. The hardware of the proposed system is divided into two parts. First, ECG detection is achieved using a copper column-shaped detector in place of conventional ECG electrodes. The self-developed sensor circuit amplifies the collected signals and filters unwanted noise to generate complete ECG signals. An Arduino MEGA microcontroller board and the two wireless transmission modules then transmit the signals to the human–machine interface. Second, fall detection is achieved using the aforementioned fall detection module to collect numerical data, which are then transmitted to the human–machine interface through the Arduino MEGA and wireless transmission modules. The proposed system can be applied to real-time monitoring and provide reference data for health care professionals and nursing personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To prevent outbursts and extract the gas, it is necessary to investigate the structure of the key layer and the evolution of cracks during coal mining over a large height. A physical similarity model with a geometric similarity ratio of 1:100 and a strike length of 2 m was established on the basis of prevailing geological and mining conditions. Stress sensors and microseismic equipment were adopted to monitor the collapse characteristics of different key layers through variations in stress and energy. The research results showed that: The displacement of the overlying strata exhibited group motion characteristics marked by the key layer and there was zone of rapidly increasing stress in the goaf behind the working face before and after the fracture of the key layer. Through the analysis of microseismic events, fissure density, and fractal dimension, we found that: before and after the primary key layer fractured, the energy loss in the microseismic event accounted for 27% of the total, the fissure density also changed abruptly from 8 cracks/m to 10 cracks/m and the slope of the fractal dimension curves changed from 0.00243 to 9.94801 × 10−4. Then a gas drainage model suitable for this condition was constructed. When the primary key layer had not fractured, the cracks below fully developed to form a gas migration channel and a gas enrichment area, and gas boreholes could be arranged therein. After the primary key layer had been fractured, the rate of crack development decreased, the permeability would increase, and the gas concentration would increase. The boreholes could still be arranged in the gas migration channel. This study elucidated the control role of the primary key layer from multiple angles and provided experimental guidance for gas drainage over large‐mining heights and during complex key layer mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased drastically; however, information regarding the impact of this disease on the occurrence of arrhythmias is scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of COVID-19 on arrhythmia occurrence. This prospective study included patients with COVID-19 treated at the Leishenshan Temporary Hospital of Wuhan City, China, from February 24 to April 5, 2020. Demographic, comorbidity, and arrhythmias data were collected from patients with COVID-19 (n = 84) and compared with control data from patients with bacterial pneumonia (n = 84) infection. Furthermore, comparisons were made between patients with severe and nonsevere COVID-19 and between older and younger patients. Compared with patients with bacterial pneumonia, those with COVID-19 had higher total, mean, and minimum heart rates (all P < 0.01). Patients with severe COVID-19 (severe and critical type diseases) developed more atrial arrhythmias compared with those with nonsevere symptoms. Plasma creatine kinase isoenzyme (CKMB) levels (P = 0.01) were higher in the severe group than in the nonsevere group, and there were more deaths in the severe group than in the nonsevere group (6 (15%) vs. 3 (2.30%); P = 0.05). Premature atrial contractions (PAC) and nonsustained atrial tachycardia (NSAT) were significantly positively correlated with plasma CKMB levels but not with high-sensitive cardiac troponin I or myoglobin levels. Our data demonstrate that COVID-19 patients have higher total, mean, and minimum heart rates compared with those with bacterial pneumonia. Patients with severe or critical disease had more frequent atrial arrhythmias (including PAC and AF) and higher CKMB levels and mortality than those with nonsevere symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation of the liver from abdominal CT images is an essential step for computer-aided diagnosis and surgery planning. The U-Net architecture is one of the most well-known CNN architectures which achieved remarkable successes in both medical and biological image segmentation domain. However, it does not perform well when the target area is small or partitioned. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture, called dense feature selection U-Net (DFS U-Net), which addresses this challenging problem. Specifically, The Hounsfield unit values were windowed in a range to exclude irrelevant organs, and then use the pre-processed data to train our proposed DFS U-Net model. To further improve the segmentation accuracy of the small region and disconnected regions of interests with limited training datasets, we improve the loss function by adding a parameter to the formula. With respect to the ground truth, the Dice score ratio can reach over 94.9% for the liver. Our experimental results demonstrate its potential in clinical usage with high effectiveness, robustness and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular mechanism of flower development and sexual differentiation, which is an intricate process, still unclear in Vitis plants. In this study, we performed the transcriptome analysis by high-throughput sequencing to measure gene expression at three stages in male, female, and hermaphrodite grape flowers, and in combination with the fluctuation of hormones (ABA, IAA, BR, GA3, and JA) to understand the gene function and molecular basis of developmental processes in Vitis flowers. The results showed that more than 581 million clean reads were generated from all samples and average 83% reads were mapped on the Vitis vinifera genome. More, quite a large number of genes were differentially expressed between different stages within and across cultivars and various transcription factor families involved were identified in flower development. The genes belonging to MYB, bHLH, ERF, NAC, and WRKY have more numbers than other TF families. Furthermore, we analyzed the correlation of those hormones with 165 DEGs (including 36 TF genes). The results suggested that those genes might play important roles in sex differentiation during flower development and a unique opportunity to increase the efficiency of crossbreeding in Vitis plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gas sensing device was fabricated using poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-coated ZnO nanorods, and the ammonia (NH 3) gas-sensing properties of the heterojunction device were analyzed. Hexagonal ZnO nanorods were prepared using the hydrothermal method on a ZnO seed layer. The ZnO seed layer was deposited using the sputtering method on a Ti–Pt bilayer interdigital electrode. X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy characterized the crystal structure and morphology of the ZnO–P3HT nanorods heterojunction devices. The gas-sensing properties of the P3HT–ZnO nanorods heterojunction sensor were examined and compared with different concentrations of NH 3 gas. The response and recovery times were less than 1.5 s with a NH 3 gas concentration of 1 ppm. Comparison with sensors of other materials indicated that P3HT was the reason for the short response and recovery times. Plausible mechanisms explaining the enhanced NH 3 selectivity of the P3HT–ZnO nanorods heterojunction structure are discussed. • A gas sensing device was fabricated using P3HT-ZnO nanorods. • The sensing response and recovery times were 0.9 s and 1.5 s. • The sensing detected NH 3 gas at 1 ppm concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the min-cost seed selection problem in online social networks for viral marketing, where the goal is to select a set of seed nodes with the minimum total cost such that the expected number of influenced nodes in the network exceeds a predefined threshold. We propose several algorithms that outperform the previous studies both on the theoretical approximation ratio and on the experimental performance. In the case where the nodes have heterogeneous costs, our algorithms are the first bi-criteria approximation algorithms with polynomial running time and provable approximation ratio. In the case where the users have uniform costs, our algorithms achieve logarithmic approximation ratio and provable time complexity which is smaller than that of the existing algorithms in orders of magnitude. We conduct extensive experiments using real social networks. The experimental results show that, our algorithms significantly outperform the existing algorithms both on the total cost and on the running time, and also scale well to billion-scale networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]