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Abstract Sarcopenia is a severe complication affecting patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) treatment over an extended period of time. This cross-sectional study assessed knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards sarcopenia among maintenance HD patients in Northeastern China between 13 December 2023 and 13 January 2024. A total of 752 questionnaires were collected. Multivariate logistic regression showed that completed high school or vocational secondary school, college or bachelor’s degree, and maintenance HD lasting ≥ 11 years were independently associated with proactive practice. The Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that knowledge directly affected attitude and practice. Moreover, attitude directly affects practice. Maintenance HD patients showed inadequate knowledge, positive attitude, and proactive practice towards sarcopenia. Healthcare providers should focus on educational campaigns to increase patient awareness of sarcopenia, its risk factors, and preventive measures.

Abstract Background The R2R3-MYB transcription factors in plants participate in various physiological and biochemical processes and responds to various external stimuli. Prunus sibirica (known as Siberian apricot) is a drupe tree species that produces extremely high nutritional value kernels. However, it is susceptiblility to frost damage during the flowering period, results in a marked reduction in kernel yield. Results In this study, the MYB gene family of P. sibirica (PsMYB) was systematically analyzed, and 116 R2R3-MYB genes that were distributed unevenly over eight chromosomes were ultimately screened. Phylogenetic analysis divided these 116 genes into 30 subgroups. We discovered that 37 PsMYBs had cold stress-responsive promoters, and six PsMYBs were annotated to be associated with cold response. Intraspecific homology analysis identified segmental duplication as the primary gene amplification mechanism, and homology analysis of the PsMYB genes with those of five other species revealed phylogenetic relationships with Rosaceae species. Protein interaction studies revealed collaborative regulation of the PsMYB proteins with Arabidopsis protein, and transcriptome analysis identified PsMYB genes that were highly expressed at low temperatures. Additionally, the expression levels of 22 PsMYBs in different tissue parts of P. sibirica and under different low-temperature stress conditions were evaluated using quantitative real-time PCR, with the results verifying that PsMYBs are specifically expressed in different plant parts and may be involved in the growth and development of P. sibirica species. Genes upregulated after exposure to low-temperature stress and likely involved in cold response were identified. Conclusion This study lays a foundation for understanding the molecular biology of PsMYBs in P. sibirica and provides a theoretical basis for the future study of transgenic lines with cold resistance during the flowering period of this tree.

Abstract Background AP2/ERF transcription factors are involved in the regulation of growth, development, and stress response in plants. Although the gene family has been characterized in various species, such as Oryza sativa, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Populus trichocarpa, studies on the Prunus sibirica AP2/ERF (PsAP2/ERF) gene family are lacking. In this study, PsAP2/ERFs in P. sibirica were characterized by genomic and transcriptomic analyses. Results In the study, 112 PsAP2/ERFs were identified and categorized into 16 subfamilies. Within each subfamily, PsAP2/ERFs exhibited similar exon-intron structures and motif compositions. Additionally, 50 pairs of segmentally duplicated genes were identified within the PsAP2/ERF gene family. Our experimental results showed that 20 PsAP2/ERFs are highly expressed in leaves, roots, and pistils under low-temperature stress conditions. Among them, the expression of PsAP2/ERF21, PsAP2/ERF56 and PsAP2/ERF88 was significantly up-regulated during the treatment period, and it was hypothesised that members of the PsAP2/ERF family play an important role inlow temperature stress tolerance. Conclusions This study improves our understanding of the molecular basis of development and low-temperature stress response in P. sibirica and provides a solid scientific foundation for further functional assays and evolutionary analyses of PsAP2/ERFs.

Target tracking is an important part of the anti-submarine warfare process of surface ships. In the process of target tracking, the four elements of targets are obtained through the target motion element solving, and the hit probability is calculated through the result. The solution results of the target motion elements are affected by many factors, such as battlefield situation, detection method, and solution model. In order to associate the separated factor, a quality evaluation system for solving target motion elements was constructed from the four aspects of completeness, availability, timeliness, and accuracy of the solved data. In order to minimize the total deviation, the analytic hierarchy method and entropy weight method were effectively combined to determine the index weight. The quality evaluation value of the target motion elements was obtained by weighted summation and compared with the simulation result of hit probability. The simulation results show that the error between the approximate hit probability and the actual hit probability calculated by using the solved mass is less than 9.2%. The evaluation system constructed in this paper can effectively combine all information, reasonably and fully express the hit probability, and is conducive to the decision-making of the engagement.

Abstract Antiferromagnets have attracted significant attention in the field of magnonics, as promising candidates for ultralow-energy carriers for information transfer for future computing. The role of crystalline orientation distribution on magnon transport has received very little attention. In multiferroics such as BiFeO3 the coupling between antiferromagnetic and polar order imposes yet another boundary condition on spin transport. Thus, understanding the fundamentals of spin transport in such systems requires a single domain, a single crystal. We show that through Lanthanum (La) substitution, a single ferroelectric domain can be engineered with a stable, single-variant spin cycloid, controllable by an electric field. The spin transport in such a single domain displays a strong anisotropy, arising from the underlying spin cycloid lattice. Our work shows a pathway to understanding the fundamental origins of magnon transport in such a single domain multiferroic.

Abstract Aiming at the problem that traditional methods are difficult to fully utilize the rich spectral information in hyperspectral images (HSI) and fail to capture the complex higher‐order relations in hyperspectral data, which leads to limited classification performance extreme learning machine and fails to further improve the classification accuracy of HSIs, the authors propose the hypergraph convolutional extreme learning machine (HGCELM) method. The method not only inherits all the advantages of extreme learning machine (ELM), but also embeds hypergraph convolution for feature selection, which is capable of handling higher‐order relations. This enables HGCELM to capture more complex relationships between nodes and provide richer representation capabilities. At the same time, the training speed advantage of ELM is retained, thus speeding up the model training process. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better accuracy compared to other clustering algorithms.

Tendon-bone interface injuries pose a significant challenge in tissue regeneration, necessitating innovative approaches. Hydrogels with integrated supportive features and controlled release of therapeutic agents have emerged as promising candidates for the treatment of such injuries. In this study, we aimed to develop a temperature-sensitive composite hydrogel capable of providing sustained release of magnesium ions (Mg2+). We synthesized magnesium-Procyanidin coordinated metal polyphenol nanoparticles (Mg-PC) through a self-assembly process and integrated them into a two-component hydrogel. The hydrogel was composed of dopamine-modified hyaluronic acid (Dop-HA) and F127. To ensure controlled release and mitigate the “burst release” effect of Mg2+, we covalently crosslinked the Mg-PC nanoparticles through coordination bonds with the catechol moiety within the hydrogel. This crosslinking strategy extended the release window of Mg2+ concentrations for up to 56 days. The resulting hydrogel (Mg-PC@Dop-HA/F127) exhibited favorable properties, including injectability, thermosensitivity and shape adaptability, making it suitable for injection and adaptation to irregularly shaped supraspinatus implantation sites. Furthermore, the hydrogel sustained the release of Mg2+ and Procyanidins, which attracted mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells, alleviated inflammation, and promoted macrophage polarization towards the M2 phenotype. Additionally, it enhanced collagen synthesis and mineralization, facilitating the repair of the tendon-bone interface. By incorporating multilevel metal phenolic networks (MPN) to control ion release, these hybridized hydrogels can be customized for various biomedical applications.

We realize a ring cavity strongly interacting with an atom array with configurable spatial structures. By preparing the atom array with a maximized structure factor, we observe the emergence of a cavity dark mode, where the standing-wave nodes are dynamically locked to the positions of the atoms. The dark mode is decoupled from the atoms, protecting the system from dissipation through atomic scattering, but still mediates strong coupling and enables efficient conversion between two optical modes. Moreover, we impart an arbitrary large phase shift on the converted optical fields by translating the atom array. This strongly interacting ring cavity system with single-atom addressability opens ways to quantum optical engineering and the generation of photonic quantum states based on the geometrical structure of atom arrays.

Introduction Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, but its pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to identify the potential biomarkers underlying the diagnosis and treatment of HNSCC. Methods Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) followed by pathway enrichment analysis, analysis of infiltrating immune cells, survival analysis, and methylation analysis were applied to identify the potential hub genes underlying the prognosis of HNSCC. The expression of hub genes was validated by immunofluorescence staining. Results A total of 10,274 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Through WGCNA, the yellow module ( R 2 = 0.33, P = 2e-14) was confirmed to be the most significantly associated with the histological grade of HNSCC, and the “Cell Cycle” proved to be the most enriched signaling pathway. Based on the results of survival analysis and immune cell infiltration, 10 hub genes ( HMMR , CENPK , AURKA , CDC25C , FEN1 , CKS1B , MAJIN , PCLAF , SPC25 , and STAG3 ) were identified. Eight of these (excluding MAJIN and STAG3 ) were confirmed by performing survival analysis using another dataset (GSE41613). Further, we identified 4 methylation loci in 3 hub genes (cg15122828 and cg20554926 in HMMR , cg12519992 in CDC25C , and cg2655739 in KIAA0101/PCLAF ) as being significantly related to survival. Finally, we demonstrated the high mRNA and protein expression of HMMR and CDC25C in HNSCC patients. Conclusion Two real hub genes ( HMMR and CDC25C ) and 3 methylation loci were identified that could potentially serve as prognostic and therapeutic targets for HNSCC, which is significant for studying the pathological mechanisms underlying HNSCC and for developing novel therapies for this disease.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to investigate the effect of different harvest times and processing methods on the B vitamins and α-tocopherol contents of Leymus chinensis (Trin.).MethodsL. chinensis was harvested on 11 July (T1 group), 16 July (T2 group), 21 July (T3 group), 26 July (T4 group), and 31 July (T5 group) in 2022 and processed using natural drying and silage fermentation to evaluate fermentation quality, chemical composition, in vitro digestibility and vitamin content.ResultsThe fermentation quality of L. chinensis silage prepared at all five times of harvest was better. The silage fermentation group showed a significant increase (p

Abstract The immune response holds a pivotal role in cardiovascular disease development. As multifunctional cells of the innate immune system, macrophages play an essential role in initial inflammatory response that occurs following cardiovascular injury, thereby inducing subsequent damage while also facilitating recovery. Meanwhile, the diverse phenotypes and phenotypic alterations of macrophages strongly associate with distinct types and severity of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, valvular disease, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, atherosclerosis and aneurysm, which underscores the importance of investigating macrophage regulatory mechanisms within the context of specific diseases. Besides, recent strides in single-cell sequencing technologies have revealed macrophage heterogeneity, cell–cell interactions, and downstream mechanisms of therapeutic targets at a higher resolution, which brings new perspectives into macrophage-mediated mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets in cardiovascular diseases. Remarkably, myocardial fibrosis, a prevalent characteristic in most cardiac diseases, remains a formidable clinical challenge, necessitating a profound investigation into the impact of macrophages on myocardial fibrosis within the context of cardiac diseases. In this review, we systematically summarize the diverse phenotypic and functional plasticity of macrophages in regulatory mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases and unprecedented insights introduced by single-cell sequencing technologies, with a focus on different causes and characteristics of diseases, especially the relationship between inflammation and fibrosis in cardiac diseases (myocardial infarction, pressure overload, myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, diabetic cardiomyopathy and cardiac aging) and the relationship between inflammation and vascular injury in vascular diseases (atherosclerosis and aneurysm). Finally, we also highlight the preclinical/clinical macrophage targeting strategies and translational implications.

Abstract Stabilization of topological spin textures in layered magnets has the potential to drive the development of advanced low-dimensional spintronics devices. However, achieving reliable and flexible manipulation of the topological spin textures beyond skyrmion in a two-dimensional magnet system remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate the introduction of magnetic iron atoms between the van der Waals gap of a layered magnet, Fe3GaTe2, to modify local anisotropic magnetic interactions. Consequently, we present direct observations of the order-disorder skyrmion lattices transition. In addition, non-trivial topological solitons, such as skyrmioniums and skyrmion bags, are realized at room temperature. Our work highlights the influence of random spin control of non-trivial topological spin textures.

Abstract Solving ill-posed inverse problems typically requires regularization based on prior knowledge. To date, only prior knowledge that is formulated mathematically (e.g., sparsity of the unknown) or implicitly learned from quantitative data can be used for regularization. Thereby, semantically formulated prior knowledge derived from human reasoning and recognition is excluded. Here, we introduce and demonstrate the concept of semantic regularization based on a pre-trained large language model to overcome this vexing limitation. We study the approach, first, numerically in a prototypical 2D inverse scattering problem, and, second, experimentally in 3D and 4D compressive microwave imaging problems based on programmable metasurfaces. We highlight that semantic regularization enables new forms of highly-sought privacy protection for applications like smart homes, touchless human-machine interaction and security screening: selected subjects in the scene can be concealed, or their actions and postures can be altered in the reconstruction by manipulating the semantic prior with suitable language-based control commands.

In order to explore the construction of a food safety culture suitable for China's national conditions, this paper collects and collates the information of the food safety culture construction work carried out by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the European Union, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and other organizations and countries. And the analysis of the definition, policies, improtance, evaluation principles, effective measures and evaluation tools about food safety culture is also conducted. Based on the accumulation and inheritance of Chinese traditional culture and the current situation of urban and rural food safety, suggestions on building a food safety culture with Chinese characteristics are put forward, hoping to provide reference and reference for building a food safety culture in line with China's national conditions.

The target motion element is important information in anti-submarine warfare, and its calculation results have a great influence on the hitting probability of the target, thus affecting combat decision-making. At present, active sonar is the main source of information in the calculation method for target motion elements in anti-submarine warfare of surface ships. However, active sonar uses a fixed number of sending periods, and there are gaps in the target information during the continuous tracking process. As a result, there are large errors and slow convergence in the calculation results of the target motion elements. In order to obtain the target motion elements more quickly and accurately, the detection information of passive sonar was added to the filtering process. The unscented Kalman filter(UKF) method was used to simulate the information detection methods using only active sonar and both active and passive sonars, and the results were compared. The simulation results show that under the same conditions, the proposed method can significantly improve the convergence accuracy and speed compared with the traditional method. It can improve the calculation accuracy of speed, azimuth, and heading angle by 33.55%, 38.99%, and 35.29% on average, verifying its effectiveness.

Abstract Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a multiferroic material that exhibits both ferroelectricity and canted antiferromagnetism at room temperature, making it a unique candidate in the development of electric-field controllable magnetic devices. The magnetic moments in BiFeO3 are arranged into a spin cycloid, resulting in unique magnetic properties which are tied to the ferroelectric order. Previous understanding of this coupling has relied on average, mesoscale measurements. Using nitrogen vacancy-based diamond magnetometry, we observe the magnetic spin cycloid structure of BiFeO3 in real space. This structure is magnetoelectrically coupled through symmetry to the ferroelectric polarization and this relationship is maintained through electric field switching. Through a combination of in-plane and out-of-plane electrical switching, coupled with ab initio studies, we have discovered that the epitaxy from the substrate imposes a magnetoelastic anisotropy on the spin cycloid, which establishes preferred cycloid propagation directions. The energy landscape of the cycloid is shaped by both the ferroelectric degree of freedom and strain-induced anisotropy, restricting the spin spiral propagation vector to changes to specific switching events.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the strongest candidates as reinforcing and functionalizing materials in civil engineering. However, CNTs have severely limited the application of carbon nanomaterials in civil engineering materials because of high-cost preparation and inhomogeneous dispersion. In this paper, a new method of direct in-situ grown CNTs on the surface of waste glass powder (WGP) by microwave pyrolysis is employed. It can control the particle size and growth of CNTs while effectively improving the CNTs dispersion and saving natural resources. The dispersibility of in-situ grown CNTs and MWCNT in aqueous and cement pore solutions is evaluated based on DLS and improved machine learning and image processing methods. The conductivity as well as the compressive strength of the electrically conductive cementitious materials increases linearly with increasing dispersion. This work facilitates further optimization of CNT-cement nanocomposite dispersion and has great potential for improving WGP utilization efficiency.

MYB transcription factor is one of the largest families in plants. There are more and more studies on plants responding to abiotic stress through MYB transcription factors, but the mechanism of some family members responding to salt stress is unclear. In this study, physiological and transcriptome techniques were used to analyze the effects of the R2R3-MYB transcription factor AtMYB72 on the growth and development, physiological function, and key gene response of Arabidopsis thaliana. Phenotypic observation showed that the damage of overexpression strain was more serious than that of Col-0 after salt treatment, while the mutant strain showed less salt injury symptoms. Under salt stress, the decrease of chlorophyll content, the degree of photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII) and photosystem I (PSI) and the degree of oxidative damage of overexpressed lines were significantly higher than those of Col-0. Transcriptome data showed that the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) induced by salt stress in overexpressed lines was significantly higher than that in Col-0. GO enrichment analysis showed that the response of AtMYB72 to salt stress was mainly by affecting gene expression in cell wall ectoplast, photosystem I and photosystem II, and other biological processes related to photosynthesis. Compared with Col-0, the overexpression of AtMYB72 under salt stress further inhibited the synthesis of chlorophyll a (Chla) and down-regulated most of the genes related to photosynthesis, which made the photosynthetic system more sensitive to salt stress. AtMYB72 also caused the outbreak of reactive oxygen species and the accumulation of malondialdehyde under salt stress, which decreased the activity and gene expression of key enzymes in SOD, POD, and AsA-GSH cycle, thus destroying the ability of antioxidant system to maintain redox balance. AtMYB72 negatively regulates the accumulation of osmotic regulatory substances such as soluble sugar (SS) and soluble protein (SP) in A. thaliana leaves under salt stress, which enhances the sensitivity of Arabidopsis leaves to salt. To sum up, MYB72 negatively regulates the salt tolerance of A. thaliana by destroying the light energy capture, electron transport, and antioxidant capacity of Arabidopsis.

BackgroundThe relationship between hemorrhagic transformation (HT) and uric acid (UA) remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between UA concentrations and the risk of HT following acute ischemic stroke (AIS).MethodsElectronic databases were searched for studies on HT and UA from inception to October 31, 2023. Two researchers independently reviewed the studies for inclusion. STATA Software 16.0 was used to compute the standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the pooled and post-outlier outcomes. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 statistic and the Galbraith plot. Additionally, sensitivity analysis was performed. Lastly, Begg’s funnel plot and Egger’s test were used to assess publication bias.ResultsA total of 11 studies involving 4,608 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled SMD forest plot (SMD = −0.313, 95% CI = −0.586–−0.039, p = 0.025) displayed that low UA concentrations were linked to a higher risk of HT in post-AIS patients. However, heterogeneity (I2 = 89.8%, p

Introduction: The stable carbon isotope ratio of long-chain alkenones produced by marine haptophyte phytoplankton has often been used to estimate past variations in atmospheric CO2 throughout the Cenozoic. However, previous experimental studies and surveys of alkenones from surface sediment and suspended particulate matter document additional environmental and physiological influences on carbon isotopic fractionation in alkenones.Methods: To clarify the non-CO2 effects on the alkenone carbon isotope fractionations, an important alkenone producer, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, was cultured in laboratory. To separate effects of different environment parameters, G. oceanica was grown in continuous cultures under a matrix of environmental conditions in order to explore the influence of temperature independently of CO2(aq). Through careful manipulation of the media carbon system, we can control the variation of the media CO2(aq) independently of temperature solubility. Carbon isotope fractionations from alkenones, coccolith, and particulate organic carbon were measured from this steady state system.Results and Discussion: We find εp in alkenones and particulate organic carbon inversely correlates with temperature, and temperature affects εp more strongly than CO2(aq). The magnitude of the temperature effect can be explained by higher growth rates at warmer temperatures with a similar growth rate dependence as observed in previous cultures in which growth rate was regulated by other factors. Where the past temperature influence on growth rate could be constrained using the UK’37 alkenone index in the same samples, our finding offers an approach to deconvolve an important physiological factor affecting ancient alkenones εp, and may therefore improve past pCO2 estimates.

This paper systematically investigated the combined effects of sustained compressive loading and the salt frost resistance for recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) incorporating air-entraining agents (AEA) and nano silica (NS). The effects of different RCA replacement ratios, freeze-thaw cycles, AEA dosage and compressive stress level on the freeze-thaw damage properties including the apparent morphology, mass loss rate and relative dynamic elastic modulus (RDEM) were discussed. The microstructure evolution of RAC samples before and after freeze-thaw cycles were characterized and analyzed through the SEM observation, microhardness measurement and X-CT tests. The synergistic modification mechanism of NS and AEA on RAC under salt frost action were investigated, and the link between the macroscopic and microscopic properties of air-entrained NS-modified RAC was further explored. The results showed that the RAC mixed with a certain amount of AEA and NS dosages exhibited the stronger salt frost resistance compared to that of control group. The effect of AEA dosage and compressive stress level exhibited similar changing trends on the salt frost resistance of RAC. When adding a moderate amount of AEA and applying a certain sustained compressive loading, the RDEM loss of RAC was reduced so that the salt frost resistance was partly improved. Similarly, the moderate AEA dosages can reduce the deterioration at ITZs of RAC. The compound use of NS and AEA proved to be as an efficient method to strengthen the microstructure of RAC, further improving the frost resistance under the coupled actions of sustained compressive loading and chloride salt attack. This study provides a feasible approach to improve the salt frost resistance of RAC under the coupled actions of sustained compressive loading, which is expected to promote the application and extension of RAC in complex environmental regions.

Nonwoven fabric defect detection is an essential part of the production process, and it is important to realize fast and accurate nonwoven fabric defect detection to improve production efficiency. Aiming at the problems of nonwoven fabric defect detection in which most defect targets are small and traditional industrial cameras are unable to recognize foreign impurities of the same color, a nonwoven fabric defect detection method based on hyperspectral imaging and improved YOLOv5 is proposed. Specifically, hyperspectral imaging technology is used to replace traditional vision and solve the problem of homochromatic foreign matter impurities from the dimension of spectrum. In addition, the LSK attention module is introduced into the YOLOv5 backbone network, which enables the network to learn the key feature information and enhance the detection of small targets. Finally, an improved light repetitive group frequency permutation network (Light-RepGFPN) is proposed in the neck structure, by which the feature fusion capability of the model is enhanced, so that the high-level semantic information and the low-level spatial information are fully fused to improve the detection accuracy. Combined with the LSK and Light-RepGFPN modules, we propose an improved YOLOv5 (LL-YOLOv5) defect detection network. It is experimentally proved that LL-YOLOv5 can achieve an average accuracy mean 90.3% in the nonwoven fabric hyperspectral image defects dataset, which is 2.2% higher than that of the original model, respectively.

Abstract Speech recognition becomes increasingly important in the modern society, especially for human–machine interactions, but its deployment is still severely thwarted by the struggle of machines to recognize voiced commands in challenging real‐life settings: oftentimes, ambient noise drowns the acoustic sound signals, and walls, face masks or other obstacles hide the mouth motion from optical sensors. To address these formidable challenges, an experimental prototype of a microwave speech recognizer empowered by programmable metasurface is presented here that can remotely recognize human voice commands and speaker identities even in noisy environments and if the speaker's mouth is hidden behind a wall or face mask. The programmable metasurface is the pivotal hardware ingredient of the system because its large aperture and huge number of degrees of freedom allows the system to perform a complex sequence of sensing tasks, orchestrated by artificial‐intelligence tools. Relying solely on microwave data, the system avoids visual privacy infringements. The developed microwave speech recognizer can enable privacy‐respecting voice‐commanded human–machine interactions is experimentally demonstrated in many important but to‐date inaccessible application scenarios. The presented strategy will unlock new possibilities and have expectations for future smart homes, ambient‐assisted health monitoring, as well as intelligent surveillance and security.

Abstract Background Whether cesarean section (CS) is a risk factor for asthma in offspring is controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between CS and asthma in children/adolescents. Methods Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library electronic databases were searched for cohort studies on the relationship between mode of delivery and asthma in children/adolescents up to February 2023. Birth via CS was considered an exposure factor. Asthma incidence was taken as a result. Results Thirty-five cohort studies (thirteen prospective and twenty-two retrospective cohort studies) were included. The results showed that the incidence of asthma was higher in CS offspring (odds ratio (OR) = 1.18, P

Abstract The high-resolution paleoclimate records on the Iberian Margin provide an excellent archive to study the mechanism of abrupt climate events. Previous studies on the Iberian Margin proposed that the surface cooling reconstructed by the alkenone-unsaturation index coincided with surface water freshening inferred from an elevated percentage of tetra-unsaturated alkenones, C37:4%. However, recent data indicate that marine alkenone producers, coccolithophores, do not produce more C37:4 in culture as salinity decreases. Hence, the causes for high C37:4 are still unclear. Here we provide detailed alkenone measurements to trace the producers of alkenones in combination with foraminiferal Mg/Ca and oxygen isotope ratios to trace salinity variations. The results indicate that all alkenones were produced by coccolithophores and the high C37:4% reflects decrease in SST instead of freshening. Furthermore, during the millennial climate changes, a surface freshening did not always trigger a cooling, but sometimes happened in the middle of multiple-stage cooling events and likely amplified the temperature decrease.

Strawberries are a commonly used agricultural product in the food industry. In the traditional production model, labor costs are high, and extensive picking techniques can result in food safety issues, like poor taste and fruit rot. In response to the existing challenges of low detection accuracy and slow detection speed in the assessment of strawberry fruit maturity in orchards, a CR-YOLOv9 multi-stage method for strawberry fruit maturity detection was introduced. The composite thinning network, CRNet, is utilized for target fusion, employing multi-branch blocks to enhance images by restoring high-frequency details. To address the issue of low computational efficiency in the multi-head self-attention (MHSA) model due to redundant attention heads, the design concept of CGA is introduced. This concept aligns input feature grouping with the number of attention heads, offering the distinct segmentation of complete features for each attention head, thereby reducing computational redundancy. A hybrid operator, ACmix, is proposed to enhance the efficiency of image classification and target detection. Additionally, the Inner-IoU concept, in conjunction with Shape-IoU, is introduced to replace the original loss function, thereby enhancing the accuracy of detecting small targets in complex scenes. The experimental results demonstrate that CR-YOLOv9 achieves a precision rate of 97.52%, a recall rate of 95.34%, and an mAP@50 of 97.95%. These values are notably higher than those of YOLOv9 by 4.2%, 5.07%, and 3.34%. Furthermore, the detection speed of CR-YOLOv9 is 84, making it suitable for the real-time detection of strawberry ripeness in orchards. The results demonstrate that the CR-YOLOv9 algorithm discussed in this study exhibits high detection accuracy and rapid detection speed. This enables more efficient and automated strawberry picking, meeting the public’s requirements for food safety.

Space teleoperation systems, as complex giant systems, feature performance-influencing factors that are interrelated. Accurately describing the dependence between these factors is crucial for constructing a human factor reliability assessment (HRA) model. Moreover, data scarcity has consistently been a challenge in space HRA. There are primarily two types of data in this domain: expert judgment data and empirical data (simulation data, actual reports), each with complementary effects. The expert judgment data, although subjective, are readily accessible, while empirical data provide robust objectivity but are difficult to obtain. Addressing these challenges, this paper constructs an HRA model for space teleoperation that combines Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) with a two-stage Bayesian update method. This model reflects the dependencies between factors and accommodates multisource data (expert judgment and experimental data). With more empirical data, the model can be continuously updated and refined to yield increasingly accurate evaluations of human error probability (HEP). The validity of the model was verified through the analysis of 52 space incidents using the N-K model. The study provides a methodological foundation for HRA in other space missions.

Abstract Thysanoptera, commonly known as thrips, are diverse tiny insects whose earliest fossil record dates back to the Triassic period. Since there are few studies on the divergence time of taxa under Thysanoptera, this study used 13 mitochondrial coding protein genes to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree with divergence time of 26 species of this order and show a reliable phylogenetic relationship of thrips species. The time tree of this study shows that most extant thrips diverged in the early Tertiary period, while the fossil records also support that most extinct thrips appeared in this period. This study expands our understanding of the evolution of thrips and provides a feasible way of using multiple mitochondrial genes to establish robust phylogenetic relationships and explore divergence time between species.

Gigantothrips is a genus of leaf-feeding species from the Old World tropics that is distinguished from Gynaikothrips and Leeuwenia by the large number of tergal wing-retaining setae. Eight species are recognized from China and Southeast Asia including G. tibetanus sp. nov. from Tibet and G. yunnanensis sp. nov. from Yunnan, both taken on the leaves of Ficus trees. An illustrated identification key to these eight species is provided here.

Abstract Control and understanding of ensembles of skyrmions is important for realization of future technologies. In particular, the order-disorder transition associated with the 2D lattice of magnetic skyrmions can have significant implications for transport and other dynamic functionalities. To date, skyrmion ensembles have been primarily studied in bulk crystals, or as isolated skyrmions in thin film devices. Here, we investigate the condensation of the skyrmion phase at room temperature and zero field in a polar, van der Waals magnet. We demonstrate that we can engineer an ordered skyrmion crystal through structural confinement on the μm scale, showing control over this order-disorder transition on scales relevant for device applications.

Teleoperation is one of the highest-risk activities in manned space activities. An appropriate set of influencing factors is essential for the safety assessment of teleoperation. The examination of the impact of a single factor or two factors on space teleoperation as done in the existing works suffers from the lack of a systematic analysis of factors. To address this gap, a hybrid α-level set incorporated in the hesitant fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was adopted in this study to identify and analyze teleoperation factors. The findings are as follows: (a) A system of influencing factors for teleoperation safety performance was constructed based on an extensive literature review and using the Delphi method with the aid of 30 space experts. The system covered 16 factors grouped based on individual, crew, machine, and context perspectives. (b) The α level affects the screening results of the pivotal influencing factors. For the average α level, five pivotal influencing factors, namely, team communication, basic cognitive ability, display interface information, control mode design, and task complexity, are identified from the 16 influencing factors. The present study represents a valuable effort in extracting the crucial influencing factors that affect teleoperation safety performance. It provides valuable insights from an ergonomic viewpoint and aids in determining priorities for enhancing operational safety.

In order to compare the effects of visual and auditory instructions on the crew when guiding astronauts to complete the procedural tasks in the space station, in this study, subjects were recruited to complete the programmed task of starting from the node module, locating the scientific cabinet and spectrometer, and finally operating the orbital replaceable unit on the spectrometer. Meanwhile, the task performance, eye movement parameters, and cognitive load induced by 2 kinds of instructions in the task were statistically analyzed. The results showed that there were highly significant differences in terms of task completion time, the NASA-TLX (Task Load Index) total score, and eye movement index between the 2 instructions (P < 0.01). There were also significant differences in error rate and effort (P < 0.05). This study proves that visual instruction interaction is better than auditory instruction. Our work provides important reference for the selection of human–computer interaction mode for procedural tasks on space stations. It also provides the experience and theoretical evidence missing so far and proves the benefits of augmented reality assistance in terms of task performance and human factors.

The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the host’s metabolic processes. Many studies have shown significant changes in the gut microbiota of mammals during hibernation to adapt to the changes in the external environment, but there is limited research on the colonic epithelial tissue and gut microbiota of the wild chipmunks during hibernation. This study analyzed the diversity, composition, and function of the gut microbiota of the wild chipmunk during hibernation using 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology, and further conducted histological analysis of the colon. Histological analysis of the colon showed an increase in goblet cells in the hibernation group, which was an adaptive change to long-term fasting during hibernation. The dominant gut microbial phyla were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria, and the relative abundance of them changed significantly. The analysis of gut microbiota structural differences indicated that the relative abundance of Helicobacter typhlonius and Mucispirillum schaedleri increased significantly, while unclassified Prevotella-9, unclassified Prevotellaceae-UCG-001, unclassified Prevotellaceae-UCG-003 and other species of Prevotella decreased significantly at the species level. Alpha diversity analysis showed that hibernation increased the diversity and richness of the gut microbiota. Beta diversity analysis revealed significant differences in gut microbiota diversity between the hibernation group and the control group. PICRUSt2 functional prediction analysis of the gut microbiota showed that 15 pathways, such as lipid metabolism, xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, amino acid metabolism, environmental adaptation, and neurodegenerative diseases, were significantly enriched in the hibernation group, while 12 pathways, including carbohydrate metabolism, replication and repair, translation, and transcription, were significantly enriched in the control group. It can be seen that during hibernation, the gut microbiota of the wild chipmunk changes towards taxa that are beneficial for reducing carbohydrate consumption, increasing fat consumption, and adapting more strongly to environmental changes in order to better provide energy for the body and ensure normal life activities during hibernation.

Electromagnetic inverse scattering (EMIS) is uniquely positioned among many inversion methods because it enables to image the scene in a contactless, quantitative and super-resolution way. Although many EMIS approaches have been proposed to date, they usually suffer from two important challenges, i.e., time-consuming data acquisition and computationally -prohibitive data post processing, especially for large-scale objects with high and even moderate contrasts. To tackle the challenges, we here propose a framework of intelligent EMIS with the aid of deep learning techniques and information metasurfaces, enabling to the efficient data acquisition and instant data processing in a smart way. Towards this goal, as illustrative examples, we considerably extend the canonical contrast source inversion (CSI) algorithm, a canonical EMIS method by updating the contrast via the generative adversarial network (GAN), an unsupervised deep learning approach, leading to a novel physics-informed unsupervised deep learning method for EMIS, referred to as CSI-GAN in short. Compared with existing deep learning solutions for EMIS, our method relies on the supervision of physical law instead of the labeled training dataset, beating the bottleneck arising from the collection of labeled training datasets. Furthermore, we propose a scheme of adaptive data acquisition with the use of information metasurface in a cost-efficiency way, remarkably reducing the number of measurements and thus speeding up the data acquisition but maintaining the reconstruction's quality. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the performance gain in terms of reconstruction quality, showing the promising potentials for providing the intelligent scheme for the EMIS problems.

Abstract In order to solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by construction waste, one typical waste of red bricks was selected as raw material in recycled concrete. This study presented recycled concrete by substituting some natural aggregates with treated red brick aggregates to study and analyze the degradation law mechanism of recycled brick aggregates concrete in the cold region. A total of fifteen categories of specimens and three experimental parameters were considered, which included numbers of freeze–thaw cycles (0, 50, and 100), steel fiber admixtures (0, 1, and 2%), and brick aggregate substitution rates (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%), respectively. The quick freeze–thaw test method was selected to investigate recycled concrete's degradation mass loss rate and relative dynamic elastic modulus under various freeze–thaw cycles. The digital microscope and SEM were used to observe the internal microstructural changes in the specimens under different freeze–thaw times. In addition, the specimens’ microscopic damage morphology and damage mechanism were analyzed. Finally, the flexural strength of the frost-damaged specimens was tested to analyze the mechanical deterioration of the recycled concrete, and the numerical model corresponding to steel fiber dosing and recycled aggregate replacement rate was presented. The gray correlation analysis was used to quantify the influence of each experimental variable on the corresponding experimental indexes under various freeze–thaw cycles. Results showed that the specimen's mass decreased after freeze–thaw cycles, and the highest mass loss was found for the specimens with 50 and 75% brick substitution rates. In addition, the specimens showed the best relative dynamic modulus and the maximum flexural strength when the steel fiber doping was 1%. The numerical model agreed with experimental data and effectively predicted the specimens' mass loss rate, relative dynamic modulus, and flexural strength after freeze–thaw cycles. The gray correlation analysis showed that the steel fiber contents had a maximum correlation with the flexural strength, the brick substitution rates for the relative dynamic modulus, and mass loss controls the freeze–thaw cycles.

Abstract Hydroxylated isoprenoid glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (OH‐GDGTs) preserved in marine sediments are thought to be controlled by sea surface temperature (SST). However, water depth may also exert a significant influence on OH‐GDGTs. Here, we investigated sedimentary OH‐GDGTs in the Kermadec and Atacama trench regions (2,560–9,560 m water depth). Sedimentary OH‐GDGTs in hadal trenches were dominated by OH‐GDGT‐0 (72 ± 8%), potentially reflecting an adaption of source organisms to ambient cold deep water. This result, combined with global data set, revealed that the predominance of OH‐GDGT‐0 is a ubiquitous phenomenon in deep‐sea sediments, leading to a considerable underestimation of RI‐OH′‐derived SSTs. By considering both SST and water depth effects, we developed more accurate OH‐GDGT‐based paleothermometers for both shallow regions and the global ocean, encompassing the full‐ocean‐depth range. Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for the effect of water depth on OH‐GDGTs and provide improved tools for reconstructing paleo‐SSTs.

Summary: The differentiation fate of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) affects the progression of steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (SONFH). We find that lncRNA DGCR5 encodes a 102-amino acid polypeptide, RIP (Rac1 inactivated peptide), which promotes the adipogenic differentiation of BMSCs and aggravates the progression of SONFH. RIP, instead of lncRNA DGCR5, binds to the N-terminal motif of RAC1, and inactivates the RAC1/PAK1 cascade, resulting in decreased Ser675 phosphorylation of β-catenin. Ultimately, the nuclear localization of β-catenin decreases, and the differentiation balance of BMSCs tilts toward the adipogenesis lineage. In the femoral head of rats, overexpression of RIP causes trabecular bone disorder and adipocyte accumulation, which can be rescued by overexpressing RAC1. This finding expands the regulatory role of lncRNAs in BMSCs and suggests RIP as a potential therapeutic target.

Background: Acute Ischemic stroke (AIS) has been a leading cause of long-term disability and even death, accounting for significant economic costs and leading to heavy care and financial burdens for patients and their families. Ginkgo biloba extract is highly valued for its efficacy and broad implementation into clinical practice. Therefore, a Bayesian network meta-analysis (BNMA) was conducted to determine the differences in efficacy and safety among various ginkgo biloba-related agents and to prescribe the optimal medication for decision-making. Methods: Inclusion and exclusion eligibility criteria were determined in advance. From the inception of the literature until December 2022, a systematic literature search was conducted in seven electronic databases. An assessment of the methodological quality of the included studies was carried out according to the Cochrane Collaborations tool. A previous registration (PROSPERO CRD42022319301) of this review protocol was undertaken. Results: There were 94 eligible studies included in the NMA involving 10,071 patients, with the experimental control group of 5,063 and the control group of 5,008, involving five ginkgo biloba-related agents included in the NMA. Findings of the studies revealed that supplementation with ginkgo biloba-related agents significantly improved the clinical effective rate, functional independence, neurological function impairments and activities of daily living function compared with the conventional western medicine (WM) group in a relatively safe manner. Comprehensive therapeutic efficacy analysis of neurological function impairments and activities of daily living function showed that GI+WM and GDLM+WM manifest at the first grade among these five therapeutic strategies. Conclusion: This Bayesian network meta-analysis results showed that the combination of ginkgo biloba-related agents and WM was more effective for AIS patients than WM alone. GI+WM and GDLM+WM stand out for the comprehensive therapeutic efficacy of patients with stroke through comparisons among various therapeutic approaches. Moreover, SXN+WM, GK+WM and GDLM+WM might be among the most effective in improving the functional efficacy outcome, while GI+WM might be among the least effective. GI+WM, GDLM+WM, SXN+WM and GK+WM might be among the most effective in improving neurofunctional deficits, while GNT+WM might be among the least effective. In terms of improving activities of daily living function, five ginkgo biloba-related agents might be among the most effective. However, well-designed researches with standardized functional outcome measures for AIS, further adequately powered, blinding and suitable comparators are still required to contribute to the current clinical practice.

Epiverta chelonia (Mader 1933; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is an important economically and scientifically valuable insect. In this study, the first complete mitochondrial genome of E. chelonia was sequenced and characterized using next-generation sequencing techniques. The circular mitogenome of E. chelonia consists of 17,347 bp including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a control region (D-loop). The base composition was AT-biased (75.77%). Bayesian Inference and Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees strongly supported the monophyly of Coccinellinae. Also, E. chelonia was supported as the sister group of Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata, within Epilachninae. Thus, the E. chelonia mitochondrial genome will be a fundamental resource for understanding the molecular phylogenetic relationships of the species-rich family Coccinellidae of Coleoptera.

In this paper, the food safety supervision and inspection approaches, workflows, inspection methods, inspection equipment, inspection contents and requirements on the inspectors which are adopted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States are compared, and the existing problems in China's food safety supervision and inspection work are analyzed. Based on the comparison and analysis, this paper puts forward suggestions on constructing a modern food safety inspection system and provides a reference for building up a modern food safety supervision and inspection system and technologies of a new era, which is in line with China's national conditions.

Reducing the switching energy of ferroelectric films remains an important goal. Here, the authors elucidate the fundamental role of lattice dynamics in ferroelectric switching on both freestanding BiFeO3 membranes and films clamped to a substrate.

In the original publication [...]

Pueraria thomsonii Benth. is a perennial leguminous vine with medicinal and nutritional value. However, rapid postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) reduces its quality and market value. To detect gene expression levels, the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technique requires stable internal reference genes (IRGs). Our findings indicated that an ethephon (C2H6ClO3P) treatment delayed PPD in P. thomsonii tuberous roots and an RNA-seq analysis revealed a significant number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). To find stable IRGs for the further identification of the genes associated with delayed PPD in P. thomsonii, eight candidate IRGs of the tuberous roots were screened and assessed using qRT-PCR. The expression stability of these genes was determined and ranked using five different algorithms, including NormFinder, BestKeeper, ΔCt, GeNorm, and ReFinder. Consequently, we identified two genes, PtUBC10 and PtACT7, as the best candidate IRGs for qRT-PCR normalization in P. thomsonii, both exposed to ethephon treatment and in different tissues. Moreover, PtUBC10 was found to be the most stably expressed IRG of P. thomsonii during the ethephon treatment. The findings of this investigation furnish significant insights for future gene expression analyses concerning the delay of PPD via ethephon administration, which could also be used in other tuberous plants.

Objective The objective of this study was to compare the feeding value, meat nutrients and associative effects of a diet comprised of various corn silages inclusion with peanut vine or wheat straw in finishing beef cattle. Methods One hundred and eighty Simmental crossbred beef steers were blocked and assigned to the follow treatments: i) whole plant corn silage-based diet (control, WPCS), ii) mixed forages-based diet (replacing a portion of corn silage with wheat straw, WPCSW), iii) corn stalklage-based diet (CS), and iv) sweet corn stalklage-based diet (SCS). Each group consisted of 5 repeated pens with 9 steers/pen. The diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isoenergetic with same forage to concentrate ratio. Experimental diets were fed for 90 d. Results The effective ruminal degradability of dry matter and crude protein were highest for WPCS diet (p0.05). Conclusion The corn silage-based diet exhibited the highest feeding value. The sweet corn stalklage and wheat straw as an alternative to corn silage offered to beef cattle had limited influence on feeding value and meat nutrients. However, the value of a corn stalklage-based diet was relatively poor. To sum up, when the high quality forage resources, such as corn silage, are in short supply, or the growth rate of beef cattle decreases in the later finishing period, the sweet stalklage and wheat straw could be used as a cheaper alternative in feedlot cattle diet without sharp reducing economic benefits.

A two-dimensional discrete dislocation plasticity model was used to examine the role of strain rate asymmetry on the Bauschinger effect (BE). A simple single crystal single slip plane model was used first to investigate stress–strain response within high strain rate regimes where the rate sensitivity is mainly governed by dislocation nucleation and the free-flight of dislocations. Both the yield strength and the BE of the specimen showed a strong correlation to the forward and reverse deformation rate. Simulations were also carried out on a single crystal with multiple slip systems. The effect of source and obstacle density on the BE and its rate dependence was investigated. We find that the rate dependence of the BE is enhanced by increasing the source density in obstacle-free specimens and is reduced by obstacles when they are present. At low strain rates, where thermally-activated dislocation escape from obstacles becomes the predominant rate-controlling mechanism, the BE of single crystals is only affected by strain rates if the activation energy is low. Grain boundaries in polycrystalline specimens and obstacles with high activation energies act as barriers to dislocation motion, suggesting that the rate dependence under low strain rate regimes is enhanced by decreasing the grain size or reducing the activation energy associated with dislocation escape from obstacles. The effect mechanisms of strain rate asymmetry on the BE can be fundamentally crucial for multiple industrial applications, including lifetime assessments of aero-engine disks, zirconium cladding of nuclear reactor and the spring-back prediction of metal forming.

Rare earth resource is a national strategic resource, which plays an essential role in the field of high technology research and development. In this paper, we aim to use remote sensing quantitative inversion prospecting technology, use surface-to-surface mode, and model inversion and evaluation through convolutional neural network model to achieve a new research method for large-scale, low-cost, rapid and efficient exploration of ion-adsorbed rare earth ore. The results show that the RE2O3 content of samples has significant negative correlation with the second, third and fourth band of GF-2 image, but has no significant correlation with the first band of GF-2 image; the convolution neural network model can be used to reconstruct the RE2O3 content. The content distribution map of RE2O3 obtained by inversion is similar to that of geochemical map, which indicates that the convolution neural network model can be used to invert the RE2O3 content in the sampling area. The quantitative inversion results show that the content distribution characteristics of ion adsorption rare earth ore in the study area are basically consistent with the actual situation; there are two main high anomaly areas in the study area. The high anomaly area I is a known mining area, and the high anomaly area II can be a prospective area of ion adsorption type rare earth deposit. It shows that the remote sensing quantitative inversion prospecting method of ion adsorption type rare earth deposit based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model is feasible.

Ocean acidification increases pCO2 and decreases pH of seawater and its impact on marine organisms has emerged as a key research focus. In addition to directly measured variables such as growth or calcification rate, stable isotopic tracers such as carbon isotopes have also been used to more completely understand the physiological processes contributing to the response of organisms to ocean acidification. To simulate ocean acidification in laboratory cultures, direct bubbling of seawater with CO2 has been a preferred method because it adjusts pCO2 and pH without altering total alkalinity. Unfortunately, the carbon isotope equilibrium between seawater and CO2 gas has been largely ignored so far. Frequently, the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the initial seawater culture has a distinct 13C/12C ratio which is far from the equilibrium expected with the isotopic composition of the bubbled CO2. To evaluate the consequences of this type of experiment for isotopic work, we measured the carbon isotope evolutions in two chemostats during CO2 bubbling and composed a numerical model to simulate this process. The isotopic model can predict well the carbon isotope ratio of dissolved inorganic carbon evolutions during bubbling. With help of this model, the carbon isotope evolution during a batch and continuous culture can be traced dynamically improving the accuracy of fractionation results from laboratory culture. Our simulations show that, if not properly accounted for in experimental or sampling design, many typical culture configurations involving CO2 bubbling can lead to large errors in estimated carbon isotope fractionation between seawater and biomass or biominerals, consequently affecting interpretations and hampering comparisons among different experiments. Therefore, we describe the best practices on future studies working with isotope fingerprinting in the ocean acidification background.

The waste red brick aggregate substituted with natural coarse aggregate can effectively alleviate environmental pollution in engineering concrete constructions. However, its mechanical performance lags far behind natural coarse aggregate due to micro-pore voids and micro-cracks. Three types of steel fiber contents (0, 1%, and 2%) are selected to improve the mechanical behavior of recycled concrete in this study. Cubic compression test, splitting tensile test, prism compression test, and static compressive elastic modulus test are carried out to study the influence of steel fiber content and replacement rate of recycled coarse aggregate. In addition, the stress-strain behavior and failure mechanism of steel fiber recycled brick aggregate concrete are discussed, and microscopic crack development is also analyzed. Test results show that the specimens without steel fiber are prone to aggregate destruction under loading. The cubic and prismatic compressive strength decreased by 48% and 34%, while the splitting tensile strength reduced by 40%. The mechanical properties substantially improve when the steel fiber content is 1%. The finite element model of steel fiber recycled brick aggregate concrete under uniaxial compression is established. The constitutive model for predicting uniaxial compression of steel fiber recycled brick aggregate concrete is also proposed.

Abstract Background Risk factors for the severity of patellofemoral osteoarthritis (PFOA) are poorly understood. This research aims to evaluate the association between patellofemoral joint (PFJ) morphology and alignment with the radiographic severity of PFOA. Methods A retrospective analysis of CT scan and lateral radiograph data were acquired in patients with PFOA. The radiographic grade of PFOA and tibiofemoral osteoarthritis (TFOA), lateral and medial trochlear inclination angle, sulcus angle, and the Wiberg classification of patella morphology, the congruence angle, patellar tilt angle, and lateral patellar angles, and tibial tubercle trochlear groove distance (TT-TG) and patella height (i.e., Caton-Deschamps index) were assessed using CT scans and sagittal radiographs of the knee. All the PFJ morphology and alignment data were divided into quarters, and the relationships between each of these measures and the severity of PFOA were investigated. Results By studying 150 patients with PFOA, we found a U-shaped relationship between the Caton-Deschamps index and the severity of PFOA (P < 0.001). A lower value of sulcus angle and lateral patellar angle, a higher value of congruence angle, and type III patella were associated with more severity of lateral PFOA. Compared with the highest quarter of each measure, the adjusted odds ratios (OR) of the severity of PFOA in the lowest quarter of sulcus angle, lateral patellar angle, and congruence angle; and type I patella was 8.80 (p = 0.043), 16.51 (P < 0.001), 0.04 (P < 0.001), and 0.18 (p = 0.048) respectively. Conclusions Extreme value of patella height, a higher value of lateral patellar displacement and lateral patellar tilt, lower value of sulcus angle, and type III patella were associated with more severity of PFOA.